What to do in suffering

My sermon last night at Harmondsworth - notes adapted from Gray Sutanto's sermon at IPC presbytery.

What to do in suffering

Read Hab 1 - 2:1

I will ^htake my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower,and ⁱlook out to see ^jwhat he will say to me,and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

Judah here is the innocent party unlike in Jeremiah.

God is charged with injustice in this lament.

1. Come to God he is pleased to listen.
2. Four things to keep in mind when suffering.
3. i) Do make your stand on the watchtower; keep on despite this suffering; still obey.

      ii) Station yourself on the tower looking out, not in; not myopic  -shortsighted; not introspective. Look to God's promises; remember how God brought you here.

       iii) look to see what God will say; listen to what the Lord has said already; past blessings.

       iv) continue to come to pray to the Lord; look to him not idols; why have you forsaken me? He praised during the lament . ’¹²  Are you not ^wfrom everlasting,

O LORD my God, my Holy One?We shall not die.

O LORD, ^yyou have ordained them as a judgment,and you, O ^zRock, have established them for reproof.You who are ^aof purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong,why do you idly look at traitors and ^cremain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?’

3. The greatest sufferer - 

   Kept on with obedience

    Stood on the word of God

Held onto the premises and the big picture

Quoted scripture against the devil

Kept on with the lament