Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Just to let the rest of you know, we now have a new feature in our cafeteria. It's a salad bar. So just another new wrinkle and also new baked desserts. Last week we had cheesecake and it was. Oh, yeah, I'm telling you, there's some. You haven't been there in a while. You may want to recheck it out. There s a lot of things happening back there. All right. Just also to mention to you on th, April the 27th is. I see the registration is for the 23rd, but we have this Sunday and next Sunday. If you're new to our church and you've never had an opportunity to have dinner with the pastor, I want to invite you to come to that. It's where I share my own personal spiritual journey and share a little bit about the life of our congregation. And we also have an opportunity explain some of the ministries and how you can become more involved. If you're new to our church, this is a free meal for you. So to go to this on Thursday the 27th, you need to sign up at the guest reception area either this Sunday or next Sunday. How's that? Okay. Why don't we stand as we go to the Lord in prayer? I believe God's going to do something very special today. We had a great first service. I sensed it.
[00:01:19] God wants to do some healing today. There's some people here that you're heavy hearted, there's brokenness in your life. God wants to do a very powerful work today. If you open your hearts to it, God will do it. But we have to be open. We got to open our hearts to say, okay, God, I want to receive from you what you want to give to me. That's what I'm going to pray for today. If we will open our hearts, God will do it. So, Father, as we come in your presence today, we recognize, we're going to look at your word. This is your form of communicating with us. You want to say some things into our lives that will bring hope, help, and healing. We open our heart right now to you to receive what you want to do in our specific situation.
[00:02:04] Something powerful, unique from you, unique to our lives, unique to our situation.
[00:02:10] You want to set us free. You want to bring healing grace.
[00:02:16] Lord, I believe that you want to do an amazing work this morning.
[00:02:20] You are greater than all the forces of darkness.
[00:02:26] Your reach is beyond our understanding. And actually, you're declaring to us today that you are in our midst. Jesus, you are here. You are in our presence. We are in your presence. We pray right now that you would reveal yourself through word and spirit into our situation in Jesus name. And God's people said, amen. You may be seated.
[00:02:51] Now, I know we're in the month of April, but we just went past the month of March. Now, if you're a sports fan, March has a wonderful tournament called March Madness. Some of you may be acquainted with it. You say, what is it? It's a tournament where the top 64 us college basketball teams play each other down and they whittle down to have one national champion. And it's crazy. And I mean, every year people try to figure out who's going to win and there's all these upsets and people are being beaten by a last basket and all that kind of stuff, and it's a lot of fun. But to win a national championship takes a lot to repeat as a national championship. Well, that's very difficult. And yet, between 1964 and 1975, one team won ten of eleven national championships. That's amazing. When you think about it, these college students are graduating after four years and moving on. So obviously there was only one common denominator and that was the coach, John Wooden. The team was the UCLA Bruins. That's University of City of Los Angeles.
[00:04:07] Now, what made this so interesting was the secret to their consistency.
[00:04:14] Another very well known coach, Tony Dungey, first african american coach in the National Football League to ever win a Super bowl. He decided he wanted to understand why John Wooden's teams were so great.
[00:04:31] And he discovered something which in his mind paralleled his own philosophy of coaching, because both of these men were very devout followers of Jesus Christ. It's really neat. And this is what Tony Dungey wrote about Coach John Wood. And he said he didn't just coach teamwork and preparation and strategy. He coached character, attitude and ideals.
[00:05:00] I'm going to say something to you this morning. The most important thing in life is character.
[00:05:06] Next is attitude. We need to have God is working at shaping our character.
[00:05:14] I just spent the last year teaching the Book of first Corinthians. And at the end of that I basically raised a question at the beginning and I said, what is the true nature of spirituality? And we went through the entire Book of Corinthians. You know what the end it was that we have the right character.
[00:05:33] It's the fruit of the spirit. It's not the gifts, it's the fruit. And the fruit of the spirit is love. And that's why the book concludes with four word verse. Do everything in love.
[00:05:48] If you and I could live that alone, it would transform our lives, our families, our society. But we're seeing a lack of character, a lack of real love here. We're going to come to a place in the book of Jeremiah. We're back in Jeremiah, chapter 34. And what we're going to see is a contrast between God's faithfulness and those who rebel against him. And when you and I rebel against God, we become very inconsistent.
[00:06:20] I believe the true mark of a spiritually mature person is consistency. And a lot of people are very inconsistent. They're up and down. You know, when I was a brand new Christian, the best way to describe my christian walk was Yoyo Christian.
[00:06:34] Up, down, up, down. I'd have highs and lows, highs and lows, you know, like yoyos up and down. And some of you are smiling. And you either identify with that description or you're going, that's my life, pastor. I'm a Yoyo. I'm going up and down all the time. And I want you to mature. That's my prayer for you. I want you to grow. I want you to become a consistent person. I want you to become the person God designed you to be. But why do I want you to be that kind of a person? Because when you and I are living to bring glory to God, we will become more consistent in our relationship with him. So in this particular message from Jeremiah, sometime in the final year and a half of the last king that reigned as a monarch in Jerusalem, Zedekiah, they are now besieged by a babylonian army. God has been warning them, not just recently, but not just for decades. We're talking generation after generation of people who had been in rebellion against God, and God had been warning them, listen, if you keep carrying on like this, I'm going to take you into captivity. And now we're going to find out that he does. Because the people now have refused to listen. They've become so stubborn, hard hearted. They refuse to change and listen to what God is telling them, and they end up losing out. So when I was thinking about this verse, in evaluating that chapter, how does that apply to us? Well, in evaluating their unfaithfulness to God and his disciplinary response to them, the question that we need to evaluate in our lives is what God will address in our lives as we ultimately face him.
