Westtown Church
Westtown Church
His Mercies Are New Every Morning
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
As our church family gathers together, at Westchase Elementary after Hurricane Milton, let us remember the promises God gives us that He is in control and He will deliver us from the storms in our lives. We look to Lamentations 3 and are reminded that the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases – His mercies never come to an end.
God's Sovereignty Over Natural Disasters
Speaker 1This is kind of fun . I invite you to open your Bibles to Lamentations this morning , the third chapter , lamentations , the third chapter . I'll read it in just a moment . As I gathered this morning with you , I'm sure many of you know , you share with me mixed emotions , mixed thoughts , a lot of multitude of things regarding these two weeks of hurricanes . I know over the last several weeks you've been looking at the media and they've talked a lot about spaghetti models and weather predictions based on computer models from Europe and the US . I know meteorologists . They give their best predictions on what they think is going to happen and what we're going to happen , the leading build we're going to do , and of course there's nothing wrong with that . I think those are blessings from God that he's enabled us to understand something of these things . Although the weather moves the weathermen and weatherwomen a lot , there's more to say . Indeed , there's more , much more to say than what we have heard on the television about the various models and predictions and results of this storm . And I want to say to you this morning , as much as I appreciate those reports and they're good to hear and sad to hear in some cases I think it's much more important that we think about the things from God's Word in relation to these things .
Speaker 1This morning I want to focus on the fact that the lead in Milton , they were not just meteorological events , they were theological events . God was in every bit of it . And the more and more that our society becomes secular , we tend to collapse and reduce everything down into the things that we can observe , according to what man can interpret and think about these things . But the fact is , god is his own interpreter and he gives us that interpretation of these things in his word , which is where I want us to go this morning . I want us to understand something of what or how God thinks about hurricanes and these types of events and hardships and sufferings and tragedies . And my purpose this morning I'll tell you in advance is not to begin to answer some of our doubts and questions that arise . There's a place for that , but I'm not going to spend a lot of my time focusing on that this morning . I'm going to focus on even more foundational things , and one of the reasons for that is God doesn't owe us an answer . He doesn't answer to us , we answer to him , and it's from that angle that I want us to think about things , although godly people do wrestle with God . That's okay . Job did and many other psalmists did . But for our part , this morning we're going to focus on two questions . After I read God's word to you , we'll look at them together and hopefully God will bless us in our time together here today . I just have to say this as a pastor , I love to see the children and the youth in worship and with us . That's a blessing for me this morning . I hope it is for you .
Speaker 1If you would stand , I'd like to read from Lamentations . I'm going to read beginning with verse 16 . I want to tell you in advance of Lamentations verses 22 to 24 , the death center of Lamentations and in the Hebrew way of thinking , not always , but often , the center is where you find the heart of the message , and this is at the very heart , the message of lamentations . Even though it comes in the middle of the book . We did that the Western world things at the end sometimes , oftentimes , the Hebrews would put it in the middle . So I'm going to read God's infallible , holy and inerrant word . He says it to us to encourage us this morning , to strengthen us , to give us comfort and build us from hope . So let's receive it with faith in our hearts .
Speaker 1Verse 16, .
Speaker 1He , that is God , the Lord .
Speaker 1God has made my teeth grind on gravel and made me power in ashes .
Speaker 1My soul is bereft of peace .
Speaker 1I have forgotten what happiness is .
Speaker 1So I say my endurance has perished . So has my hope from the Lord . Remember my affliction and my wanderings , the wormwood and the gall . My soul continually remembers it and is bound down within me . But this I call to mind and therefore I have hope . The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases . His mercies never come to an end . They are new every morning . Great is your faithfulness . The Lord is my portion , says my soul . Therefore I will hope in him . The Lord is good to , says my soul . Therefore I will hope in him . The Lord is good to those who wait for him , to the soul who seeks him . It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord . It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth . The grass withers , the flowers fade , but the word of the Lord endures forever . God's people said it . You may be seated , father , as Paul has just prayed . I pray again and ask that you would help us understand your word this morning . Let us see the glory of Christ and help us now with the grace of the Holy Spirit . In Jesus' name , amen .
