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[0:00] The following sermon is made available by Lakeside Bible Church in Cornelius, North Carolina.

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[0:39] Well, I want to invite you to take your Bibles and turn with me to Habakkuk, the book of Habakkuk in the Old Testament Minor Prophets. It may take you a couple of minutes to get there, so take your time, and we will start a brand new study today.

[0:54] It's a brand new study in this book that I think is going to be beneficial to us. From time to time, people will ask me what my favorite book of the Bible is, and almost always my answer to that question is whatever book I happen to be studying at the time that I get asked that question.

[1:12] And this is the same exact case today. I have found in my personal study of the book of Habakkuk over the last couple of weeks to be a really fruitful time of study.

[1:27] It's been actually really fantastic. I've enjoyed myself in it, and it's quickly becoming one of my favorite books of the Bible. I don't really know exactly how you're supposed to pronounce the name of this book.

[1:41] In fact, if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you probably saw earlier this week that I was trying to get some people to help me out with that. What I've come to determine is that if you are from the United States, you probably say Habakkuk, and if you are from anywhere else, you probably say Habakkuk or Habakkuk.

[2:02] And if you're Jewish, there's some ways in there that I can't even pronounce anyways, at least in a way that wouldn't be embarrassing to me. But even though I don't really know how to say it, you're probably going to hear me say it a few different ways in every sermon.

[2:17] I really have truly grown to love this book, and I hope that that will be the case for you as well. As you will see, this book of the Bible is actually amazingly relatable to us today.

[2:32] In fact, at any point in history, this book would have been completely relevant and relatable. Have you ever cried out to God about a particular condition that you find yourself in or a particular condition that you notice to be prevalent in the culture?

[2:51] Maybe the wickedness of our society, maybe even the wickedness that can often be found within churches has caused you at some point in your walk with Christ to cry out to God asking, why are you allowing this to happen?

[3:04] Why aren't you doing something about this? Why are you bringing this particular thing to my life? Sometimes our questions of that, of why and how long, will lead us to question God's love.

[3:22] Sometimes it will lead us to question God's existence. And the truth of the matter is, there's not a person, not a believer at least, that will go through their life without at some point being confronted with those questions.

[3:38] As we come to understand the Lord more, and as we understand the scriptures more, and we understand his control and his sovereignty, that really can be perplexing as to why he would allow sin, why he would allow destruction, why he would bring things to pass and seemingly be absent in judgment or absent in intervening in times that we really cry out for his help.

[4:08] Well, you're not alone in those questions. Habakkuk asks those same questions as we'll study over the next few weeks. And in the case of Habakkuk's book, God's answers actually led to more perplexity for him.

[4:25] But ultimately, as we see, he came to understand that God is always right and that he must be trusted by us. Let's just read the first verse of the book, would you?

[4:37] Habakkuk chapter one and verse number one. It just simply says, the burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. Now, to understand the context of the book, I wanna just divide this verse up into three different categories, and we're gonna use that to explore what the Bible says was the context of Judah during this time.

[4:59] And the first thing that we look at is this phrase, the burden, or the burden in verse number one. Now, the use of the term burden in the Old Testament prophetical books is common.

[5:12] Sometimes it's rendered as oracle, and the term really refers to a specific revelation from God that is given through his chosen servant.

[5:26] Now, these chosen servants are what we refer to as prophets. And we don't call them prophets because they had some kind of special power to protect the future, but because they were responsible for delivering the message of God in regards to a future occurrence.

[5:47] These people, these servants of God, were not fortune tellers. They were preachers. They were proclaimers of God's message in regards to the future fulfillment of his covenant.

[6:01] That would be a positive burden, a positive prophecy. Or it was in relation to the demonstration of God's wrath against sin. And that would be a negative burden.

[6:15] Well, here in the case of Habakkuk, the message is one of judgment against Judah for their continual idolatry and rebellion towards God.

