Trusting God In Difficult Times [Part 2] | Rev. Elisha Satvinder

If somebody were to ask you—yesterday, we had our mental health launch, uh, for Dignity. Uh, we’re opening it up to the community, uh, after 12 years of doing this. So we had, uh, one of the Members of Parliament, different people, and partnerships with different universities and whatever not. And of course, there was interaction with different people.

Last night, uh, Trina and I had to attend a dinner. I do horrible for evening meetings. During the, the launch and the evening, a particular question kept coming out, uh, with a few people who, first, they discovered—said, “Oh, you’re a Punjabi?”
I said, “Yeah.”
“But you’re a Christian?”
Yeah.

Ah, in their mind, it’s like, “Why? Why did you not carry on the way you were?” So in this few conversations this morning, and I was reflecting on something else, and I wrote four or five thoughts down, and I thought I want to invite you to think with me because that seemed to be what came across for them to ask.

So, how do you and I become believers? How do we become believers? And I would like to connect it back to this today: how do I become a believer? Uh, do I go through a machine called “become a Christian”? Uh, do I wear different clothes? What—how do I become a Christian?

If somebody asks you, say, “How? How do you apply for membership?” So as I pondered on this question, of course, I thought about the day I gave my life to the Lord and why, what happened in my heart.

So I want to combine two questions together: how I became a believer and why I became a believer. So if I can, uh, draw you into this question: why did you, why do you believe in Jesus? Why?

No backdoor entry, okay? Why? Why do I believe in Jesus?
“Uh, Jesus.”
“Okay.”
“No.”
“Okay.”
“Why?”
“Uh, eternal life?”
“No. Why? Why do I believe in Jesus?”

So, like I said, it—this few questions and, uh, this different—so actually, it was a person of the same race. And I, like, they are puzzled, “Why am I a believer?” They’re just puzzled, you know. “Something went wrong.”

So I said, “Okay.” I said, “Let me tell you a bit of my past, the choices I made.”
Yeah, I was a religious guy for a while. I said, then I heard the truth about who Jesus is. But, of course, my encounter—most of you know—it was a very life-changing encounter.

I heard the audible voice of God in my room, and I was in a place that my life was completely messed up. So as I thought, I said, “Okay, how do I become a believer?” Everybody here, how did you become a believer?
“My parents took me to church.”

Now why? Why? Because when I read, or when I was told—how can they hear, Romans says, isn’t it, if nobody tells them? How will they believe if they do not hear?

So I realized, hey, I actually need the grace of God in my life. I need the forgiveness that Jesus offers. The salvation. And we—we both realize, right? We cannot do anything because salvation is a free gift from God.

And it’s not just a free gift I’m getting. I’m actually acknowledging today, when I spent some time with the children, you know, trying to do that every Sunday. Uh, we were reading John chapter 6. And in the midst of it, I asked a question.

And just, I said, you know, it’s about seventy-something days to Christmas, so what do you want? Uh, first, all very reluctant. Then, of course, became a bit bold. Some of the gifts they asked, I’m like, “Whoa, ah, okay.”

But I asked them a question. I said, “Christmas is supposed to be the birthday of Jesus, right?” I said, “What can I give him?” It’s always about what I’m going to get for Christmas Day, right? “My birthday, Christmas Day, my birthday. What do I want for my birthday? What can I give Jesus?”

So I, I said, “Children, let’s talk about it. What can you give Jesus on his birthday?”

So coming back to this thought: why am I a believer? How did I become a believer? I realized—so, you see, you may not be in a mess like me. Life may be good. But goodness doesn’t get us to heaven, right?

A particular race doesn’t get me into heaven. It’s my trust and faith in what Jesus gives me. And why? Because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

I’m born. Why? We—we did the series at the beginning: Adam and Eve. How sin came in. We all carry that nature. And now Jesus came to break that.

I said, so why did I become? Because I need salvation. Not just to get to heaven, because I need to get right with God. And I need to receive this gift of salvation.

And that’s how I became a believer. I thought about it in my mind. I believed in it in my heart, and I confessed it. And I began to change my mind in my perspective and say, I am actually a believer. I’m a follower of Jesus.

