CAN YOU REJOICE IN THE LORD?

Habakkuk 3:16-18

INTRODUCTION:   

When George Friederic Handel wrote the "Hallelujah Chorus," his health and his fortunes had reached the lowest possible ebb.  His right side had become paralyzed due to a disease of his central nervous system, probably lead poisoning.  All of his money was gone.  He was heavily in debt and threatened with imprisonment.  He was tempted to give up the fight.  The odds seemed entirely too great.  And yet it was then that he composed his greatest work: the oratorio, “Messiah”. 

What a healthy example for us!  Handel had decided to praise the Lord despite his circumstances.

It is said that Carl Boberg of Monsteras, on the southeast coast of Sweden, was 25-years-old when he was trekking home through a thunderstorm from a church service two miles away.   Rather than spend that time cursing God for the tempest, Boberg praised God for His majesty.  By the time he got home, Boberg had written the hymn, “How Great Thou Art”. 

What a healthy example for us!  Can we learn to lift praise in the midst of the storms of life?

It is easy to praise God when everything is going our way and we are experiencing obvious blessings.  But a sign of spiritual maturity is the ability to rejoice in the Lord even in the lean times.

§         Think of the example of the young man David who wrote some of his most stirring psalms of praise while he was being pursued by the jealous King Saul when David had been nothing but loyal to Saul.

§         Think of the apostle Paul who sang songs of praise after he was beaten and while chained in a prison cell.

§         Think of the various Christian martyrs down through the centuries who died with songs of praise on their lips.

If you are going to be going through difficult times anyway, wouldn’t you rather be like those who faced their problems with praise?  Today we are going to look at steps we can take to learn to praise the Lord in all circumstances.

I.                    PRAISE THE LORD WHEN YOU NEED COURAGE (3:16)

^16 I heard and my heart pounded,

my lips quivered at the sound;

decay crept into my bones,

and my legs trembled.

Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity

to come on the nation invading us.

What a graphic picture of fear!  Habakkuk said, “my heart pounded,” “my lips quivered,” “decay crept into my bones” (or, my bones went weak) and “my legs trembled.”

Perhaps it would be good for us to briefly review how we got to where we are near the close of the book of Habakkuk.

§         Habakkuk began his treatise with a complaint to God: “wicked people seem to go unpunished even though I’ve been telling You about them.”

§         God replied by saying that He was not unaware of the wickedness of the evil Babylonians, rather He was using them to punish the wickedness of the Jews.

§         Habakkuk told God he couldn’t believe his ears; how could God use the Babylonians to punish the Jews for their sins when the Babylonians were so much worse than the Jews?

§         God said that Habakkuk should watch and wait because eventually justice would prevail.

§         In response, Habakkuk prayed to God and asked Him to renew His mighty deeds in Habakkuk’s own time and then Habakkuk recalled some of the mighty deeds God had performed in the past.

Having rehearsed God’s power as demonstrated in the past, now Habakkuk trembled in fear.  An invading army was attacking his land, an all-powerful God was controlling his destiny and Habakkuk was flat-out scared!  Under the burden of his fears, we could understand if Habakkuk’s next words were words of complaint, words of criticism, words of protest and words of grumbling.

But instead of all of those negative responses, over the next two verses, we will see that Habakkuk’s response to his fears was to utter words of praise.

Now I want you to notice the components of courage that led to his perspective of praise:

1.      Courage comes from patience – Habakkuk said, “I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us.”  We often feed our fears when we put God on a timetable and expect, no, demand that He resolve our conflict in our way and on our schedule.  When God, who knows best, does not do what we told Him to do when we told Him to do it, we can become fearful that He isn’t going to respond at all.   Or, worse yet, that He isn’t at all.

2.      Courage comes from faith – When Habakkuk said, “I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us” he was expressing a profound faith that God would respond to his crisis.  Faith is not merely believing that God can act; faith is trusting that God will act.

3.      Courage comes from faithfulness – Habakkuk resolved to continue living in obedience to the Lord while he watched and waited for the Lord to intervene.  Faithfulness is doing what you know to be right even when you don’t feel like it.

We will feed our courage and starve our fears if we will practice patience, faith and faithfulness.

II.                  PRAISE THE LORD WHEN YOU NEED RESOURCES (3:17)

^17 Though the fig tree does not bud

and there are no grapes on the vines,

though the olive crop fails

and the fields produce no food,

though there are no sheep in the pen

and no cattle in the stalls,

^18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

Habakkuk declared that he would rejoice in the Lord, he would praise God, he would worship YHWH no matter what.  Even if his orchards do not produce fruit, he would praise the Lord.  Even if his vines do not produce a crop, he would worship the Lord.  Even if his fields do not produce a harvest, he would worship the Lord.  Even if his flocks and herds are not productive, he will worship the Lord.

We may be prone to forget that we worship God because He is God.  When, in praise of the Lord, we recount His goodness, faithfulness and mercy, we might actually loose sight of the fact that He is worthy of worship because He is God and we may begin to think that we worship Him because of what He has done for us.  If we worship Him strictly because of what He has done for us, we are really engaged in a form of self-worship. 

