WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:38.000 Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's Word you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to Him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 8:30 or 10:30am if you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, find us@madisonchurch.org Be sure to also check out our Bible study podcast, Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies. Thanks again for stopping by. 2 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:41.000 You know, I think all of us want a good, happy ending, right? 3 00:00:41.000 --> 00:01:19.000 I think the books we read, the movies that we watch, the stories that we hear about, you know, there's almost always some kind of conflict, some kind of struggle, battle they're going through. And as the movie progresses, you want to see that unexpected thing to happen or something surprising come into the picture. And ultimately what we want in the middle of all that and as it wraps up is we want to see that beautiful scripty, the end, at the end, that tells us everything got resolved, everything's amazing, and we feel good about that. I wish so badly I could take you to the end of Lamentations, Chapter 5 and give you that story. 4 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:25.000 The sad truth is it doesn't really end that way. We've already read it already in Scripture, but we'll go over it again. 5 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:28.000 We want that happy ending. 6 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:32.000 But sometimes things don't always work out the way we'd like for them to. 7 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:36.000 This week, I was reminded of this movie, Life is Beautiful. 8 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:57.000 And this movie is one that you may not be aware of. It was done in 1997, and I would not have known anything about it except for the fact that it was nominated for seven Academy Awards. In fact, it won three Oscars for director, for lead actor and for some kind of musical score. 9 00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:17.000 And even that wouldn't have caught my attention too much except for what got publicized was the celebration of the guy who won all these awards. There was a guy named Roberto Benigni. You can see him on the screen there. He was the lead actor, but also the director of this film. And it was a foreign film, so it was in Italian. 10 00:02:17.000 --> 00:04:24.000 But what was amazing about his celebration was it was so authentic and so just real and, you know, coming with emotion. It was. It was just so genuine. And his appreciation and gratitude for what he had just won, his awe, all of the things that would make you Feel like all of your life's work was culminated in this one big moment. You could see all of that happening in him. The problem was he was like, you know, in the back 40 of that auditorium. He was nowhere near the front. And if you remember it, those of you who are older like me, you stand. He stood up, and he stood on the handrails of his seat and started going, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then not only did he do that, and everybody turned around and be like, oh, bless his heart, you know, that kind of thing. He also started stepping over people, like, from one chair to the next, over everybody's head. And they're like, oh, you know, covering up. And he's just like, oh, thank you so much. He's, like, crying. He's so happy. Runs up to the stage. Finally they get him off of the seats, and they send him up to the front. And he begins to say thank you again. It's broken English. It's not anything that you would have said. I don't have any idea what he said, but it was very gracious and very. Just emotional and so thankful it wasn't like your canned speech. I want to thank all these people. It was just so raw and real, right, that I found myself going, okay, I got to see that film. And so the. The title there, Life is Beautiful. I'm thinking, oh, this must be some kind of amazing family story or something that will draw your attention in and make you just fall in love with these people. And so Cindy and I, we went out and we rented the film. Now, I did say that it was Italian, right? So now, at my age, every movie I watch, I watch the closed captioning. Because I really do want to hear what's being said now that I've gotten older. I do that all the time anyway. But in those days, you didn't really do that. And this film was such that you couldn't understand what they were saying unless you read the subtitles. So as you started the movie, you know, you were thinking to yourself, hey, this is gonna be something frustrating. Cause you just don't want to keep up. But what happened is I finally got drawn into the story. 11 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:41.000 And almost without recognition, I was reading what was being said while watching the scene. And it was so fascinating. There was this guy who moved into this Italian town. It's under a fascist regime, and it's right near 1939. So it's really close to World War II. 12 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:50.000 And a lot of things are kind of in upheaval and unrest. But he comes into this Area. And he works for his uncle in a bookstore. His name is Guido. 