So again, this is based—this, my introduction today is based on the conversations I had yesterday. My, my whole issue is not—it’s not a religion. It’s not a place that I’m going to. It’s something that I have encountered. Someone that I have encountered. Somebody I believe in.

And my perspective of my life, my goodness, who I am—everything has changed.

How am I going to tie it? Start praying? Okay, yeah, we—we will tie it together.

So how did you become a believer besides the prayer you prayed? Why did you become a believer? Why do you believe in Jesus?

The next thing I began to grapple with early this morning was, how do I remain being a believer? How do I remain?

Because I’m not a Christian for two hours, right? Right? I’m not a Christian for Christmas, right? Or Easter. Every day, every moment.

So something in the interaction with the children. So I said, our gift is—once I get it, isn’t it, use it.

So one of them, very cute, “I want food.” I said, “Okay, I just buy you food. After that, don’t ask for any gift.” Then realized, “Oh dear. Finished.”

But what can I give Jesus? How do I remain as a believer?

When we went, uh, to—to the U.S. the first time to study, I received a call—no handphone, h—and this person across says, “Hi, Pastor.”

I’m like, “Who the heck is this?”

Because nobody calls me that day. I mean, I’m a student. I’m like, w—some heavy accent, man.

“Sorry, who is this?”
“Oh, I’m so-and-so.”

I’m like, I said, “Wait, am I—you…”

It’s a Malaysian girl that I knew. I led her to the Lord, discipled her a bit. But when she came to America, she put on a whole new identity.

But of course, the accent was too quick.
“Sorry.”
“Sorry.”

Hey, all of a sudden, the—I said, “You.” I said—I said, “What’s wrong with you?”

“No.” I said, “Hey, it’s odd. In—I’m thinking of this.” That conversation came back to mind.

Now, you see, she has come to America. She wants to live in America. She wants to become an American citizen. So she starts talking like an American. She starts behaving like an American.

She’s got the citizenship of American. But is her character really—what, what’s happening? Isn’t it?

We become citizens of heaven. We take a citizenship of the Kingdom of God. Nothing changes.

We don’t lose weight. We don’t put on weight. You know, we don’t get more hair or less hair. Nothing changes. Everything is the same.

But how I become a Christian, why I become a Christian, is the defining factor, right?

So now, how do I remain?

So this girl is going to be more American than the American. The Americans are going to learn how to be an American from her.

She’s going to pick up all the nuances, everything.

I remember dealing with one student years ago—it was issues of… Finally, so I—she came to my office and all the slang.

I’m like, “I said, where were you born?” I won’t tell you the country.

I said, “Did you go to an American International School?”
“No.”

I said, “Were you living in America before you became a refugee?”
“No.”

“So where do you get this accent from?”

“So where—where do you pick this up? Let me guess—TV, movies, all the time?”

I said, I—I said, I wasn’t joking. I’m asking you a serious question. “Where do you pick this nuance—the way you walk, the way you talk, the way you behave?”

I said, “You’re not even in America.”

Why did I become a Christian? How did I become a Christian? How do I remain?

What changes in me? What do I pick up?

So how do I grow and mature?

And the final thought is this, as we read the scripture this morning—is now as a believer who has changed his citizenship, who has put his faith and hope in Jesus, who understands why he’s believing in Jesus, what Jesus has done, why Jesus did it, why I should believe, what it does to me, what changes in me.

Now as a believer who understands this, how do I navigate life in the good times and in the bad times and in any other time?

How do I handle life?

Now, last week I introduced this theme that we will do and look at: trusting God in difficult times.

Because who I am as a believer, why I became a believer, how I remain a believer, how I grow and I mature will determine how I go through and trust God in difficult times.

Does this make sense, everyone? Okay, at least a few of you. Does it make sense?

So, it—it depends—all this.

So let’s read it. Let’s read Habakkuk. He is having a hard time. He is looking at the problems in the country, he—and it’s almost a carbon copy of what’s happening in our country and in our world today. Carbon copy.

Okay, so, he—this is his first prayer. So, he is engaging with God. He is lamenting like you and I would.

“How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?”

And I want you to think again when we read this, go through this.

He is not just a prophet. He believes in God. He’s walking with God. He’s a mouthpiece of God. He’s got his family. He’s got everything. But he’s facing a difficult time.

