Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ. Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church, located in Kernersville, North Carolina. our subject Briefly, and I could make a series out of it, but I figured you've had enough series out of lamentations lately. But I'm just going to give you a quick context.
If I took my time, really, we could spend a month in this chapter. But it seems that God has brought limitations to us as a church. I began to open my mind this week, said, you know, well, Lord, this is the ladies' conference. Theme verse, and that's not what I'm dealing with today, but I'm open to it, Lord. Maybe you're not done in the book of Lamentations.
And a verse jumped off the pages at me. And today our subject is this, hands. without hearts. Hands. Without hearts.
Now, for us to get to it, I got to give you a little bit of context.
So, if you'll just, I'm not going to go long this morning, but if you'll pay attention, I can explain it to you so that we can all make sure you can't get scripture out of context. All right, so you've got to make sure that things are correct. And before I just dig into it, I hear that Amanda's here. Where are you at, Amanda? Wave at me.
Amanda Horn. And Amanda and Joey are serving faithful in Tennessee. I don't think a church can be as proud of two people as we are of Joey and Amanda. And she's here by herself today. They're having marriage issues.
You pray for them, and I know that they would appreciate it. If I was living with Joey, I would. You tell him I said that. Amanda's here visiting family today, and I just love you. I'm so proud of you.
In life, you can't keep looking back. You got to keep moving forward. The older you get, the harder it is to do that. But um It uh half the time I can't say half the things I feel. And I'm just so proud of them.
We're going to jump right into it today, and Brother Frank read our passage: Lamitations. chapter 3 and why don't you notice verse 21 Jeremiah says, this I recall to my mind. Therefore have I hope. What did they just sing? My hope?
is in the blood. of the risen lamb. You know, there is hope in Christ. And the first thing I want you to know today, whatever you may or may not be going through, there is hope. And you need to recall this to your mind.
What is going on here, in a sense, literally, is that this was the destruction of Judah, the destruction of Jerusalem. Literally, by the Chaldean army, this was going to be a disillusion of the Jewish state. Jeremiah is witnessing this, and Jeremiah is the prophet, and he's preached. Listen, and the people that he is lamenting over. did him wrong.
The people that he's crying for wouldn't listen to him. And this is a book of lamentations, of the judgment of God, of what we would call the product of our sin. It's the consequences. God is a loving God, and all I hear about today is that God is love, but God is a holy God. And if God didn't judge, that means he wouldn't be holy.
And if God was love and accepted everything, then he couldn't be a holy God.
So His holiness demands justice. But his love, so how do you rectify the holiness of God, which demands justice, and the love of God, which loves us for who we are? The only way you can rectify that is in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ satisfied the justice of God. And he showed the love of God.
So here, literally, Jeremiah is lamenting this, and he said, In the middle of all this turmoil, in the middle of the consequences of what we've done, there is some hope here. And I know you know that, we've heard about this recently. But I want you to notice, number one, today, I just want you to see for context the intervention of God's mercy. Look at verse 22. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed.
By the way, can I remind you, thank God for the intervention of his mercy. If we got what we deserve, we wouldn't be here today. We would be in a grave somewhere today. We would be burning in hell today. But for the intervention of God's mercy.
I don't know about you. I grew up in a Christian home, so. It used to bother me when I was a kid. I didn't have a really good testimony. I didn't have all the stories of all the drugs and alcohol I was in and all this.
My dad had a good one. My dad was a comedian in a nightclub on Miami Beach. My mom had a good one. Her dad was a drunk, and she grew up in a rough home and having to leave home every weekend where my grandpa would want to come home and beat everybody up. And my mom has memories of my grandpa beating up my grandmother and my grandpa beating up my uncles and getting mad and drunken stupors and all those things.
Listen, they grew up like that. They've got quite a testimony. I grew up in an Airstream travel trailer. I grew up never being more than 32 feet away from my mom and dad. It's hard to get away with a lot of sin when you're living in an Airstream travel trailer.
Where am I going to smoke? You know, what in the world am I going to do? You know, I had two little areas on either side of the couch, came up. If it could fit in there, I could have it. If it couldn't fit, I couldn't have it.
