I Got My Hope Back - Dan Watson

When you said this phrase, it just doesn't make sense. It just doesn't make sense. I went on a trip, and in my room they had this Rubik's Cube. And I took this Rubik's Cube home, and for days I was trying to crack the Rubik's Cube. Anybody cracked the Rubik's Cube? Anybody can do that? Just Ruben. Of course Ruben could do it. It's a genius over here. And so I've been watching TikTok videos on how to do it. I've been watching YouTube videos on the cheat codes on how to do it. It's like two times this way, one time that way, turn it that way twice. I was doing it for hours, and it was still messed up. And I threw the thing across the room, and I was like, "It just doesn't make sense. This year we decided to homeschool our children. It doesn't make sense." It was one time Bella's doing work on the kitchen table, and she's 11, and she's doing math. And mom was doing suffixes with the other two boys, and she said, "Daddy, could you have a look at this?" So I go on and have a look at her math paper. And it was like the matrix, just these numbers, just up in the air, man. I just looked, and I was like, "It just don't make sense." One of the cool things about homeschool is that sometimes if we go on trips, the kids can come with us. And so the kids came with us on this one trip, and where we went, there were lots of unhoused people, lots of homeless people on the streets, everywhere we'd go. And Jude, my firstborn son, he says, "Daddy, I'm your firstborn son, heir to your throne." I'm like, "Son, I don't have a throne. You can be very disappointed."

Jude is so compassionate, man, he's got such empathy. He cares deeply for people. And so as we're seeing all of these unhoused men and women on the street, he's high, he's broken. And so it's like, "Daddy, if you've got some money in it, first of all, I had some cash, so I'd give him some money, and then I'd run out of cash, and I was like, "Son, I've got no more." But let's go into the store. It was a really hot day. I said, "Let's go and buy some ice pups, and we can give them out." And so we go into the store and buy some ice pups, and he goes, and he hands the ice pups out to the people. And now that night, Jude says the most powerful prayer is ever. And that night, he prayed a prayer along the lines of this. He said, "God, you are good, but yet there is so much brokenness and pain in our world, it doesn't make sense. Help me understand." I wonder if any of us have found ourselves in a positional place where we look at life and we go, "God, it just doesn't make sense. And I'm not talking about cracking the Rubik's Cube, I'm not talking about nailing a math equation, I'm talking about the stuff of life, I'm talking about the relationship breakdown. I'm talking about the illnesses and the sickness that you've got going on in our world. I'm talking about the struggle, struggles you've got with your children. I'm talking about the job situation and the no-job situation. I'm talking about the injustice that you see all around you and the pain and trauma there's so many of us facing, we're asking God, "God, help me make sense of it because it doesn't make sense." I want to take a look at one of the guys in the Bible in the Old Testament, his name's Habakkuk. Habakkuk, everybody say Habakkuk.

That's good because I'm going to get that tongue twisted at some point today. Habakkuk is a minor prophet in the Scripture and a minor prophet, if you know, it doesn't mean that he's any less than the major prophets, what we call the other prophets, it's because the book he wrote was really short, it's three chapters and so therefore he's a minor prophet. Habakkuk writes this book, these three chapters and two of these chapters is a lot of Habakkuk wrestling and struggling with God. It's a lot of him crying out to God and basically saying, "God, what's happening around me doesn't make sense." There's lots of idolatry taking place, there's lots of injustice taking place, there's unjust economical status around him, there's people being treated like animals, there's leadership abuse taking place, there's idolatry ruling and Habakkuk is at breaking point in the Scripture and he cries out to God and complains. Verse 1, chapter 1, verse 2, he says this, first off he says, "How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?" Anybody else pray to prayer like that ever in your life? God, all of this stuff is going on. I've been crying out to you and it seems like you're not listening, why is this happening? And God answers him specifically. coming towards the back of right now, to bring judgment on my people." That's the people of Israel. And the back of it says, "Wait a minute, Lord, just hold up. The Babylonians are worse than us. The Babylonian situation is terrible. We're going to use them to bring judgment on us to show your glory. God, it doesn't make sense." So he complains again and again and again, and he says, "I'm going to go and stand over the watchtower until you answer me the way I want you to answer me." Now thank God, I am not God. I've got four kids, and sometimes my kids can go back and forth with me.

