Ministry Conference 2021 // Don McClure

[Applause] he set me up for this he said you know you don't need to be till 7 45. so i was early and they said where are you anyway it's wonderful to be here and uh washington what a state this is it's incredible i mean i'm from california and uh you know every once in a while you know you're you're on the phone maybe with you know bank or somebody that they always want to know first thing is what state you in and i said i'm in a state of confusion you know where it's where i am and california also known as california i mean it's i'm not sure where you're at in washington things with california it's incredible because our our politicians i mean something that human history has always known it's never been a hard thing to figure out but our politicians they don't they don't know whether you're a boy or a girl anymore i mean it's something that's pretty basic you know pretty basic through all of human history i mean somebody's born they were all born naked and they looked as if it's a boy it's a girl you know not brain surgery but it is in california you know now we don't know what it is if we just we just down now you know we gotta we gotta wait till it figures it out and makes a choice and then even then if it doesn't like the choice that's all right we'll reverse it you know or whatever we can we can fix you up multiple times you know in this life however you feel you need to define yourself and i mean you would i mean something that is i mean that kind of tells you where a nation's at right there a little bit when they're actually doing this stuff i mean i don't know the educational system and what's gone on with it things that you never dreamed of happening you know and the it's like the governors and the mayors and at least in california you know this this whole pandemic has caused them to realize man we never realized how much power we had you know with all you know a flu season comes along and we we can rule the world you know that we can control society i mean you realize wow if something big comes along we can who knows what we can do and uh it's crazy well anyway uh tonight in fact just on the way over here as we're pulling up you know i my wife asked me you know today and yesterday what i was doing tonight and i said the holy spirit and said okay and then she's coming over here she says you know tomorrow night is there's an afterglow and that's aren't you doing the holy spirit then i said it says that and so she says yeah i'm looking right at it i said okay well then we'll do something else you know so actually i'm just reversing nights so what i was going to look at tomorrow night i mean look at it now i had turned to the book of havoc to me it's one of the most incredible books and talk about a book that i think it could be written right now and uh you know when the habakkuk little three chapters there of a book but it's uh it's quite incredible it comes along at a time and tremendous crisis in israel's history and but let's pray and then we'll look at it lord we we thank you that your word is so current so current i mean lord it's it it's just wonderful to have something lord that we open up and it's our world entirely all around us and we pray lord that as we look at our hearts we look at your word we look at the ministry you've given to us we look at our all these things lord we pray that your holy spirit would just kind of take this wonderful little book tonight and open it up to us and speak to us in a wonderful way lord while so many are in absolute confusion absolute frustration the end of themselves the end of their wits end lord we we thank you we don't need to be that way even though habakkuk starts that way himself he didn't end that way and so lord we ask that you would open this book and minister to us for we ask it in in jesus name amen well you know of course the word it's quick and live and sharpened and it to sword and it's powerful incredibly powerful for us and and at a time you know when the world is looking for answers and i think many times we in the body of christ are also looking for answers or really you know what's going on in the world what is it that is happening and around us and who are we in this what is our message what is our focus what do we what do you want us to be saying and doing and focusing on its scene and and here at a time when oftentimes we're looking for answers and uh uh and and there's nothing wrong with that in one sense but at this time uh i think many times the lord says well you it isn't so much answers you should be looking for as instructions and there's a difference and here habakkuk he he gets both the answer but he also gets instruction and i think those are things that that when they get together that's powerful well here at a time habakkuk is ministering to judah and he'd watch the kingdom of judah just deteriorate rapidly and it perhaps one of the greatest times almost in israel's history was under king josiah at 609 bc and he brought about tremendous spiritual reforms god said went on and on about what an incredible king he was like done before him in so many ways and what he had done and yet only one generation later an incredibly rapid decline had happened within when his son his successor jacobique and jokovium had now taken over and and we had brought the nation right into disaster now i don't know about you but i was one of these guys i got saved during the 60s when there was a tremendous reform she might say spiritually going on if you were you know around then or got saved then i just thought that i just heard the gospel and i was just responding to the gospel uh essentially not realizing that it was an incredibly unique time of revival going on in the 60s billy graham exploded his ministry just really exploded he already had a great ministry but it exploded them young life exploded they were in a campus crusade for christ was heading into campuses all over the country and doing incredible things navigators was doing incredible things there was uh down in the bible belt uh criswell had a church baptist church like you know 40 some odd thousand people uh that was going on anybody that was even kind of remotely preaching the gospel the presbyterians the lutherans the episcopalians the charismatic catholics were you know going crazy uh you know with things music hosanna integrity music came along it exploded on