Turning Point

Turning Point

Sermon Text: Jeremiah 4:1-4 (NIV)

 1“If you will return, O Israel,

 return to me,”

 declares the Lord.

 “If you put your detestable idols out of my sight

 and no longer go astray,

 2and if in a truthful, just and righteous way

 you swear, ‘As surely as the Lord lives,’

 then the nations will be blessed by him

 and in him they will glory.”

 3This is what the Lord says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem:

 “Break up your unplowed ground

 and do not sow among thorns.

 4Circumcise yourselves to the Lord,

 circumcise your hearts,

 you men of Judah and people of Jerusalem,

 or my wrath will break out and burn like fire

 because of the evil you have done—

 burn with no one to quench it.

I.       Introduction:

II.    Correct Your Heading (vv. 1-2)

A.    Turn Yourself Around[1]

B.     Stay On a Straight Course

C.     Lead Others To Glory

III. Correct Your Heart (vv. 3-4)

A.    Cultivation[2]

B.     Circumcision[3]

C.     Prevention

IV. Conclusion:

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[1] Joel 2:12 (NIV) “Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”

[2] Mark 4:7 (NIV) Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain.

[3] Romans 2:28 (NIV) A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.

Colossians 2:11 (NIV) In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ,