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Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons.

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Waiting is a pretty universal experience.

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I think we all know what it's like to wait for something.

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Whether you're waiting for your cookies to finish baking, waiting for a flight, or waiting

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for an answer on your job application, we've all had to wait for things.

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And if you know the end results, the delicious cookies, the reunion with family, the dream

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job, then maybe the waiting is a little bit easier.

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But if you don't know what you're waiting for, or you don't know how long it's going

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to take, waiting is really hard.

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And that's the situation that Habakkuk finds himself in today, as we continue our sermon

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series, The Struggle is Real.

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So stay tuned to find out how Habakkuk handles the wait.

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Today's reading is taken from Habakkuk chapter 2, verses 1 to 4.

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I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts.

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I will look to see what he will say to me and what answer I am to give to this complaint.

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Then the Lord replied, write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a hair

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old may run with it.

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For the revelation awaits an appointed time.

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It speaks of the end and will not prove false.

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Though it linger, wait for it.

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It will certainly come.

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See the enemy is puffed up.

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His desires are not upright.

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But the righteous person will live by his faithfulness.

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This is the word of the Lord.

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It's very frustrating, isn't it?

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When you are left on hold, I mean, not only is it just like you're waiting and waiting,

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but there's that music, that music gets like torture.

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It's like drives you crazy.

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And then of course, the voice comes on, you know, we are currently experiencing a higher

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than normal call volume.

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Please stay on the line, right?

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Nobody likes to be left on hold.

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It sucks.

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And as well, nobody likes to be left on read.

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Now, I'm not sure if you know what this means, but in today's world of text messaging, when

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you're left on read, it means you've sent a message to somebody and you know that they

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have read the message because it says right there that they have read the message.

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And yet for some reason they have not responded.

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And that can be really frustrating.

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Maybe you've messaged a friend or a family member, but maybe it was like a crush and

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you're like waiting to hear back.

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But when all you see is red, then it kind of says, you know, yeah, I see you there,

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but I don't value you enough.

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I don't value our relationship enough to actually get back to you.

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Right.

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Being left on read is like being marooned on a desert island.

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You just you just feel so isolated and you don't.

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By the way, if you ever find yourself on read, do not send this message.

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Hey, you left me on read because then they'll just read that and they'll they'll leave you

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on read again.

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So don't do that.

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But then now the latest one that has come up is is this Apple and one of its recent

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iPhone updates started putting up this this new thing that they call a typing awareness

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indicator.

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It's that little bubble that pops up with the three dots in it.

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And you can call it what you want.

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But I think most people call those anxiety dots.

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Right.

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And when you see those things, what is it saying to you?

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It's saying, OK, somebody is writing me a message now, but I don't know what it is.

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I don't know when it's going to come through.

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Is it a good thing?

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Is it a bad thing?

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Are they saying yes?

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Are they saying no?

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I don't know.

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You just have to wait.

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You have to wait till something happens.

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And it's really, really frustrating when you're when all of a sudden it comes up and they're

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typing something and then it goes away.

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And now they're not typing.

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And then it comes up.

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Oh, now they're typing something again.

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And now it's gone again.

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And then finally, it comes up and like, OK, it's been up for a good long time.

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They're going to have something really deep, something really meaningful to say.

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And then finally, when you get the message, it just says something like, that's cool.

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Right.

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Or something like that.

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It's so such a such a letdown.

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So actually, there's a professor who has kind of studied the anxiety that these these things

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kind of produce in our lives.

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And he says that that typing awareness indicator on the iPhone conveys that something is being

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done, but you don't know what it won't say what's being done.

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And that is exactly how some of us may feel in our relationship with God.

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It can feel like God leaves us on hold or God leaves us on red or God leaves us on the

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edge waiting for a response.

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And that can be really, really hard, especially if you've got a pressing burning question

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or a real big problem in your life.

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And you're like, God, I really need you.

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God, would you please like pick up, pick up.

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But it's just like being left on hold.

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Sometimes God makes us feel like we're wasting our time.

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It's like being left on red.

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It can make us feel like God doesn't value our relationship.

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And it can make us feel anxious, just like those three little dots when God never gets

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back to us.

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God, please, God, I need your help.

