Have you ever had perfect attendance in something?
A mom was looking over her son’s report card and said to a friend, “His grades are awful and there’s a note here saying that he has terrible behavior in all of his classes. But on the plus side he’s got perfect attendance.”
Or maybe you are like the retired guy that said, “If Facebook was a school, I would have perfect attendance.”
My youngest son has been looking for a part-time job, so, I’ve found myself searching the internet for tips for finding a job in high school.
In my searching I came across a posting for a plant looking to hire full-time entry level, temp to hire positions.
The pay was $10 an hour with an opportunity for a $250 perfect attendance bonus – and I thought to myself, “How long do you have to work at the plant to get that $250?”
90 days or 6 months or 12 months – or is that something they tack on at your retirement party?
“After 30 years of perfect attendance at Zalinsky’s Auto Parts, here’s a bonus gift of a half a week’s paycheck from 30 years ago.”
Perfect attendance is a hard thing to pull off at school or at work or even on social media.
Things in life just happen…
Sick kids
Out-of-town weddings
Scheduled surgeries
Broken-down cars
Camping out for Barry Manilow tickets
As hard as we might try, perfect attendance in everything in life is just not possible.
You might make it to work, but you might miss your kid’s awards day at school.
Or you might make it to your kid’s awards day at school and you might miss work.
Listen, do your best to have good attendance at school or at your job or with family events or at your Yin Yoga class but no one can be perfect.
Well, almost no one.
There is someone that has had perfect attendance every day of your life.
Their attendance was perfect this morning and their attendance will be perfect tomorrow morning – and their perfect attendance in your life defines your life.
What does that mean?
The prophet Jeremiah is going to help us find out.
Listen to Lamentations 3, beginning with verse 22…
22 For His compassions never fail.
Who is Jeremiah talking about?
Is he talking about his dad?
Is he talking about his grandfather?
Is he talking about his doctor?
Is he talking about his boss?
Is he talking about his friend from the club?
Is he talking about his favorite politician?
No, because all those people fail from time to time.
Their compassions and their mercies are not perfect because they are not perfect.
Jeremiah is talking about the one, true God.
The Lord of hosts
The God of Israel
The Alpha and the Omega
The Good Shepherd
Abba Father
Yahweh
When Christians talk about God, we are not referencing a random higher power or some potential supreme being.
We are talking about the only One who is self-existent – who was and is and is to come.
And that God – his compassions and his mercies and his loyal love never fail.
How do we know that?
Because he is self-existent – he was and is and is to come.
Nobody else in the universe is like that.
No one made God and no one caused God to happen and that matters scientifically and mathematically and spiritually and emotionally and practically and any other kind of “ly” you want to add to the list.
Why?
Someone has said there are only three possibilities for the existence of something….
It is self-created
It is eternal
It is created by something that is eternal
Let those sink in a moment…
It is self-created
It is eternal
It is created by something that is eternal
Ok, let’s apply that to us…
We did not create ourselves – we have parents and grandparents and hospital records to prove that.
And in and of ourselves we are not eternal.
We have parents and grandparents and birth records and funeral homes and cemeteries and death certificates to prove that.
So, the third option is the only option that makes logical sense – we have been created by something that is eternal.
Listen, we are not even talking about making religious or spiritual or theological or biblical sense.
Something coming from something makes logical sense.
Nothing coming from nothing does not make logical sense.
Nothing coming from nothing violates the basic precepts and principles of science and logic.
So, Christianity graciously and boldly proclaims that we have been created by the one, true, eternal God.
And that God is not hypothetical, and he is not dependent on something or someone else, therefore, only his loyal love and his compassions and his mercies will never fail.
Why?
Because only his loyal love and only his compassions and only his mercies are eternal – they are, and they have always been, and they will always be.
The rest of us do our best to remember birthdays and anniversaries and our kid’s awards day and we leave some love notes on bookbags and pillows and text kissy emojis and grill out romantic rib dinners and buy jewelry and pray and encourage and cheer others on with love and devotion.
But sometimes we fail.
Why?
Because our loyal love and our compassions and our mercies are not eternal.
So, don’t put your ultimate trust in people or peers or physicians or pastors or politicians or paleontologists.
Put your ultimate trust and your ultimate hope and your ultimate faith in the One that has love and compassions and mercies that never fail.