Now, what he understands about God, and that what God does with him, in him, through him, around him—history, whatever God’s purpose is—will determine now how he navigates what he is seeing that’s happening in the country.

And it’s important for you and me as we not just bring this year to an end, not just as we embrace 2025, but how we live the rest of our life.

Yeah.

So, “How long must I call for help, but you do not listen, or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ Say, ‘Look around, God, are you—’”

If you read in the original language, he—you would say, “Hey, you kurang ajar—you talk to God like this!”

He’s saying, “Look around—around you, God. Look at this. But you do not save. Why do you make me look at injustice? Why am I even here? Why should I look at this?”

And sometimes we—we hear, we says, “I want to get out of this country. I want to get out of this home. I want to get out of this job. I want to get out of this marriage. I want to get out—I just want to get out.”

“Oh, I can’t take it, God.”

“Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me. They strife, and conflict abounds there.”

So he—he looks, he says, “Therefore the law is paralyzed. What law is—Malaysia, boss! I mean, yeah. Delete, delete. You got the money, you bend the law. You know the right person, you bend the law.”

Universal problem, isn’t it?

“And justice never prevails.”

Justice never prevails!

“How come? Where’s justice? We read, isn’t it, hey—‘Justice for so-and-so, justice for so-and-so.’ And yet we did one part.”

I said, in scripture God says, “Have I not required this one thing of you, man? To do justice, to be merciful, and to walk humbly with me.”

“The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.”

Wow.

Next one.

So this is his second prayer. He praises, he asks. In between these two verses, God answers, and he says, “You think this is bad? I’m sending the Babylonians.”

So, history, history—you read, they came, they sacked the country. So he’s like, “Are you kidding me? Which planet do you come from, boss? This is planet Earth. Are you in Jupiter? I mean, I don’t know—I can talk—I would have talked like that.”

“Lord, are you not from everlasting?”

Now he adds a bit more sarcasm.

“Hey, I heard, and I’ve been telling people—and I read—you are this great God of all creation. Mighty God. My God, my Holy One. You will never die.”

“You, Lord, have appointed them to execute judgment. You, my Rock, have ordained them to punish.”

Who is he talking about? He’s talking about the Babylonians.

But he’s struggling. He said, “You, God? But what’s happening here? Why are you doing this?”

“Your eyes are too pure to look on evil. You cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Sounds right.”

Then he comes to this:

“Then why do you tolerate all this nonsense, God? Why do you tolerate all this? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those who are more righteous than themselves? Why?”

So we looked at two issues with Habakkuk last week. He starts with this raw honesty with God.

And I asked us to do that.

Can I ask you a question? Are you honest in prayer, or are you religious in prayer?

He is lamenting of his struggle. He highlights it. He said, “God, this is what’s bothering me.”

Uh, one thing my wife has learned about me—I think sometimes they learn too much about you—and if I’m bothered about things and I’m beginning to be a bit of a numbskull, she would say one thing to me:

“Do you want to go and—” This is giving you your own medicine.

I’m like, “Wah, that sounds like me. What are you talking to me like that for?”

“Do you want to go and be quiet? Not ‘shut up,’ but do you—meaning, do you want to go and quiet your heart? Do you want to go and seek God, or not?”

Why? Because that’s where I’m supposed to go and pour out my frustration candidly before God.

Because if I’m just whining away, I’m not engaging God, right? I’m actually distancing myself.

So he, he laments very honestly. He said, “Look at the evil, look at all these things, God. Why are you allowing it? Why do you not intervene?”

This is our common struggle. Do—can we all agree with that? This is our common struggle, isn’t it?

That we face—economics, whatever it is, corrupt—we see injustice at every level. “God, why?”

This is the key insight, dear friends, dear friends, this is the key insight. Can you be on site? Yeah, okay, thank you.

These questions are not signs of lack of faith, but rather deep engagement with God.

Let me explain.

Habakkuk’s frustration is rooted in one conviction, as you read the book: that God, God is just, and he’s righteous.

So his first prayer is this: he laments, but he seeks to reconcile one truth, the reality of suffering.

See, we always say, “Everything is okay. Everything’s going to be good. God’s plan is great.”

So if you are going through problems, it’s your mother-in-law, it’s your father-in-law, it’s your boss, it’s the church, it’s—it’s the government, it’s this, it’s that. But we never pause to say, “God, what are you doing? Why are you not, God? What is this all about?”

