Trinity Evangel Church

There are only two kinds of people in the world: those who break down everything into twos and those who don't. We can get ourselves confused by trying to make some things too simple, but we can also confuse ourselves making the simple complex.

In the world that God made, we can either love Him or not, either be in fellowship with Him or out. We can be righteous or in some level of rebellion. We can trust Him, or trust something or someone less wise and strong as Him. Some are of the seed of the serpent, some are of the seed of the woman, and the difference is where they put their faith.

God tells us what to want and how to get it. He tells us the dangers of wanting other things as well as the consequences of wanting the right things but pursuing them the wrong way. What is before us is one or the other: life or vanity.

We are about to hear the Lord's response to Habakkuk's second complaint. Habakkuk lamented the violence in Judah (and for interesting/ironic connection, in Hebrew the word for violence is pronounced *(c)hamas*), and the Lord replied that He was raising up the Babylonians to take the covenant people captive. Habakkuk questioned this, because how could it be right to punish the wicked by the hands of even more wicked? We're about to see; the Lord's answer takes up the rest of Habakkuk 2.

There are two parts to the reply, and the second part comes in five WOES in verses 6-20. But in verses 2-5 we get what is arguably the key to Habakkuk’s book and burden. It is no exaggeration to say that it is the key to life.

# Time Announced (verses 2-3)

Here is not merely a reply, but dependable revelation for Habakkuk and all who would hear him.

> And the LORD answered me:

> “Write the vision;

> make it plain on tablets,

> so he may run who reads it.

> For still the vision awaits its

> appointed time;

> it hastens to the end—it will

> not lie.

> If it seems slow, wait for it;

> it will surely come; it will

> not delay.

> (Habakkuk 2:2–3 ESV)

The *content* of the **vision** will come in verse 4, with clarification in verse 5. The *capture* of the vision should be written **on tablets**, which is unique (an article and plural), and even echoes the writing of the 10 Commandments on two tablets. There is a permanence to this vision: etched in stone. There will be relevance beyond Habakkuk’s day.

This will also make it **so he may run who reads it**, which either means simple like a sign/billboard that's legible for someone running by it or simple for sake of a herald rushing around to give the announcement.

The *context* of the vision is that it will take place soon but not immediately. As the Babylonians were appointed, so the vision is **appointed**, and certain, **it will surely come**. From Habakkuk's standpoint it might seem slow, but getting all the pieces in place in the Middle East is always a work of God.

We don’t even know what the announcement is yet, but here is a call for faith in tension. Knowing that it *will* be, but not knowing when.

# Trust Alternatives (verse 4)

The vision narrows the options to the binary.

> “Behold, his soul is puffed up;

> it is not upright within him,

> but the righteous shall live

> by his faith.

> (Habakkuk 2:4 ESV)

"Look at this," says the Lord, **Behold**. The **his** is a collective reference to the Babylonians, and the Lord gets right to the heart: **his soul** and **within him**.

Two problems: **puffed up** and **not upright**. The second half of the verse shows the contrast, and it is critical. The puffed up man is bloated, swollen with the hot air of autonomy. Hw worships his own strength (see Habakkuk 1:11). They've made a massive miscalculation at the very core of decision making—trusting themselves, and so all the other decisions/judgments of right will be skewed.

**But the righteous shall live by his faith**. We know that Paul quoted this in his letter to the Romans (1:17) and Galatians (3:11) contrasting justification by works with justification by faith. And we see how this word to Habakkuk belongs in that discussion. But Habakkuk's concern and context was different, and this revelation has to do with how you'd get into Hebrews 11 (as evidenced by the quote of Habakkuk 2:4 at the end of Hebrews 10:38) not how you'd get into heaven.

The **righteous** are the “just” (KJV). The Lord does not tell Habakkuk that those with faith will be counted righteous (which is true), but that those who are righteous will live (in ongoing righteous conduct) by faith, in systemic trust. Trusting God is how they live their lives, trust in the Lord touches everything. It turns out that the righteous here start by faith as well, humble before the Lord rather than puffed up in self. But they live from faith to faith, by their “faithfulness.”

By faith, Habakkuk and those who listened to him accepted God’s judgment and were taken into captivity. By faith they sought the good of the foreign city (per Jeremiah 29:7). By faith they returned to the land (Ezra and Nehemiah). By faith they fought and built, Jerusalem’s walls and temple.

What living by faith did not allow was pietistic passivity. The faith of the righteous was enfleshed.

# Traitorous Arrogance (verse 5)

Before the five woes of the Lord’s judgment there is a bit about the drunken deceit brought by the Babylonians on themselves.

> “Moreover, wine is a traitor,

> an arrogant man who is never

> at rest.

> His greed is as wide as Sheol;

> like death he has never enough.

> He gathers for himself all nations

> and collects as his own

> all peoples.”

> (Habakkuk 2:5 ESV)

It’s an interesting personification of **wine**. Later copies changed it the word to "wealth," and that would work, but wine does even deeper work by analogy. Their self-trust, like wine, went to their head (Baker).

God says that wine gladdens a man's heart, but if not received as a gift, it can turn a man into its slave, and so an addict, always needing more. The Babylonians would be drunk on their power and luxuries, and like **Sheol** or the grave, never satisfied. This vision from the Lord shows that they will get what they want, and be consumed by their consuming.

As a comment about Babylon’s coming judgement, we know that Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar’s son, was in the middle of a feast where he called for the gold and silver cups from Jerusalem’s temple to be brought for drinking (Daniel 5:1-4). That was his last night in power, his last night *alive* (Daniel 5:30-31), and the last night of Babylon’s reign.

# Conclusion

We hate tension, so we seek fun/distraction rather than live by faith. We hate tension, so we use force/power to get to the expectation our way, and faster, no waiting required.

Faith is *trust in tension*. Faith is the assurance of better but later. Faith fights doubting and double-mindedness (see these opposites of faith in James 1:6-8). Faith is life*style*. Enfleshed faith, put flesh to faith, not flesh rather than faith.

Sell, spank, read, write, vote, run, lift, mow, build, brew, study, teach, play, sleep, laugh, love, and do it all because of humble dependence on the Lord. Faith knows that unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Faith also knows that when the Lord builds the house He’ll call us to get off the couch.

You must not be puffed up, and you have no excuse to be passive. You must not be puffed up, and so you had better pray before and during and after whatever work you offer to the Lord. You must not be puffed up, nor puff up any other man, any politician or political scheme, as if we could even make a seed grow let alone make a soul repent, or a nation.

The contrast is not between quiet-internal-right-thoughts (faith) and doing things (works); Hebrews 11 is filled with active/living faith-ers. But, what/who are we trusting in while in tension? Faith is the key to Habakkuk’s burden, and the only way for the righteous to live.

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## Charge

Trust in the LORD with all your heart,

and do not lean on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge Him,

and He will make straight your paths.

Be not wise in your own eyes;

fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.

May your hands be ever faithful and never manipulative.

## Benediction:

> [M]ay our God make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 1:11–12 ESV)

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

Well, we continue our series on the household by looking together at hospitality. And in the interest of having some common language, we begin with the definition. Hospitality, according to Oxford, is the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, and strangers. That's fine. It's even helpful. The friendly and generous part by inference, if the friendly and generous parts are omitted from that, then it is not by its definition hospitable. But I prefer to think of hospitality more broadly and deeply than this. I would argue the hospitality involves showing honor to image bearers. I prefer this definition because what passes at hospitality in many circles today would not meet the definition that I just offered.

The hospitality industry, of course, is just fine, but it's more concerned with profits than it is people. And even in his book, Unreasonable Hospitality, what's his name? Will Gadara says that hospitable people and people who feed on hospitality are alike, selfish. So the idea of blessing others being something that is deeply satisfying fuels that even among the secularists, even the ancients practiced hospitality. The Greeks believed that the traveler was sacred to Zeus. And so if you encountered a traveler on the road, there was a very good possibility you were being tested by Zeus, and you may be entertaining a god.

Of course, we see that happen before the Greek pantheon had its heyday when Abraham was doing the same thing, entertaining gods unawares. So sure, the ancients could do hospitality. They could do a good thing and they could even do it well, but they may do it for the wrong reasons just like many moderns do. So a helpful question to ask when it comes to the matter of hospitality is, but why? Why? Are we practicing hospitality like Jay Gatsby in order to make a name for ourselves while maybe even being aloof? Or are we practicing hospitality like our savior who washed the feet of his disciples. And likewise, ended up making a name for himself along the way.

So it is important for us to consider why. And even in scripture, we find different types of hospitality, so that broader definition that I suggested, which again was showing honor to image bearers, that's hospitality. That carries within a breadth of applications. And I see multiple different types of hospitality in the Bible. others that type of welcoming others into your home. That is, I think the connotation of Titus chapter 1 verse 8 and 1 Timothy 3, 2 where Paul is giving qualifications for elders, I'll get into that here in a little bit. It's also there in chapter 5 of 1 Timothy verse 10. Just briefly, I'll read that.

Let a widow be enrolled, says Paul, If she's not less than 60 years of age, having been the wife of one husband and having a good reputation, a reputation for good works, if she's brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted and has devoted herself to every good work. So the assumption there is that somebody, a widow who's worthy of support by the church will be one who has been hospitable to others. Another type of hospitality we see in scripture is providing for the needs and comforts of others. And, of course, an excellent example here is the Good Samaritan of Luke chapter 10, and that's a pretty familiar story, but it's important to remember too, the man who was beaten and left for dead on the road was not in a position to repay or to ask for or to thank the Samaritan, but the Samaritan, surely altruistically, out of his own resources than time and the rest sought to meet the needs of that victim.

And he was one who was regarded as a neighbor, if you recall the context. Another is doing good, and this one is similar, doing good for those who cannot repay you. And so the one whom the Samaritan helped was not able to repay him. We see this in Luke chapter 14 verses 12 through 14 where Jesus says the following.

It says here Jesus said to the man who had invited him when you give a dinner or a banquet Do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbors Lest they invite you in return and you be repaid But when you give a feast invite the poor the crippled the lame the blind and you will be blessed Because they cannot repay you for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just so That is a that's interesting. So that removes from the equation the possibility of exercising hospitality in order to to incur a debt Or to to impose a debt on somebody else and to have them in your debt and feeling a sense of obligation to repay you They have no means to do so. Those are the ones that is the idea that Jesus is talking about and then there's a type of hospitality that involves making an environment alluring.

I look over here at Ginger Herr, and she's actually training a whole generation of young ladies to do this right now, to make an environment especially alluring, particularly for its occupants. Since this part of a series on the household, I would like to spend the remainder of our time focusing on this particular aspect of hospitality and how we can then add the right kind of gravity to our households. What must we do to make our homes the kind of place where our people want to be?

Especially those people who share our last names. Well, I would argue that the best thing that you can do to make your home a spiritual vortex with the gravity drawing it in is to be ruthless with your own sin. The best thing you can do to make your home a spiritual vortex is to be ruthless with your sin. In his book, Brothers We Are Not Professionals, John Piper asks his brother pastors some helpful rhetorical questions. He says, are our packed calendars and our handheld computers really fulfilling our hunger for life in Christ, let alone the hunger of our people in the world? Are not our people really yearning to be around a man who's been around God?

Are not our people really yearning to be around a man who's been around God? To be sure, the pastor's personal holiness is of greater value than his ministry calendar, to be sure. One renders him busy, the other renders him effective. And likewise, people are yearning to be around a man who is violent with his own personal sin, and I would argue that this is a critical ingredient to Christian hospitality. Households with people in them who are striving to keep short accounts with one another also have people who actually want to be there. Striving for fellowship is itself a vehicle for the honor of others, and when others see it they want in.

How can we regard a household to have been well-managed when nobody wants to be there? or when the members of that household don't want to invite others to partake of their fellowship. Hospitality then is the outflow of fellowship. And God has existed in perfect fellowship in three persons from eternity past. And we have been invited into that fellowship and Christ affected that fellowship at Calvary. And it is something that we too cannot repay. That is hospitable. It comes as little surprise then that Paul lists hospitality among his qualifications for elders. In 1 Timothy chapter 3 verses 1 through 7 he says this, and I'll read the whole paragraph because well, hospitality is buried deep in there.

The saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober minded, self controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well with all dignity keeping his children submissive. For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace into the snare of the devil." So, like I said, I read the whole paragraph because I wanted you to see how hospitable is buried deep in there. It's often overlooked. It's way back there in verse 2. It doesn't even merit a footnote in the ESV study Bible. I mean, that is like next level irrelevance.

It doesn't get one in Titus chapter 1 verse 8 in the ESV study Bible either. I mean tragic. By the way, there are other study resources out there beyond the ESV study Bible. It was a cursory look. I wonder if it's because the notion is so self-evident or because it's so simple, but how many of us ignore simple concepts? in fact, the simple concepts are the ones that are easiest to push aside. How many pastors, let alone their sheep, just want to be left alone? Too many, I'm afraid. And they employ all kinds of excuses. I'm an introvert at heart. My house is too small. Hospitality is expensive. I don't have time.

Blah, blah, blah. Hogwash. Here's an excuse for you. The fellowship I now enjoy is perfect, and the inclusion of others will only introduce sin. The only one to ever be able to give that very legitimate excuse is God. And what did he do? Out of love, he drew sinners into his circle. That ultimate act of hospitality is God inviting us into his household by adoption while we were yet sinners. So in a very real sense, when we behave hospitably, we are God-like. So hospitality is a communicable attribute of the Lord. When we forgive others, we're acting like God does. When we adopt, we are acting like God does. When we are hospitable, we're acting like God does.

How many of you in this room, this is a fun question, how many of you in this room have been to not one not two but all of the elders plus Phillips house go ahead okay so for the recording that's about 60% I would guess how many have been to say three or more three or more not not all of them but three or more I know the numbers higher than that but yeah okay so but that's great and that's not exceptional because it's supposed to be normal. I do think it, at least it's not exceptional by the standard of what ought to be, by the standard of what the world employs currently today, it's uncommon. It's uncommon. So it would seem as though hospitality, given that it's on the list of things for an elder to be identified by, and given that it is God-like, is in fact important.

