- A question from God: What are you DOING?
- The answer: I am walking in FAITH!
The Path of the Flesh:
- PRIDE: ME first! (Hab 2:4)
- GREED: Gotta have MORE! (Hab 2:5-8)
- EXPLOITATION: I will do WHATEVER it takes to get what I want! (Hab 2:9-14)
- SENSUALITY: Whatever makes me feel GOOD! (Hab 2:15-17)
- IDOLATRY : ANYTHING but the Lord! (Hab 2:18-20)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:04
Bow your heads with me please as we are about to turn to the word.
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Father in heaven, we just now are about to turn to your word and I realize, Father, we live in a day of YouTube and commercials and video and cartoons and all of these things that grab our attention and have sort of trained us to not have an attention span.
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But just now we are turning to the eternal word of the living God.
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And I pray for these next few moments, especially that you would have every single soul in this room sitting up, giving the attention that your word deserves, giving the attention that you deserve, Father, because you have given us your word that we might know who you are.
00:58-01:05
You've given us your word that it might point us to Jesus Christ, whom we so desperately need.
01:10-01:14
As we pray so often, Father, may we take your word as seriously as you do.
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I pray our minds and our hearts would be engaged to what you have to share with us this morning.
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In Jesus name that we pray, amen.
01:28-01:33
And turn in your Bibles with me, please, to the book of Habakkuk, and we're going to be in chapter two.
01:39-01:41
Turn a little louder so that I know that you're with me.
01:45-01:46
That's better.
01:48-01:53
I know that if you have like rice paper pages in your Bible, that's really hard.
01:53-01:55
Oh, electronic, boo, boo.
01:57-01:58
I'm kidding.
02:00-02:06
Old eyes, old eyes and not the most brightly lit room in the Pittsburgh area.
02:08-02:09
You get a pass.
02:14-02:19
Just to recap, we've been going through the book of Habakkuk and he lived in a day.
02:19-02:21
Now try to imagine this if you can.
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Habakkuk lived in a day where all that he saw were two things, iniquity and injustice.
02:31-02:33
That's all that he saw, iniquity and injustice.
02:33-02:37
In other words, sin and corruption.
02:38-02:40
Does that sound familiar at all?
02:41-02:42
Does that sound like any place you know?
02:43-02:45
Does that sound like any place you live?
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Right?
02:47-02:48
That's why I love the book of Habakkuk.
02:48-03:04
We don't really have to stretch the imagination what it was like to live in a land where all you see, every CNN report, every newspaper, everything you see is iniquity and injustice.
03:05-03:09
He lived in those days and Habakkuk asked the same question that many of you have asked.
03:10-03:12
He said, "God, where are you?
03:13-03:42
God, how long are you going to let this continue?" You remember the Lord's answer is, "Wait and see." He told Habakkuk, "You won't believe it until you see it." In fact, the Lord said, "He's raising up this people group, "the Chaldeans," another word for the Babylonians, "who were going to conquer Israel as a judgment "against Israel's sin." So that led Habakkuk to another question.
03:42-03:43
Okay, wait a minute, God.
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You're going to use a more wicked nation than Israel to punish Israel, not computing.
03:55-03:56
Doesn't make sense.
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What are you doing?
03:59-04:06
You remember last week, we saw God's answer was Habakkuk, you're going to have to trust me.
04:07-04:18
And we spent some time last week talking about one of the most important verses in the Old Testament, Habakkuk 2.4, that says, "The righteous shall live by his," what?
04:19-04:19
Shout it out.
04:20-04:23
The righteous shall live by his faith.
04:24-04:24
Faith.
04:25-04:33
Faith isn't some poetic flowery concept that Christians kind of throw around that doesn't really have any substance.
04:34-04:37
In fact, faith is the substance of what we're about.
04:38-04:42
The Bible says that without faith, it is impossible to please God.
04:43-04:45
So faith is the thing.
04:46-04:56
And the Lord told Habakkuk and he's telling us the times that it looks like he's doing something or he's allowing something that doesn't make sense, how do we deal with that?
04:58-04:59
It's faith.
05:00-05:01
It's saying, God, I trust you.
05:03-05:08
Well, now, here's a question for you, okay?
05:09-05:10
Here's a question for you.
