Exodus Series, Part 2 | Lamenting Injustice | Randy Garcete

the world to home.

I've seen many of you here at Grace Point express feelings of deep sadness, feelings of grief or pain after the reality of the decision and the vote that was taken last Sunday, and I've been really wrestling and trying to work through.

How do we deal with all of those emotions?

How do we deal with the feelings of sadness, of maybe frustration, maybe for some even maybe anger?

How do I do with that?

Because it's a reality that, whether we're believers or not, we're going to face in this life.

We're going to experience sorrow, sadness, pain, grief.

I was just this past week I met with two separate friends and they both in some way just acknowledged or were just talking about how they felt over the course of their life with past several years, just experienced a lot of loss.

One friend just said we lost everything except our family.

Just a lot of wondering, god, I did everything right and I thought you were supposed to come through for me.

Just the feelings of just where is God in all of this?

How, what do I do with these emotions?

And so I want to look at this idea this morning of how do we handle these emotions, these feelings of maybe grief, maybe pain or loss, not just in the immediate context of our church, but in the broader context of the different things that we experience in our lives.

I want to talk and look at the practice of biblical lament today, the idea of biblical lament this is a concept that is sort of new to me, but I should believe that it can give us some answers in how to deal with life when it gets messy and when there aren't clear and clean outcomes.

A couple of years ago well, this is about a year ago I was going through a fairly difficult time in just a circumstance in my life where I felt like I have to find a solution to this, I have to figure out a solution to this.

And Christy asked me one day.

She saw me wrestle through this over and over and she said, randy, what if it doesn't work out?

What are you going to do if it doesn't work out?

And I think that is the question that I'm asking.

He's like how do we cope with life when it doesn't work out?

And I believe that the answer for us today, as believers, is the practice of biblical lament.

So lament I'm going to be borrowing a lot from a book that I was reading drawing from called Dark Clouds, deep Mercy, deep Practice of Lament, by Mark Vrogot, so I'll be quoting a lot from him and borrowing some of his ideas.

I hope they can be a blessing to you all.

He says lament can be defined as a loud cry, a howl or a passionate expression of grief.

However, in the Bible, lament is more than sorrow or just talking about sadness.

It is more than walking through the stages of grief.

And he just finds it like this Lament is a prayer in pain that leads to trust.

Lament is a prayer in pain that leads to trust.

He says lament is the prayer language for God's people as they live in a world marred by sin.

It is how we talk to God about our sorrows as we renew our hope in His sovereign care.

He says this to cry is human, all humans cry, but to lament is Christian.

To cry is human, but to lament is Christian.

He goes on to say in an article that he wrote for Desiring God.

Lament is different than crying because lament is a form of prayer.

It is more than just the expression of sorrow or the venting of emotion.

Lament talks to God about pain and it has a unique purpose trust.

It is a divinely given invitation to pour out our fears, frustrations and sorrows for the purpose of helping us to renew our confidence in God Love.

That description of what lament is.

Lament is how we learn to live between the poles of a hard life and God's goodness, and this is something that we're not good at.

I'm not good at, I struggle with this.

For many of us, the reactions and the ways that we deal with hardship and struggle and trials in this life is A either is to get angry at God or, on the other hand, the other ditch is to live in denial.

To live in anger and loss of faith in God, or to live in denial and act like everything's OK and there's nothing wrong, he says.

Mark Vroekop in his book says many people I know fall into one or two camps when walking through suffering, anger or denial.

Some people are so filled with anger at God that they live in a self-made prison of despair or bitterness for the rest of their lives.

Still others seem to think that godliness means a new form of stoicism.

They try to protect an air of contentment that feels like denial.

Everything's fine, they say, but you know it isn't.

Biblical lament offers an alternative to these two reactions.

Biblical lament helps us walk through those feelings of trial, struggle, of suffering and grief, and it leads us towards the end goal of trust trusting in God's goodness even when it doesn't work out, even when what you think needs to happen, or what you think needs to happen or what you feel God owes you, doesn't work out.

So just a little bit on the loss of lament in our society and even in our more modern Christianity today.

So there was a research done by a guy named Song Chara.

He looked at Presbyterian and Baptist hymnals and he found that less than 20% of the songs in Baptist and Presbyterian hymnals are songs of lament.

