Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Why don't we stand this morning as the young people are leaving the middle schoolers? Look at this big crowd of middle schoolers. Isn't that great? Amen.
[00:00:08] Awesome.
[00:00:11] Amen. So we're going to pray this morning. And I recognize just a lot is happening in people's lives right now, a lot of things. We have, at least, I think, two or three people in the hospice right now that are related to our church family in some way, and others are going through difficult experiences. And every week we hear of more challenges in people's lives. So obviously, as I'm preaching through Jeremiah, there's this message entitled how to Experience Hope in Times of Despair. I think it's quite apropos, if I could say it that way. It's relevant to the times in which we're living. But maybe you're here today on a personal level and you're saying, pastor, if you only knew the stuff that's going on in my life right now.
[00:00:55] I need God to do a work in my soul right now. Maybe it's emotional. It could be spiritual, it could be relational. Whatever the tension might be in your life, let's ask God to do some special work of grace, not only for you, but for those that you care about and love. So let's just lift our hands to God. Lord, we thank you this morning. There are beautiful people that we deeply love that are walking through some very challenging and difficult moments in their lives. And we lift them up before you. And some of them are right before me, Father. And. And as you're looking at us today, I believe that you care deeply for each of us. You're concerned about what we're experiencing, and I believe you're walking alongside of us. So, Father, help us not to faint or give up or despair, but, Lord, not to give in to that, even though we may be tempted to do that because of the enormity of the challenge that lies before us. But I pray today that your amazing mercy, your grace, your love, your kindnesses would be evident to us. Lord, I pray that you would liberate us today if we're in that pool of despair, that you would lift us out of it and lift us up, Lord. And strengthen our innermost being and encourage our hearts, Lord, and give us a vision that's greater than ourselves, that our eyes would be fixed on you and we'd see in them eyes of compassion and love. And we thank you for that. In Jesus name. And God's people said, amen. You may be seated.
[00:02:25] So let's turn here to Jeremiah, chapter 45.
[00:02:29] I know that we live in a world of uncertainty. There's conflict today between nations. They just seem to be escalating, not just militarily, but also we see it economically. And we should not be surprised that our faith will be attacked. That's something Jesus talked about. We're going to look at that briefly. Jesus spoke of the end times as a time of great uncertainty and danger. So, you know, a lot of people talk to me and say, pastor, you think this is the end of the age? Do you think Jesus is going to come back soon? I don't have an answer. I don't know, because the Bible doesn't give us a time or a date. But let me just read some verses of Scripture that might help prepare our thoughts in our minds. And I know that when we are living in times such as this, it's easy for people to, you know, to be fearful, to be frustrated, to get angry, to allow ideas, to bring polarization in relationships. I think we saw that in Covid. Regardless of what your viewpoint on it was, people were alienated from one another. People that used to relate to each other and love each other. That's a deep, grievous thing in my thinking. But Jesus warned us, as we approach his coming, the times will become a little more difficult. And I know that that's not something we want to hear, but I want to remind us that we've probably lived in human history, probably one of the best times possible. We've lived in one of the most wonderful places possible. We've lived in a place where there's been a lack of conflict militarily. We haven't had war raging on our land. We've actually enjoyed a tremendous measure of prosper and abundance. And for some people, that's allowed them to drift from God or not to trust God or not to look to God. And they've looked to themselves and they've looked to many other things, but we're living in that hour. But would we be prepared if things got even more challenging in the future? And that's kind of a shock because most of us want to know that our future is better than what our present is. Isn't that true? And I'm the eternal optimist, and I always want to believe things will get better. But I'm also married to a realist that brings me back down to earth and points out a few things I'm not trying to. That's a good picture. That's not bad. You know, she tells me she's practical. That's good.
[00:04:50] I have to be a dreamer. There's got to be at least one dreamer in the family, right?
[00:04:55] No, that's true. That's good. We have to have a dreamer. We have to have a realist. Brings us back to reality. So in Luke, Jesus says this. He said, you're going to be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will soon put some of you to death. How many go, that doesn't look like a bright future.
[00:05:12] Somebody goes, that's not the promise I want from the promise box. Right.
[00:05:17] Nobody wants to accept that. But the reality is Jesus is trying to prepare us for a possible time in the future that might be more difficult than this moment. And I think we have to arm ourselves with that kind of thinking and preparation and not allow fear or anxiety to overwhelm our minds. He goes on to say this, everyone will hate you because of me. Now, how many go, I like to be liked. To think that people will hate us just because we love Jesus. That's a little intimidating. That's maybe a little frightening for us. But the reality is Jesus has a way of bringing polarization because we know we're fighting a spiritual battle and people are being influenced both by God and by Satan. He says, but not a hair of your head will perish. Stand firm and you will win life. Well, that's an important statement. You will win life. Later in the passage we read, things will actually intensify and get worse. In verse 26, people will faint from terror. Apprehension of what is coming on the world and for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. So now we see that fear is a major concern in our world. Growing apprehension. How many know today, just because of the ability to communicate and miscommunicate, that I think there's growing apprehension all the time, Right? How many say, that's probably true? We see that. He goes on to say, at that time, they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, what are we supposed to do?