[6:28] But our modern understanding of the word burden is not to be dismissed, for there truly does exist a heavy weight of responsibility in the heart and mind of God's messenger.

[6:43] This message from God is seen as a legitimate burden to Habakkuk in two ways. The first one is this, that he was burdened by the wickedness of Judah in the seeming absence of God's judgment.

[6:58] So when it refers to this prophecy as the burden of Habakkuk, we see first that it was because of a burden in his heart when he stopped and he considered the sinful condition of the nation.

[7:11] Now, in the case of Habakkuk, God chose to introduce his message of judgment through the real burden of the prophet's heart. Now, the context of God's words in this book is set within a specific dialogue that actually began with Habakkuk crying out to God.

[7:34] So burdened was Habakkuk about the rampant wickedness of Judah that he continually cried out to God in prayer because of it.

[7:45] So this cry of his righteous heart led to God providing an answer that Habakkuk was commanded to proclaim to the people. So since the prophecy itself was initiated by the prayer of the man, it is appropriate for the narrative to be introduced as his burden.

[8:04] As in other prophecies are set opposite of this where God comes to a chosen servant irregardless of his prayer or his condition and he calls out to them in seeming obscurity and he just says, hey, I've got a message, I need you to proclaim it.

[8:24] In the case of Habakkuk, it didn't happen that way. God didn't just appear to Habakkuk and say, hey, I want you to proclaim this message of judgment. He actually introduces his message because of Habakkuk's prayer.

[8:39] And Habakkuk comes to prayer day by day for how long, we don't know. It was probably for a pretty long time. And he cries out to God, why are you allowing this to happen?

[8:50] Why are you allowing this sin to continue? Why aren't you doing something about the wickedness of the nation? And it was because of Habakkuk's burden in his heart that God responded with a message that he actually ended up having Habakkuk proclaim to the people.

[9:08] Now this reveals to us the very nature of Habakkuk's heart. He was a holy man. And we know that he was a holy man because he recognized the sin.

[9:21] And it's not only that he recognized the sin, but that he was burdened by the sin. It wasn't that he was okay or dismissive of what was going on. It bothered him that the nation had turned their backs on God once again.

[9:35] It bothered him that they were worshiping false gods. It irritated him that nothing was happening in regards to the wicked leadership of the nation. And the truth is, this is the same burden that we're supposed to carry.

[9:49] But many of us don't carry this burden because we've become so desensitized to the sin around us that it no longer bothers us to see the wickedness in our own lives.

[10:00] It doesn't bother us to see the wickedness in our homes. It doesn't bother us to see the wickedness sometimes in our churches. It doesn't bother us to see the wickedness in our nation. We've become desensitized to it. We've become okay with it.

[10:12] We see that it's there, but it doesn't bother us all the time. This was different for Habakkuk. It irritated his heart. He was holy before the Lord.

[10:22] And so he carried with him this burden over the condition of the nation. And because of this burden, he cried out to the Lord. And because he cried out to the Lord, the Lord ended up using him as his chosen servant in this pronunciation of judgment.

[10:39] So we see that it's a burden for that reason. Secondly, the nature of judgment in God's message through Habakkuk means that the actual delivery of the prophecy itself would have been a tremendous burden.

[10:54] No one minds being the bearer of good news. We get excited to go and tell people good things. One of the things that I love about Ashlyn is she loves, she wants to be the one to tell everybody everything.

[11:07] And if there's something dramatic taking place, she wants to be the one that tells you. If there's something super exciting that's taking place, especially, she will run through the house to beat everybody else for the opportunity to let me know what has happened.

[11:20] Nobody minds being the bearer of good news or exciting news. But very few people have the fortitude to actually be the messengers of bad news.

[11:34] Not only is it a burden to bring devastating news to another person, but the wicked people of Israel were not known for receiving God's prophets with submission and kindness.

[11:47] They often murdered those that God sent to deliver his message. And Habakkuk would have certainly been aware of the history of the nation and how they treated God's chosen, especially as it related to announcements of judgment.

