God's Mercy in the Midst of Disaster - Lamentations 3

this is a message from the Ministry of Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara for more information about our church please visit calvary us be calm good morning everybody since the last Sunday of October that's the last time I stood before you to preach it's been busy I've been to Europe a couple times for ministry taught several conferences did a block class at a Bible College worked on Bible commentary it's exciting to be able to say that my commentary on the book of Acts is now translated into Arabic and hopefully yes praise the Lord and hopefully by the end of this month it'll be up on the website and England I took holiday over the holidays in Sweden and in England with family that was a very precious time and we also got to visit a couple of our missionaries that we support here in our church both from sweden and marshall and debbie Allnut they're in London I was preaching at their church this last Sunday and it was a great time the most significant event for us personally in the last week was last Monday was Engel illinois' 35th wedding anniversary stand up sweetie the truth so 35 years and it was a special anniversary but we're very blessed by all the work that God's doing and I'm very blessed by just the support and a partnership that this wonderful congregation and Pastor Tommy has in the wertham - I'm just asked for your continued prayers this Thursday I get on a plane all over again to go to Germany for a conference and to speak at a church and then to do a pastors conference for Western European pastors and so we just always need your prayer and your encouragement thank you for being so generous with it but really the best thing that I have to give you this morning is I think something from God's Word and it's a message that I'm gonna entitle God's mercy in the midst of disaster so if you would open up your Bibles to lamentations chapter 3 don't be embarrassed if you need your table of contents to find the book of lamentations lamentations is a shorter book of the Bible sandwiched right in between jeremiah and ezekiel and again if you need to use the table of contents in the beginning of your Bible that's fine you may not have read the book of lamentations very much I must confess that I've never taught verse by verse through the book of lamentations but chapter 3 I think speaks to us and to our present moment in a very powerful way lamentations is written in an acrostic format in other words it follows in its poetry the ABCD of the Hebrew alphabet and sort of one of the things that it communicates to us is that it's trying to give us almost a dictionary of the grief of human suffering lamentations was written by the Prophet Jeremiah and written on the occasion of the destruction of Jerusalem when we take a look at the devastation that's hit our own community and it is devastation we've all seen it on the television some of us has seen it with our own eyes it is devastation but that kind of thing that was devastation in a few areas of Montecito it was spread out over an entire capital city in the days of Jeremiah with Jerusalem and he shares in such a personal and powerful way giving eloquent expression both to the grief of the human heart and the hope that God has in the midst of it but first let's take a look at the grief lamentations chapter 3 beginning here at verse 1 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath he has led me and made me walk in darkness and not in light surely he has turned his hand against me time and time again throughout the day he has aged my flesh and my skin and broken my bones he has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and woe he has set me in dark places like the dead of long ago he has hedged me and so that I cannot get out he has made my chain heavy even when I cry and shout he shuts out my prayer he has blocked my ways with hewn stone he has made my paths crooked in chapters 1 and 2 of lamentations Jeremiah wrote speaking of the city of Jerusalem as a whole personified now in chapter 3 he takes the place of one individual sufferer and pours out his heart but before it was in the general now it's in the specific and brothers/sisters I find something right there for us to take notice of to notice that this kind of suffering this kind of grief it's personal you know we talk about our community being stunned and it is but there are personal stories of grief personal stories of stress personal stories of displacement and fear nightmares that come back to us again and again and again it may come this suffering that Jeremiah speaks of it may come to a nation or a community but it always impacts individual lives those who have suffered those who have been displaced you're not just it's just a statistic you're not just a number you're not just a name on a news report you're a person before God whom God cares for very deeply at the same time we recognize the attitude of heart that Jeremiah speaks of in verse three did you see that line you almost surprised that it's in the Bible aren't you surely he has turned his hand against me that's a darkened desperate place look it's one thing to feel like I had a bad day the brakes aren't going my way but when you feel that God Himself isn't on your side it causes a lot of fear and apprehension now listen I'm grateful for two things I'm grateful that Jeremiah did not stay in this place and hang on we're gonna get to a more hopeful section of this but I'm also grateful that he gave expression to it sometimes we as Christians we play a little bit too much let's pretend and when somebody's burdened with grief when somebody's impacted by catastrophe our attitude is what come on aren't you over it now I'm happy that God gives vent to this kind of agony to this kind of pain now there's the the shining light of hope that we're gonna see later on but we don't condemn the person who feels the agony now I must say and this is a very important point please don't miss this that there's a great contrast between the events that Jeremiah spoke about and lamentations and what we're talking about here in our own community because listen this is a community that's been afflicted over the past month is it not when England and I left for our trip to spend the holiday with family in Sweden and in England when we left Santa Barbara was on fire and when we came back on Tuesday