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The Bible Breakdown
Jeremiah 09: God Swaggerin'
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The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon. Today, jeremiah chapter 9, and today's title is God Swaggerin' yes, I made that up, but God Swaggerin'. We're going to get into all that in just a moment and really talk about the idea of when everything else seems to be going wrong, what can we find hope in, what can we really kind of hang our hat on right, and we're going to get all that in just a moment. So, if you want to get your Bibles open and get them ready for Jeremiah, chapter nine, while you're doing that, if you're new around here, make sure that you like, share, subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast, make sure you're leaving us a five-star review on the podcast it really does help and make sure you are going to the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook. There's an amazing group of people doing a wonderful job and I'm telling you, the more we dig, the more we find. And if you're listening to this on the podcast, just get ready, it's going to be great, it's going to be awesome. But if you are listening to this, or watching this, rather, on YouTube, I have been messing around with something, and so, for all of our podcast listeners, I would love for you at some point today to go to YouTube and look up the Bible Breakdown podcast, or just Bible Breakdown, and then my name, brandon Cannon. At some point down there you will see my face, you will see the Bible Breakdown. Make sure you subscribe. It's free to you.
Speaker 1:But then also I want to experiment with something, and that is I love the idea of trying to remove myself as much as possible and getting out of the way so that we can interact straight with God's word, and I have this idea in my head that all of you, when you are getting ready to listen to the podcast or watch the video, you are getting your Bible out. You got your coffee, you got your highlighter, all the things, and I know that's not always the reality, for a thousand different reasons. People have told me that you listen to this podcast when you're on your way to work or you watch this at different times, and so what I wanted to do is I wanted to find another way to bring the Bible to you. So if you are watching the YouTube channel, what we're going to do today is we're going to start an experimentation. That's why I would love, no matter how you experience the Bible with me. I'd love for you to go to YouTube because I would love to hear your feedback on something I'm going to try, and that is this If you can see the screen, I am going to actually walk with you today and we're going to read through the text together. Now, if this works, I got a lot of ideas of things I want to do, but the goal is is I want you to see what we're reading together, especially today, because Jeremiah, chapter nine, is wonderful and if you remember, the overall idea of Jeremiah is this hope in the middle of difficult times.
Speaker 1:This overall idea is that God is with us and there's a future and a hope. God still has light in the darkness. The people during Jeremiah's time. They've completely turned away from God. It is going from bad to worse. Bad things are happening and they're getting ready to happen, and there's a lot of judgment where God is finally going to say I'm going to let you have what you asked for, but I still have a hope for you and I just want to read this together and I want us to be able to see it together as well. So, if you have your Bibles, want to open it with me to Jeremiah 9, or for the very first time. If you would like to read along with me, we're going to read Jeremiah 9 together. You ready, here we go.
Speaker 1:Jeremiah 9, verse 1, says this if only my head were a pool of water and my eyes a fountain of tears, I would weep day and night for all my people who have been slaughtered. Oh that I could go away and forget my people and live in a traveler's shack in the desert. For they are all adulterers, a pack of treacherous liars. My people bend their tongues like bows to shoot out lies. They refuse to stand up for the truth. They only go from bad to worse. They do not know me, says the Lord. Beware of your neighbor. Don't even trust your brother, for brother takes advantage of brother. Friend, slanders, friend. They all fool and defraud each other.
Speaker 1:No one tells the truth, but practiced tongues. They tell lies. With practiced tongues, they tell lies. They wear themselves out with all their sinning. They pile lie upon lie and utterly refuse to acknowledge me, says the Lord.
Speaker 1:Therefore, this is what the Lord of heaven's armies says See, I will melt them down with the crucible and test them like metal. What else can I do with my people no-transcript. They speak friendly words to their neighbors while scheming in their heart to kill them. Should I not punish them for this, says the Lord? Should I not avenge myself against such a nation? I will weep for the mountains. I will wail for the wilderness pastures, for they are desolate and empty of life. The lowing of the cattle is heard no more and the birds of the wild animals have all fled. I will make Jerusalem into a heap of ruins, says the Lord. I will be a place haunted. It will be a place haunted by jackals. The towns of Judah will be ghost towns and no one living in them. Who is wise enough to understand all this? Who has been instructed by the Lord and can explain it to others? Why has the land been so ruined that no one dares to travel through it? The Lord replies this has happened because my people have abandoned my instructions and they have refused to obey what I said. Instead, they have stubbornly followed their own desires and worshiped the images of Baal as their ancestors taught them. So now, this is what the Lord of Heaven's armies, the God of Israel, says Look, I will feed them with bitterness and give them poison to drink. I will scatter them around the world in places they and their ancestors never heard of, and they will chase them with a sword until I have destroyed them completely. This is what the Lord of Heaven's army says.