the scene and part of that i mean calvary chapel in down in southern california we came along and and you know we you know again we were part of all this thing but the eve the jesus movement it was up and down the coast it was in haight ashbury it was in washington oregon and various you know other ministries that were going on uh peninsula bible church with ray stedman exploded and did a great work going on there uh there was the hollywood free paper there was many many things going on at the time then actually maranatha music actually started in chuck smith's garage when they kind of did some of their first recordings and then it kind of took off but at the same time second chapter of acts andre crouch all the i mean musicians all over keith greene uh worship was just incredible what was going on and it was it was huge you realize when you step back this was an outpouring of the holy spirit it wasn't just like some group or some entity or some person you know kind of you know figured something out and uh was really out there doing the job no you realize it was incredible we didn't realize it so much at the time until you kind of look back and then there was wonderful things that happened within the body of christ but a generation it's amazing how rapidly you know something can happen and then you're looking at almost at it and say where did it go where what in the world is kind of happening well here uh we find habakkuk he's in a time like that as he's watching their judah just coming right closer and closer to absolute disaster he's begging here the lord to come and turn things around to come and fix them he tells them in chapter 1 verse 22 he says oh lord how long you know will i cry and thou will not hear even cry out to thee violence and thou will not save why does thou show me iniquity and cause me to behold grievance for spoiling and violence they are before me and uh there that rise up strife and contention hear habakkuk he's he's he's intense on this he's just not kind of just chatting he's there crying out to god he's looking these times they're terrible they're they're dangerous he describes these times with words like violence iniquity grievance misery spoiling destruction strife contention injustice he's just looking at society it's just unraveling all around him he's just looking and saying we the whole foundation the basis of what we were built upon that seems to be gone and here is he's crying out to god and the terrible terrible state of affairs that go on and twice in verse two he uses the word cry but it's two different hebrew words first time he uses it it simply means to call or to cry out for help the second time he uses a different hebrew hebrew word both translated cry in the king james but it means describe to scream with a loud and disturbed voice you can almost sense in the hebrew the agony he's just crying out god what's going on where are we going what are we doing as he's struggling terribly and he becomes more and more burdened with this and and if the whole time is doing this god just seems to be indifferent you're doing nothing he's wondering what it is that's happening and and on one hand habakkuk knew exactly why they were in trouble there no problem figuring that out he says in verse 4 he says therefore he says the law is slacked judgment doth never go forth in the wicked death compass about the righteous therefore wrong judgment proceeds he looks there and he says the foundation of our society of our government of our leadership the law is slacked it's fallen apart judgment doesn't go doesn't go forth and and then he says wicked death compass about the righteous wickedness is just surrounding it's taking everything over and so wrong judgment proceeds we're looking here at the courts we're looking at something there that was we you know kind of grew up with this thing called the constitution kind of lived there with a you know certain bill of rights first amendment amendments there that were just kind of in in granite just granted ground in and we're watching everything the whole foundations of what we have almost just grew up taking for granted i'm an american this is our country this is our world this is what it ought to be and we're watching it just crumble right around us when the governments when authorities those in power nothing seems to be going on and he's crying out to god do something why am i crying out and you don't hear you're not paying attention and then in response to this the lord explains you know to have a cook he says well actually i am at work i said you would ask that i am at work and he says as a matter of fact i'm in the process right now of sending the chaldeans as an instrument you've been wanting judgment you've been wanting to deal with this thing well i got an answer for you i'm sending the chaldeans as an instrument of my judgment and so exactly what you've been begging for it's it's going to happen it's right right right on the horizon and uh he assured him i'm at work and uh and even though habakkuk you don't see it nobody else sees it they'll see it pretty soon they'll catch on to it but here the interesting thing is the lord does not explain and i think this is something that's critical for us sometimes the lord does not explain what is he's doing as much as so often first he reveals what he is doing doesn't explain it it starts with being able to sit back in in a revelation of what he's doing then later he explains it then he starts putting an understanding and an explanation to it and even then when he's trying to do it it's still too difficult to swallow and here you know the uh even the most of spiritual prophets they're before god when god's trying to do it as he's laying out the revelation of what he is doing here i mean to have a he's finding itself terribly troubled and here he's it and at that time the answer is ultimately being able to sit before god and because let the explanation so it'll never happen until so often it follows revelation it is something that first i'm going to reveal what it is and you know many times people sense that god is doing something he's allowing something to happen and it is something that is doing it and that's all they need to do a sense you mean god you are doing this or you are allowing this to happen and and yes i am and that's all they need to to just write him off well if that's who god is i don't either i'm not