GOD’S MERCIES NEW EVERY MORNING
Lam. 3:22-23
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: THE GERIATRIC DATE
1. Did you hear about the 85 year-old woman who went out on a blind date with a 92 year-old man?
2. She came home very frustrated. Her daughter said, “Mom, what’s wrong?” She said, “I had to slap him three times.” Her daughter was shocked. She said, “Mom! You mean he tried to get fresh?”
3. Her Mom said, “No! I thought he was dead!”
4. I wonder if sometimes the Lord needs to give us a slap because we look like we’re dead?
B. TEXT
1. Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lam. 3:22-23, NIV
God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out, his merciful love couldn’t have dried up. They’re created new every morning. How great your faithfulness! Message
22 It is of the Lord's mercies [2617, che-sed, kindness] that we are not consumed, because his compassions [7355, raw-kham, compassions] fail not. 23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness [530, em-oo-naw, firmness]. KJV
C. THESIS
1. We’re going to look tonight at the when, what, why and the foundation of God’s wonderful love for us.
2. The title of tonight’s message is “God’s Mercies New Every Morning.”
I. FAITH IN THE MIDST OF TROUBLE
A. THE UNUSUAL PRAISE OF JEREMIAH
1. The fact that this statement appears in the Book of Lamentations is one of the most remarkable things in the Bible. Jeremiah had just witnessed the wrath of God poured out in undiluted concentration upon his nation.
2. Their armies had been defeated, their defenses overwhelmed, their riches pillaged. All their cities were looted and burned; their men killed, their women and children taken captive and enslaved. Most of those who remained alive had suffered mass resettlement with forced marches for 1,000s of miles to a foreign country where they were settled among people who hated them.
3. But here Jeremiah, still in the midst of weeping over the national calamity, begins to praise God that His mercies are new every morning! How remarkable!
B. ARE YOU EXPERIENCING TOUGH TIMES?
1. Have you ever felt like there would be no tomorrow? Or that life is as bad as it can get. There are too many bills to pay and not enough money. You may have sicknesses and diseases that you can’t get healed from and life is just too weary to go on another day.
2. God’s word sends a note of encouragement to look up and find hope. No matter how bad it may seem, God is still on the throne and we can find comfort and hope in that fact.
II. THE DOUBLE ASSURANCE OF GOD’S LOVE
Jeremiah used two different words for God’s feelings for you, based on two different premises, as proof that God will never stop loving you. First is Chesed (mercies); the second, Raw-kham (compassions).
A. “CHESED” – GOD’S SWORN LOVE
1. The Hebrew word chesed means a love or affection that is steadfast based on a loyalty or devotion, especially in relationship to a covenant.
2. In Deut. 7:9, God coupled this word with ‘berith,’ covenant; “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments” NKJV. Deut. 7:8 says, “because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers…”
3. As part of God’s covenant in Christ, God has sworn His love for you. You’ve been sprinkled with the blood of the Covenant (Heb. 12:24; Jer. 31:31-34). It’s not something He can randomly abandon. His love is unshakeable because it’s based on His oath. Praise God!
4. COVENANT IN HIS BLOOD: THE BLOOD STAINED BOOK
a. One evangelist spoke to Christians in the military. During his message, he displayed his own copy of a white Pacific Fleet New Testament. They are rare/valuable.
b. Following the meeting, a member of the audience showed him another white Pacific Fleet New Testament, one given to his son prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, one stained with blood.
c. The man said, “Sir, this little book is very precious; all the more because it’s stained with the blood of my son!”
d. God feels the same way about this Book, the Bible, and about the New Covenant God established through the blood of His Son. He loves it too. Its pages are stained with the blood of His Son. God will never let that blood be in vain!
4. Praise God! Our salvation can’t ever change!
B. “RAW-KHAM” – GOD’S MOTHER-LIKE TENDERNESS
1. Secondly, the other Hebrew word, raw-kham, is related to the Hebrew word for “stork “or “womb,” suggesting a mother’s love and faithfulness.
2. Just as a mother has the tenderest feeling for the children she bore, so God has those mother-like feelings. David expressed this when he said, “Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him” Ps. 103:13.
3. And just as no real “mother” could ever turn away from their love for their child, neither can God turn away from His love for you!
4. SO TO SUMMARIZE, God not only feels mother-like love for us, He also has sworn that His love will never fail toward us!
