Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Division, hatred, sickness, war, death. The headlines are full of stories like these. How are we supposed to live with so much brokenness in and around our lives? Today Jill Briscoe opens up the book of Habakkuk to look at how we can rise above the mess with God's perspective.

Today's culture is a revolving door of ever-shifting views and beliefs. That's why it's so important to test new ideas against the timeless truth of Scripture. It's the best defense against the world's confusion. We want to help ground you in the foundations of your faith by sending you Stuart Briscoe's six-message series on the book of 2 Peter: Six Things We Must Never Forget.

This series will anchor you in six time-tested truths from God's word so you can stand strong in your beliefs as you remember the deep spiritual truths that are foundational to your faith. The Six Things We Must Never Forget series is our thanks for your gift to help keep Telling the Truth going strong, sharing life-giving teaching from Stuart and Jill with more people all over the world.

So request your copy when you give today and get help staying grounded in truth in today's shifting culture. Call 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388 or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now here's Jill with her message: Living One-Mile High.

Jill Briscoe: I want to talk about living one mile high. And I want to talk about how we do that. How do we live one mile high above the garbage and the mess in our personal lives and in the life of the church and in the life of the world? How do we do that? Habakkuk tells us how. It's all about living above, getting God's perspective.

His name means to embrace. And basically the message of this book is this: there is joy unspeakable and full of glory in embracing what God calls you to endure. You got that? There is unspeakable joy in embracing, accepting, submitting to whatever burden—and we'll look at that word—God has called each of us individually to endure. How do I embrace something that's impossible to endure, and with joy? Right, that's what the book's about.

Habakkuk was a prophet, he was a Levite, he was a musician. He was probably in the first contemporary music group in the temple. He lived at a time in human history when it wasn't really a good time to live. He was a prophetical musical Levite. And many people think, certainly the last piece of Habakkuk, sheer poetry, was put to music. In fact, they believe it was and it was sung in the temple and we probably know this most familiar bit to all of us of Habakkuk.

Though the fig tree doesn't bud, though there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails, though the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet will I rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God my savior for the sovereign Lord is my strength and he makes my feet like the feet of a deer and he enables me to go on the heights. Probably a song that he composed the music to and gave to the temple singers.

So let's look at the man. The man who was seeking to be a worship leader in his day and time. The man who was God's voice, who stood in God's presence and heard God's message and disseminated it in his day and age to the people of God. He was born, you say, at an unfortunate time.

Sometimes when you look at a piece of art, a canvas, there's always light and dark. When I took art at college, I would be listening to my art teacher and she would say, "Now on every canvas there is shadow and there is light and there is this and that." They would never let us go out and sketch when it was sunshine because sun kills color. And that was easy in England because there was never any sunshine. And so we spent a lot of time out in the gray, and gray is the most wonderful color, it just lights up all the colors. Sunshine kills them.

And so I would be instructed in art and I do remember this incredible, brilliant art teacher saying to me, "Now art is like a picture of your life." I've no idea where she was coming from, I believe she was a Quaker lady. But she said art is like a picture of your life and some of you are living in the light parts and some of you are living in the dark parts. And again, it was my art teacher that used the medium of art to alert me to truth or ideas that I try to climb up into and get hold of in my own mind.

And I asked myself which part am I living in? Well, Habakkuk was living in the very darkest part of the canvas. He just happened to be born then. But then nobody ever happens to be born then. As I sat in the plane waiting to figure out what had happened on 9/11 and the pilot said he couldn't tell us till he got down in Newfoundland, I wondered about Psalm 139:16: Every day ordained for me is written in your book before one of them comes to be.

And then hurrying through, as my heart beating hard as we made that emergency landing and he emptied all the gas out into the ocean so it would be safe to land, I started to turn to reference after reference. He is the author of my days, he begins them, he ends them, he numbers my days and I remember my frightened heart saying, "Is this the last number? Am I going to see you in a minute?" And it wasn't that I didn't want to see him, it's just getting there I worry about.

Every day ordained for you. We are living in exactly the right place, exactly the right time and you are exactly the right age, just as Habakkuk was. Yes, you are. As I struggled over one of my many birthdays—I think it was my 50th—my husband watched me struggling and sympathetically, you bet, tried to help. And I remember this incredible conversation from my bank-inspector-minded pragmatic husband as we began to have this conversation. "What's the matter, Jill?" "Well, I'm 50." "Well, we all know that. So?" "I don't want to be 50." "Well, you are 50. Were you born at the right time?" "Well, yes." "Have you been living at the right speed?" "Yes." "Then you must be the right age. Don't you hate this?" "Yes." "Then," he says logically, "you'll be dead on time."

