In Leonia, New Jersey, a few years ago, a man was arrested for stealing a truck of Snapple beverages. After they investigated, it turned out that he had previously worked for Snapple, and had been fired from his job for stealing and drinking the products. Undaunted, the man then dressed up as a Snapple delivery driver and made off with a whole truckload of it! The police detective who reported on the crime said: “He just has an uncontrollable appetite for Snapple!”

We may chuckle at that man’s obsession with Snapple, but the truth is, there are a LOT of uncontrolled appetites rampant in America today, which are damaging many individuals and families, and could lead to the demise of our whole country!

As we return to the Book of Habakkuk this morning, we are looking at Chapter 2:5-8. Last week we studied :4, one of the most important verses in all scripture, “the righteous will live by his faith;” how faith is vital both for salvation, and for persevering in times of trial in our lives.

But the rest of Chapter 2 contains a series of 5 “woes” of God’s judgment that are coming, each one of them linked to a sin that the Babylonians in Habakkuk’s time were committing. Virtually every one of these deals with their ungodly appetites: lust for wine, for money, for pleasure, for possessions, and so on.  The thing is, we see the same things in OUR country today!   As we saw in Chapter 1, God is a holy God. His eyes are too pure to look with approval upon sin. The sobering thing is, if we see the same sins that God judged them for, in OUR country today, is there any reason why He would not judge OUR nation, just like He did theirs? Let’s look at what God says here in Habakkuk 2 about ungodly appetites here, and how destructive they are to us and others:

I. The Ungodly Appetite is always for MORE — MORE — MORE!

Verse 5 describes the ungodly appetite: “Furthermore, wine betrays the haughty man, so that he does not stay at home. He enlarges his appetite like Sheol, and he is like death, never satisfied. He also gathers to himself many nations and collects to himself all peoples.”

See how it describes their appetite for “more, more, more”: it says “he enlarges his appetite”; “he is like death, NEVER SATISFIED.” “He gathers to himself … collects” — it is describing always wanting MORE!  In Habakkuk’s day, these words described the Babylonians, and the insatiable appetite for “more” that controlled them. 

The first example he gives is about their appetite for alcohol. He says, “Wine betrays” them. Historians tell us that the Babylonians had an infamous addiction to alcohol. You may remember the story in Daniel of how Belshazzar’s Babylonian kingdom fell while he and his men were getting drunk on wine instead of guarding their kingdom. So at least one of the “uncontrollable appetites” that these people were going to be judged for, was their addiction to alcohol.

Now, a generation or two ago, a pastor might have taken this as his text, and preached this whole message on the importance abstaining from alcohol. For much of the 1900s, many people thought of Christianity as a matter of what you did NOT do: that if you were a Christian, you would NOT drink, you would NOT dance, you would NOT smoke, and so on. To many in that generation, that is what Christianity WAS: just “don’t do” certain things, and they thought you were a good Christian. (Like the old expression: “I don’t drink, smoke or chew; and I don’t go with girls that do!”) To many, THAT was being a “Christian,” just NOT doing certain things.

So let me be very clear today: just “not” drinking alcohol, smoking, dancing — or ANY “list of don’t’s” — is NOT what makes anyone a Christian. That may sound very “religious”, but that is NOT what being a Christian really is. Paul tells the Colossians in 2:21 “do not handle, do not taste, do not touch” is NOT what the Gospel is.

The Gospel is that God created us to know and love Him, and live in His presence forever. But we separated ourselves from His presence by sinning against Him — putting other things in His place (which we’ll talk about some more in a minute). We would have REMAINED separated from Him forever, because there was nothing WE could do to save ourselves. That’s why Jesus came to earth, to die on the cross, and pay for our sins, so that we could be saved by FAITH IN HIM — NOT by keeping any “list of commandments” or by abstaining from certain things. So please be clear: not smoking, not drinking, not dancing, not NOT doing ANY list of things, will not save you. Only faith in Jesus, and what He did on the cross, will save you. Today you may need to realize this for the first time, and put your faith in Jesus, not in some list of things that you’re trying to do for Him!

So abstaining from alcohol or anything else does NOT save you. BUT, having said that, as a pastor, can I warn you: the abuse of alcohol has led to untold misery in millions of families.  If a few years ago people thought “you can’t drink and be a Christian”, and the pendulum was too far that way — now, I would say the pendulum may have swung back too far the other way. Now hardly anybody thinks a thing about drinking any more — and NO, it is NOT what makes you a Christian or not — but you DO need to be aware that drinking can have very destructive consequences. The Bible has so many warnings against it. Marriages have been destroyed because of it; families have been decimated because of it. You need to be careful it — especially if your family has a history of alcoholism, or if you feel like you may be tempted, like the Babylonians, to want more/more/more of it, to you and your family’s harm.  