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Please hold for the next available operator or whatever.

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Or God, is my treatment working?

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Am I going to be OK?

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Your call is important to us.

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Please stay on the line.

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Or God, does she like me?

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Will she like me back?

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Will I have a job next week?

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God, what do the lab results say?

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Oh, please continue to hold.

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Your call will be answered in priority sequence.

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Waiting on God is infuriating sometimes.

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But then you come across other people.

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And you might know one of these people.

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And they're also waiting for an answer from God.

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But this is what they say.

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They just say, oh, you know what?

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It's OK.

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I'm just waiting on the Lord.

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I'm just waiting on the Lord.

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What is, you know, when you hear someone say that to you, your first instinct is to deck

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them, right?

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Because you're like a ball of nerves, and you're really anxious.

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And here they are.

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They make you feel so unspiritual.

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Because why?

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Because, oh, they're just waiting on the Lord.

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It's going to be OK.

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Waiting on the Lord.

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And it's almost become a cliche to say this.

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What does it even mean to say, I'm waiting on the Lord?

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You're waiting on the Lord?

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Yes, I'm waiting on the Lord.

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Now, as cliche and as frustrating as it could be, there's actually something to this statement.

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Waiting on the Lord.

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That is a theme that comes up again and again throughout the Bible.

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So what does it mean to wait on the Lord?

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What does it mean to wait for God?

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Well, there's no better place to turn than the book of Habakkuk.

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It's as good a place as any to find an answer to this question about waiting.

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See, last week, we began this teaching series, which was called The Struggle is Real.

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And we're looking at the book of Habakkuk.

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And Habakkuk was a man who lived in really dark and difficult times.

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We studied this last week, right?

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He cried out to God, God, why is there so much evil around me?

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God, why do you tolerate such injustice and wrongdoing?

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And he complained about the evil and suffering in his world.

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But God's response to Habakkuk was like, not good.

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God gets back to him and says, oh, you think this is bad?

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It's going to get even worse because the Babylonians are going to come in and they're going to

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destroy everything around you.

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So for Habakkuk, he was in the midst of really dark days.

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Dark days were a coming for Habakkuk.

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And last week, I tried to let you know that it's common for us to think that normally

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life should be good times and good days.

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And dark days are kind of the exception to the rule, but that's not true.

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History tells us that's not true.

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Habakkuk knows that's not true.

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And maybe even your life would tell you it's not true.

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That dark days come.

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Difficult times come.

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And there's nothing you can do about it.

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You just have to deal with it.

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Some people right now are dealing with the results of the American election last week.

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And some of them are saying, oh, my gosh, dark days are coming.

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Our country is going to be plunged into deep, deep darkness.

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And all I want to say is, who knows?

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Because on the one hand, it does sound rather extreme.

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But on the other hand, it's, of course, very possible that it could happen because we know

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darkness can come.

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We know difficult days can descend on our lives and on our community, even on a whole

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nations, just like that.

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And there's nothing we can do about it.

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But Habakkuk does teach us how to wait on the Lord.

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You know, in the midst of dark days, there's something we can do, and that is wait.

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That's actually a good thing.

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You know, Habakkuk starts in verse one with Habakkuk asking God a question.

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Then in verse five, God gives his first response.

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Then in verse 12, Habakkuk asks his second question.

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And then nothing.

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Silence.

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No answer from God.

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Habakkuk is waiting.

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He's waiting.

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He's waiting.

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The beginning of chapter two has Habakkuk waiting for an answer from God.

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But what we learned from this is that waiting time is not wasted time.

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One of the most important ways that we can face dark days is by learning how to wait

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on God.

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And so today, if you're waiting for something, you're waiting for a change, you're waiting

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for a relationship to get better, you're waiting for a job, you're waiting for healing, whatever

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you're waiting for, please don't panic.

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Okay?

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Because with God, the waiting time is not just a waste of time.

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The waiting time actually allows some space for really important things to happen in your

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life.

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So here are some little sermon notes that you should have got.

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I would advise you to follow along because we need to learn how to make the most of waiting

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times in our lives.

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Here's the first thing, and that is that waiting allows us the opportunity to give up control.

