Songs for Sunday, December 31, 2023 @ Christ Community Church

2023, Lord willing, is coming to a close.

For some, this will be good news as 2023 has been anything but a banner year for them. Yet, for others, the close of the year may be a time of celebration because 2023 was the year for them — the year for good memories or accomplishments.

But if you have lived a few years, you likely realize that change is not as simple as the flip of a calendar’s page — that new beginnings are rarer and harder to come by than a clock ticking or a ball dropping. New beginnings can be hard and scary. They can require a lot of difficulty and risk. Moving from a good year to all the potential of a less-than-good year can produce anxiety. Placing all of your hope on a calendar and clock ending times of trouble can too. But things are different with Jesus!

I love the center of the book of Lamentations. Read that again: the center, not the whole book. Lamentations literally means cries of mourning. The book of the Bible is formed out of five poems of mourning, five eulogies marking the fall of Jerusalem. At the center, though, is hope.

The part of Lamentations 3 we will be reading in worship tomorrow is a good picture of the realities of this fallen world and the hope that comes only from Jesus. It would do us well to pay attention to this.

The first part of Lamentations 3 is terrible and, at the very least, terrifying. One of the things that is perhaps the scariest is the continual recognition that the Lord has allowed the trouble to be faced by His people. The writer says that he has “seen affliction” that came from “the rod” of God’s wrath (Lamentations 3:1). He recognizes that the trouble besetting Jerusalem stemmed from their own sinfulness. Their sins and unfaitfulness have brought on times of “bitterness and tribulation” (Lamentations 3:5). And in the midst of that self-wrought turmoil, it feels as though his cries for help and prayers have been shut out (Lamentations 3:7).

Depending on your life experience, this will either seem familiar or foreign. But if you have experienced pain and loss — especially if it follows your own unbelief or disobedience or sin, these feelings may feel all too familiar. Maybe you can empathize with the writer of these laments rather than merely sympathizing. Maybe you can say, “I’ve been there, brother.” You might even be there now. You know what it is to feel like your dinner has been gravel, your refuge ashes, your soul filled with fear rather than peace (Lamentations 3:16-17). The writer of Lamentations says his “endurance has perished” meaning he cannot go on anymore, and he feels as if his hope in the Lord has perished with his desire to continue (Lamentations 3:18). BUT he calls something to his mind that sparks that hope anew.

This is important, so don’t miss it.

He doesn’t call to mind that he really can endure or that he has inner strength and peace that he forgot about. He doesn’t remind himself that he can merely speak good into existence and it will be there. He doesn’t try to put positive vibes out into the universe. No, when you have gotten as low as he was all of those foolish notions perish first. He had exhausted all of his possibilities for helping himself, for digging himself out of the hole of his despair.

He reminds himself that God’s steadfast love — God’s never-ending, never-failing, never-giving-up love — will, well, remain steadfast and never stop; neither will His mercies (Lamentations 3:22). God’s love is not based on our faithfulness, so it does not stop because we have been unfaithful. His love and mercy and grace are all based on Him and His faithfulness (Lamentations 3:23)! They can be “new every morning” because His love and opportunities to repent and turn from our sin and despair to Him are as plentiful as there are days. That’s good news — as long as there are days!

The hope of the writer of Lamentations in his mourning is the same hope for us. The Lord is our “portion” means that He is our only inheritance — that when we die, we look forward to being with Him — that if all the things that are producing lament within us finally whoop us down, He is there — that finding the Rock of ages when we hit rock bottom produces “hope” rather than lament (Lamentations 3:24).

I am reminded here of the classic movie It’s a Wonderful Life. If you are unfamiliar with it, I am sure it will be playing somewhere all New Years Eve and Day on more than a few television channels. It follows the, well, wonderful life of George Bailey, a good man whose every single choice in life leads to the good of others and some sense of missing out for himself. His good deeds take away the hearing in one of his ears which causes him to miss out on getting to go and be a hero in WWII. He steps in to rescue the family business (which in turn rescues the majority of his home town from abject poverty at the hands of the wicked and greedy Mr. Potter) and misses out on untold riches and adventure. His kindness to his buffoon uncle inevitably risks it all and produces such a terrible situation that he stands to lose everything and end up in prison because of a mistake he did not commit nor deserve to pay for. He found himself drunk and feeling as if the only hope he had to offer his family was by death at his own hand. That is until an angel (don’t get your theology of angels or any sort of theology from this or any movie) is sent to show him what the lives of those around him would have been like (sad, devoid of hope or good things) if he had never been born, leading him to realize that he really did have a wonderful life — a life worth continuing, a life worth living.

What offers us that kind of hope in the midst of turmoil? What can show us that life is a gift and indeed wonderful in the midst of despair and fear? Well, the same thing that the author of Lamentations had and wants to show us. The Lord is our portion. His love is steadfast when everything in this fallen world shows us just how fleeting it is. His mercies are new when the old terror is choking us out. When we find ourselves at the end of our rope, we find the hand of mighty God outstretched to lift us up because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:6-7).

The Lord is “good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him” (Lamentations 3:25), so might I suggest that rather than looking for hope in the turn of a calendar’s page, you turn to Him? He is good and takes care of His own despite all the troubles that we, through our sin, or this fallen world have to offer (Nahum 1:7). That’s a hope worth having!

And tomorrow that’s what we are singing about! That’s who we are singing TO and singing about. We are singing about, worshiping, and generally making much of Jesus! He is worthy. He is God. And He is good!

Won’t you join us?

Here are our Scriptures & songs:

  • Scripture | Lamentations 3:16-25 —

16 He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; 17 my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; 18 so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord.”

19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! 20 My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. 21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. 24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”

25 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.

  • Scripture | Philippians 2:5-11 —

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

"Worthy is the Lion, the Slain Lamb Who Lives" from Revelation 5 (The KING is Coming) – Refresh & Restore | A JustKeithHarris.com Podcast

📖 Revelation 5:1–14In this episode of The King is Coming, Keith Harris and Jamie Harrison continue into the throne room of heaven—and what unfolds in Revelation 5 is one of the most powerful and familiar scenes in all of Scripture. A scroll appears in the right hand of the One seated on the throne, sealed with seven seals. A mighty angel asks a question that echoes through heaven and earth: Who is worthy to open the scroll?At first, no one is found—and John weeps. But then everything changes. The Lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered… and when John turns, he sees not a lion, but a Lamb standing as though slain—and alive.Together, Keith and Jamie discuss:✔️ The significance of the sealed scroll and why only the rightful heir can open it✔️ The difference between ability and worthiness—and why no one but Jesus qualifies✔️ Why John hears “Lion” but sees a slain Lamb—and what that reveals about Christ✔️ How Jesus conquers not by force, but through His death and resurrection✔️ The connection to the Passover Lamb and the redemption of God’s people✔️ The overwhelming worship of heaven declaring Jesus alone is worthyThis chapter is the turning point: the Lamb who was slain is alive—and He alone is worthy to carry out God’s plan.“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelation 5:12)🔗 If you would like to see a written version of this podcast, complete with footnotes and cross-references, you can find it here.
  1. "Worthy is the Lion, the Slain Lamb Who Lives" from Revelation 5 (The KING is Coming)
  2. "Before the Throne of God Above" from Revelation 4 (The KING is Coming)
  3. " Lukewarm Yet Not Without Hope: Jesus’s Letter to the Church at Laodicea" (The KING is Coming)
  4. "Kept Through the Trial: Jesus's Letter to the Church at Philadelphia" (The KING is Coming)
  5. Christ Has Come: The Promised King & His Gift of Love" (Advent 2025)
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