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Melody prached the last Jeremiah sermon at Meroney
Jim preached on I Timothy at West End's Homecoming
Sermon – All is such a big word
I Timothy 2:1-7
September 19, 2010
James Whittaker
Introduction
While I pondered over this passage this week, I kept coming back to the word grace. First, we are instructed to pray for our leaders so that we can have peace in our land. The result, we are able to worship in peace, and then we are given what would have been an ancient memorization device – an oral hymn that gives us these fundamentals of the faith. There is only one God. There is only one mediator between God and humankind, which is Jesus Christ, and Jesus has paid the price that needed paid so that salvation could be accomplished. He ransomed us. Who was this act done for? All.
All – Such a big word. A little 3 letter word, but such a profound huge word. We might ask did you really mean all? Is there grace available to terrorist who survive their own attacks? Or how about mass murders? How far does grace go? One of the great theologians that I have great respect for is Karl Barth. He was asked what he would say to Hitler if he bumped into him. (Remember Karl Barth was a contemporary of Hitler). Barth said, “I would tell him that Jesus died for his sins.”
Now this is not a call for universal salvation. By that I mean that everyone ultimately will find their way unto God. No the scriptures are saying that God made a way of salvation for all. All have the chance. We have difficulties with this little word all.
Remember Jonah – He did not want to go to Ninevah. Why? They might repent and God would forgive them. Jonah was mad when God did do such a thing. I knew you were a God of grace, and it is just like you to give grace to my enemies. That is why I wanted nothing to do with our plan O God. Jonah was looking for grace for his friends, neighbors, and family including his nation – Israel. Enemies – no place for grace. Jesus wanted us to be sure that we understood what Jonah was wrestling with when he said “love your enemies.”
Can you just throw grace out there to anyone? I mean is that right? Is God just in doing so?
We need a clarification. Phillip Yancey, in his book “What’s So Amazing About Grace,” described a conversation he had with a man. The man had been married for 15 years. He had become obsessed with a younger woman. He didn’t have any issues with his marriage, his wife, or his children. He knew that it was wrong to even ponder this possibility – to leave his faithful wife of 15 years for a younger woman. He asked Phillip this question, “can God forgive me if I go through with my plan?” I am up at arms. You can’t willingly sin and expect God to forgive you. I mean that is exactly why God wrote the 10 commandments – these are the big ones. To willingly sin in these – well it was deadly.
Group 1 – Sinners and Know it
There are two kinds of people in the world. Group one – they are sinners who know or admit they have sinned, who know they are not worthy before God, who know that all of their good deeds are just like filthy rages before God. They come bowing down before an almighty God – be merciful unto me O God for I am a sinner. They understand something that perhaps the other group does not. Grace is a gift. A gift can be spurned. We cannot repay a gift – it’s not a gift, if there is repayment. Grace is a gift that is freely given, but it also must be freely received.
Phillip Yancey quotes C.S. Lewis in his understanding of St. Augustine, “God gives where he finds empty hands.” I wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that, but I knew that there was a tie with our communion service or Eucharist (which means thanksgiving). How do we say come to communion? With empty hands, palms up, and with your hands crossed to remind you of the cross or the great cost to which grace is made available. Then what do we say? You receive bread, which is Christ’s body also representing God’s grace, but we have to respond to that grace. Yes, freely given to all.
Group #2 - Sinners and do not Know It
The other group, we will call group #2 - Group 2 are also sinners but they do not admit their sin. We might would call them self righteous people. The man that Phillip Yancey talked about went through with his plan to leave his wife. There were repercussions tot his action at his church, with his wife, with his family, and though he was looking for God to forgive him even when he intentionally sinned – in other words he knew in advance his actions were wrong – now cannot come to terms with he is a sinner. Yes, we are all sinners, but there is a difference when you admit your sin and when you hide it, rationalize it, and when you smooth it over. When you admit your sin, you can see your need for grace. When you cannot admit your sin, there is no need for grace.
King David – Which Group?
When I look in the Bible for someone who sinned one of the ten commandments intentionally, and later saw the depth of their sin, and repented, one of the greats of the bible came to mind. King David. I remember studying Beth Moore’s book David a Man After God’s Own Heart, and I was struck with depth of love that David had for God. I kept wanting to say but remember Bathsheba. The Bible actually says, David was perfect in all my ways except with the sin of Bathsheba. When we look for a sign of repentance, we need to look no further than one of the greatest moments of confession in the whole bible found in Psalm 51 – “Against you alone have I sinned” (v. 4). David realized that in the hurt that he did to this family, and even to the nation paled in comparison to the hurt and embarrassment he did to God.
The Publican and the Sinner
Jesus is the one who gave us these two groups. The story is found in the Gospel of Luke in a Parable titled, “The Publican and Sinner.” The Pharisee prayed, “God I thank you that I am a good man, and not like the sinners I know – you may want to insert some groups that are modern day – terrorist, Nazis, or like the man who left his wife of 15 years. Did this man recognize that he was a sinner? No, he did not. The other man was the sinner we previously mentioned, he prayed, “God be merciful to me a sinner” as he beat his breast in remorse. It was the man who admitted his sin that knew he needed the grace of God. The scriptures say of the man who was thankful he wasn’t as bad as some of the people he knew – said his sins were not forgiven. Why? You have to confess your sins.
God has done his part – Now, how about us
There is another step needed to claim this grace that we see so poetically stated here in I Timothy with Christ who is our mediator or the one who makes things right because he purchased us or ransomed us. He paid the price for our sin so we don’t have too, but that does not mean we keep on living as if nothing occurred when God saved us. Salvation means to deliver us. God has delivered us from sin and death so that we can have eternal life and have a heavenly home. It is for that reason that we gather at homecoming. We gather because we are a people of faith. We believe in God’s salvation. We believe that Jesus is the way to heaven, and we believe that Jesus did indeed go to make a home in heaven for us. We have been purchased with a price. In one of the scriptures we referenced last week, we made a point on how we live when we say we have been redeemed. II Cor. 5:15, we live no longer for ourselves, but for the one who died for us (Jesus). One of the basic tenants of scripture is repentance.
The Adulterous Woman
I give you another story with these two groups of people. Group 1 – Sinners who admit their sin and Group 2 – Sinners who do not admit their sin. It is the story of a woman who was found in adultery. The law of Moses said both the man and woman were to be stoned or killed for their action of unfaithfulness. Only the woman is brought to Jesus where the Pharisees demanded that Jesus proclaim who he really was for – was he for the Jewish people and Moses’ law or was he for the pagans and sinners represented by the Roman empire. They set a trap for Jesus. They already had the answer they wanted. Jesus, they said, we found this woman in the very act of adultery and the law of Moses says she should be stoned, but what do you say? If he said she shouldn’t be stoned, he was for the Romans. If he said that she should be stoned for the Jews, then he would be guilty of Roman law. Either way they had him. Yes she should be stoned – guilty. No she should not be stoned – guilty. The woman would have been standing in front of Jesus. She would have been stripped down to her waist to humiliate her. Perhaps that is why Jesus bent down to the ground in order to not look upon her in her humiliated state. Jesus’ response was startling. It was like he said, we are creating two groups. One group will be for sinners who know they have sinned. The other group will be for sinners who think they have not sinned. Let’s divide up.
Then he said these words, “who is without sin, cast the first stone.” He was asking for people who were in group 2 – sinners who do not admit their sin to step forward. It is said Jesus wrote in the dirt. Scriptures do not say what he wrote, but maybe it was things such as liars, prideful, gossips, arrogant. We do not know. But, something happened, people were convicted of their game to frame Jesus. People began to see their own sin. The Pharisees left. I am not sure if any or how many actually repented, because that is the key to this passage. The crowd left. Jesus and the woman were alone. She certainly was shivering in fear. Jesus said, “where are your accussers.” They have gone she said. Neither do I accuse you – stop here. This is grace. Yes, she had definitely sinned. Was she in the condition to receive God’s grace? Was she open to God? Was she willing to drop the trappings of the world, her desires, and open her hands palm up signifying she could not bring anything to God that would be worthy of what she needed – God’s grace. There was no action that would make grace available to her and not to others. I Timothy is clear. God’s desire is all people are saved. Now, we know that all people are not saved, and I Timothy is clear that Christ’s grace through the mediator Jesus and his work of ransom on the cross is for all. She told her go and sin no more. This is the key. The willingness to say we are sinners, which must include the willingness to repent.
Conclusion
a. Good conclusion
Now if we go back to David. He couldn’t reverse all that he messed up. Bathsheba’s husband was dead. Bathsheba had become pregnant and the son died. David couldn’t fix everything he messed up and the Bible said that the sin he did in secret, Absalom did in the open. His household was deeply affected by his sin. Sin has consequences.
b. Bad conclusion
If we go back to the man who left his wife, something was lacking in his receiving forgiveness. He was not truly sorry meaning he repented of the wrong. Repentance means you don’t do it again. In fact, he started looking for friends that would approve of his actions. He dropped out of church, and he doesn’t really claim to be a Christian now. He was not sorrowful as King David was.
