Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / April 5, 2020 | Stand Strong - When The Worst That Could Happen, Happens

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April 5, 2020 | Stand Strong - When The Worst That Could Happen, Happens · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
0:01
SPEAKER_00: How are you?
0:02
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Topeka Bible Church.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: 9 30 service, 8 o'clock service, 11 o'clock service, Saturday night service, whatever service you want it to be.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: That's what this Sunday morning is, and we're excited about it.
0:17
SPEAKER_00: We're really happy to be here.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: And uh Sam, give me the screen up here if you can.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: So this is a really big week, of course, for Christians around the world.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: And let me remind you, this Friday is Good Friday.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: I want to welcome you to join us.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: You'll be celebrating at home.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: I'll be leading you in the Lord's table here.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: There's no day all year long where it's more fitting to break the bread and drink the cup than on Good Friday.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: And one of the advantages you have from doing this at home is that you can do it a little more like they did in the New Testament, where they didn't take a little nibble of cracker and a little sip of juice.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: Of course, they had a meal.
1:09
SPEAKER_00: And so you can uh break a piece of bread, and everybody can have mouthfuls of bread or cracker, and the juice you can give everybody.
1:19
SPEAKER_00: I hope you give everybody more than just that little thimbleful, and that'll be good Friday.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: So I'm looking forward to celebrating uh with you a virtual uh Lord's table this coming Friday.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: So um we're in a series, this is the last Sunday of our wonderful series, Stand Strong, which began uh at the beginning of this year before we knew anything about the uh about COVID-19.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: Uh and I I gave you a Jeremiah challenge, so many of you have done it.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: It's been really thrilling for me that we as a church have been reading through Jeremiah, and this coming week I'm challenging you to read Lamentations.
2:02
SPEAKER_00: This is our final sermon uh in the Jeremiah Challenge.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: We're done with Jeremiah and Lamentations this morning and preaching on lamentations, uh, but you still have five chapters to read.
2:13
SPEAKER_00: I'll be reading them with you, of course.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: And I'll be writing five devotionals this week because Lamentations has five chapters.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: So I hope you'll join me.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: Uh let me uh just uh uh let you know that my title this morning is uh When the Worst That Could Possibly Happen, When the Worst That Can Happen Happens, what do you do?
2:39
SPEAKER_00: And and by the worst that can happen, of course, I'm thinking of things like losing a child, getting abused, uh, being abandoned, uh, where a world virus spreads and kills thousands of people and stops, paralyzes the entire world.
2:57
SPEAKER_00: It quarantines us.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: What do you do when things like that happen?
3:02
SPEAKER_00: Well, the last two days I've been in a Zoom board meeting with uh John Brown University, 47 uh others, 47 people total, uh John Brown board.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: Some of them you know, Chip Pollard, we've had here the president to speak a few times.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: Um, number of you know Marvin Spees, number of you know uh maybe Mike King, he was Kansas Transportation Secretary under Sam Brown back, he's back with King Construction Company near Wichita.
3:29
SPEAKER_00: So uh it was really an interesting time, but there was one thing that happened.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: I thought I've got to share this with Tavika Bible.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: So one of the guys there, great guy, friend, his name Mark Simmons, and he's the chairman of Simmons Food, which is the second largest chicken producer in um all of Arkansas, behind Tyson Foods.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: 7,000 employees.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: But he's a great guy, and he was sharing with us as we were sharing Prairie Quest that Simmons Food has taken a real hit because of the lack of March Madness that uh that that chicken wings just sell by the millions during March Madness, all those guys sitting in front of the TV watching basketball.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: And it's been, but he said, and this is what I want to share with, he said, we've recouped a bunch of that money because of pet food.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: We sell pet food, chicken products, and so forth.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: Someone asked why.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: He said, well, with everybody quarantined and staying at home, they're spending lots more time with their pets, and apparently they've decided that their pets need a lot more food.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: And I couldn't help thinking.
4:37
SPEAKER_00: Uh Melody told me the statistics say that America is gaining weight because we're sitting at home, and I thought, I wonder who's gonna gain more weight, the people or the pets.