[00:06:55] Stand up and lift up your heads. So our response to a bleak future, our response to difficulties, our response to distress is a little abnormal.
[00:07:09] You know, most people freak out, most people panic. Most people are apprehensive and they're in terror. But Jesus says, no, no, no, don't do that. I want you to have absolute confidence and I want you to lift your head and look up and say, you know what? Redemption is coming. Jesus is coming. And I'm going to say this When Jesus comes back to our planet, all the things that we were apprehensive about will come to an end. How many think that's beautiful, you know, because what's going to happen then is there's not going to be death and dying, disease and sorrow, all kinds of crazy stuff that people are involved in call sin. He's going to address all that stuff. That's the basic human dilemma. Now, when we've seen. We have seen terrible cycles happen in the past. We've seen, you know, like our grandparents and our parents, they've kind of gone through depression, world wars, we've experienced a bit of plague. People have experienced famine. And we'll see that in the first century. Even the Jewish revolt against Rome, with some of the texts that I've read to us speak directly to cause the devastation of a nation. These elements of despair can also happen in our personal worlds. When death strikes suddenly and unexpectedly, or relationships take an unexpected turn. When there's a termination of the relationship and it becomes reality. You know, it's something that, you know, I've actually sat with couples, but actually sometimes they just sit with the one person and they said, my spouse left and I didn't want it to end, but they don't want it to work. I've discovered over the years, it takes two people to make a marriage work. How many have discovered that? And so even if one person wants it and the other person doesn't, it doesn't work. It takes two people to make a marriage work. That's the nature of the institution. That's the way it's supposed to work. But what happens when your future looks bleak and you're struggling with discouragement? God promises to be with us in those dark and difficult seasons of life, even when we feel that our lives are at risk.
[00:09:21] The temptation I've already suggested is to be overcome by fear. And fear can easily begin to affect our thinking and our emotions. And it is these times that we need to hear God's word speaking into that situation, our life situation. What then should our aim be in life when we do not foresee better days ahead?
[00:09:43] You know, it could happen. What happens if what's in front of us is going to be darker than what's right now? How are we going to respond to that? Where does faith fit into that equation?
[00:09:56] How do we move forward when we see only darkness, sorrow and pain ahead? Those are great questions.
[00:10:03] Such was the case for Jeremiah's recording secretary. His name was Baruch, and we're going to look at him. He knew that God was about to judge the people. And he not only recorded Jeremiah's message, but he also was sent to speak it at the temple. Now, how many say, you know, it's one thing for Jeremiah to get a word from God, he sits down and says, baruch, write this down. He writes all this stuff down. He goes, oh, by the way, Baruch, you're going down to the temple and and deliver the message.
[00:10:34] This is not a popular message, Jeremiah.
[00:10:37] This is actually going to get some people a little excited. There's going to be a problem as a result of delivering this message, as we're about to see. And you're going to deliver a message to a people who have lived in a state of rebellion and who are living in denial. It's really hard to speak to people who don't want to hear it. How many say, that's true, you can't speak into their lives. And so Baruch was faced with this. And so we're going to pick up chapter 45, only five little verses. But in those five little verses, boy, there was just so much there. I had a hard time with this actual chapter because I was just thinking about all of the ramifications of what was happening here in the story. Let's pick up verse one. When Baruch the son of Neriah, wrote on the scroll the words Jeremiah the prophet had dictated in the fourth year of Jehoiachin, son of Josiah, king of Judah, Jeremiah said this to Baruch.
[00:11:30] Now we're going to pause here for a minute because chapter 45 is not in the right chronology.
[00:11:38] Actually, this story happens. If you're going to put it in the historical chronological order, we should be moving chapter 45 all the way back to chapter 36, because that's when it happened.
[00:11:52] So then you go, well, why does he put it in chapter 45? Well, I'll explain that a little later. Let's take a look here at what's happening. Roland Harrison says chronologically this passage is out of order. Should follow 36, verse 8. Baruch is now being reproved for being depressed about his future and has now given a promise of personal survival to sustain his hopes. So let's take a look at what was happening when he was experiencing this firsthand. This was actually happening. Then it says here.
