New Year - New Mercies

For the Month of January, We are Doing a New Year Series

Last Week, We Looked at New Year - New Commandment

Jesus Taught His Disciples On the Night of His Betrayal to Love Each Other the Way He Loved Them

That Looks Like Humbly Serving One Another and Being Willing to Give Our Lives for One Another

Tonight We are Going to Look at New Year - New Mercies

This Title Carries a Slightly Different Meaning to My Family

We are Expecting Another Little Girl in April

And Her Name is Going to Be “Mercy”

So, in This New Year, We are Receiving a New Mercy

But What We are Talking About Tonight Comes From the Book of Lamentations

Lamentations 3:22–24 (NASB95)

The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, Therefore I have hope in Him.”

We are Probably Most Familiar With the ESV

Because That’s the Translation Most Similar to the Song We Sing

Lamentations 3:22–24 (ESV)

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, therefore I will hope in him.”

This is Such a Beautiful Passage

Many People Probably Don’t Think About the Fact…

That These Verses Come From a Book That is All About Sorrow, Grief, and Pain

Lamentations is a Poetic Book…

That Describes the Results of the Babylonian Invasion and Destruction of Jerusalem

And it Describes This is Vivid Details

It is a Memorial to the Pain and Confusion the Israelites Felt After Such a Tragic Event

It’s Hard for Us to Imagine What This Would Have Been Like

Remember 9/11?

I was in 2nd Grade at the Time, So I Didn’t Fully Comprehend the Magnitude of What was Happening

But I Know Many Adults Felt Like Life in America was Threatened

A Foreign Nation Attacked One of Our Largest Cities

Our Pentagon

And Were Possibly Trying to Attack the Capital

Nothing Will Ever Quite Be the Same After That Event

But Imagine How Much Worse it Could Have Been?

Imagine U.S. Officials Being Either Exiled to a Foreign Nation or Murdered

Imagine People Being Murdered Out in the Streets With No One to Defend Them

Imagine Families Being Separated, Never to Reunite

Imagine Entire Cities Being Burned to the Ground

Imagine Being Forced to Live in a Foreign Land as a Slave

Imagine Going From Being a Free People to Being a Conquered People

Only When We Can Come Close to Wrapping Our Heads Around Such Horror…

Can We Have an Inkling of an Idea What the Jews Went Through

But Jerusalem Was More Than Just a Big City

It was More Than Just the Capital of the Jews

It was Where God’s House Was

It was Where God was Worshiped

And Now His House is Gone and Worship Seems Impossible

It’s Nearly Impossible for Us, as 21st Century Americans to Understand How the Jews Felt About This

But the Book of Lamentations Does a Pretty Good Job of Explaining it to Us

So if This Book is All About Sorrow, Grief, and Pain…

What are We Supposed to Make of Our Passage About God’s Love, Mercies, and Faithfulness?

Why Would There Be Such a Beautiful and Hopeful Passage in the Midst of Such Suffering?

Because With God, Even in the Midst of Suffering, There is Always Hope

Let’s Look at Our Passage and Some of the Text Around it…

So We Too, Even Amidst Terrible Suffering and Sorrow, Can Always Have Hope

Lamentations 3:17 (NASB95)

My soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten happiness.

Have You Ever Been There?

Feeling Deprived of Peace?

Maybe You’re There Right Now

Maybe You’ve Not Experienced That YET

How Long Has it Been Since You’ve Been Happy?

Maybe You Don’t Even Remember What Happiness Feels Like

The Word for Happiness = “Good”

Maybe You’ve Forgotten What Good Feels Like

Lamentations 3:18 (NASB95)

So I say, “My strength has perished, And so has my hope from the Lord.”

I Think “Strength” Gets the Point Across…

But it May Not Be the Best Translation for the Word Used Here

This Word is Used 43 Times in the OT

And This is the Only Time it is Translated “Strength”

The Word Has to Do With “Endurance”

Lamentations 3:18 (ESV)

so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord.”

Lamentations 3:18 (CSB)

Then I thought, “My future is lost, as well as my hope from the Lord.”

Have You Ever Felt Like You Just Can’t Take Anymore?

Have You Ever Felt Like You Can’t Keep Going?

Has the Suffering and Sorrow Ever Beaten You Down So Badly…

That Your Strength/Endurance is Gone?

Has That Suffering Ever Led You to the Verge of Giving Up On God?

Here’s How the Message Puts it:

Lamentations 3:18 (The Message)

I said to myself, “This is it. I’m finished. God is a lost cause.”

