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22

Nov, 2020

Finding Your Ha in Unhappiness

  • Salvation
  • hope
  • thanksgiving
  • return of Christ
  • woe
  • meeting God
  • leaving the iron on


Finding Your Ha in Unhappiness

Habakkuk 2:5-17 | November 22, 2020

Do you ever feel like you are wasting your time?

The story is told of a guy that broke into the one-room apartment of a writer in the middle of the night.

Trying not to wake the sleeping writer, he quietly picked the lock on the writer’s desk. 

Suddenly, he heard snickering coming from the bed on the other side of the room. 

He cried out, “What are you laughing about?”

The writer said, “I am laughing at the great risk you are taking right now to try and find money in that desk in the middle of the night when I never money in it during the day.”

Do you ever feel like that?

I mean I hope you aren’t breaking into people’s houses, but do you ever feel like you are wasting your time?

Do you ever ask yourself questions like…

  • “Why am I doing all of this?”
  • “Why am I trying so hard?”
  • “Are all my efforts useless?”
  • “Is this all in vain?”
  • “Did I leave the iron on?”

The prophet Habakkuk found himself in a similar situation. 

His country was falling apart, and he was praying and pleading to God to do something.

And God told Habakkuk that he was going to answer his prayer by sending a wicked nation to take over.

Can you imagine eavesdropping on that prayer time?

  • “God, please help!”
  • “I am – I’m sending a wicked nation to take over.”
  • “Never mind, Lord – forget I said anything!”

It was a very strange answer to prayer. 

It was the kind of answer that might have made Habakkuk feel like his prayers were a waste of time.

But it was God’s answer and with his answer God also took some time to encourage Habakkuk.

How did he encourage him?

By showing him the bigger picture of how everything was going to play out.

Do you think seeing the bigger picture of how everything was going to play out would help Habakkuk?

Would it help you?

The bigger picture is what we are going to look at now. 

Listen to Habakkuk 2 beginning with verse 5.

God has been unfolding some things to the prophet and now he says this…

5 Furthermore, wine betrays the haughty man, so that he does not stay at home.

 

5 He enlarges his appetite like Sheol, and he is like death, never satisfied. He also gathers to himself all nations and collects to himself all peoples.

God told just told Habakkuk that one day selfish, prideful people were going to lose – people just like the Chaldeans. 

Make no mistake, they were going to be successful.

  • They were going to win battles
  • They were going to take over the country
  • They were going to be very wealthy and very powerful

But just like the prideful, selfish, arrogant people of our day, what they had would never be enough. 

God uses two pictures to describe this kind of arrogance.

  • Being drunk
  • Going to Hell

Like someone who is drunk with wine, the Chaldeans were going to be drunk with pride and arrogance, but their success wasn’t going to be enough.

They were going to want more and more and more.

God describes this scene by using a picture of Hell. 

Hell is never satisfied.

There is never a time when Hell says it has had enough. 

It always wants more!

1 Peter 5:8 (ESV)

Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

The Enemy never wants to just trip you up with things.

He wants to devour you and destroy you.

His appetite for destruction never ends.

He is never satisfied.

That is the imagery God uses to describe pride.

So, if you are an unrepentant, proud person, you are in great danger and by default the people around you are also in danger.

Let me repeat a sobering thought from last week…

Walter Chantry

There are only two kinds of men who have ever lived on the earth: men of pride and men of faith.

Which one are you?

  • A person of pride?
  • A person of faith?

If your heart is giving you mixed signals on the answer to that question, then please pay close attention to what God goes on to say. 

He’s going to lay out some woes for us to consider. 

A woe is kind of like a warning.

Think, “Woe, man! Woooooooe, man!”

A woe is a warning from the person who is really in charge to the person who thinks they are in charge.

Woe here is also kind of like saying, “Ha!”

Psalm 2:1-2

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD…

 

Psalm 2:4

He who sits in the heavens laughs…

That’s not laughing in a funny-ha-ha way, but in a sovereign, powerful way – the one, true God always looks at every nation in the world and says “Ha!” to anyone who thinks that their plans or their world order or their fear of world order are ever more important than his plans.

About 1,000 years before Jesus was born there was a giant of a man named Goliath.