And yeah, pastors should be exemplary in the area then of honoring other people. Consider with me the alternative. Have you ever stepped into a room where the tension is so thick you could cut it with a knife? Have you ever, no show of hands necessary this time.

Okay, actually, you can show hands, but I'm not going to ask you to on this next one. For how many have you had that happen in your own house? Or for how many have you sensed the tension when you walked in? Or did you bring it with you? Yeah. Well, yeah, I have. It's been my house way too many times. And as soon as I step in, I want to step back out again. And too many times, the problem follows me right out the door because I brought it in the first place. That's not hospitality. There's an anti-example for you.

Now some people hate the presence of holiness and so that's why they walk into your home and they want back out again. Unfortunately that's the case in far too many of our homes. Maybe, maybe, maybe your fellowship is repugnant to the world. Maybe our call then is to have a hospitality, a spirit of hospitality to them as well and the idea is for their comfort along with your personal holiness to goad them to repentance, to provoke them. That's the way it is supposed to work in the economy of God. Dealing with personal sin is a key to maintaining healthy relationships. That's true on the cosmic level, that's true on the micro level.

And so our problem with God is sin. Sin alienates us from Him, it estranges us from Him, Even as his children, when we sin, our relationship with him is strained, and so it is not right again until we seek forgiveness, we repent, and then we're restored to fellowship with our Heavenly Father, and of course, we see that on the relational level here on earth as well. A home where the occupants are not tolerating sin in their own hearts and attitudes will have a fragrant spiritual aroma. A home that is marked by grace and patience with others who are struggling with sin will still be affected by the presence of that sin, but it'll have a gracious straw.

So again, if the home is marked by grace and patience with somebody who's struggling with sin, of course there is still going to be the consequence of whatever sin is there on the home. However, the gracious presence is still going to be alluring. So it is not to say that it has to be perfect, that your household has to be sinless before it can be hospitable.

But that violence with personal sin that presence of grace are going to be far more alluring than a clean bathroom or chocolates on the pillows in the guest bedroom. Homes that are characterized by frequent repentance are characterized by fellowship. You cannot have right fellowship and harbor sin at the same time. You cannot have right fellowship and harbor sin at the same time. You can have a sinful fellowship between two, say, fornicating pagans, but that's not what we're talking about. That is not a formula for flourishing and that's not what we're built for and it cannot affect lasting let alone ultimate happiness. The aroma then that accompanies frequent repentance is sweet and fruits of frequent repentance include personal holiness, rich fellowship and an invisible gravity. It's said that when a star collapses it creates a black hole and The gravitational pull is so strong that even light is drawn into it.

Your home can have that sort of spiritual gravity where all who love righteousness and many who do not will still want to be there. And the best thing you can do to introduce that kind of gravity is to be ruthless with your sin. So I'm arguing that this is the substance of real hospitality. So I'm trying here to make the case that the most hospitable thing you can do is to repent. And if you want to make your household alluring, then make sure it's characterized by fellowship. And if you want to pursue fellowship, keep short accounts between you and God and between yourself and others. Parents ought to be mindful of how they can make their homes alluring.

And there are a number of reasons for this, but I'll include two for now, namely your neighbors and your grandkids. your neighbors. Few things befuddle secularists more than Christians in fellowship. And your neighbors are watching and they're listening and they're scratching their heads. Ours is a culture where adversarial familial relationships are normal. Children hate their parents, parents hate their kids, parents hate each other, kids hate each other. Everybody wants out. And when the world sees a household, a household of people who actually like each other because they're in fellowship and they love each other and they're fighting their own personal sin.

And if the vibe of the house is welcoming, like a house on a hill with the lights on, eager to draw others in, it's provocative and attractive. I think I qualify that because we're friends here. We've all seen the weird Christians. Some of us have been the weird Christians where it's like they're happy and I want nothing to be, they're like, they're like a cult in their own house. So that doesn't have that kind of gravity. That it also is necessarily a force field, it's just neutral. It's kind of like okay, they'll do their thing, I'm going to do mine, I just prefer to be left alone. But when it is characterized by all those things I just said.

So they're actually liking each other, they're pursuing fellowship, they're fighting their own personal sin and they're eager to draw others in? That is sweet. That's alluring, it's attractive. So that's your neighbor. Second, I would say your grandkids. Do you want for your own kids to get out of the house as soon as possible? If so, then just abandon everything I suggested. Allow personal sin, irritability, and discord to prevail. Have a critical spirit dominating the home. your own personal comfort and pride over your fellowship and don't ever admit you're wrong.

Ever. And in short, create an environment from which your kids will want to escape as quickly as possible. And then when they're off on their own establishing and growing their own families, they may make the obligatory visit back to Grandma and Grandpa's place on holidays. And then they will duck out as quickly as is politely possible in order to recover from their visit to you. I doubt this sounds good to you. I certainly hope it doesn't. It doesn't sound good to me either. I do want my home to be alluring for its occupants so that not so that they'll never leave, but so that they'll have the right things to take with them when they do.

And then so they'll come back often and bring my eager grandchildren with them. So your grandkids. The good life people is not being left alone. alone, no matter if you are an introvert. The good life is lived for and with others, and a spirit of hospitality is essential to this. Yeah, for my part, one nice thing about this is that for all of my shortcomings as a husband, father, and neighbor, this is not something that I can do nothing about. So it's not as though wherever I am, it just happened to me. It is something that I created and I can fix with the help of the spirit, of course. But by repentance and by being quick to confess, say, and keep short accounts, and actually make the home alluring.

We can all do something about that. I can repent and cultivate personal holiness in myself and show my family the sweetness of fellowship. And that is actually a way that as the father in the house, I can take responsibility for my family's situation. and being able to do so is of course a grace from the Lord. And I would encourage you to do likewise, and then finally I would leave you with this. Given that hospitality is a mindset, that eliminates all excuses.

You can be hospitable without spending a dime, without baking fresh bread, or without a big fat dining room or table to match. If you wish to honor others from your heart, the results will be quick and effective and the actions will follow shortly. So if your heart is right, the actions will follow. Let's pray. Father, thank you that you have been hospitable with us, that you have, while we were yet sinners, sent Christ to die for us, and you have folded us into the fellowship that you have enjoyed amongst yourself, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for all of eternity.

And we pray that we would go and do likewise, and we would be glad to live in, live our lives honoring others and may that be fruitful and sweet and have the right kind of gravity in our in our own households but then also as this church body comprises multiple families we pray then that that would have a right kind of gravity for this church community overall and even Marysville little by little as we all begin with our own hearts and beginning them right before for you and being in fellowship with one another. We pray this in Christ's name, amen. Now, in a slight breach of protocol, if there is such a thing as protocol when it comes to this, we're going to take a short break so that you can get some refreshments.

Now, the refreshments are light. Don't get your hopes up. I don't know what Sonya got, but it's not much. But if you want, you can go grab, there is some coffee, there's some water, that I really have no idea what else is out there on that door, so I might be getting myself in trouble. But if you want, you can grab something, and then come back here, and we'll ask some Q&A. And I hope somebody asked the question about abusing hospitality and violating the spirit of hospitality as a guest, because there's a lot you just can't include. But there's a softball I'm lobbying you. All right, so let's take just a few minutes.

Finger of vittles on in here. We have our first question from the gallery. So is there ever a time that, so okay, so hospitality, showing honor to your guests. Is there ever a time where you have your guests and you are, in order to be hospitable, not doing what they want? Like, is there ever a time where it is actually more hospitable to not do what they want. Can you give an example where that might, what an example of the kind of thing you're talking about? So actually when we went to Canlis and they were asking us about hospitality and they're serving strangers all the time and they're not, they are not Christians but they have a lot of Christian values.

They ask the question of if a guest is acting dishonorably, but they want to stay, but they are not adding to the atmosphere. Basically, if a guest wants one thing, but it's not actually a blessing, then they're like, well, do we accommodate them, or do we accommodate the waiters? So they were asking us that. Yeah, that's a good question, and I think that there's a difference between accommodating and honoring. So it is possible to still be honoring the individual while telling him no. Let's say your guest wants one more drink when he should have stopped two ago. do honor him and by doing so, provoke him to sin and also introduce a serious level of dishonor for all the other guests present.

And I'll take this as an opportunity to talk about the abuse of hospitality piece. It does actually cut both ways. And honestly, it has pretty far reaching application for guests as well. So it is a spirit of hospitality for a guest would require that he show honor to his host as well. So if you go to a restaurant and you act like a buffoon, it is not honoring the other guests for them to allow you to remain. All in the name of honoring that request. So I would say in that case it would be totally appropriate and hospitable to ask that person to leave.

of that that has that's a that's a good example with I think pretty far-reaching application but the the same so hospitality as a guest is all of the same things we talked about in the same in principle the application is just in reverse but the but right it's just on the receiving end but showing honor to others receiving graciously and so on so if you have a guest who is not honoring the spirit of hospitality than the whole thing works about as well as a household where you have just one person who's regularly repenting of sin. Is that better than none? A lot. A lot, a lot, a lot. But it also is not anywhere near what it could be. Others. Yes sir. Okay so there's this guy who's kind of a woke theologian. His name is Soong Chan-Ra. He's a theologian at Fuller Theological Seminary, which I think has gone liberal now.

But his argument is Christians, in the 60s, since the 50s and 60s, left the major cities in what was called white flight. And they left, because of the black migration into the inner cities. And his argument is something like Christians should have stayed there and should have cultivated relationships and hospitality with people who were coming in and not left. And my answer to that would be, if I were a single missionary and had no family, I don't have a problem with that. But I'm not going to put my family in danger. So I'm just wondering how you would interact with that kind of logic. So the question is one of what sort of principles would I use to inform what our family would do in that situation?

A judgment call? Yeah. That's good. And I'll thank the dad here for a moment. My first responsibility is to my own household. And we've all of us heard too many sad stories of vocational ministers who have neglected their families in the name of ministry duties. And that would be a case where you feel a call to remain and you lose your family along the way. That would obviously be bad. If your family was excited to stay and be instruments of change in the community, great. You can do that. So I think it would have to be a decision that you would make informed by lots of wise counsel and prayer. But I don't think but I do think in the end it's a judgment call kind of like going to the mission field would be saying the same principles have to apply there.

Yeah. Would you add to that. Yeah. I that is an interesting question because are we to change who we are. It's like, okay, I'm gonna become a missionary to German people. If I don't learn how to speak the language and I'm not committed to move to Germany and live there the rest of my life, why do they think I'm even gonna give them the truth? But I can stay here and find a German person and have that connection and disciple them and then that sphere of influence of that person can do that. It's a little off base from what Jeff is asking Because I think that's what we're trying to say here. Make Marysville great again, or make Marysville great is that kind of thing.

Don't raise your kids up to leave and go to some great place. Let's make this a place that is gathering in people. And the city government, because we're part of somebody, they wanna make it more inviting to those people. So we're getting that influence coming to us. and we can be that hospitality to those people. So that's a, it's a really interesting question of that whole thing of, are you willing to give your life up for somebody else? And like you said, if you've got a family, you don't wanna ditch that family into some mess in the inner city that you probably have no idea even how to navigate it, you know?

Some white bread in the middle of Harlem is, you know, you can, especially in the 60s. I mean, I used to go up there and talk to the Muslims, you know, on the street corner, the black Muslims, and they were very friendly on the street corner, but you knew underneath, they were, you know, what are you doing asking me a question? Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, cause Dave was talking to me, like a microphone like that. Though, I mean, in the varieties of definitions or kinds of hospitality that you mentioned that are in scripture. I mean isn't it the majority probably Old Testament and New Testament are a lot are a lot more about strangers maybe or people that you'd be uncomfortable with. So difference between putting yourself in danger but also not just doing whatever is comfy. So potentially lots of strangers, you know, which is why, you know, entertaining angels unaware is because you didn't know who they were at all as men, let alone as potentially angels. So, I mean, because I like the idea of making our homes a-luring, but in terms of how even And some of the last couple questions relate to showing honor outside of our comfort zones.

Is that a ball on a tee that you could hit for a minute? Showing honor outside of our comfort zones. So I was focusing this evening's talk on the household, as I mentioned, for the reasons that are obvious. And what do we do under our own roofs to make our own roofs places of hospitality? I'm pretty convinced that what we are doing as a church, or at least what we're trying to do as a church, which is a body comprising lots of families, and our health as a church will bring about the health of the families, the spiritual health of the families, and that is going to be itself, that is going to create a cultural gravity.

Well, right like the lady who read the gospel comes with the house key and Rosari Butterfield, you know, for not necessarily agreeing with all the things in there. I mean, they were going out of their way to look for uncomfortable opportunities that were, you know, seemed safe, but not comfortable. That was their house having that gravity. And so people were drawn to them as a place that seemed like maybe they had some answers. Yeah, and it is interesting, too, that it's the progress of Western civilization and the influence of the gospel that has made it that there are things like hotels and shelters today, where you've got lot begging men not to stay in the plaza, because he knows what's gonna happen if they don't, if they don't come indoors.

So it is a different time that we're in now. But the spirit and the principles are still the same. That is that God expects for us to demonstrate care to image bearers for sure. And there is, I think that our comfort zone is actually a lot bigger, as is the sphere of safety than it was then too. So yes, there is I think a special challenge for us to try to get outside of the pale of what is comfortable.

The opportunities are still there if you want them at all. It's not hard to find them, but it's also, I think, easier to live and ignore them than it ever has been in history. What else? Mr. Marlat. Thank you, sir. Tell me your thoughts on the spontaneity or the Russian drop-in. Or the church we came from many, many years ago, it was highly encouraged. If you're in the neighborhood, fellowship with your brother or drop-in and your house should be somewhat open. And I say the Russian, because, you know, they do that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, on that, on both sides, what should be our, as believers or homeowners or whatever, like hey, come in.

