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Jeremiah 17: Be an Evergreen Not a Shrub
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The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Well, everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today, jeremiah chapter 27,. And today's title is Be an Evergreen, not a Shrub. Be an evergreen, not a shrub. And you got to say shrub with me, s-h-r-u-b. Shrub, but you got to say it with me like this shrub, because it's a lot more fun. We're going to get into what that means in just a moment and see if I can get the mental picture in your head. That's in my head. But as you are getting out your Bible and trying to say shrub the right way, make sure, if you're new around here, that you like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you're leaving us a five-star review on the podcast and, as always, make sure you're going to the Bible Breakdown discussion on Facebook, because I'm going to tell you, the more we dig, the more we find. And if you have your Bible, want to open up with me again. Jeremiah, chapter 17. Literally, this chapter is going to talk about don't be a shrub, be an evergreen, because a shrub has no future, but an evergreen never stops producing fruit. There you go, there, it is right there. If you're going to be a plant, be a good one. But what this reminds me of is not too long ago, I had an opportunity to go to Oregon and while I was in Oregon, I'd never been there before and if you are listening to this podcast and you live in Oregon, you have got a beautiful place out there. It is gorgeous, can't wait to go back. You invite me and I will take you up on it. All right, and we were going out there. It is gorgeous, can't wait to go back. You invite me and I will take you up on it, all right. And we were going out there and we were right at the line where it goes from just this beautiful forest area and actually we were in the area where the Twilight movies were made and it looked like a Twilight movie. It was like just just dreary, like that. But there was the the forest line where on one side of this mountain, there were these beautiful trees that were just gorgeous and strong, and on the other side, there were these terrible looking half-dead shrubs out there that just looked pitiful, like just somebody cut them down, I mean, put them out of their misery, right. That was terrible. And the difference was because one side got all this water, all this rain and the other side got none, and so one is exactly where you want it to be and one didn't. And the thing is is they were both within just a few feet of each other, but, because of the way the elevation was, one got water and one didn't, and it made all the difference.
Speaker 1:Well, that's what this is going to be talking about in chapter 17, is because God's word is going to talk about the sin and punishment of Judah, and he's going to talk about what it looks like when you don't trust in God, and then what happens when you do trust in God. And so we're going to read this together and, as you can tell, since Jeremiah is prophesying over and over and over again about the coming destruction in God, he's going to talk about, but how you suffer, how you go through tough times, says a lot about how you're going to come out of tough times. And remember, the overall goal of what Jeremiah is saying in these prophecies is judgment's coming, but, at the same time, god wants to give us a hope and a future. And so, once again, it's not just the fact that you're going to struggle, because we're all going to have struggles, but it is how you struggle that determines what you look like on the other end. So we're going to read this together and see what God's word will say to us about being an evergreen, not a shrub. Okay, jeremiah 17,. Verse 1 says this the sin of Judah is inscribed with an iron chisel, engraved with diamond point on the stony hearts on the corners of their altars. Even their children go to worship at the pagan altars of the Asherah poles, beneath the evergreen tree and on every high hill. Pause, that's just disgusting, okay, and the reason why that's disgusting is the Asherah poles were like fertility things, where all types of ungodly sexual things happens, and so the saying that the children went to the Asherah poles is just ugh. Okay, all right. Praise the Lord, all right.
Speaker 1:Verse three so I will hand over my holy mountain, along with all your wreaths and treasures and your pagan shrines as plunder to your enemies, for sin ruins, rampant runs, rampant in your land. The wonderful possessions I have reserved for you will slip from your hands. 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. But listen to this verse 5. This is what the Lord says.
Speaker 1:Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans and who rely on human strength to turn their hearts away from the Lord. They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in barren wilderness and an uninhabited salty land. But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green and they never stop producing fruit.
