[00:00:01] Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's Word you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to Him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 8:30 or 10:30am if you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, find
[email protected] Be sure to also check out our Bible Study podcast, Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies. Thanks again for stopping by.
[00:00:37] Want to say Happy Mother's Day to all of our moms out there?
[00:00:41] Whether you go by mom or Mommy or Mother or mom or whatever it may be, we want to say to you just how much we love you and appreciate you. There's one situation that I've seen in my life that kind of encapsulate a mother's power, and it's those moments where a child is either upset or crying or having one of those big moments where the tears pour and pour and pour and they've exasperated all of it to the point where they're now hyperventilating and, you know, having a hard time. And it seems to me that only mom can pull that child close to their heart.
[00:01:17] And the beating of the heart of that child is going 90 to nothing, but the mom's heart is calm and rested and it can't help but find itself drifting into that same beat pattern. And I see it all the time where only mom can bring that comfort. So, Moms, we love you and we're so thankful for you today. We're thankful for you every day, but especially today. We want to make sure that you know how much you're loved. Now, having said that, if you were looking for a sermon on, you know, Jochebed, Moses, mom, sheet of bomb, that's not happening today.
[00:01:51] We are still in the book of Lamentations and we are studying this book as we're going through and just kind of checking the setting and reminding ourselves of the background of this. And so, you know, we've talked about it quite a bit, but there were three sieges that took place on the city of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.
[00:02:10] And after the third, one and final time in 586 BC, what happened is they came in and completely dismantled all of Jerusalem, tore down the walls, tore down the buildings, tore down the houses, tore down the temple, took all the treasures and the things that are of major value, and left with all of it. In the process, they killed all of their fields. They did away with all of their provisions, everything that they might have had, and left them in a pile of rubble and smoke as it was burning to the ground in the process of all this. And as they were kind of experiencing these things, Jeremiah the prophet sat by and he watched, and he began to write five poems that we know as the Book of Lamentations. And so we have been studying this for two weeks.
[00:02:55] And it's understanding that background that helps us understand a term that we've been using called lament.
[00:03:03] And I loved how Andrew last week, kind of helping us understand what lament is. He left this on the screen for a little bit, and I want us to kind of digest it a little bit more.
[00:03:12] It says lament is profoundly relational expression of grief.
[00:03:18] Now, if you stop for that and just take that in for a moment, what lament is is a connection with God.
[00:03:27] And oftentimes, for those of you who are visiting with us, we've talked about this. But I want you to understand where we're coming from as we look into this. Lament is one of those things where it sounds like we're complaining and griping to God, but in reality, what God is wanting is a close proximity to us. And it's in those moments of fear, anger, hurt, all those things, that when we express those things to God, it actually is in some kind of way a way for us to honor God. It's recognizing that in our despair, in our tough times, and even in our complaints, there is someone that I can call out to who will listen.
[00:04:01] So it's taking our grief and our pain and boldly expressing that to God, the one who will listen for us.
[00:04:09] So while we're into this, I just want us to embrace this attitude, this reality that they're going through, to try to place ourselves in their circumstance and to see things from their angle. Because I think understanding the context helps us, as we read through this, to get what they're going through and the desperation that they find themselves in.
[00:04:29] I will tell you this, though. Lamentations, Chapter three is perhaps the one brighter spot of this book.
[00:04:38] It's the longest of the poems. It's 66 verses, as opposed to 22 and all the others.
[00:04:43] But it has this essence of hope. And I want you to be listening for it. I want you to be watching for it. I want you to be embracing of it as you consider the hostilities that they face, the abuse, the Abandonment, the ridicule and all of those things as Babylonians have taken them off into captivity and left a few remnants there in Jerusalem. Let's go to chapter three.
[00:05:07] Excuse me, Verse one.
[00:05:11] He says, I am the man who has seen affliction. Under the rod of his wrath he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light, surely against me. He turns his hand again and again the whole day long.
[00:05:26] I don't know if you've ever watched a cat get a mouse.
[00:05:30] And you know, oftentimes they'll put their paw on it and hold it in place and just sit there and look around like it's got nothing else to do, let it go, just to catch it again, just to catch it again, passing it back and forth and they'll just kind of swat back and forth.