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Because you see, when we're waiting, our instinct is almost always to take control, right?

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We don't like feeling out of control.

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When there's nothing happening, it feels like weakness in our lives.

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And so what we want to do is we want to do something.

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We got to start something.

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We got to get control back.

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But actually waiting times give us an opportunity to do the exact opposite thing.

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And that is to not take control, but to release control.

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God tells Habakkuk, this is really important to kind of understand what's happening here.

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God tells Habakkuk that an answer to his prayer, a vision is coming in a future time.

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But actually, the Hebrew word for future time is better translated at an appointed time,

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meaning God has appointed a time when he's going to answer Habakkuk.

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God has a plan.

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Habakkuk doesn't know what that plan is.

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Habakkuk doesn't know the timing of that plan, but God is in control of that time.

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He has an appointed time, and Habakkuk's not in control, but God is.

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And then God says, it will certainly come, and then he repeats himself, it will not delay.

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That is, again, a little thing that in the Hebrew literature, it's called a double affirmation

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when you say the same thing twice in different words.

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And that's just to reinforce that this is a promise God is going to keep.

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God's plan is going to unfold according to his timing and according to his plan.

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It's not your plan.

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You can't control this.

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This is in God's control.

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And so in waiting times, what we can do is just not try to get the control back, but

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to surrender the control to God, trusting he's got an answer and he's got a timing,

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and it'll all sort itself out when the time is right.

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I know that lots of us have tried to give up control to God from time to time.

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We've gotten down on our knees and we said, God, I got this problem.

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I give it to you.

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I surrender it to you.

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God, you take control.

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The problem is then we get up from our knees and then we immediately go to our friend and

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we say, you know, I have this awful problem going on in my life.

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I don't know what to do.

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I'm freaking out about it.

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And that, of course, means you haven't really given up control.

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You're still trying to be in control.

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So I want to say, whatever you're struggling with today, whether it's a national disaster

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that you see looming or just a family squabble, and it seems like God has got you on hold,

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on red.

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It's just you're waiting.

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You're waiting.

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Don't waste the waiting time.

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Surrender things to God.

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Surrender to God's timing because his purpose will come to pass and it'll be worth the wait.

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You wait and see.

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Waiting allows us the chance to give up control to God.

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That is the very first thing.

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That's number one.

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But secondly, waiting also allows us to grow our character.

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Now I know that not many of us walk around saying things like this.

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Oh, I'm so glad I'm going through a difficult time.

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I'm so glad I'm struggling.

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I'm so glad for these dark days because it gives me such an opportunity to grow and to

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become more like the kind of person God wants me to be.

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Bring on the difficulty.

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I want to grow.

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That's not how a lot of us think.

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More often than not, when difficult times come, it turns us into anxious people and

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bitter people, not better people.

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But it doesn't have to be that way.

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Waiting times can be times of transformation and character formation if we meet our troubles

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with trust.

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And if we meet our problems with patience, then man, oh man, God can do some real transformation

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in your life.

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The apostle Paul knew this.

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He had been through all sorts of dark times, difficult times, beatings, flogging, stoning,

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shipwrecks, hunger, thirst, betrayal, opposition, weakness, illness.

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All these things could have turned him into the most bitter person you would ever want

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to meet that you wouldn't want to meet.

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And yet that's not what happened to him.

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Why?

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Because Paul would later write that he glories in his suffering because he knows that suffering

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produces perseverance and perseverance produces character and character produces hope.

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It is true that pressure can crush you if you let it, but pressure can also turn a lump

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of coal into a diamond.

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Pressure can destroy your spiritual life or pressure can give you a better spiritual life

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than you ever had before.

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A good example of this is in the book of Job.

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Job lost everything.

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He lost his family.

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He lost his wealth.

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He lost his health.

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And like Habakkuk, he was bitter about it and angry and he complained to God, but he

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waited and he waited and he waited for answers until Job was able to say, ah, God knows where

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this is going.

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And when he tests me like this, I will come out pure as gold.

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This is the lesson.

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This is the lesson we have to learn time and time again that it's often through hardship

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that spiritual growth comes.

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Alan Keller once said that character can't be developed in ease and quiet.

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Only through the experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened.