Speaker 1I'm going to approach this in two questions . The first question is this who have we been dealing with lately ? Who have we been dealing with lately ? Who have we been dealing with lately ? Has it simply been someone called Helene ? Has it been a guy named Milton ? I ask that seriously because if you're not careful , from watching news and reports of these two monster hurricanes you can get that impression . We're just bound by the laws of nature and we're at their mercy . But the simple fact is we've been dealing not simply with weather patterns . We've not simply been dealing with high winds , surge or tornadoes or torrential rain , rising floodwaters and all the rest of it . We've been dealing with the sovereign God , or we could say the sovereign God of heaven and earth has been dealing with us . He does all things well , even though they perplex us often times . He's sovereign over every single molecule in the universe . That's a remarkable thing to consider .
God's Sovereignty Over Disasters Explored
Speaker 1Genesis 1-1 , chapter 1 , the first verse we read about , or not the first verse , but the third we read . We read the first day God said let there be light . And there was light . Then , on the third day , god said let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place and let the bright ground appear . And it was so . Genesis 6 , we come to the 17th verse , in the time of Noah . God says to Noah For behold , I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven . Everything that is on the earth shall die . Genesis 18 , we read about God sending fire and brimstone upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah , not just for their sexual immorality , but also for their neglect of the poor , which we learn from Ezekiel , the prophet . Exodus , chapter 7 through 12, .
Speaker 1Now we're in the time of Moses , the 1400s BC . What does God do with sin ? In ten plagues upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians who had held his people in bondage , what does he do ? He turns the Nile River into blood . He showers hail upon them . In one of the plagues , he brings thick darkness , so thick they couldn't see . In another plague , he brought death to many animals . In chapter 12 , verse 30 , it says and there was a great cry in Egypt , for there was not a house where someone was not dead . Very shocking to think about . Who is this God of heaven and earth ? Exodus 14 , we see the Lord who parted the Red Sea mercifully , so that the Israelites could go through on bright ground . Then , after they got through , drowned the Egyptians in that Red Sea , closing those waters in upon them as they drowned in the judgment of God .
Speaker 1In Numbers , chapter 16 , we hear about Korah's rebellion . He rebelled with the whole company against God's chosen and anointed mediator of the old covenant . The leader is Moses and high priest Aaron . And so what does the Lord do ? He sends fire from heaven and the earth opened , it says , like a sinkhole , so to speak , and it swallowed Korah and his band up . It's a horrific thought . Psalm 147 says this he sends out his command to the earth . His word runs swiftly . He gives snow like wool . He scatters frost like ashes . He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs who can stand before his fold ? He sends out his word and melts them . He makes his wind blow and the waters flow . God's in control of it all . God controls the wind . He's the one that causes the waters to flow or recede .
Speaker 1In the prophet Amos , chapter 4 , the Lord declares in verse 6 , it was he who gave them cleanliness of teeth . In all your cities they didn't have anything to eat . He says a lack of bread in all your places . He sent a famine upon them . Horrific , it's a horrific thought . And then the Lord declares in verse 7 , following I also would have held rain from you when there was yet three months to harvest . I would send rain on one city and send no rain on another . One field would have rain , the field on which it did not rain would wither . So two or three cities would wander to another city to drink water and would not be satisfied . Yet you did not return to me . Then he goes on with things . I struck you with blight and mildew . Your many gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees , the locusts devour . Yet you did not return to me , declares the Lord .
Speaker 1I get into the Gospels and you come upon a scene where the winds are roaring and the waves are lashing about in a fury and the disciples are terrified . And we read the Lord Jesus Christ , in that moment , awoken from his nap . I would frighten the disciples with a word stills the Sea of Galilee in that violent storm , be still , be quiet . And it was so . Ephesians 1.11 declares that God works all things . After the counsel of his own will , all things is comprehensive .
Speaker 1Psalm 33.11 . The counsel of the Lord stands forever in the thoughts of his heart , to all generations . The sovereignty of God . We're called in the light of this storm , by the word of God , to think about the sovereignty of the Lord , isaiah 46 . Remember this and stand firm and recall it to mind .
Speaker 1Ye transgressors , remember the former things of old , for I am God and there is no other . I am God and there is none like me , declaring again , from the beginning and from ancient times , things not yet done , saying my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all thy purposes . I just want us to face , because our society , from every angle , is trying its best to secularize us , is trying its best to get us to just see these as by chance events , as if God is napping in heaven . Or he created the world and then stepped back , and he's not deeply involved . As if there's napping in heaven . Or he created the world and then set back and he's not deeply involved . As if there's no meaning in suffering , as if there's no meaning in these perplexing things . But indeed there is .