[00:08:24] It's very fascinating. A number of weeks ago, I was actually asked to teach in one of our home Bible groups. And the questions that they had, they gave me about a page and a half of questions, all had to do with what happens to you after you die physically. All about the afterlife, what's heaven like? And all these questions. One of the questions was, will we be judged? And I'm going to give you the brief answer that I gave them. Yes, we will all be judged.
[00:08:53] Now, if we're a believer in Jesus, we've trusted him with our salvation. We will not be judged for our sins, but we will be judged on how we lived our lives and what kind of a value did our lives bring to the people around us. And Paul brings this out in two corinthians, chapter five, verse ten. He said, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. Now, that word bad there, I added a little parentheses because I want you to understand it's not whether I did good things or I did sinful things. No, it's not that idea. The word bad there has got to do with value.
[00:09:37] It's whether I brought value into this world. I contributed something that's good.
[00:09:45] Not just I lived a life with really not a lot of value. It was all about me. And unfortunately, a lot of people get into that trap.
[00:09:57] We're living in a very affluent culture, and there's a lot of good things to do, and we're really easily distracted. And pretty soon it becomes about us and not about what we can really do. Because we were designed by God, not for ourselves and our enjoyment. That should be a byproduct. We are designed by God for him. And once we understand that, if we can make that shift over to that, it changes the whole equation in our life. Because I think most people are trying to be happy. Most people are trying to find some measure of satisfaction. But Jesus tells us, in the beatitudes, blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. How many think it's ironic that he uses the terms, you're hungry and you're thirsty in order to find satisfaction. It seems like, wouldn't it be full and I'd be satisfied? No, it's the opposite. So you and I have to hunger for the right things, and so often in this life, we're hungering for the wrong things, and then we're dissatisfied. You know what? I run into so many people. They're unhappy. They're dissatisfied. They never have enough. They're filled with ingratitude. There's very little thankfulness in their lives. And these are all negative things that help people to walk around being dissatisfied with themselves and with others. And with life. And God did not design it to be that way. And so here's the great irony or paradox. It's the very opposite of what we think. If any man was willing to lose his life for my sake, jesus said, he'll find it. But any man who tries to find his life will lose it. And so we have to be willing to kind of give up our great goals in life and say, God, what is your great goal for my life? And it changes the whole trajectory and direction of our lives.
[00:11:43] As a matter of fact, when we keep reading, if you think that, you know, making this idea up, that we have to have value in our lives, look what Paul says to the Corinthians in the first letter. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that's already been laid, which is Jesus Christ. In other words, you and I, once we come to Christ, once we become followers of Christ, once we have our sins forgiven, that's a foundation. Then our lives are like a house we're building on top of this foundation called Jesus. And then he talks about how we build. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, he's naming ingredients, building material. Notice some of these ingredients are perishable, especially by fire. It says their work will be shown for what it is. Because the day, anytime you read that word, the day, it's the day of judgment, will bring it to light. It will reveal by fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person's work.
[00:12:41] So you and I need to understand one thing. Every one of us in this room is going to stand before almighty God, and we're all going to be either judged for our sins because we haven't trusted Christ, or we're going to be judged not for our sins, because Jesus took that penalty for us, but we will be judged by the kind of life we led. That's an important question. And he says here, we will be evaluated based on things like motivation. You can do the right things for the wrong reasons. That's like building with wood. The fire hits that, boom, it's gone. So God sees why we're doing what we're doing, and you go, well, yeah, but a lot of our lives is probably a little bit of mixed motivation.
[00:13:25] So God wants to test our lives. And so when we read the Bible, a lot of times we read words like, though your faith is tried by fire, or we read in revelations, your life should be like gold tested by fire. So when we have these challenges in our lives, they're actually a benefit to us. And we don't realize it at the time because fire is coming against us and it's showing us the kind of person we are. And if we're struggling with the testings in our life, it's because there's something lacking inside of us and it should give us a signal. Hey, when your car lights go on in your dash, you probably need to get something done to your car, and if you ignore it, you're going to have bigger problems later. And I think that's true with the trials of our lives. When we're struggling in our trials, maybe these are indicator lights that there's something maybe further down and deeper that needs to be addressed in our soul. It says, if what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burnt up, the builder will suffer loss, but yet will be saved, even though only as one escaping through the flames. In other words, when we get to heaven, we won't have a lot to show for our lives. We'll realize I lived for all the wrong reasons. I had all the wrong goals, I had all the wrong aspirations, and that's why my life wasn't what it was designed by God to ultimately be. And then there are people who have given their lives fully, wholeheartedly to God. Listen, you'll never regret that decision. I was just reading in the book of Joshua this morning, Caleb, he's turned 85 now, and he said, hey, God says to his friend Joshua, he says, you know, when Moses was around, he told me I could take on this land with all these giants. He says, I'm 85 and I'm as strong now as I was when I was 40. I want to go in and get my inheritance. Isn't that an amazing statement? He was willing to take on a great challenge as he got older, and I wrote a whole bunch of notes in my journal. It says, when you are older, God still has a big job for you to do.