[00:12:27] Then the official said to Baruch, now there were certain officials there that had a different attitude than the king and some other officials. In other words, the nation was a bit divided. Jeremiah was telling them to surrender to the Babylonians. But this particular king, Jehoiachin was rebelling against the king of Babylon and he was indifferent to the words of Jeremiah. And so there was a division in the leadership and Jeremiah's message was not well received by them. So the officials, these particular sympathetic officials to Jeremiah and Baruch and the position that was a pro Babylonian one, they said to him, you and Jeremiah, go and hide. Don't let anyone know where you are. In other words, listen, what you just said is so dangerous it could be perceived as treason and your life is in jeopardy. Now how many here, if you were told to go share a message that people might be perceived as treasonous and your life was in jeopardy, you might be a little afraid. Anybody here might be a little afraid. Can you understand where Baruch is coming from? He's a little bit nervous about his future because of this. Then it says, after they put the scroll in the room of Elishama the secretary, they went to the king in the courtyard and reported everything to him. Then king sent Jehudi to get the scroll and Jehudi brought it from the room of Elishhama the secretary and read it to the king and all the officials standing beside him. It was the ninth month and the king was sitting in a winter apartment and with the fire burning and the fire pot in front of him, so he was warming himself.
[00:14:12] Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king would cut them off with a scribe's knife and throw them into the fire pot until the entire scroll was burned in the fire.
[00:14:25] The king and his attendants who heard all these words showed no fear, nor did they tear their clothes. So in other words, what he's telling us is the king had no regard. He was totally indifferent to these words. He didn't accept them as the truth. As a matter of fact, he rather than, you know, in other words, the fear of God would come on him, he would repent, he would tear his clothes. No, he's giving you a picture that this king is hard hearted, he's opposed to God and he's set against anybody that's going to oppose his viewpoint on life. And because he's a dictator, like kings were total, absolute powerful people, he was going to have Jeremiah and Baruch killed. That was his approach to the problem.
[00:15:13] Even though Enathan and Delannah and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. Instead, the king commanded Jerameel, the son of the king, Seraiah, son of Azareel and Shelamiah, and the son of Abdel to arrest Baruch, the scribe in Jeremiah, but the Lord had hidden them. So we know that this was a dangerous moment in these people's lives. How many can see that?
[00:15:42] We're not fooling around with, you know, I got the freedom to speak or not to speak. No, your life is on the line. And these guys aren't going to be just taken in and, you know, thrown in jail. They're going to be killed. This is a very treacherous moment in their lives. Now, God had spoken to Jeremiah at the beginning of the book and said, I want you to stand up to everybody, and everybody you stand up against, they're not going to be able to stand against you, and I will protect you. So Jeremiah knew he was protected. Baruch didn't have that same assurance. All right, and by the way, Jeremiah didn't send. He didn't go down to the temple to deliver the message. Baruch went down to deliver the message. So his life was a lot more on the line, if I could say it that way.
[00:16:26] Now, as I've already said, this chapter is now set in its context, chapter 36. But why was it put in chapter 45? Because in these five verses, God's going to make a promise. And at the end of that verse five, we're going to find out God has actually kept his promise. And that's why this beautiful prophecy we're about to hear was put at the end of all of the words of Jeremiah. God had accomplished exactly what he had told Baruch, which is important.
[00:17:00] So having said all of that, you're going, well, this is interesting, it's historical. But how does this apply to our lives? Isn't that the real question? And that's where I want to go today. So how does this apply to us today? It certainly applies if we're in a moment of uncertainty. So if you're living right now and you're in a moment of uncertainty, this applies to you. Okay, number one. Number two, if you're living in a very challenging situation or as you look to your future and you go, my future looks bleaker and darker than my present, I believe you need to hear this message.
[00:17:41] And I'll say this to all of us. If the days become bleaker and darker, you need to remember this message.
[00:17:50] Does that make sense to you? So let's say things get worse. You know, we'd always want to think, oh, things are going to get better, but what if they don't? Are you ready to face that kind of a future? And the answer is, if you're a child of God, and you respond to God in the right way. God is going to give you the hope and the courage to face a difficult future. And this is the lessons that I think we need to learn from this text. Three things to help us experience hope in times of despair. The first one, bring our complaints to God. Step one. Throughout Scripture, people of faith in times of crisis have always bemoaned their current condition, even to the point where they have felt abandoned by God. And by the way, when you're in a dark place and life is really not treating you really well, and you're praying and nothing seems to be happening, you may get the sense God's not around, you might feel abandoned by God. Actually, the psalmist reflects this. In Psalm 22. It says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And it's interesting that this psalm actually was the psalm that Jesus quoted. When he was dying on the cross, he felt abandoned by his Father. And the reality was, while most people feel it, Jesus actually experienced it. Because at that moment, the Father abandoned his son. Because at that moment when Jesus was on the cross, he became sin.
[00:19:21] And that's why Jesus was cursed of God. That's why many Jewish people can't even relate to what's going on here. Because the Old Testament said, anyone who hangs on a tree is cursed by God. And reality was, Jesus was cursed by God. But Paul tells us in the Book of Galatians why God the Father cursed the Son. And it says, because he became sin for us who knew. No, sin isn't that powerful. That's the reason. Okay, but let's take a look at some other statements. Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? Here's another psalm. Answer me when I call to you. Psalm 4.
