Why don't we live happily ever after? Is there a purpose for our pain? Sharing the lessons from Michael Card's Lament Workshop, held in Bedford NH, April 13-15, 2018. Presented as a sermon at Providence Assembly of God April 22, 2018. To book Michael for the workshop, go to michaelcard.com.

4. LIFE HAPPENS.
Come to me, all you
who are weary and
burdened, and I will
give you rest.
Matthew 11:28

5. Chorus:
Come lift up your sorrows
And offer your pain;
Come make a sacrifice
Of all your shame;
There in your wilderness
He's waiting for you
To worship Him
With your wounds,
For He's wounded too.
Come Lift Up
Your Sorrows
By Michael Card

6. BEGINNING END
Genesis Revelation
God always was.
God is. “I AM.”

7. BEGINNING END
God is with us
Genesis Revelation
Adam and Eve Presence
Intimacy with God With God Forever
God always was.
God is. “I AM.”

8. BEGINNING END
Genesis Revelation
Adam and Eve
Intimacy with God
SIN
LAW
Obedience = Blessing
Disobedience = Punishment
Jesus
Emmanuel
God With Us
Presence
With God Forever
God is with us
W I L D E R N E S S
GRACE

9. BEGINNING END
Genesis Revelation
Adam and Eve
SIN
LAW
Obedience = Blessing
Disobedience = Punishment
Jesus
Emmanuel
God With Us
Presence
With God Forever
Holy Spirit
God is with us
W I L D E R N E S S
GRACE

10. BEGINNING END
Revelation
LAW
Obedience = Blessing
Disobedience = Punishment
Jesus
Emmanuel
God With Us
Presence
With God Forever
Holy Spirit
God is with us
W I L D E R N E S S
GRACE

11. The Journey
Torah Obedience Presence
BEGINNING END
Job 1 Job 42
Psalm 1 Psalm 150
W I L D E R N E S S
WILDERNESS
EXPERIENCES
• Job
• Joseph
• Moses
• People of Israel
• David
• Elijah
• John the Baptist
• Jesus

12. Torah Obedience Presence
BEGINNING END
W I L D E R N E S S
It’s Our Journey Too
comes out of the wilderness and
addresses the dark side of the journey
Michael Card
LAMENT

13. We were created to live with God in a garden, yet we
wake every morning in the desert of a fallen world.
Michael Card
Cancer
AIDS

14. Laments come from
the wilderness times
LAMENT
Noun:
• Passionate expression of grief or sorrow
• A song, piece of music, or poem expressing sorrow
• An expression of regret or disappointment

15. Laments come from
the wilderness times
LAMENT
Verb:
• Mourn a person’s loss or death
• Mourn aloud; wail
• Express regret or disappointment over something
considered unsatisfactory, unreasonable, or unfair
• Express one’s deep grief about something

16. Biblical Laments
• Job lamented over his situation
• David lamented over death: Saul, Jonathan, his infant son, Absalom
• Habakkuk lamented over the coming judgement
• Amos, Ezekiel, Isaiah and other prophets over Israel’s sin
• Jeremiah wept over the destruction of Israel
• Lamentations – a whole book of lament about the destruction of
Israel
• Women lamented their children slaughtered by Herod
• Believers at Jesus death
• Jesus lamented over the death of Lazarus, at Gethsemane and on
the cross

17. 33-50% of
the Psalms
are Laments
Lament Psalms
Community
12, 44, 58, 60, 74, 79, 80, 83, 85, 89*,
90, 94, 123, 126, 129
Individual
3, 4, 5, 7, 9-10, 13, 14, 17, 22, 25, 26,
27*, 28, 31, 36*, 39, 40:12-17, 41, 42-
43, 52*, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 59, 61, 64,
70, 71, 77, 86, 89*, 120, 139, 141, 142
Specialized Lament Psalms
Penitential 6, 32*, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143
Imprecatory 35, 69, 83, 88, 109, 137, 140