One day he was out on the battlefield about to engage in a one-on-one battle royale with David, the son of Jesse – David was probably somewhere between the ages of 10 and 15 at the time.

Goliath had some super impressive battle armor and a monster sword and a javelin and maybe the battle axe of Gimli – and David had a little pouch with some rocks and a wooden slingshot.

Cursing and scowling, Goliath yelled at David, “Am I some kind of dog that you come out here with your little sticks? I’m going to crush you and feed you to the wild animals, you little punk!”

And this is how little pre-teen David responded…

1 Samuel 17:45-46 (ESV)

You come to me with a sword and with a spear, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head…so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel…

David looked at Goliath and said, “Ha! Who do you think you are, defying the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel?”

God’s message to people who are prideful and arrogant has always been the same, “Woe to you.”

God has some more woes…

6 Will not all of these take up a taunt-song against him, Even mockery and insinuations against him and say,

 

6 Woe to him who increases what is not his – for how long – and makes himself rich with loans?

 

7 Will not your creditors rise up suddenly, and those who collect from you awaken? Indeed, you will become plunder for them.

 

8 Because you have looted many nations, All the remainder of the peoples will loot you –

 

8 because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, to the town and all its inhabitants.

With violence and bloodshed, the Chaldeans took what was not theirs – and with greed they took more than what they needed. 

And God tells Habakkuk, “Don’t worry, Habakkuk. Their time is coming. And it will come like a thief in the night.”

History records Cyrus, King of Persia, kind of took over the entire kingdom of the Chaldeans in one night.

Their power was suddenly wiped out.

Let us not ignore the sin of wicked kings and queens and dictators and other leaders throughout history.

And let us mourn that their evil ways were carried out. 

But let us not forget, people like that will not reign forever.

Their time came and their power was suddenly gone. 

And before we are quick to apply that to any of our current political leanings, let us be wise and apply that warning to our own hearts.

Are you greedy?

Do you take more than you should?

Are you living in the pride of yourself today?

Trusting in your own strength and your own power?

Thinking that as long as you don’t murder anyone or do anything else really bad, that surely God will let you into His heaven?

As an act of mercy for your soul, God says, “Woe to you – your time is coming.”

Matthew 24:43 (ESV)

…if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 

 

Matthew 24:44 (ESV)

Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Are you ready for the return of Christ?

Or is the return of Christ not on your agenda?

Are you more obsessed with what you will be eating for Thanksgiving?

Are you more obsessed with the fact that there’s 33 days until Christmas?

Are you more obsessed with imagining that on January 1, the world is going to get back to your definition of normal?

Listen, it is great to be ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas and a New Year, but it is morally and spiritually and emotionally and practically and eternally imperative that you are ready to meet God.

Are you ready?

You can get ready right now – believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

And if you are already saved then keep believing in the Lord Jesus Christ right now and be released from whatever arrogance or anger or fear or apathy is weighing down your soul.

God gives another woe – listen to verses 9-11:

9 Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house to put his nest on high, to be delivered from the hand of calamity!

10 You have devised a shameful thing for your house by cutting off many peoples; so you are sinning against yourself.

 

11 Surely the stone will cry out from the wall, and the rafter will answer it from the framework.

The Chaldeans obtained their wealth by evil means.

And then they went and built their kingdom in such a way as to protect themselves and keep themselves safe.

Someone has said this is similar to what is seen in many neighborhoods in our country. 

Someone opens a liquor store or an abortion clinic in a rough neighborhood, but they live in a nice neighborhood on the other side of town.

The picture here is taking advantage of others – exploiting people and deceptively profiting from their struggles. 

God says, “Woe to him who takes advantage of other people like that.”

I would imagine most of us have heard the phrase…

“If these walls could talk.”

Well, God says that one day the walls will cry out against those who exploit others.

Woe to those who are greedy. 

Woe to those who take advantage of others. 

God gives a third woe – listen to verses 12-13…

12 Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and founds a town with violence!

 

13 Is it not indeed from the LORD of hosts that peoples toil for fire, and nations grow weary for nothing?

The Chaldeans built their kingdom by unjustly shedding the blood of others.

And those they didn’t kill were forced into slavery and those slaves were forced to build the grand Babylonian kingdom.

The kingdom of Babylon was known for its marvelous architectural structures, but they were built by unjust means. 

