waiting for food at a restaurant, waiting to cross at the lights.
I've been living here in Chatswood for almost two months,
and I'm sick of waiting in traffic,
waiting for a husband or wife to get ready, no elbowing,
waiting for kids to do anything.
Waiting makes us impatient, makes us angry.
We've been conditioned through fast food
and the instant gratification of the internet
to get what we want and get it now.
And if we don't get it, well, we should complain.
What do you mean I have to wait?
You know, don't you know who I am?
I don't care that these three people paid before I ordered.
I want my coffee right now.
It's not just a personal shift, but it's also a cultural one too.
We as a society have lost the ability to wait.
You only have to go back a generation,
and people would do things like send letters to each other
and then wait to get a letter.
Does anybody remember that?
I remember waiting for letters.
It's a little bit less exciting, you know, checking the mail these days.
It's just bills and packages.
You would wait in line at the bank to get cash out,
and you would listen to the radio or to the wireless
in the hopes of hearing your favorite song.
I do remember back in the day having a cassette tape
and waiting to hear my favorite song,
and then I'd hit record on it.
Some young people would have no idea what that looks like.
But what is the impact of our impatience
on our relationship with God?
Do we expect that God should just jump at our prayers
and deliver what we want in 30 minutes or less,
or we get a refund?
We don't want to endure a pain or hardship.
We cry out, God, why am I suffering?
Why am I enduring loss?
Why have I lost this family member?
Why am I waiting to get a job?
Why don't I have children yet?
Why aren't you providing for me?
Why are there still problems and struggles in my life?
I think one thing we can do is we can get caught up
just remembering part of who our God is.
We remember that our God is loving and merciful,
and we think that He should just obey our every command.
And we can forget that our God is massive
and powerful and sovereign,
and He works at His good pleasure.
The truth is, waiting is hard.
Waiting on God is one of the hardest parts of Christianity,
and yet it's also one of the most important parts
of Christianity.
Today we're continuing our series,
Reasonable Faith in Unreasonable Times,
and we're looking at the book of Habakkuk.
Last week we looked at chapter 1,
and we saw that Habakkuk was crying out
because of all the injustice that he saw in Judah.
Habakkuk cried out asking God,
why aren't you doing anything?
And God replied, I am.
I am going to bring justice.
I'm going to bring the biggest superpower, Babylon,
and they're going to judge Judah.
And Habakkuk cried out,
what?
How can you bring those evil people to judge Judah?
They're so much worse.
And Habakkuk is trying to understand
how a good and pure God
could allow a sinful army
to come and attack God's people.
And this is where we find Habakkuk today.
He has cried out to God,
God has answered him,
and Habakkuk wasn't satisfied with that response,
so Habakkuk's gone back with another question,
and now we find him waiting on God.
Waiting for God.
It is such a strange phrase.
Just wait for God.
Have you ever had someone say to you,
just wait for God, just wait?
Well, what does it mean for Habakkuk to wait for God?
And what does it mean for us
as we cry out and wait for God?
We need to come to our God in prayer for this,
asking that he would teach our hearts,
so I'm going to pray now.
Heavenly Father,
as we look at your word this evening
and we learn how to wait just like Habakkuk had to.
Teach our hearts to have patience before you, Lord.
Amen.
So please have a look at me,
with me at Habakkuk chapter one.
It will be on the screen
as we look at these four short verses.
from chapter two, verse one.
I will stand at my watch
and station myself on the ramparts.
I will look to see what he will say to me
and what answer I am to give to this complaint.
Habakkuk has said his peace,
he's questioned God,
he has expressed his concern,
and now he is going to wait.
He takes his concern to God and he waits.
And what does waiting look like?
Well, it's active.
It's not passive.
He's actively looking for God's response
and he's going to persist as he waits.
And Habakkuk paints this picture
of waiting on God persistently
like a century in a watchtower.