[12:04] So being the bearer of this news of judgment would have carried with it a significant burden for the prophet. This wasn't something he would have been pleased in. It wouldn't have come easy for him to actually go to the nation and maybe even to the leadership of the nation and say, because of your sin, this is the judgment that God is going to bring your way.

[12:27] It's no different to the task that we have, the burden even that we have of sharing the gospel with people today. Now the gospel is good news.

[12:38] The word itself means that. It means good news. But the gospel, while being good news, actually begins with very bad news. Before you can proclaim the gospel truth of salvation and the love of God and the gracious mercy and forgiveness that he offers to those who will believe in him, you have to begin with the reality of our sinful condition.

[13:04] The fact that none of us are good. None of us are good enough for God. All of us in our current condition stand condemned. No one likes to be told that they're wrong and that there's nothing they can do about it.

[13:19] No one likes to be told that they will be excluded from a blessing because of the nature of their heart. And so as we go and we carry the burden of the gospel, we carry that with the excitement of God's love, but we also carry it with the burden of sharing the bad news with people, the message of judgment.

[13:39] Because the good news of the gospel actually begins with just that, a message of judgment. And the world will not only reject the message, but they often will reject the messenger.

[13:52] But we are called to bear this burden. Just as Habakkuk was called to bear the burden of this prophetic judgment, we as Christians, every one of us, we are called to carry and bear the burden of the gospel.

[14:10] While it is good news, it is also a message of judgment. And we must be willing to proclaim that message. Now this specific prophecy is dated somewhere around 600 BC.

[14:24] And the historical references within the book indicate that the Assyrian empire that had taken the northern kingdom of Israel captive was now fading out of view as this new powerful regime of the Babylonian empire or the Chaldeans was becoming the reigning world power.

[14:47] Now this regime had not yet reached Judah and that's what we actually see as a major part of this prophecy. That as a part of God's judgment or as God's judgment, He was actually going to eventually allow the Babylonians to make their way to Judah and take them captive.

[15:05] But let's make a few notes about the condition of Judah that actually led to Habakkuk having this burden. Now 2 Chronicles chapter 35 tells us that about the time that Habakkuk was writing this was just a few years at most after King Josiah, what we would refer to often as the boy king.

[15:30] it was just after he had died. Now King Josiah was a godly king and we're going to come back to that in just a few minutes but 2 Chronicles chapter 35 actually tells us that at the end of his life he made an unwise decision by going to fight against Pharaoh Necho when he was actually trying to fight against the Assyrians.

[15:53] God had actually sent a message through the Egyptians that Josiah and Judah needed to go back home they didn't need to be involved with this but he didn't listen and he ended up dying on the battlefield.

[16:05] You can read about that in 2 Chronicles chapter 35 but after the death of Josiah we see that one of his sons that became known as Jehoiakim led the nation back to idolatry and the sinful atrocities that always accompanied such pagan worship.

[16:26] Now there's two passages in the Old Testament historical books that record the nature of Jehoiakim's 11 year reign.

[16:37] Both accounts only provide one substantive verse that tells us anything about what the nature of Judah was during his kingship and both times all the writers felt was necessary to communicate was one simple sentence that Jehoiakim did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.

[17:02] 2 Chronicles chapter 36 and verse 5 Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he began to reign he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.

[17:14] 2 Kings chapter 23 and verse 37 and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord according to all that his fathers had done. So wicked was Jehoiakim's reign that an entire 11 year span of history that ultimately led to the captivity of Judah for 70 years in Babylon all that the writers felt was necessary to say was that everything he did was evil in the sight of the Lord.

[17:44] There was nothing righteous about this king at all. He had abandoned the ways of his father Josiah he had abandoned the ways of the godly kings of Judah and he had followed in the path of the northern kingdom of Israel and he had re-established pagan worship and all of the atrocities and moral decay that came along with that.

