Men, we're in the final chapter of the book of Lamentations and just a couple
notes about the book in general. Again, it's a poetic book. It's located right
after the book of Jeremiah because that's where the subject matter falls.
You know at the end of Jeremiah they go into captivity to Babylon and the book
of Lamentations is written by Jeremiah known as the weeping prophet and this is
a song or a poem lamenting their fate. Now I mentioned in other weeks about
how it's an acrostic poem which is why the numbers of the verses are the way
that they are. I remember first noticing this as a teenager reading my Bible and
just knowing that there must be some significance of why each chapter has 22
verses and then chapter 3 has 66 verses and of course it's an acrostic poem so
in chapter 1 each verse starts with a different letter of the alphabet. Same
thing in chapter 2. Then when you get to chapter 3 it goes olef, olef, olef,
beth, beth, beth, gimel, gimel, gimel, on and on. So there are three lines each
starting with that letter and then when you get to chapter 4 again each of the
verses starts with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. But what's
interesting is that when you get to chapter 5 you still have 22 verses but
they just start with random letters of the alphabet so there's no more acrostic
anymore it's just verses in general. So the other thing that I noticed about
this chapter is just how you know the poem starts out in chapter 1 with these
really long elaborate verses and you can see how structured it is how each of the
verses in chapter 1 have you know three distinct statements. So you end up with 66
different statements in chapter 1. It's very structured and then chapter 2 has a
little bit different of a structure but it's still very structured. Chapter 3
chapter 4. When you get to chapter 5 it's interesting because instead of having
these long elaborate lines with an acrostic poem and everything like that
it's basically just these short desperate utterances. You know if you
look how short the verses are and it's just these really simple statements.
There's not as much of the poetic language and all of the flowery
descriptions and all of the really you know gloomy and dark descriptions that
go into great detail. So it just becomes just basically just this stripped down
series of just these short broken statements without the elements of
poetry anymore being there. So the way I interpreted that is basically just that
the feel of chapter 5 is just complete desperation and giving up. Like get the
picture of somebody you know who's writing this elaborate poem and they're
making sure everything starts with the right letter and they have this
really strict meter that they're going by and you know a certain amount of
statements and it's really polished and then they just in chapter 5 they just
start and they're just like whatever just start kind of like jotting down. So
you know it's obviously it's done that way on purpose. I'm not obviously saying
that that's what the author just gave up or something. It's to give us a feeling
in chapter 5 of giving up because this chapter is just a chapter of just being
desperate, just game over, we're done, we're doomed, it's over, just kind of a
throwing in the towel type of a chapter and so it makes sense that it kind of
just loses the poetic structure that it had and just breaks down into just the
short desperate statements that are only like six or seven words each in
Hebrew. So starting verse number one the Bible reads, remember O Lord what has
come upon us, consider and behold our reproach. Our inheritance has turned to
strangers, our houses to aliens. We're orphans and fatherless, our mothers are
as widows. We've drunk at our water for money, our wood is so it's just listing
just all these things just these kind of short little guttural statements. So
let's look at these. Starting verse number one it says remember O Lord what
has come upon us, consider and behold our reproach. Now the word reproach it's not
a word that we really use all the time in our modern vernacular but it's a word
that's used a lot in the Bible and reproach has to do with someone
basically mocking you, making fun of you, saying bad things about you. It really
has to do with how you look to other people okay. When you are reproached or
when you become a reproach it means people are looking down on you, they're
talking bad about you and this is humiliating right to be a reproach or to
be reproached. Look at all the other things in this chapter that have to do
with being humiliated. I'll just give you a few of them. It says in verse 6 we've
given the hand to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians to be satisfied with bread.