Yes, the little word “all” is big. God has done all that is needed for all. God has done all that is needed for salvation even for the pagan rulers that we are instructed to pray for in the first verses of this passage. God has done all that is needed for salvation for the people who are enemies – the Hitlers, the terrorist, and even our enemies.
God doesn’t force people to accept his salvation and become Christians whether or not they liked it. God is looking for the King Davids of the world – sinners who know they have sinned and repent of their sin. When we come face to face with this great Christian hymn of old memorized for the truths it hold, we are reminded that there only 2 groups in the world. Sinners who admit their sin and sinners who do not admit their sin.
In the story of the adulterous woman and the Pharisees, it is the Pharisees who appear to be in danger. It is not certain they really confessed and repented of their sin. Since they did end up taking Jesus to the cross, I believe we would have to say many did not repent. It is the woman caught in the very act of sin, who models to us or at least we are hopeful that she does, a life of repentance.
Saying sorry isn’t enough. We don’t say, sorry I sinned God and go and do the same sin again. We come to God and say yes I am sorry, but I also am changing (that is what repentance means). I am changing. I am repenting by God’s help. The lack of repentance blocks God’s grace.
Repentance is the way of salvation. In Wesley’s language, it was the first step or it was the porch of the house. The house represented salvation. Repentance put us at the door. This is the way of our heavenly home. It is to admit we are sinners and accept the grace given to us and then no longer live for ourselves but unto God. Yes, we give “all” our sins unto God. Repentance, the key to the big word all. Amen.
Sermon – When God Says it, it is a Done Deal.
Jeremiah 4:11-12; 22-28
September 12, 2010
Jim Whittaker
Introduction: Discipline
If you go back to your childhood, is it reasonable to think that there would never be discipline in your life? Were you a perfect child?
I believe we all see that discipline is necessary. We were not perfect as children. If you were not disciplined, the chances of you being a spoiled child or even adult go up dramatically. While we recognize today that people have abused children in the name of discipline, we also recognize that discipline is needed and cannot be forgotten.
Our ideas on discipline have changed. Back in my day, I received my fair share of whippin’s. It wasn’t labeled as child abuse then. In fact, the only reason that this method of discipline has fallen out of favor is some parents did not know when to stop. They did not know when discipline had turned to harming the child. My friend Ray was beaten black and blue. That was child abuse then and child abuse now. It was wrong then, and it is wrong now. We now have decided to err on the side of not whipping. In any case, when I grew up whipping was the norm. I didn’t get my first whipping in school until the first grade for my creative learning skills that required no studying for spelling tests, and I was only in the 10th grade when I received my last whipping for studying aerodynamics of paper planes when an errant flight path landed my plane in the open window of the class below study hall. I was whipped with a board with holes cut in it at school. It was meant to hurt. With my parents, I was whipped with a belt – not the metal end – that is abuse. I was also whipped with a switch. For those who might not know what a switch is – that is a young thin straight branch from a tree. A tree that has been cut down and tries to grow again will have perfect switches. My mother would tell me to go and cut my own switches. Now the longer the switch is, the more it hurt. I would come back with a little short switch that you couldn’t do anything with. I remember my mother chasing me around the yard with that little switch saying go and cut me a longer switch. Finally, my mom gave up and just said wait until your father comes home. My father gave up on the switch and went to the belt, but you had to catch me first. I remember dad trying to hold me and give me a whipping. I was running as fast as I could and going around in circles cause dad had my arm. After about 5 minutes, we were both wore out. While our discipline methods have changed, the need for discipline has not. While whippin’s are no longer done in school; while parents use the methods of talking with the child, taking things away from the child, there is one thing that still remains: discipline is needed to raise children. With that in mind, I ask this question:
Can you turn your back on God and claim the religion of your youth as your defense that you are God’s child, and expect there will never be judgment?
That is where Judah was. They had forgotten God yet they still claimed they were God’s children. They had thought no way would God discipline them for they were God’s children. The only problem was they were not living like they were God’s children. In the last of Chapter 3 and the first of Chapter 4, there is a call to repentance, but at some point we get to where in the passage that it seems nothing is going to change the outcome. God is going to judge the people of Judah. God says, “I have not relented nor will I turn back” (4:28).
This brings me to point #1 – Sin has consequences.
Sin has consequences, but there is another point in this in that at some point when our sin has been so great, when our refusal to obey God’s will has been carried on for so long that God can no longer overlook that we have spurned God just Jeremiah uses the metaphor of a young lover that has been spurned. When we say yes to God, we have entered into a relationship. Often the Bible speaks it in terms of marriage. When we are unfaithful to God, it is like we have been unfaithful in marriage. At some point, even if we are asking God to intervene, God allows us to wallow in our own sin. As many mothers have said, “you’ve made your own bed, now you’ve got to sleep in it.” In other words, you have made your mess, now your stuck with the circumstances.
We remember the story of Gideon where with a small group of soldiers, they scared the Assyrians away. That was a God thing. We also remember when God by disease knocked the whole Assyrian army out. That was a God thing. God can protect the small tribe of Judah. God can help individuals when it is looks like they are being overwhelmed with a flood, but if we continue to live in sin, God will not listen to our prayers. The Babylonians are on the rise. They are coming. They will attack from the north. God is not going to listen to the prayers asking for intervention. Judah is going to have to face their sin. That is why in Jeremiah 4:14 it says, “Jerusalem wash your heart clean of wickedness so that you can be saved.” In the last part of chapter 3, it is saying we have to admit our shame, admit our dishonor, and admit our sin. The first step in salvation is we have to admit we are sinners. We have to admit we have not lived for God. On our website, I have a section where you can be saved, and it is easy as ABC. Admit your are a sinner, believe in God for salvation through Jesus Christ, and confess our sins and seek to live a life of repentance, which means change. In our relationship with God, God seeks to transform us. The Bible is not a self help book. It is a God-help book. It is not about what we can do to become better persons. It is about God changing our sin nature to a God nature. It is becoming a transformed person. It is becoming a person that seeks to live for God rather than self, but that first step is a big one. Admit we are a sinner. I cannot save myself. I cannot do self help to transform myself into God’s good creation. It is only by God that this can be done. Judah was not listening to God. Judah was not seeking to be transformed. Judah was practicing an outside only religion. God had to wake them up.
It is not that God no longer loves them. The Psalms says he loves us with a steadfast love. It is not that God no longer cares for us. In fact, Jeremiah is still both a book of judgment but also a book of great hope. It is in Jeremiah that we are told that one will come from the branch of Judah to save us. Of course that one is Jesus. God does not always save us from ourselves. Our refusal to obey God’s word can lead us to have to face the consequences of our disobedience.
Remember, if you dabble in fire long enough, you are going to get burned.
A liberal theologian, Paul Tillich, preached a sermon on this passage. It was very interesting. It basically was admitting a failure that progressives were going to save the world from hunger, from war, and calamities of the world and God was going to do something that we don’t even like to talk about – God was going to judge the world for its sin. Sin keeps us from being who God calls us to be. Sin will lead us and this world to its own destruction. The Bible is clear. One day there is going to be an end to this world, and it will be something so cosmic that the whole world as we know it will be destroyed. God at times judges us right where we are right now.
Listen to the words of the prophet, Jeremiah – I am coming in like a hot wind. A hot wind will destroy the crop. It will destroy life. The hot wind also describes God’s hot anger for God’s people not listening to his voice. God’s hot wind is going to turn Judah’s promised land of milk and honey into a desolate desert.
The prophet declares – he is coming, are you ready? He is going to judge with an iron fist. Are you ready to be judged? He is going to pay us with the consequences of our sin. Do we want that payment? Are we crying unto our God, Lord have mercy on me a sinner.
In Jeremiah 4:18, God says, “your ways and your doings has brought this upon you.” Sin does have consequences.
Point #2 – God does judge even nations not just individuals.
I remember when Hurricane Katrina came in and a preacher said it was God’s judgment on New Orleans. The preacher had to back step a little on that statement. It is not that God doesn’t judge people as whole community or nation – God does. It is who made the preacher the judge. The scriptures are clear – do not judge, lest you be judged.
Here is a Fact: The world is in chaos without God.
God in the book of Genesis, intervened into our world. God turned chaos into order. In the garden of Eden, it was an ordered creation. When Adam and Eve as representatives of humanity chose to honor themselves instead of God, they rejected God, and the world took a step backward toward chaos.
When Jeremiah talks about judgment, the judgment brings the human rebellion against God to the very beginning. The world now is headed back toward chaos and destruction just as Genesis 1 began. A life filled with sin, is a life filled with chaos and destruction. What did the prophet see when he looked at the earth? He saw the earth void and wasted. There was no light in the heavens. What he is describing is a form of un-creation. It is a backward movement toward destruction and chaos. Judah had so forgotten God that God declared they were headed toward destruction.
He describes an earthquake. He describes a place where animals have left. He describes a reversal of the honey and milk or the fruits of the land to a desert. This is un-creation.
