Faith Birthing Song
Habakkuk

We’ve been in Habakkuk. Habakkuk is a great book. I hope you’ve enjoyed it. It’s a series of conversations between a prophet named Habakkuk and his God. Habakkuk basically starts off by just getting sick of it. He just gets sick of sin, folly, death, suffering, evil, injustice. He’s just tired of it. And so he brings his requests to God, which is where you should go when you get frustrated, and he basically asks God “Are you tired of it yet too? What is your plan? And when do you intend to implement it?” God answers him, says, “I do have a plan. I do intend to implement it. There are these nasty, wicked, mean, vile people that live next door to you (Laughter) called the Babylonians. And what I’m going to do – they’ve been wanting to attack you for a long time. I’ve protected you. Your people they keep sinning, they keep disobeying, they keep rebelling. I’m gonna let the Babylonians come over and rough you up.”

Habakkuk then has another series of questions basically like “Isn’t there a plan B? I live there too! Can’t we (Laughter) sort this out another way?” And God basically says, “Habakkuk, trust me. Trust me. I’m a good God. I know what I’m doing.” And God had sent a series of warnings through the prophet Jeremiah at the same time, as well as Habakkuk. And he told us in Chapter 2 that his justice and his judgment would linger, that he was giving them ample time to repent of their sins, to turn away from their rebellion and to put their trust in him.

After these two conversations between Habakkuk and God, the book closes in Chapter 3. The themes of the book are in Habakkuk 2:4, faith, that we should trust God, Habakkuk 2:14 that God’s intend is that his name would cover the earth as the sea, that everybody would love and know about him, and Habakkuk 2:20 that after we’ve gotten our questions answered and after we’ve gotten our time with God, there’s nothing left to argue about. We just need to be quiet, to meditate, pray, trust, listen, and get close to him and then watch him do his work.

After Habakkuk obeys God and gets his time in silence and solitude and reflection and contemplation, what births out of his heart then is a song. That’s what we’re going to study in Chapter 3 today. After you get time with God, you tend to get really creative. How many of you are arty types, you work in various mediums, you write songs, poetry, painting? I think I might be the only guy in the church who doesn’t play guitar (Laughter). That that’s what happens, that God is creator. You spend time with your creator, you end up becoming more creative because he inspires you and he enables you.

And that doesn’t mean that all of us are professional artists, but our lives are endowed with creativity as we get with God. And that’s what Habakkuk does. He sings this great song that he has been inspired by. It’s a worship song, and he closes in song. And so we’ll take a look at it. You’ll see this word in here three times, salah, which is used 71 times through the Book of Psalms. And it means forever. It means forever. When a worship song would be song, God’s people in the Old Testament would often respond by saying, “Forever. God is good forever. God loves us forever. God does good to us forever.” When they would hear about the goodness and the truths of God, they would cry out “Forever” because they wanted it to always be so. And at that time as well, the musicians would often raise their instruments in triumphant victory, pointing to God.

And so we’ll look at this great song that Habakkuk has to sing after spending his time in contemplation with his God. Chapter 3, Verse 1. He says, “A prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet, on Shigionoth”. Probably a musical term there taken out of the Psalms. And here’s what he says, “Lord, I have heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day. In our time make them known. In wrath remember mercy.” What Habakkuk says is this: He says, “God, I have heard through the scriptures and through the teachers of the scriptures and through those who record the history of your people that that there have been times and seasons in which you have come in unveiled glory, you have come in unmitigated strength. You have come to be among your people. You have dealt swiftly with sin and injustice and poverty and all of the things that are warring against your goodness and your name being known on the earth. And you have delivered and freed and protected and provided for your people. You have changed their heart. You have brought transformation and life to them.”

Habakkuk says, “I’ve read of these things, but I’ve never seen them. I’ve never seen them.” Habakkuk says, “In my day everyone sins and justice doesn’t come swiftly. In my day the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer, and it seems to have been going that way for a long time.” How many of you have had Habakkuk’s same experience when you read the Bible and you see God show up in amazing ways and you wonder, “How come I’ve never seen that? How come I’ve never seen a miracle, a healing? How come I’ve never seen a revival? How come I’ve never seen judgment upon a godless nation? I’ve never seen a plague. I’ve never seen a sea part. I’ve never seen anybody walk on water. There’s some exciting things in there (Laughter), and I wish I was in on the action.”

