David's Sermons

Date: 21/6/97
Speaker: David Meiklejohn
Text: Habakkuk 1v1-13

Responses

Habakkuk 1v1-13

  1. The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.
  2. O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!
  3. Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention.
  4. Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.
  5. Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days which ye will not believe, though it be told you.
  6. For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not their's.
  7. They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.
  8. Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat.
  9. They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.
  10. And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it.
  11. Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god.
  12. Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.
  13. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?

This sermon is about responses, our responses to various situations in life. Responses are very important and determine our fruitfulness, our effectiveness as Christians and others' perceptions of our God. In particular I want to look at responses to:

  • Suffering
  • Failure
  • God's Call

We'll start off with a little quiz. Count up the number of A, B and Cs you get:

  1. You're travelling to the airport to meet someone and catch a flight. Five minutes before you reach the airport your car breaks down and the RAC don't arrive until it's too late to catch the flight. Do you:
    • A. Jump up and down shouting "God, why are you doing this to me. It's not fair."
    • B. Go into a depression and think everyone hates you.
    • C. Say "Great, a chance to witness to the RAC."
  2. You're reading the paper and find a full page article on a really juicy bit of gossip. Do you:
    • A. Say "Hey, this looks interesting" and delve in.
    • B. Read the article, commenting to yourself how terrible it is that people write this stuff.
    • C. Avoid the article and write to the editor to complain about the low standard of journalism.
  3. Your boss asks you to go to England for a couple of days. This means you will miss out on an evening. What do you choose to miss:
    • A. The night you had planned to prepare your sermon.
    • B. The night of your church's prayer meeting.
    • C. The night you were going go-karting with friends.
  4. You've just failed your driving test. Do you:
    • A. Threaten God that if you don't pass next time you'll become a Buddhist.
    • B. Go into a depression and don't talk to anyone for a week.
    • C. Study and practise 24 hours a day until the next test.
  5. You're on business visiting your customer and they tell you they hate your product. Do you:
    • A. Call them an ungrateful, good for nothing so and so.
    • B. Say nothing, then tell your colleague the customer's an ungrateful, good for nothing so and so.
    • C. Tell them you'll have it fixed by next Friday.
  6. You're a prophet and your people are sinning terribly. You go to God and he says he'll get the Chaldeans to punish them. Do you:
    • A. Go and warn the people the Chaldeans are coming.
    • B. Sit happily thinking how they deserve punished.
    • C. Complain to God that the Chaldeans are even worse than your people.

    Results:

    • Mostly As - you are emotionally unstable and need to calm down a bit.
    • Mostly Bs - you are permanently depressed and need to cheer up a bit.
    • Mostly Cs - you are zealous beyond belief, or you are cheating.

    OK, let's look at responses. Responses determine what people think of you, they often show how spiritual you really are. They can determine whether we are fruit bearing Christians or not. It's not what we believe or teach that determines our effectiveness, it's what we are and what we do.

    Suffering

    • A time of suffering can be a dangerous time for our walk with God.
    • Illness can cause apathy to set in.
    • Persecution can cause us to regress.
    • Sometimes recovering from the backsliding caused by suffering can take longer than the suffering does. When we're ill or hurting we don't feel in the right frame of mind to deal with God, yet that's when we need him most.
    • God uses suffering to try us. Someone said to me they wished God wouldn't try them so much.
    Examples:

    Paul

    • In prison (Philippians 1v12) yet used the chance to witness, pray and encourage. Paul's response to his circumstance was amazing. He didn't seem to be downhearted at all. remember - God puts you in places for a reason. He can also encourage and cheer you up when you're down. I like seeing nice skies and when I'm depressed, God invariably gives me a nice sky to look at. The other day a deer ran across the road in front of me. That cheered me up.
    • II Timothy 4v13: Paul was more concerned for God's word than for his own comfort.

    Joseph

    • Brothers did so much bad to him, yet he forgave them.

    Job

      Job had it really hard, yet he refused to curse God.

    It's OK to question God, to wonder why you're in a situation. But we must also ask God to use us in whatever situation we're in. Suffering is when we need God most. In your suffering, cry to God - he will hear you.

    Failure

    Example - try to play the piano and fail miserably. What responses can we have to failure:
    • Pretend it didn't happen
    • Analyse everything that went wrong.
    • Confess to God and go on.
    • (Shadrach, etc didn't say God would save them from the fire, only that he could. Sometimes we have misplaced faith in God and that can lead to failure)
    • Again, a very dangerous time.
    • Failure can make us think we're no use to God.
    • Depression isn't just a non-Christian disease. If anything, Christians are more prone to depression because we feel our failure lets God down as well as ourselves.
    • It doesn't have to be like that
    Examples:

    David

    • David had a whole list of failures, each one leading to the other. Yet he had the right attitude when he was accused. Read Psalm 51. David admits his sin, repents of it and goes on.
    Living with failure is like coming into the house with dirty, oily hands after working on the car. we can do one of three things:
    • Ignore the problem and make a mess of everything around us.
    • Worry about the failure and do nothing because we're afraid of affecting everything else.
    • Admit the failure, go and wash our hands and get on.

    Moses

    Moses made one mistake. He struck the stone when he should have talked to it. Yet for one mistake he was banned from the promised land. He pleaded with God but was not allowed in. However, Moses didn't mope. He got on with his job of leading the Isrealites with as much vigour as before.

    Remember - God doesn't punish you to turn you away from him, but to turn you towards him.

    Peter

    Peter was always failing:
    • Tried to stop Jesus going to the cross
    • He cut off a man's ear in anger
    • He denied he knew Christ
    Why did Jesus choose the one who was always failing to be one of the chief pillars of his church? Perhaps because Peter was willing to try, no matter the consequences. He was willing to fail. The disciples could say Peter was the one who took his eyes of Jesus and started sinking. Peter could say he was the one who walked on water towards his saviour.

    Be sure that if you're doing your utmost for God you will fail. We need to learn how to handle it.

    We must do three things with failure: confess, repent and put the failure behind us.

    God's Calling

    There's a fork in the road. Which way do you follow: the easy way or the right way. Sometimes the way you want is the right way. Psalm 20 says "may he give you the desires of your heart". But there will always be difficult routes to follow.

    What is your response to God's calling:

    • I don't care what God wants. It's my decision.
    • I want to follow God, but not this.
    • When do I start
    There are three steps to following God's will: be prepared for any answer; ask God what he wants you to do; and when he shows you, go and do it. Examples:

    Moses

    Moses made all sorts of excuses to try and avoid God's will. We can tell when people are avoiding things and just making excuses. We need to put our own fears and desires behind us and accept whatever God wants.

    Jonah

    Jonah simply ran away from God. God didn't force him but gave him a second chance. Sometimes God gives us a second chance, sometimes not.

    But it's not enough just to know what God wants for you. You have to go out and do it.

    Conclusion

    We've been looking at responses. There's one thing to remember in all these things: God is able. That's the theme for camp this year. God is able:
    • to uphold and strengthen the suffering and persecuted.
    • to pick up and dust off the failures.
    • to give the power to do what he asks of us.

    © David Meiklejohn 1997
    David@Meiklejohn.org.uk
    www.meiklejohn.org.uk

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