[18:05] So when Habakkuk is writing and he's crying out to God in the beginning of this book the context with which he is writing is one of great wickedness and devastation an entire nation seemingly turning their back on the god that had chosen them and saved them and provided for them time and time and time again.

[18:27] Now it was nothing but wickedness with a wicked ruler and Habakkuk could not figure out why god was allowing this to take place. Jeremiah chapter 22 tells us a little bit more about Jehoiakim and it pronounces a specific judgment that was delivered to him as well.

[18:46] You can read about it on your own in Jeremiah 22. This was a wicked man and he had led the entire nation into this vile wickedness and God was about to pour out an unbelievable judgment on this nation.

[19:02] But before Habakkuk understood the judgment that was to come he cries out to the Lord so why why are you allowing this to happen? Why are you allowing this to go seemingly unjudged and unhindered?

[19:19] And so we see the burden here. The second thing that we notice in this verse that's going to help us understand a little bit of the context of this book is this second phrase and that is the burden which Habakkuk the prophet Habakkuk the prophet the truth is that we really have no idea who this man is.

[19:40] We don't know anything about him except for what we can deduce from our study of the book itself. We have no idea who Habakkuk is. No other portions of scripture mention him.

[19:52] We can only deduce his identity based on what is revealed to us in his book. But this is not uncommon with the minor prophets neither is it incidental.

[20:04] Owen Robertson said this like Elijah as well as John the Baptist Habakkuk appeared as a voice and nothing more. He must be heard because he was the bearer of God's message not because of what he was in himself.

[20:23] And I find that to be very helpful. Our tendency is to focus on an individual for their personality and accomplishments rather than the substance of what they say and the character that they portray in their actions.

[20:40] Even as Christians we can be guilty of sacrificing sound theology for the charismatic personality of a particular leader.

[20:51] We can also be guilty of choosing to covenant with a church not on the basis of the message that they preach but on the basis of the programs that they offer. We can very much be shallow people in general but even Christians can fall guilty to this.

[21:07] And so God doesn't reveal to us much about Habakkuk seemingly so that we don't become so immersed in the person of the prophet that we miss the message that he was tasked with delivering.

[21:21] God has never been interested in the praise of men. We do not heed the message of Habakkuk's burden because of the credentials that he bears but because it is the message of the almighty God.

[21:37] Again, we don't listen to the words of this book because of the credentials of Habakkuk but because it is the message of God.

[21:48] And the same should be the case with our church. Not that you would be particularly enamored with me in any way but you are never to listen to the message because of me. You are to listen to the message because it is the word of God.

[22:02] And if there comes a time that I cease to preach the word of God and rely more on personality and rely more on preaching of my own preferences and my own opinions, that's the moment that as a church, it is your responsibility to confront me, not capitulate to the personality or to the offerings or accomplishments that may come along the way.

[22:21] We must not listen to the man. We must listen to the message that comes from God. Well, if the culture of Judah during the life of Habakkuk was so pervasively wicked, how is it that he had developed such a hatred for sin and burden for the nation?

[22:45] What was it that kept Habakkuk from following the same wicked patterns as the rest of the nation? Now, obviously, a big part of that answer is that it was the work of God in his life, but I believe that the means of God's work in Habakkuk is seen in his upbringing.

[23:06] Now, while we don't know his age at the time of the writing, we can determine through our study of the book that he was probably an adult, maybe even a mature adult at the time that he wrote.

[23:19] Now, because the reign of Jehoiakim was so short, it was only 11 years, we can deduce that Habakkuk was raised predominantly during the reign of the godly king, Josiah.

[23:33] Now, I've already mentioned the events surrounding the death of Josiah, but in this moment, it's helpful for us to understand the nature of his reign as it relates to the heart of Habakkuk.

[23:45] Now, if there's nothing else that you get in this more informational study setting up the book as we study it together over the next few weeks, I want you to pay attention to this part. This part matters so much, not only to our understanding of Habakkuk as an individual, but how we can develop this same burden for sinfulness in our own lives.