13 00:04:50.000 --> 00:05:01.000 And while working in that bookstore, he meets this woman named Dora, which he affectionately refers to as Principessa, which is Princess. 14 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:23.000 And he falls for this girl. So unbelievable. She's attached already with some man who is like an Italian official. And she's kind of, you know, engaged or in a relationship with him. And it's kind of not necessarily a great relationship. And if you look at this guy on the screen, you're gonna say, not a good looking dude. Like, maybe not the best looking dude at all, okay? 15 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:27.000 But he's charming and he's witty and he's fun and he's creative. 16 00:05:27.000 --> 00:06:13.000 And so this woman comes to the store, they make contact, and then he begins to, you know, kind of set some things up in place where he can trip her and catch her when she's falling to go, hello, Prince. You know, like, he's doing all these things to kind of woo her, and she begins to kind of fall for him. Well, to kind of cut to the chase, they do fall in love. She does leave the other guy, and she marries this man. And they have this beautiful life. I'm talking beautiful like mother and father love each other. They have a son whose name is Yeshua, and he's a great kid, and they have so much fun together. They do all these great creative and crazy things. Here they are riding a bike through the city streets recklessly, just having a good time. 17 00:06:13.000 --> 00:06:27.000 And the story is beautiful. The life that they have is so beautiful. But as I said, it was kind of centered in 1939, and ultimately the war took place and Guido, being a Jew, was taken into custody. 18 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:32.000 And along with his boy, they were taken to a concentration camp. 19 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:49.000 Well, the wife decided she didn't want the family to be separated, so she voluntarily came and went to volunteer herself to be a part of the concentration camp so that at least they would be together as a family. But what happened is they were separated, the men from the women. 20 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:54.000 And you kind of know what we know about history and how difficult that was. 21 00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:59.000 So in the process of this, life had changed quite a bit, right? 22 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:21.000 But Guido had this great idea. He was going to create some way to shield his son from all the atrocities that were going on around him. And so he came up with this game idea and he said all of this, all of us being taken quickly is like this surprise attack so we can all come to this special place. And there's this huge contest that's taking place. 23 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:41.000 And what happens is every little Boy is being watched and judged. And if they can keep themselves quiet, if they can keep themselves hidden away, if they don't talk about being hungry or complain or gripe, they earn certain points for the day. And the one who gains 1000 points, it's a long, long thing. A thousand points. 24 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:50.000 That child will get the best gift ever. He's like, daddy, Daddy, what is it? He said, it's a life size, real military tank. 25 00:07:50.000 --> 00:08:28.000 And so the boy's like, whoa, that's amazing. And so through this series of events and, you know, you can imagine how it goes, every day the father goes off, says, okay, hide. And every day he updates him with a point total. Hey, you're doing really good. I heard your name was mentioned on a leaderboard. But there is this other kid on the other side of the camp that's really, really good at hiding. He does a really good job and he's right there with you. So you gotta keep working hard. And he just kept him going. And there were times where Yeshua would not want to do that. He wanted to just stop and, and to give up. And he just said, I just don't want to anymore. He said, no, no, no. We're so close. We're so close. And if you'll just stay with it, you can do this. 26 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:31.000 So things get more difficult. 27 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:38.000 The allied armies are advancing. There's a lot of chaos, a lot of shooting that takes place. 28 00:08:38.000 --> 00:09:03.000 And ultimately he hides Joshua in what's called a sweat box, like a metal box where they had a little slit, and it was used to make them suffer, like dehydration and all those kinds of things. And he told him, he said, I want you to stay in here until this camp is completely empty and silent. Not one person, and then you can come out. 29 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:14.000 He said, okay. Guido, hoping to get to his wife, put on some women's clothes and stuck around and broke into the women's camp. And he found her and he said, I love you, Prince Zephessa. 30 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:17.000 Everything's going to be okay. 31 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:21.000 But in the midst of that, he got captured. 