Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Christmas Eve is not Friday, it's Saturday. Okay? So I don't want you to come on Friday because there won't be anybody here for the services.
[00:00:11] But there'll be three on Saturday. And then on Christmas Day, which happens to fall on a Sunday, we will have a 10 o' clock, one service only. All right, so everybody follow that. You want to jot that down. And then New Year's Day, I'll just give you a little bit of what's coming up. New Year's Day, there'll be two morning services like we regularly have.
[00:00:30] But in the evening, rather than having an evening service, we're going to have a community building night where we're going to get together because we're going to put ice behind the building. We're going to have a skate time together. If you want to go ice skating. We're going to have a little barbecue, hot dogs, we're going to have board games. We're going to have a potluck between four and seven o'clock on New Year's Day, which is a Sunday. Okay. Gives you a little idea of some of the things we'll be doing together in the weeks to come.
[00:00:57] Also, we want to mention that one of our longtime people in our church, family, Frances Lato, went to be with the lord. She was 95 years old.
[00:01:07] And Frances, what a great lady. You know, she was teaching in our church until she was 93 and teaching women in our congregation. So just a fantastic lady. And if you know Frances, she was a lady, always came wearing a hat.
[00:01:23] Anybody know that about her? And she had a great sense of humor. And so she said, I don't want a funeral service. I want a commemorative tea where everybody, the ladies, you have to wear a hat. And that will be sometime in the spring. They'll give us, the family will give us the date per her request. So we're going to honor that as well. We're going to have you stand this morning as we go to the Lord in prayer.
[00:01:45] And I'm just so excited this morning. You ever wake up in the morning and I've been listening to a series of lectures on religion, philosophy and the meaning of life. And after listening to 36 half hour lectures, I realized this person is still trying to find the meaning to life. And I was thinking to myself, you know, how sad it is and all these different philosophers. When you get to know the Lord personally, you've discovered the meaning to life.
[00:02:11] And just living for him brings so much meaning. And I was thinking about that text of Scripture, Jesus said, man shall not live by bread alone.
[00:02:20] In other words, we cannot just be sustained what the material world provides for us. It's not enough how many recognize it's empty.
[00:02:28] There's got to be more to life than this. And I want to just say to you, there is, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, I believe God's word actually brings life and hope and strength and vitality into our lives, brings meaning, and that's what's so exciting. So let's pray today that we would hear the voice of God. You know, we were having so much fun this morning. I meet with men for about an hour before the service, and we were just praying for an open heaven. We were praying that God's spirit would come and we'd have an encounter with God and that you would feel like Jacob waking up from asleep and saying to yourself, my, this has to be Bethel, because I can see angels ascending and descending from this location. Wouldn't that be awesome? Wouldn't that be great? I believe God wants to touch us in that way this morning. So, Father, I pray today that you would open our hearts, that there would be an open heaven, that your spirit would invade our innermost being, that you would strengthen us by your spirit in our innermost being, Father, that we would hear your voice today. Not a preacher's voice, but the voice of God speaking into our inner being. Exactly what we need to hear this morning. That you would strengthen us, that you would empower us, that you would encourage us, that we would leave this place knowing that we've heard your voice, Father. That. That you would actually, at times, convict and correct us, Lord, and warn us of things that possibly could derail our vitality, our spiritual vitality, even our knowledge of who you are. I pray, Father, that we would walk in humility, in wisdom, in obedience, Father, so that your blessings and favor may flow into our lives. And we thank you for that, Father. In Jesus name. And God's people said, amen. Amen. You may be seated.
[00:04:15] We're going to start out this morning. I want to introduce probably one of the most confusing stories in the Old Testament. And I say it's confusing. It's not actually marked text, but it'll lead into the theme that we're going to talk about, which is don't shoot the messenger. The story is told of the arrest of Elijah or the attempted arrest of Elijah. You remember this?
[00:04:37] It's found in Second Kings, chapter one, when the king had literally fallen out of his upper floor through the lattice Dropped down a floor and was in rough shape and decided to send a messenger to inquire about his recovery. And so he sent him to consult Beelzebub, the God of Ekron. And while the messenger was leaving the palace, he ran into, of all people, Elijah. Elijah says to him, listen, is there not a God in heaven that can tell the king, well, what's going to happen to him? Go back in there and tell him he's going to die.
[00:05:13] I don't know about you, but that's not good news. You don't want to be telling people, I've come to tell you today you're dead, you know. But he goes back in, and the king says, how come you're here so soon? Didn't I send you off? That was at least about 20 kilometers away. And the guy shows right back up. He said, well, yeah, but I met this guy, and he told me, you know, he told me, you're going to die. He said, what did he look like? And then he described. And he said, oh, that's Elijah.
[00:05:37] And so the king was a little bit upset about this. And so what does he do? He sends a captain of 50, a captain with his 50 men to go and arrest Elijah. Elijah is sitting on a hill, and he says to the captain, the captain says, get down here. The king wants to talk to you. He says, if I'm a man of God, he said, let fire come down from heaven.
[00:06:01] Boom. Fire comes down from heaven, consumes the captain and his 50 men.
[00:06:08] Now what? So what's the reaction of the king? You know, I'll pick up the story here in 2nd Kings 1:11. At this, the king sent to Elijah another captain with his 50 men. The captain said to men of God, this is what the king says, come down at once.
[00:06:25] He says, well, if I'm a man of God, Elijah replied, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your 50 men. And the fire of God fell from heaven and consumed him and his 50 men.
[00:06:36] Hey, how many go, don't mess with Elijah.
[00:06:40] Anybody get that picture? You know, so the king didn't give up. He sent a third captain with his 50 men. But this guy approaches the whole situation differently, probably because he's looking and he sees, you know, a hundred singed bodies around him, you know, and he says to him, he falls on his knees before Elijah, says, man of God, please have respect for my life and the lives of these 50 men. Your servants.
[00:07:11] See, fire has fallen from heaven and consumed the first two captains and all their men. But now have Respect for my life.