[00:15:23] A lot of older people are shrinking back and they should be stepping up.
[00:15:28] It's just a thought. I didn't even say that in the first service. So maybe this applies to somebody in the second service. I don't know. But let me move on to chapter 34 of the book of Jeremiah, because we're going to see certain aspects of this coming judgment upon the nation and their heart and hearts. But we have to keep in mind there's lessons we're going to learn about how we're going to be evaluated by God in the future. So let's take a look at the three aspects of God's coming judgment. And the first one is that God always tempers his judgment with mercy. How many are going? Thank you, Lord. Thank God for the mercy of God. As a matter of fact, you and I don't deserve God's mercy.
[00:16:05] We don't earn it, we don't deserve it, but God gives it to us.
[00:16:10] I love the book of lamentation when it says there are new mercies every morning. Great is your faithfulness. I go, Lord, I love the fact that you are merciful, God, because I need mercy. Anybody here besides me need mercy? Any people need mercy? Every hand should be up, Lord. And I get up in the morning, I go, thank God there's new mercies for us today.
[00:16:31] I'm ready to receive those new mercies. That's how I think in my mind. I get up and I go, good new mercies are available to me today.
[00:16:41] That changes your whole orientation about your day. I'm looking for the mercies. See, some of you are going, okay, whatever. Pastor, now we need to realize that even though Jesus took our sin upon the cross and we're not being judged for our sins, that doesn't mean that we just walk around living as if I got to get out of jail card free from monopoly, right? You can't just sit this in your pocket and go and get out of jail free. No, it doesn't work that way. Listen to what it says in Romans. God will repay each person according to what they have done. So God's paying attention to what we're doing or not doing. To those who persist in doing good, they seek glory, honor and immortality. He's going to give eternal life. But those who are self seeking, who reject the truth and follow evil, there's going to be wrath and anger. So he's basically describing two ways of living. Those that are seeking to do good, those that are doing things that aren't good, and we're going to get into trouble based on the direction we're going. And I keep trying to remind us there's only two roads in life. Narrow road, broad road, road that leads to eternal life, road that leads to destruction. Which road are we traveling? I always say it's important to find the direction we're going. If we're moving towards God, we're moving in that narrow way. There's not a ton of people on it. That's okay. We just need to try to encourage everybody that's on it. Keep going, it gets better and it's the truth.
[00:18:11] So after repeatedly warning these people about their sin. God now is finally going to step up and do something. But we see it's tempered with mercy.
[00:18:21] Chapters 29 to 33, we saw that God said, it's only going to last 70 years. Number two, I'm going to bring you back to the promised land. Number three, I'm going to bless you even while you're in captivity. How many go? That's all mercy. That's judgment tempered with mercy.
[00:18:36] I like what Tremper Longman, he's explaining maybe a little bit about the relationship that Jeremiah has with the people and with the king. And this seems to be a public ministry and a private ministry. Jeremiah is preaching repentance and surrender to Babylon because Babylon is God's instrument of judgment. And thus he's seen as someone who's probably collaborated with the enemy and a danger to the king and society. That's his status now in his culture. How many go? Not a popular guy, right? Anybody know he's not running for prime minister? He probably wouldn't make it. An interesting aspect of these stories is the nature of the private conversation between Jeremiah and Zedekiah. Publicly, Jeremiah boldly announces the message of judgment that God gave him. Privately, he begged Zedekiah to better his conditions. And we read that story. He's saying, hey, listen, I don't even deserve to be incarcerated. These guys want to kill me. And so the king said, okay, we won't let you get killed. Publicly. Zedekiah, the king's rejecting the projection of doom that Jeremiah has preached, and he's treating him as if he's not the true Prophet of God. Why do I say that? Because he's not listening to him. Right? He's not obeying him.
[00:19:50] Privately, though, he's seeking him out and asking him to pray for him. And I need a word from God, from you. How many sense that Zedekai is a little bit inconsistent? Anybody see that? Actually, he's weak willed. He's letting the pressures of the nobility push him into this rebellion against Babylon. He's not able to stand up to people. He's kind of like the Guy that puts his finger in the wind and goes, which direction is it blowing? And whichever direction that wind seems to be blowing, he's moving towards it. He's not really a very decisive person. He's not a very strong leader.
[00:20:25] Now let's look at the text that begins this private message to the king. And it begins the first seven verses. While NeBuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and all his army and all the kingdoms and peoples in the empire he rule were fighting against Jerusalem and all of its surrounding towns. This word came to Jeremiah from the Lord. Let's take a pause there and say this. This is not Jeremiah's idea. This is God's word to the king. We got to start thinking differently. God is speaking here. Are we going to hear him? This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. Go to Zedekiah, king of Judah, and tell him this is what the Lord says. I'm about to give the city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he'll burn it down. Now, you have to understand, they had already been conquered by Babylon. They were a vassal kingdom. They had already had some people taken into captivity. He had set up Zedekiah as a puppet king under his leadership, under the babylonian leadership, but now he's rebelling against them.
