Summary
The sermon focuses on the theme of God's steadfast love and faithfulness, drawing from Lamentations 3:22-23. It begins with a worshipful expression of devotion to Jesus, emphasizing gratitude for His unending mercy and compassion. The pastor explains the historical context of the book of Lamentations, written by the prophet Jeremiah during the Babylonian exile, which reflects the grief of the Jewish people over the destruction of Jerusalem and their suffering. The key message is that despite the judgment brought about by sin and the hardships of exile, God's love and mercy remain constant and unfailing. The text highlights God's covenant faithfulness, illustrated through the promise of restoration and His plans for prosperity for those in exile, as seen in Jeremiah 29:11. The pastor contrasts human understanding of judgment with God's eternal mercy, reminding listeners that their suffering does not signify rejection but rather disciplinary love and a call to repentance. The sermon concludes with a call to internalize God's faithfulness, trust in His daily mercies, and remain rooted in His love, drawing parallels to the hymn "Great is Thy Faithfulness" that will be celebrated on the church's anniversary.
Sermon transcription
Alright, let's go. When all my friends are gone you were right there all alone before I just want to say that I love you more than I love you Jesus. I worship and adore you. Just want to tell you that I love you more than anything. I love you Jesus. I worship and adore you. Just want to tell you that I love you more. I love you Jesus. I worship and adore you. Just want to tell you that I love you more than anything.
I love you Jesus. I worship and adore you. Just want to tell you, Lord, I love you more than anything. Lord, I love you. Lord, I love you more than anything. Lord, I love you more than anything.
Thank you, Clive. Okay. Yes, Lord, we love you. Okay. Once again welcome to our worship service for today. And I hope we are prepared and excited for our anniversary next Sunday.
Okay now as mentioned by pastor Angel like two Sundays ago we have a series of messages this month of September about God's faithfulness and goodness. This is in line with our anniversary theme which is for the Lord is good based in Psalms 100 verse 5 and pastor Angel started with God's faithfulness through generations and then last Sunday pastor reheard on God's faithful provisions for everyone and with our response of gratitude ude and thankfulness.
Today we will continue on this theme with the title God's steadfast love is always new. God's steadfast love for short based on the book of Lamentations chapter 3 verse 22 and 23. Shall we read our text for today? Lamentations 3:22 and 23. Let's read together our text. Next phrase. Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed. For his compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. Indeed Lord great is your faithfulness Lord. And we would like to celebrate your goodness and your faithfulness today Lord. And may you bless everyone Lord through the message. Let it touch everyone's heart Lord that we will not only grow in our wisdom in our understanding of you but even in our relationship with you Lord. Again, we thank you allow the Holy Spirit Lord to give us understanding today in Jesus name. Amen.
Now the book of lamentation was credited to the prophet Jeremiah and he is the author of this book and also many other books in the old testament and he is one of the major prophets in Judah in the time when Israel was divided into two. If you remember there's the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom is called Judah.
And the book is actually written not only for Judah but also for all the Jewish exiles. At that time he was actually writing this book for the exiles in Babylon. It is a collection of poems five chapters expressing grief over the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of the Jewish people to Babylon.
This is in the 6th century BC and are you familiar with the story of the Babylonian exile? The books of Jeremiah and 2 kings wrote about this and also in 2 Chronicles and even Nehemiah covers this event in their writings. David also wrote a psalm, Psalm 137 as a direct reflection of the exiles experience. It says there they were sitting at the bank of the shores of Babylon crying and they like lay down their harps because their tormentors and captors wanted them to sing songs of Zion.
And in verse four it says, "But how can we sing songs of Zion when we are in a foreign land?" And do you know the story of Daniel and his friends Sadrach Mesach and Abednego? They were exiles in Babylon also. And the story of what actually took place during that exile. So, Jeremiah wrote the book as a lament for what has befallen upon the great nation of Israel. Does the title lamentations, it means the word lamentation means to mourn aloud or to wail or to cry. Okay.
And it describes the trauma and grief that they have as a people of Judah including details of famine suffering and the abandonment of their now destroyed city. If you look at this book, this is what was described there. Yet acknowledging that the destruction of their cities and exile to Babylon, they actually noticed that Jeremiah was writing was actually saying this that the reason that they were there because of their sin that it is a consequence of their sin. And, Jeremiah has acknowledged this if you look at even in the first chapter and thus appealing for God's mercy and he continues on and appealing that despite the intense lament in the beginning he would conclude later on with an appeal for restoration.
