TITLE: No Assembly Required

TEXT: Habakkuk 1:1-4

PROPOSITION: Many tend to create a God to meet their desires.

QUESTION: How?

KEY WORD: Questions

SCRIPTURE READING: Same

INTRODUCTION:

1. Do you try to assemble God? (Many put God together as they desire.)

2. Many people seek to build and worship a God they have constructed.

3. Complete this sentence - - God wants me to have _________.

Your answers –

1. Money – He knows I would be a good steward.

2. Security – He does not want me to worry, fear.

3. Family – He created us to be a family.

4. Contentment – He does not want me to be unhappy.

5. Occupation – Wants me to work at something I enjoy, not dread.

6. Good life – He knows that life is short and should be enjoyed.

7. Fun / Happiness – He did not make life for sadness and regret.

How did you discover that this is what God wants you to have?

Noah – boat load of animals; Abraham – wandering in strange land; Moses – leading a Disgruntled people; David – fleeing for his life; Elijah – living in hiding; Jeremiah – preaching to people who would not listen; Stephen, Paul and John.

Learn from the prophet Habakkuk

1. Habakkuk’s question – 1:2-4 ² O LORD, how long shall I cry, And You will not hear? Even cry out to You, “Violence!” And You will not save. ³ Why do You show me iniquity, And cause me to see trouble? For plundering and violence are before me; There is strife, and contention arises. ⁴ Therefore the law is powerless, And justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore perverse judgment proceeds.

   1. There is wickedness everywhere, no justice,

   2. God open your eyes

2. God’s answer – 1:5-11 ⁵ “Look among the nations and watch—Be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days Which you would not believe, though it were told you. ⁶ For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans, A bitter and hasty nation Which marches through the breadth of the earth, To possess dwelling places that are not theirs. ⁷ They are terrible and dreadful; Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves. ⁸ Their horses also are swifter than leopards, And more fierce than evening wolves. Their chargers charge ahead; Their cavalry comes from afar; They fly as the eagle that hastens to eat. ⁹ “They all come for violence; Their faces are set like the east wind. They gather captives like sand. ¹⁰ They scoff at kings, And princes are scorned by them. They deride every stronghold, For they heap up earthen mounds and seize it. ¹¹ Then his mind changes, and he transgresses; He commits offense, Ascribing this power to his god.”

   1. I will do something – you will not believe me when I tell you.

   2. Babylon will take Judah captive – destroy Judah
       

3. Habakkuk is dumbfounded – 1:12-17 ¹² Are You not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, You have appointed them for judgment; O Rock, You have marked them for correction. ¹³ You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, And cannot look on wickedness. Why do You look on those who deal treacherously, And hold Your tongue when the wicked devours A person more righteous than he? ¹⁴ Why do You make men like fish of the sea, Like creeping things that have no ruler over them? ¹⁵ They take up all of them with a hook, They catch them in their net, And gather them in their dragnet. Therefore they rejoice and are glad. ¹⁶ Therefore they sacrifice to their net, And burn incense to their dragnet; Because by them their share is sumptuous And their food plentiful.

   1. You are Holy, Righteous, - This can’t happen.

   2. Will you allow the wicked to swallow the righteous?

   3. How can God allow this to happen?
       

4. God’s answer – 2:2-20
   Babylon is wicked – Steal, harm poor, greedy
   Because of this – Babylon will be destroyed
   Their idols will not deliver them.

5. Habakkuk’s submission – 3:16-19 ¹⁶ When I heard, my body trembled; My lips quivered at the voice; Rottenness entered my bones; And I trembled in myself, That I might rest in the day of trouble. When he comes up to the people, He will invade them with his troops. ¹⁷ Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls— ¹⁸ Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. ¹⁹ The LORD God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, And He will make me walk on my high hills.

   1. Praise God for greatness and mercy

   2. While I am tremble and dread the coming destruction –

   3. You are my strength, salvation, joy.

Return to the question – God wants me to have ______.

1. Eternal life is the answer.

2. Number one concern – will you obey, live faithfully?

3. God wants me to have an eternal home with Him.