Mills Memorial Baptist Church
Sunday Morning Worship 8/16
  • He Lives
  • Choir Song
  • My Hope is Jesus
  • The Wonder of It All

      • Lamentations 3:1–26KJV1900

      • Lamentations 3:1-5KJV1900

      • Lamentations 3:6-10KJV1900

      • Lamentations 3:11-15KJV1900

      • Lamentations 3:16-20KJV1900

      • Lamentations 3:21-25KJV1900

      • Lamentations 3:26KJV1900

  • Lamentations 3:1–26
    For the last two weeks, we have been talking about the battles that take place in the mind and heart.
    In the first message of this series, we confronted the idea that faithful Christians should never struggle mentally or emotionally.
    We saw that Scripture gives us permission to speak honestly about what hurts and to seek help without shame.
    Last week, we stood with Jehoshaphat and learned what to do when we could see trouble coming.
    This morning, we stand amid the ruins of Jerusalem and learn where to find hope when the trouble has already come—and the darkness will not lift.
    Lamentations was written in the aftermath of one of the darkest moments in Israel’s history.
    The Babylonian army had come against Jerusalem.
    The walls had been broken down.
    The gates had been burned.
    Homes had been destroyed.
    The Temple—the place that had stood as the center of Israel’s worship—had been torn apart and burned.
    People had died.
    Others had been carried away into captivity.
    Famine had ravaged the city.
    And then, after the violence and terror of battle, there was the terrible silence that follows destruction.
    Traditionally, Jeremiah has been understood as the writer of Lamentations, and whether we picture Jeremiah himself or the inspired voice of the grieving prophet, the words before us bring us into the heart of a man looking at a world that no longer resembled the one he had known.
    Listen to the language of Lamentations 3.
    He says in verse 2:
    “He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.”
    Verse 6:
    “He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.”
    Verse 8:
    “Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.”
    Verse 17:
    “And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.”
    Then verse 18:
    “And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD.”
    That is a frightening place for a person to reach.
    This is not a man having a difficult afternoon.
    His sorrow has lasted so long that he says, “I forgat prosperity.”
    He can scarcely remember what peace felt like.
    But verse 18 is not the end of the chapter.
    Something begins to happen in verses 19–21.
    The city has not suddenly been rebuilt.
    The dead have not returned.
    The captives have not come home.
    The smoke has not disappeared from the ruins.
    Yet the grieving man begins to recover hope.
    How?
    Lamentations 3 shows us four responses that allow hope to live even while the darkness remains.

    I. Be Honest About the Darkness

    The first eighteen verses are painfully honest.
    Jeremiah does not rush past the suffering in order to get to verse 22.
    He describes it.
    He names it.
    He tells us what prolonged affliction feels like from the inside.

    A. Darkness Can Obscure the Way

    Verse 2 says:
    “He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.”
    Verse 9 says:
    “He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.”
    There are seasons when we do not know where life is going.
    Things that once seemed clear become difficult to understand.
    We may know what we believe about God and still struggle to interpret what He is doing.
    We ask questions for which no answer seems to come.
    Why did this happen?
    Why has it lasted this long?
    Why did God allow this relationship to break?
    Why has this prayer gone unanswered?
    Why does the future look so different from what I expected?
    Suffering can make the road feel unfamiliar.

    B. Suffering Can Distort Our View

    Look at some of the ways Jeremiah speaks about God.
    Verse 10 says:
    “He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.”
    Verse 13:
    “He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.”
    Jeremiah is telling us what suffering felt like.
    And feelings can be powerful interpreters.
    When pain continues long enough, we may begin to interpret everything through the pain.
    God may feel distant.
    He may feel angry.
    He may feel unapproachable.
    We may begin to assume that because we cannot understand what God is doing, He must not be doing anything good.
    Our feelings are real, but they are not the final authority.
    They tell us something about what we are experiencing, but they cannot be allowed to rewrite what God has revealed about Himself.