He was now appealing starting from chapter 3, four and five. He was now appealing for restoration and he expresses hope in God's enduring compassion and faithfulness. Okay. So this is now in chapter three in our text. And as I look at this great tragedy that happened to the people of Judah I can see that it was God's judgment over his disobedient people. And I would like to talk of this a little bit as the reason for their exile is sin. Just like what happened to the northern kingdom before them. The northern kingdom was already attacked and conquered by the Assyrians. And the Assyrians was also trying to attack Judah. But the Lord has been protecting them and fighting for them. So they were kept secured. But now they have also fallen to sin and then they become disobedient to the Lord and they too become idolators. And so this happens.
Now in the context of judgment, sometimes we think that we too are being judged today. In fact I got this question many times that are we being judged today by our actions just like they were judged by their sin and they were exiled to Babylon. But when we speak of judgment here in the scripture here in this context, I believe that it does not really mean that they sinned and God ordered the Babylonians to gather their armies and attack Judah because I would like to punish them. You know, I don't think it happens that way. I believe that because of their sin and disobedience God has now to take out his hand of protection and the Babylonians who was wanting to attack them for years already was now successful in their seeds. Kids and they were able to defeat Judah because the hands of God's protection was not already there.
I think this is what I know from this text that the city was destroyed including their temple when they were brought as exiles to Babylon because they were on their own at this time when the Lord take his hands of covering upon you then you are on your own. And so it answers the question what does it mean for us today? What does it mean for us today? Like the question that was asked to me, are there really judgments going on or punishment that is happening to us when we sin today?
Some say karma is real. No, we don't believe in karma. That's Hinduism and Buddhism. First of all, God's judgment that the eternal judgment of God you know the punishment of the wicked comes on judgment day. And it happens when Jesus will come again as the judge of mankind. So thank you. So no, there is still no judgment happening today. No need.
Now in the gospel of John, he made it clear that God did not send his son Jesus to condemn the world but so that the world might miss be saved through him. And Paul wrote in Romans 8:1 so clearly when he says therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So if you are in Christ then there is no more condemnation for you. We do not expect judgment anymore because we are already saved and we are assured of eternal life in heaven. But understand this and I will keep on saying this every strong every wrong actions we made there are consequences that we need to suffer.
For example, if you commit a crime then you get arrested you go to prison and you can say that you know that's that's a it's God doing that. No, of course not. It's a consequence of your bad decisions. And so does every sinful act we do, we make, we suffer a spiritual consequence. Every time you make a blatant lie a bear when you bear a false witness against your brother or commit any disobedient act upon the Lord you're breaking something in the process. Maybe you just don't realize it or maybe you do but you just take it for granted and but actually, we talked about this in our Bible study last Monday. We said, we said that sin is the only thing that can keep us from God.
When we disobey God, we may not lose our salvation, but we cut ourselves off from the source of blessings. We should understand this because this is important. Our sin cuts us off from the favors of God. It cuts us off even from the answers to our prayers. So every time we step away from God, which is what we are actually doing every time we disobey him, again we are on our own. Just like the nation that the kingdom of Judah at that moment when we step away from the Lord when you disobey the Lord you commit a sinful act you are now operating on your own capabilities because the Lord will have to remove his hand that is covering you at that time.
Now you may be so arrogant, you know, at first thinking that you do not need God since everything is doing well. You forget about him you know just like what happened to the prodigal son when he was still have so much money and many fake friends you know but we know how that ends. So let the lamentations be a reminder for us. They should not have experienced all this pain and destruction. Okay. And despair and grief. But you know we also need to read on no because at the book of lamentation, maybe they have started with this with this despair but it moves on to consolation and hope. So it should uh also console us or to an assurance for us that when they plead to God to restore his people that they may return, you know, to their homeland and rebuild their cities. That's in chapter five if you look into Lamentations at the last chapter.
But then there's something he added here in chapter five verse 22 and he was saying this is actually caught my attention because he was saying uh allow us to go back to our cities and rebuild even the temple you know the city of Jerusalem. But he said in verse 22 in chapter five if indeed you have not rejected us at all, if you are your anger is not permanent, you know, I was I was thinking that he was indicating I believe that he was indicating that there's a line that we can cross that there is no turning back. But of course, the answer to that is his question is that no, God has not rejected his people and he has continued to love them with a neverending love that even in punishment he still can and will show mercy to those who truly trust and repent.
In fact, the book of Jeremiah, the book of Jeremiah brings in the good news of God's promise. And we know this verse in Jeremiah 29:11. We know the verse again said to his people he was actually talking to his people in exile in Babylon. And God said, "For I know the plans I have for you." Okay? Plans to prosper you not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. He was talking to these people that is already in captivity in Babylon that he said, "I am not I have not rejected you. Well, you can you can you go through all these things, all this grief because of your disobedience, but I have not rejected you and I still loved you and I have plans for you, plans to prosper you. Okay, so that is the context actually of this verse.