When we reject God, when we do not listen to God, when we do not seek to do God’s will, when we do not listen to God’s word, we are moving backwards – backwards toward chaos and destruction. We get reminders in our world of chaos and destruction through earthquakes, floods, and fires. They are going to happen for when we rejected God in the garden of Eden, we moved back toward chaos and destruction. It is not for us to question why tragedies happen in the world – they are going to happen for we have chosen the path of chaos and destruction – we should be asking God to intervene in the world for God hears his people. Judah had fallen so far away from God that he no longer heard their prayers. God says I am determined to bring judgment.
What we need is a solution to our problem, a solution to the chaos and destruction, a solution for God to intervene, a solution for salvation.
Point #3 – God is our solution. God is our salvation.
Jeremiah 31:31, “the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” Continuing to verse 33, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people”……vs. 34, “I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” Moving to chapter 33:15, “In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.”
Jesus is the branch. Jesus is the new covenant. Jesus is the way. Here these words from II Cor. 5:17, “so if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new.”
The devil wants to drag us down to death and destruction, but God has intervened. God is shouting from the mountain top. Be freed. Jesus died so that you could be freed from sin, freed from death, freed from destruction, and freed from chaos.
Ii Cor. 5:15, “and he (Jesus) died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.”
God doesn’t want to judge us. God wants to save; nonetheless, listen to these words from II Cor. 5:10:
“For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil.”
The simple fact is this: you can’t just say you are a Christian, you must be a Christian. You can’t just go to church, you must be the church. Are we prepared to meet our God and judge? God is calling out to us today, come home, come home. Amen.
So you want a Revival
Jeremiah 2:4-13
August 29 (Communion)
Jim Whittaker
4Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. 5Thus says the Lord: What wrong did your ancestors find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves? 6They did not say, “Where is the Lord who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that no one passes through, where no one lives?” 7I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruits and its good things. But when you entered you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination. 8The priests did not say, “Where is the Lord?” Those who handle the law did not know me; the rulers transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal, and went after things that do not profit.
9Therefore once more I accuse you, says the Lord, and I accuse your children’s children. 10Cross to the coasts of Cyprus and look, send to Kedar and examine with care; see if there has ever been such a thing. 11Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for something that does not profit. 12Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the Lord, 13for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.
Jeremiah wants to see a revival in Judah and Israel. He is calling for repentance. I believe that we are seeing signs of revival here in our church, but we like Jeremiah must look at our own need of repentance.
On a blog site on the internet that was titled, “Spirituality without God,” seemed to describe our plight today. I would say that almost everyone I meet is a spiritual person. That does not mean everyone is a believer in God. It does not mean that everyone is a believer in salvation in Jesus Christ. This blog described a lady named Melody who had been diagnosed with a breast cancer that already metastasized. She was a daughter of a minister in Sweden. Her religion was kind of new age: positive thinking, alternate health remedies, our state of mind, and even meditation. Her boyfriend, Kevin started soliciting prayers for her return to good health. After things went bad, things started to get better and she was even featured on PBS under a section titled alternate medicine. The blogger who was a Jew knew this couple for they lived in Israel, noted never in the petitions or praises was God mentioned. In actuality, the prayers were prayers to Melody – not prayers to God. God was not mentioned in any of their e-mails. Their religion was kind of a religion of self-help. It is not a religion toward a divine being. The blogger said God seeks a relationship with us. This is spirituality with depth. Prayers are made to God. This moves us from just a surface relationship with God, because is not just about us. It is a walk with God including those hard places when we encounter in death and sickness. I in no way am suggesting that a prayer to God would have changed her circumstance, but neither am I denying that God could do that, I am suggesting that we can substitute our spirituality with a relationship with a saving God. From: http://www.aish.com/sp/ph/48962441.htmlOn another blog site an article titled “A hunger for depth,” describes our society as spiritual. Everything is spiritual from ball games to trips to whatever it is that humans do. We are told that this is the most spiritual generation there has been in a long time. She gives our culture a critique. She says our culture is chasing the spiritual trivial things rather things that are authentic. From: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/jul/25/spirituality-meaning-meditation. We can trivialize prayer, the Bible, the worship of God to where it really is not meaningful. She calls us to get back to a spiritual depth, and she suggests meditating on God. I would add this suggestion try living out what God says for Jesus said if you love me, you will obey my commandments. From both of these blogging spots, an attempt is made to show that our culture take its religion very lightly. Brennan Manning wrote a book titled, “The Ragmuffin Gospel,” where Max is on a week-end group alcoholic retreat. Brennan Manning describes Max as a nominal Christian. Max admits to have an occasional drink, ok 8 routine drinks a day, well ok, there are those extra drinks during the day you have to prepared for by having gin in the car, the briefcase, at work, etc. He claims that is a benefit to be a man of means. In all of the questions he faced as he was on the hot seat – this is where you face the brutal facts - He got a bad feeling about his daughter on a Christmas Eve but he couldn’t remember what it was. The counselor called his wife and asked with everyone in the group listening what happened on Christmas Eve with his daughter. She said that Max had taken their daughter to the Mall and gave her $60 to buy whatever she wanted. She was so happy that she kissed her dad when she returned from the Mall where he sat in the parking lot in his truck. It made him feel so good that he decided to stop at the bar on the way home. He left the truck running. It was noon. At midnight, he returned. The engine was off. It was 12 degrees outside. His daughter had suffered frost-bite to her ears, her hands, and her feet. She had to have some amputations when she was taken to the hospital. That’s what he couldn’t remember. Max got down on his legs like a dog and bawled like a baby. The counselor told him that they didn’t accept liars in the program, and he could live the door or the window, which ever suited him. Talk about brutal facts. Max stayed in the program. The night before Max completed the program, Fred saw him reading Watership Down. He told Fred as he stopped to check on him. I prayed for the first time tonight. Max had faced his own denial of the true facts.
Brutal facts: Sometimes we are in the same place only giving our Christianity head knowledge and not letting it reach into our heart. If we are practicing Christianity lite, then we too may fall the way of Judah as they worshipped false gods. Can we truly say that God is our number one allegiance against which all other things must fall in line?
Jeremiah criticizes not only Judah but the whole remnant of Israel for worshipping false gods. They have been unfaithful. They knew who they should worship – God, but they had not. In fact, Jeremiah is saying they seemed to have enjoyed their worshipping other things – things made with hands and Baal. Baal was their preference just judging by the number of worship places.
They have fallen into the temptation of the easy way. Jesus said the way to destruction is broad and easy to get into, but the way leading toward life and God is narrow. We can’t cruise in life and live completely for ourselves, ignore God, and think everything is OK.
Problem #1 for Israel – they have played the role of the prostitute, the one who is unfaithful, and the one who has cheated on their true love. Whom do you love? A first step is to hear Romans echo through Jeremiah, we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The first step is to admit we have all been unfaithful. Jeremiah is not just looking at the present, but down the whole history line of Israel.
Problem #2 for Israel – they have looked for human made solutions to their problems and have not considered God. Why did Judah and Israel lose their sense of national identity. They had failed to consider God in their decisions. This is an example of their unfaithfulness.
Problem #3 for Israel – they had looked at political alliances as their answer and had not considered God. Again, this is a lack of faithfulness.
The result is exile. God is going to have to remove the people from their land designated as God’s land for them so that they can see their sin. It is in exile that we ask ourselves and reflect on what it means to repent.
Our society today has come to the place where spirituality is OK, but Jesus makes exclusive claims, and that is not OK. Our society today has made church only needful for one hour maybe two during the week – that is Sunday at 11am and maybe Sunday School.
We need to ask a few questions: is not God’s house a place of prayer? Why do we not have 3 to 5 prayer groups during the week? Is God’s house not the place where God’s work begins? Why don’t we have more people involved in the ministry of helping others? Before we condemn Judah, we need to take a quick look at ourselves. We are sinners. We are in need of God’s grace.
God is asking everyone here are you looking for cheap grace, Christianity lite, or something that doesn’t require me to change anything. Sometimes we need to realize we are exiled unto God. We are wondering in the wilderness. Maybe it’s today that we realize, Jeremiah is preaching to us.
Consider God’s claim against them:
1) They had wondered far away from God (vs. 4)
Someone not from our church told me this week that they were reading the Bible through for the first time this week. How about you? When is the last time you read it through?
2) They couldn’t even find God – they say, “Where is the Lord?” (vs 6)
Brennan Manning says, we have lost our sense of wonder. The ability to look at God’s creation and see God in it.
3) They have forsaken me (vs 13). And we continue, “the fountain of living water.” I am where you find life – God is saying. We may recall Jesus at the well when he said, if you would have only asked me for the living water, and I would have given it to you.
4) They dug out cisterns for themselves. By their own hands they have tried to satisfy their every need and have left God out of their decision making process in life.
Interestingly, Jeremiah describes these handmade places to drink water like a jar with cracks in it. You can put water in it, but it is going to run out. Those cisterns are ourselves. If we think we have all the answers. If we think we can save ourselves, we need to look at the ugly truth. We are broken vessels. We cannot hold the living water the water that leads to eternal life.
So you want a revival across our land? Consider these facts: Before we can worship God, we have to face the brutal facts. We are sinners. We are sinners that have lost our way. We are sinners that needs the redemption that comes through Christ and Christ alone.