He’s still God even when things are not going our way.  His identity is not dependent upon our prosperity as if He is only the true God if He is blessing us.

There may be times in your life when you find yourself in real financial need.  The temptation may be to grumble or complain but praise the Lord.  You may find yourself with a dark present and a cloudy future…praise the Lord anyway.  Your health may be uncertain but praise the Lord anyhow.  You may have wayward children or aging parents that you worry about but praise the Lord anyway.  If you are of a praising mind, you can find a reason to praise the Lord no matter what your circumstances may be.

There was a little old lady who was quite happy about her salvation, and on Sunday morning she would shout occasionally.  But things changed when a new and more dignified preacher came to the church.  He let the little old lady know that he didn’t care for her shouting.  But she couldn’t help it and during the next service she let out a few “amens” and a couple of “praise the Lord’s”.

After the service the preacher met with the deacons, and told them if it happened in the next service that he wanted two of them to escort the lady out of the church.  At first they protested but the preacher persisted and eventually they agreed.

At the next service the little lady got happy again.  She shouted, “Praise the Lord!”  The preacher motioned to the deacons and they got the little lady, one on each side, picked her up and proceeded to carry her from the auditorium.  When they got near the back she let out one more loud “Hallelujah!” 

The preacher called back to her, “What are you shouting about now?”  She said, “When Jesus rode into Jerusalem he didn’t have but one donkey, and here I’ve got two of ‘em!”

If you look closely, you’ll find reasons to praise the Lord in all your circumstances.

III.                PRAISE THE LORD WHEN YOU NEED A SAVIOR (3:18) 

^18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

I will be joyful in God my Savior.

A number of years ago, at the close of a worship service, an intelligent-looking young man came to the preacher and said, “I find all of your talk about the blood of Jesus to be offensive.  I want to be a Christian but I do not see the need for the blood of Christ in my salvation.  I believe I can be saved without his blood.”

“Very well,” said the minister, “how then do you propose to be saved?”

“By following His example,” was the answer.  “If I live like Jesus, then I will be saved.  That is enough for any man.”

“I suppose it is,” said the minister.  “And you propose to do just that in your life?”

“I do, and I am sure that that is enough.”

“Very well.  I Peter 2:22 reads, ‘^He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.’  I suppose that you can say that of yourself, too?”

The man became visibly embarrassed.  “Well,” he said, “I cannot say that exactly.  I have sometimes sinned.”

“In that case you do not need an example, but a Savior,” replied the wise preacher. 

Listen to me very carefully.  What I am about to say is the most important fact you will ever hear in your life.  If you have ever sinned…even once…you need a savior! 

§         You may do a better job than any of the rest of us at living like Jesus but that will not remove the scent of sin from your soul. 

§         You may be well-respected, well-liked, well-educated and well-heeled but that will not erase the history of sin from your permanent record.

The bad news about the gospel is that if you have ever failed to obey God, even one time, you are under the death penalty because of your sin.  The good news of the gospel is that you have a savior.  God has made it possible for your penalty to be paid and you do not have to pay it.  God’s own son, Jesus, has taken the punishment for your sins…all of them.  Your debt has been paid in full.

I have titled this heading, “PRAISE THE LORD WHEN YOU NEED A SAVIOR”.  You can praise the Lord when you need a savior because the Lord has provided a savior. 

When do you need a savior?  You need a savior:

§         When you have allowed hatred to enter your heart because hatred is a sin.

§         When you have been jealous of any person or envious of him because jealousy and envy are sins.

§         When you have gossiped about another because gossip is a sin.

§         When you have lusted after someone because lust is a sin.

§         When you have shaved or shaded the truth because lying is a sin.

§         When you have taken the Lord’s name in vain because that is a sin.

§         When you have failed to help a brother or a sister in need when it was within your power to provide help because to fail to help a brother or sister is to have withheld your aid from Jesus, himself.

In the economy of out theology, we have appraised some sins as more expensive than others but in God’s marketplace, all sins cost the same: the blood of His Son.  When you need a savior, praise the Lord because He has given you the Savior.

Mrs. Margaret J. Harris put it well when she wrote:

When I saw the cleansing fountain,

Open wide for all my sin

I obeyed the Spirit's calling

When he said, "Wilt thou be clean?"

I Will Praise Him! I will Praise Him!

Praise the lamb for sinners slain;

Give Him glory all ye people,

For His blood can wash away each stain.

CONCLUSION:

Louis Albert Banks tells of an elderly Christian man, a fine singer, who learned that he had cancer of the tongue and that surgery was required.  In the hospital, after everything was ready for the operation, the man said to the doctor, “Are you sure I will never sing again?”  The surgeon found it difficult to answer his question.  He simply shook his head no.  The patient then asked if he could sit up for a moment. “I have spent my life singing the praises of God,” he said “and now you tell me I can never sing again.  I want to sing one last song.”  Then, in the doctor’s presence, the man softly sang a hymn of praise to the Lord.

I’m not telling you that, after today, you will never sing again.  I’m not telling you that you will.  I’m just inviting you, no matter what your circumstance, no matter what your need, to lift your voice in praise to the Lord Who has provided you with a Savior.

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