Eventually, their great buildings would be all for nothing.

A former church member who was a pilot told me once…

Bob Somers

The only kind of plane that has too much fuel is one that is on fire.

A full tank is a wonderful thing for someone suspended in the air driving a machine that weighs more than 40,000 pounds.

But if that flying machine is on fire, a full tank will only bring destruction more quickly.

The Chaldeans had built wonderful buildings – but their day was coming, and, on that day, their buildings would just be fuel for the fire.

What have you built in your life?

  • A business?
  • A career?
  • A nice home?
  • A nice retirement?

Those are super things, and they are not evil in nature.

But do any of those things get more worship in your life than God?

In your mind, are those things a prideful reflection of your hard work or are they a joyful reflection of God’s grace?

Woe to the Chaldeans for being prideful in what they built.

And woe to any of us if our accomplishments and possessions are of greater importance to us than knowing the King of Kings who said…

Matthew 16:26

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

Do not forfeit your soul for stuff.

The Chaldeans did and they were destroyed.

  • Woe to the greedy
  • Woe to those who take advantage of others
  • Woe to those who build with sin and pride

Let’s skip over verse 14 for a moment and go to the next woe, but we will come back to verse 14.

Look at verses 15-17:

15 Woe to you who make your neighbors drink, who mix in your venom even to make them drunk so as to look on their nakedness!

 

16 You will be filled with disgrace rather than honor. Now you yourself drink and expose your own nakedness.

 

16 The cup in the LORD's right hand will come around to you, and utter disgrace will come upon your glory.

 

17 For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and the devastation of its beasts by which you terrified them,

 

17 because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, to the town and all its inhabitants.

The picture here is of people who use things to lead other people into sin.

The Chaldeans were known for their extravagant parties.

And they specifically carried out a disturbing practice that is still seen at honky-tonks and college campuses today.

The more drunk you can get a person, the more you can lead that person into sin.

And God says, “Woe to you if you do this.”

Alcohol isn’t the only thing that people get drunk with. 

  • You can get drunk with money
  • You can get drunk with politics
  • You can get drunk with a volunteer position in town
  • You can get drunk with a volunteer position in the church
  • You can get drunk with games on your phone
  • You can get drunk with social media feeds
  • You can get drunk with political conspiracies
  • You can get drunk with end times conspiracies

In other words, there are plenty of people that will use plenty of things, even good things, to blind you from the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ!

And to those plenty of people God says, “Woe.”

  1. Martin-Lloyd Jones

The way of the transgressor is hard whether it be an individual, a nation, or the whole world.

  1. Martin-Lloyd Jones

Your worldly man may make a fortune by evil business methods and arrive at the top. But see the end of the ungodly!

  1. Martin-Lloyd Jones

Look at him dying upon his bed; see him buried in a grave and think of the doom and woe that are his destiny!

  1. Martin-Lloyd Jones

We should feel sorry for the ungodly that they were fools enough to become drunk with temporal success. Their end is fixed.

And if you are in Christ, your end is fixed as well and that’s why in the middle of all of this woe, the believer can sop up this next word of hope.

Listen to verse 14:

14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

In the middle of all of this sin and injustice and woe we find this amazing, awesome, everlasting reminder…

The glory of God will fill the earth!

I heard someone put it this way, imagine you are in a huge football stadium that is packed with vile and angry people and they are yelling racial slurs and they are screaming political lies and they are shouting and cussing at the top of their lungs how much they hate things. 

And then suddenly a small group of people standing in a tunnel next to the field begin to sing, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty! All Thy works shall praise Thy name in earth and sky and sea!”

And before long that song from a small group of people supernaturally begins to drown out all the other sounds in the stadium.

There is a lot of noise in the world right now and a lot of noise in our hearts and minds and attitudes right now, but please know that first and most and ultimately and finally the whole earth is and will be full of the glory of God!

One of the first official days of Thanksgiving called in our country was declared on the heels of our nation’s bloody battle for independence. 

The first national day of Thanksgiving was called in the midst of our country’s bloody battle against one another during the Civil War.

And the bill establishing Thanksgiving as we know it today was signed 19 days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

In other words, our official days of Thanksgiving were all called during times of conflict and tragedy and trouble.