4:49
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, uh I don't know if you saw the funny video that the woman posted, the one who has a kitten, a cat named Milee, who is absolutely irate that uh the whole family is staying home now, and she keeps meowing madly at the home.
5:06
SPEAKER_00: You ought to look it up.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of funny because she considers it her house.
5:11
SPEAKER_00: This is my house.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: Get out of here.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, uh having mentioned all of that, uh, I would say that the main topic, and this is why I share this, the main topic that we considered the last couple days uh at uh the board of this school, John Brown is uh is school in the northwest, five hours from here, northwest part of Arkansas, is what lies ahead?
5:33
SPEAKER_00: Because uh John Brown, like all schools, are losing colleges anyway, are losing millions of dollars uh because of this shutdown, this uh quarantine fact that kids are not there.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: And so we're discussing is there going to be school this fall?
5:47
SPEAKER_00: Same question my wife and her board over here at Care Paravel Latin School are asking.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: And that's a mighty important question.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: And the problem is that we can't answer that question.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: The best guess right now is that schools will restart this fall, but we don't know, do we, what lies ahead.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: And that, of course, was the great question that brought about the saddest book in the Bible, the Book of Lamentations, our book this morning.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: Because the fact of the matter is the worst that can happen involves, and you know, can include losing a child, getting abused, being abandoned, a world virus, and so forth.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: But one of the great worst moments in all of history was when Jerusalem, the holy city and the holy temple, fell, was destroyed by Babylon in 587 BC.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: And that was such a catastrophic moment that Jeremiah wrote the book of Jeremiah and the book of Lamentations to ask, what's next?
6:55
SPEAKER_00: One commentator reading the book of Jeremiah, which we've just finished, said it was like taking a walk in the darkest woods that I could ever have imagined.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: It was just so negative.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, well, that's part of it.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: But listen, if Jeremiah had only written the book with a purpose of being negative and talking about judgment, he wouldn't have written it.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: It wouldn't have gotten published, we wouldn't have it in our Bible because by the time Jeremiah finished it, of course, the fall had happened, the destruction had happened, it was all past tense.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: No, there was more to the story.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: And even in the book of Lamentations, there's more to the story than Tishab.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: Tishhebaav, as I've told you, is the date that Jerusalem fell, the ninth day of the month of Av this year.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: It'll be July the 30th.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: It's the Jewish 9-11.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: And interestingly enough, if you're an Orthodox Jew, you don't even say hello to each other on that day.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: So it's a lot like quarantine, where you just ignore each other to some extent.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: That was the worst that could possibly happen to Israel.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: And that's why Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations, which means crying or mourning.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: It appears as he wrote it as though he was sitting outside the city on the ruins.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: And what he did is he wrote poetry, how lonely sits the city that was full of people.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: Because that's what you do.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: When you go to a funeral, what do you read in your program?
8:30
SPEAKER_00: You read a poem.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: When my mother lost her two-year-old little boy, when we lost our redheaded little brother Dougie, she wrote a long poem.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: And eventually, when she decided to share it, it was framed and sat in our house.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: You write poetry.
8:49
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Jeremiah did when he wrote the book of Lamentations, but he wrote a special kind of poetry called an acrostic, in which each letter of each chapter, remember Hebrew reads from right to left.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: Each verse began with the next letter in the alphabet.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: The first letter in Hebrew is Aleph, that's like the letter A.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: The next letter is Bait, that's like the letter B.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3, verse 4, all the way down, and of course, then the chapter has 22 verses.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 1 is 22 verses because there are 22 verses in the Hebrew alphabet.
9:28
SPEAKER_00: So does chapter 2, so does chapter 4, so does chapter 5.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 3 has 66 verses.
9:35
SPEAKER_00: Three A's, three B's, three C's, and so forth.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: Why do that?
9:39
SPEAKER_00: And the answer I am pretty sure is that you pour out your heart of grief.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: You're writing a grief poem, and you want to feel as though you've said it all.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to say too much, you don't want to say too little.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: And so Jeremiah decided he would, he would state it, go from A to Z, and then start over.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: And he does this five times.