[00:21:19] So this person is showing a real lack of consistency in his life. You will not escape from his grasp, but will surely be captured and given into his hands. You will see the king of BAbylon with your own eyes, and he will speak to you face to face. And you will go to Babylon. Oh, when you read more of the story, you'll find out what he did do is he did meet the king face to face. The king slaughtered all of his sons in front of him and then had his eyes burnt out. That was the last thing he ever saw, was the death of his son. So he could never forget what his treachery cost him. Pretty powerful stuff. But he didn't kill him, he says, yet here the lord's promise to you, Zedekai, king of Judah. This is what the lord says concerning you. You will not die by the sword. He wasn't executed. You will die peacefully, as people make a funeral fire and honor of your predecessors as the kings who rule before you. So they will make a fire in your honor and lament. Alas, master, and I myself make this promise, declares the Lord. And then Jeremiah told the prophet, told all this to Zedekiah, king of Judah and Jerusalem. While the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah that were still holding out Lakesh and Nazika, these were the only fortified cities in Judah. Well, this is a pretty terrible situation to be in. Your land is being invaded. You've only got two other cities as holding out against the Babylonians. For how long? Who knows? And you got Jerusalem holding.
[00:22:44] You know, why in the world was Zedekiah so obstinate and not surrender? And Jeremiah keeps telling me, if you'll surrender now, you'll be spared if you surrender now. You'll be spared if you surrender now. He just doesn't listen.
[00:22:57] Maybe the idea is that he was saying to himself, well, you know, earlier in Israel's history, King Hezekiah resisted the assyrian army. So he's got that in his back of his mind. Maybe, but he's not the same person as king Hezekiah. Hezekiah is different because, number one, he humbled himself before God. Number two, Isaiah, the prophet spoke into Hezekiah's life and said, God will deliver you.
[00:23:23] What's different is Hezekiah is rebelling against God. He's got God's prophet telling him to surrender to the king. It's a totally different scenario. You can't compare the apples to the oranges here. It's not the same situation.
[00:23:36] And he certainly wasn't as strong willed as Fb. Huey says, as his predecessor, Jehoiakim. He revealed his weak character when he claimed that he could not prevent Jeremiah's arrest. Isn't that amazing? He's the king, but he lets Jeremiah get thrown into the pit.
[00:23:53] He confesses fear for his own people if he surrenders to the enemy. He says to Jeremiah, hey, if I surrender, they're going to kill us all. Jeremiah says, no, they're not. God will protect you. Zedekai's decisiveness costs him his throne and brings about Jerusalem's destruction. So he's allowing the pressure of certain people who are pro egyptian in his cabinet, these nobles, to push him against God's purposes for his life. Isn't it amazing how often we let people to pressure us not to do what God wants us to do? It happens. Let me move on to the second concern, the second aspect of God's coming judgment. It's determined by our consistency in relating to those who need our help. Here's what we're going to learn a little lesson now. God's evaluating your life and my life by how we treat others.
[00:24:46] You see, it's easy to say, oh, I love God. Sure, he's invisible, he's in heaven, you know what I mean? It's easy to say you love somebody you don't see, and he's not really necessarily bugging you, you know what I mean? We don't notice he's bugging us. He could be, but we don't notice it. We're just ignoring him. It's easy to do that. It's a little bit harder to say, I love a person who's annoying.
[00:25:10] How many say that's true? And how about the people that need us, usually we go, I got to go do this for this person.
[00:25:19] God's telling us he's going to determine our standing with him based on how we treat the oppressed, the marginalized, the weak, the forgotten, the forsaken. We're reminded in the parable that Jesus told of the sheep, and the said, you know, remember that? He said, those that care for the sick, those that visit those in prison, those that feed and clothe the strangers. What does Jesus say you're ministering to know? When did we see you, Jesus sick? When you went to visit the least of these, my brothers, when they were sick. So when we minister to people who are in need, we're actually ministering to Jesus.
[00:25:59] So, you know, what you need to do is see the person you're ministering to, not as, oh, I got to minister to this person. I just feel like it's such a draining experience.
[00:26:07] Let me ask you a question. If you saw that person as Jesus, would you have any problem ministering to them?
