Pastor
Steve Geiger Pentecost 5
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Jeremiah 20:7-13
7 O LORD, you deceived me, and
I was
deceived;
you overpowered me and
prevailed.
I am ridiculed all day long;
everyone mocks me.
8 Whenever I speak, I cry
out
proclaiming violence and
destruction.
So the word of the LORD has
brought me
insult and reproach all day long.
9 But if I say, “I will not
mention him
or speak any more in his
name,”
his word is in my heart like
a fire,
a fire shut up in my bones.
I am weary of holding it in;
indeed, I cannot.
10 I hear many whispering,
“Terror on every side!
Report him! Let’s report
him!”
All my friends
are waiting for me to slip,
saying,
“Perhaps he will be
deceived;
then we will prevail over
him
and take our revenge on
him.”
11 But the LORD is with me
like a mighty warrior;
so my persecutors will
stumble and not prevail.
They will fail and be
thoroughly disgraced;
their dishonor will never be
forgotten.
12 O LORD Almighty, you who
examine the righteous
and probe the heart and
mind,
let me see your vengeance
upon them,
for to you I have committed
my cause.
13 Sing to the LORD!
Give praise to the LORD!
He rescues the life of the
needy
from the hands of the
wicked.
Take
the Lid Off of the Kettle Jeremiah 20:7-13
1.
Warnings are needed
2.
Persecutors will lose in the end
I
eat a lot of rice.
Today
I eat mostly brown rice. For a long
time I ate white rice. It was
especially noticeable with the white rice.
You
boil the water with the rice in it. As
the water gets hotter and hotter, these bubbles of starchy white begin rising
from the rice. Before you know it, the
bubbles are hitting the cover of the kettle.
In moments the bubbles are pushing the cover of the kettle up, and white
water runs down the side of the kettle and hits the burner and there is steam
and smoke and smell and . . . and what do you do?
When
a pot is boiling over, you take the lid off the kettle. As the heat is allowed to escape all at
once, the boiling bubbles slow and the rice water goes back down in the pot.
The
heat in the pot will force itself out, one way or the other. Take the lid off. Let it go.
The
message of warning which God gave to Jeremiah was going to force its way out,
one way or the other. Take the lid
off. Let it go.
God
has given you truth too. Have you
worked really hard in your life to keep it inside? Do you know of warnings that you need to share with people you
love, neighbors you know? Have you
worked really hard in your life to avoid bringing up the subject? There may be warnings which you need to
hear. Have you worked really hard to
avoid the truth?
Truth
can be ignored but not avoided. The
truth God gave to Jeremiah was going to happen whether Jeremiah spoke it or
not. The truth was that God’s people
had stopped worshipping God and started worshipping other things. Jeremiah announced violence and
destruction. Bad stuff was going to
happen. Really bad stuff. God was going to smash the nation of Judah. When under siege, the people of Jerusalem
would be so hungry that they would eat the flesh of their sons and
daughters. After being killed the sword
of the enemy, the people of Judah would have their dead bodies eaten by birds
and wild animals. The Babylonians would
kill so many that the cemetery would run out of room. Bad stuff. Because God’s
people had started making other things more important than God.
As
you’ve come to know of and trust in Jesus and God’s love through Jesus, you are
one of God’s people. You’ve been
specially blessed. The people of Judah
had been specially blessed. They lost
their blessing. Are we in danger of the
same?
Have
other things become more important than God?
Some of the things that can get in the way of our love for God are not
bad in themselves. It’s not
automatically wrong to enjoy time with friends. It’s not automatically wrong to play games or do special summer
activities. It’s not wrong to work and
earn an income. It’s not automatically
wrong to spend time watching God-pleasing shows on television. It’s not automatically wrong to surf the web
or garden or play video games.
But
isn’t it easy—and at times it can happen without our even realizing it—to look
back at a week and see how we’ve spent our time and discover that we have
chosen work or fun or something over God.
This can be especially clear when we have to make a choice.
I enjoy
watching golf. I know it’s not
automatically wrong for me to watch golf.
But there are moments when I know that I should be doing work in the
Scripture—working on a Bible study, getting ready to preach a sermon, visiting
a friend at the state hospital or in the prison. There’s a part in me that would much rather watch golf. Sometimes it feels like a battle, a
competition between doing what’s right and doing what my flesh thinks would be
more fun.
Have
you made the right choices? Does your
summer schedule make very clear that the Lord is first in your life? Or are you worshipping another god? The god of fun. The god of a project. The
god of earthly joys with family. The
god of using money first for me.
You
shall have no other gods.
God’s
warning is for us. Can we try to keep
it shut up in the pot? A part of us may
say, “I don’t want to hear it. I don’t
want to face it. I don’t want to have
to change my life.”
Neither
did the people of Judah. Their dead
bodies were eaten by birds.
God’s
warning is meant also for others.
Jeremiah was to speak out against the common sins of his day. It didn’t make life easy for him. He stood in the temple and told the people
of Judah that God was going to bring on Jerusalem and the villages around it every
disaster pronounced against them because they were stiff-necked and would not
listen to God’s words.
A
priest had Jeremiah beaten. A priest
had Jeremiah’s hurting body put in stocks, pieces of wood that held your head
and arms trapped for others to see and make fun of you.
All
he did was tell the truth.
Do
we hesitate to tell the truth sometimes because we imagine the bad that may
happen? Are we afraid to lovingly warn
someone who is sinning? It’s so hard. We may have a relative who doesn’t seem to
care very much about what church they attend or that their faith is in danger
from not going to church at all. We’ve
thought about talking to them, but we know that all is calm if we keep quiet,
so we think, so we’ve just put it off.