18. Why do we lament?
• Broken hearted
• Feeling helpless or hopeless
• Grief
• Repentance over our sinfulness
• Expression of pain
• God where are you?
• God, if you love me, then why?
Asking two questions:

19. LamentingorComplaining? Lamenting
• Talking to God
• Asks God
• Cry of belief in a good God
• Trust
Complaining
• Talking about God
• Blames God
• Unbelief and distrust of God
• Doubt
They said to Moses, "Was it because there were
no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the
desert to die? What have you done to us by
bringing us out of Egypt? (Exodus 14:11)
The rabble with them began to crave other food,
and again the Israelites started wailing and said,
“If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish
we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers,
melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we
have lost our appetite; we never see anything but
this manna!” (Numbers 11:4-6)
I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered
at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and
my legs trembled. Yet I will wait patiently for the
day of calamity to come on the nation invading
us.
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are
no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop
fails
and the fields produce no food, though there
are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the
stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be
joyful in God my Savior.
(Habakkuk 3:16-18)

20. Patterns of Laments
• Describing the situation as it is
• Remembrance of who God is
• Asking God for help
• Responding in trust, praise and worship
God invites our laments.

21. • God where are you?
• God, if you love me, then why?
Remember the two questions:
We long for God’s presence in the hard times.
We don’t understand how God loves us.
Hesed/Chesed
The way God loves us.
Translated 169 different ways in English.
Lovingkindness, grace, faithfulness
Hebrew
Lesson
Lies at the heart of all laments

22. Remember the pattern of laments:
There is always a change.
Vav
Sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
Vav Adversative.
Translated but, yet
Hebrew
Lesson
Signals a change
• Describing the situation as it is
• Remembrance
• Asking God for help
• Responding in trust, praise and worship
And it happens here.

23. Patterns of Laments
• Describing the situation
as it is
• Remembrance
• Asking God for help
• Responding in trust,
praise and worship
Themes in Laments
• Presence
• How God loves us (Hesed)
• Remembrance
• Vav Adversative (But)

24. Psalm 3
1Lord, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!
2Many are saying of me,
“God will not deliver him.”
3But you, Lord, are a shield around me,
my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
4I call out to the Lord,
and he answers me from his holy mountain.
5I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
6I will not fear though tens of thousands
assail me on every side.
7Arise, Lord!
Deliver me, my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
break the teeth of the wicked.
8From the Lord comes deliverance.
May your blessing be on your people.
• Describing the situation
as it is
• Remembrance
• Asking God for help
• Responding in trust,
praise and worship
• Vav Adversative (But)
• Presence
• How God loves us (Hesed)

25. Psalm 3
1Lord, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!
2Many are saying of me,
“God will not deliver him.”
3But you, Lord, are a shield around me,
my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
4I call out to the Lord,
and he answers me from his holy mountain.
5I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
6I will not fear though tens of thousands
assail me on every side.
7Arise, Lord!
Deliver me, my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
break the teeth of the wicked.
8From the Lord comes deliverance.
May your blessing be on your people.
• Describing the situation
as it is
• Remembrance
• Asking God for help
• Responding in trust,
praise and worship
• Vav Adversative (But)
• Presence
• How God loves us (Hesed)

26. Psalm 3
1Lord, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!
2Many are saying of me,
“God will not deliver him.”
3But you, Lord, are a shield around me,
my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
4I call out to the Lord,
and he answers me from his holy mountain.
5I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
6I will not fear though tens of thousands
assail me on every side.
7Arise, Lord!
Deliver me, my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
break the teeth of the wicked.
8From the Lord comes deliverance.
May your blessing be on your people.
• Describing the situation
as it is
• Remembrance
• Asking God for help
• Responding in trust,
praise and worship
• Vav Adversative (But)
• Presence
• How God loves us (Hesed)