And how has God most glaringly proven his loyal love?
Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Not because we are a good boy or a good girl
Not because we say please and thank you
Not because we say yes ma’am and no ma’am
Not because we do good in school
Not because we retire from a good job
Not because our kids do good in school and get good jobs
Not because we have grandkids
Not because we go to church
Not because we give money to church
No, while we were sinners, dead in our trespasses and our sins, with rebellion against God and his ways in our hearts –maybe unseen to the naked eye but unmistakably seen by God – Jesus gave himself over to be arrested and crucified as a substitute for our eternal penalty of guilt.
About 60 years ago, Dr. Roy Fish was speaking in a chapel service at a seminary.
I was reading this week about how that day in chapel he shared the story of how his infant son almost died from an illness.
As his son lay close to death in the hospital Dr. Fish thought to himself, “What would I regret most if my son died?”
The answer welled up in his heart almost immediately…
Roy Fish
I would regret that he died never knowing how much I loved him.
And then he said this about the character of the self-existent, eternal God…
Roy Fish
Surely, God grieves because the lost who die without Christ never know how much he loves them.
The loyal love of God never fails because he is the only being in the universe who is self-existent and eternal.
The mercies of God never fail because he is the only being in the universe who is self-existent and eternal.
Warren Wiersbe
Every Christian we meet is a person in whom Jesus lives; every lost soul we meet is a person for whom Jesus died. In both cases, we have candidates for God's mercy.
His compassions never fail.
You may be a Christian or you may not be a Christian, but I want you to think about the following question…
How do you know that God loves you?
Jeremiah has an answer for you…
23 They are new every morning;
God’s mercies are new every morning.
Because you woke up this morning and because you are breathing right now, you are participating in the mercies and the compassions and the loyal love of God.
No matter how bad yesterday was, there is the promise of new mercies in the morning.
Not just mercy, but mercies – God isn’t stingy, and he gives more than one mercy every day.
Mercies
Compassions
Loyal love
Steadfast love
Undeserved love
Love that wasn’t sought
Love that can’t be purchased
Every morning!
New mercy
New compassion
New love
New hope
New peace
New joy
New grace
Every morning!
I saw an excerpt from an article about the Eskimo people.
The article described an Eskimo belief that when they go to sleep at night they die – they are dead to the world – and when they wake up in the morning, they see themselves as resurrected and they are living a new life.
And the article described it this way, “Therefore, no Eskimo is more than one day old.”
King David said this…
Psalm 30:5
Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning.
Why?
Because the compassions and mercies and loyal love of God are brand new every morning.
In a sense, we are waking up every morning to a new life.
But if we are really honest with our hearts, if there is one verse from the Bible that we fight against it is this one.
The story is told that someone once told Winston Churchill that a trouble he was experiencing in life was just a blessing in disguise.
Churchill reportedly said, “If so, it is very well-disguised.”
Sometimes we mean to and sometimes we don’t mean to, but far too often we ignore God’s mercies and live with an attitude that is always quietly muttering under our breath.
What kinds of things do we mutter?
“Why is my spouse still so difficult?”
“Why is my job still so impossible?”
“Why is school still so aggravating?”
“Why is this health problem still hanging around?”
“Why is our country still full of fear and injustice?”
“Why is our country still full of ignorance and apathy?”
“Why is our country still full of arrogance and anger?”
I rolled up to a drive-thru this week to snag a cone of ice cream and there were about 68 cars in the drive-thru, so I ran inside to pick up my mobile order.
The assistant manager was at the register trying to get the machine to work for another order and she looked up at me and smiled in frustration and apologized and said she would be with me in just a moment.
I said, “No problem. I’m sorry its not working for you.”
And she said, “Like everything else in my life.”
Far too often I feel like that is the conversation I’m having with everyone from the assistant manager at McDonald’s to the average church member at just about any church to the aging dude I see in the mirror every morning.
We seem to be so consumed with the perceived mercy we didn’t get yesterday and anxious about the mercy we just have to get for tomorrow or for 10 years from now that we just can’t see the mercy of today.
The Old Testament of the Bible tells us about the Israelites.
Every morning the Israelites woke up with manna – they woke up with free food that they didn’t make or buy.
But free food wasn’t enough.
In his song “So You Wanna Go Back to Egypt” Keith Green parodies the Israelites…
Keith Green
…in the morning
it's manna hotcakes
We snack on manna all day
And we sure had a winner
last night for dinner
Flaming manna souffle
Keith Green
Oh, manna waffles
Manna burgers
Manna bagels
Fillet of manna
Manna patty
BaManna bread!
We don’t just want manna and we don’t just want mercy in the morning, we want all the answers about the things we don’t understand from the past and we want all the answers about the things we have questions about in the future.
But God doesn’t do things that way.
Why?
I can’t speak completely and directly on all the reasons God may do certain things, but I think part of why we only get new mercies every morning instead of new mercies for 90 days is to learn how to depend on and enjoy and embrace mercies from the only One who is self-existent.
To learn what it means to be loved daily by the One who loves us with an everlasting love.
Think of it this way…
Colorful radio and TV writer Andy Rooney once said something like this…
“If you can’t find happiness in things like having a cup of coffee with your wife or sitting down to a meal with family and friends, then you’re probably not going to be very happy. If you sit around dreaming about winning the big contract or hoping for the love of your life to call you up or wondering when the Yankees are going to make you their starting pitcher, you’re going to spend most of your days waiting for something that isn’t going to happen.”
If you spend your life wondering about all the things you wish God was doing, you will miss and ignore all the things he is doing.
Here’s the funny catch to Jeremiah’s words – the mercies of God aren’t new every morning – they’re new every moment.
Jon Bloom
…we observe creation as it changes and life as it progresses toward death and call it aging. But that’s…how it appears. In reality, everything is new every moment. God is not old. God is.
Jon Bloom
Whatever you are doing, no matter how many times you have done something similar before…You are doing something new, something that has never been done before and will never be done again.
Jon Bloom
We always exist in the new and always do what’s new.
As an infant Vaneetha Risner (Rise-nur) got polio.
As an adult her infant son Paul died when he was just two-months old.
Six years after Paul’s death she was diagnosed with a medical condition that before she reaches old age will require her to have full-time care.
Six years after that devastating diagnosis, her husband left her and their children and later filed for divorce.
Two years ago, she woke up one morning and her physical pain was so bad she cried out to the Lord and said, “I can’t live like this for the rest of my life! I just can’t do it!”
Ever felt that way?
After her lamentation to the Lord, she sat in silence and felt as if the Lord was saying to her, “I’m not asking you to live like this for the rest of your life. I’m just asking you to live like this today.”
Vaneetha Risner
Immediately, an unmistakable sense of peace settled over me. My situation was unchanged, but I felt strangely different.
Vaneetha Risner
Today was a finite period that I could focus on. Today seemed doable. Today was much less frightening than “the rest of my life.”
Vaneetha Risner
Pain, whether physical or emotional or spiritual, has a way of capturing my attention.
Vaneetha Risner
I can either focus that attention on myself and sink into despair, or I can direct my thoughts to Jesus and ask him for grace.
Vaneetha Risner
That moment-by-moment dialogue with God changes me
How does it change her?
Vaneetha Risner
Some days he will do far more abundantly than all I can ask or imagine. And other days, he will sustain me in the storm. But every day, he will provide all that I need.
My mom had a pretty major stroke a few weeks ago and after surgery and some time in ICU and then the hospital and then a rehab hospital we got her home this past Wednesday.
Tuesday night my dad did something that to my knowledge he has never done in 85 years.
He drove to the Dollar Tree and bought a piece of poster board and made my mom a handmade sign.
With orange and blue markers, he simply wrote, “Welcome Home”.
He hung it on the wall in the carport so it would be the first thing she saw as they pulled up.
In and through the crucifixion and the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus Christ, God used his eternal markers to make a sign for every believer.
An invitation to remember that every morning – and every moment – his never ending, never failing mercies are brand new.
Dear Christian, the invitation from the loyal love of God never stops saying to you, “Welcome Home!”