Now this isn't a list of all the bad things that they're going through right
now and basically these are their enemies you know the Egyptians and the
Assyrians these are their traditional enemies and so they've had to basically
give the hand to them they had to make like a deal with them and buddy up to
them just in order to be fed just in order to have bread to eat they're just
starving so they basically have to go hat in hand to their enemies like can we
please get some food can we make a deal with you and so they have to make a deal
with the Egyptians and the Assyrians. Jump down to verse number eight it says
servants have ruled over us this is also humiliating right it's not as
humiliating to follow the leadership or be ruled over by great men but when you
just have the basis type people and servants ruling over you this is also
humiliating and I think one of the things that God is showing us in this
chapter is that those who are prideful God is able to bring them down and
humiliate them right this book of Lamentations is about a once great nation
that has been reduced to just the worst possible condition and obviously
whenever we read anything about the nation of Judah or any nation in the
Bible being punished it's hard not to think about the United States of America
especially just because of all the parallels between the United States and
Judah. Judah was once a godly nation they're worshipping the Lord they have
leaders who love the Lord and so forth and we think back to our culture and our
heritage in the United States and this nation was once a very Christian nation
I mean there was a time when the vast majority of our population would have
been very respectful and reverent toward the name of Jesus Christ and virtually
everyone in the country would have at least nominally claimed the name of
Christ not saying that they've ever been a majority of people in America that
were saved but just in general it was very Christian of a nation as far as
just the Bible is part of our culture and our way of life was based in large
part on the Bible and so just like Judah who followed the Lord the United States
once was a godly nation they got away from the Lord we've gotten away from the
Lord and so there are a lot of parallels between the two and also the United
States a very proud nation okay people in the United States are very proud and
very patriotic and many times even have an attitude that they're better than
everyone else in the rest of the world I've even heard people talk about
American exceptionalism and I'm thinking to myself like what does that even mean
American exceptionalism like is America somehow the exception to what you know I
mean I thought that when God looks down on us he doesn't respect certain nations
more than others because he's not a respecter of persons and the Bible says
that all nations before him are counted as less than nothing so God doesn't look
down and say well it's America you know so I'm gonna make an exception for you
guys wrong and and well you know American exceptionalism it means we're
more exceptional than everyone else is that really a humble attitude though to
go through life thinking we're America so we're better than everyone else we're
exceptional hey let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth strangers
and not thine own lips let other nations say that about us and let them praise us
but when a nation starts to praise themselves and just has this attitude of
we're number one we're number one you know except American exceptionalism this
is not a right attitude in the sight of God we need to be humble the Bible says
that if we humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord he will lift us up the Bible
says that he will exalt the humble but those that walk in pride he is able to
abase and so if we as the United States of America have this attitude that says
we're invincible well then God may take us down a notch especially when we have
spit in God's face in so many ways and we've become such an irreverent and
irreligious nation and we have so much sin that abounds in the way of abortion
sodomy drunkenness fornication adultery obviously God is not going to sit back
and just allow us to boast and vant ourself eventually we're gonna get
what's coming to us and that's the lesson here in this chapter we see a
once proud nation and chapter 5 kind of hits all the highlights from the whole
book and remember earlier in the book of Lamentations it talks about how great
Judah once was and how proud they were and how now they've just been dragged
down and ground into the dirt okay and so this chapter is once again showing us
don't get lifted up or God can bring you down and you know what in your personal
life you should not be lifted up and arrogant and proud folks nothing could
be clearer in the Bible that that makes God angry I mean we go through just
chapter after chapter after chapter where God warns us about being haughty
prideful arrogant and how he'll bring us to look every single day we need to get
on our knees and just thank God for everything that he gives to us and tell
God that we're unworthy and that we don't deserve it and that it's all by
his grace and his mercy and we're so thankful and Lord just please keep
blessing us because without you we can't get it done I mean we need to
rely on God trust God not be like Nebuchadnezzar where we just say hey I
did all this I built everything with my own hand so the reproach here in verse
1 is God humiliating people who were too prideful and they did not submit
themselves and humble themselves on him now they're having to deal with their
enemies now they have to have servants rule over them and they're filled full
of reproach they're mocked they're hated and so forth look at verse number two it
says our inheritance is turned to strangers our houses to aliens we're
orphans and fatherless our mothers are as widows of course the inheritance is
turned to strangers because when the children of Judah were carried away
captive into Babylon they don't just leave that land empty they bring in
their own people to go fill in that area so when they brought the children of
Israel of the northern kingdom captive into Assyria if you remember they
brought a bunch of people from Assyria and they said all right everybody here
take these houses take the sled somebody's got a you know take over that