Or yeah, but we're just in the middle of a fight. Let me just square that away real quick so we can make sure our home is, you know. Or on the flip side, as believers, if I'm in the neighborhood, because I live in Lake Stevens, if I'm in the neighborhood, like, eh, should we drop in? We haven't seen them? You know, is that. Whereas, I mean, there's wisdom on both sides, but should we veer away from that? Or should we say? I think we totally lean on that and brace it. I think that the spirit goes both ways and is the same. Namely, if you are in the neighborhood, it is consistent with the spirit of hospitality to call on your brother or sister in Christ and say, how are you doing?

And be ready to give your greeting and take off. If you're invited in at that point, hang out. Yeah. And as a host, I think you should be disposed to be hospitable. Now, that doesn't mean that you can do it every time. If somebody drops by. Let's say the Marlots dropped by with breakfast at 7 AM. And half of the people were still asleep in your house.

What would you do then, hypothetically? I'd probably make a memory and get my kids up. Yeah. You probably would. I probably would, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I would say you should be disposed to be hospitable and also recognize that it's not possible all the time, and that also needs to be the same thing as a guest. I mean, the boars walk by your house like 12 times a day.

And I can go out there and tackle them on the road and say, come in for tea. Or they could just come in, or they couldn't, and it's fine, and it's not weird. And if they did, it's not weird. And if they don't, it's not weird. But also, if we're in their neighborhood and they see us, they might tackle us and drag us in for tea. And yeah, great. So, but having that disposition to hospitality, giving and receiving, I think is the key. So however you can do that with the, I don't know, the Slavic surprise is great, right? Yes, Gail. Oh, yes.

We had a rule when we were down in Southern California. David was elder, one of the elders over youth ministry. And we said our house was open anytime that the front porch light was on. And people came and stayed for a little bit. One night we forgot to turn it off. And one of the guys that worked in it said, let's test it.

It was like one in the morning. Knocked at the door, light was open, David went down. We invited him in, because we made the mistake and that turned the light off. But there was a rule, because nobody really believed, oh, they don't mean it, but we did. That our house was open to anyone. And we didn't lock our door, ever. They could have just come in and slept on the couch. Those people never came back because Dave answered the door in his bathrobe, but still. I didn't even look. Yeah. What else? We good? No? More? Oh, yes. So when you are in fellowship and you are then going to have people over and you're deciding how the table is going to look and what you're going to eat, does upping your hospitality game necessarily mean upping the intricacy?

Upping the what? Intricacy. So like does good hospitality necessarily mean more time went into what you're giving them? Not necessarily. OK. All right. No, by all means. You got the microphone. Literally. I think this is interesting because I have jumped full on the bandwagon of Sean's message of chicken nugget hospitality. And so, Bazin loves to make things beautiful. And I love seeing beautiful things, but I also would much rather spend my time and energy with people and doing things than making things beautiful.

So, I am thankful for that, but I don't, it's a different kind, maybe, but I just wanted to take the moment to say the chicken nugget hospitality is sinking deep into my soul and and I love that you I used to fuss over that kind of stuff a lot more like what recipe and oh my gosh I've only tried it twice and is it gonna turn out but you know and you could like it that completely subtracts from all of the all of the stuff and so tidy the house yeah and is it perfectly clean? No it's not but but we do have chicken nuggets and anybody's welcome to come in and eat them whether they're hot out of the oven or if they've been sitting on the counter for 30 minutes so you know I just love that idea and I thank Bayesian for continually wanting to make things beautiful.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. They'll have good fellowship on their drive home tonight about who's cooking the dino nuggets. Yeah, I would just piggyback on that and say that, yeah, the principle is one of honor. So if I don't think that having linens and fine china is at its heart any more honoring objectively on its face than your front porch light on and an invitation to come at any time. So if it is born out of honoring other people and then welcoming them in, then they're both favorites. Dino nuggets or tri-tip? I mean I have my own personal preferences. Yeah, yeah. Well that's the proverb about dinner of herbs is better than you know fatticap if they're strife in the house. So if the decorating and the menu is causing stress and strife and or is all about the host's glory, you know, a Jay Gatsby kind of glory, then it's not even going to be enjoyable.

That's a good question. So when Lot, in the ancient world, there was a lot of guests. And a lot of guests means when you're entertaining somebody or you invite them into your home, their lives are supreme, even over the lives of you and your family. So that's why a lot offered his virgin daughters and the guy somewhere and judges offered the concubine and his daughter. That's a cultural rule. That shows how important hospitality was. It was supreme. Obviously, how far do we go in interpreting that? Obviously, I'm not going to do that with my daughter. Yeah, well good, because you're better than a D plus dad. Yeah, but in that culture, that was expected.

Well, maybe not all the way to what Lott did with his daughters, but it certainly wasn't surprising, or the offering of your concubine. But fortunately, I lost my train of thought, I got distracted. Fortunately, we don't have those same, at least in our culture, and it's not the same the world over, but in our culture it is a lot safer. Travel was dangerous. I mean the story of Joseph and Mary is textbook. You've got a woman in labor, like advanced labor, and there's no room for her. So we're going to do you solid and let you sleep with the animals. And that was many hundreds of years after the judge's story. So how far do you go with that?

Well, only as far as you have to. Yes, sir. are some hot tips on blessing your guests once they're there besides providing food and beverages and things. But like conversation, like, because obviously, you know, if you've done all the prep of repenting of your sin and, you know, goodness should flow. But how do you, because, and maybe I'm answering my own question, because yes, if that context is there, then you wouldn't have this situation that I'm about to mention. But I was thinking, you could theoretically invite people over and it could just be a wellspring of gossip or just, you could talk about a lot of things and call it fellowship.

But how would you promote blessing through conversation and fellowship that ensues? I answer a really good question. Because it can, yeah, you can invite people over and be all about you. Yeah, you can to be showing off or trying to make a name for yourself with things we talked about. But when they're there, applying the principle of honor is, it wasn't looked like on the ground.

I think, I think practically it's everything from like working to keep your glasses full to actually asking questions and listening. And sometimes as a host that's actually kind of hard because you're trying to make sure everything goes smoothly. But you know, we coach our kids, greet them, shake their hands, look them in the eye, ask them, you know, if you can get them something to drink. When they leave, shake their hands, look them in the eye, thank them for coming. And in the meantime, like, ask some questions and listen. And that actually has been really good for SACO, just getting to know some people well.

But the applications of that principle, I think, are infinite, and it's the same, it is why you can practice hospitality standing out under the covered area on a Sunday morning, having a spirit of honor and welcoming in. You also can practice that badly, abuse it by being exclusive in a conversation and then not welcoming in others. So stay out versus come on in. And of course that takes wisdom. Sometimes where it's not appropriate to have somebody into the conversation. But it's not just. So I say that because all those same things that we would coach kids to do on the playground are the same sorts of things we would try and coach all of us to do around the dinner table or on a Sunday after service.

Yes, sir, Mr. Hickey. I'm glad you mentioned asking questions and listening. For me, one of the most important things I've learned in life is to take a sincere and genuine interest in someone. I think we've all experienced meeting someone and you ask them some questions, and 15 minutes later the visit is over and they never ask you one question. They was all talking. So I just think that's crucial. So as a host, one of the most important things you can do is let them feel that it was important for them to be there. That's a good word, right? Yeah, and for what's worth, all those things we try and coach, the only ones come off perfectly.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Let's say that your household is not one where the parents are trying to encourage hospitality. practicing hospitality, but you're a kid who's not really close to being able to leave to start your own hospitality, like your own household sort of hospitality. How do you, and I'm not saying this is my situation, or really anybody else is here, but like if you're running into people like this, what do you tell a kid who's interested in trying to provide hospitality, but you're not really getting it through to your parent's and you don't really have a lot of resources to do it yourself, what would you tell that kind of kid to do on a daily basis to be able to still practice hospitality?

I think there's, that's a really good question. I didn't anticipate that one at all. I think there is an opportunity there to honor your parents while also being an instrument for your parents' growth. And so asking, and I'll say you because I know this isn't you, because I know your parents, but let's say if it were you, you could ask them, hey, mom and dad, would it be okay if, no, we don't do that, okay, with respect, do you mind if I ask why? Okay, what would you guys think of if I hosted something at the church and had this, and I would like to coordinate all the refreshments and blah, blah, blah. And then when that happens, you're the host.

Now if they're resistant to you taking that kind of initiative, then I think that also would be, that would be surprising. That would be really surprising. And I think even probably unlikely, but possible. Maybe because they'd be threatened by, you know, being shown up by their son or something like that. And if that's the case, then there's a bigger problem than one of being inhospitable. So I'll just go back to the principle of honoring others is something that it's not just hosting events and meals and things like that. It is having the porch light on, whether it's Motel 6 or Dave Light's house. I'll keep the light on for you.

There you go. Yeah. I don't know, anybody else have any suggestions in that context? Again, when we were down in Southern California, we had a similar, guess who's coming to dinner. Oh yeah. And people knew, but we organized it so that we first started within your zip code and then we kept expanding it out. We had one family in our adult fellowship class that was living in their car at the time. And they were saying, I noticed they had not signed up, so I said, how come you haven't signed up? She goes, well, we could never have this in our home.

our home and I said you could have it at a park, you could invite everybody to bring a picnic, and you could organize games, doesn't cost you a cent. And your car's already parked there and they did it. So I think we could be creative, you feel like somebody's withholding because their house is too small or they don't have enough money because they have this perceived, those people do it so well in quotes. So you can help be creative in thinking of ways that you can invite people to some sort of gathering and it doesn't have to be in a home. And again you can be hospitable to one person. Hospitality can be one-on-one not one on 80. So it's way cool that we're a people that like big group stuff but it's not just amount of money or resources, it's also not about number of people per se to be showing honor, like you said, like hanging out and chatting after church or whatever, that doesn't require all of the church to be there for it to count as hospitality, yeah.

Doug? Doug? I just have a small cornucopia of responses to some things. First to Calvin, what you were saying. A small cornucopia. I was single longer before I met Amy and got married. And during those years, there were times where I was living out on my own. Then I'd move home with Mom. She was a widow. So she was alone in the house. And my mom had lots of friends. why don't you have some of your friends over? She never invited them, for whatever reason. But I didn't stop inviting my friends over. And I would say, hey, mom, are you OK if, like, this Friday some of the guys come over? And she's like, oh, I'll cook for them, or whatever.

And we always had a bunch of singles over for Thanksgiving at my house. And my mom would gladly cooking for them. She wasn't the invitee, but she would gladly serve. So that's something you could do, like, not you, necessarily are struggling with this, but if you're playing sports, hey you want to come to my house and eat burgers with us Friday, it can be like Shawn said one-on-one, just or just one person. And as far as like the safety thing and all that, I think that was being discussed. I really think we need to listen to the Holy Spirit and apply wisdom to who we invite in our house. It may Jesus hate what tax collectors and sinners and boy was he frowned upon, you know. So I I think in terms of who we invite and how it materializes, I think there is this sixth sense of, hey, the Holy Spirit is really leading me, or I have this prompting to like, hey, you want to come eat at our house?

As much as we can plan, I don't think we should discount the leading of the Spirit providentially to work in hospitality. final cornucopia thing even as far as conversation Ian. I know we will plan ahead and say, okay, what do we want to talk about tonight? We can ask testimonies, how did people meet? We have some cards we can like dive into and pass around and talk about. So you can plan conversation as much as you can plan what you're going to eat as well. So my thought. Yeah, it's a good word. Thank you. All right, it's getting pretty late. Should we try and Wrap it up. Yeah, the Holy Spirit of talent. Listen to Doug and listen to the Holy Spirit.

Yes, should we go? Oh yeah. I'm sure I've noticed. And you invite people over and you think, okay, I've studied up on them, I know he's interested in this, and you try to do that. It never works. God has a way of just directing the path, and when they realize you can be comfortable and go, well, I have no idea what you're talking about. just talk to me and you know that kind of thing. And like Cal invited the whole baseball team over for dinner right? That was it. I knew I wasn't gonna have anything to talk to these kids about. I got no idea. So in that respect instead of trying to inject myself and be hospitable and all that, I go out smile at them all you know say hi and then fade off into the distance because is they're doing their thing.

And that's another thing. You don't wanna insert yourself where you're really not welcome. And it's a real, it's one of those things in church talk is everybody's talking around the room. If people are really involved with each other, don't feel that they don't like you because they're talking and you know the guy and he's talking to somebody else. sit off to the side and wait till they're done engaging. And it, I don't know, all of that, it's very, you need to be in tune with what's going on and don't feel hurt because we worship a sovereign God that's arranging all of those people in the room to talk to each other.

There’s a principle in Bible study about interpreting less clear passages in light of more clear passages. When you come to something you don’t know, remember what you do know. This applies in a lot of places, because there are probably a lot of things we don’t know.

Habakkuk knew that the LORD was righteous; Habakkuk’s first complaint depends on it. The Lord had revealed His law, why is He allowing the law to be paralyzed? The Lord is powerful and right, why is He apparently passive about wrong? The Lord cares, why isn’t He responding to Habakkuk’s cries?

I often think of the various ways the Lord could respond to things as if He has a warehouse full of possibilities. Who could have more? He’s not limited by imagination or by resources. He sees all the things that happen, He sees all hearts, and He could respond almost any way He wanted.

The Lord opened the door to His response arsenal for Habakkuk to see. His choice response for the violence in Judah was not inactivity as it seemed to Habakkuk. The Lord had been preparing nations and pushing them into place on the board, getting things set up for the very judgment Habakkuk was crying for.

Except it wasn’t exactly what Habakkuk had in mind. Habakkuk cried, “Help!” And then, “Wait! Not like that!” The Lord was raising up the Chaldeans, whom we refer to as the Babylonians, who were going to scoff their way past kings and sweep their way through the land gathering captives like sand. This burden moved Habakkuk to raise his second complaint. He starts with what he knows, asks another version of how long, and then prepares himself for an answer.

The first question is based on Habakkuk having passed his theology class.

Are you not from everlasting,

The prophet starts with theology proper, with the character and attributes of God as God revealed through God’s Word from which Habakkuk views the world. God is everlasting, which isn’t only about God’s relationship to a timeline but God’s dependability all the time. World history is the lagging measure of God’s eternal will. He is LORD, Yahweh, the “I am” who IS, who exists, and who revealed Himself and made covenant with Israel. My God, and my Holy One, refer to the sovereign and the divinely separate.