32 00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:54.000 And so the soldiers were marching him across that courtyard where that sweat box was, and at gunboy in there walking him across, and he's dressed in women's clothes. He looks a little silly. And he remembers that Yeshua's in that box. And so as he's marching by him, he gets ridiculous, gets really silly, and looks over at him and he winks at him like it's okay. And he winks and he winks and winks. And you Hear lots of firing, lots of they round the corner and you hear a couple of more gunshots. 33 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:58.000 And I'm watching the movie going, are you kidding me? 34 00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:01.000 Life is beautiful. 35 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:22.000 Are you kidding me? As I am watching this, I don't want this outcome. This is not what I wanted. This is not what I saw happening. I was blown away with his positivity and his creativity, his way of helping his son through this. There's no way this can happen. It is not exactly how I thought things would go. 36 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:36.000 And would you believe that that's the very nature and the heart of what's going on with the Jews who are left there to see what's happened to Jerusalem and where they are? 37 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:39.000 Listen to these words. 38 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:45.000 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners. 39 00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:50.000 We're like orphans, fatherless. Our mothers are like widows. 40 00:10:50.000 --> 00:11:27.000 I want you to see things from their perspective. As they were looking at this situation, they imagined that God had left them, that he had abandoned them completely, that he was nowhere to be seen, nowhere to be heard. They also felt like foreigners had come in and taking their own property, like they were not welcome in their own home. These people had taken over like it was theirs. They also felt like, hey, they had been so abandoned. They felt like widows and orphans. And so from their perspective, you can see their outrage, like, why God, we are your people. Why is it that you are allowing these things to take place? And why are you waiting so long to bring us the relief that we're looking for? But from God's perspective, things are very, very different. 41 00:11:27.000 --> 00:11:33.000 Because in reality, they had abandoned him. They left and went into idolatry. 42 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:42.000 They also mistreated foreigners and they themselves neglected widows and orphans. 43 00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:47.000 Can I bring us a question this morning? Church? 44 00:11:47.000 --> 00:11:51.000 These are things that have been timeless with God. 45 00:11:51.000 --> 00:12:01.000 These are things that he has required of us over and over. Hospitality and kindness toward people that don't look like we do. 46 00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:17.000 Taking care of the widows and the orphans. Isn't it, James, that says pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is to take care and visit the widows and orphans in their affliction and to remain unspotted from the world? 47 00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:49.000 See, you wouldn't know it, but in Jeremiah he had warned them of this. And by the way, this has not just happened in Jeremiah. There's several other prophets that warned them about the way they treated other people. And notice what he says here. If you truly amend your ways, this is Jeremiah warning them, like maybe four decades before they even come to this point. He's saying to them, hey, by the way, you need to remember this. He later says it again In Jeremiah, chapter 22, verse 3 through 5 says the same thing. Hey, by the way, you're doing some things that are not good. You need to execute justice and you need to come back to God. 48 00:12:49.000 --> 00:13:04.000 You don't need to oppress the sojourner. You don't need to oppress the fatherless and the widow. And he says that then if you do these things and if you come back to me, then I will let you live in this land. Do you see what's happening here? 49 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:15.000 They've been warned and warned and warned and warned for centuries, and their behavior had finally come to a point where God could no longer tolerate it. 50 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:19.000 So this is not just a message for them, it's a message for our time. 51 00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:25.000 Because the reality is, if we ignore God's message, we're going to do so at our own peril. 52 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:32.000 He's not saying these things to an empty audience. He's saying it not only to them, but to us. 53 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:35.000 Are we putting other things before him. 54 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:42.000 Are we giving ourselves to other things that we find more important than God? 55 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:47.000 Are we treating the people around us the way God's people should? 