The Time is Now

There was once a man who held up his sick child. The child had been born healthy and had a number of good years in its life. But as the child began to grow, sickness began to come into its life. The sickness would come and go. It would have episodes. And one day, sickness set in that just didn't go away.

Fever, symptoms of something being severely chronically wrong, that no remedy, no solution that the parents could prescribe for the child would heal. And so, in desperation, with the realization that the child could die unless this sickness passed, the father took his child into his arms, as only a father can do at a moment of desperation. And he slowly lifted the child toward God. And in earnest pleas and earnest prayers toward God, he asked God to pay attention to his child. And he asked God why his child was sick and why healing had not taken place and why the sickness had not passed on.

And asked God what could be done. And in essence, he put the child toward God and asked him for his help, knowing that God was the only answer. Now, this is a story. It's an imaginative story with a point. The story is not so much about the sick child or God as it is about the attitude of the parent who took the child and raised it up to God to explain the problem and to ask for God to give him understanding and certainly to heal the child.

It's the attitude of a parent, a concerned parent, sighing and crying for the condition of his child. And it's that point of the story that I really want us to see because I believe that it can offer us an example of an attitude we must have in the face of today's world and all that we see taking place around us today. We're living in a very critical moment in world history. I don't have to tell you that. And in my sermon this afternoon, I would like to take us very briefly through a small book in the Bible. The book of Habakkuk. Because I think that this story of Habakkuk, a prophet of God, has a lesson for us and a message for us today as we look at our world and especially as we look at ourselves.

The Church of God, holding the truth of God, looking at our world, looking at our message, looking at what God tells us to do, and adopting the right attitude and the right approach to sigh and to cry because of the world in which we live and for the hope that this world needs and must come to understand. So please, if you will, turn back to the book of Habakkuk, one of the minor prophets. It is a very short, minor prophet, not the shortest, but only three chapters.

It is written by a prophet that we know very little about. Habakkuk was a prophet who was a contemporary of the prophet Jeremiah and Ezekiel in the last days of the nation of Judah. And so we're talking about the beginning of the sixth century BC, all right? When Habakkuk writes down and makes his statement here as we have it, and it is a unique message compared to all the other prophets, compared to, again, his contemporaries, Jeremiah or Ezekiel. Why is it unique? Because Habakkuk does not stand in the streets pointing the finger and haranguing the people in Judah for their sins.

Not that they did not have sins, and not that they did not need to have those sins pointed out to them. But Habakkuk does not do that. He is unique among the prophets that we read about in the Bible and their message as to how he approached the problem.

He approaches the problem as the story of this father who took a sick child and held it up to God did, which is why I opened with that imaginative telling there. Habakkuk doesn't stand in the streets. What he does is he goes to God in a prayer, and he basically lifts the people. He lifts the nation, Judah, to God. And he says, we're sick. Nothing has worked. No sermon. No message. Nothing has worked. We are sick.

God, help us. Help your people. That's where Habakkuk opens here in chapter 1 and verse 1 of Habakkuk. And that's what makes it unique. And that, I think, brethren, as I start here this afternoon, is what I want to bring out to help us to perhaps understand the attitude you and I and the church might want to consider as we look at our job and we look at what God has given to us to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ to this world. Let's look at Habakkuk here. He opens by saying that the burden which the prophets saw.

And in verse 2, he takes it right to God. Now, we don't know much about Habakkuk, as I said. Perhaps all that we know is enough to be known, and that's what his name means. The name Habakkuk means to embrace. And again, that's fitting. A father embracing his child, a sick child. Habakkuk embraces his people. And Habakkuk also embraces God. And that's important as we look at what he says here, because names mean things, and God's servants and prophets have always had names that reveal a great deal to us about what they do and who they are.

In verse 2, and I'm going to give you basically the Cliff Notes version of the book of Habakkuk. Don't worry. We're not going to go through it all verse by verse, in those three short chapters. But I want to point out certain things here as we go quickly through it here for a few minutes. He says in verse 2, O Lord, how long shall I cry, and you'll not hear? Even cry out to you, violence, and you'll not save. You show me iniquity, and you cause me to see trouble, plundering, and violence.

