Speaker 1: Ibles, scrab our bibles in turn to the book of
Speaker 1: a backck.
Speaker 2: If you need a Bible, just raise your hand.
Speaker 1: We're passing those out right now, Bibles and bulletins and pens.
Speaker 2: Just raise your hand, catch the eye.
Speaker 1: Of one of our ushers and we'll get you whatever
Speaker 1: you need and turn.
Speaker 2: To a backck.
Speaker 1: I give you a little extra time to find that one.
Speaker 1: It's another minor prophet. If you have a bookmark from
Speaker 1: last week in Nahem, it's just.
Speaker 2: To the right, okay, abackic.
Speaker 1: There's a good opportunity for me to also remind you
Speaker 1: to please please fill out a connection card.
Speaker 2: We do that every week all of us.
Speaker 1: If you're a guest, it's great because you can leave
Speaker 1: some contact information and.
Speaker 2: We'll follow up with you.
Speaker 1: And if you're a member or a regular attender here,
Speaker 1: it's a really important pastoral tool that we would know
Speaker 1: that you're here by name, So you've got the whole
Speaker 1: worship service to do that. And after the service, if
Speaker 1: you are new here, there's a table out in the
Speaker 1: lobby called Step one and we'd love to connect with
Speaker 1: you there. Answer questions, invite you into the life of
Speaker 1: this church, and we'd love to do that there with you,
Speaker 1: So turn with me to Habacic.
Speaker 2: Somehow I've lost this thing and get this strained out
Speaker 2: all right.
Speaker 1: Also, this Wednesday is the first Wednesday of August. I know,
Speaker 1: I can't believe it. So six o'clock right in here,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have our congregational prayer meeting together, So a
Speaker 1: whole church prayer meeting writing here at six o'clock. It's
Speaker 1: a it's an earlier time than we've usually been doing it.
Speaker 1: So we're kind of experimenting with that seeing if six
Speaker 1: o'clock works better for our congregation. And you can tell
Speaker 1: me by being there, So see you there six o'clock.
Speaker 2: Now we're in Habakic. Everybody there? Awesome? How about those hymns?
Speaker 2: Just so awesome.
Speaker 1: One of the things I love about this congregation is
Speaker 1: your readiness to worship together, regardless of musical style, of
Speaker 1: what it seems like, no matter what. And this is
Speaker 1: an amazing team leading us here and from the technology,
Speaker 1: and no matter what the team leads us towards, you
Speaker 1: guys are just ready to worship the Lord.
Speaker 2: It's like your heart is in it. Praise God. Aback.
Speaker 1: I've titled this message complaining to God complaining to God.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you have a picture of what
Speaker 1: it looks like to complain to God, maybe from your
Speaker 1: own life, maybe from maybe a movie. When I think
Speaker 1: of complaining to God, the first scene that comes to
Speaker 1: my mind is Lieutenant Dan at the top of the
Speaker 1: mast of.
Speaker 2: A ship, just sort of shaking his hands towards.
Speaker 1: Heaven and uh and going back and forth with God.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that's the way to do it. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying Lieutenant Dan is our example.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying it's a picture.
Speaker 1: If you're here this morning as a non Christian, I
Speaker 1: just want to go ahead and start by saying I realize,
Speaker 1: and I think Scripture realizes that there may be some
Speaker 1: complaints that you have.
Speaker 2: That you feel have really kept you from faith.
Speaker 1: It's also possible for us to become so fond of
Speaker 1: our complaints that we prefer them to faith.
Speaker 2: If you're here as a Christian, when.
Speaker 1: We start talking about complaining to God, you may have
Speaker 1: questions like, is it ever right to complain to God?
Speaker 1: What's the what are the right words, What's what are
Speaker 1: the right issues for me to bring up with him?
Speaker 2: What's the right posture?
Speaker 1: Well back a book about that a backic is like
Speaker 1: most of us, frustrated by terrible stuff, and he goes
Speaker 1: back and forth with God.
Speaker 2: That's the whole book.
Speaker 1: He goes back and forth, lots of complaints, and he
Speaker 1: goes through what I'll just call a growth process.