interested in my wife was just telling me of a friend who she wants me to try to help with this thing but only it's a buried your friend but only one of their children is just saying how could god with you look at all the world and what's going on with this thing how could god allow all these things you know the things that have always been around but now they're seeing the severity of all these things even another generation they're just writing god off and not that the lord by the way owes anybody an explanation you know anybody anything and but he does graciously reveal an explanation to those who will seek him and uh and what god is doing here it is it's amazing it's and it's incredible it's unheard of as a matter of fact even to habakkuk himself but god is planning there to discipline israel by using the godless chaldeans babylonians and then god even describes them to him he said oh yes i'm sending the chaldeans down and he said and he says oh they are a bitter and a hasty nation yeah they're ruthless they're an impetuous people in verse six he says they're terrible they're dreadful oh and he says i'll tell you their judgment their and their dignity proceed from themself they need to make up whatever role they want whatever they think whatever it is their judgment their dignity i'm dignified i've got i'll do whatever it is anywhere anytime any how whatever it is there are people that had no authority over them they had no judgment they had no law and absolutely no fear of anybody or anything i don't think we ever thought that we would find our nation you know trying to deal with things like this trying to look around and realize how can something so in america we think in our world you know we don't realize we're five percent of the world's population i don't know how much you may travel i traveled quite a bit i've been to africa many times you go to india you go to china you go to so many other places in the world where the vast percentage of the world's population lives they have no sense they've given up on any form of a society with any stability or righteousness or judgment or anything about it they they have no thought or hope or consideration in that but we do and therefore it can be incredibly frustrating and debilitating but here is is as god describes it he says yeah it's almost like oh there's something there really something and then the lord goes on he uses he describes some powerful animals there to explain or describe the babylonians in verse 8 he says holt have a man let me tell you something they're horses they're horses they're swifter than leopards and he said and more fierce than evening wolves an evening wolf is a wolf that hasn't eaten all day and uh and then their horsemen they'll spread themselves and their horsemen shall come from afar they shall fly as the eagle that hasten to eat oh man you haven't you ever seen anything like these babylonians they're just they are except a world unto themselves when they come swooping down and what they'll do the evening wolves fly down like an eagle they can outrun anything and know where to go nowhere to hide nothing in verse 9 he says and they'll all come for violence their faces shall sup up as the east wind they shall gather the captivity as the sand they'll just destroy the masses just like sand in their hand just simply grapping onto it and uh and here you know as you can imagine him habakkuk of course he's devastated he's there looking like what i mean of all of the things he's praying for and pleading about and asking god to do this is kind of this is pretty much almost unlike anything he could go back through the pages of history and go back and look wait wait wait wait wait wait what are you doing here but he's absolutely stunned he starts off frustrated and confused and incredibly frustrated but now he's got a picture of devastation you know some mysterious looking at that he says you know wait what in the world you know could ever be done about this how in the world now what do you do how do you pray to god to stop something that now he appears to be behind that is like you know i mean and he's excited about it i mean what he do wait a minute what are you doing here with this and but god describes them and you get the feeling of course with the description they're unstoppable utterly unstoppable these chaldeans they had absolutely no authority whatsoever at all but their own that's it you know and i don't know how things are up here and around this part but you know so much of without in our government there are no laws they're violating all sorts of laws they're just they're making up laws they're doing whatever it is that they want and now everybody you'd better do it and you know i mean when you look at what this is you know i'm not going to get off into history and other things and on one hand i'm not trying to get into politics i'm really not that's not the message what it is but but when we look around you know i mean so god does some of his greatest works right in the midst of terrible politics right in the world you know and at times you know that that is is is happening uh there you know and and which does mighty things it's interesting you know i'm telling steve at dinner you know i said it's interesting i've always been a conservative i never thought much about it in the sense of you know you know carrying the flag of it or whatever and i call to preach the gospel teach the word i don't really get into politics historically a whole lot and i i think i i have as strong of feelings as almost anybody else that i've ever met i happen to personally be extremely conservative uh you know things but that's just my own opinion on it you may not agree with that that's i i don't care you know i mean i'm a patient man we'll get to heaven and you can apologize that doesn't bother me no i don't that's not that that's honestly not the message it's not the thing but it's something now i'll tell you my kids who grew up kind of not a whole lot of anything i wasn't trying to tell them you need to be this or that or whatever they're the most radical conservatives i've ever met in my life they're reading everything they're looking at i mean they are just so up in arms with their kids and their children they're granted where they go and with the influences around them and what they don't want around the school they educate they are learning everything that teachers