So have you ever had perfect attendance in some ever had perfect attendance. There was, Ah, Mom who was looking over her son's report card was talking to a friend of hers, and she said, Well, I'm looking at this thing and his grades, man, they're awful. His grades were terrible. And there's a note on here from every one of his teachers that he behaves badly in every single one of his classes. But on the plus side, he has perfect attendance. So you know he's a joy to them. Maybe you're like the recently retired guy who left the office and said, You know what? If Facebook was a school, I would have perfect attendance could be where you are in the world of social media. My youngest son is looking for a part time job a little after school job. And so I have found myself online looking and working, trying to get some tips on finding a job in high school in 2020. On top of that, and one of the things I came across in some of my looking the other day was a job posting. It was for a production plant, and they're hiring tempt toe, higher jobs, um, entry level that they hope will move into full time, and it's $10 an hour. But then, in the Post, it said, there's a $250 perfect attendance bonus. Another thing that went through my head is, Well, how long do you have tow? Have perfect attendance to get the bonus? You know? I mean, is it 90 days of six months? Is a 12 months? Is it one of those things that you get the perfect attendance thing at your retirement party? You know, after 30 years of perfect attendance at Xilinx, Zelinski is auto parts. We would like to give you this half a week's pay from 30 years ago to say thank you for your time here. You know, perfect attendance is, ah, hard thing to do, right? It just ISS things in life just happen. It's It's hard to be at everything all the time. Things come up right? Kids get sick. Uh, there's weddings out of town. There's surgeries that gets scheduled. There's there's broken down cars. There's camping out for Barry Manilow tickets, you know? I mean, there's all kinds of things in life that just interrupt the ability for us to have perfect attendance no matter how hard we try. We won't always get it right, so you might make it toe work in perfect attendance. But you might miss your kids awards day at school. Or you might make your kids award today at school, and then you might miss work. So try and try and try as we might. We won't be able to be perfect in our attendance and everything. It's just not possible. No one has ever been perfect, but that doesn't mean don't try. Okay, when it comes to your job, when it comes to school, when it comes to family events, when it comes to your yin yoga class, whatever it is that you have on the list do everything you can to be there. Be do all that you can to have good attendance in life, but no one has perfect attendance except one. There is one. There's there's one someone that has never not been perfect in attendance in your life. Their attendance was perfect in your life this morning, and their attendance will be perfect in your life tomorrow morning. Their attendance was perfect in your life yesterday and they're perfect. Attendance defines your existence. So what does that mean? And who is this perfect? A tender prophet. Jeremiah is going to help us listen to lamentations. Three, beginning with verse 22 for his compassion never failed. Who is the hiss that Jeremiah is talking about? Talking about his dad talking about his grandfather talking about his boss? Talk about his doctor. Talk about his friend from the club. Is he talking about his favorite politician? No, no. Jeremiah is talking about the one true God. The Lord of hosts the God of Israel. Abba. Father Yahweh. You see all those other people They're good, noble and nice, but they aren't perfect. Their comm passions will fail from time to time. But God's compassion will not fail because of who he is. He is the one true, self existent God he waas and he is and he is to come that sets him apart. See, when Christians use the word God, we're not talking about some random higher power. We're not talking about some potential supreme being. We are talking about the self existent God who waas and is and is to come that is who he is and because he is self existent. His compassion ins never fail. His mercyes never fail. His loyal love never fails. Why? Because he's self existed. His eternal nature makes his compassion never ending and never failing. God was not made by anyone. God was not caused by anyone. And that matters. It matters mathematically. It matters scientifically. It matters practically theologically, emotionally, spiritually. It matters in any other league that you can put on the list. It matters. Why someone who said There's only three possibilities for the existence of something Onley. Three possibilities for why something exists. And here they are. It is self created. It is eternal. It is created by something that is eternal, right? So let's just let that sink for a second for something to exist, there's only three possibilities behind it. It is self created. It is eternal, or it has been created by something eternal. Those air, the possibilities. So let's just apply that to us, Okay? We did not self create ourselves. Okay, way have parents and grand parents and birth records of the hospital that prove that okay. And in and of ourselves, we are not eternal again. We have parents and grand parents and birth records at the hospital and funeral homes and cemeteries and death certificates to prove that we are not eternal in and of ourselves. That only leaves one possibility that we have been created by something that is eternal. The third option is the only one that makes logical sense. We're not even talking about