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Waiting and Living by Faith.html
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/strict.dtd">
<html><head><meta name="qrichtext" content="1" /><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><title>Waiting and Living by Faith</title><style type="text/css">
p, li { white-space: pre-wrap; }
</style></head><body style=" font-family:'Courier New'; font-size:12pt; font-weight:400; font-style:normal;">
<p align="center" style=" margin-top:63px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px;"><span style=" font-family:'Open Sans'; font-size:24pt;">Waiting and Living by Faith</span></p>
<p align="center" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:63px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="center" style=" margin-top:9px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px;"><span style=" font-family:'Open Sans';">Living by Faith in Troubled Times—May 10, 2009</span></p>
<p align="center" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:9px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="center" style=" margin-top:9px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px;"><span style=" font-family:'Open Sans'; font-size:14pt; font-style:italic;">Habakkuk 2:1–4</span></p>
<p align="center" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:9px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:9px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; vertical-align:super;">1 </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint. </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; vertical-align:super;">2 </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">Then the Lord replied: “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; vertical-align:super;">3 </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay. </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; vertical-align:super;">4 </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">See, he is puffed up; his desires are not upright—but the righteous will live by his faith …”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:9px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p style=" margin-top:9px; margin-bottom:18px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic;">This is the Word of the Lord</span></p>
<p style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:9px; margin-bottom:18px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:9px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">We started looking at this little book in the Old Testament, Habakkuk. We’re doing it because it’s a book about how to handle and face evil times. You know, when a society has a long run (many years or decades) of good times, things getting better and better, people begin to think that’s normal. That’s how history should be going. They should always find that things get better and better over time. “Our children will do better than we did, have it a little bit better than we did.”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:9px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">As somebody said, societies can get into the view that peace and prosperity are the rule in the world and the right of all sensible folk. The Bible (the book of Habakkuk, the book of Job, many other places) says that’s just not true. Of course, history shows it’s not true. The first part of the twentieth century (from 1910 to 1945) was a terrible time. Very evil times came on for decades in which things did not get better and better. Things did not improve.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">Everybody wondered how we were going to make it through. Now we’ve just started into a major economic recession. It’s far worse than the ones we’ve had for generations. It would be naïve and presumptuous to say, “Oh, evil times have started.” It would also be naïve and presumptuous to say evil times haven’t.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">It doesn’t matter, because if you come to grips with parts of the Bible like Habakkuk, the book of Job, places in the Psalms, you’re prepared. Because the Bible, in these places, says, “No, don’t expect, don’t count on, good times. That’s not really the norm, but even in disaster and evil, God is working and there are ways for you to face it.” That’s what we’re looking at for just a few weeks in the book of Habakkuk.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">Last week, we started with chapter 1. In 1, Habakkuk starts with a great complaint. He is complaining to God, saying, “Why? Look at all this evil and suffering you’re allowing to happen in my society.” God’s first response is, “It’s going to get even worse. I’m going to bring the Babylonians. They’re going to invade your country. It’s going to get even worse.” Habakkuk calls out and says, “I’m even more confused now. I’m even more upset.”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">Then he waits to hear God’s second answer. He prayed. God has a first answer. He prays again. Then God will have a second answer. In this interlude here (2:1–4), Habakkuk waits. Actually, in this little section, you have a number of metaphors and a number of verbs that tell us a lot about this very key theme in the Bible and really (I don’t know if you can call it a </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic;">skill</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';"> but …) one of the main ways in which we’re able to handle evil times.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">It’s what the Bible calls “waiting on the Lord.” </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">Waiting upon the Lord. This is a major theme in the Bible</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">, and it’s a major theme here. It’s almost a cliché because people talk about this. People say, “I’m just waiting on the Lord.” People say, “You need to wait on the Lord.” Nobody knows what that means. They don’t know what that means. It sounds spiritual. I want you to know there </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic;">is</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';"> a meaning to it, and it’s a rich meaning.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">The Bible, in many places, tells us what it means, and maybe no better than here, because there are at least five aspects or five ways to wait on the Lord that we see in this text. </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">We are to wait on the Lord </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">patiently</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">, </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">perspectively</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">, </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">obediently</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">, </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">God-centrically</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">, and </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">joyfully</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p style=" margin-top:18px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px;"><span style=" font-family:'Open Sans'; font-weight:600;">1. Patiently</span></p>