Because we cannot always just do this—it’s wrong. And that’s why we cannot deal with suffering and pain and problems, because there’s no sense of reality in us to engage God honestly.

So he is trying to tie this—the reality of suffering with the nature of God.

Did he? He said, “Hey, God, I thought you were this.”

He is trying to make sense of this, too.

Is anybody like me and Habakkuk making—trying to make sense of this? Okay, I’m in dangerous ground here.

Anybody? Isn’t it?

We are.

So always remember what my introduction was today: why am I a Christian? How did I become a Christian? How do I grow? How do I navigate life now in today’s terms?

And I—this, we—we challenge.

The scripture will always challenge one particular ideology. I call it this: perpetual optimism.

That—you know what—we oversimplify life’s complexities with phrases like this: “Everything is going to be all right. God is good all the time. All the time, God is good.”

Sometimes, say, “God, I don’t see your goodness in this.”

Any—hello, everybody? Can we have raw conversation today?

Yeah, let’s do it.

Let’s understand. So when we pray, we pray differently.

We engage problems differently.

So I, I, I no longer send happy-clappy messages. Why? Because I’m hoping to—to get you to come to a place where you say, “I’m holding on to reality. I’m holding on to God’s truth. I’m trying to make sense of my problem, so I can move ahead.”

Then we are moving together, right?

Then we are moving together.

We see the reality of issues together, rather than just, you know, try to take this painkiller. But the problem is not dealt with.

So just confess positively, have positive thoughts. But when you open the door, injustice is right in front of your eyes.

“You are blessed.”
“I’m blessed. I’m blessed.”
Confess: “I’m blessed.”

But I’m saying, “I’m bested.”

Sometimes, “God, I’m best. Help me.”

But those are nice-sounding things, isn’t it?

“I’m blessed. I’m blessed. I’m blessed.”

Then you go open the wallet, k—nothing inside.

Such responses, dear friends, diminish one thing: it diminishes the depth of real suffering.

And we fail to address the sincere questions of our soul.

Do you not have questions in your heart, dear friends? Do you not ask the question, “God, why? Why am I the only sinner here?”

Why does God seem absent? Economic crisis, social upheavals, personal tragedy.

My goodness, our times are filled with all these different things, uncertainties.

So what does Habakkuk remind us?

He says this: bring your deep frustrations to God.

It is biblical—of course, he didn’t use the word, but I’m using the wording—it’s biblical.

Bring your deep frustrations to God, and challenge the idea that faith is a place where I can question God and not, “Oh, you cannot question God. That is no faith.”

No, sorry, that’s wrong.

I don’t read it in the Bible.

I’m reading, “Always be happy, always be happy.”

“Hey, you Gil.”

But he finding that place of deep-set joy, isn’t it? A confidence in God.

It’s not like, “Hey, you must smile, must smile, must confess.”

“Hey, there’s a place called Tanong Rutan in Malaysia.”

Real faith engages God with real questions.

What am I after here?

I’m saying, dear church, dear friends, dear church, get real in prayer with God.

He is not going to drop off his throne.

In fact, he will say, “Finally, honest conversations.”

This is where I’ve only got two points, so this is the last one.

How long, we don’t know, okay?

But you have this assurance.

It’s only this point: the bold confrontation and the resolve to stay.

My last thought in the introduction was navigating my life in good times and in bad times and all other times.

Okay, so let’s read Habakkuk again.

He says: “Lord, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, you will never die. You, Lord, have appointed them to execute judgment. You, my Rock, have ordained them to punish.

“Your eyes are too pure to look on evil. You cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?

“You have made people like the fish in the sea, like the sea creatures that have no ruler. The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks; he catches them in his net.

“He gathers them in his dragnet, and so he rejoices and is glad.

“Therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his dragnet, for by his net he lives in luxury and enjoys the choicest food.

“Is he to keep on emptying his net, destroying nations without mercy?”

I will stand my watch—this is chapter two—and station myself on the ramparts.

The word actually is “watchtower.”

The whole idea is—think of the old. This is where he’s writing from, the ancient days. Cities had walls. They had watchmen.

Today we have “jaga,” we have security guard.

But those days, the watchman—very important.