So that brings us to what God desires. Our worship. Worship was described in the Websters dictionary as an extravagant devotion to God. Maybe we know that we are living for God, but extravagant worship, wow – We all need the altar rail this morning. To repent, and to bring ourselves anew unto God.
Amen.
New Series: Words from the Prophet: God’s Call
Jeremiah 1:4-10
August 22, 2010
Jim Whittaker
1 The Lord has Called You
The Lord has called you. You have been given a message from God. God is saying take my message to the world. Go! That might sound like the great commission to you, but it is actually Jeremiah’s call. His call makes us reflect on our own purpose for God in our life. Listen to Jeremiah’s call.
Before you were conceived or formed, I knew you.
Wow! One of the questions facing our modern world is when does life begin. God seems to be saying before conception.
Have you seen the commercial on TV where a new president is being sworn in and then they start reversing back in time. They show the young man growing up. They show the young couple getting married. They show the couple meeting. They show the father to be standing waiting for his train with is smart phone out when he sees the mother to be on the train. He quickly changes his travel plans with his smart phone, and the chance meeting occurs. When would God say he knew this future president to be? God would say right there in the train station before his parents had even met, he knew him.
God knows your situation. Do you believe that?
Listen to Psalm 139:
Lord, you know all about me. You know when I get up and go to bed. You know my thoughts. You know my ways, and even before I talk, you have heard my words.
This same God knew Jeremiah and put him on a mission. Do you believe this same God knows you enough, that he has entrusted you with a God given purpose in life?
Psalm 138:8 says, “The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me.”
I am going to let you in on a secret. Some of us aren’t necessarily happy with God’s purpose for us. That’s not the secret. You are not alone – that is the secret.
In Amos 7:14. King Amaziah said to Amos get away from me prophet. Amos replied don’t call me a prophet. I am a shepherd and a tender of sycamore trees. I am only here because God sent me and said give the King the Word from God.
In Jeremiah 20:7ff, Jeremiah says, “O Lord, you have over powered me and you have prevailed….the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long…..(and). I have become a laughingstock…everyone mocks me.”
Amos was just fine doing what he was doing. Watching sheep that’s what he liked doing. Jeremiah was given a job to do that he felt compelled by God to do and left to his own, he might just not do it. We find ourselves in that same situation. I was just fine racing sail boats and being a CPA. I had plenty of time to work on my own house, which is kind of a hobby for me. Now the word of God is my hobby. I am here because God said go! If God would cancel my call, I would run back to my house and build that front porch I have been wanting for 20 years, but….but, there is something burning in my bones. I cannot not tell God’s word.
How about you? That’s something to think about. God has called each one of us for this time and for this place and he knew us before we were born. He knows exactly who we are, what we are thinking, and what we are getting ready to say. God didn’t save you, redeem you, give you the hope of heaven, just so he could put you in his trophy case. God saved you to transform the world. God believes that God’s creation can be more .
You probably came here today thinking you were going to have a good service of worship, praise God, and go home, but God has a message for you today. Each one of you - You have been called. Black – you have been called. White – you have been called. Asian – you have been called. Female – you have been called. Male – you have been called. Young – you have been called. Old – you have been called. It is both a frightening and an awesome thing to know you have been called.
I am humbled to think that God would call me for this time and place. I have started to pray, “God change me into the person you have called me to be.”
God revealed to Jeremiah that he was to be a prophet. He was called.
Ephesians 4:1 says, “I beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.”
If you are saved, live like you are saved.
2. God Equips His Call
God knows our reluctance to go and do what God’s purpose is for our lives. Jeremiah does just what we do. Lord, I have a long list of excuses of why I can’t do your bidding. I am too busy. I don’t do much. I am too stressed. I am too bashful. I have never done that before. I have always done it this way. I am inexperience. I am too tired and worn out. Only men do that. Only women do that. I went to college. I didn’t go to college. You kind of get the picture. Which one do you use, when you feel God calling you?
I mean we are all guilty. Do we think God hasn’t heard all of this before? Moses said he couldn’t speak. So God gave him his brother as his mouthpiece. Moses said no one would believe him – a runaway Egyptian who became a shepherd, and in Exodus 4:13 some of Moses’ defining words of what it means to be human, “Lord please send somebody else.”
Isn’t that just how we are? Have you said those words before?
Jeremiah used I am too young as his excuse. In verse 6, he says I am only a boy. This means I do not have the experience. I do not have the wisdom. People will not respect me. People will not listen to me. These are the type of excuses Jeremiah gives God.
When God has determined your purpose, did you know he doesn’t accept no as an answer.
God told Jeremiah. I will give you your words. Do not be afraid, for those who will stand up against you, I will knock them down.
This brings us to a saying that I think is profound and true. “God does not call the equipped. God equips the called.” Romans 8:28 says, “for we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”
When we do not do as God has called us to do, we are not just fighting against our own self interests, we are fighting God himself! God says, Go and do what I have sent you to do. Go and speak the words I have given you for I will deliver you.
Now this is not a commandment that is do not so smart things that God is going to rescue us. Take Solomon and Delia and his haircut that took his strength. No what this is saying, that when we step out for God in God’s direction or God’s will, God is going to provide us the strength to make it through that trial.
Jeremiah is imprisoned. Jeremiah is thrown in the dungeon. Jeremiah is thrown into the well and left to die. Jeremiah is drug off to Egypt, which is just where he said God’s people shouldn’t go. Jeremiah buys land to show that there is a hope for God’s people to return to the land of Israel. He was then considered a friend of Babylon and a traitor. Jeremiah just couldn’t win. His nation and his people were against him. It was in hindsight that God’s people were able to say what Jeremiah said was right.
God told Jeremiah in 1:9, “the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the lord said to me, Now I have put my words in your mouth.” God equipped his call.
The key is this: God called, God equipped, and God provided. It is not to say that Jeremiah did not have bad days. He did. It is to say that even with the bad days, Jeremiah knew there was hope in God.
3. God’s Purpose – the place to live.
God not only equipped Jeremiah. He gave him the word. He told him I have appointed you to tell the nations. I will destroy or judge the nations and their peoples, but I will also plant a new garden, do a new thing. It is in Jeremiah that we hear of God’s new thing. It is in Jeremiah that we get much prophesy about one coming from the house of David to be a redeemer. Jeremiah while he announces judgment, he also gives a message of hope.
God’s purpose for Jeremiah seemed to put him in a hard place, an uncomfortable place, a distressing place all because of God’s word. But, God’s word is true. It’s true today just as in Jeremiah’s time.
Huckleberry Finn knew the feeling of having to choose between the easiest, most sensible course of action and that course which he knew to be correct. Huck was having a grand adventure with his friend Jim, the two of them sailing down the Mississippi river on a homemade raft. But one day Huck realized that Jim was a runaway slave and he knew that, according to the law, he ought to write to Jim's owner Miss Watson and inform her of Jim's whereabouts.
Huck did write that letter, and was prepared to mail it but then, he says, I "got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me ... But somehow I couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind. I'd see him standing my watch on top of his'n, stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping ... And he would alsways do everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was ... And then I happened to look around, and see that letter I'd wrote..
"It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: "All right then" and tore [the letter] up."
Huck Finn was driven to choose the difficult instead of the simple way of living, the uncommon instead of the ordinary, way of doing business. All because of his uncommon relationship with a friend. Because he decided that his feelings of respect and care he had for his friend Jim were stronger than the feelings of fear and trembling he had for the authorities of the land.
Source: Mark Twain, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" http://www.e-steeple.com/search.html
We are all loved by God. We are God’s beautiful creation. Yet, we have the tendency to ignore God, put God off, and not commit to living a life for God. We are just like a dog stuck in old habits.
We kept Laura’s basset hound last week-end. We gave him a treat bone, and had him on the concrete porch. He just kept going around whining. Dianna said what is up with the dog. I told her I thought that he wanted to bury his treat bone. I mean that is what dog’s do right. Before long, I found that he had yanked out one of our plants in a pot, turned the pot over, and took his nose and covered the bone with dirt on concrete. It’s hard to keep a dog from doing a dog’s way.
But, we have a redeemer. The Branch of David. Jeremiah says God is doing a new thing. Jeremiah 32:18 says God’s faithfulness will last for thousands of generations. God wants a relationship with us. God has called us to live into our God purpose yet we often too want to bury the dog bone when we are on concrete.
Jesus died to set us free so that we could live unto God. He then has called us to live like we are children of the God most high. Today, I am saying with no excuses – can you say that is where you are. God is right now wishing to equip you with just what you need to live out God’s purpose for you. You want to live a word for God. This is how you do it. God has called us to be God’s witnesses. We are either doing his will or we are not. If we are not, Jeremiah says there is a judgment. If we are following God’s will, Jeremiah says we have the hope of God’s eternal reign here on earth and in heaven.
Judgment. Hope.
I think I will choose hope.
Amen.