<p style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:18px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:9px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">You notice how down in verse 3, God says, “For the revelation awaits an appointed time … Though it linger, wait for it.” What he means here is Habakkuk is very confused. He is very upset. He is looking for answers. He is searching for answers. God says, “I’m going to give you some answers. I’m going to send you revelation, but it might linger. It may take time. If it lingers (and it will linger), wait for it.”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:9px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">This word for </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic;">wait</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';"> is the basic Hebrew word for </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic;">wait</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">, and it means, “Be patient.” You know, if you’re waiting for a bus and it doesn’t come and it doesn’t come, and you just go home, you’ve given up. You’re not waiting for it anymore. Wait for it. If you’re in a doctor’s office and you’re waiting and waiting and she doesn’t call for you and you just go home, then that’s that. Or you can wait for it. </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">Wait</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;"> means be patient. </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">Wait</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;"> means don’t give up. Don’t despair.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">It means don’t chafe and agitate, but be patient. The first thing (maybe the most basic thing) waiting on the Lord means is when everything makes no sense, when you’re confused, you’re perplexed, you don’t know what’s going on in your life, you’re in the midst of difficulties, instead of giving up, blowing up, you’re patient. Be patient. That’s what waiting on the Lord means. Be patient in your troubles, in your circumstances.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">A lot of people say, “Oh, I wish I could,” as if … What do you mean, “I wish I could”? “I wish I had patience,” as if patience is like a germ you catch or you don’t. Actually, as far as I understand, the </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">Bible says patience comes from a couple of deliberate actions. First of all, patience comes as a deliberate act of </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">humility</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">. It’s a deliberate act of humility. Patience is always an act of humility.</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';"> For example, in James 4, we read this.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">“Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. […] Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’ ” It says you have your plans and you know how things ought to work, but you don’t know. </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">You say, “This is going to happen. That’s going to happen.” But you don’t know. You ought to say, “Well, if it’s the Lord’s will.”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">What does that mean? When things go wrong, we think of our anger. We think of our despair. We think of our worry and our fear as feelings we can’t help. But this is saying those feelings arise out of an assumption of your own omniscience. There’s an assumed omniscience. When you’re really saying, “Oh, this is awful …” “What? Why?” “Because </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">X, Y, Z</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;"> is not happening. That will be a disaster if </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">X, Y, Z</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;"> doesn’t happen.”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">Oh, you know, huh? You know </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">X, Y, Z</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;"> has to happen for life to mean … How do you know? It says you don’t know. You’re upset, but you don’t know. Please lay down the melancholy burden of assumed omniscience. It’s such a relief. Even the wisest people do not see all ends. When you are just freaking out because, “This has to happen,” that means you think you know. You’re not omniscient. The freaking out is coming from your certainty that you know. You don’t know. Be humble. It’s a deliberate act of humility. That’s one way to be patient.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">Another way patience comes is through a savvy vote for your own personal growth.</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';"> What does that mean? What it means is … Most of us don’t do this. Most of us don’t way, “When bad things happen, when difficulties come upon us, when disappointments happen, real disappointments some of you are facing right now, we just don’t say, “What an opportunity for me to become the kind of person I’ve always wanted to be, my loved ones always wanted me to be, and God wants me to be.”