56 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:49.000 Remember, we're supposed to be the light. 57 00:13:49.000 --> 00:13:57.000 We're supposed to be the one who set the example and the standard for other people. This is a timeless thing that God is asking of us. 58 00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:48.000 Here's what happens when you don't follow those commands. Louis says we must pay for the water, and the wood we get must be bought. Our pursuers are at our necks, and we are so weary. The idea here is that the things that God provided for us, the things that once were ours and unbelievable amounts are now, they're not there as much. But even the stuff that is there is owned by somebody else. And they're taking advantage of the situation. They're requiring money of us. So do you see what's happening? The thing that God gave us in so many ways has now been taken away, and now we're having to even pay. It's like almost like a double payment. It's just not that it's ours, but now we have to give more to it. It says our pursuers are around our neck. The idea is we're kind of getting choked out here. Like, this is getting so overbearing and so ridiculous that our eyes are dimming and saying, hey, life is coming out of us in the midst of this. 59 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:57.000 And I just want us to be reminded that this is what it looks like when we leave the safety net of God and his provisions. 60 00:14:57.000 --> 00:15:08.000 And so it requires all of us to maybe stop for just a moment and ask, are these some of the things that we're looking past, some of the requirements that God has given us even today? 61 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:15.000 Lamentations 5, 7, and 8 says this. Our fathers sinned and are no more, and we bear their iniquities. 62 00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:19.000 Slaves rule over us. There is none to deliver us from their hand. 63 00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:26.000 I want to bring us to another awareness, you know, we talk about this, that there are no coattails that lead to heaven. 64 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:59.000 The idea that, you know, I came from good stock, that I have a great family legacy, that my, you know, great uncle was an elder in the church and I was active and I've been to church every day. You know, the doors are open and all those kinds of things. And because I had this familial connection, because these people ahead of me, my grandfather, my mother, whatever it may be, those people were good people. Just because that is the case does not necessarily mean that you yourself, in your faith walk, are going to find yourself acceptable before God just because of your association with those people. I want you to understand that. 65 00:15:59.000 --> 00:16:39.000 But in the same vein, you're not going to be punished necessarily for what your father or your mother or your grandfather or other people did. And you're also not going to be punished for the things that people have done to you personally. So you may say to me, brandon, you have no idea what my life is like. It's terrible. I've had a really rough upbringing. I've had difficult days. I've had a tough time going. It's been really hard on me. And I may say to you, you are so right, and I love you, and I want to pray with you, and I want us to help work through those situations. But what I want you to understand right now is that what happened to you has absolutely zero bearing on who you are right now. 66 00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:53.000 Because as far as I can tell, every one of us have the ability to choose and to make a better decision and to change direction in our life. I want us to grasp this right. The rebellion of generations gone by has nothing to do with your spiritual deficiency. 67 00:16:53.000 --> 00:17:06.000 Like, you can't say, well, you don't know how tough I had it, and use that as your crutch forevermore. No. No. It's time for you to make the decision and change the course. And you have the power to do it. 68 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:08.000 Every one of you do. 69 00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:22.000 We own where we are right now, today. Whatever situation you find yourself in right now, you're owning that but you have the power to change those things. 70 00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:27.000 Says princes are hung up by their hands. No respect is shown to the elders. 71 00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:36.000 Young men are compelled to grind at the meal. The boys stagger under loads of wood. The old men have left the city gate, and the young men have lost their music. Do you hear what he's saying? We've lost all joy. 72 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:39.000 But it's not just that we lost joy. 73 00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:45.000 We lost some critical pieces of our society. 74 00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:51.000 If I may, for just a moment, I want to challenge our men for a second. 