I mean, where am I going to hide my alcohol if I can't put it there? I mean, I'm in a travel trailer. But can I tell you, I needed Christ just as much as they did. And you and I, if we're not careful, we can, because we feel like we've lived a good life, we forget about the mercy of God. He intervened, and that was his mercy that did that.
I want you to notice, secondly, not just the intervention of God's mercy, but look at verse 22, the dependability of God's care.
Now notice if you would verse 22, he says, because his compassions fail not, fail not. Notice the dependability here. I want you to see this first. See this. God's compassion does not fail because his compassions fail not.
Listen, I fail every day, but God's compassion doesn't. That's the difference between the sinner and the savior. I fail all the time, which is what made me the sinner. He never has failed, which is what made him the savior. If he had failed, he couldn't have been my savior because it took a perfect, sinless lamb to pay the price for God's justice.
But his compassions fail not. Notice secondly, God's compassions do not fail. Notice secondly, God's mercy is always fresh. Look at verse 23. They are new every morning.
They are. What is it referring to? It's referring to the mercies, God's intervention. And literally, that the mercies of God is what keeps us from being consumed. They are new every morning.
Every morning. I don't know about you. I'm glad for God's compassion, and I'm glad that daily God's mercy is available to me. Notice, thirdly, I want you to see: God's provision is always faithful. We're talking about the care of God, His compassions fail not, His mercy is always fresh.
Look at verse 23: Great is thy faithfulness, which leads right to our theme verse with our ladies' conference: The Lord is my portion, He's enough. His provision is always faithful. Therefore will I hope in him. Which means what? I can trust him.
He's always faithful. He's not just faithful. His faithfulness is great. That's a pretty good description of my Savior. It would be one thing for me to say, I have a faithful Savior, but it's different for me to say, my Savior's faithfulness is great.
Notice, fourthly, God's goodness is always available. His compassion, his mercy, his provision. Look at verse 25. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. What does that mean?
It means God's goodness is available if you don't run ahead of him, if you don't decide to take matters into your if you're willing to wait, God's going to show his goodness to you. If you're willing to let him have control, God's going to be good to you. But if you move ahead, if you manipulate, if you try to make things happen, if you get impatient, if all of a sudden you start depending upon yourself, then you're going to suffer the consequences of that. But if you're willing to wait and you're willing to seek him and wait for him, his goodness is always available to you. I want you to notice The intervention of God's mercy, the dependability of God's care.
But notice, thirdly, the limitation. of God's discipline.
Now, the Bible says you're going to know you're a child of God when He disciplines you. That's how you know. If God never disciplines you, I'd watch out. Because I know you're not perfect. And you know I'm not perfect.
And so, if there's never any discipline from God, it might be that you are not actually a child of God. But the Bible says this is how you know you're a child of God: if He chastens you.
Now look at verse 31. I love this. I'm just going to give you, like I said, I could spend a week just on these verses, but notice this. Look at verse 31. For the Lord will not cast off forever.
The limitation of God's discipline. Listen, God's gonna have to do what He needs to do, and He's gonna have to correct us and chasten us, but He's not gonna cast off forever. You know what? It feels like it at the time. Will this never stop?
It feels like it. Notice this verse 32. But though he caused grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. He just talked about his compassion and his mercies. What he is saying is this: God's not going to be mad forever.
He's not going to discipline you forever, but he has to work his purpose. He has to mold you into what you need to be. And when we veer off and when we sin and when we rebel, God has to chasten us, but it's not going to be forever. And there's a purpose for this. Even in the middle of his chastening, God's compassion and mercy is there.
You say, Why is God mad at me? He's not mad at you, but he has to correct you. But even in the middle of his correction, his compassion and mercy is there. It's visible. It could always be worse.
Notice verse 33, for he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve. He doesn't enjoy this. God doesn't look down from heaven. Oh, thank God they're they're disobeying.
Now I can flex a little spiritual muscle here.
Now I can let him have it. God is not willing. He doesn't enjoy this. He doesn't enjoy the grief that comes into your life. He doesn't enjoy chastising.