Speaker 1:The human heart is the most deceitful of all things and is desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards according to what their actions deserve. And then Jeremiah talks about trusting the Lord in verse 11, and he says like a partridge that hatches eggs, she is not laid. So are those who get their wealth by unjust means. At midlife they will lose their riches and in the end they will become poor old fools. But we worship at your throne, eternal, high and glorious. O Lord, the hope of Israel. All who turn away from you will be disgraced. They will be buried in the dust of the earth, for they have abandoned the Lord, the fountain of living water. Oh Lord, if you heal me, I will be truly healed, and if you save me, I will be truly saved. My praises are for you alone.
Speaker 1:People scoff at me and say what is this message from the Lord you talk about? Why don't your predictions come true? Lord, I have not abandoned my job as a shepherd for your people. I have not urged you to send disaster. You have heard everything I've said Lord. The Lord said to me bring double destruction on them.
Speaker 1:And then this is what the Lord said to me go and stand in the gates of Jerusalem, first in the gate where the king goes in and out, and then in each of the other gates. Say to all the people listen to this message from the Lord, you kings of Judah and all you, people of Judah, judah and everyone living in Jerusalem. This is what the Lord says. Listen to my warning Stop carrying on your trade at the Jerusalem gates on the Sabbath day. Do not do your work on the Sabbath, but make it a holy day. I gave this command to your ancestors, but they did not listen or obey. They stubbornly refused to pay attention or accept my discipline. But if you obey me, says the Lord, and do not carry on your trade at the gates or work on the Sabbath day, and if you keep it holy, then the kings and their officials will go in and out of these gates forever. There will always be a descendant of David sitting on the throne here in Jerusalem. Kings and their officials will always ride in and out among the people of Judah, and in chariots and on horses, and this city will remain forever. And from all around Jerusalem and from the towns of Judah and Benjamin and from the western foothills and the hill country of the Negev, the people will come with their burnt offerings and sacrifices. They will bring their grain offerings, frankincense and Thanksgiving offerings to the Lord's temple. But if you do not listen to me and refuse to keep the Sabbath holy and if on the Sabbath day, you bring loads of merchandise through the gates of Jerusalem, just as on other days, then I will set fire to these gates and the fire will spread to the other places and no one will be able to put out the roaring flames. Wow, there's a lot to unpack there.
Speaker 1:But before we go to the meat of what I want to talk about. Isn't it interesting that God is saying I'm going to destroy the city because you will not rest. Think about that for a moment. That's what they were supposed to do on the Sabbath day. The Sabbath day, they were not supposed to work. They were not supposed to exchange in merchandise and all that. It was supposed to be a day where you spent time with God. That's what it was. Sabbath rest meant you were. It wasn't just about ceasing from labor, it was about engaging with God. That was the goal, is they were. So. I mean, if you get in your mind how this is, this is blowing your mind the way it is mine that God is saying if you don't rest, you're I'm going to destroy this place. Okay, god, don't threaten me with a good time.
Speaker 1:Day off, man. Yeah, but it wasn't just a day off, it was a day to engage. And God is saying why are you running around trying to get one more buck? Why are you right? What? Can you not trust me? Can you trust that if you will take time and spend with me, I will make the other time worth the effort? Can I tell you that, as a spiritual discipline, I take off a day and it took me years to work into this, okay, and so if you don't have a day off, you can do it like this. This took me years to get here, but I take a day and it is my Sabbath.
Speaker 1:Also has to do with season of life when my kids were small, I took a Sabbath 10 minutes. You've got to do what you've got to do, right, but the goal is not to cease from working. It is to cease from labor and instead engage with God, and part of that has to do with trusting God. It's saying God, I trust that you are going to take care of the whole universe. While I don't right, you know sarcastically right. But then it's also to spend time with God, and God is saying you are putting trust in yourself and you are not honoring me and if you don't stop it, I'm going to let this place burn. And so God takes us resting and engaging with him very seriously, and that's something to think about.
