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Here is a sampling of some of the messages that have made a special impact at CCiPH, and that have been transcribed or written in manuscript. Most weeks in our equipping assembly, at least one man has been asked to prepare a message that will build up believers. Often, the message is taken from the liturgical Gospel reading of the day, or it is a life message that God has been working into the fabric of that man. It is included here to build you up. |
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Following Jeremiah into the Desert Message by Rob Fleenor in August, 2006
Great. Another spiritually dry week. And I’ve been wondering, what am I doing wrong? Am I just taking normal things that show up in life and letting them pressure me? Do I need to simplify my life somehow and cut some things from my schedule? Really, in all of the busy-ness of my life, I just want to live a simple little life with by God’s side. But I’m not sensing Him around. I find myself praying, but there’s still a wall there. I’ve tried fasting, and there’s still a wall there. I mentioned this to Shawnee and she said, “So, you’re actually experiencing what you preached about?” Well, yeah. But I only wanted to preach about it! I didn’t want to experience it. This month we’re talking about those spiritual dry times that we all have. How do we deal with them? How do I pursue intimacy with God when it feels like He’s left me all alone? Is it possible to flourish, even when it feels like I’m dying of thirst? Are there some survival tips – ways to survive the heat? When is it going to end? I don’t know if you’ve ever spent much time in the book of Lamentations, but it’s an amazing book. In the original Hebrew, it’s a giant poem of mourning – a sad song. And in each chapter, every verse starts with a different letter of the Hebrew Alphabet. So chapter 1 has 22 verses, and so do chapters 2, 4 and 5. But chapter 3 uses the 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet 3 times, so you end up with 66 verses. 5 chapters, 154 verses. Pretty amazing that the prophet Jeremiah can write a lament – a poem of grieving covering the alphabet from A to Z. But what’s even more amazing about Lamentations is what Jeremiah says in those 154 verses. Do you remember Nebuchadnezzar from last week? Nebuchadnezzar was the king of the Babylonian Empire, and at the time, he was the most powerful man in the world. And last week, we talked about how Nebuchadnezzar learned who God was only after God drove him – figuratively and literally – into the wilderness – into the desert. Nebuchadnezzar plays a key role in the book of Lamentations, too, although his name is never mentioned. The book of Lamentations happens a few years before the events in the book of Daniel that we looked at last week. So let’s back up a little bit and set the stage for what’s happening in Lamentations. The nation of Judah and its capital city had been in spiritual decline for hundreds of years. And the further they drifted away from God, the more they suffered at the hands of foreign powers. Ultimately, God says, “I’ve had enough! As a nation, you’re through.” And it’s then that the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar starts putting pressure on Judah. In 597 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar forces Jerusalem’s surrender. Nebuchadnezzar attacks Jerusalem. The king of Judah and his officials surrender and are taken into exile along with the upper class and middle productive class. Nebuchadnezzar loots and vandalizes the temple and takes the wealth of the Jerusalem and Judah. And Nebuchadnezzar does something pretty common in the ancient world: he appoints a puppet government, under a guy by the name of Zedekiah, to be king over the land of Judah. But oddly, Zedekiah wasn’t the brightest guy. All he has to do is keep his nose clean and pay an annual tribute to Nebuchadnezzar. But 11 years after he’s made king, Zedekiah rebels against Nebuchadnezzar. And Nebuchadnezzar is fed up with this troublesome, rebellious city. He gathers his army and returns to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built on a hill that’s inaccessible from three sides. Only from the north can it be attacked. So Nebuchadnezzar camps his army to the north of the city, surrounds the escape routes in the valley, and begins the slow, methodical work of starving out the city. For six months, no one comes in or out of Jerusalem. There’s a hidden water supply inside, but no food. The resistance along the walls gets weaker, and meanwhile, Nebuchadnezzar’s army has been building ramps up to the city to break inside. In 586 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar’s army breaks into Jerusalem. The temple is completely destroyed. The city walls are torn down, and the city is burned. The remaining people are exiled, leaving only a few poor to keep up the land Remember the puppet king, Zedekiah? Nebuchadnezzar executes Zedekiah’s sons while he watches, and then his eyes are put out and he’s taken into exile. And that’s the background of the book of Lamentations. A destroyed city and a broken people. Very few people left around. They’ve all been taken into exile. There’s no food, because Nebuchadnezzar’s army has taken it all. The government, he skilled craftsmen, and the educators – gone. And wandering amidst the destruction of the once great city of Jerusalem is the prophet Jeremiah. And as an expression of emotional release, and repentance, and a begging to God for relief, Jeremiah sits down and pens Lamentations. [Lamentations 1:1-3] And the description of the anguish in Jerusalem goes downhill from there. If you read through the book, you’ll find out what people were experiencing. There’s depression, because you couldn’t believe this was coming. And when it did, is was worse than anything you could possibly imagine. What’s left of the upper class has become poverty class, because their wealth doesn’t matter anymore. Having a nice home and lots of slaves means nothing if you have nothing to eat. And speaking of slaves, Jeremiah mentions that slaves have now become the ruling class. They were always the strong ones, and when chaos erupts, the slaves take over. And many slaves want revenge. Women are raped. People in the nobility are killed, and the chaos escalates. I mentioned that there was hidden water supply in the city, but you can imagine that a group