Sermon for August 15, 2010
The sermon titled, "If you see the devil hitchiking, do not pick him up, for he will want to drive the car before long" was lost during computer switchover. We hope to have this series back up next week. Pastor Jim
Melody prached the last Jeremiah sermon at Meroney
Jim preached on I Timothy at West End's Homecoming
Sermon – All is such a big word
I Timothy 2:1-7
September 19, 2010
James Whittaker
Introduction
While I pondered over this passage this week, I kept coming back to the word grace. First, we are instructed to pray for our leaders so that we can have peace in our land. The result, we are able to worship in peace, and then we are given what would have been an ancient memorization device – an oral hymn that gives us these fundamentals of the faith. There is only one God. There is only one mediator between God and humankind, which is Jesus Christ, and Jesus has paid the price that needed paid so that salvation could be accomplished. He ransomed us. Who was this act done for? All.
All – Such a big word. A little 3 letter word, but such a profound huge word. We might ask did you really mean all? Is there grace available to terrorist who survive their own attacks? Or how about mass murders? How far does grace go? One of the great theologians that I have great respect for is Karl Barth. He was asked what he would say to Hitler if he bumped into him. (Remember Karl Barth was a contemporary of Hitler). Barth said, “I would tell him that Jesus died for his sins.”
Now this is not a call for universal salvation. By that I mean that everyone ultimately will find their way unto God. No the scriptures are saying that God made a way of salvation for all. All have the chance. We have difficulties with this little word all.
Remember Jonah – He did not want to go to Ninevah. Why? They might repent and God would forgive them. Jonah was mad when God did do such a thing. I knew you were a God of grace, and it is just like you to give grace to my enemies. That is why I wanted nothing to do with our plan O God. Jonah was looking for grace for his friends, neighbors, and family including his nation – Israel. Enemies – no place for grace. Jesus wanted us to be sure that we understood what Jonah was wrestling with when he said “love your enemies.”
Can you just throw grace out there to anyone? I mean is that right? Is God just in doing so?
We need a clarification. Phillip Yancey, in his book “What’s So Amazing About Grace,” described a conversation he had with a man. The man had been married for 15 years. He had become obsessed with a younger woman. He didn’t have any issues with his marriage, his wife, or his children. He knew that it was wrong to even ponder this possibility – to leave his faithful wife of 15 years for a younger woman. He asked Phillip this question, “can God forgive me if I go through with my plan?” I am up at arms. You can’t willingly sin and expect God to forgive you. I mean that is exactly why God wrote the 10 commandments – these are the big ones. To willingly sin in these – well it was deadly.
Group 1 – Sinners and Know it
There are two kinds of people in the world. Group one – they are sinners who know or admit they have sinned, who know they are not worthy before God, who know that all of their good deeds are just like filthy rages before God. They come bowing down before an almighty God – be merciful unto me O God for I am a sinner. They understand something that perhaps the other group does not. Grace is a gift. A gift can be spurned. We cannot repay a gift – it’s not a gift, if there is repayment. Grace is a gift that is freely given, but it also must be freely received.
Phillip Yancey quotes C.S. Lewis in his understanding of St. Augustine, “God gives where he finds empty hands.” I wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that, but I knew that there was a tie with our communion service or Eucharist (which means thanksgiving). How do we say come to communion? With empty hands, palms up, and with your hands crossed to remind you of the cross or the great cost to which grace is made available. Then what do we say? You receive bread, which is Christ’s body also representing God’s grace, but we have to respond to that grace. Yes, freely given to all.
Group #2 - Sinners and do not Know It
The other group, we will call group #2 - Group 2 are also sinners but they do not admit their sin. We might would call them self righteous people. The man that Phillip Yancey talked about went through with his plan to leave his wife. There were repercussions tot his action at his church, with his wife, with his family, and though he was looking for God to forgive him even when he intentionally sinned – in other words he knew in advance his actions were wrong – now cannot come to terms with he is a sinner. Yes, we are all sinners, but there is a difference when you admit your sin and when you hide it, rationalize it, and when you smooth it over. When you admit your sin, you can see your need for grace. When you cannot admit your sin, there is no need for grace.
King David – Which Group?
When I look in the Bible for someone who sinned one of the ten commandments intentionally, and later saw the depth of their sin, and repented, one of the greats of the bible came to mind. King David. I remember studying Beth Moore’s book David a Man After God’s Own Heart, and I was struck with depth of love that David had for God. I kept wanting to say but remember Bathsheba. The Bible actually says, David was perfect in all my ways except with the sin of Bathsheba. When we look for a sign of repentance, we need to look no further than one of the greatest moments of confession in the whole bible found in Psalm 51 – “Against you alone have I sinned” (v. 4). David realized that in the hurt that he did to this family, and even to the nation paled in comparison to the hurt and embarrassment he did to God.
The Publican and the Sinner
Jesus is the one who gave us these two groups. The story is found in the Gospel of Luke in a Parable titled, “The Publican and Sinner.” The Pharisee prayed, “God I thank you that I am a good man, and not like the sinners I know – you may want to insert some groups that are modern day – terrorist, Nazis, or like the man who left his wife of 15 years. Did this man recognize that he was a sinner? No, he did not. The other man was the sinner we previously mentioned, he prayed, “God be merciful to me a sinner” as he beat his breast in remorse. It was the man who admitted his sin that knew he needed the grace of God. The scriptures say of the man who was thankful he wasn’t as bad as some of the people he knew – said his sins were not forgiven. Why? You have to confess your sins.
God has done his part – Now, how about us
There is another step needed to claim this grace that we see so poetically stated here in I Timothy with Christ who is our mediator or the one who makes things right because he purchased us or ransomed us. He paid the price for our sin so we don’t have too, but that does not mean we keep on living as if nothing occurred when God saved us. Salvation means to deliver us. God has delivered us from sin and death so that we can have eternal life and have a heavenly home. It is for that reason that we gather at homecoming. We gather because we are a people of faith. We believe in God’s salvation. We believe that Jesus is the way to heaven, and we believe that Jesus did indeed go to make a home in heaven for us. We have been purchased with a price. In one of the scriptures we referenced last week, we made a point on how we live when we say we have been redeemed. II Cor. 5:15, we live no longer for ourselves, but for the one who died for us (Jesus). One of the basic tenants of scripture is repentance.
The Adulterous Woman
I give you another story with these two groups of people. Group 1 – Sinners who admit their sin and Group 2 – Sinners who do not admit their sin. It is the story of a woman who was found in adultery. The law of Moses said both the man and woman were to be stoned or killed for their action of unfaithfulness. Only the woman is brought to Jesus where the Pharisees demanded that Jesus proclaim who he really was for – was he for the Jewish people and Moses’ law or was he for the pagans and sinners represented by the Roman empire. They set a trap for Jesus. They already had the answer they wanted. Jesus, they said, we found this woman in the very act of adultery and the law of Moses says she should be stoned, but what do you say? If he said she shouldn’t be stoned, he was for the Romans. If he said that she should be stoned for the Jews, then he would be guilty of Roman law. Either way they had him. Yes she should be stoned – guilty. No she should not be stoned – guilty. The woman would have been standing in front of Jesus. She would have been stripped down to her waist to humiliate her. Perhaps that is why Jesus bent down to the ground in order to not look upon her in her humiliated state. Jesus’ response was startling. It was like he said, we are creating two groups. One group will be for sinners who know they have sinned. The other group will be for sinners who think they have not sinned. Let’s divide up.
Then he said these words, “who is without sin, cast the first stone.” He was asking for people who were in group 2 – sinners who do not admit their sin to step forward. It is said Jesus wrote in the dirt. Scriptures do not say what he wrote, but maybe it was things such as liars, prideful, gossips, arrogant. We do not know. But, something happened, people were convicted of their game to frame Jesus. People began to see their own sin. The Pharisees left. I am not sure if any or how many actually repented, because that is the key to this passage. The crowd left. Jesus and the woman were alone. She certainly was shivering in fear. Jesus said, “where are your accussers.” They have gone she said. Neither do I accuse you – stop here. This is grace. Yes, she had definitely sinned. Was she in the condition to receive God’s grace? Was she open to God? Was she willing to drop the trappings of the world, her desires, and open her hands palm up signifying she could not bring anything to God that would be worthy of what she needed – God’s grace. There was no action that would make grace available to her and not to others. I Timothy is clear. God’s desire is all people are saved. Now, we know that all people are not saved, and I Timothy is clear that Christ’s grace through the mediator Jesus and his work of ransom on the cross is for all. She told her go and sin no more. This is the key. The willingness to say we are sinners, which must include the willingness to repent.
Conclusion
a. Good conclusion
Now if we go back to David. He couldn’t reverse all that he messed up. Bathsheba’s husband was dead. Bathsheba had become pregnant and the son died. David couldn’t fix everything he messed up and the Bible said that the sin he did in secret, Absalom did in the open. His household was deeply affected by his sin. Sin has consequences.
b. Bad conclusion
If we go back to the man who left his wife, something was lacking in his receiving forgiveness. He was not truly sorry meaning he repented of the wrong. Repentance means you don’t do it again. In fact, he started looking for friends that would approve of his actions. He dropped out of church, and he doesn’t really claim to be a Christian now. He was not sorrowful as King David was.
