God’s Daily Feelings Toward You
Key Passage: Lamentations 3:22-23
Date: June 7, 2024
Lamentations 3:22 and 23. The title is God’s Daily Feelings Toward You. God’s daily feelings toward you.
Verse number 22: “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.”
God has compassion on every person here tonight. He has compassion on you. Now, if you’re like me, the first thought I have is: What really is compassion? Many times, maybe the best definition you can find is the first time that word is used in the Bible.
So if you look over in Exodus chapter number two. And actually, this is the singular compassion, the first time it’s used. In Exodus 2, this is when Moses was three months old. Think of a three-month-old baby. That’s about how old Moses was. And they hid Moses in the basket. Remember Pharaoh’s daughter came out there, and here’s the first time God uses this word compassion in the Bible: Exodus 2. Look at verse number 6.
“And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and behold, the babe wept: and she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”
I don’t know a pretty much better definition than that right there. When this lady opened that basket, that baby started crying. Her heart just—her heart went out.
That’s the first time the Bible uses this word compassion. That’s what the Bible is talking about, how God feels toward you. God has those feelings. We’re made in the image and likeness of God. God’s not some computer that has no feelings, you understand? He has compassion like that lady did when that three-month-old baby started crying. That’s how he thinks about you. That’s the feelings he has toward you.
You realize God has these feelings. What is this over in Hebrews? He said, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched by the feeling of our infirmities.” He can be touched. He’s moved. He has compassion toward you.
1 Peter 5:7: “Casting all your care upon him for he careth for you.” Why do you say cast all your care? Because he cares for you. He has compassion. That’s how God feels toward you. He can be touched by your feelings of infirmities. God can be touched by your feelings of infirmities.
That’s what he says. I like this one: Psalm 103:13. “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.” Not as pity on us. I’m just talking about God of the universe, Almighty God. He looks down, and just like that lady seeing that baby cry, all her heart went out for that baby. That’s how God is toward you. He has compassion on you.
Now, what does he say? He says in verse number 22, “His compassion fail not.” They never run out. You ever hear somebody say, “Boy, I’m losing my patience with you”? God never loses his compassion for you. Never runs out. It reminds me, “The mercy of the Lord endureth forever.” He has compassion, and it never runs out.
I was thinking about some illustrations real to life to make it real to us. And I thought about Miss Ruthie. She’s not here tonight. Usually she sits back here, and her son Moses is autistic. I’ve known the age—I can’t remember how old Moses is. He’s getting up in years. In all those years, his mom has took care of him. And you think maybe she’d get tired of taking care of him? She never does. All these years doing so many things for him, and she still has compassion toward him. It’s just amazing. She never runs out. And you take that and multiply that times about ten million: God never runs out of compassion for you. His compassion fail not.
Now, here’s an interesting thing. It would be good enough if God just said his compassion fails not, but it doesn’t say that. If you look at the verse real closely, verse number 22, it says his compassions, plural, fail not. Only twice is it plural in the Bible. Almost always is it singular compassion, but his compassions. If it was just one, it wouldn’t fail, but it’s not just compassion, it’s his compassions.
Go back to the same illustration. I think about Ms. Ruthie. How she must have compassion. Her heart must go out for her son in different ways. Usually, often, autistic people sometimes are pretty smart in a lot of different ways, but they just have a hard time expressing. And I imagine sometimes she has compassion toward her son because he cannot express like you like to. Maybe she has compassion on her son because he’ll never live what some would say a normal life. Maybe she has compassion on her son because he’ll never be able to provide for himself and do for himself like many others. And I’m just saying all the different avenues of compassion. God says, “I have compassion for you.” They fail not. It fell not on just one, but many compassions. God has a multitude of compassions.
Now, here’s an amazing thing, verse number 23. Are y’all still with me tonight? Look at this, verse number 23. He said, “They”—what’s that? They, compassions, plural, we just talked about it—“are new every morning.”
It’d be enough to say, if you will, that God’s compassion batteries get charged overnight. How many of you put your cell phone on to charge overnight? Yeah. And boy, you wake up in the morning, man, 100%, it’s ready to go. It’d be enough to say that God’s batteries of compassion get plugged in and get charged every night. But it’s better than that. It’s a brand new battery every morning. They are new every morning. There’s brand new compassion God has on you every morning.
