If you have your Bibles, turn over to the book of Lamentation. The book of Lamentation and Lamentations chapter 3 this evening. Lamentations chapter 3. And if you're not exactly sure where that's at, it's in the Old Testament and right after the book of Jeremiah. All right? Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Lamentations chapter three. And we're going to look at verse 21. I know that we're kind of mindful of the weather just a little bit. I don't know if it's snowing out there. I know it's supposed to get cold tonight and tomorrow. And so I'll try not to be too long tonight. And I know those are famous last words and you've heard them many, many times, but I'm going to do my best to help help out in that area. We certainly don't want anybody to get hurt. So, Lamentations chapter 3. Look, if you will, at verse 21. Lamentations chapter 3, verse 21. And the Bible says this, This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. 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. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation, of the Lord. Look at you again at verse 23. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. I want to speak about that just for a little bit tonight, if I can, on the faithfulness of Almighty God. God is always faithful. And we talked about God's grace, the grace of God this morning. So thankful for His grace, certainly His mercy. We'll talk about that a little bit tonight as we delve into this subject here. But I'm, you know, of all the attributes of God, I'm so glad that He's faithful. And we can always take him at his word, and he's always there. So we're going to talk about that tonight. Let's ask the Lord to bless. Father, we're so thankful for this evening you've given us. Lord, we're thankful for your blessings, the opportunity that we have to look at your word tonight. And I pray that you do so, that I pray that you speak to our hearts. I pray I wouldn't say anything that I shouldn't, but Lord, as we look at this wonderful thought, of your faithfulness to us. Lord, we have so much to be thankful for. And I pray tonight as we look at this thought that it'd be a blessing to us, just an opportunity for us to rejoice in the great God that we serve. I pray again you'd bless. We'll thank you for it. I pray you'd just be with those that couldn't make it tonight because of the weather. We think of pastor and his family as well, Lord, and those that are not feeling well tonight. We pray that you'd be with them in Jesus' name. There's a fellow by the name of Thomas Chisholm. He sometimes described himself as this. He described himself as just an old shoe. And he was born in a Kentucky log cabin back in 1866. He had no high school education. As a matter of fact, he didn't have any advanced education whatsoever, grade schools as far as he went. But even though he didn't have a higher education, at the age of 16, he became a school teacher. And he was then saved at the age of 27, and he became a pastor at the age of 36. At the age of 36, he became a pastor, as I said just a moment ago, and only a year later, he had to retire from the pastorate because of poor health. He spent the majority of the rest of his life as a life insurance agent there in New Jersey. He speaks of himself just before his death, and he said this about himself. He said, had never been large at any time during his life due to his poor health. But then he said this, however, regardless of that, God's unfailing faithfulness has kept me. His providing care has filled me with astonishing gratefulness. He died in 1960, he died at the age, even at poor health, he died at the age of 93. And during his life, believe it or not, he wrote over 1,200 poems. And one of those poems that he wrote, though we don't know many of his poems at all, one that he wrote had to deal with this subject of faithfulness. He then wrote that song, Great is Thy Faithfulness, and a fellow by the name of George Beverly Shea introduced that hymn at a crusade in the United Kingdom back in 1954. We know the song, but let me just kind of give you the words if I can. It goes like this. Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father. There is no shadow of turning with thee. Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not. As thou hast been, thou forever will be. Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed thy hands hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me. We can go through a lot of songs in our songbook, and I always give Brother Ryan a hard time. He sings songs I've never heard before, and I grew up on a different songbook, I guess, and a lot of great songs in our songbook, and I find myself humming them or whistling, but I think one of the greatest songs that we can sing is that song, Great is Thy Faithfulness. And truly, as we think about that this evening, and we think about the attributes of God, one of the greatest attributes of God is this. He's always faithful. He's always faithful. He's always there. We may not understand everything about God, but we can always remember this, that God is always faithful. I read the story of a little girl, a little three-year-old girl whose name was Reese. And she was told, or asked to recite the Lord's Prayer, and she said something like this, she said, Our Father, who doth art in heaven, Harold is his name. Amen. Now she had trouble comprehending the Lord's Prayer, and sometimes as we look at God Himself, and we look at His attributes, He can be hard to comprehend. And I don't know about you, but I'm okay with that. I'm glad that I serve a God that I don't necessarily always understand. His ways are greater than my ways. His thoughts are higher than my thoughts. I'm okay with that because He's God. I'm not. I'm just a sinful human being. But we don't always understand Him. But as we look here at this wonderful book, we see that He is faithful. There's a verse over in Deuteronomy chapter 7, it says this, I don't know about you, but I like that thought, he is God and he is a faithful God. He's always faithful. I was going to give some people a hard time. I don't know if we have any Marines in here, but the Marines have an interesting motto. It goes something like this, Semper Fidelis. The short term for that, Semper Fi, perhaps you've seen that on a window or a bumper sticker somewhere on a car. And it's two Latin words that means this, always faithful. It's their rule of conduct and character of the soldiers there in the Marine Corps. It is a description of their loyalty and a definition of their lives as Marines. And it's supposed to be their driven purpose as honorable and dedicated soldiers to their branch of service, always faithful. Can I tell you tonight, that is God's character. He's always faithful. He's always faithful. It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter what you might be going through. It doesn't matter what stage of life that you may be in. He's always there. Every step of the way, every situation that you may be in, every trial that you may be going through, every place in your life, God is always there. God is always faithful. You may be here tonight and say, well, I don't know. I'm going through a lot and it seems as if God's just not there. It seems like I just can't get a hold of God. Can I remind you of this wonderful truth? God is always faithful. Even when it doesn't look like it, even when we don't think He is, God is always faithful. I'm reminded of a 54-year-old woman. One day she was walking around and she had a heart attack. And she was taken to the hospital, and while on the operating table, she had a near-death experience, and she felt as if she had saw God, and she asked, she said, is my time up? And God said, no. He said this, you have another 43 years to live, and two months and eight days. Upon recovery, the woman decided to stay in the hospital. And she decided, since she was going to live another 43 years of her life, she decided that she was going to have a few things done. And so she had a facelift, and she had liposuction. And she had someone come in and change the color of her hair, had someone come in and brighten her teeth. And she thought to herself, hey, since I have so much more time to live, She said, you know what, I might as well change some things about me. And so she did. She spent a number of days and a lot of money on changing everything about her looks. She finally got out of the hospital and while she was crossing the street on her way home, she was hit by an ambulance and she died. And she arrived there in front of God and she said, I thought you said I had another 43 years. Why did you put me in the path of the ambulance? To which he replied, I didn't recognize you. The thought is this. Sometimes we have that feeling that God just forgets about us. Sometimes we have this idea that I'm going through whatever we can fill in the blank and God just does not know. God just does not see. But can I remind you of this tonight? He's always there. He's a faithful God. When your life is a mess, can I remind you of this? He's always faithful. When you're tempted to sin and do wrong, He is always faithful. When you're there and you doubt your salvation, can I remind you of this? He is always faithful. When you as a Christian feel inadequate to the task that you have been called to do, be reminded that He is always faithful. When you are experiencing darkness, remember that He is the light. When you experience pain, be reminded of the wonderful providence of God. When we are there and we feel as if we are going to face destruction, remember your divine destiny. And as a believer, remember in the middle of our story, in the middle of our misery, in the middle of our daily living, in the middle of our life's murkiness and life's agony, His hand is always there. In the middle of our chaos, remember that God is always, always, always faithful. Now as we come to this passage here in Lamentations chapter 3, I believe it's a book that is written by the prophet Jeremiah. And when you think of Jeremiah, I think you would say Jeremiah is the weeping prophet. Jeremiah was an individual that had kind of a rough life. Jeremiah was an individual that lived personally a life of sadness, a life of deep depression. He was a man that received an unwanted call to minister to a group of people that did not want to hear him. He was thrown into a pit. In fact, many say that when the Babylonians came