There's strife and contention arising. The law is powerless. Justice never goes forth. The wicked surround the righteous, and perverse judgment proceeds. That's his opening prayer. My nation, my people are sick, much like Isaiah said. They're sick from their head to their toe. It's incurable almost. God, what will you do is the subtext of his plea here to God. And then in verse 5, God replies. It's a conversation between the prophet Habakkuk and God. In verse 5, God replies, and he says to Habakkuk, Look among the nations and watch, and be utterly astounded.

For I will work a work in your days which you would not believe, though it were told to you. Watch. Just stand by. I'm going to do something, Habakkuk, and you won't believe it. And I'm going to be doing it among the nations here. You know what I'm going to do, Habakkuk? He says. I'm hearing you. I know the condition of Judah, the remnant of Israel. I'm going to bring in the Babylonians.

I'm going to bring in the Chaldeans, that fierce nation. And they're going to be my instrument of judgment upon the nation of Judah. That's what I'm going to do, Habakkuk. Not an answer. The nation is sick. They need healing. They've had warning. They've had messages. Habakkuk's doing what he feels he should do as a good prophet and as a patriotic prophet. And God says, I am going to raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty nation which marches through the breadth of the earth to possess dwelling places that are not theirs.

And they were that type of people. That's exactly what the Babylonians were. And they'd already made one incursion likely at this time into Judah. They would make one more and they would destroy the city of Jerusalem and tear down the temple and burn the temple that Solomon had built and take captive ultimately the people. And Habakkuk can't believe that this is what is going to happen.

As you go down to verse 12 here in chapter 1, he says back to God, Are you not from everlasting, O Lord, my God, my holy one? We shall not die, O Lord, you have appointed them for judgment. O rock, you have marked them for correction. You are of purer eyes than to behold evil. Essentially, Habakkuk is saying back to God, Look, we're your people. This is your child I'm holding up to you. God, you can't do this. They are worse than we are.

And he knew that Judah had their problems. He said, There are worse than we are, these Chaldeans. They're pagan. They're Gentile. They're not your chosen people. And he goes on, and he cannot believe that that is what God is going to do, the merciful God of Israel. And yet that's exactly what it is. And he comes down to the end of chapter 1. And at the beginning of chapter 2 in verse 1, he says, he's had his say here in his rejoinder to God. He said, I'll stand my watch and set myself on the rampart and watch to see what he will say to me, God, and what I will answer when I'm corrected.

And so he said his peace again. And he says, I'll stand by and I'll wait to see what God is going to do. Well, then God answers him again a second time in this conversation, beginning in verse 2 of chapter 2. And he says, write the vision and make it plain on tablets that he may run who reads it. In other words, blow it up to about 24 point type, bowl it, underline it, and make sure that it is put where everybody can see what I am going to say. Watch, write it down and make it plain undeniable that he may run who reads it.

For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak and it will not lie. God was going to do what he was going to do. Warning after warning after warning through various prophets have been given. They had seen the example of the nation of Israel to the north long before already having been taken into captivity by the Assyrians.

And God's judgment, he's saying here, it's going to happen. But in verse 4, there is an interesting statement made by God. Behold the proud. His soul is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith. Perhaps the most well-known verse that comes down out of the book of Habakkuk. Very interesting. The just shall live by his faith. Habakkuk was a just man, no doubt. There were just people in Judah who had not succumbed to the idolatry and the allure of the culture and shift of the time and were faithful.

There were just people who were living in the midst of a corrupt period that did seek God. But essentially God is saying the just are going to live by that. Now, I say this was a verse that comes down to us as perhaps one of the most famous. Here's why I say that. Years later in the first century, what we call the first century, there would be a Pharisaic Jew from the city of Tarsus studying at the feet of a man in Jerusalem named Gomalia.

