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The Bible Breakdown
Jeremiah 15: The Lord is Waiting for You
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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 15, and today's title is the Lord is Waiting for you. The Lord is waiting for you. We're going to get into all that in just a moment, but if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast, make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast and make sure you're going to the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook. The more we dig, the more we find, and we've had some people who've asked us hey, listen, I don't do the Facebook thing, but I want to read the devotions. Well, what you can do is is, if you click the link that we send you, if you are part of our text messaging stream, and if you're not, you can text RLCBible to 94000 and we will send those to you every day. What we are understanding is is, even if you don't have a Facebook account, those posts are public. So if you click that link for the discussion, you can still get to where that is and you can still see those posts every day. Okay, you just can't comment unless you have a Facebook account, all right. Well, if you have your Bibles.
Speaker 1:I want to open up with me to Jeremiah, chapter 15. Remember, the overall theme of Jeremiah is that God gives us a future and a hope in the middle of darkness. God gives us light in darkness. And I'll be honest with you, I have a very different relationship with the way I read the book of Jeremiah than some people do, because Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet. As we've already read through the book of Isaiah, isaiah is in a place where you know there's still time to turn back the clock right, like even though judgment is on its way. You know, the theme of Isaiah was God is our salvation and the overall idea was his bad things are coming, but you can still do something about it. Well, in Jeremiah it's bad, things are on the way and it's too late. Justice is coming. But what I love because, even though, yes, that's sad and it's terrible and that's why people call him the weeping prophet and we're going to see more of that in the days ahead as it just continues to get worse what I love about Jeremiah is number one even though bad things are coming, he doesn't give up.
Speaker 1:You ever played the game where someone you know kind of have the what would you do if, right, kind of things, and you ever played the game where someone says, okay, let's say, in three days, an asteroid is going to strike the earth and everyone's going to die. Okay, that's a terrible game, right? But the thought is okay, you have 72 hours to live. What would you do for 72 hours? Like if you knew destruction was coming? Someone asked Martin Luther one time what would you do if the end of the world were tomorrow? And he said if the world were going to end tomorrow, I would still plant a tree today. In other words, what he was saying is I want to live my life in a way that I wouldn't have to change anything If I were to die tomorrow, I would still live the way I live right now. Well, think about it. What would you do?
Speaker 1:Jeremiah knows that destruction is coming, bad things are on the way, but he still goes to the temple and he still debates with these false prophets and he still tries to reach the people. I think that's powerful and that's amazing, and just that alone is a testament to all of us that we keep moving forward, because we simply don't know what God is going to do, but what we do know he is going to do is he is always going to wait for us. When we take a wrong turn, god doesn't forsake us. When we go down a path that we really shouldn't, he doesn't turn His back on us. God's always waiting for us, and so there's always that hope, even in the middle of all of this destruction. And so we're going to read this today, jeremiah 15, and there's going to be some negative stuff, because that's just kind of where they're at right now, but there's still this hope and a future. So let's read this together and see what God's word will say to us. You ready?
Speaker 1:Jeremiah 15, verse 1, says this. Then the Lord said to me even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for these people, I wouldn't help them Away with them, get them out of my sight. And if they say to you, but where can we go? Tell them this is what the Lord says. In other words, this is what the Lord says you can go. Those who are destined for death to death. Those who are destined for war, to war. Those who are destined for famine, famine and for those who are destined for captivity, to captivity. I will send four kinds of destroyers against them, says the Lord, I will send the sword to kill the dogs, to drag away the vultures to devour and the wild animals to finish what is left. Because of the wicked things Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem, I will make my people an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
Speaker 1:Now pause. This is where reading the Bible really comes in handy, because who is Manasseh? Well, remember when we were reading through Kings Chronicles and Samuel, manasseh was one of the kings of Israel who led the nation into horrible idolatry, and he was a king for like 50 years, so it was for the entire generation. An entire generation of Israelites went very far against God, even into the worship of various idols, such as the Asherah poles, which was sexual deities. And then you had the, the, the, the God idol, uh, moloch, which is where you have to sacrifice children. It was just horrible, horrible stuff. And God is saying it's time for justice. Someone is going to have to answer for these dead children, and so he's saying it's time for justice.