Speaker 1God is accomplishing his purposes , and I know we have a lot of questions that race through our mind when we think about these things , but we need to first grapple with who we're dealing with and then we can go from there . The Lord created you . He's sovereign not just over Helene and Milton , but he's sovereign over you and your life . Psalm 139 , 16, . Your eyes saw my unformed substance . In your book were written every one of them , the days that were formed for me . As yet there was none of them . Your days are numbered by God , ordained by God before there was even one . Acts 17 , 28, . In him we live and move and have our being . Daniel , chapter 5 , 5 , verse 23 it is God in whose hand is your breath and whose are all your ways . And of course , daniel in this context is making the point to those he's speaking to that it's foolish not to honor God with faith in our heart and godliness in our living , our very breath he upholds .
Speaker 1And so I just want to begin this morning with this first question . It's a heavy one , but it's an important one . Do each of us see that we're not just dealing with the lean or the old ? In these past several weeks , we've been dealing with God , and God has been dealing with us , those who God is saving , like the prophet Jeremiah who is speaking here in lamentations , and the remnant of the godly Jews in his day . You remember , god sent the Babylonians in to destroy Jerusalem and Judah because , after centuries of prophets and decades of Jeremiah's preaching , they would not listen to God . In this case , he sent the Babylonians . I don't claim to know what God all had in his mind when he said milked and are going to lean on our way . I don't claim that at this moment God knows . But I know that Jeremiah , when he speaks in Lamentations , he's speaking the words of a survivor , as one who saw the horror and survived , and now he's thinking about his relationship with God and he's trying to get God's people to think about their relationship with God .
Speaker 1Those who are perishing are more like the rich fool in the Gospels of Luke , chapter 12 . Remember his mantra I will do this , I will do that , I will , I will , I will do this , I will do that , I will , I will , I will . I'll pull down my barns , build bigger ones . Then I'll store all my fruits and my goods and I will say to my soul eat , drink and be merry . I will , I will , I will . And then Jesus says you fool this night . Your life is required of you , your soul is required of you . The things you have prepared , whose will they be ? And so is the one who lays up treasure for himself who is not made for you . Very sobering words .
Speaker 1We're very sober in the world , frankly . I think when we see something like the Lehman Building , it's time for sober thoughts . People have died , lost loved ones . It's a sober time , and I think we would be remiss not to face these things . I think if there's one thing we need to learn from Helene and Milton and other threats and hardships and losses that God sovereignly brings into our life , he's the one that brings these things into our life . We have to remember this that our lives are frail . The fact is , we are vulnerable . We are vulnerable creatures and we are also mortal . It's things like this that make us face our mortality . You see , other people die and get swept away in these horrible things , and this should make us think about . There's one thing I know from the scriptures this I don't know all God's purposes in what he's doing , nor do I claim to , but I know that whenever we see something like this , the Bible wants us to remember the judgment of God is coming . We must think about that . We must think about that . Our lives are short . We must think about waiting hours of eternity . That I know .
Responding to Natural Disaster With Faith
Speaker 1Now I want to go to the second question how shall we respond to all of this ? This is kind of a weighty subject and I think , jeremiah there's many passages that came to my mind when I thought about this morning , but I kept coming back to this one . I think Jeremiah has some good things for us to understand this morning . Having been inspired by the Holy Spirit , I think he shows us the way , some things that we can honor . First , like many of you , my heart grieves for the great suffering and the horrific losses that have occurred in these two hurricanes . If our house is standing , if we have not lost loved ones or friends , we are lost . Indeed , many are planning funerals . I saw a report of one man I think it was North Carolina lost 11 of his relatives . It makes me think . Jeremiah's weeping here in Lamentations makes me think about Christ weeping over Jerusalem . I think if these things make us weep with compassion , that's a good thing .
Speaker 1You have felt the impact of all of this in some way , some of you in a much happier way . I know we've heard these horror stories from Tennessee and North Carolina Remains and trees running out of body bags . I was talking to one man in our church who told me he spent a lot of his childhood up in western North Carolina and he still has a good number of relatives up there , and one of them told him that after the water receded , people are finding remains in their front yard and no one can come get them . These are horrific things and I think God wants us to be mindful . It's hard to think about these things . Many washed away , many buried in mud and debris , which most will not be found . Buzzards , they said , are flying around . They have a shortage of food and water , Shortage of medicines . Imagine if you were a diabetic and you couldn't get your insulin , or you had a heart issue and you couldn't get your heart medicine . You can't get out , you're stuck , cut off from those things , with no communication at times . And so I know that you grieve , as I do , over these things , and I know what comes after a hurricane . Part of the grief I have felt , I know firsthand , as some of you do . You know what comes after these hurricanes In 2018 , cat 5 Hurricane Michael tore through Panhandle City .