Today, watchman on TikTok.

And then after that, no talk.

Huh?

So they will stand, and they watch.

Is there any movement? If there is, they’re going to warn the people in the city.

So he said, “I stand—stand at my watch.”

He said, “God, I’m going to be alert. And I want to hear and listen. I’m going to watch for different things, but I’m going to watch for you.

“And station myself on the ramparts. I will look to see what he will say to me, he will say. And what answer I’m going to give, give to this complaint.”

We will unpack this in the weeks to come.

But today, I want to land with this one thought.

Here, he’s of course reacting to God’s surprise answer about the Babylonians.

Now he goes into a deeper level of questioning. This is his second prayer—very pointed, very confrontational.

He is not merely complaining, dear friends.

Please listen. Please listen. This helps all of us.

When I disengage from God’s word, I disengage in a meaningful conversation with him.

He is going to have a wrestling match with God.

He’s going to say, “You said this. You said that. Look at this. I don’t understand. Help me.”

And he is wrestling with God.

When we—you don’t have to be a theologian, but we need to engage the word of God.

Young adults, you’re going to do this series, Simply Jesus.

Of course, you know, really, what do I believe? Why do I believe in Jesus? How do I believe in Jesus? What works out when I believe in Jesus? What changes? How do I look at problems now that I believe in Jesus?

Am I just going to go for a seminar that says “positive confession”?

Am I just going to go and have somebody who coaches me and say, “This is how you live positively”?

Have you seen those pictures with the wat tower—or the, or the wat tower—do you call it, um, at the seaside? Lighthouse!

Thank you.

Lighthouse.

No matter what raging storm comes, the lighthouse remains, right?

And there’s still light, unless the light goes off.

But it’s an indicator of stability, of sense of direction, right?

This is your lighthouse. And we grapple with it.

So he is going to come now, and he’s going to have this—this seemingly wrestling match. And he says, “God, the problems that I’m seeing, and I’m struggling with, seem to contradict your character. I need to understand this, because I am convinced who you are.

“I know who you are. But my circumstances are making it difficult. But, God, I need to chart this pathway.”

So this is what I would say here: the dangers of false spirituality and discouragement.

Two areas.

What do I mean by this?

False spirituality is this: hyped-up faith.

Discouragement is the direct opposite: I become negative. I become negative. I walk out. I’m upset. I’m angry.

So you have these two things here.

So the passage reveals one thing: there’s a need for balance in our own spiritual development and understanding of God.

One side, there’s false spirituality—“Oh, reverent, you cannot say this to God, you cannot say that to God, you cannot pray like this, you cannot pray like that. You must be positive.”

On the other side is this place of despondency and discouragement.

What is it? It’s this: unmet expectations that lead to abandonment.

“God didn’t come through in my father’s business. I am not coming to church.”

I, I think I was having a discussion with somebody. I said, “I said, there’s some people, I’m not going to come to church.”

“Oh, it’s not—it’s not anybody. I’m not going to come to church.”

“Oh, I didn’t see happen, you know, my wife’s life, my husband’s life.”

Actually, this people—honestly, this is my, my—what I read—they do not want to commit their life to God because their salvation was never something they understood.

“Don’t want to do basic follow-up. Don’t want to do basic Bible study. Don’t want to attend connect group. It’s all about myself, myself, my frustration, my frustration.

“Don’t want to do any form of—of—this is the basic that we do as belong—the belong journey together. We do the belong journey together.

“We know young adults today. Again, you’re doing that—it’s to—what? It’s for you to grapple with faith. Grow.”

The Y, see—we’re doing different things.

If we don’t come, if we don’t do, we don’t grow.

When we don’t grow, when the rain comes, our ground sinks.

How did I become a believer? Why am I a believer? How do I continue being a believer? How do I grow? How do I mature?

Now, how am I going to navigate my life, especially in difficult times?

Because God is going to say, “Hey, you have bitterness. Can we talk about that? Ay, you’re quite proud. Do we want to deal with that? Come, let’s talk.”

Isn’t it? In Isaiah, it says, “Let’s reason together.”

I am selfish.

God says, “Hey, do you think? Do you think?”

And when God asks a question, he’s never looking for answers, lah, isn’t it?

I’m detached.

