257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105
(262) 763-3021
|
|
We have purchased land on Highways A & W and are planning to build soon! Drive by and take a look at our future home!
"Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
Howard Thurman
April 18th, 2010
Give President Obama credit. One promise he made during the campaign that he intends to keep was to work for a world free of nuclear weapons. In the last few weeks, his administration has taken some small steps in that direction. On Thursday, April 8th, while in Prague, he and President Medvedev of Russia signed a new START treaty to reduce the number of nuclear weapons on both sides. The treaty also extends previous agreements about inspecting nuclear weapons and verifying compliance.
While media headlines are filled with stories of nuclear weapons, war, terrorism, war, the economy, Supreme court nominations, sex abuse, etc., that’s quite a contrast to the sermon topics of most churches. Pick a church and you’ll hear a sermon on stress, worry, anger, marriage, family, depression, fear...something that makes "you come alive," etc. Please understand, there is nothing wrong with preaching on any of those things. The problem is that it is the typical pulpit diet of most churches. It attracts a crowd and feeds into our cultural obsession with ME! The self-absorbed "me-ism" of Western civilization is nearly overwhelming. What is shocking is that this narcissism has been sprinkled with holy water and permeates the philosophy and pulpit of the contemporary church.
The world that God has placed me (and you) in is a lot bigger than either one of us. The Bible is not even just about one’s personal salvation or a textbook on regeneration, though that is one of Its central themes. God’s Word, commencing in Genesis all the way through the last verse in the book of Revelation, is about worldview, God’s worldview. We need a radical change in our thinking that acknowledges that God is center of reality, and not us. For us to be Biblical, it must be theism over me-ism.
This morning we are beginning a new sermon series on an obscure minor prophet in the Old Testament, Habakkuk. When a well-worn Bible is allowed to fall open at random, the possibility of Its opening at the book of Psalms or the gospel of John, or even one of the New Testament letters is pretty high. Even among the most ardent Bible students, the Major and Minor prophets are seldom read. One has to wonder that if they were somehow surreptitiously removed from the average Christian’s Bible, would they even be missed?
Please do not let the brevity of Habakkuk deceive you. Importance is not determined by how much you say but by what you say. These three chapters of 56 verses and just under 1400 words, give us a big view of God.
Habakkuk models for us how to have faith in God when our world seems headed for disaster. Ultimately, the main message of the Bible concerns the condition of the entire world and its destiny. You and I, as individuals, are a part of the larger whole. That’s why the Bible starts with the creation of the world rather than of man. The trouble is that we are inclined to be exclusively concerned with our own personal problems, whereas the Bible starts further back: It puts every problem in the context of this worldview.
If we gaze at the world apart from God, we’ll be frustrated and frightened. That’s where Habakkuk starts out...in fear and frustration. His experience parallels with ours. The point is that he doesn’t stay there! He moves from frustration and fear to faith!
The main message of Habakkuk is that when you live by faith, you aren’t anxious about what’s going on in the world. You may be burdened. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be concerned about crime and injustice, terrorism or nuclear war. It doesn’t mean that the economy or unemployment aren’t on your mind. The difference is that they do not consume you. You don’t become discouraged or despondent...and give up. The main thrust of Habakkuk is that God’s people will live by faith in Him. They believe His Word. They believe that His will and purposes will be fulfilled, and that enables us to move from the valley of despair to the mountaintop of victory and blessing.
Habakkuk teaches us that God permits evil in the world, but God uses evil in His own way, and eventually He will judge evil, triumph over evil and bring His own will and glory to Himself to pass. We need to know that.
There are many things in this life that we don’t understand and can’t explain. We can’t explain suffering, sickness, accidents or murder. We can’t explain why godly people suffer. There is no clear explanation, but you and I do not live by explanations – we live by promises, the promises of God! God does permit evil in this world and even though we don’t understand it, He uses it to accomplish His purposes. And the day is coming when God will judge all evil, triumph over it and abolish it from our experience!
Habakkuk teaches us how to move from worry to worship, from the valley to the watchtower to the mountaintop; from the sighing of chapter 1, to the silence of chapter 2, to the singing of chapter 3 where he trusts and rejoices in the blessing of the Lord.
Habakkuk wrestled with the same problems that you and I wrestle with and he won the victory. That victory is not just a one time spiritual event, God wants you and I to live in victory too. It can be ours if we will learn the lessons of the prophet Habakkuk – the just shall live by faith! Habakkuk will help us move from frustration to faith! I hope you join us each Sunday!