God Restores Broken Vessels

Sermon Notes March 18, 2018 Jeremiah 15:15-21 Focus: Jeremiah's life and ministry. Specifically, Jeremiah’s complaint and God's response. Big themes: a focus on reshaping broken vessels, reshaping our emotions, reshaping our calling, and then God's awesome response to separate the precious from the worthless. What is the most valuable thing you own? Alternately, what is the most worthless thing you own? - Historical setting. Jeremiah was called to be a prophet in 626 BC, and his ministry lasts for 40 years, until the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC. The northern kingdom fell nearly a century earlier in 722 BC, and Jeremiah is telling of the impending destruction of Judah, the southern kingdom because of their disobedience, idol-worship and openly breaking the God’s commandments. In the midst of Jeremiah’s foretelling of “famine, sword and plague” if Judah doesn’t repent, comes this section of Jer. 15 in which God’s personal assurance to Jeremiah that the evil people will “fight against you but not overcome you” and God will rescue him. - Before opening your notes, what lingers from Robert’s sermon for you? (Illustration or point?) - Sermon overview: ask one or several people to summarize the sermon from their notes. Jer. 15.16 “When your words came, I ate them…” What does it mean to metaphorically eat something? How do we eat God’s word? (Think of the process of eating: sampling, tasting, chewing, digesting, nourishing…) “…they were my joy and my heart’s delight.” A recurring image in Jeremiah is the heart – the word is used 46 times, more than any other book in the Bible! Earlier, Jeremiah urges the people to “wash the evil from your heart and be saved.” Prov. 4.23 comments on the primary importance of the heart: “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Is it possible to make God’s word the delight of our hearts if it’s not right now? How? Jer. 15.18 “Why is my pain unending and my wound grievous and incurable? You are to me like a deceptive brook, like a spring that fails.” NIV and ESV translates this as a question: “Will you be to me like a deceptive brook…?” Either way, it’s a tense moment or a moment of doubting God. It sounds like David in the Psalms: “How long O Lord will you forget me?” - Why didn’t the writers or editors of the Bible (or the Holy Spirit) take out this part? Why leave in the doubts of a strong man of God? Is this merely honest reporting or is it for our education and encouragement too? What encouragement do you gain from seeing a man of God struggle like this? - Go through God’s response to Jeremiah in 15.19-21. Why does Jeremiah first need to repent? [For one, we all need to repent…] - “…utter worthy, not worthless, words” “Worthless” is a word attached to idols eight times in Jeremiah – more than any other book! What of Jeremiah’s words were “worthless”? [Perhaps the doubting words in verses 1819?] What of our words are “worthless”? - Jer. 15.20 “I am with you to rescue and save you,” declares the Lord. This is an oft-repeated theme. If Jeremiah needs this reminder, so do we. God is with those who trust in Him.