[00:07:18] The angel of the Lord said to Elijah, go down with him.
[00:07:22] This is the interesting expression, do not be afraid of him. So Elijah got up and went down with him to the king.
[00:07:31] What in the world is going on here? How many have ever read this story? And it was like, really? This is in the Bible.
[00:07:38] Anybody ever been confused by stories such as this?
[00:07:41] Well, let me give you a little insight.
[00:07:43] Why would God destroy those captains and their men? Why was Ahaziah so adamant in trying to arrest Elijah?
[00:07:53] Well, very simply, the ancient people believed that if someone put a curse on them, the way to eradicate the curse was to kill the messenger.
[00:08:01] That's why Elijah didn't want to go down, because he knew the king was going to kill him.
[00:08:06] And God recognized that was also in the heart of the king.
[00:08:10] So Elisha's message of judgment to the king was seen as a curse. His life was in danger.
[00:08:21] He knew what the king's intentions were. And we see that God told Elijah he need not be afraid of the third captain because God would protect him and his servant. He saw what was in the heart of that man. Warren Wirsbee said, did Ahaziah think that he would kill the prophet and thereby nullify the prophecy?
[00:08:39] That's what we find in verse 15 because it suggests that there was murder in the king's mind. Wirsby says we must not interpret these two displays of God's wrath as evidence of irritation on Elijah's part or injustice on, on the part of God. After all, weren't the soldiers only doing their duty and obeying their commanders? That's kind of how our mind would work, right? But these two episodes of fiery judgment were dramatic messages from the Lord that the king and the nation had better repent or they would all taste the judgment of God. The people had forgotten the lessons from Mount Carmel. Remember, Elijah had already called down fire.
[00:09:17] Remember that? Earlier? And then they had killed, you know, 850 prophets. He was reminding them that the God of Israel was a consuming fire. How many know God is a consuming fire? Says so even in the New Testament. King Ahaziah was a proud man who sacrificed two captains and 100 men in a futile attempt to prevent his own death. These were not innocent men, the victims of their ruler's whims, but guilty men who were willing to do what the king commanded. Had they adopted the attitude of the third captain, they too would have had their lives. They would have been spared, in other words.
[00:09:52] So as you know, we're actually living in an hour that people don't like being corrected. Haven't we figured that out yet?
[00:10:01] People don't like being told that they're wrong. People don't like to be told or warned that negative things are about to happen. We don't want to hear that stuff. Just leave us in our blissful ignorance. Right?
[00:10:14] But Proverbs 1, we hear the call of wisdom to turn to her ways.
[00:10:20] And by the way, wisdom is actually the voice of God.
[00:10:23] We see the foolish mock and refuse to listen to God's correction and the end result is always calamity and distress. See, if God is warning us of impending judgment, what is he really calling us to do?
[00:10:35] Repent. And God would alleviate and he wouldn't follow through on the threat.
[00:10:42] But we need to understand something. Who's really in charge of the planet here?
[00:10:47] God is. We need to understand that we're accountable to Him. So Proverbs tells us, repent at my rebuke, then I will pour out my thoughts to you. I will make known to you my teachings. So the way to know God is to be willing to be corrected. How many know you have to have a teachable spirit in order to grow spiritually.
[00:11:07] You have to be willing to accept correction.
[00:11:10] Hey, if you're going to learn in life, you have to be willing to be corrected. You know, sometimes, and we all struggle to varying degrees with this, we're a little bullheaded, we don't want to be told anything. And a lot of times what happens in our stubbornness and our bullheadedness is we run into problems in our lives.
[00:11:25] And you know, when people are coming alongside of us to help us and they're saying, hey, there's another way of doing this, and they're correcting us. Instead of getting indignant, getting frustrated, being upset, we should actually embrace the correction and, and learn from it and grow as a result of it. The people who are wise don't take offense.
[00:11:48] You know, I remember as a young Christian, it says in the psalmist, they that love thy law are not easily offended. It's amazing how thin skinned most people are today.
[00:11:59] It's true. You know, we don't want to be corrected and yet we need to be corrected in a lot of points in our lives because sometimes we're doing the wrong thing and it's going to lead to our own hurt.
[00:12:12] As you parent, many of us have been parents. You know, when you're telling your children, smarten up, it's not because you don't love them, it's because you do love them, and you don't want them to continue in a negative pattern that you know is going to be to their personal detriment as life continues on. You want them to mature and grow properly. So God's word continues here. It says, but since you refuse to listen, I preached that sermon a few weeks ago.
[00:12:37] You know they didn't listen, right when I call and no one pays attention when I stretch out my hand. Since you disregard all my advice and don't accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh when disaster strikes you. I will mock when calamity overtakes you. I don't know about you. I don't want, you know, calamity to overtake me.
[00:12:57] I don't want to be that bullheaded that I have to suffer because of my stupidity. How many say, pastor, I'm with you. I don't want to suffer because of my own personal stupidity.
[00:13:06] Anybody here besides me say, that's me. I don't want to have to go through. I don't want to learn the hard way. If I can learn from other people's stupidity, I'd rather learn that way. Anybody besides me sign up that way? And I think that's what we have, the scriptures we can learn from other people's dumb issues, right? So God's word not only warns us and rebukes us, but it also instructs, comforts and encourages us. But if we won't listen to God's words of warnings, then all that is left is the consequences.
[00:13:35] And the apostle Paul describes people in our time who refuse to listen to God's instructions and warnings. Listen what he says. The Spirit, the Holy Spirit clearly says that in latter times. Do you think we're living in the latter times?
[00:13:48] Well, if you don't think so, the beginning of the New Testament was the last days. So we're really in the last times, you know?
[00:13:56] How many follow me? Are we in the last times now? Okay, now listen what it says. In the last times, some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. How many go hard? Pass on that, Pastor. I don't want to be so, you know, get caught up with wanting to hear what I want to hear. Actually, you know, Paul talks about that. You know, there'll be people wanting to listen to certain people who will tell them what they want to hear.
[00:14:26] Isn't that true?
