American Idols

Intro

Lamentations does not end tied up in a tidy bow! = thats life

Lam does not answer all our questions

Does not downplay what is to be human in this world

even christian life is not always manageable...

suffering does not follow a formula

grief is not tame it is not linear

Lam helps us here… voice to what feel… anchor in what is to come

what do you think about God, suffering, sin

Lam 1 = Shock and Awe = introduced to destruction

Lam 2 = Responding to Wrath = bigness of Gods righteousness

Lam 3 = Grace in Grief = hope of new mercy… a statement of faith even in the face of a smoldering city

Lam 4 American Idols = is about finding mercy in brokenness…brokenness that leads to mercy

Think of your life as a beaker full of transparent liquid with sediment at the bottom. 2 If the beaker remains stable and still, the solution looks clear—even pure. However, bump the beaker, and the sediment is activated. The appearance of purity is gone. Suffering bumps the beaker of our lives. It stirs up the sediments we forgot about or tried to hide. Fear, pride, covetousness, and self s ufficiency lie dormant. But pain can reveal these covert enemies.

Vroegop, Mark. Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy (pp. 123-124). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

God is breaking his people so that they will look to him… taking away crutch so that we stand on Him

some of you know this brokenness

can it get any worse.... brokenness brings you to gods mercy when you let it

sometimes of sin, others, world.... need for mercy

Broken people:

shorter verses

How…

God has removed 3 idols that they would have put faith in

Comfort

Leadership

Might

Message

What does it cost to buy the lie and serve the creation rather than the creator?

Name the Cost

Personal Plight = Disintegrating Culture

Lamentations 4:1–12 (ESV)

1 How the gold has grown dim, how the pure gold is changed! The holy stones lie scattered at the head of every street.

2 The precious sons of Zion, worth their weight in fine gold, how they are regarded as earthen pots, the work of a potter’s hands!

3 Even jackals offer the breast; they nurse their young; but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. 4 The tongue of the nursing infant sticks to the roof of its mouth for thirst; the children beg for food, but no one gives to them.

5 Those who once feasted on delicacies perish in the streets; those who were brought up in purple embrace ash heaps.

6 For the chastisement of the daughter of my people has been greater than the punishment of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, and no hands were wrung for her.

7 Her princes were purer than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than coral, the beauty of their form was like sapphire. 8 Now their face is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as wood.

9 Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of hunger, who wasted away, pierced by lack of the fruits of the field.

10 The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people.

11 The Lord gave full vent to his wrath; he poured out his hot anger, and he kindled a fire in Zion that consumed its foundations.

12 The kings of the earth did not believe, nor any of the inhabitants of the world, that foe or enemy could enter the gates of Jerusalem.

Their glory and prosperity was taken away

Financial Security

Propping up People

Craving Comfort

Taking Grace for Granted

Disintegrating Culture

So what happened, how did they get here?

Name the Cause

Leadership Laps = Distorted Truth

Lamentations 4:13–16 (ESV)

13 This was for the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed in the midst of her the blood of the righteous.

14 They wandered, blind, through the streets; they were so defiled with blood that no one was able to touch their garments. 15 “Away! Unclean!” people cried at them. “Away! Away! Do not touch!” So they became fugitives and wanderers; people said among the nations, “They shall stay with us no longer.”

16 The Lord himself has scattered them; he will regard them no more; no honor was shown to the priests, no favor to the elders.

Powerful Preaching / People Pleasing

Ego’s and Entourage

LORD or lord

Distorted Truth

What then is the end for Israel?

Name The Conclusion

Military Malfunction = Discouraging Situation

Lamentations 4:17–20 (ESV)

17 Our eyes failed, ever watching vainly for help; in our watching we watched for a nation which could not save.

18 They dogged our steps so that we could not walk in our streets; our end drew near; our days were numbered, for our end had come. 19 Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles in the heavens; they chased us on the mountains; they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

20 The breath of our nostrils, the Lord’s anointed, was captured in their pits, of whom we said, “Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.”

Arms and Armies

Walls and Wilderness

Military Man-Made Messiahs

Discouraging Situation

Disintegrating Culture = we are in the midst of a unraveling culture… thinking back to how the good old days were things are different now… anger/fear.... YOU ARE in the world not of the world… lam helps us with this… alarm with the culture and lament to God about it....