And you read through the history of the church as well, if you’re a person that is prone to such things, and you realize that God not only worked in the times of biblical history, but God is the same yesterday, today and forever. And God has been at work through the course of history, showing up in miraculous ways and times among people to the degree where it’s what Jonathan Edwards, probably the greatest theologian in the history of our country calls revival. To where all of a sudden it’s not that God’s doing anything new, but he is doing the same things that he always does with greater intensity and measure.

God’s always saving people. God’s always convicting people of sin. God is always bringing people to himself and to their knees. But in certain seasons it becomes everyone, that all peoples hear of God, that all peoples bend their knee to them, that all peoples receive grace and wisdom and life from him and that it transforms not just individuals peoples, but whole cultures and societies and cities and nations. Throughout the course of human history there have been occasions where major metropolitan areas have had to literally fire their police departments because there was no need of them. So many people had met Christ and lived under his jurisdiction that they weren’t committing crimes and the police had nothing to do.

How many of you long, like Habakkuk, for that day when God shows up in Seattle to such a degree that everyone knows who Jesus is and everyone loves him and their lives are reflected by that, that justice is dealt with swiftly, that injustice is dealt with swiftly, that people who are causing depression and harm and disgrace and shame and suffering and evil are finally dealt with, that hearts are transformed, that we’re no longer the least churched city in the United States of America? That we are no longer that place where there is a very dim light of the Gospel, where all of a sudden the majority of the people that you work with, the people that you live near, the people that you go to school with that they would love Jesus, that their sins would be forgiven, that their lives would be transformed, that things would be different, that you and I wouldn’t need to lock the doors on our homes and our cars because everyone else loved the Lord and wasn’t going to whack us and take our stuff (Laughter). Wouldn’t that be great?

And there are times and seasons in history where God has shown up in that way with that amount of glory. And Habakkuk says, “I’ve heard of it. I’ve read about it. I’ve never seen it, and I want to see it.” And Habakkuk loves God, and he wants to see God show up and he wants to see people connect with God. And what he says is he says, “God, please, in your wrath, remember mercy.” He’s asking basically for the Gospel, for the story of Jesus. This is 600 years before Jesus comes. And if God shows up, he has to deal with sin. That’s justice. The wage for sin is death. You can’t offend a holy and righteous God and have no consequence. There is consequence for sin. God says elsewhere “Do not be deceived. I will not be mocked. You will reap what you sow. The wage for sin is death.”

God comes with justice. He comes in wrath, dealing swiftly and harshly and ultimately with sin. And he says, “God, please come in that way, but remember mercy. Remember mercy, forgiveness, compassion, love.” And we see this most clearly, obviously, in the coming of Jesus. Not only does God come in certain ways and times, God has actually come as one of us, Jesus Christ, and he has come into human history, lived, tempted by every sin that we are, yet never committing a sin. He goes to the cross and upon the cross Habakkuk’s prayer is answered. Justice, the wrath of God, and mercy, the grace of God. And when Jesus goes to the cross, 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that “God made him who knew no sin to become sin so that in him I might become the righteousness of God.” The reason I love Jesus so much is because I deserve God’s wrath. And Jesus Christ is my God who goes to the cross, takes my sin, past, present, and future upon himself. And he, in my place, endures the wrath of the father.

That’s why he cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He suffers where I should have suffered. He is penalized where I should have been penalized. And then he cries out from the cross “Father, forgive them.” And I am counted in that number. That God has forgiven me. That’s mercy. I don’t need to die and stand before God and give an account for my sin. Jesus already has. I don’t need to fear threat of punishment and hell. Jesus has already taken my place. God, in his wrath, has also remembered mercy. And Habakkuk says, “I want to see it, and I want to see people know about this, and I want to see people love the God who does such things.”

He goes on then and he catalogs and accounts how God throughout the course of scripture and human history has worked and has shown up and has transformed people and nations and cities and lives by the millions. And he talks in frequency here about deliverance, that people are enslaved to sin and death and bondage and how God liberates them so that they can worship. He spends a lot of time cataloging the Exodus in that account. And what he’s doing here is he’s showing that that is what God has done for him. God has liberated him from bondage, to sin and death and liberated him to write songs and worship.