[00:14:27] How many know? You can have a large group of people listen to you if they always tell you what you want to hear.
[00:14:32] You got a lot of people but you know what? That doesn't mean it's going to do you any good.
[00:14:37] You know, sometimes I laugh at these motivational speakers. They make a good living. They tell people a bunch of stuff that's not even true, and people pay them a lot of money for it.
[00:14:47] You're shocked by me saying that?
[00:14:49] What do you mean?
[00:14:51] When you tell people they can do anything they want, they put their mind to it. I go, no, they can't. We're not all gifted the same way. We don't all have the same opportunity. So that's not quite true.
[00:15:02] But people want to be told what they want to hear. And it's a sad thing. Here In Jeremiah, chapter 26, we discover that when a culture is moving towards apostasy, which means moving away from God, it ultimately will be judged by God. How many know that's true?
[00:15:20] I've read the Bible from COVID to cover so many times, and I see it over and over and over again. And then I look at history and. And history bears out what the scriptures are teaching. All of these countries, many of them have been judged by the fact that they have done their own thing and they've lived an ungodly lifestyle and God finally has enough of it, and eventually that culture is diminished and you can see the rise and falls of civilizations over and over again.
[00:15:45] And I hate to tell the people in the west here, but this is true. Our culture is on the downslide, and I think we need to face reality.
[00:15:53] We need to wake up. This is what's happening.
[00:15:58] One of the distinguishing signs is that people refuse to hear the truth and will not only distort it, but will persecute those who advocate for it. In other words, they're going to endeavor to silence the truth.
[00:16:09] We're living in that hour. Please don't tell me the truth. It bothers me.
[00:16:14] Even as believers, we need to hear the voices of those who disagree with us.
[00:16:18] You know, sometimes we stand to learn from other people, too. We have to be open to correction. And, you know, God will even use unsaved people to correct you.
[00:16:29] Come on now. If you're in the wrong, God will use people.
[00:16:33] I mean, if he can use a donkey to talk to Balaam, he can use anybody to talk to you.
[00:16:38] Come on now, isn't that true? Of course it is. So we better be a little bit more open to. To people speaking into our lives. Now, that doesn't mean we just take everything in. It means we have to have a little discernment. Sometimes they're not telling us the truth. But the reality is, let us be open minded to hear what's being said in order to discern if this is the truth or not. That's what I'm getting at.
[00:17:01] But we have to be careful not to shoot the messenger because sometimes they're carrying God's word to us.
[00:17:08] As God's children, we have a responsibility to share God's message to our world. How many know that's true?
[00:17:14] That's one of our big responsibilities.
[00:17:16] So how do we do that when we realize that there's a growing level of hostility rising in the culture towards the truth?
[00:17:24] How do you do that?
[00:17:26] In Jeremiah, we discovered three specific courses of action that we need to pursue despite the times we're faced with. What are those things? Well, the first course of action is that we need to pursue is to continue to share God's message with others.
[00:17:44] Our culture is trying to silence the message.
[00:17:47] Does anybody know that? That's the goal.
[00:17:50] We have a responsibility to communicate God's love and grace and gospel to the people around us. We need to remember that we're not responsible for their actions. In other words, I share a message, but I can't control the outcome of that message. I can't control the response of that message. My job isn't to make people Christians. My job is to bring the good news to people. That's it. What people do with it, that's their decision. Now that at least they've heard. You see how many takes that, that takes a lot of pressure off of people. Your job isn't to make people Christians. Okay, you say, well, our job is to make disciples. Yeah, we'll get to what that really means though.
[00:18:29] But I can't make anybody become a Christian. That's all part of what's going on inside of them. That's the work of God's grace inside of their lives.
[00:18:38] But I think the great temptation right now in our time is to be silent.
[00:18:42] Church is silent.
[00:18:44] We don't want to say what the Bible really teaches. We want to change it a little bit to make it sound a little nicer. I think we just need to say it the way it is.
[00:18:53] Okay?
[00:18:55] Let the chips fall where they may.
[00:18:57] Right.
[00:18:59] You know, because if we don't speak up, the culture will continue to deteriorate.
[00:19:05] You know, I looked around the room, we were praying this morning and I said to Ron felt was there and myself, and I said, if somebody had not shared with me and Ron, we wouldn't be here today.
[00:19:14] And there's a lot of people you grew up in a Christian home. Yeah. Your folks, in a sense, spoke to you. You went to church, but somebody was talking to you. But everyone in this room is responsible.
[00:19:25] Someone was actually. You're responsible for the fact that you're here because of someone else's willingness to not be silent.
[00:19:34] Somebody spoke into your life.
[00:19:36] Somebody said something.
[00:19:37] Somebody shared their life. Somebody lived a life that was godly and began to point you to a different way of living. Somebody challenged you in your life. I remember getting corrected. You guys don't know this about me, but I'll tell you a little something. I grew up in a home that was filled with profanity. It just oozed out of that place. You know, my mouth was like a sewer when I was like, 10 years old. It's shocking, isn't it? I just had a sewer mouth.
[00:20:02] But I had a friend, his dad was a minister, and he said, you know, when you talk like that, you just show your ignorance. He's 10 years old. He's rebuking me.
[00:20:11] He goes, only ignorant people talk like you do.
[00:20:14] This is my friend.
[00:20:17] Wow. You know what happened? I wasn't even a Christian then, but I realized something. You're right. I need to change my vocabulary. And even though I grew up in a home, that was a lot of perversity. You know what happened? From that moment on, I purposed in my heart that I would not use profanity.
[00:20:33] And from that point on, I stopped using profanity.
[00:20:36] So even before I was a Christian, I didn't walk around using profanity, because you know what? I had been so convicted by the spirit of God. See, God can use people to correct our lives.
[00:20:48] That was a gift. That was a blessing that that person spoke into my life at 10 years old.
[00:20:54] You know, I appreciate that.
[00:20:58] Here we pick it up. In Jeremiah 26, he says, early in the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, King of Judah, this word came from the Lord. This is a word from God.