Has Your Suffering Ever Destroyed Your Hopes in God and His Promises?

These Feelings of Lost Peace, Happiness, Endurance, and Hope…

Are What the People of Jerusalem Were Feeling After This Terrible Destruction

Maybe You Can Relate to These Feelings

Next the Author Cries Out to God

Lamentations 3:19–20 (NASB95)

Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness. Surely my soul remembers And is bowed down within me.

He Pleads for God to Remember His Misery and Homelessness

Wormwood and Bitterness are Metaphorical for Hardship and Sorrow

“God, Remember All that I Have Gone Through!”

As He Asks God to Remember, He States That He Definitely Does

Lamentations 3:20 (CSB)

I continually remember them and have become depressed.

It’s Easy During Sufferings and Times of Sorrow…

To Feel Like God is Absent and that You’re Left All Alone

But Here’s Where the Great Transition Happens

Lamentations 3:21 (NASB95)

This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope.

The Author Remembers Something

And What it is that He Remembers Renews His Hope

Lamentations 3:22 (ESV)

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;

What He Remembers that Gives Him Hope is:

The “ḥě·sěḏ” of God Never Ceases

His Love, Mercy, and Faithful Loyalty Never Ceases

And His Loving Mercies Never Stop

Even in the Midst of Suffering…

When There is No Peace, Happiness, Endurance, or Hope to Be Found…

The Author Remembers How God’s Loving Mercies Never End

And When He Remembers That, His Hope is Restored

Lamentations 3:23 (ESV)

they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Every Morning Brings Brand New Mercies

With Everyday, There are New Opportunities to Experience the Love, Grace, and Mercy of God

Day By Day Might Bring More Pain and Suffering…

But Day By Day Also Brings New Mercies From God

God is Abundantly Trustworthy

He Always Keeps His Promises

Along With New Loving Mercies Each Day…

This is What Brought the Jewish People Hope

God Promised to Bring Punishment On the Jews

And He Kept His Promise

But God Also Promised to Restore Them

He Will Keep that Promise Too

Jesus Never Promised Us a Life of Ease in This Life

In Fact, He Promised Us the Opposite

But He Did Promised Us a Life of Abundant Peace, Prosperity, and Joy in the Next Life

He Will Keep His Promises

And Even When Life Starts Ripping Our Happiness and Peace Away…

We Can Always Have That Hope, Everyday, to Keep Us Going

It Can Provide Us the Endurance to Keep Going

Lamentations 3:24 (ESV)

“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

“Portion” = Inheritance, Something You Possess

In the Midst of Such Suffering and Loss, the Author Says…

“God is All I Have”

“He’s All I Have Left to Hope in, and He is Enough”

Maybe You Have, Maybe You are, or Maybe You Will Hit Rock Bottom in Suffering

Sometimes That’s What it Takes to Remind Us Where Our Hopes Ought to Lie

When We Hope in Anything Other Than God’s Promises…

We are Only Setting Ourselves Up for More Suffering

But When Our Hopes are Founded Upon the Promises of a God Who Never Lies…

No Amount of Suffering Will Ever Be Able to Tear Us Down Completely

Paul Writes to the Corinthians About a Time When He was in Deep Suffering

2 Corinthians 1:8–10 (NASB95)

For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength (Sound Familiar?), so that we despaired even of life (Sound Familiar?); indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us,

Paul and His Companions Went Through an Extraordinary Amount of Suffering

They Believed This Would Be How They Died

But They Learned a Valuable Lesson Through that Suffering:

To Place Their Trust in the God Who Raises the Dead

Christians Don’t Set Our Hopes On This Life

This Life Will Be Full of Suffering and Then Come to an End

Christians Place Our Hopes in a God Who Gives New, Everlasting Life

When He is Our Hope…

No Amount of Suffering Will Keep Us Down

Summary Conclusion

The Author of Lamentations Had No Peace, Happiness, Endurance, or Hope

But When He Remembered that His God is a God of Infinite Love and Mercy…

And That He is a God Who Keeps His Promises…

And That Having a Covenant Relationship With God is All that He Needs…

His Hope was Restored

The Same Can Be True for Us When We are Suffering

And I’ll Leave You With a Statement From Paul that Never Gets Old

Romans 8:18 (NASB95)

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Some Days the Suffering May Be Nearly Unbearable

But Each and Everyday, We Have New Mercies From Our Lord

Let’s Remember God’s New Mercies in This New Year