His name was Saul, who would study the law, the Old Testament scrolls. And in my opinion, Habakkuk probably stood out maybe more than all the other, at least 12 minor prophets here to this man named Saul. Because a few years later when Paul, the apostle, is writing letters to the churches, he lifts this verse three times and puts it into three different letters.

The book of Romans, chapter 1, the book of Galatians, chapter 3, and the book of Hebrews, chapter 10. I think Paul liked the book of Habakkuk. He uses it three times to talk about the just living by their faith, worshiping God in chapter 1 of Romans. He puts that in the context of the greatness of God and God's work of salvation. And in the book of Galatians, he puts it in the context of one of the deepest comments about the law of God and how that law works on a spiritual level with us.

And then in the book of Hebrews, he uses it to talk about holding firm and enduring to the end, living by your faith. The just shall live by his faith. It's a very famous passage. It's a very important passage. And it's what God says here to the prophet, to Habakkuk. He goes on in chapter 2, and he goes on to talk about various woes. He throws out three woes. God was good at talking about woes in the Bible. He talks about the idolatry of the day and the time.

And he comes down to the end of chapter 2, and basically he says, the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him. End of the discussion, Habakkuk. It's over. I'm in my temple. I'm on my throne. I reign. Let the earth keep silence before me, before him. And that ends it at that point. Some scholars think that's where the book logically ends. It's not. There's one more chapter, and it is a prayer of Habakkuk.

And it's different than the first two chapters. And if you look at chapter 3, it's a prayer that comes from Habakkuk as he has now resigned himself to what is going to happen. And he has accepted God's will. He still loves God. He still embraces God. He still embraces his people. And chapter 3 is a beautiful prayer that comes out of Habakkuk's mouth. And he says in verse 2, Oh Lord, I've heard your speech and was afraid.

I've heard what you've had to say, and it has struck a note of fear in my heart. Oh Lord, he says, revive your work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years, make it known in wrath. Remember mercy. You might kind of note that verse right there. We've noted chapter 2 and verse 4, and we've noted chapter 1 and verse 5. We'll come back to those. But here he says, look, revive your work in the midst of the years.

Make it known. Always remember mercy, even when you are wrathful. This is how he wants God to be remembered and to look upon. And then he goes on to a very interesting phrase here, beginning in verse 3. God came from Timon. The Holy One from Mount Peron and His glory covered the heavens and the earth was filled with His praise.

It's kind of a poetic picture of God moving out of His habitation across the nations. Striding almost as a spiritual giant through the nations. And He says His brightness was like light. He had rays flashing from His hand and there His power was hidden. Before it went pestilence and fever followed at His feet.

He stood and He measured the earth. He stood and He measured the earth. The Bible talks several places about taking a measurement. God tells in Revelation, go to measure the temple. A measurement is to take note, to take stock of where a people are. In this case, God is measuring the earth, looking at it and evaluating.

Where is it right now? How much is there? You measure something on a yardstick or in a beaker and you know how many milliliters it is up and down. How many inches? How many feet? You take a measurement. How much is left? How much is there? It's almost as if God here is taking the measure of the nations of the earth in this poetic imagery that is painted here. And as He stands among the nations with fire flashing out of His eyes, it's a very dramatic representation that Hollywood could focus in a positive way on something like that sometime to try to picture exactly what is taking place. Chapter 3 moves on and it comes down and Habakkuk winds up his view of God and of what is taking place in his day and time. And in verse 17, he says, "'Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit beyond the vines, though the labor of the olive may fall, and the fields yield no food, though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls.'" Pretty bad times. He says, "'Though all that might happen, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.'" Regardless of what happens, I will always rejoice in God. I will joy in the God of my salvation. Joy. I mentioned twice here in verse 18. Rejoicing in God, rejoicing in the salvation that God is bringing, Habakkuk understood exactly what God was doing. He had embraced him completely. "'The Lord God is my strength. He will make my feet like deer's feet, and he will make me walk on my high hills.'" Habakkuk embraced God. And he came to conclude that this was going to what was going to happen was by God's will, and indeed, it would have to be.