[00:21:09] This is what the Lord says. Stand in the courtyard of the Lord's house and speak to all the people of the towns of Judah who come to worship in the house of the Lord. Tell them everything. I command you. Do not omit a word. Word.
[00:21:25] So Jeremiah just doesn't decide. Well, I'll tell you this much, but, you know, I'm not comfortable telling you this.
[00:21:32] How many get a sense that Jeremiah was to give them the whole counsel of God?
[00:21:37] Paul says, I warned you day and night. I did not withhold giving you the whole counsel of God, we need the whole counsel of God, not just the parts we can't just cherry pick. Oh, you know, some people, they come to their meals, you know, I don't like this. I like that. I don't like this. You know what I mean? No, no. Here's the plate.
[00:21:58] God is serving dinner. He's dropping the food on. He goes, eat it.
[00:22:03] You got to eat the whole thing.
[00:22:05] There's some parts you're not going to enjoy as much as other parts.
[00:22:08] Still got to eat it. You still got to live it. You still got to speak it.
[00:22:14] Does that make sense? This is what God thinks. Like, we need to understand we don't want to diminish any part of God's word. We don't want to diminish the nature of God. We don't want to just say, oh, God's so loving. But, you know, God's also a God of truth and a God of justice. I think we need to show kindness, but we also need to speak the truth. I was reading in Titus this week where it says that, you know, we need to have both of those elements in our lives. But, you know, people who only are showing kindness with no truth, they're just enabling people to maintain their sinful lifestyle. And the people who are only speaking truth with no kindness, they're just alienating people because of their, you know, they're speaking the truth, but it's hurting a lot of people. Why can't we marry the two? Matter of fact, it says in the book of Ephesians that we should speak the truth in love.
[00:22:59] That's how we need to communicate.
[00:23:03] He says, perhaps they will listen and each will turn from their evil ways. This is the goal. This may happen when you and I are sharing. You don't know the outcome of your conversation. Then I will relent, not inflict on them the disaster I was planning because of the evil they have done. In other words, they deserve what they're getting.
[00:23:21] They need to be punished for what they're doing.
[00:23:24] Unlike our society who believes that punishment is not a deterrent to crime. God obviously doesn't agree with that standard because he does address things. Even though he's long suffering and doesn't address things immediately doesn't mean God will never address it.
[00:23:38] You know, a lot of times we read texts like this, we're immediately thinking, well, that's Jeremiah's responsibility to speak. Or, you know, oh, that's your responsibility, Pastor, your call to ministry. You need to be speaking.
[00:23:48] But what does the Scriptures teach us? We're all to go. We're all to make disciples of all nations. That's all of our responsibility. Not just one person, not just leaders in the church. Every believer is commissioned by God to go and make disciples. And here's the good news. God says, by the way, if I send you, I'm going with you.
[00:24:08] I just said that this morning to our worship team. I said, isn't it great to know that God is in us?
[00:24:13] Isn't it great to know that wherever we are, God is with us? Isn't it amazing to know that God is in us? And how many recognize that if God is for you, who can be against you? And if God is in you, you can do it?
[00:24:25] You know, one of the things that I'm concerned about is we're in a society today where there's so much fear and trepidation when in reality, God's called us to be strong and very courageous. I believe if you and I are full of the Holy Spirit, we will be courageous people.
[00:24:41] We will do mighty exploits for Almighty God, because the Spirit of God is living inside of us. And we're not walking around making it about us. We're making it about Him. And so when David came to the Giant, it wasn't about David. It was about the honor of God. And you and I need to learn to understand that we represent God in this culture. Not that we're God, but we represent him, and we're concerned about his honor.
[00:25:08] Paul, writing to the Colossians, talks about the kind of lifestyle we need to have as believers. He says, be wise in the way you act toward outsiders. What does it mean to be wise?
[00:25:19] Well, go back to the Book of Proverbs. It says, this is what wisdom is. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If you're a wise person, you're going to live a certain way. If you're a foolish person or a sinful person, you're going to live a sinful sort of way. And when you have believers living in folly, you've diminished the message of the gospel. God is calling us to a life of holiness, that you and I should be like him. We need to be wise in the way we're acting towards outsiders. In other words, we need to be a good model of who Jesus is.
[00:25:47] We need to make the most of every opportunity. Father, forgive us when we fail to make the most of these opportunities you're bringing before us.
[00:25:55] It says, let your conversation be always full of grace, season with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. What's he telling us we need to know how to relate to people. We need to know how to converse with people first. Peter 3:14. But even if you should suffer for what is right, you're blessed.
[00:26:16] Do not fear their threats. Do not be frightened. Come on now. A lot of times the only reason we don't say anything is we don't want to ruffle the water.
[00:26:24] We don't want to have any friction coming our way. We want life to be smooth and easy with no hassles, right? But we don't think about the long term of effects of our silence because possibly someone in the crowd needs to hear what we have to say.
[00:26:39] You and I can change the course of a person's eternal destiny by maybe saying the right thing at that moment. And yet we'll say nothing because we're more concerned about ourselves. We're afraid of what people may think of us.
[00:26:52] It says, but in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. You know what that suggests to me? That you and I must have hope.
[00:27:06] We must be the kind of people that people want to ask us. I want to know what makes you tick.
[00:27:12] I want to understand why you're always full of joy.
[00:27:15] I want to understand why you don't lose your cool when crisis comes your way. I want to understand what makes you operate. Because I would like to be able to do the same thing. We could give them a reason. It's not me. It's Christ in me. It's what Christ has done for me. But do this, it says, with gentleness and respect.
[00:27:35] I'm not here to argue with people, keeping a clear conscience so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. Isn't that good? We're doing the right thing and people are upset with us.
[00:27:50] That's a good place to be.
[00:27:52] Amen.
[00:27:54] I mean, if people are mad at you because you've done the right thing, so be it. That's what he's telling us. Then he goes on to warn of this impending judgment. So how do we respond to God's warnings? And how should we act upon them? In verse 4, it says, say to them, this is what the Lord says. If you do not listen to me and follow my law which I've set before you, and if you do not listen to the words of my servants, the prophets whom I've sent, sent to you again and again, though you have not Listened.