05:12-05:14
The first two questions were directed towards God.
05:16-05:16
God, where are you?
05:17-05:18
God, what are you doing?
05:18-05:25
Well, today we have a question for you, and the question is this, "What are you doing?" What are you doing?
05:27-05:34
In this passage we're about to look at, God continues to answer Habakkuk's question.
05:36-05:46
Habakkuk says, "You know, God, okay, Israel's bad, but Israel's also your covenant nation, So how can you use these godless pagans who are more wicked than Israel to punish Israel?
05:47-05:50
And we're going to see the answer in the text that we look at today.
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God's answer is, I see their sin too.
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And their judgment is coming too.
05:59-05:59
Okay?
06:00-06:02
They're not off the hook.
06:02-06:07
The Chaldeans are not getting a buy on judgment for their sin.
06:11-06:14
God is holy and perfect and he always does the just thing.
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And the just thing, the loving thing, and the holy thing is for God to perfectly judge sin.
06:29-06:45
Just this past week, I'd received news, many of you might remember this last year A good friend of mine was, where he was working, this madman walked in with a knife and started attacking this other man.
06:46-06:54
This was over in Columbus, Ohio, and my friend who was working there saw what was happening and he jumped in to protect the man that was getting stabbed.
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And my friend got stabbed nine times, like boom, boom, boom, in the neck, in the face.
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Almost died.
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Several people were injured.
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Several people would have been killed if not for the bravery of this friend of mine.
07:11-07:20
Well, this past week, this man who assaulted all of these people, he got his verdict.
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He had his day in court.
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Do you know what it was?
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Do you know what the verdict was?
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Not guilty.
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Not guilty for reason of insanity.
07:28-07:31
So he's going off to a mental hospital.
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And I gotta tell you, that really bothered me.
07:37-07:47
Here's a man who just randomly assaulted several innocent people, and he goes to our court system who says he's not guilty.
07:50-07:51
That bothered me.
07:55-08:06
How much more so should a perfect God properly judge sin, right?
08:07-08:14
I mean, we're outraged over... this is a couple of offenses from one guy.
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God in His omniscience is sitting in heaven and not only seeing the actions, but every thought and every intention of every heart.
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And He's not just going to say, "Not guilty." He's perfect.
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that he's going to judge sin.
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Well, we took the time to question God, didn't we?
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God, where are you?
08:42-08:43
God, what are you doing?
08:43-08:44
God, how long?
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How long?
08:45-08:54
Well, today we're going to turn it around and we're going to question ourselves.
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What are you doing?
08:58-09:00
Let's take a look into here and now.
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What I mean is, what's going on here?
09:05-09:10
And I don't just mean in my life, I have to ask it for my life, but you need to ask this question for yourself.
09:13-09:16
Not for the person sitting next to you, not for the person that you think should be here.
09:19-09:21
You need to ask this question for yourself.
09:22-09:23
What are you doing?
09:28-09:30
This is hard for us to really stop and examine.
09:30-09:31
I was thinking about this.
09:31-09:35
You know, we live in a day of blaming everyone else, don't we?
09:37-09:46
We live in a day of blaming everyone else for our own problems, our own mistakes, our own sin, don't we?
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Come on, play this game with me.
09:51-09:53
Your sports team failed.
09:54-09:55
Who's to blame?
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The officiating.
09:58-10:01
Your kids get bad grades at school, whose fault is that?
10:03-10:04
It's the teacher's fault, isn't it?
10:06-10:10
Your marriage is suffering, whose fault is it?
10:11-10:14
It's obviously my wife's fault, she's the problem.
10:15-10:19
You get in trouble with the law, whose fault is that?
10:20-10:21
The police are corrupt.
10:22-10:23
I had a woman tell me that one time.
10:23-10:39
She talked about this very public, disorderly thing that she had done, and how she was corrected by a police officer, and how out of line he was to do that, because all police are corrupt.
10:40-10:40
Like, what?
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Unbelievable.
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You're out of money?
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Whose fault is that?
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It's the bank's fault.
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I'm overweight?
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Whose fault is that?
10:53-10:55
It's McDonald's fault, exactly.
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That's what I had in mind.
