Creekside Church, February 14, 2021
God, I'm Hurting...But It's My Fault
Locations & Times
Creekside Church Online
Sunday 9:00 AM
A lament is a passionate expression of grief or sorrow.
Cry Out - directed toward God
Pour Out - pour out your feelings and circumstances
Reach Up - ask for help
Lift Up - praise God for who he is
We can lament from a guilty place. We can lament even when we are the ones who have brought on our own suffering or we are experiencing the natural consequences of our sin.
Sin = missing the mark of who God calls us to be
Lamentations - A poetic reflection on the siege and destruction of Jerusalem.
In the Bible, the idea of God's wrath if often connected to the idea of God handing people over to the natural consequences of their sin. We see this at play in Lamentations in how the writer describes the destruction of Jerusalem as both something God has done and something their enemies (the Babylonians) have done.
Three Things to Learn from Lamentations:
1. Permission to lament when we're guilty.
No matter how bad you’ve messed up, you can cry out, and pour out and reach out to God.
2. Genuine Repentance includes Lament
When we lament our sin we move closer to the heart of God. As an example, consider the passage below where Jesus weeps over Jerusalem and their coming destruction once again. Consider that Jesus is alone while doing this. No one else was weeping with him, and yet there should have been. When we learn to lament we join Jesus in his lament.
Luke 19:41-44
41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
3. Makes Grace Even Sweeter
Compare the two passages below. What does each author think about God's mercy?
Lamentations 5:19-22
19 But you, O Lord, reign forever;
your throne endures to all generations.
20 Why do you forget us forever,
why do you forsake us for so many days?
21 Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored!
Renew our days as of old—
22 unless you have utterly rejected us,
and you remain exceedingly angry with us.
Hebrews 4:14-16
14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Cry Out - directed toward God
Pour Out - pour out your feelings and circumstances
Reach Up - ask for help
Lift Up - praise God for who he is
We can lament from a guilty place. We can lament even when we are the ones who have brought on our own suffering or we are experiencing the natural consequences of our sin.
Sin = missing the mark of who God calls us to be
Lamentations - A poetic reflection on the siege and destruction of Jerusalem.
In the Bible, the idea of God's wrath if often connected to the idea of God handing people over to the natural consequences of their sin. We see this at play in Lamentations in how the writer describes the destruction of Jerusalem as both something God has done and something their enemies (the Babylonians) have done.
Three Things to Learn from Lamentations:
1. Permission to lament when we're guilty.
No matter how bad you’ve messed up, you can cry out, and pour out and reach out to God.
2. Genuine Repentance includes Lament
When we lament our sin we move closer to the heart of God. As an example, consider the passage below where Jesus weeps over Jerusalem and their coming destruction once again. Consider that Jesus is alone while doing this. No one else was weeping with him, and yet there should have been. When we learn to lament we join Jesus in his lament.
Luke 19:41-44
41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
3. Makes Grace Even Sweeter
Compare the two passages below. What does each author think about God's mercy?
Lamentations 5:19-22
19 But you, O Lord, reign forever;
your throne endures to all generations.
20 Why do you forget us forever,
why do you forsake us for so many days?
21 Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored!
Renew our days as of old—
22 unless you have utterly rejected us,
and you remain exceedingly angry with us.
Hebrews 4:14-16
14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.