Sermon Text: Lamentations 3: 23-33
23 They’re created new every morning. How great your faithfulness!
24 I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over). He’s all I’ve got left.
25 God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks.
26 It’s a good thing to quietly hope, quietly hope for help from God.
27 It’s a good thing when you’re young to stick it out through the hard times.
28 When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence.
29 Bow in prayer. Don’t ask questions: Wait for hope to appear.
30 Don’t run from trouble. Take it full-face. The “worst” is never the worst.
31 Why? Because the Master won’t ever walk out and fail to return.
32 If he works severely, he also works tenderly. His stockpiles of loyal love are immense.
33 He takes no pleasure in making life hard, in throwing roadblocks in the way:
Morning Message:
Let me start this morning by saying that when I first started preaching, I never imagined that I would ever preach from the book of Lamentations. Lamentations is often called the most sorrowful book in the bible, written by the most sorrowful author—Jeremiah—known as the weeping prophet. I have learned through the years that there are wonderful lessons and instructions hidden in some of the saddest parts of God’s word. If you study God’s word you will find connections that will give you a deeper understanding. I have come to realize in my life, that to fully appreciate God’s blessings, we must experience the trials and tribulations, the sad times. To lament means to express grief or regret, over or for something: a vocal expression of grief. It can be very therapeutic sometimes to just scream. Have you ever felt like just screaming out your pain and frustration to God? That is part of what prayer can be in our lives. God knows how you feel, and He is not going to be offended by your words, your anger, or your frustration. God knows just how human we are. Once we let it out, then God can start the process of giving us understanding.
I find these words uplifting and hopeful. No matter what life throws at us, because of God’s great love, we are not consumed. Even in our deepest, darkest places God’s compassion and faithfulness shines through. Verse 25 says: The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Let me give you the example in Mark’s gospel. Jairus came to Jesus, and when he saw Jesus what did he do? He fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with Jesus to come and heal his daughter. How did he approach Jesus? He came humbly, but he also came boldly to Jesus for the sake of his daughter. Do you think that this was easy for him? He was a leader in the Jewish synagogue, a place where Jesus was not very popular. His fellow priests and leaders would not have been happy with him; in fact they would have most likely removed him from his position of leadership. These were the very people that would eventually have Jesus put to death, so I am sure that they took some kind of action against Jairus. Prayer, asking God for something in the name of Jesus, is a very personal thing, but it should never feel like it has to be a private matter. We need to be bold in our prayer lives and not be afraid for the world to know that we are prayerful people.
A large crowd followed Jesus as he made his way to the home of Jairus. This probably looked like a parade. People were pressing in on Jesus trying to get as close as they could, and, probably wanting to see if he would heal this little girl.
Let’s look at the other example in Mark today. This woman, in my estimation, displays some of the greatest faith captured in all of scripture. Suffering from bleeding for 12 years, she finds the courage and the strength to push her way through the crowd and get to Jesus. That took a lot, but here is the step of faith: she believes if she can only touch his clothes, she will be healed, and she is. She didn’t feel like she needed to call attention to herself; she didn’t need to be acknowledged by Jesus or even speak to him; she believed, and so she was healed. The healing power of Jesus touched her because she was willing to faithfully touch his clothing and trust that’s all it would take. Twelve years of misery but a faith that convinced her that this was all she needed to be healed. I would have most likely felt like I needed to tackle Jesus and keep him there until I was healed. I am not letting go Jesus until you take away this infirmity.
Let’s return for a minute to Lamentations. I want you to listen and hear something very important that today’s world needs to heed. Let him sit alone in silence, for the Lord has laid it on him. Let him bury his face in the dust—there may yet be hope. Let him offer his check to one who would strike him and let him be filled with disgrace. I honestly never really know what God is going to give me to say to you in these messages. I go in with an idea, but sometimes God places upon my heart something that needs to be spoken. Jeremiah is speaking to the nation of Israel. They have been removed from their land and taken into captivity because of their sins against God. God has promised that he will return them to the land, but Jeremiah wants to make sure they know what they have done, and how they have offended God. Do you know what one of their biggest sins was? Pride; they were so busy being proud of themselves and the blessings that God had given them they forgot about God. God loves all people but there are things – attitudes – that the bible says God hates. The one that really sticks out is that God can’t stand self-pride. I find it very ironic that in this nation, with all our problems, we chose to make a month pride-month. Do you know how I know this is wrong? Because the whole world has accepted it. You can’t turn on your TV or watch the news without hearing how great it is to celebrate pride- month. The bible says that pride comes before a fall.
A woman was healed, and a child was brought back to life because of courageous faith and the touch of a loving Savior. I want you to notice the instructions of Jesus after he brought this little girl back to life. He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this. You might think that he could have used this to draw great attention to himself and his ministry. Instead, he gives us an example to follow: do God’s will and God’s work without calling attention to yourself. Even good intentions and good works can produce pride in us, and that is not pleasing to God. All of us, everyone in this world, needs to remember this one simple fact about who we are. We are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God. We are saved by God’s grace alone. Only God is good. There is nothing about us apart from our faith in Jesus that makes us acceptable to God.
In Christ’s Love and Peace
Pastor Bob
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