[00:28:19] You ever get the idea Jeremiah feels like, you know, I'm talking to the brick wall, you know, you ever talk to people and go, am I getting through?
[00:28:27] That's what he's like, you know, he says, then I will make this house like Shiloh and the city a curse among all the nations of the earth. Actually, most commentators believe that the sermon that Jeremiah preached in chapter seven is actually, this is going to be. He's really the same sermon, but he's not going into detail right now. He's basically, we're going to see the results of this message.
[00:28:48] What about Shiloh? What happened at Shiloh? John Thompson says Shiloh was evidently destroyed about 1050 B.C. by the Philistine incursion into the land. It was referred to in 1st Samuel 4.
[00:29:01] And there's archaeological evidence to support this. We'll get back to those verses in a minute. Shiloh may have been rebuilt later but was again destroyed. It was in ruins in Jeremiah's day and constitution. A picture of the destruction that was intended for Jerusalem and the Temple. Yes, we get all of that. But I like what Philip Reichen says. There's a significance to speaking of Shiloh. Shiloh, he says, represents the departure of God's living spirit. A Shiloh is any place where God once lived but lives no longer.
[00:29:31] That's a powerful statement.
[00:29:33] Shiloh is a place where God once ruled and reigned, but no longer is ruling and reigning there.
[00:29:41] It's a symbol of that.
[00:29:43] And then he goes on to say many church buildings have become Shilohs. I don't know. I'm traveling through Nova Scotia. I'm looking at all these churches and I'm noticing they're no longer churches. Community hall, bingo hall, this thing, this thing. You know, it's amazing what's happening in our nation today. Many of God's places of worship are no longer what they once were.
[00:30:02] He says, in his experience, I saw some of them when I was living in England. Just a short walk down the Cowley Road in Oxford was an enormous Methodist church that used to host revival meetings.
[00:30:13] People used to go there to get saved, but now people go there to get lucky.
[00:30:18] The hall has now become a full time bingo parlor.
[00:30:21] Kind of a tragic thing when a nation, you know, what should be happening is the bar should be being converted into churches. But what's happening today is churches are being converted into bars.
[00:30:32] If you don't think that's happening, I can give you some addresses and you can go take a look for yourself.
[00:30:38] Those are Shilohs.
[00:30:40] It says here in Psalm 78, verse 56. But they put God to the test. This is how you get a Shiloh. You put God to the test and you rebel against the most High and you don't keep his commandments or statutes. And like their ancestors, they were disloyal and faithless, as unreliable as a faulty bow. How many say, if you were in a war and you had your bow out and you were ready to shoot and it didn't function right, you wouldn't be happy with it. It because your life depended on it.
[00:31:06] They angered him with their high places. They aroused his jealousy with their idols. When God heard them, he was furious. He rejected Israel completely. He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent he had set up among humans. In other words, God withdrew himself.
[00:31:22] By the way, can God withdraw himself?
[00:31:25] Has God withdrawn himself in the past in Scripture?
[00:31:29] Yes, he has. We need to know that.
[00:31:32] What we discover is this continual pattern of God's offers of mercies rejected rather than repentant responses. We find angry retaliatory action on the part of the crowd at the temple. In Jeremiah's preaching, he just got people mad.
[00:31:46] Well, he got a reaction. You know how many know there's only two responses to truth, Acceptance, which calls for a repentant heart, or rejection, which is usually manifested by anger and a desire to rid, not only be rid of the message, but also of the messenger. Look at verse seven of chapter 26. The priests, the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord.
[00:32:12] But as soon as Jeremiah finished telling them all the people everything the Lord had commanded him to say, the priests, the prophets and all the people seized him and said, you must die.
[00:32:24] Pretty intense.
[00:32:26] I hope you don't do that this morning.
[00:32:29] You must die. Pastor, why do you prophesy in the Lord's name that this house will be like Shiloh and this city will be desolate and deserted? And all the people crowded around Jeremiah in the house of the Lord.
[00:32:42] This was not a happy situation. And by the way, if you go to many of the parts of the near east or the East Asian people, they can get pretty intense about their feelings.
[00:32:51] This was an intense moment.
[00:32:53] Jeremiah's life was on the line.
[00:32:55] Move in. The second course of action we need to pursue is to be faithful to God in our calling. What do we do when we're being threatened? It's a good question.
[00:33:05] How do we handle the pressures of being God's witnesses in a hostile environment?
[00:33:11] Will we be silent?
[00:33:12] Will we trust that God is still in control and trying to reach those who are antagonistic to the message of through our life's witness. I mean, think of Stephen.
[00:33:21] Stephen was stoned, but remember what happened. One of the people that was helping to kill Stephen was who?
[00:33:28] Saul, who later on became whom?
[00:33:32] Paul. So if Stephen hadn't done what he did, we probably wouldn't have Paul.
[00:33:37] It cost Stephen his life to bring a Paul into birth into the church.
[00:33:43] We have a funny way of not always understanding how God's going to use things. Sometimes what seems to be the most challenging things become some of the best things.
[00:33:54] Frederick Huey reminds us Jeremiah's message would result in threats against his life. Therefore would have been tempting for him to modify the message in order to receive a favorable hearing from his audience or to escape harm to himself.
[00:34:09] He did not fall to this emotion or temptation and courageously proclaimed God's word in the midst of conflict. The same dilemma confronts those today who have been entrusted with a message from the Lord that will not be favorably received, but who at the same time want to be popular.
[00:34:25] Believers today must follow the example of Jeremiah's courage and faithfulness. And I think that's true. Verse 11. When the officials of Judah heard about these things, they went up from the royal palace to the house of the Lord and. And took their places at the entrance of the new gate of the Lord's house. So what was going on here?
[00:34:42] It's kind of ambiguous, the statement, but what happened was they heard of the commotion, the officials came down, pulled Jeremiah out of the midst of this crowd. They went down to the gates of the city, which is really the place where they would.