Speaker 1:But what I want to get back to as we finish our time together is back up at verse five through eight. He says there's two different kinds of people. There's the kind of people who put their trust in mere humans and rely on human strength to get themselves out of trouble. And he said those people are like shrubs in the desert. They have no hope and no future. And he said then there are those who put their trust in the Lord and those are like trees planted by the riverbank and they are always producing good fruit. And, like I said at the very beginning, it reminds me of when I went to Oregon, and on one side of this mountain you had this green, beautiful forest. On the other side you had this desert, arid area. They just had these half-dead shrubs everywhere. And the difference was water. And in the Bible one of the symbols for the Holy Spirit is water. The presence of God is water. Symbols for the Holy Spirit is water, the presence of God is water.
Speaker 1:And what I love about that thought process is when you're going through a hard time, where are you planting yourself? Are you planting yourself in worry, in fear, in other people to get you out of problems? It's okay to depend on people, but your primary dependency should be on God. But if we put our hope in other people, then we'll ultimately be led down, because nobody's God, everybody's human, everyone's going to have a bad day right. So for some of us we need to lower our expectation of people and raise our expectation of God and realize that he is with us and for us, more than we can imagine. But if we put our hope and our confidence in God and spend time with Him, then, as our roots grow down into Him, then it produces life for us. What does that look like? Practically Part of that is what you're doing right now.
Speaker 1:When you get busy, when things get hard, when things get difficult, unfortunately, one of the first things to go is our time with God. Why? Because God understands. Right, he's God, he gets it, he understands and the truth is that he does get it. He gets that. You need him more than you need anything else. But we do. We stop reading our Bible, we stop spending time in prayer. We we stop reading our Bible, we stop spending time in prayer, we stop engaging with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We don't go to life group. We don't go to church on Sunday. We don't give, we don't serve, we don't do those things. And we say we don't do those things because we're busy or whatever.
Speaker 1:But that's almost like saying I'm so busy I don't have time to drink anything. I don't have time to eat anything. Okay, well, that might save you five, ten minutes here or there, but eventually it will stop you. Because your body needs food and water. Well, your spirit needs God's presence, needs God's closeness and nearness, and if you don't do that, you end up like a shrub and you end up with no future and no hope. And so when times get tougher, that's when it's time to lean closer to God. And I wonder if that's why part of what God is saying is he's saying and because you don't have any Sabbath, that's why everything is going wrong.
Speaker 1:And it wasn't about taking a day off from work. It was about taking a day to engage with God. And so the tougher things get, the more important it is to engage with the Lord. So here's the question I want to ask you Are you spending time with God every day, to which it sounds like I am preaching to the choir because you are listening to the Bible right now, but are you missing more days than you're catching? Are you caught today? Praise the Lord, right, you should be very proud of that, but have you missed the three days before that? And is it because you've been busy? Well, first of all. No condemnation, right, I get you, but God wants to talk to you, he wants to speak into your life, he wants to move in your life, he wants to be close to you.
Speaker 1:Sometimes when you talk to God which is what prayer is it doesn't have to be an agenda item with business meeting, you know, kind of vibes but instead it could just be a time of worship. We just turn on some worship music and just spend time being around the Lord. And when you do that, you start to feel very slowly, feel yourself drinking deeply from his presence and you begin to realize how close and how near he really is. Because we're all going to go through hard times. But it's how you go through the hard times that can change how you end up. And if you go through hard times without God, then you end up on the other end looking like a shrub. But if you go through hard times drinking deeply of God's presence along the way, you can come out looking like that evergreen and realizing man. God was with me and I've grown in the process. Let's pray together right now.
Speaker 1:God, thank you so much for today. Thank you, god, that you're with us and you're for us in every way, lord. We're all going to go through wonderful times full of your glory. We're going to go through difficult times full of challenges. I pray that we'll never go through either of them without you and we'll realize that you are closer than we can imagine. I pray that we will experience your presence as we draw close to you. Today, in Jesus' name, we pray Amen and amen. God's word says in Jeremiah 29, verse 13,. If you look for me wholeheartedly, says God, you will find me. My hope and prayer is that you find God more in your life, every single day. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow. For Jeremiah, chapter 18.