[00:26:13] I don't think so. I had a little epiphany one day. We had this years ago. We did this in from the cold, had all these homeless people over at the warehouse over there, and we took on shifts, and I took the midnight shift so I could get up in the morning with them. I stayed awake all night. You got to watch them. So I'm up with these guys, and some are talking to you. And then eventually it was breakfast time, and I'm fixing breakfast for these guys, and I'm looking at these people, and I'm saying, I'm cooking this omelet for Jesus. This one's for Jesus. This one's for Jesus. I had such joy. I felt like I was cooking for Jesus all morning long. It was awesome. What a great experience. You see, it has a lot to do with how we see people. If you see people as, oh, this is taking away my precious little cherished time, or do I see it as, this is an opportunity to minister to Jesus, changes your whole focus and how you're going to go about doing ministry now. We're going to see how they relate to people in slavery. Now, I have to point out something about first century slavery. When we think of slavery, we always think about people who are being oppressed. It's racial, it's discriminatory. Well, people can be discriminated in a situation of slavery, but in the ancient world, there were two types of slaves, those that were conquered in war, but the other group were from within their own ethnic group background. And it was true of the hebrew people that some people who needed financial assistance couldn't make it anymore. They sold themselves into slavery so they could be cared for. And there was a humane law that was created by moses that in the 7th year of service they were to be released and given all kinds of good things so they could make it in life. Okay, so let's take a look at these verses. What happens in the book of jeremiah. This is an example of why God brought him into captivity. The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekai had made a covenant, key word, covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for the slaves. EverYone was to free their hebrew slave, both male and female. No one was to hold a fellow hebrew in bondage. So all the officials and people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their male and female slaves and no longer hold them into bondage. They agreed and they set them free. Now let's go to the old TeSTAmENt to see what we're talking about here. If any one of your people, hebrew men or women, sell themselves to you and serve you six years, in the 7th year, you must let them go free. That was the law. And when you released them, do not send them away empty handed. Why? Because they came to you empty handed. It says, supply them liberally from your flock, your threshing floor and your wine press. Give to them as the lord your God has blessed you. In other words, do what you can, give as much as you can and send them on their way. Everybody catch this.
[00:29:04] Well, remember now, here's the reason why you need to DO this. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the lord your God redeemed you. That is why I give you this command today.
[00:29:16] So you know what these hebrew people did? They didn't obey the law. They were just constantly bringing people into slavery and they would leave them in slavery forever.
[00:29:27] It was being TotALLY disregarded. People were being enslaved without provision for their release. And this was just one of a myriad of transgressions of the nation of Judah that they were guilty of. This is the example that God is showing us here.
[00:29:43] So now they were doing the right thing. Isn't this GReat? They're finally obeying after centuries of disobeying. Why?
[00:29:51] Why the change of, you know, some of these commentators are a little suspicious of this behavior. And you have to think about, know, John Thompson says it may have been a matter of convenience since the slaves had to be fed and could no longer be used for work in the fields. Well, think about, they're surrounded by an enemy. There's less food in the city, so now they're going, we're not responsible for you. So it may have looked good, but it may not have been as good. Maybe this was more a fiscal liability rather than a benefit. So it was like really easy to release their slaves. How many know it's always easy to serve God when it benefits us, but what about when it's challenging and costly to us? That's when you know you're really following God. Are we consistent in our lives and service to God and others? And how often in crisis do people negotiate with God and bargain? God, if you can only get me out of this mess, I'll do this. God gets us out of the mess, and we don't do what we said we're going to do, how many people do that goes right out of our mind. You know, if God will do this for me, I'll do that. And then God does this, and we forget to do that.
[00:30:58] Maybe they were negotiating with God and bargaining with God. God, if you'll heal me, I'll serve you the rest of my life. God heals.
[00:31:05] Thank you very much. I'm on my way now.
[00:31:07] Don't you think people do that all the time?
[00:31:12] Jeremiah 30 411 says, but afterwards they changed their minds and took back the slaves they had freed, and then they enslaved them again. So why would they do that? R. K. Harrison says, well, there's a little historical fact you need to know that might help you understand the story. And he tells us that the king of Egypt or the king of Judah in Egypt made an alliance, and the king of Egypt sent an army to fight the Babylonians. So let's find out what happens. The egyptian army is marching to relieve Jerusalem, and these tidings caused the Babylonians to lift the siege temporarily to regroup and attack the advancing Egyptians. All of a sudden, the army's gone.
[00:31:52] This distressingly short respite may have seemed little short of miraculous to the beleaguered citizens of Jerusalem. And to some slave owners were so convinced that the danger was now past that they promptly revoked their earlier promises to the slaves, and they took them back forcibly into solitude. This act of perfidy, which means deceitfulness and untrustworthiness, violated the ancient hebrew law of release. This is just another evidence of how ingenuous these people really were. But let me move on to the final aspect here, the consequence of an inconsistent and unrepentant heart.
[00:32:36] What happens when our actions, as I said, are not sincere and they're inauthentic.
[00:32:44] There's no evidence of a change of life. We need to be reminded that God is calling us to be faithful, and it speaks to us of this issue of consistency.
[00:32:55] I love that verse. Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. I'm quoting one corinthians 1558. God is calling us to be steadfast.
[00:33:10] There's something about consistency. How many say that's important?
[00:33:14] How many here? You like going to a certain restaurant and you go, yeah, I like going there because the food is consistent, or I like to go to this place because I know what I'm getting. It's consistent. How many are disappointed when you expect something and it's inconsistent and you get something totally different? You're not happy with that? Well, God feels the same way about our lives. How consistent are we? In essence, when they did this, they were actually making God's name. They were taking it in vain. A lot of times we think of taking the Lord's name in vain as cussing or swearing. Right. But I think there's far more grievous ways we take the Lord's name in vain. Let's take a look at these covenant obligations. They're now violated. They're broken.