27. Psalm 3
1Lord, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!
2Many are saying of me,
“God will not deliver him.”
3But you, Lord, are a shield around me,
my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
4I call out to the Lord,
and he answers me from his holy mountain.
5I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
6I will not fear though tens of thousands
assail me on every side.
7Arise, Lord!
Deliver me, my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
break the teeth of the wicked.
8From the Lord comes deliverance.
May your blessing be on your people.
• Describing the situation
as it is
• Remembrance
• Asking God for help
• Responding in trust,
praise and worship
• Vav Adversative (But)
• Presence
• How God loves us (Hesed)

28. Psalm 3
1Lord, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!
2Many are saying of me,
“God will not deliver him.”
3But you, Lord, are a shield around me,
my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
4I call out to the Lord,
and he answers me from his holy mountain.
5I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
6I will not fear though tens of thousands
assail me on every side.
7Arise, Lord!
Deliver me, my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
break the teeth of the wicked.
8From the Lord comes deliverance.
May your blessing be on your people.
• Describing the situation
as it is
• Remembrance
• Asking God for help
• Responding in trust,
praise and worship
• Vav Adversative (But)
• Presence
• How God loves us (Hesed)

29. Psalm 3
1Lord, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!
2Many are saying of me,
“God will not deliver him.”
3But you, Lord, are a shield around me,
my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
4I call out to the Lord,
and he answers me from his holy mountain.
5I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
6I will not fear though tens of thousands
assail me on every side.
7Arise, Lord!
Deliver me, my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
break the teeth of the wicked.
8From the Lord comes deliverance.
May your blessing be on your people.
• Describing the situation
as it is
• Remembrance
• Asking God for help
• Responding in trust,
praise and worship
• Vav Adversative (But)
• Presence
• How God loves us (Hesed)

30. Psalm 3
1Lord, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!
2Many are saying of me,
“God will not deliver him.”
3But you, Lord, are a shield around me,
my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
4I call out to the Lord,
and he answers me from his holy mountain.
5I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
6I will not fear though tens of thousands
assail me on every side.
7Arise, Lord!
Deliver me, my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
break the teeth of the wicked.
8From the Lord comes deliverance.
May your blessing be on your people.
• Describing the situation
as it is
• Remembrance
• Asking God for help
• Responding in trust,
praise and worship
• Vav Adversative (But)
• Presence
• How God loves us (Hesed)

31. Psalm 3
1Lord, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!
2Many are saying of me,
“God will not deliver him.”
3But you, Lord, are a shield around me,
my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
4I call out to the Lord,
and he answers me from his holy mountain.
5I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
6I will not fear though tens of thousands
assail me on every side.
7Arise, Lord!
Deliver me, my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
break the teeth of the wicked.
8From the Lord comes deliverance.
May your blessing be on your people.
• Describing the situation
as it is
• Remembrance
• Asking God for help
• Responding in trust,
praise and worship
• Vav Adversative (But)
• Presence
• How God loves us (Hesed)

32. Psalm 3
1Lord, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!
2Many are saying of me,
“God will not deliver him.”
3But you, Lord, are a shield around me,
my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
4I call out to the Lord,
and he answers me from his holy mountain.
5I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
6I will not fear though tens of thousands
assail me on every side.
7Arise, Lord!
Deliver me, my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
break the teeth of the wicked.
8From the Lord comes deliverance.
May your blessing be on your people.
• Describing the situation
as it is
• Remembrance
• Asking God for help
• Responding in trust,
praise and worship
• Vav Adversative (But)
• Presence
• How God loves us (Hesed)

33. Psalm 3
1Lord, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!
2Many are saying of me,
“God will not deliver him.”
3But you, Lord, are a shield around me,
my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
4I call out to the Lord,
and he answers me from his holy mountain.
5I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
6I will not fear though tens of thousands
assail me on every side.
7Arise, Lord!
Deliver me, my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
break the teeth of the wicked.
8From the Lord comes deliverance.
May your blessing be on your people.
• Describing the situation
as it is
• Remembrance
• Asking God for help
• Responding in trust,
praise and worship
• Vav Adversative (But)
• Presence
• How God loves us (Hesed)