Habakkuk knows (by faith) this LORD, and can state We shall not die. The only way to make this claim is based on theology, on God’s faithfulness to God’s promises when God chose a people. There would be judgment, even brutal judgment, but it wouldn’t be annihilation of the nation…at least not if Habakkuk’s theology proper was proper.

Yet the Lord ordained and establishedthe Chaldean/Babylonians as judgement and reproof. Habakkuk acknowledges the Lord’s answer, but this raises an argument.

Verse 13 builds two parts complaint on two parts proper theology.

You who are of purer eyes than to see evil

Habakkuk got his standard of justice from the Lord. Habakuk argued that violence and wrong were wrong because the Lord said it was wrong, and the law of the Lord comes from the nature of the Lord; He is of purer eyes. He can’t look at it or tolerate it, same as Habakkuk said in verse 3.

So how does that fit with the Lord raising up (verse 6) and having ordained/established (verse 12) the wicked to deal with wickedness, especially when, by comparison, those being punished are more righteous?

Habakkuk not only knew theology, he had enough familiarity with foreign affairs to know that the Babylonians were pretty much doing whatever they wanted, and what they wanted was bad. If the Chaldeans swallow up, where will the Lord’s faithfulness be seen? (See the after-swallowing lament: Lamentations 2:2, 5, 16).

Verses 14-15 point out how the proper place of man has—by God’s doing—been turned upside-down.

You make mankind like the fish of the sea,

When I read this description I update it in my mind to shooting fish in a barrel. The Babylonians didn’t have guns, but it is as if mankind—here the word ʾādām—the rest of the nations, were brainless, helpless little guppies at the mercy. They were less than men, or at least treated as such. The crawling things are the same as referenced in the creation account, swarming in the water.

And who did it? You make, God made men to “have dominion over the fish of the sea” (Genesis 1:28), all the swarms of living creatures in the waters (Genesis 1:20), how can this turnover be proper?

There’s a hook, a net, and a dragnet, which would be a net for more than an individual. They are caught, gathered together, and dragged away.

This could be an extended ichthyological (dealing with fishes) metaphor. But, there’s some historical reasons to think at least some of it is physical, as the Babylonians followed the Assyrians by piercing captives’ lower lips with hooks, leading them on a string. Were there also human-sized nets?

Therefore he sacrifices to his net

The Lord said that the Babylonians “own might is their god!” (verse 11). And the sacrifices and offerings are part of that worship, celebrating the weapons of their victory. These are the tools that enable their lifestyle of luxury and rich food. The word “luxury” is fine, but the KJV says “their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous.” They liked their plunder so much they worshiped their shopping bags.

Is he then to keep on emptying his net

The question is a desperation “how long?” will this go on? Will it stop? They fill the net, empty the net, like relentless waves on the shore. We’ve got almost nine more months of this administration?

It’s one of those bad chapter breaks, and, we can get over it.

I will take my stand at my watchpost

Habakkuk has been complain-praying, but talking about God and the Babylonians. Now he adds a little third-person narration.

Habakkuk is girding his loins for the Lord’s reply, which he knows is coming. The rest of chapter 2 is that answer concerning [his] complaint. This is one way to translate the end of the verse, another is, “how I may reply when I am reproved” (NASB), suggesting that Habakkuk expected the Lord’s answer to correct him.

He was a watchman, and it was proper for him to wait for the word of the Lord.

When the earth is not yet filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD (see Habakkuk 2:14), and some real pieces of work are in charge, what then? How do we get our clear theology up next to the disordered world?

Here are Habakkuk's hacks for handling deserved political catastrophe, or tips for when you're a tiny citizen fish in a totalitarian barrel: (and yeah, stated in a playful way to get your attention, but dreadfully serious about the counsel)

George Bernard Shaw said, "Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.” And in our temporal citizenship, that resonates. But also "our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." So live as HE deserves.

Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible. (Ephesians 6:23–24 ESV)

There’s a principle in Bible study about interpreting less clear passages in light of more clear passages. When you come to something you don’t know, remember what you *do* know. This applies in a lot of places, because there are probably a lot of things we don’t know.

Habakkuk knew that the LORD was righteous; Habakkuk’s first complaint depends on it. The Lord had revealed His law, why is He allowing the law to be paralyzed? The Lord is powerful and right, why is He apparently passive about wrong? The Lord cares, why isn’t He responding to Habakkuk’s cries?

I often think of the various ways the Lord could respond to things as if He has a warehouse full of possibilities. Who could have more? He’s not limited by imagination or by resources. He sees *all* the things that happen, He sees all *hearts*, and He could respond almost any way He wanted.

The Lord opened the door to His response arsenal for Habakkuk to see. His choice response for the violence in Judah was not inactivity as it seemed to Habakkuk. The Lord had been preparing nations and pushing them into place on the board, getting things set up for the very judgment Habakkuk was crying for.

Except it wasn’t exactly what Habakkuk had in mind. Habakkuk cried, “Help!” And then, “Wait! Not like that!” The Lord was raising up the Chaldeans, whom we refer to as the Babylonians, who were going to scoff their way past kings and sweep their way through the land gathering captives like sand. This burden moved Habakkuk to raise his second complaint. He starts with what he knows, asks another version of how long, and then prepares himself for an answer.

# What Is Proper - Truth (verse 12)

The first question is based on Habakkuk having passed his theology class.

> Are you not from everlasting,

> O LORD my God, my Holy One?

> We shall not die.

> O LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment,

> and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.

> (Habakkuk 1:12 ESV)

The prophet starts with theology *proper*, with the character and attributes of God as God *revealed* through God’s Word from which Habakkuk views the world. God is **everlasting**, which isn’t only about God’s relationship to a timeline but God’s dependability all the time. World history is the lagging measure of God’s eternal will. He is **LORD**, *Yahweh*, the “I am” who IS, who exists, and who revealed Himself and made covenant with Israel. **My God**, and **my Holy One**, refer to the sovereign and the divinely separate.

Habakkuk knows (by faith) this LORD, and can state **We shall not die.** The only way to make this claim is based on theology, on God’s faithfulness to God’s promises when God chose a people. There would be judgment, even brutal judgment, but it wouldn’t be annihilation of the nation…at least not if Habakkuk’s theology proper was proper.

Yet the Lord **ordained** and **established**the Chaldean/Babylonians as **judgement** and **reproof**. Habakkuk acknowledges the Lord’s answer, but this raises an argument.

# What Doesn’t Seem Proper (verses 13-17)

Verse 13 builds two parts complaint on two parts proper theology.

> You who are of purer eyes than to see evil

> and cannot look at wrong,

> why do you idly look at traitors

> and remain silent when the wicked swallows up

> the man more righteous than he?

> (Habakkuk 1:13 ESV)

Habakkuk got his standard of justice from the Lord. Habakuk argued that violence and wrong were **wrong** because the Lord said it was wrong, and the law of the Lord comes from the nature of the Lord; He is **of purer eyes**. He can’t look at it or tolerate it, same as Habakkuk said in verse 3.

So how does that fit with the Lord raising up (verse 6) and having ordained/established (verse 12) **the wicked** to deal with wickedness, especially when, by comparison, those being punished are **more righteous**?

Habakkuk not only knew theology, he had enough familiarity with foreign affairs to know that the Babylonians were pretty much doing whatever they wanted, and what they wanted was bad. If the Chaldeans **swallow up**, where will the Lord’s faithfulness be seen? (See the after-swallowing lament: Lamentations 2:2, 5, 16).

Verses 14-15 point out how the proper place of man has—by God’s doing—been turned upside-down.

> You make mankind like the fish of the sea,

> like crawling things that have no ruler.

> He brings all of them up with a hook;

> he drags them out with his net;

> he gathers them in his dragnet;

> so he rejoices and is glad.

> (Habakkuk 1:14-15 ESV)

When I read this description I update it in my mind to shooting fish in a barrel. The Babylonians didn’t have guns, but it is as if **mankind**—here the word *ʾādām*—the rest of the nations, were brainless, helpless little guppies at the mercy. They were less than men, or at least treated as such. The **crawling things** are the same as referenced in the creation account, swarming in the water.

And who did it? **You make**, *God* made men to “have dominion over the fish of the sea” (Genesis 1:28), all the swarms of living creatures in the waters (Genesis 1:20), how can this turnover be proper?

There’s a **hook**, a **net**, and a **dragnet**, which would be a net for more than an individual. They are caught, gathered together, and dragged away.

This could be an extended ichthyological (dealing with fishes) metaphor. But, there’s some historical reasons to think at least some of it is physical, as the Babylonians followed the Assyrians by piercing captives’ lower lips with hooks, leading them on a string. Were there also human-sized nets?

> Therefore he sacrifices to his net

> and makes offerings to his dragnet;

> for by them he lives in luxury,

> and his food is rich.

> (Habakkuk 1:16 ESV)

The Lord said that the Babylonians “own might is their god!” (verse 11). And the **sacrifices** and **offerings** are part of that worship, celebrating the weapons of their victory. These are the tools that enable their lifestyle of **luxury** and **rich food**. The word “luxury” is fine, but the KJV says “their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous.” They liked their plunder so much they worshiped their shopping bags.

> Is he then to keep on emptying his net

> and mercilessly killing nations forever?

> (Habakkuk 1:17 ESV)

The question is a desperation “how long?” will this go on? Will it stop? They fill the net, empty the net, like relentless waves on the shore. We’ve got almost nine more months of this administration?

# What Is Proper - Trust (verse 2:1)

It’s one of those bad chapter breaks, and, we can get over it.

> I will take my stand at my watchpost

> and station myself on the tower,

> and look out to see what he will say to me,

> and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

> (Habakkuk 2:1 ESV)

Habakkuk has been complain-praying, but talking about God and the Babylonians. Now he adds a little third-person narration.

Habakkuk is girding his loins for the Lord’s reply, which he knows is coming. The rest of chapter 2 is that **answer concerning [his] complaint**. This is one way to translate the end of the verse, another is, “how I may reply when I am reproved” (NASB), suggesting that Habakkuk expected the Lord’s answer to correct him.

He was a *watchman*, and it was proper for him to wait for the word of the Lord.

# Conclusion

When the earth is not yet filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD (see Habakkuk 2:14), *and* some real pieces of work are in charge, what then? How do we get our clear theology up next to the disordered world?

Here are Habakkuk's hacks for handling __deserved__ political catastrophe, or tips for when you're a tiny citizen fish in a totalitarian barrel: (and yeah, stated in a playful way to get your attention, but dreadfully serious about the counsel)

- Learn to hate any corruption of justice, large and small, and the strife such corruption causes. Hate lies and bribes more.

- Do no wrong to your neighbor, even when it appears that you could get away with it. This includes verbal wrong in the parking lot behind their back, financial wrong in a business deal, any wrong.

- Complain (lament and cry) to God, in personal prayer and assembled psalm-singing. Let it be known that our help is in the name of the Lord who is in His holy temple (Habakkuk 2:20).

- Get on board that God works in mysterious ways, including His abundant arsenal of judgments. Theology proper that fits neatly on the page may be prim and yet not fully proper. That said, one reason people lose their minds is because they never knew God as God reveals Himself in His Word.

- Build all your life on the Rock, hearing and doing His words, so that your house will not fall when the floods come (Matthew 7:24-25).

- Then get wisdom and pursue zeal to take every advantage of any open door God puts in front of you to honor Christ the Lord as holy (1 Peter 3:15).

----------

## Charge

George Bernard Shaw said, "Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.” And in our temporal citizenship, that resonates. But also "our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." So live as HE deserves.

## Benediction:

> Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible. (Ephesians 6:23–24 ESV)

The burden of Habakkuk hits hard. The violence and numbing of justice in Judah hit the prophet hard, so he cried to Yahweh for help. Why wasn't the LORD saving? The answer from the LORD hit even harder. It was not what Habakkuk had in mind, and that in multiple ways; the answer was ruin not revival. While all of this is 2500 year-old history, the application hits us hard, too.

Habakkuk's repeated prayers for help must have come sometime after good King Josiah died (609 BC). And it seems reasonable to think that Habakkuk's prayers must have wanted the Lord to fix the problems by giving Judah another king like Josiah. Josiah didn't restore justice overnight after 55 years of Manasseh's evil rule, but right did return. Josiah led the way. Josiah showed it could be done. Why not send another righteous king to make Judah great again, so that justice would not be perverted but prevail?

There are at least three surprising parts of Habakkuk's vision of the Lord’s reply. First, contrary to appearances, the Lord was not "idly looking at wrong" (verse 3), because immediately the Lord tells Habakkuk to "Look" (verse 5) at something the Lord has already been doing. Second, there would not be help or saving from violence (verses 2 and 3), but instead more violence; violent enemies were coming to kill and take captives (verse 9). And third, the judgment was coming from an upstart and ungodly superpower.

Habakkuk couldn't have predicted this on his own if his middle name was Blackswan.

In the Lord's answer we get an initial call to pay attention and then the identity of the coming punishers with a dreadful set of attributes.

What you can't see in English is that all the imperative verb endings in verse 5 are plural. This is why we're not just peaking in on Habakkuk's melancholy quiet time one morning. This is a harrowing/distressing word to the people of Judah.

Look among the nations, and see;

That's a four-fold alert to open the newspaper, turn on the TV, refresh the app, prepare to be amazed: Look, see, wonder, be astounded. The first two are the same as Habakkuk's complaint: "Why do you make me see (ra’ah) iniquity, and why do you idly look (nabat) at wrong?" (verse 3). The Lord could see what was happening, better than Habakkuk, and beyond what Habakkuk could conceive.

To look among the nations indicates from the start of the Lord's answer that Yahweh's sovereignty covers the world stage, not just the land and peoples of Palestine. I am doing a work in your days also pulls back the curtain to reveal a lot of activity, not ignorance or idleness. That you would not believe if told is not going to introduce a happy surprise.

Here is the nation, a horrible/dreadful superpower.