10:03
SPEAKER_00: Well, what is it that he says in this book?
10:06
SPEAKER_00: Well, as best as I can analyze it, and this is just my view as I've studied it.
10:12
SPEAKER_00: And these five chapters, chapter one takes sort of an inside view in which you get the feel.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: He gives the feel of the destruction of Jerusalem.
10:21
SPEAKER_00: Second, you get heaven's view.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: What are the causes?
10:24
SPEAKER_00: Actually, there's two causes: God's anger and man's sin for the fall.
10:29
SPEAKER_00: Chapter three, the personal view, my view.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: How do I cope with it?
10:34
SPEAKER_00: Chapter four, the longest chapter in the central chapter.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: Chapter four, the camera view.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: It's all about the people.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: It's sort of the CNN, sort of the Fox News view about the people.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: And finally, five, the future view, where you fall to your knees in prayer and he asks God to restore them.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: So I want to take you through that and I want to show you how it ties in with Palm Sunday, and I want to read you a children's book.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: But let's do that really quickly as we look at the Book of Lamentations.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: First comes the inside view or the feel of it.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: How she sits alone, the city crowded with people.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: Notice that Jerusalem's compared to a woman.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: We often do that.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: We compare Paris to a woman.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: We compare beautiful cities to women.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: How she sits alone, the city once crowded with people.
11:23
SPEAKER_00: Loneliness.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: Sounds a whole lot like the life you and I are living, right?
11:29
SPEAKER_00: And we have to stop and think about the elderly people who are widows or widowers and not only now live alone in their house, but now are not even being visited.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: And that was Jerusalem.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: She who was great among the nations has become like a widow.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: The princess has been put to forced labor.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: We have this lengthy picture of Jerusalem, the woman, first compared to a widow, and then to a fallen princess, and then she's compared to a loose woman, and then she's compared to an abandoned woman, and then she's compared to a betrayed lover, and then uh and then to a rape victim.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: So this is the feel of the fall of Jerusalem.
12:15
SPEAKER_00: She weeps bitterly during the night with tears on her cheeks, and there's no one to offer her comfort, not one from all of her lovers.
12:23
SPEAKER_00: She shouldn't have had a lot of lovers, but that's that was her sin.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: And all her friends have betrayed her.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: This, like a gong, rings throughout the chapter.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: No one to comfort her.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: Five times, no one to comfort her, no one nearby to comfort, no one to comfort her.
12:41
SPEAKER_00: That was the feel of it.
12:43
SPEAKER_00: And if you've ever been abandoned, been widowed, lost a loved one, then you know what this feels like.
12:52
SPEAKER_00: And perhaps you know what this feels like.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: Certainly, some people do around the world because of this virus and the losses that they have felt.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: Is there any pain like mine?
13:03
SPEAKER_00: She cries out.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: Look at my pain, my heart is broken.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: The last line is, I am sick at heart.
13:09
SPEAKER_00: That's the feel of it.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: And frankly, it reminds me of a famous poem by Auden called Funeral Blues.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: It's as though Jeremiah, sitting outside the city of Jerusalem, writes in that famous poem, The stars are not wanted now.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: Put out everyone, pack up the moon and dismantle the sun, pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods for nothing now, can ever come to any good.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: That's chapter one.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: That's the feel of it, the inside view.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: Second chapter is it moves to heaven's view and the causes of it.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: And the causes are twofold.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: It was Jerusalem, Israel's sin and God's anger.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: The Lord has made her suffer because of her many transgressions.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: She sinned grievously.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: I've been very rebellious, my transgressions and guilt.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: And as a result of that sin, how the Lord has overshadowed daughter Zion with his anger, the Lord has swallowed her up, demolished her, cut her off, blazed in his anger, killed, wrecked, and shattered.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: It's not as though this whole thing was an accident.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know about coronavirus.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: I don't know whether God's trying to say something, and I certainly would not guess, but I do know that the world needs to turn to God.
