Message Notes

God on trial
October 12th, 2025

So in Habakkuk 1:2
How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?

I suffer because of my own choices.

People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the Lord.
Proverbs 19:3

When others make choices.

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people… Romans 5:12

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:23

We live in a broken world.

Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it. Habakkuk 1:5

O LORD my God, my Holy One, you who are eternal

Will you wink at their treachery?

Should you be silent while the wicked swallow up people more righteous than they?

If God is not able to prevent evil, then He’s not all-powerful. If God is not willing to prevent evil, then He must not be all good.

If God is both willing and able to prevent evil, then why does evil exist?
–Epicurus

My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line.

What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?
–Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis

If I find myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probably explanation is that I was made for another world.
–C.S. Lewis

This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed. Habakkuk 2:3

I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept in my bones, and my legs trembled.
Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us.
Habakkuk 3:16

We know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.
Romans 5:3-4

One of the main teachings of the Bible is that almost no one grows into greatness or finds God without suffering. Without pain coming into our lives like smelling salts to wake us up to all sorts of facts about life and our own hearts to which we were blind.
-Tim Keller

We know that in all things God is working for the good of those who love him…
Romans 8:28

I will climb up to my watchtower and stand at my guardpost.
Habakkuk 2:1

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vine,

Though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food,

Though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will be joyful in God my savior.
Habakkuk 3:17-18

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will be joyful in God my savior.
Habakkuk 3:18