are you know that a lot of parents just i'll put the kid in school and then he comes home with weird things nah i don't agree with that ah you know and you try to chat with them about it now they're way beyond that they want to interview to every teacher and what are you doing and what's going on here and what are you going to tell my kids and you know then now they're pulling them out of everything you know and things you know they're going to become hermits or i don't know what they're doing but they're they're radical they look here at this and there's something where there's a lot of good things i'm not i mean because i'll tell you with all of them incredibly spiritually god is doing things that every parent longs for the children longs for their grandchildren but here what god is doing it is so incredible as he describes the animals and all this is happening and of course he's completely stunned with this thing and now how do i even think how do i pray where do i go my next thought when now you have now just told me what i what i want you to go deal with you are now saying you're behind it and uh and and describing that nothing's going to be able to stop them and you've got these people with no authority and that there is no human agency there is no human power to deal with them and and now you're told that the powers of heaven are with them behind them and now there's no way to protect yourself now it's a woody what do you do and poor habakkuk he starts off by telling god lord you know the people of israel is so backslidden there's just this wickedness is prevailing justice has gone out the door you know and lord you need to do something about it we need a spanking you know something you need to really come and kind of bear down here and you know and bring a work and have a cook don't worry about it i got it all under control yeah i'm gonna bring the most wicked and perverse and corrupt and evil heathen nation in the history of the world to come and clean up the mess that's what he's telling you what do you do with that now where do you go but amazingly habakkuk and you know i mean we we look around today and we see the you know the the church you know we see the world we see on how carnal the body of christ has become we look at you know i mean when there was a revival going on you know in the 60s and 70s there was it was a it was a valid wonderful work of the holy spirit it was not man induced and with that i mean people were turning from sin they were bringing in their drugs they you know they they were uh walking away from things they had had promiscuous lifestyles i mean i can remember i came on staff at calvary costa mesa in 71 72 we put up the tent and things began to explode but virtu daily people are coming and bringing drugs bringing in alcohol wanting to watch as they ported you know poured it out were done you know marriages that had just been shambles they they'd split up they were gone they were divorced it was over you know mike and sandy macintosh if you know their story they were married had a couple kids got a divorce and then mike gets saved and then sandy what's going on here you know with this thing and she ended up going down to a baptism to just see what is this whole thing and she is so moved she's standing in line to go get out she's going to decide i'm going to get baptized she's so moved by it and i as i remember the story if i got it right as they're going out there somebody asked her how long she's been a christian she says well i don't know and well have you ever received christ well i don't know well let's pray and they they end up they pray with sandus he's in line to go get baptized and so she receives christ goes out to get baptized comes out of the water speaking in tongues and like in five minutes you know i mean there was something going on you know here it was just absolutely incredible she didn't even know what was happening but it was a work of god it was sovereign it was wonderful but now we look at the church that has become so liberal in so many ways it has just walked away from you know the authority of scripture people now in terms of exposition rather than taking out of the word what's in it i mean they've always done this you know they've it's i said jesus where you make the bible say what you want to that's what the manifested sons of god the children of god did the positive confession the shepherding doctrines you know all these various things that came on through the years they get enough scripture to make it say what they wanted to but little by little things got weakened and weakened and the church that is the salt of the earth and the light of the world got its own light snuffed out got its own you know your ministry that it we we are the the salt of the earth we're the light of the world a city that has sent out a pillar not to be you don't put it hide it under a bushel neither man light a can or put it under a bushel but you're not a candle so it gives light to all that are now let your light so shine before men they'll see your good works and glorify your fathers in heaven will the church stop doing it there was all sorts of evangelism people coming to christ all the time all the time all the time and then followed up with bible studies many of them sitting there weekend you know all week night after night bringing their bible underlining it learning growing and repenting they find out this about themselves i could go there and i didn't repent and ask god to help them but then with time next you know kind of eased back just like no different than the book of judges the cycle then you see this incredible revival that would happen after some you know enemy had been came along and oppressed them they'd cry out to god and god would raise up you know a judge and set them free and they cry out to god a generation later right back and there's in no generation has has any right to think they control the future and but we do control our wisdom you know our witness in our life in what we are in what we're doing and here you know josiah just one generation afterwards it's gone and you know when you when you look at this and you see you know the things that now have happened really through the covet it's almost like there's this sifting going on uh you know i don't know you know what you want to do with wheat and tears and this and that but the uh the thing of just really