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">No, you don’t usually think like that, do you? That’s why I’m suggesting it for you here. Because </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">when you meet disappointments with patience, it turns you into something neat, great, and good. The Bible says so. For example, James 1. “Consider it joy, brethren, when you face trials of many kinds, because the testing of your faith can produce patience. If it produces patience, the patience will finish its work so when you are complete, you will lack nothing.”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">Romans 5:3. “We rejoice in our tribulations, knowing they produce patience, and then patience produces character, and character hope. That hope will not disappoint us, for it brings the love of God shed in our hearts.” See, when bad things happen, if you meet it with patience, it turns you into a person of character, a person of poise, or not. You know, pressure can turn a lump of coal into a diamond.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">Some years ago, I was watching a movie. It was a battle movie, a war movie. There was this soldier. He has been wounded. He has shrapnel and bullets in him. </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">The surgeon comes and has to do surgery to save his leg or something, I guess. The surgeon only has local antithetic. The patient is going to be awake when he does the surgery.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">He says, “Now here’s the thing you have to realize. When I lay you on that table, you have to stay still. No matter what you feel, no matter how … You cannot flail around. If you stay absolutely still, then you’ll be better off. We’ll save the leg. If you flail around, it will be almost worse than if we hadn’t ever done the surgery at all.”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">When circumstances … bad circumstances, disappointments … hit, you can either flail around and become a more bitter person or you can be patient and turn into someone who is actually, in the end, more peaceful, a person of greater character, a person of greater endurance. You know, when troubles hit you, it’s either going to drive you toward having a far better prayer life than you ever had before or a far worse prayer life than you ever had before.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">I don’t know anybody who has a great prayer life, who really knows how to connect to God … </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">A great prayer life is worth more than diamonds. I don’t know anybody who didn’t find that prayer life under pressure. It’s one of the diamonds that was created by being patient under suffering. When trouble happens and difficulty happens, do you say, “I’m going to vote for my own personal growth,” or do you flail around?</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">You know, maybe the key verse in the book of Job (Job 23:10), Job says, “God knows what he is doing with me,” which is another way of saying, “I don’t.” See, when Job says, “God knows what he is doing with me; I don’t,” that’s patience. He is saying, “Look. I don’t know what in the world God is doing. I have no idea, but he knows.” Then he says, “… when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">See, because he says, “I’m going to meet this with patience,” he is going to grow into something he never could have been otherwise. </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">Therefore, waiting on the Lord means not giving up, not chafing, not freaking out, being patient under your circumstances even though you’re confused by a deliberate act of humility and a savvy vote for your own personal and spiritual growth.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p style=" margin-top:18px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px;"><span style=" font-family:'Open Sans'; font-weight:600;">2. Perspectively</span></p>
<p style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:18px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:9px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">You say, “What does that mean?” Well, I’m looking at the image Habakkuk uses in verse 1 when he says, “I will … station myself on the ramparts.” See, he is waiting for God. He is waiting to hear from God. He says, “I will … station myself on the ramparts.” That’s a word, by the way, that means … I don’t know why the New International Version used </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic;">ramparts</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">, which is a little bit vaguer. It’s a word that literally means a tower.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:9px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">Why did cities build towers? They built towers so you could see what was coming. See, down in the city or on the ground, there are all sorts of things you can’t see. But in the tower and the higher the tower, the more you can see what’s coming. You can see weather coming that you can’t see on the ground so the city can be ready for it. You can see enemies coming that, on the ground, you couldn’t see till it’s too late.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">You can see embassies coming. You can see everything coming. You can see what’s coming! You know, for example, if there was an enemy at your city gate, down on the ground you’d say, “Oh my! What are we going to do?” If you’re up in the tower, you can see there are reinforcements coming 20 times the number of the people at the gate. You say, “Phew!” You got perspective on it. It’s going to be all right.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">What does it mean when Habakkuk says spiritually (obviously), “I’m waiting on the Lord by going into the tower”? What does that mean spiritually speaking? What that really means is you must not just simply look at your problem. You have to put it in the bigger perspective of everything the Bible tells you.</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';"> Let me give you an example of going into the tower.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">Paul says in Romans 8, “For I reckon …” Now that word </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic;">reckon</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';"> is the word </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic;">logizomai</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">, which means, “I add it up. I calculate it. I think it out. I work it out in detail.” He says, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">Paul had a lot of suffering. A lot of things went wrong for him. He had physical problems with his eyes. He was persecuted. All kinds of problems. He says, “I put it in perspective. </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">My sufferings look really big until I compare them to the glory that will be revealed.” He is going into the tower. He is looking at the big picture. Suddenly his sufferings look small.