we couldn't get to the city because of the floods we had to fly in instead of driving I mean between the fire and floods and mud and death and evacuations and destruction and all the rest of it people wonder what's going on now let me be very clear with this with Jerusalem in Jeremiah's day it had been announced for at least a hundred years before the fall of Jerusalem this is the judgment of God and it was announced by God's legitimate authoritative prophets not the phony-baloney kind but but true prophets of God announced that his judgement was coming he warned about his judgment upon Jerusalem again and again this hasn't happened with what's happened in Montecito listen we all want to do that don't we I mean natural disaster happens somewhere it's a judgment of God tornadoes in Iowa hunts the judgment of God hurricanes on the East Coast that's a judgment of God when it comes to your own community then like well wait a minute and I know what some people are thinking what's all those movie stars in Montecito it's a judgment of God listen brother sister have a clear mind about this this is not like the fall of Jerusalem where God pronounced for at least a hundred years before that his judgment was coming this is more like what Jesus spoke about in the Gospel of Luke chapter 13 verse 4 where he talked about the fall of the Tower of Siloam and he said do you think that those people who were killed and what we might call the natural disaster of the fall of the tower asylum do you think that they were worse sinners than anybody else and he said they weren't worse sinners than anybody else it's not like a natural disaster is necessarily an expression of God's judgment we don't want to be those people who are so quick to say oh it's a judgment of God it's a judgment of God now we also don't want to be those people who act as if it's impossible for God to express his judgement in some time or place but I think we can all agree on this and this is the point that Jesus made in Luke chapter 13 with his story about the Tower of Siloam Jesus made the point he said listen you need to wake up I'm paraphrasing Jesus has thought there of course in Luke chapter 13 verses 4 & 5 you need to wake up and make sure that you're right with God friends I I can't say and I certainly would not say that what happened in our area in our community over the last month is a judgment of God but I will say it's a wake-up call for each individual person isn't it it's a wake-up call for us to see that the abundance of our life does not consist in what we possess it's a wake-up call for us to see that the important things really are what God does in and through us as a community it's a wake-up call for us to love one another and to look out after one another and to realize that there's a message of new life in Jesus Christ that we have a responsibility to get out to a needy world this is the wake-up call that God gives us through events such as this so when we read the agonized grief of the man in the Book of Lamentations Jeremiah the Prophet we don't automatically transfer the same principle it's a different thing with Jerusalem in his day but we learn from it and we learn from it from a man who feels like God is pushing him away in the midst of his grief and well he continues on look at verse 10 he has been to me a bear lying and wait like a lion in ambush he's turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces he's made me desolate he's bent his bow he set me up as a target for the arrow he's caused the arrows of his quiver to pierce my loins I've become the ridicule of all my people they're taunting song all the day he's filled me with bitterness he's made me drink wormwood he's also broken my teeth with gravel and covered me with ashes you've moved my soul far from peace I've forgotten prosperity and I've said my strengths and my hope had perished from the Lord in this beautiful but dark poetic eloquence Jeremiah described all the ways that he felt God was coming against him God was like in verse 10 the bear and the lion waiting for a surprise attack God was in verse 12 like the archer who bent his bow and was using him as target practice God was the mocker in verse 14 with a taunting song against his people and verse 15 God's the judge giving a cup of judgment wormwood for the condemned to drink in verse 16 God is the brute breaking teeth with gravel we look at all of this and this is such an eloquent it's beautiful in its darkness expressing the grief God where are you in the midst of this and in his agonized cry he comes to verse 18 and look closely with verse 18 with me he says my strength and my hope have perished from the Lord now that sounds like a very dark statement doesn't it my strength has perished from the Lord my hope has perished from the Lord it sounds so dark but I want you to notice there is the flicker of light in verse 18 that's going to expand to a torch light in the following verses now do you know what the flicker of light is in verse 18 it's the name of God when you look at lamentations chapter 3 verses 1 through 18 you will find repeated reference I counted I think it's 18 or 20 repeated reference to God as a distant third person he is just look at those verses he is over and over again finally at verse 18 he mentions for the first time the name of God Yahweh the Lord the Covenant God of Israel the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the God may I say perfectly revealed to us in Jesus Christ he mentions him by name it's no longer he it's no longer his in verse 18 even though it's a dark saying he's calling on the name of the Lord my strength and my hope have perished from the Lord and it's as if that bare mention of the name of God more than just he or him that provides a flicker of light that as I said you just wait it's gonna turn into a torch light in just a few moments there's a huge lesson for us friends when God was distant to Jeremiah just two he just to him there wasn't much hope in that he kept spiraling down in a cascading waterfall of destruction and despair but as soon as he named the name of God as soon as it was Yahweh the Covenant God of Israel and not just a distant he or him that's when things begin to change can I apply this for you in your time of despair and crisis the man upstairs isn't enough a higher power isn't enough some vague God who's out there but you don't know that's not enough you