So I would assume it's probably the same for us too.

Less than 20% For more contemporary services or worship services.

This CCLI is an organization that sort of tracks top songs sung in churches today.

These would be more of a link to that.

These would be more contemporary, modern songs.

In 2016, 2017, the number of lament-oriented songs was less than 5%.

It was less than 5% and I think that gives us a clue as to how we think of the Christian life that we either.

Maybe some of us feel it's wrong to be honest about our pain or suffering or questions.

For others.

It's like we maybe view it as this idea that Jesus has saved me and life is like one gigantic triumph.

But the reality is, for a lot of you, you're like no, sometimes life is just hard and you don't have clear, clean-cut answers.

So I think that's what the practice of lament can be, so vital to us as believers.

So, looking at lament in the scriptures, naturally many of you guys are thinking of the Psalms, and that's absolutely right.

When you're going through difficult times, the Psalms is like one of the first things you turn to because you find solid expressions of lament.

So a third 67 out of the 150 Psalms are classified as lament Psalms, psalms of a lament where David is crying out saying God, where are you, why have you forsaken me?

Like how long must I go on?

And in these Psalms and these songs and prayers of lament, he expresses feelings of confusion, of fear, of anger, of deep, deep sorrow and fear.

Not only the Psalms but the whole book of lamentations.

Like we literally have a book in the Bible called Lamentations, but I've never preached out of that and I'm not sure if I've ever heard a sermon preached on it and I'm not sure if we've ever done devotions on it, either it's, we're not good at it, we don't like to engage in that.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said I don't remember the exact quote but paraphrasing here a little bit that we take a look at those Psalms and we turn away because we can't quite handle them, like we turn to more palatable fare.

He says Throughout scripture you see laments or lamentations being expressed by tearing of clothes, by sprinkling of ashes or dirt on people's heads, by rolling around in the dirt, by fasting, by wearing sackcloth, and that's foreign to us because we like to either internalize and just wear a mask that says everything's okay and act like life is just one gigantic ice cream party.

But sometimes it's just not so it's.

Either we live in denial or we fall into hopeless despair.

So I wanna look at the four key elements of lament, four key elements of lament found in the scriptures and this I am just borrowing this from the book that I was looking at, called yeah, I referenced it earlier.

I highly recommend this book to anybody who's interested in this whole idea and maybe you're struggling with just like life right now.

I found it very helpful and I hope it can be a blessing to you all.

So four key elements of lament and we'll be looking at certain Psalms, focusing mostly in the Psalms today.

So most of these laments and songs of lament have A.

They start off with an address to God.

So there's a turning to God in prayer.

And secondly there's a complaint.

There's just an honest complaint about circumstances in life.

Thirdly, there's a request and then, fourthly, there's an expression of trust or praise.

So I'm gonna basically just title these four turn complain, ask and trust.

So, starting with the first one turn so my handwriting is atrocious, but I hope you guys can or turning to God.

This is key to the idea of biblical lament, that it's not just a venting of frustration or just like crying or sadness, but it's actually taking my eyes off of the circumstances right in front of me, the pain, the brokenness, whatever it is, and actually turning to God and saying God, I'm here, turning to Him.

There's an intentional address to God in bringing Him your grief.

So, turning to the Psalms, open up your Bibles to Psalm 77.

And just briefly I'll look at this to illustrate this idea.

Psalm 77, one through three.

I cried aloud to anybody.

I cried aloud to God, allowed to, and he will hear me In the day of my trouble.

I seek the in the night, my hand is stretched out without wearying.

My soul refuses to be comforted.

When I remember God, I moan.

When I meditate, my spirit faints.

You see the word here, god repeated or referenced or repeated three or four times.

This is absolutely crucial in biblical lament this idea that we're turning to God, turning from the circumstances around us towards Him and a lot of us, at least for myself, we can.

Often, instead of turning to God, we turn to other things to distract us.

Some things are harmless, maybe somewhat harmless Things like work, or maybe just like going shopping and like I just need to distract myself and just like buy a bunch of stuff on Amazon.

Or maybe it's things like food, just like let's just go out and eat and forget everything and just have a good time, or social media or politics or news, anything, just to distract us from what we're, what we're doing, what we're doing, and we're just going to do what we're doing and just do anything just to distract us from what we're going through.

