The Moon is Always Round: How Lament Leads to Hope

The Moon is Always Round: How Lament Leads to Hope

Lamentations 3:19-33

WELCOME

Psalm 122:1—I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”

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NEW CITY CATECHISM #20

Who is the Redeemer?

The only Redeemer is the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, in whom God became man and bore the penalty for sin himself.

PASTORAL PRAYER

Thanksgiving – Justification

Requests:

PBC – help us be good neighbors

Sister Church – Atlantic Shores Baptist Church

US -- those unemployed

World – Sierra Leone

Speak through sermon

SERMON

January 2011 was one of the darkest months in my life. I told you two weeks ago how God was disciplining me because the sin of lust had captivated my heart and life. I lost nearly everything I loved. My friends. My church. The job I loved as a youth pastor. My reputation. And nearly much more.

But one of the most painful things about loss is that life rarely slows down for you to grieve. The bills keep coming, even when you’re bruised and broken. I had a six-month-old baby boy to provide for. And although my wife Holly was never officially diagnosed, looking back we’re quite certain she was suffering from post-partum depression. I had no idea what to do or where to go.

Some friends of ours told us about an entry-level position working at UPS which has a major hub in Louisville, Kentucky. I drove my depressed wife and colicky baby to a job interview in a strange city in the middle of a January snowstorm. It had been several years since I had worked in any jobs that weren’t ministry-related. Sure, I had a master’s degree, but for some reason UPS doesn’t care if you know a lot about New Testament Greek or Systematic Theology.

Nonetheless, I was confident I would get the job. I was resourceful, hard-working, intelligent, and respectful. I still remember the snowy drive back to the hotel after the interview. I’m sure Jonah was screaming. He hated car rides. These were hard times, but I was hopeful. Life hurt, but it wasn’t over yet. Lord willing, I would hear back from my interviewer in a week or two and then we’d move our little family to a new city for a new adventure.

But God had other plans. By the time we returned to the hotel I had an email in my inbox from UPS. I clicked on it. “We regret to inform you this position has already been filled.” WHAT?!? I drove my family 400 miles to interview for a position that wasn’t even available?!? I felt weak, empty, broken, foolish, and small.

Somehow in God’s providence, my heart was drawn to the book of Lamentations. I read the first 20 verses of chapter 3 and identified with Jeremiah’s lament about the agony of discipline. “Yes, this really does hurt.” And then I got to verse 21:

(21) But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: (22) The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; (23) they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Like Jeremiah, my circumstances hadn’t changed. I was still a poor, unemployed, disgraced, former youth pastor with a Master’s Degree who couldn’t even get an entry-level job at UPS. My wife was still depressed and my baby was still colicky. But God was teaching me the lesson he taught Jeremiah over 2500 years ago. The same lesson I hope to share with you today. Hope arrives when you tell yourself the truth.

Martin Lloyd-Jones famously put it this way in his book Spiritual Depression: “Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problem of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. . . .

Lloyd-Jones continues: “The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why art thou cast down’–what business have you to be disquieted? You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’–instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way.”ii D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures, pp. 20-21.

Hope arrives as you tell yourself the truth. Turn with me in your Bibles to Lamentations 3:19.

Telling ourselves the truth is an essential step on the pathway of lament. When we began this series, we said lament is a type of prayer that turns to God with honest complaints and bold requests, resulting in a decision to trust. In our journey so far, we’ve seen a lot of honest complaints. We’ve seen the smoldering ruins of the city of Jerusalem, destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. We’ve listened to Jeremiah’s complaints as he’s recounted an unimaginable depth of pain and suffering.

This morning, beginning let’s watch as Jeremiah makes a decision to trust. Let’s eavesdrop as he pivots from horror to hope. Let’s watch Jeremiah’s hope arrive as he tells himself the truth.

Notice with me beginning in verse 19: (19) Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! (20) My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.

In these verses Jeremiah twice talks about remembering. He remembers his suffering because he can’t help it. It’s got such a bitter taste he couldn’t forget it if he wanted. He’s not choosing to remember, he just does. Like you remember your chronic pain. You couldn’t forget it if you wanted to. You continually remember it because its such searing pain that it brings you to your knees. Like we couldn’t forget Covid-19 even if we wanted to.