area and so they bring in strangers so you can just imagine you being kicked
out of your home you're led away captive into some concentration camp or forced
labor camp or you're carried into another country to go become someone
else's domestic servant or to be a slave in a factory somewhere or something and
then just some stranger just moves into your house sleeps in your bed cooks in
your kitchen you just have some foreigner I mean just imagine what that
would be like now I don't believe that that's necessarily gonna happen in the
United States I don't believe that God's necessarily gonna judge us in that way
for more information see Babylon USA but let's say you know just just for example
what's a country that that you could picture as being like an enemy that we
would be at war with someday you know China right that'd be one that you'd
think of you know just imagine your house is just basically you got Chinese
people in your house and it's just like you're in China and you don't speak the
language and you've just been shipped to China and you're you know all that stuff
you've been buying that's made in China you're making it now okay that's
basically what they're experiencing because they're basically brought into
captivity in another country and then those people just take over their life
over here that'd be pretty rough right or you get you know you can think of
some Islamic country not that they would ever like have the power to even come
over here and do anything but anyway you know let's say some Islamic country or
whatever just imagine your house just filled with Muslims your imagine your
neighborhood picture your neighborhood and there's just some giant loudspeaker
oh you know doing the call to prayer five times a day in your neighborhood be
pretty weird right and then you're over in you know some messed up place in the
Islam Muslim world just serving them right that's what's going I mean how
human yeah I mean it's it'd be pretty rough and that's basically what's being
described here the inheritance turned to strangers houses to aliens we're orphans
and fatherless and that says our mothers are widows no it says our
mothers are as widows what that means is it's as if they're a widow why because
their husband's gone their husband's got so basically they're fatherless why is
their dad dead necessarily in this first no it's not the dad's dead it's not that
mom is actually a widow it's that dad has been carried away into captivity
dad's a slave in a foreign country and we are never gonna see him again so he
might as well be dead because we're never gonna see him again so it's there
as widows and the children are fatherless verse 4 we've drunken our
wood our water for money our wood is sold on trust these are things that
typically would have been free in the ancient world right would now I know we
go to the grocery store and buy wood and water but basically you know typically
throughout history you just go out in the forest and cut some wood you know
that's just you're right you live there and you could go draw your own water but
here their waters being sold on them woods being sold on them people are
taking advantage of them basically making them buy the necessities of life
that are just things that you'd normally just gather on your own verse 5 our
necks are under persecution we labor and have no rest we've given the hand of the
Egyptians and to the Assyrians to be satisfied with bread our fathers have
sinned and are not again fathers here not just referring to their literal
parents but this is also you know grandparents great-grandparents and so
forth our fathers have sinned and are not are not basically means they don't
exist or they're gone they're dead and we have born their iniquities now don't
miss that verse our fathers have sinned and are not and we have born their
iniquities now if you study the book of Jeremiah it explains in that long 52
chapter book many times why they're going into captivity what exactly the
issue is and one of the issues has to do with Manasseh who is a king from a
previous generation many years earlier that had shed a lot of innocent blood
and the Bible said the Lord would not part in that so when Josiah comes along
and brings revival and things are good for a while it was only putting God's
judgment on pause because eventually Manasseh sins had to be covered and so
the nation ends up suffering for that and the sobering thing about verse 7 is
that when we sin that can affect our children right they can end up being
punished for the bad things that we do I mean if we as a nation flush our
spiritual heritage down the toilet and de-christianize you know what even if
God's judgment doesn't come right away in our generation it's gonna come upon
our children it's gonna come upon our grandchildren great-grandchildren we
have set that in motion with our sins and I believe that that's where we're
at in the United States that that we've kind of crossed a point of no return as
a country I don't think that our country is ever going to experience revival
that's what and and you know that might seem like a just kind of a downer to say
that but I'm just being honest I don't think that our country will ever
experience revival you know I remember when I was growing up as an independent
fundamental Baptist man they're always praying for revival and praying that
God's gonna bring our country back to him and and and that we're gonna have
revival as a nation and you know you can I guess you could see where they were
coming from back then because it hadn't gotten as weird as it is now it hadn't
gotten as bad as it is now I believe that we've gone across that point of no
return but I do believe that we can put God's judgment on pause by doing right
and at least slow down that slow the spread no what we really need to slow
the spread of is slow the spread of sin all right slowing the spread of wicked
let's slow the spread of sodomy right let's slow the spread of abortion let's
slow the spread of atheism and agnosticism in our country okay because
here's the thing our country is never gonna be like it used to be back in the
olden days I don't believe that it's ever gonna be like in the old days when
it was a very Christian place you know I believe we can slow things down we can