14:29
SPEAKER_00: And I know that as Jesus said to his disciples when they asked, the tower fell, who sinned?
14:36
SPEAKER_00: It killed 80 people.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: Someone must have sinned.
14:39
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Well, no, no one sinned, but you all need to repent.
14:44
SPEAKER_00: This is a message.
14:45
SPEAKER_00: Everyone should repent, lest worse happen to you.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: And certainly, with the COVID-19 spreading around the world and the fear and the agony, one lesson that we should all learn is that this is a time to come back to God.
15:02
SPEAKER_00: Jumping over chapter three, which I want to end with, we come to the camera view.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: That is the people involved.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: This chapter goes through all the levels of people, from rich to poor, from adults to children, and says everyone's affected, just as they are today, right?
15:21
SPEAKER_00: Precious children, nursing baby infants, nobles huddled in trash heaps, dignitaries, their skin shriveled on their bones, women, dear people, prophets, and elders, everyone is being hit with this plague.
15:35
SPEAKER_00: Everyone is being struck by the destruction and affected.
15:40
SPEAKER_00: The camera view reminds us of Jeremiah's cry.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: If only my head were a pool of water and my eyes a waterfall of tears, I would weep day and night, for here it is, all my people who've been slaughtered.
15:55
SPEAKER_00: And finally, chapter 5, the future view, is a prayer.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: It begins and ends with a cry, Lord, would you please remember us?
16:04
SPEAKER_00: Would you look and see all that we're going through?
16:06
SPEAKER_00: Would you restore us?
16:08
SPEAKER_00: Would you bring us back to yourself?
16:11
SPEAKER_00: And all of these calls that come from the White House on down, everyone urging us to pray, those are appropriate.
16:18
SPEAKER_00: Don't let the prayer shamers today stop you from crying out to God for our world and for your friends, the people you know that we would turn to him and that the Lord would lift this plague and bless us again.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: But chapter three is the key chapter, and it's the most personal chapter, beginning with the words, I am the man who has seen affliction.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: And it's all about how he, Jeremiah, and you and I cope with the kind of tragedy that's going on in our lives now.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: He's forced me to walk in the dark.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: He's walled me in so I can't go out.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: He's weighed me down with chains.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: He forced me off my way.
17:01
SPEAKER_00: God has left me desolate.
17:03
SPEAKER_00: I've forgotten what happiness is.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: I thought my future's lost as well as my hope.
17:09
SPEAKER_00: Yet this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: So the issue is: do we have any hope today when the worst that can happen has happened?
17:21
SPEAKER_00: When hope seems gone, when the numbers keep rising so fast here in America?
17:29
SPEAKER_00: And do we have any hope?
17:31
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Yes, I call something to mind, and therefore I have hope.
17:35
SPEAKER_00: He puts this right at the middle of his book.
17:38
SPEAKER_00: The most important thing he says in the book, he puts right in the middle, and here it is.
17:44
SPEAKER_00: Famous verses that you've heard before.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: It's because of the Lord's faithful love that we do not perish.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: For his mercies never end.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: They are new every morning.
17:57
SPEAKER_00: Great is your faithfulness.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: And I say, the Lord is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in him.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: Very familiar the King James that you've memorized, maybe a little harder to see.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: Lamentations 3, 22, and 23.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: Say the King James along with me there at home out loud.
18:23
SPEAKER_00: It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not, they are new every morning.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: Great is thy faithfulness.
18:35
SPEAKER_00: Notice the three great words, perhaps the three greatest words in Hebrew in the Old Testament.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: You can see them clear, and this is the uh English Standard Version that's been turned into a song that we sing.
18:52
SPEAKER_00: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: They are new every morning.
19:01
SPEAKER_00: Great is thy faithfulness.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: Notice it's as though these three words are like three stars in the darkest night.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: It seems as though all of the lights have gone out, that things are depressing, and in the darkest night, when there is no moon, God says, I want you to look up at the three stars and the night sky, three characteristics of me and my character that I hold out to you.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: My steadfast love, my mercies, and my faithfulness.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: Now listen, feel the shock of these verses.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: What's shocking about them?