Called during times of war and tension in our nation’s capital and times of anger and anxiety in every home in the nation. 

Called during times of world-wide terrorism and financial uncertainties and constant health scares.  

Even history reveals that thanksgiving has very little flavor in times of comfort, but in times of difficulty, it helps our souls savor the simple gift of grace.

So, I ask again…

  • Do you feel like you are wasting your time?
  • Do you feel like what you are doing is useless?
  • Do you feel like so much of what you do is in vain?

This is what Jesus said to his friends…

John 16:33

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart, take courage, be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

What does that kind of peace and courage and good cheer look like in real life?

About 15 years ago Michael Milton told the story of visiting Jean just before Thanksgiving.

Jean lived in a nursing care unit and she had been bed-ridden for a large portion of her life.

She had to be raised and lowered with a crane and she had to be fed and bathed and cared for by others.

She had a husband, but at some point, he left, and she didn’t get to watch her kids grow up in the same ways that most moms get to.

And there were many more painful stories from her life. 

She had every reason to not be thankful.

She told Milton that her life had been tough, but then she said this, “But we believe that God’s in control, don’t we?

And I have a choice to be thankful or not. And I have chosen to be thankful and to be happy! I am going to praise Him! Isn’t that what Thanksgiving is all about?”

As Milton was leaving Jean said, “It’s going to be a great Thanksgiving!”

Tearing up, Milton told her, “It already is.”

Jean discovered the glorious key to not wasting your time…give your life to Christ.

Because his birth and his life and his death and his resurrection mean that thankfully living for him will never be in vain!

Message by Dow Welsh |

November 22, 2020 © Holland Avenue Baptist Church

 

more |

Above are pre-sermon manuscript notes

Sermon scriptures NASB unless otherwise noted

Lots of help from many pastors and theologians

Weekly help from Bruce Hurt at www.preceptaustin.org

https://www.preaching.com/sermons/naamans-thanksgiving/

 