But there’s another type of remembering Jeremiah mentions in this first triplet of verses. Look at verse 21: (21) But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. Literally Jeremiah’s saying he causes this to return to his heart. He’s choosing to remember, he’s intentionally thinking about something, he’s deciding to trust. He’s telling himself the truth. And his hope arrives as he tells himself the truth.

But today I want us to focus on that word “this.” It’s not enough for us to say that hope arrives as we tell ourselves the truth. We need to know which truths will bring hope to our weary souls. Is it enough to tell yourself, 2+2=4? Or “in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue”? Or to tell yourself your name, or your address, or your social security number? There’s a litany of truths you can tell yourself that will not bring hope to a weary soul. So what is the this that Jeremiah mentions in verse 21? What truths will lead to hope?

Following Jeremiah’s example, I want to you from our text this morning three truths that bring unshakeable hope to the weary soul. 1) Hope arrives as you tell yourself the truth about God. 2) Hope arrives as you tell yourself the truth about you. 3) Hope arrives as you tell yourself the truth about the future.

The Truth About God. (vv. 22-24)

Look at the next triplet of verses beginning in verse 22: (22) The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; (23) they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (24) “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

In these verses I want you to notice four truths about God that lead to unshakeable hope.

God is Gracious

First, God is gracious. Those two words “steadfast love” in the ESV are just one word in the original language. It’s the Hebrew word chesed. That word is used some 250 times in the Old Testament to describe God’s covenant-keeping love towards His people. One way to think of it is the Old Testament equivalent for the New testament concept of grace.iiii Discipline of Mercy, 99 Wayne Grudem defines grace as “God’s goodness towards those who deserve only punishment.”iiiiii Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 1243.

Theologians sometimes talk about two types of grace. There’s common grace, which refers to the goodness that is common to everyone. Jesus illustrates this in Matthew 5:45, when He says that the Father “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” You don’t have to be a Christian to get a stimulus check, to enjoy a good cup of coffee, or to experience the joy of genuine love and intimacy. Those gifts of grace are common and available to everyone.

But there’s another type of grace that theologians sometimes call special grace. This is the grace of relationship. This is the grace of covenant. It’s chesed grace. It’s the grace of steadfast love. It’s the grace that God shows to His people. As Sally Lloyd-Jones puts it in her best-selling Jesus Storybook Bible, God loves His people with a "Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love.”iviv Sally-Lloyd Jones, Jesus Storybook Bible

If you belong to Jesus, this grace belongs to you. This steadfast love will never give up on you because it’s covenant grace. Think about that for just a moment. Judah had given herself over to wickedness. She had been warned for hundreds of years to repent. She is, by any standards, unequivocally guilty! And yet, God’s steadfast love towards His undeserving people has no end! But Jeremiah’s not done telling himself the truth about God.

God is Merciful

Next, he reminds himself that God’s mercies are infinite and they’re new every morning. Look again beginning in verse 22: his mercies never come to an end; (23) they are new every morning.

Wayne Grudem defines mercy as “God’s goodness toward those in misery and distress.”vv Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 1247. Often we are like the priest and the Levite in Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan. We tend to move away from people in misery and distress. We roll up our windows when we see them on the side of the road. We screen their calls. We walk the other way when we see them in the hallway. We ignore their cries for help.

But God is not like that. He is merciful. He moves toward people in misery and distress. He sees our limited ability to comfort one another in a world of social distancing. He sees our layoffs, furloughs, and business closures. He sees this unseen virus plaguing the world. He sees our cancer. Our depression. Our panic attacks. Our chronic pain. Our addictions. Our grief. And He moves toward us in our misery because He is merciful.

Now why does Jeremiah say that God’s mercies are “new every morning”? Are mercies like manna, unable to last through the night? Do they lose their carbonation, like an opened can of Coke left in the refrigerator? It is not some deficiency in God’s mercy that necessitates their newness every morning. It is not mercy that needs newness, it is us. Every day we encounter a new set of miseries, a new list of reasons for mercy. And every day, for the covenant people of God, His mercies are available. Perfectly matched with every one of our needs. Isn’t this the antidote to worry? What is worry but an attempt to solve tomorrow’s problems with today’s mercies? Christian, God is merciful. He knows how to supply you with the right mercy at the right time. But Jeremiah’s not done telling himself the truth about God.

