May 20, 2018 |Thread

You Won’t Believe It

05.20.18 | Thread

You Won’t Believe It

Noel Heikkinen

Habakkuk

Evil, oppression, and perversion run wild in our world and it often seems like God is doing nothing. If God is eternally in control, how can we respond to the evil and unknown in our lives? Pastor Noel Jesse Heikkinen encourages us to stand in faith in response to the events in our lives.

Habakkuk

Watch Watch
Watch
Listen Listen
Listen

Sin leads to death.

Repentance leads to life.

God will save His people.

How long, Lord, must I call for help
and you do not listen
or cry out to you about violence
and you do not save?
Why do you force me to look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
Oppression and violence are right in front of me.
Strife is ongoing, and conflict escalates.
This is why the law is ineffective
and justice never emerges.
For the wicked restrict the righteous;
therefore, justice comes out perverted.

Habakkuk 1:2-4 CSB

 

Look at the nations and observe—
be utterly astounded!
For I am doing something in your days
that you will not believe
when you hear about it.

Habakkuk 1:5 CSB

 

Look! I am raising up the Chaldeans,
that bitter, impetuous nation
that marches across the earth’s open spaces
to seize territories not its own.
They are fierce and terrifying;
their views of justice and sovereignty
stem from themselves.
Their horses are swifter than leopards
and more fierce than wolves of the night.
Their horsemen charge ahead;
their horsemen come from distant lands.
They fly like eagles, swooping to devour.
All of them come to do violence;
their faces are set in determination.
They gather prisoners like sand.
They mock kings,
and rulers are a joke to them.
They laugh at every fortress
and build siege ramps to capture it.
Then they sweep by like the wind
and pass through.
They are guilty; their strength is their god.

Habakkuk 1:6-11 CSB

 

Are you not from eternity, Lord my God?
My Holy One, you will not die.
Lord, you appointed them to execute judgment;
my Rock, you destined them to punish us.
Your eyes are too pure to look on evil,
and you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
So why do you tolerate those who are treacherous?
Why are you silent
while one who is wicked swallows up
one who is more righteous than himself?
You have made mankind
like the fish of the sea,
like marine creatures that have no ruler.
The Chaldeans pull them all up with a hook,
catch them in their dragnet,
and gather them in their fishing net;
that is why they are glad and rejoice.
That is why they sacrifice to their dragnet
and burn incense to their fishing net,
for by these things their portion is rich
and their food plentiful.
Will they therefore empty their net
and continually slaughter nations without mercy?

Habakkuk 1:12-17 CSB

 

I will stand at my guard post
and station myself on the lookout tower.
I will watch to see what he will say to me
and what I should reply about my complaint.

Habakkuk 2:1 CSB

 

The Lord answered me:
Write down this vision;
clearly inscribe it on tablets
so one may easily read it.
For the vision is yet for the appointed time;
it testifies about the end and will not lie.
Though it delays, wait for it,
since it will certainly come and not be late.
Look, his ego is inflated;
he is without integrity.
But the righteous one will live by his faith.

Habakkuk 2:2-4 CSB

 

Remember the earlier days when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to taunts and afflictions, and at other times you were companions of those who were treated that way. For you sympathized with the prisoners and accepted with joy the confiscation of your possessions, because you know that you yourselves have a better and enduring possession. So don’t throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you need endurance, so that after you have done God’s will, you may receive what was promised.
For yet in a very little while,
the Coming One will come and not delay.
But my righteous one will live by faith;
and if he draws back,
I have no pleasure in him.
But we are not those who draw back and are destroyed, but those who have faith and are saved.

Hebrews 10:32-39 CSB

 

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.
For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,

Romans 1:16-18 CSB

 

For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, Everyone who does not do everything written in the book of the law is cursed. Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith. But the law is not based on faith; instead, the one who does these things will live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.

Galatians 3:10-13 CSB

 

Lord, I have heard the report about you;
Lord, I stand in awe of your deeds.
Revive your work in these years;
make it known in these years.
In your wrath remember mercy!

Habakkuk 3:2 CSB

 

God comes from Teman,
the Holy One from Mount Paran.Selah
His splendor covers the heavens,
and the earth is full of his praise.
His brilliance is like light;
rays are flashing from his hand.
This is where his power is hidden.
Plague goes before him,
and pestilence follows in his steps.
He stands and shakes the earth;
he looks and startles the nations.
The age-old mountains break apart;
the ancient hills sink down.
His pathways are ancient.
I see the tents of Cushan in distress;
the tent curtains of the land of Midian tremble.
Are you angry at the rivers, Lord?
Is your wrath against the rivers?
Or is your rage against the sea
when you ride on your horses,
your victorious chariot?
You took the sheath from your bow;
the arrows are ready to be used with an oath.Selah
You split the earth with rivers.
The mountains see you and shudder;
a downpour of water sweeps by.
The deep roars with its voice
and lifts its waves high.
Sun and moon stand still in their lofty residence,
at the flash of your flying arrows,
at the brightness of your shining spear.
You march across the earth with indignation;
you trample down the nations in wrath.
You come out to save your people,
to save your anointed.
You crush the leader of the house of the wicked
and strip him from foot to neck.Selah
You pierce his head
with his own spears;
his warriors storm out to scatter us,
gloating as if ready to secretly devour the weak.
You tread the sea with your horses,
stirring up the vast water.

Habakkuk 3:3-15 CSB

 

I heard, and I trembled within;
my lips quivered at the sound.
Rottenness entered my bones;
I trembled where I stood.
Now I must quietly wait for the day of distress
to come against the people invading us.
Though the fig tree does not bud
and there is no fruit on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though the flocks disappear from the pen
and there are no herds in the stalls,
yet I will celebrate in the Lord;
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!
The Lord my Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like those of a deer
and enables me to walk on mountain heights!

Habakkuk 3:16-19 CSB

Youth