1 Sam 7:2, And it came about from the day that the ark remained at Kiriath-jearim that the time was long, for it was twenty years; and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. 
	We are looking at the veracity that the people of God need to be brought to the reality of the need to return to the Lord with mourning and lamenting at the manner in which we have shunned Him. This is accurate both individually and corporately. Because we love the Lord and are to do so with every fiber of our being, we need to seek for Him to examine us and to try us and to make known to us anything and everything that does not bring Him pleasure and delight in our sojourn on this earth.
	This seeking after the work of the Lord in our lives, is prompted by the power and the Omniscience of the Holy Spirit Who indwells us. He will faithfully show forth those details and those elements of our thoughts and our motivations and our behavior which are harming our relationship with God. They serve to cause grief to Him as we cling to them with the intensity of our stubborn and self-centered excuses. As well, our sin causes us anguish as our spiritual life is hindered and dulled in that deliberate disobedience. There will come that time, by the Omnipotence of God working within us, which causes our lament unto Him. This is because we have been so stupid and obstinate in our refusal to agree with God that we need to change. 
	This necessary turning to the Lord with repentance in our hearts and the desire to please Him through willing obedience is highlighted by the Prophet Jeremiah as in Jer 3:12-14. Please open to it and read along with me.
	Jer 3:12-14, "Go, and proclaim these words toward the north and say, 'Return, faithless Israel,' declares the Lord; 'I will not look upon you in anger. For I am gracious,' declares the Lord; 'I will not be angry forever. 'Only acknowledge your iniquity, That you have transgressed against the Lord your God And have scattered your favors to the strangers under every green tree, And you have not obeyed My voice,' declares the Lord. 'Return, O faithless sons,' declares the Lord;' For I am a master to you, And I will take you one from a city and two from a family, And I will bring you to Zion.' 
	Notice the graciousness of the Lord that is declared in this passage. Even though we can get so set in our stubbornness and selfishness, we are brought to the recognition that we have turned our back on the Lord and have not been dealing faithfully with our so very patient and compassionate Lord God Almighty. 
After our season of floundering and foolishness, we see that there is no hope but in the Lord. We behold the glory of His Awesomeness and His loving-kindness and His longsuffering and His graciousness and His mercy, so we humble ourselves before Him. We do homage to His Glorious Name and we repent of our sin and our self-centered inconstancy and infidelity. 
	We cry out to Him from the depths of our self-made misery of indiscretion. And like the prodigal, we return to Him for even the merest of table scraps as a worker in His stables and fields. 
He, however, like the father of the Prodigal, rejoices at our return to Him and brings us into the heights of His provisions in Zion. He opens the storehouses of His Heavenly resources and lavishes us with the fullness of Himself. As we are humble and contrite in our hearts before Him, He manifests the amazing power of His Love to and in and through us by the restoration of our living relationship with Him in Jesus Christ. 
	Jeremiah continues with the humble return of those who are truly seeking after the glory of the Lord in the response of turning away from wickedness and stubborn self-centeredness and wholly seeking after Him with all our hearts. This is detailed in Jer 3:21-25.
In this passage we see the measure of the recognition of how far from the Lord we can find ourselves as we continue in the sin of our fathers. We confess to God that we are being snared by those traditions and those customs of idol worship. We acknowledge that we are seeking after the lies and deceits of this age instead of the reality of the Lord’s Righteousness.
	Jer 3:21-25, A voice is heard on the bare heights, The weeping and the supplications of the sons of Israel; Because they have perverted their way, They have forgotten the Lord their God. "Return, O faithless sons, I will heal your faithlessness." "Behold, we come to Thee; For Thou art the Lord our God. "Surely, the hills are a deception, A tumult on the mountains. Surely, in the Lord our God Is the salvation of Israel. "But the shameful thing has consumed the labor of our fathers since our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. "Let us lie down in our shame, and let our humiliation cover us; for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, since our youth even to this day. And we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God." 
	This is the place in which we sadly and frequently find our hearts and our minds. We are like sheep which so often and foolishly are led astray because, quite frankly and sincerely, we are as dumb as sheep. This is one of the negative aspects as to why the Scripture so often refers to the people of God as His flock. 
We act like sheep. We follow after so many distractions and allow ourselves to be routed with fears and rumors of distress. The slightest noises of the night terrorize us and cause us to blindly and rashly dash across the meadows and hills. As a result, we often find ourselves caught in the thickets and the entrapments of this ravenous age as it seeks to devour any which it can snare and tear apart with its ferocious fangs. 
	This is why the Prophet needed to continue with the voice of the Lord to us, His people, with the encouragement that is recorded in Jer 31:8-14. As dense and dim-witted as we are, we could so easily wallow in the other extreme. 
That is the self-absorbed, self-condemnation when we are so egotistical in decrying how we have disappointed and disobeyed the Lord. We elevate the level of our sin to the point that we think there is no way that even God can forgive our sins. This has been so abused by this age by its abhorrent encouragement promoting the physical torture that is self-inflicted. This is done with the thought of trying to assimilate, so imperfectly and inhumanely, the abhorrent regret for the manner in which we have failed the Lord. 
	There are so many countless expressions of this angst revealed even to the point of the whipping and the self-mutilation of the human body because we feel we must show God that we are truly penitent for the manner of how we have sinned and abused His so great love. God had to make it abundantly clear that this, too, is utter foolishness. We cannot physically or mentally punish ourselves or others for the regretful way in which we have turned our hearts away from Him. 
