Last week we covered the holiness of God and what it should mean to us…….
for GOD to be HOLY……….
And so…. This morning I want to introduce you to a man named …. Jeremiah……..
We’ve all heard of him…… Im sure that some of you have possibly even read his book…….
But do we really know that much about him???
As we are working on our 3rd message here…. in our series on….. …
Knowing the GOD we worship……..
You might wonder …. what in the world does Jeremiah’s life…. have to do with any of Gods … Characteristics???
What does Jeremiah have to do with… Who God is…..
Well…. as we dig through the life of Jeremiah this morning….
Our main scripture is gonna be in Lamentations chapter 3
Even though Lamentations is one of the hardest books of the bible to read……
By the time you finish reading it… You almost want to just…. GIVE UP on life…..
But in reality….. I think this is gonna explain a whole lot…… about….
WHO GOD IS……
Things are gonna look really really bad for Israel……
Everything…. is literally falling apart all around Jeremiah….
Yah pretty much think its the end for Gods people…..
But as we continue to plug along through Jeremiah’s life……..
we’re ultimately gonna see that…… the God we worship…
Is not only Holy…… but he’s FAITHFUL as well……………
Even in some of the absolute worst times in your life…..
GOD is faithful……..
And thats going to be the .. key message today…..
The faithfulness…. of the GOD we worship…
And why that should be important to us as christians…….
Now the book of lamentations has been described as…. the saddest book in the bible……
And if you have ever read it through… Your gonna know that i aint stretching the truth at all……
So how are we gonna get some sort of an…. uplifting message..…… out of the saddest book in the bible……
Well…….
If you ever thought at one time or another…. that you’ve lived a rough life??? …
Jeremiah lived an excruciatingly difficult life…….. and this book is literally…… his conclusion…
Its basically what he thought… about his Life….…..
Its how his life… unravels around him……….
But… before we look at chapter 3 here …
I want to back track just a little bit in order to give us kind of a better look at Jeremiah’s life……..
And why he writes… the things he writes……
We have to truly be able to understand his life a little more..
In order to understand where he’s at … when he writes the saddest book in the bible……..
So Lets flip back a little bit here to Jeremiah…..
The book directly in front of lamentations………and were gonna be in chapter 11……. and verse 19…
from a worldly perspective…… Jeremiah’s life is an entire failure …..
He has spent his whole life…. trying to warn Israel to respond to God….
and before his ministry is actually over………..
We learn that…..
no one listened to any of his preaching…….
No one ever showed up to church on Sunday…..
During visitation…. not one person let him in the house to talk with them…….
Every single door he came to….…. was just another slammed door in his face….
but he never gave up….
he never let go……….
He kept right on preaching….. No matter how others treated him….
In 586 BC…… Babylon military raided Israel
They took … everything of any value whatsoever……
and they killed ….All MOST…. everyone there………
One of the things they did… was they completely leveled the beautiful temple that solomon built…….
The church was nothing but rubble….
But God …made sure that Jeremiah was left alive at the end of all these military raids that were going on…………
So that he could see…. the complete destruction of the city……
So that he could see… that everything he warned people about…. .was true…
His sad… pitiful life… wasn’t for nothing…… Everything that God had told him… was right…..
But Absolutely nothing that Jeremiah did…. seemed to help not even 1 single person………
Jeremiah was kinda labeled as the….. crazy street corner preacher…. that everyone in town hated……
I mean… lets pick up in Jeremiah chapter 11 there….. beginning in verse 19…….
Jeremiah 11:19 (NKJV)
19 But I was like a docile lamb brought to the slaughter……
and I did not know that they had devised schemes against me, saying….
“Let us destroy the tree with its fruit….
and let us cut him off from the land of the living…..
that his name may be remembered no more.”
Yeah know sometimes people believe that Jeremiah is talking about Jesus here but he wasn’t….…
he’s literally talking about himself…. Jeremiah was hated and despised ….
His entire ministry was 40 years…
and during that 40 years … he saw absolutely no visible results…..
Nothing…..
Every person he passed… every voice he heard… was nothing but mocking him….
This was a man.. that had absolutely no-one…. to talk to ….
Yeah ever feel like you don’t have anyone to talk to ???
Jeremiah… didnt have anyone to talk to ……
And in the middle of his.. pain…..
He says….
I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter….. he says here….. I didn’t know it was all against me……
Yah see… the key there is he didn’t know they were all against him……..
I mean…..If it was God……. well he KNEW… they were all against him……
Jeremiah though….
He thought to himself… Yah know… If i preach little longer… or if I try just a little harder ……..
surely someone would listen to my message…….