10:57-11:18
It's McDonald's. I mean, we laugh, but isn't that what's happening? It's always somebody else's fault. It's always somebody else's fault. You know, how can you explain your stupid, foolish, childish behavior? "Well, it was because of how my parents treated me." You haven't lived at home in like 46 years!
11:19-11:56
Grow up! How much longer are you going to put everybody else on the hook for problems. It's time for you to say, "What are you doing? What am I doing?" Well, the danger in blaming others is this. You forfeit your opportunity to let God make changes where it really needs to happen. And where is that? Right here. And if you can't acknowledge that you are guilty in sin, you won't think that you need Jesus.
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Too many people walking around saying, "Well, I'm not a sinner.
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Jesus doesn't need to change me because I'm not the problem." I mean, certainly if I had a problem with sin, I'd need Jesus.
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But I don't have a problem with sin.
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Actually, I'm just surrounded by people that need Jesus.
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Everybody I know needs Jesus because they all account for my problems.
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and let's stop passing the blame. So that's the question, what are you doing?
12:31-13:20
The answer is, I'm walking in, well if you were here last week, you know the word that goes in the blank, right? Faith. However, not everyone here is walking in faith. In this passage we're about to look at, we're going to see the other way of life. You can either walk in faith, or for some people, instead of choosing faith, they choose to walk in, write down the word "flesh." They choose to live in sinful flesh. What do you have to do to live in sinful flesh? The answer really is nothing. That's just how we're born. We're born with a sin nature.
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And you either choose, by faith, to receive Jesus Christ, or you allow Allow yourself to go through life in default mode, which is living in sinful flesh.
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So which path are you on?
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We discussed where the path of faith takes you.
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The path of the flesh, we're going to see, leads right to judgment.
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So which path are you on?
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What are you doing?
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It's really the most important question you're ever going to ask yourself because right now you are preparing yourself for eternity.
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Did you know that?
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All right, let's talk about the path of the flesh.
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I'm going to go through these rather quickly.
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This is an extended portion of text.
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Path of the flesh, number one is pride.
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Me first.
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Pride, me first, and the gimme gimmes.
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Look at verse four, "Behold, his soul is puffed up." It is not upright within him, talking about the Babylonians, "But the righteous shall live by his faith." There's that contrast.
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His soul is puffed up.
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That's pride.
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my preferences, my desires, my happiness, me, me, me, me, that's pride.
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That is the very essence of sin.
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Do you know that?
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The very essence of sin.
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Me first, me first.
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Everything revolves around me.
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Everything needs to be to my liking.
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On your heart is a throne.
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Jesus Christ deserves that spot.
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Our sinful flesh says, "No, I want to sit there.
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I want to be in charge." That's pride.
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Me first.
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Secondly, on the path is greed.
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Look at verses five through eight.
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"Moreover, wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest.
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Here again, comparing the Babylonians to a drunkard.
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When someone is a drunkard, how much alcohol is enough?
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How much is enough?
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You know, some people can say, "One glass of wine, one beer, I'm done, I'm satisfied." But for a drunkard, it's never enough.
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It's greed.
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Look on in the verses.
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His greed is as wide as Sheol.
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What is Sheol?
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In the Old Testament, Sheol was a term that meant "the grave." It just meant "the grave." It was a euphemism for "what is beyond the grave?" When we die, we go somewhere and they didn't have the full revelation of the New Testament.
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So this term in the Old Testament, "sheol," just means the grave, what lies beyond.
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Like death, He has never enough.
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So here's another word picture for greed.
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Greed is like death.
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enough. You see, death isn't like that. Death isn't like, "Well, you know, 25 people died in this community today. That's enough. We're good for another few years." Death isn't like that because you know what's going to happen tomorrow? More people are going to die. You know what's going to happen on Tuesday? Spoiler alert, more people are going to die. It's "Shall not all these take up their taunt against him with scoffing and riddles for him and say, 'Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own for how long and loads himself with pledges?
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Will not your debtors suddenly arise and those awake who will make you tremble?
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Then you will be spoiled for them, because you have plundered many nations.