in that he heard all the things taking place there in a prison in a dungeon cell. He was a man that had received an unwanted call to minister to a people who did not want to hear. His preaching would not do well today, by the way, because his preaching was one of judgment. Remember years and years ago, I was traveling with a couple of individuals. We were traveling. We went to a church on Sunday morning and had a good service and enjoyed the service. We got done with the service. We thought we did this, you know, decided to dine in and some, you know, some good, good quality food. So we stopped at a McDonald's on the way out. And when we stopped on the way on the McDonald's on the way out, someone said, it looks like you're dressed for church. I said, yeah, we just got out of church and we're traveling through. She said, well, where did you go to church at? And I told him the church that we had gone to. I said, it was a good service. She said, I used to go to that church. But all that preacher does is preach about judgment. And she wasn't very happy. Could you imagine Jeremiah? That's all he ever preached about. He preached about the judgment of God. He preached that if they did not get right that God would judge. He was an individual that was forbidden to marry and no doubt he lived a life of loneliness. He was a man that was seen constantly weeping for the sins of the people. He was an individual that was imprisoned for preaching the truth of God. How could he do all this? How could he live a life of loneliness? How could he live a life where people rejected him, that threw him into prison, that wanted nothing to do with him? How could he keep on keeping on with the Lord's calling for his life? And I think the simple reason is this, because he knew that God is faithful. God always does what is right. He understood the greatness of God's unfailing love and God's unfailing faithfulness. Faithfulness in verse 23 is an interesting word. In fact, if you study this word out, that word faithfulness literally means this. It means a firmness. We could use that word fidelity, a steadiness, a steadfastness. And in this world that we live, where things seem as if they could come loose at any moment, we have a God that is steady. We have a God that is constant. We have a God that is steadfast. Simply put, we have a God that we can always count on. He's always there. He's always faithful. As you look at the book of Lamentations, it's a very interesting book. In fact, as you look at it, it is a series of songs. The book of Lamentations literally is a series of songs, not of rejoicing and uplifting, it is a group of songs of mourning. It's a group of songs of sorrow. It is a book that was written from the backdrop of the Babylonians getting ready to invade and to destroy the city of Jerusalem. We see it as in the backdrop of a group of people that are going to suffer under the hands of an enemy that hates them. It is written under a backdrop of people that are in turmoil and tremendous suffering. Yet in all of that, Jeremiah says this, we have a God that is faithful. We have a God that is steady. We have a God that is always, always, always there. Realize that God is always faithful. Very quickly tonight, and I said I'd be short, I'm going to do my best to do so. Realize, first of all, that God is always faithful when it comes to His grace. God's always faithful. when it comes to his grace. Look at, if you will, at verse 22. The Bible says, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. That word mercies there means this, loving kindness. It's because of God's loving kindness. I don't know about you, maybe you're not like this, but do you ever go through a day and you get toward the end of the day and you say, man, I really messed up. I really messed up. I said something I shouldn't have said. I did something I shouldn't have done. I acted out in a way that I never should have acted out. I really messed up. How in the world could God be faithful to somebody like me? Can I tell you something? It is because of God's loving kindness. even in our inadequacies, even when we fail Him, even when we do what we shouldn't do, and vice versa, whatever it may be, God is a God of love. And that word there simply means this, His loving kindness. And it is a word, faithfulness, that is used over 30 times in the Old Testament. And that word mercies there expresses the idea of love. It expresses the idea of grace, and mercy, and faithfulness, and goodness, and devotion. It pictures God as being a divine lover of men. Can I tell you something tonight? God loves you. He really does. God cares about you. Whatever you may be going through, God knows about it. God cares about you. Sometimes we go through situations and we have this thought in the back of our mind, does God really know? Does God really care? God does care about us. God does know about what we're going through. God is concerned. In that picture there, the Lord's mercies is that picture of faithfulness and goodness and devotion. We sing that song that we've sang probably a thousand times. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. We can truly say this, His love, His kindness, His grace, and His mercy, and His faithfulness, get this, they are really and truly amazing. His faithfulness is amazing. If we did to God what we do to others, can I tell you something? Other people, they'd say enough's enough. I'm not gonna keep up with this, man. They're doing the wrong thing, they're saying the wrong thing, acting out the wrong way, and it's a regular basis, on a day-to-day basis. I don't know, if it was me, I'd say enough's enough. But God is always faithful. His loving kindness is always there. And can I tell you today, we can realize that God is always faithful when it comes to His grace. His grace saved me. Ephesians chapter two, we know that verse, and you hath the quick, and that idea quick, and we mentioned this morning, has the idea that he has made us alive, that we're dead in our trespasses and sins. Wherein in times past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we had all of our conversations in times past, in the lust of our flesh, Get this now, fulfilling the desires of the lust of our flesh and of our mind, we were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But I love this, but God, who is rich in His mercy with His great love, wherewith He loved us. Can I tell you something? His grace has saved me. We can always count on Him being faithful when it comes to His grace. His grace has saved me. His grace has secured me. I don't have to worry about losing my salvation. I'm thankful for that tonight. We talk about Romans chapter 8, no condemnation and then that security that comes, always save. 1 Peter chapter 1, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. I don't know about you, but you ever sang that song, prone to wonder, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Can I tell you something, that can be my testimony sometimes. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love, but I am so thankful that He is always, always faithful. I am saved by His grace, and can I tell you something this evening? I'm saved by His grace, but I'm also kept by His grace. So we must realize that He is always, always faithful when it comes to His grace. Not only is He always faithful when it comes to His grace, can I tell you something? He is always faithful when it comes to His gifts. Look, if you will, at verse 22. The Bible says, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. Because His compassions fail not, they are new every morning, great is His faithfulness. He's always faithful when it comes to His gifts. That word compassion that we see there in verse 22 literally means this, it means the womb. It means to be moved in the heart out of love for one another. It literally is a great picture of the grace of God actively moving in the life of a believer. His gifts are always there. The storms of life will come. The valleys of life will come. You'll be here tonight, everything's great. Anybody that's been around for a while knows those things that will change. You know, we might say, it's a wonder, it's wonderful, man, I got this and I got that going for me. Can I tell you something? Life is of that way where things have a tendency to change. Someone will ask, how you doing? And I'll, a lot of times I'll say something like this, so far so good. How you doing? I think I'm doing okay, but it's early in the morning, amen? Things can change as the day goes on. But God's compassion is always there. And when the storms of life come, and when the valleys of life come, we as individuals do not have to face them alone. We do not have to endure them alone. As we look at these verses here, we see that He is always faithful when it comes to His gift. Verse 23 of chapters 3. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. Now interesting, as we look at these words here, and as we go through the Bible, he never says that our road's going to be easy. You know that? God never says that life's going to be easy. You ever, you know, can't sleep at night or something, and you hit the TV evangelist on at midnight or whatever, and there he is, he's going on and on, and he says, man, if you love God, everything's going to be all right. You know, if you love God, you're going to have more money than you know what to do. If you follow God, you know, how's it go? There's going to be a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage or something like that. But if you go through God's Word, that just isn't biblical. There's a lot of people in the Bible that were great men of God that suffered greatly. I don't know. I mean, I take the top five. The Apostle Paul's definitely in there. I'll tell you, he suffered greatly. The disciples that followed the Lord Jesus Christ, all but one, were martyred for the faith. And the one that wasn't martyred, I'll tell you something, he went through quite a bit. You go through the Bible, and there's nowhere in the Bible that says, hey, if you follow and serve God, that everything's going to be all right. And God never says that our road will ever be easy, but He always says this, His grace is sufficient. His grace is sufficient. It said in Corinthians chapter 12, He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of God may rest upon me. You know, we sometimes like to define grace. We did that this