Having said all that, I don’t think the main point here in Habakkuk 2 is just abusing alcohol. That is just one particular example of a bigger problem.  This chapter is really about the bigger temptation that many of us have for “more, more, more” in EVERY area of our lives. This chapter speaks to uncontrolled appetites of ALL kinds. Verse 5 says the Babylonian “enlarges his appetite like Sheol and he is like death, never satisfied. That is literally he “widens his soul”; he “widens his desire.” Hebrew scholars tell us that these words describe an insatiable desire. One insatiable desire they had was for alcohol. Another specific desire it mentions here is the Babylonians’ uncontrolled appetite for conquering other nations and peoples. Chapter 1:6 says they “march throughout the earth to seize dwelling places which are not theirs.” Verse 9 says “they collect captives like sand.” Chapter 2:8 here says “you have looted many nations.” The Babylonians had an uncontrolled appetite, not only for alcohol, but also for countries, and people, and possessions. They had a never-ending appetite for “more, more, more.”

And isn’t this appetite for “more, more, more” one of the signature sins of America today? And it’s not just beverages or food — although there’s certainly some application for that. There is a lust for “more” in our nation that is rampant throughout our population. People want more money, more cars, more sex, more clothes, more alcohol, more drugs, more homes, more land, more channels, more pornography, more of whatever collection they are working on — it’s always “more, more, more”!

This uncontrolled appetite for more is a huge factor in the debt problem in America. One of our Baptist leaders was talking not long ago about how few American Christians tithe. He said on average, Christians in America give 2.5 percent of their income to the Lord’s work, about 1/4 of the tithe that we should be giving. (Let me add here that Kim Head and our Finance Committee have started work on our 2024 church budget; we have been behind this year, and they may need to make some cuts for 2024. But the sad fact is, if every Christian church member would just tithe, no church would have any financial needs. There would be no building funds, or missions funds, or fundraising of any kind. If every Christian individual and family would just give the 10% that God’s word gives us as a principle — we would have more than enough for every need. If you’re not doing it, I hope you’ll pray about committing, or re-committing yourself to your tithe — and if you’ve missed your tithe over the last months, make that up. It will be very important to our church the next several months.)  But anyway this leader said the average Christian today gives only 2.5% instead of 10%, BUT he said, the problem is even worse than that, because most American Christians not only spend the remaining 97.5% of their income on themselves, they are actually borrowing even more on top of that, spending 110, or 120% of their income each year, charging and going into debt, for things they think they just HAVE to have! And this unbridled appetite for “more” is driving many families in America to financial ruin, as they are spending way more than they are taking in!

Habakkuk said the Babylonians were driven by “more, more, more”: more wine, more plunder, more land, more countries. They were “never satisfied.” And isn’t that so much like America today: the advertising agencies and the media are pushing “more, more, more,” and so many of us are buying it. And it would be one thing if all this accumulating “more” was working, and really bringing people satisfaction. But it isn’t. 

II. The Ungodly Appetite is never SATISFIED.

One thing the Bible makes clear is that although these appetites are always for more, they never really do satisfy. We see that here in :5; it says: ”He is like death, NEVER SATISFIED.” Proverbs 30:15-16 says that the grave never says, “enough”. Death always sweeps more into its net; it is never satisfied. In the same way, the Bible says, the uncontrolled appetites of sin are never enough; they never satisfy. You can try to feed those appetites with more and more, but it is never enough. 

John D. Rockefeller Sr., was one of the richest men who ever lived. He was asked by a reporter: how much money is enough; how much does it take to really make you happy? Rockefeller famously said, “More. Always one dollar more.” What a lesson: the uncontrolled appetite never has enough. 

SO many people in America today are living examples of this. And if some of us are honest, we’ll admit we’re caught in the same kind of uncontrolled appetites that God judged the Babylonians for: 

— some can’t get enough money. When are you going to stop spending your whole life “chasing the money”? How much is enough? Like Rockefeller said, it’s always “more,” isn’t it?

— when is the house big enough — or it it always “more, more, more”?

— when will you ever have enough “stuff,” is there any end to it? You always have to get “more.”