And when I got back from Canada, I reminded him of this conversation. I said it didn't help me because maybe today was when I'd be dead on time. The point is this: you will not live one day after your number's up. He is the author, he is the finisher. So many verses that assure us of this. And so whatever part of the canvas we're living in, it's just right and you are the right age and I am the right age and everybody else is the right age.

And you're living in the right house and you're living in the right town, just as Habakkuk was. "Not till the loom is silent and the shuttle cease to fly will God unveil the canvas and show the reason why. The black threads are as needful in the weaver's skillful hand as the threads of gold and silver in the pattern he has planned."

I think of Jeremiah chapter one, "Before I formed you in the womb, before I formed you, before Psalm 139 when he wove us together in our mother's womb, embroidered us in our mother's womb, before that." So we were known by God, called by God. He had in mind the good works that we were to do, the burden that we needed to bear, the calling we needed to bear. The calling and burden is the same word.

He had all that figured out. Now we have the choice to accept that calling and to climb into it and give our life away into it, yes. But he had in mind what was best for us. It's like as parents. You look at your kids and you see their gifting and you have in mind your desires, your dreams for them. "Yes, you could be a doctor. You could be a nurse. You could be an incredible this. You could be an incredible that." Our dreams, our desires and we'll try and make it possible for you to achieve this.

And in hopefully parental wisdom, we see what is best. And maybe we share those things for our children knowing our children as well. But it's up to the kid whether he realizes what we in our hopefully wisdom see in him and what he's able to do. He has to make the choice. And Habakkuk starts by saying, "I made the choice. I have a burden. I have a calling on my life. God called me before I was meet to know. He prepared what I had to do before I was ever woven together in my mother's womb."

And I'm not talking about big people like Jeremiah and Habakkuk, I'm talking about all of us. Every single one of us has just as much a calling on our life because it's a calling to relationship and discipleship. That's the calling I'm calling about and talking about. We're just ordinary people but I often say and I've said it all my life, all of us in here are ordinary people but with a great big extraordinary God living inside of us.

I remember saying that in Holland years ago in Europe and I was staying with a friend and they had a little girl, six years of age and she was around and her mother dragged her along to hear me speak. It was a Saturday and she didn't have a babysitter so the poor kid had to come and sit on the thing and hear this lady speak. And apparently I used this—this lady was my interpreter as well—and so I used this thing about we're just ordinary people but with a great big extraordinary God living inside of us.

Well, the little girl apparently took this in and she went back to school the next day, secular school, and the teacher said, "Well, what's happened, you know, this week? You can tell a story." And she said, "Well, we have a lady who is living with us and she's a great big extraordinary God living inside of her." Oh dear. Well, that's a big bar to live up to, isn't it? Yeah, ordinary people. The Holy Spirit, great big extraordinary God living inside of us.

Now the background to all of this is pretty bad. Israel's northern kingdom has fallen to Assyria. Tiny Judah is left in the promised land. Babylon conquers Assyria and begins to look with greedy eyes on little Judah still surviving. Good King Josiah in little Judah has turned the people back to God but Josiah's just dropped dead. Why does that happen? The good king just drops dead.

And who comes to the throne but evil King Jehoiakim. And the spiritual heart of this little tiny believing remnant left—Israel's gone, Judah is left—begins to crumble and corrupt. And this is Habakkuk's congregation. Well, he has a lot of questions. You hear about the kid that asked his father, "How old are you, Dad? How old are all your brothers and sisters? How many people in the world, Dad?" "I don't know."

"How many this and how far is the sun, Dad, from the earth?" "I don't know, I don't know, I don't know." "Dad, you don't mind me asking you all these questions, do you?" And the father said, "No, son. How are you going to learn if you don't ask questions?" Right. And Habakkuk began to ask God questions and questions and questions and he felt that he wasn't getting any answers. "Don't know, son. Don't know, son. Don't know, son. Surely God, you're going to give me some answers." Have you ever asked God questions and you don't feel you're getting a good answer?

And so what Habakkuk does is say, "I will climb to my high tower." Look at chapter two. "Stand on my watch. I'll station myself on the ramparts." He uses the word watchtower. Around Jerusalem, around the cities of Israel, there was great big walls, if possible, and towers. And the tower was for the watchman. And what was the watchman doing? He was watching for the enemy, yes. But he was watching for the messenger. That was the way you got messages.

And Babylon was fighting Assyria and overcoming them and about to become the huge world power that it became. And so messengers would come to little Judah who was thinking, "What's happening with these two big giants over here and we're going to get in trouble one way or the other." And a messenger would come and say, "Assyria's winning" or "Babylon's winning." And so the man would stand on the watchtower and wait for the messenger to hear this incredibly important message.