They can complain, they can ask how and why, and they'll go back and forth, back and forth. And I may give them an answer, but yeah, if you keep going back and forth, back and forth, I'm going to give you the answer that I vowed as a kid that I would never give as an adult to my kids. And that answer is, because I said so, any of the parents agree with me today. Because I said so, thank God, I'm not God, but this is not what God does. God hears Habakkuk, Habakkuk, Habakkuk, Habakkuk, Habakkuk, Habakkuk, Habakkuk. I'm a rapper and you didn't know it. And he answers him again, which tells me this, friends, "Listen, God is not intimidated by your confusion. God's not intimidated by your questions, he's not intimidated by your anger, he's not intimidated by your disappointment or discouragement." And some of us in this place today have stopped going back to God because we think we're bugging him or think that he can't handle it, or you think that he's given up on you because he's making you wait, but here's the deal. You and I, as his sons and daughters, as his children, wants us to go to him as ugly as it seems and as repetitive as it seems because he wants to show you he's glory. He's a father who wants to hear from his children. And I believe today, just as Habakkuk heard from God and something shifted and changed in his life, I believe today God wants to speak to you today so something can shift and change in your life, irrespective of what you're facing, irrespective of what you're walking through, irrespective of what the Babylonian thing is in your life, God wants you to move forward in the middle of it. Chapter 2, verses 2 says this, "God tells Habakkuk to write something down," and he says, "Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time. It speaks at the end and will not prove false, though it lingers, wait for it. It will certainly come and will not delay. So in other words, God didn't just give him a word to keep.

He gave him a word to carry a herald with someone who could run with the word." And so he says, "Write down what I'm promising you because it will happen. It may feel slow. You may have to wait, but I want to let you know Habakkuk and I want to let you know today, church, that I see the injustice, I see the evil, I see the pain and I will deal with it," says the Lord. And so here's the call to us, the people who were calling out, complaining to God. This is what he says in verse 4, towards the end, he says, "The righteous person will live by his faithfulness." Nobody I see, nobody the stuff that's happening to me, that will not dictate how I respond to God. I will live by my faithfulness, but we're called to live by faith and not by sight. And so look what Habakkuk does in chapter 3, he starts remembering the character and goodness of God. Verse 2, "Lord, I have heard of your fan, I stand in awe of your deeds." So he begins to recount everything that he knows about God. He begins to remind himself of the character of God. Even though he's in the middle of what he's in the middle of, he reminds himself of the God he serves. You know, some of us today need to remind ourselves of the God we serve. Some of us have given up, some of us have lowered God to the standard of our living, to the standard of our circumstance and situation. But some of us need to put God back on his rightful place on the throne and remind ourselves He is a good God. He is a righteous God. He's a redeemer. He's the one who breaks chains. He's the ones who sets people free. He is a good God. Come on, if you believe you serve a good God today, give him praise in this place.

He's a good God. And so as a back cook reminds himself of who God is, irrespective of what I face and what is coming against me and the pain and the trauma and the height that I am in, his posture begins to change. As his posture changed, in chapter three, he says this prayer and we don't have time to go through the whole prayer, but what I wanna do is I wanna go through the last three verses of this prayer. A back cook's prayer to the Lord after time of complaining, of lamenting, of pain, of suffering, of worry, he prays to the Lord and he concludes his prayer like this. Chapter three verse 17, though the fig tree does no bond 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 or no cattle in the stores, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God my Savior. The sovereign Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer. He enables me to tread on the heights. A backick situation didn't change. His posture changed. And what changed in his posture was he got his hope back, he got his hope back in the Lord. And I believe today,

