Habakkuk 3 A Song to Take With You

You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. All right, good morning everybody.

So as Brittany said, I'm Mike Biancolana. I'm an elder here at Recast. And happy Mother's Day to all of the moms here.

I can't say that I specifically crafted this message for moms or about moms or that moms are so awesome.

They are, but we have something better than my ham -fisted attempts at shoehorning that into this message.

We have just the scripture we are in and that's what God has for us this morning. We are in another minor prophet.

So we finished up Hosea last week, Pastor Don did. And this week we are going to finish up Habakkuk.

It's kind of a rare treat. You finish two minor prophets back to back. So this is what we need to hear.

That's why we're in it. So mothers need to hear it. Others need to hear it. And I hope you'll find encouragement in the message here and the greatness of our

Savior that you see in scripture here. God's word is always profitable for us. So our passage today is a song that appears in an unexpected place here.

You're in a minor prophet. You get the prophecy. There's judgment and all that and hope even.

But then like there's a song right there. It's a little unexpected, not where you'd expect to find it, but it is what

God's people needed to hear then and we need to hear it too. So in thinking of a song, how many of you have a song that you like because it reminds you of something and you really want to hang on to that?

A song like that? Yeah. Yeah, we like songs for a number of reasons. That's one of them.

Sometimes it has an association with an event in our life or a time, just not a particular event, but it's a span of time or a particular person reminds us of them.

Or sometimes it captures or accentuates a feeling or puts us in a particular mental space and that's why you like a song.

That's how you get playlists with names like beast mode workout or chill vibes, right?

Like you're going for something there. But sometimes it's the words of a song that make you want to hold on to that song and make it special and you want to remember it.

Does anybody have a song where it's the words that's what really are meaningful to you? Yeah.

So this is the case here. Habakkuk has written this prayer song inspired by the

Holy Spirit in order to remind God's people of someone, God himself, particularly his power, sovereignty, faithfulness, and saving work.

This is a song to carry into hard times to remind us of just who we have put our faith in.

And we believe here at Recast Church that one of the things that's essential for Christians is to grow in faith as they're walking with the

Lord. And it's not to say that, you know, your faith is always just on the climb and never going to decline.

That's not realistic. But over the long haul, your faith should be increasing.

This is what we should be going for. But as for the circumstances and times when things are discouraging and you're feeling your faith decline rather than increase, that is when we need to be reminded of who

God is. So if that describes you, Christian, and you feel like, yeah, my faith is just not really climbing.

It's kind of taking a nosedive here. I'm just really discouraged. Well, it's not. It's not that you're not a

Christian. That's a lie that you might hear. But it means you're a

Christian in need of encouragement. And Habakkuk here has a song for you.

It's really for all of us, but it's especially helpful in those circumstances. So grab your

Bible, device, scripture journal, if you happen to bring it. It was the one you could have used for Nahum.

Also has Habakkuk. Comes right after Nahum. Turn to Habakkuk chapter 3 with me.

If you're flipping through your Bible, it's five books back from Matthew. So God's word here.

A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigyonath. O Lord, I have heard the report of you and your work,

O Lord, do I fear. In the midst of the years, revive it. In the midst of the years, make it known.

In wrath, remember mercy. God came from Timon and the Holy One from Mount Paran, Selah.

His splendor covered the heavens and the earth was full of his praise. His brightness was like the light.

Rays flashed from his hand and there he veiled his power. Before him went pestilence and plague followed at his heels.

He stood and measured the earth. He looked and shook the nations. Then the eternal mountains were scattered.

The everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways. I saw the tents of Kushan in affliction.

The curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord? Was your anger against the rivers or your indignation against the sea when you rode on your horses on your chariot of salvation?

You stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows, Selah. You split the earth with rivers.

The mountains saw you and writhe. The raging waters swept on. The deep gave forth its voice.

It lifted its hands on high. The sun and moon stood still in their place, the light of your arrows as they sped at the flash of your glittering spear.

You marched through the earth in fury. You thrushed the nations in anger. You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed.

You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck, Selah. You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret.

You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters. I hear, and my body trembles.

My lips quiver at the sound. Rottenness enters into my bones. My legs tremble beneath me.

Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail, and the fields yield no food.

The flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the

Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength.

He makes my feet like the deer's. He makes me tread on my high places. To the choir master with stringed instruments.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, what a picture of who you are and what you do.