of thugs took it over. If you wanted food or even water, you had to buy it. But even so, the famine became worse. People became emaciated. Jeremiah says that the food supply was so short that women ate their own babies in order to survive. Corpses remained in the streets, unburied. And a people that had been filled with faith, turned on the messengers, and murdered priests and prophets. Humans acted like animals. At one point, Jeremiah says that jackals are more civilized. And for Jeremiah, worse than all the suffering, is the sense of the desert. That God himself has his back toward the city of Jerusalem, and there is no joy. I’m sorry the description is so violent, so hopelessly dark. But you realize that’s what we’re talking about. Being in a place that’s dark, where we know there’s light all around us, but we can’t see it. Why Lamentations? Why talk about a desert this dry – this hopeless? It’s not because anyone is saying, “See, your desert isn’t really all that bad, so get over it.” We’re looking at Lamentations because we want to follow Jeremiah out into the desert. We want to see how he survives. Because we’re thirsty, we want to see if Jeremiah, parched by the suffering all around him, can find anything to drink. Because maybe then we can find some water in our desert, too. If you want to see how Jeremiah survives in the desert, it’s in Lamentations chapter 3. Let me start reading in verse 22. [Lamentations 3:22-24] Put yourself in Jeremiah’s place. The daughter of a friend is sexually assaulted, and the Lord’s lovignkindnesses never cease. Men have died and their bodies rot in the street, and God’s compassions never fail. A baby is killed by her own mother, and God’s compassions are new every morning. Humanity acts like animals, and great is God’s faithfulness. And when there’s no more tears to cry, God is my hope. It’s here that I get sermon block, because I know where Jeremiah has been, and I see where’s he going, and I see what he drinks. But what I don’t understand is how he got that kind of water. How did he get to the point where it was natural for him in the midst of the desert, to reach right into the heart and nature of God for refreshment? Maybe we can look to Jeremiah for some desert survival tips. DESERT SURVIVAL TIP: Drink whatever you can. Drink whatever you can. In other words, soak up God in any way and as much as you can. When you’re in the desert, you don’t have the reserves to dig a well. Take a drip where you can find it, or some dew from God’s new morning mercies, and you’ll survive. God’s mercies are new every morning. Find a new mercy, and hold on tight. You’ve got people who care about you and love you. Don’t forget that. You’ve got a roof over your head for another day. God – today – is meeting your needs. So find a mercy of God and hold on. And you’ll survive. DESERT SURVIVAL TIP: Watch out for mirages. Watch out for mirages. It was Jeremiah who penned the words, “The heart is more deceitful than anything else, desperately sick. Who can understand it?” I think when we’re in the desert, we want to believe in the mirages – spiritual miracle cures that quench that inner thirst. Shawnee has been pursuing growth in prayer. She’s reading books on different kinds of prayer and meditation. She’s practicing prayer and trying to find out if she can get closer to God. She’s looking to quench a thirst. She recently came across a book entitled Twelve Weeks to Spiritual Growth. Wouldn’t that be great! One book and three months of exercises to make me everything I spiritually need to be. And I think about that book, and what it represents, and I’m sensing a mirage. A spiritual mirage is anything that promises an easy drink. A mirage is something that says that you can be spiritually freed from the desert without plunging into the water that is the heart of God. So expose yourself to the heart of God. Expose yourself to the heart of God often. Abba Poemen of the desert fathers, said “The nature of water is soft, that of stone is hard; but if a bottle is hung above the stone, allowing the water to fall drop by drop, it wears away the stone. So it is with the word of God; it is soft and our heart is hard, but the [one] who hears the word of God often, opens his heart to the fear of God.” Michael Casey says it this way. “Water can wear away rock, but it needs time as its ally. God’s word will certainly refashion our lives, but not overnight. The process begins from the center and works outward; its results will not be apparent on the surface for a very long time. Meanwhile, we have to accept and submit to the vagaries of this invisible process without losing heart or abandoning our sense of purpose.” No matter how we cut it, finding water in the desert always comes back to knowing the heart and mind of God and letting it shape you. Dripping water will shape you over time, but so will dripping sewage. And part of our job of surviving in the desert is to expose ourselves to spiritual water. If looking for God in the pages of the Bible feels like going through the motions, then keep going through the motions. If prayer makes you feel like you’re talking to a wall, keep talking to the wall. If it feels that your spiritual life is desperate, then act out of desperation. Do whatever takes to get inside that oasis that is the heart and mind of God. You hit a desert you weren’t expecting, and experience a thirst you could never imagine. Put yourself in Jeremiah’s place. Marriage or finances are a struggle, and the Lord’s lovingkindesses never cease. Sin and addiction are eating away at my soul, and God’s compassions never fail. A baby dies, and God’s mercies are new every morning. I’m lonely for God, and great is God’s faithfulness. And when there’s no more tears to cry, God is my hope. So you’re standing in the desert. Adjust your hat to keep the sun out of your eyes, and glance out over the terrain. You see those little wavy lines of heat distortion? That’s what’s waiting for you. But don’t despair. There’s water out there waiting for you, too. In spite of the heat – in spite of the dryness, keep going. There’s an invisible process going on where God eliminates self-sufficiency and pride and indifference and sin – and everything else that gets us into the desert in the first place. So put another foot forward – take that one more step, trusting that you’re that much closer to the Living Water. |
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