So if you want to use this verse for your own verse, you should know the context of that verse that they have to stay there for another 70 years to go through all this discipline. Okay because of their disobedience and after 70 years, now they were brought back to their homeland as the promise of the Lord that they will prosper them and they will be given giving them a hope and a future. Okay.
Okay, let's go back to our text. Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed. That's our text in Lamentations 3:22 and 23. For his compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. Okay. Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed. Actually in ESV another version, it says, "For the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases." And we know that we have a song taken from that verse. We sang that song last Wednesday during our prayer meeting. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercy never comes to an end. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.
It is the reason it emphasizes that God's unending love is the reason why humanity is not being completely destroyed yet. Okay? And it comes from the word the Lord's great love and the steadfast love of the Lord comes from a Hebrew word hed. It was used more than 200 times in the Old Testament and this is a very important word he said for it describes God's covenant faithfulness. It is a faithfulness that was like penned or made into a covenant. You know when the Lord makes a covenant he fulfills his covenant he fulfills his promise. And this is what describes he said it is a faithfulness of God in as he made covenant to his people. It is about his mercy grace and loyalty.
And it is an active compassionate love that motivates action. It is seen in God's persistent love for his people despite their failure and in human acts of kindness and loyalty. It is the kind of love that pursues. Okay. And when we have you know when we have lost our way he continues to pursue us. That is why I am still here. That is why you are still there. You know, for in the darkest moment of our lives he never stopped to pursue us because he loved us with a love that never ceases.
I'm going going going here. We were listening to a song in the radio was it a radio? Cassette, you know, there's a song there that says in spite of maybe I have done so many bad things but maybe I have also done some good things that will deserve your love. I think that's wrong because God's love does not qualify you of being good or being bad. The scripture was actually saying that he died for us while we were yet sinners while we were yet in rebellion against him he loved us and he died for us. That is hessed. Okay, it is the kind of love of love that pursues actually in the New Testament. The equivalent for that is the agape love of the Lord, the unconditional love of the Lord. That does not qualify your goodness or your badness.
This was one of the things if you look at the work the book of lamentation, it it started as if things were hopeless actually as if in starting in chapter 3, Jeremiah remembered something remember that beat down and you know, the defeated people of Jerusalem and Judah and they were not completely consumed. They were there but they were not consumed. God still has a purpose for them. God still love them. Okay? And he is still taking care of them while they are there.
Now there's a quote here from Charles Forgon. He said, bad as my case is, it might have been worse for I might have sinned. For I might have been consumed and I should have been consumed if the Lord's compassions had failed. But his compassions according to our text never fail. His mercies never come to an end. Okay. Yeah, even in the severity of correction, God's people endured and there was evidence of his compassions and God wanted you know if you read on in lamentation during the exile God actually wanted them to thrive. You know, God wanted them to prosper wherever they are, whatever your situation now is, he wanted you to prosper. Okay? He wanted you to grow because it's not the end yet, and he has a lot of things in store for you in the future.
Okay. And he actually spared a remnant of Judah. He protected and blessed them during the years of captivity and then permitted them to return. If you look at the book of Nehemiah and Nehemiah was also a prophet of God that was used to bring the people back to Judah and to rebuild the walls and later on even the temples of Jerusalem and he protected them from their enemies from the hidden nation that hated them at that time. How merciful God was to his people. Indeed his mercies were new every morning and that is a wonderful thought, you know. But why do you think it is specified that it will always be fresh every morning?
I was also thinking of this fresh every morning you know, have you given that thought why not mercy for the whole month or mercy for the whole year. Okay. Why is it that he wanted to specify, he wanted to clarify that every morning there is mercy fresh for you. Okay and he has made that clear and he just wanted us not to worry about tomorrow. He wanted us to think about what it is there for today. You know, do not worry about things that of tomorrow. Actually, he said in the New Testament in Matthew 6 verse 34 he said, there therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself. Let tomorrow worry about itself each day has enough trouble of its own. Was Jesus actually telling us that and he would he just wants us to trust him each and every today, today's mercies I think I put it there in the screen today's mercies are for today's burdens tomorrow's mercies will be for tomorrow's problem and we are assured that each morning we have fresh mercies because we need them.
And it gives us a hope in fresh mercies and compassions from God every day we need a constant supply and God has promised to send them without fail. That is what it means there. No matter how bad you know the past day was, God's people can look to the new morning with faith and hope because as each morning brings new day, each new day brings new forgiveness for new sins and every new strength even and even new strength to overcome new temptation and trials that the new they would bring. Indeed, great is your faithfulness O Lord.