Speaker 1:Consider all this and call for the mourners. Send for the women who mourn at funerals. Quick, begin your weeping, let the tears flow from your eyes. Hear the people of Jerusalem crying in despair. We are ruined. We are completely humiliated. We must leave our land because our homes have been torn down. Listen, you women, to the words of the Lord. Open the ears to what he has to say. Teach your daughters to wail. Teach one another how to lament, for death has crept in through our windows and has entered our mansions. It has killed off the flowers of our youth. Children no longer play in the streets and young men no longer gather in the squares. This is what the Lord says. I love this. Bodies will be scattered across the fields like clumps of manure that is not the part I like Like bundles of grain after the harvest. No one will be left to bury them.
Speaker 1:I got excited because I saw what I'd highlighted here. It is verse 23. This is what the Lord says. Don't let the wise boast in their wisdom, or the powerful boast in their power, or the rich boast in their riches, but those who wish to boast should boast in this alone that they truly know me and understand that I am the Lord who demonstrates unfailing love, who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things. I, the Lord, have spoken. A time is coming, says the Lord, when I will punish all those who are circumcised in body but not in spirit the Egyptians, edomites, ammonites, moabites, the people who live in the desert, in remote places and, yes, even the people of Judah. And, like all the pagan nations, the people of Israel also have uncircumcised hearts. Wow, and so you see and I know it's probably a little distracting because I was showing it to you today and I've already got some ideas, after this first one, on what I am definitely going to do differently, but I like it. I like being able to see what we're reading and it reminds us of this idea, and that is this Throughout this chapter, god, through Jeremiah, is just so sad at all the things that they have focused on and all the judgments that's coming because of the bad things.
Speaker 1:And God is saying if you want to have confidence, if you want to have that swagger factor, if you want to walk around with your head held high about something, don't let it be in all these things that can be taken away from you. Let it be in the fact that you know God and you know. Why that's so important is because if you've lived very long, you realize that there are some things that we can be so certain of today that can be taken away from us tomorrow. There can be so many things that we just know for a fact will always be there, and then one day they're not. If you ever lost someone close to you, you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you've ever lost your health, you know what I'm talking about. If you've ever worked for a company for years and planned to retire, but before you could retire you were laid off, you know what it is to have things that you think are absolutely certain and then it's not so certain. And so what God is telling the nation of Israel through Jeremiah is if you're going to be certain about something, if you're going to boast, if you're going to brag, you're going to have some swagger. Don't have swagger in the stuff that you can lose. Have swagger in the one that you can never lose, truly know the Lord, and the reason why that's important is because he's the one that walks with us.
Speaker 1:I think for some of us, one of the reasons why we carry so much hurt and pain in our life is because we have this tendency to raise our expectation of people and lower our expectation of God, when really what we need to do is lower our expectation of people and raise our expectation of God and realize that God is really for us in more ways than we can imagine. And when we walk with him, we begin to realize that God is good no matter what. So I want to ask you this question Are you putting all of your hope in anything other than God? It's okay to have hope in other things, but where's your primary hope at If it's not in God? Can I tell you, eventually you'll be let down, because nothing, can, nothing's going to be perfect other than God, and so we're going to pray, we're going to end our time together, and I want to hear from you in the comments below and at all the other ways you can get in touch with us. I want to hear what you thought about the idea of me having the text on the screen today, but I want to ask you this question, something to think about. Is there something that you're putting your hope in more than God? And, if not, it's time for course correction, because God is the only one who can truly meet all of our needs.
Speaker 1:Let's pray together, god. Thank you so much for today. Thank you, lord, that you are with us and you're for us. I'm thankful, god, that you truly are the hope that our soul longs for. I pray today we will put our hope in you above all else and we will realize, god, that when you are all we have, you are truly all we need. We're thankful for you today. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen. Don't forget. God's word says in Jeremiah 29, 13,. If you look for me wholeheartedly, says the Lord, you will find me. My hope for you is that you find God in everyday life. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Jeremiah, chapter 10.
