How do you process the grief caused by your suffering?
Knowing the benefits to suffering can help alleviate our grief and sorrow.

In Lamentations 1:12-17, Jeremiah provides 3 purposes of suffering:
1) To turn us back to the Lord (1:12-13)
2) To give us more than we can handle (1:14)
3) To show how sin leads to dishonor and shame (1:15-17)

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Pastor Andrew Reynolds
Preached at Bethel Baptist Church in Portland, OR on July 19, 2020.

Lamentations 1:12 "Is it nothing to all you who pass this way? Look and see if there is any pain like my pain Which was severely dealt out to me, Which the LORD inflicted on the day of His fierce anger. 13 "From on high He sent fire into my bones, And it prevailed over them. He has spread a net for my feet; He has turned me back; He has made me desolate, Faint all day long. 14 "The yoke of my transgressions is bound; By His hand they are knit together. They have come upon my neck; He has made my strength fail. The Lord has given me into the hands Of those against whom I am not able to stand. 15 "The Lord has rejected all my strong men In my midst; He has called an appointed time against me To crush my young men; The Lord has trodden as in a wine press The virgin daughter of Judah. 16 "For these things I weep; My eyes run down with water; Because far from me is a comforter, One who restores my soul. My children are desolate Because the enemy has prevailed." 17 Zion stretches out her hands; There is no one to comfort her; The LORD has commanded concerning Jacob That the ones round about him should be his adversaries; Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them.

Expository preaching: instruct the mind, ignite the affections, invite the will.