God is Faithful

Jeremiah continues in verse 23: “great is Your faithfulness.” As Mark Vroegop puts it in Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy, “The ultimate hope for God’s people is God’s ability to keep being God.”vivi Mark Vroegop, Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy, 112 It’s comforting to know that God is gracious and merciful, but here’s a terrifying thought: what if God changes?

Your kids change. That sweet little girl grew into a moody teenager. That compliant boy turned into a rebellious college student. Your spouse changes. He used to be so romantic and thoughtful, but now he’s a lazy lover. She used to be so spontaneous and exciting, but now she’s boring. Even if you’re able to navigate life from youth to adulthood without changing much . . . old age will change you. Your body will sag and creak. Even more tragically, your mind may fade. One of the saddest things I ever experienced was watching my grandfather slowly lose his mind to Alzheimer’s disease. He changed, and he didn’t even get a say in the matter.

What if God changes? You say, “Well of course God won’t change!” Okay. “How do you know?” You might respond, “I know He won’t change because He says that He won’t.” That’s absolutely true. And that’s what Jeremiah is banking on. He’s trusting in God’s Word, that He is faithful! That He won’t change!

But the truth is, sometimes people tell us they won’t change and yet they do. I’ve watched my kids promise their mom that they’d never grow up. And yet they are. And they’re changing in the process. I’ve seen husbands and wives promise unchanging love to one another. And I’ve watched them change anyways. The painful truth is, often people promise never to change and yet they are powerless to keep their promises.

That’s where we can hope with a hope even greater than Jeremiah. We have not only God’s promise that He is faithful. We have a picture of His faithfulness. On the cross God showed us how committed He was to never changing, to always being faithful. “This is how much I am willing to pay to make you mine.” There Jesus died, not as a victim but as a willing substitute. There He bore the wrath of God in our place. And if God didn’t change His plans or change His mind at the shadow of the cross, He won’t ever change. As Paul reminds us in Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

But Jeremiah’s not done telling himself the truth about God.

God is All We Need

After meditating on these incredible truths about God, Jeremiah rejoices in the reality that the LORD is His portion. Jeremiah’s lost everything . . . except God. Which means he hasn’t really lost anything! As we said when we studied Colossians, “Everything – Jesus = nothing. Jesus + nothing = everything.” So like Jeremiah, let’s put our hope in the Lord! Not in the stock market recovering, not in the government keeping us safe or restoring our freedoms, not in a vaccine, not in testing, not in ventilators or hospital beds, not in personal protective equipment, not in social distancing, not in flattening the curve, not in our jobs, not in getting back to normal, put your hope in the Lord!

Hope arrives as we tell ourselves the truth about God. But there’s a second truth that can bring unshakeable hope to the weary soul. Hope arrives as you tell yourself . . .

The Truth About You. (vv. 25-30)

Look at the next triplet of verses beginning in verse 25: (25) The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. (26) It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. (27) It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

Three times in these verses we’re told that something is good. Verse 25, it’s good to wait on the Lord. Verse 26, it’s good to wait quietly for God’s salvation. Verse 27, it’s good for us to bear this yoke—to learn how to wait—when we are young.

I don’t know about you, but it is very hard for me to think of waiting as good. We live in the age of instant rice, microwave popcorn, streaming television, 24/7 news coverage, and Prime shipping. We’re not used to waiting for much of anything. But Jeremiah is telling us that waiting isn’t a waste. Waiting is good. Why?

I think waiting is good because waiting reminds us who we are. Think about this with me. Why do we have to wait for anything? I could think of three reasons we human beings have to wait.

You Are Not Omnipotent

If you were omnipotent, if you had unlimited power you wouldn’t have to wait for anything. You’d be like a genie; just snap your fingers and you could have whatever you want. But even the most powerful man or woman in the universe still must wait sometimes. We wait because we’re not omnipotent.

You Are Not Omniscient

We also wait because we’re not omniscient, we don’t know everything. Often, we’re forced to wait because we don’t have all the information. Perhaps you’re wondering right about now when we’re going to reopen the nursery. We don’t know. We have to wait, because we don’t know when it will be safe and permissible to do so. Many of you had summer vacation plans and you’re stuck waiting, unsure of what you’re going to do. Why? Because you don’t have all the information. You don’t know if that travel destination will even be open then. And so you wait because you’re not omniscient.