Your work in the past and the work you're still doing now.

I just pray that you would remind us of yourself, that we would know better who you are and be able to recall that through reading your scriptures here.

And just pray that we would take comfort and joy in you when things seem really hard, when we don't understand or we seem like we're stuck.

And just please bring you to mind. Bring yourself to our minds and encourage our hearts.

Just give us that vision of you bigger than our circumstances, more powerful than what might be keeping us down or making us discouraged.

And when we're already feeling pretty good, please also turn our attention to you so we can praise you and thank you.

We always should be thankful to you for all the many things you've done. So please fill our hearts with thanksgiving to you and give us a good understanding of who you are and carry that with us as we go.

Please open again to Habakkuk chapter three. And if you're new or don't know, the restrooms are out there on the left and you can help yourself to more coffee and donuts, which might mean you need to know where the restrooms are at.

So since I have been preaching infrequently through Habakkuk with big months -long gaps in between,

I don't assume that the first two chapters and what went on there is top of mind for you this morning as we're getting into the third and final chapter today.

So I'll catch you up a little bit. In chapter one, we saw that Habakkuk was troubled at the sin and corruption that was around him in Jerusalem and he brought it to God.

He wanted to know why the Lord seemed like he was doing nothing about all of these things that the

Lord hates. And the Lord answered that he was actually doing something about it.

He was raising up the Chaldeans, also known as the Babylonians, who were coming to ruthlessly take care of this problem by killing a bunch of people, taking most of the rest captive and taking off.

So God's use of that sinful nation to punish his people raised even more questions for Habakkuk.

So in chapter two, the Lord gives Habakkuk assurance that he is definitely in charge of this and he will punish the sinful

Chaldeans. See, this is a controlled burn, not just an out -of -control wildfire that's raging without any limits.

That doesn't mean, though, that it's going to be small or some tiny thing. This is going to be serious.

But God is orchestrating this and he will triumph over all the nations of the earth who should keep silent before him in his holy temple.

That's where we leave off in chapter two. That context is important to have as we get into chapter three.

But so all of that is going on and that leaves a certain situation. You might notice nothing has particularly changed immediately for Habakkuk.

He's still there. Things are going to go on in Jerusalem as they have been and until the

Babylonians show up and destroy the city. There's a lot of destruction and loss and heartache that is coming.

So Habakkuk, though, is confident in the Lord, confident in his character and in his mercy.

That's shown all throughout this short book. Now, knowing that God's judgment is going to land all around him and that this is not going to be an easy time, what does

Habakkuk do? What's his response? He writes a psalm. He composes a song, which is a prayer, and then some.

This is something that's worth considering. Why did he do that? Why is this his response and not just more other words or something?

You can get to thinking, reading Habakkuk, there's this conversation going on. You can think he's eavesdropping on what

Habakkuk's got going with the Lord. This is a conversation they're having. Then there's this song here.

Maybe he broke out into song and it just got recorded along with the rest of it or something, but that's not it.

This is not, thus saith the Lord, the musical. This is a book that's written for us, for his people then.

He wrote this song specifically for his people, the people who are there in Judah and Jerusalem, the people who are going to go into exile for their children, for their children's children, for God's people, including us.

This is a song. As such, it's something that is easier to remember and take with you.

It sticks close and you have it closer at hand when you really need it. We can tell that it's a song, as I've been saying.

If you look at verse 1 and the tail end of verse 19, it has all the hallmarks of a psalm.

If you're still kind of waffling about that, it's got three selahs.

I don't know what else you want. I mean, it's pretty much a psalm at that point, right? But it didn't get put into the collection of psalms you have in the middle of your

Bible. It got put here. God in his wisdom left it here in Habakkuk for us.

And the labels on this, if you read them, says it's a prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth, whatever that means.

It's kind of unclear what that is, other than maybe it has something to do with the tune or the type of song or the style or something.

So we don't know. So we'll have to do without the tune. We'll have to deal with the words.

And so I won't spend more time on the musical portion of this. Verse 2, as we get into the song here, it's an introduction, and it frames everything that follows.

And I also find that it provides a pretty good outline for the song. So my outline is going to follow verse 2.

Here it is. First song intro, verse 2. Then the report, verses 3 through 7.

The work, verses 8 through 16. And then faith in the mercy of God, verses 17 through 19.