We don't know anything more about what happened to Habakkuk. Jeremiah, his contemporary, stayed even during the severe siege of Jerusalem and stayed with the people. Did Habakkuk? I don't know.

I wonder. Perhaps, maybe he did, if he lived through that siege.

It's a short book. There's a lot here. It's not a difficult one to understand. I've just given you the Cliff Notes version of the book of Habakkuk. Let's go back to chapter 1.

What is Habakkuk's message for today? That's the title of my sermon. The time is now.

Habakkuk's message for today. What is that message for today?

Well, let's look at chapter 1 again, verses 1 through 4. Let me read it to you in the New Living Translation. Verse 2, how long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?

Violence is everywhere. I cry, but you do not come to save. Must I forever see these evil deeds? Why must I watch all of this misery? Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight. Sounds like talk radio.

Sounds like a lot that goes on in our culture today, doesn't it? Argumentation, fighting, disputation. Did you happen to see the debates the other night on television?

Do you remember a city about a year ago in Missouri called Ferguson? And the riots that took place there? Do you remember earlier this year, Baltimore?

And the riots that took place in the streets of Baltimore? Where else might we see violence in our land and in other parts of the world? We just have to look at the latest headline, don't we?

A shooting here, a massacre there, and that's just in America.

In justice, verse 4, the law has become paralyzed, and there is no justice in the courts.

No justice in the courts. A paralyzed law, or perhaps a law that has been applied in ways to subvert the law of God. Interpretations of law from a modern perspective that tread upon the prerogatives of the kingdom of God.

Could that be what the law being paralyzed is talking about?

The wicked far outnumber the righteous so that justice has become perverted, and people seek justice. People seek fairness, and yet it has been perverted, it has been turned upside down.

Verses 1-4, 2-4 here describe today's headlines in many different ways. There's no question about that. We can put whatever we want into this particular context of a back-up, bring it into our day, and brethren, you and I can sigh and cry and should for the sins of our people and lift up to God our people, our land, our nation, whether it's America, whether it's Canada, whether it's Australia, or wherever we might live, wherever those of you that are listening to this sermon might reside. No one is immune, but we could well put our hands around our people in a sense and sacrificially lift them up to God in a sense, in a pious gesture, asking God help and to sigh and cry for what takes place in our land.

And we should.

I said that Habakkuk, I think, has a very important message to us.

We have a long tradition in the church of watching, of speaking boldly about the world conditions, of preaching a message of warning to our peoples today. And we still do that. And it is a part of really our scriptural teaching and our scriptural, how shall I put that, the commission that we have formed and fashioned out of God's Word as to what we do.

I sometimes wonder if we are not at a point today as we evaluate where we are in the church, as we look at our world and as we look at God's Word, if we might take a page from Habakkuk and take our nation's condition to God, as much as we might even point out the sin.

You know, everybody knows the problems today. Again, I mentioned the Republican debate that took place the night before last. At least I watched the one that, the later one with the 10 candidates on stage, to a man, all of them, and to a woman, all of them know their problems, big problems. Even the Donald knows there's big problems facing us in America today, whether it's immigration, whether it's $18 trillion of debt, whatever that means.

Go right down the list. Cultural matters that have just turned our society upside down.

Everyone knows that, and they all have their proposals, their solutions. The amount of debate I watched the other night, I watched it until I fell asleep. I didn't watch the last 45 minutes of it, I guess. But I did not hear God mentioned once by any of the candidates for a solution. I did hear one candidate mentioned tithing in terms of a better tax code than the onerous one we have today, Dr. Ben Carson. He's a seven-day Adventist, by the way.

He speaks very soberly, very seriously. He doesn't shout. He has a whole different demeanor. He did mention tithing. He's not the first politician. Ronald Reagan mentioned tithing more than 30 years ago when he was president of the United States as being better than what we have today. Now, getting that done, good luck in our world today. But yeah, it is better than what we have.