[24:08] Now, often referred to as the boy king, Josiah ascended to the throne when he was only eight years old. And by the time he was 16, he was leading a nationwide reform that involved the utter destruction of Judah's pagan worship and idols.

[24:30] And 2 Chronicles 34 explains how this reform was being led by Josiah in the early years of his reign. In fact, I want you to turn there in your Bibles.

[24:41] Would you do that? Flip over to 2 Chronicles 34. I want you to see this. I'm not going to put it on the screen this time. I actually want you to see this in your Bibles. So 2 Chronicles 34.

[24:52] And then just stay there for a little bit because we're going to stay in that area of the Scriptures. 2 Chronicles 34, verses 3-7 record for us the nature of this reform in the early years of Josiah's reign.

[25:07] Look at verse number 3. For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he was only 16, Josiah began to seek after the God of David, his father.

[25:17] And in the twelfth year, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places and the groves and the carved images and the molten images.

[25:29] And they break down the altars of Balaam in his presence, and the images that were on the high above them, he cut down. And the groves and the carved images and the molten images, he break in pieces and made dust of them and threw them upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them.

[25:47] And he burnt the bones of the priest upon the altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. And so did he in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, which their maddox round about.

[26:02] And when he had broken down the altars and the groves and had beaten the graven images into powder and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.

[26:13] Jerusalem. Now, between the ages of 16 and 20, Josiah brought this incredible reform. But at this point, it's only reform.

[26:25] He's going through the nation, he's going through Judah, and he's breaking down the idols, he's trying to turn the hearts of the nation back to the God of David.

[26:35] He's really just bringing more of a religious reform, and he's bringing a governmental reform and a civil reform. It is all with the right motivation.

[26:46] He's following after the God of David, but it's really nothing more than reform at this point. Now, something significant happens in the 18th year of Josiah's reign.

[26:56] When he's about 26 years old now, he had initiated the building project to fix the temple of God that had fallen into disrepair. And in the process of this renovation, when he's 26 years old, someone finds hidden in the temple a copy of the scriptures of the Bible that had been forsaken for so long in Judah.

[27:24] Now, it's unbelievable to think that, that for years and years, and even throughout this reform, Josiah had not yet dug himself into the scriptures. He was basing everything up to that point, as far as we can gather, off of the tradition that had been passed down, at least from the godly kings and what he knew of David and what he knew of David's reign.

[27:45] But for the first time, when he's 26 years old, they find the book, they find the scriptures. And after reading the Bible, Josiah led a second wave of revival that swept across the land.

[28:00] For the first few years, it was just reform. It was good reform, but it was reform. Now that he has been confronted with the truth of the scripture, he is leading this wave in this season of revival in the land.

[28:14] And 2 Kings chapter 23 helps us grasp the significance of this revival. I want you to turn there now. Just flip a few pages back from where you are in 2 Chronicles 34, and I want you to look with me at 2 Kings chapter 23.

[28:29] And the first thing we see here is Josiah reading the scriptures, not just to himself, but he's reading it to the nation. Look with me at verse number 1. And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.

[28:45] And the king went up into the house of the Lord, and all the men of Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great.

[28:56] He's gathered everybody together to preach the word, is what he's doing. Now look at the next phrase. And he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant, which was found in the house of the Lord.

[29:10] Church, this is so important. This is so significant. Though the reforms up to that point were fantastic, and they were laying the groundwork for this revival.

[29:22] They were nothing but reform. But at the moment that we confront ourselves with the truth of the scripture, simple reform becomes revival.

[29:32] And true revival that is spirit-led makes a massive difference in our lives and in our homes and in our nation. And here's what Josiah did.

[29:43] And the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes.

[29:54] Now listen, it turns from the singular to the plural. With all their heart and all their soul. This is the nation he's leading now.

[30:06] To perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book and all the people stood to the covenant. This revival begins with a commitment to the scriptures.