[00:34:56] They really created a court situation because the gates of the city is where you'd have the town hall.
[00:35:03] And so now you have a, you know, they have a court case going on.
[00:35:07] Verse 11. You got the prosecuting group here.
[00:35:11] Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and all the people, this man should be sentenced to death because he's prophesied against this city. You've heard it with your own ears. In other words, they basically were saying, you know what this is?
[00:35:29] We don't want to. We just disagree with what he's saying. What he's saying is we don't buy it. This is like treasonous. This is like blasphemy. Jeremiah deserves to die. So the priests of the temple and those prophets who had been promoting peace and prosperity because they were actually not giving God's message. They were giving, they were preaching, but it was not the right message.
[00:35:51] They were bringing the accusation that Jeremiah had spoken against the temple and that his words were treasonous and blasphemous because they could not conjure in their minds that God would ever destroy the temple. That to them, just would never happen. But Jeremiah had really hit at the heart when he said Shiloh was deserted and so will this temple. So he's preaching a message totally the opposite of the majority of preachers in the temple and all the priestly casts. He was a minority voice.
[00:36:23] It says, then, Jeremiah, this is the defense. Speaking on his own defense, he says to the officials and all the people, the Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and this city and all the things you've heard. In other words, he says, you may not like the message, but I was told by God to do it now. Reform your ways and your actions and obey the Lord your God. Then the Lord will relent and not bring against the disaster he has pronounced against you. In other words, I'm called here to ask you to change your mind and repent, and God will not judge you.
[00:36:52] But if you persist in this pattern of thinking, you will be judged.
[00:36:57] But he says, as for me, I'm in your hands. Do with me whatever you think is good and right.
[00:37:04] But be assured, however, that if you put me to death, you will bring the guilt of innocent blood on yourselves and on the city and on those who live in it. For in truth, the Lord has sent me to speak to you. All these words in your hearing. What's his defense?
[00:37:18] God sent me. I spoke it. If you kill me, you're killing an innocent man. I've done nothing worthy of death.
[00:37:26] I've spoken the truth.
[00:37:28] Powerful. That's his defense.
[00:37:31] Well, Jeremiah 26. Then Jeremiah said to all the officials, I don't have these verses on PowerPoint, okay? They're in my notes.
[00:37:44] And all the people, the Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and the city, all the things you've heard. Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the Lord your God. Then the Lord will relent. I've already read that. That's why, okay, the final course of action is simply to trust God. First of all, we need to share the message. Number two, we need to be faithful. Number three, we need to trust God with outcomes. We cannot control outcomes in our lives.
[00:38:12] You know, one of the greatest myths in this century, I believe, is the fact that we pretend that we can control things as human beings.
[00:38:23] We pretended that we could control the pandemic.
[00:38:26] We pretended. Do you think we controlled It.
[00:38:30] No.
[00:38:32] Can I just say something?
[00:38:34] None of us in this room are in control.
[00:38:36] No science is in control. No medicine is in control. No leaders in control. Listen, only God is in control.
[00:38:44] Ultimately, we need to understand that.
[00:38:48] So we need to trust God. We need to trust God for the outcomes in our lives. If we're obedient to God, we have to trust that he's going to work out his outcomes, whatever that looks like. Whether God spares us or delivers us, we entrust ourselves to his will and purposes for our lives. Because you and I were created for what? His good pleasure?
[00:39:08] You're not here for you.
[00:39:10] That's a huge paradigm shift.
[00:39:12] If I could do one paradigm shift in your life, I'd say you're not here for you, you're here for him.
[00:39:17] I tell myself all the time, it's not about you, buddy. It's about him.
[00:39:22] It's about him. What does he want?
[00:39:25] What does God want?
[00:39:27] How many things? It's a big paradigm shift. Can you imagine if young people started seeking God, saying, God, it's not about what job I want, it's what job you want for me.
[00:39:37] We got to get people thinking differently today. It's all about us. We've been told that so much, we believe it. It's so consumeristic, it's so self centered, it's so selfish and it's so empty.
[00:39:51] Because we make it all about us, we end up becoming barren in our soul.
[00:39:57] We have a higher purpose to live for folks than just our little desires.
[00:40:03] There's meaning that extends way beyond our life.
[00:40:07] We're part of a greater picture. We're part of a greater plan to be a part of it.
[00:40:15] So we need to speak up in defense of God's correction.
[00:40:19] God had revealed to Jeremiah he would protect them. And that's exactly what God does. The issue is not what Jeremiah said, but if Jeremiah was speaking on behalf of the Lord, then the officials and all the people said to the priests and prophets, and this man should not be sentenced to death. I love that he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God. That settles it. As a matter of fact, some of the elders stepped forward in the land and said to the entire assembly of people, When Micah of Moresh prophesied in the days of King Hezekiah, King of Judah, he told all the people of Judah, this is what the Lord Almighty says. Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, and the Temple Mount a mount overgrown with thickets. Did that happen in Hezekiah's day? No, you go, why? Because they repented.
[00:41:07] Did Hezekiah, King of Judah or anyone else in Judah put him to death? Did not Hezekiah fear the Lord and seek his favor? And did not the Lord relent so that he did not bring the disaster he pronounced against them?
[00:41:20] But we're about to bring a terrible disaster on ourselves. Now, if you know the history at all, Judah was actually just a little nation being overcome by the Assyrians. All of their cities were captured by Assyria. Actually, when you read the story, Jerusalem was surrounded by the Assyrian empire.
[00:41:37] See, God was punishing them. And all of a sudden, under King Hezekiah's reign, the people repented.
[00:41:45] And you know what happened? It says one night God sent the angel and 185,000 Assyrian soldiers were dead the next morning.
[00:41:56] How many think that's amazing, could have been a plague.
[00:42:00] Who knows what it was?
[00:42:02] That's the way it was described to us in the scriptures. God delivered them from their enemy.