The only thing that He requires is that true lament which causes us to turn from our sin and our wicked way, and ask Him to forgive our trespasses. If we sincerely and humbly admit that we have failed Him and that we so absolutely need Him to rule in our lives with all His Sovereignty and Majesty, showing us the way of His Righteousness, He will hear that cry! He will respond! And, He will treat us as His Children, whom we are in Jesus Christ.
Jer 31:8-14, "Behold, I am bringing them from the north country, And I will gather them from the remote parts of the earth, Among them the blind and the lame, The woman with child and she who is in labor with child, together; A great company, they shall return here. "With weeping they shall come, And by supplication I will lead them; I will make them walk by streams of waters, On a straight path in which they shall not stumble; For I am a father to Israel, And Ephraim is My first-born." Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, And declare in the coastlands afar off, And say, "He who scattered Israel will gather him, And keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock." For the Lord has ransomed Jacob, And redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he. "And they shall come and shout for joy on the height of Zion, And they shall be radiant over the bounty of the Lord — Over the grain, and the new wine, and the oil, And over the young of the flock and the herd; And their life shall be like a watered garden, And they shall never languish again. "Then the virgin shall rejoice in the dance, And the young men and the old, together, For I will turn their mourning into joy, And will comfort them, and give them joy for their sorrow. "And I will fill the soul of the priests with abundance, And My people shall be satisfied with My goodness," declares the Lord. 
	The Prophet Zechariah, in Zech 12:10+11, was given a glimpse as to what would be required in order for this full measure of the Love of the Lord to be expressed by God unto such as we are on this earth. When we consider the manner in which we are so lost in our sin and our depravity as well as the course of the way in which we are so stubborn in our sinful behavior, something so beyond us was required to save us from our sin and trespass, from ourselves. 
It was absolutely necessary for God to deal in a way that would set that entire curse of the old humanity away, far away from Him. He saw the course of the walk of mankind whom He had created, and knew, from before the ages of eternity, that His glorious and freely given way of Salvation was the only means that could establish His heart’s content in those whom He would call unto Himself.
	Zech 12:10+11, "And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over a first-born. "In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo.
	God sent forth His Only Begotten Son, born of a virgin, who offered Himself as the perfect and eternal sacrifice for us. He took our sin upon Himself and nailed it to the cross. This He left in His grave. Then, in the glorious power of the Holy Spirit, He was raised from that grave! It is His resurrection life which He so freely offers to those who would but turn to Him, call out to Him, surrender completely to Him, and so be raised up in glory with Him.
	When we consider the cost to God to save such as we are, mortal and fragile and so limited in the scope of our understanding and our manner of living on this earth, we must fall on our knees in earnest contrition. We must beseech His forgiveness with the solemn and heart-rending proclamation of the greatness and the awesomeness and the gloriousness of God to so love such as you and me unto Himself. This is voiced by the Lord through the Prophet Joel in Joel 2:12+13. 
	Joel 2:12+13. "Yet even now," declares the Lord, "Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping, and mourning; And rend your heart and not your garments. "Now return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness, And relenting of evil.
	Our Lord, in Matt 5:3-6, brought this entire attitude of lamenting the choices we make of ourselves in juxtaposition to the heart that is earnestly surrendered unto Him Who has so saved us by the unfathomable cost of His own Life. In Him, that mourning and anguish of so utterly being against God, and then turning to Him in the light of His so glorious love, is brought into clarity.
	Matt 5:3-6, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. "Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 
	As we walk on this earth, we will find that we may often wander from the path of our desire to please God. The Apostle Paul highlighted the manner in which he worked with those flocks of believers to bring to mind, over and over again the vital need to return to the measure of Christ. We must continually search out the focal interests of the Lord in the manner in which we live our lives. That may require a rebuke and a censure by those who are so given the responsibility for the care of the flock of Christ Jesus. 
Let us read how this was put forth in the Church at Corinth, in the Second letter that Paul had to write to those saints. 2 Cor 7:8-13. When we are off base, as Christians, there is that need in us for a lamenting of what we have been doing and how it has caused the Lord to need to bring correction into our life. Oft times this is through the means of parents, spouses, and the shepherds of His Flock.
2 Cor 7:8-13, For though I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it — for I see that that letter caused you sorrow, though only for a while — I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, in order that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation; but the sorrow of the world produces death. For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter. So although I wrote to you it was not for the sake of the offender, nor for the sake of the one offended, but that your earnestness on our behalf might be made known to you in the sight of God. 
	The Apostle John concludes the whole of this consideration in 1 John 1:8-10. We know that we still have that residue of our old nature working in our lives. We know that we make mistakes, no matter how long we have been a Christian. It makes no difference as to what our position and our placement in the Church may be. No one is perfect except Jesus Our Savior and Our Lord. 
1 John 1:8-10, If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
Every one of us needs to have those times of reflection as to what is displeasing in the manner in which we conduct ourselves in the light of the Holiness and the Righteousness of God. We do not dwell on the sin, but we need to turn our back on it! We need to turn our faces to Jesus and seek His forgiveness and His cleansing in order to maintain that walk with Him as each day unfolds. So be it!
And it came about from the day that the ark remained at Kiriath-jearim that the time was long, for it was twenty years; and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. Amen.	
	This morning’s benediction is Joel 2:12+13. "Yet even now," declares the Lord, "Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping, and mourning; And rend your heart and not your garments. "Now return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness, And relenting of evil. Amen.