The Righteous Shall Live By His Faith

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Your pastor John gave us full permission to pronounce it any way we want. And in that small book, hidden in the back of the Old Testament, in a name that's difficult to pronounce, is a prophet who's got it all wrong. You see, the typical prophet was designed and intended to take God's Word, receive it, and give it out. Say, this is what the Lord God said. This is what Isaiah was all about. All his visions he would take. This is what Ezekiel saw. The wheel within the wheel. He would then report in to the people of God and go, you won't believe what I saw. This is the exact opposite of Habakkuk. Buried in the back of the Old Testament, Habakkuk is tired of it all. Habakkuk is worn thin. He sees evil. He sees frustrations. He sees people suffering. He sees a nation about to overcome them. He takes the message to God and we get to listen in. And he does so with a certain sense of insolence. Now, as best we can determine and understand, Habakkuk is a priest doing his duties. So there's a certain degree and amount of right that should be accompanied. But he goes to God in a sense saying, what in the world are you doing to me, to us? So the second question in the silent sort of reflection is, an irreverent or is that an invitation or is that by God's invitation? Is he being irreverent and speaking out of place and out of turn? Should God say, young Habakkuk, sit back down and I'll talk to you about this. Or is he listening and following God's calling and command? Is he doing what the Lord would intend? Is he acting in a way God would find pleasing and a blessing? Is he doing what he's supposed to be doing or is he stepping out of line and getting all... What I hope to be able to illustrate today in the message is a number of things. And one of them is, Habakkuk is right on target. The what he's asking, the way he's asking, and why he's asking. He steps up to God and says, we got to talk. And in that way, continues on with the lesson. And from that conversation, we get these incredible truths. A little bit more back story. If you've figured out, I am not Pastor John. I am simply not that looking. So, he will be back next Sunday. He's over there at the student retreat and leading some college kids through that. So, thanks be to God. We will pray for the blessings of their conversations and their relationship building. He sent me this text a long time ago. And in fact, we were gone. We were up north. Who knows where. We traveled a lot. I think we were in northern Wisconsin someplace. And I got a text from him. He says, here's what you're preaching on, on the last Sunday of October. That sounds good. I like it. And I said, anything we'll do with the Reformation? And he said, just preach the text. All right, John. John's the boss. I'm the subject teacher. I'm good with that. Wouldn't you know it? The text is all about Reformation. All right. What is the Reformation? Kind of background. If you're not familiar, if you're not a Protestant Christian or haven't been a Christian for very long, the Reformation was both a sociocultural and religious phenomena that literally changed the world. But I'm getting ahead of myself. What we're going to find buried in the back of the Old Testament, in a prophet who spoke up and out of turn, is this short five-word key phrase that is spoken to the public that changed his world, the world, and the people to whom I have ministered over my years. Just the way God loves to act. So that's what we're going to do today. We're going to find out what is God doing? Why is he doing it? How does he want us to approach him? Why does he want us to approach him that way? What's the blessing and the benefit from putting all that together? Thank you, God, for the opportunity. Let's go to God in prayer because we're going to have to pray this one through. Thank you, Father, for this buried Habakkuk in your scriptures. We can find him on our phones by plugging in Habakkuk, but when you turn to the paper Bible, he's harder to find. A few pages in the back of the Old Testament, and yet in the midst of that, it's exactly the way you work. You give treasure where it would be least expected and discovered, and that treasure is found in this book and it's changed my life. It affected my ministry. And I would offer it to you, Father, as your spirit enables, help each person here to understand what an impact it is for them. This we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Next. Do I have this screen? Can I get that screen? Thanks. So here's Habakkuk 2, 2-5. He says, so to pick up from last week, ushered or given his complaint before God and says, all right, talk to me. What's going on? And he says here, write my answer plainly on a tablet so that a runner can carry the correct message to other. Write this down. God says that to a few people in a few places. He says that to John during th...