75 00:17:51.000 --> 00:17:55.000 Man, listen to what's happening here. 76 00:17:55.000 --> 00:18:17.000 Little boys are overburdened by the stacks of wood that they're having to carry. They basically become slaves. There's no grown men to take care of the situation, Right? But then you also got this absence at the gates. And, you know, back in their culture, one of the things that's so critically important is the. The elders of the city would gather at the gate, and it was their collective wisdom that would help decide some things. 77 00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:33.000 They would say, yes, that's an approved agreement between these two people. They would settle disputes. They would give land to different people. They, as a group, would be the officials of the city. And so you'd meet at the gate. A lot of things happened at the gate, but guess what? There's nobody at the gate. 78 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:37.000 Why is that? 79 00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:46.000 It's because when you look at all these things, those young boys bearing the load and those wise men absent at the gates, that's a reality check. 80 00:18:46.000 --> 00:18:49.000 That men have left their post. 81 00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:57.000 And you may say, well, yeah, Brandon, they were all captured by Babylon, they were taken into captivity. But you gotta get back to, why is that the case? 82 00:18:57.000 --> 00:19:22.000 It's because the men in their world did not take ownership of their family, their direction, their spiritual movement, their. They didn't look to God, they didn't follow his ways. They allowed idolatry to creep in. They were okay and satisfied with things that crept into their world, that defiled who they were as people. And so ultimately, God, when his patients ran out, sent them into captivity because of the absence of their leadership. 83 00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:34.000 Let me take you back to Deuteronomy, chapter 6, Deuteronomy, chapter 11, Psalm 78, and a host of other passages. We need men who right now in their families, own it. 84 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:41.000 Taking care of them, physically speaking, honoring their wives, showing them respect and love. 85 00:19:41.000 --> 00:20:01.000 They need to be great men of faith for their children to look up to, to lead their family, to talk to them about spiritual things and to show them the way of God and man. I have to say it as I look into this audience with this talent filled group of men. We have to step our game up. 86 00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:12.000 It's time for us to heed the warning of these people and to be the men of God. He has called us to be in our families. 87 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:17.000 As a result of that absence of leadership, that joy is gone. 88 00:20:17.000 --> 00:20:22.000 But notice some of the other terminology that's used. That crown has fallen from their heads. 89 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:26.000 Do you see sort of their mentality about how they felt about who they were. 90 00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:32.000 We're sons, we're children of the most high God of Israel. 91 00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:48.000 And so they had taken that on. Man. We are royalty. God takes care of his people. He's going to go before us and fight our battles. He's going to. We have David in our arsenal. We have all these other kings. Solomon built this great temple and all these kinds of things. We are wearing that crown. 92 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:56.000 And it's in that moment, as he's talking about this, as Jeremiah is saying this, that the recognition of that hits him. 93 00:20:56.000 --> 00:21:08.000 He says, woe to us for we have sinned. We put ourselves in that situation like we are sovereign, like we're powerful, like we're able to control everything. And that's definitely not the case. 94 00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:13.000 So perpetual sin. And I want to talk about this for just a moment. 95 00:21:13.000 --> 00:21:27.000 You may not have thought about sin this way, but perpetual, continual, all the time, keeping it going. Sinful behavior is really kind of a form of arrogance. 96 00:21:27.000 --> 00:22:12.000 If you know what God has to say and yet you are doing something sinful and you find yourself like doing it over and over and thinking, well, there's really no consequence to this. There's really nothing. I want you to understand you're testing the patience of God and in the process of that, it can lead you down this really prideful direction that's really destructive, but also give you this sense of entitlement like the world belongs to you. Like you're just supposed to be able to do whatever you want and get what you want in advance. You know, this equals this. And this is what cranks out at the end is I get what I'm looking for, but that's not the way it is in the Bible. If we refuse to turn back to God, if we continue in sin, there are going to be consequences and it's going to pour out on us so heavy and we got to fight this sense of entitlement. 97 00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:14.000 It's in this moment. 