Imagine you've got a city,
it's walled in,
and you've got towers
where you can watch over where the enemy comes.
That's what the ramparts are,
the towers where the centuries would stand.
And the job of the century
is to be on the lookout,
be watching persistently.
You have to stay there your whole shift.
It's not a job you can say,
I'm a little bit bored.
Maybe I'll have a nap.
Maybe I'll duck down to the castle cafe
for a skim milk latte.
It's not that kind of job.
If he takes his eyes off the target,
even for a minute,
he could miss seeing the approach of an enemy
and the defenses might not be ready in time.
Being a century on a tower
requires immense persistence.
This is what Habakkuk is doing.
He is waiting and watching for God's answer
with persistence.
Now Habakkuk wasn't really on the walls,
but this verse creates the idea
that he was determined and persistent,
waiting for God's response.
And he has full confidence
that God would answer his prayer.
He's just going to keep waiting
until God answers him.
Not only is he watching for God,
he is determined not to miss God's response
when it does come.
And when God does speak,
he's not going to be too busy with life.
He's not going to be distracted doing other things.
He's not like a person who asks God for something
and then forgets that they've asked,
so that when God does provide or answer,
they miss it.
He is watching.
He is persistent.
His eyes are on God.
His eyes are on the prize.
Waiting can be passive,
like you're just in a shop waiting for a coffee.
But here, waiting on God is active.
It's persistent waiting for God.
So for us, waiting on God means to keep waiting.
And so we shouldn't despair
when God doesn't answer as quickly as we would like.
It's an encouragement not to throw the towel in
when Christianity and our Christian walk
isn't as it should be.
I think far too often we can rebel
against God's lack of response.
Maybe it goes something like this.
I've prayed to God
and God hasn't answered me as quickly as I like.
And so I feel self-pity.
Woe is me.
God doesn't talk to me.
And so I'm going to stop going to church
as much as I used to.
Maybe I'll stop reading my Bible,
stop praying to Him.
Because what's the point of listening
and talking to God
if He's not going to talk to me?
And maybe I stop going to Bible study,
community group.
Maybe we distance ourself from God.
But also from the way He's going to talk to us
through His Word and through people.
Now imagine you're that sentry on the tower.
You've been sitting on that watchtower
for your whole career,
12 hours a day,
every day of the week.
And you've never seen anything.
And so you finally think,
I've had enough.
That's it.
I'm going to quit.
I'm going to go down.
And so you climb down the tower.
You go and hide somewhere.
It doesn't take too long.
Eventually the military comes
and drags you out of whatever hole
you've been hiding in.
And you get court-martialed,
dragged before a judge,
a military judge.
And the judge says,
why did you leave your post?
And you respond,
well,
I just didn't want to wait anymore.
It was too hard to keep on waiting.
Do you think the judge would be okay with that?
No, I don't think so either.
For us,
it's the same with God.
We need to continue to be persistent.
Waiting for God is active.
And Habakkuk,
he is persistent as he looks
and waits for God to answer.
He is like that sentry in the watchtower.
Waiting for God to respond,
we must persist,
even when it's hard.
Now, we don't know how long it was
that Habakkuk was waiting,
but we do know that God answered him.
He did receive God's answer.
Have a look at verse two.
Then the Lord replied,
write down the revelation
and make it plain on tablets
so that a herald may run with it.
For the revelation awaits an appointed time.
It speaks of the end
and will not prove false.
Though it linger,
wait for it.
It will certainly come
and will not delay.
The Lord's answer is a special one.
Habakkuk is to write it down.
Habakkuk might not remember it.
He might not remember everything,
but everyone needs to know this message.
It's an important one.
So write it down on tablets.
I can't help but think of the,
you know,
the movies with the Ten Commandments in it,
these big stone tablets.
It's that kind of idea.
Clay tablets.
Write it down
so a herald could carry it
and run out
so that you could leave it somewhere
and people could see it and read it.
