Pastor Cal Lord's Recent Sermons
Don’t Quit!
Jeremiah 8: 18- 9:1 September 23, 2007
Langston Hughes, poet of the Harlem Renaissance, spoke out of the frustration of a people who
had been waiting for the dream of freedom to come true. He suggested that when you do not get
what you earnestly want and desperately need, either that frustration dries you up, shrivels you;
or it creates a boiling rage. In other words you either decide to fight or you decide to quit.
This morning I want to step back in time. The Prophet Jeremiah could have echoed Hughes’
words. Jeremiah and the people of the Southern Kingdom of Israel understood exactly what the
poet was talking about. You see in 600 BC their world took a turn for the worse.
One day the people were looking at a bright future. Judah was on the verge of national
prosperity. King Josiah was rebuilding the temple and rebuilding their relationship with God. The
nation had a new pride, a new energy, a new hope. For the first time in a generation there was a
sense that their dreams would come true.
Then in an instant everything changed. King Josiah was killed in a battle. Next thing you know
the nation’s independence was stripped away and it became a vassal state to Babylon. It is here
where the prophet gets his name, “the weeping prophet.” We meet Jeremiah as he cries out for
the nation. In listening to his words we get a sense of their frustration and their lack of hope.
His words strike a chord within all of us. Jeremiah looks at the situation and says, “We had such
high hopes, such fantastic dreams for ourselves! Where is God? How could he let this happen?”
He likens their situation to an Autumn where there is no harvest. He cries out in his pain and
frustration and asks if there is any balm, any salve any consolation to make him feel well again.
You get the sense here that Jeremiah is ready to quit. Listen to his words: “Oh that my head were
a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for my people.
This is a man who has given up hope.
There are times in life when we feel like that too. Every plan we had seems to be going up in
smoke. All of our dreams have either been put on hold or are about to collapse. It is easy to look
at our situation and throw up our hands and say, “I give up. There is nothing I can do to change
things.”
I know I felt that way as a college student in the winter of 1977-78. I had gone through a deep
depression and made some bad choices and all my dreams went right out the window with the
letter I received from the Dean’s office.
I know a woman who felt that way when her son was arrested and later sent to prison. She felt
that she had failed as a mother and now her son was lost. Every day she awoke with the feelings
of guilt and remorse.
I know a man whose wife left him after twenty years of marriage. He couldn’t understand how
things had unraveled so. He thought they would spend the rest of their days together. Now he
was alone and confused.
I know a woman who had given her life to her job and one day they told her they didn’t need her
any more. They were downsizing and eliminating her position. She said she went home and didn’
t know what to do. Her life was over.
A few years ago Curt Brockway and the Adult Sunday School class studied Jeremiah and I heard
someone say it wasn’t very exciting. We all love to read the Gospels and hear the stories of
Jesus. Paul’s letters are interesting and instructive to read, even if we don’t agree with everything
he says. The books of Genesis and Exodus are very interesting because they leave you with
some interesting characters. Isaiah gives you poetry.
Jeremiah, though, gives you doom and gloom. Of course he prophesied in a low point in Israel’s
history. Nothing was going right. But I think that is exactly the reason why we need to revisit
him every once in a while. For he gives us an inkling of an understanding for why sometimes,
things go wrong and then Jeremiah points us to a path that will lead to recovery.
Now Jeremiah doesn’t mince words. He suggests to the people that maybe, just maybe they had
counted on God to cement their dreams without ever factoring in their own loyalty. In other
words, they wanted God to make the nation prosper, keep it safe from outside attack, guarantee
long and happy lives without ever having to do anything themselves to make it happen.
Ouch! There is a branch of our faith that preaches this. Just trust God and all your needs will be
met. Go to him and he will give you everything you want. It has its basis in scripture. “Ask and it
will be given, seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened.” We have all heard it
said. But there is an implied precondition to these promises. It presumes that you are already
walking with God, faithfully serving him and that your life and your wishes are in line with one
another.
When your hopes, dreams, and ambitions line up with God’s, then there is no stopping you. In
Judah’s case the people had begun to abandon God again. Josiah had come in with a breath of
fresh air, but after an initial surge in faith, they were drifting away and returning to their old
practices again.
When the trouble began the people’s first question was, “Where is God?” Jeremiah mimics their
words, “Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King no longer there?” They suggest that God isn’t
doing his job.
In the aftermath of the disaster on September 11, 2001 a number of people asked the same
question: “Where was God?”
Well Jeremiah turns that question around. In speaking for God, he suggests an answer as he
points to the people’s practice of worshipping foreign idols.
He says in effect, if you want God to help you, then you better make sure that you are doing
something about it. It begins with worship and continues with faithfully working toward our
goals hand in hand with God. You see, God wants to be our partner, not some genie in a bottle.