the some of you have walked into this place, maybe hope less because of the situation and stuff that you are facing right now, but as you walk out of this place at the end of the gathering, in Jesus name, I believe you could be hope full in Jesus name. The time of my talk, if you're taking notes, and hopefully you are, because the Bible says 99.9% of people get to heaven quicker if you take notes. That's a joke, that was that grace part to put to one side in my prayer, anyway. Time I talk is I got my hope back. I got my hope back. The first point is this, hope means I can face the reality. Hope means I can face the reality. Let's check at verse 17 again, it says Habakkuk is saying, you know, though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vine. Though the olive crops fails and the fields produce no food, there are no sheep in the pan and no cattle in the stores. So what Habakkuk is describing in this place is the reality of his world. He's saying that the fig tree isn't budded and the vines aren't producing grapes and the olive crop is failing and the fields, the fields aren't producing fruit and the sheep are gone and the cattle stores are empty. Man, if you look at this for Habakkuk, this isn't one bad day. Oh, this is just, this is a bad life right now. Like life is bad for him.

This is more than just some sheep and some cow and some food. No, this is his livelihood. This is everything that he's worked for. This is his situation. These are not luxuries. This is him just surviving. This is his security. This is his life. He's describing what happens when the things you depend on stop delivering what you need. So many of us depending on certain things and certain people what happens when those things and people stop delivering what you need. This is what Habakkuk is saying. He's describing this right now and the verse before says this, he's describing his state in verse 16. He says, "I heard my heart pounding. My lips quivered at the sound. Your lips have a quiver. You know when you're getting trouble about your parents when you was little and they told you all for they gave you the look." I remember that look from my mom. She didn't have to say anything. She'd just give me the look. (audience laughing) And then I'll be there as it could have. (audience laughing) Lips quivering, the K crept into my bones and my legs tremble.

Habakkuk is not calm. He knows the Babylonians are coming. He knows that this pressure is on his life. He's shaken to his core. His heart is pounding, his legs are trembling and notice what he says in verse 17. He says, though all this stuff may happen. He's not denying the possibility of loss. He's looking at face to face. You He's staring that situation, face to face. He's staring that circumstance, face to face. Listen, hope doesn't mean that you never acknowledge what's wrong. Hope means that what's wrong doesn't get the final word. And so many people have let the reality of what's wrong rub them and take the final word of their life, their situation, their joy, and their hope. And we don't need to do that today. But also so many people have ignored the realities of their world and pretend that it doesn't even exist. That it's not a real thing. And we've got people walking around pretending. You see, you don't know I've been married to my wife for 18 years, we've been given it for 22 years. She is, thank you very much, I appreciate that. Come on, let's give her off my wife, she's incredible. (audience applauding) She, man, she is, she is so close to perfect. Like that, that close.

It's just one thing, only one thing. If this one thing changed, she would be perfection, a perfection, a perfection. You know what I'm saying? Like she's just perfect. Just one thing though, and it's not an old thing. I'm not bringing up old stuff, I'm dragging into the present. It's happened like last week. (audience laughing) You know, my wife, and maybe you heard me tell this before, but you know, she has a car, and she drives that car. But in that car, is a dashboard. And on the dashboard, every now and then, when something needs attention, a light pops up. And somehow, she thinks it's like, oh, Christmas lights, you know, and the fuel light, and the fuel light pops up, and she just thinks it's there for decoration. She just thinks it's there for decoration, she's like, oh, lovely. Oh, this is nice, Christmas came early, and she'll be driving, and there'll be like two miles left, there'll be two miles left in the engine, and she'll be like, I can make it. (audience laughing) She's gonna go and get the kids from here, and then go and pick this up from there, and I'll be like, that's 25 miles. (audience laughing) She's fine, she lives on the edge of life. This is a risk taker, that's what I love about her.