And that's actually it ends up being fairly harmful to us because we never learn to work through the grief that we're going through For others of us, we just stop talking to God altogether and the temptation is to just like, go into silent despair and not even have the energy or the faith to turn to God, to turn to God in the middle of what we're going through.

In biblical lament, instead of turning to distractions or silent despair, we consciously turn to God and address Him from the middle of the pain or sorrow.

Again, quoting from the book anyone can cry, but it takes faith to turn to God in lament.

It takes faith to turn to God in lament.

The second element of biblical lament is to bring your complaints to God, bring your complaints to God.

So A was turn, b is complain, complain.

I know what some of you guys were thinking.

That's a negative word, like complain.

When I think of complain, I think of Florence who, like, complains when I make her eat her eggs instead of giving her the candy that she wanted or more chocolate chips.

Complain is a negative word, but we see this over and over in the Psalms and they're generally framed like this David or Fransum in why or how questions Turn to Psalm 10.

So the idea of complaining, bringing our complaints to God, is absolutely crucial in lamenting in a biblical way.

What complaining does is it puts words, it identifies the circumstance or the thing that is causing pain or sorrow or grief, and it actually puts a word to it.

So, instead of just feeling sorrow and sadness or heaviness, complaining to God about what you're going through, it helps you to actually put words to the things that you're going through and identifying it, and some examples could be things like the loss of a job or a broken relationship, naming that, bringing that to God.

Financial struggles or financial loss like the death of a child or cancer, just the suffering in the world.

We see David name his complaints and there's something that's really healing about that.

In Psalm 10, verse one, he says why, oh Lord, do you stand far away?

Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

He's complaining that it's like maybe, god, I don't feel like, maybe it's not true that you're actually hiding yourself, but right now it actually feels like it's true, like it feels like you're hiding, you're standing far off.

In verse 13, he complains about.

He says why does the wicked renounce God and say in his heart you will not call to account?

He's complaining to God about the wicked renouncing God, turning from God Verse six he says he's describing the wicked man and complaining to God about how the wicked man in verse seven, his mouth is filled with cursing deceit, oppression, verse eight he sits in ambush in the villages like he goes down this whole list of things.

He's crying out to God, he's putting words to the suffering and grief that he's going through and his frustrations, and in doing so he's asking God really tough questions that are like maybe there aren't simple answers to them, several more throughout Psalms.

Just why, questions he asks.

Why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me?

Why have you forgotten me?

Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

Why have you rejected me?

Why are you sleeping, oh Lord?

Why do you cast us off forever?

Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pastor?

Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand, take it from the fold of your garment and destroy them?

Why have you broken down its walls?

And then, secondly, just how he complains to God with a lot of how questions.

How long will you look on?

How long is the foe to scoff?

Is the enemy to revile your name forever?

How the foolish scoff at you all day?

How long will you be angry with your people's prayers?

How long, oh Lord, return, oh Lord.

How long?

How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?

So just some examples there of David pouring out his complaints to God, bringing his complaints to God, and it doesn't make.

We don't feel comfortable with that, because in some ways it feels like it's almost wrong to verbalize our feelings of frustration or complaints to God.

But he knows what they are and he wants to hear them.

Just a quote here by Stacey Gledesmith a lament honestly and specifically names a situation or circumstance that is painful, wrong or unjust, in other words, a circumstance that does not align with God's character and therefore does not make sense within God's kingdom.

All right, so, thirdly, the third element of lament is ask, and this is where we see David go from addressing God, pouring out his complaints, to then bringing a request to God, asking God for specific, like bold requests.

Second, psalm 77, just turn to that again if you don't mind.

Sorry, I think I had the wrong one there.

I won't.

Actually, what I'll just do is just read what I have here as some examples and these are like themes throughout the Psalms of requests that God makes to God, that David makes to God in the middle of his anguish.

These are some themes and you'll hear these over and over as you read the Psalms.

He says one request is arise, oh Lord, arise, grant us help, remember your covenant.

He's asking God to remember his covenant with his people.

Another one is let justice be done.

Don't remember our sins.

Ck before us, don't be silent, listen to me, teach me, vindicate me.