34. Psalm 3
1Lord, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!
2Many are saying of me,
“God will not deliver him.”
3But you, Lord, are a shield around me,
my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
4I call out to the Lord,
and he answers me from his holy mountain.
5I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
6I will not fear though tens of thousands
assail me on every side.
7Arise, Lord!
Deliver me, my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
break the teeth of the wicked.
8From the Lord comes deliverance.
May your blessing be on your people.
• Describing the situation
as it is
• Remembrance
• Asking God for help
• Responding in trust,
praise and worship
• Vav Adversative (But)
• Presence
• How God loves us (Hesed)

35. Psalm 3
1Lord, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!
2Many are saying of me,
“God will not deliver him.”
3But you, Lord, are a shield around me,
my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
4I call out to the Lord,
and he answers me from his holy mountain.
5I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
6I will not fear though tens of thousands
assail me on every side.
7Arise, Lord!
Deliver me, my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
break the teeth of the wicked.
8From the Lord comes deliverance.
May your blessing be on your people.
• Describing the situation
as it is
• Remembrance
• Asking God for help
• Responding in trust,
praise and worship
• Vav Adversative (But)
• Presence
• How God loves us (Hesed)

36. Psalm 3
1Lord, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!
2Many are saying of me,
“God will not deliver him.”
3But you, Lord, are a shield around me,
my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
4I call out to the Lord,
and he answers me from his holy mountain.
5I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
6I will not fear though tens of thousands
assail me on every side.
7Arise, Lord!
Deliver me, my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
break the teeth of the wicked.
8From the Lord comes deliverance.
May your blessing be on your people.
• Describing the situation
as it is
• Remembrance
• Asking God for help
• Responding in trust,
praise and worship
• Vav Adversative (But)
• Presence
• How God loves us (Hesed)

37. Psalm 3
1Lord, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!
2Many are saying of me,
“God will not deliver him.”
3But you, Lord, are a shield around me,
my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
4I call out to the Lord,
and he answers me from his holy mountain.
5I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
6I will not fear though tens of thousands
assail me on every side.
7Arise, Lord!
Deliver me, my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
break the teeth of the wicked.
8From the Lord comes deliverance.
May your blessing be on your people.
• Describing the situation
as it is
• Remembrance
• Asking God for help
• Responding in trust,
praise and worship
• Vav Adversative (But)
• Presence
• How God loves us (Hesed)

38. Psalm 3
1Lord, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!
2Many are saying of me,
“God will not deliver him.”
3But you, Lord, are a shield around me,
my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
4I call out to the Lord,
and he answers me from his holy mountain.
5I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
6I will not fear though tens of thousands
assail me on every side.
7Arise, Lord!
Deliver me, my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
break the teeth of the wicked.
8From the Lord comes deliverance.
May your blessing be on your people.
• Describing the situation
as it is
• Remembrance
• Asking God for help
• Responding in trust,
praise and worship
• Vav Adversative (But)
• Presence
• How God loves us (Hesed)

39. Psalm 13
1How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3Look on me and answer, LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
4and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
5But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6I will sing the LORD’s praise,
for he has been good to me.
• Describing the situation
as it is
• Remembrance
• Asking God for help
• Responding in trust,
praise and worship
• Vav Adversative (But)
• Presence
• How God loves us (Hesed)

41. What’s
happening
in your
world?
How might you use
lament to pour out
your pain?

42. Just being there helps.
Come alongside
someone in pain.

43. Chorus:
Come lift up your sorrows
And offer your pain;
Come make a sacrifice
Of all your shame;
There in your wilderness
He's waiting for you
To worship Him
With your wounds,
For He's wounded too.
Come Lift Up
Your Sorrows
By Michael Card