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LAMENTATIONS 3: 21-23

"THE COMPASSIONATE GOD"

I. THE SETTING.
        A. Jeremiah is sitting in a cave overlooking Jerusalem.
                1. He weeps as he sees the rubble of the once glorious city that men called 
                   the perfection of beauty.
                2. He smells the stench of decaying bodies.
                3. He sees poor starving people poking through the rubble.
                        a. They were once proud - but now broken.
        B. The tragedy is that this could have been averted.
                1. He had warned them to repent and seek God.
                        a. They mocked him and imprisoned him.
                        b. They continued to rebel against God until it was too late.
                2. If they had only listened.
        C. Someday the world is going to lie in smoking ruins.
                1. God has given adequate warnings of the desolation to come.
                2. The poor survivors of the holocaust will wander aimlessly, looking for a
                   bite of food.
        D. Jeremiah sinks to an incredible low.
                1. The people had turned against him.
                        a. They told him to shut up or they would kill him.
                        b. Now they wished they had listened.
                2. Now it seems that even God has turned against him - vs. 1-20.
                3. Looking around, it is totally hopeless.

II. HIS CURE FOR DEPRESSION IS IN LOOKING UP.
        A. When the outlook is so bleak you can't face it - try the up look.
        B. "This I recall to mind, and I have hope."
                1. Depression is a state of mind.
                        a. It can destroy you - most suicides caused by depression.
                        b. It can hurt those around you. Have you ever noticed how depressed
                           you feel after talking to a depressed person?
                2. He put a new set of thoughts into his mind.
                        a. He ceased thinking about himself.
                        b. He started thinking about God.
                        c. Thinking about myself is always depressing.
                        d. Thinking about God is always encouraging.

III. HIS NEW MIND SET.
        A. "It is the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed."
                1. If God had given to us what we deserved, I wouldn't even be here to see 
                   this mess.
                2. It is only by God's mercies that any of us are alive today.
                        a. Our lives are all in His hands.
                        b. He is under no obligation to sustain us.
                        c. Some even biting the hand that is holding them.
        B. "His compassions fail not."
                1. God never ceases loving you.
                2. How often mercy associated with compassion.
                        a. Mercy stems from compassion.
                3. "They are new every morning."
        C. "Great is Thy faithfulness."
                1. God was faithful to warn of what He would do.
                2. God was faithful to do what He warned.
                3. But more - God is faithful to love and show mercy.
        D. "The Lord is my portion."  vs. 24
                1. He is all I need.
        E. "The Lord is good to those who wait for Him and seek Him."  vs. 25
        F. "The Lord will not cast us off forever."  vs. 31
        G. "The Lord is with us in our afflictions."  vs. 30
                -- prophesy of Jesus Christ.