Faith in the mercy of God. So this is how the song starts, the intro.

O Lord, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O Lord, do I fear. In the midst of the years, revive it.

In the midst of the years, make it known. In wrath, remember mercy. So Habakkuk is remembering what he's been told about God, the accounts that have been written down and passed along in the scriptures.

From these, Habakkuk knows what God is like, his character, which is also his name, that the

Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty.

What's more, Habakkuk knows from the scriptures what the Lord has done in the past as his character has been borne out in action through history.

So looking further in the verse, we see that there is reverence and awe, some trepidation on the part of Habakkuk as he thinks about the work of the

Lord. Do you ever read through like Exodus or First Kings or Acts or some other book of the

Bible and get awestruck at what God does? I mean, when you read something like in Numbers chapter 16, how the earth swallowed the rebels

Dathan and Abiram and all those who were with them, does that stop you in your tracks? I mean, it ought to.

That's kind of fearsome. Now, God is not capricious that we should just be in sheer terror of him, like this could happen to anyone at any time, but we shouldn't sleep on him either.

Habakkuk is mindful of this as he's asking God to show his work once again.

And that's what in the midst of the years is talking about, that phrase he repeats. He's saying, work like that again now.

Because the judgment of God that comes when God confronts sin,

Habakkuk is asking for God to remember mercy when he comes in wrath in the last part of verse 2.

He wants God to remember and to spare his people. We know from chapter 1 in this book of Habakkuk that the people of Judah and Jerusalem deserve punishment, but Habakkuk knows

God is merciful. And that's especially important to remember in view of God's justice.

We should take comfort in God's mercy as Habakkuk did.

And because it is mercy, it's not for the deserving or the super amazing people, but it's for screwed up sinners like you and me who come to God knowing in our bones that judgment is what we deserve, but he is gracious and merciful.

That's why we come. So now, starting in verse 3 and going to the end of this chapter, we will see that this prayer, verse 2, expanded upon.

First, we hear the report. So what report of the

Lord is Habakkuk talking about? He says, I heard the report of you. What's he talking about? Well, he says,

God came from Tima and the Holy One from Mount Paran. His splendor covered the heavens and the earth was full of his praise.

His brightness was like the light. Rays flashed from his hand and there he veiled his power.

This verse here, verse 3, lets us know what Habakkuk was referring to.

Well, I mean, the original audience should have picked up on this pretty immediately, but I think we're going to need a little bit of extra help.

Anybody tracking with Tima and Mount Paran? Oh yeah, Habakkuk, we know what you're talking about. So let's bridge the gap and we can figure this out.

So in this case, the geography of these places is far less important than the cross -reference.

He's referring to something. He's pointing back something that would have triggered a particular thought in their minds.

And I'm going to help you out at the onset here. I'm going to connect three place names, Seir, Timan, and Edom.

They're all referring to the same general place. So they kind of used interchangeably in figurative language here.

I'm going to read from Deuteronomy 33, verse 2. You don't need to turn there.

I'll read it. And this is the beginning of the final blessings that Moses gave to the tribes of Israel.

He said, the Lord came from Sinai and dawned from Seir upon us. He shone forth from Mount Paran.

He came from the ten thousands of holy ones with flaming fire at his right hand. That sounds pretty close to what

Habakkuk wrote there, doesn't it? You've got Seir, which is also Timan, Paran coming with flaming fire in his right hand.

That's pretty close. So in that case, Moses was recounting for the people how after leaving

Egypt, the Holy One came to his people. At Mount Sinai, the power and glory of the

Lord was clearly on display. So one more cross -reference to really drive this home.

This one is in the book of Judges. Again, you don't need to turn there. But Judges chapter 5, verses 4 and 5.

This is towards the beginning of the song of Deborah and Barak. They've just won a battle.

And this is what they have there. Before the

Lord, the God of Israel. So again, it's this picture of God coming to his people, coming out from Seir, from Paran, meeting them at Sinai.

And that's what they were calling the people's attention to there as well. So Habakkuk is pointing back to these.

He's referencing these passages that they would have known. He's kind of riffing off of this to evoke the same meeting.