You Are Not Omnipresent

We also wait because we’re not omnipresent, we aren’t able to be in all places at once. Even the most knowledgeable and powerful people on the planet still have to wait. They wait at red lights and four-way stops. They wait on airplanes. They wait in traffic. They wait to go places and they wait for people and things to come to them. We wait because we are not omniscient.

So waiting is good because waiting reminds you the truth about you. You are not God! Only God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. But here’s the deal. It’s not enough for you to simply tell yourself the truth that you are not God. You must submit to this truth. We see this in the next triplet beginning in verse 28: (28) Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; (29) let him put his mouth in the dust—there may yet be hope; (30) let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults.

One scholar explains these verses this way: “Placing the mouth in the dust was a typically oriental way of expressing or exacting complete submission. In offering the cheek to the smiter the captive was conveying the idea of absolute surrender.”viivii Harrison, 226 So here Jeremiah is willing to fully submit himself to the God He hopes in. Even if that means he’ll suffer mistreatment at the hands of his enemies.

Like our first parents, Adam and Eve, there’s a sense in which all of us want to be gods. We want power, we want knowledge, we want control. We don’t want to wait. We don’t like the unknown. We want to do what we want to do when we want to do it. So the Bible says we must repent. We must confess to God the truth that we have, like Adam and Eve, tried to usurp God from His rightful place.

But it’s still not enough to surrender yourself to the truth that you are not God. My guess is there’s no one in this room that isn’t willing to admit that truth about you. We admit the truth that we are not God in order that we might pursue the one true God!

Notice in second phrase of verse 25 what it means to wait: (25) The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It’s not passively sitting there, doing nothing. Waiting on God is seeking after God. We’re reading our Bibles, praying, meeting with His people, meditating on Scripture, studying, getting on our knees. We want God. We need God. We’re going hard after God! That’s what it means to wait.

Hope arrives when you tell yourself the truth about you—you are not God!!!—because it clears a path for you to pursue the true God. But there’s a final truth that can bring unshakeable hope to the weary soul. Hope arrives as you tell yourself . . .

The Truth About the Future. (vv. 31-33)

I want you to show you two truths about your future based on verses 31-33 but let me remind you, these are true for God’s covenant people. They’re true for Christians. They’re true for followers of Jesus. If you’re not a follower of Jesus, we invite you to become one today.

Following Jesus is a lifelong commitment, but it begins with two simple steps. Jesus summarized those steps in Mark 1:15 when He said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

You must believe that God is a holy Creator. You must believe that, like our first parents Adam and Eve, you have rebelled against God and are subject to the curse of sin. You must believe that Jesus Christ came to this earth, lived a sinless life, and died a sinner’s death. You must believe He did this, not as a confused victim, but as a willing substitute. You must believe the Father chose to pour out His wrath on Jesus instead of His people. You must believe that Jesus rose from the dead three days later. You must believe that you can begin a relationship with God, not by earning His love but by believing in what Jesus has done in your place.

And you must repent. You must change your mind about sin. You must stop trying to excuse or rationalize what the Bible says is wicked. You must change your heart about sin. You must stop loving what the Bible says you should hate. You must change from your sinful actions. This is not perfection, but a life devoted to fighting your sin. As one author said, a non-Christian is at war with his God and at peace with his sin. A Christian is at peace with his God and at war with his sin.

Being a Christian does not guarantee a pain-free present. But we do have incredible promises for the future that can bring unshakeable hope to the weary soul. We see this in our final verses for today beginning in verse 31: (31) For the Lord will not cast off forever, (32) but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; (33) for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.

There’s an End to Your Pain

Do you see that in verse 31? If you’re a follower of Jesus, your pain will not last forever! It’s going to end! It’s easy to say God is good. But what about when He doesn’t feel good? What about when the pandemic lingers? Or returns with a vengeance? Or the economy doesn’t recover? Or I don’t get my job back? Or my cancer returns? Or my baby doesn’t improve? Or my chronic pain won’t go away?

Remember how verse 26 said it’s good to wait for for the salvation of the Lord? We hear the word “salvation” and we immediately think about a person “getting saved,” by repenting and believing in the Gospel. That’s not the type of salvation Jeremiah is talking about there. He’s talking here about deliverance from pain. Sometimes we wait for an unspecified time until God wipes away the trial. Other times we wait for an unspecified time until God wipes away our tears. Either way we’re called to wait. And either way, if you’re a follower of Jesus the day is coming when your pain will end forever.