You see, we may sing, “Just when I need Him most, Jesus is near to comfort and cheer”. But
we will not feel his presence unless we have cultivated our relationship with him day after day.
We will just keep getting lost and discouraged.
One of my colleagues told me about one of his parishioners who only comes to church when she
has a problem. Once the problem is solved, she disappears. In his tenure at the church, he has
seen her come and go. He said to me that if she had simply kept coming, he has no doubt that
her problems would have long since disappeared.
So if you are feeling discouraged right now, if your dreams have been put on hold, don’t quit,
don’t give up. You are doing the right thing. You have come to the right place. You have taken
the first step to finding an answer to your problems.
Jeremiah understands what God can do for us. He knows how the world can beat us up and
break us down. He understands what it is to live with broken dreams. But Jeremiah knows the
Lord. He has known God since he was child. He points us to the one who can truly bind us up
and says “Go to him.”
God is the one who is able to turn ashes into beauty and defeat into victory. How does Jeremiah
say it? He asks “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?” This is a cryptic phrase
that means that no matter how dire the situation, no matter how difficult the task, God is able to
bind up the wounds and comfort the brokenhearted.
Paul says it so wonderfully in Romans, “God is at work in all things for good for those who love
Him and are called according to His purpose.” It may be the end of summer of our summer, and
our dreams may not be fulfilled. But Jeremiah bids us to come see what God can do! There is a
balm; there is a physician.
For you and I know what Jeremiah could only dimly perceive – for you and I are on this side of
Calvary. You and I know that even God has His hopes dashed, time and again; even the Creator
of heaven and earth cannot see His work completed, but must watch His dreams dry up like
raisins in the sun. But you and I also know that in Jesus Christ and at His cross that same God
has paid the price for our deliverance and is doing whatever it takes to bring us back to Himself.
For on that third day ... just when it seemed no more could be done ... on that third day ... just
when it appeared that all was lost ... on that third day, under a blazing sun that had seared all
hope ... on that day He rose from the dead, conquered our diseases, healed our sorrows, and
wiped out that old enemy, death.
And so, if the harvest be past, the summer ended, and we are not saved – if there are so many
things we wanted to do for the Kingdom but did not do – then take heart. Don’t quit. Pay the
price of discipline and faithfulness and take heart, for “the great physician now is here, the
sympathizing Jesus. He speaks the wounded heart to cheer, Oh praise the name of Jesus and let
it be well with your soul.
Jeremiah 8: 18- 9:1 September 23, 2007
Langston Hughes, poet of the Harlem Renaissance, spoke out of the frustration of a people who
had been waiting for the dream of freedom to come true. He suggested that when you do not get
what you earnestly want and desperately need, either that frustration dries you up, shrivels you;
or it creates a boiling rage. In other words you either decide to fight or you decide to quit.
This morning I want to step back in time. The Prophet Jeremiah could have echoed Hughes’
words. Jeremiah and the people of the Southern Kingdom of Israel understood exactly what the
poet was talking about. You see in 600 BC their world took a turn for the worse.
One day the people were looking at a bright future. Judah was on the verge of national
prosperity. King Josiah was rebuilding the temple and rebuilding their relationship with God. The
nation had a new pride, a new energy, a new hope. For the first time in a generation there was a
sense that their dreams would come true.
Then in an instant everything changed. King Josiah was killed in a battle. Next thing you know
the nation’s independence was stripped away and it became a vassal state to Babylon. It is here
where the prophet gets his name, “the weeping prophet.” We meet Jeremiah as he cries out for
the nation. In listening to his words we get a sense of their frustration and their lack of hope.
His words strike a chord within all of us. Jeremiah looks at the situation and says, “We had such
high hopes, such fantastic dreams for ourselves! Where is God? How could he let this happen?”
He likens their situation to an Autumn where there is no harvest. He cries out in his pain and
frustration and asks if there is any balm, any salve any consolation to make him feel well again.
You get the sense here that Jeremiah is ready to quit. Listen to his words: “Oh that my head were
a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for my people.
This is a man who has given up hope.
There are times in life when we feel like that too. Every plan we had seems to be going up in
smoke. All of our dreams have either been put on hold or are about to collapse. It is easy to look
at our situation and throw up our hands and say, “I give up. There is nothing I can do to change
things.”
I know I felt that way as a college student in the winter of 1977-78. I had gone through a deep
depression and made some bad choices and all my dreams went right out the window with the
letter I received from the Dean’s office.
I know a woman who felt that way when her son was arrested and later sent to prison. She felt
that she had failed as a mother and now her son was lost. Every day she awoke with the feelings
of guilt and remorse.
I know a man whose wife left him after twenty years of marriage. He couldn’t understand how
things had unraveled so. He thought they would spend the rest of their days together. Now he
was alone and confused.
