Worship

Easter 5                                                                                                                                          May 18, 2025

Jeremiah 20:13-15, 18                                                                                                                   Pastor Enter

“Love For Me”

When I was the pastor in Florida, I had the youth group over for a Face Your Fears Bible study at my house. We talked round-table-style about our deepest, inmost fears and applied Scripture to be comforted by God’s grace. After that, the teens jumped in my backyard pool on floating rings and I had them watch scenes from Jaws on a movie screen!

During the Bible study, I asked the teens what they were scared of as a little child. Here’s a sample of their answers. The dark. The boogeyman. The vacuum cleaner. Escalators. Clowns. Teletubbies. We laughed about how ridiculous those fears sounded. “Seriously, you were afraid of THAT?” Was asked in shocked mocking. “Hey, I was four!” Was said in defense. Now that the teens weren’t little kids anymore—but big, tough, seasoned-with-

life-experience teenagers—they weren’t afraid of those things anymore. It seemed laughable that they once feared things so powerless and silly.

Then I asked the teens to write down what they were afraid of now. They had difficulty. They shuddered. Those fears caused tears in the room, real tears, real feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness. I think you’ve felt the same. Sometimes life gets overwhelming. It gets you down; keeps you down.

I want to share with you today what I told those teenagers. They laughed at how silly it sounded to fear the dark, clowns and a vacuum now that their perspective changed and they grew up. I assured the teens that their new adult-level fears, what made them feel down and depressed and overwhelmed, would one day—from heaven—be shocking they let that thing, that emotion, that fear overtake them. When we’re in heaven, the fears and insecurities of this life will be laughable. “I was afraid of that!?”

But until then, we’re stuck here. This life is full of big, bad, ugly, overwhelming days. I know you know what that feels like.

We have this perception of perfection when it comes to being a Christian. We can think since we have Christ in our hearts that our lives should have a peaceful, perfect balance. When that doesn’t happen, it gets us down. We look around at all the happy, whole people at church and think their lives are perfect and pleasant. Again, we wonder what’s wrong with us. And we slip further down into feelings of sadness and inadequacy. Yet, their lives are just as messed up and messy as yours. We all clean up pretty shiny and nice when we’re in God’s house of worship. But honestly, truthfully, we all have struggles. Life and faith and faithfulness are hard. So don’t feel alone. You’re not alone. We’re in this together working to walk with Jesus.

When life and faith and faithfulness aren’t going well, rather than bonding together for support we come down hard on ourselves that we don’t match up to others whose lives look so perfect. We see their mirage, look in the mirror and we are rather hard on ourselves. We fail to feel good about ourselves. We fail to love ourselves. So today we are going to take some time to examine the life of Jeremiah. This man of God, a man of faith called by God to lead God’s people struggled to love himself. Jeremiah is known as

“The Weeping Prophet” in the Bible because he didn’t hold back his lament of how hard life was. He hurt. He let it be known.

Jeremiah served the Lord during a nearly 40 year ministry under three different kings. One supported him. Another tried to kill him. Another just made his life absolutely miserable. He was doing what was right and righteous before God. He worked hard to honor God and yet life wasn’t working out for him.

Your heart of faith strives and struggles to do what is right and honor God and yet life has a way of keeping you down and even kicking you when you’re down. That’s how Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, felt. Listen in with me to his deep words of praise and pain, which reveal the rollercoaster ride that was his life. “Sing to the LORD! Give praise to the LORD! He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked. Cursed be the

day I was born! May the day my mother bore me not be blessed! Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very glad, saying, ‘A child is born to you—a son!’ Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame?” (Jeremiah 20:13-15,18) It sounds like Jeremiah needed to be checked into a

clinic. His words are dark, almost suicidal.

But he was being real. Honest. Isn’t it somewhat refreshing to hear a Bible character, a prophet of God, handpicked by the Almighty being truly authentic in his struggles of faith and faithfulness? You are not alone. You are not a failure if you are struggling. At least Jeremiah is not trying to hide his pain. He’s crying out in anguish and for help.

God despises the cover up. If you’re struggling, then let it be known you’re struggling like Jeremiah did. Tell your pastor. Tell a trusted friend. Tell someone. This church is not a museum for perfect people. If it was, I couldn’t be here. This church is a hospital for sinners, for those who are hurting. We all need to be here because we are infected with sin and living with its consequences. God’s Word along with the support group of believers is our treatment. You don’t go to the hospital and cover up why you’re there. So don’t cover up your need while you’re here among fellow believers all striving to get healthier in our Christian living through Christ’s mercy.

Jeremiah was willing to admit in a very vivid way he was sometimes on fire for God. He shouted out “Give praise to the Lord!” and then at other times he was cold, numb feeling in his faith “Cursed be the day I was born!” Jeremiah certainly wasn’t lukewarm.

