Sermon Tone Analysis

March 26, 2012

By: John Barnett

Read, print, or listen to this resource on our website www.DiscoverTheBook.org

When we listen closely to Christ's words near the start of His ministry, we hear Jesus say to all believers of all time, “Rejoice when you face persecution” (Matthew 5:10-12).

At the end of His public ministry, this same Jesus also goes on to say that for those at the end of days, the worst is yet to come (Matthew 24:9-10).

When we listen closely to Christ's words near the end of His ministry, He tells us of a future time when all of us who know and love Him will suffer greatly; and when we add that to all of the struggles, trials, challenges, hurdles, and disappointments life brings—we get a huge amount of suffering in a lifetime.

So this evening as we turn towards Lamentations 3, we turn to the greatest reminder in all of God's Word that when there are great sufferings, during them we can find the assurance of God’s greater faithfulness.

Lamentations is a book that is about what it sounds like its about—the lamentations of a person in deep suffering.

Do you remember all of the weeping prophet Jeremiah’s woes?

His testimony is the 25th book of God's Word, and it is aptly called Lamentations.

Does that title suggest anything to you?

It is the cry of a troubles soul.

It is the testimony of a man who knew pain, weakness, and much sorrow.

*Jeremiah the Weeping Prophet*

But before we turn to Lamentations 3, look at the prior book, named for the prophet Jeremiah, and let me briefly sketch the life of this incredible servant of God.

Jeremiah must have had an incredible childhood.

The Scriptures tell us God had chosen him before his birth to be a prophet.

His family was notable in their service for the LORD.

Life was exciting for the son of a high priest.

Jeremiah 1:1 /"The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin,"/ (NASB)

One of the great blessings of Jeremiah’s life was that his dad was the one who found the lost book of the Law (2 Kings 22:8).

How Jeremiah’s love for the Word showed through in his life as God’s prophet.

But even the great family heritage, and calling of God did nothing to prevent horrible sufferings.

In fact Jeremiah’s life could be described as one of the most difficult lives of hardship and woe found in the pages of Scripture.

How does God work with someone:

*When Troubles Come in Overwhelming Waves*

Jeremiah’s woes were unimaginable to our relatively peaceful lives.

He lived through the death throes of the final days and hours of the nation of Judah.

* From an earthly perspective Jeremiah’s life was a failure.

During his lifetime he watched the decay of God’s chosen people, the horrible destruction of Jerusalem and the deportation of the nation to Babylon.

* He preached for 40 years and saw no visible result among those he served.

Instead those countrymen he warned for God sought to kill him if he wouldn’t stop preaching doom (Jer.

11:19-23).

He had virtually no converts to show for a lifetime of ministry.

* He had no one to find joy and comfort with as his own family and friends were involved in plots against his (12:6).

* He never had the joy of a godly home because God never allowed him to marry, and thus he suffered incredibly agonizing loneliness (16:2).

* He lived under a constant threat of death, as there were plots to kill him in secret so no one would find him (18:20-23).

* He lived with physical pain while he was beaten severely and them bound in wooden stocks (20:1-2).

* He lived with emotional pain as his friends spied on him deceitfully and for revenge (20:10).

* He was consumed with sorrow and shame and even cursed the day he was born (20:14-18).

* His life ended with no relief as he was falsely accused of being a traitor to his own country (37:13-14).

Jeremiah was arrested, beaten, thrown into a dungeon, and starved many days (37:15-21).

If an Ethiopian Gentile had not interceded on his behalf he would have died there.

* In the end, tradition tells us he was exiled to Egypt, where he was stoned to death by his own people.

Perhaps the most striking feature of this book is the fact that despite the terrible woes of the life Jeremiah was called to (1:5), he saw that it was all at the Master Potter’s Hand (18:1-6).

At the point of near despair over his failed ministry, God asked Jeremiah to go to the Potter’s house and there he would get a message from the Lord (18:2).

Although Israel had failed so grievously, the heavenly Potter was able to bless them again if they would but repent and yield to his Perfect Touch.