I know a woman who had given her life to her job and one day they told her they didn’t need her
any more. They were downsizing and eliminating her position. She said she went home and didn’
t know what to do. Her life was over.
A few years ago Curt Brockway and the Adult Sunday School class studied Jeremiah and I heard
someone say it wasn’t very exciting. We all love to read the Gospels and hear the stories of
Jesus. Paul’s letters are interesting and instructive to read, even if we don’t agree with everything
he says. The books of Genesis and Exodus are very interesting because they leave you with
some interesting characters. Isaiah gives you poetry.
Jeremiah, though, gives you doom and gloom. Of course he prophesied in a low point in Israel’s
history. Nothing was going right. But I think that is exactly the reason why we need to revisit
him every once in a while. For he gives us an inkling of an understanding for why sometimes,
things go wrong and then Jeremiah points us to a path that will lead to recovery.
Now Jeremiah doesn’t mince words. He suggests to the people that maybe, just maybe they had
counted on God to cement their dreams without ever factoring in their own loyalty. In other
words, they wanted God to make the nation prosper, keep it safe from outside attack, guarantee
long and happy lives without ever having to do anything themselves to make it happen.
Ouch! There is a branch of our faith that preaches this. Just trust God and all your needs will be
met. Go to him and he will give you everything you want. It has its basis in scripture. “Ask and it
will be given, seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened.” We have all heard it
said. But there is an implied precondition to these promises. It presumes that you are already
walking with God, faithfully serving him and that your life and your wishes are in line with one
another.
When your hopes, dreams, and ambitions line up with God’s, then there is no stopping you. In
Judah’s case the people had begun to abandon God again. Josiah had come in with a breath of
fresh air, but after an initial surge in faith, they were drifting away and returning to their old
practices again.
When the trouble began the people’s first question was, “Where is God?” Jeremiah mimics their
words, “Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King no longer there?” They suggest that God isn’t
doing his job.
In the aftermath of the disaster on September 11, 2001 a number of people asked the same
question: “Where was God?”
Well Jeremiah turns that question around. In speaking for God, he suggests an answer as he
points to the people’s practice of worshipping foreign idols.
He says in effect, if you want God to help you, then you better make sure that you are doing
something about it. It begins with worship and continues with faithfully working toward our
goals hand in hand with God. You see, God wants to be our partner, not some genie in a bottle.
You see, we may sing, “Just when I need Him most, Jesus is near to comfort and cheer”. But
we will not feel his presence unless we have cultivated our relationship with him day after day.
We will just keep getting lost and discouraged.
One of my colleagues told me about one of his parishioners who only comes to church when she
has a problem. Once the problem is solved, she disappears. In his tenure at the church, he has
seen her come and go. He said to me that if she had simply kept coming, he has no doubt that
her problems would have long since disappeared.
So if you are feeling discouraged right now, if your dreams have been put on hold, don’t quit,
don’t give up. You are doing the right thing. You have come to the right place. You have taken
the first step to finding an answer to your problems.
Jeremiah understands what God can do for us. He knows how the world can beat us up and
break us down. He understands what it is to live with broken dreams. But Jeremiah knows the
Lord. He has known God since he was child. He points us to the one who can truly bind us up
and says “Go to him.”
God is the one who is able to turn ashes into beauty and defeat into victory. How does Jeremiah
say it? He asks “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?” This is a cryptic phrase
that means that no matter how dire the situation, no matter how difficult the task, God is able to
bind up the wounds and comfort the brokenhearted.
Paul says it so wonderfully in Romans, “God is at work in all things for good for those who love
Him and are called according to His purpose.” It may be the end of summer of our summer, and
our dreams may not be fulfilled. But Jeremiah bids us to come see what God can do! There is a
balm; there is a physician.
For you and I know what Jeremiah could only dimly perceive – for you and I are on this side of
Calvary. You and I know that even God has His hopes dashed, time and again; even the Creator
of heaven and earth cannot see His work completed, but must watch His dreams dry up like
raisins in the sun. But you and I also know that in Jesus Christ and at His cross that same God
has paid the price for our deliverance and is doing whatever it takes to bring us back to Himself.
For on that third day ... just when it seemed no more could be done ... on that third day ... just
when it appeared that all was lost ... on that third day, under a blazing sun that had seared all
hope ... on that day He rose from the dead, conquered our diseases, healed our sorrows, and
wiped out that old enemy, death.
And so, if the harvest be past, the summer ended, and we are not saved – if there are so many
things we wanted to do for the Kingdom but did not do – then take heart. Don’t quit. Pay the
price of discipline and faithfulness and take heart, for “the great physician now is here, the
sympathizing Jesus. He speaks the wounded heart to cheer, Oh praise the name of Jesus and let
it be well with your soul.
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