morning. Grace. You know, you got the acronyms there. G-R-A-C-E. God's riches at Christ's expense. Maybe we say something like this. Grace is defined as unmerited love and the labor of God toward sinners. But you know, as I said this morning, grace is, you just can't quite define grace. I've never found a great, great definition of grace. Because once you think you've encompassed the definition of grace, you say, no, no, no, grace is much more than that. It really is. And grace, it also refers to the strength of God to face battles and to bear us up in time of difficulty. That's another definition of grace. With confidence, we can say that despite the trials that we may have, the troubles we may have, the tribulations that may come our way, we as Christians never have to face them alone. He's always there. He's always faithful. It goes through the Bible. He's faithful when it comes to His presence. Hebrews chapter 13 tells us He'll never leave us nor forsake us. He is faithful to meet the power, in His power, to meet our needs according to Ephesians chapter 3. He is faithful when it comes to meeting our needs in Philippians chapter 4 where the Bible says, My God shall meet all thy needs. He's faithful when it comes to being what He says He is. He's always unfailing. He's always unchanging. He's always there. He's always faithful. I don't know about you, but there's something special about getting up in the morning. You say, I don't know about that. I get up in the morning and I never really think it's special. You know, I get up in the morning and you're like, oh boy, here we go again. But there really is, if you think about it, there's something special about getting up in the morning and waking up and going outside and, man, as you come out, of course, right now you go out there, the sun's not shining, the snow's hitting your face or whatever, but, you know, on a new, fresh new day, you get up and you smell the fresh air, you see the sunshine, and you think to yourself, new day, new opportunities, a new beginning. His, get this now, his faithfulness is new and fresh every morning. Matthew chapter 6, the Bible says, Every day is going to have new problems. Every day is going to have new burdens. Every day is going to have new concerns. But we're so thankful that God is always there. He's always faithful. He's always unfailing. He's always all-sufficient. He's always there to meet our needs. He's an amazing God. We need to realize that God is always faithful when it comes to His gifts. Let me give you one more. God is always faithful when it comes to His grace. God is always faithful when He comes to His gifts. But as we look at this passage of Scripture, we see that God is always faithful when it comes to His goodness. Look if you will at verse 24. The Bible says, The Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Therefore I hope, will I hope in him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. That word good is an interesting word. That word good has the idea of being pleasant. It has the idea of being agreeable or excellent. Really, when it comes, what Jeremiah here is saying is this, that God is always doing what is best for his children. I don't know about you, but that's hard sometimes to comprehend. You know, when we're not feeling well, our health's not what it needs to be, our bank account's not where it needs to be, and we're like, does God really know? Does God really care? But realize this, that God always wants, God always has a desire to do what is best for His children. Just like an earthly parent, an earthly father, an earthly mother. We want to do the best for our children. Can I tell you something? God wants to do the best for us. When we come to that realization, it changes life. We come to the realization that He's always faithful, He always has a desire to do what is best. As we look at this passage of Scripture here, we see that He says that He's always there to satisfy us. Verse 24, the Lord is my portion. The Lord's my portion. And you know, I'm going to face battles in this life, but I can rest assured that He will always do and He will always give what is best for my soul. He'll always be there. He's my portion. Psalm 103, "...who satisfieth my mouth with good things, so that my youth is renewed like the eagles." Psalm 107, "...for He satisfieth the longing soul, He filleth the hungry with much goodness. So we see here, he said he satisfies us. Now what's the problem sometimes in the Christian life? The problem in the Christian life and the reason why we get ourselves in trouble oftentimes is this. We don't, when we look for satisfaction, we don't go to God. We try to find satisfaction in the world. Let's be honest, a lot of times we get ourselves in trouble. We get our mind off track. Why? Because we're looking for something other than God to satisfy us. But can I tell you something? When we put our eyes on God, when we realize that He's always loving, He's always faithful, He's always there. Can I tell you something? He will satisfy us. The sad thing is there are a lot of Christians today that are just not satisfied because they're seeking satisfaction in the wrong place. He satisfies me. Not only that, but he upholds