19:48
SPEAKER_00: Their timing.
19:50
SPEAKER_00: It's saying, praise the Lord, when the very worst thing that could possibly happen has happened.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: The fall of Jerusalem, the ruination of God's city, the burning of the holy temple, the loss of the ark.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: It's as if someone had stood up an Auschwitz concentration camp and shouted, God is so faithful.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: You almost want to slug them.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: And yet these words are placed here to give us hope in the middle of a crisis that is outside of our control.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: And what they are are three great words.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: There's Hezid, the star of love, Raham, the star of mercy, Amunna, the star of faithfulness.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: These three stars in the night sky we can look at to gain hope.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: Hezid, the star of love, is the first one.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: This is the greatest word, perhaps, in the entire Bible or in the Old Testament, used 250 times in the Old Testament.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: It means loyal love.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: It's the star of love that tells us that his love won't let me go.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: It locks me in.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: Even when you feel as though you are unloved, that God has neglected and abandoned us.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: He has sent a plague that is sweeping the world and he doesn't even see us anymore.
21:25
SPEAKER_00: God says, that's not true.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: Look up in the dark.
21:29
SPEAKER_00: See my star of love, hezid.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: My love will never let you go.
21:36
SPEAKER_00: Star number two is called Raham.
21:39
SPEAKER_00: Raham is that word that's used of a mommy or a daddy in the middle of the night when their newborn infant in the other room cries out, and both of them their hearts flip over with pity, with compassion, with mercy.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: That's the feeling here.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: God has a Raham.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: He has this father or mother to a Little child, merciful heart toward us.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: His mercy rescues me.
22:05
SPEAKER_00: What's interesting in this verse is he says, His compassion says, Raham is new every morning.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: Can you believe that?
22:13
SPEAKER_00: That's like manna falling every morning.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: God says, you need to be rescued again this morning.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: You committed the same sin last night or yesterday that you confessed to me the day before.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: But that's okay.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: I forgive you.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: I rescue you.
22:29
SPEAKER_00: You come to me, you confess your sin, and I'll forgive you.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: I'll rescue you.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: I am the one who rescues you from Egypt.
22:38
SPEAKER_00: I will rescue you from Babylon.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: I'll take care of you.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: That's star number two.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: Star number three, Amunah, the Hebrew word from which we get amen, is the star of faithfulness.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: God says, My faithfulness is forever.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: My faithfulness lasts.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: You think I'm not faithful because I've destroyed my city, I've burned my own temple, but that doesn't matter.
23:05
SPEAKER_00: I'm sticking to you.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: I'm faithful to you.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you sinned.
23:09
SPEAKER_00: What lies ahead in the future?
23:13
SPEAKER_00: No one knows except we know this.
23:18
SPEAKER_00: That God will be faithful to us, that God will be loving to us, that God will show us mercy.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: For his love doesn't, won't let us go, and his mercy rescues us every morning, and his faithfulness is forever.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: And frankly, we shouldn't be surprised because that's the theme of the book of Jeremiah.
23:40
SPEAKER_00: The key was laid at the front door, 110, where God told the teenager Jeremiah, I've appointed you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and demolish, to build and to plant.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: My plan, God said, is yes, it's negative.
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SPEAKER_00: It's gonna feel two-thirds negative and only one-third positive.
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SPEAKER_00: And that is because of your sin, I'm going to uproot you.
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SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna tear down my city.
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SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna destroy and demolish because of your sin and rebellion.
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SPEAKER_00: But it's gonna end positively.
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SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna build and I'm going to plant.
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SPEAKER_00: First comes judgment, then comes restoration.
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SPEAKER_00: I've destroyed you, God says at the end of the book of Jeremiah.
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SPEAKER_00: Now I'm going to restore you.
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SPEAKER_00: And that's why the restoration verses are planted right at the heart of the book of Lamentations.
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SPEAKER_00: What a principle this is in the Bible and in life.