For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,

The Lord not only identifies the surprise nation among the nations, the Lord takes credit for that nation’s ascendence in power. I am raising up the Chaldeans, which we can call Babylonians, though the Chaldeans were first a nomadic tribe that then moved to and took over the city and region of Babylon (though for less than 100 years). Babylon itself is located in modern-day Iraq, about 50 miles south of Baghdad.

During Manasseh's day, and most of Josiah’s reign, Assyria was the dominant power in the Middle East, and Judah paid tribute. Egypt had always been a different world power to the south. But Nobopolassar rose to power in 626, defeated the Assyrian city of Asshur in 614 and the capital city of Nineveh in 612 (after a three month siege). His son Nebuchadnezzar chased the Egyptian Pharaoh Neco in 605, and in that same year Nobopolassar died and Nebuchadnezzar took over.

It's one thing when a tiny mob is bitter, though even a TM can cause a lot of havoc. This whole nation is bitter (or “fierce” NASB, “ruthless” NIV) and hasty; they are disgruntled and hotheaded. With speed they march through the breadth of the earth, the swath of bitter brutality is wide. They take over and occupy furnished buildings that they didn't build (which wouldn’t be the first time in the same land).

They are dreaded and fearsome;

Dreaded and fearsome would be responses to either the previous attributes or the rest of verse 7.

The Babylonians were not reasonable. It was bad in Judah that the law was paralyzed, but the Babylonians were a law unto themselves. It’s frying-pan when the standard is known but ignored, it's the fryer when the standard is whatever a pagan feels like that day. You can complain, but there’s no grounds to argue your case.

Their horses are swifter than leopards,

The horses and their riders are compared to leopards, wolves, and eagles. The military is compared to predators: swift and hungry and vicious.

Habakkuk said the righteous were surrounded (verse 4), but there was no place to escape the Babylonians. They could not be outrun, they could not be hid from.

They all come for violence,

Violence. Habakkuk thought he knew violence, and no doubt he did. And also it would be worse. To see all their faces forward implies that the Babylonians could not be appeased. Nothing turned them to the side, let alone turned them back.

Many would be killed, others they gather captives like sand. This could be a play on numbers, this could be a reference to inhumanity. You could count the grains of sand in buckets but why bother—it’d be a high total, and also you wouldn't think that sand very precious.

At kings they scoff,

After a while you'd consider yourself invincible. "You and what army?" This laughing is mock-talk. “That’s all you’ve got?” Kings and rulers and walls meant nothing. When they came to a barrier they'd make ramparts, their own temporary hills. They had time and manpower.

Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,

Tornados never stick around to see what damage they've done, the Babylonians wouldn't either.

The last part in verse 11 is key. Judah was guilty, and these Chaldeans being raised up by the Lord are also guilty men. Were any one of the things good in verses 6-11? The very first attribute is that they were bitter. And the last is that they are idolators, whose own might is their god! They worship themselves as the superpower.

The Babylonians were the Lord’s tools. This leads to Habakkuk’s second complaint, 1:12-2:1, but the Lord’s second reply is that the Babylonians they were just temporary tools; they would get their own judgement. We know now that Babylon did conquer Judah by 586 and then that Cyrus and the Persian army conquered the Chaldeans in 539.

One question we get to ask is, what about the Messiah? The promised King of David? Not only is another righteous king like Josiah or the Messiah not the answer to Habakkuk’s complaint, Messiah isn’t mentioned at all in his burden or song. Living by faith, yes, but in Habakkuk’s history God sendt ruin not revival.

That said, Paul quoted Habakkuk 1:5 in Acts 13:41, by way of application, about those who reject Jesus as the Lord’s Holy One. The burden of Habakkuk had already happened, and yet, more judgement was coming (by way of the Romans in AD 70 on the Jews) if they would not receive the word and grace of God in Jesus.

What about the United States? I do not know our national destiny, but I do know what we deserve. We do not have the same covenants as Judah, our future is not explicitly revealed. And yet collectively, we have both more revelation we’re sinning against and more violence. What should we do? “The righteous shall live by his faith.” We should repent and kiss the Son (Psalm 2:12). We should confess that Jesus is Lord.

When you hear of wars and rumors or wars, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. The God of all grace has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, and He is at work. Cast your cares on Him, because He cares for you. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. (2 Thessalonians 2:16–17 ESV)

The burden of Habakkuk hits hard. The violence and numbing of justice in Judah hit the prophet hard, so he cried to Yahweh for help. Why wasn't the LORD *saving*? The answer from the LORD hit even harder. It was *not* what Habakkuk had in mind, and that in multiple ways; the answer was *ruin* not revival. While all of this is 2500 year-old history, the application hits us hard, too.

Habakkuk's repeated prayers for help must have come sometime after good King Josiah died (609 BC). And it seems reasonable to think that Habakkuk's prayers must have wanted the Lord to fix the problems by giving Judah another king like Josiah. Josiah didn't restore justice overnight after 55 years of Manasseh's evil rule, but right did return. Josiah led the way. Josiah showed it could be done. Why not send another righteous king to make Judah great again, so that justice would not be perverted but prevail?

There are at least three surprising parts of Habakkuk's vision of the Lord’s reply. First, contrary to appearances, the Lord was *not* "idly looking at wrong" (verse 3), because immediately the Lord tells Habakkuk to "Look" (verse 5) at something the Lord has already been doing. Second, there would not be help or saving from violence (verses 2 and 3), but instead *more* violence; violent enemies were coming to kill and take captives (verse 9). And third, the judgment was coming from an upstart and *ungodly* superpower.

Habakkuk couldn't have predicted this on his own if his middle name was Blackswan.

In the Lord's answer we get an initial call to pay attention and then the identity of the coming punishers with a dreadful set of attributes.

# A Harrowing Surprise (verse 5)

What you can't see in English is that all the imperative verb endings in verse 5 are *plural*. This is why we're not just peaking in on Habakkuk's melancholy quiet time one morning. This is a harrowing/distressing word to the people of Judah.

> Look among the nations, and see;

> wonder and be astounded.

> For I am doing a work in your days

> that you would not believe if told.

> (Habakkuk 1:5 ESV)

That's a four-fold alert to open the newspaper, turn on the TV, refresh the app, prepare to be amazed: **Look, see, wonder, be astounded**. The first two are the same as Habakkuk's complaint: "Why do you make me *see* (ra’ah) iniquity, and why do you idly *look* (nabat) at wrong?" (verse 3). The Lord could see what was happening, better than Habakkuk, and beyond what Habakkuk could conceive.

To look **among the nations** indicates from the start of the Lord's answer that Yahweh's sovereignty covers the world stage, not just the land and peoples of Palestine. **I am doing a work in your days** also pulls back the curtain to reveal a lot of activity, not ignorance or idleness. **That you would not believe if told** is not going to introduce a happy surprise.

# A Horrible Superpower (verse 6-11)

Here is *the nation*, a horrible/dreadful superpower.

> For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,

> that bitter and hasty nation,

> who march through the breadth of the earth,

> to seize dwellings not their own.

> (Habakkuk 1:6 ESV)

The Lord not only identifies the surprise nation among the nations, the Lord takes credit for that nation’s ascendence in power. **I am raising up the Chaldeans**, which we can call Babylonians, though the Chaldeans were first a nomadic tribe that then moved to and took over the city and region of Babylon (though for less than 100 years). Babylon itself is located in modern-day Iraq, about 50 miles south of Baghdad.

During Manasseh's day, and most of Josiah’s reign, Assyria was the dominant power in the Middle East, and Judah paid tribute. Egypt had always been a different world power to the south. But Nobopolassar rose to power in 626, defeated the Assyrian city of Asshur in 614 and the capital city of Nineveh in 612 (after a three month siege). His son Nebuchadnezzar chased the Egyptian Pharaoh Neco in 605, and in that same year Nobopolassar died and Nebuchadnezzar took over.

It's one thing when a tiny mob is bitter, though even a TM can cause a lot of havoc. This whole *nation* is **bitter** (or “fierce” NASB, “ruthless” NIV) and **hasty**; they are disgruntled and hotheaded. With speed they **march through the breadth of the earth**, the swath of bitter brutality is *wide*. They take over and occupy furnished buildings that they didn't build (which wouldn’t be the first time in the same land).

> They are dreaded and fearsome;

> their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.

> (Habakkuk 1:7 ESV)

**Dreaded** and **fearsome** would be responses to either the previous attributes or the rest of verse 7.

The Babylonians were not *reasonable*. It was bad in Judah that the law was paralyzed, but the Babylonians were a law unto themselves. It’s frying-pan when the standard is known but ignored, it's the fryer when the standard is whatever a pagan feels like that day. You can complain, but there’s no grounds to argue your case.

> Their horses are swifter than leopards,

> more fierce than the evening wolves;

> their horsemen press proudly on.

> Their horsemen come from afar;

> they fly like an eagle swift to devour.

> (Habakkuk 1:8 ESV)

The horses and their riders are compared to leopards, wolves, and eagles. The military is compared to predators: **swift** and hungry and vicious.

Habakkuk said the righteous were surrounded (verse 4), but there was *no* place to escape the Babylonians. They could not be outrun, they could not be hid from.

> They all come for violence,

> all their faces forward.

> They gather captives like sand.

> (Habakkuk 1:9 ESV)

**Violence**. Habakkuk thought he knew violence, and no doubt he did. And also it would be worse. To see **all their faces forward** implies that the Babylonians could not be appeased. Nothing turned them to the side, let alone turned them back.

Many would be killed, others **they gather captives like sand**. This could be a play on numbers, this could be a reference to inhumanity. You could count the grains of sand in buckets but why bother—it’d be a high total, and also you wouldn't think that sand very precious.

> At kings they scoff,

> and at rulers they laugh.

> They laugh at every fortress,

> for they pile up earth and take it.

> (Habakkuk 1:10 ESV)

After a while you'd consider yourself invincible. "You and what army?" This laughing is mock-talk. “That’s all you’ve got?” Kings and rulers and walls meant nothing. When they came to a barrier they'd make ramparts, their own temporary hills. They had time and manpower.

> Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,

> guilty men, whose own might is their god!”

> (Habakkuk 1:11 ESV)

Tornados never stick around to see what damage they've done, the Babylonians wouldn't either.

The last part in verse 11 is key. Judah was guilty, and these Chaldeans being raised up by the Lord are also **guilty men**. Were any one of the things *good* in verses 6-11? The very first attribute is that they were *bitter*. And the last is that they are *idolators*, **whose own might is their god!** They worship themselves as the superpower.

# Conclusion

The Babylonians were the Lord’s *tools*. This leads to Habakkuk’s second complaint, 1:12-2:1, but the Lord’s second reply is that the Babylonians they were just temporary tools; they would get their own judgement. We know now that Babylon did conquer Judah by 586 and then that Cyrus and the Persian army conquered the Chaldeans in 539.

One question we get to ask is, what about the *Messiah*? The promised King of David? Not only is another righteous king like Josiah or the Messiah *not* the answer to Habakkuk’s complaint, Messiah isn’t mentioned at all in his burden or song. Living by faith, yes, but in Habakkuk’s history God sendt ruin not revival.

That said, Paul quoted Habakkuk 1:5 in Acts 13:41, *by way of application*, about those who reject Jesus as the Lord’s Holy One. The burden of Habakkuk had already happened, and yet, more judgement was coming (by way of the Romans in AD 70 on the Jews) if they would not receive the word and grace of God in Jesus.

What about the *United States*? I do not know our national destiny, but I do know what we deserve. We do not have the same covenants as Judah, our future is not explicitly revealed. And yet collectively, we have both *more* revelation we’re sinning against *and more* violence. What should we do? “The righteous shall live by his faith.” We should repent and kiss the Son (Psalm 2:12). We should confess that Jesus is Lord.

----------

## Charge

When you hear of wars and rumors or wars, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. The God of all grace has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, and He is at work. Cast your cares on Him, because He cares for you. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

## Benediction:

> Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. (2 Thessalonians 2:16–17 ESV)

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

Well, we need to...well, that was... Let me get this thing clipped in my pocket here. There we go. Okay, let's start off in prayer and then we'll get going. Father, help us to understand what you would have us do in this subject and that we would honor you with this and we as fathers would protect our daughters and have our sons be raised up to be the men that we would have them be and We thank you that you give us your word to be our guide and that We have a fellowship of people that want to do what you want them to do So help us to understand that better tonight, and we thank you for all those things Amen Well the first verse I'd like to read is is this one, and it's Mark 12, 29, 31.

I use this a lot in talking to the school kids and their parents sometimes at assemblies and that kind of thing. But Jesus answered and said, the most important is, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second commandment is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.

I always start off with that, at least in my head, because if you really, truly believe that and you discover stuff, you'll change over a period of time as you discover that. The other thing is that you probably can tell the whole title of my message is Dating in Courtship or the Patriarchy Prevails. Those are two titles. So that probably gives away where I'm going to come from here and if that's a little obscure, I did not know Bazin would make this drawing but Craig is in the back and he has more of these copies. If none of you people have any of these that you haven't seen the drawing, it's really very cute and right to the point.

She has a lovely lady up in the tower and a knight coming with a flower to talk to her. And sir knight goeth out of mine presence and speaketh with mine father, good day. I had not seen this. I had no idea she was going to make it and then Gail sent me, Gail Martin sent me the drawing, what was it yesterday? It was really perfectly stated. So I can sit down or we can just ask questions from here. Have you seen this? Just for you Jack, so when you're, you know, make sure you go to the guy's husband. Or the guy's, the girl's father. The guy's husband, the girl's father. Oh, no, we have all this. So anyway, the basic principles here are purity, all right, big subject purity, smaller subject marriage, And then the last subject is fathers are responsible.

Okay? That's the big overarching thing I'd like to give out. I am noted for going too long and I only have about 1600 words, so I should be able to get it in within 25 minutes or so. So we have a long question and answer if we want it. And we can't answer the question I don't know, but we would be happy to get back to you if we can't come up with some answer, the elders and I. And I, the first thing that my granddaughter, Hallie, told me is that I have to tell you I did it all wrong.

