LESSONS LEARNED FROM LAMENTATIONS 3: 22 - 23

[Music] [Music] [Music] welcome to the lessons for living television program my name is Bill Santos thank you so much for watching well on today's program we're going to study some popular verses found in the Book of Lamentations now as we take a closer look at some of the most popular Bible verses we're finding out why they are so popular and how they will actually apply to our lives and quite often these popular verses are just that their verses they're not read in context and this can then lead to a misunderstanding about the meaning of the verse now I'm praying that this series is going to give us a lot of food for thought about some of these popular verses now as I mentioned the top of the program today we're going to focus on a couple of verses found in a scripture in the Old Testament this wisdom comes from the Book of Lamentations it contains five poems of cries regrets and pain lamentations however does not express heartache over some bad luck or lost lover lamentations expresses the heartbreaking aftermath of Jerusalem being destroyed by evil Babylon you don't read lamentations as much as you feel it Jeremiah wrote these poems and you can feel his pain as he cries out to God his his agony is tangible as he expresses his grief over the loss of his homeland the special places he where he grew up they were destroyed many of his friends had been killed everything he knew everything he loved had been wiped out now let's take a look at the verses just before our study verses as Jeremiah expresses his pain lamentations chapter 3 verses 19 and 20 the memory of my suffering and homelessness is bitterness and poison can't help but remember and am depressed if you ever felt like Jeremiah ever felt so much pain that you're bitter inside ever felt homeless and and homesick desperate for love and a connection if you ever lost something or or someone so special that your grief was almost unbearable well that's where Jeremiah was and maybe maybe that's where you are today you see contrary to how some Christians portray the Bible this is not an antiseptic book out of touch with with pain and and the suffering of life throughout the Bible we see people crying and yelling and and aching to God and others over the pain in their life the Bible is filled with people who who feel helpless and and feel hopeless Jeremiah was no exception yet Jeremiah in the midst of his pain would say this lamentations 3 verse 21 but this I call to mind and therefore I have hope you know Jeremiah was down but he was not out he still had the audacity to hope in the midst of his mess he still had hope that one day he would find help and healing and relief from all of his pain and what gave him such hope in the midst of such agony how could he find hope after all that he had been through well Jeremiah dared to hope because he remembered something crucial and what he remembered are the study verses for today take a look at lamentations 3 verses 21 through 23 but this I call to mind and therefore I have hope it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed his Compassion's do not fail they are new every morning great is your faithfulness so how could Jeremiah dare to hope because he remembered the help of God in the past he remembered God's faithfulness to him he remembered God's long-suffering mercy he remembered how God's love had not failed him yet he trusted God and notice how he puts it he puts it this way verse 24 the Lord is my portion says my soul therefore I will hope in him now it's easy to read about Jeremiah's hope and trust in God it's easy to talk about trusting in God I think most of us would agree that God is there to help us it's easy to agree with that what's difficult is actually trusting it when life gets tough it's hard to find hope when everything in life seems to be coming apart even remembering God's help in the past doesn't always cut it when we're faced with unfamiliar problems and hurdles Christian author eg white she puts it this way in her book life sketches she writes we have nothing to fear for the future except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us and his teaching in our past history you see surely that's the boat Jeremiah was in he had never experienced such devastation before he had never seen such annihilation blood and evil it was also for and so frightening and yet he's still dared to hope and trusted in God for his help so perhaps you today are facing an unfamiliar pain and difficulty maybe in the past when you got yourself into trouble it was easy to trust God for help because you had been there before however perhaps the trouble you are in now is new terrain for you and your hope has run out maybe it's the loss of a job you've had for years maybe it's you've lost someone special maybe it's the realization that you're not as young as you used to be in you can't do some of the things you love anymore perhaps life has forced you into some kind of change that is very scary and you don't know how to respond how can we find the kind of trust in God that empowered Jeremiah to dare to hope how can we find the confidence to believe that God will help us how can we find God in our darkness when when we don't feel God at all I believe the answer can be found in the verses that follow our study verses see it is one thing for Jeremiah to say God is great and merciful he is faithful he will help it is beautiful but how do we apply it how do we make that real for us well Jeremiah would tell us the secret to having such op' and trust in God in the midst of such unspeakable tragedy and pain take a look at what Jeremiah says in lamentations 3 verse 25 the Lord is good to those who wait for him to the soul who seeks him you see after Jeremiah says that he dares to hope in pain and waxes poetic on the mercies of God being new every morning he gets down to the business of how hope works he gets down to the brass tacks of learning to trust God he plainly says that the Lord helps those who depend on him and search for him you see the word search here it really means crave in other words God helps those who ask him for help now that sounds pretty simple doesn't it but let me tell you one of the biggest things we forget God loves us and cares for us and God wants what is best for us he wants to help us but God is not about to barge into your life that's not the kind of God we have have you ever experienced someone who tried to push their opinions on you ever have some insufferable person try to force their agenda on you it's not very pleasant is it I have to confess to you that one of my pet peeves one of the things that annoys me the most are people who try to control me or force me into things so confession they say is good for the soul so I'm gonna go ahead and tell you that sometimes sadly I lose my Christian witness when encountering pushy people see I think one of my biggest strengths and one of my biggest weaknesses is my strong sense of defiance it's not fun dealing with pushy people but our God is not a pushy God he's not going to force anything on you his spirit well that will gently nudge you but God's not going to push you into anything that's what Jeremiah means when he says the Lord is good to those who depend on him and those who search for him in other words the