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">Listen. This is very practical. He is sick, but get into the tower. You say, </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">“Well, wait a minute. The only sickness that can really kill me, which is sin, is gone. It’s done. It’s been paid for.” Or you can say, “I’m in debt, but the only debt that can really sink me forever and ever and ever is sin, and that has been paid for. There is a true riches at the end of time that I will have for me, and even the greatest wealth I could possibly amass here on the earth is nothing compared to that.”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">What’s Paul doing? He is meditating on the glory that is coming until it penetrates him and he looks at his suffering and he can handle it. Do you see that? Do you do that? Do you know how to do that? Waiting on God, waiting on the Lord, is not a passive thing. Waiting on the Lord means thinking like that, going into the tower, </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic;">logizomai</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">. “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">I think and think and think, and I think about the glory until my sufferings become something I can handle. Patience comes from acts of deliberate humility. Waiting on the Lord comes from acts of deliberate perspective. I’m putting things in perspective. I’m waiting on it perspectively. I’m waiting on him patiently. That’s not all. Thirdly, waiting on the Lord doesn’t just mean getting the proper perspective and being patient; it also means being obedient.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p style=" margin-top:18px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px;"><span style=" font-family:'Open Sans'; font-weight:600;">3. Obediently</span></p>
<p style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:18px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:9px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">That comes from the very, very top where he uses the image not just of going up into the tower but being a sentry in a tower. He says, “I will stand at my watch …” If you’re in the military, you certainly know this, but even if you’re not in the military, you know this from common experience and what you’ve heard.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:9px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">If you are a sentry on duty, if you’re on guard duty, it doesn’t matter whether you feel badly. It doesn’t matter whether you’re sleepy. It doesn’t matter whether you’re bored. It doesn’t really matter how you feel. It doesn’t matter your circumstances. You may not leave your post. You can’t. The whole city could be lost. You can’t say, “Well, you know, I’ve been up here day after day. There have never been any enemies. I’m going to knock off early.” Or, “I’m tired. I’m bored.”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">It doesn’t matter. You cannot leave your post. You must do your duty. This is Habakkuk’s way of showing us that even though he is struggling with God … We saw that last week, and we will later too. He is struggling enormously with God. He is emotionally and intellectually very realistic. He doesn’t get it. He is asking God some really hard questions, but he will not leave his post.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">What that means is really simple. You may be weary. You may feel God is absent. You may be getting absolutely nothing out of your Christian walk at all. You may be incredibly confused about what’s going on. You may be experiencing disappointment after disappointment after disappointment. You may be getting none of your prayers answered. You can’t leave your post. You have to obey him.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">Do you know why? Because the word </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic;">waiting</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';"> even in English doesn’t mean waiting around. Why do they call them “waiters” and “waitresses”? They’re certainly not waiting around. They’re </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic;">running</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';"> around. Why? Because to wait means to serve. Ladies in waiting or servants in waiting are not waiting around. They’re serving. One of the things waiting on the Lord means is, even when you don’t feel like it, you still do your duty.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">What does that mean? Well, on the one hand, what very often happens when God seems absent, evil times, disappointments, difficulties, one of the things we do is we just stop doing a lot of things we usually do. We stop coming to worship. We stop private prayer. We stop reading our Bible. We stop going to our small group if you go to a small group. You stop serving people. You stop doing for people. Why? Because you’re filled with self-pity. You feel bad, and you’re not getting anything out of it, right?</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">At the court-martial for the sentry who just left his post, the judge says, “What do you have to say for yourself?” He says, “I wasn’t getting anything out of it, so I left.” “Oh, well. I’m sorry. Case dismissed.” No! Not at all. So what if you’re getting nothing out of it? Someone wrote the great pastor John Newton (he is also the great hymn writer) and said, “I’m just getting nothing out of praying.”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">He says, “I can tell you you’re going to get nothing out of </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic;">not</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';"> praying. If you get nothing from trying every day to go to the throne of grace, I can absolutely assure you you’ll get nothing by staying away. You keep it up. You just keep at it.” </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">Waiting on the Lord obediently does not just mean doing the things you should do, not just failing to do the things you should do. It also means not trying to do some things you know you shouldn’t.