[00:33:59] Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, verse twelve. This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. And I said, every 7th year, each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served six years, you must let them go free. I've already quoted that from deuteronomy. Your ancestors, however, did not listen to me or pay attention to me. Those are very strong words. Listening and paying attention means obeying. That's what he's saying. They're not doing what I'm asking. He says, recently you repented and you did what was right in my sight. Each of you proclaim freedom to your own people. You even made a covenant before me in the house that bears my name. How many think this is pretty big stuff, king all the people gathered together, they said, God, we're sorry, we're going to release our slaves. God says, great, that's a good thing. They're released. But now he says, you've turned around and you've profaned my name.
[00:34:59] In other words, you've made light of your vow.
[00:35:03] Do we ever do that? Make light of our vow? We promise.
[00:35:08] I take this woman, I take this man. We make light of these things, and when we break it, we're profaneing the name of God.
[00:35:18] Okay, now I'm really into trouble, but can you? Everybody's catching on now. I can see what's happening here. Each of you is taken back, the male and female slaves you set free to go where they wished. You have forced them to become your slaves again. To break a solemn agreement between human partners, tremper Longman says was bad enough. But that agreement was made in a sacred space. It makes it so much worse.
[00:35:42] So what's the result of playing fast and loose with God? What are the consequences of lying to ourselves and others and dragging God into the equation? And it becomes deceptive, untrustworthy.
[00:35:56] What's the situation? Well, I was reading the other day these verses in proverbs. I love proverbs. Those who are godly hate lies. The wicked come to shame and disgrace.
[00:36:07] Godliness helps people all through life. How many say that's true? You. If you're a godly person, you're going to be helped all through life while the evil are destroyed by their wickedness. Strong language. What are the consequences of covenant violation? Let's keep reading. Therefore, this is what the Lord says. You have not obeyed me. You've not proclaimed freedom to your own people. So now I proclaim freedom for you, declares the Lord. Freedom to fall by the sword. Plague and famine. Boy, how many want that kind of freedom? I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth. So what God is really saying here, and see, it's not just pulled out of the blue. He's actually taking from the mosaic law. Remember, when you're reading the curses and the blessings, if you obey me, God says all these blessings will happen if you disobey me. Here's the curses. This is what the curses are. Sword, plague and famine. Those are just three of them.
[00:37:06] He's just saying, you agreed to this, now you've broken it. This is the end result. This is the consequence of it. Basically, he's saying it's death.
[00:37:16] And Paul summarizes it in the book of Romans, the wages of sin is death. Jeremiah goes on to say, those who have violated my covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they have made before me, I will treat like the calf. They cut two and then walk between its pieces. That's an interesting.
[00:37:36] Know the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests, and all the people of land who walked between the pieces of the calf. How many are going, this is really strange language, pastor. I know. I'm going to explain it to you. I will deliver into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals. Let me explain to you what he's talking about. See, in the ancient world, when they made a covenant, they took a calf. They cut it in half. They put it on both sides. And the two parties agreeing to the covenant. Would walk between the calves. And why would they do that? They would be saying, this is my responsibility in this covenant. And if I don't fulfill them, may I be like this calf, dead.
[00:38:22] Is that pretty severe?
[00:38:24] These are pretty severe elements. Now, let's go back into time if you think this isn't true. Look at what God did with Abram.
[00:38:34] Genesis. So the Lord said to him, bring me. God is going to make a covenant with Abram. Watch what God says. Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon. And Abram brought all of these to him. He cut them in two. And he arranged the halves opposite each other. The birds, however, he did not cut in half. The birds of prey came down on the carcasses. But Abram drove them away. As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep. And a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.
[00:39:06] And when the sun had set and darkness had fallen. A smoking firepot and a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.
[00:39:15] You ever read this passage? What's going on here? You know what's going on.
[00:39:20] That smoking firepot and blazing torch. Appearing between the two pieces is a picture of God. You say, how do you know that, pastor? Because the Bible says our God is a consuming fire. God made a covenant. It says, with Abram. It says, on that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram. God walked between the Dadic carcasses. What was God saying? If I don't do what I promised to you, may I die now. Listen, God. It's amazing to me. God fulfilled the promise. What were the two things that he told Abraham in chapter 15? One, he said, you would inherit the land that I've given that you're wandering in. I'm going to give to you. That was the land of Canaan number two. Your descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky. God did both those things. What's fascinating to me, Abraham didn't even walk through that. He was sleeping. So God made a promise and said, I'm going to swear by myself to do this thing. And actually the book of Hebrews picks up on that. So Abraham was promised something by God and God delivered. How many think it's amazing when God promises he can deliver? I love that about God. Now, when we look at the old covenant, what happened is the people violated their part. And really, when you and I are thinking about it, we were created by God. And in a sense, we violate this covenant, even of the covenant of creation that God made for us and the purposes of God. But what does God do? Instead of us dying? He dies.
[00:40:52] He dies in our place, because the wages of sin is always death. And so he comes and dies for us. In verse 18, Robert Davidson points out, we are given an interesting glimpse into a part of a ritual involved in entering into a covenant. A calf was cut in half, and the contracting parties to the covenant walked together between the severed halves laid out on the ground. In doing so, they were invoking a curse upon themselves. If ever they violated the terms of this covenant, may the fate of the animal be our fate. That's what's going on there. Walter Brugerman drives home the sense of Jeremiah's message. He said, reneging on the covenant and the consequent practicing economic exploitation.