Every single morning you get up, man, that alarm clock goes off and you go, “Oh, my goodness, I’ve got to get up,” you know, and you hit the snooze, boom, or you throw the alarm clock, whatever you do. And it’s 5:30 in the morning. It’s still dark outside, and that alarm clock’s going off. Man, I got to get up! Just think: God has compassions on you every single morning. Just like when you wake up in the morning, just like that Pharaoh’s daughter went and got that basket and opened the lid and that baby started crying and her heart went out to her. That’s how God is toward you every morning. Every morning. They are new every morning. Compassion, his feelings, his yearning, if you will, his pitying for you. His feelings—he can be touched by your feelings. That’s what God is. Every morning. Every single morning. They’re new every morning.
I remember when I was young, as far as preaching funerals and whatnot, I preached a funeral. And the funeral home people, they would be in front of the family, and they’d be all so nice and kind and whatnot. And then they’d just turn the corner and they’d just start cracking a joke and whatever, you know. And I thought, boy, these people were hypocrites. But I’ll be honest, after I did the funerals for a while, I understand where they come from. They kind of get used to it a little bit. Nothing’s not hypocritical, not sincere. You just adjust after a while.
And here’s the thing: God never—and if you will—maybe they got a little bit hardened. I don’t know. But here’s the thing: God never gets hardened. He never gets used to it. “Well, there they go again. Hit the snooze for 20 times.” Now, I don’t know everything, but I know this: He has compassion every single morning for you. He knew every morning. He never gets hardened. He knew every morning. His compassion.
Then he makes that statement in verse 23. It’s amazing. It’s so true. He makes that statement there: “Every morning, great is thy faithfulness.” You know the universe is so faithful because God’s faithful. It’s so faithful. They know when they have to shoot off a satellite at one angle, at what speed, years ahead of time because of the order of the universe. You know how that universe is so orderly? Because God’s faithful. That’s why. The faithfulness of God and his universe—them sailors, experiences back in the day at least before GPS and all that, man, they could look at the stars and have instruments and they could steer their ship in the right direction by the stars because the stars are so faithful. Because God’s faithful. Great is thy faithfulness.
The sun never has one time failed to come up. There might be clouds or something in its way, but it always comes up every morning because God’s faithful. There never has been one time that God has not been faithful. He’s always faithful. He always has been, always will be faithful. Great is thy faithfulness.
Our dog for years and years, Sandy. I think we had Sandy for 11 years maybe until she passed. Sandy was our bud, you know. And as she got older, if we left town, she didn’t want to go anywhere else; she wanted to be right there because she wanted to be in front of our front door. She was always there. I mean, we took her to people’s house, and she wasn’t happy about it. She actually broke out of a chain-linked fence—I mean, tore the kind of side of the gate off. She just wanted to get home. So after that, we said, “All right, we’ll just leave her home.” We’d get her neighbors; they’d feed Sandy. We’d be gone for a week and a half. It wouldn’t matter if we came in at midnight. It wouldn’t matter if we came in at noon. Sandy was always right in front of the front door. Faithful. God’s about 20 million times more faithful. Great is thy faithfulness every single morning of your life. Every single morning, he’ll have new compassion.
You say, “I don’t deserve it.” Yeah, you’re right. You don’t. I don’t either. But he’s faithful, amen. I mean compassion. “If it wasn’t for the Lord’s mercy to be consumed because his compassions fail not, they are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.”
Now let’s do this. We’ve been focusing on those two verses. Let’s step back a little bit. Let’s look at the context of what’s going on here. First of all, it’s the book of Lamentations, or as we said earlier, Lamentations or whatever I said it. It’s a book of lamenting. God uses Prophet Jeremiah to pen the book. Jeremiah is an awesome prophet. I’m reading through the book of Jeremiah now, and just awesome. That man just was so faithful to tell God’s message to those people, even though they didn’t listen. And he kept warning them time and time again. They kept putting him in prison. One time he got smoked by another prophet. One time he had a wooden yoke on, and another prophet broke it off. And so it’s just amazing what all he went through. And yet he faithfully told them God’s message, and they faithfully disobeyed.