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So again, waiting time is never wasted time.

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One for first of all, we have to use that time to give up control.

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Secondly, it gives us a chance to grow our character.

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Thirdly, waiting time allows us to gain a new perspective.

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You see, at first when Habakkuk is faced with his problems, all he can see is his problems.

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That's his perspective.

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He couldn't see anything else.

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God was going to bring in the Babylonians, this group of people who were even worse than

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Israel to teach Israel a lesson.

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He couldn't understand that.

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Couldn't get his head around that.

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It made no sense.

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But then, then he changes his perspective.

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This is a great line from what we just read.

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He says, I will climb up to my watch tower.

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Now when Mandy read it, it said, I will climb up to the ramparts.

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But another way to translate is a watch tower.

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And I will look and I will see what God will say to me.

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Now, what is a watch tower for?

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Why did ancient cities build watch towers?

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It was so you could get up there and you could see what was coming.

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If you're on the ground, all you can see is what's directly in front of you.

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But a tower gives you a different perspective.

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It gives you a wider view.

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It gives you a grander view.

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You can see everything.

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And the higher the tower, the more you can see.

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Oh, you can see some visitors are coming.

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Oh, you can see the bad weather is coming.

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You can see that the enemy is coming.

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You can see that the cavalry is coming.

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You can see that the sun is rising or whatever the case may be.

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I just want to say that whatever difficulties you are going through and all you can see

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is the problems that are coming at you, maybe what you need to do is get above your problems

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and look to God.

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Extricate yourself from this very narrow view of life that you have and instead head up

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the tower and look to God and see it from another vantage point.

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Because when you do, when you see it in a new perspective, you will actually realize

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that there's more going on than the little problem that is before you.

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Hope is coming around the corner.

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Again, Paul gives us a good example of this.

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He was in the midst of pain and all sorts of persecution.

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And so what does he do?

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He says, hey, all that suffering is now nothing compared to, oh, what do I see coming?

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I'm up in the tower.

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What do I see?

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God's glory is coming.

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God's rescue is coming.

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It is being revealed to us later.

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He's gone into the tower.

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He's now seen the bigger picture.

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And with eyes of faith, now his problems become smaller because he can see what God is doing

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and it is bigger.

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That's how Paul handles his struggles.

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He changes his perspective.

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And that's how we can handle waiting times as well.

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We see things one way.

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God sees things another way.

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I don't know if you noticed, but in that reading, two seemingly contradictory things are happening

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at the same time, though it linger.

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Wait for it, because it'll certainly come and not delay.

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Well, how can something linger on the one hand and yet not delay on the other hand?

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And the question, the answer is it's a question of perspective, right?

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God sees things different than we do.

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With God, a day is a thousand years, the Bible says, and a thousand years is like one day.

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So all that to say, again, when you are waiting, you've got an opportunity to do something.

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You've got an opportunity to gain God's perspective on your problems.

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But still, there's a lot more.

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Waiting time is not wasted time because waiting time also allows us to get to work.

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I know, you know, we all know that often when we are stuck waiting around for something,

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we don't do anything.

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We're just waiting for God's answer and there's nothing to do.

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So might as well just twiddle our thumbs.

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We can't do anything while we're waiting.

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We have to wait first.

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But that's not true.

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That's not true.

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Habakkuk says that while he is waiting, he is going to stand at his guard post.

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Or as we read, he will stand at his watch.

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In the military, if you're a guard and you're on duty and you're standing at your watch,

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then that's where you stand.

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That's what you do.

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It doesn't matter if you get tired or if you get bored or if you get sleepy or if you get

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sick, you need to stand watch.

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You've got work to do, right?

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You can't say, I'm kind of bored.

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I think I'm going to go home a little early today.

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I'm not getting much out of this.

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It looks fine.

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You know, I'm sure there's no problems and I'm just going to cut out.

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You can't do that.

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If you do that, then the whole city might be attacked.

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You've got to stand your guard.

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You've got to stand watch.

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And even though Habakkuk is struggling with God, even though he is going through dark

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times, and even though God seems to put him on hold and left him on red, he is standing

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guard.

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He is standing his ground.

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He will not leave his post.

