So the message of Habakkuk chapter 3 is really an appropriate one this morning as we consider we just closed the book on 2019 and we're turned the page now into 2020. Maybe this year ahead looks to be the banner year for you. The best things are waiting for you. But on the other side of the fence, maybe you're looking at things ahead and there's a lot of uncertainty and you just kind of wonder what this new year is going to have. But either way, there is a constant that we must turn to regardless of our prospects for the future. And that constant is Jesus Christ. Christ is our North Star, so to speak. He is always present. He provides direction, regardless of what our circumstances are. The Vatican faced a future that was foreboding and unsettling, to say the least. Yet this so-called minor prophet provides a pathway to a joyful future, regardless of what the circumstances may be. Fear and dread can be a reality in our lives. We've all had moments and occasions where this has happened to us, where fear is staring us in the face. But the fear we want to refer to and reference today and talk about is the fear of uncontrollable circumstances. Those things that we see that we can't do anything about. These things concern us and they might cause us to tremble and might cause us to fear. So how do we face this type of fear? How do we deal with it? How do we defeat it? And that is what I hope we will learn today through Habakkuk chapter 3. So before we dig into it, let's kind of take a look at the context of the passage and one reason why I read the entire chapter again. The first two verses and plus verse 16, the very first half is kind of our context of how we will go this morning. And so verses 1 and 2 state again, O Lord, I have heard your speech and was afraid. O Lord, revive your work in the midst of years. In the midst of the years, make it known. In wrath, remember mercy. And then verse 16a. When I heard, my body trembled, my lips quivered at the voice. Rottenness entered my bones, and I trembled in myself. So twice in these verses we see fear being referenced. If you remember in my last message, the word fear that appears in verse 2 is a fear of God primarily. That awe and that reverence of God. But yet it still has an element of being afraid mixed in there as well. But in verse 16, the first part of that verse, we see fear once again referred to. Now the word is not specifically used, but its meaning is very clear. Habakkuk is literally afraid. And even we can ascertain from that, from Habakkuk's description of what is happening to him physically and emotionally. And that this is happening because of God's reply to him that we read in chapter 2. And he is afraid. He's afraid of the message that he's heard. James Montgomery Boyce refers to it as a bone-shattering fear. Well, when we are told of events that are going to take place, and we can do nothing to prevent them, oftentimes it causes us to have anxiety and fear. But we're not alone in this. Think about it. King David, he expressed fear when facing his enemies, but yet he was a man of great strength and faith. Paul, the great apostle Paul, he confessed in 2 Corinthians 1.8 that he was even despaired of life at times. But yet we know from Paul's history that he dealt with all sorts of hardships and beatings and riots, and he bore up under them well. So my point in those illustrations is that having a strong faith is not incompatible with flexing weakness, even if that weakness expresses itself in anxiety. We don't need to be ashamed of how we feel. Christians are not immune to fear, and God knows this. So we need to go to the Lord. We need to take it to Him. We need to ask him for his peace and for the joy of our salvation to be restored when we're in that place. Habakkuk lays out his feelings and he prays about his feelings and listen to how he describes it in verse 16a. He's a trembling body. His lips are quivering. Rottenness has entered his bones. And that rottenness has entered his bones. Let's talk about a pervasive rottenness. It's like a complete consumption of it. And he's trembling within. So does any of this sound familiar to anybody? Well, if you're human, you've probably been here. And if you haven't, you probably will at some point in the future. But we want to look at three primary ways this morning on how to defeat fear in our lives. The first is through prayer. The second is through remembrance. And the third is joy. And so we begin. The first point in our outline is take it to the Lord in prayer in verse 2. So I'm not going to rehash my previous message on verses 1 and 2 where we talked about prayer. But we do need to reconsider it as we consider defeating fear in our lives. It has to include prayer. Better said, we should begin with prayer. Fear can be a very crippling thing. And it can cause us to freeze up and cause us to have trouble making decisions. And even though we may be gripped by that kind of fear and uncertain of our next move, our first and primary move should always be that of prayer. We need to seek wisdom from the very one who knows our fears. We need to go to the scriptures. We need to go to prayer. So I think of the hymn, the familiar hymn, What a Friend We Have in Jesus. And I'm sure you know these words, but I want us to hear them again. It says, what a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. There's some very good theology in those words. And you've probably heard the old saying, prayer changes things. Well, it might be more accurate to say, prayer changes you and I. See, circumstances do not always change, and Habakkuk is a very good example of this. But God uses the means of prayer and his word to provide peace and rest, not only to the prophet in his day, but he does that for us in our circumstances. Notice again in verse 2 how Habakkuk tells God about how he feels. He says, O Lord, I have heard your speech and was afraid. But then