But he was wrong……….
and when he saw the utter destruction of the city that he had once loved….…..
He knew he was wrong………
And then it says…..
20 But, O Lord of hosts,
You who judge righteously,
Testing the mind and the heart,
Let me see Your vengeance on them,
For to You…..
I have revealed my cause.
21 “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the men of Anathoth who seek your life, saying,
‘Do not prophesy in the name of the Lord, lest you die by our hand’—
What??????
What did he just say in verse 21……
Do not prophesy in the name of the Lord, lest you die by our hand’…..
You think its hard to witness now………
I mean… wow…… don’t be preaching to us …. or we’re gonna KILL you….
The people hated him ….
They hated Jeremiah’s message………
and they tried to kill him……..
And yeah know… back then… If they killed him… who cared….. NO ONE…. he had No-one…….
And so his life .. was truly in danger…….. every time he stepped outside…..
And then…. if we flip a couple pages to the right…. Jeremiah chapter 12 verse 6…….
Even his own family hated him….. and talked bad about him…..
The poor guy couldn’t even show up to a family reunion….. and get any love whatsoever from his own family…..
it says…….
Jeremiah 12:6 (NKJV)
6 For even your brothers, the house of your father,
Even they have dealt treacherously with you;
Yes, ………….
they have called a multitude after you.
There he is…… Go Get him….. beat him up…….
Yeah…. that was coming from his own brothers…… his own flesh and blood………
Poor Guy… his own family didn’t even like him………..
Then if we flip a few more pages into the book of Jeremiah…. over to chapter 16… ok
He wasn’t even allowed to start a family of his own….
no wife….. no children…… nothing…
he was born……. for no other reason that to live a sad…. lonely life….
for his entire life……
Yeah see…… That was Jeremiah’s purpose……
That was what GOD… placed Jeremiah on this earth to do….
Jeremiah 16:1–2 (NKJV)
16 The word of the Lord also came to me, saying,
2 “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.”
Basically It says, “You shall be single and alone in your life……
How terrible would that be for a young man in Israel …
where a large family meant everything to the culture around you……….
He wanted to have a wife and share his life with her…..
But god said, NO………..
Your gonna be single …. your entire life……..
What an agonizing loneliness he had to have felt with every breath that he took….…….
Then if we flip a few more pages….. chapter 18 beginning in verse 18…..
We are going to see that Jeremiah is beginning to brake down……..
Because Yah know…… he’s lived his entire life in constant threat of death and physical pain……..
Always worried about someone wanting to kill him…….
And so he brakes down a little here and thinks… wow… revenge would be nice for a change….
Lord … Whatever your gonna do…….. just do it……..
You could have tattooed a little Nike symbol on his forehead……..
Now he doesn’t really mean it… but you have to understand.. at this point in his life….. he’s a completely broken man……
He has nothing….. and to him… it seems as if GOD just keeps punching him while he’s down……
Now I don’t know about you… but have you ever been down on your luck…..
your world seems to be falling apart….. and it seems like GOD is just punching you while your down…???
If you have ever felt like that…. Then you might have felt a little like Jeremiah here…….
It says in Jeremiah 18:18–23 (NKJV)
18 Then they said, “Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah;
for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise,
nor the word from the prophet.
Come and let us attack him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.”
Then jeremiah says……
19 Give heed to me, O Lord,
And listen to the voice of those who contend with me!
20 Shall evil be repaid for good?
Another words…. Lord … Ive done everything you wanted me to do here haven’t I????
I have been nothing but good to all these people here…… and is this where it all ends?????
Are you just gonna let these people kill me?????
For they have dug a pit for my life.
Remember that I stood before You
To speak good for them,
To turn away Your wrath from them.
remember all those times that I begged for you to save their lives and not destroy them???…… even though they wanted to kill me…???
So ya know what lord???……. Im just…. Im just done……
If your just gonna let them kill me then LORD…. just go ahead and take them out to….……..
Verse 21……
21 Therefore deliver up their children to the famine,
And pour out their blood
By the force of the sword;
Let their wives become widows
And bereaved of their children.
Let their men be put to death,
Their young men be slain
By the sword in battle.
22 Let a cry be heard from their houses,
When You bring a troop suddenly upon them;
For they have dug a pit to take me,
And hidden snares for my feet.
23 Yet, Lord, You know all their counsel
Which is against me, to slay me.
Provide no atonement for their iniquity,
Nor blot out their sin from Your sight;
But let them be overthrown before You.
Deal thus with them
In the time of Your anger.