[00:20:00] Give me relief from my distress. Have mercy on me and hear my prayer. Now, when you're praying like this, it says to me that nothing. God's not answering at this moment. There's a cry for relief. Look at chapter five, verse one. Listen to my words. Lord, consider my lament. What's a lament? That's my anguish, my sorrow. Consider how I feel. God. Listen to what I'm crying out for. He goes on to say, hear my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray.
[00:20:33] These are just a few examples I could have read all the way through Psalms. I'd be here for a while reading psalm after psalm after psalm explaining this anguish that's in the heart cry of so Many people. And listen, everyone in this room, if you walk with God for a little while, you're going to have this moment where you feel like God, I need your help. I feel abandoned. I feel like I'm in crisis. I don't know what's going on. I'm in distress. This is a difficult time. And I'm going to say this to you. Don't give up.
[00:21:02] God is doing something in your life. Don't give up. Don't stop praying. Don't stop seeking God. Okay, so these are a few examples. Well, the first verse has now given us a time frame. We know that this happened in the fourth year of King Jehoiachin. Then now Jeremiah is actually God's spokesperson. So Jeremiah hears a word from God and we pick it up in the last part of verse 1, where it says, Jeremiah said this to Baruch.
[00:21:33] Verse 2. This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says to you, Baruch. Now Jeremiah is going to speak exactly what God wants to speak to his individual servant, Baruch. How many think this is great? He's going to get a specific word from God.
[00:21:48] It's powerful stuff. How many know in the middle of a distressful situation, you don't know what the future holds. All of a sudden, God speaks into your life. How many think this might be an important word? This might really help us in this moment? I think it's a word that you and I can apply for our lives. Let's take a look at what he says. He says, you said, Baruch, woe to me. The Lord has added sorrow to my pain. I'm worn out with groaning and I find no rest.
[00:22:17] Here we see the state of his soul. And Baruch is now blaming God for what he's experiencing. Notice what he says. The Lord has added sorrow to my pain. In other words, God, you're not relieving things. It just seems like you're allowing things to continue. And it seems like more things are coming. It just. You ever had those moments in life where you're praying for relief and all of a sudden more comes on? You're going, what in the world's going on here? And so Baruch is telling God, this is how I feel.
[00:22:47] So Robert Davidson basically says maybe some possibilities about his despair. He said the reason for his despair we're not told. Perhaps he was depressed by the harsh content of the scroll that Jeremiah dictated to him. Perhaps he was conscious of the dangerous situation in which he was placing himself. By reading this scroll in public, perhaps he shared Jeremiah's despair. At the nil response, the prophet was getting to his message. In other words, people were not responding for a long period of time. It could be that this would fit in with the opening words of verse five, when it says, do not seek great things for yourself, that he was beginning to realize that by throwing his lot in with Jeremiah, he was ruining his own career prospects. How many know that if you pick the losing side in life, you probably were going to lose?
[00:23:43] Right? Can you see all of these concerns that he's now expressing here?
[00:23:49] But Philip Reichen also shares along a different theme. And he's basically saying, think about this, this is our condition in life. He says the words of Baruch's lament thus describe all the difficulties in life in this fallen world. In one way or another, they touch every trouble of the human heart.
[00:24:11] And when God's people come to worship on the Lord's day, like today, many of them are worn out, tired from their work, their schoolwork, their housework.
[00:24:22] Day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year, their jobs, their families, their ministries gradually wear them down. Have you ever felt like, you know, you're like the little guy going on the treadmill. You just keep going and going. It's the same routine, you know, after a while it kind of wears you down a little bit, doesn't it? That's what he's talking about. You feel a little worn down.
[00:24:44] Others have pain. And I know this is true, and even in our church, because we have a prayer list and you're communicating prayer. But then there are people in our church. They live with what I call perpetual pain. They always have pain. Their body has pain every day and they live in pain. Some people are dealing with life threatening illnesses or suffering from chronic ailments that torment them. Sometimes people are never set free from it. It just, you know, until the day they go to be with the Lord, they're struggling with things. You know, sometimes you go, well, it doesn't seem fair. One person gets healed, one person doesn't. Well, ultimately they will when they're in God's presence. But you know, why is that, Pastor? That's a mystery. You know, there are mysteries to this life.
[00:25:27] For some, sorrow is added to their pain. They remember the death of a loved one, or they lament the passing of maybe happier times in their lives, or still others are groaning. It's good to know we don't suffer alone. Servants of God in the past have had the same struggles we have had. This is nothing new. This is part of the human condition. We're not alone in our journey of difficulty. That's what he's telling us. He goes, yet they found God faithful in every situation. The Bible is not silent about trials and the sorrows of life. Aren't you glad when you read Scripture? You go, oh, look at this person's going through. I can relate to Joseph, or I can relate to Job, or I can relate to Mary having Jesus. Yeah, it was a high point, but it was a low point. I mean, all of the social stigmatism that went along with all of that stuff, or the jealousy that Joseph experienced with his brothers, or the jealousy that David experienced with his brothers. All of these stories have amazing continuity and commonality with you and I as human beings. And one of the reasons for its continual relevance is that it speaks to every troubled emotion of the soul. That's why the Bible's so relevant. It assures us that sorrow and groanings are common to humanity.