So God brought destruction to Jerusalem, Judah, Southern Kingdom. Zedekiah was the last king there when the final deportation happened. And boy, Nebuchadnezzar’s forces came in, and they burned Jerusalem. Jeremiah told Zedekiah, “Man, just yield here and follow Nebuchadnezzar, and you’re going to be all right.” He wouldn’t do it. And ran, and of course they captured him. And then he saw Jerusalem, the city of God, being burned. And then he saw his sons—we don’t know how many of his sons, about plural—his sons were killed right in front of him. And then they poked his eyes out. Often they would take hot pokers, whatnot. I don’t know. The Bible just tells us he poked his eyes out. And then they took him in captivity to Babylon. We’re studying in Ezra after—well, that’s when it started, the captivity, or the kind of the ending of the start, if you will.
And this is when Lamentations is written. The city is just in rubble. It’s a book of lamenting about the judgment God’s brought, and such a sad thing. I mean, it would be the city of God. It was kind of the headquarters. It kind of wouldn’t be like a great church, if you will, just burnt down because they disobeyed and went against God. I’m using that lightly, but just trying to give us a reference. And Jeremiah is looking over the city, and it’s just a sad thing. It’s like a funeral dirge almost, like the Book of Lamentations is.
Now that’s the context. That’s where we’re getting these verses we just read from. But I’m going to go back a little bit. Let’s look in verse number 18. Lamentations 3. Let’s start in verse number 18. Let’s get some verses. We’re trying to give the context around these verses we just briefly went over. Lamentations 3, look in verse number 18. Once you find it, would you say, “Amen”?
Verse number 18, he says, “And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord.” Now, when someone says, “Man, I’ve just got no strength, I’ve got no hope”—depression, discouragement, defeat—you don’t want to go forward; you just kind of hurt inside. Tears are always just right there. This is where’s that? You know, you understand. “Yeah, I’ve been to you. Just, man, I just got no strength left, no energy. Got nothing left.” That’s where I was at, right? You get it, verse number 18, that’s what we just read. “And I said, My strength and my hope has perished from the Lord.”
It’s the key. Look at this, verse number 19: “Remembering mine affliction, my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.” A guy is discouraged, depressed, got no desire to go on, no hope, no strength. I mean, he’s remembering all the affliction that’s happened to him and all the bitterness, the gall of the wormwood. And all that’s all that.
And now look at verse number 21. “This I recall to my mind.” That’s super important. The situation did not change, but what was going on in his mind changed. The situation was still the same, but it’s mind. Maybe that’s the reason why the Lord said for us to love him with all of our mind, heart, soul, and strength. Yeah, our mind’s very important. “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.” Situation did not change, but what he was thinking about, what was going on in his mind, changed, and now he’s got hope.
Now the verses we just studied: “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not, they are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.”
Friend, what I’m saying is, our mind, what we’re thinking about, is so very, very important. If somehow, if somehow we could record and play back what you have been thinking about in the last 24 hours, I could pretty much tell you how you’re feeling. Guaranteed. Friend, your mind, what you’re thinking on, what you’re dwelling on, what you’re focusing on. He was focusing on all the affliction, all the wormwood, all the gall. And he said, “Man, I got no strength. I got no hope. I don’t want to go on.” And he just changed what was going on in his mind. He said, “I got some hope now.”
It is so vital what you and I spend our time dwelling on. It’s key. Proverbs 23: There’s this guy; he’s eating with this very wealthy man. And man, they’ve just had a feast there in Proverbs. You can read on down from the first verse and on down through them. And then verse number 7. I tell you, would you look it up, please? Proverbs 23, verse number 7.
You all there? Amen? Look at verse number 7. He says, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Talking about this rich fellow. “Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.” Now, what’s the thing he’s trying to teach you? He can say, “Oh, eat up, drink up,” and you think this guy loves you. And God said, “Be careful. His heart’s not with thee.” He says, “For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
Now you take that and apply it to yourself, and apply it to me. As I think in my heart, that’s the way I am right there. I can act like whatever on the outside, but as I’m thinking in my heart, that’s the feelings. That’s what’s really going on inside of me. It’s what I’m thinking about. As he thinketh in his heart, so is he. So, friend, I’m saying it’s so key what we think about. We’re not, and you’re not, and I’m not going to rise above what I spend my time thinking on. It’s vital.