wanting to say we need to have the word we need to be feeding people we need to have you know whatever it is to get through and reach people more than ever in this day and age the uh my son one of my boys these pastors you may have heard maybe seen it or something but down in san jose and they've kept open feeding the people and the churches exploded and it exploded and exploded it's it's had a lot of national coverage on it he's never asked for it doesn't want it doesn't like it been to court back and forth a number of times but it's told the judge he said i i've got a job to do i'm going to do it i'm going to feed my sheep and the shepherd you know we we sat there in a courtroom i went we could go back and forth they wouldn't let anybody in wouldn't let anybody they had like 300 people in the pouring rain outside singing judge wouldn't let anybody anybody in the gallery for any of this as they're just worshiping and singing but is there they're in there are you doing this are you distancing how what are you doing in your building you're not supposed to be in your building here they've got a they're building it's about 130 to forty thousand square feet it's a big building and uh i think you get all they want to into it and uh but uh they they the county in santa clara said you can only have 20 people in the parking lot nobody in the building they said i'm sorry i'm not sorry i'm going to feed my sheep and i'm very gentle very soft-spoken he's not like me people can't believe he's my son he's like his mother very gentle very loving to me i'm kind of i'm scottish you know and uh you know oliver when scott is you know we're tribal we're war-like we we like war but they're just that's all we're good at basically but anyway here but he just stands and the churches exploded a pastor who had a huge church in town in santa clara there he came to me and he told me he said i'm so proud of your son here i pass through this church for a year poured into it and then he retires he's a little older than me retired and he says and then the covet hits they shut it down i go to the board i said you can't do this they need you now more than ever they said well we've got to obey the laws of the land we've got to submit to the authority you know and uh we then we're not going to do it and so a bunch of his people from that church that he they went over to my son's church and they're over there and he found out about it and he went to him and he asked me he says what's where are you and he said well we're over calvary chapel and they said and he said what's it like he said man the worship is great and he's an incredible bible teacher and also pastor dave we're you know don't be hurt but we're not coming back we love it here and he told them he says good they don't deserve you if they won't be with you at a time of need to take care of you then how can and then now why would you go back when everything's nice and fun and good again no they you know and he said he'd my son got a hold of him came over found me but something there today we're watching there that who are we really what are we really truly all about and uh you know we're watching here you know who knows when this thing is over if it's ever going to be over you know but the uh what what the church will be like and and either something has happened that's come alive that people realize you know that no we're not playing with this any longer and here habakkuk he can't believe his ears and he he then he interestingly enough then he responds to god by defending the very people that he was just praying that god would discipline them he turns to me he says now wait israel's corrupt and we need to be disciplined we need him we need a good spanking but i want to know how in the world can a holy righteous loving god possibly use somebody more wicked than we are to accomplish a good goal doesn't make sense to me you know i think we have this picture that when god works i don't know if you've ever had any surgeries i've had a few and one of the things everywhere might have been you know you go into this wonderful clean room i mean they the walls are white high gloss enamel all clean the floor you could eat off the thing in the surgical room and they've got all the doctors are all wrapped up and stuff and they got on all their face gear and they bring out all their equipment there on their sterile thing and they've got all their knives and all their tools and all their stuff and their la and their drills if you had what i've had and saws where they both hips replaced where they just cut your leg in half that's what they do and saw you know but you did please put me out for that which they graciously did but it's all a sterile environment and we think god this is how you're supposed to work and god says i'll work however if i want to use a rusty knife i'll use a rusty knife if i want to use a you know an axe i'll use an ax i'll do whatever it is i want to get through whatever it is that it takes to do this he'd warned them time after time after time for many years to get right they never listened to him in second chronicles it sheds some light on it chapter 36 verse 14. it says moreover all the chiefs of the priests and the people they transgressed very much after the abominations of the heathen and they polluted the house of the lord which he had hallowed in jerusalem and the lord god of their fathers sent to them by his messengers rising in b times and sending because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place but they mocked the messengers of god they despised his words they misused his prophets until the wrath of the lord arose against his people until there was no remedy therefore you know he brought upon them the king of the chaldees slew the young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion upon the young men or maiden or old man to fulfill the word of the lord by the mouth of jeremiah until the lord enjoyed her sabbaths until you got back to where you belong and he said you can call it what you want i spoke i said messenger after messenger after messenger you beat him up you killed him no matter what it is we said nothing could get through to you until finally that you know out of when there was no remedy i everything in my toolkit everything in my medicine cabinet i used every bit of it he'd use natural calamities with them droughts plagues military defeats instead of