Speaker 1:Verse five who will feel sorry for you, jerusalem? Who will weep for you? Who will even bother to ask how you are? You have abandoned me and you turned your back on me, says the Lord. Therefore, I will raise my fist to destroy you, and I am tired of always giving you another chance. I will winnow you like grain at the gates of your cities and take away the children you hold dear. I will destroy my own people because they refuse to change from their evil ways. There will be more widows than the grains of sand on the seashore. At noontime, I will bring a destroyer against the mothers of young men. I will cause anguish and terror to come upon them.
Speaker 1:Suddenly, the mother of seven grows faint and gasps for breath. Her son has gone down while it is still day. She sits childless now, disgraced and humiliated. I will hand over those who are left to be killed by the enemy. I, the Lord, have spoken. Then I said.
Speaker 1:Jeremiah said what sorrow is mine?
Speaker 1:My mother? Oh, that I had died at birth. I am hated everywhere I go. I am neither a lender who threatens to foreclose nor, but then the Lord replied. The Lord answers him and he says you to plead on their behalf in times of trouble and distress. Can a man break a bar of iron from the north or a bar of bronze? At no cost to them, I will hand over your wealth and treasures as I plunder, to your enemies, for sin runs rampant in your land, and I will tell your enemies to take you as captives to a foreign land, for my anger blazes like a fire that will burn forever.
Speaker 1:But Jeremiah says die young, for it's your sake that I am suffering. When I discovered your words, I devoured them. They are my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name, o Lord, god of heaven's armies. I have never joined the people in their merry feasts, and I sat alone because your hand was on me. I was filled with indignation at their sins. Why, then, does my suffering continue? Why is my wound so incurable? Your help seems as uncertain as a seasonal brook and like a spring that has gone dry.
Speaker 1:But then this is how the Lord responds. Here he goes. If you return to me, I will restore you so you can continue to serve me. If you speak good words rather than worthless ones, you will be my spokesman. You must influence them, but do not let them influence you. They will fight against you like an attacking army, but I will make you as secure as a fortified wall of bronze. They will not conquer you, for I am with you to protect you and rescue you.
Speaker 1:Wow, you know what I love about that Is? It seems as though Jeremiah got caught up in the moment of God. This is hard, this is difficult. I don't think I can do this. And so it's not like he runs off and just forsakes the Lord. He just gets discouraged, and because of his discouragement he creates this distance between him and God. What I love about that is God says come on back, god.
Speaker 1:What I love about that is God says come on back, come on back to me, come on home. I'm going to restore you so you can serve me. And it's going to be hard, there's going to be difficult moments, but I'm going to make you strong so that you can endure all the things that your enemies try to do and so that you can overcome. And while many of us would love for God to say come back to me and I will make all your enemies go away, and you always make sure all the traffic lights are green and no one ever makes your order wrong and your coffee is always hot, you never have a problem. How many of us know? That's just not life. That's not the world we live in, as a matter of fact, jesus promised and he said in this world we will have trouble, but we take heart, because he says I have overcome the world. In other words, I am stronger than anything you're going to face.
Speaker 1:And so this chapter is so good because, number one, it lets us know that, no matter what we do, whether we get discouraged or what happens, god's not going to give up on us. His word for us is always come on home, come on back home. But then what he also does is he tells us I want to give you something better than just always rescuing you out of every problem and and always, you know, uh causing you to flee. But instead I'm going to make you strong. I'm going to make you so strong that the enemy that used to bully you is now going to run from you, because you are now stronger than any enemy you might face. And what if? What if?
Speaker 1:The season you're going through right now is not there to destroy you? God is using it to teach you. God is using it to train you. God is using it to strengthen you, so that you are no longer having to run from the fight. Now you are the one on offense and you are the one moving forward. Maybe God is making you stronger than you can imagine. So God is not interested in your pain. He's interested in your growth, and sometimes it takes going through difficult seasons before you realize truly how strong he is and how strong he has made you.
Speaker 1:And so, whereas it may not always feel easy, sometimes it's comforting to realize that there's a purpose in what we're going through, because God is always waiting for us. Let's pray together, god. Thank you so much that you're always waiting for us. Let's pray together, god. Thank you so much that you're always waiting for us. You're always with us, you're always for us. I pray today, god, that we will turn to you and you'll give us the perspective to see the things we go through not as things that are going to destroy us, but as just another vehicle that you use to make us into what you want us to be. Thank you for that. Today, in Jesus' name, we pray Amen. And what God's word says in Jeremiah 29, verse 13,. If you look for me, you will find me. My hope for you is that you find God in everything you do today. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Jeremiah, chapter 16.