98 00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:20.000 And I'm thankful that as he says, hey, when we wear the crown, we fall. 99 00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:30.000 When we put ourselves in that situation of power and we are in Control. Guess what? It all comes crumbling down. All of those walls fall. 100 00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:54.000 But you, O Lord, reign forever. And that's a great pivot. We talked about this early on in chapter three, that there's a way for us to spiritually pivot. And it seems right now that Jeremiah is making a comparison. When we lead, we fail. But when you, Lord, your reign is forever. So it's really good that we are putting God back on the throne of our hearts, so to speak. 101 00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:57.000 It's great that we're doing that. 102 00:22:57.000 --> 00:23:00.000 But I want us to understand something. 103 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:05.000 Restoration doesn't come from just saying the right things. 104 00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:23.000 We can't just be a kind of people who say, oh, we need to be doing these things. This, this, this. Right after the other, you know, all of these things. We got to work this out. We got to do this and this, this. We need to be people of this. We can say that all day long. But if nothing happens inside of us that moves us in a direction, it's empty, it's void. 105 00:23:23.000 --> 00:23:34.000 God is calling us to let those words change us and push us in a direction that leads us closer to Him. 106 00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:39.000 Here's that ending part that is so hard to swallow. 107 00:23:39.000 --> 00:23:41.000 Why do you get us forever? 108 00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:43.000 Oh, man. 109 00:23:43.000 --> 00:23:51.000 You ever had that moment in despair where you thought, oh, this is endless. There is no end to this sorrow. 110 00:23:51.000 --> 00:24:00.000 Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored. Renew our days as of old. Unless you have utterly rejected us and you remain exceedingly angry with us. 111 00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:03.000 See the scripty. The end. 112 00:24:03.000 --> 00:24:48.000 That's the end of what takes place in Lamentations. It's not the ending I would have wanted. It's not the one that you keep reading for to go, okay, how does this all get worked out? God's people gonna rebound, right? And you look at this, and I'm telling you, the people of this time felt this despair. In fact, if you look at even the structure of Lamentations, you're gonna see, like, one chapter after another where it's all organized and thoughtful and it's pleading to God and it's rhythmic and it's poetic and all these things. It's a certain structure that they're following. You get to chapter five, and the weariness falls out. And, yeah, they do the 22 verses again, but it's just like, ugh, it's not the same rhythm. It's not the same. It's just a falling apart in despair. And it just ends right there. 113 00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:57.000 And sometimes I recognize that it feels like God is not listening or doesn't care what we're going through or doesn't hear what's being said. 114 00:24:57.000 --> 00:25:06.000 But it's important to remind us that though God may be silent, he's not absent and he's not inactive. 115 00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:19.000 Let me see if I can prove this to you just through Scripture, how God, even in this painful moment of discipline. And by the way, God's hand of discipline is painful. 116 00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:32.000 But I go back to Proverbs 3:11. I go back to Hebrews chapter 12. And I find out that the reason that chastisement hurts is because. Because it's meant to wake us up and bring us back to him. 117 00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:37.000 He's not absent or inactive. Here's what I mean by that. 118 00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:46.000 150 years before a man by the name of Cyrus was born, Isaiah the prophet spoke about him. 119 00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:53.000 He says of Cyrus, this is God talking through him. He is my shepherd, Cyrus is. 120 00:25:53.000 --> 00:26:01.000 He shall fulfill all my purpose. And it's in connection with what they're going to be going through in Jerusalem. 121 00:26:01.000 --> 00:26:32.000 But not only that. There's a prophecy that Jeremiah does. He comes to them and he expresses some things and he talks to them really hard. And he says, hey, there's some things that you need to be aware of that's coming. There's going to be a captivity that's going to take place for over 70 years. And so we look at Jeremiah chapter 25, and he says this. The whole land shall become a ruin and a waste. And after 70 years, completed, I will punish the king of Babylon. In other words, I'm raising up a kingdom that's going to come in and wipe you out. Eventually, I'll come in and I'll take care of them, too. But right now, they're going to be instruments of mine to put this all together. 