Great Is Thy Faithfulness

But I feel that one of the reasons that I do not preach from the Book of Lamentations any more than I do is because the “Weeping Prophet” Jeremiah wrote it.

Most folks enjoy spending their time with people who are laughing and having a good time, and we try to AVOID those who are always MOURNING AND WEEPING about something!

Illus: My brother Doug who has gone to be with the Lord had lots of friends. In fact when he died the church was packed with grieving friends. The reason he had so many friends was because people enjoyed being around him.

The opposite is about those who are always sad about something. They have very few friends.

Proverbs 18:24 “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly…”

The Book of Lamentations is all about MOURNING AND WEEPING!

But MOURNING AND WEEPING is certainly a part of our life.

Illus: There is an old Arab parable that says: “All sunshine and no rain makes a desert.”

It takes good times and bad times to balance out our lives.

God has designed life as a mixture of

* Pain and pleasure

* Victory and defeat

* Success and failure

* Mountain tops and valleys

However the bulk of Lamentations of course is about Jeremiah’s lamentations.

While this is a book that is filled with sorrow it is also a book about GOD’S FAITHFULNESS!

God's dependability does not change!

Faithful means: trustworthy; steadfast; unfailing; dependable; reliable; consistent.

Simply put: “God is faithful” means “He will not fail you.”

The Faithfulness of God speaks to the core of God’s character. God is always faithful to Himself and to us.

God is immutable unchanging; therefore, He can never cease to be what He is and He will always be consistent with His Holy and righteous character.

• Psalmist said in Psalm 57:2-3 - “Psalms “I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me. He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.”

• The Psalmist said again in Psalm 100:5 – “For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.”

• Again the Psalmist said in Psalm 145:13b - "Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations."

• Paul said in Philippians 1:6 – “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

Wouldn’t it be cool if we could sit down with some of the men and women in the Bible and talk about their memories of times with God?

• Wouldn’t it be awesome to hear Joseph’s rendition of the events that took him from a dreary prison cell to the palace

• Or…from Daniel as he told how a faithful God kept him alive and unharmed during an entire night in a den of lions?

• What if Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego could show us the clothes they wore in the fiery furnace—without a burn or scorch mark on them, or even the aroma of smoke?

Sometimes in the busyness of life, we forget to remember His faithfulness.

Let’s look at some of the ways God is faithful to us.

I. GOD IS FAITHFUL IN HIS PROTECTION

Look at Lamentations 3:21-23, we read, “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS.”

Jeremiah was overwhelmed with God’s FAITHFULNESS!

God is faithful!

For example:

(1) When we are tempted to sin “1 Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

(2) When we do sin, however, He assures us that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9)

Illus: In fact, He is so faithful in creation that scientists are able to make accurate calculations concerning daybreak and sunset.

God is a faithful God, and every day there are many things that could harm us but God faithfully watches over us.

For example, God has not promised us that we would not have to go INTO THE VALLEYS, but He has promised us He would TAKE US THROUGH THE VALLEYS.

Look at Psalm 23:4, we read, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”