Friends, don’t be lukewarm in your faith. If you’re joyful, let it out! If you’re struggling, let it out. Be authentic. Be real. Otherwise, you will think everyone else has it together and you don’t and then you’ll feel worthless. In the book of Revelation, the Lord had seven letters written to seven different churches in Asia Minor. One of those churches was in Laodicea. When you listen to what God wrote, you’ll understand why the Lord wasn’t upset with Jeremiah’s authentic outburst and why God isn’t upset when you admit that you are struggling in life. “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3:16) God detests when we cover up our need because then the devil and the world will overtake us when we try to fight through life alone. Ask for help. You are not alone in your struggles.

We all have messy lives. Yet the devil tempts us to look down on ourselves that we don’t have this faith thing together like other people to get us to despair and give up on God, to get us to despair because your shiny faith isn’t as bright and shiny as others. Guess what. The believers around you aren’t perfect either. Your pastor isn’t perfect; never claimed to be. The only perfect person ever on this planet is Jesus. Everyone else—no matter how well they hide it or shine up a part of their life to put on display—is struggling in faith just like you.

Friends, that’s faith. That’s faithfulness. It’s the struggle. Don’t get down on yourself that you’re not perfect. You can’t be. There’s sin within. God expects; really, God demands the struggle against sin. Struggling against sin in faith is faithfulness. That’s why God detests being lukewarm; because then the struggle against sin stopped. If you’re not where you want to be as a Christian in your faith-walk but you’re striving/struggling to move forward, then you are faithful. God loves you, forgives you and gives you perfection.

That’s why of all the commands given by God that we so desperately want to fulfill, there is one repeated more often than the others. In the first five books of the Bible alone there are 613 commands by God. The command most repeated by the Almighty is: “Do not fear.” God says, “Do not fear. I’ve got this. I’ve got you.” When God says to you, “Do not fear.” It’s not said in disgust or frustration. It’s said as a loving parent says, “Do not fear.” to a child who got scared or overwhelmed by life.

When you are overwhelmed by life and you beat yourself down for not measuring up, look up to hear God’s “Do Not Fear” promises to you. Do not fear when you feel alone, “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:15) You are never alone. Do not fear when you feel like a failure. “The Lord directs the steps of the godly…Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.” (Psalm 37:23-24) You are firmly, securely in God’s loving hands. Do not fear when you think God will stop forgiving you. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins.” (1 John 1:9) God never places an expiration date on His timeline of forgiveness. Do not fear when you feel weak. “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9) Your strength is not in yourself; it’s in Christ.

One of the biggest reasons why we struggle to love ourselves is because we don’t feel we measure up to others. We think that struggle is failure. It’s not. Struggle is faith. Faith causes us to struggle against sin and struggle to live for God. When we are weak and we are willing to be authentic and transparent and admit our weakness, then we are strong in the Lord!

If you waiver in showing continual love to yourself, this is what God’s Word tells you to do: 1) Understand: struggling in life is a faithful life. If you aren’t struggling, then you aren’t working to live your faith. 2) Understand: You can’t do this alone and you’re not alone. God is with you and your fellow believers are struggling with you. Be open, honest and transparent about needing their help as Jeremiah was. 3) Understand: To get to where you want to be, keep your perspective. It can be overwhelming to think about how much change needs to happen in your life to get to where you want to be. So God simply tells you to continually keep your perspective. “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8) If you keep your focus on moving forward in the faith, you will go where your focus is. Before you know it, your old struggles won’t be overwhelming.

I remember when I was in first grade my teacher showed us how two colors blend together to make a new color. She had a picture of a frog. She colored it with a blue crayon. We laughed. Frogs aren’t blue. Then she colored over the blue with a yellow crayon. It magically turned green. Because, of course, yellow and blue make green. She then told us to try it. I did. It looked awful. The two colors didn’t blend together to make green. It was a mess. I looked at the frog coloring sheets around me and theirs looked

green. Theirs looked great, just like my teacher’s. I frumped and slumped in my chair. “I’m no good at this. I’m worthless at coloring.”

My teacher noticed my tears. She helped me up out of my chair and walked me around the classroom to look closer at everyone else’s papers. Up close, theirs were a mess too! She had me look across the room at my paper sitting on my desk. From that distance, that perspective, it all came together. The frog was green. In our lives, all we see is the mess. All we see are the failures. God sees our faith; He sees our faithful struggle against sin. Do not get down on yourself when you fail and life gets messy. Look up to God and to His forgiveness for He tells you, “Do not fear. I’ve got this. I’ve got you.”

Amen.