making spirituals sense or religious sense or biblical sense or theological sense. Were just talking about logic here. Logical sense. Something coming from something is logical. Nothing coming from nothing is not logical. Nothing coming from nothing cancels out all the basic precepts and principles of science and logic. Something comes from something. So that's why we is Christians. We graciously and we boldly proclaim that we have been created by the one true, eternal, self existent God, who was and is and is to come, and that God is not hypothetical, that God is not dependent on someone or something else. He alone his loyal love, his compassion, his mercyes because he's not dependent, his compassion, his mercyes will never fail. They'll never fail Onley, his loyal love Onley his compassion on Lee. His mercyes are eternal. They have been. They have always been. They are, and they will always be. That's the nature of who God is. That's the nature of his love. Now the rest of us, What we do is we do our best to remember birthdays, and we do our best to remember anniversaries. And we do our best toe leave little love notes on pillows and toe, you know, leave little love notes on book bags and we do our best toe, you know, plan a romantic grilled rib dinner, you know, in the backyard, or we buy jewelry or we pray or we cheer or we encourage with love and devotion. But we also fail. We don't do those things perfectly way don't always pull it off. So therefore, don't put your ultimate trust your ultimate hope, your ultimate faith in any person or any pastor or any physician or any politician or any paleontologist. Whoever it is in your life, don't put your ultimate trust in people. Put your ultimate trust, your ultimate hope, your ultimate faith in the one who is self existent. The one who is holy, Holy holy! The one who waas and is and is to come because his compassion and his mercy and his loyal love will never, ever failed. Never. How has God so glaringly proven? This loyal love Paul was writing to the folks in Rome and this is what he said in Romans 58 But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Not because we're good boy, a good girl. Not because we say please and thank you not because we say yes, ma am. And no, ma am, not because we make good grades in school, not because we retired from a good job. Not because our kids make good grades. Are kids got good jobs? Not because we have grandkids, not because we go to church not because we give money to the church, not because we volunteer in the community for none of those reasons to Christ I for us. In fact, the Scripture says that while we were yet sinners dead in our sins, dead in our trespasses with hearts full of rebellion against God and his ways maybe unseen tow us, but unmistakably seen by God in that moment, while all of those things defined who we are. Jesus gave himself over to be crucified for the just and right penalty of your sin. That's that's the beauty off the gospel. That's how God has most shown his loyal love. His compassion is his mercy's. About 60 years ago, Dr Roy Fish was a graduate student at a seminary. He was asked to speak in Chapel one day, and I was reading this week about what he said in Chapel that day, and what he was talking about was how his infant son almost died from a rare illness. And as he was sitting in the hospital, he said, I was thinking to myself if my son dies, which at that point it was highly likely, he said, If my son dies, what what would I regret the most? If he died? What would I regret the most? If my Sunday and this is what he said, I would regret that he died never knowing how much I loved him first thought that came into his head. Sitting in the hospital in the horror of that moment was what would I regret? I would regret, but he never knew how much I love you And then Dr Fish went on to say this. Surely God griefs, because the loss to die without Christ never know how much he loves them. The loyal love of God never fails because his love is self existence. His love is eternal, so it cannot fail because it's always been his compassion ins and his mercyes. They never failed because he is self existent. His compassion, his mercyes have always been so. They cannot fail the king. Regardless of what you read on social media this afternoon, regardless of what the headlines are tomorrow, the comm passions and the mercyes and the loyal Lud of God will not because they cannot fail, they won't Warren words. We said this. Every Christian we meet is a person in whom Jesus lives. Every lost soul we meet is a person for whom Jesus died. In both cases, we have candidates for God's mercy. His compassion ins never fail. His mercyes never failed. Never. And so for the Christian, there, there and for the non Christian There, there. So maybe your Christian, Maybe you're not a Christian. Either way, ask yourself this question. How do you know that God loves you? How Do you know that God loves you? Jeremiah gives us an answer in verse 23. They are new every morning. God's mercyes are new every morning Because you're alive today because you woke up this morning because you're breathing right now you are participating in the comm passions and the mercyes of God the loyal love of God No matter how bad Yesterday Waas this morning you got brand new mercy brand new compassion brand new love and not just mercy but mercy's God ain't stingy He gives mawr than one mercy every day All his mercyes are mercy's comm passions loyal love steadfast love Undeserved love love that we didn't ask for love that we can't buy every morning New hope New mercy New compassion New love New piece New joy Every morning every morning I was reading part of an article this week about the Eskimo people