Jeremiah is living his life like the lonely cat woman…….. right….…..
and he feels like he’s losing his mind….. he is wanting to just give up……..
You ever feel like that…?????
You know what…. Im done…. I Give up….. whatever happens … happens……
Thats Jeremiah…….. He was getting to the point of just not caring anymore…..
Again… no one is listening to him…..
no one shows up to hear his message…….
they’re throwing rocks at him while he tries to warn them………
He’s literally at the end of his rope………
And then we flip one more time to……..
Chapter 20….. and verse 10……..
The emotional pain he was feeling towards the end here was tearing him up…….
It was tearing him apart….. He felt like he had no where else to go… no where else to turn….
it says there in verse 10…….
Jeremiah 20:10 (NKJV)
10 For I heard many mocking:
“Fear on every side!”
“Report,” they say, “and we will report it!”
All my acquaintances watched for my stumbling, saying,
“Perhaps he can be induced;
Then we will prevail against him,
And we will take our revenge on him.”
Yah see like i said……. Jeremiah …. He didn’t have any friends…… NONE…… no family……… no wife…… no children……
No-one to turn to……….. no one to watch his back…….
NO ONE to love him at all ….
except the Lord……
And so he turns to GOD … with one last request…..
Take’m out GOD….
and with the job that God had given him….
he was thinking God didn’t love him to much either at this point……
It was literally driving him mad………
And if we were to read the rest of the book…….. we see that his life ends…….. with no relief……….
Yah know … people are saying … have hope…. it’ll get better Jeremiah…….
No… it doesn’t……
He was beaten some more…. he was thrown into an old cistern and left to die ……..
Again…….. you thought your life was bad…………..
Jeremiah’s life ……… was FILED with misery….. from the very first cry… when he was born…. to his very last breath as an old man….……………
So… Now that we understand Jeremiahs life a’ little more……….
lets all turn back over to our main scripture in Lamentations….. chapter 3……..
were gonna start here in verse 1…
The city has already been taken over by the babylonian army………
Jeremiah has watched as the last group of people were led out of jerusalem in chains…………..
And so he begins chapter 3 with…….
3 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.
He’s saying…… yea’ll listened to all those ….. other preachers talking about all their false idols……….
and now look……
I was the one that tried to warn you………..
But you wouldn’t listen……….
And as he continues….
2 He has led me and made me walk
In darkness and not in light.
3 Surely He has turned His hand against me
Time and time again throughout the day.
4 He has aged my flesh and my skin,
And broken my bones.
Jeremiah here… he literally LOOKS like an old man…… his skin is withered and wrinkled……
He’s been beaten…. and worn down……
5 He has besieged me
And surrounded me with bitterness and woe.
Jeremiah here has DEEP emotional pain…..
he is completely surrounded by sorrow and bitterness……
6 He has set me in dark places
Like the dead of long ago.
No one remembers him…..
No one cares for him….
The people that were being led away……. They don’t even look in his direction………
He was forgotten….. as if he had never even been alive….
He felt unimportant….. and because of all that…. it caused jeremiah to be in a very dark place…….
He was depressed………..
When you personally get depressed…. don’t you feel like your in a really dark place????
Thats what Jeremiah means when he says…. he has set me in dark places……..
vs7…..
7 He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out;
He has made my chain heavy.
He felt like he was in a prison…. or a dungeon…… he feels that the walls are to high and he just can’t get over them……
Like there are heavy chains around his neck so that he can’t escape his depression………
You ever fell like that?????? like your just in so deep of a mess…. you can’t see the end of it………
And maybe you didn’t even place yourself here… its not by your doings…… Maybe someone else placed you in this really hard spot……
Well that feeling… and times it by about a million…. and thats what Jeremiah is feeling right now……
8 Even when I cry and shout,
He shuts out my prayer.
he felt out of touch……. he felt that God wasn’t even listening to him at all……..
sometimes we spend months or even years praying about a problem in our lives that just…… never seems to get any answers………..
Jeremiah felt that God wasn’t listening to him anymore………
9 He has blocked my ways with hewn stone;
He has made my paths crooked.
He had absolutely no prospect of deliverance………
He didn’t even know where he was going anymore…. he felt trapped……. he felt burdened……
I honestly think its safe to say… that most all of us feel that same way from time to time….
You work day and night…. and you just can’t get out of debt……
You struggle with your family…… and sometimes it feels like a losing battle……
you pray the same thing over and over and over again…… and it just seems like its going nowhere……..
Jeremiah was getting to the end of his rope here…….. as we continue he says……
10 He has been to me a bear lying in wait,
Like a lion in ambush.
11 He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces;
He has made me desolate.