[00:26:41] The Bible also assures us that we have a Savior who understands trials. He went through them. Isn't that Jesus is touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He knows what it's like to suffer. He's acquainted with grief. He's a man of sorrows. He was worn out, the Bible says, with the groans that he had in the Garden of Gethsemane, he went through the pain of dying for sins on the cross. Therefore, when we turn to God with our troubles, we're not turning to someone who's unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. On the contrary, Jesus has the most tender compassion for every one of his suffering children. And so we're encouraged to bring our cares, our burdens, our fears, our anxieties to Jesus and we discover mercy and grace to help us in our time of need. Aren't you glad that God cares and he knows what it is to suffer? Let me move on to the second thing is to receive correction when our perspective needs to change. You know, how did we move forward when our thinking has been so dampened by trial, by that we're now in anguish and we're in hurt and we're sorrow, we're now despairing. In other words, the trial has weighed us down to the point where now we're in despair and it happens. You know what happens then? Our judgment becomes clouded. In the darkest hours, Job's life, we heard such bitter anguish as he demands an answer from God as to why this is happening to him. And he's trying to hold God accountable to himself. In other words, he says, I don't understand what's going on. I've served you all of my life. My whole life is falling apart. What in the world are you doing? God, he's asking God to answer him. He's making God accountable to him. And I think you and I do that at times. Hey, God, I did these things. Why is this happening to me? Aren't we to make God accountable to us just like Job?
[00:28:30] And yet, when God comes to Job and he challenges him, Job realizes that God does not owe him an explanation. As a matter of fact, if you study the book of Job, you'll find God never explained to Job what it was all about.
[00:28:43] It's kind of a mystery to Job, you know, that is a shocking thought to our sensibility, by the way. God does not owe me or you an explanation. God is not accountable to us while we are still accountable to him because he's creator and we're creation. So God doesn't owe us an explanation. God never has to answer for his behavior. That's a little shocking to us. You know, we live in a democratic society. We think everybody has to explain everything to us. Everybody. You know, it's like everybody's accountable to us. We have a vote. You know, we can pick you up and put you down. You can't do that with God, folks. It doesn't work. God determines, not us.
[00:29:22] So then Job realizes here, after he's. You know, when God says to him, hey, Job, if you can answer these questions, I'll answer your question. Well, of course God asks questions that Job goes, there's no. I have no clue why you're doing this.
[00:29:39] God asked Job what we call the unfathomable questions that are mysteries to us. So God says, well, who is this? Now he's talking to Job. That's obscuring my plans without knowledge.
[00:29:52] And then Job answered, well, surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. What's he saying? He's saying, okay, God, there's a lot of things in life I don't understand. And this is beyond me. And I'm going to just pause here for a minute and just ask the question. You know, aren't there not things in life that are a mystery to us? And even though we have science and we're studying and we're inquisitive as human beings and we're trying to find answers, there's a lot of things we haven't figured out.
[00:30:22] Come on now. There's a lot of things we don't know. Why isn't that amazing to you? God doesn't feel compelled to tell us all the answers. And then I had a little thought. When I preached through this entire book, I had this epiphany moment. You know how you get these moments every once in a while? And the thought occurred to me, what would you rather have if you had to have a choice now? There was no this is the option. Option number one, God will tell you exactly what he's doing and you don't get God's presence. Or option number two, you get God's presence without an explanation.
[00:30:52] Which one you're going for? Which door are you going to pick?
[00:30:56] No explanation in the presence of God, an explanation and no presence of God. Which door you got to pick the one where God's presence is. Right. That's the right answer.
[00:31:09] Because I'm going to say this.
[00:31:11] If you and I knew everything, why would we need God?
[00:31:16] We wouldn't have to have faith. We have the answer. But part of this Christian life is we have to trust God and we don't have all the answers. And that's why God says, hey, listen, the way I'm operating is way beyond your pay grade. As a matter of fact, he says in Isaiah, he says, my thoughts are so far above your thoughts, they're as high as the heavens above the earth. So far are my thoughts above your thought. And my ways are above your ways. I can't even explain to you what I'm doing. It's beyond you. And how many understand that you're an experienced person in life and a three year old or four year old asks you a question and you realize there's no way in the world I can explain to this four year old what I'm doing.
[00:31:55] They're just never going to get it. And even though you can try to explain it to them, they're just not going to get it. And there are some things that God is doing you and I just won't get interesting. He'll give us a lot of things, but not everything.
[00:32:11] God's response to Baruch's complaint is with a challenging correction. He says here, but the Lord has told me to say to you, this is what the Lord says. I will overthrow what I have built and uproot what I have planted throughout the earth. In other words, God says, hey, I'm building things. I'm allowed to destroy those things. It's mine to build. It's mine to destroy. Wow. That's one idea behind those words. I think there's even, even deeper understanding of that should you then see great things for yourself, do not seek them, for I will bring disaster on all people, declares the Lord. But wherever you go, I will let you escape with your life.