“I’m all about myself. When I want to come, I come. I don’t want to come, I don’t come. I want to give, I give. I don’t want to give.”

Why did I become a believer? How did I become a believer? What changes?

If my citizenship changes, I follow the rules of that nation.

I cannot go and live in America, and then say, “I want to live the life of Malaysia.”

So likewise, we come—some of us come from different countries.

But the issue is this: now that I’m a believer, how do I live?

Schaeffer, if you read Francis Schaeffer—very insightful. Years ago, he wrote this:

How then should we live?

So why is it we can go to a prison?

Some of you have gone to the prison for wrong things.

I’ve trained prison chaplains.

I’ve gone into Changi prison.

I wasn’t arrested. I went to speak.

Do you know something? The inmates, when they worship, you cry.

Because finally, they realize that is not the prison they are in.

The prison that they are in is here and here.

You hear some of them talk, say, “Pastor, this is a physical prison. I am free of the prison I created for myself.

“I am the freest that I know. And if I die here, I want to tell everybody in this—in this prison—they can be free.

“They can find freedom when they find the truth about Jesus.”

Wow.

You sit down, and anybody want to talk about doctrinal issues, you want to slap them on the face and say, “Hey, this is real life. The guy has met the living Jesus.

“The living Jesus is speaking to him every day. It changes the narrative of his life.

Things change.

You still brood over, you know, “Yeah, baby, look.”

Why are you a believer? How did you become a believer?

Does it change? Or am I still stuck with the old citizenship, making excuses every time?

Am I stuck with that old citizenship?

Which one?

So there’s this despondency.

“Why bother? Why read? Why?”

Because we need to.

And that’s this thirty days. It’s very simple. That’s why I put it: Finishing the Year Strong. Thirty-Day Prayer Journey.

There’s space for you to write. It’s very short. Very short. Very simple.

Read my introduction, please. But not now. Not now.

Now listen to—now listen to me.

Please. Very simple.

Day One: The Priority of Seeking God.

I have the scripture. So just don’t say, “Scripture reading: Psalm 63:1.”

And then you go down to—open your Bible. Read Psalm 63:1. Open your—don’t say, “Oh, I read. I read Psalm 63:1.”

Yeah, I also am reading it.

Open your Bible. Read Psalm 63:1.

Okay. Reflection: Our journey begins with a commitment to seek God earnestly, like the psalmist.

Let your heart cry out to the Lord, desiring his presence above all.

Then I have a simple prayer there.

Just don’t read: “Prayer, done.”

No, pause. Slow down.

I timed this. I timed when I was preparing this, designing this. I timed it. I read the scripture slowly twice.

You know what? Three and a half minutes.

Scout.

“Him, oh God, you are my God. I seek you with all that I am.”

It’s based a bit on the same psalms that you read.

Okay.

“Quench the thirst of my soul with your living water, and draw me closer to your heart.”

But if you just read it, or you say, “God, yeah, these are the days that are left in this year. Draw me closer to your heart.”

Make it very personal.

Simple application: Set a specific time each day.

I actually grappled when I first thought, “Hey, see you.”

I said, “Hey, I said no. I want to set the tone for everyone to seek God in prayer, in scripture, establishing this as the foundation of your journey.”

So the first day, application: kurang.

The next day: go.

You can send me your cheques later. Okay, never mind.

No, it took me about a week to write this.

Okay, anyway.

Engage it. Deal with the despondency of your heart.

Deal with the discouragement. Why?

It’s a cancer. It’s a distraction. It’s a lie. It’s a deception.

Deal with the difficult areas, the hard areas, the dry areas.

Because discouragement and despondency cause us to look at God unrealistically.

If God didn’t answer me the way I expected—can we be honest? We all have expectations of God, right? Right?

Yeah.

So, this morning again, as with the children—actually, the children can give you a lot of theology.

No, seriously.

You sit with them. You ask questions. Then you think about it. Say, “That’s true, isn’t it?”

So I said, “What is the gift?” So I asked, “What gift?”

After that, you know, after a few minutes, um, I don’t think they even realize how simple that answer was, but how deep.

For me, to love Jesus daily.

I said, “You realize when you give the gift, it’s not on the 25th of December. It’s every day you bring the gift. Um, it’s for me to love Jesus.”

So, wow.

