SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah is going to teach us how to lament.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to share God's word with us honestly and fully.
SPEAKER_00: And he's going to show us how to cling to the Lord when all hope seems lost.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah is challenging the people and warning them to turn away from their sin.
SPEAKER_00: In a world where there are so many voices, so many opinions, so many technologies to which we can turn.
SPEAKER_00: How do we know what's true?
SPEAKER_00: Quite simply, if God says it, Hananiah had urged the people to ignore the crisis of their sin.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah had urged the people to surrender.
SPEAKER_00: God has a habit of making investments that seem foolish at the time.
SPEAKER_00: Are you willing to cling to a hope that looks foolish to the world?
SPEAKER_00: Are you willing to invest in something costly, even when it looks like it's going nowhere at all?
SPEAKER_00: Are you willing to trust in God when everything is turning to nothing and his word is all you have?
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah did.
SPEAKER_00: The lesson of Jeremiah 38, the lesson of Easter, is that God does not leave his servants stuck in the pit.
SPEAKER_00: God does not leave his servants stuck in the pit.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is risen.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: Grace and peace to you from him who is, who was, and who is to come, from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, he is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and has made us a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father.
SPEAKER_00: To him be glory and power forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever felt like everything seems lost?
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever been there?
SPEAKER_00: I have.
SPEAKER_00: I've sat with people in hospital rooms when they've received a chilling diagnosis.
SPEAKER_00: I've received phone calls in the middle of the night when it seems like someone is in their final moments.
SPEAKER_00: I have invested so much time and energy and love into friendships that have fallen apart and left on life support.
SPEAKER_00: In moments like these, it feels like there is nothing we can do but weep.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes, very rarely, something happens that no one saw coming.
SPEAKER_00: What looked like the end isn't.
SPEAKER_00: What seemed final turns into something magical.
SPEAKER_00: And what felt like certain death gives way to life.
SPEAKER_00: That is why we are here today.
SPEAKER_00: Today is the greatest day in the history of the earth, when death was broken forever and mourning was turned into joy, and what looked like the end proved to be a new and glorious beginning.
SPEAKER_00: Today's also the culmination of our series on the prophet Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_00: We've been on a journey with Jeremiah these last 40 days, and it's it's been quite a ride.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet.
SPEAKER_00: He was called by God to speak hard things.
SPEAKER_00: He witnessed hard things, he experienced hard things.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah shed faithful tears.
SPEAKER_00: He held on tight to the truth of God's word, and he trusted in the Lord when nothing at all made sense, and there seemed to be no hope at all.
SPEAKER_00: And he shared all of this with us in the writings that we've been privileged to walk through together.
SPEAKER_00: And all of it has led us, all of it, to where we are today, to an empty tomb where hard things are destroyed once and for all.
SPEAKER_00: You see, all along, the main character of the book of Jeremiah is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And today the weeping prophet has his tears wiped away forever because Jesus has wiped out death forever.
SPEAKER_00: And this morning, the risen Jesus starts us off with a question, one that reverberates throughout the centuries through Jeremiah's experience and our own.
SPEAKER_00: One that echoes all the way to that early morning outside a garden tomb.
SPEAKER_00: Why are you weeping?
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah and his people had been weeping for a long, long time.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah himself wept for 40 plus years.
SPEAKER_00: The people of Judah would for 70.
SPEAKER_00: 70 years of despair and desolation and devastation.
SPEAKER_00: Throughout our series, we've watched as everything fell apart for them.
SPEAKER_00: Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple was burned to the ground, the people were scattered everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: All of this is a result of their sin and their indifference to God and to each other, their mixed-up priorities and their idolatry.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah chronicled it all.
SPEAKER_00: But today, God promises hope.
SPEAKER_00: He announces, with weeping they shall come, and with pleas for mercy, I will lead them back.
SPEAKER_00: God is going to bring his poor, exiled, lost people back home.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's the very thing you need to hear today.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've been weeping for a while.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the tears of this past week or this past month or even this past year have been flowing pretty freely for you.
SPEAKER_00: We're here today to rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, but that doesn't mean that all our pain has vanished.
SPEAKER_00: Not yet.
SPEAKER_00: Peter captures it really well when he talks about the living hope that we have through the resurrection of Jesus, and then right away he says, In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.
SPEAKER_00: For most of us, for one reason or another, grief has been necessary.
SPEAKER_00: Have you been grieved by various trials?
SPEAKER_00: Have you been hurt by those who should love you?
SPEAKER_00: Have you been weighed down by the nagging sense that you're just not enough?
