Sermon
January 3, 2021 – David Simpson
Lanier Christian Church
Hope in the God Who is Faithful
Lamentations 3:22-25
New Year’s Quotes and Captions for the Realist:
Welcome, 2021! Here’s hoping you can’t be worse than last year.
Happy 2021! Spoiler Alert: We’re still social distancing.
Whatever you do, don’t ask what’s next!
On the bright side, thanks to lockdown we never got used to writing 2020 on things, so 2021 should come easier.
We’re social distancing from 2021 until we see how it goes…
First rule of 2021: No one talks about 2020.
I lived through 2020. Please don’t kiss me at midnight.
Here’s hoping 2021 figures out which Zoom meetings could have been emails! (Unknown source)
Happy New Year! Every single person I know is ready for this new year. 2020 has been a difficult year in so many respects. Economic challenges, political upheaval, damaging storms, and of course, a deadly global pandemic.
2020 seemed to bring out both the best and worst in people. Like Charles Dickens said in his opening line of his book, A Tale of Two Cities…”It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.”
I don’t want to talk about the worst. You don’t need me to remind you of that. When you think of the best, well, our hospital staff deserves special praise during this pandemic. They have cared for countless patients during this past year and as we speak. They have risen to the occasion over and over again and especially now as our local hospital reaches capacity. I’m thankful for scientists that have created this new vaccine to fight off the virus. It was done in record time and hopefully will bring an end to this pandemic this year. And, I’m thankful for those who were baptized into Christ this year…and those who relied on their faith throughout this pandemic to get through every day. I’m thankful for renewed hope that is found in Jesus who remains the same yesterday, today and forever. Despite the troubles of 2020 I have hope for what lies ahead.
Hope is needed as we enter 2021.
Greg Laurie wrote a New Year’s Day Devotion in which he shared an acronym for hope. HOPE: Holding On with Patient Expectation
I learned a phrase as a young teenager that I’ve never forgotten. “When You’re at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.”
I have learned, however, that hope is so much more than holding on. Hope is filled with patient expectation in the one who controls the future. It’s not about what we can do, it’s about an expectation of what He WILL do. God WILL make a way. Do you believe that? I’m not sure all of us do.
A lot of us say we have hope, but in reality we don’t live like it. It’s like gift cards given at Christmas time. I gave and received gift cards this year as Christmas gifts. But, they are often forgotten and left unused. In fact, approximately $3 billion worth of gift cards were not redeemed in 2019. Like those gift cards, God’s promises won’t have any effect on our lives if we don’t apply them. And the way to redeem those promises from God is simply to trust Him with great hope that he will keep his promises.
So let’s join together to have one overriding resolution in 2021 and that is to have Hope – Hold On with Patient Expectation about what God will do and how he will use each one of us in this new year.
Hope can Be Challenging.
I know it can be challenging to live with hope. This virus has caused great heartache to many families and a disruption of normal behavior to all. I would like to think that just turning the calendar ahead to January 1 would erase all the challenges and despair of 2020 and bring on exciting renewal in 2021. But, the reality is that the challenging virus is still among us and the toughest months may lie before us.
The Old Testament book of Lamentations offers some helpful spiritual advice for dealing with such uncertain times.
Most scholars think Lamentations was written by the prophet Jeremiah after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. He had been an eyewitness to the destruction of the Temple and the city, so he wrote his laments or sorrows to stunned and depressed Jewish exiles who were now slaves in Babylon.
There is something about this book of the Bible that is unique. The Hebrew title for the book is ‘ekah, which is translated as “How!”…with an exclamation point. The opening words of the book are “How deserted lies the city once so full of people!”
Only later did Jewish tradition adopt the name “Lamentations,” because of the depressing subject matter.
Maybe some of you are saying, “how” as we enter into this new year. How did this happen? How did we get here? How did I end up in this situation? How are we going to get through this?
How challenging life can be sometimes. How I’ve had to adjust at school or work or church to a new way of doing things.
The five poems of Lamentations are filled with depressing words and a lot of “How are we going to get through this” type expressions. The Babylonians had invaded Jerusalem, killing thousands, destroying the once proud city, and had taken into captivity the best and the brightest of Judah. Jeremiah lamented the loss of all they had once relied upon. He was well aware that the sin of the people had brought about this destruction, but that could not stop his overwhelming heartache as revealed throughout the book.
To show his true despair, this great prophet of God reveals the toll his spiritual life took from all this tragedy that surrounded him. He says in Lamentations 3:8, “Even when I call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer.” Jeremiah was giving voice to how all the people felt. Where is God in the midst of pain and uncertainty? How could you let this happen, God?