This is our country today: more food, more drink, more drugs, more sex, more pornography, more clothes, more cars, more things; “more, more, more”!

I think we know, at least on an intellectual level, that some things are addicting, and will not satisfy us: drugs, alcohol, and so on. We need to be wary of getting addicted to them. They never leave us where we are; it always takes more. 

I’ve had people tell me they think I sit to preach because it creates a “homey” atmosphere (and I’m glad if it does) but that’s not why I do it. I have an illness called “dysautonomia” (POTS), with essential tremors that make it difficult for me to stand for long periods of time, and I shake a lot, especially my legs. A couple of years ago, a neurologist gave me a prescription for a drug that he said would help the shaking. I told him I didn’t want anything that might be addicting. He told me, Oh, no, this is very harmless, and it is only a very small dose. So I began to take it, and I did for some months — and he told me to up the dosage, which I did — until later I read that the drug’s benefits would not last for long; that it would become less and less effective, and you’d need more and more of it, until you got totally addicted to it, and have to go to a rehab center to detox from it. I said, Man, I’m getting off this NOW!  And thank God, with His help, I did — although even after not quite one year of taking it, it was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be!

But this is exactly what happens, over and over, in so many cases: it takes more: more drugs, more alcohol, more whatever. It always takes more, until you don’t get anything out of it any more, and end up totally addicted.

A lot of people don’t realize this is what happens with pornography. The devil gets you to look at one picture, one video, one website, and people don’t realize that there is a chemical reaction that takes place in your brain, that gets you “addicted” to pornography, the same way you can be addicted to a drug! As a result, pornography is rampant in our society today: They tell us that 60% of men in CHURCHES on Sunday mornings are hooked on pornography! Not 60% of men in bars, 60% of men in CHURCHES!  And just like drugs, it never leaves you where you are; it always takes more: more pornography, more perversion, until it leaves you and your marriage and your family devastated in its wake. It’s always “more, more, more.”

There are so many applications of this principle of how “more, more, more” never satisfies. Even some things you might not expect. Several years ago CBS news reported on a study that showed that the “shopper’s high” is a real thing. That you get this “rush” from purchasing something that releases a chemical in your brain, that makes you feel good. The “retail therapy” that some of you joke about — it’s real!  One person who was interviewed by CBS said, “When you’re feeling bad, and you buy something good … you feel better.” The problem is, just like with all these things, that “high” doesn’t last long. What do you need? “More, more, more” — when the “high” has subsided, you have to get back out and buy something else, to get another “high” — and where does it end? It never ends; it always takes “more.” 

There are SO many specific applications of this in our society today; I’ve mentioned just a few.  But whatever the particular appetite is, the heart problem is always the same: looking for satisfaction, pleasure and fulfillment where it was never intended to be found. 

See, God created us to find our fulfillment and satisfaction in HIM:

— Psalm 149:2 says, “Let Israel be glad in his Maker; let the sons of Zion rejoice in their King.” We were created to find our gladness and joy in GOD!

— Psalm 16:11 says, “In Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” GOD has the joy we are looking for; HE holds the pleasures we are seeking.

God made us to be satisfied in HIM. But the problem is, that ever since the Garden of Eden, mankind has been trying to our ultimate pleasure and satisfaction in something besides God: in the forbidden fruit; in conquest; in pleasure; in fame; in acquisition — but these things don’t satisfy us for long, so we think if we get “more, more, more” it will finally work, but it doesn’t. And we end up frustrated, addicted, and lost.

This is why Jesus came: to die on the cross, to pay for our sins, and show us the way back to God. That GOD is the One we are to love with “all our heart and soul and mind and might.” That His glory is the ultimate fulfillment we’re all looking for. 

But we’ve got to realize that the pursuit of “more, more, more” will never do it for us. We need HIM, HIM, HIM, not “more, more, more”!

What you’re looking for isn’t just “more” of the same thing that keeps failing you; what you really need is what you were created for in the first place, a real, satisfying, connection with God through Jesus Christ. But “more, more, more,” the ungodly appetite, will never be satisfied. 

III. The Ungodly Appetite will be JUDGED. 

The sin of the uncontrolled appetite is really idolatry: putting something else in God’s place.  And God says here in Habakkuk 2, that idolatry will be judged. God tells Habakkuk in partial answer to his questions, that Babylon, the people with all these ungodly appetites, is not going to “get off the hook” with God; they WILL be judged. He said they WILL have their day of reckoning. 