Speaker 1Hurricane Michael that tore through Panama City and Bay County and tore a panhandle . It took out three-fourths of those trees in that county and the rest that were left looked like a bad haircut and it was depressing . I never thought people I would see in my lifetime . People grieve over the loss of the trees , but I did Sweat blocks of Mexico Beach off , nothing but slabs , just like in Gulfport , mississippi , with Katrina . It badly damaged our church and our school property . It wiped out our family home , but it wiped out many other people's families as well . It was overwhelming and shocking .
Speaker 1To be honest with you , I just learned a couple of days ago there's a PCA pastor in North Carolina , trevor Allen and his wife . They have three daughters . They just lost their home and they barely escaped a mudslide . They just missed their home and then after that they were greeted with two large trees coming into their living room . It's amazing , none of them were killed . But there they are , two large trees coming into their living room . It's amazing , none of them were killed . But there they are wondering now what .
Speaker 1And then , after these storms , I know what happens . So do you ? People lose friends . It's hard when your friends move away . I remember in Bay County kids losing their childhood friends because their mom and dad had to move . They had to get a different job . So they went back to class and it's not even the same classroom they had before they started , before the storm . Divorces start mounting up because that was enough stress to just put them over the edge . People commit suicide because they didn't have insurance . They felt one of the odds and now they're elderly . What are they going to do ? People get overwhelmed . In these situations , severe depression sets in for many people . So we need to continue to be the hands and feet of Christ , our compassion . Lord , through all of this , many will suffer long , as you know . Many are going to suffer a long time after the storm , after the media has departed .
Speaker 1So in Jeremiah's time , god sends the Babylonians to destroy Judah , in particular to destroy the Jerusalem , the city of God . As I said , god was so patient . He preached for centuries , literally , literally , through the prophets , and he had preached for decades through Jeremiah , but they just would not listen to his word . The Jews and Jeremiah . Jeremiah knows he's not just dealing with the Babylonians , they were dealing with the sovereign God . The godly people in Jerusalem understood they were dealing with the sovereign God . The godly people in Jerusalem understood they were dealing with the sovereign God .
Speaker 1If you have your Bibles , you can see , when you look back at the beginning of chapter 3 in Lamentations , all the he's that are in here . He did this . He is God . He has listen to Jeremiah . He , speaking of God , has driven and brought me into darkness without any light . He has made my flesh and my skin waste away . He has broken my arms . He has besieged and enveloped me . He has made me dwell in darkness . He has wallowed me about . He has made my chains heavy . He shuts out my prayer . He has blocked my ways with blocks of stone . He's made my paths crooked . He is a bear hiding wait for me . He turned aside my steps . He has made me desolate . He bent his bows and set me as a target for his arrows . Jeremiah felt like target practice for the Lord shooting his arrows .
Speaker 1The Bible faces boldly and courageously . This is God who's dealing with us . I don't know all what he's dealing with . I don't know all the whys . In Job's case , it was not because of Job's sin that he sent suffering into Job's life . In this case , it was Well . I don't know all the answers , but God is dealing with us . Calvin says it's a fearful thing when God aims at us . I don't know about you , but when I was looking at that cat two , cat three , cat four , oh , cat five . And you start looking at the spaghetti models , that's a fearful thing , is it not ? I think that's why I-75 looked like it did Packed in there .
Speaker 1How bad did it get Jeremiah today ? Verse 17 , jeremiah , the man identifying with his fellow Jews , says my soul is bereft of peace . Listen to what he says . I have forgotten what happiness is . Now . That's bad . And in verse 18 , you see Jeremiah . He's out of gas , physically and spiritually . He says my endurance has perished , so has my hope from the Lord . His faith is like a candle flickering in the wind . And this is a Godly man .
Speaker 1Jeremiah speaks here in these verses about his affliction and his wanderings . I like how the NISB puts it his homelessness , his experience . In his soul , they were filled with cornwood and gall . What does that mean ? Bitterness . He was beginning to get bitter . That is from the experience . But if he wasn't careful he was going to be bitter toward God .