Now, our minds can do funny things
with messages
and God didn't want to leave Habakkuk
any room for error.
He wanted this message
to be preserved with accuracy.
So write it down.
Write it down
because there was going to be
a period of waiting
for God
after this.
Verse 3,
Habakkuk had to wait
for God to answer.
And now that God has answered,
God says,
wait.
I am bringing justice
and I am working,
but you are going to have to wait.
You must have patience.
It is close,
but it might seem far off
for humans,
but it will come without delay.
There's an emphasis here
on the different timings
and there's a difference
in our perception.
God perceives time
very differently to us.
For God,
80 years goes in the blink of an eye,
but for us,
it is a lifetime.
Habakkuk,
just like us,
wanted God to act
and to act immediately.
But God is God
and his timings are his own.
And so Habakkuk
had to wait with persistence
and now he waits with patience.
Are you patient?
Would the person sitting next to you
describe you as patient?
You've got 15 seconds.
Ask them.
No, no, no, don't, don't, don't.
I'm just joking.
Maybe you say,
oh, look, patience,
that's not my virtue.
I've got other virtues.
I'm not one of those patient people.
I don't deal well with that.
And you just laugh it off,
maybe like you're doing right now.
Patience is the opposite of pride.
From Ecclesiastes 7,
it says,
the patient in spirit
is better than the proud in spirit.
Patience comes from a place of humility,
where we put someone else before ourself.
I have a three-year-old daughter, Tamara,
and patience can look like
putting her conversation
above what I need to say to her.
And so she will go on and on
and talk about leaves and dolls,
probably as Evie would know from Kids Church.
And so patience with my daughter
looks like saying,
what you have to say is valuable
and so I'm going to listen to you.
Patience before God
is actively saying,
God, you are sovereign
and things happen in your time
and not in my time.
The book of James chapter 1 says,
the testing of your faith
develops patience.
Romans 5 says,
suffering produces patience or perseverance.
And patience and perseverance
develop character
and character hope.
When trouble,
dark times and suffering hit,
they are an opportunity
to learn
patience.
They're an opportunity
to learn
how to wait on God.
Imagine you're going out,
you're going on holidays.
Where would we like to go on holidays?
Does anybody want to pick a place?
Somewhere you can drive to preferably.
Sorry?
Where are we going?
I'm thinking Queensland
because we're going to New Zealand.
I'm not sure about driving to New Zealand
unless we've got some kind of
fancy new car.
Queensland?
Has anybody driven to Queensland before?
Yes?
Okay.
My family likes to go to Queensland.
Let's say you've got the car packed.
If there's kids in your family,
if you are those kids you are packed in,
you are looking forward to
theme parks,
sand and warm weather
and you're excited.
The whole family is excited
about leaving cold,
wet Sydney.
Is anybody with me
desiring this right now?
Yes?
Okay.
I've got you.
Good.
And you drive out
and you hit traffic.
Not just a little bit of traffic.
This is Chatswood
on a Friday afternoon
in the middle of a storm
with lanes blocked
on both sides
of the Pacific Highway
type traffic.
One of two things will happen.
Firstly,
maybe you feel yourself
starting to get
just a little bit cranky.
It's like getting hot
under the car,
just agitated.
You start to seethe.
This is taking too long.
What turns out,
what was just a minor inconvenience
all of a sudden
builds to four hours
in the car.
You haven't even left
the suburb yet.
You're snapping at the kids
or your partner in the car.
Everyone needs to go
to the toilet
but nobody can.
The people in the car
next to you
are there to blame
and you get angry
and even when you
finally get moving,
you're so angry
that the whole holiday
is ruined.
That's option one.
Maybe you can imagine that.
Option two,
a little bit different.
You get in traffic.
Instead of getting angry,
you acknowledge
that it's not
as it should be.
And instead of getting angry,
you wait patiently.
You go through
every single game
in the car you know.
And when you finally
get moving,
the family's okay.
Maybe just one or two
little cries out.