That's crucial as we walk through lament and learn to bring our complaints to God and then make requests of Him, like having the faith to boldly ask God for very specific requests and trusting that God will move on our behalf and that he wants to help us.

Does the third element is ask?

Lastly, trust.

Turn to Psalm 13, please.

So we see all four elements of lament in this Psalm right here.

He addresses God in the first verse.

How long, oh Lord?

He addresses, he brings His complaints.

Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

And then, in verse three, he addresses His requests consider and answer me, oh Lord, my God, light up my eyes lest I see the sleep of death.

And then all the way in verse five, verse six.

But I have trusted in your steadfast love.

My heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me.

The beauty of biblical lament is that most of these Psalms that David is crying out to God or singing to God is that they move from like God, why and how can you forsake me?

Why are you doing what you're doing?

It moves us from that to the end.

Most often there's like a but or a.

Yet All these things I'm laying before God and saying why and how.

And then David says but I have trusted in your steadfast love.

My heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

He says I have trusted in your steadfast love.

My heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

He has dealt bountifully with me.

The beauty of biblical lament is that it moves us from sadness or anger or fear to a renewed sense of trust that God is in control, even when life feels out of control.

And this is not a simple or clean cut, like four steps to having an ice cream party, or like being okay with life and like moving on.

Like this is actually really messy and it takes us actually like doing this over and over and over again, coming to God, asking him to help us, laying our complaints before him, and then the end goal is, instead of getting stuck in hopeless despair and lack of giving up complete faith and hope in God.

We can do that, or we can just like, deny it and say everything's okay, I'm fine, nothing's wrong, I'm totally fine.

Lament is an alternative to that.

That goes, acknowledges the pain, the suffering, and says yet I will trust God, yet God is with me, god will control, is in control, even when life feels out of control.

All right, so just a couple, maybe suggestions for it.

Like how do we actually, how do I actually apply this to my very own life?

How do I actually practice lament?

This sounds like a fancy word and it's maybe a little abstract, but like, how do I actually do this in my own life?

And I remember when Christy and I were dating, we went through really, really difficult time together as we were working through a certain things in our lives, and there was a moment where it was just like a really painful and we couldn't think about anything except the situation we were in.

We couldn't.

It was pointless to go have a date because it was just all we could think about.

And finally we just like we just sat down and we just opened up the Psalms and just like, just read them.

Just read them and read them and read them out loud and read them as prayers to God.

And so David experienced so many of the emotions that you and I experience, and the Psalm laments are, like they put into words so well prayers that we maybe don't have the energy to pray sometimes.

So my encouragement to you all is to make the lament as Psalms your own.

Just for an example, psalms 13.

Take that Psalm wherever you're at in life if you're really struggling with maybe sorrow, sadness, fear, frustration, anger.

This is not just for this moment, but for all moments of our lives.

Read it as a prayer to God, come before him and do these four things and really make it your own.

How long, oh Lord, will you?

And then enter in whatever you feel?

Your complain is to God.

How long will you withhold a child from us?

How long will you?

How long will you keep us in this financial struggle?

How long will you keep healing from us?

How long will you?

And you can just enter in whatever you're going through there and then go down to request verse three.

Consider and answer me, oh Lord, and enter in your request, just like God.

Please come through for us in this way and then, lastly, just trust and turn to trusting God, to trusting God in the middle of whatever you're going through.

So I have a maybe a detailed list of these Psalm laments, these specific chapters, and I would, if anyone is interested, reach out to me via text or email.

I'll send those your way.

There is just an amazing list of just like these Psalms that are just perfect for praying.

Psalms of lament.

Lament is a path to praise as we are led through our brokenness and disappointment.

The space between brokenness and God's mercy is where this song is sung.

Think of lament as the transition between pain and promise.

It is the path from heartbreak to hope.

That's the goal of lament.

It is not just to be stuck in despair, but to move us from despair and heartbreak to hope and trust in God, no matter what the circumstance and, lastly, the hope that we have.

We have a future hope, and that is that lament is not forever.

Lament is not forever.

We have a promise in Revelations 21, 4.

Someday, for those of us who are faithful, he will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more.

Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore.

For the former.

Things have passed away.

We have a future hope, and that is a hope that lament is not forever, that someday God will take that away from us.

In closing, I would like to ask for three volunteers.