Speaker 2: He goes through a growth process.
Speaker 1: He is not the same person at the end of
Speaker 1: the book with the same posture at the end of
Speaker 1: the book that he is at the beginning.
Speaker 2: Not because God.
Speaker 1: Gives him some naive pat answers, not because he tells
Speaker 1: Habakk what he wants to hear. But he does come
Speaker 1: out the other side with trust and joy, and his
Speaker 1: readers were invited into that process, which we'll take in
Speaker 1: two steps. For us, we'll take in two steps. Here
Speaker 1: are the steps next week and this week next week
Speaker 1: Chapters two and three, This week, Chapter.
Speaker 2: One next week.
Speaker 1: If our aim next week is that kind of awe
Speaker 1: and trust and joy and confidence, and we see how
Speaker 1: about to get to this week our aim is a
Speaker 1: little bit more modest.
Speaker 2: This week. Here's what I'm shooting for.
Speaker 1: An open mind, an open mind that is ready to
Speaker 1: let go.
Speaker 3: Of a small minded view of God, to let go
Speaker 3: of a small minded view of God's work. And next week,
Speaker 3: after we've spent this week letting go, next week will
Speaker 3: grab hold.
Speaker 2: Of something else.
Speaker 1: If this week we open our minds, next week we'll
Speaker 1: see how God fills them. A bit of a cliffhanger,
Speaker 1: because here's the thing we got to come to grips with.
Speaker 1: Sometimes God handles terrible stuff by using terrible stuff. Let's
Speaker 1: read chapter one of Habakk. We'll read chapter one and
Speaker 1: the first verse of chapter two, which you'll see, is
Speaker 1: like the perfect picture of an open mind. The oracle
Speaker 1: that Habakik the prophet saw, Oh Lord, how long shall
Speaker 1: I cry for help? And you will not hear? Or
Speaker 1: cry to you violence? And you will not save? Why
Speaker 1: do you make me see iniquity while you idly look
Speaker 1: at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me, Strife and
Speaker 1: contention arise, so the law is paralyzed, and justice never
Speaker 1: goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous, and so
Speaker 1: justice goes forth perverted. Look among the nations and see
Speaker 1: wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work
Speaker 1: in your days that you would not believe if told.
Speaker 1: For behold, I'm raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and
Speaker 1: hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth
Speaker 1: to seize dwellings not their own. They are dreaded and fearsome.
Speaker 1: Their justice and dignity go forth from them. Their horses
Speaker 1: are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves.
Speaker 1: Their horsemen press proudly on their horsemen come from afar, They.
Speaker 2: Fly like an eagle, swift to devour.
Speaker 1: They all come for violence, all their faces forward.
Speaker 2: They gather captives like sand at kings.
Speaker 1: They scoff at rulers, they laugh, They laugh at every fortress,
Speaker 1: for they pile up earth and take it. And then
Speaker 1: they sweep by like the wind and go on. Guilty
Speaker 1: men whose might is their God? Are you not from everlasting?
Speaker 1: Oh Lord, my God, my holy one, we shall not die.
Speaker 1: Oh Lord, You've ordained them as a judgment, And you,
Speaker 1: oh Rock, have established them for reproof. You, who are
Speaker 1: of purer eyes than to see evil, and cannot look
Speaker 1: at wrong. Why do you idly look at traders and
Speaker 1: remain silent when the wicked swallows up a man more
Speaker 1: righteous than he? You make mankind like the fish of
Speaker 1: the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler. He
Speaker 1: brings up all of them with a hook, and he
Speaker 1: drags them out with a net, and he gathers them
Speaker 1: and his dragnet.
Speaker 2: So he rejoices and is glad.
Speaker 1: Therefore he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to
Speaker 1: his drag net, for by them he lives in luxury
Speaker 1: and his food is rich. Is he then to keep
Speaker 1: on emptying his net and mercilessly killing nations forever.
Speaker 2: I will stand.
Speaker 1: I will take my stand at my watch post and
Speaker 1: station myself on the tower and look out to see
Speaker 1: what he will say to me. But I will answer
Speaker 1: concerning my complaint. This is the word of the Lord.