He doesn't enjoy disciplining. Look at verse 34. He says, I don't enjoy to crush under his feet all the prisoners of earth. He doesn't enjoy that. But he can.
Look at verse 35. To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High. God doesn't enjoy having to correct you. God doesn't enjoy having to discipline you. Let's look at verse 36.
To subvert, which means to fight against a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not. God says, I don't enjoy it, but when you're on a track or a trail, I don't know how I want to put this, when you're on a path against what I want, I'm going to have to fight against it. And some of you here in this auditorium, and some of us, I would say, at times we have felt God fighting against what we were trying to do. And God says, I don't enjoy having to subvert your cause. I don't enjoy having to go against you, but I can't approve of what you're doing.
God's discipline. has limitation and I'm so thankful for that. But I want you to notice, number four, the weakness of human nature. And we're all building up, so I can talk to you what I'm going to talk to you about, and I'll let you go today. But I want you to notice this.
In the middle of all this, Jeremiah asked three questions. I remember hearing recently Dr. Charles Stanley And I don't know Brother Stanley or anything like that, and I'm sure I agree with him on a lot. I'm sure I disagree with him on some things. I disagree with myself on a lot of things.
But I remember him saying, He said, You know, the older I get, it's not that I know more, I just know better questions to ask. Jeremiah asked three questions here to show The futility of the human nature. Look at this, look at verse 37. Who is he that saith? And it come to pass.
When the Lord commandeth it not. He says, who are you to say something's going to happen when God didn't command it? Who were you to try to make something happen that God didn't give birth to? Who are you to say, no, this is what's going to happen, this is what I'm going to do, these are my plans? Who are you to do that when God didn't make those plans?
When God didn't come up with that, when that's not God's command, when that's not God's cause? Who are you to tell God what's going to happen? No, we would sit here tomorrow. That's right, preacher. I would never do that.
We do it all the time. In fact, we get mad. When God doesn't make everything happen the way we want it. Notice question number two, look at verse 36. Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil and good.
So you're saying that the God you serve can only do good things that you like? You know what Job said? The Lord giveth and the Lord. Take us away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Who are we to demand a God that only does the good we want?
Now, don't be confused with the Bible here that we're not saying God does evil things, sinful things. That's against his character. What we're saying is it looks like evil to you. What we're saying is you don't like the fact God does this. You want God to do everything you want, but I get mad if God does some things I don't want.
He's like, so you're wanting a God. That he only can do good things. You know what makes God God? Not that He does what I want, what makes God God is that He does what He wants. Are you with me this morning?
Say amen.
Now I know I'm coming at you with a lot. I wish I had more time to develop, but notice the third question. This is good. Wherefore doth a living man complain? A man for the punishment of his sins.
What is this verse saying? Look at me. Look what he says. Why does a man complain? We need has to face the consequences.
of his own sins. Why are we complaining? when we suffer consequences that we created. Jeremiah is saying, why would we as a nation, look at me, I want you to get this, please get the context. Why would we as a nation be mad at God for what we're going through when what we're going through is our fault?
It's because we left him. Jeremiah is saying, folks, this is what's going on. You're wanting a God that only does what you want. You're wanting a God. That only does what you think he should do.
And then you get mad when you get consequences from your own sin.
Somehow, you blame God for that too. But that's what human nature does. Let me tell you, there's a lot of children nowadays. grown children to blame mom and dad for their sins.
Well, let me tell you why I'm strung out on alcohol because you were so hard on me. Oh really? Oh, so now it's everybody else's fault. But yours.
Well, let me tell you why I'm struggling because you did this and you did this and you made me go to church. Oh, boo-hoo. Try going to church every night of your life, not just on Sundays and Wednesdays. If anybody needs counseling, I do. How would you like to hear the same sermons over and over and over again every week?
The same jokes. It's been a while to have a lot of new people to explain my childhood. My dad was an evangelist. Sunday to Friday every week, heard the same message. I could preach him in my sleep.
And you would go to sleep like everybody else did. But anyway, that's another. My dad would tell the same jokes, and we got tired of him going through the whole story.