And what Habakkuk wants to see is he wants to see other people experience that same joy that he has, to be untethered from their sin and their death and their folly and their false gods and their idolatry and then liberated into the place of being in relationship with God and a worshipper of him and a singer toward him. And so he begins in Verse 3 recounting these things. He starts here using a poetic understanding and explanation of the Book of Exodus. He says, “God came from Teman, the holy one from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens and his praise filled the earth. His splendor was like the sunrise. Rays splashed from his hand where his hand where his power was hidden.”

He says, “God, I remember that day. At least I read about it. You delivered your people from slavery and bondage, to sin and death to the mighty Pharaoh of Egypt. That you brought them into this place of glorious freedom. You brought them to the base of Mount Sinai. And, God, you came to Mount Sinai to be among your people. And at that time you gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, and you spoke to your people, giving them your law to guide their life toward life and not toward death.” He says, “I remember that.” Over a million people liberated. You come to be with them and you speak to them the goodness of your word.”

Habakkuk says, “I have read of that day. I have never seen it. I wasn’t there. And I would love to see it in my day.” He says as well, in reference to the Exodus, in Verse 5, “Plague went before him. Pestilence followed his steps.” When God delivered his people from slavery and bondage in Egypt, he did so by crushing the Pharaoh who had set himself up as God in opposition to the real God. And one of the ways that he demonstrated his power and his rule was through a succession of plagues, plagues that the magicians and the spiritual leaders in Egypt could not emulate or imitate. And he says, “I remember that day, at least reading about it, where you showed up in a mighty way with plague.”

And there is another day like that coming. Revelation 6 speaks of the second coming of Jesus whereby it will be preceded as it was in the days of liberation of 
God’s people in Exodus by plagues. That God sends a succession of plagues first upon Egypt and later upon the earth before he comes again as a series of dire warnings toward people that judgment is coming swiftly, and they should turn from sin and trust in God. He says, “I’ve heard of those days. I would love to see it.” He says as well in Verse 6, he speaks here of God’s mighty power. “He stood and the earth shook. He looked and made the nations tremble, the ancient mountains crumble, and the age-old hills collapsed. His ways are eternal. I saw the tents of Cushan”, and that’s a nation, “in distress and the dwellings of Midian in anguish.”

What he’s saying is this: He says, “God, I know that when you come, everything cowers and bends in your presence. Creation bends and yields to you. Nations bend and yield to you. Kings bend and yield to you. And armies bend and yield to you.” That we think so much of ourselves and so little of God until God shows up and then we realize, like Isaiah had said, that “We are undone.” That “We have seen God.” And in so doing, a great fear, a great respect, a deep and profound reverence comes into people and they realize that they are face to face with the real God. And Habakkuk lives in a day like our own where God’s name is profaned, God’s word is neglected and ignored and people mock his grace, including those who claim his name. And Habakkuk says, “I would like to see you show up in a glorious way so that people would know what kind of God you are and that they would bend their knee and they would bow their head and they would respect you for who you are and what you have done.”

He goes on to explain as well about the parting of the Red Sea and the parting of the Jordan River in Verse 8. He says, “Were you angry with the rivers, oh, Lord? Was your wrath against the streams? Did you rage against the sea when you rode with your horses and your victorious chariots?” He catalogs the day that scriptures records whereby God’s people had been enslaved in slavery to the Pharaoh for over 400 years, and God finally liberated them, and they were delivered out into glorious freedom for worship. But they came upon the Red Sea and there they were hemmed in. The warriors were pursuing them from Egypt. Men, women, children, old, young, healthy and sick, unable to defend themselves against chariots and horses and spears and swords and arrows. And they were hemmed in by the Red Sea.

What God did was a miraculous thing in their day, and he parted that sea and he sent a stiff breeze ahead of them to dry the ground so that the whole nation could walk through. Every man, woman, child, young, old, rich, poor, sick and healthy. And they walk through to freedom. And then they got there, Miriam, Moses’ sister, led them in worship and singing and celebration. And that’s always the point of deliverance, the point of redemption, the point of freedom is worship. And that’s what God was intending, and that’s what he intends among us as his people. He liberates us from slavery to sin, enslavement, death and folly so that we can worship with joy as a people. And the warriors continued in pursuit. And as soon as God’s people were led into safety, they continued to follow them, and God had the waters close in and drown them en masse.

And he says, “I read about that day (Laughter), God, where you showed up and where the people were astonished and just called a million of them into song and church in one place. I’ve never seen it. I’ve never been there when you showed up like that.” He speaks as well of the crossing here of the Jordan River where that generation then – and so quickly how we forget the goodness of God. They wander around whining like small spoiled children for 40 years before he enabled them to walk into their Land of Promise. And that generation of whiners was not permitted to enter. And so another generation was raised up after Moses and Aaron, and that was Joshua and Caleb. And he was appointed, Joshua, to lead them into their Land of Promise.