Speaker 1: So there we have it, complaining to God Habacchic in
Speaker 1: this back and forth when you can see already, and
Speaker 1: this back and forth is this first chapter is got
Speaker 1: three parts to it, right, starts with Habaccic complaining and
Speaker 1: God answers him. And then Habacic is like, whoa, I've
Speaker 1: got more complaints. And so we're gonna take those three
Speaker 1: parts of this back and forth like this. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: call the first one bringing complaints, the second part challenging answers,
Speaker 1: and the third open questions, bringing complaints, challenging answers, open questions.
Speaker 2: So let's go with part one. Bringing complaints.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's what he does, this guy Habaca. You
Speaker 1: see verse one, the oracle that Habakac the prophet saw.
Speaker 1: So Habaka is a prophet and he is ministering at
Speaker 1: kind of the worst time in Israel and Juda's history.
Speaker 1: Is his ministry is during some of the worst kings
Speaker 1: and some of the grossest behavior from the people who
Speaker 1: call themselves the people of God. And so that's what
Speaker 1: he starts complaining about. He's like, your people stink. And
Speaker 1: in verse two he brings me. He starts with two,
Speaker 1: and three and four. He just brings three verses of complaints.
Speaker 1: And here's the curious thing. Here's what we have to wonder.
Speaker 1: What is the nature of these complaints. What's his posture?
Speaker 2: Reverent? Irreverent?
Speaker 1: Well, I mean the verse two he says he's clearly
Speaker 1: concerned about God's help. Why he's like, I cry for help,
Speaker 1: I cry to you. But also what's he saying about God,
Speaker 1: You're not doing it. You're not helping. You're the helping God,
Speaker 1: You're the saving one. You're not saving Verse three. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's clearly concerned for a stop to violence and a
Speaker 1: stop to iniquity and wrong.
Speaker 2: But also, God, you're not doing anything. You're idly.
Speaker 1: Watching, isn't that what he says? You're just twiddling your
Speaker 1: thumbs God verse four. Clearly he's concerned that God's instructions,
Speaker 1: his law and justice go forth untwisted, that the righteous
Speaker 1: would prevail and the wicked be thwarted. Because right now
Speaker 1: the righteous are being thwarted and the wicked are prevailing.
Speaker 1: So Habacca is like, what's the nature of these complaints?
Speaker 1: Habacic is kind of bringing the right stuff, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: certainly there are some things that Hebaccaic and God are
Speaker 1: agreeing about. Same with you, as you get frustrated over
Speaker 1: terrible things. I am sure there are things that you
Speaker 1: were frustrated about that you.
Speaker 2: Can complain about. And God's like, yep.
Speaker 1: So he's kind of bringing the right stuff, maybe in
Speaker 1: the right way.
Speaker 2: Don't know.
Speaker 1: Jury's ow, we'll see. But here's the thing. Maybe he's
Speaker 1: bringing the right stuff, Maybe he's bringing in the right way.
Speaker 1: He's for sure bringing it to the right person. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying who backs the perfect example. Like I said,
Speaker 1: he's in a growth process. But lamenting lamenting is usually right.
Speaker 1: Some of the people with the strongest prayer lives are
Speaker 1: those who lean into lament, who aren't content to just
Speaker 1: bring their tidy little requests and to bring their tidy
Speaker 1: little points of thanksgiving to God that they know check
Speaker 1: all the right boxes, but are ready to bring what's
Speaker 1: really in there out of the basement and bring it
Speaker 1: to God. As Psalm says, I pour out my complaint
Speaker 1: before him, I tell my trouble before him.
Speaker 2: Lament is good.
Speaker 1: Biblical lament isn't grumbling, which is not good, right. Biblical
Speaker 1: lament is bringing complaint to God. Sinful grumbling is bringing
Speaker 1: complaint against God. So I suppose we have to ask
Speaker 1: ourselves this question when we bring our complaints to God.
Speaker 1: Is our complaining biblical lament or sinful grumbling? Or does
Speaker 1: it kind of seem to slide around and.
Speaker 2: Hit both before you're done? Is that fair?