He wants the same thing in their minds. He's recalling God meeting with his people, going with them in the wilderness, bringing them into the promised land and driving out the

Canaanite nations that were there. He's pointing back, continually reminding himself and his people of what

God has done. He's saying, look, remember. And the focus here, as you'll see in chapter 3 in the song, is not on the people, but it's on the

Lord. The Lord is the one who's doing all the action. He's the center of attention, leading the way through the wilderness, across mountains and rivers, and conquering nations.

Now, what's in this report? Now that we have our bearings and know what he's referring back to,

I see seven things in verses 3 through 7. And these all tell about who our

God is. And we see, first of all, that God is glorious.

In verse 3, when God is first seen, all of the heavens above are showing his glory and brightness.

And in verse 4, his brightness was like the light. And it was not the light shown from him like the sun, like that's created light.

But he made that light. His light is something different. It's all of his own.

And that is his glory. So God is glorious. And we see, secondly, that God is praised by his creation.

The earth beneath is filled with his praise. All of creation responds to the presence of God.

There is nowhere that is not affected. And we'll keep seeing this as we go through.

There's various verses in this song about that. We see, third, that God is powerful.

The words used in verse 4 all speak of power. The right arm and right hand connotes strength.

Rays flashing from it. This is some power. He's really speaking of the power of God there.

But also there in verse 4, we see that God is meek with his people. It says he veiled his power.

He has immense power, but he covered it up for the sake of bringing his people near and going with them.

You think of the tabernacle there. He met them at Sinai, and there was just fire and smoke and thunder.

And then he went with them in the tabernacle. His presence was still there, but his glory was veiled.

His power was veiled. In verse 5, Habakkuk mentions pestilence and plague before and behind.

These are showing God's judgment. So we see, fifth, that God judges sin.

Do you remember when the Lord showed signs and wonders great and grievous against Egypt and against Pharaoh?

Those were great acts of judgment executed on Egypt and on their gods. And that's what he's pointing back to here.

That's an example of this judgment of God. In verse 6, we see that, sixthly,

God determines the allotted times and boundaries for nations. He stood and measured the earth, portioning it off.

He measured it out for the tribes of Israel as they went to the land of Canaan, just as he promised.

And when he looked, just looked, the nations shook. And the interesting thing, the word there, shook, is more like they jumped with a start.

They were scared out of their skins here. The nations are totally unable to resist or even protest.

Lastly, the report is that, seventh, God is eternal and unchanging.

We see the everlasting hills and the eternal mountains, what seemed so permanent, melt and scatter in the wake of what is really eternal and everlasting, the ways of God.

These things turn out to be not quite so eternal and unchanging, as they are changed in the presence of the one who does not change.

So in verse 7, there's more place names, Cushan and Midian.

They were both enemies of Israel after they came into the Promised Land. And after seeing all of this, we find them shaking in their tents in fear.

The curtains of Midian trembling and the tents of Cushan in affliction. The picture here is, like, these people are so terrified.

They're hiding in their tents and shaking with fear, and their tents are shaking as well. But this tells us something, that all this was not done off in a corner.

Like, God did this for all the world to see, and his works strike fear into the hearts of his enemies and the enemies of his people.

This report, this reminder, is here to tell us something today, that this is our

God, our Holy One. Let this imagery draw your focus away from whatever is troubling you, and look, look to this one who all creation praises, and who lights up the world, who is powerful beyond imagining, and who judges sin at all levels, from the personal to the national.

This is God with whom, by faith, we have peace through Christ Jesus.

It is he whose peace guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, as we pray to him in thanksgiving.

This is our God. That's who this report is about. But we aren't done there.

We are going on to the work, starting in verse 8. The work we see here is, it's got two aspects to it.

One, executing judgment on wicked nations, and also saving his chosen people.

These are kind of two aspects of the same thing, two sides of the same coin, really. We see the

Lord coming out in wrath in verse 8, riding on his chariot of salvation.

Now, what is a chariot of salvation? Well, it is the chariot God is riding to go into battle and save his people from their enemies.

God is coming, and he's coming in hot. Here, God is clearing the way for his people.

The question about whether his wrath was against the rivers or the sea is referring to another historical event.

God parted the Red Sea as Israel was exiting Egypt, and he held back the Jordan River as they were entering the

Promised Land. He was really messing with the waters. But the question is a rhetorical one.

Of course, God was not really angry with the Jordan River or the Red Sea. I mean, they obey him perfectly well, obviously.