[30:20] Revival in your life and in your home and in your church and in our nation is not going to come through the election. It's going to come through our commitment to the scriptures.

[30:31] Reform will do nothing. It will do nothing for us. You can try to shape everything up the way you want to and the nation can try to cut away some of the fat of the wickedness and do what they're going to do.

[30:41] But without a commitment to the scriptures, revival will not come. Josiah started with the scriptures. Now the second thing that we notice in this same chapter, 2 Kings 23, is Josiah dealing with sin.

[30:55] And he's dealing with it in a different way and in an additional way than what he had done before. Look with me at verse 4. And he brought forth out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal, the false god, and for the grove and for all the host of heaven.

[31:11] And he burned them without Jerusalem. Verse 5. And he put down the idolatrous priest. Verse 6. And he brought out the grove from the house of the Lord and burned it.

[31:23] Verse 7. And he break down the house of the sodomites. Those were male prostitutes that were involved in the forms of pagan worship that accompanied the sin of the nation.

[31:35] Verse 8. And defiled the high places where the priest had burned incense. Verse 10. And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Moloch.

[31:51] I don't know if you understand what this worship of Moloch was. This was an idol that they would have built and they would have fashioned out probably some type of metal. And it had its hands out like this right here.

[32:03] Passing through the fire is when they would take their children and they would sacrifice them to this idol called Moloch. And this Moloch, they would take his hands and they would heat them up to an extreme degree and they would take their children, their babies, and they would lay them on this heated up idol and they would sacrifice their children literally to death on this idol in this pagan worship.

[32:28] This wasn't the pagan people of the nation. This was the children of Israel. This was Judah. This was the godly section, supposedly godly section of the nation. And they were literally taking their children and sacrificing them to Moloch.

[32:43] And it's really no different than what's happening to us today in our nation. People aren't sacrificing their children to Moloch. They're sacrificing their children to the god of self. And they're not going to a pagan place of worship and setting their children up on an idol that's been heated up to a very high degree.

[33:01] They're going to the doctor's office and they're taking a pill or they're having a doctor literally go into their womb and destroy and sacrifice their babies to the god of themselves. This wickedness in Judah is just as vile as the wickedness that we see today.

[33:16] And Josiah, because of the scriptures, not only goes about this with reform, but he goes through the nation and he begins to deal with the specific sins of the nation. Verse 12, and the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, the king beat down.

[33:33] Verse 13, and the high places, listen, which Solomon, the king of Israel had built, did the king defile. This had been around for hundreds of years, even before the divided kingdom.

[33:46] Solomon had even led the nation in idolatry. And it didn't matter to Josiah how historical these idols and places of worship were. It didn't matter to Josiah that it was the great king Solomon that had instituted him or placed him there.

[34:01] It didn't matter to Josiah how culturally acceptable, how historically desensitized the nation had become to them. He was getting rid of every single bit of sin that he could find in the nation.

[34:15] Verse 14, and he break in pieces the images and cut down the groves. Listen, genuine revival in the heart of a person and in a home and in a church and in a nation does not come through reform.

[34:27] It comes first through the commitment to the scriptures. And out of the commitment to the scriptures comes a repentant heart that is bent on clearing out every bit of sin in our lives, no matter how historical that sin is, no matter how accepted that sin is among everybody else.

[34:45] It's a commitment to dealing with sin. And then he leads in worship. Look at verse 21. And the king commanded all the people saying, keep the Passover unto the Lord your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant.

[35:01] Surely there was not held such a Passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor the kings of Judah, but in the 18th year of the king Josiah, wherein the Passover was held to the Lord in Jerusalem.

[35:16] He led them in worship. This is a part of the revival. But this wasn't a fake worship. This wasn't an entertainment driven worship. It was a worship that was so profound and genuine that the writer tells us that not even in the days of King David was the Passover celebrated in this way.

[35:40] And with this type of revival in the hearts of the people. Now, I say all of that to say that this was the context in which Habakkuk was raised.