Speaker 1: I mean, Habaccics truly seems to slide around Moses's complaints,
Speaker 1: seem to slide around Job's complaints. Certainly slide around lots
Speaker 1: of real biblical reverent lament in Job, and then sometimes
Speaker 1: he just takes a left. And here's the thing about
Speaker 1: those saints about Hbaccic Moses job others. God never says,
Speaker 1: how dare you? He corrects them with mercy. He moves
Speaker 1: them because they're willing to be moved.
Speaker 2: You know, the people of.
Speaker 1: Israel in the wilderness, they brought grumbling before the Lord
Speaker 1: and God.
Speaker 2: As God went to.
Speaker 1: Correct them, they just stiffened their neck and they're like, no,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be hardened in my grumbling.
Speaker 2: I was really their great fault.
Speaker 1: Not that they had a complaint, not that they brought
Speaker 1: it to God, but they wouldn't hear him when they did. So.
Speaker 1: If your complaints slide around between biblical lament and sinful
Speaker 1: grum grumbling, let me just tell you, without advocating or
Speaker 1: even like suggesting that sinful grumbling isn't sinful it is.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, where else are you going to go
Speaker 1: with it? As John Piper said, I was at a
Speaker 1: conference with Piper and he was on job. Is the
Speaker 1: only thing I remember from the whole conference. He's in
Speaker 1: this Q and A session and here's what I'm getting at.
Speaker 1: The question that the conference attender asked, was it is
Speaker 1: it ever right to be angry with God? And Pastor
Speaker 1: Piper said no, it's always wrong to be angry with God,
Speaker 1: that's always wrong.
Speaker 2: God is right.
Speaker 1: And our and our and what is right and righteous
Speaker 1: is for us to acknowledge that He is right and
Speaker 1: to not be angry with him.
Speaker 2: But but but.
Speaker 1: If you are angry with him, the right thing to
Speaker 1: do is bring it to him, because he already knows.
Speaker 2: Where else are you gonna go with that?
Speaker 1: So, whether your heart is full of biblical lament, or
Speaker 1: your heart is full of sinful grumbling, or it's sliding around,
Speaker 1: like so many times the people of God's hearts are
Speaker 1: sliding around, where are you gonna.
Speaker 2: Go with it?
Speaker 1: But to him, maybe the question isn't so much are
Speaker 1: you bringing biblical lament or are you bringing sinful grumbling?
Speaker 1: Maybe what we need to ask ourselves is am I
Speaker 1: bringing my complaints to God at all? Or am I
Speaker 1: just pretending a little tidy religion and leaving how I
Speaker 1: really feel and what I'm really thinking and my real
Speaker 1: complaints and my real questions and my real.
Speaker 2: Concern learns down in the basement.
Speaker 1: To just play with yourself, just fill around with it yourself,
Speaker 1: just grumble about it yourself. Just keep it to yourself. God,
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you about the tidy things. Bring those complaints.
Speaker 1: Where else are you gonna go? Instead of being afraid
Speaker 1: to bring our honest complaints to God, I think we
Speaker 1: should be afraid not to. So how does God respond
Speaker 1: a back ache is bringing his complaints. That's the first
Speaker 1: part of this exchange. Here's the second part of the exchange.
Speaker 1: God provides some challenging answers.
Speaker 2: Right, I say.
Speaker 1: Challenging because the very first verse of God's piece of
Speaker 1: this is the key verse of our whole text says
Speaker 1: in verse five, look among the nations and see wonder
Speaker 1: and be astounded, For I'm doing a work in your
Speaker 1: days that you wouldn't believe if told.
Speaker 2: You're not gonna believe this.
Speaker 1: Now that the sense there in verse five is not
Speaker 1: you are not able to believe this, is rather this
Speaker 1: sense here's your challenge back The challenge is to believe this.
Speaker 1: The challenge is to believe this. And that's key because
Speaker 1: eventually Habakik does come to the place where he believes this,
Speaker 1: and there are many who don't. Paul picks this verse backup.
Speaker 1: There's only two verses in all of ABAC that are
Speaker 1: quoted in the New Testament, and this is one of them.