But what separated them was yet another river. This time it was not the Red Sea, but was the river Jordan. And we are told in Joshua, in the beginning chapters, that at that point during that season, the river was at flood stage. And God told this young generation like us preparing for a big move “Consecrate yourselves. Confess your sins. Get time with me. Cleanse your hearts. Purify yourselves.” It’s less about being prepared and it’s more about being holy. And what God tells them is “You’ve never been here before, so you don’t know where you’re going. And you’ve never done this before, so you don’t know what you’re doing.”

In this project that we’ve been undertaking to get our little piece of the Promised Land down in Fremont, I am amply aware (Laughter) that we have never been here, and we don’t know what we’re doing. What God says is “Confess your sin, consecrate yourself, and I will show up”, he tells them. “I will go before you, and you just follow me.” And what he says is this: “Tell the priests (the pastors of the Old Testament) to take the ark, to set it upon their shoulder and carry it. And to carry it into the river that is at flood stage. And tell them to put their feet in the river and trust that I will stop the flowing of the water.” This is tremendous faith. If God doesn’t show up, all of the priests die and God goes kayaking down the river, which is a big problem (Laughter), right? Oh, no. We have lost God. This is not good (Laughter).

But they do as God intends. They consecrate themselves, they pray. Just as he promised, does God show up the next day? God shows up. They go to the river at flood stage. The priests do as they are instructed. They put their feet in the water, and what happens? The river parts again. And they walk into their Land of Promise. Their new home. God always shows up in a way that gives him glory. God always shows up when you are up to your neck because God wants everyone to know that it is he who has provided. He wants his name to be known, Habakkuk 2:4, “across the earth as the water covers the land.” And he shows up in those ways.

He goes on to account some other ways that God has showed up, and he uses this glorious, poetic imagery of God being a mighty warrior. This is very unpopular in our day. God is not a warrior. God is a limp-wristed, aromatherapy, sky fairy (Laughter). That’s what he is in our day. He doesn’t judge people, he doesn’t get upset. He’s – he wears a sweater and you get on a trolley and go to Never Never Land and see King Neptune. That – we love that. We love a diminished, little neutered God that fits exactly what we would want. He’s basically the equivalent of a very big pet (Laughter). He’ll sit on your lap and let you rub him and make you feel nice.

The God of the Bible is not that way. The God of the Bible is the real God, not a God that we have made. And the God that we are told of here is a God who is a mighty warrior who shows up in valiant strength. And God is gracious and he is patient, but at some point he comes to the end of his tether and there is justice and there is consequence. He speaks of that beginning in Verse 9. “You uncovered your bow. You called for many arrows. You split the earth with rivers. The mountains saw you and writhed. Torrents of water swept by. The deep roared and lifted its waves on high. The sun and moon stood still in the heavens at the glint of your flying arrows, at the lightening of your flashing spear. In wrath you strode through the earth, and in anger you threshed the nations. You came out to deliver your people, to save your Anointed One. You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness. You stripped him from head to foot. With his own spear you pierced his head when his warriors stormed out to scatter us, gloating as though about to devour the retched who are in hiding. You trampled the sea with your horses, turning the great waters.”

The picture is obviously of God as a mighty warrior upon his horse, bow in hand, out to bring justice to the nations of the earth. And he says, “God, I have heard of you coming in these ways, and I have never seen it. I see creatures that you have made mocking your goodness and making light of your name and profaning your goodness. And, God, I have not seen you show up to vindicate yourself. I have not seen you show up to deal with them, but I want to. I want to. I don’t want to just hear about you speaking and acting and saving and working. I want to see it, and I want to see it in my life, and I want to see it in my city.”

And I love this Verse 13 here. Again, it is an echoing of the Gospel. He says, “You came out to deliver your people.” God always shows up to save people. That’s why God shows up. God shows up to save people. He loves us not because we’re lovable, but because he’s love. And God shows up to save his people and deliver them, and he tells us how he will do that, by saving his Anointed One. That’s Jesus. Jesus is the anointed of God. And though he died for our sins, he was saved from the grave. He was resurrected three days later. And because the Father saved the Anointed Son, you and I can be a delivered people no longer in slavery to sin, no longer in slavery to death, no longer slavery to folly, no longer slavery to idolatry. No longer in slavery to Satan.