Not even a little bit right, okay? I was one of those stories for you that haven't heard. I got baptized at nine in the First Baptist Church of Tucson, Arizona. And then I lived the next nine, 26 years like a major pagan. And then I hired a guy that gave me the gospel. I got saved, totally changed my life. I was 37. Gail was 35. We already had had Morgan. We lived in LA, New York City, all that kind of stuff. I had been all kinds of different places doing all kinds of things that were not Christian ministry. And when Gail and I got together, we did it absolutely the wrong way. And yet God blessed it that we were together together for, well, since 84, 13 years before we got saved.

And then it was like, whoa, what happened? So we sat down and talked about it and decided, you know, okay, how do we learn all this? How do we catch up? And it was quite the adventure during that time. And then as Morgan grew older, we had Shawn show up and he took liking to Morgan, which I had my radar on at that point. And we were at Grace Community Church, and I looked across the gymnasium, and I asked Gail, I said, who is that guy? And she said, oh, that's the white bread from Ohio.

I think he's kind of interested in Morgan. And pretty soon from then, Sean asked, called me up and said that he'd like to talk to me. And I went, oh, man, this is getting serious. What do I do with this? So anyway, we went down that road. And it was very interesting. And I'll probably give you some of the little things that happened during that as we talk about this.

So the first thing is, in the first verse that I want to bring up, and I'm not sure I need to read all these, but I think it might be good that you know that the purity issue is probably the biggest issue when guys notice a certain girl and they're ready you're ready and the thing is in our society even now we wait so long before people get married that it it can really throw a curve at you. And so purity is something that is difficult to attain and you have to work at it and walk in the Spirit and all the rest of your Christian walks. So first Thessalonians 4, 1 through 7 says, finally then brothers we ask and urge you in the Lord that Jesus, that as you receive from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know that the instruction we gave you through the Lord Jesus, for this is the will of God and your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion just like the Gentiles who do not

know God that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this manner because the Lord is an Avenger in all these things as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you for God has not called us for impurity but in holiness. In 1 Corinthians 6 15 through 20 it makes it clear about that our bodies are are members of Christ. Our bodies, the Holy Spirit, God, if you are a true believer, God lives inside of you, okay? Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes but one body with her?

For it is written that two will become one flesh, But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body. But the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God? You are not your own. For you were bought with a price, so glorified God in your body. Then Romans 12, one and two, we just got out of Romans, I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. So all those warnings, we know those things, we've probably heard them, you've probably heard them talking with your buddies, whatever. But it's a constant battle, especially in a world like we live in, in a world like Paul lived in. And especially today when, you know, the society can't even tell what's a man and what's a woman and all that nonsense. Then the Bible speaks to the cure of this marriage and it says in Genesis 2 24 therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh. Proverbs 18 22 says he who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. 1st Corinthians 11 3 but I want you to understand the head of every man is Christ the head of wife as her husband and the head of Christ is God. So we're all in that pyramid, those of us that are married, and we are also under God individually.

Ephesians 5 23 to 24, for the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church and his body and he himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Matthew 19, 4 through 6, he answered, this is Jesus, have you not read, he who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said, therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man, not man, separate. Matthew 10, 37, whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

I threw that one in there so that everybody understands in the pyramid, God, your relationship with God if you're the husband, then your relationship with your wife, then the relationship with your kids. Keep all that together in that way and that will help you greatly as you sort through some of the things. 1 Corinthians 7, 6 through 9. Now as a concession, not a command, I say this. I wish that all of you were as I myself am, but each has his own gift from God, one of a kind and one of another. To the unmarried and widows, I say it is good for them to remain single as I am, but if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry, For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion.

Better to marry than to burn in the old King James, okay? 2 Corinthians 6, 14, 15. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? What portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?

Obviously, you should only get together with believers. Okay, there's two other sections about father's responsibility, but first I want to read the in bold things that I put at the end so you can keep these in mind and see if you hear something that your alarm bell goes off and where is he getting that, and hopefully we can talk about that if you don't like it.

Biblical courtship is the standard. Involved authority of the Father is appreciated in this. It is the core issue of it. The dad is the dude that's over the girl. Covenantal faithfulness keeps the marriage together. This is a big one. We'll get more into talking about it. But romance and love does not keep you together, you make a covenant to keep together before God, and that's what we witness when we witness marriages. And Gail and I have made it a real point to make sure that we go to wedding ceremonies where people are going to commit to that, especially people we know, because then we can be witness to what they're doing in case they go a little off track and need a little help getting back on track. So covenantal faithfulness keeps the marriage together.

Romantic love is a creation of the 13th century. That's when all of the poetry starts and everything, and what it did was facilitate adultery. It was married people finding somebody that wasn't married to them, falling deeply in love, and then writing a bunch of poems, how they could get together with that person. Not good. Romantic love, okay? Romance does not keep the marriage together. Some of the physical, some physical intimacy is expected in romantic type of love, okay? Or romantic dating, we'll say. Or serial dating, however you wanna say it. Recreational dating was actually created in the 20th century. So in the 1900s, it became popular.

Oh, let's take girls to the prom and let's go out and let's go to the movies and all that kind of stuff. And it slowly crept in. Certainly by the 40s and 50s, it moved from church functions. Certainly by the time Gale and I were in our teens, It was totally, you waited for Friday night so you could go to the prom or the dance at the school or whatever and then weekend parties you would always date and hook up with people. So not do, that is of the 20th century and the whole propaganda that we have in movies, books, every TV show and how those TV shows that the dad is always the idiot in the family And the mom and the kids are the ones, oh, we're so wise, and we met each other, and dad and mom don't understand, and so we'll just get along like that.

So the whole society is beating its head against this thing. The system is the villain, the system of recreational dating. It gives situations that don't protect the heart. The whole issue is your daughter's heart and your son's heart. He needs to understand that too. The other thing that the Bible teaches is that sons leave and daughters are given. We're raising up sons to be the men in the society and the leaders, and they then go out and make their household and govern that household. Our daughters are held in check and underneath our wing to be that prize to be sought after and won over by permission from the dad that they can go to that next state.

So sons leave, daughters are given, and there is no intermediate state for daughters. Daughters still remain under their dad until they're given in marriage, unless they have the gift of singleness and on you go there. The father is the protector of her purity. The father is the protector. The suitor, the person chasing the girl, is the threat. I did use that word on purpose. The suitor, no matter how wonderful he is and how Christian he is, he's still in the back of his head. Oh my goodness, I finally have found the woman that I'm going to live with the rest of my life. And that's dangerous, and that's good. God gives us all these desires, but the dad is there to protect his daughter until the right time to be given over.

And then before there is a covenant, there is no protection. So the whole issue, and we'll talk about this, and there'll probably be questions about it. What happens if, you know, we've now made a date for the marriage and we're engaged and we're gonna get married in the six months and all of that, and so it's like we're married, so we can do all this and that. No, no, no. Until you make the covenant, the vows before God, you're not free, okay? So those are big things to be put in the category of how you sort this out. There's two passages that speak to these issues. They're somewhat long but not too bad. Numbers 30, 1 through 16, and Deuteronomy 22, 13 through 21. Now for those of you that listen to my thing on covenants in the Bible, yes these are under the Mosaic law and all of that, but the principles here are things that that we want to practice and want to think, because it's talking about family situation, who's in charge, who governs that situation, who protects what and all that kind of thing.

So as you see that, I agree, we don't live under the Mosaic covenant, but these principles are still there. Moses spoke to the head of the tribes of the people of Israel saying, this is what the Lord has commanded. If a man vows a vow to the Lord and swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. If a man, okay. If a woman vows a vow to the Lord and binds herself by a pledge, while within her father's house, in her youth, and her father hears of her vow and of her pledge by which she is bound herself and says nothing to her, then all her vows stand and every pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand.

So if he lets it slide that she makes this promise, it's a deal, all right? The woman's made a deal. But if the father opposes her on which she has bound herself, bound herself shall stand. But if her father opposes her on the day he hears of it, no vows of hers, no pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand. If your daughter does have promises something stupid, you as her dad can go down and protect her that way. There used to be laws that minors couldn't make deals, you know, that kind of thing. You might have a kid that, I can remember friends of mine that went to toy stores and bought stuff, and their parents thought it was too much money to spend on that, would go back because we would go to this hobby shop and they would take the thing back and get the money back as long as the package wasn't destroyed or anything.

A kid comes up, look what I bought, this $20 model and the dad said, no, you didn't. So that kind of thing. Now, we're talking more serious vows obviously. Let's see here. I'm gonna probably oppose it, okay. If she shall stand and the Lord, yeah. But if her father opposes her on that day, hears of it, her no vows, no pledge, by which she was bound herself shall stand and the Lord will forgive her because her father opposed her. Notice God is watching this and God wants the dad to oversee what his daughter is doing. If she marries a husband while under her vows or any thoughtless utterance of her lips by which she has bound herself, and her husband hears of it and says nothing to her on that day he hears, then her vows shall stand and her pledges by which she has bound herself shall stand.

Again, he lets it go, it goes, it's a deal. But if on the day that her husband comes to hear of it and he poses her and then makes void her vow, that was on her and the thoughtless utterance of her lips by what she bound herself, bound herself, and the Lord will forgive her. So if he says no on that same day, then no. But he can overlook that by ignoring it, and then it does become a thing. So negligence is not a good excuse. But any vow of a widow or a divorced woman, Anything by which she has bound herself, she'll stand against her. She's on her own now. She got married, she's out of the father's protection, right?

And if she vowed in her husband's house to bound herself by a pledge with an oath, and her husband heard of it and said nothing to her and did not oppose her, then all her vows shall stand in every pledge by which she bound herself, she'll stand. But if her husband makes them null and void on the day he hears them, then whatever proceeds out of her lips concerning her vows or her pledge of her shall so not stand. Her husband has made them void and the Lord will forgive her. Any vow and any binding oath to afflict herself her husband may establish or her husband may make void." Just repeating the same principle. But if her husband says nothing to her from day to day, then he establishes all her vows and all her pledges that are upon her.

He has established them because he has said nothing to her on the day he heard of them. But if he makes them null and void, he has heard of them and he shall bear her iniquity. These are the statue of the Lord. So the principle here, the big principle is dad governs the household and if the woman or the daughter or whatever goes out and makes his thing for his household, he immediately can take that back that day. But if he says, oh, let it slide, that's all right. Okay, don't carry this down and all kinds of things. The principle here is dead is the one that decides, all right? These are the statute of alerts. And then Deuteronomy 22, 13 through 21.

If any man takes a wife and goes into her and then hates her and accuses her of misconduct and brings a bad name upon her saying, I took this woman when I came near her. I did not find her in evidence of virginity. Then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of her virginity to the elders of the city in the gate. And the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, I gave my daughter to this man to marry and he hates her. And behold, he has accused her of misconduct saying, I did not find your daughter evidence of virginity. And yet this is the evidence of my daughter's virginity, and they shall spread the cloak before the elders of the city.

Then the elders of the city shall take a man and whip him, and they shall find him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name upon a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife. He may not divorce her all his days. But if the thing is true that the evidence of virginity was not found in the young woman, then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father's house, and the men of the city shall stoner to death with stones because she has done an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father's house. So you shall purge the evil from your midst."

Pretty severe punishment, but also protection there from the dad if things are straight, all right? The purpose here of reading those things is to reiterate, dad is in charge of the household and it's our duty to protect our daughters. Okay, so now I wanna repeat what I've said and then we'll have questions and kinda flush all this out maybe a little bit for people.

Biblical courtship is the standard, okay? Involved authority of the father is appreciated. It's not appreciated, it's absolutely needed. You're the dad, these are your protection things that you need to protect. Covenantal faithfulness keeps the marriage together, big principle. You're gonna all have stars in your eyes and everything's wonderful and I love her. And as the years go on, you still love her, but you love her in a whole different way than you did when you first saw her and we're all tingly, okay? And as that relationship grows, it gets deeper and more bound together, but it is, again, to your word and her word, and as you go through life and deal with all those problems, those bonds become really glued together because you deal with all these problems together.

And when you do that, it makes you really way stronger than you ever were when you saw an awe. That's the one I want to spend my life with. So that's that thing. Remember that romantic love and all of that and all we see in the movies is an invention from the 13th century and then carried on to absolute insanity the way we can see it with movies and radio programs, books, All the rest of it just goes all together. And romance, romance is a good thing, paying attention, doing little things, all of that, but it doesn't really, that isn't what holds things together. And then in romantic love and serial dating or recreational dating, one of the ingredients that happens there, and it slips in Christian romantic dating also is there is a certain degree of intimacy that happens.

When that happens you've crossed the line. When you become physical with somebody, no matter whether you're holding hands, putting your arm around or a little goodnight kiss or whatever, you have crossed the line from being pure to now you're in that zone of oh my goodness what's going on here how do I feel about this not to mention how she feels about it and all of that can grow and turn into a big fire that you don't want okay then the whole issue that we talked about the propaganda of all this dating just causes everybody to say oh Oh, you're just being an old fuddy-duddy or whatever, okay? The father is an obstacle that the suitor needs to get over.

You are an obstacle. You are a fence, a protective wall around your daughter. The system, especially if you're involved in the romantic dating kind of thing, is the villain. Gives situations that don't protect her heart. And the other thing that you're trying to do is protect her heart. Now, does this mean that I'm saying that we can't have dances like we do that where you do in the line and you do all this stuff together and you learn how to comport yourself properly and all of that in group settings? No, because what you're doing is learning how to function and be in the right attitude with people. What I'm talking about is, you guys all know, if you've ever been to senior proms with my age and I'm 77, so you probably know, tell them how they dance these days.

They hang all over each other and all they're doing is not cool. So you're looking for situations that don't have that. Group situations getting to know each other. Whole different kind of situation. You're watching other people in Bible studies or in group situations, life-to-life group you're watching and you're surveying the thing and, you know, oh, who do I think is interesting there? And those kinds of conversations in your house are good. Those kinds of conversations though, amongst you girls or even amongst you guys, you have to be very careful with what you're talking about, all right? Morgan, my daughter and a friend of hers had a coupon book and they used it as a kind of thing where they would look at people and say, well, those six guys, they could be in a coupon book.