Speaker 1: And Paul picks up this verse when he's preaching the
Speaker 1: Gospel in Acts, chapter thirteen, and he says, here's the challenge.
Speaker 2: The challenge is to believe this.
Speaker 1: Don't be be careful, he says, be careful to have
Speaker 1: an open mind. Don't be like those that Habakik is
Speaker 1: referencing who aren't able to believe that God can do
Speaker 1: what he says he can do, and that God is
Speaker 1: doing things the way God decides to do them. God
Speaker 1: is saying, here, the challenge is to believe my work.
Speaker 2: It's bigger than you think. You've got small thoughts of.
Speaker 1: My power and my promises and my plans. You're gonna
Speaker 1: have to let that go. You're gonna have to have
Speaker 1: an open mind, says in verse six, because look, I'm
Speaker 1: raising up the Chaldeans, which is another term for the Babylonians,
Speaker 1: that bitter and hasty nation, which is a little ironic,
Speaker 1: because if there's anything that Habakk is leaning towards in
Speaker 1: all of this, it's bitterness and being hasty. I'm raised,
Speaker 1: I'm braising up that nation. And then he goes through
Speaker 1: verse seven through through eleven. He just lays it out.
Speaker 1: He's like, these people are fearsome, they are dreaded, they
Speaker 1: are wicked. You talking about terrible stuff. Watch this terrible stuff.
Speaker 2: I told you. I told you in Deuteronomy twenty eight.
Speaker 2: He says, I told.
Speaker 1: You I was going to I can act this way,
Speaker 1: I can bring this, I can use this. He uses
Speaker 1: the same terms as he uses in Deuteronomy chapter twenty eight,
Speaker 1: like an eagle, and that should.
Speaker 2: Trigger her backic.
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, you said that you might bring another nation
Speaker 1: like an eagle. Here's the thing, verse eleven. Right at
Speaker 1: the end of it, verse eleven, here's the thing God
Speaker 1: himself is using.
Speaker 2: The godless.
Speaker 1: Calls him guilty, guilty men whose strength is their God.
Speaker 1: And that's that's ironic because where Habaka gets to in
Speaker 1: the end, like what I told you, he's in a
Speaker 1: growth process, and part of it is he gets to
Speaker 1: the point where he's like, God is my strength, But
Speaker 1: for these people, it's just the opposite.
Speaker 2: Strength is my God.
Speaker 1: And God is handling terrible stuff by using terrible stuff.
Speaker 2: This would be like if you complained to.
Speaker 1: God now and you said your people are entangled in
Speaker 1: sexual sin and lives of selfishness, and churches are saying it's.
Speaker 2: Okay, it's perfectly fine to.
Speaker 1: Live like yeah, And pastors all over are popping up
Speaker 1: disqualified like a fish kill, and God says, yeah, terrible stuff.
Speaker 1: And your challenge, your challenge is gonna be to get
Speaker 1: your head around this because I'm going to handle that
Speaker 1: with even more terrible stuff. I'm gonna send a persecution
Speaker 1: that's gonna close the doors of eighty percent of the
Speaker 1: churches in this country.
Speaker 2: What are you talking about. I'm bringing my complaint to you.
Speaker 1: That's terrible stuff is going on, and you're gonna give
Speaker 1: me that.
Speaker 2: That's the tool that you're going to use.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have that crooked stick in your hand, You're
Speaker 1: gonna have that wicked instrument.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's just a hypothetical example.
Speaker 1: But the challenge again, the challenge is to believe that
Speaker 1: God's work may be bigger than you thought. I've seen
Speaker 1: I've seen families come to thrive and flourish.
Speaker 2: Spiritually because of devastating bankruptcy that only God could use.
Speaker 1: I'm convinced I'm going to see a marriage come to
Speaker 1: real healing because of cancer. Pastor Seth used the term
Speaker 1: this morning, the grace of misery. Can you let go
Speaker 1: of small thoughts? About what God should do. That he
Speaker 1: gives and he takes away, that he rescues and he disciplines.
