Pastor Cal Lord's Recent Sermons
What In The World Is God Doing?
Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4 November 4, 2007
Have you ever wondered what God was doing? We don’t usually ask that question when
everything around us is going perfect. It usually comes up when our world is spinning off its axis.
1. Like this weekend when we heard about the terrible accident on I-95.
2. Or when there is a hurricane that sweeps across Florida or a tornado that rips through
Kansas.
3. We ask it when a man’s family is killed by a couple of ex-convicts.
4. Or when a loved one is stricken with cancer.
These kind of life changing events prompt us to look at God and ponder his role in them. We don’t
often preach about Habakkuk, and I think it is because his ministry took place in the middle of a
maelstrom. His world was being turned upside down and he was the one called upon to explain
things to the people of Israel.
Well maybe it is time to look to this prophet. The truth is that if your world is not upside down
right now, it could be in the near future. That’s the nature of life. I’m not trying to scare you. You
probably already know that.
Every day someone gets a diagnosis of cancer. Every day someone loses their job. Every day
someone has a spouse who comes home and tells them they want a divorce. Every day someone
discovers a person they love is addicted to drugs. I pray it is not you or me that receives this
news, but believe me, knowing how God fits into the picture will give you strength to face
whatever comes your way.
You see, God has a plan and even if it is not readily apparent, it will often shine through the
darkness of the hour.
Habakkuk was a prophet in the 600 BC. As a child he was deeply influenced by the reforms of
King Josiah. He must have been excited as a young boy by the spiritual awakening that took place
under the king’s watch. God was front and center in the life of Israel. Temple worship was
resurrected and prayer and fasting was a part of every day life. The Holy Scriptures were read and
law was established which would glorify God.
But then in 609 BC, King Josiah was killed. The world as he knew it changed. Before long the
reforms died away and the people reverted to former ways and left the worship of God behind. As
a young man Habakkuk became frustrated by Israel’s neglect of God and so in our verse today, he
lifts up his complaint. He calls on God to show himself and to turn the people around. He says, “I
have been doing my part Lord, why don’t you do something? These people are caught up in sin
and they don’t care about it or you. People are killing each other, they are robbing each other and
you don’t seem to care. What are you going to do?”
I wonder if Habakkuk really expected God to answer? For when God answers he tells him
something he did not want to hear. God says, “I am watching and I will do something but you
may not like it. I am going to raise up the armies of Babylon and they will punish my people for
their unfaithfulness.”
Now this kind of thinking has provoked some people to declare that every disaster is God’s
response to our sin. When a hurricane comes along it is God punishing us because we allow
abortions to be performed or the horror of September 11th came about because we stopped
praying in our schools.
The truth is that I have seen the hand of God much clearer in the aftermath of these tragic events
than in the onslaught of them. I’ve heard testimonies of how God’s grace ministered to people in
the face of horrible circumstances.
Yet Habakkuk says that God uses everything to his advantage. Even if you think he is not there,
God is working to bring about change. In Habukkuk’s day, he was going to use the invasion to
turn the hearts of the people. I don’t know if he promoted the attack, but he certainly didn’t stop
it. But the important thing for us hear is that God was there for the people in the aftermath to help
them pick up the pieces. You see the good news is that he hears our prayers.
I think about the story of the woman at the well in John 4. She was obviously unhappy. She
comes to the well that day thinking her life was a mess. She had ruined so many relationships and
her present one was on the rocks as well. She was probably beating herself up and feeling
unlovable and unworthy. She was praying for deliverance. Then she meets Jesus.
Former President Jimmy Carter wrote a little meditation on her story and entitled it, “She forgot
her bucket.” He notes that she came to the well carrying her bucket and the worries and troubles it
represented. She met Jesus and in a short time she went away rejoicing. She had to tell the world
what she found at the well. In her haste she forgot her bucket and left it at the well.
We ask the question “Where is God?” especially when things are not going our way. The woman
at the well discovered him in a place she traveled to every day. He was there waiting for her.
I was thinking about Dave Murray this week. Whenever a good Christian suffers we often ask
why? That was true with Dave. I got my answer on Friday morning. After I got the call that he
had passed away, I went out to the house. Jackie began telling me about his last days. Dave was
calm and she said that he ministered to her faith in those last hours. It was as if God was there
telling her it was alright. Grace in the face of sorrow.
On the National Day of Prayer in 2002, the Norwich Clergy hosted a breakfast and we had a guest
speaker. It was a man who lived through the horror of the terrorist attack on September 11th. He
told a completely different story than the one many of us heard in the news. He talked about seeing
the hand of God in so many places. The coincidences, the near tragedies, the lucky misadventures,
the heroic efforts of the rescuers. He said he had never seen God so busy at work than in the
midst of that horror.