reach the individual we can help things a little bit but I don't think you're
just gonna turn this country just a 180 back to God I don't think it's happening
okay that's not what I have as my life's goal if I did I'd be living probably a
pretty depressing life because it's not happening okay but I do believe we can
get millions of people saved I do believe that we can push back God's
judgment or slow it down but here's the thing it jumped down to the end of the
chapter I'll show you why I'm saying that look at the end of the chapter it
says in verse 19 thou O Lord remainest forever thy throne from generation to
generation wherefore why does thou forget us forever and forsake us so long
time turn thou us unto thee O Lord and we shall be turned renew our days as of
old but thou hast utterly rejected us thou art very wroth with us so notice
he's saying man I want revival he's praying for revival turn us around God
and we'll be turned but then reality sets in but thou hast utterly rejected us
thou art very wroth against us and remember I told you that this chapter
has a feeling of desperate just hopelessness and it ends on a hopeless
note it doesn't end with hope here does it it just ends with we're done you've
utterly what does utterly mean completely absolutely all the way you
have rejected us you know we talk a lot about people becoming a reprobate like in
Romans chapter 1 where it's too late for the individual to get saved anymore but
you know a nation can get to a point where it has gone too far also you know
not not the individual but the nation where it's just like this nation has
angered God they've shed too much innocent blood and they're done now what
is it that finally got the children of Judah back to the Lord you know because
if he's utterly rejected them if they're just completely done and I'm looking at
our country and saying well you know I kind of feel the same way about our
country that just like Manasseh shed all that innocent blood I'm sure the United
States has shed a lot more than Manasseh did we've we've been given more than
Judah was given to whom much is given of him shall much be required and I do
believe that that we've gone over that line when did things turn around for
them because we know that 70 years later they're gonna come back into the
promised land they're gonna rebuild the temple and they're gonna have some
semblance of their former nation and when Jesus Christ comes on the scene
right they have some semblance of a nation even though they're under the
Romans and so forth but go back to Jeremiah chapter 52 flip back just a
couple pages the left in your Bible to Jeremiah chapter 52 and we'll see when
the first ray of hope comes because remember at the end of Jeremiah they go
into captivity to Babylon it's gonna last for 70 years Jeremiah predicted
that and in Lamentations it's just a fresh wound it has just happened so
here's the author of Lamentations praying and saying oh God revive us but
then he says you know what but you've utterly rejected us you're very wroth
against us so what's God gonna do is God gonna listen to that prayer in
Lamentations and say you know what I changed my mind let's back off from the
judgment or has he really utterly rejected them are they really doomed
well the first ray of hope comes 37 years later look if you would at
chapter 52 verse 31 of Jeremiah and it came to pass in the 7 and 30th year of
the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah so look this is 37 years later you
have this little ray of hope that someday they'll get their nation back
and and return to the Lord it came to pass in the 7th and 30th year of the
captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah in the 12th month in the 5th and 20th day
of the month that evil Merodach king of Babylon in the first year of his reign
lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him forth out of
prison now why is this significant that Jehoiachin one guy comes out of prison
you know they're all the whole nation is in captivity they're going through all
these horrible things and then this one guy Jehoiachin 37 years in to the
captivity a new kings on the throne evil Merodach becomes king and in the first
year of his reign he says you know what I like this guy or you know for whatever
reason he just wants to take this guy out of prison he isn't like a
presidential pardon and pulls him out and he spake kindly unto him hey I like
you and he set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him
in Babylon and changed his prison garments and he did continually eat
bread before him all the days of his life and for his diet there was a
continual diet given him of the king of Babylon every day a portion until the
day of his death all the days of his life what is the significance of this
guy why does this guy matter and of course there's a lot of symbolism here
and I've done whole sermons about symbolism here like the sermon that I
did I think it's called the timing of the rapture where I tied this in and
everything but here's the significance of this guy if you remember from Matthew
chapter 1 this guy is in the genealogy of Christ there in Matthew chapter 1
it's a quota for it says after they were brought to Babylon
Jeconias that's Jeconiah here after they were brought to Babylon did you get
that after they were brought to Babylon Jeconias begat Salathial and Salathial
begat Zerubbabel okay so basically this guy is pulled out of prison 37 years
into the captivity and what's he gonna do he's gonna beget a son right Jeconias
begat Salathial Salathial begat Zerubbabel and that bloodline there is
eventually going to lead to the son of David who's gonna come and rule in Judah
when they come back in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah and you read about it in
books like Zechariah and Haggai right you read about Zerubbabel the son of
Shealtiel so basically like this is gonna be the guy who produces the guy
who produces their lead his grandson that he begets in captivity the
grandson is going to be the great leader of the new nation so that's what I mean
about this being a ray of hope for the nation because 37 years it because
remember God had promised that there's always going to be a son of David
sitting on the throne of Judah until Shiloh come until the Messiah comes and
unto him shall the gathering of the people be so until Jesus Christ up until