Speaker 1And notice , in verse 20 , my soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me Depression . He was just going around continually , he was remembering all these depressing things and he was depressed that's what we would call it . He was spiritually depressed . His soul was bowed down low and in darkness . So what do you do in such a desperate situation ? We need to remember this Because the next cat-five hurricane may not wobble south . Some of you didn't escape this one . There's so many in Florida and Georgia and Tennessee and North Carolina . The truth is , their souls are greatly bowed down right now and I know that we will pray for them and remember them . So what do you do when you're overwhelmed by life and destruction like this ? I think the key is right here and this is where the comfort and
The Steadfast Love of God
Speaker 1the hope comes .
Speaker 1In this passage , verse 21 , jeremiah says but this I call to mind and therefore I have hope Notice here what Jeremiah is about to do to regain his hope-filled footing , even in his weakened and battered faith , with faith like the candle flickering in the wind . As I said , he puts what the knowledge that God has revealed to him about God . God has revealed himself to Jeremiah directly and through the word of God , and he begins to take that knowledge that God has graciously given him and now he's going to begin to put it to work . He's going to put fixing his eyes . He's acknowledged the horror around him , but now he's going to fix his eyes on God . He's going to take it off the circumstances . He's going to fix them on God and begin to think about who God is . He lifts his eyes off the destruction and so look at what he says as he ponders the character and goodness and mercy of God in verses 22 and 23 .
Speaker 1But this I call to mind and therefore I have hope the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases . His mercies never come to an end . They are new every morning , great as your faith is . This is the very heart of the book of Lamentations , and so that's what we need to call to mind this morning . We need to call these things to mind . God has revealed these things to us and we need to remember them . It's not Michael or Elaine or Milton , maybe next time , a car crash or cancer or some other shaking event that caused us to face these same dark realities . Some of you are experiencing it now . Call to mind the steadfast love of the Lord that never ceases , even when he brings the severest discipline or hardship into our life . And I want to say again I don't know why he brought these things in . I'm not claiming to know , but even in the hardest times we can know , the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases . That's what Jeremiah is holding on to and remembering .
Speaker 1This word for steadfast love is used 350 times in the Old Testament and it's a glorious word . It's a glorious truth about our loving and sovereign God . I'll tell you what it sounds like in the New Testament , romans , chapter 8 . Here's what it sounds like in Romans 8 . What it sounds like in the New Testament , romans , chapter 8 . Here's what it sounds like in Romans 8 .
Speaker 1If God is for us , who can be against us ? He who did not spare his own son and gave him up for us all , how will he not also , with him , graciously give us all things ? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect ? It's God who justifies . Who is to condemn Christ ? Jesus is the one who died , more than that , who was raised .
Speaker 1Who's at the right hand of God ? Who , indeed , is interceding for us ? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ? Shall tribulation or distress , or persecution , or famine , or nakedness , or danger , or sword , I guess we could add , or Helene , or Milton ? No , in all these things we are more than conquerors , through him who loved us . For I am sure that neither death nor , nor angels , nor rulers , nor things present , nor things to come , nor powers , nor height , nor anything else at all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God . In Christ Jesus , our Lord , nothing at all of creation , no danger , no sword , not even death can separate us from the love of God .
Speaker 1And so Jeremiah is holding on to this thing , this truth about God . And this is the glorious promise and reality we have . If we know the Lord Jesus Christ , if you have the love of God , how blessed you are , if you know his saving love . His saving love will never change , regardless of our circumstances . And Jeremiah calls something else to mind here His mercies never come to an end , they are new every morning . Great is your faithfulness . Notice the mercies .
Speaker 1Here is plural Mercy upon mercy upon mercy . Has God been merciful to us ? In verse 39 of Lamentations he says here why should a living man complain , a man , about the punishment of his sins ? Well , in Jeremiah's case , they were being punished for their sins . I don't know what God's doing here , but what we can say . Is there anyone here this morning who cannot say I've been treated way better than I deserve . And I think each of us , if we're honest , can say God has been good to me . Why ? Because the Bible says the wages of sin is death , and it's not just physical death but spiritual death , cut off from God and all the goodness and freedom and joy and happiness that flows from being in a living , saving relationship with him . He is the source of all these good things . Have we not sinned everything in our life in word , thought and deed ? And yet isn't it a wonderful thing that we're here this morning by the mercies of God ? We're here this morning by the mercies of God .
Speaker 1These mercies we woke up to this morning were new yet again this morning . God keeps rolling them out . I know the gas lines are long . I know those things drive us crazy . Our electricity and AC was off for a season , so you may still not have it . But has he not put food in our bellies , clothes on our back , a home to live in ? Has our God not given us a family and friends ? Has he not given us a church , family who loves us , schools for our children , places in the most prosperous country in the history of the world and set us in one of the most wealthiest areas in Tampa Bay .