[00:32:48] Okay, let's go back to verse four. I call this God's heartbreak at seeing what he has created being destroyed primarily by our sinfulness. Actually, I would say that's what's causing it. That's the cause of it. You want to have causation? There it is. Baruch is bemoaning the fact that life is not going the way he wants it to.
[00:33:10] But God is saying, yeah, but I'm suffering too.
[00:33:14] He sees how sin is destroying everything in its way. God has to destroy what he has created, because if left unchecked, it's like a disease and an infection that will destroy either other parts of our body or like a plague that's going to destroy other people's lives. God's got to stop it.
[00:33:33] Maybe I can best frame God's heartache in this way. Jesus is now approaching the city of Jerusalem in the last week of his life. Luke gives us a window into the soul of God, because Jesus is God in the flesh. Jesus is looking over the city and he's weeping over the city. He's heartbroken. And you say, well, why is he heartbroken? Because these people are in a state of rebellion and they're in a state of blindness, spiritual blindness. God has come to visit them. He's calling them to repentance like he's always done throughout their entire history. And they're about ready to kill him.
[00:34:12] Isn't that amazing? So the answer is before them, but they're going to kill the answer. You know, a lot of times what happens is people have an answer given to them, but they don't want that answer, so they reject it. That's exactly what's happening. You know, a lot of people don't want to have a savior because they think they're saving themselves.
[00:34:30] Until you come to the end of yourself and you realize, I do need a savior. And we do.
[00:34:35] It says here, as he approached the city of Jerusalem, he saw. He saw it and wept over it. He said, if you even you had only known on this day what would bring you peace. But how? Now it is hidden from your eyes. If only they had received Jesus, they would have been saved. The same is true for us. If we'd received Jesus as Lord and surrendered to him, we will be saved from impending judgment. And Luke reveals why judgment came upon the people at that hour. He says they basically rejected God's answer. And he said, this is what's going to happen. This is why Jesus was crying. Because he could see beyond the day of his death to about a generation later when the Romans would totally destroy the city in their mass rebellion, Jewish rebellion. And you know, you and I probably have never been in an experience like this, but can you imagine what it would be like? Jewish people were actually fighting with each other in the city. If they would have had gotten along, they could have probably defeated the Romans. A lot of people don't realize that they would have defeated the Romans, but no, they were fighting with each other. Sometimes Christians do that. They start fighting with each other. It's crazy. But then the Romans came and destroyed the whole city because God said it would happen that way. Because they were in rebellion against God.
[00:35:53] And I don't know about you, but the ravaging of a city would be something you and I would never want to see or experience. It would be so painful to watch people's lives destroyed in front of your eyes. Jesus is seeing that as he's weeping over the city. That's why he was weeping. He could see the judgment coming and they had no idea.
[00:36:12] You know, God suffers over our sinful state.
[00:36:16] Just as everyone here will understand. When you deeply love someone and you see their lives being lived in a self centered, sin filled way, how it's destroying themselves and everybody around them, it creates a lot of pain, you know. John Stott shares this portrait of God's heart in his book the Cross of Christ when he said, I could never myself believe in God if it were not for the cross. In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? This is one of the distinct characteristics of the Judean Christian faith is simply this, we have a suffering God.
[00:36:50] All the other faiths don't express God as suffering, but both Jews and Christians understand God suffers with us. God hears our plight, God hears our cry. God himself suffers at an even deeper level than we do.
[00:37:04] That's a very profound thought. I don't even know how to get it across to us that you and I think we're suffering. God's going, I'm suffering at a deeper level than you are right now with what you're going through. That's the empathy that God has because you see God loves us so much. So now God is going to rebuke our self centeredness. You know, Philip Reichen kind of brought some idea out. He said, you know, usually when people are going through a crisis, what do we want to do. We want to pray for them, we want to walk alongside of them, we want to encourage them, we want to share verses that we might think would strengthen them. But the reality is we rarely ever confront them. We don't normally do that, but sometimes what we actually need when we get to that level of self pity is somebody needs to say, you got a problem here, we need to address it. You see, God was telling Baruch to stop being so selfish.
[00:37:56] God looked into his heart and saw how self centered he was. Notice how often Baruch is used the first person singular in this lament. He says, woe to me. The Lord has added sorrow to my pain. I am worn out with groaning and I find no rest.
[00:38:11] He sounds even more self centered in the actual original language Hebrew, because nearly every word ends with the first person possessive pronoun. My woe, my pain, my being worn out, my groaning, my finding no rest. In other words, what word are you hearing repeated over and over again?
[00:38:29] Mine. Me, me, me, me. You see what's going on? So God is going to deal with that. Aren't you glad that God loves us so much that he's not going to just let you wallow in self pity? He's going to address it and he does.