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SPEAKER_00: First comes judgment, then comes restoration.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: We know about this principle because this is a principle we use when disciplining our children.
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SPEAKER_00: And when children disobey or when children defy, first comes the discipline.
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SPEAKER_00: But then, as you know, good parents, good moms and dads, then comfort, then take out for ice cream, or then reassure of love and mercy and faithfulness.
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SPEAKER_00: David in Psalm 30 relates about how he reacted, how God reacted to his sin, and he said, you know, it was a dark, dark night.
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SPEAKER_00: But he said, weeping can last through the night, but joy comes in the morning.
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SPEAKER_00: There it is again.
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SPEAKER_00: First comes judgment, then comes restoration.
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SPEAKER_00: It happened to David.
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SPEAKER_00: And by the way, notice that it's going to happen this week.
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SPEAKER_00: First comes the crucifixion, then comes the resurrection.
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SPEAKER_00: In that order, first comes the payment for sin, then comes the resurrection, the restoration to new life.
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SPEAKER_00: Notice the pattern at the end of time.
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SPEAKER_00: First comes the great tribulation, the three and a half years out of the seven that are just going to be horrendous.
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SPEAKER_00: But then after that, what happens?
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SPEAKER_00: You know what happens after that?
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SPEAKER_00: Christ returns and sets up his great kingdom on the earth.
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SPEAKER_00: First comes judgment, then comes joy.
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SPEAKER_00: That's the pattern.
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SPEAKER_00: Guess what?
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SPEAKER_00: If you read the account carefully, you read that's the pattern on this morning on Palm Sunday.
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SPEAKER_00: The great crowd that had come for the feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem.
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SPEAKER_00: They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
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SPEAKER_00: Blessed is the king of Israel.
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SPEAKER_00: Yes, they thought he was king then.
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SPEAKER_00: They thought that he was riding, going to ride into the city and kick out the Romans.
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SPEAKER_00: They thought this was what we call the second coming.
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SPEAKER_00: But it wasn't, was it?
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SPEAKER_00: And that's why Jesus, we read, Jesus took a young donkey and sat upon it.
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SPEAKER_00: When you ride in to conquer a city, you ride in on a white horse and then you sit on a throne.
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SPEAKER_00: You don't sit on a young donkey.
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SPEAKER_00: In fact, we know that's true because at the end of the book of Revelation, I saw heaven standing open, says John, and there before me was a white horse whose rider is called faithful and true.
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SPEAKER_00: His eyes are like blazing fire, on his head are many crowns, on his robe and on his thigh, he has this name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
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SPEAKER_00: There it is.
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SPEAKER_00: Jesus is going to ride in one day on a white horse.
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SPEAKER_00: One poet asked, as he rode in through the palm branches and the hosannas on the lowly donkey, I wonder, even then, did Jesus see great white horses being groomed for the re-entry?
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SPEAKER_00: I have a children's book that was written 50 years ago or so, just a simple book called The King's Procession.
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SPEAKER_00: And I think the King's Procession captures this message of judgment first, restoration later.
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SPEAKER_00: Can I read this children's story to you and let you see it as we walk through it and then close?
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SPEAKER_00: The book was written by James and Ruth McCrae in 1963, The King's Procession.
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SPEAKER_00: And it says, one cold winter evening, the king's procession came winding over the hills.
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SPEAKER_00: The bells on the bridles jingled merrily, and the breath from the horses made smoke puffs on the frosty air.
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SPEAKER_00: People in the village, hearing the bells, ran into the street to stare.
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SPEAKER_00: Godspeed, your highness, they shouted, Godspeed.
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SPEAKER_00: Then they gaped with open mouths as the procession passed.
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SPEAKER_00: First came the king, all velvet and gold on his snow white horse.
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SPEAKER_00: Then came the king's brother, looking very grand in his fine clothes.
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SPEAKER_00: Next came the nobleman on his coal black charger, followed by the page with an ostrich plume stuck in his hat and carrying his silver trumpet.
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SPEAKER_00: And last of all came Pippin on his skin and bones donkey.