Speaker 1The blessings of Bound . We have access to the best health care in the world . He's granted us the protection of our police and the strongest military in world history . We are a blessed people . We are a blessed people . He's given us eyes to see . He's given us ears to hear , minds to think , hearts by which to love others and be in relationships with others . He's given us hands and feet to serve and know the joy of that . Beautiful sunsets to enjoy music , to enjoy sports , to play and watch cars , to travel in comfort . There could be a bunch of horses out there this morning . Look out the window , look at how we got to come over here . Shall we look at our bank accounts ?
Speaker 1More than that , by faith alone in Jesus Christ , by faith in him , he's given us the free forgiveness of our sins , not in part , but the whole , every single one of them , not just the so-called little ones , but the whoppers , the most violent , heinous things we've ever done , those things we're most ashamed of . God has wiped it all away for us , entrusting him through Jesus Christ , and that will never change . And he's not only taken our sins upon him through Christ on that cross , but he's given us a perfect record that Christ lived in our place . We have eternal life . We have it as a present possession , now and forever .
Speaker 1I think it's a marvelous thing that Jeremiah in this passage is not focused on his record or the record of God's people . They didn't have a great record . Even the godliest saint like Jeremiah had his sins and failures . It was the faithfulness of God that was great In spite of their sins and their failures . It was the faithfulness of God that was great in spite of their sins and their failures . Great is your faithfulness , lord . We sang a hymn earlier . Great is Thy Faithfulness . Thomas Chisholm wrote that . He wrote it .
Speaker 1He got married in 1903 to a woman named Catherine . They started a family . He became a minister . After just one year in the ministry he had to get out for health reasons . He battled health problems the rest of his life . He was confined to his bed , unable to work , and here's what he said dead , I'm able to work , and here's what he said . My income has not been large at any time due to impaired health in the earlier years which has followed me until now , and although I must not fail to record here , although I must not fail to record here the unfailing faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God , and that he has given me many wonderful displays of his providing care , for which I am filled with astonishing gratefulness . Well , he could minister , but he went on to write many hymns , 1,200 of them . His health problems were at times overwhelming , but he had the loving support of Catherine and his daughters . Great is thy faithfulness . He faced many financial struggles , but he found a job selling insurance and he could pay his bills . Great is thy faithfulness .
Speaker 1I want us to call something else to mind as we begin to close Verse 24 . Jeremiah , the Lord is my portion , says my soul . Therefore , I will hope in him . Our hope is not bound in our circumstances . Our hope is not fixed on the blessings that God has granted us , material in this world . Although they are blessings , our hope is certainly not found in them , no matter how good , no matter how bad our circumstances . We are filled with hope amidst our greatest trials , when we come to realize , with Jeremiah , that if we have God's saving love and favor upon us , in the end that's all we need , because when we leave this world , that's all we got . We can't take it with us and Milton's reminding us of that . It's a blessing . But we can't take it with us , and if we don't have the saving love of God through faith in Jesus Christ , in the end it's all going to be blown away anyway .
Trusting God Amid Life's Challenges
Speaker 1I want to end with this hymn by William Cooper . I'm just going to read it to you , but I want you to reflect on it . He battled crippling depression throughout his life . I almost asked Paul to sing this this morning , but I'll just tell it to you . Listen .
Speaker 1God moves in a mysterious way . His wonders do perform . He plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm . Deep in unfathomable minds of never failing skill , he treasures up his bright designs and works his sovereign will . Ye , fearful saints , fresh courage . Take the clouds . Ye , so much dread , are big with mercy and shall break in . Blessings on your head . Judge not the Lord by feeble sense , but trust him for his grace . Behind the frowning providence he hides a smiling face . His purposes will ripen fast , unfolding every hour . The bud may have a bitter taste , but sweet will be the flower .
Speaker 1Blind unbelief is sure to err and skin has worked in vain . God is his own interpreter and he will make it plain . If you see that God's mercies are new every morning , give me an amen . God is good . Let us trust him . This will not be the last hurricane in our life . It may not be a building , it may not be a hurricane , it may be something else . He is worthy to be trusted . We see it in the cross of Christ . That's where we look to know I can trust of Christ . That's where we look to know I can trust my God . That's where his steadfast love , his mercy , his faithfulness are in brightest display His dying for you and for me . He'll go into hell for you and for me . We can trust him in the darkest circumstances . Let's pray and ask for God's help .