that time the son of David was supposed to be their ruler right so you know you
have David Solomon Rehoboam Abijah all the way down all the way down the line
and then eventually of course you have Jesus Christ who's the son of David and
his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom so this is basically the picture 37 years
into captivity that hey this is going to end you know because here's your King
coming out of prison and this is your guy and then he's gonna have a son and
he's gonna have a son and they're eventually gonna lead the nation someday
so so get the picture here in Lamentations there's all the doom and
gloom 37 years later is the first tangible ray of hope that you see like
okay here we go here's our guy he's out of prison and then of course it's gonna
be 33 more years after that before they actually end the captivity and they
start coming home back to Judah and they rebuild the temple and they rebuild the
wall and all the different things that we read about in books like Ezra and
Nehemiah etc so the point is that these people truly are doomed because you know
it's pretty bad when you have to wait 37 years just to even kind of get that
first glimmer of hope and it's a full 70 years meaning basically it's a
completely different generation like everybody from that generation pretty
much dead and it's a whole new generation that's that's gonna come back
into the land so we see here that when God has utterly rejected a nation I mean
it's serious and it takes a long time and it takes a lot of punishment to
bring them back it's not something where you know you just pray for revival now
look as far as I'm concerned I'm experiencing my own personal revival
our church is having revival all the time our church lives in revival we you
know our church didn't die so it doesn't really need revival but our church is is
is you know out winning souls and preaching the gospel so in that sense
yeah we have revival and seeing other churches doing the same thing but our
nation as a whole is being punished right now and it's gonna continue to be
punished and so we need to just get our attitude right to where we're not just
constantly thinking like well you know we just need to pray that God turns our
country around becomes a godly nation folks it's just not gonna happen so get
adjust your expectation to that which is realistic okay now look I'm perfectly
happy living in America there's no country that I would rather live in I'm
pleased to be living in America in the year 2020 but I don't have any illusions
about what that means okay my goal with our church here with my personal
ministry is to reach the individuals win as many people to Christ as we can and
as the Bible says to be a bright and shining light in the midst of a crooked
and perverse nation among whom we shine as lights in the world so we need to
understand look our country is not a godly place it's not going to become a
godly place anytime soon that's why you don't see us waving the flag here and
and being as patriotic as you'll see the the old independent fundamental Baptist
they're big on patriotism and waving the flag everything you know we don't wave
the flag we've just got the attitude that look our citizenship is somewhere
else this world's not our home we're shining the light in the midst of a
crooked and perverse nation among whom we shine as lights in the world and we
just need to understand that you know we we should be thankful every day that we
live in such a prosperous nation should be thankful every day for the Christian
heritage that we have and and so we've got plenty of King James Bibles floating
around and we've got plenty of Christian traditions that are still left intact in
our country and so we should be happy with those things and thankful for those
things and rejoice and use our freedom and the opportunities that we have to
win as many souls as we can to Christ but we shouldn't just be so attached to
America and then just married to this idea of America where we kind of get
sucked that's a worldly philosophy I'm sorry to say it that's worldly when
people have their identity wrapped up in being American that's a worldly
philosophy our identity should be wrapped up in being Christian that
should be the thing that defines us not like I'm an American should be I am a
Christian because you know what I am a Baptist I am a Christian I identify with
God's people and I would identify much more with God's people from all nations
God's people from Africa Asia Europe then I would with just my fellow
Americans you know what I'll tell you who I have in common with is Christians
that's my nation the nation that I'm a part of my what's my nationality it's
the spiritual nation that's made up of all believers in Christ red yellow black
and white that's my people that's my nation that's my tribe so we just need
to be realistic and understand that nations can get to a point where they're
doomed and and I believe that our society is a society in decline our
culture is in decline spiritually our country's in decline but you know what
we don't have to be in decline my family's not in decline my family is
going to be rising amen our church is going to be pressing on the upward way
and gaining new heights every day so this is not to be down or depressed
about our situation because you know what the darker our nation is the
brighter the light shines and I I love living in America in 2020 I wouldn't
want to be living in any other place or any other time I think this is the time
this is the place you know I think it's a great time to be alive and you know we
just need to be faithful serve God and do something great with the opportunity
that we've been handed so when the Bible says in verse 7 our fathers have sinned
and are not and we have borne their iniquities you know think about that
when you think about getting out of church or quitting on God or getting
backslidden going back into sinful ways from your past you know think about the
fact that your children are gonna bear that iniquity just like we today are
bearing the iniquity of the baby boomer generation that was the generation that
really departed from God on mass okay that baby boomer generation in general
departed from God on mass and we're bearing their iniquities you know we're
reaping what they sowed and and the children that they raised have have