Listen to the way the Apostle John describes this in Revelation 21:3-4 — And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Christian, no matter how much life hurts now hope will arise as you tell yourself the truth that in the future there’s an end to your pain.

There’s Purpose in Your Pain

Notice again verse 33: he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men. Jeremiah is not saying that he’s not really hurting, that he’s not really grieved. His life hurts. He’s really in pain. Jeremiah’s also not saying, like some would, that God had nothing to do with it. He knows that God is sovereign in his pain. God is the one who did the afflicting. When he says God “does not afflict from His heart,” he’s saying that God is not hurting you just for the heck of it. He has a purpose in your pain. His heart is not to hurt you, but to help you.

Perhaps you hear that and your immediate response is, “Well I don’t want to be helped then. I’d rather stay just the way I am than have to go through all this pain.” In his book, The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis says that when we think this way, we’re "asking not for more love, but for less."

He then invites you to imagine you found a mangy dog on the side of the road and decide to adopt him. You painstakingly bathe him and brush the burs out of his hair. You take him to the vet and give him shots and get him fixed. You persistently work to train him not to come when called, not to chew on the furniture, not to mess in the house, and so on.

Now imagine this entire scene from the dog's perspective. He used to be free. He used to have life his way. Now he's brushed, poked, prodded, cut, pestered, and disciplined. If he could communicate, he might lament the fact that you’ve ruined his life!

But you know better, don’t you? Why do you treat your dog this way? As C.S. Lewis says, you don't "house-train the earwig or give baths to centipedes." You don’t love those creatures. But you love this dog, and in love you inflict temporary pain for his ultimate good.

That’s exactly what God is doing in your life, Christian. That’s why James 1:2-4 says “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

So hang on, Christian. Yes, it hurts. But we can trust our God. And hope arrives when we tell ourselves the truth.

That’s the powerful lesson a dad named Jonathan Gibson tried to teach his son as his family walked down a dark path of painful suffering. He tells the story from his young son’s perspective in a children’s book titled The Moon is Always Round. I shared this story with you before, but I think it’s good for us to hear it again as we conclude this morning:

“When I look up on a sunny day, the sky is blue and bright, and jet planes paint white lines on its canvas. When I look up on a stormy day, the sky is grey and dull, and clouds pour rain, and flash and boom with lightning and thunder. When I look up on a summer’s evening, the sky is red and orange and purply pink, and the sun looks like it’s falling from the sky, on fire. When I look up on a clear night, the sky is dark, and the stars twinkle and sparkle like diamonds... but the moon isn’t always round.

Dad said ‘The moon is always round, even when you can’t see all of it.’ When Dad told me that I was getting a little sister, the moon looked like a banana. But Dad said, ‘The moon is always round.’ When the crib was put together, the moon looked like a slice of apple. But Dad said, ‘The moon is always round.’ When mummy’s tummy began to look like a watermelon, the moon looked like a shriveled orange. But Dad said, ‘The moon is always round.’ Even when I was told that my little sister wasn’t coming to live with us after all the waiting, Dad said, ‘The moon is always round.’ When my parents left me in the middle of the night for the hospital, and the next morning I went off to pre-school, I thought ‘Will the moon be round tonight?’ Dad said, ‘The moon is always round.’

When I waited at the hospital to meet my little sister... and we left without her, I asked, ‘Why, Daddy?’ And he replied, ‘I don’t know why. But the moon is always round.’ When we got home from the hospital, I looked for the moon before bed... it was a half-moon! But dad said, ‘The moon is always round.’ And when it was still just the three of us, and we went to the church to say good-bye, my Dad asked me ‘What shape is the moon?’ I said, ‘The moon is always round.’ And Dad said, ‘What does that mean?’ I said, ‘God is always good.’”

Hope arrives when you tell yourself the truth.

PRAY

BENEDICTION

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 —Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

DOXOLOGY

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Praise Him all creatures here below.

Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts.

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

________________________

i D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures, pp. 20-21.

ii Discipline of Mercy, 99

iii Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 1243.

iv Sally-Lloyd Jones, Jesus Storybook Bible

v Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 1247.

vi Mark Vroegop, Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy, 112

vii Harrison, 226

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