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the remnants of the people shall plunder you for the blood of man and violence to the earth to cities and all who dwell in them." Here already the Lord is saying to and through Habakkuk, "Yes, I'm going to use Babylon as my instrument of judgment, but they're not going to be exempt from judgment either." And here, greed, number two on your outline, "Got to have more. Got to have more. Got to have more. How much is enough? Well, we already talked about the illustration with alcohol, the illustration with death. But when you're walking in sinful flesh, you never have enough of your thing, whatever your thing is. Meaning this, if you're walking in the sinful flesh and your sin tendency is towards money, how much money is enough for someone who is greedy for money. How much is enough? There's never enough. Same with sex. Think of somebody who just lives to fulfill their sensual desires. When is their sexual appetite fulfilled? The answer is it's not. It's Insert anything, insert any sin.
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Gotta have more, gotta have more, gotta have more.
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Never satisfied, never looking back and saying, look at what God has provided me, can I be satisfied with what God has given me?
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Walking by sinful flesh always looks outwardly to say, what don't I have, what more can I have?
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Why don't I have this or why don't I have that?
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Never appreciative, never thankful, just always in the mindset, I gotta have more, I gotta have more, I gotta have more.
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Always looking to see what the next guy has.
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It's greed.
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The next step on the path of the flesh, write this down.
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Exploitation.
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Exploitation.
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Like, what do you mean by that?
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Well, we're going to see an exploitation.
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I will do whatever it takes to get what I want.
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Okay, so not only am I putting myself first and I gotta have more, I'm going to do whatever it takes to get what I want.
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And really there's two of them here.
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First of all, look at verses nine through 11.
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Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house to set his nest on high to be safe from the reach of harm.
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You've devised shame for your house by cutting off many people's.
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you have forfeited your life.
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For the stone will cry out from the wall and the beam from the woodwork respond.
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Verse nine, "Woe to him who gets evil gain." Evil gain, exploitation, whatever I need to do to get what I want.
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Is there something wrong with gain in and of itself?
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Absolutely not.
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There is nothing wrong with working and earning.
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The problem here is evil gain, dishonest gain.
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Who did I have to hurt to get what I want?
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And if that's not enough, look at verses 12 through 14.
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"Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity.
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Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts that people labor merely for fire and nations weary themselves for nothing.
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Exploitation, I will do whatever it takes to get what I want.
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I don't care who it hurts.
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And I love this next verse, this should be highlighted in your Bible.
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Look at the person next to you, look at the person next to you, look at their Bible, and if this isn't highlighted in their Bible, reach over and underline it.
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Like, "Well, I don't write in my Bible." Okay, turn and write in that person's Bible.
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This is an important verse.
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For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
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Isn't that awesome?
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You know, when we go through these questions about, "God, where are you?
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And God, how long?
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"And God, these people are so wicked.
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"And God, when are you going to show up and do something?
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"Is God going to show up?
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"Is God going to show up?" Yeah, and he's not going to show up like he's going to make a five-city appearance to a limited audience.
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When God shows up, what's it like?
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Filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, the entire earth.
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You're like, "Well, how much is that?" Look at this phrase, "As the water covers the sea." You know, I've thought about that expression a lot.
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As the waters cover the sea.
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And I'm not really sure what that means.
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Except that, how wet is the sea?
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That's the degree to which God will show up.
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How much of the waters in the sea are wet?
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How much could you say the sea is wet?
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That's the degree of God, as the waters cover the sea.
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So exploitation, I will do what it takes to get what I want.
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Fourthly, write this down, sensuality. Whatever makes me feel good. Whatever makes me feel good, woe to him who makes his neighbors drunk. You pour out your wrath, make them drunk in order to gaze at their nakedness. You have your fill of shame instead of glory. Drink yourself and show your uncircumcision. The cup in the Lord's right hand will come around to you and utter shame will come upon your glory.
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The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you as will the destruction of the beast that terrified them for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to the cities and all who dwell in them.
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Sensuality, whatever makes me feel good.
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This is the next step.
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It's fleshly desires being met.
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Fleshly desires need met.
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We live in a day of absolutely no self-control.
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What's going to make me feel good?
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Whether it's a physical relation or a drug or a drink or whatever makes me feel good.
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And finally, idolatry.
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Anything but the Lord.
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Look at verses 18 through 20.
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"What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it?
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A metal image, a teacher of lies, for its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols." Doesn't that just sound stupid?