And Habakkuk says, "I'm going to stand on my watchtower. When I don't understand, when I'm confused, when I'm looking out and I'm seeing this incredible cruel nation"—and you can read about this nation in chapter one, "horrible, horrible nation"—"when I hear about them, I'm going to look for the messenger. What messenger? I'm going to look for a message. I want you to come and explain this to me, God. How could this be?"

Because God, seeing Habakkuk willing to hear, willing to listen, begins to break his silence and begins to explain to him what's happening in his world. He explains that, "I'm going to do a thing in your time that you would not believe even if I told you." And that verse is constantly taken out of context. I heard it two weeks ago in a big Bible conference where it was used as the entire text of a sermon to say this was all positive.

God says to you and me, Christians, "I'm going to do a thing in your time you're not going to believe even if I were told you. I'm going to make you wealthy. I'm going to keep you healthy. I'm going to answer your prayers." It's nothing to do with that. Do you know what the thing is that God is now going to tell Habakkuk? "I'm going to do a thing in your time that is so terrible, you're not even going to believe when I've told you. The Babylonians are coming."

Look at Habakkuk 1. God tells him what's going to happen. And Habakkuk says, "You're going to use them? You're going to use the Babylonians to subjugate us, to wipe us off the map, to punish us for our apostasy? You're going to use them?" That's what we'd say. It's so out of our orbit. This was a very difficult message. Who was going to believe it? Habakkuk had to tell it. That was his burden, to tell them the truth.

What happens in us is just as important to God as what happens outside of us. And God is working with his prophet. You read all the prophets, especially the minor prophets and especially any that have a little bit of story about the man who is the prophet and you'll see that God is concerned with the prophet as well as what the prophet is doing to the people God is sending him to.

Like Jonah. God was just as concerned about his mad prophet sitting under the tree, miffed that Nineveh had had a revival, just as concerned about his anger and his confusion and his, "What do you mean, Nineveh's going to be in heaven like I am? What do you mean you forgiven them?" Confused, worried. And God says—read the whole chapter four—he's just as concerned about this angry prophet who is doing what Habakkuk's saying, "I don't understand a good God using evil to bring his means to an end. I don't understand it. You would use them to do this?"

I remember asking my grandfather at the beginning of World War II as I listened to Churchill tell us, "We are now at war." We declared war on Germany because they marched into Poland and we had a treaty with Poland that both of us would come to each other's aid. So UK, as the Nazis overran Poland—first place they began—UK with no planes and no army and no bombs and no guns and nothing, declared war on Nazi Germany.

And that declaration, I remember as a six-year-old listening to on our little radio, no TV in those days. And I looked at my grandfather who lived with us and his face looked very grave. And I said, "What does it mean, Grandpa?" And he said, "They're persecuting the Jews. We'll win." Well, of course I was six, I had absolutely no idea what all this was about and I said, "Well, why?"

And he said, "They're God's people, Jill. And all down the ages, everybody that's persecuted the Jews, they have been judged and overthrown in the end." And then he said, "It'll be a long struggle and probably we will not survive and possibly England will go down with the rest of Europe. But we'll win." And I never forgot that.

And that's what God said to Habakkuk. "In my inscrutable plan, in my sovereign plan, I am going to use Babylon in the strangest way to bring my people back and have a remnant left to work with for the future. But I will punish Babylon. Now Habakkuk, not in your day. For this revelation belongs to the end."

We don't know which end. It's a prophecy, certainly God did punish Babylon in biblical history. But certainly it's a bigger picture, perhaps of spiritual Babylon and just before Jesus comes back, God will punish Babylon for what Babylon has done to the church of Christ. We don't know. But we do know this, that it is not ours to judge or question the purposes of God and how he gets where he is going.

Guest (Male): Thanks for listening to Telling the Truth today. We're so glad you joined us and we pray this message has helped you experience more of the abundant life Jesus promises. We want to share an encouraging testimony from a listener named Linda as a reminder of what your prayers and partnership make possible. She recently shared, "I read your daily devotionals and receive comfort, courage and strength to keep carrying on. Thank you for being God's vessels." And thank you, Linda.

Today's culture is a revolving door of ever-shifting views and beliefs. That's why it's so important to test new ideas against the timeless truth of Scripture. It's the best defense against the world's confusion. We want to help ground you in the foundations of your faith by sending you Stuart Briscoe's six-message series on the book of 2 Peter: Six Things We Must Never Forget.

The Six Things We Must Never Forget series is our thanks for your gift to help keep Telling the Truth going strong, sharing life-giving teaching from Stuart and Jill with more people all over the world. So request your copy when you give today and get help staying grounded in truth in today's shifting culture. Call 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388 or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org.

Thank you for listening to today's message. We're so glad you did. Tune in tomorrow as Jill answers the question, "How do you embrace something that feels impossible to endure?" We'll see you then, right here on Telling the Truth with Stuart and Jill Briscoe.