need the God revealed to us in Jesus Christ you need the Lord Yahweh the Covenant God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob you need the one revealed to us in truth and as long as it was distant as long as it was third-person he his him nothing got better but now even if it's in a dark way he mentions the Lord Yahweh the light begins to turn on look at verse 19 and 20 remember my affliction and roaming the wormwood and the gall my soul still remembers in syncs within me that Jeremiah wasn't looking too positive thinking as the cure for his deep affliction he actually felt it was useful to remember it and he called upon God to remember it to understand it for what it was he wasn't trying to pretend that it wasn't there and then he says in verse 20 my soul still remembers and sinks within me it was good for Jeremiah's soul to sink low enough to where it could find its footing on the rock and sink no deeper and that's exactly where he rests because he's transitioned from complaint to humility now he's calling out to God I'm low before you God and brothers and sisters let me be very honest with you there is a place for calling out your complaint before God every life has its own suffering and we're not here in some kind of bizarre contest to compare suffering isn't that weird how we sometimes mentally do that oh well they lost their car that's pretty bad oh but then they lost their house oh oh but then then this dear relative was lost to them over then this spouse was lost well then this child is lost and we have a way of trying to compare people suffering and make that kind of equation I just want you to clear all of that out of your mind and just understand that each individual life has its own pain has its own suffering but if they will receive it it also has its own comfort from the Lord Jesus Christ and in the midst of all of this Jeremiah is remembering any as I said before he's transitioned from complaint to humility there is a place in your own individual pain for calling out your complaint against God and the Bible gives many such examples of this but it isn't the place to live if these first 20 verses of lamentations chapter 3 resonate with your heart and say that's where I'm at well good those verses are in the Bible there for you to say that God hears your grief he recognizes it he'll latch on to it he understands it maybe even more eloquently than you understand it but there has to be that place that transition from complaint to humility before God because God is God and he governs this universe and knows what he's doing and that transition from complaint to humility leads us to verse 21 are you ready for the light to explode forth and a dawn of a new day because here it is in verse 21 this I recall to mind therefore I have hope through the Lord's mercies we're not consumed because his Compassion's fail not they are new every morning great is your faithfulness is that beautiful you see he transitioned from God being vaguely out there to a person the Lord upon whom he called he transitioned from complaint to humility and now his eyes are open to see the goodness and the power of God verse 21 this I recall to mind therefore I have hope for perhaps the first time in the whole Book of Lamentations hope is allowed he sunk low in his soul but now he remembers something that starts hope within him and he says this it's his triumphant declaration look at verse 20 through through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed now I know somebody may think this is faulty logic but there's real logic Jeremiah looked over the devastation of Jerusalem and he said it could have been worse look at how God's evidence of preservation what was seen here and here and here and here my friends there is definitely a place for that kind of thinking as bad as the devastation is there was an example of God's mercy in goodness and that things were not completely consumed wherever God leaves life he leaves hope and he does it through His mercies through the Lord's mercies were not consumed that word mercies I got to control myself right now because it's one of the great words of the Old Testament I want to go off on a preaching tangent on that great word it's the great Hebrew word has said and it means God's covenant love his loyal love his long-standing mercy his great mercy towards his people and it's one of the most triumphant words in the entire Old Testament vocabulary in the ancient Hebrew this has said from the Lord is God's Word to his people that I'm gonna stick by you that I've made a covenant with you that I'll never forsake you it's as loyal love it's the great compassion that pours forth from God through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed look at the next line in verse 22 because his Compassion's fail not even in the severity of the destruction that jeremiah saw in the Jerusalem of his day he realized that there was evidence of his Compassion's brothers sisters we see it all over Montecito right there right now we're not his Compassion's seen in the many rescues were not his Compassion's seen in the bravery of the first responders we're not his Compassion's seen in the love and the support of god's people that's why one of the things I'm so excited about the open doors that God has given us as a congregation to really go forth and show forth the love of Jesus right there in Montecito we are in evidence that his Compassion's fail not god bless Pastor Tommy in the leadership of a church for not just seeing that open door but walking through it and saying let's make the most of it as possible we are going to go forth and be a living evidence God's Compassion's fail not just look at us right here and then you can see that his Compassion's fail not in the response of the community to rally around and to rebuild his Compassion's are seen even in the simplest of signs listen England I we were coming back from Europe last Tuesday when all of his hit so I didn't see this personally but I saw it from lots of posts online Facebook and as such that even in the midst of all of it God paid in some beautiful rainbows in the sky just to testify of his presence and of that truth that his Compassion's fail not we can take confidence in that matter of fact not only do they not fail look at verse 23 they are new every morning every dawning day gives us hope and fresh mercies and compassion from God I don't know