SPEAKER_00: Have you been beaten down by the world?
SPEAKER_00: I'm guessing so.
SPEAKER_00: And if so, you've come to the right place.
SPEAKER_00: Because a tomb is a place for mourning and lament.
SPEAKER_00: We've been doing that with Jeremiah for the past month and a half.
SPEAKER_00: But today, I tell you that the tomb of Jesus is the right place.
SPEAKER_00: Because it is empty.
SPEAKER_00: Your struggles may not have vanished yet, but you have come to the place where all suffering and sin and sorrow is vanquished.
SPEAKER_00: This morning you arrive at Jesus' empty tomb, and as you do so, you have set foot in the very epicenter of God's eternal victory over sin, death, and the devil.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's where Mary Magdalene arrived that morning, too.
SPEAKER_00: It's fair to say that Mary was someone who had been grieved by various trials, possessed by seven demons, Luke tells us, until Jesus set her free and changed everything.
SPEAKER_00: But now everything has changed again.
SPEAKER_00: She had witnessed the death of the one who had set her free.
SPEAKER_00: And now it seems she'd lost them all over again.
SPEAKER_00: Because his body is nowhere to be found.
SPEAKER_00: So what does she do outside the tomb, the very epicenter of God's eternal victory?
SPEAKER_00: She weeps.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is gone.
SPEAKER_00: But unbeknownst to her, but known to us, Jesus being gone is actually incredibly good news.
SPEAKER_00: And then all of a sudden, Jesus is there again.
SPEAKER_00: But Mary still doesn't realize it quite yet.
SPEAKER_00: And as she struggles to discern exactly what's happening, Jesus asks her two questions.
SPEAKER_00: Woman, why are you weeping?
SPEAKER_00: Whom are you seeking?
SPEAKER_00: Essentially, he's asking her, What's wrong?
SPEAKER_00: And what are you looking for?
SPEAKER_00: These are two really good questions for us to consider today.
SPEAKER_00: What's wrong?
SPEAKER_00: What's hurting?
SPEAKER_00: What's broken or messed up in your life right now?
SPEAKER_00: What sins are plaguing you?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe even sins that you haven't recognized as such?
SPEAKER_00: And what are you looking for?
SPEAKER_00: Are you looking for peace, healing, freedom?
SPEAKER_00: Are you looking for restoration of a relationship?
SPEAKER_00: Are you looking for your kids to come back to faith?
SPEAKER_00: Are you hoping that maybe perhaps you will come back to faith?
SPEAKER_00: Why are you weeping?
SPEAKER_00: Friends, here's what God promises to those who come to Him with weeping.
SPEAKER_00: I will turn their mourning into joy.
SPEAKER_00: I will comfort them and give them gladness for sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite all-time moments when this came true was when Jesus spoke one word.
SPEAKER_00: Mary.
SPEAKER_00: And Mary Magdalene's whole world changed again and forever.
SPEAKER_00: Mourning was turned into joy, because that's what happens when death is trampled down forever.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus rose from the dead, grief lost forever.
SPEAKER_00: This morning, morning was destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: God has a long history of sunrise victories, too, doesn't he?
SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you this.
SPEAKER_00: When did God save his people from their long, terrifying night on the banks of the Red Sea?
SPEAKER_00: You can answer if you want.
SPEAKER_00: In the morning, right?
SPEAKER_00: In the morning.
SPEAKER_00: When does Psalm 46 say that God delivers his holy habitation?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Three of you are starting to start to participate.
SPEAKER_00: In the morning, um, though sorrow may last for the night.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you'll know this one.
SPEAKER_00: Though sorrow may last for the night, joy comes in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: And when did Jesus rise from the dead?
SPEAKER_00: In the morning.
SPEAKER_00: This morning.
SPEAKER_00: This morning, wounds are healed, enemies are defeated, and mourning is reversed.
SPEAKER_00: During our midweek services, this Lenten season, we worked through all five chapters of the Book of Lamentations, and we we put all of our laments into these boxes, which have been transformed into this beautiful floral cross.
SPEAKER_00: So thank you to Heather and Taylor for all your work on that.
SPEAKER_00: But the Book of Lamentations is the collection of funeral poems that Jeremiah wrote at the complete and utter destruction of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: It is one of, if not the darkest books in the entire Bible.
SPEAKER_00: But in the middle of the long night of Jeremiah's lament, right in the very heart of it, there's hope.
SPEAKER_00: In the dark, black heart of the tomb, light.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah declares, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.
SPEAKER_00: His mercies never come to an end.