[00:41:35] They were taking advantage of people economically. They were oppressing their own people, evoked the invasion of Babylon.
[00:41:43] Internal disorder invites external threat which implements God's sovereign rule. Now, what is he saying? He's saying because their inner lives, the nation's internal situation was so bad, God allowed an external pressure to come against them. I'm going to say it this way for us, though. When you and I have internal issues that are not resolved, we have external problems coming at us. There's something inside that needs to be addressed. You know, a lot of us, we look at problems today and we think it's external to us, when in reality the problem is deeper, it's within us. God wants to address the internal stuff, and we're going to get to that in a moment. The first step towards death is internal economic disorder that pits the haves against the have nots. We're seeing that the rich people were exploiting their poor people and they were bringing them into slavery and never releasing them. The reference to the exodus in verse 13 is a reminder that God's initial act of rescue was a gesture of liberation in which the slaves of Egypt were rescued from their economic plight of helplessness. Remember, they were being exploited to build cities for pharaoh. Israel is expected to continue to reenact that miracle of a new economic beginnings in its own ordering of social life. What is he saying? He's saying that when it fails to hear the word, remember the Shema hero Israel. Shema is the word hear. But when the hebrew word hear means, it doesn't just mean listen. It means obey. Obey. When it no longer remembers its rootage or its historical destiny, it becomes vulnerable to the exploitation of more powerful halves. Babylon at this point was a world power. That's why God allowed them to be subsumed by Babylon, because of their exploitation of their own poor. Now, so what does this have to do with us? Pastor? It's real simple.
[00:43:43] God wants us to treat people like he treats us.
[00:43:47] That's what he told them. He said, I rescued you out of slavery. You need to rescue these people.
[00:43:54] You and I need to treat people like God treats people. And I put accept in the area of retribution for evil. Because most of us, we have a hard time judging evil correctly.
[00:44:07] Usually when somebody hurts us, we want to do more damage to them than what's been done to us. It takes a lot of maturity to judge correctly how many say that's true? And yet, listen to me very carefully. God wants you to develop and me to develop to a high degree of consistency, so that one day in eternity, you know what we're going to be doing? We're going to be judging angels.
[00:44:28] Wow, that's amazing to me. How many think that's. It actually says that in the Bible. Paul says that to the corinthians, you'll be judging angels. So we need to grow up. We need to stop being so inconsistent. We need to mature. We have a big responsibility upcoming. We need to be able to handle that kind of a job. Here's the pronouncement of judgment. I will deliver Zedekai, king of Judah, and his officials, into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them. To the army of the king of Babylon, which has withdrawn from you. ListEN, he's coming back. Do you know if they would have obeyed God, God could have kept that army away. How many say that's, you know. But I'm going to give the order, declares the Lord. I will bring them back to the CitY. They will fight against it, take it and burn it down. And I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there. Wow, that's pretty strong stuff. SO what is the cost of an inconsistent life? For JudaH, it was death, famine, plague and captivity.
[00:45:25] They were disciplined. AnD out of that discipline, it brought about repentance. And out of that repentance, there was a restoration of relationship with God. And God brought them back to the land. God restored them. Isn't that amazing? So when you and I get serious about something, that means I want to address what's wrong. God says, hey, I'm willing to address it. Help you, empower you and restore you. I love that about God. That shows me how merciful God really is. But what we See is that we need to get serious about our relationship with God. How many say that's true? And how many can see? Right now, it's not just about me receiving forgiveness of sins. It's about me and you understanding that we have a responsibility to serve God wholeheartedly. DOes EVerYbody catch on? And God is evaluating how we're serving him. And so I'm going to close with a few verses of scripTure, and I'm going to go back to proverbs. Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Step one. What's the condition of my heart? Now you say, what is the heart, pastor, in the hebrew, thinking, it's the essence of your personality. It's who you really are. We'd call it your will, your emotions, your mind, your decision making, all of that stuff. It's who you are. And then he says this. So I'm called to guard my heart.
[00:46:48] But how do we begin to do that? How do we really guard our heart? Because a lot of times we're easily deceived. Isn't that true? And a lot of times, we let our emotions get the best of us and we don't do what we know we should do, and we end up doing the wrong thing. Well, then I say, let's go to the next verse. My son or my daughter, give me your heart and let your eyes delight in my ways. So what we need to do is come back to God and say, okay, God, I'm struggling. I'm a mess.
[00:47:17] As a matter of fact, the biggest problem we have in our life is that we're wounded and broken on the inside.
[00:47:24] We're not integrated.
[00:47:26] We're fragmented. I could probably say a lot of people in this room. Now you're saying, I've lived a fragmented life. I'm not who you think I am, pastor. There's brokenness in my life. I'm not integrated. I'm not whole. You following this? But listen to this prayer of the psalmist. Give me an undivided know that I might fear your name. In other words, unite my heart. King James says, unite my heart. Bring my heart together. Bring the fragmentation back. Help me to become integrated. Help me to become united.
[00:47:57] You see the word integrated and integrity, same word. God wants to create integrity. He wants us to become whole. He wants us to become authentic, sincere, real. He wants us to get to that place that what you're seeing is what we are. There's no duplicity. We're not disingenuous about our service towards God.