Speaker 1: That he can draw straight lines with crooked sticks, and
Speaker 1: even what he made crooked, who can make straight? And
Speaker 1: that's how Paul uses this verse in his preaching and
Speaker 1: Acts thirteen. It's like, be careful, be careful to have
Speaker 1: an open mind about what God has done. All right, brothers,
Speaker 1: the rulers of this people fulfilled the prophets by condemning
Speaker 1: the Christ. They executed him wrongly and an injustice. They
Speaker 1: did all that was written of him in their wickedness.
Speaker 1: They took him down from the tree. They laid him
Speaker 1: in a tomb. Talk about terrible stuff injustice and wickedness
Speaker 1: and suffering and death to bring you justification and freedom
Speaker 1: and life.
Speaker 2: Be careful have an open mind to believe what God
Speaker 2: has done.
Speaker 1: If you have seen and benefited from God's use of
Speaker 1: the most terrible cross for your most glorious good, be
Speaker 1: careful to have an open mind to believe that sometimes,
Speaker 1: if he chooses, he can handle terrible stuff by using
Speaker 1: more terrible stuff. If he can use a terrible cross
Speaker 1: to take our savior and exalt him before the watching world.
Speaker 1: If he can take a terrible cross and take a
Speaker 1: desperate people and rescue them and save them, bring them
Speaker 1: to himself, and give them a robe of white, and'll
Speaker 1: train them in righteousness. If he can take a terrible
Speaker 1: cross and use that to take people from every tribe
Speaker 1: and tongue and nation and gather them together, that they
Speaker 1: would stand and sing the praises of their king. If
Speaker 1: he can use a terrible cross, be careful to have
Speaker 1: an open mind, to trust that he is who he
Speaker 1: says he is, and he does what he says he does,
Speaker 1: including non Christian, including even taking a rebel like you
Speaker 1: and restoring him to himself and forgiving you, making you
Speaker 1: his own. Have an open mind. That's the challenge. And
Speaker 1: he says to Habakak, you're struggling to get You're going
Speaker 1: to struggle to get your head around this. You've brought
Speaker 1: your complaints. I've challenged you with my answers. How does
Speaker 1: Abacak respond, Well, that's the third part of this exchange,
Speaker 1: which I'll just call open questions. Open questions. A Bachick
Speaker 1: then lays out some questions in response to this. You
Speaker 1: saw them there when we read it, And here's the
Speaker 1: curious thing.
Speaker 2: This is worth noticing, This is worth considering.
Speaker 1: Are these just questions? Or are or is this questioning?
Speaker 1: Every parent knows the difference questions or questioning. You know
Speaker 1: some questions. I've heard it said. Some questions are a window,
Speaker 1: Some questions are a wall. Some questions are faith seeking understanding.
Speaker 1: Some questions are deflections. What do we have on our
Speaker 1: hands here?
Speaker 2: Do you know what I mean by that? Questions versus questioning.
Speaker 1: It's a great example of it in Luke chapter one.
Speaker 1: In Luke chapter one, the angel Gabriel shows up and
Speaker 1: announces to the priest Zachariah, your wife Elizabeth is going
Speaker 1: to have a baby.
Speaker 2: And there he is.
Speaker 1: He's a priest, he's older, he's educated. He's right there
Speaker 1: in the temple. An angel appears to him and he
Speaker 1: announces the birth of a baby. And Zachariah says, how's
Speaker 1: that gonna work? And Gabriel says, yeah, you're not gonna
Speaker 1: talk for a while.
Speaker 2: Because he didn't believe me.
Speaker 1: Same chapter, same angel, same announcement. Gabriel goes to Mary.
Speaker 1: There's Mary. She's a teenage girl. She doesn't have all
Speaker 1: the education that Zachariah has. Gabriel brings the same announcement,
Speaker 1: the announcement the birth of a baby, and Mary asks
Speaker 1: the same question, how's that gonna work?
Speaker 2: And Gabriel says, let me tell you all about it, because.
Speaker 1: Even though they asked the same question, one of them
Speaker 1: had a heart that was questioning. He was asking a
Speaker 1: wall question and Mary's question was an open window. Please
Speaker 1: tell me about the plan of God. So which of
Speaker 1: those two do we have from habakk or does it
Speaker 1: kind of slide around and be both well, I mean,
Speaker 1: let's look at verses twelve and thirteen. Here's Habakic's first question.
