What to Do When You Hit Rock Bottom - Brother Jeremiah Shipley

Whitten Baptist Church

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Good morning everybody, it should be a couple young men hanging out the outline, the hangouts for today.

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They're going to be a little different today. I left a few things blank,

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I hope you all will fill it out as we go and I will tell you what they are, obviously.

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And I left my room there, we have tables in here so people can take notes, so I kind of hope that they'll do that.

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Open up your Bibles, phone, Bible, whatever, we're going to need to read it.

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To Psalm 77, as you turn there I'll explain a few things. One, we're going to be talking today, the title of today's sermon is,

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What You Do When You Hit Rock Bottom. When you're at the lowest of the lows, when you're in some serious pain or suffering or loneliness, whatever that may be for you.

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What do we do then? We talk often about how to prevent that, but we don't talk about what to do once we're there.

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And that's what we're going to talk about today. By no means, and by no way am

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I saying that this is the only thing to do. Passage aside, we're just talking about the anxiety and depression class and some people need to go legitimately talk to their primary care.

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There's no saving that. So, and by no way am I saying that, oh well if you just do this and that's a one time fix all.

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The second thing you will never hear me say, you will never hear me say that all of this stuff is easy.

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You will not hear me say that. I was speaking to someone this past week and they're like, well how do

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I do that? I told them, well you need to have some willpower. We'll talk about that more later. You have to have a certain level of willpower to choose to do what is right and to choose to honor and follow

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God no matter what's going on. And that is not easy. Sometimes the simplest answers are the hardest.

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The simple answer of, you've just got to do it. It is such a difficult and tough answer, but that doesn't make it not true.

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Just because it's not easy does not change the requirements of what we already do. Amen? Amen. Alright, let us read.

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I'm going to stay here for just a second. I want everyone to look down. I want you to read Psalm 77 verses 1 -15.

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Everyone on their own right now. Read that. Verse 1.

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I cried out to God for help. I cried out to God to hear me.

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When I was in distress I sought the Lord. At night I stretched out untiring hands and I would not be comforted.

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I remembered you God and I groaned. I meditated and my soul grew faint.

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So we're going to talk about a few different places to hear tonight. We're going to go over three passages by the way. We're going to go over three passages.

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Each passage says the same message in a different way. And they give the same response of what our hearts and attitudes should be.

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And I'm going through all three to show you that Scripture is consistent. It is consistent in what our attitudes and hearts should be.

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So first off, we cried out to God. Jeremiah, I did pray. I tried praying and it didn't work.

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I tried reading Scripture and it didn't help. I didn't just pray, I meditated. I meditated on the

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Word of God. And I was uncomfortable to be comforted.

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Y 'all can struggle with that. You try to get help. You try to do the right thing. But it doesn't seem to take.

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You hop back on the horse, you fall off. You hop back on the horse, you fall off. You hop back on the horse, you fall off. I'm trying man.

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I really am. But it just doesn't seem to take. I've got to keep going. And I'm just getting tired.

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I'm tired of trying. I'm tired of having to get back up again and again and again.

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It would just wear me down. And I want to do what's right. I'll try.

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But it just... Again and again and again. Sin and depression and anxiety and loneliness and discouragement and self -doubt and self -hate.

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It just wears at you. It doesn't seem to go away. It doesn't. Time after time.

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We'll get back up. We'll get going. And it lasts like a week. And then we're back down again.

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We're right back down again in the same hole we just climbed out of. We question

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God on who we are. But we also question God on why are we here.

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God, why am I in this place? Why did you make me like this? Why did

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I... Even if it is because of our own fault. Why is it still haunting me? That was years ago.

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Why is it years ago?

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I should be over this by now. You ever heard that one? You should be over this by now. Shouldn't you?

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There's no timetable on grief, y 'all. There's not a timetable on grief.

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There's not a timetable on this. It's not a two months, three weeks, or four days and you're good. It doesn't work like that.

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Verse four. You kept my eyes from closing. I was too troubled to speak. Y 'all ever had sleepless nights?

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You ever had to say, hey, what's going on? And you're just like, well, talk to me.

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What's going on? Tell me what's going on through your head. I begged, this was years ago.

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I was begging, literally. Begging and pleading with someone.

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I was like, just talk to me. This was months. This was going on for months. And I was like, just say something, anything.

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Please just talk to me. And this person, all they could say was, I don't know.