But I did not hear God. And I did expect to. I didn't tune in to hear that. But they know that there are big problems. And we do too. Now, in chapter 2 and verse 4, or I'm sorry, chapter 1 here and verse 5, God tells Habakkuk to look among the nations and watch and be utterly astounded. I will work a work in your days, which you will not believe. Again, that describes our headlines. And it's really where you and I should understand we are today. Because God is moving among the nations. He is rearranging the order of nations and power structures that haven't been touched in over 100 years. And even longer in some cases, because relatively speaking, the influence and the power of the English-speaking peoples has dramatically declined, even though we still remain the most powerful of nations in the world. Yet there is something that is taking place.

Habakkuk is told by the God who says, I'm working in your days. I'm doing something among the nations. I think that we are at a very momentous, epical, changing period in our world today. And I think that God is doing something among the nations because He is the God of history. He is the God who has set the appointed times, the determined times of the nations, as Paul said in Acts 17 when he was speaking to the Athenians. God has determined the times of every great power when they rise and when they decline. He has determined where the boundaries of people and the peoples of the earth and where they live. That is all by God's design. People can migrate and immigrate and people can be conquered and deported. But in the long scheme of history, God has placed peoples where they are. And He determines when people rise and have their day in the sun and when that sun sets upon those peoples. He always has. And God is involved in the nations today, regardless of what the headlines say. There is a very powerful spiritual force at work behind the scenes in the world today, and all of it is being done toward God's ultimate end.

And so what Habakkuk says here, or God says to Habakkuk, really does help us understand that God is in charge of what is taking place as we watch, as we wonder, and perhaps might fear. But we don't need to fear unnecessarily. Sometimes people can really get bent out of sorts and scared about what is taking place when you look at the headlines. I understand that. And I'm to the point where I don't like to dwell on them as much as I might. You know, I keep up with things, and I'm a news junkie as much as anyone else. But there are a lot of things that are taking place today.

God says it's all according to my plan and my purpose, and that is what this world tells us.

That's what the Scriptures tell us, and we should understand that. Which is why, when it comes down to what he says here in chapter 2 and verse 4 about the just living by faith, that has a message for us today as well. We need faith. We need faith that God is in charge, that God is moving through history and through the events of our world today, bringing His purpose to pass. That takes deep conviction.

In Ephesians chapter 1, God tells us in the first few verses of chapter 1 of Ephesians that He is bringing all things to pass according to His good purpose, and ultimately is going to bring all matters under the authority of Jesus Christ. God the Father is doing that through Christ, and ultimately in time His purpose is all going to be placed under Christ when Christ returns and replaces the kingdoms of this world as they become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. As Revelation tells us. But we have to continue to live in faith, which means we believe that, number one, God is in charge. That God is. And we search our heart.

Right now is a time for the faithful to search the hearts.

And with deep conviction in God, in the Bible, and in the truths of the Bible that we live by, live them, and believe that they are. And want to share them as a message of hope and understanding with as many people as God gives us through His grace, contact with, and the ability to do that with. Now is a time for all of us to live in a deep faith and let God's power live in us and develop us spiritually. To live like we believe we are the church of God and to live according to the teachings of God's Word more than we ever have before. To live with the expectation of God's appearance, of God's judgment, and ultimately God's salvation for us in our lives. And to get up and live each day with that expectation that God is working out salvation even within our lives. And wherever we might be in our life, whatever affliction we might have, whatever time of joy and happiness might be facing us as we look in our lives, the hope of a marriage, the hope of the first child, the hope of a better life, whatever it is that we are anticipating as God has given to us to enjoy that, but to let it move us as God works in us to perform His salvation. And to live without fear, even as we understand what is taking place in today's world. To know and to be able to be instant in prayer at the slightest change or the slightest fear or challenge or even trial or even injury that might come upon us. To be able to have God on our lips because He's in our mind and because He's in our heart. And we live as people of deep, convicting faith. The faith, the just shall live by faith. That's what God tells Habakkuk. Regardless of what others are doing, regardless of what the prevailing culture is in the world and the neighbors are doing and what is being taught at school and what we are bombarded with on the tube. God is in charge. He has called us. We live by faith and we believe when we know who we are. As evil increases, faith must increase in the lives of God's people. And we need a revival. As I have my perch within the United Church of God and whatever greater Church of God we might look at, as I look at my perch and my narrow view and as I look at my life and connection with it, I know what I need.