Liberated, delivered, saved, freed to be adopted as sons and daughters into the family of God and for God to be our loving father. And he says, “You have done that through Jesus, your Anointed One.” Contemplating all this, thinking about the majesty and the glory and the magnitude of God and the possibility that God would actually show up in his day, come to the end of the tether of his patience and bring wrath and mercy, it overwhelms Habakkuk. For those of you who know anything of meditation, meditation in the Bible is not emptying your mind to become one with nothing. That’s not the goal. Biblical meditation is getting time, as Habakkuk 2:20 says, to be silent before the Lord, to consider his person, to consider his word, to consider his word so that like tea and hot water, the goodness of God steeps in your soul to where it becomes robust and alive and it’s a sweet sense in your nostrils and it’s a sweet sound in your ears and it inflames you with passion and joy for God and his unveiled glory.

And Habakkuk has that moment. And as he’s in this moment of silence and solitude and prayer and study and contemplation, drawing near to God, he has a physical reaction, he explains in Verse 16. He says, “I heard and my heart pounded.” You ever get so excited and also terrified and awestruck at the same time by something that you can actually feel your own heart beat in your chest, that sense of anticipation? “My lips quivered at the sound.” Couldn’t contain himself. “Decay crept into my bones and my legs trembled. Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us.” He says, “God, I want to see you. I can’t wait to see you show up and do what you do best, deal with sin and save your people.” And he says, “I’m so excited. I’m so anticipating. I’m so awestruck. I’m so overcome, and I’m so terrified at the same time, but I’ll wait patiently. I’ll wait patiently. You know when is the right time and until then, I’ll wait patiently.”

He then goes on to give what I believe is one of the greatest declarations of faith in the whole Bible. The great theme of Habakkuk that we started the book with is 2:4. It’s the underpinning for Paul’s theology of justification by faith in the New Testament, that the righteous live by faith. And Habakkuk here speaks of his faith. Yeah, I would just submit this to you as well though: The point at which Habakkuk began his faith was taking his frustrations to God. And by taking his frustrations to God and then listening to God, that is how his faith was built. And it grows and matures to the point where now he can trust God in a time and in a season and under a circumstance where he previously could not have. And he sings about this in great glory.

And I will just say this as well: I love the fact that Habakkuk is singing Chapter 3. It is indeed a song because I believe that that is the language of love and intimacy and of joy and of celebration of exuberance, that before we see sin enter the world, the only recorded word that we have of any man in human history are Adam upon meeting his bride and singing to her “She is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman for she was taken from man.” In the Hebrew it’s a song. I wonder – I can’t prove it, but I’ve always wondered if song was how we communicated until sin entered the world and that upon sin entering the world, we began talking. It tells us in Heaven that we’ll go back to song.

The Book of Revelation about the end of the age has at least ten new songs that we will sing together. It tells us in Zephaniah 3:17 that “In that day God will delight in us and rejoice over us with singing, that God is a musician and when redemption comes and all tears have been wiped from our eyes, that God, indeed, will lead us in song.” We’re told in Revelation that he will hand out harps to the saints for the purpose of singing, that when you have learned your theology and you have grown in your faith, there is nothing left to do but sing because that is the language of celebration, exuberance, love, joy, intimacy and trust. That’s why to this day most couples still have their song because they’re image-bearers of God and he made them for such things.

And Habakkuk sings to his God whom he is in covenant relationship with. And here’s what he has to say in Verse 17: “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vine and though the olive crop fails and the fields fail to produce food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will-” what?

Response: Rejoice.

“I will rejoice.” You say, “For what (Laughter)? Obviously not for the great day you’re having.” Right? If you’re in the ___ and farming context and you have no figs, no grapes, no olives, no crops, no animals, (Laughter) you have no food. You’re gonna starve to death. It’s the same things that Job said. “Even if God slaves me, I will praise him.” It is very easy for us to celebrate, sing and worship God with exuberance when things are going well. When you want to get married and you meet the perfect person. When you want to have children and you get pregnant. When you need a job and you get a good one. When you have bills to pay and money shows up. When you have things to do and your health is good. When times get hard and your friends draw near. But sometimes it is very hard to worship God when none of those things happens and everything that you were anticipating and longing and yearning and hoping for does not come to pass. You are alone, you are sick, you are poor, you’re suffering. And at that point it becomes very hard for some of us to rejoice. To rejoice.