I don't want to redeem the coupon, but at least they seem to qualify as people that look okay, all right? So all that's going to go on, and I'm not saying it's not going to, and I don't think it's sinful to think about those things, but the acting on them is the other thing. And when you expose that to the person maybe you're putting in your coupon book, now you're messing around with their heart and how they feel about things. And that can go wrong in a pretty quick way. So you gotta be very careful about that. Remember the situation that sons leave and daughters are given. The daughters are given by the father, okay?

And there's no intermediate state for the daughters. or at least really not really an intermediate state for sons either. They get to a place where they can leave and support themselves, they can leave and support themselves. The father is the protector of her purity. The suitor is the threat, remember that? And that's not to say he's not a good guy. But if you've raised up a great prize, this guy wants your great prize, all right? And before marriage, there is no covenantal protection. So you really want to be careful in those things. OK. So that's what I want to say about the thing. I'm not sure how everybody in the room feels about it.

I know how some of you feel about it. But are there any questions? Or what do you think about all this and all of that? and we do have a microphone so that we'll all hear the question so I don't have to repeat it. Getting complaints from people who are watching later. Well, we can't hear what the people in the audience are saying, so now I'm shoving a mic in your face, so that has to happen. What about dating before marriage? Going to the movies, going to dances. Yeah. I would say that it depends on what you're thinking about dating, you know. The movies and dancing as a date together probably shouldn't be done.

Let me tell a little story here on the side. Who exposed me to this is this guy in a big way. I read about it, but I really didn't farm it through. Remember I'm a guy that's just getting saved. I meet Shawn, when did we meet you? 92, sometime like that, 93. 97. Oh, 97. So we'd been saved for, you know, 10 years, 12 years. He was a threat. He wasn't, yeah, well, I knew he was a threat when I looked across the room and I realized there's all kinds of chemistry going on between him and Morgan, right? Across the gym, I'm seeing that. So, anyway, and then he called me up and said he wanted to meet and said, I'm interested in pursuing your daughter.

He gave me a list of references of friends of his that have known him for a while, all kinds of things, and said he wanted to be put on the grill, right, basically, for my thing. I went home to Gail and I said, You don't have to do anything to get to know the other person until you're actually made the covenant married. I mean, no, no, nothing comes into marriage. So Jack is asking, how do you get to know someone? Right. Are you allowed to do anything to get to know them? I mean, so how do you get to know the person? And I mean, are you just going to be in your separate houses for a year before you actually get married?

No. Yeah, I know. This is, think about, how old are you now, Jack? I'm 85. 85. So you're like another 10 years from me. So you're in that thing. So you were raised in that same environment I was, except a little earlier in the 50s and that kind of thing. And when you start seeing this played out, and here's the answer to your question. No, absolutely not. We think about it, and we farm it through a biblical system. How does he get to know her? He comes over to our house, and we have dinner. He knows her through group studies or group activities. You guys were in what were you, discipleship group, what was that thing called?

Youth ministry where they had all kinds of activities and they would do, but it was always in a group. And as they got to know each other on the side, then Sean and I would meet also weekly. It ended up, Sean and I met a lot because he was also an intern under, at that time, the junior high pastor. And I would meet with them weekly, and then Sean and I would talk about all kinds of stuff. So I'm getting to know him. He's getting no more hanging around our house. And this is a progression that got quite a bit of static when I was an elder down at Grace. We had Sean actually come and live in our house with us. I wanted Sean to see Morgan in the morning and see her when she was fighting with my wife.

In her morning glory. Yes. And we would see him in his morning glory. Now he slept downstairs in a cubby hole, the thing under the stairs. Closet. Yeah. Yeah, closet. And Morgan slept upstairs and everything. And when the elders heard of this, I had guys coming to me, how can you let the perspective guy that's gonna marry your daughter? And I said, because I want to get to know him better, and I want him to get to know what he's getting involved with. I said, you guys allow your daughter, the guy shows up, they all look pristine and pretty on Friday night, and they've all dolled themselves up. And you say, oh, it's good to see you, Bob, and you're a great guy, and the wife and I.

And you guys have fun at the movies or wherever you're going, and they get in the car and drive off for four to five hours or six hours. Where are they? What are they doing? What's happening? I knew where they were all the time. It's a whole different scene, and it's really different. But think about it, I know, you know, I was a major pagan and I was out there just to have as much fun and all of that as I could. So no way would I pass the test with anybody, which is good. Their daughter should have been protected from it. But you get to know them that way. And when we have a body like this, I think we know a lot of people in our fellowship group maybe better than I could dating them, just all the interactions we have.

You already said it, but I think that the important part is not exclusive. So Kim and Ian did a lot of things together, but it was Kim and Ian and often Esther Martin, who is no longer S-Mart. But, I mean, the three of them were doing stuff all the time. And so they really did know each other very well because they were in school together, they were in youth ministry together, they just, they were in a lot of sports together. And so in this community, it is pretty easy, but you have to think, okay, not exclusive. Because Dave hasn't said it, but the guys got one thing in mind. And you're the protector. And yeah, I mean, I, I, uh, I wouldn't require, I mean, because the, how we did it as it turned out in history, you know, I wouldn't make that method be the only way that it can happen, but there are definitely principles.

So danger of exclusive time together is a principle. And it does seem like a lot of Christians have a higher priority on spouse hunting than sanctification. So, you know, that there are challenges in different people's situations to actually meet or get to know somebody. That is true. but also we're not talking about exceptions. We're talking, we're trying to set up some principles in general and ideally you can actually get to know a whole lot about a person without going to a movie.

But the idea that you get to know a person better by taking them to dinner and a movie is kind of funny. Like, you get, there's lots of ways that you can get to know somebody and different amounts of time that that can take and that's fine. Different counselors who are helping you learn how to do that, including your dad. Like, it turned out, I didn't know until after I had talked to Moe and to Dave that I didn't know that they had already been talking about me at their house for over a month. I didn't know that, but like in a good, cause what we're talking about is establishing good households, not trying to immediately address all of the exceptions to the rule.

So dad's involved, dad's helping, dad's watching, dad's getting counsel from mom on mom's vibes and what she can see in somebody else. But again, principles are significant. And the girl you're interested in, getting to know her family is wonderful. Because that teaches you, oh, wow, that's interesting.

They're a little conservative about this or that. Or, you know, and you might not know that if you're just dating her. Because the whole dating principle of the showing up and everybody is perfectly dressed and everything And then you go off, they have this wonderful time, and then you come home, and then you wake up in the morning and you gotta do all this stuff, and you're cranky and all of that. That's life, that's how you really wanna do it. All right, so the biblical paradigm really isn't, I think really courtship, it's betrothal, and that was a covenant between the parents when the children were very young, and it was really an arranged marriage.

So I guess my question is, because we have a great group of Christians here, right? And why not reintroduce that in the context of church life, since we're all kind of pioneers now, and social, biblical social pioneers, and reintroduce that concept, it wouldn't be popular. But it is the biblical model.

The betrothal thing is a little bit tricky. There are some betrothal things in the Bible, but generally speaking the guy goes and pays a bride price and that kind of thing, buys her, or they see each other and they get together. So yeah, betrothal is, or betrothal between two families sometimes is it, the same like we see in Kings and Queens, you know, we got to match them up because this one is going to marry, so we get a political thing like that. But I don't think that's totally what the Bible says. But I do think, obviously, parents looking and saying, what do you think about Bob over here? He looks pretty good and we like that family and, you know, that kind of thing. I think those discussions are good. But again, like Sean says, we want the principle out there, which you're already recognizing. But I'm not sure, well for sure for me at this stage, I wouldn't say I'm advocating, you know, arranged marriages. I wouldn't say that for sure. I'm not doing that. I wouldn't do it, but yeah.

I think I understand, I mean, I think I understand the principle that you're getting after, But why is it helpful to phrase the suitor as a threat when, you know, you could phrase anything as, I'm a threat to my wife when I'm not walking in righteousness, you know, like I'm a threat to my children. Like there's always a threat when you're not walking in righteousness. So I mean there is threat all around when those two aren't walking. Yeah. I chose the word purposely because most people, at least in my generation, look upon it isn't that cute. They love each other and isn't that great. And they forget that the issue is they are playing with fire, especially if they're too close.

Just as much if your daughter is provoking that fire. Absolutely. Yeah. It goes without saying that I agree that you have to watch your daughter's behavior and not have your daughter be this, you know, Christina Aguilera or whatever, you know, I know. Yeah. And the discussions around our house and it bores Calvin to death, but we have a lot of them. What do you think about this dress? What do you think about these shoes? Can I wear this? And I appreciate it that my granddaughters come to me and I'm kind of the guy that they come in, because they know I like stylish stuff from all my comments about movie things and stuff, but I also don't like too much.

Too much is too much, and that's your husband or your future husband's business, that's not everybody's business kind of stuff. And that's a problem in today's world with swim teams and all the rest of it. I mean, you know, Elo. Yeah, the girls want that, not just the guys. I think one of the important things is that this is hard work on the parents' part. They really have to know their children, what their weaknesses are and what their strengths are, and be working on those from when they're toddlers so that they can understand heart issues when you're talking then about when they're a marriageable age. And if you haven't done that work, then I think that's where train wrecks.

That's where you don't understand. Or then you get subterfuge and hiding. So I think that parents need to understand. It's an early starting job of really digging into sinning their kids and then what pleases them. I don't know. It's just early starting work that we didn't know we had to do.

And as as we witnessed, we've learned especially a lot living with Morgan and Sean, watching them do their children. But that that's the whole purpose of this. We want generation generationally to change this thing. Swing the pendulum over here. And Wilson has some good things that you guys can listen to about this that don't require you to become commandantals, so I can recommend them. But the idea is we're building a new paradigm to live in. Our church here is trying to build a paradigm of fellowship of believers that are going to be the salt and light to the to change a lot of these mistakes they've made over the years.

And just because I made mistakes, I don't feel bad about it. I feel, okay, I learned from that. Now I can be an example of what not to do and help people to do the right thing. And we've got other people that are probably mid-range in this kind of thing, too. I mean, Philip, how did you greet this issue? marriage and you know when you finally got to the point and you said I like that one and you know what do you do yeah we did certain things wrong and then when I realized we did it we were doing it wrong so we we met younger and got emotionally attached when you couldn't do anything about it right you can't about it, right? Yeah, and so when I was convicted of that, I talked to her dad and asking him permission to pursue her dad. That was very unusual for him. That was not in that paradigm.

And so kind of stepping back, asking that permission and setting up my intentions for That was unusual for him. That was not normal. He was just kind of like why can't You know, you just hang out and then eventually get married But I wanted to Do it in that? Proper order. Yeah, but yeah that was I would not I Would not allow for my kids to get as emotionally attached to somebody the way we did so you learn from your miss Right, yeah. So stupid people learn from this thing. I had a long list I had to go through. Right. And we didn't do so good until it came along that Sean introduced this whole concept to us. We were fudging around with...

So the whole idea of over first place? Yeah, that kind of thing. And it did a lot of damage. We got married younger. We had to correct. So at 19 I proposed and then got married within I think six months or so, March to August. But I had a question maybe off of Ian's point as well about the sudras of threat.

Maybe specifically in our context, we're looking for more threats in our church. We want these... We want more threadable candidates. Yeah, we want a risky lifestyle. More of it here. Right, so if we are too on guard and these threats are not coming, it's also a problem. Definitely. Yeah, so fathers are presented as a gatekeeper right in that way, which is good and correct. What are maybe some principles or maybe even practices that a father in our context could be doing when, like the goal, his ultimate goal for the dad is not to make sure the daughter is just protected, right? The goal is to make sure the daughter is married, to make sure the daughter is given to marriage.

Protection is a means to an end there. So in pursuing that ultimate goal of marriage, if there is a shortage of marriageable men interested or even available, are there some principles that dads could be thinking about working through in their own households and how to approach that kind of context? That is an excellent question, I think. You want to try that one, Sean? Yeah, I mean, well, one thing is I take threat as sort of a playful way to say it's more than just cute. And I think your comment about how we're playing with fire is a significant piece. We actually do want men who are men, not weenies. So like Phillip said, do want men who are strong but know what that strength is for.

So think you'd in terms of like what you're looking for, you're looking for a guy who has self control, you're looking for a guy who is not always waiting for someone else to tell them what to do, you're looking for and so is taking some measure of initiative somewhere, which could even include initiative with the dad and pursuing him to ask him the question. So he's got self control in his own life, seen through a variety of spheres, initiation, willingness to go first. If he's not going to be willing to risk something in having a conversation with the dad, then who's to say that he's going to be able to make a decision in their marriage, what he cares about, and that you can only find out, either by living with him in the midst of the community or by asking him directly.

But like I only have done it one time so far, but I... It really clicked when I realized that this guy could take care of her better than me. And that didn't disappoint me. That excited me. I was like, all right. There's no doubt in my mind he can do it. I see the things in him that are actually better of a compliment for her that she can also compliment rather than even just that I can do. And that made it sweet. And not everybody maybe gets to be in that such a clear position, but in terms of, in my own thinking, that was super helpful. So what is it, knowing the frame of your daughter, in this case, knowing her frame and knowing her strengths and weaknesses, her gifts, her temptations to sin.

So I made Taylor read a book about having nerve and courage and being strong, because I seem to raise kids that have opinions about things. So I knew that any man who was going to take Maggie, who was going to need to have his own strong opinions, which, you know, Taylor totally does. So that was great. And he has things that are just way better for her than what I was offering her as a dad. That said, I will include that because we had been seeking to protect Maggie. We did assign Maggie on one of their dates. We did assign Maggie to put her arm through his arm while they were walking somewhere to make sure that she had all of the physical interest rather than just being cold and afraid.

But that's because Maggie's problem was not being a hussy or Christina Aguilera or whatever label you want to use. That was not Maggie's ditch. So she was in the a little bit too reserved maybe. And so we gave her instructions to get up close to him and see how that went. And turned out, she liked it. So that kind of thing, yeah. We've been talking a lot about looking for a guy who's a threat in a good way. But what are some like hot tips for young men to become more of a threat in a good way?