Just different ones. I mean, they—in their simplicity, but what they didn’t realize, they prepared me for this morning.

They really did. They prepared me for this morning.

I said, “Wow. Help us, God. Let us not make you something else. Out of the mouths of babes, you have perfected praise.”

God didn’t answer me. Why should I continue to come to church?

Why should I believe?

I would look at that person in the face, in the eye, and say, “Stop being a brat. Stop misbehaving. You’re being a brat.”

Because you never understood your salvation.

It was out of convenience—maybe to get married, or maybe to—what? I don’t know.

Over-spiritualizing, hyperfaith, despondency, discouragement—both are wrong.

If you remember in, uh, Mark chapter nine, Jesus is coming down after prayer.

And, uh, you’ll remember the story as I talked to you.

And, uh, he sees this commotion.

I think it starts in about verse 15—13, sorry.

And, uh, he says, “Uh, what’s happening?”

It’s not written that way.

The father—this father who has brought his son to the disciples—he said, “My son has problems. I thought your disciples could fix the problem, could pray, but they cannot.”

I mean, yeah.

“No, this cannot, this cannot.”

Then he turns around and says this to Jesus.

I think it’s verse 19. I can look at it.

Say, “Can you do something?”

I—when I, when I think of that verse, as I think of it now, that’s not a verse that has faith in it. It’s just saying, “What about you? Can you do something?”

The next verse, the next part, is where I feel we overuse it wrongly.

Jesus says this:

“All things are possible to him who believes.”

You will remember the father’s response, which is something that I am going to hinge on maybe today, tomorrow—I mean, in my own devotion.

He says, “I believe. Please help my unbelief.”

When you first read it, say, “Oxymoron, or what? What’s wrong with this fellow?”

“I believe in Jesus.”

Do I?

Jesus responds to him.

He casts them out. And they ask Jesus, “Why couldn’t we do it?”

He said, “This doesn’t come out by prayer. Only by prayer and fasting.”

You see, we will talk about—Jesus says all things are possible, prayer, fast. But we miss the most important part: “I believe. Please help my unbelief.”

I am more that way in different areas of my life—with God, with different issues.

And that is in the Bible for me to read and say, “God is so real in wanting to hear my challenges and my doubts that he’s not, ah, wanting me to have a hyperfaith.”

“Bind, loose. Bind, loose.”

Sometimes just need to bind the mouth and loose the fellow away.

“Bind, loose. Bind, loose.”

But if I don’t know the one who the authority comes through that and navigates the issue with me, then I am running around doing charismatic gymnastics.

“I believe. Please help my unbelief.”

Habakkuk suggests the third way—or he demonstrates the third way.

The first one is hyper-spirituality.

The second one is despondency, discouragement.

He comes with this: bold and honest engagement with God.

He dares question God’s methods and refuses to walk away.

See, he’s not going to go hyperfaith. And he says, “You know what? I know you. You’re the Holy One. I am not going to walk away from you because I know whom I believe in.”

I hope something here is helping some of you today.

Okay?

He says, “I will go on this other part. I will question. I will struggle because I want to connect the whole issue to your character.”

See, while this is crucial—while he challenges God, he also resolves to stand on the watchtower.

He says, “I’m going to stand. I’m going to watch. I’m going to hear you. I’m going to see, God, what you are doing because this will make sense.”

Finally, this book only has three chapters.

We have preached often, right? The vision: write it down. But we’ve never understood the background of the book.

At the end, he says this.

It sounds very hopeless, actually, this book. At the end, he says, “Even if the fig tree doesn’t blossom.”

He says, “Even if nothing happens, I will walk with God.”

Whoa.

If you ever want to read a book, read a book about the life or the—what he’s written is Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

He died in the presence of Hitler.

But he’s somebody who stood the ground and said, “I trust in the truth of God.”

He’s the one who says, “When Christ calls a man, he calls him to come and first die.”

So he says—Habakkuk says, “I’m going to keep the conversation on. I’m going to keep pursuing it.”

And this is a lesson for all of us. Faithful wrestling with God is better than silent resignation or walking away in frustration and anger and blaming—blaming God, blaming others.

Now how can we apply this?

Well, today we—we can lean towards this positive confession, name it, claim it, all kinds of things. And we ignore the reality of suffering.