12 He has bent His bow
And set me up as a target for the arrow.
13 He has caused the arrows of His quiver
To pierce my loins.
14 I have become the ridicule of all my people—
Their taunting song all the day.
15 He has filled me with bitterness,
He has made me drink wormwood.
16 He has also broken my teeth with gravel,
And covered me with ashes.
17 You have moved my soul far from peace;
I have forgotten prosperity.
He says… my soul is not at peace anymore……… Im worried….. I’m anxious……
We all get a little worried and anxious when we can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel anymore don’t we………..
I have forgotten prosperity………
He says… I have totally forgotten what happiness even is anymore…….. I haven’t smiled in YEARS……
I walk around sad…. and depressed … all the time…….
He can’t even remember not one good time in his entire life……
You know when we get depressed…. when we get down on our lives…. It eats at us……..
we have trouble even remembering any good times anymore….
When we find ourselves in that dark place….. it begins to destroyed our lives… and the lives of people around us……….
18 And I said, “My strength and my hope
Have perished from the Lord.”
He says…. Im exhausted…… I have no hope anymore……. no joy at all…….
and the worst thing here is that I didn’t even do anything at all to deserve this……. it’s all because of GOD…..
I’ve done everything that he has told me to do…. and I still can’t get ahead……..
19 Remember my affliction and roaming,
The wormwood and the gall.
Wormwood here means bitterness……….. he felt that his life didn’t turn out like it should have……
he is basically begging God to remember him and deliver him from this pit he is in……..
20 My soul still remembers
And sinks within me.
Every time I think about my family who hates me…….
about not even being able to have a family of my own……
Chances are…. none of our lives turned out like we thought they should……
The lives we dreamed of having as children….. are just that…. A dream from our past……..
He says…..
My own people who are against me…….
when I think of all that…….
this verse said…. My soul sinks within me……..
When your depressed…. your soul…
sinks within you….
and it doesn’t look like you have any way out……….
And then we come to verse 21……
21 This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have….. What????? hope.
Wait a minute…. all the junk in this mans life that has happened……… and he has Hope??? really…..
How does he do that????…….
I mean we have to ask……
What does he recall in his mind…. that gives him this hope??? …….
does he recall all his afflictions…
and that gives him hope????….
NO……
When he felt broken emotionally…… When he had no more strength…….
when he was depressed…….. trapped…. burdened……. out of touch….. when he was anxious……
When he felt weak and hopeless…… and his soul literally sunk within himself……..
he says…..
I recall to my mind……
therefor I have HOPE……….
Each and every one of us… that deals with depression and hard times within our family from time to time…….
We all have to ask the same question when we read that………
What did he start remembering………. what was it…….
He had no family….. no friends…. no relatives….
Everything that he thought he had…….. was destroyed…….
But yet he recalled…. something….. that he still had written in his mind……
what was it……?????
Verse 22…….
22 Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
Jeremiah remembered the faithfulness of GOD……….
Despite his suffering…… despite his depression…….
he recalled that he had hope….. …………
he recalled that……. he still held the mercy and the Love of GOD in his heart….……….
I wanna tell you a story about a man named Thomas Chisholm……….
he was born in 1866 and grew up in a godly christian home in kentucky….……
he went to school and study to be a pastor………….
After he graduated…. he returned to kentucky to become a full time minister…..
He served his church faithfully…. until 1916…. when the church fired him because he had a respiratory problem…….
and they said his voice wasn’t loud enough to be their preacher…….
You know what…. I don’t think I have that problem here……
but….. anyways…..
They put him out of the church… because of it…………
and then….. in 1917 … he wrote down his testimony……… actually a poem………….
And here is the first line of that poem……. Ill bet your gonna recognize it when I read it….…………
it goes like this…..
Living for Jesus …. a life that is true…….
striving to please him… in all that I do……
yielding allegiance…. glad hearted and free……
this is the pathway…. of blessing for me………
Yes… the song living for Jesus is actually Mr Chisholm;s testimony……
Can you imagine being put out of the church for just being sick???……..
He turned to selling brushes door to door………. just so that his family could eat……..
year in and year out……
he walked the muddy rocky roads of kentucky………
And after all those years on the road……… he wrote yet another poem…………..
and it goes like this…….
1
“Great is Thy faithfulness,” O God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.
“Great is Thy faithfulness!” “Great is Thy faithfulness!”
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—
“Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me!
2
Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
3
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!
Yes during the time that he spent walking down muddy roads…..
instead of complaining
instead of being depressed about how his life turned out……
He wrote yet another song….. that is still being sung in churches all around the world………
Great is thy faithfulness……….
