When Crisis hits our lives
Lamentations 3 selective verses
Prayer-
Introduction-
Wednesday was All Saints day. I do not preach the church calendar often because it dictates almost every week what should be preached. All Saints day is unique because it comes right after Halloween. I think it funny, All Saints day coming right after Halloween.
Halloween has been so commercialized that All Saints day is overshadowed. Halloween in Western Culture has been in the selling of more candy, costumes, and the best way to scare those around you. They play all the songs that have the theme of ghouls and goblins.
Thriller… Michael Jackson people coming out of the grave.
Monster mash… Monsters having a party.
Show the movie Ghost Busters a 100 times.
Halloween is three words put together. All Hallows evening actually was a night where believers would pray and go into the forest and ring the church bells to remember those that have died for their faith.
Remembering those that have gone before us is one way that keeps us focused on our own race to finish strong in the journey the Lord has of us.
Remembering God’s goodness to us is another way that helps us when we are going through a tough time. It helps us to not focus on the situation, but to remember that this will not last forever and the situation does not define who we are in Christ.
Too many times, we let our situation and circumstances dictate how we act, how we feel, and if the Lord loves us.
The text this morning is a cry of help from the prophet Jeremiah as he felt that God had abandoned him and felt isolated and alone in his situation.
Here’s what I want you to see this morning-
You have to persevere- Quitting is not an option.
The Hope of God comes from our brokenness.
When Crisis hits (and it will)… Draw closer to God not farther away.
The Prophet Jeremiah is a mess. In Lamentations 3 we see a broken and confused man of God that has Ah ha moment with God that changes his live and his circumstances.
Ah ha moment is the moment we realize what God is doing and we get on board.
Lamentations 3:1-6 read as the heart of a broken man.
Lamentations 3:12-18 read as a man that is depressed and discouraged.
In his brokenness, he remembers God’s past goodness and his promises.
Lamentations 3:21-
“Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope.” (His Ah ha moment)
“My eyes will flow unceasingly, without relief until the Lord looks down from heaven and sees.
(Verse 55- 66) Read with the encouragement that God has heard his cry and is answering him.
Quitting is not an option folks! (point number one)
The Christian life is not easy! It is hard.
We encounter problems.
We have struggles.
We feel like quitting, but we must hold on until the Lord intervenes in our situations.
We miss God’s best because we give up just before a breakthrough comes.
When your strength is gone, God is our strength.
When it is the darkest does not mean God has abandoned you, it just means you cannot see him working.
Warren Weirsbe-
“Those times when you feel like quitting can be the times of great opportunity, for God to use your troubles to help you grow,”
We have all felt those times and cried out to God “Why is this happening?” we have all said “God, I cannot do this without you”
In Christ, all things are possible! (Repeat)
Psalms 46”1- “God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of our trouble.”
Deuteronomy 3:16- “So be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid and do not panic. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you or abandon you.”
Philippians 4:13 - “For I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength.”
Hebrews 10:23- “Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.”
Jeremiah 29:11- “For I know the plans for you says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
Quitting is not an option!
The Hope of God comes from our brokenness
The world tells you when you hit rock bottom pull yourself up. When you get to the lowest point, the only way is up. The Christian has to discover that at the times we hit rock bottom is the time that the Lord helps us discover the Rock! Jesus Christ!
Lyrics to chain breaker/ Zach Williams
If you been walking the same old road for miles and miles.
If you have been hearing the same old voice tell the same old lies.
If your trying to fill the same old holes inside
There is a better life
There is a better life.
If you got pain- he’s a pain taker
If you feel lost- he’s a way maker.
If you need freedom or saving
He’s a prison-shaking Savior
If you got chains
He’s a chain breaker.
There is hope because the author of our hope is not ourselves and not our strength but in the saving power of Jesus Christ.
Lamentations 3:25- “The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one that seeks him.”
Pain will last for a moment- God is fresh every morning!
Feeling lost and alone- The Lord is my portion.
Come on now! Somebody say amen and someone get excited that our pain and our feeling alone is a lie from the devil and these chains of doubt can be broken by the situation breaking Jesus Christ.