[00:42:10] Powerful, you know, what they were seeing in their geopolitical world was being interpreted through a theological lens.
[00:42:24] One of the problems in our current culture is that we tend to negate God's involvement in the affairs of man and see things only in geopolitical realities.
[00:42:32] When all nations are under the sovereignty of God, how many know that's true? Well, what do you mean by that, Pastor? It means just simply this, that we think in terms of. This is what's happening in our world. These are the nations that are doing this, this and the other thing.
[00:42:45] And I'm saying, no, no, you guys don't. You're focusing on effects. Let's look beyond that. Who's in charge?
[00:42:52] Well, God is. He's orchestrating things.
[00:42:55] When nations, like individuals, trust God, God's mercies can be experienced rather than his judgment for sin.
[00:43:04] You know, our nation could turn around. Here, everyone goes, well, we got to elect the right people.
[00:43:10] No, our nation could turn around. If God's people would humble themselves, call on his name, it would change the whole tenor of our nation.
[00:43:19] As believers, we are the key to this country. It's a theological problem. The problem in Canada is more than economics, folks. It's the deep rooted issue called sin. And when we address that problem, you're going. You're not even realistic, Pastor. Yes, I'm totally realistic because I'm going to argue that everything flows from that.
[00:43:40] You get right with God, everything straightens out in your life. You put God first in your life, see what starts happening.
[00:43:45] You know, the problem is people don't trust God.
[00:43:48] We trust everything but God rather than God himself.
[00:43:53] You know, today, people who challenge our worldview because we're coming from a theological position will try and marginalize us and at worst, silence us.
[00:44:02] And not only do they attack the message, but often they're attacking the messengers.
[00:44:06] But I want you to know, truth cannot be stopped.
[00:44:13] God's kingdom will never be stopped.
[00:44:17] I've read the beautiful picture in the book of Daniel. You know what happens when that interpretation by Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar of his dream? The last kingdom is a kingdom that has.
[00:44:28] It's continually growing and has no end. That's the kingdom we're in, folks. The kingdom of God is only going to continue to grow.
[00:44:36] It cannot be stopped.
[00:44:40] We're on the winning side.
[00:44:42] I've read the last book.
[00:44:44] I know what it says. There's a day coming when the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.
[00:44:51] Is that beautiful? It's coming.
[00:44:54] No, I'm saying this again. It's coming.
[00:44:57] Christ the king is coming back to rule and reign in this planet. And we should never lose sight of that blessed hope.
[00:45:07] It's coming.
[00:45:09] We need to hear this. We need to be ready. We heard that last week. We need to be ready. If we're not walking with God, we're in terrible shape. If Jesus shows up, are we ready?
[00:45:19] We need to be awake.
[00:45:21] Yeah. There's a dangerous nature in telling the truth.
[00:45:25] While Jeremiah spared the rash actions of his opponents, we see how grave the jeopardy really was. When we read the rest of the chapter, it says now, Uriah son of Shemiah from Karajirim was another man who prophesied in the name of the Lord. He prophesied the same things against the city in this land as Jeremiah did. In other words, Jeremiah was not all by himself. There were other people saying the same thing. They were just the minority group. Right.
[00:45:48] When the king Jehoiachin and his officers and officials heard his word, the king was determined to put him to death. But Uriah heard of it and fled in fear to Egypt. Let me get back to that statement. It's so critical.
[00:46:01] King Jehoiachin, however, sent Elnathan son of Achbor to Egypt along with some other men. They brought Uriah out of Egypt, took him to King Jehoiachin, who had him struck down with a sword and his body thrown into the burial place of the common people.
[00:46:16] Wow.
[00:46:18] You know, when I was reading about this whole element, many commentators see Uriah as an example of the dangerous nature. It's kind of like showing you how dangerous it really was. I mean, Jeremiah's life was truly in jeopardy.
[00:46:31] But I tend to agree a little bit with Philip Reichen. He's disagreeing with the main majority of commentators and he shares another idea that I think warrants merit. And this is what he says he said. But the proper literary term for Uriah is that he serves as Jeremiah's foil. What do you mean by that? It's kind of showing you there's something else going on here.
[00:46:51] It's a little thing to teach us something.
[00:46:55] He shows up in Jeremiah 26 as a contrast.
[00:46:58] Uriah's cowardice reveals Jeremiah's courage.
[00:47:03] He runs away. He's afraid.
[00:47:05] How many know the Bible is actually the spirit of fear is not of God?
[00:47:09] How many know that's true? God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a power, love, and of a sound mind. God is calling us to live courageous lives. How many know that's true? He says, do not be afraid. Be strong and of good courage. You say, yeah, but Pastor, by nature I'm not a courageous person.
[00:47:27] Nor am I.
[00:47:29] But can I just say one thing to everyone in the room right now? Where is God living?
[00:47:35] Where is God living?
[00:47:38] Inside us.
[00:47:40] If God be for us, who can be against us? God in us.
[00:47:45] God in us. The hope of glory. God is inside of us. God is with us.
[00:47:50] If God is inside of us, why are we afraid?
[00:47:55] You see, we need to come to a place where we recognize. Yes, you know, I understand my human nature. That's the temptation is to be cowardly or afraid or timid or cautious and all the rest of us. But if I'm a follower of God and he's calling me to do something, should I not be courageous?
[00:48:13] I want to be.
[00:48:15] Jeremiah is the example to follow here. The tragic irony is that in the end, Uriah failed to deliver himself from death because he ran to Egypt, which by the way, is a type of the world.
[00:48:26] Jehoiakim had him extradited and executed. Thus, Uriah illustrates the paradox uttered by Jesus when he said, whoever finds his life will lose it. And whoever is willing to lose his life for my sake will find it.
[00:48:41] What are we learning from all of this? Well, it's dangerous to speak the truth. How many? Lesson number one.
[00:48:48] Number two. The truth needs to be spoken, otherwise the society will continue to deteriorate.
[00:48:54] What's another lesson I can learn from this? That I need to have courage, that I need to be living the life.