So for us who have heard Christ's reminder that we will suffer just because we belong to Him; and for us who live in the times approaching the end of days, we can learn a great truth to live by.

Jeremiah’s life is a wonderful canvas, across which is painted the truths that you can see and display God even more clearly:

*When your Whole Life Hurts*

As we turn to Lamentations 3, what are the Biblical afflictions God uses, manages, allows, and most of all, what are some of the hurts that HE can handle?

Jeremiah’s like and testimony clearly describe a huge spectrum of the afflictions and troubles that God allows to come our way so He can be closest and dearest to us.

These are what Jeremiah faced, starting in v.4.

He had:

1. THE HURTS OF BROKEN PHYSICAL HEALTH:

Lamentations 3:4 He has aged my flesh and my skin, and broken my bones.

2. THE HURTS OF DEEP EMOTIONAL STRAIN:

Lamentations 3:5 He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and woe.

3. THE HURTS OF PERIODS OF DARK DEPRESSION:

Lamentations 3:6 He has set me in dark places like the dead of long ago.

4. THE HURTS OF DESPERATION AND BURDEN OF BEING TRAPPED:

Lamentations 3:7 He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out; He has made my chain heavy.

5. THE HURTS OF FEELING OUT OF TOUCH, DISTANT FROM GOD AND LEFT BEHIND IN LIFE:

Lamentations 3:8 Even when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer.

6.

THE HURTS OF FRUSTRATION AND CONFUSION:

Lamentations 3:9 He has blocked my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked.

7. THE HURTS OF ANXIETY AND SADNESS:

Lamentations 3:17 You have moved my soul far from peace; I have forgotten prosperity.

8. THE HURTS OF PHYSICAL WEAKNESS AND HOPELESSNESS:

Lamentations 3:18 And I said, “My strength and my hope have perished from the Lord.”

9. THE HURTS OF BITTER AFFLICTION AND AIMLESSNESS:

Lamentations 3:19 Remember my affliction and roaming, the wormwood and the gall.

Those nine verses describe some of the deepest woes, struggles, and trials imaginable.

If you have known any or all of them, then you are in good company.

Jeremiah faced all of them at once and did so completely alone (remember God made him stay single and never get married).

So what he says next is vital.

Jeremiah shares with us the cure He found, that kept Him from being destroyed by these immense sorrows.

He shares with us his:

*A Prescription from The Great Physician*

So what possible blessing could ever come from such a desperate condition of affliction and hurt?

Look back at this passage because it contains the greatest message of Hope in all of God's Word.

This is what our Faithful God offers:

1. IN OUR FAILURES: God always offers HIS UNFAILING LOVE

Lamentations 3:22 /"Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not.

"/

Jeremiah didn’t say he was perfect- he said I know that I am weak and what the Lord revealed to him is even if we fail, God’s love never fails.

The Lord’s mercies, his compassions, they fail not.

He loves us with an unfailing love.

2. INTO OUR MONOTONOUS LIVES: look what the Lord promises- HIS DAILY FRESHNESS

Lamentations 3:23 /"They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness."/

Have you ever thought about how monotonous life could be without God’s faithfulness, His newness and His freshness?

Basically, many of us do the same thing every day at work.

I have done the same thing for my entire life’s work, for over 31 years, every single day.

Each day I have to spend a large portion of my time wrestling with this Book.

It is the same Book, by the way, that I have been reading for a lot more than 30 years.

But vocationally for 31 years, full time, this is what I have done.

I know a lot of men in ministry who say it’s so monotonous—we have to find something new—and they are always trying to find something different.

Look at this 23rd verse- what Jeremiah says: God’s Words are new every morning.

Into our monotonous lives, God wants to insert daily freshness, if we will allow Him to.

There is such newness in our walk with Christ everyday, because He is faithful and when we are afflicted, we realize how faithful He is.

Look at verse 24:

3. IN OUR WEAKNESSES: He gives us a PERSONAL DOSE OF STRENGTH