SPEAKER_00: Lamentations chapter 3, verses 22 through 26.
SPEAKER_00: The setting is Jeremiah, the prophet, who was known as the weeping prophet.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason he was known as the weeping prophet was because his whole ministry consisted of ministering after Babylon had literally devastated and destroyed Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: God's city.
SPEAKER_00: It was horrible.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it had gotten to the place that the Israelis and the people of Israel in Jerusalem, they had no supplies, they had nothing to eat, and it had gotten so bad, so bad, that they were even eating, Lamentations chapter 4, they were killing and eating their own children.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's bad.
SPEAKER_00: So this is the context.
SPEAKER_00: In Lamentations.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: We pick up in verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: Because of the Lord's faithful love, we do not perish.
SPEAKER_00: For his mercies are new every morning.
SPEAKER_00: Great is our faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: I say, the Lord is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in him.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is good, and to those who wait for him, to the person who seeks him, it is good to wait patiently for deliverance from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So here, Jeremiah's crying out about knowing, even in the midst of tragedy, even in the worst of the worst, and it was the worst times of Israel that our God is faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing a faithful God.
SPEAKER_00: I got to thinking about faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: And boy, was I convicted.
SPEAKER_00: Every marriage vow that is not kept, every promise that is not fulfilled, every debt that is not paid, every promise prayer that is not prayed.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, how many times you ask somebody to pray for you?
SPEAKER_00: Or you got a prayer request?
SPEAKER_00: I've often wondered when I'd ask somebody to pray for me or my situation, would they remember to go pray?
SPEAKER_00: That's why most of the time, when you ask me to pray for you about something, I say, let's pray right now.
SPEAKER_00: Right now.
SPEAKER_00: So I won't forget it that I will pray that prayer.
SPEAKER_00: But every promise prayer that is not prayed, all touch on the issue of faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: If there's anything humans are, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: It is, we're unfaithful.
SPEAKER_00: And if there's anything God is, thankfully, He is faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Can I get an amen?
SPEAKER_00: There was a time in this country when I grew up with my granddad remembering back then in the early 50s that a handshake and a man's word meant something.
SPEAKER_00: It was a bond.
SPEAKER_00: It was a covenant.
SPEAKER_00: My granddaddy used to say, Danny boy, you are only good as your word is.
SPEAKER_00: I've never forgotten that.
SPEAKER_00: There was a time in this country till death do us part.
SPEAKER_00: Meant something.
SPEAKER_00: It was based on a promise.
SPEAKER_00: It was based on a covenant.
SPEAKER_00: But let me just say, I got to thinking, boy, the times have gotten so bad that people lie, there's no promise kept, they don't make promise.
SPEAKER_00: It's just, and then all of a sudden the Lord reminded me of Solomon.
SPEAKER_00: It was just as bad back then, too.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Oh, you gotta be kidding, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He said, No.
SPEAKER_00: Remember Proverbs 26?
SPEAKER_00: Listen to what Solomon asked centuries ago.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to the question he asked.
SPEAKER_00: Who can find a faithful man?
SPEAKER_00: And I thought to myself, my, my, my.
SPEAKER_00: But aren't you glad there's still one whose word is always true?
SPEAKER_00: There is one who is always faithful and true.
SPEAKER_00: One who is faithful in all things, and one who is not changed by time and circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: Part of God's character is his faithfulness, and we worship him for it.
SPEAKER_00: Can I get an amen?
SPEAKER_00: Malachi chapter 3, verse 6 says, God changes not.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: None of the things that cause me as a man or you ladies as a woman today to be unfaithful ever, ever bother or impact God at all.
SPEAKER_00: I've got the thinking about it.
SPEAKER_00: Our selfish desires, our fear, our weakness, our loss of interest, our strong temptation.
SPEAKER_00: Those things can cause us to be unfaithful.
SPEAKER_00: But not God.
SPEAKER_00: Numbers 23, 19, listen to what it says.
SPEAKER_00: God is not a man that he should lie.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love that.
SPEAKER_00: Or do anything.
SPEAKER_00: I like that too.
SPEAKER_00: He's not a man that can lie or do anything else men do.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, Lamentations 3, right here, verse 23, God's compassions fail not.
SPEAKER_00: They are new every morning.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: What a comfort.
SPEAKER_00: What a joy.
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, the word faithful comes from the Hebrew root word.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, the Hebrew word is amuna.
SPEAKER_00: Amuna.
SPEAKER_00: And it literally means trustworthy.
SPEAKER_00: It means to be established and faithful.
SPEAKER_00: It means, and I love this, truthful.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means.
SPEAKER_00: But it comes from the Hebrew root word amen.
SPEAKER_00: Aman.
SPEAKER_00: From which we get our word, amen.
SPEAKER_00: The root meant, and the root word means to confirm, to support.
SPEAKER_00: To confirm and to support.
SPEAKER_00: It is established.
SPEAKER_00: It is firm.
SPEAKER_00: It is true.
SPEAKER_00: Today the world has moved away from absolute truth.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's moved to what we would call a philosophy of humanism, which, if it feels good for you, do it.
SPEAKER_00: It may not feel good for me, but that doesn't mean it's wrong.