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">I mean, in times where you’re weary, you’re disappointed, you’re empty, you don’t know why God is not answering your prayers, it’s very easy … You just want to feel good, so you do things with sex. You do things with money. You do things with food. You do things to make yourself feel good. You do something you know isn’t right, and you feel high for a minute. Then afterwards, you feel even worse.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">That’s leaving your post. The one thing you mustn’t do … </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">Waiting on the Lord means no matter how evil things are, you don’t leave your post. You just do what you’re supposed to do. Do the next thing. Put one foot in front of the next. </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">I still think in all of literature the most vivid of all the examples of this is (I get this out every couple of years because you all need to hear it the first time or maybe the second or third time) Jane Eyre in the famous novel.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">She is a woman who was an orphan. She is plain. Nobody likes her. She grows up, and nobody really cares for her. She is just so lonely. She wants so much to be loved. Then she meets this handsome man, Mr. Rochester. He loves her, and she loves him. Then she finds out he is married. He has a mentally ill wife, but she is still alive. He says something along the lines of, “Just come and live with me.”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">Of course, her moral principles are, “Hey, marriage is for better and for worse. You have an obligation to stay faithful to your wife. I can’t come and live with you.” At that point, what she knows in her head is the right thing to do and what she wants to do in her heart are two absolutely, completely diametrically opposed things. The dialogue that goes on between her and Mr. Rochester and between the different parts of her own heart is just remarkable.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">This is a remarkable example of waiting on the Lord and not leaving your post. This is her voice. She said, “Not a human being that ever lived could wish to be loved better than I was loved; and him who thus loved me I absolutely worshiped: and I must renounce love and idol.” Interesting. “I did.”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">This is a paraphrase, but Mr. Rochester said with a wild look crossing his features, “What do you mean, Jane? What shall I do? Where shall I turn for a companion and for some hope?” Jane said, “Do as I do: trust in God and yourself. Believe in heaven. Hope to meet again there.”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">“Then you will not yield?”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">“No.”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">“Then you condemn me to live wretched and to die accursed?”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">“I advise you to live sinless, and I wish you to die tranquil.”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">Later in the conversation, Mr. Rochester said, “Is it better to drive a fellow-creature to despair than to transgress a mere human law, no man being injured by the breach? For you have neither relatives nor acquaintances whom you need fear to offend by living with me?”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">Then she concludes like this: “This was true: and while he spoke my very conscience and reason turned traitors against me, and charged me with crime in resisting him. They spoke almost as loud as Feeling: and that clamored wildly. ‘Oh, comply!’ it said. […] ‘Tell him you love him and will be his. Who in the world cares for you? Or who will be injured by what you do?’ Still indomitable was the reply—‘I care for myself. […] I will keep the law given by God …</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad—as I am now. Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigor … If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? […] Foregone determinations are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot.’ I did.” She didn’t leave her post. See? “I will stand at my watch</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p style=" margin-top:18px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px;"><span style=" font-family:'Open Sans'; font-weight:600;">4. God-centrically</span></p>
<p style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:18px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:9px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">Now I don’t want you to miss the forest for the trees. </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">You’re not waiting on the Lord’s answers, even though you are. Primarily you’re not waiting on the Lord’s answer. You’re not waiting on the Lord’s reward. You’re not waiting on the Lord’s things, because you’re willing to go to the ramparts, into the tower, stand at your watch no matter what. What does that mean? You’re really waiting on the Lord. Not on the Lord’s things, on the Lord.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:9px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">Habakkuk has often been called a little book of Job. It’s a mini-book of Job. By the way, it’s a heck of a lot easier to read than the book of Job. That’s why we’re studying the book of Habakkuk. In the book of Job, it starts with Satan coming to God and saying, “Does Job serve God for nothing?”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">Satan says to God, “Job looks like he is your servant, but he is not your servant. He looks like he is waiting on you, but he is actually waiting for your things. He looks like he loves you for you yourself, but he actually only loves you for the things he is getting. Look at all the things you have given him. Look at his great family. Look at his money. Look at his fame and success.”