This is a risk taker, she might as well, she might as well just get some tape, and just tape the dashboard. (audience laughing) Just so it doesn't exist. I'll top up when I need to top up when I feel like it. You know, I'll fill the engine, and I'll top up. (audience laughing) Just pretend it doesn't exist. Here's the deal with so many people do that with life. We got some warning lights pop up. We got some stuff happening in life, and we don't want to address it. We don't want to deal with it. In fact, what we want to do is we want to pretend it doesn't even exist. Well, we want to maybe just put some tape over it and go, yep, let's put it over there. And so we walk into church, and we put our church face on. Someone ask you, how you doing? I'm blessed and highly faith. (audience laughing) Hey, you are, but right now life sucks for you. You just had a big argument in your car, that you're not feeling good. Kids are running crazy. Now, you're struggling with some stuff, some addiction and some stuff, some secret stuff that you never told anybody. But you feel like you got to pretend.

But listen, God doesn't call us to pretend. He calls us to say, you can be real, that you can come just as you want. He loves you so much that you don't have to leave that way. He wants to change and transform us from the inside out, but he can't do that, and he won't do that. Unless you bring God, here is the real me. Here's what's going on. Here is me with the mask off. I can be real, I can have hope in God. And I can face my reality. You don't have to pretend. You got permission to tell the truth. You got permission to be real. This is in Scripture, there's all sorts of people crying out to God with the real stuff that's going on in their life. David cried out. Joe grieved. Jesus was there in the God in the Gethsemane, and he wept crying out to the Lord. Habakkuk looked a devastating situation going on all around him, and what's taking place in his life, and he described it honestly to the Lord. Man, in John 16 verse 33, Jesus even says, "Man, in this world, you will have trouble." It was the angel light, "You will have trouble. Don't pretend you ain't never gonna have trouble. Don't pretend that every day is an amazing day in your well. Don't pretend that everything is okay when it's not.

In this world, friends, Take hope. Why? Because he has overcome the world. And so even though I have got trouble, I can still have hope in him. Come on, somebody. Is anybody in this place? (audience applauding) Listen, the Bible says this in Psalm 34, 18. It says, "The Lord is close to the broken hide, "and he saves those who are crushed in spirit." So when your heart is broken, you don't have to pretend. You don't have to cover it up. You don't have to paw on this smile when everything inside of you is crushed. You don't have to run away from the Lord. You don't have to feel like you've got to get the exact prayer in the exact way. No, no, no, he says, "Listen, when your broken hide "with the stuff that's going on in your God, "and when you're crushed in spirit, "guess what the Lord is, he's close to you. "He's close to you." So it means that I can be disappointed and still be devoted. That I can be grieving and still be believing in him. That I can have questions about life and still have faith in the Lord. That you can have trouble and you can be broken hide

and you can be crushed in spirit, but you can have hope and assurance that God is close to you. The second thing is this, the hope is in him. Hope is in him. Verse 18 says this, "Yet I will rejoice in who, in the Lord. "I will be joyful in God my Savior. "I will rejoice in the Lord. "I will be joyful in God my Savior." You all know we got a little two-year-old, nearly three-year-old, her name is Ellis West. I got a little picture if you've never seen her. This is Ellis West. Isn't she cute? Isn't she cute? (audience laughs) God, look at those eyes, man. Look at them, those cheeks. A little smile. Oh, she's so petite. She's so lovely. Oh, she's the cutest thing, right? When I give Ellis West what she wants, she'll come up to me and she'll look at me in the face and she'll get her soft little heads and she'll put it on my cheeks like this and she'll look at me in the eyes and say, "I love you, Daddy. "I see I love you too, baby. "Then she'll give me a kiss.