[00:05:43] That's kind of the imagery that I get when I read this, that God is inflicting punishment upon them. He is giving his wrath. They are feeling the oppression of this. And it feels like it's a back and forth game like every other time. He's turning his head hand again and again and again. If you look at the metaphor in this or the phrase that's used in this text, it's the idea of this is something repetitive over and over and over again. So it's not like it's one bit of affliction. It's like it keeps coming in wave after wave after wave.
[00:06:15] But also he talks about this darkness, about being in darkness and without there being any light.
[00:06:21] And I don't know if you've ever been in a room that was completely depleted of light.
[00:06:26] But in those moments, I can tell you, you stay there long enough, your heart wants to see a flicker of light.
[00:06:33] But when we're in this place of darkness, I want you to understand what's happening is God's presence is not with us.
[00:06:41] He's the light. And so when we are filled with such darkness, we're not in his presence.
[00:06:47] And there's something deep inside of us that longs for the. That connection with him that longs to be in the light.
[00:06:54] So we long for it, we look for it. So it's this moment that we're trying to kind of capture a little bit to get the emotion of the situation. But another thing that I want you to understand is he uses the word Rod. And there's a couple of things that come to mind when I think about Rod. First of all, I think about the shepherd in Psalm 23, right? The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want He Makes me lie down in green pastures, and then it talks about the rod and the staff. You know, what it says about them, the rod and the staff? They comfort me. Right.
[00:07:24] I think about this in the sense of protection and watching out for us. You know, a shepherd would use a rod. It was kind of like a stick that they would use.
[00:07:32] And it was meant to be something that was used to protect and to watch over them. And if there were someone coming in that threatened the flocks, and they would go and they would take care of that. So that rod was a sense of comfort to the sheep because they knew that protection was there. Right.
[00:07:46] So a beautiful word picture there for us to think about. I think about it. In my neighborhood, there are lots of people who walk up and down the neighborhood, and they carry big sticks with them. You know, it's like, some of them, it looks like a baton. Some of them, it looks like a little fungo baseball bat. And then some people carry a golf club. I don't know why they do that, but maybe if big dogs get loose in our neighborhood, they'll have something to fight it off if they do so.
[00:08:09] But also, I think of Rod in another way, because growing up, my daughter Kenzie needed a firm hand and a talking to, and she would. She would straighten up.
[00:08:20] My boys.
[00:08:22] Well, I'll just say they needed a little bit more encouragement. Okay.
[00:08:25] And so, you know, we found out that if we pulled out a wooden spoon, that that would be enough to get their attention. Cindy would carry one in her diaper bag here at church, and she would pull that thing up if they got out of hand, you know?
[00:08:41] You know, and she would give them that mom eye, you know what I'm talking about? And they would straighten up, like, you know.
[00:08:46] So one year for her birthday, I think it was maybe Christmas, I don't remember exactly, but I got her. I found this wooden spoon, and it's about, I don't know, this big. And it's not the kind you all know in the 70s that you hung up on the wall. It was like a big spoon. It wasn't quite that big, but big and bamboo and lightweight. And I'll tell you what, if my boys get out of line to this day, and she says, let me get Rod. Like, they will go flying up the stairs giggling and laughing, but scared to death.
[00:09:13] Rod had a way of emphasizing the discipline and the correction that they needed.
[00:09:21] Well, look at this word, Rod.
[00:09:23] Isn't it interesting that the word here does mean, like, a bud, a shoot? It's like a little stick or something. And it's used for correction, for punishment and those kinds of things.
[00:09:31] But it's also used for other things, especially for protecting the people around us.
[00:09:37] And isn't it interesting that Jeremiah here uses something that we want to hold onto from the standpoint of comfort?
[00:09:44] It's that presence of God's protection.
[00:09:49] And even though Jeremiah understands it in that way, it seems to me that what he's doing is he's experiencing it from. From the other side of this. He's experiencing the pain and the sorrow of the discipline that that rod brings about when we reject and we fall away from Him.
[00:10:09] Listen to what it says in verses 4 through about 9.