grown up to forsake the Lord okay because they did not faithfully to and
of course their exceptions that you know we know mainly many godly and wonderful
people of that generation but but just in general we're bearing the iniquities
of that generation okay and so think about your actions because they affect
your children and their children under the third and fourth generation so the
Bible says servants have ruled over us there's none that deliver this out of
their hand verse 9 we get our bread with the peril of our lives because of the
sword of the wilderness they're living hand to mouth our skin was black like an
oven because of the terrible famine they ravished the women in Zion and the
maids in the cities of Judah what are we talking about the you know you know not
to be crude or anything but you know we're talking about these women are
being violated right they're being forced into a carnal act so the Bible
says that they ravished the women in Zion I mean the the women we're talking
about adult when we're talking about married women we're talking about
people's wives that are being abused in that way and also the maids which made
in the Bible means virgins so basically they're abusing married women they're
abusing the virgins what could be worse than you know an invader coming in and
doing that verse 12 princes are hanged up by their hand the faces of elders
were not honored they took the young men to grind and the children fell under the
wood taking the young men to grind this is like when Samson was forced to grind
at a millstone like an animal so when they would in the olden days before
machines and factories they would want to make flour they would grind the grain
right so they'd have a big rolling stone that would roll in a circle and you'd
have a flat stone and then you'd have another giant stone rolling on top of it
and you'd attach animals to that and there's still places in the world where
they do this in primitive places but basically you have an animal going
around in a circle and basically just moving this thing and then that causes
the stone wheel to roll over the other stone and you can put things in there to
be crushed basically to create flour and to grind the meal basically from the
grain well human beings are being made to do that job that an animal would
typically be used to do right so remember this is what they did to
Samson in order to mock him they poked out his eyes and then they stuck him in
the mill like that to basically grind like an animal like that so the Bible
saying here they took the young man so they took the youth because they're
strong and they have the muscles and they're giving them the most boring
humiliating possible job I mean can you imagine how boring that would be just
shoving this thing around in a circle just working like an animal and so the
and then the it says that the children fell under the wood so basically you can
see them just collapsing underneath wooden burdens or whatever and so it's
painting a horrible picture here for the women the children the young ladies
everyone the elders have ceased from the gate because the gate in the ancient
times was the place where the elders would hang around and and they would
talk about the affairs of the city and they would make decisions I was where
the politics of the city took place in the gate it's where the leadership would
meet up and plan things the city elders and so forth it says here the elders have
ceased from the gate the young men from their music the joy of our heart is
ceased our dance is turned into mourning the crown is fallen from our head again
the picture of being humiliated and you know your once great status being
brought down woe unto us that we've sinned you know and and Jeremiah is
recognizing here we messed up I mean the problem is that we sinned for this our
heart is faint for these things our eyes are dim because of the mountain of Zion
which is desolate the foxes walk upon it and then of course at the end we have
the prayer for God to bring revival but then the ultimate realization that
revival is not coming because we're doomed in verse 22 you've utterly
rejected us you're very wroth with us and of course it's gonna be 37 years
before the first guy comes out of captivity and then another 33 years
after that before this captivity truly ends now in our nation today we're
experiencing a strange time right now we don't know what's going to happen I
mean what what's next right because the plot continues to thicken doesn't it and
there are a lot of weird things going on
and it's certainly unprecedented in our lifetime we've never seen anything like
this in our lifetime our parents have never seen anything like it and you know
perhaps it's just gonna blow over and in a month or two you know things will just
kind of go back to normal and we'll just all forget about this or perhaps
things are gonna get worse perhaps something else really bad is gonna
happen maybe it's just gonna be one thing after another perhaps you know
this thing's gonna mutate this this this virus will mutate and come back in
September or October November with a vengeance and then it's gonna be like
lockdown 2.0 and you know perhaps even more people will die and all that we
don't know what's gonna happen or perhaps it's all gonna blow over and and
go back to normal or maybe the government is just gonna use this
opportunity to just jump in and just start seizing our rights and changing
things about our country and you know we don't know what a day is gonna bring
forth do we and and anybody who tries to predict things right now you know good
luck with that because it things keep changing and you don't even know what's
gonna happen you know I'm assuming that this week the lockdown is gonna end in
Arizona and that things are gonna start to go back to normal here but there are
a lot of other places across America that you know there's no end in sight
with this thing and and if you look at New York I mean they're still getting
blasted with this thing and that I mean I can't see them going back to normal
anytime soon and and the places around them Connecticut and Massachusetts etc
so we're living in a very uncertain time so in times like these when things are
uncertain when strange things are happening when negative things are