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That was the answer every time. I was like, what do you mean? I couldn't. I was much younger. I couldn't. I'm like, what do you mean

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I don't know? I'm like, you are in a bad place. You're struggling. What do you mean you don't know?

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It means you don't know why you're struggling? But that was the truth. That person wasn't lying.

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They weren't being deceiving to me. They did not know. They were too troubled to even speak. Verse 5.

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And that right there, by the way, that's the unfaithfulness, that first point. When we struggle and we question

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God of why we are where we are. We don't have faith. It was Ruth who sat there and said,

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The Lord has dealt bitterly with me. But I will wait on him. One theologian called it bitter providence.

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Bitter providence that God has a plan for us. And that plan may or may not include a little bit of bitterness in there.

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Well, how does that work? Was the cross preordained? God talked about the cross in Genesis.

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And that was the most sinful pain flag in human history. But it was the providence of God through that king that brought you to my salvation.

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So, the same thing applies to us today. Sometimes God gives us bitter providence.

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He allows us to go through a pain so that, as it was with Joseph, What you meant for evil,

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God meant for good. The saving of many lives. The saving of many lives. You don't know what's going to come.

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There usually is an answer, but you're too scared to face it. Or if you're trying to and you don't know why,

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Sit and be patient on the Lord. Which we'll read in a second. Verse 5. I thought about the former days.

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I remembered my psalms in the night. My heart meditated and my spirit asked. Will the Lord reject forever?

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Will he never show his favor again? Has his unfailing love vanished forever?

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Has his promise failed for all time? Has he forgotten to be merciful? This is doubt.

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This is doubt. That's the second one. Doubt. We question

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God. We question not just why we are here. That was the first questioning.

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The second questioning is we doubt who he is. God, are you no longer merciful?

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Have you forgotten about me? Did you forget about me? The other form of questioning we have is we question why.

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I want to know, is this depressing? Do we see how this is exactly where we are today?

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We don't know how we got here. And so we question who

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God is. After we question why we are here, we will then question who he is and why he allowed it.

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Verse 10. Now here is the most important part. We are going to look at each verse. And I am going to go through the next two ones a little quicker.

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But we are going to go through each verse to transition. So the entire verse 1 -9 was,

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I am doing horrible. God, why don't you love me? Have you forgotten to be merciful? On and on. But there has got to be a transition point.

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And that is what I am here to tell you today. In your life, in your mind, and in your heart.

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There has got to be a transition. There has got to be a point when it comes to, I am doing bad, but that should change.

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What do we do then? Let us read the word of God. Then I thought, to this

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I will appeal. You have to appeal it. Acknowledge it and face it head on. To this

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I will appeal. The years when the lowest high stretched out his right hand. I will remember the deeds of the

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Lord. Yes, I will. Remember what we talked about? Willpower. I am sorry. Willpower. Look how he says,

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I will. I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will consider all your works.

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And meditate on your mighty deeds. You have to appeal.

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Question. Face. The loneliness, anxiety, depression. Whatever it is in your life.

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The drug abuse, the alcohol abuse. You have to face it. You have to appeal to it. And you have to remember the goodness of God.

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Sometimes you don't just have to have hope in the future. Sometimes you have to have hope in the past.

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What do you mean by that? That means don't just hold hope in what God will do. Remember the hope of the already ancient praise of the already

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God. That is what I mean when I say have hope in the past. Because you have to remember his goodness.

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Why does God repeatedly tell us of his goodness, his love? Because we are stupid and we forget it. What is your mind?

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You have already told me this before. I know. And I am going to tell you again. Hey man, you don't need to do that. Yeah, I already know.

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And I am going to tell you again. And again. And again. And again. And again. Don't go down that road.

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Come this way. You don't have to get the scar tissue. You don't have to get it.

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It is not a Bucky Beaver badge here. You can't just leave that one behind.

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You can't avoid that scar. You can't avoid that pain. You can't avoid that loneliness. It is not inherent for you to have that.

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It is not a necessity. You can avoid these things at times.

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But we have to remember who God is. And our mind and our heart, as Pastor Ben always says, speak truth into your own life.

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You must speak truth into your own life. You cannot let lies take captive and take hold.

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Because lies and sin will take you farther than you ever wanted to go and keep you longer than you ever wanted to stay.

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Amen? Amen. Your ways, God, are holy.

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What God is as great as our God. You are the God who performs miracles. God has faith.

