2013-01-13: Making Sense of Today’s News (Part 2 of 2)

Sermon Audio: Making Sense of Today’s News (Part 2 of 2)
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Habakkuk 1:1-11
Duration: 27:33
Size: 12.6 MB

Making Sense of Today’s News (Part 2 of 2)
Habakkuk 1:1-11

The questions I want to ask today are these:
“How should we think about these events?”
“How do we make sense of today’s news?”
“And how does today’s news fit into the grand scheme of history?”

The message of Habakkuk is one of the most helpful portions of Scripture to help us make sense of today’s news.

II. God’s Ways Are Often Misunderstood

A. By Careless Christians (1:5)
The trouble with Judah was that they never believed God’s prophets. People often do not believe God’s preachers.

We dare not go on any longer being apathetic.

B. By Non-Christians (1:11)
They credited all their success to their own strength.

And suddenly, they have found themselves cast down by God.

C. By the Prophet Himself (1:2-4)
But his reaction was very different. His question was how to reconcile all of what God was doing with the character of God.

Four lessons we can learn from Habakkuk.

First, today’s news is under God’s control.
Second, today’s news follows God’s plan.
Third, today’s news follows God’s timetable.
Fourth, today’s news is bound up with God’s kingdom.

2013-01-06: Making Sense of Today’s News (Part 1 of 2)

Sermon Audio: Making Sense of Today’s News (Part 1 of 2)
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Habakkuk 1:1-11
Duration: 24:18
Size: 11.1 MB

Making Sense of Today’s News (Part 1 of 2)
Habakkuk 1:1-11

The questions I want to ask today are these:
“How should we think about these events?”
“How do we make sense of today’s news?”
“And how does today’s news fit into the grand scheme of history?”

The message of Habakkuk is one of the most helpful portions of Scripture to help us make sense of today’s news.

I. God’s Ways Are Often Mysterious (1:2a,5-6)

A. God’s Inaction (1:2a)
God seems to be strangely silent and inactive in some circumstances.

We have cried out to God but nothing seems to happen.

B. God’s Unexpected Providences (1:5-6)
Sometimes God gives unexpected answers to our prayers.

We see a certain situation and circumstance and we think that God should act in a particular way.

C. God’s Unusual Instruments (1:6)
God sometimes uses strange instruments to correct his people and his Church.

We must understand that the plain teaching of Scripture is that God may use very strange instruments indeed, and sometimes the very last instrument we would have expected.

Return next week for Part 2.