He was just moving them out of the way as he speeds toward his real target. And he readies his bow, calling for many arrows.

He's got his weapons of war out. In the latter part of verse 9,

God's creation convulses as he goes out to war. We see rivers appear, carving deep ravines in the earth.

The mountains couldn't sit still. They writhed when they saw him. The waters rushed on, and the deep groans in the terrible presence of the

Lord of glory. It's like all of creation responds to the Lord of hosts going into battle to fight for his people.

This is kind of terrifying. I would not want an adversary like that. In verse 11, we see another work.

It says the sun and moon stand still where the arrows and spears fly. Not only the things on the earth, but also things in the heavens respond to God's wrath poured out on the nations.

God drove out the nations of Canaan, which were much stronger and more numerous than the

Israelites. And yet none of that, none of those numbers or the strength mattered when

Yahweh came for them. And so the sun and the moon standing still, it references a particular event that happened.

You can read about it in Joshua chapter 10 verses 6 through 14.

I'll leave that to you to look that up later. But in that battle, in addition to the sun and moon standing still, there it tells of hailstones that killed more of the

Amorites than Joshua's soldiers did. And it says there in verse 14, the

Lord fought for Israel. It's right there. So this is what

Habakkuk is referencing. Back in our text in Habakkuk in verses 12 and 13, we see both aspects of this work, the judging the wicked nations and saving his people.

We see him threshing the nations. I mean, the image here is just smashing them to pieces underfoot, going through the whole earth and judging the nations.

But why? For the salvation of his anointed, for his specially chosen people.

God will save, not just a little bit, but to the uttermost, those whom he chooses.

This is part of his work. It's what he does. We see the head, the defining and directing power of the household of wickedness is crushed.

And I don't think that there's a particular person in mind here, just the leader of the wicked who are set against God.

But crushing the head of the wicked does remind you of something, doesn't it? I get to thinking about the serpent back in the garden,

Genesis chapter 3, and the promise which is now fulfilled of one who would come and crush the head of the evil one.

And when it says that this head of the house of the wicked is laid bare, it's talking about he's uncovered, he's defenseless, he's stripped, and he's exposed to shame as well as assault.

And it's really completely stripped. I mean, the word translated thigh here, it means foundation or base.

And when you apply that to a person, this whole thigh to neck, we might say this differently, we might say head to toe.

He's completely stripped and defenseless and at the mercy of God.

And then in verse 14, we see God's work of saving his people continue as the enemy warriors are destroyed.

They thought that they had the upper hand, that they would just take whatever they wanted from people who were weaker and more vulnerable.

And they're coming in pretty strong, they're coming in like a really strong windstorm, whirlwind.

But God turns their own weapons and schemes against them and proves to be their demise.

He didn't need to use his weapons, he just used theirs against them. And then he's thundering on, the

Lord is on his chariot across the waters, trampling down the chaos in the battle here.

So finally, we get to verse 16. And after taking all of this in, thinking about these things and kind of seeing it as it were,

Habakkuk is totally without strength. The fear of the Lord at the hearing of his works fairly undoes

Habakkuk. This is like watching an avalanche from an uncomfortably close distance.

And he's asking for God to do this work where he is at. That avalanche is also coming for him.

And knowing that there's a lot of people caught up in this is really sobering.

But even so, Habakkuk is at peace with it all. Now all that's left to him is to wait for the vision that God has given him to be fulfilled, the vision in the first two chapters.

And as it is fulfilled, Judah will be invaded. And then those invaders in their turn will be destroyed.

But even with all of this terrifying nature, you can understand why Habakkuk is wanting and praying for God to make his work known in that time, his work of judging wickedness and saving his people.

I mean, the wicked are in possession of the land again. They were strong, but God can take care of that.

He judges sin and wickedness. The Babylonians were going to sweep in as God's instrument of justice.

And they are even more wicked than the other guys. God can take care of that too, though.

God has power that is without rival. Even more encouragingly,

God will defend his people. And God is not just able to do this.

This is what God does, even now. And we can be sure of that because he did it before, and he doesn't change.

So the one who rides his chariot to war with power in defense of his people is the same one who says, vengeance is mine,

I will repay. And just so we're tracking here, who are his people?

Chapter two of verse 14 of Habakkuk has already told us, the righteous shall live by faith.