122 00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:43.000 So Babylon comes in and they take certain people. So the next part of this is Daniel. We know the prophet Daniel, right? He's the one in the lion's den. He's the one that was raised up in power. 123 00:26:43.000 --> 00:27:32.000 But he was taken in this first deportation. And it says that Nebuchadnezzar, when he came into this area, the first deportation before they destroyed Jerusalem, took a certain group of people out. And he was looking for people like this youth without blemish, good appearance, skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding, learning, and competent. These were the young men that they were going to teach their Babylonian ways and culture them and all these kinds of things. And you'll remember some of the names of these cats, right? They had Hebrew names to begin with, but they were given these Names that we know, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And you guys remember that story. How amazing is it that they would not bow to that golden idol that Nebuchadnezzar had made, that they refuse to. They're brought to him. And he says, you need to bow. They're like, we're not going to bow. And he says, you need to bow or you're going to be thrown into the fiery furnace. Turns it up seven times as hot. We've read this story before, right? 124 00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:46.000 And they say, hey, we're not going to bow. And it may be that we die in there, but we don't think we're going to die. We think God's going to save us. But even if he doesn't save us, we will still never bow to this false God. 125 00:27:46.000 --> 00:27:50.000 So they throw them in the furnace, and the guys who throw them in burn to a crispy. 126 00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:59.000 And they are standing inside, and they pull them out, and they don't even smell like smoke. And it's amazing. Nebuchadnezzar's like, there is only one God. 127 00:27:59.000 --> 00:28:08.000 Do you see how them being placed in that proximity raises a flag to say, God protected them. There is one God. 128 00:28:08.000 --> 00:29:07.000 But then we think about Daniel and how he was blessed and how he did great things. And it says that the king had planned to set him over the kingdom. Like he had increased in his influence in so powerful ways. He prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian, okay, the Persians had come in and taken out the Babylonians. And now this king was saying, daniel, you're the kind of man that I'd like to run the kingdom. But then Ezekiel, okay, this second wave of people that came into Jerusalem and took 10,000 captives back into Babylon, that second deportation, Ezekiel's there, and it tells us that he was among those exiles, and he was one that through the spirit was led to teach them by the rivers of Babylon the truth of God to remind them that they needed to repent and turn back to God and they needed to leave all those abominations that they had embraced through the years. Do you see what's happening? God is putting some key players in place, saying, come back to me. Return. 129 00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:11.000 And yet they're there, but nothing's happening just yet. 130 00:29:11.000 --> 00:29:38.000 But then God even initiates this in King Cyrus. He says to him, hey, the Lord, the God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him. And let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel. Do you see what he's doing? 131 00:29:38.000 --> 00:30:25.000 God has put all of these things in place in his sovereign hand. While he's punishing these people, he's putting these key things in place, waiting for their time where their hearts are right to return back to him tells us that the altar was built to restore worship to God. Ezra tells us about this, how they came in and they restored the burnt offerings together. Again, it says the temple of the Lord had not been built yet, but they came back for worship. And that's a reminder to us, too, that worship is so critically important to us, piecing things back together, that we stop for a moment and that we praise God and we honor him with our hearts. That that's. That first step of repentance is coming back and saying, I lay it all at your feet and I offer my life as a sacrifice to you. 132 00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:31.000 But then ultimately the temple was rebuilt and Passover was restored. 133 00:30:31.000 --> 00:30:43.000 Here in. Ezra goes on to tell us about how this was done, when it was done, and that they came together and they celebrated, and then they partook of the Passover again. 134 00:30:43.000 --> 00:30:57.000 Now, can you just for a moment think all these people and all they heard about coming out of Egypt and how that Passover was instituted and how they. They celebrated that Passover year by year. 135 00:30:57.000 --> 00:31:14.000 And now these guys have been taken out of their land, they're off in this other place, and ultimately God brings them back and they. The first thing they want to do is recognize Passover again, right? It's like they're freed again. And it means so much that God frees us from our bondages. 