Speaker 1: Are you not from everlasting old Lord, my God, my
Speaker 1: whole only one?
Speaker 2: You're pure? You can't look at wrong?
Speaker 1: Can a holy god of purer eyes, of purer eyes
Speaker 1: like yours look at wrong?
Speaker 2: Can you ordain and establish these? Aren't you pure? God?
Speaker 2: Which I think is back It's.
Speaker 1: More like, aren't you dainty? You can't get your hands dirty?
Speaker 1: I think if we take a little spice out of
Speaker 1: that question, it becomes.
Speaker 2: God, can you really use whatever you want to use?
Speaker 1: Then he asked his question verse thirteen, saying, why do
Speaker 1: you idly look at traders and remain silent with the
Speaker 1: wicked swallows of a man more righteous than he is.
Speaker 1: But how how can God stand to use the viciously
Speaker 1: wicked against someone who's more righteous? I mean, look, we've
Speaker 1: been terrible, it's true, But the Babylonians that's beyond the pale.
Speaker 2: Aren't you fair? Again?
Speaker 1: If we take a little spice out of this question,
Speaker 1: I think it just becomes this, God, you're really not
Speaker 1: handcuffed by our ideas of fairness?
Speaker 2: Are you? Next question?
Speaker 1: I'm back, it says in fourteen through seventeen. So what
Speaker 1: you're doing is you're making all of mankind like fish
Speaker 1: in a barrel. And these people are inhumane, and they
Speaker 1: are greedy, and they are idolatrous, and you're just gonna
Speaker 1: let him keep going.
Speaker 2: Aren't you fed up? Where's the urgency?
Speaker 1: It is?
Speaker 2: He gonna could just keep going forever?
Speaker 1: Again, I think if we take a little spice out
Speaker 1: of that question, it just becomes this.
Speaker 2: You can pretty much choose your own timing, can't you? God?
Speaker 2: You can choose your own timing. Well, we find out.
Speaker 1: Which direction Habacic is leaning, whether he's opening up a
Speaker 1: window or he's putting up a wall.
Speaker 2: By verse one of.
Speaker 1: Chapter two, because however he started, this is where he gets.
Speaker 2: I will take my stand up my watch post.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna look to see what he's gonna say. So
Speaker 1: maybe he started off questioning and now he's gotten softened
Speaker 1: to just where he's asking questions.
Speaker 2: But however he started, he goes for an answer.
Speaker 1: Just a picture of him standing there on the wall
Speaker 1: waiting for God's answer. This is like the picture of
Speaker 1: an open mind. We've gone back and forth, and maybe
Speaker 1: I put.
Speaker 2: Up some walls.
Speaker 1: But whatever those questions were before, I'm opening them now.
Speaker 2: How about you? Are your questions windows or walls?
Speaker 1: Here's my encouragement. Open your questions. Make windows out of
Speaker 1: those walls. You want an open mind, Open your questions.
Speaker 1: Become a little skeptical about your skepticism. There's one person said,
Speaker 1: we have to learn to doubt our doubts too. The
Speaker 1: backck is going through this growth process. You can too,
Speaker 1: bring your complaints to God. Bring your complaints to God?
Speaker 1: Where else will you go with them? Accept the challenge
Speaker 1: that that God doesn't fit in your small categories. Be
Speaker 1: careful to have an open mind. This is the challenge
Speaker 1: to believe that he said, he does what he says,
Speaker 1: and he is who he is, and then open up
Speaker 1: your questions to God and his word.
Speaker 2: And see what he says.
Speaker 1: And that's where we're gonna leave it this week, just
Speaker 1: standing on the wall, waiting for answers, an open mind,
Speaker 1: and we'll see next week what God does to fill it.
Speaker 1: But right now, and I asked the ushers to come
Speaker 1: down to the bottom of the aisles with the elements
Speaker 1: for the Lord's Supper, because we're gonna celebrate the grace
Speaker 1: of God in Christ, by whom we can come to
Speaker 1: the Lord at all