So those who trust in God, God whose works show his character throughout scripture, those who believe that their righteousness comes from faith in God the

Son, Jesus, who came to rescue us by defeating sin and death, those of faith, those are his people.

So coming into the last three verses here, starting with verse 17, Habakkuk continues in response, and it shows us the kind of faith that knowing

God in this way should grow in us. This is what he says,

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail, and the fields yield no food.

The flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the

Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the

Lord, is my strength. He makes my feet like the deer's. He makes me tread on my high places.

This paints such a bleak picture at first, doesn't it? There's no food growing, there's no figs, there's no grain, there's no sheep, no cattle, the olive trees not producing, there's no food there, no oil for light or anything else.

This sounds like being poor, destitute, and headed straight for starving to death.

I mean, this is complete ruin. But what is

Habakkuk saying in the rest of it? Even if all of my sources of provision seem to be cut off,

I will still rejoice in the Lord. My God is my strength, and I don't need all of those things to be content in him, because he is my salvation.

He gives me the strength I need not to just keep plodding along, but to go nimbly up to the mountain heights.

Even steep and treacherous places are no worry. I know the Lord is able to keep me.

And this is the reason for this song to be here, to encourage us in a faith like that.

And so we can encourage, remind others of what God has done. So in taking all that in, when things are looking pretty bad, do you keep praising

God? Do you encourage your faith when it seems like it is flagging?

Do you preach to yourself? Do you remind yourself of the God whom you serve? Do you take pains to fan back into flame the embers of your faith?

For Habakkuk, the prophet, the righteous will live by faith was not just like a catchy phrase he was given to pass on, so you could like put it on a mug or something.

It was the heart of the message that he, of his message, and we see him living it out through this short book.

So take this lesson and apply it. The life of faith is not one of suck it up, buttercup.

There are solid reasons to be hopeful, but it all depends on where you place the weight of belief.

You see, it's all too easy to see only the situation around and believe the worst, to believe that the situation won't improve.

And at any rate, nothing you can do will affect it appreciably anyhow, so who cares?

And if this is what you believe, then giving up despair or fatalism is just around the corner.

But look at what you're telling yourself in that case. If you've forgotten your

Lord in the midst of your dwelling on the troubles that you're dwelling in, then it's no wonder that everything seems bleak.

I mean, if you've pulled your own misery down over your eyes, then don't be shocked when everything appears miserable.

But take your eyes off of those things and take courage. It is not that the situation is no big deal.

It probably is a big deal, but what is that to our God? Consider what

God has done, his powerful work on behalf of his people through the many years and centuries.

I know I need to be reminded of this. We need to be reminded, all of us, to look back on what

God has already done and meditate on it and gain confidence in our Holy One.

And we have more to look back on than Habakkuk did. I mean, yes, God rescued the

Israelites from slavery in Egypt and went with them, defeated their enemies to settle them in a good land.

That's worth thinking about. That's worth remembering. But he also came to be with us as a man, veiling his power, and he rescued us from slavery to sin and defeating death and is bringing us to a new earth and new heavens where we will dwell with him for endless days.

He took on himself the wrath of for sin that should rightfully be ours.

And it is by faith in Christ Jesus that we will be kept when he comes again in wrath to trample the nations in his fury and judge the wicked.

So it's good to remember. One of the ways we remember is through communion.

Communion reminds us of what God has done for us through his son. So if your faith is in the salvation brought by Jesus in his death and resurrection, come in a moment to the tables in the front and in the back and get the cracker and juice.

And as you do, take joy together in the God who is so powerful and glorious and also meek with us, his people.

But if that is not you, please don't take communion. But if you want to know more about being in relationship with this

God who is like this, who saves and is so powerful, please talk to someone after the service, either someone around you or myself or Rob, the elder on duty.

And as we all go from here, remember our

God who by his power brings justice and rescues his people, who is abounding in mercy to those who turn to him in faith.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, it is just such a privilege to be able to come to you and to come near and to praise you.

Thank you for bringing us near, for making it possible as we remember what you have done on our behalf, defeating enemies much more powerful than us.

What do we have that we can use against sin and death? Lord, continue to remind us of who you are.

Pray that you would help us to hear that in your word and that we would carry it with us, that we would be able to remember when we need it, that you are powerful, that you are in control, that you have this and you come out for the defense of your people.

When we are powerless, you are strong. Lord, please grow in us a faith that relies on you and sees you as glorious.