Because if we're, if fathers are supposed to be looking for young men who are a threat in a good way and we need more guys who are threats or marriageable material, what are some tips or what are some good practices to become that sort of a threat? Practicing those things that like we recommend, like future men, those principles and making those principles happen in whatever job you go in. I mean, I don't wanna embarrass you, Sam, but Sam went to work for, what do you guys need? bend wire into special things and stuff. And immediately he knew to get ahead in this place that he had to make it happen. So he's watching and Sam's very engineering looking.

He looks at stuff and oh, we could do this. So he became very competent in it and worked his way up immediately. And the other day when you're waiting around in the mud whenever that was at the wedding, obviously you went somewhere and mucked it out made it happen. Those kind of traits are the things that I look for in people. It's like hiring an employee. If a person comes through a job interview for me and their first question is what days do I get off and what's my vacation pay, that's the end of the interview. You can go out the door. Goodbye. We're raised in a world that is so upside down that it's But it's hard to find people that realize what you want is somebody to show up on time, do what you say, and work as hard as you can.

And when you find those kind of people, I'll take them with almost zero knowledge in my company because I realize that kind of character will make them valuable. But if they don't have that, it ain't gonna happen. And they're taught, I mean, I was interviewing people in the 70s that came to me And that was their first question. They'd been to college and they'd have all this theoretical sales experience. And their first questions, I mean, they bring out a list of questions. And all the questions are, what are the bonuses? And what days do I get off? And all of that kind of stuff. And I got tired of talking with them.

We quit doing it. So it's crazy. Yeah. The one thing, I kind of talked to Cal's question a little bit, we know that God's will for us is our sanctification. And Sean alluded to it, but I think that ultimately, it seems like that's the thing that we all want to be working on primarily in our lives. Even thinking as fathers, you'll be in the best position to be a discerning protector the more sanctified you get.

get and it's the thing that we can be doing all the time. So for young people that want to want to be married there's a lot of moving parts that have to take place before that happens but the one thing you can do every single day is work on your sanctification and that will prepare you I mean that will prepare you to be a better spouse whether you're male or female and so I think I think that's, to me, that's sort of the, maybe it seems simplistic in one sense, but it's the call for all of us, but it is the one thing that will be most helpful in all the areas, whether it's parents, whether it's future spouses. Yeah, with us.

If you are growing leaps and bounds in a church community, all the moms are gonna see that young man growing in Christ. and likewise the ladies. So that sanctification is going to be super visible. And that helps arrange marriages when you've got people who are obviously being fruitful in their growth in Christ. And you want to see those people, because they look more ready. Well, in their participation, You see them having fun and being together and having a sense of humor. Like the Bikinis' you guys just generate all that. There's all kinds of action going on. Whether you got a dead chicken you got to take care of or a new dog or whatever it is.

And yeah. And all of that is part of life and the joy of that and watching that. A lot of people notice all that. And the big problem with how do we find the men, is it's tricky. Because right now we have not that many eligible men in our church. And so how do you go outside that sphere? In the things that you do, in the places you go, who knows, you know? But I do know that we worship an all powerful God that knows if you are meant to be married, he already knows how that's going to get together. And I think in your sanctification, you can be calm in that knowing that will happen. First of all, I wanted to say this is really cool.

This is a subject that I've been thinking about for a while for my kids. And yeah, a lot of the stuff that I've heard has been very helpful. One of the questions I had was what are some of the advices for how to help our kids find the one? Like what are the environments that we as parents can set up for them to help them with that? Like for me, for example, I met my wife at a kid's camp, but I was the director and my wife was one of the teachers, and that was one of the ways that we were able to see each other working with kids, and both of us really cared about, like, how's my future spouse gonna work with kids and deal with kids?

That was very important for both of us. And we were able to see those interactions from each one of us. So what are some of the advices from you guys? Yeah, live life. Like with my son, Morgan, it was fortunate that she really didn't leave the home at any time. She did work for, once she got married, she worked for all kinds of different people. And she was capable of doing all of that. But like with our son, we found out what he really liked to do And then we encouraged him to find jobs like that that would help him. And as he actually went to work as a janitor at Grace Community First, which was like the lowest on the totem pole there because the seminary guys would work at night because then they'd go to classes and stuff.

And Eldy got to know a few of them. And then he had a great interest in computers, so then he went to work and that kind of thing. And as he did that, he met other people in the church. And he would look around and see people. Of course, with that big a church, you have a dearth of all kinds of people. And he would look around and find somebody. And his thing was he would ask them to coffee. And he got refused a whole bunch of times. Or they would come, and after they had coffee, they didn't want any more coffee with him. And so, right. And the interesting thing, see what creeps in, we are all schooled that the ding, ding, ding's got to go off when really you're looking for an inner character that will be there 50 years from now.

And that's very difficult when you're young and you've watched all the movies and you have in your head what you're looking for and all of that. It's hard, and you have to depend that God will bring you to those circumstances. But you certainly don't stay hovered in. I mean, everywhere you go, I think you want to be nice to people and all that. And if you have opportunity, like if you knew you liked working with a camp or something, you go there, you're probably going to find somebody that is doing that because they like it too, you know, that kind of thing. But it is tough, especially thinking about here.

If you're the guy and you're of marriageable age in this group, I think you have quite the choice. If you're a girl that's getting there, all us cool dudes are taken. I didn't mean that tomorrow, you guys. But yeah, but it's a problem. and you just have to follow what God brings in front of you, I think, because we don't have any big cure to it that I know of, right? Jim's not here, see, he got sick today, so he didn't have to answer this. But I'll tell a story on Jim. Esther and, or not Esther.

Azumi and Chris, did they, I mean, spark it off immediately the first year she came here to be an exchange student? Yeah. And it never faded away. And Izumi went down to Grace Community Church and was the secretary there for a while while Chris was there and everything. And it was crazy. And Chris, with Izumi at the same place, it just shorted his circuits where he couldn't even do, was it his second year that he fell off the wagon because she came there and it just fried his brain. He couldn't do anything. And Jim and I talked about it and I said, they gotta get married. Well, he's not done. And I said, no, no, I said, let him get married.

They'll be, as a team, they'll be way better off. And they got married and now, have they finally made him the senior pastor yet? Or is it? Yeah. And it's fascinating their whole story and how they did that, very similar to you guys. And you're of that group, weren't you? If you stay after, we can arrange you into couples. Yeah, that'd be good. We'll pair you all up. But Jeff has to give the final approval. Sorry, is everybody ready? Good. Watch the prayer, yeah. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this church And the way you have blessed us, bringing families to us. And we do ask that you would give us wisdom in the ideas of having more balanced younger men, maybe, that are excited about you and all of that.

But we thank you the way that you bless us and the way that we are blessing the community. And I see that all the time. I meet people that go, oh, I met that person and saw them in this store or whatever. So it is having an effect, and we thank you for that. And we thank you how you know, and that's where our sanctification as we've spoken about is wonderful. As we know you better, we know you want what's best for us even though we in our own deciding and planning sometimes think we know better than you. Help us not to be that way. Help us to understand from your perspective as much as you would have us know. And help us to be faithful.

So we thank you for all these things. And of course we thank you most of all for your son and his sacrifice for us. In Jesus name we pray, amen.

One of the most frequent questions asked by God's people is, "How long?" It’s more than a question, it’s a complaint, and yet it is a complaint of faith. The complaint has no teeth if there is no God to answer the question. And that God must have power and be righteous and have already revealed enough for people with faith to see that how it should be isn't how it is. How long until God makes things right?

This question opens the burden of the prophet Habakkuk. And while the LORD gave this vision with particular people/nations in mind, and while the first level fulfillments have already taken place, the situation in Habakkuk's day bears much similarity to our own. The realities of God's sovereignty, justice, and salvation are very much still at stake.

At least four parts of this three chapter minor prophet are familiar to us. The last few verses (3:17-19) are often quoted at weddings, fitting with a “for better or worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health" vibe. We also sing about all the earth in silence (2:20). We long for the earth to be “filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (2:14). And especially because that is what we want, Habakkuk 2:4 resonates the most: “the righteous shall live by his faith.”

This was the whole theme of Romans according to Paul (Romans 1:16-17). The gospel saves believers, and saved believers keep on believing. Faith is life, from start to finish. The author of Hebrews also quotes Habakkuk 2:4 in terms of our confidence and courage and not being cowards (Hebrews 10:38).

Faith was necessary for Habakkuk and any of the righteous. Faith isn’t only the first breath, it is the blood and bones of our life.

The book has two main divisions, both of which name "Habakkuk the prophet." In 1:1 the prophet has an "oracle" and in 3:1 he has a “prayer.” The oracle includes two complaints, the second caused by the Lord's answer to the first, and the second answer includes five woes. The dialogue between Habakkuk and the Lord take up the first two chapters. The entire last chapter was Habakkuk's submission to the Lord and was intended to be sung, as shown by the final words.

This morning we'll meet the prophet and consider his problem in context. It's more than facts of history, it is food for hope.

There is not much of an intro or background on Habakkuk.

The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw. (Habakkuk 1:1 ESV)

Habakkuk is the name of the prophet, and all we get is his title. There's nothing else about this prophet in the Old Testament, though based on the content of this book he must have been a contemporary of Nahum and Zephaniah (the books before and after Habakkuk), as well as Jeremiah. This puts him in Israel when Josiah was King of Judah, near the last half of the 7th century BC.

Oracle is a typical word from the Lord, a message, a “prophecy” (NIV), a “pronouncement” (CSB). Sometimes translated "burden" (KJV); it’s a heavy/hard message. It came in the form of a vision because it was something Habakkuk saw.

These are small but vital details because it might seem as if Habakkuk's questions are personal. And they are. But the observations Habakkuk makes about Israel and Babylon and the future, as well as the responses from the Lord, are all revelation Habakkuk received. The prophecy is God’s Word, and so profitable for us as well.

Here is Habakkuk's complaint of faith. Two questions make up the prophets cries.

O LORD, how long shall I cry for help,

Habakkuk calls on the LORD, Yahweh, the name God gave to Israel when He made covenant with them. The prophet has been praying, this is not his first prayer. He’s wondering how long shall I cry...or cry, because it seems that the Lord is not replying.

Things are bad, and we’ll see more specifics in verses 3-4, but there is Violence! (a key word in Habakkuk, used here, the next verse, 1:9, 2:8 and twice in 2:17), such that God is needed for salvation. Why isn’t the Lord answering and stopping the damage and destruction?

Why do you make me see iniquity,

Three pairs of problems that are Habakkuk’s face. Can the Lord not see? Or does He see and idly look, doing nothing about it? Why is God just standing by?

Iniquity and wrong. The first word also has the idea of injustice, which, we only know about justice because of God to begin with. And so the second word relates to unjust actions, the consequences of violating the standard.

Destruction and violence are filling up his news feed, they are before me, all he can see. Violence is what he’s been crying out about (see verse 2), and the results are damaging beyond repair, ravaging and ruinous.

The third pair are strife and contention. Broken standards break society. It’s obvious, but sin makes stupid sinners. Ethics and morality are relational, before God, yes, but between one another. We can’t violate what is right toward another person and think that won’t start unraveling the whole into a mess, especially when no one stops it.

Why does the Lord “tolerate” (NIV) any of this?

So the law is paralyzed,

Four lines of results. First, law is paralyzed, and this is fine translation, but the Hebrew verb carries the idea of making something cold, like one’s hand, so numbed, and ineffective, useless, or paralyzed. The law was supposed to hold back the violence and bring forth justice.

While many cultures/nations had some sort of laws, using the word Hebrew word torah for law shows that the corruption is in Judah. This is internal fraud, dishonesty, lawbreaking by judges. So “justice is never upheld” (NASB), no one seems to be getting what they deserve.

That leaves nowhere to go for the righteous, the wicked surround them, or “hem in” (NIV). When things are working, the righteous could appeal to the authorities and those who disobeyed would be punished, property could be restored. The process provides no protection anymore.

And justice is perverted, twisted; order becomes chaos. Justice comes out crooked.

Though Habakkuk complains that the LORD was inattentive, He was actually already lining up world powers. Judgment was coming, which, turns out, would be even less comfortable than the injustice. God’s answer is that Judah will be punished. God is going to send the Babylonians (Chaldeans) per verse 6. It would be a surprise, and this helps us date Habakkuk itself.

Manasseh was king in Judah for 55 years, the most evil and idolatrous king of Judah, and then his son Amon ruled for two years following in Manasseh’s sins. But Assyria was the superpower in the Middle East during their reigns; so Habakkuk’s burden must come later. Josiah became king of Judah around 640 BC when he was only 8 years old. During Josiah’s rule righteousness was restored. He was already reforming the nation, and when workers repairing the temple found a copy of the Book of the Law, Josiah humbled himself and even more so and sought to lead for the Lord.

Josiah died in 609. Babylon rose under Nabopolassar and defeated Assyria at Nineveh, just before Josiah’s death, in 612. Then his son Nebuchadnezzar marched on Jerusalem three times: 605 - when Daniel was taken captive, again in 597 when King Jehoiakim was taken captive, and finally conquering Judah and taking even more captives.

So the cultural wickedness got bad quickly, shortly after 609, and Habakkuk could see the anxiety and agitation. The consequences were coming. This leads to Habakkuk’s “wait a second, though, how can an even more wicked people punish this (less) wicked, covenant people?”

The oracle of Habakkuk has happened; it’s history. Corruption for the covenant community (Judah) had catastrophic consequences. God will judge the wicked, and He will even use other wicked peoples to do it, as He determines is right.

The United States are not Israel/Judah. But, by way of application, our nation did know better, it’s in our books. We cannot claim ignorance of God or His standards. With Habakkuk we are allowed to cry for God’s justice. We should want the glory of the Lord to fill the earth. And as Christians we should remember that judgment begins with the household of God (1 Peter 4:17). With Habakkuk, the righteous shall live by faith.

When the foundations crumble, that is not the time to abandon hope, that’s when hope is potent. When the windows are broken, that’s not time to leave your trash on the floor. In other words, what should you do when so many things aren’t right? By faith YOU do what is right.

For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And