Untitled Sermon (39)

Jeremiah 42

You don’t have to raise your hands but how many of you have heard something like these? “Oh Lord I just want to grow in You and be Your servant.” Or “I just want to be a witness to the world.” Or “Lord I’ll go wherever You send me.” Or it’s variant “Lord I will go into all the world.” And this one; “Lord You have blessed me with so much I just want to give to people in need.” When you hear those “prayers” do you at all doubt the sincerity? (Not your own sincerity of course).

Over the last several years I have been studying the life of the nation or people group of Israel. I started at Abraham and now I am at the end of 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles and Jeremiah. In other words the kingdom of Israel and Judah are basically defunct. Israel (the Northern Kingdom) has been carried off to Assyria and beyond and Jerusalem is under siege. In 2 Chronicles 36:15-15 you read this: 15And the Lord God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. 16But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy. Those two verses could be a sermon unto themselves but the fact is God’s perfect patience has reached its end. To make a long story short Jerusalem fell and those who were still in the city were killed and those who had deserted to Nebuchadnezzar were carried off into captivity.

Jeremiah the prophet was one of those prophets that God had used and He isn’t finished yet. Nebuchadnezzar showed great mercy to Jeremiah and he stayed in Jerusalem. The people who are left are afraid that the Babylonians were going to come back so they decide to flee to Egypt. But first they go to Jeremiah. Jeremiah 42:5-6 5So they said to Jeremiah, “Let the Lord be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not do according to everything which the Lord your God sends us by you. 6Whether it is pleasing or displeasing, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we send you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God.” “Whether we like it or not we are going to do whatever God tells us to do. All we need to know is what it is then we will do it”. (As a pastor I wish I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that.) So Jeremiah goes to the Lord on their behalf and comes back 10 days later with God’s answer. I’ll not read the entire answer but it is summed up on Jeremiah 42:19 19“The Lord has said concerning you, O remnant of Judah, ‘Do not go to Egypt!’ Know certainly that I have admonished you this day. The people said they would do whatever God said and God said don’t go to Egypt. I did not notice in those words that God stuttered at all. In fact later on God tells them through Jeremiah that if they go to Egypt they will die.

So what did they do? They called Jeremiah a liar and kidnapped him and took him with them to Egypt. I’m not going to tell you what happened to them in Egypt most of you know and you can look it up for yourselves if you don’t. There is one thing that really stood out to me in this story from Scripture. When the people said they wanted to do whatever it was that God wanted them to do what they really meant was; “We want to be obedient to God as long as what He wants is what we want.” These people had seen God do everything He said He would do as it relates to bringing destruction on Judah and Jerusalem and still they did not get it. They wanted what they wanted and it made no real difference to them what God wanted. In fact in verse 20 Jeremiah 42 Jeremiah calls them hypocrites for sending him to ask God in the first place.

Let’s be honest with one another and ourselves; how many of us do the same thing on a regular basis? “Oh Lord I just want to grow in You and be Your servant (as long as I don’t have to commit to reading my Bible everyday.” Or “I just want to be a witness to the world (as long as I don’t have to talk to anyone different than me, or the same as me or anyone).” Or “Lord I’ll go wherever You send me (as long as I don’t have to get to far away from my kids, or grandids, or family or people that I already know).” Or it’s variant “Lord I will go into all the world (as long as it isn’t a dangerous place).” And this one; “Lord You have blessed me with so much I just want to give to people in need (as long as they are working people and it doesn’t change my lifestyle.” I could go on but I think you get my point: sometimes our commitment to God is hypocritical. Not always, nothing is always, but sometimes we mistake our will for God’s will and think nothing else can be true. “God can’t really want me to do that”…whatever that is. I’ll do anything You want as long as it is what I want.

I am not saying all of these things as an indictment against you because I don’t know most of you. But if it is an indictment then you best deal with God on it. I am saying these things because we as pastors and church leader are going to be called upon to do some things that you never thought you would ever do. What those thing may be I can’t even begin to say. This world is changing so fast I’m not even sure how to pastor anymore. But I will tell you this then I will stop. All of those changes that we are so frightening are opportunities to reach people with the Gospel. So don’t be like the people of Judah saying “I just want to do what You want me to do as long as it is what I want to do”. Be like Paul who says: “20I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Let’s pray.