As I often say, we can never boast of our faithfulness. I think I put that in the screen also. We can never boast of our faithfulness to God because we always fail him. But we can boast of his faithfulness because he never fails. He never fails in sending his mercies and compassions. I was actually listening to a song and I was telling Doris I don't I don't agree with that song you know you know it was like talking I I'm here, Lord, I am here for you, you know, I'm I will not leave you like it it is promising something that we can actually do. Okay but we cannot boast of what we can do for God but we can boast of his goodness his faithfulness because he will never failed. He has never failed us and he will never fail us. No matter what, difficulties, we're facing, the simple reassurance that tomorrow is a fresh opportunity to begin a new can mean the difference between, you know, surviving a season of trials and tribulations versus, you know, surrendering and throwing the the towel, so to speak, in hopelessness and despair.
That we know that he is faithful and he will never fail and this is our assurance. Often times we become so focused on the things on our circumstances and the storms that are happening around us, you know, and we lose sight of how temporary all of this is, you know, all of these things and we lived yes we lived in a fallen world and a sus life will bring incredible challenges and pain. However that does not mean we have any reason to accept final defeat it. And so Lamentations 3:22 and 23 will remind us as always God's steadfast love for his people that tomorrow promises continual blessing to those who place their eternal faith, hope, and trust in Jesus Christ because his steadfast love never ceases.
On our anniversary next Sunday, we will be singing this beautiful hymn, great is thy faithfulness. I think in four languages including Indonesian. Yeah, English, Tagalog, English, Dutch, Tagalog, and in Indonesian. Wow, that's uh that's great. But this hymn that we know is composed by a man called Thomas Chris Holm. He is a teacher and a writer. Later on he became a pastor in a church in Kentucky USA. But he has health problems. You know, he was ill and and and because of this he was forced to leave his congregation. That was sad. And then comes financial troubles, you know, his fin finances fell as the hospital bills came, you know, it was so low at that moment.
But while most people would be bitter with God, you know, asking God, why? Why? I have been faithful, Lord, why this happens? It is at this time that he wrote that that that poem. It was actually composed as a poem. Okay. And then later on uh somebody uh put music on it uh a musician of the Moody Bible Institute and it becames the this hymn that we now know and it was made famous by Billy Graham because at that time Billy Graham is starting his uh crusades all over the world and he was bringing this song and he was singing this every crusade that is I uh most people know about this song then it was integrated into the hymnals and you know we know this song up to now. Okay.
Incidentally, the book of lamentation is also, as we have already mentioned, was also written during this time of grief and pain and suffering and and Jeremiah was writing this about God's faithfulness or what he has about what he was doing in the past what he will be doing in their present what he is promising for them in the future and he was talking about God's faithfulness in our text in Lamentation three.
Now most of the time we sing this hymn today in big events like a wedding and anniversaries like what we will be doing next Sunday as a celebration of God's faithfulness over the years 30 years of God's faithfulness. However it is one thing to sing great is thy faithfulness when things are going well. But it's something else to sing it as part of a lamentation. You know when everything is so low and still you are able to say, "Great is thy faithfulness, O Lord," and their sorrow and mourning God will still be faithful. And we know that it will be a clear understanding of who the God we serve to know of his unending love his mercy that is new every morning. And that is that is why we're still here as I have said that no matter what the circumstances his compassion will not fail.
Okay. Indeed, great is thy faithfulness, O Lord. Now in ending let's take a look at one of the prayers of Paul. By the way, last Wednesday in our prayer meeting in Utre, we used Paul's prayer and incorporated it into our own prayers this time. Well, let's look at one of them in Ephesians 3:17-19. And let this be a prayer for us today. Not only to intercede for one another like we pray or are praying for one another, but actually let this be a prayer for ourselves today. Just look at it in Ephesians 3:17, 18, and 19. That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. That you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. It was saying that as a born again believers we need to be rooted and grounded in love that we will be so immersed in his love that it will show in the things that we do that together with other Christians we will understand how endless and steadfast and unfailing God's love is something we cannot fathom that we could live our lives with all Christlikkeness in the fullness of God. Amen.
Take-aways
Food for thought:
- How do you personally respond to moments when your actions have caused you to feel distant from God? What does the concept of "daily mercy" mean for your spiritual journey?
- Why does the text emphasize that God's mercy is "new every morning," rather than once a year or once in a lifetime? How might this influence your daily habits of prayer and reflection?
- Can you reconcile the idea of God's judgment and discipline with His mercy and faithfulness? What does it mean for believers to be "on their own" during times of correction?
- How can the hymn "Great is Thy Faithfulness" serve as a reminder of God's unwavering love in moments of personal or communal suffering, as highlighted in the book of Lamentations?
- In what ways do you need to "be rooted and grounded in love" to experience the fullness of God in your life, as Ephesians 3:17-19 demands?