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SPEAKER_00: It was Pippin's first ride with the king's procession, and he sat as straight as he could, feeling very proud.
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SPEAKER_00: But no one gaped at him.
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SPEAKER_00: He was only the stable boy on a poor donkey that joggled debumped at every step.
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SPEAKER_00: The villagers looked at him and began to laugh.
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SPEAKER_00: Ha ha! They shouted, Bag of bones, sir, bag of bones, and the children ran behind him, shouting and waving sticks.
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SPEAKER_00: At first Pippin did not answer.
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SPEAKER_00: He drew himself up straighter than ever and pretended not to hear.
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SPEAKER_00: But the shouts grew louder and the sticks came closer, and finally he could hold back no longer.
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SPEAKER_00: Never you mind, he cried.
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SPEAKER_00: I am riding in the king's procession.
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SPEAKER_00: I But no one listened.
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SPEAKER_00: They are right, thought Pippin.
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SPEAKER_00: I may be riding in the king's procession, but I am only the stable boy on a skin and bones donkey.
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SPEAKER_00: And although Pippin sat as straight as ever, the proud, shining look was gone from his face.
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SPEAKER_00: Let me stop for a second and ask you a question.
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SPEAKER_00: What do you think?
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SPEAKER_00: If Jesus was riding in this procession, would he be the king up front?
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SPEAKER_00: Or would he be Pippin in the back?
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SPEAKER_00: Let's continue the story.
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SPEAKER_00: It was then that the commotion reached the ears of the king.
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SPEAKER_00: He turned in his saddle to see what was happening, and as he looked, he saw the children waving their sticks and shouting and laughing, and Pippin riding along straight and stiff and sad.
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SPEAKER_00: Halt, commanded the king.
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SPEAKER_00: The procession halted.
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SPEAKER_00: All were quiet, waiting word from the king.
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SPEAKER_00: The king went slowly back along the line past the Duke, past the nobleman, past Thomas the page to Pippin.
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SPEAKER_00: Silence, cried the king.
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SPEAKER_00: Sound the trumpet, I will make a proclamation.
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SPEAKER_00: Up went the silver trumpet, and Thomas blew three loud blasts that echoed among the frosty hills, the villagers gathered to listen.
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SPEAKER_00: Wherefore Pippin the stable boy has served me well and faithfully, and whereas it is unseemly for me to ride through my kingdom, allowing him to be jeered at, therefore do I proclaim that on our return to the castle, this stable boy shall have a fine white pony, together with a handsome bridle and other suitable trappings, I, the king, have proclaimed, and thus shall it be.
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SPEAKER_00: Thomas blew his trumpet again to signify that the announcement was over, and then the king returned to the front of the procession, and the royal party trotted off, leaving the villagers staring after them.
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SPEAKER_00: Pippin did not look back.
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SPEAKER_00: Did you hear?
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SPEAKER_00: Did you hear?
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SPEAKER_00: He wanted to shout to the villagers, to the trees, to the hills, and to the sky, where the stars were just coming out.
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SPEAKER_00: I shall have a fine white pony.
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SPEAKER_00: The king has said so.
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SPEAKER_00: The bells of the horses jangled a merry tune as they jogged along, and a bright moon rose above the black hills, and Pippin thought of the pony that would soon be his.
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SPEAKER_00: Thomas, he called to the page, is it nice to ride a fine pony?
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SPEAKER_00: Of course, said Thomas.
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SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't find me on that donkey of yours.
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SPEAKER_00: The nobleman turned around and stared at the donkey.
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SPEAKER_00: You couldn't even make a pair of breeches out of his hide.
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SPEAKER_00: He's good for nothing.
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SPEAKER_00: You could boil him down for glue, said Thomas.
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SPEAKER_00: He laughed, and so did the others.
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SPEAKER_00: But Pippin did not laugh.
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SPEAKER_00: He looked down at his donkey jogging along.
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SPEAKER_00: They'd been friends for a long, long time.
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SPEAKER_00: He's not that bad, said Pippin.
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SPEAKER_00: I wasn't planning to throw him away.