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And maybe I need to say that some people, when they're waiting on an answer for a prayer

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from God, they've been waiting years and years and they're so disappointed that it feels

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like, you know, I'm just going to walk away.

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I'm going to leave my post, right?

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Because you know, God seems so distant.

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I'm not getting anything out of this.

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So maybe I'll just, I'll take off.

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I'll stop praying.

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You know, I'll stop going to church.

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I'll stop going to my life group.

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I'll stop reading my Bible, right?

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Waiting around doesn't mean we stop doing things.

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A waiter does not sit around doing nothing.

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No, he is busy.

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He is busy serving.

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And that's the kind of waiting that God has in mind as we wait for answers to our prayers.

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You know, someone once told John Newton, they said, you know, I'm not getting anything out

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of praying.

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And his response was, well, you're definitely not going to get anything out of not praying

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either.

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So don't stop praying.

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Don't leave your post.

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Don't leave your watch.

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Waiting time is still prayer time.

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Waiting time is still worship time.

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It's still serving time.

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It's still time to get up.

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Keep putting one foot in front of the next.

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So waiting says, you know, it's a time for us to give up control.

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It's a time for us to grow in our character.

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It's a time for us to gain a new perspective and it's a time for us to get to work.

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But finally, there's something you can only do in difficult times, something you can only

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do in dark times.

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And that is to gauge your motives because there is a big difference between waiting

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on God to solve all your problems and just waiting on God.

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There's a big difference between waiting on God to make things better or just waiting

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on God himself.

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Let's just go back to the book of Job, for example, because Job and Habakkuk actually

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have a lot in common.

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But at the beginning of the book of Job, Satan comes to God and says, hey, Job doesn't really

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love you.

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The only reason Job serves you is because you're so good to him.

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You give him all these great things.

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He doesn't really, really love you.

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In fact, what would happen if you took away his money?

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What would happen if you took away his health?

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What would happen if you took away his family?

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Then you'd actually see God, what his real motives were, and you'll see that he wasn't

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waiting on you.

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He was just waiting on the stuff that you give him, right?

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And during times of waiting, we too have an opportunity to gauge our motives.

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Can we pray Psalm 27 and say, I will wait for the Lord?

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Or are we more likely to say, I will wait for the Lord to give me good things?

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Or I will wait for the Lord to answer all my prayers just the way that I want?

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Can we just say, I'm going to wait for the Lord?

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Do we love God only when we get what we want?

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Or do we love God because he's God?

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Some people leave church.

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They say, you know, I used to pray.

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I used to go to church.

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But then God never answered my prayers.

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And so I just, I left.

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But in that case, I'm not sure that God really was God.

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God was just a vending machine.

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And you were pressing buttons.

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And he kept dispensing these sweet treats that you enjoyed.

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But when the treats stopped coming out, then you stopped going to church.

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You know, were you really waiting on the Lord?

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Or were you waiting on the stuff that he could give you?

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The only time in your life that you can really find an answer to that question is when you're

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going through trouble.

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It's only in the dark days that you have the opportunity to see why you got into this relationship

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with God in the first place.

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Because only then will you have the opportunity to love God when there's no benefit to you

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at all.

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And if you still love him then, waiting times give us the chance to find out whether we

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follow God to serve him or to get God to serve us.

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You know, Tom Petty was totally right.

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The waiting is the hardest part.

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Whatever it is you're waiting for, it sucks to be on hold.

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It sucks to be on read.

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It's horrible to be on edge waiting to see if God's going to get back to you.

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Some of us here today, we've got anxiety dots all over our life and we can't even sleep

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at night because of all this.

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00:25:16,120 --> 00:25:20,880
But remember, waiting time is not wasted time.

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Waiting time allows us to give up our control, to grow our character, to gain a new perspective,

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00:25:25,820 --> 00:25:30,980
to get to work and to gauge our motives.

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So Trinity, in the words of Psalm 27, wait on the Lord.

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Be strong, let your heart take courage and wait on the Lord.

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Thanks be to God.

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Amen.

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Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons.

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00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:57,520
This sermon was recorded at Trinity Church, Streetsville in Mississauga, Ontario on November

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00:25:57,520 --> 00:26:01,520
10, 2024.