So, we had, as a family, we just numbered them.
So we would sit at the dinner table, my dad would go, number five, and we'd start laughing a little bit. Dad would go, number 110. Oh, we'd start laughing a little bit. One time we were eating supper, my mom went number eight, and nobody laughed because she never could tell a joke. But anyway.
I had to do that again, I'm sorry. What is Jeremiah saying here? He says you're wanting a God that does what you say. You're wanting a God that only does what you think is good. And then you get mad at God when you suffer the consequences of what you've done.
So now we come. To the meat of the message, it will only take a minute. Number five. I want you to see the return to worship. We're in this mess in chapters 2.
In the beginning of chapter 3, we are in this mess because they. left got. And if anything's ever going to be fixed. We are going to have to return.
Now, listen, I'm not necessarily dealing with it corporately. I think God's blessed our church.
Some of the best people I've ever met in my entire life go to this church. But individually, you might be, there might be a battle going on right now in your life. You're almost mad at God for what you're going through, and yet you're going through what you're going through. Because of you. You might be frustrated right now because You want to love God and you say you love God, but you're kind of mad at him.
Because you told him what was going to happen and he didn't bring it to pass. Jeremiah says, if this is going to change. As a nation, it's the same thing that's going to have to change as an individual. you're going to have to return.
So look what he says, just two verses. Look at this. Verse 40. Let us search. and try our ways.
And turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God. in the heavens. I want you to notice first the searching. Let us search.
and try our ways. You know, you heard me talk recently about David's prayer of repentance. The best way for you to search your heart is to let God do the searching. He said, search me, O God. If you start searching, there's just going to be things you're going to overlook.
because of our fleshly tendencies. We all think highly of ourselves. more highly than we ought to think, the Bible says. But we gotta let God Here's what's going to happen if we're ever going to get back to where we need to be. You're like, Preacher, you're preaching to a church that's doing well, and man, we've got things going, and oh, yeah, yeah, but that's exactly who Satan's going to fight.
That's exactly who Satan's going to come after. And you know what? We can look good, smell good, act good. But that doesn't mean our hearts right. That's right.
First, there is the searching. Look at me. You can't know what needs attention until you see it. You have to search it out. You can't go on through life thinking everything's okay, and the reason you think it's okay is because you never really take a look.
He says, Let us try our ways. Can I say something? Notice what he says: try our ways. Not try our words. Try our ways.
Actions speak louder than words. The searching process doesn't mean I look inside.
Well, how much do I know? How long have I been in church? What are all the good things I do? No, no, no, no. We're looking at actions.
Look at the fruit of your life. Look at what's going on. Just because you say something doesn't mean that's what you are. Just because you claim something doesn't mean that's what you're doing. Try our ways.
Look at your actions. It doesn't matter how long you grew up and what church you were in you grew up and your daddy was a pastor, and it doesn't matter why I used to, I memorize books of the Bible, and I memorize verses, and we're depending on that. That's not what we're talking about here. If you're going to search yourself, and if I'm going to have to search myself, who cares what I know? Who cares what I've done?
Who cares what I accomplished 30 years ago? What's going on now? What's the fruit now? You know you shouldn't be doing that. You know you shouldn't be involved in that.
Quit telling us what you know. Search your ways. Don't you notice? The searching second is the turning. Very important.
I want you to get this. Look at verse 40. Let us search and try our ways. And. Turn again.
to the Lord. Repentance always precedes worship. Yeah, that's right. In fact, in Matthew 5, Jesus said, Hey, you're bringing a gift to the altar and you got out against someone or they got out against you. Listen, you leave your gift, you go make it right.
Before you come and try to worship. Psalm 51, David. Senses this and look at verse 16. For thou desirest not sacrifice, else I would give it. It's easy to give a sacrifice.
Thou delightest not in burnt offering. Listen, that's all about physical labor. That's all about what does he say? The sacrifices of God are a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. A broken spirit.
A contrite heart. That's all on the inside. He said this, listen, you're gonna have to repent. Repentance is a turning. Let me show you something before we move on.
And I'm telling you the truth, I'm almost done.