repenting the people just went out to solve their own problems and while turning even farther from the lord hardened their hearts and more often than not turn to the very gods of the nations around them crying out to them to help them and here god his long suffering had gone on and on and on he said i had compassion and he said it was then time to act and sometimes god has to have in incredible steps to get our attention but as far as habakkuk was concerned even then god's answer didn't solve the problem that even seemed to create a bigger one you know how can a holy and just god use a wicked nation to punish his own people and then when habakkuk couldn't stop you know the lord you know by arguing a holy god shouldn't be doing this habakkuk then turns and he argues the helplessness of the people verse 14 he says and maketh men as the fishes of the sea and the creeping things that have no ruler over them they take up all of them with the angle they catch them in their net they gather them and they're dragged therefore they rejoice and they're glad in other words caught you're just letting the whole country just be sitting ducks this is pathetic they're like fish in the sea they just come down with their nap they're just gonna this is pitiful the poor people you know this is an overkill and you know and here as he's kind of now he's sweet he's trying every every possible argument to say you don't know what you're doing and i don't trust it i don't agree with who you are the where the way you're handling this and uh he said we couldn't survive an attack like that these savage babylons with now it's an overkill life to them is absolutely cheap or just like sand in their hand that they just let it go and destroy every bit of it and like fish to be hooked netted and dragged away to destruction is that what you want jeremiah he tells us that the whole wild that all this is actually happening the nation has a slug of false prophets telling the people oh don't this could never happen this could never happen don't worry about it you're god's children god would never allow this god is good he is loving he's wonderful now this don't ever concern your little heart about this thing god would never allow anything so painful like this to happen and then and so they're getting plenty of this they've got all this drugging them going along 40 years jeremiah warned the people begged the people turned back and jeremiah you know he told them you know what judah needed and it wasn't any military strength there was obedience and faith in god we're fine but so first he kind of gives you know the illustration first he now gives the revelation this is what's happening but now comes the explanation chapter 2 verse 1. albuquerque says well i'm going to stand my watch and set me upon the tower and i will watch to see what the lord will say unto me and what i will answer when i am reproved he sat there and he said god i i know i'm wrong i know i'm wrong but i don't get it so i'm just going to go sit there and wait until you come and you rebuke me i'm out of answers you know that's the wisest of things that's the most godly of things when people when they're confused and they're frustrated and they're bewildered and they're wringing their hands and they're sweating it out but also to realize the lord is never confused never confused he's never wrong he's never at a loss he's never in a jam he's never in a corner he's never had you know pacing back and forth trying to figure out what it is he is always about the highest and the most glorious of things whether we understand it or agree with it he doesn't need either and here now you know he you and you know the story but in chapter two verse five you know the first revelation you know there uh then as i said then the explanation but in verse 5 he says yea also because he transgressed with wine and he is proud man he says that neither keepeth his home he enlarges his desire as hell and he is his death he cannot be satisfied but he gathereth the name all the nations and he heaped them unto the people and in here he's describing he god knows exactly who he's using he knows exactly what's going on he's fully cognizant he's like oh man maybe i picked the wrong guys maybe i don't know what i'm doing maybe this is could this be an overkill could this be in insensitivity here this happening but he said he shall not take verse six up a parable against them and uh and the taunting proverb against them woe unto him that increases that which is not his how long and to him that laidth unto him is as thick as clay and uh but is is is looking this thing's verse 7 and he says and they shall not rise up suddenly that they shall bite thee and awake and they shall vex thee and thou shall be as a bounty unto them because thou has spoiled many nations as he's describing he's all the remnant of the people shall spoil the because of men's blood and the violence as he's looking there what he says i know who i'm using i also know how i'm going to deal with them what their future is what they've got coming you know in verse 9 he says woe in him that covet coveteth an evil consciousness to his house that he may set his nest on high that he may be delivered from the power of evil thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off so many people in a sin against thy soul verse 12 he says woe unto him that builds a town with blood and establishes a city of iniquity verse 14 he says and the earth shall be filled with the knowledge though of the glory of god as the waters cover the sea verse 19 he says woe unto him that saith to the wood or their idols their images awake and to the dumb stone arise and it shall teach behold it is laid over with gold and silver there's no breath in it at all in the midst here he looks there all these idols these images these pathetic substitutes for the living god everything else in the world that people delight in whatever it is that man's devoted himself to whatever it is that he could sacrifice to and uh but here in verse 20 says but but the lord is in his holy temple all the earth shall be silenced before him have a cookie sat and he's watching and he's waiting meditating and boy was it ever worth the wait because in chapter 2 verse 6 god says behold his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him i'm not arguing anything about who he is just the vessel i'm using and he says but the just