"I'm glad the girl can have whatever she wants "for the rest of her life." (audience laughs) She's so cute, but she's only so cute when she gets what she wants. (audience laughs) There's another side to Ellis West. Let me tell you, may all the parents know. There's another side to Ellis West. Those eyes, she's not smiling anymore. (audience laughs) She can grow her teeth. Those fists, they're not soft hands anymore. They clench up and they're strong like they could demolish somebody. (audience laughs) Her feet, man. Her feet. Stroll. It's like King Kong in my house. (audience laughs) She doesn't get what she wants. It's a different story. Ellis West Joy is definitely found in what she gets, not in the one that she gives, who gives to her right now. So many of us thought we can be exactly the same. Though, while Joy could be dependent, not in the Lord, but only in what he provides. In the back of his trying to tell us right now,

listen, my Joy is not gonna be dependent on the things that I get. As though I may not get the fig trees and they may not bloom and blossom and though the sheep and the cow may not be there and though the fields may not produce food, guess what? I'm still gonna have Joy. Why? Because my Joy is not in the harvest. My Joy is in the Lord. And we got so many people walking around, Joy dependent on what they've got or what they haven't got. Not on who they know. Not on who he is. Not on his character. In the back of his trying to show us, listen, I have Joy and I cannot fluctuate depending on what we get and what we don't get. And even in this, he says, yeah. I still will have joy in the Lord. Yeah, I will rejoice. And he doesn't say, yeah, I will rejoice because I know the harvest is coming tomorrow. So I'll be good. He doesn't say, yeah, I will rejoice because I know God will give me everything back. He doesn't even say, yeah, I will rejoice because I understand everything that God is doing. He just says, yeah, I will rejoice in the Lord God, my Savior.

My joy is in God alone. And if nothing changed, my joy is still in him. That's the difference between a faith that depends between a faith that depends on circumstances, the faith that is anchored in the character of God. Listen, my granddad, my granddad is my greatest hero. He passed away in 2012. He was 83 years old. He is a legend. Some of you heard me talk about my relationship with my dad that we really had a rough and rocky relationship all the way until I was 25 years old. So my granddad was the man in my life. He was my role model. He told me to be a man of integrity, of honesty, of hard work and diligence, that nothing is gonna get handed to me. I've gotta be an educated man. He told me how to love my wife really well, love my children, told me a lot. My granddad was a G, though. He was a G. And he lived three hours away from us. We lived in London. He lived in a place called Ballmouth, which is in the southeast of the UK. And so we would drive down to him for the summer holidays. And I remember my granddad would be standing there in the drive. And often he would have something to give us.

And I loved it. Could be like a five-pound note, the money man. Or it could be a bag of crisps, which you call chips. Just, I love chips. Love it. So my granddad knew that. And so either he'd have the money for me, or the chips for me. And this would be like all summer long. It'd be amazing. This happened in my early childhood, as a teenager, and even as an adult. I would drive down there with my wife, and granddad would have some money for me, or some chips for me. I'm like, "Granddad, I'm 26 years old. "About my own chips now." If I remember 83 years old, he developed Dalsamas, and he was in his last days. And I sat down with him, and he was saying his chair, and he could really move around that much, and didn't talk that much. And if he did, he would be saying the same sentence, you know, over again. And I just sat down with him, and I'm holding his hand. And I don't know what we're watching on TV, but we're just holding hands sat there. And I remember, along the lines, I was like, "Daniel, just ask your nan "to give you some money to take Joe out for some food."

I said, "Well, granddad, the economy's changed right now. "And five pound is not gonna do it. "I need a little bit more." That's a joke. I said, "Granddad, I don't want your money. "I just wanna be here with you. "I just wanna sit with you. "I just wanna be in your presence." And I felt my granddad just squeeze my hand just a little bit tired. As if to say, "Son, that's all I've ever wanted. "Son, that's all I've ever needed. "Just for you to wanna be in my presence." (gentle music) And Abakkuk is declaring right now where his joy comes from. His joy comes from the Lord. Knowing anything that the Lord gives him, produces for him, provides for him. My joy is in him being in his presence, knowing I am his son. I am his daughter. Why? Because he is God my savior. And here's the deal, friends. You've heard this said before. If God never does another thing, When Habakkuk says, "God, my Savior," he's not simply going, "Oh, you make me feel good." He's saying, "I'm placing my confidence in you," and that word, "my Savior," comes from the same root as the name Yeshua, Jesus, and so hundreds of years before the cross, Habakkuk is rejoicing in the God who saves, and you and I, today, 2,000 plus years later, we can