SPEAKER_00: For them, there's no absolute truth anymore.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we see the immorality going on, and the lying and the cheating and all that's going on in America today is because there's no truth.
SPEAKER_00: There's no commitment to truth.
SPEAKER_00: And here we see, and I love this pattern here, he says, Amen, which means to confirm and support the truth, and the word amen means what?
SPEAKER_00: So be it.
SPEAKER_00: So when we say amen in the preaching service, and I praise the Lord when you do, and it gets me excited, but what are we saying?
SPEAKER_00: We are saying when you say amen, you are saying, and you are confirming, and you are saying that you are confirming the truth of the word of God, and you know that it never returns void.
SPEAKER_00: That it's absolute established.
SPEAKER_00: It's confirmed.
SPEAKER_00: And one of our core values is that we're given to complete biblical truth.
SPEAKER_00: It's what we do, it's what guides everything we do here in this church.
SPEAKER_00: So, every one of God's promises are amen.
SPEAKER_00: Confirmed.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, 2 Corinthians 1.20 says, all of God's promises are amen.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what that means?
SPEAKER_00: They are confirmed and sure.
SPEAKER_00: Every one of them.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Jesus Christ is all so called what?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: In Revelation 3.14.
SPEAKER_00: Faithful in the New Testament was the Greek word pastas.
SPEAKER_00: And it literally is used 15 times to describe God.
SPEAKER_00: From Genesis to Revelation, my God is a faithful God.
SPEAKER_00: He never let his people down.
SPEAKER_00: He did what he said he would do each and every time.
SPEAKER_00: Each and every time.
SPEAKER_00: Psalms 119, verse 90, listen to what it says.
SPEAKER_00: Your faithfulness is endure.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about God, the Son that says, God's faithfulness endures to all generations.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that exciting?
SPEAKER_00: To all generations.
SPEAKER_00: After the flood, God told Noah, listen to what God told Noah after the flood in Genesis 8, 22.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to what he said.
SPEAKER_00: While the earth will remain seed time and harvest and cold and heat and winter and summer and day and night shall not cease.
SPEAKER_00: And they haven't.
SPEAKER_00: God's faithfulness stands at the very heart of all creation.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm the maker of the heavens and the earth.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the maker of the seas.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the maker of the winds.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the maker of the rains.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the maker of everything.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the maker of the animals.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that, hey, the earth is, I made.
unknown: The disciples said, Who is this man?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: He's a creator.
SPEAKER_00: So the very heart of creation is his faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
SPEAKER_00: That's why when people try to do away with the first chapters of Genesis, the first 11 chapters, you know what they're trying to do away with?
SPEAKER_00: Listen, the faithfulness of God.
SPEAKER_00: And if they can do away with the faithfulness of God, they can sure do away with the salvation of God.
SPEAKER_00: And the truth of God.
SPEAKER_00: So we see.
SPEAKER_00: But let me say this: God's faithfulness is also at the core of his revelation in his word.
SPEAKER_00: To be faithful means to stand behind your word, to remain constant in spite of the circumstances in the situation.
SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, I can remember my papa when he gave me his word or gave someone his word.
SPEAKER_00: He meant it and he lived by it.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it was not always a good situation.
SPEAKER_00: But I can remember him saying, I know this is going to be hard, but I gave my word.
SPEAKER_00: I gave my word.
SPEAKER_00: Two thousand years ago on a place called Calvary, God gave his word.
SPEAKER_00: His word was his son, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
SPEAKER_00: And his word was whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Neither is there salvation in any other, for there's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: So shall my word, Isaiah 55, verse 11, so shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth.
SPEAKER_00: It shall not return unto me void.
SPEAKER_00: The source of God's word was Jesus Himself.
SPEAKER_00: And then we see the success of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: I will make it happen.
SPEAKER_00: So, with all that said, what does God's faithfulness mean to us?
SPEAKER_00: Here we go, number one on your outline.
SPEAKER_00: Because God is faithful, we can have confidence when we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Look at Psalms 143, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: The psalmist prayed, Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications.
SPEAKER_00: In your faithfulness, there's that word, answer me, and in your righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the psalmist is saying his words here reflect his knowledge that God was faithful to answer prayers in the past.
SPEAKER_00: So he asks God now to be faithful now.
SPEAKER_00: God tells us to call upon him now.
SPEAKER_00: Look at Psalms 50, verse 14 and 15.
SPEAKER_00: This is awesome.
SPEAKER_00: I think I have it up there for you.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what it says: Offer to God thanksgiving and pay your vows to the most high.
SPEAKER_00: Call upon me in the day of trouble.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to that.
SPEAKER_00: And I will deliver you, and ye shall glorify me.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever been in trouble?
SPEAKER_00: Six, seven, eight of you?
SPEAKER_00: Boy, are some of you in for a rude awakening.
SPEAKER_00: I, I, before, I, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: I stay in trouble a lot.
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm always standing up for the truth.
SPEAKER_00: When you stand for the truth, you're going to be in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: People don't like the truth.
SPEAKER_00: And if you stand for the truth, you're in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: But what I do understand is God's exhortation for praying is seen in these two verses.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see.