we owe you Ever feel like you are wasting your time? E. Just feel like you're just Whatever you're doing is just in vain. There's a story from years ago about a thief that broke into the apartment, a one room apartment of a writer, and the writer was in the room at the time. He's on the other side of the room, you know, asleep, Bond. So the thief is on the other side of the room at his desk, quietly trying to pick the lock and get inside when suddenly, from the other side of the room in the bed, he hears some sticker and he gets a little mad. He's like, What do you snickering about over there? And the rider from his bed said, I'm just I'm snickering at the great risk that you are taking right now to try to find money in a desk in the middle of night that I can ever find money in. In the middle of the day. They feel like that. I mean, I hope you're not breaking into people's houses, but you ever feel like what you're doing is just a waste of time. You'll find yourself. You know, asking questions in your mind. Like what? What am I doing this? Why am I trying so hard? Why am I putting forth so much effort? Isn't all of this just useless? Isn't all of this in vain? Did I leave the iron on this morning? I mean, do you ever have questions? You know that Just you can't get out of your head. Sometimes we do feel like we're wasting our time back. It. He felt that back. It was in a situation where his nation, his country was falling apart. Something we can't ever make a connection with them. A box nation was falling apart, and he's praying he's pleading to God. God, would you please do something? And God says Okay, I'll answer your prayer on the way I'm going to answer is I'm going to send this wicked group of people that Cal Deion's and they're going to take over your nation. Can you imagine eavesdropping on that prayer time? God, Please help. Lord, please help. I am. I'm going to send a nation to take over. Never mind. Lord, forget I said anything. It's It's fine. We'll take care of it. I mean, you have to think that when a back occurred, that answer he was thinking, Man, I'm I'm wasting my time praying to God. My prayers have just a waste because they're not being answered. But it was God's answer. And in the middle of that answer, God also went further. And he helped and encouraged tobacco. How? How did he encourage him? Well, he encouraged him by helping him see the bigger picture of how everything was going to play out. Now, do you think that would have been encouraging to tobacco? He hears this strange news, and then God encourages him by saying, Look, I'm I'm going to give you the bigger picture of how all of this is going to play out. Don't you think that probably would have encouraged him? What about us? Would it help you if you knew the bigger picture of how everything was going to play out? Well, the bigger picture is where we turn our attention. Now God has been unfolding. Something's for Tabaka. He's already in conversation with him. He continues picking up in verse five. Furthermore, wine betrays the haughty man so that he does not stay at home. He enlarges his appetite like shell and he is like death. Never satisfied, he also gathers to himself, all nations and collects to himself all peoples. Now, back in verse four, God had just got through telling Tabaka that sinful, prideful, arrogant, selfish people One day they were going to lose. They were not always going to win. So people like the cow Deion's were going toe lose. God promised that. But make no mistake, they were going to win first and they were going to win big. They were going to win some battles they were going to take over the country. They were going to get very powerful and very wealthy. But just like the prideful, selfish, arrogant people of our day, whatever they had was not going to be enough. And so God is going to paint a couple of pictures here using using two sets of imagery. God's going to use the picture of being drunk and going to hell to try to help a backache, see what's going to happen. Like someone who's drunk with wine. The Cal Deion's. We're going to get drunk with power. Boy, they were just really going toe raise up, be this superpower in the world taking over everything but their success was not going to be enough. They were going to want Mawr and Mawr and Mawr and Mawr and Mawr. And God describes that that picture this sense of them being drunk with wanting more. He describes it in a parallel way with hell. God uses a picture of hell because Hell is never satisfied. Hell always wants Mawr and Mawr and Mawr. Peter, writing toe suffering Christian said this. He said, Your adversary, the devil. He prowls around like an angry, roaring lion, looking for someone, anyone to devour and destroy. Listen, make no mistake. The enemy does not want to just trip you up. Years ago, I was speaking at a youth camp pond The way I described it, You talking about this verse was the enemy doesn't just want to trip you up when you trip and you fall on the concrete. He wants to rub your face in the concrete until you bleed, and he wants to keep doing it until you bleed out and die. He's not satisfied with just messing up Thanksgiving Day for you. His desire. It's for destruction. His desire is to destroy, and his appetite for destruction never ends. He's never satisfied, and that's the picture that God gives her back for people who are prideful and selfish and arrogant. So if you are a prideful, selfish, arrogant, unrepentant person, you are in great danger. In fact, the people around you are in a measure of danger as well. And God's message could not be any more clear. Let me repeat a thought that I shared last week. Walter Change. He said this. There are only two kinds of men who have ever lived on the earth. Men of pride and men of faith. Which one are you a person of pride or a person of faith? If your heart is giving you mixed signals on that answer, then stay in the conversation with us because God's going thio do something. He's going to have a conversation where he continues toe layout, something's toe tobacco. And what he's going to lay out is Cem woes. Ah, woe is is like a warning. It's like Whoa, man! Whoa, man! Whoa! Ah! Woe is a warning from the person who's actually in charge to