This guy is standing. He had been preaching for a year after year. He had just got pulled out of the mire and in a dungeon; he’s going to die. And finally, he was brought to the king, so they pulled him out of there. And the city they had been preaching trying to save us, man, it’s ruined now. And just rubbish everywhere. And if you read the book of Lamentations, the women have been ravished and just all kind of things, and just a sad thing. And he’s standing there looking at all that. He said, “Man, I’m remembering all the bad stuff.” And he said, “I got no strength. Got no hope.” That’s depression, folks. Amen. Man, I got no desire to get out and do a thing. I just, I can’t do anything. I got no strength left.
And what changed? Nothing changed. He was still there in the city, still seeing the smoldering all around. Everybody had been burned. The temple laid waste. They took all the instruments in the temple. Everything still is the same. But he changed the way he was thinking and what he was thinking about. And he started thinking: It wasn’t for God’s mercy, we’d be consumed because his compassions fail not; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness. He said, “Hey, man, something’s happening inside me. I got some hope.” What happened? What he was thinking about.
Oh, friend, it’s vital that you and I both, and we’ve got to work at this thing. It’s a constant battle. Maybe you do good for a while. And man, if we just put our mind in neutral, Satan’s on it. Man, you put your mind in neutral, I guarantee you, your mind is flesh just like mine. It’ll go negative. Guaranteed. So I have to work at this thing.
Now, here’s the last thing. Here’s the last thing. Isn’t it amazing? But Jeremiah, the prophet God’s using here to pen this, he saw the good. He saw the good. That’s what he’s saying. That’s what he’s talking about, that verse 22 right there. He said, “Look,” he said, “man, he said, ‘It is of the Lord’s mercies that we’re not consumed.’” There are a couple people left in Jerusalem. They’ve taken most of the wealthy and most of the superintelligent. They had taken all of them. He said, “There’s still some folk around. It wasn’t for the Lord’s mercies, we’d be consumed.” That’s what he’s saying.
He said, “Because his compassions”—we’ve gone against God time and time again. They never have listened to God, is what Jeremiah said. Surely, because they didn’t listen. And yet he said, “You know what? Man, his compassions fell on. They’re new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.” I mean, he was seeing the good. He said, “Would there be any good when the city was laid waste and ashes all over the place and smoke coming up and really bodies laying all over the place and the temple destroyed and all the gold or everything just taken? Was it any good?” Well, he’s seen some good. He said, “It wasn’t the Lord’s mercy, we’d be consumed. We may be wiped out. I say some folk here and there.” I mean, see the good. Look for the good. Friend, you can always, you can always find some good. And by the way, you can always find somebody who’s got it a little worse off. You really can.
And look for that good. I mean, Jeremiah is there in the worst of the worst, and he’s faithfully preached. He could have been bitter, man, and yet he looked for the good in this situation. It’s amazing. That’s what’s going on. Can I say this? Your situation is always better than hell. That’s what we deserve. Look for the good. I mean, just go out of your way. And yes, there’s always bad there, sure, there is always. And sometimes it’s harder than others, but there’s always some good. I appreciate Brother Pastor; he’s been looking for God to work. He’s been looking for signs and looking for things here. He’s looking for good. He’s looking for it. Can I say this: in the midst of trying times, whatever our trying times are, you know how to keep your mind off the bad?
Look over in Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. How do you keep your mind off of the bad? Philippians 4 tells us how to do it. It’s always bad. Every person here, you’ve got some tough things. Everyone has got some tough things that you’re facing. So how to keep my mind off the bad? Philippians 4. Verse number 8, Philippians 4, verse number 8, you’ll know it.
“Finally, my brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are honest [honorable], whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
The way not to think on all the bad things is to think on all the good things. I’m going to work at it. Whatever things fall under these six categories, that’s what I’m going to think of. That thinking is Strong’s Concordance. I don’t follow everything as Strong’s. Be careful because it can change the word of God. We don’t go by what Strong says; we go by God and say, “Amen.” By the way, I think pretty much every one of those translations were—we’re wiser, probably, than Strong’s. So it’s helpful, but just be careful with it. But he says it’s kind of like taking an inventory. And you take an inventory of all these, whatever falls in these six categories, and that’s what you think of.