SPEAKER_00: Notice what he says.
SPEAKER_00: They were making sacrifices to animals and to God, but notice what the psalmist said.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what is so important.
SPEAKER_00: He was saying that I'm not interested in your outward sacrifices.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not just interested in you coming to church and being seen in church.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just not interested in your giving, which can be sacrificial giving.
SPEAKER_00: I understand that.
SPEAKER_00: But what he said is, I'm really interested in your life and your attitude and your behavior.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, being like me.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to be real.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to be like me.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's saying.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he's saying, uh, one, I want you to learn to praise me.
SPEAKER_00: Praise me for who I am.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't we praise God for his faithfulness is one of the attributes that we get so caught up in.
SPEAKER_00: We praise him for his faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: And then notice the second thing, hey, we praise him for his performance because he fulfills his commitment.
SPEAKER_00: He fulfills his commitment.
SPEAKER_00: And we praise him and we pray to him for dealing with our sin and forgiving our sin.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's powerful.
SPEAKER_00: And when we do, we realize that the effectual, fervent prayer, now watch, of a righteous man or woman availeth much.
SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, do you realize we cannot come into his presence and pray?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, we can, but if there's sin in our life, if there's there's there's, I call it, filthiness in our life, God will not hear us.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 66, 18, listen to what it says.
SPEAKER_00: If I, Danny Lovett, regard iniquity, sin in my life, God will not hear me.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 66, 18.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter 3.12.
SPEAKER_00: The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, his ears are open unto their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter 3.12.
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty plain, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: That's why it's so important to have our hearts pure.
SPEAKER_00: That's why it's so important to say, search me, O God, know my heart, try me, know my thoughts, see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way of everlasting.
SPEAKER_00: And then what's real exciting, 1 John 1.9, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Just that quick, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because when we're not faithful, God's faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Can I get an amen?
SPEAKER_00: That's good.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, because God is faithful, we can have confidence when we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Psalms 91, verse 15 and 16.
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to, do we have those, Jason?
SPEAKER_00: Or Denson?
SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go on to the second point.
SPEAKER_00: It's just more reiteration of that.
SPEAKER_00: But number two, because God is faithful, we can overcome, now listen, evil and temptation.
SPEAKER_00: There is not one of us in here that is not tempted every day.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, come on.
SPEAKER_00: You say, no, wait a minute, I'm not tempted, I'm not tempted to go drinking and drugging and all that other stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not tempted to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what about other stuff?
SPEAKER_00: What about are you tempted to have a bad attitude at your husband, ladies?
SPEAKER_00: Tempted?
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, honey.
SPEAKER_00: I ask.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what about us husbands?
SPEAKER_00: Do we ever have a bad attitude toward our wives?
SPEAKER_00: Are we tempted?
SPEAKER_00: Paul said, never.
SPEAKER_00: You just lied.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't have a bad attitude, he just didn't tell the truth.
SPEAKER_00: I understand.
SPEAKER_00: I do that quite often.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Oh me?
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: You listening?
SPEAKER_00: There's so many things.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we are all, hey, we're the ones that are unfaithful, but God is faithful.
SPEAKER_00: And there's not one, all right.
SPEAKER_00: Here's, let me just put it where the rubber meets the road.
SPEAKER_00: There's not one of us that a lot of times do not fail to the temptation.
unknown: Come on.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: There's Angel.
SPEAKER_00: There you are back there, girl.
SPEAKER_00: I've been waiting for you.
SPEAKER_00: I need help.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, listen, listen.
SPEAKER_00: How many times, hey, you know, sometimes I can overcome that temptation nine out of ten times, but then there's that one time that Satan catches me when I think I got it together.
SPEAKER_00: I'm winning.
SPEAKER_00: Bam! Next thing you know, I'm flat on my back saying, How in the world did that happen?
unknown: In the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: All of us.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we're unfaithful.
SPEAKER_00: We're not perfected like Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We're not faithful like Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We just, oh, righteous.
SPEAKER_00: Our righteousness is as filthy racks.
SPEAKER_00: That's not that's not encouraging, is it?
SPEAKER_00: But notice what he says.
SPEAKER_00: In 2 Thessalonians 3 3, you're gonna love this.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord is what?
SPEAKER_00: Say it, church.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord is what?
SPEAKER_00: Who will what?
SPEAKER_00: Establish you.
SPEAKER_00: That means keep you, hey, firmly, hey, set on the right road.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: You remember?
SPEAKER_00: What is faithfulness?
SPEAKER_00: It's being confirmed and secure, being established on the right truth.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, I will guard you from the evil one.
SPEAKER_00: Hello.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we must have in order to be as, hey, confirmed and sure.
SPEAKER_00: We got to put the armor on every day.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God in us every day.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he says right here.
SPEAKER_00: And then notice what else?
SPEAKER_00: We pray the Lord's prayer.
SPEAKER_00: What do we say?
SPEAKER_00: And do not lead us what?
SPEAKER_00: Into temptation, but deliver us what?
SPEAKER_00: From evil.
SPEAKER_00: And who does that?
SPEAKER_00: The faithful God.
SPEAKER_00: Look to what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10, 13.