me. What a wonderful thought to think that he will never leave me. Isaiah chapter 41, the Bible says, Fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee. I will uphold thee with my right hand of righteousness. Psalms 23 verse 6, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. He upholds me. He upholds me with His right hand. Verse 26, He saves me. Wait for the salvation of the Lord. Thirty-eight years ago, He saved me. But every day, hey, He's delivering me from my valleys, from my trials. He delivers. He delivers. He saved me. He saved the sinner. But can I tell you something? He's saving the saints. He knows where I am. He hears my cry. He knows what I'm going through. He will never leave me nor forsake me. He will never fail me. He'll always be there. He's always faithful. I love what Job said over in Job chapter 23. If anybody went through some trials, it was Job. And just about the time we start to complain, all you have to do is go look at the book of Job and it's hard to complain too much. Job said in Job chapter 23, We're going to face battles. We're going to face burdens. We're going to face valleys and storms and trials in this life. But can I tell you something? He's always faithful. He's always there. He'll always bring us through. He's unchanging, he's unfailing, he's faithful. Even in the darkest of nights, even in the darkest of times, he's there. Reminded the story of a little boy, he was, he had been invited to a birthday party at a friend's house. And he was very excited about it, like a young child would be. And this little boy started counting down the days when he would get to go to this birthday party. But would you believe it, the morning of that day of that birthday party, he was devastated because when he woke up in the morning, he looked out the window and he found out that there was a blizzard that had struck that little town. The snow was falling heavy and it was falling wet, heavy flakes, the wind was howling. It was just one of those type of days that you just shouldn't be outside. And the little boy's father came to this little boy and he said this, he said, I know you're going to be disappointed, but I really, I really think you shouldn't go to that party today. That little boy was really disappointed. And man, he began to plead with his dad. He began to beg with him. Would you please let me go to this party? Can you just let me go? And finally, to his surprise, would you believe it, the father, The father relented and said, all right, I'll let you go to the party. So that little boy, he went to the closet, he got all bundled up. He got his big, thick, heavy coat on, and he got his hat on, and he got his mittens on there, his gloves on, and he started to go down the street to his friend's house. And when he finally got to the door, he turned around and saw his father turning to walk back home. The whole time he was trudging through the snow, he never knew that his dad was there, but his dad followed him all the way to his friend's house. It was then that he realized that his dad had been walking behind him all the way just to make sure he is safe. You know, there's gonna be times in our life that we're gonna feel like we're alone. But can I tell you this? The truth of God's word tells us that we always will be surrounded by his love and we'll always be surrounded by the goodness of God. There'll never be a time in the Christian life where we're all alone. Even when we say, you know what? Does he care? Does he see what I'm going through? Can I remind you of this very simple fact that we see here in the book of Lamentations? God is always faithful. He's always there. I'm reminded of 2 Timothy chapter 2. It says, if we believe not, I love this, yet he abideth faithful. He cannot deny himself. If we believe not, yet he always abideth faithful. Maybe next time we sing that song, next time we get to that place that Thomas Chisholm wrote those words, great is thy faithfulness. Instead of just singing the words, maybe we can pause for a second and say, you know what? There's been a lot that's gone on in the Christian life. I've been through a lot. Been through the good times, been through the bad times, the ups and the downs, the victories and the defeats. But in everything in this life, God has always been there. God is always, always, always faithful. You may be here tonight and say, well, I just don't know. I don't know if God knows what I'm going through. Can I tell you something? God's always there. God is always faithful. Never ever forget in the Christian life that one of the great attributes of God is His faithfulness. Great is His faithfulness. Let's bow forward and pray. Father, we're so thankful for Your goodness, Your love. Lord, we spoke about the grace of God this morning, but I'll tell you, we're so thankful for Your faithfulness. We live in an interesting world. We have a lot going on. A lot of things are happening. We're going to face trials and difficulties. Who knows what the year 2025 may bring? Whatever it may bring, Lord, we understand this fact. You're always faithful. You're always, always there. I pray that we just take that to heart. And again, we'll thank you so much for it. In Jesus' name, amen.