136 00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:37.000 So I go Back to Lamentations 3, and this text kind of pulls me back into that hope in the midst of all the despair. You can hear kind of the words of Jeremiah as he says, the Lord will not cast off forever, for though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love. 137 00:31:37.000 --> 00:31:48.000 So it's interesting that God punished them, but all the while was putting people in place to lead them back to Him. 138 00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:49.000 Do you understand? 139 00:31:49.000 --> 00:32:01.000 A God who disciplines us is also the same God that is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 140 00:32:01.000 --> 00:32:04.000 That's a powerful thing. 141 00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:09.000 So many of the exiles, they missed out on that restoration. They didn't get to experience that. 142 00:32:09.000 --> 00:32:15.000 But God, in his timing, was faithful to all of his promises. 143 00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:21.000 I didn't tell you the end of the story of life is beautiful. 144 00:32:21.000 --> 00:32:27.000 Shots rang out, chaos ensued. And then everybody fled that concentration camp. 145 00:32:27.000 --> 00:32:42.000 When all the dust had settled, when everything got silent and quiet, Yeshua climbed out of that sweat box and walked around in these empty streets until he heard the rumble of something off in the distance. 146 00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:46.000 And around the corner came what? 147 00:32:46.000 --> 00:32:48.000 A tank and the allied forces. 148 00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:52.000 And of course, his face was like, wha. 149 00:32:52.000 --> 00:32:56.000 This is a parade for me. 150 00:32:56.000 --> 00:33:03.000 And so an American soldier grabs him and puts him on that tank, and he's riding around and he sees his mother. His mother had somehow survived. 151 00:33:03.000 --> 00:33:09.000 And they reunited the two of them. And he's up in that tank and he's like, mama, we won. 152 00:33:09.000 --> 00:33:13.000 We won. 153 00:33:13.000 --> 00:33:20.000 I think probably for the children of Israel, it felt the same way. 154 00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:25.000 Right? Things are different. The consequence of our sin hurt. 155 00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:35.000 The realities of what we've gone through are real, but they're there to teach us that life is beautiful. 156 00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:42.000 Yeah. Our sin takes us away from God and creates consequences in our life. It makes things difficult for us. 157 00:33:42.000 --> 00:33:47.000 But ultimately, living in the light of God is a blessing. 158 00:33:47.000 --> 00:33:52.000 Have you ever thought that God has forgotten about you? 159 00:33:52.000 --> 00:33:56.000 I'm sure there are folks in our audience who have gone through that. 160 00:33:56.000 --> 00:34:06.000 I'm sure there have been moments where you think God doesn't care one bit about who I am or what I'm up to. He's left me completely. 161 00:34:06.000 --> 00:34:20.000 Could you maybe take something from this lesson and say, maybe God is waiting and putting things in your life and reminding you in different ways to love him, to come back to him, to return to him. 162 00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:33.000 Because the God who actively sought after and waited for their return is the same God who is waiting for those of us who are in the midst of sin but need to return. 163 00:34:33.000 --> 00:34:46.000 He's put all kinds of things in our in place to help us, and including the greatest rescue plan, the greatest restoration plan of all time, which was his son, Jesus. 164 00:34:46.000 --> 00:34:54.000 It wasn't just in the background. No. Heaven came down and glory filled his soul. 165 00:34:54.000 --> 00:35:02.000 Jesus came down, put on flesh, walked among us. His broken and beaten and battered body endured all the hardship and the misery that we face. 166 00:35:02.000 --> 00:35:11.000 And yet he did so in order to go to the cross to pay the price for us so we could be restored back to God. 167 00:35:11.000 --> 00:35:48.000 Do you see how as the more I read Lamentations, chapters one through five are really a synopsis of what we endure in life as a Christian. As a Christian, right. We are born into Christ and we have this blessing. We are a child of God. We see the blessings that he gives us and we are excited about that. But then life happens and difficulties come and temptations are there and we choose the wrong things and we bring these consequences upon ourself. And still, yet still because we belong to Christ, we have an advocate and we have a person that we can go to. As the Bible says, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us of those sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 168 00:35:48.000 --> 00:36:02.000 That is the God who you may be feeling the punishment over the discipline or the struggle but it's that God who sent his son to die for you so you could be with him forever, freed from all that. 169 00:36:02.000 --> 00:36:05.000 In a sense we're all broken. 170 00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.000 The people in that time were broken. You and I are broken too. 171 00:36:09.000 --> 00:36:16.000 And all of us have a need to come just as we are this morning. Let's do so if you need to while we stand and sing.