And Paul calls us to the same thing in the New Testament where he says that “We should praise God” in what circumstances? “All circumstances, for this is his will for you in Christ Jesus.” You say, “How can I praise God when things are hard?” The key is this: You praise God for who he is, not just what he does. And you praise God for what he has done, not just what he’s doing. And that’s where Habakkuk goes. Habakkuk basically says, “I will rejoice because of who God is and what he’s already done. And if he never shows up again and he never does another thing for me, I still have enough to sing about for the rest of my days.” Is that true? That is true because here is God’s goal for all of his children. God’s goal for all of his children is for them to be near to him. Our goal often times is to be successful, to be affluent, to be fat and happy (Laughter). That’s our goal.

We are a people who committed our nation to the founding principle of life, liberty, and the pursuit of multiple good times. We feel that that is our God-given right. And God’s goal is for us to be close to him. And I will submit this to you: If the goal is to be successful, then you will not be able to praise God when you are not. If the goal is to be close to God, then you can praise him in all circumstances because no matter what transpires, that will actually compel you closer to him. For some of you poverty, sickness, strife, loss pushed you closer to God than anything you would ever have. And through that you became a worshipper because you threw yourself on God.

And Habakkuk says, “If all my food, all my crops, all my job, all my affluence, all my success and all my security goes away, I will sing to God.” Why? “Because I’m closer to him. Because now I must trust him. It’s faith.” He says why he will rejoice to 
God at the end of Verse 18. He says, “I will be joyful in God” my what? Savior. If God never did another thing for you, other than send his Son to die for your sins and rise and love you, would you have enough to sing about forever? You would. You would. We all would. Jesus is enough to sing about forever.

Now, God is good and he does provide. And James says that every good and perfect gift ultimately does come from God. So God gives us other reasons to praise him. But if all we had was Jesus Christ Our Savior, we would have more than enough to sing about forever. And here’s what he says as well as in Verse 19, and this helps shape his understanding, “The sovereign Lord is my strength.” What Lord? The sovereign one. God is the God who rules and reigns and is in ultimate control of human history. We make choices and we live our lives, but God has ultimate control of our lives and our history.

In Genesis it’s explained this way: “What people intend for evil, God bends toward good.” In Romans we are told that “God works all things for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.” All things. In Ephesians we are told that “He works out everything in conformity to the purpose of his good will, which he set in effect and purposed in Christ.” What that simply means is this: That in the middle we may not anticipate or understand what God is doing, but we trust that the strong hand of the loving Father is bending all circumstances in history back toward his glory and our joy. And like Habakkuk, we wait patiently to see it. Habakkuk says, “I worship a sovereign God. And just because things aren’t going the way that I would anticipate does not mean that God has fallen off of his throne, that he has negated his goodness toward me and his creation.” He trusts him.

And faith leads to song. And trusting the hand of God, even when it is unseen, is what enables us to rejoice in all circumstances, knowing that God is working his plan. He says that that causes his strength. If you and I drive all of our strength from our life, from our success and our health and our relationships and our affluence and our prestige and our education and the other idol that we pursue with such great vigor, at some point we will grow weary and lose heart. We will lose strength. But those who draw near to God regardless of circumstance and drink from his well find themselves ever refreshed. And that’s the way that it is.

And he says, “This sovereign God he makes me strong, and he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, and he enables me to go on the heights.” How many of you are rock climbers and you head out in creation, you like to go hiking? How many of you are lazy and you drive by mountains, huh (Laughter)? Have you ever seen like a jagged cliff or a tall mountain or an extended jettison peak and on top of it there’s never a human being because we can’t get there, but there’s always a deer? You ever think to yourself how did they get there? How do they scale those heights and how do they overcome those obstacles?

And Habakkuk says, “God makes my feet like that. Trial, strife, suffering, circumstances that are hard, dark nights of the soul, lost, mourning, evil, sickness, injustice. It piles up like a mountain that seems overwhelming and daunting, but God makes my feet like a deer and I climb. I climb to the heights and I stand above it all and I see what God sees and I love what God loves and I hate what God hates. And God enables me to rise above.” That’s what faith does. Faith sees the strong hand of God, the promises of God. It sees the provision of God, not the circumstances of life. And it climbs above them. And that’s why Habakkuk can worship God. He trusts him. He trusts him. And he anticipates for him showing up in his day.