[00:10:13] He has made my flesh and my skin waste away. He has broken my bones. He has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation. He has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago.
[00:10:27] He has walked with me so I cannot escape. He has made my chains heavy, though I call and cry out for help. He shuts out my prayer. He has blocked my ways with blocks of stones. He has made my paths crooked. I know right now you're thinking, well, happy Mother's Day, right? This is not all warm and sunshiny, right?
[00:10:50] But again, sometimes the things that we need to know are the contrast between obedience and rebellion. Think about Proverbs 3, 5, 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
[00:11:07] That's our God.
[00:11:09] He says, hey, in those moments when we are struggling, but we just trust in what he says.
[00:11:16] It says that he kind of straightens those paths for us.
[00:11:20] But then what's the other side of that? Well, it's this passage here, right? He's blocked my ways with blocks of stones. He has made my paths crooked. Like, can you see the visual of Jerusalem in rubble? And everywhere you walk, you can't stand because it's unsteady. You could trip. You could turn an ankle, you could fall. It makes the terrain so much more difficult. It's the same God who straightens the path to those who trust Him.
[00:11:43] The same God who will put every obstacle imaginable in your way as you rebel against Him.
[00:11:51] And all of this, all of this is meant to bring us back to Him. It's meant to remind us of the good days of when we love Him.
[00:12:01] One of the things that I did not mention early on, but I will say it here, is that the problem with Judah was they had gone into idolatry.
[00:12:11] They had left God. They had rejected him completely. They had looked at other gods and made their lives on those kinds of things. And God promised, after a certain amount of time, he said, that's it. The end is here. I can't stand this anymore.
[00:12:26] And so this is the God who made a promise to them. Andrew mentioned it last week. I mentioned it the first week. Deuteronomy chapter 28. There's about anywhere from 500 to 900 years that they drifted and drifted further away. But in Deuteronomy 28, he says, hey, when you trust in me and you give me your full heart, he says, I'm going to bless you. I'm going to make you prosper. I'm going to increase your number. I'm going to do all of these wonderful things, for I will be your protection and your provision.
[00:12:56] But if you choose to rebel against me, to reject me, oh, the punishment is just as hard. You'll be taken out of the land that I promised to give you. You're going to be taken away by other people. You're going to be in captivity, you're going to be in servitude. You're going to be in all of these things. And again, from Deuteronomy 28, remember this, that they had just been taken out of Egyptian slavery. And so now that the promise is to do the other.
[00:13:20] So God who straightens the path also has the power to. To make that terrain terrible.
[00:13:29] But then notice the analogies here. And this is difficult, right? As we imagine, they're connecting. And Jeremiah, as he's thinking about this situation, he's imagining other ways to say the same things, to express this from the heart to God, to express in some ways the difficulty of the situation. And so he says, it's like a lion or a bear in an ambush. Now, I know a lot of you guys have watched videos before where, you know, there's lines pouncing and they get really low and their shoulders are kind of shrugged and they're on the ground, they pounce at just the right time to get their prey. I know some of you have watched videos of guys who are in the woods somewhere up in a tree stand and they're hunting something, and they look and they see a bear. And the bear raises up and then makes a beeline for them. And they're on top of them so fast, you know, and it's scary.
[00:14:18] That's kind of what he's saying, is this happened so quickly. This happened like an ambush. And it was something that we didn't see coming. And it's amazing to us as we look back on their situation and go, how did they not know this was coming after all the warnings? But I guess when God's patience ran out, it was kind of a shock.
[00:14:37] Last week, Andrew talked about the rainbow, and I thought it was so beautiful. The illustration he did where the rainbow was a representation of God's love for us and his promises, for sure, but also the idea that in their mind, it was like an archer's bow, that the arrow was pointed up to heaven because Jesus is the one who paid the price for us. He paid the penalty for our sin. The arrow was aimed at him.
[00:15:00] But here he's saying the bow has been bent kind of in the opposite way. Now the target is us. Now the target is these people. And he says, you know, I even feel the archers, you know, arrows into my back and into my internal organs. It's difficult, it's piercing, it's overwhelming.