SPEAKER_00: This is powerful.
SPEAKER_00: I read this and then I say, so why do I fail?
SPEAKER_00: You know why I failed?
SPEAKER_00: Because I choose to fail.
SPEAKER_00: I choose to yield to the temptation.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, my preacher yields to temptation.
SPEAKER_00: Don't look at me so sacrimoniously.
SPEAKER_00: You do too.
SPEAKER_00: There hath no temptation.
SPEAKER_00: See, I don't like that word no.
SPEAKER_00: Why couldn't it say I overcome most temptation?
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't that be good?
SPEAKER_00: I would like that a little better.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say that.
SPEAKER_00: In my version, it says that.
SPEAKER_00: But see, it's not my version that counts.
SPEAKER_00: It's God's word that counts.
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm human, I'm fleshly.
SPEAKER_00: But he says, no temptation has overtaken you except such as is what?
SPEAKER_00: Oh.
SPEAKER_00: But preacher, you just don't understand.
SPEAKER_00: I can't help it.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you can.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you can if you're lost.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know Jesus, you can't help it.
SPEAKER_00: But if you say you're a Christian, you can help it if you really are a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Because you got the Holy Spirit living in your heart and the power living in you to overcome the temptation.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I didn't say the temptation wouldn't be there.
SPEAKER_00: But hey, no temptation has taken you that is coming.
SPEAKER_00: God says, I know it, but now watch.
SPEAKER_00: But God is what?
SPEAKER_00: Who will not allow you to what?
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the temptation's coming, but you don't, he will not, hey, if you yield to him, he'll give you power to overcome the temptation.
SPEAKER_00: So if you fall to the temptation, who is unfaithful?
SPEAKER_00: God or you?
SPEAKER_00: Me.
SPEAKER_00: Three things I see there: the commonness of temptation, the control of temptation.
SPEAKER_00: God's over everything.
SPEAKER_00: He allows the temptation.
SPEAKER_00: But then I see the conquering.
SPEAKER_00: You know why God allows the temptation?
SPEAKER_00: Because he's trying to build our faith.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: He's trying to build our faith.
SPEAKER_00: He's trying to teach us that without him we can do nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Without him, we cannot overcome the evil.
SPEAKER_00: But with him we can be victorious.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks be unto God who always gives us.
SPEAKER_00: Did you hear that word?
SPEAKER_00: Always gives us victory through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians 15, 57.
unknown: Amen.
unknown: James 4, 6, and 7, David.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: So look at what he's saying.
SPEAKER_00: When we think of God's faithfulness and when we face temptation, we must remember that God is faithful.
SPEAKER_00: You know why?
SPEAKER_00: I thought about this.
SPEAKER_00: This really breaks my heart.
SPEAKER_00: Because God's name and character is at stake.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: So when I fail, I've let my God down.
SPEAKER_00: I've let my testimony down.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's his character.
SPEAKER_00: Because he says there's no temptation.
SPEAKER_00: I will guard you.
SPEAKER_00: I will establish you.
SPEAKER_00: I will protect you if you allow me to.
SPEAKER_00: See, you're not a robot.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a robot.
SPEAKER_00: I have a choice.
SPEAKER_00: I have a will.
SPEAKER_00: Now, a lot of people don't like that free will stuff, but I'm telling you, you got a free will, and if you didn't, you would never sin.
SPEAKER_00: Hello?
SPEAKER_00: You okay out there?
SPEAKER_00: Put that one on the Calvinist turn of it.
SPEAKER_00: Hello, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00: I learned that very early.
SPEAKER_00: That's crazy.
SPEAKER_00: But now watch.
SPEAKER_00: When we think of God's faithfulness, we might think of what we aren't in the light of what he is.
SPEAKER_00: I understand that.
SPEAKER_00: That's me.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to what Paul said to 2 Timothy 2.13.
SPEAKER_00: This is good.
SPEAKER_00: If we are faithless, and we are, he remains faithful.
SPEAKER_00: He cannot deny himself.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: God cannot deny who he is.
SPEAKER_00: He is faithful and true.
SPEAKER_00: It's him.
SPEAKER_00: It's all that he is.
SPEAKER_00: His faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: And he's faithful to forgive us.
SPEAKER_00: Can I get an Amen?
SPEAKER_00: 1 John 1.9.
SPEAKER_00: There's no limit to the forgiveness and faithfulness of God.
SPEAKER_00: But now watch this.
SPEAKER_00: We think there must be.
SPEAKER_00: You know why we think there must be a limitation of God's faithfulness?
SPEAKER_00: Because of us.
SPEAKER_00: You know why we think that there's a limit to God's forgiveness?
SPEAKER_00: Because of us.
SPEAKER_00: Because we can't continually forgive and forget.
SPEAKER_00: Hello?
SPEAKER_00: Oh me?
SPEAKER_00: We cannot.
SPEAKER_00: We get tired of forgiving and being faithful, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: Hello, come on.
SPEAKER_00: How many times is there somebody that you know that has just, mmm, and you keep forgiving them and they keep doing it.
SPEAKER_00: And instead of praying for your enemies, Matthew 5434, and loving on them, I'm thinking about somebody right now, and I got to quit thinking that way.
