We Made it!

Congratulations! Praise God! Hallelujah! Thank you Jesus! We made it! 2019 is coming to a close and we made it. Some of us barely made it, but we made it. Some of us didn’t know if we were going to make it, but we made it. It’s these people I wan’t to talk to today. Somebody who made it. Because although 2019 wasn’t all bad you can admit that it wasn’t all good either. I wan’t to talk to somebody who didn’t have a perfect 2019. Somebody who had to press through last year, somebody who had to ....struggle with a depression…endure some pain…wait on news…(Preach)

What makes hard times bearable? Nothing except the notion that “trouble don’t last always.” That’s how we can survive the tropical storms in our lives, storms pass. That’s how we can endure crazy coworkers, 5:00 is coming. That’s how we outlast sickness, that our God is a healer or we find wholeness on the other side in Glory. That’s how we will survive the next four years, we will vote again one day. When you find yourself being attacked all I want you to know on this Sunday morning is that “many are the afflictions of the righteous, but God delivers them from them all’’ and when you cry out to God in the night remember, “pain endures for a night but joy comes in the morning.” in fact this chapter echos that very sentiment because sometimes the mayhem personified, the one who shows up unexpected and uninvited, is God.

That is where we are in this chapter in this book. Jeremiah the weeping prophet is in distress. God has inflicted the nation and allowed them to be carried off into captivity and Jeremiah is sick to his stomach with pain as he reflects on the misery of it all. And although this was a type of judgment on Israel for its repeated oppression on its own people and subsequent Idolatry against YHWH, it doesn’t make the suffering any less painful.

In the verses we read earlier there are some statements that stand out that give us clarity to how Jeremiah felt.

-Covered in ashes

-forgotten happiness

-my hope in the lord has perished

-wormwood

But in all of that he says, yet there is still hope, even against hope. Here is where we find hope. In the morning after the mayhem.

God’s Love Never Expires

First of all God is love and God is eternal, therefore it follows that God must love eternally. God will never cease to love us. Paul says it well in Romans, “who will separate us from the Love of God?…neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Jeremiah said his steadfast love never ceases. There is no expiration date on God’s love, no matter how much mess we get into. (Preach)

Also, in the NKJV there is a translation variant, a difference that says, “by this mercy or compassion, we are not consumed.” This stream of though feeds into the same river that His love never expires because it lets us know that the only reason he doesn't allow the mayhem to destroy us is because he loves us. (Preach)

God’s Mercies are New Everyday

Its good to know that God’s love is expressed in mercy. Because we need mercy. There are some things that we have done that we should rightly suffer for, but God give us mercy. And God gives us mercy even when we don’t think we need it.

Photographer takes picture of man. “you didn’t do me justice” with that face you don’t need justice you need mercy.

Sometimes when I wake up in the morning I just don’t feel like it. “Like what?” you say. Just don’t feel like anything. Don’t feel like working, don’t feel like talking, sometimes I get up and don’t even feel like moving. (elaborate) But I’m so glad, God, is not like me.

• God dealt with last night

• God delivered a new day

God is More than Enough

The Lord is my portion. This statement was a Hebraism employed throughout the OT. says, “though my flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strengths of my hear and my portion forever” This word for portion in v. 24 means, “the division of the spoil or inheritance.” So, for Jews the inheritance was the promised land, but he promised land now belongs to someone else and Jeremiah and Israel no longer posses it. Now Jeremiah has to face the harsh reality that physical and material possessions and portions are temporary. So as he remembers looking in the rear-view mirror on his way leaving Jerusalem bound for Babylon and he sees the smoke rise from the temple, He has an epiphany that even though he has lost much, He still has God. (elaborate)

(Story of Haiti congregation after the hurricane worshiping at church rubble)

Hope. this hope is anticipatory waiting.