Yesterday I had to go down to Columbia. On the way down, I was trying to pray and think a lot about a tough situation. And can I be honest with you? By that time I got down to Columbia, I was discouraged because my mind was fixated on this one situation. I was discouraged. Sometimes when you’re not always to depression, you’re just kind of discouraged. Anybody else like this? You want to stop and get a Coke and a candy bar and go off your diet real bad? I want to do it all the time, but especially when I’m like that, you know.
So on the way back up, I’m going to think on something else. And I tried to pull up sermons on my phone and whatnot, and it just didn’t seem like it worked. And I felt like the Lord said, “Man, just—I want you to talk to me. Just, just, let’s just spend some time together.” Well, I got my mind on God’s mercy and what he’s doing in my life, what he’s done, how he’s done, how he’s working, how good he’s been, how merciful, how patient he puts up with me, loves me, gives me so many blessings. By the time I got back home, I was feeling pretty good. It’s just a matter of what I was thinking on.
Look, the way not to think—can you imagine how hard it would be for Jeremiah in the midst of the city of God? He loved that place. He had given his life to those people preaching to them. And yet he trained his mind. He said, “I lost all strength, I lost all hope.” He said, “But I started to recall this to mind.” Work at it. Make a list of the good things in your life. Make a list of ten things. And when the devil starts tempting you about thinking all the bad things, pull that list out. See? And look at that right there, devil. Call a friend and say, “Hey, I just want to talk about good things. You got 15 minutes? Let’s just brag on God. Let’s just praise God together for 15 minutes.” We all lot better than doing another. You know, let me just say, “Hey, man, I just need some encouragement.” So let’s just for 15 minutes talk about all the good things God’s done. Yeah, you got to do it on purpose. Go on the social networks, whatever it may be, and write a great post about what all God’s doing in your life. Don’t read all the comments. Don’t do it for everybody to say this bad about you; just do it for me. I need to do it. Work at it.
How have you do it? Our family many a time, we have sat in the room or on a trip in the car or something. “All right, what are you thankful for?” You know, John would say Sandy, when he was a boy, his dog, you know. And we go, “All right, we’re thankful for this, this, this, this.” And after a while, you couldn’t use the same thing twice. So you’re starting to think it. And it was a good thing by the—our mind was really going toward all the good things.
Take 10 minutes and say, “For the next 10 minutes, I’m going to thank God for every single thing I see.” And trees? Well, thank you, Lord, for the clouds. Thank you, Lord, for the clouds. Think of the sky. The road? Well, praise the Lord, we’ve got roads to get around it. Car? Praise the Lord, everything—just everything you see. For the next 10 minutes, thank God for it. And everything, give thanks. That’s what the Bible says. I mean, just, you’re just working at getting your mind on good things. Just go out and say, “I’m just going to have a praise time. Lord, I’m not here to ask for anything this time. I just want to thank you. Just want to love when you praise you.” He’ll change you because your mind will have to go to the good things.
That’s what’s going on. He’s right in the middle of, man, tragedy. I mean, he’s in the book of Lamentations, and Jerusalem is laid waste. And can you imagine just standing there? I mean, maybe over here, as he’s penning this, there are some soldiers that tried to fight and they’ve got swords in him. Maybe over here some ladies, I mean, just innocent bystanders, but they got murdered in it. And maybe you can look down the street of ruins, and there’s the temple. Man, it’s just wiped out. They took all the vessels out, all the gold, all the glory, if you will, down here. It’s gone. Jeremiah said, “By, tell you what, my strength and my hope is gone. I don’t have strength to take another step.” Nothing changed besides what he had: this, “This I recall to my mind.” Mind’s a powerful thing. Therefore, I have hope. “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we’re not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.” They said, “I got some hope. Somebody somewhere put my battery on a charger. I mean, somebody’s putting some fuel on my thing. I’ve got a little hope now.” Yeah.
Original File: God’s Daily Feelings Toward You - Pastor Paul Chisgar Wednesday 10219