shall live by his faith here he looks and he and we we so often because the way you know both martin luther took it and in paul in romans 1 you know when joshua lived by faith we we put great emphasis on faith and obviously there ought to be but the focal point so much of here of this verse is not so much the asp of faith but the fruit of it he tells them he says i see they're going to come they're going to go they're going to live they're going to die i'm going to deal with them. and he says but the just we'll live you'll you'll be fine you'll live through this the just will they will live and here you know the lord is he's he's telling him he said i know the corruption of the you know of of of the chaldeans and he says they'll come and they'll go but the just will live the rest you know the uh babylonians hittites hypnotypes jesus jesuit the malachites the motabites you know all these they've come and they've gone and you've had lunch this week with a moabite a malachi hittite hepatite jebusite hittite these nations they all came they're all gone mark twain of all people to quote in 1899 mark twain he wrote the egyptian the babylonian and the persian they rose they filled the planet with sound and splendor and then faded to grievous dream stuff and passed away the greek and the roman followed and they made a vast noise oh they're gone and other peoples have sprung up held the toach high of the torch high for a time but it burned out and they sit in the twilight now or have vanished the jew saw them all beat them all and is now what he always was exhibiting no decadence of infirmities no age no weakening of his parts no slowing of his energies no dulling of his alert aggressive mind all things are mortal but the jew all other forces pass but he remains what is the secret of his immortality mark twain didn't know we do and here god looks you know there and here he uses them you know for his purposes and then when he's done with them they're gone like dave and david says mo i miss my wash pot over eat them i cast out my shoe they rose they were powerful but not not as powerful as david and here you know god you know what he uses to try to it's god is always loving he never ceased for a moment to be here loving patient long-suffering even in the famines and the pestilence the natural disasters still those things while he's doing all those things being loving being graceful being patient being long-suffering and then so often it god it wasn't until he used their enemies and that virtually always worked when you go through israel's history that was the final straw you go through the book of judges what was it they're enemies that seem to work in habakkuk 3 6 he says his his ways are everlasting everlasting they'll change and here you know when the lord looks you know there and how he is and what he works you know man's ways have great variableness to them you know but god's ways are absolutely consistent incredibly predictable and then there's something there that they're the result of his own incredible wisdom and careful deliberation obviously but like ephesians 1 11 says tells us that god's works are according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the council of his own goodwill what god is doing right now even in our i don't you know i i we're we're just kind of watching the rev the revelation and then comes the you know the uh somewhat the uh the explanation you know with it but then hopefully then instructions and the lord gives habakkuk both revelation he gives his message and he gives him instruction in chapter 2 as he lays things out there he writes them he says now i want you to take what i've had to say to you all of this and i want you to take in your to make a plaque you're gonna make a sign that is so big that he that runs while he's running by you can read it the just shall live by his faith and i think you know on one hand i you know i'm as interested and confused or frustrated as everybody in many ways i'm just as human as anybody the interesting thing about us is the body of christ that's all that's interested me particularly at this time is that um on one hand we've been preaching ever since i mean something that exploded in the 60s was the return of jesus billy graham virtually in every evangelistic ministry the rapture of the church the return of christ the eminent return of christ how many sermons that people hear wars rumors of wars famines earthquakes pestilence you know nation rising against nation you know disease going all over the place confusion it politically the rise of you know the european you know economic community the revival of israel all of these things just like the spokes of a wheel just all coming down to the hub that says jesus is coming and the urgency of it back in the 60s nobody we yeah on one hand the country was in chaos uh you you remember that country was in absolute chaos with you we we had watergate we had the nation falling apart there were you know there were marches all over peace marxist they were overtaking city halls government buildings sit-ins everywhere drug things without a control timothy leary back in harvard tune in tune on drop out or whatever else you know the thing was you know going on immorality had just swept the country uh and there was uh you know jane fonda and everybody marching against the war tremendous civil unrest there was the black panthers the symbonese living our liberation army there was martin luther king there was racial every everything and you know and but at the time the message of the body of christ that just shall live we weren't we we were there saying hey the only hope is run to jesus the house is on fire and and you you need christ and you get saved and revival broke out and i think if that was the message then we've had 6 000 years now of every attempt man can dream of to rule himself every form of government they've all failed and there's one little system of government a very small piece of the world that is standing on his feeble little knees about to fall called western democracy you know and uh and and i believe that the lord when he comes i don't believe any nation will be standing it will be an absolute universally accepted thing man cannot govern himself he will have utterly failed no matter what there won't be anybody saying lord if you'd have given us a little longer we almost had it fixed we were so close to it but