about you I need new mercies and Compassion's every morning from God don't you sometimes I've worried if I wore them all out the day before but God says no here's new mercies for a new day no matter how bad the previous day was God's people can look to the morning with faith and hope and they're always new because they come from God you know our treasures that we have they often become like stagnant pools but God's mercies are like ever flowing streams if you ever follow an ever flowing stream you know take a walk along sometimes you'll lose sight of it you have to go around a bend or over a hill you lose sight of the stream but it's always there and God's mercies are just like that like an ever-flowing stream they're always there even if we lose sight of them for the moment and His mercies are truly new every morning every morning and the night every morning brings a new day every morning brings new provision for the day every morning brings new forgiveness for sins every morning brings new strength for the temptations and the Tylan jizz you're gonna face that particular day and so when Jeremiah thinks about all of that what does he say he says what you and I would say look at verse 23 with me gray is your faithfulness you never fail in sending your mercies and Compassion's even in their catastrophe God was faithful and we trust in the faithfulness of our great God we sing that together this morning didn't we great is your faithfulness because it's true now we end with just a look at verses 24 25 and 26 these describe God's goodness to the seeking soul look at the peace Jeremiah comes to starting at verse 24 the Lord is my portion says my soul therefore I hope in him the Lord is good to those who wait for him to the soul who seeks him it is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord we need to come to the place where we can say with satisfaction and triumph just like Jeremiah said the Lord is my portion do you understand what that means you ever ordered at a restaurant and get a portion of food and you're immediately dissatisfied with it it's too small you wish you would have ordered what they had but whatever's before you like man I didn't want this that's not being happy with your portion here's the lesson when the Lord is your portion your soul will be a piece and sometimes what a catastrophe what a disaster like this does is it clears away the things that maybe before we made at our portion a certain standing a certain house a certain place in our heart a certain sense security that everything's great maybe those things were our portion and we come back no those things have no real security the Lord is my portion and the Lord will never forsake us oh it doesn't mean that everything's going to be easy and good it doesn't mean that we'll be rescued from every calamity but God will never forsake us nothing can separate us from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus and that's our peace that's our rest in the midst of it God faithfully ministered to the people after the fall and the devastation of Jerusalem he doesn't here in our own day as well Jeremiah had that satisfied soul with it and I can't a hear that we have much greater reason for satisfaction sold and even Jeremiah add because we have the revelation of Jesus Messiah we know so much more about the person and work of God then even Jeremiah did so we should be able to say even more confidently verse 24 therefore I hope in him Jesus you are my portion you're the one who rescued me from sin and shame you're the one who rescued me from my dishonor from my weakness for my vulnerability to a hostile world around me you are my rescuer Jesus because of what you did on the cross because you came and identified with sinful weak people like us we find our refuge in you therefore verse 25 the Lord is good to those who wait for him to the soul who seeks in him and now verse 26 it is good that he should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord you know something's good it's worth waiting for I can tell you that it's worth waiting for God in his work if you were people near you are stressed agonized devastated about what's happened in the last month this message is not all about get over it God is good this message is about put your hope in the Lord and wait on him he will come to you he will meet your need in the very deepest place of your heart this is God's faithful assurance to us the God who revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ can do no less he's worth waiting for and hoping for we're gonna conclude with song of worship as we do we're gonna have a prayer team up front of course it would be no surprise if there's a particular heart cry for prayer this morning burdens that either you have or you have on behalf of other people I don't want to act like the only people qualified to pray for you and your need are those who are up here up front because there's people all around you who would love to pray for you and serve you and your time of need these people up front here especially here for you I often think about about what a shame it would be if there was even a single unmet need that left this room because God's people and God's harder here to meet that so I'm gonna pray we're gonna continue in worship and we're gonna have prayer team up front here ready and willing to minister unto you Father in Heaven thank you that your faithfulness is great thank you that your Compassion's fail not thank you that your mercies are new every morning and Lord we say all that not to erase the devastation but to remember your greatness and goodness in the light of it and father we pray for a particular strength and even anointing to this congregation - pastor Tommy to the other pastors to our elders Lord to really take advantage of every opportunity we have to show the never-failing compassion the always new mercy of our God thank you for the opportunity Lord we need you to love people through us help us with you Lord in Jesus name Amen this is a message from the Ministry of Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara for more information about our church please visit calvary sb calm [Music]

Channel: David Guzik

Views: 8,154

Rating: 4.9130435 out of 5

Keywords: disaster, mercy, lamentations, faithfulness, jeremiah

Id: 2sSTpPqc8Hw

Length: 33min 10sec (1990 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 06 2018