    C. Silence Can Feel Like Absence

    Verse 8 may be one of the hardest statements in the passage:
    “Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.”
    Jeremiah prayed.
    He cried.
    He shouted.
    And from his perspective, Heaven remained silent.
    Some of the hardest seasons are not the ones when we do not pray.
    They are the ones when we pray and still wait.
    You have asked God to change something.
    You have asked Him to heal.
    You have asked Him to restore.
    You have asked Him to intervene.
    And weeks become months.
    Months become years.
    The answer you hoped for does not come.
    That does not mean God has ceased to hear.
    A silent Heaven is not an empty Heaven.
    But when you are the one waiting, silence can feel very much like absence.

    D. Weariness Can Drain Our Hope

    Verse 17 says:
    “And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.”
    That sentence describes something that happens when sorrow lasts.
    Some trials hurt because they are severe.
    Others become especially difficult because they last long enough that you begin to forget what life felt like before them.
    Three years ago, I lost my mom to pneumonia.
    Mom was really the glue of our family.
    Life did not stop after she died.
    There were still responsibilities.
    There were still people to care for.
    There was still ministry.
    There were still decisions to make.
    Most days you keep moving.
    But grief does not always follow the calendar.
    Every once in a while, something brings it back.
    You think of something you wish you could tell her.
    You remember the place she occupied in your family.
    You realize again that she is not there.
    And there are moments when grief from three years ago does not feel three years old.
    That is part of what Jeremiah is describing.
    Sorrow can remain in the memory long after the event itself has passed.
    And that leads directly into verses 19 and 20.

    II. Recognize What Your Mind Is Rehearsing

    Jeremiah says in verse 19 and 20:
    “Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.”
    Notice the repetition of memory.
    Jeremiah's mind keeps returning to the bitter things.

    A. Pain Demands Our Attention

    Pain has a way of becoming loud.
    A physical wound demands attention.
    So can an emotional wound.
    A painful conversation may replay long after the words were spoken.
    A betrayal may continue appearing in the mind years later.
    A loss may return without warning.
    A failure may become the first thing we remember whenever we think about ourselves.
    Jeremiah speaks of “wormwood and gall”—bitterness.
    He does not have to search hard for those memories.
    They keep presenting themselves.
    Last week, we dealt largely with anxiety looking ahead toward what might happen.
    Here the movement is different.
    Anxiety may torment us with a future that has not happened.
    Sorrow can torment us by continually replaying a past that has.

    B. Memory Repeats the Bitter Things

    Charles Spurgeon once preached from verse 21 under the title Memory—The Handmaid of Hope.
    He observed that memory can easily become the servant of despondency.
    In simple terms, our memory can either deepen our discouragement or help strengthen our hope.
    If we keep replaying only what has hurt us, despair grows; but when we deliberately bring God’s mercy and faithfulness back to mind, hope has something solid to stand on.
    That is exactly what we see in verses 19 and 20.
    Imagine an album containing hundreds of photographs from your life.
    There are pages of joy.
    Pages of kindness.
    Pages of provision.
    Pages where God sustained you.
    Pages of people who loved you.
    Pages of prayers answered.
    But every time the album falls open, it seems to land on the same painful pages.
    Those pages belong in the album.
    They really happened.
    They are part of the story.
    But they are not the whole story.
    Sometimes the mind keeps returning to what hurt until pain begins to feel like the only chapter that has ever been written.

    C. Rehearsed Sorrow Deepens Despair

    Jeremiah says in verse 20:
    “My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.”
    There is a difference between remembering pain and allowing pain to monopolize the memory.
    Jeremiah is not rebuked for remembering what happened.
    He is not commanded to erase Jerusalem from his mind.
    The turning point comes because something else is brought into his remembrance.
    Verse 21 says:
    “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.”
    That sentence changes the direction of the chapter.
    Verses 19–20 describe what kept coming back to Jeremiah.
    Verse 21 describes what Jeremiah chose to bring back.
    Pain returned uninvited.
    Truth had to be recalled deliberately.
    That is not just positive thinking.
    Jeremiah does not tell himself, “Everything is fine.”
    Everything is not fine.
    He brings into his mind truths that are just as real as the ruins.
    And that brings us to the heart of the passage.