they stole the election that's what it was you know whatever it was they stole it now now now now what are you going to do you know or something instead of who we are because here as it's laid out have a cook you're a watchman here's your message and here's what you've got to say i don't don't get me wrong uh you know with the things i believe that we speak but he tells me he says i want you to write the vision i want you to make plain i want you to put the tablets out there and then he tells him to be faithful verse four he says in his soul he says he here's who he is yeah buddy but he says you're going to live and uh and he says the world's falling apart it's all happening there but in it as he tells him to be aware we're not going to my time i'm sure is about up but he goes through and he talks about how wicked and corrupt you know the chaldeans are all these nations how godless they are how pathetic they were they're their own law they're their own rule they rise up they do this they're pathetic he goes on but he just says but your message is the just shall live and that was the key to this as well by the of the reformation martin luther but when somebody there looks and realizes there and of course a just person is not somebody there who has met all of god's requirements in a sense of good works a justified person is the one who has come and found justification of jesus you make me just you wash me you cleanse me you forgive me i need a just you know i mean a loving a merciful as an all-sufficient savior who died for me on the cross that's the message and then havika closes the book with prayer praise chapter 3. he finds himself there starting off incredibly frustrated with god frustrated with the world you know there but little by little as he kind of climbs up higher and higher in there and gets up to the watchtower where a watchman belongs and he finds him there like himself like a deer abounding confidently in the heights the world hadn't changed just habakkuk changed just have a cook and what changed him he cared terribly for the world around him he wanted it so much but he also knew what it was to be willing himself to sit and to surrender and to receive god's message what it is that he had in chapter 3 verse 2 he says oh lord i have heard thy speech i was afraid o lord revive thy work in the midst of the years in the midst of the years make it known and in wrath remember mercy i see what you're going to do and i get it god please be merciful and of course he will but here you know so many times we can have desperation and hopelessness and loneliness and we also all the time we need a refresh revelation from god and here is he found himself sitting there and taking the side and something there i did maybe even this weekend these are these days to go and sit before the lord and say lord what say is thou to thy servant i've got all these opinions all these things i think what do you say bring me up to that place i'm going to stand my watch i'm going to stay here until you have reproved me because i know you're right i know you know what you're doing and i know that you are more in control of the world than ever all of it and you know i think sometimes you know you know people may agree or disagree on who's the president but he raises up kings and he puts them down he puts things in there and he has one motivation it's eternity sometimes our motivation can just be the immediate condition of our of our life in our world a world that on one hand we know is passing we know it's soon over we say even so lord jesus come quickly all the time and yet at the same time but he says but god you don't make life tough for me not for me and you know psalm 103 7 says he made known his ways unto moses and his axe under the children of israel you know it's interesting the children of israel they they they could all write a book on the acts of god they could look there and say oh man i'll tell you yeah i i saw that the sea turned to blood i saw the dust and the lies i saw the plagues on the animals i saw frogs come up out of this thing i i i saw moses you know go before pharaoh and i the first born of every man and beast died after we put blood on the doorpost and we preserved i watched there as we went out there you know to the red sea and there we stood cornered in and there pharaoh's coming down after us and we're doomed and yet moses sits out the rod we walk through on dry land and then we get there and moses stands out you know then they've they've got a hook in their jaw they all come in there moses stretches out closes it and next thing you know or next morning we're singing i will sing to the lord he is triumph gloriously the horse and rider fell into the sea you know and they were all thrilled with it oh we got water out of rocks man out of heaven quail out of the sky he opened up the earth sucked up our enemies went up in a mountain held the rod of god high and israel prevailed they could i they were i was an eyewitness i that's a living testimony i was there for it they knew the acts of god why do you suppose he did it he got me there moses knew the ways moses knew what made him tick moses knew what he was about what he was doing it doesn't take any great person to know what's going on in the world but when somebody sits back and say why why are you doing this what are your ways that's what we're all about that's why you're here that's why i'm alive god wants to take us aside and say if you'll sit before me i'll tell you my ways amen father we thank you for your word lord we pray that this time that we have together would just be a wonderful time of blessing of refreshing lord and so many serving you and their lives are poured out and poured out and poured out and sometimes we can be so weary and well doing lord we pray for refreshing renewing lord that the the fellowship lord just iron sharpening iron smiling with one another sharing talking how are things going with you how are you lord may this these hours be filled with wonderful works that your spirit would just be intertwining hearts and lives and and at the same time lord as we would look up and say what sayest thou to thy servant lord may we hear that word too we ask it in jesus name amen

Channel: Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities

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Length: 59min 13sec (3553 seconds)

Published: Thu May 06 2021