Tag: Lament

Habakkuk: Choose Trust | 6-2-2024

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Updated: 11/8/2024

Sermon Prep

Life was so exciting in early June. My wife Glory was over 20 weeks pregnant with our daughter. I was flourishing at my new job I got back in December. Reunion Church was growing deeper roots via discipleship and fellowship with one another. It was a good time for us.

As one might expect when teaching through a book on wrestling and embracing lament, our congregation was ready to move onto our next series. It was going to be a character study on the life of King David, so pretty much everyone was excited about what was next. With that in mind, it was put on me to wrap up our series in Habakkuk so that we could move onto the new series.

But there was a lot of ground to cover and I wasn’t planning on combining what we at first planned to be 2 separate sermons in one. That being Habakkuk 2:2-20 and Habakkuk 3:1-19 respectively. Not the craziest amount of text to cover, but not the original plan during my prep either.

Then again, to teach requires one to be flexible like bamboo and not like glass. Most of the time, I’m as flexible as a pane of glass. Regardless, here’s the notes:

Sermon Notes

Opening Line

  • Do you trust me? Well, I don’t trust you.
    • I trust you with most things, yet not everything.

Intro

  • Andrew’s marriage and parenting advice vs his driving and movie taste.

Transition To Main Point

  • Likewise, we choose when we trust God too.

Main Point

  • God loves this world more than you do and knows what’s best for you, so choose to trust him.
  • Habakkuk 2:2-20 | God’s Response
    • Distrust leads to disorder.
      • Read Romans 1:16-25.
    • “God uses evil people to judge evil people.” – Clay Jones
      • See Genesis 50:20.
    • Every nation tailer-makes a god for itself.
      • Read Jeremiah 10:8-10.
  • Habakkuk 3:1-19 | Habakkuk’s Psalm
    • Shigionoth = a highly emotional poetic form.
    • After choosing to trust God, he sings a vow of praise.
    • “Even though I don’t know where God is, God knows where I am.” – Timothy Keller

Why This Matters

  • A promise is the assurance that someone will do something or that something will happen.
  • God promises to bring justice, defeat sin, and rescue the oppressed.

Power Text

  • Some of you don’t believe what I just said.
    • Your lament isn’t there yet and that’s ok.
  • Remember, lament is a prayer of pain that leads to trust. A spiritual journey can’t be rushed.
  • Stages of Lament:
    • Turn to God.
    • Brings complaints.
    • Ask boldly.
    • Choose trust.
    • Vow of praise.
  • Lament is dangerous because it tests all things.
  • Then again, a life guided by grace isn’t safe.
  • As C. S. Lewis puts it, “Safe? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the king.”

Final Thoughts

This was a solid message and a good end to this short series. Even though I’m not the teaching pastor, but an associate pastor I will occasionally for one reason or another teach the majority of a series. This was one of those cases along with our 2023 series through Luke.

Life just happens and the teaching schedule we have internally will reflect that too. Didn’t bother me though since I thought this one turned out quite well. Also, fun fact: this was my last hand-written sermon before moving to digital. With that, Godspeed and Jesus bless.

Habakkuk: Authentic Prayer | 5-12-2024

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Updated: 11/8/2024

Sermon Prep

I don’t know how it happens, but I have repeatedly taught sermons on Mother’s Day throughout the years and this was one of those times. It’s sort of an odd coincidence, but I think its God’s timing in that my messages on those days feel sharper and standout more than the others. To commemorate my wife Glory’s first Mother’s Day, the Friday before this sermon her and I went to the mountains to have a day in God’s creation.

Anyways, this was a powerful message to prep. In our church, multiple marriages were on the rocks and for a church of roughly 60 people that’s a lot to deal with as a community. Glory and i had our miscarriage scare. Around this time, a couple in our church lost both of their moms within the same week. It was a rocky road we walked together as a team.

In light of the sensitivity of the season, I prepped this message. Knowing some but not all of the struggles of the church. Balancing wisdom and wit to deliver a message faithful to God’s word about human heartbreak and heartache.

I think the Holy Spirit gently guided me as I wrote this sermon as I cried throughout most of the prep. It was a hard message to deliver given all of the somber circumstances. I could go on about the heaviness going on, but words wouldn’t be enough. Here’s the notes for this message and the recording too:

Sermon Notes

  • Opening Line
    • Have you ever been in an argument and said something you didn’t expect?
      • It’s surprising to blurt out how we truly feel and think about someone.

Intro

  • Have you ever heard someone pray something you didn’t expect to hear?
    • Mom’s friend lamenting stillborn children.

Transition To Main Point

  • As Andrew put it, “lament is a prayer of pain that leads to trust.”

Main Point

  • Maturity in our relationship with Jesus is defined by authentic prayer during tough times.
  • Habakkuk 1:1-4 | Habakkuk’s Complaint
    • Complaining to God about Judah the southern kingdom and its evils.
    • Questioning God’s character.
      • Is God good or loving?
      • Does God know better?
      • Is God strong enough?
      • Where is God?
    • Habakkuk feels forced to see grossly evil and immoral behavior.
    • The law is unable to act or move because justice is corrupt.
  • Authentic prayer is the act of openly sharing everything in our hearts with Jesus.
    • Trusting him with the highs and lows.