And I know what at times I think the entire Church needs. It's a revival.

It's a revival of faith. It's a revival of confidence in who we are, what God has given to us. It is a revival of belief that God is the God of salvation and He's moving in this world and He's bringing His purpose to pass. And we have a part in that. And we can share that and should share that hope and that understanding with as many as God gives us the ability to do so. And we should live it ourselves every day in every action and not succumb to sin.

To walk as children of light, not as children of darkness. We need a revival. We need to be people of faith. As evil increases, faith must increase.

As we look through this book of Habakkuk and end of chapter 3, verse 2 again, he says, revive your work in the midst of years.

I think we can take that as a message for us to let God's work in us be revived in these years. These are our years right now as we read this and as we take this message to heart today.

This is our year and next year. This is the time of our lives.

We can make that a prayer. God, revive your work in the midst of the years. Make it known. Remember mercy.

And extol the merciful, awesome plan of God and what God's purpose is in bringing many sons to glory.

If you've not done so, as you come in and out of this building each week, peek into the boardroom and look at the plate, the plaque that has been put there in recent months that has the vision of the United Church of God there all lit up. It's a wonderful vision. It's taken right out of Scripture to be a church led by God's Holy Spirit. And for all of us as individual members to be able to give and to support and to contribute our part in the work of the church till we all come together in unity of faith. It's a wonderful vision straight out of Ephesians 4 and Hebrews chapter 2.

If you haven't taken a moment to look at that, please do so.

Maybe you make a point to do it every week when you come or go at one point.

That's why we are. That is what we should be thinking about and praying that God revives within us. Because really that vision which is lifted from Scripture is the vision Christ has for the church. We just have to get to it. We just have to get to it. Live by faith and seek a revival, a renewal of God's work even within us so that together we can collectively do a larger work and be an example of God. In chapter 3 here in these verses 3 through 6, I pointed out that it was almost a poetic imagery of God striding across the nations with lightning coming out of his eyes.

He's not William Wallace. And he pauses, and he looks across the nations, and he takes their measure.

I wonder at times as I've been reading through Habakkuk and this sermon has flowed out of a personal study that I've been kind of in and out of for a few months. This is my personal wondering, but not a speculation. Has God paused right now in our time? God's not limited by time, but has He taken a pause? Is He measuring us right now, the world? Not just America, but the nations? As we see nations in turmoil, alliances being challenged, lines being redrawn.

Is God taking the pulse of our nations, and is He at a point where He may be ready to take the next step in His judgment? I don't know, but I look at this and I wonder at times.

We were all shocked a few weeks ago when the United States Supreme Court handed down its ruling on same-sex marriage. For many, we thought that would never happen. Surely, the Supreme Court will shut the door on that, and they didn't.

And it was stunning. And it's easy for us to say that, you know, that's it. That's the worst.

And it's bad, but it's not the first. And you know what? It may not be the last.

I have a little bit longer view. I go back beyond even cassette tapes.

I go back to the days of 78s.

There was a time, and I don't subscribe to the belief that America was once righteous, in a sense more righteous or almost pristine in that. Look, there have always been periods in not just America, but every nation in human history. It has always been perilous times. Rudy and his sermonette was reading from from Timothy there that, you know, that passage in the time of the end will perilous times come. Men will be lovers of themselves. You know when that was written? First century. And so even America is good and as great as it is. And I'm as big a patriot. I got a flag flying on my front porch, so don't look down on me and think that I'm not.