the person who thinks that they are in charge. That Zwolle here Somis has a picture. But I think it's helpful Psalm chapter to the Psalmist says. Why do the Nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the Earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord. And then the Psalmist says this. He who sits in the heavens laughs. Now this isn't a funny Ha ha laugh. This is at any moment ever in the history of the world are in the future. History of the world are right now. God can look at any and every nation, and he can see them watching them, saying, our plans, our first our world order is first. We are in charge. And the God of Israel says Ha. At any moment, he can say ha to the notion that anyone's plans arm or important or more powerful than Hiss. About 1000 years before Jesus was born, there was a giant of a man named Goliath and Goliath. One day was out in the field. He was about toe engage in a battle. Royal, a one on one fight with David, the son of Jesse. Now David at the time was somewhere between 10 and 15 years old, and Goliath was impressive. He's used giant And he had some serious battle armor. He had a monster sword. Javelin. He had a battle ax of Gimli. I don't I don't know. He He had a lot of stuff. And David? They had a little pouch of rocks and little wooden slingshot. And Goliath looks at him and says, Am I some kind of dog that you come out here to fight me with sticks? Look, I'm going to crush you, and I'm going to feed you to the wild animals, you arrogant little punk. And listen to how preteen David response for Samuel. 17 Goliath. You come to me with a sword and with a spear. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of Host, the God of the Down. And I will cut off your head so that all the Earth may know there is a Godin Israel. You thought your preteen had smart things to say can imagine boldness. Goliath? You think you're taking over the world? Ha! Just have you found your hot yet? In 2020. I'm going to tell you something. Your pastor found his ha about six months ago. I hope I don't lose it. Our ha is really our hot needs to be a part of who we are. We need some of David's ha. We need to look at any situation and we need to think one of two things. The glory of God feels the Earth or the blood of Jesus is covered. My life, either one's pretty good for anymore. God's message to people who are prideful and arrogant has always been the same. Woe to you. Whoa, team! Then he has some or woes for six. Well, not all these. Take up a taunt song against him, even mockery and insinuations against him and say Woe to him. Who increases what is not hiss for how long and makes himself rich with loans. Will not your creditors rise up suddenly? And those who collect from you awaken? Indeed, you will become plunder for them because you have looted many nations. All the remainder of the people's will loot you because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, to the town and all its inhabitants with the violence and bloodshed, the Cal Deion's were taken over the world, but they were taken mawr than they needed. They were greedy and God tells Savak. Okay, Don't worry. Their time is coming, and it's going to come like a thief in the Ninth History records that Cyrus, King of Persia, kinda took over the cow, Deion's and their kingdom almost in one night. So the word of the Lord is clear, and it's true their power suddenly was wiped out. Look, we can immediately come up with the names right of the evil kings and the evil queen's and the evil dictators, the evil generals, the evil leaders that we have seen throughout history. And we do need to mourn that any of their evil was ever carried out. But let us also not forget that people like that will not reign forever. They had their time, and then their time was gone. Their power suddenly was disappeared. And it's fine for us to think of how that applies this year. But I would also say this. Be sure that you don't ignore that his believers, we should take this warning and look at our own hearts as well. We should look at our own lives and say, um, I greedy um, I taking mawr than I should take. Am I trusting in my own strength and my trusting in my own power. Am I thinking as long as I don't murder somebody or or do something else really, really bad, Surely God's going to let me into his head as an act of mercy for our souls. God says, woe to you wo ot Jesus said it this way, Matthew 24. He said if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into I mean, right, e, if you get a text that somebody's going to break into your house at two o'clock in the morning, I mean, you're going to set alarm and be ready right within. Jesus says this. Therefore you also must be ready for the son of man is coming at an hour that you do not expect. Are you ready for the return of Christ? Are you ready? Or is the return of Christ kind of not even on your agenda right now? Are you mawr obsessed with what you're going to eat this Thursday? Are you more obsessed with Thanksgiving than you are with the return of Christ. Are you more obsessed with the fact that it's 33 days until Christmas? Then you are obsessed with the return of Christ? Are you mawr obsessed with imagining that on January 1st everything in the world is going to go back to your definition of normal? Are you obsessing over that mawr than you are obsessing over the return of Christ? Listen, it's great to be ready for Thanksgiving. It's great to be ready for Christmas, this great to be ready for a new year, but it is morally and spiritually and emotionally and practically and eternally imperative. But you get ready for the return of Christ that you are ready to meet God. So for whatever longings you have for your house, your family, your community, your nation in the world today, are you ready to meet? Are you ready for the return of Christ? Can be you get ready right now. You can repent and believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. And if you're already saved, you know what else you could do? You can keep believing in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and be rescued from whatever anger or apathy or fear or frustration or anything else is weighing down your soul. You could be a person of faith. You can keep believing and the Godof the universe will help, and he will encourage it's what he does. God continues with his woes, beginning with Verse nine. Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house to put his nest on high to be delivered from the hand of calamity. You have devised a shameful thing for your house by cutting off many people's, so you are sinning against yourself. Surely the stone will cry out from the wall, and the rafter will answer it from the framework. The Cal Deion's obtained their wealth by evil means, and then they went and built their kingdom in such a way as to protect themselves toe keep themselves safe. I heard somebody once described this as a similarity to what we see in communities all across the world. You have someone who goes into a rough, poor, impoverished neighborhood, and they built a liquor store. They build an abortion clinic, but they actually live on the opposite side of town in a gated community The picture that God is painting here is is exploiting other people, taking advantage of other people, deceptively profiting from people because of their struggles. And God's response is whoa to the person that takes advantage of others like that. Most of us have heard the phrase boy, if these walls could speak Oh, the stories they would tell God says the walls air going to speak. When it comes to people who take advantage of others, the walls are going to cry out against how they have exploited other people. And God says, Woe. Woe to people like that. Woe to the greedy woe to those who take advantage of others and God continues in his woes. Listen to verse 12. Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and founds a town with violence, Is it not, Indeed, from the Lord of Hosts that people's toil for fire and nations grow weary for nothing. The Canadians built their kingdom off violent bloodshed. They killed people in war and the people that they didn't kill. They forced them into slavery, and then they forced those slaves toe, build their kingdom toe, build their buildings. They had amazing architectural buildings in the Babylonian Kingdom. But those great buildings, those great kingdoms, ultimately they were going to be nothing but fuel for the fire. Had a friend at a church years ago. Who was a pilot? He told me this. The only kind of plane that has too much fuel is one that's on fire, You see. Ah, full tank is wonderful to someone who is way up in the air managing a £40,000 machine. A lot of fuel is good news. Unless that machines on fire. And then that fuel Onley makes the destruction Mawr rap. Canadians have amazing buildings. They had an amazing kingdom. They had amazing structure, but they're amazing. Buildings were going to just be fuel for the fire. They were all going to come to naught. What have you built in life? Have you built a business? A career? Have you built a nice home or nice vacation home? If you build a nice retirement, those things air fine. They're good. But are you worshiping those things mawr than you worship God? When you look at the things that you have in life, do you look at them as a prideful for a prideful reflection of your hard work? Or do you look at them as a joyful reflection? God's grace? Where's your heart When you look at your stuff? God says, Whoa, woe to the Cal Bian's for taking pride in what they built because it's going to come to nothing and the same message. Come to us, won't any of us when our accomplishments are our possessions or anything else in this life, become mawr important than the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords who said to us, What will it profit your life if you have a great business and a great career, a great home, a great retirement home, a great retirement? And yet you forfeit your soul. Don't let stuff roll. You don't worship stuff. Mawr. Thank God. Don't forfeit your soul for stuff the Canadians did and they were destroyed. God says, woe to the greedy woe to those who take advantage. Woe to those who build with sin and pride. We're going to skip over verse 14, which is next. We're going to come back to we're going to jump to the next whoa! Here in verse 15. What do you who make your neighbors drink who mix in your venom even to make them drunk. So as toe look on their nakedness, you will be filled with disgrace rather than honor. Now you yourself drink and expose your own nakedness. The cup and the Lord's right hand will come around to you, and utter disgrace will come upon your glory. For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you and the devastation of its beast by which you terrified them because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, to the town and all its inhabitants. The picture here is of using things to lead other people in dissent. The Cal Deion's Babylonians. They were known for their extravagant parties, and one of the things that happened at those parties is still seen today in five points and in bars and in honky tonks and in college campuses. And that is, if you get somebody drunk enough, you can lead them into sin. It's nothing new. It's what happened then it still happens now. God says whoa to you. If you do that now, just to be clear, there's more things to get drunk on than just alcohol, right? You can get drunk on money. You can get drunk on power. You could get drunk on politics. You can get drunk on a volunteer position in the community. You can get drunk on a volunteer position in the church. You can get drunk on social media, drunk on games on your phone, you can get drunk on political conspiracies. You can get drunk on conspiracies about the end times. There's lots of things that we can get drunk on. There's lots of things, even some good things that people will use to try to get you to quit looking at the glory of God in the face of Jesus, I say it again. There are plenty of people, and there are plenty of things, even some good things that people will use to try to get you to quit looking at the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. God says, woe to people who do that, Di Martin Lee Jones said This the way of the transgressor is hard. Whether the transgressors, an individual, a nation or the whole world. Your worldly man may make a fortune by