Why This Matters

  • We can’t let our pain define our perspective. That’s bitterness.
  • We also can’t hide from or suppress our pain. That’s blindness.

Power Text

  • Read 1 Peter 5:6-7 (Individual Lament).
    • Authentically pray knowing God cares for you.
  • Read Romans 12:15 (Collective Lament).
    • Obey God and share in the suffering of others.
  • Read Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 (Universal Lament).
    • In whatever season, have authentic prayer.

Final Thoughts

There’s 2 types of sermons: one that preaches and one that teaches. A message that preaches appeals to the heart and is passionate, while a message that teaches appeals to the mind and is profound. This is one of my greatest preaching messages. I couldn’t help but preach from the heart and the Holy Spirit empowered me on the day to do so.

In fact, this was one of my shortest messages as far as notes go. I truly didn’t write down all that much but the message was all the better for it. Less is more and that truth is quite evident with this sermon. Honored and proud to have had the opportunity to share this message. With that, Godspeed and Jesus bless.

Ecclesiastes: Your Dream is Meaningless | 10-2-2022

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Photo Cred: (1) | Updated: 1/20/2024

Sermon Prep

Often times people describe the honeymoon phase as carefree and pure bliss. A short period of time where everything is perfect and nothing can go wrong. I think that Glory and I first experienced this during our dating and engagement days. Then that phase ended just over a month after our honeymoon. Never felt anything quite like that time in my life and I will always treasure that time with my Glory.

Once that mountaintop experience ended reality set in not just of ourselves, but of life overall. Not that life has been downhill since then, but rather that my wife and I entered a new phase: lament. Around mid-September of 2022, life pivoted from joy to lament. Not just for us, but others very close to us too.

For us, I grappled with how to comfort my wife’s panic attacks that didn’t just happen daily, but multiple times per day. It was emotionally brutal. I failed to understand the extent of what it meant for her to mourn moving away from her childhood home and family to be with me in our new home. Here’s an excerpt I wrote in my journal about this season:

“At a loss on how to help. How to help. What to do. Just defeated. Pretty tired too. There’s been a lot of late nights like this one. I’m worn out. Body aches. Mind races. Just drained. I relate to today’s Psalm a lot [Psalm 88]. It describes what I can’t. I’m so tired. God, help us to rest in you.”

Beyond my wife understandably feeling homesick after the honeymoon phase, other things brought about this tough timeframe. Two women within the span of a week were raped in our community. Decades-long friendships ended between people we knew due to evil in-fighting and gossip. On top of that, my once steady job was beginning to crumble as layoff rumors swirled due to an acquisition. It quickly shifted from cherished days to chaotic ones seemingly out of nowhere.

It’s with this backdrop that our church began a new series in the book of Ecclesiastes. Starting a series on the meaninglessness of life was quite good timing on God’s part. Exploring the emptiness of the season during what should the happiest time of the year leading into fall and the holidays. With that all in mind, here’s the notes from my sermon:

Sermon Notes

Opening Line

  • 1940s vs Disney+ Pinocchio.
  • Pinocchio is a retelling of the prodigal son.
  • Self-indulgence isn’t fulfilling; sacrifice is.

Intro

  • Read Ecclesiastes 2

Transition To Main Point

  • Pleasure, wisdom; work are meaningless without Jesus.

Main Point

  • Pleasure is meaningless (Read Ecclesiastes 2:1-11)
  • Wisdom is meaningless (Read Ecclesiastes 2:12-17)
  • Work is meaningless (Read Ecclesiastes 2:18-23)
  • Contentment is meaningful (Read Ecclesiastes 2:24-26)

Why It Matters

  • Nothing created can fulfill you.
  • Comforts can’t conform your heart to be like Christ, but the challenge of change will.
  • True joy is in jagged transformation.
  • There’s a purpose to life’s greatest pursuits.
  • That grand design is to enjoy the things of Earth with Jesus.
  • Life is pains and pleasures, but Jesus is our joy.
  • He makes the mess make sense.
  • Creation was intentionally untamed.
  • “We’re not made for Disney World” as Peter Kreeft put it, but rather for the Garden of Eden.
  • The adventure God has for us is this: he creates, we cultivate.
  • Your aim in life should be to embark on the adventure God has for you.
  • Now go and wander with the way-maker.

Final Thoughts

This one is a step above my last sermon for sure. I think with everything that was going on at the time, I leaned into the seriousness of it all a bit more in the delivery of the message. The ending wrap-up is messy and needed some refinement, but I remember the sharing of the sermon being good. With that, Godspeed and Jesus bless.

Footnotes

  1. Ben Sharpsteen & Hamilton Luske. 1940. Pinocchio. Walt Disney Productions.