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">Satan says, “Well, I’m going to take them all away. I’m going to take away his family, take away his health, take away his money. Then you’ll see he was not loving you for yourself. He was only loving you for the things he was getting. He wasn’t waiting on you. He was waiting on things from you. He will curse you.”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">Satan is basically right about us. You know that. Basically when you get started with God, you start to approach God, you first connect to God, you’re doing it to get something. You’re doing it because you’re unhappy. You’re doing it because you’re guilty or looking for forgiveness. You’re looking for things. That’s okay, but it had better not stay there. Here’s why. It’s hypocrisy.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">If somebody loved you or looked like he or she loved you but they were getting an awful lot of benefits out of your connections, they were getting a lot of benefit from their relationship with you, then what happened if something happened to you, and you lost those connections, and those benefits were no longer attached to you? That person just dropped you like a stone. How would you feel?</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">Would you feel betrayed? Would you feel objectified? Would you feel dehumanized? Yes! Because you say, “That person never loved me. They were just loving the things I was giving them. How awful!” Yet for years as a pastor I’ve talked to people who have said, “Oh, I used to go to church. I prayed for things, and God never gave me anything, so I’m out of there.” They’re treating God exactly the way they would never, ever let anybody else treat them.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">They’re treating God in a way that if somebody treats them in the same way, they’re furious! You have a right to be furious. What does it mean to wait on the Lord? It means to love him for who he is in himself. That means to be faithful to him even when you’re getting nothing out of it at all. It’s only in times of trouble that you have an opportunity to turn your self-interested, exploitative relationship with God into real love.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">It’s only when loving him gives you no benefit at all.</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';"> Do you know what? </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">If you look at Job, if you look at the end of Habakkuk, it’s a wonderful ending to the book. We’ll get there. If you look at the psalmists, the people who are wrestling … They’re wrestling. They </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">are</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;"> wrestling. They’re angry, and they’re struggling. They’re asking God hard questions. In the end, they stay with God.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">Do you know why? Because they’ve become servants. They’ve become people who love him for who he is. They’re serving him just because he is God. They’re loving him just for who he is in himself. It’s possible to get there but almost only ever through tough times. Therefore, whenever darkness descends on you, whenever bad things happen to you and you get disappointed and you’re really upset with how everything is going in your life, God is asking you a question.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">That question is basically this: “Now we’ll find out whether you got into this relationship with me to serve me or to get me to serve you. Now we’ll know.” If you stick with him and if you learn how to love him no matter what, if you learn to be faithful to him even though you’re getting nothing out of it at all, when the darkness lifts, you will find the pressure has turned your heart, that lump of coal, into a diamond.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">There will be an unflappability. There will be a fortitude. There will be a poise. There will be a peace you didn’t have before. One character in a novel was described this way. “Even his hope seemed to die. It was turned to a new strength. His face grew stern, almost grim, as the will hardened in him. He felt through all his limbs a thrill as if he was turning into some creature of stone and steel that neither despair nor weariness nor endless barren miles could subdue.”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">This person suddenly realized, “I can take anything now.” He felt through all his limbs a thrill. That’s what happens when you come to realize, “I’m in this with God forever. I don’t need to get anything out of it. I’m with him because he is God, not because he is doing </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic;">this</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';"> and </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic;">that</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';"> and </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic;">this</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';"> and </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic;">that</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';"> for me.”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p style=" margin-top:18px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px;"><span style=" font-family:'Open Sans'; font-weight:600;">5. Joyfully</span></p>
<p style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:18px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:9px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">The last verse is one of the most important verses in the Bible. At least it was picked up by Paul in Romans and in Galatians. It was picked up by the writer to the Hebrews in chapter 10. It says, “… the righteous will live by his faith …” God is saying to Habakkuk, “Be patient. Wait on me. Be unconditionally obedient,” but from what? Well, faith in this situation … Paul is right, and the Hebrews writer is right. Faith is not just stoically holding on to God.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:9px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">Instead of looking at the circumstances around us, it’s relying on your faith in the redemptive purposes of God, the gospel. In other words, instead of looking at your circumstances and being affected by them, be affected by what God has done for you to save you in Jesus Christ. That’s actually what it means. That’s the reason why I say you don’t necessarily have to have joy as you’re waiting for the Lord, but it would be awfully great to have it. Here’s how you can have it. In fact, here’s the </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">only</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;"> way you can have it.