Now don't you start saying, hey, well it's 1115, you're about, oh no, I... I've only been at this about 14 minutes. Listen to me. Please get this. Notice the verse.
He says, let us search. And try our ways, but notice what he says, and turn again what? To the Lord. Notice the emphasis of turning. is not from something.
But to something. We have a whole lot of people that sit in church and their repentance is constantly.
Well, I got to turn away from this sin. I got to turn away from this addiction. I got to turn away from this habit. If you look at it that way, the constant focus of your mind is your sin. I'm always worried about turning away from that.
Listen, you'll never get that victory. You'll never get over that. You'll never actually turn from that. There has to be something greater than your sin. There has to be something larger and bigger than you.
Repentance is not about turning from something. It's turning to him. He's got to be bigger to you than your addiction. He's got to be bigger to you than your desires right now. He's got to be bigger to you than your plans.
He says this is only going to work. Not if you just turn away from sin. You turn away from that sin, you're going to go right to another sin. You're going to have to turn to him. That's the only thing that's going to work.
You've got to search your heart. Look at the fruit of your life. And you have to turn. Change direction. Leave that sin.
Quit worrying about turning from it. You've got to turn to him, then he's your focus. Not your sin.
Well, I don't know if I can let this person go. I've been dating this person. I don't know if I can let them go.
Well, quit looking at them. Turn to him. He's got to be more important to you than a person, than a thing. Then a desire I kind of feel like this is going over like a lead balloon, but... I'm going to keep dropping the lead balloons if that's okay.
You just pretend you're here so that God can preach to me. How about that? Because I need this. Once you notice last is the worshiping. You see, there has to be a searching and a turning before there can be worshiping.
Now notice what he says. I love this. Let us lift up our heart. with our hands. unto God in the heavens.
True heart worship. Lifting of hands throughout the Old Testament and even in the Bible are a motion or a gesture of prayer to God. And it's commonly used in the Old Testament. Unfortunately, all of us have experienced going through the motions of prayer, going through the motions of worship with our hands, but our heart wasn't in it. We read, we sing, and to all outward appearances, we're worshiping just fine.
And that's the trend. We're going to get up here on the stage, and we're just going to tell everybody we're worshiping. Listen, God doesn't give a plug nickel for that. If you're not lifting up your heart with your hands, you are wasting your time. Please get this.
This is very, very important. The heart is the essential element in worship. Look at this verse, Matthew 15:7. Jesus said, Ye hypocrites, Well did Isaiah or Isaiah Prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me.
You can throw up your hands all you want to. But God said, you got to throw up your heart. First. With Your Hands. Yes, sir.
Can I tell you something? You lift up your heart to God, the hands are going to follow. But I've about had it with church worship that is all hands. And no heart. I got another verse and I'm almost done.
Psalm 51 verse 6. David said, Behold, thou desirest truth. in the inward The greatest news that anyone can receive is the news of the free gift of salvation found in Jesus Christ. It is our desire for you to know him personally. Would you take a moment to hear this to-day?
Every man is born with a sin nature. Romans 3:23 says, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. No matter how hard we try, We're not good enough to obtain God's glory. or to get to heaven. Because of that sin carries the penalty of death.
Romans 6.23 says, For the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life for the through Jesus Christ our Lord. The wages of our sin, or the payment of our sin, only equals death and separation from God. But it's only through God's gift salvation through Jesus Christ that we can accept Him as our Savior. Jesus Christ paid for your sin debt.
The Bible says in Romans 5:8, But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. All you have to do is receive Christ. by faith as your Saviour. Romans 10.9 says That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Verse 13 continues, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
It's as simple as admitting that you're a sinner believing that Jesus is the only way. and calling upon his name. Bible says whosoever that's anyone can call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. Have you accepted Christ as your personal Savior? There is no greater day than today to take care of this.
Would you accept Christ as your Saviour? If you have any questions, please give us a call at 336-993-5192 or visit our website at Crowin Baptist Church. Dot com. or visits that person at one of our three service times. We hope you have a great rest of your day.
God bless you. Mm-hmm.
