Let All The Earth Keep Silence Before Him

Keep Silence!

One of the greatest failings of prayer is saying too much. Too many words. Too much of what I want to say. No time for God to speak. For us to listen. For what we know to be true to sink in. Talk, talk, talk.

We fill the minutes with our own words and never give God a chance to get a word in. And when we’re done. We get up from our knees, pat ourselves on the back for having a “great” prayer time, and walk away having never heard from the Lord.

I will admit, what I’m saying is so hard. Prayer itself is a struggle, let alone trying to keep my mind focused while I try to hear God’s voice.

If prayer is the junior hockey of discipleship, listening in prayer is the NHL. If prayer is the high school of discipleship, listening in prayer is college level. And what we’ve all found is that life is simply so noisy, so rushed, so frenzied, so demanding that it is all but impossible to quiet it all down and actually hear from him.

And yet, in the midst of a series of prayer-complaints, Habakkuk hears this from the Lord, “Let all the earth keep silence before him.”

This is God saying to the prophet, “Sit down. Shut up. And listen. I have something to say that you need to hear.”

And with all the complaints and opinions today about this and that, pandemics, racial issues, the economic disaster that’s ahead, and what governments did or didn’t do that they should or shouldn’t have done, God is saying to us, “Sit down. Shut up. And listen. I have something to say that you need to hear.”

That’s what’s coming up in Habakkuk 2:6-20.

Complete Livestream Service

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Sermon Notes

Where Is God?
Let All The Earth Keep Silence Before Him
Todd Dugard
Habakkuk 2:6-20

June 28, 2020

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When the Lord is at work, be silent...(v. 20b)

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....and watch him finally and fully deal with sin

I John 2:2

We are called to be the church in the midst of rampant idolatry, violence, false religions, and willful spiritual blindness. We live in a sexualized culture bent on defiance of biblical authority—Erwin W. Lutzer, The Church in Babylon

Revelation 14:8
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• The pursuit of riches (v. 6–8)

• The abuse of power (v. 9–11)

• The exploitation of people (v. 12–13)

• The embracing of immorality (v. 15–17)

• The devotion to false gods (v. 18–19)

James 1:27
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…while establishing his glorious presence on the earth (v. 14, 20a)

Just because you think it doesn't mean you have to say it.—Jon Miller

Proverbs 10:19

Proverbs 11:12

Proverbs 17:28

Bible Plan: Learning to Lament