    III. Recall the Character of God

    Verse 21 says:
    “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.”
    What does he recall?
    Verses 22 and 23:
    “It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”
    Nothing around Jeremiah has changed yet.
    But another truth has entered the conversation.

    A. His Mercy Has Preserved You

    “It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed.”
    Jeremiah looks at what remains and recognizes mercy.
    That does not minimize what has been lost.
    It recognizes that destruction has not been total.
    God has preserved a remnant.
    Jeremiah himself is still there.
    His life is still in God's hands.
    Sometimes mercy is not immediately seen in what God gives.
    Sometimes mercy is recognized in what He has sustained.
    You may be bruised, but still here.
    Grieving, but still here.
    Confused, but still here.
    Weak, but still being carried through another day.
    My mother may still be gone, and I still miss her deeply.
    But when I look back over these three years, I can also see mercy.
    God has sustained me, strengthened me, provided for my family, and carried us through days I did not know how we would face.
    The grief is part of the story, but it is not the only thing God has been writing.

    B. His Compassion Has Not Failed

    “Because his compassions fail not.”
    Jeremiah's circumstances had changed dramatically.
    God's compassion had not run dry.
    The word carries the idea of deep tenderness and mercy.
    There are times when we judge God’s compassion entirely by whether He has removed the thing that hurts.
    Jeremiah teaches us to look deeper.
    The presence of suffering does not mean the exhaustion of divine compassion.
    God can be compassionate while we are still waiting.
    He can be compassionate while grief remains.
    He can be compassionate when healing is gradual.
    He can be compassionate when we do not yet understand His providence.

    C. His Provision Comes Each Morning

    “They are new every morning.”
    Jeremiah does not say that yesterday’s mercy solved every problem.
    He says there is mercy again today.
    Morning after morning.
    Day after day.
    God gives what is needed for the day that has actually arrived.
    You may not feel prepared for next month.
    You may not know how you will handle next year.
    But this morning came with mercy.
    Tomorrow morning will not arrive before God does.
    And when tomorrow becomes today, His compassion will not be depleted.

    D. His Faithfulness Remains Great

    “Great is thy faithfulness.”
    We usually hear those words sung in a church building with beautiful harmony.
    But those words first come to us from the ruins of Jerusalem.
    Jeremiah is not celebrating what he can see.
    He is confessing what he knows.
    The hymn Great Is Thy Faithfulness has helped generations of believers sing the truth of these verses, but the statement itself belongs first to a grieving man surrounded by devastation.
    That is what makes it so powerful.
    Great is Thy faithfulness is not only a song for the day when everything turns out the way we hoped.
    It is a confession for the morning when much remains unresolved.
    Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; All I have needed Thy hand hath provided— Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!
    Psalm 77 records a similar movement.
    The psalmist asks whether God's mercy is gone and whether His promise has failed.
    Psalm 77:7–8 KJV
    7 Will the Lord cast off for ever? And will he be favourable no more? 8 Is his mercy clean gone for ever? Doth his promise fail for evermore?
    Then he says: Psalm 77:11
    Psalm 77:11 KJV
    11 I will remember the works of the Lord: Surely I will remember thy wonders of old.
    The answer to despair was not denial.
    It was deliberate remembrance.
    And Jeremiah goes even further.
    He does not merely remember what God has done.
    He remembers what God Himself is to him.

    IV. Rest in God as Your Portion

    Verse 24 says:
    “The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.”
    That may be the deepest sentence in the entire passage.