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">You have to look at one of the most amazing passages to me in the Bible. It’s one little verse. Jesus Christ in Luke 12, is telling a parable about a master who goes away on a trip. He leaves his servants behind. Some of the servants are obedient and faithful because they’re sure he is coming back. Others are disobedient and unfaithful because they don’t think he is coming back.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">It’s Jesus’ way of saying, “</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">I want my followers to wait for me. I want them to wait on me. I want them to live patiently. I want them to live obediently because they’re waiting for me.” Okay? Then in Luke 12:37, Jesus completes the parable like this. He says, “It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them.”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">Whenever Jesus says, “I tell you the truth” (or “Verily, verily”), it’s a solemn statement. “Amen, amen!” He is saying something solemn and staggering. I’ll tell you, this is staggering. Here’s what he is saying. He is saying, “At the end of time, I’m going to have all of my people sit down at the table. I’m going to gird myself to wait on them.”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">The word </span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic;">gird</span><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';"> is a metaphor that comes from back in those days. If you were going to do some intense action, you had to pick up your flowing robe and put it into your belt so you could focus, so you could bare your legs, so you could run, or you could do something intense. It was a metaphor that meant to focus all of your powers on one goal.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">Do you know who is talking here? He is saying, “I’m going to focus all of my powers on inflicting all the joy, all the honor, all the fulfillment and happiness that I possibly can on you.” Look! Wait a minute. He said, “I’m going to focus all of my powers on making you as happy as you possibly can be,” but he is omnipotent.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">He says, “I’m going to concentrate all the infinities and immensities of my being on making you, on inflicting in you, absolute, incredible, cosmic, infinite joy. That’s what I’m going to do. If you wait for me, if you wait on me your whole life, I will literally wait on you. I will gird myself, and I will serve you.”</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">You say, “Wow. That’s almost too much. I mean, how can we even believe such a thing?” I’ll tell you how. I can guarantee this is going to happen. Do you know why? We know Jesus Christ is going to gird and serve us on that future day. We know he is going to do it in the future because he did it in the past. On the night before he died, he girded up his loins, and he washed the feet of his disciples.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri';">They were so shocked. “What a servile thing to do, to wait on us like a servant, like a table waiter! Why are you doing that?” Do you know what Jesus was doing? What he was saying is, “I’m going to the cross. I’m going to die. I’m going to wait on you by going to the cross and dying for your sins.” Do you want to see patience, Jesus Christ being patient with the very wrath of God and not giving up? He was waiting on us. He was serving us. He was loving us.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">There’s the ultimate example of patience. Here’s what I want to ask you. If you see Jesus Christ, the Lord of the universe, willing to lay aside all of his celestial being and joy and come down and wait on you by going to the cross and not giving up even in the garden of Gethsemane, even on the cross, even under the wrath of God, why can’t you wait for him now? Why can’t you wait on him now?</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; color:#ff0000; background-color:#ffff00;">See, if you see him waiting on you in the past and waiting on you in the future, you’ll be able to wait on him now. You’ll be able to do all of this with joy. If you wait on him patiently, perspectively, obediently, unconditionally, fully, you will find it’s really perfect freedom. Let’s pray.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:18px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:9px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic;">Our Father, we thank you that you’ve made it possible for us to wait on you. You’ve given us the prospect of it in the future, Jesus Christ waiting on us. You’ve given us the amazing memory of him waiting on us on the cross and in the past. If he has waited on us and if he is going to wait on us, we can wait on him. Father, a lot of us are facing a lot of difficulties. We’re facing evil times in our lives. A lot of us are having trouble bearing up under them.</span></p>
<p align="justify" style="-qt-paragraph-type:empty; margin-top:9px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; font-family:'Calibri';"><br /></p>
<p align="justify" style=" margin-top:9px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px;"><span style=" font-family:'Calibri'; font-style:italic;">Would you just shoot our hearts full with amazement and wonder and gratitude and joy when we think of your Son Jesus Christ patiently waiting on us, serving us, girding himself for us on the cross so we can do the same for him now and handle our evil times and become something beautiful? We ask it in Jesus’ name, amen.</span><span style=" font-family:'Times New Roman';"> Keller, T. J. (2013). </span><a href="https://ref.ly/logosres/tmkllrsrmnrchvj?art=sermon.5.10.2009.waitingandlivingbyfaith&off=30820"><span style=" font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-style:italic; text-decoration: underline; color:#0000ff;">The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive</span></a><span style=" font-family:'Times New Roman';">. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.</span></p>
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