[00:49:03] Furthermore, Ahayakim's son, Ashaphan, supported Jeremiah, and so he was not handed over to the people to be put to death. And then in this hour when the gospel.
[00:49:16] I'm just getting there, you know, we're living in an hour when the gospel's message is compromised to suit people's appetites.
[00:49:25] How many say that's true?
[00:49:27] It's being compromised.
[00:49:29] But in the process, when we compromise the gospel, it loses its power to transform lives.
[00:49:34] In other words, if we dilute the message, it won't affect us the same way. It won't have the strength to bring about change in us. You see what we're trying to do? I see it in North America. We're trying to make God more like us rather than us become more like God.
[00:49:52] You see the distinct difference. And so when we make God like us, we're making the gospel very anemic.
[00:49:59] We're making it palatable so that you and I can serve it up to other people. Maybe they'll embrace it and we'll feel accepted. I'm saying, scrap that idea. It doesn't work.
[00:50:10] It doesn't change them and it doesn't change us. But I think if you and I embrace the gospel as it is, if we embrace the nature of God, of who he really is, and. And we recognize that we're a long ways from what God is really like. And instead of trying to make God like us, we try to become like him.
[00:50:27] That's where the transforming power really starts working in our lives.
[00:50:31] That's where we need to go.
[00:50:35] We need to explain that sin still brings bondage. It still brings destruction. It still brings alienation with God and with other people. We must look to Christ in order to be forgiven and receive the gift of eternal life.
[00:50:47] The message preached by all in the scripture was a message of repentance.
[00:50:52] Read the Bible. Noah, Jesus, Jeremiah, Peter, they're all preaching the same sermon. Paul, they're all preaching, repent.
[00:51:04] Are we hearing it?
[00:51:07] We have to change.
[00:51:10] We have to turn away from sin. We can't just say, well, repentance literally means I'm turning away from the way I used to live. I'm turning my back on that life and that world. And I'm turning towards God. And now I'm going to walk with God in a new lifestyle.
[00:51:27] I'm following him.
[00:51:30] And Jesus said to his disciples, and I will make you fishers of men.
[00:51:35] I will make you go out and bring others with you into the kingdom.
[00:51:40] But it takes courage and we need God's help.
[00:51:44] So I'm going to have a stand this morning to close the service.
[00:51:53] You know, I remember reading Eugene Peterson. Man, my mind just goes. And I'm thinking along this thought, this wave. He said, you know, it's dangerous to tell the truth.
[00:52:02] It's a dangerous thing to tell the truth.
[00:52:06] And the gospel is powerful.
[00:52:09] You know, we need to be engaged with our culture.
[00:52:14] We need to be in dialogue with it. How many see that?
[00:52:19] And we need to be wise in how we do it. We need to learn how to speak the truth in love. But we've got to live it, too.
[00:52:27] And we need to have that spiritual, moral courage that only comes from God. I'm going to ask you to do something this morning. I know we're one minute over, but I'm going to. You know, Patty says, you know, sometimes you just need to let people respond. I'm going to do that this morning.
[00:52:42] I'm going to have you to come down and say, you know what? I need moral courage to be the person I need to be in order to affect the kind of change this culture needs. I want to be one of those people. I want to be one of God's change agents in my personal world. And I know I need God's moral courage to do it. If that's you, come, I'm going to pray for you right now. I'm here.
[00:53:04] I could jump down, but I want to be that kind of person. I want to have an impact on our culture, our community, my family, our neighborhood, our schools, our hospitals, our city halls.
[00:53:19] We need people with conviction and moral courage. People are going to live the life. People are going to say, I'm going to be a light in this broken world.
[00:53:26] I'm not going to conform the gospel to fit how the culture's living. I want to be a transforming agent, but I need God's moral courage. I'm going to pray for you. I believe God's spirit wants to fill your heart. I mean, God's living inside of you. But I want to pray today that you're going to have an experience with God this morning. That when we leave this place, they're going to say, surely we were at Bethel.
[00:53:51] We were at the house of God. There was an open heaven. God's spirit came. There was a transaction that happened between my brokenness, my weakness, my frailties, my fears.
[00:54:00] We're going to exchange all of that for God's moral courage and strength and wisdom and understanding that we're going to learn how to live wisely. We're going to learn how to speak the truth in love.
[00:54:12] So, Father, you see the people of God, they're coming forward. They're saying, lord, I need help.
[00:54:17] I need help as a pastor to speak the truth in a loving way, not to compromise your message. I pray for my brothers and sisters. They're going to live the truth, each one of us living the truth. That we're going to be so full of kindness and truth, Lord, that we're going to have an impact. These are going to be the influencers in our city, Father. Right now, these are. It's like we're having a big salt shaker right now. And as we leave this room, you're going to shake us out into our city. We're going to go to our places of work and where we go to school and where we do life into our neighborhoods. We're going to be that salt, Lord. We're going to actually create a seasoning and a flavor of the righteousness and the graciousness and the goodness and the gloriousness of your gospel, Lord, you're going to use us.
[00:55:03] You're going to use my brothers and sisters.
[00:55:06] I know some of our personalities are quite quieter than others. It's not about louder. It's about wisdom. It's about courage.
[00:55:15] It's about persistence.
[00:55:17] It's about showing and demonstrating God's grace in people's lives.
[00:55:21] It's about expressing generosity and kindness and forgiveness.
[00:55:25] It's about walking humbly with you, Lord, and it's about taking every opportunity when people ask for the hope that's within us, that we speak words of life and hope and grace into their broken places. I pray, Father, you're going to use my brothers and sisters to be more effective in their lives than they've ever, ever, ever could even imagine or think. Lord, you're going to use their lives in ways beyond their expectation. You're going to use them beyond their abilities, Lord, because it's your power living inside of us, Lord, we're just the little clay jars where there's a power living inside of us. And may your power come through.
[00:56:00] May your grace flow through us. May your love flow through us. May your wisdom flow through us. May your grace flow through us. We thank you for that, Father. In Jesus name, Amen. God bless you as you leave this morning.