evil business methods. He may arrive at the top, but look at the end of the ungodly. Look at him dying upon his bed. See him buried in a grave and think of the doom and the whoa that are his destiny. He says this We should feel sorry for the ungodly that they were fools enough to become drunk with temporal success. Their end is fixed. We don't have to be afraid of the ungodly in the world. In fact, we should pity them and feel sorry for them because their end is fixed. Unless they repent, their end is fixed. But here's the beauty of the other side. If you are in Christ, guess what your end ISS fixed. Nothing. No one, No circumstance, no situation, No calendar year can ever separate me from the love of God in Jesus Christ No one and nothing can snatch me from God's hand Ever, ever, ever In Christ my end is fixed Glory, Hallelujah And that's why in the middle of all this Whoa! In the middle of all of the whoa that we're in these days Ah, believer in the middle of Whoa can hear this message of hope. Listen to what God says in verse 14 for the Earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover. See, we sang that beginning service The Earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea in the middle of all of the sin and injustice and violence and wickedness And whoa, there is this amazing awesome reminder the glory of God fills the Earth. The glory of God fills beers. I heard someone put it this way. Imagine a football stadium. Big one packed with people. I mean, not just packed with people up in the seats, but even down on the field just packed out. And all the people in this stadium they are filed. They are angry. They're yelling racial slurs. They're screaming political lies. They're shouting at the top of their lungs how much they hate things, hate people and hate the world. And then suddenly there's this little small group of people, and they're down on the field, kind of right next to the tunnel that comes in to the field. And suddenly, among that small group of people, they just begin to sing. Holy holy Holy Lord God home, my dear, All my works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and see. And suddenly the song of those few people begins to supernaturally drown out the angry, loud, screaming and wickedness in the world. What are we singing in the world today? What is our song? Sounds like. Look, there's a There's a lot of woes in the world today. There's there's a lot of woes and our own hearts and our own minds in our own attitudes, man, there's some negative stuff. There's some bad stuff. We're all trying to work through some stuff, but ultimately, and finally, we must remember that the whole earth is full of the glory of God, and the whole earth will always be full of the glory of God. Nothing could change that. And that should cause us not just this Thursday that every single day it should cause us to be thankful. That's believers, because we know the one true living God. We should give thanks. You know, it's interesting. One of the first official days of Thanksgiving called in our nation, was called right on the heels of our bloody battle for independence, and the first time there was a National Day of Thanksgiving in our country and official National Day. It was called in the middle of our bloody battle against one another in the Civil War, and Thanksgiving is we know it today. The paper was signed 19 days after Pearl Harbor. In other words, history tells us that we will not be very thankful people in comfort. But when the chips are down, when things air hard when there's trouble when there's tragedy, Thanksgiving helps us to see helps our souls to see the simple gift of grace grace. So I ask again, Do you feel like you're wasting your time? Do you feel like your life is in vain that your efforts are useless? This is what Jesus said to his friends. I've said these things to you that in me you may have peace in the world. You will have tribulation in 2020 and every single year After that it'll never stop. Never stop it. Never have stopped. It will never stop. Tribulation will always be there. But Jesus says, take heart. Take courage. Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. From the moment that stone rolled away from the tomb, the glory of Jesus Christ has filled the earth and nothing has hindered his glory. Nothing will take away from his glory. Nothing in 2020 nothing in 2021. Nothing long after any of us air dead. Nothing will take away the glory of Jesus because he has risen, he is risen. Indeed, nothing can change that. So what does that cheer look like in real life? What does that piece look like in real life? What is taking heart like that look like in real life? 15 years ago, Michael Milton on the week of Thanksgiving went to visit a lady named Jean Jean was in a nursing care unit for many, many years. She was unable to walk. She had serious physical problems. She had to be lifted by a crane in and out of her bed and in and out of a chair. Other people had thio bathe her and dress her and do everything for her. She had a husband at one point, but he left. She was not ableto watch. Her kids grow up the way most moms air ableto watch their kids grow up, and she had other problems besides those things. In other words, gene with someone that had every reason to be angry, frustrated to raise her fistic God and not be thankful. So Michael Milton's talking to her that day, and Jean said, You know what? My life has been pretty rough. It's it's been tough. But then she went on to say this. But we believe that God's in control, don't we? And I have a choice to be thankful or not. I have chosen to be thankful, and I've chosen to be happy. I am going to praise him. Isn't that what Thanksgiving is all about? Well, Milton got ready to leave, Jean said, And you know what? It's going to be a great Thanksgiving, and with tears in his eyes, he said it already. ISS see Jean learn the key to not feel like you're wasting time. And that key is this. Give your life to Jesus Christ. Because his death, his life, his birth, his resurrection, his ascension, his promise return It means that if you are thankfully living for him, it is impossible for your life to be in vain.

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