Sermons Christ Community Church: Daytona Beach, FL

When the Scriptures talk about boasting the issue isn't two friends teasing each other about who caught the biggest fish or ran the fastest mile. Nor is it talking about the person who has worked hard and done a good job and really accomplished something, sharing the joy of that accomplishment with close friends. No, this issue of boasting is different than that. It all has to do with the heart and with God. The boasting the Bible is concerned about is a boasting that reveals a heart that isn't humble in relationship to God and isn't relying on the grace of God. When boasting is a self-centered parading of every trophy possession and every real or imaginary accomplishment in the attempt to somehow demonstrate that you are somebody worth knowing and respecting it reveals the irony of a heart that is, at the same time, proud and pathetic. It reveals a heart puffed up with self-righteousness and undercut with self-doubt at the same time.

The message of the Bible is not just aimed primarily at our feelings. Don't misunderstand, feelings are important. But the changes that so many people want to experience in their feelings can only come when there are deeper changes. What the Bible offers us is not just comfort for when we are discouraged, or joy when we are sad but something much more substantial. What the Bible offers us is the cross and it’s a cross with hard edges. What that means is that the cross is not first of all about our feelings but about something that actually happened. The cross is about something God did for his glory and for our redemption. The cross is about the way in which God actually reveals His love for us and changes our relationship to Him.

Some people might say that to speak of the cross as therapy for the heart is to trivialize it. It is true that in Christian faith the cross isn't just therapy for wounded hearts, it is the source of our total and eternal redemption. However, because the cross is the source of our redemption and reconciliation, it is also a demonstration of the heart of God toward us and a revelation of who we are to God, and out of all of that comes a great source of healing power for our lives today if we understand and believe it.

This is the story of Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan, grandson of Saul. It's a story of compassion, mercy and justice and how much God shows these to us. Because, the way that we see ourselves, the way we think God sees us and the way we see God will determine how we live our lives in light of this truth.

Why do we all so often struggle with weakness and unhappiness instead of joy and strength? Do we really know what it means to live our lives empowered by a faith that gives us joy no matter what? Like so many places in the Bible, the book of Habakkuk is telling us that faith in God can empower life with joy in spite of the circumstances of life, no matter what.

When we envision the greatness of God we are humbled and our faith is strengthened. And many of our most anxious questions are hushed in the assurance that God will fulfill his promises and unveil his glory in his time.

In the verses that we're looking at here in Habakkuk 2 God gives us not only a principle of faith, but also a promise. This Scripture teaches that when you see injustice and struggle with your questions you can choose to live by faith knowing that, in his time, God will judge the world with poetic justice and cover the earth in the knowledge of his glory.

In the book of Habakkuk faith comes to the forefront with the words, “The righteous will live by his faith.” Many scholars of the Bible believe those words capture the theme of the whole Bible. When God says to Habakkuk "the righteous one will live by his faith", he is teaching us that faith means trusting in who God is and in what God says. In the Bible, faith involves trusting God to be faithful, to act in harmony with his perfect character and fulfill what he has promised in the Holy Scriptures.

It is interesting that many arguments people bring up to question Christian faith are often brought up as if they are something new. Sometimes people who bring up the issue of suffering or injustice and evil in the world as an argument against God bring it up as if this were something that believers haven't really thought much about. Habakkuk's situation was unique to his time and place in history, but the feeling of being confused about what God is doing and why, that's something very familiar to us all. We all know what it's like to have hard questions in our hearts. So, how does honest faith handle these hard questions?

There are some stories that have power to get to our hearts and give us strength for life. The story of Habbakuk is like that. It's the story of a man who was overwhelmed with tough questions and strong emotions but ends up with a deep faith and a heart that's strong, joyful and ready for anything.