Yes, the little word “all” is big. God has done all that is needed for all. God has done all that is needed for salvation even for the pagan rulers that we are instructed to pray for in the first verses of this passage. God has done all that is needed for salvation for the people who are enemies – the Hitlers, the terrorist, and even our enemies.
God doesn’t force people to accept his salvation and become Christians whether or not they liked it. God is looking for the King Davids of the world – sinners who know they have sinned and repent of their sin. When we come face to face with this great Christian hymn of old memorized for the truths it hold, we are reminded that there only 2 groups in the world. Sinners who admit their sin and sinners who do not admit their sin.
In the story of the adulterous woman and the Pharisees, it is the Pharisees who appear to be in danger. It is not certain they really confessed and repented of their sin. Since they did end up taking Jesus to the cross, I believe we would have to say many did not repent. It is the woman caught in the very act of sin, who models to us or at least we are hopeful that she does, a life of repentance.
Saying sorry isn’t enough. We don’t say, sorry I sinned God and go and do the same sin again. We come to God and say yes I am sorry, but I also am changing (that is what repentance means). I am changing. I am repenting by God’s help. The lack of repentance blocks God’s grace.
Repentance is the way of salvation. In Wesley’s language, it was the first step or it was the porch of the house. The house represented salvation. Repentance put us at the door. This is the way of our heavenly home. It is to admit we are sinners and accept the grace given to us and then no longer live for ourselves but unto God. Yes, we give “all” our sins unto God. Repentance, the key to the big word all. Amen.
Sermon – When God Says it, it is a Done Deal.
Jeremiah 4:11-12; 22-28
September 12, 2010
Jim Whittaker
Introduction: Discipline
If you go back to your childhood, is it reasonable to think that there would never be discipline in your life? Were you a perfect child?
I believe we all see that discipline is necessary. We were not perfect as children. If you were not disciplined, the chances of you being a spoiled child or even adult go up dramatically. While we recognize today that people have abused children in the name of discipline, we also recognize that discipline is needed and cannot be forgotten.
Our ideas on discipline have changed. Back in my day, I received my fair share of whippin’s. It wasn’t labeled as child abuse then. In fact, the only reason that this method of discipline has fallen out of favor is some parents did not know when to stop. They did not know when discipline had turned to harming the child. My friend Ray was beaten black and blue. That was child abuse then and child abuse now. It was wrong then, and it is wrong now. We now have decided to err on the side of not whipping. In any case, when I grew up whipping was the norm. I didn’t get my first whipping in school until the first grade for my creative learning skills that required no studying for spelling tests, and I was only in the 10th grade when I received my last whipping for studying aerodynamics of paper planes when an errant flight path landed my plane in the open window of the class below study hall. I was whipped with a board with holes cut in it at school. It was meant to hurt. With my parents, I was whipped with a belt – not the metal end – that is abuse. I was also whipped with a switch. For those who might not know what a switch is – that is a young thin straight branch from a tree. A tree that has been cut down and tries to grow again will have perfect switches. My mother would tell me to go and cut my own switches. Now the longer the switch is, the more it hurt. I would come back with a little short switch that you couldn’t do anything with. I remember my mother chasing me around the yard with that little switch saying go and cut me a longer switch. Finally, my mom gave up and just said wait until your father comes home. My father gave up on the switch and went to the belt, but you had to catch me first. I remember dad trying to hold me and give me a whipping. I was running as fast as I could and going around in circles cause dad had my arm. After about 5 minutes, we were both wore out. While our discipline methods have changed, the need for discipline has not. While whippin’s are no longer done in school; while parents use the methods of talking with the child, taking things away from the child, there is one thing that still remains: discipline is needed to raise children. With that in mind, I ask this question:
Can you turn your back on God and claim the religion of your youth as your defense that you are God’s child, and expect there will never be judgment?
That is where Judah was. They had forgotten God yet they still claimed they were God’s children. They had thought no way would God discipline them for they were God’s children. The only problem was they were not living like they were God’s children. In the last of Chapter 3 and the first of Chapter 4, there is a call to repentance, but at some point we get to where in the passage that it seems nothing is going to change the outcome. God is going to judge the people of Judah. God says, “I have not relented nor will I turn back” (4:28).
This brings me to point #1 – Sin has consequences.
Sin has consequences, but there is another point in this in that at some point when our sin has been so great, when our refusal to obey God’s will has been carried on for so long that God can no longer overlook that we have spurned God just Jeremiah uses the metaphor of a young lover that has been spurned. When we say yes to God, we have entered into a relationship. Often the Bible speaks it in terms of marriage. When we are unfaithful to God, it is like we have been unfaithful in marriage. At some point, even if we are asking God to intervene, God allows us to wallow in our own sin. As many mothers have said, “you’ve made your own bed, now you’ve got to sleep in it.” In other words, you have made your mess, now your stuck with the circumstances.
We remember the story of Gideon where with a small group of soldiers, they scared the Assyrians away. That was a God thing. We also remember when God by disease knocked the whole Assyrian army out. That was a God thing. God can protect the small tribe of Judah. God can help individuals when it is looks like they are being overwhelmed with a flood, but if we continue to live in sin, God will not listen to our prayers. The Babylonians are on the rise. They are coming. They will attack from the north. God is not going to listen to the prayers asking for intervention. Judah is going to have to face their sin. That is why in Jeremiah 4:14 it says, “Jerusalem wash your heart clean of wickedness so that you can be saved.” In the last part of chapter 3, it is saying we have to admit our shame, admit our dishonor, and admit our sin. The first step in salvation is we have to admit we are sinners. We have to admit we have not lived for God. On our website, I have a section where you can be saved, and it is easy as ABC. Admit your are a sinner, believe in God for salvation through Jesus Christ, and confess our sins and seek to live a life of repentance, which means change. In our relationship with God, God seeks to transform us. The Bible is not a self help book. It is a God-help book. It is not about what we can do to become better persons. It is about God changing our sin nature to a God nature. It is becoming a transformed person. It is becoming a person that seeks to live for God rather than self, but that first step is a big one. Admit we are a sinner. I cannot save myself. I cannot do self help to transform myself into God’s good creation. It is only by God that this can be done. Judah was not listening to God. Judah was not seeking to be transformed. Judah was practicing an outside only religion. God had to wake them up.
It is not that God no longer loves them. The Psalms says he loves us with a steadfast love. It is not that God no longer cares for us. In fact, Jeremiah is still both a book of judgment but also a book of great hope. It is in Jeremiah that we are told that one will come from the branch of Judah to save us. Of course that one is Jesus. God does not always save us from ourselves. Our refusal to obey God’s word can lead us to have to face the consequences of our disobedience.
Remember, if you dabble in fire long enough, you are going to get burned.
A liberal theologian, Paul Tillich, preached a sermon on this passage. It was very interesting. It basically was admitting a failure that progressives were going to save the world from hunger, from war, and calamities of the world and God was going to do something that we don’t even like to talk about – God was going to judge the world for its sin. Sin keeps us from being who God calls us to be. Sin will lead us and this world to its own destruction. The Bible is clear. One day there is going to be an end to this world, and it will be something so cosmic that the whole world as we know it will be destroyed. God at times judges us right where we are right now.
Listen to the words of the prophet, Jeremiah – I am coming in like a hot wind. A hot wind will destroy the crop. It will destroy life. The hot wind also describes God’s hot anger for God’s people not listening to his voice. God’s hot wind is going to turn Judah’s promised land of milk and honey into a desolate desert.
The prophet declares – he is coming, are you ready? He is going to judge with an iron fist. Are you ready to be judged? He is going to pay us with the consequences of our sin. Do we want that payment? Are we crying unto our God, Lord have mercy on me a sinner.
In Jeremiah 4:18, God says, “your ways and your doings has brought this upon you.” Sin does have consequences.
Point #2 – God does judge even nations not just individuals.
I remember when Hurricane Katrina came in and a preacher said it was God’s judgment on New Orleans. The preacher had to back step a little on that statement. It is not that God doesn’t judge people as whole community or nation – God does. It is who made the preacher the judge. The scriptures are clear – do not judge, lest you be judged.
Here is a Fact: The world is in chaos without God.
God in the book of Genesis, intervened into our world. God turned chaos into order. In the garden of Eden, it was an ordered creation. When Adam and Eve as representatives of humanity chose to honor themselves instead of God, they rejected God, and the world took a step backward toward chaos.
When Jeremiah talks about judgment, the judgment brings the human rebellion against God to the very beginning. The world now is headed back toward chaos and destruction just as Genesis 1 began. A life filled with sin, is a life filled with chaos and destruction. What did the prophet see when he looked at the earth? He saw the earth void and wasted. There was no light in the heavens. What he is describing is a form of un-creation. It is a backward movement toward destruction and chaos. Judah had so forgotten God that God declared they were headed toward destruction.
He describes an earthquake. He describes a place where animals have left. He describes a reversal of the honey and milk or the fruits of the land to a desert. This is un-creation.
