June 10, 2007 Sermon Synopsis

Is there any Word from the Lord? – Scripture: Jeremiah 37:1-21

You can put a tractor in your garage, but it won’t make you a farmer.
A shop full of tools won’t make you a mechanic.
In the same way, a Bible in the house doesn’t make you a Christian.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s great to have a Bible around. But God wants you to learn to use it and then use it. It can help you become a Christian.

The children were asked if their parents ever ask them to do things they don’t want to do. “Clean up your room; set the table; do the chores.” They know what’s good for us and if nothing else, it will “build character.”

Sometimes kids at school may ask them to do something that their parents would not approve of: smoking, drugs, swearing, cheating, etc. They say it won’t hurt you; your parents have a different opinion. Who do you believe?

God (our heavenly parent) wants us to make good choices. The world often asks us to do things that God doesn’t approve of. How do we know what God wants? We can read about it in God’s word for us – the Bible. We can talk with other Christians; God’s Word should live in their lives.

God wants us to know – there is a Word from the Lord for us.

Jeremiah lived in difficult times. You should read up on the history sometime. The books of Kings and Chronicles are full of information. The book of Jeremiah gives a lot of detail.

Israel (and Judah) was God’s kingdom on earth. It didn’t work out very well. God’s reign is not primarily a political reign – in first place it needs to be a spiritual reign. The Kings were God’s representative or servant. Other countries had kings who were gods (Egypt for example). For Israel, God was to be the King. Jesus (our king) told Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world.” None of the leaders in the church function as Kings. Jesus is our king; we are all God’s servants.

Judah’s kings should have had a close relationship with God. The needed to hear God’s word and obey. Unfortunately they obeyed the world powers of the day: Assyria, Babylonia or Egypt. They should have trusted in God.

This got them in trouble. God had to punish them because they followed their own instincts instead of God’s leading. God told them that obedience would result in blessing and disobedience in destruction. Not much has changed.

Jeremiah prophesied during the reign of the last 5 kings of Judah. Today’s scripture passage in Jeremiah chapter 37 begins when Zedekiah is named king of Judah.

Zedekiah inherited a kingdom of trouble. His dad, Josiah, had brought the country closer to God, but two of his brothers and one of his uncles who served as king following Josiah really messed things up. Zedekiah didn’t do any better. Jeremiah told him that God was going to punish everybody because Zedekiah wouldn’t bring the country back to God. Being faithful to God’s word landed Jeremiah in Jail – not a big blessing, but Jeremiah knew it’s better to be punished by an earthly authority than by God.

Zedekiah had lots of prophets that told him what he wanted to hear. They told him that God’s word was that “the king of Babylon will not attach you” (37:19), but deep down Zedekiah knew they weren’t right.

It was crisis time; the biggest of Zedekiah’s life. One night Zedekiah secretly spoke with Jeremiah, “Is there any Word from the Lord?” (37:17).

What did he want to hear? “Everything’s going to be OK. Just keep living your life as you have and everything will work out just fine.”

Zedekiah was in the biggest crisis of his life. Judah was God’s anointed Kingdom; they were God’s chosen people. Yet their very existence was at stake. What went wrong?

What do we want to know during a crisis?
-When your marriage is on the rocks
-When the kids rebel against you
-When you lose your job and don’t know how you’re going to make the next mortgage payment
-When sickness and disease has you down

It’s crisis time; “Is there any word from the Lord?”

Jeremiah told him that God did have a word and it was the same old thing he’d heard before.

There is a word from the Lord!
-It’s the Word that was spoken to create the world.
-It’s the Word that was given to Moses on the mountain.
-It’s the Word that directed God’s people through the desert.
-It’s the Word that led God’s people into the Promised Land.
-It’s the unchanging Word of God.
-It’s the Word that tells us to follow God or suffer the consequences.
-It’s the Word that tells us to put God first, above other gods.
-It’s the Word that tells us to trust God above our enemies.
-It’s the Word that says, “I will be your God and you will be my people.”

Zedekiah lived in a tension: the promises of an earthly kingdom vs. the promises of God.

Zedekiah had lots of false prophets to give him false hope.

People put their faith in lots of different things. We’ve seen Pachamama (Mother Earth) worship in Bolivia and voodoo in the D.R.

For Americans, the false god is often science or technology or the power of material wealth.

We ask, “Is there a word from the Lord?” and at the same time look to other things to help us out. In some ways we’re not a lot different from Zedekiah.

2 Peter 3:17 says “Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position.”

Zedekiah knew the political reality of the world he lived in.
Zedekiah knew the word of the Lord.
He chose to stay the course – which was, unfortunately, the road to destruction.

CHOOSE THE WORD
We need to remember to choose the word of God.

John 1:1 – In the beginning was the Word ….
John 1:14 – The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us …
… That’s Jesus!

Is there a Word from the Lord? Yes, it’s Jesus.

God doesn’t want anyone to perish (John 3:16), we do that to ourselves.

The church is the visible Kingdom of God in this world. We need to remember that Jesus is our King!

We must all submit to God’s rule. Trouble begins when we start to make decisions on our own, when we become kings. We need to constantly ask, “Is there any word from the Lord?”

Max Lucado wrote, “If there are a thousand steps between us and God, He will take all but one. He will leave the final one for us.” We need to choose God, and in so doing, turn away from the things of this world.

The story if Israel has a sad ending. Babylonia destroyed Jerusalem, killed most of the people, deported others, and left behind the poor and those in Jail (fortunate for Jeremiah). The crisis became a disaster. It didn’t have to be that way.

What about you? By trusting in God’s Word, the crises in our lives don’t have to turn into disasters. The decision is ours.