[00:38:44] Ultimately, Baruch was blaming God for all of his troubles. It was the Lord who had added sore to his pain. He said, even when it has a physical component, despair is always a spiritual matter. Dissatisfaction with life is always is in reality dissatisfaction with God.
[00:39:03] That's a very profound statement if you think about it. If we don't like why our life is that, there's only two reasons for it. One is self inflicted. I've done a whole bunch of dumb things and I'm suffering consequences. Or God is taking me through this experience in my life right now to refine my life to make me more like Christ. He's allowing this trial to come. But you know what? Instead of living with despair and discouragement and I'm walking around, I'm complaining, I'm grumpy.
[00:39:32] That's not the attitude we need to have. Well, what's the right attitude, Pastor? We need to live a life filled with gratitude. Why? Because of God's love for us. God's really in control. God can change things in a moment's notice. I just need to learn how to walk with God and love on God and accept God because I know ultimately my future is going to be phenomenal. This is a short time on earth, guys. It's going to get better. Let me Tell you, as depression turns against God, it turns inward upon self. Baruch could not see beyond the boundaries of his own troubles. He spent all of his time thinking about how tired he was, how much pain he was in and how many griefs he had to bear. But God cut right to the heart of Baruch's real problem. He was seeking something for himself.
[00:40:22] So what does he tell him? Stop seeking greatness for ourselves. Let me just go back there for a moment. I just want to say this. You know, years ago when we came to the church, there was a beautiful lady in our church. She was a chartered person. She was here before Patty and I. Her name was Thelma Austin. Some of you know Thelma, beautiful lady. But you know, she shared her story with me one day and was so profound. You see, what happened in her life is her and her husband built their dream home. And the day they were sitting down for their first breakfast, he said to her, I don't love you and I'm leaving. I found somebody else. First day in their brand new dream home that they worked hard to put together and he left her. She was so traumatized by the experience. She ended up as a patient in Ponoka.
[00:41:11] She was drowning.
[00:41:13] And one of the patients one day came by and they noticed she had her putting lipstick on her lips there, there's a mirror in front of her. The patient, she put her lipstick down and the patient came up and grabbed the lipstick and wrote these four letters, P, L, O, M. And put the lipstick down.
[00:41:32] And Thelma goes, what's that?
[00:41:36] The person said, that's your problem. What does it mean?
[00:41:40] Poor little old me.
[00:41:44] You see, she was wallowing in self pity to the degree that she could never get past her sorrow. But something awoke at that moment in her soul. And eventually she came to faith in Christ. And I never saw poor little old me, Thelma, ever once. She was a very joyous lady. She was a prayerful lady. Actually you came to our church at the very beginning. We had one greeter, it was Thelma. And I can tell you, everybody that came through the door, they all got a hug. And if they had a problem, she'd pray for them right then and there. And she'd continue to pray for them. Why am I telling you this?
[00:42:19] Because we have to get past self pity. Because it'll keep us drowning until we let it go, stop seeking greatness for ourselves. Baruch was told that what about us? What about our lives? What's our purpose in life but to seek God's glory if we're going to learn the meaning of what is being told to Baruch. We need to examine the perfect life. And the perfect life is the life of Christ. And what did Jesus do? Everything about his life was counterintuitive. He did not seek greatness for himself. He became a servant to those dismissed as insignificant. You know, Patty and I were doing a devotional together this past week. You know, we do this together at night. We have our own time in the morning, but at night it's just her and I and we. I found this one called what Is Greatness? And I want to just read a few selections from it. It says, in a culture obsessed with influence and status, where success is often measured in terms of followers and likes, Jesus and his teachings give us a path that is still revolutionary today. Whoever would be great among you must be your servant. Jesus spent time with people who could offer nothing in return. He touched those society had deemed untouchable. He gave dignity to people who had been overlooked and forgotten. His actions weren't calculated moves for social capital or carefully staged photo ops. They were genuine expressions of a revolutionary idea that true greatness isn't measured by who's serving you, but by who you're willing to serve.
[00:43:48] And that's still true. But let me move on to the final point. We need to embrace God's promise of deliverance. Because you know what? God is still good. He's not going to leave us on a corrective note. He's going to give us something to hope for. And in the correction that God spoke, he laid down a promise of personal deliverance. He says, I will let you escape with your life. And here the idea that Baruch's life would be spared and he would escape with his life all of the moments of destruction that were happening around him. And that's all he saw for his whole life. He saw destruction, destruction, destruction. But God spared him, just like he did Jeremiah. Here the principle is laid down for us as well.
[00:44:30] The way to life is to be willing to lay down our life to serve Christ. It's the cost of discipleship. It's the meaning of fullness, of life. Listen to how Mark frames it. Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross. Follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it. But whoever will lose their life for me and for the Gospel will save it.
[00:44:54] What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?
[00:45:01] In other words, to be his disciple is stated here. In Mark 8:38. If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels.