    A. Let God Be Enough

    A portion was a person's share.
    Their inheritance.
    What belonged to them.
    Jeremiah had watched much of what Israel considered its portion disappear.
    The land had been invaded.
    The city had been ruined.
    Homes had been lost.
    People had been taken away.
    Yet Jeremiah says:
    “The LORD is my portion.”
    Babylon could carry people away.
    Babylon could destroy buildings.
    Babylon could strip Jerusalem of almost everything visible.
    But Babylon could not carry away the Lord.
    Psalm 73:25–26 KJV
    25 Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. 26 My flesh and my heart faileth: But God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
    God being our portion does not mean every other need becomes unimportant.
    It means that beneath every loss, the believer still possesses the one treasure that cannot ultimately be taken away.

    B. Seek Him While You Wait

    Verse 25 says:
    “The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.”
    Waiting is not the same as doing nothing.
    The waiting soul still seeks.
    It prays.
    It listens.
    It receives help.
    It stays connected to God's people.
    It opens Scripture.
    It allows others to share the weight.
    There are times when caring for people you love can make you feel responsible for more than one person was ever meant to carry.
    There are real responsibilities we have toward one another.
    But caring deeply for someone does not mean becoming everything that person needs.
    We are finite.
    Sometimes seeking God while we wait includes acknowledging that we need support ourselves.
    It may include pastoral care, wise counseling, medical evaluation, rest, fellowship, and allowing someone else to stand beside us.

    C. Hope Before Relief Comes

    Verse 26 says:
    “It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.”
    Hope appears before relief.
    That is what makes biblical hope different from mere optimism.
    Optimism says, “I think things will get better.”
    Biblical hope says, “My expectation ultimately rests in the Lord.”
    Jeremiah has not reached the end of his suffering.
    But he is no longer without hope inside it.
    And if you are in a season of overwhelming despair—especially if you have begun thinking about hurting yourself or wondering whether life is worth continuing—please do not carry that alone.
    Tell someone today.
    Tell a family member, a pastor, a trusted friend, or a doctor, and allow someone to stay with you and help you through that moment.
    Sometimes hope begins by allowing another person to stay beside you when you cannot carry the moment alone.

    D. Trust His Coming Salvation

    Jeremiah says it is good to wait “for the salvation of the LORD.”
    The word salvation here carries the idea of deliverance.
    Jeremiah does not know exactly when that deliverance will come.
    He does not know what it will look like.
    But he knows where it must come from.
    The final word belongs to God.
    For the believer, that truth reaches beyond every circumstance of this life.
    Some prayers are answered here.
    Some wounds heal slowly.
    Some burdens may remain for years.
    And some things will not be completely made right until we stand in the presence of Christ.
    But the Christian is never waiting for nothing.
    We are waiting for Someone.

    Conclusion

    Jeremiah begins this chapter by talking about darkness.
    He talks about blocked paths.
    Bitter memories.
    Unanswered prayer.
    Lost peace.
    By verse 18 he says:
    “My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD.”
    Then something changes.
    Not the city.
    Not the ruins.
    Not the past.
    His memory changes direction.
    “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.”
    He calls mercy back to mind.
    Compassion.
    Morning mercies.
    Faithfulness.
    And finally:
    “The LORD is my portion.”
    Perhaps there is something your mind has been returning to again and again.
    A loss.
    A disappointment.
    A fear that became reality.
    A prayer that still seems unanswered.
    A season that has lasted much longer than you expected.
    Do not pretend it never happened.
    But do not let the bitter pages become the whole story.
    Call something else to mind.
    The Lord's mercies are not exhausted.
    His compassions have not failed.
    Morning still comes with mercy.
    His faithfulness is still great.
    And whatever else has been taken, the child of God can still say:
    “The LORD is my portion.”
    The darkness may not lift today.
    The burden may still be there tomorrow morning.
    But hope can live before the ruins are rebuilt.
    “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.”

      • Psalm 77:7–8KJV1900

      • Psalm 77:11KJV1900

      • Psalm 73:25–26KJV1900

  • Only Trust Him
Mills Memorial Baptist Church
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