I’ve heard the same expressed many times throughout these years of ministry. I’ve talked with families in the emergency room: “How could you let this happen, God?” I’ve stood by bedsides and heard: “Why, God?” I’ve gone to homes and heard some say, “I’ll never pray again, because God doesn’t hear my prayers.”
Maybe you’ve been there. Perhaps you, too, have experienced times of lamentations. “Where are you God?” “How did we end up here, God?” “How do we get through this?”
How do we restore Hope?
I think the beginning point of dealing with a new reality is to practice humility. Lamentations 3 is a turning point in this depressing book of the Bible. In Lamentations 3:20 we read:
It is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
Then, in Lamentations 3:40 we read the challenge of Jeremiah to the people:
Let us examine our ways and test them,
and let us return to the Lord.
The people of Jerusalem had sinned greatly. The destruction they experienced was due to their own failure and sin and lack of faith. They needed to repent. They needed to show humility. They needed a renewed faith. I’m not saying that this pandemic is punishment from God, but I do believe that our response to it should be humility and a renewed faith. All of us ought to examine ourselves and return to the Lord if need be.
In this new year of 2021 we must humble ourselves knowing God is in control and not us. And then wait on Him. To expectantly depend on Him. We must examine our ways and throw out the things that are interfering with a growing relationship with our Lord. I’ve been throwing out a lot of stuff and papers in my home office this past week that had just accumulated over time. It’s freeing to do that. But, we have to take time for such examination in our spiritual lives too and throw out that things that are weighing us down.
And then, we must return to the Lord and know that He has not abandoned us. He has been faithful all along, even when we have not been. His faithfulness is evident every day.
Because God is faithful.
We need to live in hope every day.
It didn’t take long for Jeremiah to be seized with hope in the midst of crisis, for right in the very middle of this sad book of the Bible comes great inspiration! Lamentations 3:22-25 reads:
“Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”
The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him.”
In the midst of sadness, we are given a lift from God himself! Hear the words that describe God’s character – love, compassion, faithfulness, provision, goodness and hope.
No matter what may be occurring around us God is very much present in the midst of what is going on.
So, keep hope alive my friend! The Lord is all we need, even if everything else is removed from us. The clouds of despair cannot obliterate the brightness of hope.
Our hope must be in our Almighty God. His compassions never fail! In fact, they are new every morning. His faithfulness to us has never wavered. Even in the worst of scenarios, death is conquered by the hope of eternal life. Even when days seem bleak, hope nudges its way through. Even when all seems lost, God makes a way.
There is one basic thing to understand about God’s faithfulness. He is an on-time-at-the-right-time and only-in-his-time God. Although we would like for all to be better during this first week of the new year, more than likely God will break through with his compassionate provision on his timetable – not ours.
So, as we begin this first week of the new year, know with certainty that God remains faithful, no matter what the day or year may bring. His compassions will not fail. His mercies and love are new every morning – no matter what date is on the calendar! Hope is what we need every day. He is faithful. We can depend on Him.
Corrie ten Boom was one of the heroines of our Christian faith. In 1922 she became the first licensed female watchmaker in the Netherlands. She established a youth club for girls in her home and taught them the Bible and offered instruction in sewing and the arts. When the Germans invaded Holland the first thing that was banned was the youth club. Then local Jewish families began to be arrested. It wasn’t long before Corrie and her family became part of the Dutch underground and began hiding Jewish refugees in their home. The families they hid were then smuggled out of the country by the resistance. The family felt like it was required by their Dutch Reformed Church to live out their Christian faith and protect God’s chosen people from harm.
Unfortunately, in 1944 the family’s work was discovered and the TenBoom family was arrested. Her father died a few days after imprisonment. Corrie and her sister Betsie were sent to Ravensbruck prison, a women’s labor camp, in Germany. There the two sisters continued to share their Christian faith, led worship services in the prison and taught Bible classes using a smuggled Bible they had obtained. Betsie’s health declined in prison and she died in December of 1944 at the age of 59.
Before she died, she told Corrie, "There is no pit so deep that He [God] is not deeper still." Twelve days later, Corrie was released from prison. Afterwards, she was told that her release was because of a clerical error and that a week later, all the women in her age group were sent to the gas chambers.
The story of Corrie’s life continues as she returned home to continue to help others and to spread the Christian message of hope and forgiveness. Eventually she became a public speaker traveling to over 60 countries to share her faith. One of her often spoken statements from her many speaking engagements were these hopeful words: "Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”
This woman of great service, courage and faith totally trusted God in everything she did, even in the darkest days of a concentration camp in Germany. I think we all need to learn from her life.
I don’t know what 2021 holds, but I know who holds 2021. Corrie ten Boom was right when she said, "Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”
May our hope always be in our faithful God who will see us through every day of this new year before us.