[00:48:20] I like what James tells us when we're praying for wisdom. Listen. What he says about the heart, he says, but when you ask, you must believe and not doubt. Because the one who doubts is like the wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is what?
[00:48:39] They're double minded, but, you know, double minded, that's the same thing with heart, you see, it's the same idea. You're unstable in all you do. So something has to happen on the inside. It's an inner work.
[00:48:52] We all want to see change in people's life on the outside. No, it's never going to happen there. How it has to begin is on the inside. I'm going to have a stand and we're going to close in prayer and I'm going to have us bow our heads right now. Because I believe this morning we need to be reminded, first of all, we need to be reminded that if we haven't received Christ as our savior and let him be our substitute for our sins, we will be judged for our sins.
[00:49:19] No one's going to be able to handle that. Okay? So if you've never done that, you want to say, okay, I want your forgiveness, God, I want to accept the sacrifice of Jesus for my sin. I want to do that right now.
[00:49:33] But this isn't stopping there. See, I think a lot of times as christians, you go, oh, good, I've got my life insurance eternal policy. I've got the Jesus eternal policy.
[00:49:43] I can do what I want. After that, I go, no, you can't. We're all going to be judged.
[00:49:49] And some in this room, you're just busy doing your own thing. And you know what? God's going to judge you one day. He's going to say, what kind of a life did you live?
[00:49:56] Was it good or was it without value?
[00:50:00] You're not here for you.
[00:50:03] The moment you come into this relationship with Jesus, you're in a covenant. Now, you know what's funny? The word in Hebrew for covenant is Barith and it means to cut.
[00:50:14] That's why those cows were cut in half.
[00:50:19] We're cutting a says no no, you're going to serve on my terms. He's the stronger of the partners. We have to come on his terms.
[00:50:29] Mark knows this from our classes, the covenant. The stronger person set the terms.
[00:50:37] The weaker partner had to serve the stronger partner. But the stronger partner says, I'll take care of you.
[00:50:44] Isn't that kind of the deal we cut with God? God says, I'll forgive you, I'll take care of you, I'll provide for you, I'll do all these things, but you're serving on my terms. Too many Christians are acting as if they're serving God on their terms.
[00:50:58] Big problem. That's why you're so broken.
[00:51:01] If you think about it, go back to what I said in the beatitudes, they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, they'll be satisfied.
[00:51:11] We need to come to God wholeheartedly, not half heartedly.
[00:51:16] But some of you are saying, pastor, I'm so broken on the inside.
[00:51:20] God wants to heal you today. He wants to integrate that brokenness right now.
[00:51:25] How many here with all your eyes closed for a minute? You're saying, you know what, on the inside, pastor, I'm broken, I'm fragmented. Just raise your hand, be honest, just keep them up there. We're going to pray right now. I'm broken on the inside. You know what? God wants to heal you. God wants to heal you today. He wants to integrate that brokenness in your soul. He wants to bring it back into wholeness. He wants you to be whole.
[00:51:49] He wants to heal you. And what am I saying to you?
[00:51:54] You have to surrender your life to God completely.
[00:52:00] You have to follow him where he takes you. See, my last sentence I put on the slide. Let us surrender our hearts to our God that we may live a consistent christian life.
[00:52:10] The end of being a yoyo, the end of doing my thing and then God's thing and then bargaining and negotiating. That's all gone out the window. No, today it's flat out. Here's my life.
[00:52:21] You designed me for a purpose, I'm going to live in it. I'm going to let that healing come into my broken places, this restoration in my life. I'm not going to play any more games of God. You know when you're struggling, sometimes my emotions are wrong.
[00:52:38] My emotions are wrong. Sometimes I don't want to do this, but yet I know, no, I need to do that. That's the right thing to do. Yeah, but I don't feel like doing it. It doesn't matter. You got to talk to yourself. I don't really care how you feel. You're just going to do the right thing because I'm not going to act out of how I feel. I'm going to act out of who I am. I'm God's son.
[00:52:59] I'm accepted, I'm loved, I'm forgiven, I'm empowered by God.
[00:53:05] And so, Father, today, as we're standing in your presence right now, you're in our midst right now. Your spirit is working in our hearts. You're speaking into our souls. You're mending those broken places of our lives, Lord, and all the things that we do to try to somehow derive satisfaction and some sort of, have some sort of an emotional sense of well being, Lord, you're the healer.
[00:53:26] When we give ourselves fully to you, when we pursue your purposes, when we hunger and thirst for what is right, Lord, you satisfy us. You are my satisfaction. You become my desire. You are my delight.
[00:53:43] And I pray right now that will happen right across this room. People listening to me right now. You're bringing healing into the broken places of their souls. You're the healer. This is the greatest healing you can do. It's internally just woundedness, the broken, fractured nature of sin inside of us, Lord. But now you've imparted to us a new nature, a divine nature, your nature. And you're asking us to treat people like you treat people, forgiving them, loving them, caring for them, serving them, listening to them, caring all these beautiful things that you do for us.
[00:54:25] You're releasing us to do that for others. And you're evaluating, are we doing it or not? And I just thank you for this work of grace, that incorporating in our hearts right now.
[00:54:37] In Jesus name, amen. God bless you. As you leave this morning.