by the end of verse 2, he's reconciled himself to God and his circumstances and he ends with, in wrath, remember mercy. One cannot say something like this apart from having spent time with the Lord in prayer and being changed as a result and having our faith strengthened. So as we spend time in prayer, we should devote a lot of time to remembrance and thanksgiving, which leads us to our second point, remembering God's faithfulness in verses 3 through 15. I'm not going to reread those verses for time's sake, but we will work our way through them. So prayer is our first offense to victory over fear. And while we're in the process of pouring out our fear to the Lord, we need to remember how God has been faithful in the past to his people, and how he has been faithful to you and I, in our past and even our future. Chapter 3 of Habakkuk is largely Habakkuk remembering God's faithfulness to the children of Israel throughout their history. and Habakkuk lists several ways to which God has proven this thankfulness and to preserve and sustain his people. He's basically educating the people, hoping they will recall his words in the future when they have been taken captive. We will not look at these in great depth, but I encourage you to spend time reading through the accounts on your own, and I'll be referring back to the accounts in the Old Testament as we go. One thing we should note before we begin. Chapter 3 is largely written poetically, and so it can be very difficult to understand. However, all the commentators, at least that I read, all agree on the same events that took place that Habakkuk is bringing forward. And so I believe we can gain insight from that and from the context of the passage where it speaks more clearly to some of those historical events. So the first thing we see that Habakkuk is referring to is the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night in verses 3 and 4. It says, God came from Tanam, or from the south, the Holy One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens and the earth was full of His praise, and His brightness was like the light, and it had rays flashing from His hand, and there His power was hidden. He's referring here to God's Shekinah Glory, which is that visible manifestation of God's presence and His mighty power over His enemies and with His people. And we see this in Exodus chapter 13, verses 20 through 22. The children of Israel had the visible presence and protection of God in the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. And it was constantly with them for the entire 40 years that they wandered in the wilderness. The church today doesn't have that visible presence of God, at least on a regular basis. Yet, He is still with us, and He dwells within us because of the Holy Spirit. If you're a believer, you have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of you. And as such, we have God's guidance, His protection with us 24-7, 365 days a year. The second thing we see in this historical monologue is the plagues on Egypt, which is in verse five. Before him went pestilence and fever followed at his feet. So the 10 plagues were God's judgment upon Egypt because of two primary things, their pagan worship and their enslavement and bondage of his people. Each of those ten plagues had special symbolic significance and were directly related to the Egyptian gods. In other words, God was showing his supremacy over all the so-called gods of Egypt. And we see this in Exodus chapter 7 through chapter 11. The third thing we want to note is the parting of the Red Sea and the Jordan River, verses 8, 9, and 15. And these are the verses that are very much poetic and a little harder to understand. O Lord, you were displeased, were you displeased with the rivers? Was your anger against the rivers? Was your wrath against the sea that you rode on your horses, your chariots of salvation? Your bow was made quite red, your oaths were sworn over your arrows. And then verse 15. You walk through the sea with your horses through the heat of great waters. So the party of the waters shows God's power over his creation as well as his deliverance and his provision for God's people. We see that noted in Exodus chapter 14 and also in Joshua 3. Habakkuk calls to mind now God's power over the Jordan River and the Red Sea. He speaks first to the party of the Jordan River. and how God proved to the Israelites that he was bringing them into the land and making a pathway through the river. Then Habakkuk reminds the people of Judah of how God delivered them from the Egyptians by providing a dry path through the Red Sea. Once again reminding them of God's power over creation and his commitment to bring the people back to their rightful land. The prophet is also reminding the nation of Judah that God is going to defeat their enemies. And we know that because God totally destroyed the Egyptian army by drowning them in the Red Sea. He will also visit his wrath against the Babylonians as well, once the 70 years of captivity have been completed. Then in verse 9, which states, your bow was made quite ready, your o's were sworn over your arrows. This statement shows how God stands ready to deliver his people at any moment. And so now we turn our attention to the conquest of Canaan. The fourth item we see here in verses 6 through 13 is the conquest of Canaan. God defeated the pagan nations living in Canaan and returned the land to his people. We see this in Joshua chapter 6 through 12. Verse 6 describes the dividing of the land to the 12 tribes of Israel, and it's a reminder to us that the earth is the Lord's, including all who live in it. Exodus 9.29, Psalm 24.1, 1 Corinthians 10.26, 28. See, when you're the creator, the creation is yours to do with and to give to whoever you choose. And so God has returned his chosen people back to the land he had promised to Abraham. And this is a good reminder for us as well when we're fearful of not having the things that we need. Remember what Jesus told us in Matthew chapter 6? Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink. And then continues on later on in verse 26, look at the birds of the air, for they don't sow, nor do they reap, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? God has us in his hands. He provides for our needs, and he can place us wherever he wants to place us. And one other thing I want to point out from verse 6 is the language that is used here to describe the mountains and the hills. Habakkuk uses adjectives everlasting and perpetual. These are direct references to God himself because these are attributes that can only be said of God. They're eternal attributes. And since they're eternal attributes, they are in play for us today. God is eternal. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And so his thoughts towards his people are always thoughts of good. For example, and you know this verse well, I'm sure. For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope, Jeremiah 29 11. Even though God was getting ready to judge the southern kingdom of Judah, his thoughts towards them were still good. He's just trying to teach them and train them to trust him. I want to use an illustration here. See, it's good to make a habit of remembering what God has done in our past, both personally and collectively as a church. It's good practice so that when fear does come into our lives, it is second nature for us to remember God and remember what He's done and His faithfulness. So think back to our Thanksgiving service in November. Beth had mentioned about an interview that she saw about Pastor Brunson and how he was dealing with fear and discouragement while he was under house arrest in Turkey. She stated that Brunson began to remember God's faithfulness as he literally danced before the Lord in his captivity. And this was given him hope and joy, even though God was, in Brunson's words, silent during those many days and years. And this is a good segue into our final point this morning. And that is joy is the antidote to fear, verse 16b through 19. So verse 16b, that I might rest in the day of trouble, when he comes up to the people, he will invade them with his troops. Fear causes unrest. It will cause unrest in our minds, it will cause unrest in our spirits, and it even can cause unrest in our bodies physically. I've heard it said that stress can work itself out in our bodies physically. These are natural responses to fear, but it is also kind of unsettling because Paul told Timothy, if you recall, in 2 Timothy 1.7, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but he's given us, excuse me, a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and then a sound mind. See, the unbeliever's approach to dealing with fear is much different than for the believer's approach. And Boyce summarizes the unbelievers' approach in three words, resignation, detachment, and bravado. And then he goes on to describe each approach, and I've just kind of paraphrased them here. So the first approach, the unbelievers resign to the fact that their circumstances can't be changed, and they can do nothing about it. They basically throw their arms up in the air and say, I surrender. The second approach could be the unbeliever will detach themselves from those circumstances since thinking about those circumstances depresses them. So they focus on positive thinking. Or in other words, just distracting their minds from the things they don't want to think about and face. And then the third, the unbeliever will detach them, excuse me, the unbeliever's bravado is simple, to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, face it head on, and don't let it get you down. Those may work for a time, but frankly, it's just not something that can be sustained. However, Habakkuk prescribes a better way for the believer to defeat fear. In this little book, we have watched Habakkuk go from a questioning and whining prophet to a prophet now who has found rest amid the threat of trouble to come, and he has actually begun to worship. Hence my subtitle to this book is From Why to Worship. So when we lift our eyes up from our circumstances and we begin to focus on Christ, we too will find ourselves moving from fear to worship. So notice that second half of verse 16 again, that I might rest in the day of trouble. Notice Habakkuk just described in clear words in the first part of the verse that fear had overcome him after hearing God's speech. But immediately following this, he states he will rest, he will find rest. And this indicates how Habakkuk's fear of the, quote, heavy hand of God, as Barbary puts it, has been replaced by faith. His heart and mind are settled on the fact that even though God's heavy hand is sure, he knows that God is going to be faithful to restore Judah in due time. The next we see in verse 17 that the full power of the invading force that's coming upon Judah through the Babylonians is going to be devastated with total destruction. Look at verse 17 with me. Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, though the labor of the olive may fail in the field to yield both fruit, though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls. That devastation that has just been described would be threefold. First, the trees will no longer yield their fruit. As we read, the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit on the vines, and the labor of the olive may fail. The second, the crops are destroyed, and the fields are not going to yield any food. And then lastly, the flocks are lost, and there will be no herd in the stalls. To summarize this, these are three major areas of commodities for living. Both in providing sustenance for the people and for providing goods to trade and thus creating income. In other words, the people of Judah are going to be left with nothing. They're going to be devastated. And if it ended right here, if Habakkuk ended right here, this would just be depressing. Because there's no hope if it ends there. But then we come to verse 18. Verse 18, wow, this is a great verse. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Habakkuk's faith is now on full display right here. Now see, faith brings with it something that's very important, and it's called joy. Joy is only found in Jesus Christ. Joy flows from the throne of God to the believer's heart. Unbelievers do not have the ability to experience real joy, because it is only for those whose faith has been fully put in God. Unbelievers can experience some really great happiness, but they cannot enjoy true biblical joy. See, joy goes much deeper than just being happy. Let me illustrate it to you this way. Think of happiness like the surface of an ocean. One moment, it's calm, it's nice, you're cruising along, no problems. But in another moment, it could be raging and just angry. See, happiness is fleeting. Anything can affect it and cause you to swing one way or the other. But joy is different. Joy is the undercurrent that is found deep in the ocean. That undercurrent in the ocean is constant, it's steady, and it just flows. It doesn't really matter what's happening on the surface of the ocean. In fact, that undercurrent is oblivious to what's happening on the surface of the ocean. whether the waves are calm or raging. You see, that's the Christian joy. When you tap into that deep relationship with the Lord, you just have that constant flowing. That's joy. You see, Habakkuk will now tap into the joy of the Lord and the joy of his salvation, and he has found rest. And this word rejoice in verse 18 means to jump for joy, to exalt, and to triumph. Think about that. He just described total destruction and what's going to happen to the nation of Judah, and yet he's saying he's going to rejoice? It's because his hope is in something. And see, through joy, the prophet gained victory over his fear. And joy is how we as believers will gain victory over our fear. And Pastor referred to this earlier, but clearly last Sunday when Pastor referred to the Westminster Catechism, I kind of had to smile because I knew I was going to be referring to the same this morning. So the very first question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism is this, and it is in your bulletin. What is the chief end of man? Well, the answer is simple. The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. And so the logical conclusion of this question and answer is joy. John Piper, in his book Desiring God, puts it this way, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. So what Piper is describing here is the Christian's joy. And if I can put a little commercial in, if you want a good book to read, Desiring God is an excellent book, and I suggest it. So now the prophet concludes this short book with these encouraging words as we see in verse 18. The Lord God is my strength. He will make my feet like deer's feet, and He will make me walk on my high hills. Habakkuk's faith and joy has allowed him to see his end. God is going to be his strength. No matter what, he will have firm footing to be able to walk through the rough paths and the hills of life. A note in the CFV states, yet even amid suffering and loss, Habakkuk has learned that he can trust God, and with that comes great joy, not in circumstances, but in God himself. Did you catch that? The joy doesn't come in our circumstances, it comes in God himself. Habakkuk knows that God has continued to be faithful to him, and he's going to continue to be faithful to Judah, even during the 70-year captivity to come. So as we look forward to this new year and this new decade, it's not hard to be fearful and anxious about the future. In the news, there's all this talk of impeachment. There's threats of war. There's concerns of a recession. These are big things, unsettling things. But maybe there are more personal events in 2020 that are concerning to you. Well, I say, believer, look up, because your redemption is drawing near. Christ is on his throne, and he has promised to be faithful to his church, and he has proven that he is faithful to his church. One of the most powerful ways that we can remind ourselves of God's faithfulness in his provision for his church is by looking at the cross of Jesus Christ. As Amy Carmichael said, there are times when nothing holds to heart but a long, long look at Calvary. How very small anything that we are allowed to endure seems beside that cross. So as we close in prayer this morning, let's just take a moment to reflect on the cross of Christ and His sacrifice for us. And then after I pray, the pastor will come and he's going to lead us at the communion table. Let's take a moment now and just remember Christ's sacrifice for us. Father, we are so grateful. We are so grateful that in the fullness of time, Christ was born. And he lived a perfect life. And he gave himself up on a cruel cross for our sins. Lord, we are very much undeserving of such great grace. But yet you have chosen us. and you have forgiven us. We thank you for your shed blood. We thank you, Lord, for the provisions that you have made for us and your faithfulness to us, not only in the past, but we can depend upon your faithfulness for the future. None of us know entirely what this new year holds for us, but we know that you have already gone before us You hold our future because you are in our future. So Lord, help us to be reminded each day, especially those times when we are feeling afraid or feeling uncertain, that you are faithful and that we can depend upon you. Lord, we thank you for your mighty love and arms that you surround us with. And we ask that you would remind us each and every day of the great gift that you have given to us through Jesus Christ. And we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.