and it seems that there is an Eskimo belief that goes like this, that when they go to bed at night they believe they actually die, that they die to the world. And then on the next morning, when they wake up, they are resurrected, so to speak. And they're living, Ah, brand new life. And the article went on to say this therefore no Eskimo is more than one day old. Yeah, got the Fountain of youth thing figured out, right? King David said this some 30 verse five weeping may last for the night or anything else. Fill it in with something besides weeping. Anger, frustration, fear, apathy, discouragement, depression. Put whatever you want. It may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning. Why? Why? Because God's mercyes, God's compassion, God's loyal love, their brand new the next morning, especially as a believer but really as a human, every morning is kind of a new life. For those who know Christ, it's a new life in Christ. We have these mercyes from God, not just common mercyes, but specific mercy's grace and peace and hope and love and confidence and power and strength. We're waking up to a new life, but if we're honest, if there's one verse that we could pull out the Bible, and if our hearts were honest with us, Way would say we would fight against it. It's this verse from Jeremiah e really way fight against this we do the sense of God's mercy being new every morning. It sounds good, but we tend to kind of work against it. There's a story told of someone talking in Winston Churchill. They were talking to Churchill about a problem that he had in his life. And the person said to Churchill, You know what? This trouble is just a blessing in disguise. And it is reported that Churchill's response was, well, it is very well disguised because that's how it feels right in that moment, that blessing in disguise. It's a disguise because it sure doesn't feel like a blessing. Sometimes we do it on purpose. Sometimes we don't do it on purpose. But more often than not, we ignore the mercyes of God. We ignore God's mercy today, and while we ignore what we're kind of doing is mumbling under our breath on what kind of things do we mumble? Well, we mumble things like, Well, why's my spouse still so difficult? Why are my kids still so rebellious? Why is this health problems still hanging around? Why is my job still so impossible? Why this school still so aggravate? Why are things in this country still full of fear and frustration and injustice. Why are things in this country still full of ignorance and apathy? Why are things in this country still full of arrogance and anger? We mumble things like that and when we're mumbling, were missing when were mumbling, were missing. I wanted some ice cream this week, which I want ice cream every day. So you know, that just happens. And so I pulled out my phone and I ordered some on my mobile app, and I was going to pull through the drive through this little fast food joint and I pulled in. There was, like 68 cars in the drive here. I was like So I pulled over and walked inside. Thio, get my mobile order. And when I got in there, the assistant manager was at the register and something wasn't working right. She was having a time, and after just a few moments, she she looked up and smiled at me. She said, Hey, I'm so sorry. I'll be with you, Justus, soon as I can, as like hey, it's no problem. I'm sorry that things not working for you. And she looked back up at me and she said. Like everything else in my life, I mean, that feels like almost every conversation I have these days, right, whether it's the assistant manager at a fast food joint, or or whether it's any church member from any church, or whether it's the guy that I looked at in the mirror every morning, who's aging and is not an Eskimo any one day old. Okay, we seem to be in this conversation a lot. Everything is going wrong, everything's bad, everything's not working. And when we do that, what we're doing is we're actually so consumed with the mercy that we feel like we're not getting in the moment or the perceived mercy that we feel like we didn't get yesterday or anxious about the mercy that we just have toe have tomorrow are 10 years from now, and what we do is we missed the mercy of the moment. We missed the mercy of the morning. We mumble and we miss and we don't need to miss. It's not good for our hearts to miss the Old Testament. The Bible tells us about the Israel lights and the Israel lights. They had free food every day, called manna free food. They didn't have to work for it. They didn't have toe planet. They didn't have to harvest it. They didn't have toe by it. They don't have to do anything. It was free food, but that free food wasn't enough for them. They wanted something different. They wanted Mawr, Keith Green and this song. So you want to go back to Egypt parodies and mocks the Israel lights just a little bit, he says. In the morning, it's manna hotcakes. We snack on manna all day. We sure had a winner last night for dinner. Flaming Man A Souffle o Mana waffles Mana burgers, Man of bagels, filet of mana mana patty bum Mana Bread way do sound like Israel lights sometime You know, like way Don't really want the new mercy of the day. We don't really want the manner of the day. We won't answers toe all the questions from everything in the past that we don't understand And we want answers for all the things in the future that we're not sure about. But we don't really just want the mercy of the day We mumble and we miss. Here's the funny thing that the funny thing about this declaration from Jeremiah is it's on Lee. Partially true. You see, God's mercyes are not just new. Every morning, their new every moment. Every moment, John Bloom said This we observe