He closes by saying, “For the director of music on my stringed instruments.” Not only is this a song to be sung, this is a song to be sung by Habakkuk. This is his declaration of faith that he invites us to participate in. Are you at that place where like Habakkuk you want to see God show up, whatever happens, at the end of it you would just like to be part of the people who worship him and rise above it? Habakkuk doesn’t make any sense until you are as frustrated as he begins, you’re as trusting of God where he ends, and you sing. And you sing.

Has God shown up here? Has God shown up here? He has, hasn’t he? He has. This church started six years ago with a Bible study that had twelve people. Through the course of this church’s history, it has now become a movement with 89 churches in 8 nations. It has the opportunity this year to become upwards of possibly 150 to 200 churches. It is moving that fast. In that time we have seen hundreds of people come to Christ. We have seen untold people fall in love. We’ve had 60 weddings last year alone. We have an army of children coming forth.

This building was given to us as a gift. We needed it desperately, and God showed up. He also showed up with a quarter-million-dollar gift to renovate it to so that it looks like this. And in two years the attendance here has gone from 40 to upwards of 1,300 in this building in the least churched city in the United States of America. For those of you that have been here since we started here the last few years, why don’t you stand? Who was here two years ago? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, about ten. Okay? The rest of you are new. Okay? Has God shown up?

Response: Yes.

Like I’ve never seen in the history of this city, quite frankly. Like I’ve never seen. And this week we move. We go to our little piece of the Promised Land. No river to cross. Just Market. That’s all (Laughter). Right? And I just would encourage us all to end where Habakkuk ends. Let’s leave this building today in faith, trusting Jesus as our God, dead, buried and raised for our sins, and in song, celebrating all that he has done for us as a people. And anticipating and waiting patiently for him to show up in a big way. I’m not a prophet. I can’t promise a thing, but all I can say is that the God that has come this far with us has not given us 1,700 seats for nothing. And we want to see him show up with wrath, deal with sin, and mercy, saving people.

And that’s our goal as a church. Connect people to Jesus as Christians and each other as the church. That’s all we’re about. I want you guys to be excited about how God has provided. Most of you don’t own a home, but your church does, now owns two. Most of you have never been part of any organization and you’re part of one. It’s a church family. Most of you have never seen lots of people get saved and fall in love and all kinds of wonderful things happen. You’ve seen that. And it is our prayer that, as Habakkuk says, we would see it again in our day and we would see it transform the whole city.

That’s how we’re gonna go out of this building today. That’s what I invite you to, the worship of the living God that loves you and saves you and commissions you out to tell others that he is good. We will invite you forward for communion when you are ready. That is a remembrance of Jesus’ body and blood he shed for our sin. And we take communion after confessing our sins. And he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all of our unrighteousness. We get consecrated like God’s people preparing to enter their little piece of the Promise Land. And then we’re ready to come forward and to give our offering. We partake of communion, we give our offering. If you’re not a Christian, don’t give. You’re our guest. Communion, the offering are for Christians. Everything else, we welcome you, we love you, and we would just implore you to turn to Jesus as your God and give him your sin and take his forgiveness.

As well then, we will close with singing and celebration. And next week at 10:00 or 5:00 we will see you in the new building, and you’ll see how God has shown up. Father, God, we do love you. We thank you so much for providing for us as a congregation for six years. We thank you, God, that this room is filled with stories of people who have met you and had sins forgiven and been transformed and developed friendships and fallen in love and all of the glorious things that you’ve done. God, we confess right now that if we told all the stories of your provision in our lives, even if you never did another thing, we would have enough to sing about forever.

We thank you for song, that it is a great gift, that you are Creator and you’ve made us to be creative. We thank you that song is your language of love and intimacy and of connection and community. We thank you that as we sing, Lord God, in that moment we actually become one as our voices coalesce together into a choir for your glory and our joy. God, we thank you as well for providing this building that we have met in for two years, that, God, we have seen an explosion of your goodness here. And we thank you that now you have told us to pack up and to follow you into a place that we have never been and to move into a new home so that we can continue to gather together as a liberated and freed people gathered together like the children in the desert for worship and song and celebration and joy because you are indeed our savoir. You are the living God. You are our sovereign God. You are our strength, and you give us the feet of deer.

We love you, and we come to you now, good God, and we come to you in Jesus’ name. Amen.