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God is a big God. I have one of my brothers. He preached the whole sermon on God is a big

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God. God is a great God. God can do mighty things. That is so true. But God is also a

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God that cares about every little detail of your life. Don't think you're too small. Don't think low.

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My problems aren't real problems. That person over there, they're the ones really struggling.

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Go help them. It's not like that. It's not like that. If God won't even allow a sparrow to fall to the ground without him knowing, you think you're less

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God -able than that? You're no less God -able than that.

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God is a big God that carries big miracles and big works. He's also a

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God that cares about the smallest details. Don't forget that. Don't forget that. And I'm not going to get into this, but just know, it says the most high stretched out his hand.

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What does that mean? It means that he is the one who gave that.

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You're the baby crying in the crib. He's the one that reached out and picked you up. He stretched out his hand for you.

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We're going to go to Lamentations chapter three. It's what brother Andrew just had us read.

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That was not planned, by the way. Remember when we talked about bigger providence?

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Chapter three, verse one. It opens up by saying, it is under the

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Lord's rod. The Lord's rod. I'm the man who has seen affliction under the rod of the

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Lord's wrath. Verse 16.

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He has broken my teeth with gravel. He has trampled me in the dust. I have been deprived of peace.

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I have forget what prosperity or happiness is. If that's not a description of depression,

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I don't know what is. You've been deprived of peace and you have forgotten. It's been so long, you have forgotten what happiness is.

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You haven't tasted its sweetness in so long, you forgot. So I say, my splendor is gone.

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My splendor is gone, is the pain. And all that I had hoped from the

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Lord, I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.

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This is hopelessness. Hopelessness. That's a scary place to be.

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You don't think there's any light at the time. I have three people in the last six months that had this conversation with me.

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I asked them, I said, do you believe that there is permanent healing for what you're going through?

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And they said, no. All three of them, no. I said, so what does that mean? They said,

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I have to learn to deal with what I'm living in. I have to learn to live in it. I said, you have no real hope.

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You're hopeless. You think where you're at now is the best it's ever going to get.

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But I tell you today, if you are a child of God, what you are going through is the worst you'll ever have to go through.

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If you're not a child of God, this is the best you'll ever have. This life is the best you'll ever have.

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The people who go out and buy everything they have in sight, make as much money, go ahead.

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It's completely logical for them if they think this is the best they're going to have ever. But you today,

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Christian, I tell you, this life is the worst you will ever have. There is hope.

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And there is healing in your life today. Now sometimes with cancer and other diseases, healing doesn't happen in that day.

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Sometimes it takes time. And sometimes the Lord heals with time as well.

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But there is healing nonetheless. When you store up all your pain and poor descriptions like a miser and store it up for years, it doesn't go away in 24 hours.

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When you have 5, 10, 15 years of pain and heartache and bad decisions, it doesn't go away in 24 hours.

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God may forgive you and God may heal you, but you've still got a lot of scar tissue to work through. So understand that even in that,

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God will heal, but sometimes the healing may take longer than a couple hours. Longer than a

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Sunday morning service. Look at the transition again in this passage.

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Three passages, all different writers. Verse 21. Yet to this I call to mind, and therefore

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I have hope. That's a cause and effect. Yet to this I call to mind, and therefore

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I have hope. Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed.

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This is the appeal, by the way, just like in 77. This is the great appeal. For His compassion never fails.

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Or should we say, sometimes might not fail. Never. Do you trust that this is the word of God or not?

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It never fails. They're new every morning. Thank you, Lord. Great is your faithfulness.

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I say to myself, the Lord is my portion. Therefore, I will.

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Here's the willpower. I will wait on Him. The healing that takes time,

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I will wait on Him. When you're waiting for the Lord to bring the healing, I will wait on Him.

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The bitter problem is that the Lord has to go through this time, but there is a reason why. Well, I don't know what that is.

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I will wait on Him. There is a waiting on the Lord that must take place. There is a waiting.

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He is not a genie in the bottle that you can call on your time. God, why is this happening?

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He says, wait, you'll find out. Well, I'm not willing to wait. Okay? You cannot throw a temper tantrum and then

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God come beckoning in just because He's tired of hearing you cry. It doesn't work like that.

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Amen? So you can continue to stomp your feet and throw your fit if you would like.

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Or we can wait in faithful assurance that God has an answer and God has a plan.

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The Lord is good to those who hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him. It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the

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Lord. Some of you young men keep reading because it addresses you specifically. Wait quietly.

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Once again, not stammering your feet or crying like a child. Wait patiently and quietly on the

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Lord. He hears you. He does hear you. And He will answer you.