God met people in those burning buildings as certainly as he met Moses in a burning bush.
You and I could probably sit down and share stories about how God’s grace carried us through
certain times in our lives and how we were changed. You see that is how God works.
Do you remember the story of Daniel’s three friends, Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego? They
had defied the king’s order to bow down to worship his flag and he sentenced them to be thrown
into a fiery furnace. The story goes that when the king looked into the pit he saw the three men
and a fourth who looked like the son of God. Immediately he ordered them to be taken out and he
fell down to worship God. You see, God was with them in their fiery ordeal just like he is with
you and me.
Habakkuk saw the coming invasion in his prophesy, but he also saw the hand of God which would
deliver the faithful. That was his word to the people. Their unfaithfulness delivered them into the
hands of their enemies, but God’s faithfulness would set them free.
Time after time we read about one person or another’s encounter with God in the Scriptures. Each
of them comes away changed because they have walked with God. He did it with each of the
disciples, a man born blind, Zacheaus, Mary, and a Roman Centurian. He did it with you and me as
well.
I shudder to think where I might have ended up if it wasn’t for God coming into my life. How
about you? He met me on the doorstep of a little church in Lebanon, Connecticut and he ushered
me in and introduced me to a new family. My life was changed forever. Where did he meet you?
I think about this church and its ministry over the years. I’ve only been a part of it for a generation
but I have seen lives changed. I’ve seen little children grow up to become adults. I have seen
miracle healings and spiritual awakenings. I’ve see people minister to the homeless, to the
desperate, to the discouraged. As I was putting together the slide show for our stewardship
program I was moved by the images of God that I saw all over the place.
We’ve been doing this for 200 years. The people have changed, The ministries have come and
gone. But the one constant in all of this has been God. He never changes. He is always there. He
waits for us to come and then he touches us and transforms us into a child of promise.
He is a rock, he is a cornerstone, he is our salvation. Habakkuk knew that and he wanted the
people to understand that even in their changing, and at times hopeless circumstances, God would
be there and help them through.
Praise be to God, the rock of our salvation too!
Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4 November 4, 2007
Have you ever wondered what God was doing? We don’t usually ask that question when
everything around us is going perfect. It usually comes up when our world is spinning off its axis.
1. Like this weekend when we heard about the terrible accident on I-95.
2. Or when there is a hurricane that sweeps across Florida or a tornado that rips through
Kansas.
3. We ask it when a man’s family is killed by a couple of ex-convicts.
4. Or when a loved one is stricken with cancer.
These kind of life changing events prompt us to look at God and ponder his role in them. We don’t
often preach about Habakkuk, and I think it is because his ministry took place in the middle of a
maelstrom. His world was being turned upside down and he was the one called upon to explain
things to the people of Israel.
Well maybe it is time to look to this prophet. The truth is that if your world is not upside down
right now, it could be in the near future. That’s the nature of life. I’m not trying to scare you. You
probably already know that.
Every day someone gets a diagnosis of cancer. Every day someone loses their job. Every day
someone has a spouse who comes home and tells them they want a divorce. Every day someone
discovers a person they love is addicted to drugs. I pray it is not you or me that receives this
news, but believe me, knowing how God fits into the picture will give you strength to face
whatever comes your way.
You see, God has a plan and even if it is not readily apparent, it will often shine through the
darkness of the hour.
Habakkuk was a prophet in the 600 BC. As a child he was deeply influenced by the reforms of
King Josiah. He must have been excited as a young boy by the spiritual awakening that took place
under the king’s watch. God was front and center in the life of Israel. Temple worship was
resurrected and prayer and fasting was a part of every day life. The Holy Scriptures were read and
law was established which would glorify God.
But then in 609 BC, King Josiah was killed. The world as he knew it changed. Before long the
reforms died away and the people reverted to former ways and left the worship of God behind. As
a young man Habakkuk became frustrated by Israel’s neglect of God and so in our verse today, he
lifts up his complaint. He calls on God to show himself and to turn the people around. He says, “I
have been doing my part Lord, why don’t you do something? These people are caught up in sin
and they don’t care about it or you. People are killing each other, they are robbing each other and
you don’t seem to care. What are you going to do?”
I wonder if Habakkuk really expected God to answer? For when God answers he tells him
something he did not want to hear. God says, “I am watching and I will do something but you
may not like it. I am going to raise up the armies of Babylon and they will punish my people for
their unfaithfulness.”
