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Mar 07, 2021

Lamenting Well

Preacher: Andrew Repsold

Keywords: prayer, honesty, edification, lament

Summary:

Virtually every part of the Bible deals with believers who lament, some well, others not so much. This message teaches us the value and virtues of lament in our relationship with God. It instructs us on how to lament well and walks us into a time of biblical and virtuous lament.

Detail:

Mosaic Fellowship

Lament Service, March 7, 2021

 

Introduction: Today we are going to experience a service of Lament together.

Lament: “engaging with God in the midst of hardship” suffering/mourning/confusion/doubt.

We are doing this because we are in LENT right now. But also because there is a blessing in mourning…there is an experience of God in (sorrow, sadness, pain, torture, confusion, doubt) for God’s people.

Ecclesiastes 7:2-4:

                        It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for    death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart. Frustration is better     than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.

Matthew 5:4

4 Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.    -Jesus

We are usually better at praising God in times of good then we are in times of sorrow. It doesn’t help when we rarely lament together as a congregation because causes it to be an unknown, uncomfortable experience. It also communicates to one another that we need to have our stuff together before we come together…before you engage with God.

“We must lay before him what is in us; not what ought to be in us.”

-C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer

suffering in silence is not a virtue in the Bible. God’s people are not asked to deny their emotions but to voice their protest, to vent their feelings and pour it all out before God…and in community.

The Beginning of Lament…

Part 1: Honest expression to God… total transparency. (probably more honest then you might be used to)

examples:

Psalm 137

8 Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction,
    happy is the one who repays you
    according to what you have done to us.
9 Happy is the one who seizes your infants
    and dashes them against the rocks.

Psalm 10

1Why, Lord, do you stand far off?
    Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

Models of Lament (Engaging with God in everything)

“I feel ____________ because of ______________.”

Possible examples:

  1. The apparent prosperity of the wicked and the affliction of the righteous:

Jeremiah 12:1-4

  • I feel doubt that you are Just because I see the wicked prosper and the righteous struggle. (example: cheaters in school get better grades then those who were honest. Mr. Mcdonald who stole the idea and then ran them out of business).

Jeremiah’s Complaint

12 You are always righteous, Lord,
    when I bring a case before you.
Yet I would speak with you about your justice:
    Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
    Why do all the faithless live at ease?

  1. Paul Lamenting his sinfulness.

Romans 7:24

24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

  • I feel helpless regarding righteousness because I see a law of sin in my members (body) drawing me to commit sins.

Mark 9:24 (father with the possessed Boy)

  1. The Father is lamenting his lack of faith in Jesus.

24 Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

  • I feel weak in my faith because I wrestle with so much doubt about the Bible and Jesus.
  1. The Psalmist lamenting his lack of hope in God.
  • I feel lack of hope, for reasons I don’t know!

 Psalm 42:

5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?

  1. Jesus lamenting the cross…his calling by God.

I feel apprehensive about bearing the sins of the world and being crucified.

There is a part of Jesus saying…I don’t want to be crucified. It is intimidating to me.

Luke 22:42

 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me…

Honest expression (lament) without submission is just complaint. And the bible speaks against this (think Job or Romans 9, Isaiah 55:9). When honest expression becomes accusation, it is no longer good for our souls…no longer worship. It doesn’t move us towards God, but away from him.

LAMENTATIONS 3:22-24

22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
    therefore I will wait for him.”

Lament: Honest expression to God because you desire intimacy with him. (It will include things like submission, declaring to yourself the truths of God, recalling ways that God has worked in your life previously, asking him to work in you, processing your fears and doubts with other people (Job), praising him (Hebrews 13:15 15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.)

Examples again:

  1. Jeremiah 12:1 (Declaring Truth about God and remembering past experiences with him).

You are always righteous, Lord,
when I bring a case before you.
Yet I would speak with you about your justice:
    Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
    Why do all the faithless live at ease?

  1. Romans 7:24 (declaring truth about God and reminding himself of his future hope)

24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 

25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

  1. Mark 9:24 (Asking God to help you with your struggle)

23 “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. 

“Everything is possible for one who believes.”

24 Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

  1. Psalm 42:5 (Praising God. Reminding your soul that he is your saviour)

5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.

VERSE 6: (Remembering things God has done and turning your attention to him and less on your trial/suffering).

6 My soul is downcast within me;
    therefore I will remember you…

  1. Luke 22:42 (submission in the midst of suffering)

42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” 

Lesson: You can engage in praise, not only as a reaction to the love of God, but in the midst of suffering and doubt as a way of pursuing God’s love and goodness (an act of faith).

We are going to move into a time of honest expression: think of things that confuse you about God or frustrate you about the world.

examples:

-Lament the moral decline of a nation

-Lament abandonment of children

-lament economic decline and poverty

-Lament your sins

-Lament your relationships (“I wish they were dead”)

-Lament your health, your age

-Lament your gifts…your calling by God.

-Lament the brokenness of the church

We are now going to identify these things and write them down…bring them to the light.

Outline the rest of the service:

-my song of lament…comes from a passage in Ecclesiastes and from Jesus on the cross…interspersed with verses of lament. (honest expression)

-move into calling our souls to focus back on God.  (sing team song, psalm 42)

-Psalm 10…and sing It is Well

-Communion-

-2 Songs of Praise

-Benediction about God’s power and authority over suffering and death.