Distorted Truth = leadership.... we often look for leadership during those times… it cannot be found here… leader to deliver them… leaders are discredited and run off… spiritual leadership failure… guilty of spiritual malpractice… now wondering around as unclean for the wrong they have done… kicked out for their failure.... God has scattered them!!

want to avoid this … we need good spiritual leaders !!!

Discouraging Situation = Egypt… seeking help from a nation that could not save… the Babylon could not be stoped… nothing could be done how do we live in the midst of that.... there was no escape or help for them… Zedakiah, fled & captured… Edom watching and clapping

No culture, no leader, no help, no more idols… no remedy they can find… V22

How then can they have hope?

Close

Name the Confidence

Deliverance Assured

Lamentations 4:21–22 (ESV)

21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz; but to you also the cup shall pass; you shall become drunk and strip yourself bare.

19 Words

22 The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter of Zion, is accomplished; he will keep you in exile no longer; but your iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he will punish; he will uncover your sins.

Your punishment will end for their is hope in God.... even the same God who brought them here…

if you are at a point that you have no more crutches that is not a bad place to be !!

Some statements that you can resonate with....

I did not think I would be single at this stage in my life.

I did not think I would be dealing with and battling this still

I did not think my kids would turn out this way

I did not think ministry would be like this

I did not think marriage would be this way

Brokenness that leads you to God is never wasted… our problem is not our brokenness it is our self sufficiency....

A broken heart God will not despise.... David

Psalm 34:18 ESV

18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

Psalm 51:17 ESV

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

1 Peter 5:6 ESV

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,

Matthew 11:30 ESV

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

2 Corinthians 1:8–10 ESV

8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. 10 He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.

2 Corinthians 12:7–10 ESV

7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Lament shows us how to think and what to pray when our idols become clear.

God broke Israel because her hope was not on HIM.... we need Jesus… if you have Jesus stop morning the loss of your idols !!!

2 Corinthians 12:9 ESV

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Name The Cost

Degraded Culture

Name the Cause

Distorted Truth

Name the Conclusion

Discouraging Situation

Name the Confidence

Deliverance Assured

Group Questions

Discuss the offices of prophet, priest, and king as a group. How did Jeremiah feel now that all of those offices were in ruins?

How did Christ fulfill all three offices of prophet, priest, and king?

Can you recall Scriptures that refer to Christ as filling all three offices? Share them with the group and look them up together.

Why are these verses an encouragement to you?

How was it that this situation was worse than the destruction of Sodom (v. 6)? Why were the other nations shocked at the destruction of Jerusalem?

What might this tell us about God’s discipline for us as christians? How could you apply this in our world today?

How have you responded to the changes in our culture over the last ten years? What about your friends, your family, or people in your church?

Based on this message, what role could lament play in navigating these changes in the culture?

How can loss or suffering reveal our idols—the things on which we place our trust? When have you seen this in your own life?

As you listened to the types of idols, which does your heart tend to gravitate toward? Why do you think they are so attractive to you?

What other idols do you need to lament over? What areas of cultural upheaval do you need to mourn?

Bibliography

Ellison, H. L. “Lamentations.” The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel. Edited by Frank E. Gaebelein. Vol. 6. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1986.

Harrison, R. K. Jeremiah and Lamentations: An Introduction and Commentary. Vol. 21 of Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1973.

Huey, F. B. Jeremiah, Lamentations. Vol. 16 of The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1993.

Kaiser, Walter C., Jr. Grief and Pain in the Plan of God: Christian Assurance and the Message of Lamentations. Fearn, UK: Christian Focus Publications, 2004.

Longman, Tremper, III. Jeremiah, Lamentations. Edited by W. Ward Gasque, Robert L. Hubbard Jr., and Robert K. Johnston. Understanding the Bible Commentary Series. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2012.

MacKay, John L. Lamentations: Living in the Ruins. Mentor Commentaries. Ross-shire, Great Britain: Mentor, 2008.

Ryken, Philip Graham. Jeremiah and Lamentations: From Sorrow to Hope. Preaching the Word. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2001.

Smith, Steven. Exalting Jesus in Jeremiah, Lamentations. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2019.

Vroegop, Mark. Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy: Discovering the Grace of Lament. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Publishing, 2019.

Walker, Larry L., Elmer A. Martens. Cornerstone Biblical Commentary: Isaiah, Jeremiah, & Lamentations. Vol. 8. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2005.