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Idolatry.
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It's like you're making something.
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Like I'm making this thing.
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I got the materials and I put it together and now I'm like praying to it.
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Like this was a pile of garbage like five minutes ago, and I fashioned it and made it, and now I'm praying to it.
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Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, "Awake to a silent stone, arise, can this teach?
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Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it." No idolatry, anything but the Lord.
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You know, our first year ministry theme was Jesus is first.
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Is that something that you can honestly say in your life?
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When I ask you, what are you doing?
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Can you say Jesus Christ has the first place in my life?
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Or would you say, well, Jesus is second in my life, or Jesus is third, or I'm sure there are some people here that Jesus isn't even on the list.
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Well, here's the thing, if Jesus is not first in your life, whatever is first in your life is an idol.
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Anything but the Lord.
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So did you see the path?
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Did you see the path that the flesh takes?
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I'm important, verse four.
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So I deserve more, verses five through eight.
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I will do whatever it takes to get what I want, verses nine through 14, in order to satisfy my flesh, verses 15 through 17, because I will not look to God for fulfillment, verses 18 through 20.
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That's the path of the flesh.
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And you can take almost any scenario and see those ingredients line up like that.
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And I tested that this week.
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You know the story of David in 2 Samuel 11?
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David and Bathsheba?
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I kind of went through that story.
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Well, first of all, David wasn't where he was supposed to be, and he had some reason for thinking that.
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That's the pride piece.
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And greed, he saw a woman that was another man's wife, but he wanted her, and he was going to do whatever it took, lying and killing.
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all to satisfy his flesh.
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And through that whole process, he had no regard for the Lord.
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Then I thought about the prodigal son in Luke 15.
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You know that story?
28:50-28:51
Same ingredients.
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Here's a father that had a kid that decided that he was just too cool to live at home.
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And his greed says, "Dad, give me my share of the inheritance.
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I'll do whatever it takes to get that even.
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And that day would have meant considering that his own father was dead.
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And then he went and lived a reckless lifestyle with prostitutes.
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There's the sensuality and the over-encompassing thing was idolatry.
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Not satisfied with what has been provided to me by God.
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"putting my own needs up as an idol." Like, "Oh, Pastor Jeff, that's so biblical." But is that stuff like really happening today?
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Do you know any drug addicts?
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Do you know somebody that has an addiction?
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I do.
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And it's the exact same thought process, isn't it?
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Me first, my needs are more important, And then when it comes to the drug, you gotta have more and more.
30:09-30:13
And when you need to get the drugs, you'll lie to get them.
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You'll even kill to get them.
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Do you think there are any deaths happening related to drug usage?
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Is that happening?
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Of course it is.
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This drug feeds my flesh.
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This drug becomes my idol.
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Same path.
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Do you see it?
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Take corruption in business.
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Me first, I gotta have more money.
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I will lie and destroy whoever I need to because stuff makes me happy, money is my God. Just take this, take the back of your bulletin and with this, with this path, just think through the sins that people commit, they follow that path. All of those ingredients are there. But the question today is this, are you on that path? I find it interesting that this This passage bookends with pride and idolatry because really those are the over-encompassing things.
31:11-31:15
So I would say, is there anything in your life that's more important to you than a relationship with God?
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Is there anything in your life that's more important to you than a relationship with God?
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If so, then you are on the path to judgment.
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God judged Israel, He judged Babylon, and He's going to judge you.
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But that's not why I came here today.
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I came here today to tell you the great news.
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And the great news is this, it's not too late.
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The great news is this, if you're someone that's sitting here and you're looking through that list and you're like, "Oh my gosh, that's me.
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"Oh my gosh, that's me.
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"Oh my gosh, that's me." The great news is, everything can turn around today foe you.
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Did you know that?
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There's not some 12 step program, there's not some, you know, if you do this over the next 90 days, you realize everything can turn around for you, right now.
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It can happen.
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today? Like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, you're real good at, you know, what are you doing?