creation as it changes and life as it progresses toward death, and we call it aging. But that's how it appears in reality. Everything is new every moment. God is not old God, yes. So every moment is brand new. Not just every morning, every moment is Brad New brand new because because God is he's not old. He is. And so all of his grace and all of his mercy is constantly at work. Bloom goes on, whatever you're doing, no matter how many times you have done something similar before, you are doing something new, something that has never been done before and will never be done again. When I was putting this in my notes yesterday, it just crossed my mind that if I really think through that and own that, this is the first sermon I've ever preached and truth, it was a little helpful for me, you know, I was like, Wow, it's almost like I've never done this before that That's the beauty of the mercy of God. And you know, the one thing that protects us from it protects us from pride and arrogance. Because, you know, sometimes I've done this before and and we can miss out on God's mercy in that moment because, hey, I've done this before. I know what I'm doing, but every moment is a new moment because of the grace and mercy, Bloom says. One more thing. We always exist in the new and always do what's name. That's what's happening. It z the grace and mercy of God working out in our lives every day. I've often talked about beneath a Risner. When she was an infant, she got polio when she was an adult. Her son, Paul, died after just two months of life. About six years after Paul's death, she was diagnosed with a disease that at some point long before she reaches old age, she will have toe have full time care. And then, six years after her diagnosis, her husband left her and the kids and later filed for divorce. Her life has been marked with so many different kinds of pain. Two years ago, she woke up one morning, and her physical pain was so bad that she cried out to the Lord. I cannot live like this for the rest of my life. I just can't. I had a moment like that. Remember where you felt that way, where you cried out, maybe to God in the same way, she said. She sat still after her lament, and she said it was if the Lord was saying to her, I'm not asking you to live like this for the rest of your life. I'm just asking you to live like this for the rest of today. This is what she said. Immediately. An unmistakable sense of peace settled over me. My situation was unchanged, but I felt strangely different. Today was a finite period that I could focus on. Today seemed doable. Today was much less frightening than the rest of my life. And then she said, This which is true for all of us pain, whether physical or emotional or spiritual, has a way of capturing my attention. So what are we going to do when our attention is captured? She says. This I can either focus that attention on myself and sink into despair. Or I could direct my thoughts to Jesus and asked him for grace that moment by moment, dialogue with God changes me. How How does it change? She tells us. Some days, God will do far more abundantly than all I can ask or imagine. And other days he will sustain me in the storm. But every day he will provide all that. I need all that I need, all that we need. He will provide all that we need. We don't live in the world of need. We live in the world of want and just to be gracious to us. I think this year that sin of won't has increased because of our circumstances. We live with the demands of what we want, not what we need and when we live in the demands of what we want, whether it's from politicians, government teachers, schools, pastor, spouses, kids, employers, whatever it may be. When we live in the world of want, we will mutter, we will mumble and we will miss mercy. But there's so much mercy for us. Toe have each and every day. My mom a few weeks ago had a pretty major stroke and through a miraculously surgery. And sometime in I see you sometime in the hospital in time in rehab hospital. We got her home this past Wednesday. My dad, the night before Tuesday night did something that, to my knowledge, he has never done in 85 years. He drove the dollar general dollar tree, dollar something and he got a piece of posterboard and he went home and he made my mom. Ah, homemade signs. He wanted her to have something to see. And so, with orange and purple markers and some little tiger Paul stamps all over the thing, he made my mom a very simple sign that just said, Welcome home, welcome home. And he stuck it up in the carport so that when she got up, the first thing that she would see would be that son Listen through the incarnation through the crucifixion, through the resurrection, through the ascension of Jesus, God pulled out his eternal markers and he made a sign for believers and for non believers, the sign is an invitation An invitation to never forget to always remember that has never failing, never ending mercyes are brand new every morning and every so if you are not a Christian and tomorrow never comes. Have you accepted the invitation from God to repent, to come to Jesus and to have entrance into the Onley home that lasts forever. And if you're a Christian, then argue responding to the invitation because it never stops God every single day in every moment of your life. From the booth in the restaurant to the voting booth to your table at home, to your cubicle at work, wherever you are. The invitation never stops calling us back to the power of the gospel, calling us back to the hope of our salvation. The invitation from the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Never stop saying to you, Dear Christian, welcome home every morning. Every moment. Welcome home, home.