When we reject God, when we do not listen to God, when we do not seek to do God’s will, when we do not listen to God’s word, we are moving backwards – backwards toward chaos and destruction. We get reminders in our world of chaos and destruction through earthquakes, floods, and fires. They are going to happen for when we rejected God in the garden of Eden, we moved back toward chaos and destruction. It is not for us to question why tragedies happen in the world – they are going to happen for we have chosen the path of chaos and destruction – we should be asking God to intervene in the world for God hears his people. Judah had fallen so far away from God that he no longer heard their prayers. God says I am determined to bring judgment.
What we need is a solution to our problem, a solution to the chaos and destruction, a solution for God to intervene, a solution for salvation.
Point #3 – God is our solution. God is our salvation.
Jeremiah 31:31, “the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” Continuing to verse 33, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people”……vs. 34, “I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” Moving to chapter 33:15, “In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.”
Jesus is the branch. Jesus is the new covenant. Jesus is the way. Here these words from II Cor. 5:17, “so if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new.”
The devil wants to drag us down to death and destruction, but God has intervened. God is shouting from the mountain top. Be freed. Jesus died so that you could be freed from sin, freed from death, freed from destruction, and freed from chaos.
Ii Cor. 5:15, “and he (Jesus) died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.”
God doesn’t want to judge us. God wants to save; nonetheless, listen to these words from II Cor. 5:10:
“For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil.”
The simple fact is this: you can’t just say you are a Christian, you must be a Christian. You can’t just go to church, you must be the church. Are we prepared to meet our God and judge? God is calling out to us today, come home, come home. Amen.
So you want a Revival
Jeremiah 2:4-13
August 29 (Communion)
Jim Whittaker
4Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. 5Thus says the Lord: What wrong did your ancestors find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves? 6They did not say, “Where is the Lord who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that no one passes through, where no one lives?” 7I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruits and its good things. But when you entered you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination. 8The priests did not say, “Where is the Lord?” Those who handle the law did not know me; the rulers transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal, and went after things that do not profit.
9Therefore once more I accuse you, says the Lord, and I accuse your children’s children. 10Cross to the coasts of Cyprus and look, send to Kedar and examine with care; see if there has ever been such a thing. 11Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for something that does not profit. 12Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the Lord, 13for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.
Jeremiah wants to see a revival in Judah and Israel. He is calling for repentance. I believe that we are seeing signs of revival here in our church, but we like Jeremiah must look at our own need of repentance.
On a blog site on the internet that was titled, “Spirituality without God,” seemed to describe our plight today. I would say that almost everyone I meet is a spiritual person. That does not mean everyone is a believer in God. It does not mean that everyone is a believer in salvation in Jesus Christ. This blog described a lady named Melody who had been diagnosed with a breast cancer that already metastasized. She was a daughter of a minister in Sweden. Her religion was kind of new age: positive thinking, alternate health remedies, our state of mind, and even meditation. Her boyfriend, Kevin started soliciting prayers for her return to good health. After things went bad, things started to get better and she was even featured on PBS under a section titled alternate medicine. The blogger who was a Jew knew this couple for they lived in Israel, noted never in the petitions or praises was God mentioned. In actuality, the prayers were prayers to Melody – not prayers to God. God was not mentioned in any of their e-mails. Their religion was kind of a religion of self-help. It is not a religion toward a divine being. The blogger said God seeks a relationship with us. This is spirituality with depth. Prayers are made to God. This moves us from just a surface relationship with God, because is not just about us. It is a walk with God including those hard places when we encounter in death and sickness. I in no way am suggesting that a prayer to God would have changed her circumstance, but neither am I denying that God could do that, I am suggesting that we can substitute our spirituality with a relationship with a saving God. From: http://www.aish.com/sp/ph/48962441.htmlOn another blog site an article titled “A hunger for depth,” describes our society as spiritual. Everything is spiritual from ball games to trips to whatever it is that humans do. We are told that this is the most spiritual generation there has been in a long time. She gives our culture a critique. She says our culture is chasing the spiritual trivial things rather things that are authentic. From: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/jul/25/spirituality-meaning-meditation. We can trivialize prayer, the Bible, the worship of God to where it really is not meaningful. She calls us to get back to a spiritual depth, and she suggests meditating on God. I would add this suggestion try living out what God says for Jesus said if you love me, you will obey my commandments. From both of these blogging spots, an attempt is made to show that our culture take its religion very lightly. Brennan Manning wrote a book titled, “The Ragmuffin Gospel,” where Max is on a week-end group alcoholic retreat. Brennan Manning describes Max as a nominal Christian. Max admits to have an occasional drink, ok 8 routine drinks a day, well ok, there are those extra drinks during the day you have to prepared for by having gin in the car, the briefcase, at work, etc. He claims that is a benefit to be a man of means. In all of the questions he faced as he was on the hot seat – this is where you face the brutal facts - He got a bad feeling about his daughter on a Christmas Eve but he couldn’t remember what it was. The counselor called his wife and asked with everyone in the group listening what happened on Christmas Eve with his daughter. She said that Max had taken their daughter to the Mall and gave her $60 to buy whatever she wanted. She was so happy that she kissed her dad when she returned from the Mall where he sat in the parking lot in his truck. It made him feel so good that he decided to stop at the bar on the way home. He left the truck running. It was noon. At midnight, he returned. The engine was off. It was 12 degrees outside. His daughter had suffered frost-bite to her ears, her hands, and her feet. She had to have some amputations when she was taken to the hospital. That’s what he couldn’t remember. Max got down on his legs like a dog and bawled like a baby. The counselor told him that they didn’t accept liars in the program, and he could live the door or the window, which ever suited him. Talk about brutal facts. Max stayed in the program. The night before Max completed the program, Fred saw him reading Watership Down. He told Fred as he stopped to check on him. I prayed for the first time tonight. Max had faced his own denial of the true facts.
Brutal facts: Sometimes we are in the same place only giving our Christianity head knowledge and not letting it reach into our heart. If we are practicing Christianity lite, then we too may fall the way of Judah as they worshipped false gods. Can we truly say that God is our number one allegiance against which all other things must fall in line?
Jeremiah criticizes not only Judah but the whole remnant of Israel for worshipping false gods. They have been unfaithful. They knew who they should worship – God, but they had not. In fact, Jeremiah is saying they seemed to have enjoyed their worshipping other things – things made with hands and Baal. Baal was their preference just judging by the number of worship places.
They have fallen into the temptation of the easy way. Jesus said the way to destruction is broad and easy to get into, but the way leading toward life and God is narrow. We can’t cruise in life and live completely for ourselves, ignore God, and think everything is OK.
Problem #1 for Israel – they have played the role of the prostitute, the one who is unfaithful, and the one who has cheated on their true love. Whom do you love? A first step is to hear Romans echo through Jeremiah, we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The first step is to admit we have all been unfaithful. Jeremiah is not just looking at the present, but down the whole history line of Israel.
Problem #2 for Israel – they have looked for human made solutions to their problems and have not considered God. Why did Judah and Israel lose their sense of national identity. They had failed to consider God in their decisions. This is an example of their unfaithfulness.
Problem #3 for Israel – they had looked at political alliances as their answer and had not considered God. Again, this is a lack of faithfulness.
The result is exile. God is going to have to remove the people from their land designated as God’s land for them so that they can see their sin. It is in exile that we ask ourselves and reflect on what it means to repent.
Our society today has come to the place where spirituality is OK, but Jesus makes exclusive claims, and that is not OK. Our society today has made church only needful for one hour maybe two during the week – that is Sunday at 11am and maybe Sunday School.
We need to ask a few questions: is not God’s house a place of prayer? Why do we not have 3 to 5 prayer groups during the week? Is God’s house not the place where God’s work begins? Why don’t we have more people involved in the ministry of helping others? Before we condemn Judah, we need to take a quick look at ourselves. We are sinners. We are in need of God’s grace.
God is asking everyone here are you looking for cheap grace, Christianity lite, or something that doesn’t require me to change anything. Sometimes we need to realize we are exiled unto God. We are wondering in the wilderness. Maybe it’s today that we realize, Jeremiah is preaching to us.
Consider God’s claim against them:
1) They had wondered far away from God (vs. 4)
Someone not from our church told me this week that they were reading the Bible through for the first time this week. How about you? When is the last time you read it through?
2) They couldn’t even find God – they say, “Where is the Lord?” (vs 6)
Brennan Manning says, we have lost our sense of wonder. The ability to look at God’s creation and see God in it.
3) They have forsaken me (vs 13). And we continue, “the fountain of living water.” I am where you find life – God is saying. We may recall Jesus at the well when he said, if you would have only asked me for the living water, and I would have given it to you.
4) They dug out cisterns for themselves. By their own hands they have tried to satisfy their every need and have left God out of their decision making process in life.
Interestingly, Jeremiah describes these handmade places to drink water like a jar with cracks in it. You can put water in it, but it is going to run out. Those cisterns are ourselves. If we think we have all the answers. If we think we can save ourselves, we need to look at the ugly truth. We are broken vessels. We cannot hold the living water the water that leads to eternal life.
So you want a revival across our land? Consider these facts: Before we can worship God, we have to face the brutal facts. We are sinners. We are sinners that have lost our way. We are sinners that needs the redemption that comes through Christ and Christ alone.