III. WHY ARE GOD’S MERCIES RENEWED EVERY MORNING?
A. WE NEED FRESH PROOFS OF GOD’S LOVE
1. Every morning when the sun comes up, God wants us to have fresh proofs of His unchanging love and compassion.
2. We wake up to a new beginning. Yesterday’s troubles and the dark night are over. We see the beautiful sunrise. A rain shower falls on the grateful plants. The birds sing and prepare their nests. The squirrels scamper about looking for nuts. These are some of God’s gifts to us.
3. God promises that whatever needs we have for the day, God will meet those needs, like He feeds the birds and clothes the flowers!
B. WE WILL HAVE NEW CHALLENGES TODAY
1. What will you face today? Not the same things you faced yesterday or what you will face tomorrow. Each day has its own trials and difficulties.
2. Our Father knows that, so He gives us new and fresh mercies and compassions that are just what we need for each day.
C. EVERY MORNING BRINGS NEW TEMPTATIONS, SINS
1. We can scarcely get our eyes open before some wrong thoughts or word comes along. So we constantly have need of new pardon.
2. But God promises He “will, with the temptation, make a way of escape…” 1 Cor. 10:13. God’s new grace and mercy will mean, “Where sin abounds, His grace will much more abound!” Praise God!
D. EACH NEW DAY BRINGS NEW DUTIES which you cannot perform in the natural. God may call you to lay hands on a sick person or to cast out a demon or lead a person to faith in Christ. That’s why God said,
1. “It’s not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.” “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me” – every new day!
2. All the service that I did for God a year ago won’t excuse me from serving Him today. So we need His ability to accomplish His tasks each day. God will “supply all our needs by His riches in Christ Jesus!”
IV. “GREAT IS YOUR FAITHFULNESS!”
A. THE FOUNDATION OF GOD’S FAITHFULNESS
1. The Hebrew word for ‘great is your “faithfulness”’ is pronounced “em-oo-naw” and means “firmness,” kind of like we describe the “Rock of Gibraltar.”
2. This word describes God’s unmovable character. He is permanent and reliable. When the storms of life are blowing around us, we can know that God will be there in all of His power as solid as a rock.
3. He’s the anchor that we can hold on to no matter high the waves crash or how hard the winds blow.
B. GOD IS “THE FAITHFUL ONE”
1. Several other verses name things He’s especially faithful to do: He is faithful to finish the good work that He has started in us! (Phil 1:6; 2:13). He is faithful to chasten us (Ps. 119:75; Heb 12:5-11); He is faithful to forgive us when we do confess our sins (1 John 1:9). He is faithful to sympathize when we have burdens and problems (Heb. 2:17-18; 4:14-16).
2. We never need fear that He is too busy to listen or too tired to help. He is faithful to deliver when we cry out for help in a time of temptation (1 Cor. 10:13). He is faithful to keep us in this life and unto life eternal (1 Tim. 1:15; 1 Thess. 5:23-24).
3. We can commit ourselves into the hands of our faithful Creator (1 Peter 4:19) and know that He will always be faithful.
4. GOD WILL FULFILL ALL HIS PROMISES TO US. Joshua said to the children of Israel, “You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed” Josh. 23:14.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: GOD WILL PROVIDE FOR HIS CHILDREN
1. Charles Spurgeon told this story of his grandfather James and his faith in God. “He had a large family and a very small income, but he loved his Lord, and he would not have given up his preaching of the gospel for anything.”
2. One day the cow on which the family relied for milk for the children suddenly died. James Spurgeon’s wife was greatly concerned, but he said, “God said He would provide, and I believe He could send us fifty cows if He pleased.”
3. On that same day, a group met in London—a group James Spurgeon did not know—that wanted to help meet the needs of poor pastors. They raised a large sum of money, and began sending it to different pastors in need to help their families.
4. When they reached the end of the list, there were still five pounds left (like $50). One man suggested sending it to James Spurgeon. Another said, “No, let’s not send just five pounds. Let me add five more to go with it.”
5. Others joined in, and the day after his cow died, James Spurgeon received twenty pounds in the mail! (Probably enough to buy a new cow.) You can trust God to keep His promises and provide for your needs.
6. “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”—Philippians 4:19
B. THE CALL
1. Jesus says, “I give unto My sheep eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My hands.” God is our Rock. He will never fail us!
2. We are assured that God will never take His love away from us. How many have had battles lately and need special prayer today?
3. Is there anyone here today who needs to make sure that you really are a Christian? Let’s pray.
[Ideas were gleaned from Charles Spurgeon’s “Novelties…” and some quotes from Ron W.]