[00:15:18] Like a mocker singing a taunting song. Nobody likes that. You know what I'm talking about? That's kind of the way he finds a connection with it. And then he also says, like, judgment, like forcing someone to drink a poisoned drink, and then finally, like a torture. There's some scholars who say that in this process, they lost so much of their food and their provisions that they were having to scrape together anything they could to just find food to eat. And so whatever they would and would grab, you know, there was gravel and little tiny rocks and stuff, and they would just put up whatever handful they could get in their mouth. And oftentimes they were chewing on gravel and those kinds of things. We're talking desperation.
[00:15:55] Last week, we didn't get into all the details of it, but even to cannibalism, these were people who were struggling and suffering like you can't imagine and making decisions that we cannot fathom in our life.
[00:16:10] But they were doing that. That's how this assault impacted them.
[00:16:15] But again, in the absence of God's presence, we will experience the horrors and the evils and the darkness of that evil.
[00:16:25] But as I said before, in that darkness, it's just inherent in us. We want a light. We want to be able to see where we're going. We want to find something that will help us.
[00:16:36] And sometimes it's in those moments of darkness that we have to say, hey, it's better with God.
[00:16:43] And if you find yourself today in that situation where you just. You're wearing a lot of guilt, you're bearing the burdens of it, you Feel overwhelmed by it. And you keep you coming to church, but you haven't really truly confessed your sin. You may be wearing the mask or those kinds of things God is saying. You're still in the darkness, like, come to the light.
[00:17:07] It's often in that desperation that we find that hidden voice of hope.
[00:17:12] Hear the Words of Lamentations 3, 19, 20.
[00:17:16] Remember my affliction. He's saying this to himself. Remember my affliction and my wanderings. I need to remember this.
[00:17:24] I myself need to remember the struggles that I'm going through, the burdens that I'm carrying, the consequences that are overwhelming me. I. I need to remember that. I need to remember the wanderings and the wormwood and the gall, all of these things that are awful and bitter to the taste.
[00:17:40] My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.
[00:17:46] You ever been somewhere, maybe a funeral or some other place where grief hit someone, sorrow hit them so deeply that their legs just kind of buckled under them? Overwhelming.
[00:18:02] That's kind of the idea here, that without strength, that means I'm doubled over. And even inside, deep inside of me, is this hurt and this anguish for what I'm experiencing, for what I am going through in this moment.
[00:18:16] I think about that phrase within me.
[00:18:20] You know, we sing a song here at Madison that has that phrase in it, and it comes from Psalm 42, and you'll all recognize it, and Andrew read it earlier.
[00:18:31] As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after you. And that song, we think of it and it's. It's kind of a beautiful song where we're appealing to God and we're giving him our best. And even parts of that psalm are that way.
[00:18:43] But there's the first part of the psalm that uses the same terminology, and it's that song as the deer thirsts.
[00:18:52] And this one is not so much. Oh, I just am so satisfied with you, Lord. It's. I'm starving.
[00:18:59] I'm in, you know, absolute misery. And I'm like in this dry land without any water. And I am thirsting. Lord, where are you?
[00:19:10] And I'd like for us to sing that song. No songbook, no words on the screen.
[00:19:15] If you want to turn to Psalm 42, you can.
[00:19:18] But I want us to sing this song from that perspective, because from that perspective is how it's intended for us to understand it. It's that voice of lamentation. So sing with me, if you don't mind.
[00:19:31] As the deer thirst for the water, Lord, so my soul.
[00:19:47] My soul thirsts for the living God.
[00:19:55] Yes, My soul longs after you and I pour out my soul deep within me Deep within me I pour out my soul Draw me deeper, Lord Deeper, Lord, in you Draw me deeper, Lord Deeper, Lord.
[00:20:45] Do you feel the despair?
[00:20:49] Do you feel the struggle? Do you feel the desire for God as the dear thirst? So my soul longs after you Cry deep within me I hope that you're kind of capturing the power of lament.
[00:21:06] Because it forces us to dig deep inside of us. The heaviest weight often to lift is that head that is bowed down in sorrow over our own sin.
[00:21:18] But if I could say, this is the very moment that we gotta dig a little bit deeper and find something inside of us that causes us to rise up and say, but there is hope. I have got to find a way to put my trust in God to help me through this.