So that brings us to what God desires. Our worship. Worship was described in the Websters dictionary as an extravagant devotion to God. Maybe we know that we are living for God, but extravagant worship, wow – We all need the altar rail this morning. To repent, and to bring ourselves anew unto God.
Amen.
New Series: Words from the Prophet: God’s Call
Jeremiah 1:4-10
August 22, 2010
Jim Whittaker
1 The Lord has Called You
The Lord has called you. You have been given a message from God. God is saying take my message to the world. Go! That might sound like the great commission to you, but it is actually Jeremiah’s call. His call makes us reflect on our own purpose for God in our life. Listen to Jeremiah’s call.
Before you were conceived or formed, I knew you.
Wow! One of the questions facing our modern world is when does life begin. God seems to be saying before conception.
Have you seen the commercial on TV where a new president is being sworn in and then they start reversing back in time. They show the young man growing up. They show the young couple getting married. They show the couple meeting. They show the father to be standing waiting for his train with is smart phone out when he sees the mother to be on the train. He quickly changes his travel plans with his smart phone, and the chance meeting occurs. When would God say he knew this future president to be? God would say right there in the train station before his parents had even met, he knew him.
God knows your situation. Do you believe that?
Listen to Psalm 139:
Lord, you know all about me. You know when I get up and go to bed. You know my thoughts. You know my ways, and even before I talk, you have heard my words.
This same God knew Jeremiah and put him on a mission. Do you believe this same God knows you enough, that he has entrusted you with a God given purpose in life?
Psalm 138:8 says, “The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me.”
I am going to let you in on a secret. Some of us aren’t necessarily happy with God’s purpose for us. That’s not the secret. You are not alone – that is the secret.
In Amos 7:14. King Amaziah said to Amos get away from me prophet. Amos replied don’t call me a prophet. I am a shepherd and a tender of sycamore trees. I am only here because God sent me and said give the King the Word from God.
In Jeremiah 20:7ff, Jeremiah says, “O Lord, you have over powered me and you have prevailed….the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long…..(and). I have become a laughingstock…everyone mocks me.”
Amos was just fine doing what he was doing. Watching sheep that’s what he liked doing. Jeremiah was given a job to do that he felt compelled by God to do and left to his own, he might just not do it. We find ourselves in that same situation. I was just fine racing sail boats and being a CPA. I had plenty of time to work on my own house, which is kind of a hobby for me. Now the word of God is my hobby. I am here because God said go! If God would cancel my call, I would run back to my house and build that front porch I have been wanting for 20 years, but….but, there is something burning in my bones. I cannot not tell God’s word.
How about you? That’s something to think about. God has called each one of us for this time and for this place and he knew us before we were born. He knows exactly who we are, what we are thinking, and what we are getting ready to say. God didn’t save you, redeem you, give you the hope of heaven, just so he could put you in his trophy case. God saved you to transform the world. God believes that God’s creation can be more .
You probably came here today thinking you were going to have a good service of worship, praise God, and go home, but God has a message for you today. Each one of you - You have been called. Black – you have been called. White – you have been called. Asian – you have been called. Female – you have been called. Male – you have been called. Young – you have been called. Old – you have been called. It is both a frightening and an awesome thing to know you have been called.
I am humbled to think that God would call me for this time and place. I have started to pray, “God change me into the person you have called me to be.”
God revealed to Jeremiah that he was to be a prophet. He was called.
Ephesians 4:1 says, “I beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.”
If you are saved, live like you are saved.
2. God Equips His Call
God knows our reluctance to go and do what God’s purpose is for our lives. Jeremiah does just what we do. Lord, I have a long list of excuses of why I can’t do your bidding. I am too busy. I don’t do much. I am too stressed. I am too bashful. I have never done that before. I have always done it this way. I am inexperience. I am too tired and worn out. Only men do that. Only women do that. I went to college. I didn’t go to college. You kind of get the picture. Which one do you use, when you feel God calling you?
I mean we are all guilty. Do we think God hasn’t heard all of this before? Moses said he couldn’t speak. So God gave him his brother as his mouthpiece. Moses said no one would believe him – a runaway Egyptian who became a shepherd, and in Exodus 4:13 some of Moses’ defining words of what it means to be human, “Lord please send somebody else.”
Isn’t that just how we are? Have you said those words before?
Jeremiah used I am too young as his excuse. In verse 6, he says I am only a boy. This means I do not have the experience. I do not have the wisdom. People will not respect me. People will not listen to me. These are the type of excuses Jeremiah gives God.
When God has determined your purpose, did you know he doesn’t accept no as an answer.
God told Jeremiah. I will give you your words. Do not be afraid, for those who will stand up against you, I will knock them down.
This brings us to a saying that I think is profound and true. “God does not call the equipped. God equips the called.” Romans 8:28 says, “for we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”
When we do not do as God has called us to do, we are not just fighting against our own self interests, we are fighting God himself! God says, Go and do what I have sent you to do. Go and speak the words I have given you for I will deliver you.
Now this is not a commandment that is do not so smart things that God is going to rescue us. Take Solomon and Delia and his haircut that took his strength. No what this is saying, that when we step out for God in God’s direction or God’s will, God is going to provide us the strength to make it through that trial.
Jeremiah is imprisoned. Jeremiah is thrown in the dungeon. Jeremiah is thrown into the well and left to die. Jeremiah is drug off to Egypt, which is just where he said God’s people shouldn’t go. Jeremiah buys land to show that there is a hope for God’s people to return to the land of Israel. He was then considered a friend of Babylon and a traitor. Jeremiah just couldn’t win. His nation and his people were against him. It was in hindsight that God’s people were able to say what Jeremiah said was right.
God told Jeremiah in 1:9, “the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the lord said to me, Now I have put my words in your mouth.” God equipped his call.
The key is this: God called, God equipped, and God provided. It is not to say that Jeremiah did not have bad days. He did. It is to say that even with the bad days, Jeremiah knew there was hope in God.
3. God’s Purpose – the place to live.
God not only equipped Jeremiah. He gave him the word. He told him I have appointed you to tell the nations. I will destroy or judge the nations and their peoples, but I will also plant a new garden, do a new thing. It is in Jeremiah that we hear of God’s new thing. It is in Jeremiah that we get much prophesy about one coming from the house of David to be a redeemer. Jeremiah while he announces judgment, he also gives a message of hope.
God’s purpose for Jeremiah seemed to put him in a hard place, an uncomfortable place, a distressing place all because of God’s word. But, God’s word is true. It’s true today just as in Jeremiah’s time.
Huckleberry Finn knew the feeling of having to choose between the easiest, most sensible course of action and that course which he knew to be correct. Huck was having a grand adventure with his friend Jim, the two of them sailing down the Mississippi river on a homemade raft. But one day Huck realized that Jim was a runaway slave and he knew that, according to the law, he ought to write to Jim's owner Miss Watson and inform her of Jim's whereabouts.
Huck did write that letter, and was prepared to mail it but then, he says, I "got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me ... But somehow I couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind. I'd see him standing my watch on top of his'n, stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping ... And he would alsways do everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was ... And then I happened to look around, and see that letter I'd wrote..
"It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: "All right then" and tore [the letter] up."
Huck Finn was driven to choose the difficult instead of the simple way of living, the uncommon instead of the ordinary, way of doing business. All because of his uncommon relationship with a friend. Because he decided that his feelings of respect and care he had for his friend Jim were stronger than the feelings of fear and trembling he had for the authorities of the land.
Source: Mark Twain, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" http://www.e-steeple.com/search.html
We are all loved by God. We are God’s beautiful creation. Yet, we have the tendency to ignore God, put God off, and not commit to living a life for God. We are just like a dog stuck in old habits.
We kept Laura’s basset hound last week-end. We gave him a treat bone, and had him on the concrete porch. He just kept going around whining. Dianna said what is up with the dog. I told her I thought that he wanted to bury his treat bone. I mean that is what dog’s do right. Before long, I found that he had yanked out one of our plants in a pot, turned the pot over, and took his nose and covered the bone with dirt on concrete. It’s hard to keep a dog from doing a dog’s way.
But, we have a redeemer. The Branch of David. Jeremiah says God is doing a new thing. Jeremiah 32:18 says God’s faithfulness will last for thousands of generations. God wants a relationship with us. God has called us to live into our God purpose yet we often too want to bury the dog bone when we are on concrete.
Jesus died to set us free so that we could live unto God. He then has called us to live like we are children of the God most high. Today, I am saying with no excuses – can you say that is where you are. God is right now wishing to equip you with just what you need to live out God’s purpose for you. You want to live a word for God. This is how you do it. God has called us to be God’s witnesses. We are either doing his will or we are not. If we are not, Jeremiah says there is a judgment. If we are following God’s will, Jeremiah says we have the hope of God’s eternal reign here on earth and in heaven.
Judgment. Hope.
I think I will choose hope.
Amen.
Sermon for August 15, 2010
The sermon titled, "If you see the devil hitchiking, do not pick him up, for he will want to drive the car before long" was lost during computer switchover. We hope to have this series back up next week. Pastor Jim
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