Although he had many reasons to be upset…….. many reasons to be anxious……….. many reasons to be mad or angry at God………….
but look what he says……
Strength for today….. and bright hope for tomorrow…………
Blessings all mine with ten thousand beside……….
so just What are his blessings????????
Just what were the blessings that GOD was bestowing on him????
Great is thy faithfulness…… morning by morning… new mercies I see……….
Thats his blessing………..
Every morning that you wake up….. is a brand new day…….
every day that you open your eyes is a brand new chance for you to praise God…..
You can get up and complain about all the junk that has happened to you in your life….. or…..
You can get up…… and remember that you have been given yet another chance to serve a wonderful loving God………..
Even if your day …… doesn’t turn out….. like you hoped it would…..
so just what is it that God gives us????? verse 22 says…….
22 Through the Lord’s mercies…….. we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not……
Even in the middle of all our failures……
God gives us his UNFAILING love……….. and the abundance of his mercy…………
Gods love is constant….. its fixed…. its steadfast…………
and it never fails………….
Isaiah 54 verse 10 says……
10 For the mountains shall depart
And the hills be removed,
But My kindness shall not depart from you,
Nor shall My covenant of peace be removed,”
Says the Lord……….. who has mercy on you.
He never forgets…. never fails….. never falters….. never forsakes…… and never…… forfeits his Word…..
So that we can all…… safely and confidently commit ourselves to him…..
its because of his Faithfulness…. that allows us to have the HOPE… he tells us to have…….
Its why we can depend upon him for all the mercies that he’s ever promised us……
both in this life…….. and in our lives to come…….
So what was it that he promised??????? verse 23…..
23 They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
He promises daily freshness……
They are new every morning…………
God delivers us a brand new day … of his love…… to help us through whatever we happen to be going thru….
The pain we had to deal with yesterday?????
Todays a brand new day… and a brand new opportunity to serve our lord……. Even if he didn’t take the pain away…..
As we come to a close this morning……….
you need to know….. that…..
When you got out of bed to come to church today……..
God supplied you with enough strength………. for TODAY…….
not for the next 20 years…. but for today………
and he will continue to do just that….. every single day that we open our eyes………..
Now are we going to complain…..about all the stuff we have to deal with….
or are we gonna trust… that he knows whats best for our lives….… and praise him for that…….
Are you going through any situations right now that seem as dark as Jeremiah’s?????
Do you have any rivers to cross this morning???? or mountains you might need to climb?????
If you do….
Don’t worry……….. God…. is in control……….
Don’t worry………. GOD…. IS…….. Faithful……..
he will……. carry you through…. you can count on him….
And we have to be honest here….
Like Jeremiah……. Our situations may not ever get any better…….
Our lives may continue to spiral out of control…..
but we must NOT ever give up….. we must not abandon the ship………
Whatever our trials are….. whatever our affliction may be……. there is comfort …. and peace…..
Waiting for us….. in GODS faithfulness……
Even though…. it may not turn out the way we want it to……
Every single one of our afflictions…… is ALWAYS accompanied with Gods compassion……….
We are to be looking beyond our problems…… to what GOD is doing in our lives or maybe in someone else’s life…
and rejoice that tomorrow……
tomorrow he gives us a brand new day……
Even the name for himself that he gave to moses…… proclaims that very fact……..
GOD …….. I AM…..
Not the I will be….. or the I was…… but……… I AM……….
He’s telling moses…. Don’t look in the past…. Don’t look in the future….
But look to me…. right now……..
2 Timothy 2:13 says………..
13 If we are faithless,
He remains faithful;
He cannot deny Himself.
This verse promises that God’s steadfast love for us will never stop…………..even if we do…..
I hope and pray … that each one of us can find the faith and the courage to place our trust……
not only in the HOLINESS of GOD from last week……… but his FAITHFULNESS as well………..
Now before we sing…. I just have to tell you all….. that Jesus Died for each and every one us……
He died… so that God could be faithful…….. so that we… would one day…. be able to see ALL of Gods holiness….
And we don’t have to change before we accept his faithfulness……
All God asks is that we believe…..And that we accept him as Lord over our lives……..
Before we leave this morning….. If you feel GOD speaking to your heart….
If you feel GOD .. wanting to show you his faithfulness……….
Would you come…. would you come… and accept the free gift… of his faithful LOVE the morning….……
Or maybe you just want to come this morning and tell him that you accept the life he has given you…
Even though its filled with all kinds of problems….. That you still trust he knows what he’s doing…..
If thats the case… would you come this morning….. And pour it all out to him…..