SPEAKER_00: Because right now I'm failing when I'm preaching.
SPEAKER_00: Because I don't want to forgive them.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what it is?
SPEAKER_00: It's my I've helped, you help somebody so much and you keep loving on them and keep giving, and especially this for parents or our children in a situation, and they just keep doing what they're doing wrong and keep taking advantage of it, keep manipulating it, on and on and on, and you finally say, Well, I'm just enough enough.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not doing it anymore.
SPEAKER_00: But then you go back and do it.
SPEAKER_00: Now think a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad God's like that?
SPEAKER_00: How many times has God said that?
SPEAKER_00: That's stinking preacher.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I keep doing this and providing this, and he just keeps being disobedient.
SPEAKER_00: But I keep forgiving him.
SPEAKER_00: Because I love him.
SPEAKER_00: My mercy's new every morning.
SPEAKER_00: My compassion spell not.
SPEAKER_00: Man, if I got what I deserved, oh, would I be in trouble?
SPEAKER_00: I can be a brat sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: What you laugh so loud for, honey?
SPEAKER_00: Did y'all hear that?
SPEAKER_00: I might not have should have said that.
SPEAKER_00: That's gonna be all over the c world.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor Danny's a brat.
SPEAKER_00: Ace, can you Ace, can you edit that?
SPEAKER_00: Too late.
SPEAKER_00: But really, think a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Think a minute.
SPEAKER_00: All the I I look back in my whole ministry of 40 years now, and all that I promised and all that I didn't.
SPEAKER_00: But yet God still loves me.
SPEAKER_00: That's now, folks, that's faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: And he can't help it.
SPEAKER_00: He has to love me.
SPEAKER_00: That's who he is.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when we can get to the point we love people because of who we are in Christ, now you're maturing.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about them, it's about us.
SPEAKER_00: It's not what you do to me, it's how I react to you.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's it.
SPEAKER_00: And it's so hard.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because we're unfaithful.
SPEAKER_00: Hello.
SPEAKER_00: We're in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: We die, we fight that flesh every day.
SPEAKER_00: That's selfishness.
SPEAKER_00: And that I want what I want.
SPEAKER_00: Every day.
SPEAKER_00: All right, that's enough.
SPEAKER_00: I'm bleeding enough.
SPEAKER_00: Number three.
SPEAKER_00: Because God is faithful, we can have confidence when we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, because God is faithful, we can conquer evil and temptation.
SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
SPEAKER_00: This is good.
SPEAKER_00: Because God is faithful, we can praise Him.
SPEAKER_00: In his book, if you've never read anything by C.
unknown: C.
SPEAKER_00: S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis.
SPEAKER_00: Now some of it's pretty hard to understand.
SPEAKER_00: But his basic Christianity book is powerful.
SPEAKER_00: But I read an article on his booklet on Reflection on the Psalms.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to what C.S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis says about praise.
SPEAKER_00: Now this is awesome.
SPEAKER_00: The most obvious fact about praise, he said, whether a God or anything else had escaped him all of his life.
SPEAKER_00: Because he thought about praise in terms of compliments, approval, or giving honor.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I had never noticed till I studied the Psalms that all, listen now, all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise.
SPEAKER_00: Let me repeat that.
SPEAKER_00: This is very important.
SPEAKER_00: I have never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he says the world rings with praise.
SPEAKER_00: Readers praise their favorite poet.
SPEAKER_00: Walkers, runners, praise the countryside, players, praising their favorite game, praising the weather, praising their football teams, hello.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is, praising, I know Rosemary every Sunday morning sends me a picture of flowers, mountains, everything.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, now watch this.
SPEAKER_00: This is where it comes in.
SPEAKER_00: But he said, not only do men spontaneously praise what they enjoy, whether it's football, whether it's old cars, whether it's pickleball, whether it's hunting for you men, and some ladies are good hunters too, whether for Paul, I know it's building, Bob, Bill, all that, all that you spontaneously really enjoy, you praise, but as spontaneously as you enjoy it, you and I spontaneously encourage other people to praise it with us.
SPEAKER_00: I know that's a little deep.
SPEAKER_00: But think about that.
SPEAKER_00: I meant C.S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis was a thinker.
SPEAKER_00: But think about that.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that I get excited about, I've had people say, are you selling that?
SPEAKER_00: Because I want you to enjoy it as much as I enjoy it.
SPEAKER_00: With dirt.
SPEAKER_00: He enjoys moving dirt.
SPEAKER_00: Well, he does, and he's a master at it.
SPEAKER_00: But listen, here's what we're saying.
SPEAKER_00: If anything we ought to be spontaneously praising about is the faithfulness of God.
SPEAKER_00: And when we are spontaneously praising God, we ought to get people, we ought to be so excited that we can't help but tell people the praise of a faithful God of what He's doing in our life.
SPEAKER_00: Can I get an Amen?
SPEAKER_00: It ought to be overflowing spontaneously.
SPEAKER_00: You can't help it.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, that's what C.S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis was saying.
SPEAKER_00: Man, that's good.
SPEAKER_00: Because God is faithful, we can praise Him.
