Sermon Theme
The pop group ‘The Smashing Pumkins’ song “Bullet with Butterfly Wings’ opens with the words “The world is a vampire, set to drain”
By the time you get to the middle of teenage years many youth know how draining life can be In fact, now a days, if you haven’t even reach ten years of age you’ve come to know this if you…have been through a family break up and live between two places and two parents
Other young people feel life to be exceedingly energy draining if they have such problems as childhood leukemia or some other disease or illness.
Parents know this too “Lord, the only thing harder than being a teenager is being the parents of a teenager”
The Song goes on to say “Secret destroyers hold you up to the flames and what do I get for my pain, betrayed desires and a piece of the game.”
The roller coaster that is life can make us feel very insecure
At times we can even wonder whether we dare to hope for things to be better
Unfortunately for the Smashing Pumpkins song there is no bright future “Despite all my rage I am still a rat in a cage and I still believe that I cannot be saved.”
Such an outlook on life’s ride provides no solutions, no positive direction, no hope
Where do we find HOPE in that rollercoaster that is life?
Sermon outline
- LIFE IS A ROLLER COASTER
- MY ONLY HOPE
- MEANWHILE….
Readings reproduced on this page:
The Holy Bible: New International Version. 1996, 1984. Grand Rapids: Zondervan
Readings
2 Corinthians 12:7–10 (NIV84)
7To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.
8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
9But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
10That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Text
Lamentations 3:1–33 (NIV84)
1I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
2He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light;
3indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long.
4He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones.
5He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
6He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead.
7He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains.
8Even when I call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer.
9He has barred my way with blocks of stone; he has made my paths crooked.
10Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding,
11he dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help.
12He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows.
13He pierced my heart with arrows from his quiver.
14I became the laughingstock of all my people; they mock me in song all day long.
15He has filled me with bitter herbs and sated me with gall.
16He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has trampled me in the dust.
17I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.
18So I say, “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord.”
19I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.
20I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.
21Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
22Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
23They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
25The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;
26it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
27It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.
28Let him sit alone in silence, for the Lord has laid it on him.
29Let him bury his face in the dust— there may yet be hope.
30Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him, and let him be filled with disgrace.
31For men are not cast off by the Lord forever.
32Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.
33For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men.