We know that God describes for us how we can be patient and loving in
our rebukes, but we decide that it will never be the right moment, that a
certain sin can’t be that bad, that we’d prefer peace.
God
doesn’t give us a choice. He didn’t
tell Jeremiah, “I’d like you to think about maybe someday perhaps warning this
people that not honoring God first in life is eternally dangerous.”
We
may get into a conversation with a coworker or a neighbor or a friend, or even
a stranger, and words are shared that ridicule a Bible truth. We think about two options. I can calmly share God’s truth and find out
how people can be really mean—my job or life becomes way harder. Or I can listen, give no indication of any
concern with what was said and plan never to deal with it, and I’ll keep a
friend.
God
doesn’t give us this choice. Now
surely, God commands us to be patient and gentle and loving and humble and
aware of our own sins as we carefully share God’s warnings with other sinners. But he didn’t tell Jeremiah, “If, after
you’ve done the calculations, you figure that speaking the truth is going to
make life way worse for you, go ahead an keep your mouth shut.
God
told Jeremiah to speak. God told
Jeremiah, when appropriate, to warn.
God tells us that, when the time is right and it’s time to warn . . .
How
many times have we ignored God’s warnings ourselves? How many times have we kept silent when we had opportunity to
warn others because we were afraid? How
many times have we put on the back burner the need to speak God’s truth to
those around us?
Jesus
tells us that if we do not acknowledge him before men, he will not acknowledge
us before his Father in heaven. Let us
know: God’s warnings are not empty. Do
we deserve the destruction he warns?
We
do. We hear Jeremiah’s warning.
Hear
also Jeremiah imagining himself ignoring God’s words. He imagined himself saying, “I will not mention him or speak
anymore in his name.” But he couldn’t. God’s word was like a fire in his
heart. God’s word was like a fire in
his bones. God’s word was like the
white bubbles of boiling rice in a kettle with a cover.
God’s
word—there’s something special about God’s words. What’s special? They’re
true.
There’s
no point in holding in the warnings. We
need to face them. When the warnings
make sinners tremble, know too that there’s something else true that can’t be
held inside.
Comfort. Jeremiah had comfort. Today he shares it with us. Whatever this comfort was, even when life
was really hard for Jeremiah as he spoke God’s truth, still he had reason to
sing. His God, the only God, was the
God who rescues the life of needy. God
rescues people from seemingly impossible situations.
Isn’t
our guilt an impossible situation? It
can feel like we’ve gotten ourselves in a mess we can’t ever escape. How can we undo our messed up
priorities? How can we undo the times
we’ve been afraid to witness our faith?
God
rescues the life of the needy by becoming for us a perfect obedient
substitute. The Lord Jesus Christ is
our righteousness. The Lord Jesus
Christ is God’s gift of obedience to us.
Jesus
spent about thirty-three years on earth.
He used his time wisely. He
enjoyed spending time with food and fun and people. He enjoyed moments of relaxation. But never did he make earthly
things more important than doing his Father’s will. Never did he let Bible study or worship slip just to have earthly
fun. Never did he love sports or
entertainment or sleep more than his Father.
Never did he complain when needing to give up personal time to help someone. Not only didn’t he ever make earthly things
more important than doing his Father’s will.
He also was brave and spoke the truth.
He was patient. He was
gentle. But never did he back away from
warning out of fear for what might happen.
He did right. He brave doing of
right is his gift to you. In your
baptism. He gave you his brave
righteousness.
A
bravery that finally led to his death.
But his death too was for our life.
He died an innocent man, punished for the many sin-filled choices we have
made and can’t undo. Jesus undid
them. You are innocent. This is God’s promise. These are God’s words.
Don’t
hold that in either.
You
have to share the truth--comfort where appropriate; warnings when
necessary. Take the lid off the
kettle. Don’t be afraid to speak to
family, friends, neighbors, or strangers about ways that are wrong.
I
know that we can be afraid of what will happen. We’re afraid of losing.
Know that you can’t lose. It’s
those who might persecute you who will lose.
With
Jeremiah, even his friends were hoping that he’d slip. That they would have reason to report him,
to get him in trouble. That they would
have the chance to take revenge on him for his pointing out of their sin. Jeremiah faced real threats. Jeremiah got beaten. But those who persecuted him would lose.
Right
now they may seem to be winning. They
may make fun of you. They’ll tell you
that you’re close-minded. They may
wrongly accuse you of being judgmental.
They may tell you that you’re a horrible person. But one day they’ll see. The day will come when all who have rejected
God’s truth will see that the person who warned them was the most loving person
they had ever met, but now it’s too late.
They’ll be ashamed.
Because
the Lord’s warning is the truth. When
you speak the Lord’s truth, you will be proven right. And the Lord will back you up.
The Lord is a mighty warrior. Do
you think that should you speak truth and someone tries to hurt you . . . do
you think that God suddenly will be weak?
A person can’t beat God. Don’t
be afraid of what people can do to you.
Instead,
commit your cause to the Lord. Take the
truth inside of you and let it out. Be
a Jeremiah. Be ready to suffer, and
incredibly. But know that in the end it
will be seen that you were brave and bold for the winning team.
You
are with a winner. Though suffering,
praise him. Though persecuted, sing to
him. He is the one who will rescue your
life from the hands of any who oppose you.
You
cannot hold God’s truth inside of you.
You cannot keep warnings and comforts to yourself.
You
may try to keep the white bubbles inside a rice pot. The bubbles will force their way out. You have something inside of you that needs to come out too.
Take
the lid off of the kettle.
Amen.