In all honesty, in some of my physical conditions, I’m saying, like, “God, you know, how long? I’ve got this condition—fast, pray, medication, no medication, change diet, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Boss.”

Then I said, “Okay, what should I learn from this?”

We ignore reality of suffering.

What happens is I isolate from people’s struggles also.

That’s wrong.

You know, one of the things I think that taught Patrina and us different lives of simplicity is actually sitting down in squatter community homes, smelling things there, watching the broken lives, and asking ourselves the hard questions, and saying, “Will we walk through them, with them? Will we take this journey?”

Is the journey of dignity easy?

Twenty-six years? No.

No.

Is raising up others an easy journey? No.

Is it a painful journey? Many ways.

Is it satisfactory? Yes.

Does it make sense? Not all the time.

So Habakkuk says this: have real conversations with God.

Include God in our struggles, our doubt, our cries. Why?

It is in the raw moments of questioning that genuine faith is forged.

Why, church? What am I after here with all of us?

I want to stir your faith. I want to strengthen your faith. To say, “Guys, the journey ahead, it’s a long journey. We don’t know when the Lord is coming back. But the Lord is coming back.

“The journey ahead is not roses. The journey ahead is not kumbaya. The journey ahead has a lot of bumps, valleys, mountaintops, challenges.”

But I want you to be ready.

Why?

I’ve seen too many people give up. Or we go somewhere else. No, come on, NCC.

I’m saying, we as a church, we as a community, we as individuals—take hold of God. Take hold of others.

And say, “Come on. Let’s build strong faith.”

Amen?

Thank you for that underwhelming response.

Come on, church.

Let’s build strong faith. Not, “Oh, I’m strong.” No.

It’s real faith. Raw faith.

But have raw conversations with God.

Have that conversation and encounter that reality.

Can you imagine every time you talk to somebody, you realize when the conversation is superficial, right?

Do you want to have more conversations with superficial? I don’t want one.

I want real conversation.

I want honest conversations.

God is wanting your honest conversation.

He’s not interested in superficial conversation.

He’s not interested in a superficial relationship.

Why do I believe in Jesus?

How did I come to believe in Jesus?

How do I grow?

How does it make sense now?

How do I become mature in my faith?

How now, through all this, do I navigate life’s issues?

Then there’s a reality. It’s not today, up tomorrow.

Menopause.

You know that?

No.

No, it’s not for ladies, because the guys sometimes—worse than that.

So, you don’t know, double menopause or what.

You know. So.

No.

Come on.

That’s what I’m after.

All right.

Okay, I won’t go after the rest.

I want to read you—today I brought my phone down. I normally don’t.

I want to read you something.

One of the Christian artists that I like listening into—he’s no longer alive.

His name was—is Rich Mullins.

So, “Our God Is an Awesome God” and all that—he is the one who wrote.

And I was listening to something that he sang this morning: “Step by Step.”

You know, partly every time I listen to this song, it moves me.

It moves me. Really moves me.

And he says this—worship team, if you can come up. I’ll wait for them to come, so they also need to hear the lyrics of this song.

And then I want you to take a few moments and have a raw conversation with God. Amen?

I’m going to read you part of the song.

He says:

“Sometimes the night was beautiful.

Sometimes.

Sometimes the sky was so far away.

Sometimes it seemed to stoop so close, you could touch it.

But your heart would break.

Sometimes the morning came too soon.

Sometimes the day could be so hot.”

And it’s not weather challenges.

He said:

“There was so much work left to do.

So much you have already done.”

Said:

“Oh God, you are my God, and I will ever praise you.

“Oh God, you are my God.

I will ever praise you.

“And I will seek you in the morning.

I will walk in your ways.

Step by step you will lead me.”

Church, it’s the step-by-step step that can be the most difficult.

Because when I take the first step and I don’t see the second step, I get anxious.

I get frustrated with the first step, and then I forget why did I believe. Who am I believing in?

Step by step you will lead me.

And I will follow you all of my days.

I will post it on the chat. I’ll post it to you all.

Listen to the song. Listen to it in the evening. Listen to it in the morning.

And come and say, “God, sorry. I—I’ve had a very shallow conversation with you.

“And it’s always been about me. It’s always been about my what I don’t have, what I can get. It’s never about you.”