That's it.
But you've learnt patience
and you've grown.
What do we do
when suffering
and bad things
and troubles hit?
Do we thrash around?
Do we get angry?
Do we blame everyone else,
including God?
Or do we take
the God-given opportunity
to wait
and to learn patience?
When trouble hits,
when real difficulties,
when strife,
when suffering happens,
it can either
drive us
to God
to have a closer relationship,
to pray
and talk more to God,
or it can drive us
away from God.
Let it not be the latter
for us,
brothers and sisters.
We come to the final verse
of this short passage
for us today.
Verse 4.
See,
the enemy is puffed up.
His desires
are not upright,
but the righteous person
will live
by his faithfulness.
Here,
God is comparing
two different types
of people.
You've got the one
who is upright
before God
and the one
who is an enemy aggressor
that is puffed up.
I really like this term,
puffed up.
It's this picture
of someone
who is so full
of themselves.
They're just inflated.
They're like a balloon
filled up too far.
These arrogant,
puffed up people
are ready to burst
before God.
They're swollen
with pride
and self-importance.
On view here
is the Babylonian army.
They are self-righteous.
They are pursuing
every sinful act.
They're seeking
their own ends
and it just leads
to pride
and arrogance.
And it also leads
to death.
Verse 4 said,
the righteous
will live,
but the enemy
who is puffed up,
well,
the implication
is that it doesn't
lead to life.
It leads to death.
And so on view
is the Babylonian
army coming,
but it's also
anyone who is puffed up
or arrogant
before God.
God is holding
out his hand
to Judah
saying that
you can have life
even though
an enemy
is coming towards you.
God will vindicate
his people.
Life comes
to those
who have faith.
The righteous
don't think
of themselves
arrogantly,
but instead
look to God.
They've placed
their faith
in God.
This is a faith
that strips us
of our arrogance
and leads us
bare and needy
to God.
This is a,
it's a picture
of a contrast
between those
who think
they don't need
God
and those
who realize
they need
everything from God.
You see,
faith is humility.
It is the person
who admits
that they need
God's help
and what he has
to offer
and that they
can't do it
on their own.
And the view
of faith here
is waiting
in humility.
Waiting
on God
is faith.
This is what
faith is,
to take
someone else's
words,
to take someone
at their word.
Faith is to take
someone else
at their word.
Now,
is anyone engaged
here?
your daughter
got engaged
yesterday.
Tom's engaged.
I actually,
I think you're
sitting in the
same spot
Rad's was
this morning.
So,
Tom's engaged.
Okay,
let's use Tom
as an example.
Is that all right,
Tom?
Wonderful,
thank you.
It's just a very
short illustration.
So,
okay.
So,
Tom has made
a promise
to someone else.
He's made a promise
that he is going
to wait
for marriage.
When are you
getting married?
July.
Very soon.
Congratulations.
He's made a promise
that he's going
to get married
to Rad's
in July.
Now,
while he has
made that promise,
he is waiting
for that to come.
While he's waiting,
he doesn't go
and marry
someone else.
Don't,
don't go
and marry
someone else.
You,
he's made
these promises
and so Rad's
can have
faith
in his
promise
that he
won't go
and marry
someone else
and that
they'll get
married
in July.
Faith
in practice
looks like
waiting
and someone
waiting
means that
they have
faith.
God has
made promises
to Habakkuk
that he
will come
and Habakkuk
is to respond
by waiting.
Now,
the second part
of verse 4
may have
sounded familiar.
The righteous
will live
by faith.
The righteous
person will
live
by his
faithfulness.
Now,
this is
one of
the most
important
verses
in the
New Testament.
It's one
of Paul's
most important
phrases.
He quotes
this in
Galatians
and in
the book
of Romans.
Let me
read from
Romans 1.
It says,
For
in the
gospel
the
righteousness
of God
is revealed.
A
righteousness
that is
by faith
from first
to last,
just as
it is
written.