But there was a time when it was a bit different. At least we had a profession of morality and decency and one nation under God and all, but it changed. If you want to look at certain things that maybe are markers, and if we just want to look at what the Supreme Court, since I bring up what they did here a few weeks ago, let's go back to 1962 and 1963. The Supreme Court made rulings in those two years on two cases that essentially took public prayer out of the public schools. And Bible reading, the reading of the Lord's Prayer, anything from the Bible within public schools. I remember it. I remember the uproar and the national debate that took place. Well, it happened. And, you know, at least where I was, we didn't have the Lord's Prayer being read anywhere. And there were not public prayers made. That was 62-63. No one knew at that time that we were on the verge of an entire social revolution in the United States called the 60s. Well, that brought it on. Political assassination in November of 1963, with the president being killed.

And the 60s began. And riots and further assassinations and a Vietnam War, sexual revolution, everything took place. And quite frankly, by the time you got to 1969 or 70, people did think that America might have to go through a revolution.

Just wait three more years. When we get to 2018, there will be a big retrospective over 1968. And you will learn what I'm talking about. In 1968, we thought the streets were going to erupt, and the whole country was going to burn down. You'll find out about that in three years, when they do a retrospective on 50 years of that. There was a song that came out in 68 or 69 called The Eve of Destruction. You can stream that one. The Eve of Destruction. And there was a mood in the country. By the 70s came in. In 1973, the Supreme Court issued another ruling called Roe versus Wade. It legalized abortion in America. And since that ruling, more than 55 million legal abortions have been performed in America alone. Legal abortions. 55 million. When I was a child, that would have been 25 percent of the American population when I was growing up as a kid. 25% killed. You want to talk about a Holocaust? You want to talk about the invasion of the safest place God created for human life, the womb of the mother being violated.

And we know what we see today as doctors stand over metal trays haggling over the price of the body parts of murdered babies. It goes on. That was 1973. And then in 2015, the Supreme Court makes a ruling that invades the sanctity of the laws of the kingdom of God and says that human law trumps it. It's bad. It's not the worst. And there may be others to come. We don't know. But that is a bit of context. And because of it, I wonder at times, has God pausing and looking? What is wrong with our people, with our nation? What have we come to? We can look at that, and we should. And it should cause us to, in a sense, again, hold our nation up to God and say, God, can you be merciful? Will you be merciful? Will the just live by His faith? Where are we right now, and how should we approach that? Again, I say that the book of Habakkuk and the approach of Habakkuk is a prophet. Perhaps is one we should take a page from. And let's go to those that God puts in front of us to read our literature, to come on our website, to watch our television program, to walk into our services and hear a sermon from a minister, a speaker in the United Church of God. Let's put a tone into the voice of our message that is very, very clear. Very clear in terms of who God is and what He is doing and what the purpose of human life is all about, to ultimately bring many sons to glory, and what God is going to do in terms of bringing the kingdom of God to this earth, and what people can do if they choose as they hear the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. Let's ask God to give us that opportunity to do that, to give a message of understanding of how this world is and why it is the way that it is, but more importantly, what God is and what He is doing and what they can become should they choose to accept God's offer of salvation today. That indeed for them the time is now. The time is now. And where they hear that message, where they read it on the web, where they read it in a magazine or wherever, they may be convicted and the just will live by their faith and they will accept that message and that understanding. We don't have to focus on only the bad. We can focus on the good of God's Word of salvation and what He is doing to bring that all to pass in His good will and time through His Son Jesus Christ when He will ultimately bring all of that under the authority of Jesus Christ. Can we get to that time? Let me tell you what we are going to be doing. In October of this year, we are going to take that message to Texas. We're going to do a series of personal appearance campaigns on October 20th, 22nd, and 25th in Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston, Texas.

The three presenters, Steve Myers and myself and Gary Petty and Victor Kubik as our president, we're going to go on stage. We're going to invite our readership. We're going to encourage our members to invite any and all who that they feel might want to come and hear what we have to say.

And we're going to do some limited advertising.

And we're going to take a message that says, essentially, America, the time is now.

And we're going to explain who God is, why this world is the way it is, what God is doing, what God's purpose is, that there is a God that is in charge of history, and that they can know.

And that they can begin to understand why they were born.