[00:21:36] And that lament is our way of honoring God. Because it says, you are the one who can make all of this right.
[00:21:45] Listen to what it says in Lamentations 3:21.
[00:21:48] But this I call to mind. And therefore I have hope. Listen, this language is strong. It's not like, oh, I thought about this the other day. No, this is about in the midst of the sorrow, in the midst of this desperation, the grief that I'm experiencing, the consequences all around me, the fact that God is nowhere to be seen inside me, deep within me.
[00:22:10] I pull this up in the deepest resources of my mind. And I say, God is faithful.
[00:22:17] And I can call this to mind because I can have hope in the one who will bring me back where I need to be. And we all have this power, this proactive pivot is what I like to think of. It is in these moments, we have the ability, the capacity, every one of us, to say, yes, this is terrible. Yes, I have brought this upon myself. But I will choose to view God as the source of my hope. And it's a mental refocus on the one who gives us that mercy.
[00:22:48] In this context, in this background, in this lament, these are the words of the song that we've already sung.
[00:22:59] And I have to say to you that it's been one of my favorite songs all of my life.
[00:23:07] But I've always thought of it as such a beautiful and longing expression about how God is good.
[00:23:15] Just to be reminded of those kinds of things.
[00:23:18] But, folks, we do it a little bit of a disservice if we don't understand the context behind it.
[00:23:24] It's out of this misery that this Ryder says. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases his mercies never come to an end.
[00:23:37] They are new every morning.
[00:23:40] Great is your faithfulness.
[00:23:43] The Lord is my portion, says my soul.
[00:23:46] And therefore I will hope in him.
[00:23:50] Let's sing one more verse of that song in that context.
[00:23:55] And let's remember from where this came from, this sorrow, this grief, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases his mercies never come to an end.
[00:24:14] They are new every morning.
[00:24:18] Great is thy faithfulness, is my portion, says my soul.
[00:24:31] Therefore I will hold in him, Therefore I will hold.
[00:24:52] It changes the way we see that day. It like. Is it possible for us to have that kind of courage in the midst of the despair, in the midst of the battle?
[00:25:04] Is it possible for us to have that hope ourselves?
[00:25:09] Is it possible for us, even in the difficulties of life, to say it's okay?
[00:25:16] Something's inside of me saying, it's going to be okay. And even though it's difficult, I'm going to hope.
[00:25:23] Listen, he says this, the Lord is my portion. This goes all the way back to when the Israelites were taken into the land of Canaan. Do you remember it? They were. Each of the tribes were given, like, certain allotments of property and different areas, and they were given these designations. This is your area. And you know, Asher, your land is over here and Naphtali over here and all these things. But to the Levites, it was God who said to them, I am your portion.
[00:25:48] So do you hear the words of Jeremiah saying, I don't have a place. I don't have a home to live in. I don't have the food, I don't have my provisions. I don't have the protection. I don't have the security. All those walls have come crumbling down. But you know what? I do have the Lord. And he is the one who is the proportion of all of those things. He is the one that gives me all of those things that I need in my life.
[00:26:12] I don't need anything else. And let me tell you something. This is the attitude that I think God wants all of us to exhibit.
[00:26:19] It's no matter the circumstance in life, no matter how difficult it gets or how much my consequences have poured over me over and over, he's saying to you, he is still your portion, and it's up to you to buy into it.
[00:26:34] When we rediscover, when our minds get to this point, when we rediscover hope, what I want you to understand is silence is an invitation to see things through the lens of endurance.
[00:26:47] What do I mean by that?
[00:26:50] Well, we don't just confess and all of a sudden all of our woes in life are gone away.
[00:26:59] We don't just say, okay, God, forgive me.
[00:27:02] And then all the wrongs that have been going on in our lives suddenly, you know, just drift away.
[00:27:10] No, there's a struggle in that.
[00:27:14] But this kind of mindset pivoting in such a way that refocuses my hope in Christ and in God, gives me the ability to see things with a different perspective. Listen to these words. The Lord is good to those who wait for him.