Romans 8:37-
“In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
The victory will never look like what we thought it would- because God has to get the glory for it.
Sometimes victory is a seed that grows in us for new life, new experiences. In newness, the old sometimes has to die so the new can grow.
Kris Vallotton-
“There is no victory without a battle, no testimony without a test and no miracle without an impossible circumstance.”
No one wants to say amen when they are in the midst of a battle but it is true none the less-
God works best in the impossible and our brokenness-
Philippians 1:6- “I am certain that God, who began a good work in you, will continue his work until it is finally finished.”
When crisis hits… draw closer to God and not farther away.
When we face the unknowns, we have a tendency to run away from God. It is actually the time we need to draw closer to God.
Our sin, our anger, our doubts and fears… all these things pull us away from God the very source of our healing and strength.
James 4:7-10
“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn, and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”
By submitting to God… you give the devil a black eye- you are no longer isolated- you are with the Lord. You are no longer in your strength alone, but the power of God begins working in your life. The devil has to flee because he cannot battle the Lord.
By submitting to God… by coming near to Him, you discover He was there all the time waiting for you to come to Him. His open arms become your shield and your refuge.
By submitting to God… You confess your faults, purifying your heart and the doubts and fears begin to subside.
Your whole attitude begins to change as you humble yourself before the Lord and you discover that in submitting, He begins lifting you up out of the circumstance and his strength becomes you strength.
When you run from God, you not only feel isolated, but you do actually isolate yourself from the blessing of God.
When you submit to God… God gives you His wisdom for the circumstance. The prophet Jeremiah says “He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead.”
When Jeremiah submitted to God, He realized it was not God doing that to him, it was the situation, the circumstance, it was evil done by other people.
He had to learn in those circumstances that God was not against him but was for him.
Jeremiah realized God did not want to harm him but give him life.
Jesus gives life! He resurrects people who are dead inside and gives them life. Abundant life!
People make assumptions-
Pastors and leaders never have any life issues
Christians just because they are smiling have no pain.
No one knows what I am going through.
Pain and hurts last forever.
They are the wrong assumptions- reality and our assumptions sometimes do not match.
Jeremiah wept so hard and so long that Scripture says he was out of tears-
Anyone there this morning?
It will not last forever.
God’s blessings are fresh and new every morning- every season has to end.
Newness is coming. God’s blessings are on the way!
Jeremiah, who wrote Lamentations was called the weeping prophet- you can see why. But he wrote it from his heart under the anointing of God so that you and I could get a fresh and new word from the Lord Himself.
Lamentations- lament means to be sorrowful, grieving, dealing with regret. It means Jeremiah was human like you and I. We need a savior and we need to draw close to God and not run when the situations hit the fan of life.
Closing,
I do not know where most of you are at in your journey of life. I know some are going through some hard times. I know some have to make some hard decisions. I know that some are being swallowed up by situations in their life that are beyond their control.
The good part better than me knowing of your struggles is that the Lord sees your struggles and He has not left you by yourself even if you feel like you are. Even if you see no way out- He sees and He cares and He is not sitting idle.
I remember going through a very hard time in my life and as encouragement I had people being real spiritual and told me to “just get over it”. I hated them for that. I had people tell me that it would take two years to feel better and my thought was “that was a very long time’ and what 2 years one day I would miracleously be better. I hated that advice. So I give you only what I know to be true. You cannot do this alone.
God has to deliver you from it or give you the strength to get through it and I do not know which way He will deliver.
I want you to do something- if you don’t do it nobody will know but you.
I want you take it to prayer. I don’t mean complain to God, I mean present your request unto God.
I want you if you can to fast a meal or two this week and not use it as a diet technique but take that time that you would have eaten and spend it with the Lord and wait for an answer.
I want you to write down these scriptures- there is no power in just your words or canting a sentence prayer, but there is power in God’s Word and God’s promises believed and spoken.
Philippians 4:13-“I can do all things through Christ that gives me strength.”
James 5:17- “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
Amen.