After you raise your hand, I'll pick on you and then I'll describe to you what I'll ask you to do.

Three volunteers, preferably somebody who can read, someone who can read I'll pick on.

Okay, jimmy, cordell and Brent, would you be willing?

Perfect, I'm gonna have you guys come up just one at a time.

Brent, if you wanna start with actually Jimmy, start with Psalm 13.

Come on up and just read that.

Cordell, if you wanna read Psalm six, and then Brent, if you want to read Psalm 77, just come up here and just listen to the words and make it your own.

Wherever you're at in life, make this lament your own and then, in closing, after that, then I'm gonna ask the song leader, franklin, would you mind singing the song or leading the song?

Abide With Me, fast Falls of Eventide.

That's a song that is almost a lament and a recognition that, like God, I'm trusting you despite life's difficult circumstances.

So go ahead, jimmy.

God bless you all.

How long, o Lord, will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

Consider and answer me, o Lord, my God, lift up my eyes lest I sleep the sleep of death.

Lest my enemy say I have prevailed over him.

Lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken, but I have trusted in your steadfast love.

My heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me.

Here's the song here's the song, psalm 6.

O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.

Be gracious to me, o Lord, for I am languishing.

Heal me, o Lord, for my bones are troubled.

My soul also is greatly troubled.

But you, o Lord, how long Turn, o Lord?

Deliver my life.

Save me for the sake of your steadfast love, for in death there is no remembrance of you In Sheol.

Who will give you praise?

I am weary with my moaning.

Every night I flood my bed with tears.

I drench my couch with my weeping.

My eye wastes away because of grief.

It grows weak because of all my foes.

Depart from me all you, workers of evil, for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.

The Lord has heard my plea.

The Lord accepts my prayer.

All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled.

They shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.

It was Psalm 77, right, yeah, I cry out to God, yes, I shout O that God would listen to me.

When I was in deep trouble, I searched for the Lord all night long.

I prayed with my hands lifted toward heaven, but my soul was not comforted.

I think of God and I moan, overwhelmed with longing for his help.

You don't let me sleep.

I am too distressed even to pray.

I think of the good old days, long since ended, when my nights were filled with joyful songs.

I searched my soul and pondered the difference now.

Has the Lord rejected me forever?

Will he never again be kind to me?

Is his unfailing love gone forever?

Have his promises permanently failed?

Has God forgotten to be gracious?

Has he slammed the door on his compassion and I said this is my fate.

The most high has turned his hand against me.

But then I recall all you have done, o Lord.

I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago.

They are constantly in my thoughts.

I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works, o God.

Your ways are holy.

Is there any God as mighty as you?

You are the God of great wonders.

You demonstrate your awesome power among the nations.

By your strong arm, you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.

When the Red Sea saw you, o God, its waters looked and trembled.

The sea quaked to its very depths.

The clouds poured down rain.

The thunder rumbled in the sky.

Your arrows of lightning flashed.

Your thunder roared from the world wind.

The lightning lit up the world.

The earth trembled and shook.

Your road led through the sea, your pathway through the mighty waters, a pathway no one knew was there.

You led your people along that road like a flock of sheep, with Moses and Aaron as their shepherds.

Sing number 644,.

Abide with me Any parts.

And then verse five we'll all hum all the way down to Heaven's morning breaks.

And then we'll break into words.

So verse three gentlemen, melody, ladies sing harmony.

Verse five everybody hum down to Heaven's morning breaks.

Hum, hum, hum.

Abide with me.

Fast falls the eventide, the darkness deepens.

Lord with me abide when other helpers fit and comforts flee.

Help of the helpless.

Oh abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs of life's little day, earth's joys grow, dim, its glories pass away, change and decay in all around I see.

Help thou who changes not.

Abide with me.

I need thy presence every passing hour, but thy grace can for the tempter's pound who, like thy self, like what is taken, be who lovers of shine.

Oh abide with me.

I fear no foe.

Thank you with thee.

Latin to bless Ills have no weight and tears no bitterness.

Where is that scene where grave thy victory?

I try unseath, if thou abide with me Hmm.

Hmm, and morning breaks and earth's veins shadows flee.

In life, in death.

Oh Lord, abide with me.

It has truly been a blessing to be here this morning.

Thank you.