[35:55] He grew up in this dynamic. He grew up amongst this kind of revival among God's people. And it's a reminder to us that true revival is not a scheduled series of meetings replete with emotionally stirring music and microwave sermons that have proven to hype up a crowd.

[36:20] Here's what true revival is. True revival only comes when God's people first dig into the depths of the scriptures and come out of their study, taking the action necessary to break down the idols of their hearts.

[36:39] Not just the most recent vices that have plagued their lives, but even the historical vices to which they have grown accustomed to after years and years of spiritual neglect.

[36:51] True revival involves the genuine worship of our holy God born out of a heart of repentance and recognition of God's abundant mercy toward us.

[37:07] Why did Habakkuk carry a burden in his heart and beg for God to judge the sin of the nation? Why wasn't he desensitized to the wickedness that surrounded him?

[37:18] Because he had learned long before the scriptures and had committed himself to following the holy God that does not tolerate the sinfulness of man for very long.

[37:30] And how will we see the sin of the nation and even the sin of our church with the same sense of burden as Habakkuk? It will only come once we seriously and genuinely commit ourselves to the scriptures, the breaking down of the idols in our hearts and the true worship of our gracious father.

[37:55] That's the point of pointing back to King Josiah's reign. Some of us may be wondering, I've never really cried out to God with that kind of burden like Habakkuk did.

[38:07] And the reason you've never cried out to God in that way is because you've allowed yourselves to neglect the scriptures and you've become desensitized to the sin of the nation and even to the sin of your own home and to the sin of your own life.

[38:22] You've allowed the acceptable sins that even sometimes the church will disregard. You've allowed that to become prevalent in your life. And the reason you don't carry this burden is because you are not committed to the holiness of God and understanding his judgment against sin in the way that Habakkuk was acknowledging his holiness and his judgment.

[38:44] Part of Habakkuk's heart in crying out to God was wondering why God wasn't bringing judgment already. He was burdened by the sin and he anticipated that God was going to bring another revival through judgment.

[38:58] And to be honest, we've got one more section of this to discover before we close it out for today. But I think this is probably a good time wherever you're at to pause the video and have a time of response to the Lord there.

[39:13] Is the Bible a dusty old book hidden somewhere in your house? If you do read it, is it your goal to simply gain knowledge or to actually know and obey God?

[39:26] Are you reading the scriptures just to try to figure it all out? Or are you coming with a desire to know the God of the Bible? That'll make a difference. Do you read the Bible? Or is it hidden back in the temple somewhere?

[39:41] Are you willing to enter an all-out assault against the sin of your life and the sin of your home and the sin of the church and the sin of the nation?

[39:54] Do you have a burden over sinfulness? Or are you desensitized to the acceptable sins of your life? And as you pause this video in just a moment, it probably would be wise if you're there with your family to maybe go around and just let's do some serious evaluation of our home.

[40:11] Are we becoming desensitized to some sinful behavior? Or at least some behavior that's leading us to sinful practices that maybe we've ignored for a while? Are we committed to the scriptures as a family?

[40:24] Are we burdened about the sinfulness not just around us but the sinfulness that's in us? Is your worship born out of a heart of repentance that genuinely delights in the God of mercy and grace?

[40:40] I want to encourage you to pause the video now as we'll be doing in my home and pray and beg God to give you this burden. To help you be willing to cleanse the sin of your life in the way that Josiah cleansed the sin of the nation.

[40:55] And that you would commit yourself to the scriptures and to the genuine worship of our God. Thank you for listening to this sermon made available by Lakeside Bible Church. Feel free to share it wherever you'd like.

[41:06] Please do not charge for it or alter it in any way without express written consent from Lakeside Bible Church. Don't forget to visit us online at lakesidebible.church or find us on Facebook and Instagram by searching for Lakeside Bible NC.

[41:21]  If you live in the Charlotte or Lake Norman area, we'd love for you to attend one of our worship services. We meet every Sunday morning at 10 a.m. We'd love to meet you.