SPEAKER_00: They are new every morning.
SPEAKER_00: Great is your faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: God's faithful love never stops.
SPEAKER_00: It kept going through cross and grave.
SPEAKER_00: As God had told his people through Jeremiah, I have loved you with an everlasting love.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, I have continued my faithfulness to you.
SPEAKER_00: And today, love lives again.
SPEAKER_00: His mercies are new every morning.
SPEAKER_00: This morning, because the bright morning star has risen never to set again.
SPEAKER_00: God's steadfast love is new every morning because of Easter morning.
SPEAKER_00: Little over a week ago, some of us here in the room today were able to go see the band Ren Collective put on a show here in town.
SPEAKER_00: Ren Collective, they're from Ireland.
SPEAKER_00: They're known as one of the most joyful bands in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Their songs are pretty much without exception, just full of joy, because Jesus Christ has conquered death.
SPEAKER_00: And they lived up to the billing, I think, completely.
SPEAKER_00: But their opening act was a guy by the name of Eli Gable.
SPEAKER_00: And during his whole set, he had three words up on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: And he told us kind of halfway through, he said, These three words, they're not a song title of mine.
SPEAKER_00: They're not even an album title.
SPEAKER_00: They're really just kind of my own personal mission statement.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray that this Easter Sunday, they might be ours too.
SPEAKER_00: Shout hope louder.
SPEAKER_00: Will you say that with me?
SPEAKER_00: Shout hope louder.
SPEAKER_00: Now the prophet Jeremiah shouted a lot of judgment, a lot of bad news, a lot of sadness.
SPEAKER_00: But he shouted hope louder.
SPEAKER_00: And because we possess the hope of Easter, we profess the hope of Easter.
SPEAKER_00: We shout hope louder, louder than our sorrows, louder than our laments, louder than the cacophony of the world around us.
SPEAKER_00: Like Mary Magdalene, we run to everyone we possibly can and we tell them, I thought they had taken my Lord away, but it turns out my Lord has taken my sin away, my tears away, my death away.
SPEAKER_00: He has turned my mourning into joy.
SPEAKER_00: Who can you share this hope with?
SPEAKER_00: How can you shout hope louder here in Central Oregon in 2026?
SPEAKER_00: How can you do that in your family, at your job, in our community together?
SPEAKER_00: If we are truly a people of hope, if we are mourning turned into joy types of people, let's let the world have it.
SPEAKER_00: Let's show them how true Peter's words are when he says to us today, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, faith, inexpressible joy, and glory.
SPEAKER_00: This is just the turnaround our world needs right now.
SPEAKER_00: Because what looked like the end proved to be a new and glorious beginning.
SPEAKER_00: That's how the book of Jeremiah ends, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: Also, some of you might remember Jehoiachin, the teenage king who was deposed three months into his rule.
SPEAKER_00: He spent 37 years imprisoned and humiliated.
SPEAKER_00: 37 years, more than two-thirds of his life.
SPEAKER_00: He was hopeless, a lost cause.
SPEAKER_00: There was nothing but tears.
SPEAKER_00: But Jeremiah ends, the very last verses of the book end by reporting that after those 37 years, Jehoiachin was released and exalted to the royal table.
SPEAKER_00: His story had looked like it was finished.
SPEAKER_00: He was hopeless, a lost cause, nothing but weeping, right?
SPEAKER_00: But God turned his mourning into joy.
SPEAKER_00: And Jeremiah's book ends with this subtle but magnificent touch of hope.
SPEAKER_00: The rekindling of the fire of the line of King David that looked like it had been extinguished forever.
SPEAKER_00: And the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they also end with a great reversal, a shocking twist when the story of Jesus looked like it was finished, when it appeared that life had forever been extinguished for him.
SPEAKER_00: But what looked like the end proved to be a new and glorious beginning.
SPEAKER_00: But here the subtlety is gone.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is alive again, and so your sins are gone.
SPEAKER_00: Satan is crushed, and your death is defeated.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord has turned our mourning into joy.
SPEAKER_00: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end.
SPEAKER_00: And because Jesus lives, your life and your peace and your joy will never come to an end either.
SPEAKER_00: So let's rejoice with an inexpressible joy, even as we weep, even as we are grieved by various trials.
SPEAKER_00: Let's shout hope louder, because today hope lives, and his name is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He has ransomed us and redeemed us from hands too strong for us, and he has turned our mourning into joy.
SPEAKER_00: So let's shout hope louder.
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready?
SPEAKER_00: Christ is risen.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.