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SPEAKER_00: Besides, I do rather like him.
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SPEAKER_00: Then he sat still and he said no more, but his mind was full of new thoughts.
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SPEAKER_00: They reached the castle, crossed the drawbridge, rode into the courtyard.
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SPEAKER_00: The king waited until all were there, and then he held up his hand.
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SPEAKER_00: Bring forth a white pony at once, he commanded.
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SPEAKER_00: A groom led a white horse, a pony, into the courtyard.
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SPEAKER_00: Here's your pony, Pippin, said the king.
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SPEAKER_00: Now let us get rid of that miserable bundle of sticks of yours.
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SPEAKER_00: Pippin looked at the white pony, it was plump, its coat shone in the torchlight, and legs were dainty, its ankles were fine and small.
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SPEAKER_00: He looked at his donkey, at the bones sticking out of its rump and its rough, shaggy brown coat.
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SPEAKER_00: He waited only a moment.
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SPEAKER_00: I do thank you, Your Highness, he stammered to the king.
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SPEAKER_00: Indeed I do, but I cannot take this pony and send the donkey away.
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SPEAKER_00: The pony is very beautiful, and my donkey, it is true, is nothing but bones and good for almost nothing.
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SPEAKER_00: Still, he's my donkey.
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SPEAKER_00: King seemed puzzled, so Pippin stumbled on.
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SPEAKER_00: You see, your Highness, it's just that he belongs to me, and I belong to him, and we can't just not belong to each other.
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SPEAKER_00: I see, said the king.
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SPEAKER_00: And although the others there did not, he seemed to understand.
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SPEAKER_00: In that case, then see that he gets a good dinner.
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SPEAKER_00: And the king smiled, and surely you won't object to a new bridle for your donkey.
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SPEAKER_00: Pippin looked at the raggedy rope hanging round his donkey's neck, and new bridle?
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SPEAKER_00: Pippin grinned.
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SPEAKER_00: I do thank you, sir, he said.
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SPEAKER_00: He will look very grand.
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SPEAKER_00: He took the bridle and slipped it over the donkey's head.
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SPEAKER_00: It was a beautiful bridle of the finest leather with little brass bells on it and a rose on either side, and as Pippin led the donkey away, he whispered in its ear, My little donkey, you're the most beautiful bag of bones in the whole world.
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SPEAKER_00: And he hugged it hard round its squiggly, scraggly, skinny old neck.
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SPEAKER_00: Wow.
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SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden we understand that Jesus picked the donkey to tell us, you know what, it's donkeys now, it's horses later, it's judgment and discipline now, it's joy and the kingdom later.
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SPEAKER_00: But know that joy and the kingdom are coming when the worst that can happen happens.
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SPEAKER_00: And when your question is, what lies ahead?
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SPEAKER_00: What you need to do is remember that weeping may last through the night, but joy comes in the morning.
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SPEAKER_00: We've been with Jeremiah for three wonderful months.
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SPEAKER_00: This is our last day, and as he stands up and makes his way to the door to say goodbye, he turns and he looks at us and he says, Maybe the worst is happening.
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SPEAKER_00: But that's the way it's supposed to be.
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SPEAKER_00: Because God says he has plans for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future, and you need to believe that.
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SPEAKER_00: And the way to believe that in the darkest night is to look up at the sky and see Hezid, the star of love, Raham, the star of mercy, Amunah, the star of faithfulness, to recall to your mind that the Lord's love, my love, will never let you go.
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SPEAKER_00: That my mercy will rescue you every morning, and that my faithfulness is forever.
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SPEAKER_00: Amen.
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SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
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SPEAKER_00: Father, we're so grateful for this amazing promise that comes from a book which is about national disaster.
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SPEAKER_00: A book of Job may have been about personal disaster, but Lamentations is our book for America and for the world today, because it tells us that when disaster sweeps over, it seems to cover the world with darkness, that what you ask us to do is to maintain hope by looking up in the darkest sky to see your love and mercy and your great faithfulness.
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SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
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SPEAKER_00: Amen.