SPEAKER_00: Praise, you may want to write this down somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: Praise is the consummation of enjoyment.
SPEAKER_00: It really is.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, and again, I'm not just bragging on Ace, but I watched Ace Wednesday morning in that booth.
SPEAKER_00: It just was so natural for him.
SPEAKER_00: He enjoyed it so much to be able to express the praise and majesty and the magnificence of who God is.
SPEAKER_00: The thousands, thousands of people listening.
SPEAKER_00: Thousands.
SPEAKER_00: And what were we, what were we praying?
SPEAKER_00: What were we pushing?
SPEAKER_00: The faithfulness of God.
SPEAKER_00: His faithfulness to his revelation.
SPEAKER_00: The word.
SPEAKER_00: If you notice, if y'all were the ones that lived, we were praying, me and another guy and the lady too.
SPEAKER_00: We were all praying the word.
SPEAKER_00: Because it never returns void.
SPEAKER_00: But it shall accomplish where God sends it.
SPEAKER_00: So we see this.
SPEAKER_00: We see this.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, you got to see this.
SPEAKER_00: Look at Psalms 89, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever.
SPEAKER_00: There's a song.
SPEAKER_00: I will sing of his mercies forever.
SPEAKER_00: Where did that praise song come from?
SPEAKER_00: Right here.
SPEAKER_00: Psalms 89, 1.
SPEAKER_00: I will sing of his mercies of the Lord forever.
SPEAKER_00: With my mouth will I make known your faithfulness to all generations.
SPEAKER_00: Here we see them talking about the favor of God and the faithfulness of God.
SPEAKER_00: Can I get an amen?
SPEAKER_00: You and I ought to be constantly talking about the favor and faithfulness of God in our lives and in our church and in our families and in our work and in everything that God is in us through us to use us.
SPEAKER_00: And that's good.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 8, 5, I mean.
SPEAKER_00: And the heavens will praise your wonders, O Lord, your faithfulness also in the assembly of the saints.
SPEAKER_00: He says, you ought to be praising for the great miracles we see.
SPEAKER_00: You know what?
SPEAKER_00: Right now, I was thinking, we just celebrated six years, and I went back and looked at everything that God's done.
SPEAKER_00: We started way back there, right where that air conditioner thermometer thing is, or control panel, right there.
SPEAKER_00: That's all we had, right there.
SPEAKER_00: That little section back there.
SPEAKER_00: We filled it up, put people in the four-year.
SPEAKER_00: And then we built this, and we're filling it up.
SPEAKER_00: We build the gym, we'll fill it up.
SPEAKER_00: But what I'm trying to say is over and over again, mil, oh, uh, over two million dollars has been brought in and spent for the glory of God in building his church in the last six years.
SPEAKER_00: Now, folks, that is a miracle.
SPEAKER_00: Especially with the our, I mean, we're not a we're not a Highlands with thousands, 16,000 and more.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: We're a group of three, 300 plus people that God has brought together that has a vision of reaching their community with the gospel of Jesus Christ and helping this community to be a light that's set on a hill that cannot be hid.
SPEAKER_00: Helping young couples, helping young couples.
SPEAKER_00: Because Satan's so vehemently out to destroy them and their families.
SPEAKER_00: It's so exciting to see what God is doing.
SPEAKER_00: People being saved all the time, lives being changed.
SPEAKER_00: Psalms 89, verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: O Lord, God of hosts, who is mighty like you, O Lord, your faithfulness also surrounds you.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he's saying, praise him for his strength.
SPEAKER_00: God is trustworthy and dependable.
SPEAKER_00: You need to go through the book of Psalms, and everywhere you see the attribute of his faithfulness, circle it.
SPEAKER_00: Unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00: Because God is faithful, we can have confidence when we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Because God is faithful, we can conquer evil and temptation.
SPEAKER_00: And because God is faithful, we can praise him.
SPEAKER_00: And lastly, because God is faithful, we can have courage when we are afraid.
SPEAKER_00: Lamentations.
SPEAKER_00: The key verse verses here in Lamentations.
SPEAKER_00: God's faithfulness in all the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: They're probably some of the most faithful because of the devastation that was going on.
SPEAKER_00: Some have called this the weepings of Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_00: Some have called it Jeremiah's funeral poem.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah was a prophet of God whose ministry was to the city of Jerusalem when it had been besieged.
SPEAKER_00: They were under siege for 18 months.
SPEAKER_00: And like I told you, Lamentations 4.10.
SPEAKER_00: It gotten so bad that they were eating their own children.
SPEAKER_00: That just blows my mind.
SPEAKER_00: But listen to what Jeremiah said, Lamentations chapter 1, verses 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the record of Jeremiah's words as he looks out over the devastation of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to what he said.
SPEAKER_00: How lonely sits the city that was full of people.
SPEAKER_00: How like a window is she, who was great among the nations, the princes among the provinces, has become a slave.
SPEAKER_00: She weeps bitterly in the night.
SPEAKER_00: Her tears are on her cheeks.
SPEAKER_00: Among all her lovers, she has none to comfort her.
SPEAKER_00: All her friends have dealt treacherously with her.
SPEAKER_00: They have become her enemies.
SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_00: Understandable.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah reacted angrily toward God.
SPEAKER_00: He was angry for what he had allowed to happen to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: But now notice ultimately his lament became personal.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 12 in Jeremiah 1.
SPEAKER_00: Why have you allowed this to happen to me?
SPEAKER_00: Uh-oh.
SPEAKER_00: Sound familiar?
SPEAKER_00: When you've gotten down and out, or you're in a troublesome time, or had a had heartache and heartbreak, and and I mean, to the worst situation you can imagine, we can all go back to those times right now.
SPEAKER_00: I can think of a couple of them right now in my own life.
SPEAKER_00: And what did I what did I say?
SPEAKER_00: Just what Jeremiah said.
SPEAKER_00: Why is this happening to me?
SPEAKER_00: Now I know I'm the only one that's ever said that.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the second thing.
SPEAKER_00: Why is this happening to me?
SPEAKER_00: Here's the second question.
SPEAKER_00: What have I done?
SPEAKER_00: You with me?
SPEAKER_00: This is Jeremiah saying the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: But now watch what happens.
SPEAKER_00: Then he goes through and he goes over to hey.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, look at verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by, behold and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow which has been brought on me?
SPEAKER_00: You know what he's saying?
SPEAKER_00: All you people just act like you don't even care.
SPEAKER_00: Jerusalem's been devastated.
SPEAKER_00: People are dying.
SPEAKER_00: People are killing their own children.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you just don't care.
SPEAKER_00: Does that sound a little familiar about America today?
SPEAKER_00: We're killing each other, and we're saying, does anybody care?
SPEAKER_00: The government itself's trying to kill each other.
SPEAKER_00: What I'm trying to tell you is, folks, there's good news.
SPEAKER_00: It's not taking God by surprise.
SPEAKER_00: He's dealt with it before, right here.
SPEAKER_00: Now, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: You cannot go against God's law and not be judged.
SPEAKER_00: He told Jerusalem, if you don't repent, you're going to end up in captivity.
SPEAKER_00: Guess what happened?
SPEAKER_00: They didn't repent, and they ended up in captivity.
SPEAKER_00: But he didn't leave them.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't forsake them.
SPEAKER_00: Now look what brings Jeremiah to his senses.
SPEAKER_00: This is worth the whole message.
SPEAKER_00: He goes over to Lamentations chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: Go over to Lamentations 3.
SPEAKER_00: And verse 16 in chapter 1, though, and then I'll, that's all right.
SPEAKER_00: You stay at 3.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what he said, the last verse.
SPEAKER_00: For these things I weep, my eye.
SPEAKER_00: My eye overflows with water.
SPEAKER_00: He's weeping uncontrollably.
SPEAKER_00: Because the comforter who should restore my life is far from me.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, now he's to the point he's saying, I don't even know where God is.
SPEAKER_00: Whew! Man, that's I've been there.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Don't even know where God is.
SPEAKER_00: He feels so far away.
SPEAKER_00: Now this is the prophet.
SPEAKER_00: My children are desolate because the enemy prevails.
SPEAKER_00: You know what he's saying?
SPEAKER_00: Satan's winning.
SPEAKER_00: How many times?
SPEAKER_00: Times does it look like Satan's winning?
SPEAKER_00: For some of you, it looks like he's winning right now.
SPEAKER_00: Guess what?
SPEAKER_00: He may be right now.
SPEAKER_00: But can I tell you that, hey, the end of the story is not over.
SPEAKER_00: So he gets to chapter 3 after he stops right there.
SPEAKER_00: The enemy's winning.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'm weeping uncontrollably.
SPEAKER_00: I'm mad at God.
SPEAKER_00: Now notice.
SPEAKER_00: Verses four through nine.
SPEAKER_00: He begins.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to take time to read all the verses.
SPEAKER_00: But verses four through nine, he says there's no preventatives, there's no medicine, there's no provisions, there's no perception, there's no path of escape.
SPEAKER_00: There's no praying.
SPEAKER_00: I can't even pray.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 9, there's no path of escape.
SPEAKER_00: And then verses 10 through 13, there's no protection, there's no praise, there's no pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: And then verses 16 through 20, there's no peace, there's no prosperity, there's no power, there's no hope.
SPEAKER_00: It's all hardship.
SPEAKER_00: Now watch.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: My soul still remembers.
SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_00: And sing is within me.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God grabs his heart.
SPEAKER_00: Brings him to his knees.
SPEAKER_00: Humbles him.
SPEAKER_00: But you say, wait.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: Look at it.
SPEAKER_00: This I recall to my mind.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore I have hope.
SPEAKER_00: What does he recall to his mind?
SPEAKER_00: Remember verse 20?
SPEAKER_00: He still remembers.
SPEAKER_00: It's the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: How did he get from pessimism of verse 20 to the hope in verse 21?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, here it is.
SPEAKER_00: Something entered his mind as he wrote something that gave him hope, and here's what he remembered.
SPEAKER_00: It's found in verses 22 through 23.
SPEAKER_00: This is it.
SPEAKER_00: This is the whole message.
SPEAKER_00: Through the Lord's mercies, we are not consumed.