32:36-33:52
What do you do? What about you?" Well, God's not going to judge me. "Oh, oh, Pastor Jeff, you think you're better than us? God's not going to judge you. You think you're better?" Actually, no, I don't think I'm better. Actually, I think I'm worse than you. I'm probably worse than you. So how can I say that God's not going to judge me? Well, because I have someone who took my judgment. I have someone, though I deserve judgment, though I deserve the absolute worst that God could give me, and then some, I have someone who stepped in and took my judgment upon himself. And flesh, you also have two options before you, and one of them is judgment. Face the wrath of God, or by faith, receive Jesus Christ, who took your wrath upon himself.
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So what are you doing? What are you doing right now in your life? Are you walking by faith or are you walking in the flesh? Are you heading to judgment or are you heading to glory? Bow your heads with me please. I'd like every head in the room and bowed, every eye closed.
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So often people come to church, please bow your heads and close your eyes.
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People come to church and they hear a message like this and they think, you know what?
34:44-35:12
Someday, someday, someday I'm gonna get serious about my walk with the Lord, or someday I'm going to, someday I'm really going to receive Jesus Christ, and someday I'm really going, but not today, I have this relationship happening, I have this addiction happening, and you're not heading anywhere good.
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And as we bow our heads, it is my prayer that if there's anyone here who realizes today that they're on the path of the flesh that's heading to judgment, I pray that you would realize what it is that you've been missing out on from this gift that God has provided.
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Understand that God himself came into this world as Jesus Christ.
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He died on the cross for our sins and He rose from the dead so that we can have eternal life.
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But you have to understand when Jesus was on the cross what was actually happening.
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Jesus was bearing the full wrath of God on Himself.
36:15-36:30
Not for anything that he had done, but he was bearing the wrath of God because of my sins and because of your sins and because of the sins of anyone who would receive him throughout history.
36:35-37:06
And when you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, understand judgment isn't even in the discussion for you anymore. Because God's not going to punish his son and turn around and punish you again. God's not going to demand a double payment for your sins. Do you understand that? So your options are either you pay them or by faith you receive the payment that God has made through Jesus Christ.
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And when you receive Christ, the Bible says you are born again. God's Spirit lives within you and eternal life begins here and now. What are you doing?
37:28-38:10
And I pray for some people here today that today is the day. No more games. No that you sincerely and thoroughly and fully receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. It starts with confessing your sin and confessing means you agree with God. You say, "God, I realize that I am a sinner. God, I realize I've been living in the flesh. God, I realize I deserve your judgment. I realize, God, that I've lived in rebellion against the one who created me.
38:14-38:23
And when you sincerely in your heart get to that point, then your next prayer needs to be, Father, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
38:23-38:40
I believe that you sent him to this earth to die in my place on the cross and to raise from the dead so that I might have eternal life and then pray by faith, "Father, I wanna receive him today.
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"Father, I'm crying out to you today.
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"Please forgive me of my sin.
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"Please, Father, let the ministry of Jesus Christ "be applied to my life." Save me, change me, give me life, Father.
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Give me new appetites.
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The Bible says that when you sincerely do that from your heart, you are born again.
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You are no longer condemned.
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You are no longer facing judgment, but you are an adopted child of God.
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And Father, I pray for this congregation.
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I pray for the people that need to take that step, whether they just prayed that prayer with me now or they're perhaps today, considering making that step of faith.
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God, I pray for anyone in this room who has not taken that step of faith.
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I pray that you would not give them a minute's rest.
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I pray that when they lay down in their bed and put their head on their pillow, all they can think about is the horrible prospect of facing your judgment and your wrath.
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Father, they get to that place to realize that that's not what you want for them.
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We see the heart of God in the ministry of Jesus Christ. It is your desire that everyone would come to you. Father, through Christ, you have saved us from yourself.
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So I pray today, Father, that you would bring anyone in this room who needs to know you, you would bring them to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. And for those of us who have received Christ, Father, we just, we thank you. It is not arrogance for us to say that we don't face your judgment. It is simply agreeing with you. It is simply believing in your promises. I pray today is a day of great self-examination. Faith or flesh, which one are we living in? We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
41:37-41:37
Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Habakkuk 2:4-20
How do you know if you are walking by faith or walking in the flesh?
When someone is on the path of the flesh, how can they truly come to their senses and get off that path?
Why does receiving Jesus mean that a believer will not face the judgment of God?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for someone you know that is on the path of the flesh.