In fact, verses 6-20 of Habakkuk 2 are actually a song of judgment on Babylon; it is like a “song” of 5 “stanzas” if you will, with 3 verses each. Each of the “stanzas” contains a “woe”, indicating that God will judge that sin. We see it here in verse :6, “Will not all these take up a taunt song against him… WOE to Him who increases what is not his …”. God says here that He will judge those with these uncontrolled appetites, who put other things in the place where only God belongs. God will judge.

A number of years ago, a little toddler by the name of Caylie Anthony died. The trial that followed, unfortunately, became a media circus, one of the first cases during the “social media” era. Many people were upset with the verdict when it came, as they didn’t think that justice was done. I remember someone put up a sign in response to the verdict that read: “Caylee’s warriors, relax; I’ve got this one — God.” 

We can find comfort in the fact that God will judge. He’s not going to let any sin go by, unpunished. (That’s just what He says in Exodus 34: “Who will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.”) He is a holy, righteous God, and He will judge.  But if you think about it, how comforting is that, really?!  Jesus said, “by your standard of measure it will be measured to you!” YES all sin will be judged — but do you realize that means that YOUR sin will also be judged?! That means that God will not only judge OTHER people’s ungodly appetites, it also means that YOU cannot continue in YOUR ungodly appetites without expecting God’s hand of judgment!  As surely as justice would be done in Judah and Babylon in Habakkuk’s day; as surely as justice will be done to the murderer of Caylee Anthony; as surely justice will be done to our nation — justice will also be done to US! To me; to you. That ought to humble us all, and drive all of us to cry for God’s mercy through Jesus Christ!  

CONCLUSION:

There is every indication that we are living in climactic days today, just like in the Book of Habakkuk; and it’s time for us to hear God’s word, and get our houses in order. We need to confront our lusts and appetites, whatever they are. More than anything else, we need to see that our root problem is trying to get from pleasures and other things what can’t be truly satisfied except in God. Take some specific steps to address whatever your problem area is, and seek GOD instead.

If you know for sure that Jesus is your Savior, you need to consciously stop seeking to get your fulfillment in the wrong places. Purposefully seek the Lord every day in His word and worship, and find in HIM what all those appetites can’t give you. Learn to worship Him; discover the sweetness that comes when you sing to Him; and the pleasure and joy that are in His presence. And take some specific steps to deal with in your misdirected appetites: get on a budget; set up safeguards, close off areas of temptation; get an accountability partner or support group to help you — whatever you need to do. 

But the truth is, some of us can’t do this, because Jesus is not yet your Savior, so you don’t have the help you need against that appetite. In Luke 11:24-26 Jesus said, “When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.” And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go and live there — and the last state of the man is worse than the first.” 

Jesus is saying there that it is not enough to try to “cast out” an evil spirit,  or a bad habit, out of your life. You may “kick it out” for a time – but it can still come right back if it finds its place in your heart empty and ready for it again. The point is: for ultimate healing, you have to have something else in your heart. You’ll never overcome your ungodly appetites, until you have something — or Someone — in your heart that is greater.

— you can clear out your credit cards, but you’ll go right back and fill them up again — some of you have done that very thing, right? — and that is what you’ll continue to do, until you get your heart right, and start finding your fulfillment in the Lord instead of on charging things you can’t afford! 

— you may stop drinking or drugs for a time, but you’ll be right back on whatever you’re addicted to again soon, unless you get the Lord to fill that empty place in your heart, and give you a new power to overcome that addiction! 

— Whatever your problem area is, it’s not enough to know you have an uncontrolled appetite, and want to change it. You’ve got to have something else to fill that place in your heart — and that “something” is the Holy Spirit of God. Thank God, you CAN have Him in your life today — if you’ll admit your sin, and ask Jesus to be your Savior. He will forgive you, and more than that, He will send His Holy Spirit into your heart, and help you to overcome that ungodly appetite for “more, more, more”, that will never be satisfied.

INVITATION:

— There are a lot of practical ways we can respond to this scripture. But how do YOU need to apply it? Is there is some area in YOUR life where you have an ungodly appetite? Are you trying to fulfill your life with something other than God? It may even be a “good” thing or person – but you’re taking it too far; and the “more, more, more” is showing you this is not godly.  Ask God to show you what it is — and then what you should do about it. Maybe you need to get that thing out of your life.

— But the most important question is: do you have Jesus in your life, to give you the power to turn away from that thing, and to love HIM instead.

If you don’t know for sure, you can today …