look back and know, "Yes, that God does say." His name is Jesus, that God said He's one and only son to the cross, and die a death that we should have died and paid a price that we should have paid so we could live a life that you and I do not deserve. And so if God never does another thing, He already did enough on the cross. If that situation, circumstance never changed it, He already done that off. So we could ask, we could believe, expectedly, we could follow faithfully, but even when I don't know the outcome, I will trust the Lord, because my hope is in you and you alone. Which takes me to the third and final point before we close, hope gives me strength. Hope gives me strength. Verse 19 says this, "The sovereign Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer. He enables me to tread on the heights." Man, this is the way Habakkuk takes us from a declaration of joy to a picture of movement, of progression. First, He faces the reality of loss, His situation and circumstance, all around Him. Then He chooses, "I'm still going to rejoice in the Lord, irrespective of what's going on around me." Now He declares that God Himself is His strength. So Habakkuk doesn't say, "I've discovered how to become strong in my own, and so now I'm going forward." He says, "No, the sovereign Lord is my strength. The sovereign Lord is my strength." Now look at this, He says, "You make my feet like the feet of deer." If I was Ryan this and I was Habakkuk, I would have probably picked a different animal. You know, I get those deer walking around my yard all the time. Little things. I wouldn't have picked a deer, friends. I would have picked maybe like a lion, a tiger, a bear, or lion. I would have picked something with muscles and claws, and they had a roar to it.

But Habakkuk, He picks a deer. You make my feet like the feet of deer, and I'm trying to think, Habakkuk, why would that be? Why does God want to make out feet like the feet of deer? But when you think of mountain deer, and you think the feet that they've gone, and you think about that terrain that they're on, they're on rocky terrain, they're on steep mountains that a lion, a tiger, or a bear, or mine would not be able to handle, that the lion tiger or a bear would drop to their death, that a lion tiger or a bear in their own strength would maybe be able to make it up just a little bit up the mountain. But no, a deer, when your feet are like the deer, those feet, they were made to sustain the terrain. It may be rocky, it may be slippery, it may not be the terrain that you chose, but your feet were made to sustain it, that you could climb the heights and get through, and in your own strength, you would have dropped to a death and it would have been bad. But when you got the feet of the deer, you could make it. Listen, some of us in this place, God wants to give you the feet of the deer, that in the situation that you find yourself in right now, in the pain that you find yourself in right now, in the confusion that you find yourself in right now, in the path that you find yourself walking through right now, God wants to give you the feet of the deer. Why? Because God wants to make it through, you can make it through. Some of us are praying, God changed the terrain and sometimes God will do that. But oftentimes God wants to change the terrain, He'll give you the strength to walk through it. He'll give you the ability to walk through it, even though I walk through the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, I'm going to get through this. Why? Because God is giving me the strength I need to keep on going. For some of you, I need to get your strength back today by placing your whole back in Jesus, back in God, because He wants to give you what you need to keep going.

But that terrain, it may not change. That situation may be the situation until your last breath, but guess what? That situation will not make you fall. The situation will give you God will give you the strength you need to walk that to right. And I believe today in this place that God is going to give some of you the strength to keep on going as you ask them. My feet is like the feet of a dead. He causes me to stand on the heights. So look at this, the last line of the chapter in verse 19 says this, "For the director of music are my stringed instruments." Check this, "Her back of his prayer becomes a song." He went from complaining to wiring to back and forth with God to writing down a prayer. And now that prayer becomes a song. It started with how long Lord and ends with worship. And maybe you walked into this place today. And you've been going, how long, Lord? God changed this and changed that. God wants our posture to change. He wants worship to come back. And as our worship comes back, guess what? I believe you're going to get your hope back as you fix your eyes in the offer and perfector of your faith. [ Silence ], "For the Lord and the Lord." You