[00:27:28] In fact, the word for wait for him is also the same word that was used for I will hope in him. Same kind of thought process. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quick, quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Sometimes we need to wait.
[00:27:49] Sometimes we just need to be in silence.
[00:27:53] In fact, he says this. Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him. And the it there is a yoke, if you read the verse before it talks about it gives the imagery of them being led off into slavery with those yokes attached to their head. And he said, let that burden be so heavy that. That it makes you face plant and that dust is getting into your mouth. He said, I need you to understand that you got to hit rock bottom before you will really realize the hope that is found in me.
[00:28:24] How many of you have seen this movie, Facing the Giants?
[00:28:28] This is a scene that is so inspirational, and I'd love to just play it for you this morning. Some of you are playing out in your head right now because you've seen this, but it's an unbelievable movie, talking about conquering your fears and being the best you can be and giving your all and all those things. And this is the pivotal moment in the movie where a football coach is talking to his team and he's trying to get them to understand, to give their very best. And one of the leaders of the team, his name was Brock. He said, you know, Brock, what do you think about this game? I don't know, Coach, I guess we'll be okay or whatever. And he says, hey, that's not what I'm looking for in a leader on my team. Brock, hop up. I'm going to get you to do a death crawl. He's like, oh, man. So now I'm being punished because I don't know if we're going to win this next game. And the coach says, I just need you to do this for me, I need you to give me your very best. You're going to do a death crawl in front of all your teammates. And the death crawl was getting on all fours, but your knees couldn't touch the ground and you had to low crawl all the way across to the 30 yard line. And so he says, coach, am I doing it to the 30 yard line? He said, don't worry about the distance.
[00:29:31] He said, you just give me your best. He said, and by the way, you're gonna do this with a teammate strapped on your back.
[00:29:37] So a teammate was called out of the group and he got and laid on his back and kind of held on for dear life. And he began to so call. He says, well, do I go to the 30? He says, Listen, you're gonna do it with a blindfold on. I don't want you looking at a yard line and saying, you're done. I want you to give me your very, very best.
[00:29:55] And so they start, and of course all the other guys, you know, are sitting over there on the sideline and they're laughing at him. You know, they're like, he just, just got called out. He's having to pay for this because he didn't say the right thing. And so they're kind of chuckling or whatever. And the coach Stan says, okay, get ready and go. And so he's walking alongside him and he's going, hey, you got this. Come on, give me your best, all you got.
[00:30:17] And so he's just talking to him and he's walking alongside him. Just don't you want, don't you quit. Don't you quit. Don't you even think about quitting. Coach, I'm tired. I know you're tired. Fight through it. And so he keeps talking to him and he keeps crawling, and after a while he starts calling. And the boys who were laughing now are all of a sudden standing up and they're kind of walking down the field with him as they're watching what's taking place. And it gets more intense. The coach is like, don't you stop. And his arms quake. He says, I'm just stopping for rest. Don't you stop for a rest. You keep pushing, you keep going. Don't you dare quit on me. Don't you dare quit on me. And he gets more and more intense. And by the time this seat is over with, the coach is on his hands and he's in his ear going, you can do it. Don't you stop. You've got more in you.
[00:31:01] And he finally gets to the end. And his arms collapse. And he says, coach, I don't have anything left to give you. I gave it all.
[00:31:09] He said, son, look, you're in the other end zone.
[00:31:14] I just want you to understand something about God.
[00:31:18] The Bible says that he's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. He wants every single one of us to come back to him.
[00:31:26] And I can see him as that coach going, hey, come on. Just come on back. Just give me your best. Just give me the very best you got. It's okay. Your best may fall short of where someone else is, but that's okay. Just give me your best and keep working. And when we want to quit, don't you know. He's going, hey, don't you quit on me. Don't you quit on me. And as we get further and further down the road and we're getting weary and we're getting tired of this journey, and we're just so sick of it and everything, and he's saying, don't you quit on me. You fight, you fight. You give me the very best you got.
[00:31:55] That's the God that we serve.
[00:32:00] And it's when we yield to his instruction, his correction, his discipline, that we're going to find something deep inside of us that we didn't know we had before. Changing our focus gives us the ability to see this long distance, this endurance process.