The
righteous
will live
by faith.
We
live
by faith.
God
has made
promises
to us
and faith
is waiting
on those
promises.
Just a
couple of
God's
promises.
God has
promised
that there
is only
life in
Jesus.
God has
promised
that he
will raise
us from
the dead
and God
has promised
that the
only way
to God
is through
Jesus.
He's the
only way
to God.
So having
faith means
waiting on
these promises.
We don't go
running somewhere
else to find
our satisfaction
in life.
We can only
get that in
God.
There's no
need to try
and extend
our life as
long as
possible or
even to fear
death.
Because we
will have
life in
the
resurrection
and we
eagerly want
to wait
for our
life with
the Lord.
That's what
waiting on
God's
promises
looks like.
Faith
in God
is
characterized
by waiting.
And we've
seen from
these four
verses that
waiting is
not passive,
it's active.
It's a
waiting that
is persistent,
it's patient,
and it is
done with
humility.
As I've
been writing
and preparing
this, I
haven't been
able to help
but think of
pregnancy.
Is anyone
pregnant here?
No, no, no,
tell me later,
it's fine.
What does a
pregnant woman
do as she
waits for
the baby?
You know,
after the
first 12 or
so, maybe
after the
first trimester
of vomiting
and all those
kinds of
fun things,
there's fun
things to do
like pick a
name.
Is it going
to be Harry
or Megan?
You have
to sort
out the
baby's
room,
what colour
is it
going to
be?
There's so
many decisions.
Do we find
out the
gender of
the baby?
What cot
do we get?
Do we get
a pram with
three wheels
or four
wheels?
Who are
going to
be the
godparents?
We have
to go to
prenatal
classes to
figure out
how to
hold this
baby.
And then
there's the
labour
itself.
And from
what I've
seen,
that can
be a long
active
waiting.
Sometimes
people cry,
get this
thing out
of me.
But sometimes
it can take
a long
time.
It's a
long wait.
So for
us,
our three
children have
made us
wait a
long time.
Isaac was
five days
late.
Tamara
was three
days late.
And Micah,
well, he was
having a great
time, so he
was seven
days late.
So Alyssa
and I would
do all kinds
of things,
like eat
chilli, go
for long
walks, bounce
on one of
those fit
balls to
try and
bring on
labour.
None of
them worked.
But waiting
for a baby
is an
active
exercise.
It takes
patience and
persistence.
And as a
father, plenty
of humility
because it's
not about the
father at
all.
The father's
job is to
support someone
else.
Can you
imagine if
someone found
out that they
were pregnant
and they
just decided,
I'm going to
wait for this
baby.
And then they
just, you
know, put
their feet
up and they
didn't do
anything for,
I don't
know, 35
weeks.
People would
ask, you
know, what
clothes is this
baby going to
wear when it
comes out?
Oh, I don't
know.
What are you
going to
name it?
We'll figure
it out later.
Waiting on
God does not
mean that we
just sit back
and do nothing
until he jumps
out and speaks
to us.
Waiting on
God is an
active exercise.
Waiting on
God looks like
persistence.
It looks like
patience and
it looks like
humility in
trusting God's
promises.
We keep
waiting even
when it's
hard because
we have a
God who is
faithful.
When times
are difficult
and when we
struggle, we
take the
opportunity to
learn patience
because patience
is humility
with God.
And when we
wait on God,
we grow in
our faith in
him.
Let me pray.
Heavenly Father,
we thank you
so much for
the opportunity
and challenge
it is to be
reminded to
wait on you.
Thank you for
Habakkuk's
encouragement.
Help us to be
persistent like
him, to watch
you like a
century in a
tower.
Help us to be
patient as we
wait, as we
put your timing
before our
own timing.
And Lord, we
ask that we
would remember
your promises
and we would
keep our eyes
fixed on those
as we wait
for the return
of your Son.
This we ask
in his name.
Amen.