And we will explain that to them in the limited time that we have on stage in a one-night setting. And we will explain to them exactly what it will mean in their life if they come to a point of repentance and change to accept the message of the gospel.

We will tell them what they can do. And we will tell them in the limited time that we will have, and the limited attention span that you can expect in a setting like that, a distinctive message that they will know is different from anything they've ever heard before.

We're working very hard to do that. We're not going to be doing it because we're so brilliant, we're so great, we're so eloquent. We're doing it because by the grace and mercy of God, He's given us that understanding and the ability to articulate it.

And so we're going to give a message of understanding and a message of hope as we have that opportunity and see what God might be doing. I tell you that to ask your prayers, that we can shape the message to be as effective as it possibly can and help to build a larger following toward the message of the United Church of God. I ask you to pray about that.

We're not taking this lightly. We're taking it very, very seriously. We recognize how audacious it is for the three or four of us to stand on stage and say what we say and to even proclaim what we proclaim and do what we do. And for those of you that have been around a long time, and for those of you that haven't, and perhaps wonder, well, why would you do something like this?

Which I know some do. Someone walked into my office and said, you did this 45 years ago.

Our crack research staff got out into the archives of the Church of God and found in 1970 that the Church of God at that time did a campaign and they even came here to Cincinnati.

Some of you may have been at that location. They went to Nashville that year. I was there. I was a 19-year-old kid. I went to Nashville to hear a campaign like that, too. Came to Cincinnati. Some of you who sat here came in as a result of that particular campaign and are still in the faith, still in God's Church. But as the statement was put to me, well, that was 45 years ago!

Reagan got elected, turned around again, mourning in America, nukes galore, Soviet Union fell. What's different? I said, sit down. I'll tell you what's different.

I was there then. I lived through the 60s. I survived the 60s by the grace of God.

And in fact, my mother dragged me to church. That's how I survived the 60s.

You had to have been there. There was a fear that it was going to come apart then.

There was this thing called the Soviet Union. Nuclear warheads, malaise, bad leadership in America. I think things are even worse today.

We've come down the road. Why do it today? Because the message is the same. The message is the message of God. It is a message of repentance. Christ came preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God saying, repent and believe the Gospel. The time is at hand. Repent and believe the Gospel.

The time is now. The time is any time, but it is now. These are our years to be revived and to do a work as we become a work. And in the process of even doing that work, hopefully by the grace of God, we become a better work spiritually of people who are together living by faith. That's only part of the reason to do it now. God is going to bring about His purpose. God is going to bring this world to a point where all will come under the authority of Jesus Christ and salvation will be issued to the world. God's purpose is going to stand. And the way that we traverse the years ahead to get to that ultimate glorious time is going to happen regardless of any effort that any human being makes, any organization. It's going to happen.

As we have the opportunity and the responsibility, we are to be doing that now.

People today are wondering. They are looking for answers.

And we have the opportunity to give that understanding and to give that hope and to show the way of faith in those that God will call. And those who will choose that calling can begin to understand their purpose in their life. And by God's grace, even now, begin to prepare themselves for the ultimate glory as the Son of God. That's why we do it.

And we have to do it in a fashion, in a sense, that puts a message of understanding and hope in front of those that God will call and lifting it up to God.

About a year ago, I gave a sermon here where I challenged the audience in the graduating class to run with the horses, taking a message out of Jeremiah. To me, this message of Habakkuk and its application for us today is a very, very practical example and explanation to go deeper into what it means to run with the horses. And I hope that that will help us all to frame who we are, what we have to do, and what we are going forward with.

So I ask for your prayers for that effort that we are going to do in October. And by God's will, if it is blessed, we can do it even in other locations and all the other efforts that are being made to live, to preach, and to teach the gospel. Let's pray for the people of our land.

Let's lift them up and let's hold them up before God. And let God then do His work in us and among all of those who will call, whom God will call. If we can take that approach, I'm confident God can bless our efforts in whatever venue and whatever opportunity He gives us, and we take advantage of, to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God.