happening I think what we need to do is focus on what we know okay focus on what
you know there are a lot of things that we don't know a lot of things that we
can't fully grasp or understand focus on the things that we do know okay what do
we know for sure all right here's what we know for sure we know that our
country has gotten away from God and is not a righteous nation anymore it used
to be and now it's not okay we know that God is not gonna bless us in that
condition and so we see bad things happening okay whatever form that takes
whether that's a virus whether that's economic troubles shut down political
overreach what however you want to look at this or however you analyze this bad
things are happening as a result of our bad spiritual condition bad spiritual
condition bad things are happening okay but here's what else we know we know
that God loves us and that God is not very wroth with us it says in verse 22
thou has utterly rejected us now could any Christian ever say that about
themselves could any say I'm just saying anybody who's even saved could any saved
person truthfully look at look up to the Lord and say you've utterly rejected me
is that ever gonna happen absolutely not because the Bible says Jesus will never
leave us or forsake us and the Bible says that nothing can separate us from
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord so can our nation be utterly
rejected as a nation sure the nation of Judah utterly rejected yes was Jeremiah
personally utterly rejected absolutely not because we see God continuing to
bless Jeremiah even into the captivity okay so the bottom line is we know that
our country is not right with the Lord we know that strange and bad things are
happening to our country and it's not good that's happening it's all bad and
it's happening because of our sins but we know that we personally and our
church and God's people are not utterly rejected and God is not wroth with us
God is not mad at me God's not mad at you God's not mad at our church God's
not mad at our friends churches across the country God loves us God wants to
bless us God is blessing us and God's gonna continue to bless us if we love
him because all things work together for good to them that love God we know
that it's our job to win souls to Christ shine the light in the darkness preach
hard against sin so look even though there are a lot of things we don't know
the things that really matter the most are the things we do we know what to do
tomorrow we know to get up and read our Bibles and pray and serve God and we
know to do that day after day week after week and you know what it's gonna be
well with us and you know what let let this country go down whatever path it's
gonna go down as far as I'm concerned and you know what I'm just interested in
me in my house serving the Lord and just trying to preach to as many millions of
people as I can both door-to-door and also through the internet right reaching
millions of people with the gospel and not just reaching people with the gospel
but preaching right living to Christians preaching for them to get the sin out of
their lives and get right with God you know this is what we know to do him that
knoweth to do well and do it they're not to him it is sin all we have to do is
what we know God does not expect us to know the unknowable God does not expect
us to predict the future God does not expect us to understand all of the ins
and outs of a virus or understand all the ins and outs of the economy or
things like that right these aren't things that God demands me as a pastor
to know or you as a church member that we you know obsessively study and
understand all these things that you know what I know what my responsibilities
are you know what your responsibilities are we just need to just keep serving
God because the way I see it no matter what happens in our country no matter
what happens you know what God's still on his throne right still right wrong
still wrong souls are still there to be one our Bible still needs to be read we
still have a family to raise and you know what we can prosper we can do great
you know here's a carnal illustration you hear stories about you know people
in the depression in the 1930s who were living high on the hog you know I talked
to my grandma and you know hey what was it like living in the depression and
she said I didn't experience it you know my grandma during the depression was you
know a teenager and she said that her mom would just roll back the the rug and
had all these hundred dollar bills hidden under there and stuff and she'd
just be like all right girls let's go shopping and that you know that's how
she spent the depression you know they're shopping and prospering and and
living good and they didn't they didn't have any stories about having to scrounge
and go through look even when and I'm not here preaching a prosperity gospel
that you're gonna go home and find a bunch of hundred dollar bills under the
rug necessarily but what I am saying is that you know what even when things get
bad everybody doesn't suffer do they everybody doesn't suffer think about
when God poured out the plagues on Egypt in Goshen there was light you know all
darkness all over Egypt but not in Goshen in Goshen there was a God can
carve you out a little Goshen in your life God can carve out your home into
Goshen where the plagues of this world don't affect you so don't get sucked
into the doom and gloom don't get depressed don't get upset look this is
the day which the Lord has made we'll rejoice and be glad in it right and and
so look as long as we have food to eat and clothing on our back we need to just
praise God serve God keep going don't get bitter or depressed and don't start
getting obsessed with the news all right look I wasn't into watching the news
before this happened and I'm not into watching the news now because I frankly
have better things to do than to obsess over what the talking heads are saying
this week and everything and look if you enjoy that sort of thing if you're
enjoying if you got your popcorn and you're and you're enjoying watching all
of Trump's speeches and you're enjoying all the coverage and everything you know
what then hey have some good clean fun and just enjoy it okay but let me tell
you this so you know what if you're stressed out by it if it's bothering you