humble get the help now I don't know who said that but it's true now don't let that mess up your theology this doesn't mean that God will not help us unless we grovel and feel terrible about ourselves nor does it mean that when you see someone struggling that they're not humble enough it simply means that God will not show up in your life uninvited he will help you when you ask him for help and make room for him in your life he will help you when you let go of control and depend on him once you do that well you can have hope and confidence because God's help will be on the way that's why Jeremiah said this next in lamentations 3 now verse 26 it is good that a man should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord in the early part of World War 2 a Navy submarine was struck was stuck on the bottom of the harbor in New York it seemed that all was lost there was no electricity oxygen was quickly running out in one last attempt to rescue the sailors from that steel coffin the US Navy sent a ship equipped with Navy divers to the spot on the surface directly above the wounded submarine a Navy diver went over the side of the ship to the dangerous depths in one last rescue attempt the trap sailors heard the metal boots of the diver land on the exterior surface and they moved to where they thought the rescuer would be in the darkness they tapped in Morse code is there any hope the diver on the outside recognizing the message signaled by tapping on the exterior of the sub yes there is hope see because Jeremiah had depended on God and asked for help he could wait in quiet confidence in the Lord for salvation and salvation here means wholeness so you need help from God today you need hope ask God for help and wait quietly and confidently for his help so let me tell you what I've learned God may not come early but he will never be late he is always on time just don't give up help is on the way in the meantime don't try to guess what God is going to do just trust his word and stick close to him don't look at everything at once just do the necessary things God calls you to do one step at a time now after you have taken several steps the answers will begin to appear in those times you will find that your hope your faith will grow you know throughout my life I've learned this to be true God is always right on time through my pain and my problems and the confusion I have learned I can trust God even though I can't always see God at work or sometimes even feel him I know I can trust God to see me through my suffering and redeem it I have learned in my life that God is bigger than any of my problems Maryanne Franco of Stuart Florida understands this as well as anyone ABC News reported that 20 years ago Maryanne survived a car accident but her aim injuries left her legally blind until recently when she failed in her okichi be home and injured her spine Maryanne underwent surgery at the hospital to fix the damage but the surgeon fixed well more than he knew she awoke and asked a nurse for pain medication and realized that she could actually see the nurse according to dr. John ash far of Stuart Florida what he witnessed at Martin Memorial Hospital was something beyond what his medical training taught him to expect the restoration of Mary and Franco's vision a true miracle I don't have a scientific explanation for it now doctors have offered plausible theories for how she could have regained her sight from a totally unrelated surgery but none of them explained another oddity see before the accident Mary Ann was color blind and now she's not she's seen her grandchildren for the first time and her beloved cat and dog she's experiencing life on you a gift she says that only can be described as an act of God in the morning she says I get up and look out and the Sun is coming through the trees and the beams are coming to Oh God she said it is so wonderful to see now I know what you're thinking how come she was healed and others are not I don't know I don't know why I wish I could tell you why I know some people have prayed for healing their whole lives and they've never been healed I also know folks who prayed for healing and we're truly healed I don't know why that is but I do know this God answers prayer God's love never fails us there's a theologian named Victor Havel who defied hope this way hope he said it's not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out earlier this week an old couple received a call from their son who lives far away the son said he was sorry but he won't be able to come for a visit over the holidays after all the grandkids say hello and they assured him that they understood but when they hung up the phone they didn't dare look at each other earlier this week a woman was called in to her supervisors office to hear that times are hard for the company and they had to let her go so sorry they said she cleaned out her best packed away her hopes for getting ahead and wondered what would she tell her kids earlier this week someone received terrible news from a physician someone else earlier this week heard the words I don't love you anymore a number of years ago researchers performed an experiment to see the effect Hope has on those that are undergoing hardship two sets of laboratory rats were placed in separate tubs of water the researchers left one set in the water and found that within an hour they had all drowned the other rats were periodically lifted out of the water and then returned interesting what happened the second set of rat rats swam for 24 hours why not because they were given a rest but because they suddenly had hope those animals somehow hoped that if they could just stay afloat just a little bit longer someone would reach down and rescue them if hope holds such power for unthinking rodents how much greater should its effect be on our lives God may not show up the way you expect him to but God will show up I also know this the day we stop expecting miracles to happen as the day we stop believing in the power of God are you in darkness right now ask God for help and help will be on the way God may not come early but I guarantee you he will never be late let's pray gracious God loving Heavenly Father thank you for your faithfulness towards us how you have placed the resources of heaven at our disposal you have told us if we seek we shall find if we ask you will respond if we knock you will open father I pray for the viewers right now that find themselves in an unthinkable situation I pray that they may call out for help and know that help is on the way in Jesus name well we're at the end of another program thank you so much for watching and if I may be so bold as to ask for a favor can you let your friends and family know that you tuned in that you enjoy the program when we're on and encourage them to also tune in you know to help you in that we have our website l4 LTV comm you can refer them to the website they can catch up on all of the previous programs because they're all there 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again real soon god bless you we'll see you next [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Lessons For Living Television

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Length: 26min 36sec (1596 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 03 2019