SPEAKER_00: Because of his compassions, we fail not.
SPEAKER_00: Here we see the favor of God, the mercy of God.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, verse 23, they are new every morning.
SPEAKER_00: Great is their faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: Here we see the faithfulness of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah remembered God's faithfulness, and it gave him hope.
SPEAKER_00: It was from these verses, Naiva, that the hymn writer Thomas Chisholm came to his inspiration for the hymn.
SPEAKER_00: Great is thy faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: Morning by morning, you mercies I see.
SPEAKER_00: What's this?
SPEAKER_00: All Jeremiah could see was devastation and destruction and ruin.
SPEAKER_00: See, so many times we allow our senses of our sight to only believe in what we can see.
SPEAKER_00: Hello.
SPEAKER_00: That's good, preacher.
SPEAKER_00: If he had just kept believing what he was seeing, you saw the results of his anger and his hurt and his lashing out really at God when he was allowing his sight to control what he was believing and what he was seeing.
SPEAKER_00: But it was when he remembered what God had said and what God had done and what God was going to do.
SPEAKER_00: It brought faith back to his heart.
SPEAKER_00: And it was faith that he couldn't see.
SPEAKER_00: What is faith?
SPEAKER_00: The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 11, 1.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is believing something is so when it's not so, so then it becomes so because God said so.
SPEAKER_00: He began to really allow faith to control him.
SPEAKER_00: Life is filled with challenges, seen and unseen.
SPEAKER_00: But notice what happened.
SPEAKER_00: His faithfulness became a source of courage to all who trust in God.
SPEAKER_00: We need to do what Jeremiah did.
SPEAKER_00: Look what he did.
SPEAKER_00: He recalled, he remembered, he reckoned, he recollected, he reprised the faithfulness of God.
SPEAKER_00: And how, hey, he has delivered his people, including us, in the past, is what we have to do when you're going through the midst of the storm, when you're in the fiery furnace, when you're in the lion's den, when you're on the rocky waves in the boat.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to recollect and rethink what God has done in the past.
SPEAKER_00: He has been our theme song through this whole series.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to do it again.
SPEAKER_00: He's faithful.
SPEAKER_00: I close.
SPEAKER_00: But God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a power of love and a Samaiba.
SPEAKER_00: God gave me this early this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And I asked, Jason, turn to Psalms 40.
SPEAKER_00: I want to close with this.
SPEAKER_00: I look back, I was looking back over my whole ministry of 40 years.
SPEAKER_00: I can remember when we circled the land seven times at Open Door Baptist Church and He gave us the land.
SPEAKER_00: I can remember when we dug a ditch and had no money and stepped out on faith and God provided$300,000 to buy the land.
SPEAKER_00: I can remember when we stepped out on faith right here and God provided$300,000 to pay down on the land.
SPEAKER_00: And I could go on and on and I can remember at Liberty University as a student when we prayed in the snow and God provided the money for Liberty University, now the largest evangelical school in the world.
SPEAKER_00: I can go back and I can rem recollect and rethink and be reminded that my God is still faithful.
SPEAKER_00: And he's gonna do it again.
SPEAKER_00: Not only is he gonna do it again, he's doing it now.
SPEAKER_00: He's doing it now.
SPEAKER_00: Here it is.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the invitation.
SPEAKER_00: I waited patiently for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You know our problem?
SPEAKER_00: We don't wait patiently.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, even the psalmist, hey, David, you look at verse 13, verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: He was saying, Okay, Lord, after he says, I waited patiently, you know what he said?
SPEAKER_00: He in verse 13 and verse 17, he said, Okay, I've waited patiently.
SPEAKER_00: Now deliver me now.
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of cute.
SPEAKER_00: It really is there.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13 and verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: Then I thought about wallets.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I'll give you strength in two times.
SPEAKER_00: God's always on time at the right time, every time.
SPEAKER_00: But it's his time, not mine.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I waited patiently for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, let me tell you what I put patience for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And then, verse one.
SPEAKER_00: And he inclined, and he inclined, and I kept thinking, that's the passion of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He has a passion to deliver us and to hey, to take us through everything so we can be more like him.
SPEAKER_00: He has a passion for you and me.
SPEAKER_00: And then I looked at verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: We see the power in salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 2, I waited patiently.
SPEAKER_00: He also brought me up out of a horrible pit.
SPEAKER_00: You know what that means?
SPEAKER_00: He wait, horrible pit out of the mirror clay.
SPEAKER_00: You know what that means to he brings us out of something to something in this verse.
SPEAKER_00: He brings us out of the miry clay.
SPEAKER_00: I call it he brings us out of the filthy.
SPEAKER_00: The filthy.
SPEAKER_00: He set my feet upon a and he established myself.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, here's what I said.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, he brings us, he brings us out of the filthy and the mock and all the filtiness, and then he establishes and he puts a new soul in my heart and my mind.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: He set my feet upon them and established questions.
SPEAKER_00: Ask your questions.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what you're going through.
SPEAKER_00: But I do know this.
SPEAKER_00: He's faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Even when we're not faithful, he's faithful.
SPEAKER_00: So let me ask you this question.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you want this faithful God to come alongside you?