[00:45:17] Let me close with this illustration. In 1951, Eberhard Burge published letters and papers from prison. It was a correspondence of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who he wrote to those outside the prison walls. He was there because he had attempted with others to assassinate Hitler. One of the texts of Scripture that Bonhoper found solace and challenged came from this very chapter, Jeremiah 45. The struggle of Baruch, his anguish, his complaint, God's response and challenge, and his promise of safety even in a perilous hour, brought instruction and solace to Bonhoeffer. And this is what he wrote.
[00:45:58] We realize more clearly than formerly that the world lies under the wrath and grace of God. And we read in Jeremiah 45, Thus says the Lord, behold, what I have built, I will break down. And what I have planted, I am plucking up. And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not. For behold, I am bringing evil upon all flesh. But I will give your life as a prize of war in all places to which you may go. That's a literal translation of that text. If we can save our souls, Bonhoeffer writes, unscathed out of the wreckage of our material possessions, let us be satisfied with that. If the Creator destroys his own handiwork, what right have we to lament the destruction of ours? Now he's speaking of a Europe that's been totally destroyed. You can imagine how painful this is. He's basically saying, stop focusing on the things that are perishing. Focus on your soul. Soak up. Focus on. Focus on what's eternal. That's what he's telling us. He goes on to say, it will be the task of our generation not to see great things, but to save and preserve our souls out of the chaos and to realize it is the only thing we can carry as a prize from the burning building. Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flows the springs of life. What he's saying is, be faithful to God. So what are we to glean from this interchange between God and Baruch as we look at his complaint, God's correction, and finally, God's assurance or promise? Am I looking at a bleak earthly future? Or am I focusing on my groaning pain and despair? Or am I hearing God's word promising me life as I seek, not for myself, greatness, but God's Honor and God's glory. Let's stand.
[00:47:45] You say, pastor, this was a very interesting text of scripture. I go, yeah, it really was.
[00:47:52] But I'm going to say this to all of us, and we're going to pray right now.
[00:47:58] What happens if the future is bleaker than now?
[00:48:03] How will you be able to handle it?
[00:48:06] That's a great question, isn't it?
[00:48:10] You know, I'm an optimist. I always want to believe things will be better in the future. That's just my nature.
[00:48:16] But you know something? Even if it's not, I think we can find hope.
[00:48:24] We can find hope in God.
[00:48:27] We can find hope in God's grace and in God's goodness. We can find hope that God will never leave us nor forsake us. Us. He'll be with us through the whole experience.
[00:48:38] We can find hope in the fact that maybe God is trying to wean us from the things of this world that really are all going to perish. And, you know, some of us have invested so much time down here that when these things start going, you know, we have to be careful. We're not like Lot's wife, who looked back and was regretting what she was leaving. We need to have our eyes on Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, despised the cross. In other words, despised the suffering. Why? He had joy. Why? Because he knew what he was doing was bringing eternal salvation to you and me. He could suffer because he knew that his suffering was not in vain.
[00:49:19] You and I need to understand something. If we're going to live for ourselves, if we're going to see great things for ourselves, we're going to be deeply disappointed because we may gain the whole world, but in the process, we might lose our soul. But as Bonhoeffer pointed out to us, better yet, to lose everything this life has to offer. But to gain our soul, that's the most important thing. This is the victory, even our faith.
[00:49:44] So maybe you're here today and you say, man, I've been so distressed. I've been so, you know, concerned about where our world is going. Just with a bowed head right now, I want you to do something. I want you to just lift your hands and say, God, I want to submit my anguish, my distress, my frustrations, my fears. Just lift your hands. I'm just going to give these to you. I'm not going to allow these things to define my life. As a matter of fact, you know, I'm a parent. I love my kids. I'm a grandparent. I love my grandkids and I see the future they're moving into.
[00:50:20] But you know what? I don't want to shelter them. I want to strengthen them. I want them to be able to face the challenges that are lying ahead. I want my children and grandchildren. I want you, your children and your grandchildren to be the people that are going to reveal the nature of God in the days to come.
[00:50:43] But you know what that takes? Changing us.
[00:50:46] We can't live in fear, we can't live in despair. We can't give in to self pity. How many hear what I'm saying? We've got to trust God. And so Father, I give every care, every concern, every fear, every anxious thought, just give them to you.
[00:51:03] You're going to walk us through this journey called life. You're going to be with us every single step of the way. There's not going to be a day where we're not going to have you with us. We may feel that you're not there. But you said you'd never leave us. I believe your word over my emotion. I know you're there. You're taking us right to the end. You're a faithful God. And so now I cast my distress, my despair, my anxious thoughts. I even cast wrong ambitions, I even cast wrong aspirations. I even set aside the things that you know, for so long meant so much to me. But I'm realizing now they mean less and less. And as you get older, you're going to find out that mean less and less. And what really matters is the salvation of the souls of people. We commit ourselves to you Lord, to bring honor and glory to your name. In Jesus name, Amen. God bless you as you leave this morning.