Now this kind of thinking has provoked some people to declare that every disaster is God’s
response to our sin. When a hurricane comes along it is God punishing us because we allow
abortions to be performed or the horror of September 11th came about because we stopped
praying in our schools.
The truth is that I have seen the hand of God much clearer in the aftermath of these tragic events
than in the onslaught of them. I’ve heard testimonies of how God’s grace ministered to people in
the face of horrible circumstances.
Yet Habakkuk says that God uses everything to his advantage. Even if you think he is not there,
God is working to bring about change. In Habukkuk’s day, he was going to use the invasion to
turn the hearts of the people. I don’t know if he promoted the attack, but he certainly didn’t stop
it. But the important thing for us hear is that God was there for the people in the aftermath to help
them pick up the pieces. You see the good news is that he hears our prayers.
I think about the story of the woman at the well in John 4. She was obviously unhappy. She
comes to the well that day thinking her life was a mess. She had ruined so many relationships and
her present one was on the rocks as well. She was probably beating herself up and feeling
unlovable and unworthy. She was praying for deliverance. Then she meets Jesus.
Former President Jimmy Carter wrote a little meditation on her story and entitled it, “She forgot
her bucket.” He notes that she came to the well carrying her bucket and the worries and troubles it
represented. She met Jesus and in a short time she went away rejoicing. She had to tell the world
what she found at the well. In her haste she forgot her bucket and left it at the well.
We ask the question “Where is God?” especially when things are not going our way. The woman
at the well discovered him in a place she traveled to every day. He was there waiting for her.
I was thinking about Dave Murray this week. Whenever a good Christian suffers we often ask
why? That was true with Dave. I got my answer on Friday morning. After I got the call that he
had passed away, I went out to the house. Jackie began telling me about his last days. Dave was
calm and she said that he ministered to her faith in those last hours. It was as if God was there
telling her it was alright. Grace in the face of sorrow.
On the National Day of Prayer in 2002, the Norwich Clergy hosted a breakfast and we had a guest
speaker. It was a man who lived through the horror of the terrorist attack on September 11th. He
told a completely different story than the one many of us heard in the news. He talked about seeing
the hand of God in so many places. The coincidences, the near tragedies, the lucky misadventures,
the heroic efforts of the rescuers. He said he had never seen God so busy at work than in the
midst of that horror.
God met people in those burning buildings as certainly as he met Moses in a burning bush.
You and I could probably sit down and share stories about how God’s grace carried us through
certain times in our lives and how we were changed. You see that is how God works.
Do you remember the story of Daniel’s three friends, Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego? They
had defied the king’s order to bow down to worship his flag and he sentenced them to be thrown
into a fiery furnace. The story goes that when the king looked into the pit he saw the three men
and a fourth who looked like the son of God. Immediately he ordered them to be taken out and he
fell down to worship God. You see, God was with them in their fiery ordeal just like he is with
you and me.
Habakkuk saw the coming invasion in his prophesy, but he also saw the hand of God which would
deliver the faithful. That was his word to the people. Their unfaithfulness delivered them into the
hands of their enemies, but God’s faithfulness would set them free.
Time after time we read about one person or another’s encounter with God in the Scriptures. Each
of them comes away changed because they have walked with God. He did it with each of the
disciples, a man born blind, Zacheaus, Mary, and a Roman Centurian. He did it with you and me as
well.
I shudder to think where I might have ended up if it wasn’t for God coming into my life. How
about you? He met me on the doorstep of a little church in Lebanon, Connecticut and he ushered
me in and introduced me to a new family. My life was changed forever. Where did he meet you?
I think about this church and its ministry over the years. I’ve only been a part of it for a generation
but I have seen lives changed. I’ve seen little children grow up to become adults. I have seen
miracle healings and spiritual awakenings. I’ve see people minister to the homeless, to the
desperate, to the discouraged. As I was putting together the slide show for our stewardship
program I was moved by the images of God that I saw all over the place.
We’ve been doing this for 200 years. The people have changed, The ministries have come and
gone. But the one constant in all of this has been God. He never changes. He is always there. He
waits for us to come and then he touches us and transforms us into a child of promise.
He is a rock, he is a cornerstone, he is our salvation. Habakkuk knew that and he wanted the
people to understand that even in their changing, and at times hopeless circumstances, God would
be there and help them through.
Praise be to God, the rock of our salvation too!
| Welcome to the First Baptist Church of Norwich 239 West Main Street Norwich, Connecticut Phone: 860-889-0369 |
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