and you can't sleep and you can't be happy and you can't enjoy your life and
you're just constantly worried about it and stressing and you're getting angry
about it then you know what just do yourself a favor just turn it off you
know every day obviously the sky is falling in one way or another according
to media because when it's not coronavirus it's the Middle East it's
some missile crisis somewhere it's Kim Jong whatever if he's even still alive
or whatever but you know what it's it's always gonna be something if that's what
you want to focus on or you can just enjoy your family enjoy your kids enjoy
your spouse enjoy the Bible enjoy Church enjoy the things that God has
given you and just shut all that stuff off because it you know what if you turn
it off for like a month and then turn it back on again it's probably not gonna
have changed that you probably didn't miss much you'll probably be able to
just jump right back in if that's what you want to do okay I've just I've
noticed so many people right now they're they're so mad they're so upset they're
like a caged beast right now they're just kind of like but you know in
reality many of our lives haven't really changed that much you know and and
here's the thing I'd rather be and and look obviously we're not imprisoned in
our homes in Arizona I mean we're pretty much I mean look my kids have been going
out backpacking every weekend you know my wife just took the kids on a day trip
out to a ghost town and and around Wickenburg and you know seeing the sites
you know getting outside and you know I I've been spending as much time outside
as I ever do maybe even more time outside but you know what even if we
were locked in our houses I'd rather be locked in my own house than in some
dungeon like Jeremiah or in some dungeon like Jeconiah so you know we really
don't have it that bad and so we need to make sure that we don't get sucked into
just having a horrible attitude or getting depressed or sad there's so much
to be happy about so much to enjoy and rejoice about and look I want this thing
to end as much as you do I want it to get back to normal and I believe that
it's going to go back to normal for us in Arizona this week that's my
prediction for what that's worth which is absolutely nothing but you know that's
my prediction that's what I think is gonna happen and you know what I'm happy
about that I think it's great but you know what no matter what happens is I
don't care what happens this week I don't care if some giant dust cloud of
biblical proportions just comes through this week and just like starts flipping
over cars or something and the you know what whatever happens okay it doesn't to
me I know that God's got something good for me in my life I know that God has
been preparing me my whole life for for greater works ahead and same thing goes
for you God's got a plan for me God's got a plan for you you know why don't we
just sit back and enjoy the ride and just love him serve him and you know
what I'm fine with wherever he wants to take my life you know if he wants
whatever direction he wants to take it you know what let's go because you know
what he knows better than I do I might have my plans for my life I'm gonna do
this I'm gonna go there and I'm gonna continue for a year I'm gonna buy and
sell and get gain but I don't know what's gonna be on tomorrow is the true
story and whatever God has planned for my life you know what I'm ready to just
do what he wants me to do and if that means being a pastor I'll be a pastor if
that means not being a pastor that I wouldn't be a pastor if it means living
here living some whatever happens if it means being poor or if it means you know
having an abundance you know what it's up to him we need to just have peace in
our lives and just understand that God's in control God loves us all
things work together for good of them to love God and understand that even in a
situation that's desperate for the nation which you know that's what we see
in Lamentations 5 it's desperate situation that's the word that I would
use to just sum up this whole chapter just desperate just doomed just over you
know what we don't have to be desperate we don't have to be doomed it doesn't
have to be over for us we can prosper and succeed and God can continue to
bless us personally and the darker things are the brighter our light will
shine and so praise God don't be down inspired that word of prayer father we
thank you so much for this great book Lord and and thank you for the things
that we've learned over the last five weeks going through the book of
Lamentations Lord I just pray that you would just help us to take it as a very
serious warning of how bad things can get because as we read each chapter of
Lamentations just the horrific images images are painted of just starvation
and just abuse and violence and just the worst kind of pain and suffering Lord
first of all Lord help us to be thankful that we're not going through that level
of deprivation ourselves Lord help us secondly done to recognize our own
nation here that our own nation is is is also spiritually destitute and and due
for judgment Lord and also help us to realize that thankfully even though a
nation can be utterly rejected you'll never utterly rejected us you'll never
utterly reject us because we're your children Lord and so help us to just be
happy to be your children and happy with all the bounty that you give us every
day and every week of our lives Lord and Lord I pray that if it would be your
will that that Lord you would just allow our church and and our members Lord to
just get back to normal this week and go full speed ahead Lord and and get back
to doing the work that we have been called to do in this area and especially
Lord I just pray that you would eventually you know open up the Indian
reservations to us once again Lord so that we can once again preach the gospel
to the natives Lord and and continue that work that we were so excited about
finishing this year Lord I pray that we would be able to get back to that as
well Lord bless every single member of our church Lord those that are
struggling due to lack of a job or slow time at work Lord I just pray that you
would please just make up that difference Lord and bless them with
something extra so that they can get through Lord and and and have what they
need and in Jesus name we pray amen