When the World Falls Apart
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Overcoming Despair
Overcoming Despair
Introduction:
What do you do when all seems lost?
What do you when you see what you have been fighting for slip away and fall into destruction?
My Story
Loss of ministry
betrayal of a friend
Perhaps you have experienced those dark days of the soul where everything seems hopeless? When despair begins to set in.
I am the man who has seen affliction
under the rod of God’s wrath.
He has driven me away and forced me to walk
in darkness instead of light.
Yes, he repeatedly turns his hand
against me all day long.
These are the Words of the Prophet Jeremiah written as He watched the city he tried to save be destroyed.
Is there any Hope ?
These are Just the few lines taken from the funeral dirge that Jeremiah wrote-
The Funeral dirge representing the end
It was all over
it was finished
With Jeremiah left saying, “Lam 3:1
I am the man who has seen affliction
under the rod of God’s wrath.
Jeremiah is left with Enduring suffering- For What?
His calling was to speak the word of God to the people as a prophet- Yet here he is at the end of His ministry
wounded
Questioning
and losing Hope
Yes, he repeatedly turns his hand
against me all day long.
God Why?
Jeremiah is left writing a funeral dirge over His life and the work He set out to do.
Has God ignored me?
Has God ignored me?
This Leads Jeremiah into a moment of questioning if God is actually listening
Jeremiah feels that in the midst of all his brokenness God does hear-
Even when I cry out and plead for help,
he blocks out my prayer.
This was man who heard God speak calling him into the ministry of prophet to the people
The word of the Lord came to me:
I chose you before I formed you in the womb;
I set you apart before you were born.
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.
Then the Lord reached out his hand, touched my mouth, and told me:
I have now filled your mouth with my words.
See, I have appointed you today
over nations and kingdoms
to uproot and tear down,
to destroy and demolish,
to build and plant.
This man right hear is questioning if God hears Him?
Perhaps today you are questioning, and feeling like everything loss, or have asked “Why” they you might be in the same place that Jeremiah was.
Perhaps today to are that moment of looking at your life and writing the funeral dirge
Like Solomon you are saying “everything is vanity”
-and the circumstance makes it seem as if even ministry has become vanity
It is here that you can hear the words of Jesus as He hung on the cross, alone, beaten, because of the will of God-
About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Elí, Elí, lemá sabachtháni?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME
WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME
Maybe this has been your cry. You heart is saying, “God where are you?
This may seem like a cry of anguish from Jesus as he is dying on the cross.
The Will of God had brought Jesus to this point of Crying out “My God My God Why?”
But how do we go from suffering to praise?
Hope is the Lord
Hope is the Lord
I continually remember them
and have become depressed.
Yet I call this to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 6: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel B. Consolation and Hope of Grace (3:21–39)
The “hope” that the writer expressed here is not created by denying or minimizing suffering and misery. Rather, these are transformed when the mind is turned to God.
It is here after fixing His thoughts on the Faithful, Good God He continues to write from the place of misery and despair
Because of the Lord’s faithful love
we do not perish,
for his mercies never end.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness!
I say, “The Lord is my portion,
therefore I will put my hope in him.”
Great is your Faithfulness
Hope in the Love of God that was displayed for You
Hope is the God who called you
Hope in the God who upholds you
And like the Prophet in the midst of the lamenting in faith declare- “Great in thy Faithfulness”
Hope in the God who never leaves nor forsakes you-
Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
Who can separate you?
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What happens when Jesus shows up in our Despair?
What happens when Jesus shows up in our Despair?
He reveals the Glory of God
Lazarus- John 11:4
When Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness will not end in death but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
Up until that Point no one truly understand that Jesus is the Resurrection and the life- it was in the midst of the death He revealed who He was
3 I hunted all through the four Gospels trying to find one of Christ’s funeral sermons, but I couldn’t find any. I found He broke up every funeral He ever attended! Death couldn’t exist where He was.
D. L. Moody
“The Ninety-First Psalm” sermon (19th century)
Dwight L. Moody
Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”
When Jesus enters into you funeral dirge He turns it into a song of praise, “Great is your faithfulness”
And tho it might be hard to understand right now, it is in this moment where God reveals that He is comforter as He comforts you.
You find Him as the healer that you preached about as He heals you
You find Him as the Refuge as you take Refuge in Him
It is here that He reveals His glory and turns the mourning into praise and leaves you saying look what the Lord has done Because
Because of the Lord’s faithful love
we do not perish,
for his mercies never end.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness!
When Jesus hung on that cross He was crying out Psalm 22- This Psalm in a Psalm of suffering that ends in Praise
It is a Psalm of Deliverance
Jesus Cried out on that Cross to finish What David wrote in Psalm 22:21-24
Save me from the lion’s mouth,
from the horns of wild oxen.
You answered me!
I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters;
I will praise you in the assembly.
You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
All you descendants of Israel, revere him!
For he has not despised or abhorred
the torment of the oppressed.
He did not hide his face from him
but listened when he cried to him for help.
Conclusion:
Today remember the Lord-
Even when I go through the darkest valley,
I fear no danger,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff—they comfort me.
God hasn’t forsaken you, Remember His mercies, remember the Cross-
He will turn your mourning into praise
Paul in the Prison praising God during this time that brought salvation to the Jailer’s house
It was Jesus on the praise crying out a Psalm of Deliverance that brought salvation to the world
30 He feels all our sorrows, needs, and burdens as his own. This is why it is said that the sufferings of believers are called the sufferings of Christ.
John Flavel
Christ Altogether Lovely (17th century)
John Flavel
He is the God of all comfort
Give me a stout heart to bear my own burdens. Give me a willing heart to bear the burdens of others. Give me a believing heart to cast all burdens upon Thee, O Lord.
John Baillie