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Have faith in that. Last one, we're going to be done. Back at chapter 3. I read this one a couple months ago and it just smacked me right in the face.

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Right in the face. It was beautiful, absolutely beautiful. I'll wait for you all to get there. If you've never read

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Habakkuk, let me kind of lay it out for you. He's a minor prophet. And Habakkuk is one of the only times in Scripture where we have a dialogue with God.

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It opens up and Habakkuk says, God, why do you look on evil and do nothing? It's a question we ask all the time.

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God, why do you allow evil? Why do you sit silent? When all these people are being murdered and slaughtered and you do nothing,

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God. Why? It's a fair question that all of us ask. Though I would say, watch your tone when you ask that.

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And God replies. Then Habakkuk comes back with another response. And God replies.

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Those are chapters 1 and 2. This is chapter 3. And this is after the siege of Jerusalem when

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Babylon came in and wiped Jerusalem out. Killed them.

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Slaughtered them. And they started dispersing and taking them as slaves all over the world. Verse 15.

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You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters.

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I hear and my body trembles. I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound.

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Decay crept into my bones and my legs trembled. Yet, here's the transition.

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Here's the transition. Yet I will patiently wait for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us.

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The first part there is fear. That was the fierce thinking. Here's the second part.

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But don't forget. All three. These are almost copy and paste. Fear, sadness, loneliness.

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Then the appeal and remembrance of who God is. Yet I will patiently wait for the day of calamity.

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Verse 17. This is so beautiful. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines.

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Though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food. Though there are no sheep in the pen and no cow in the stalls.

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Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God my

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Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer. He enables me to tread the high places.

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Though the bank account is empty. The car is broke down. There's no toilet paper in the program.

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How many for him? There's no food in the grocery store. Though my kids are in the belly.

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Though my parents don't even like me. Though my best friend is left in whatever it is.

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Through it all. God is still the God of my salvation. And you, as an individual, have to remember that.

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Have to call that back to mind. Brother Andrew, y 'all can go ahead and come up here. You have to call that back to mind.

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You have to speak truth into your own life. Three passages. Scripture is very clear about this.

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Remember the goodness of God. Remember it.

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Because it calls for you today to come to repentance. It calls for you today.

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What this is, is that I call for you right now. You can either sit where you are.

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Or we can remember the goodness of God. The last thing here is the joyfulness.

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One verse it says, I will celebrate in the Lord. Are you able to celebrate in God right now?

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Well he hasn't brought my salvation yet. Does it matter? Salvation hasn't been brought to the back end here.

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He was just talking about how there's no food and the sheep are all dead. And everything's just going terrible. That's the other thing.

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They praise and remember the goodness of God in the midst of the trial. Not after.

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You can't wait for God to bring the salvation. And then you're like, oh hey, thanks God. You must have faith in the middle.

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What's your mind? It's like you just said and done. You are correct. It absolutely is. That is not some, well, you should just go have faith.

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It's not like that. It is difficult. It is hard. It is tiring. It's tiring.

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You have faith. I've had faith for six months. And now I fail. Get your butt back up and let's go.

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Get up and let's go. The prophet says, a righteous man falls seven times and gets back up.

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While the fool falls and stumbles to get up. Which one are you going to be today?

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Which one are you today? There's been a lot of stumbling going on.

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Are you going to rise and get back up? Or are you going to sit there in the dirt and mud and say, well,

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I'm tired. And I've been fighting for a long time. So I am owed. I am justified in sitting in my pit.

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You're a pig walling around in mud. How long until you're going to get up and come to the prophet again?

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It's up to you to get up in calm. God is faithful but we are faithless.

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And he has never been more calling to you than today. Because today is the day of salvation.

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Father, God, Lord, I pray, Lord, that you may be here in this place. God, I pray, Lord, that we may be a house of repentance,

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Lord. A house of conviction, God. Lord, I pray, Lord, that you may be honored and glorified. Lord, let us be worthy of the blessings you give us.

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God, let us be worthy of the calling we have received. Father, God, I pray, Lord, that you may pour out a blessing of conviction,

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God. Lord, that no one can walk out of this place without a weighed conviction on their hearts,

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God. That you may put pressure on our hearts and minds to hit our knees and repent before you,

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God. And to remember your goodness and to remember your greatness, God. Your majesty and your sovereignty,

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God. May we never forget it. May we remember it each and every day, Father, God. In your name