[00:32:19] Why? Because verse 31 says this.
[00:32:23] For the Lord will not cast off forever.
[00:32:26] There's the hope, right?
[00:32:28] He's resting in the promises. The Lord will not cast off forever. For though he may cause grief, he will also have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love. He's promised this. So it's almost like, no, I know what this is. This is actually a refinement of me. This is challenging me to. To stop and consider what I need to do. And again, that journey is very difficult and long. And one of the more painful parts of this is that we can't just fix everything all at one time, right? We can't just say that prayer and everything goes away. No, we come to this part of the journey, and it's very difficult.
[00:33:00] And I think as we go, and as things don't just work out the way we assume they should, we get to this crossroads and we either complain that God is not doing what we've asked him to do to fix our lives, or we stop and we get a little bit deeper into who we are and evaluate where we are in life and ask Ourselves. The question have I really confessed it all?
[00:33:32] Listen to these words. Will you complain or will you confess?
[00:33:37] Verse 38 and 39. Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?
[00:33:43] Why should a living man complain a man about his punishment of his sins?
[00:33:48] Do you see what he's saying? I mean, how is it that we, after we have left and rebelled against God and are being punished for our sin, feel like we have a right to tell him when that punishment should end?
[00:34:02] You understand? That kind of places us back in control again and ultimately God is still in control.
[00:34:08] Or do we end those moments of difficulty, stop and look inwardly?
[00:34:14] Notice. 40, 42.
[00:34:17] Let us test and examine our ways and return to the Lord. Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven.
[00:34:26] We have transgressed and rebelled and he has not forgiven.
[00:34:29] You see the difference?
[00:34:31] One says, God, do what I ask of you.
[00:34:34] The other one says, God, help me realize what I need to do.
[00:34:40] There's a difference in these two attitudes.
[00:34:43] So are we going to be complainers? Are we going to people who confess again and dig a little bit deeper and come completely clean again? God is saying, I want all of you.
[00:34:56] I don't want a partial confection. I don't want a half hearted commitment. I don't want you to come in and try to save face. No, I want you to bear it all.
[00:35:07] And it's in that moment where we empty ourselves that God can fill our hearts and help us through life.
[00:35:14] But even in that long journey, even in the waiting, there are moments of hope. Verse 56 and 57, you heard my plea, do not close your ear to my cry for help.
[00:35:26] And then you came near when I called on you and you said, do not fear.
[00:35:31] You understand, like what's happening here in Jeremiah's heart is the reality that God is faithful.
[00:35:39] You don't have to fear this.
[00:35:41] Just keep plugging along, keep going through this and on the other side there's going to be a blessing.
[00:35:47] So this morning, leave you just with a few questions.
[00:35:51] The first one is, when life is tough and difficult for you, you know, will you dare to place your hope in God when everybody else is complaining and everybody wants to run off and do their own thing and reject God and turn their backs on him even more?
[00:36:06] Will you have the courage to put your hope in him?
[00:36:10] The second thing is, will you yield yourself over to God's discipline, see it as that, and allow him to work on the inside of you?
[00:36:22] And then the real question is, do I need to confess.
[00:36:28] And will I truly confess?
[00:36:31] There's no doubt there are people in this room who are going through things that you don't quite understand or you know, why won't we confess those things?
[00:36:43] And let me ask you another follow up question to that is.
[00:36:46] Does what other people think about you in your confession matter more than the God who will relieve you of that burden?
[00:36:55] That's a question we have to ask and we have to answer for ourselves this morning.
[00:37:02] I love this chapter because it says there's hope. If you read the last part of this chapter, basically Jeremiah says, I know I have confidence that you will take care of our enemy.
[00:37:14] And the reality is God does take care of the enemy.
[00:37:18] This morning. Where will you put your hope?
[00:37:22] I hope it's in Jesus Christ and His forgiveness.
[00:37:25] And the hope that we have in him leads us to eternal salvation.
[00:37:29] And all we have to do is give our heart to him and live for him every day and give him everything.
[00:37:36] But the reward of that is so, so beautiful this morning. If you have a need, please come while we gotta be standing.
