Jeremiah 31:31–34 | Still Got a Reason To Praise
Levi Stuckey
Enriching Tradition | Lent: Covenant • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 45:30
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· 58 viewsYou’ve always got a reason to praise because God keeps His promises!
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Anyone in here feeling a bit cynical about the things of the Lord this morning?
We’ve been talking about the promises of God for the last several weeks and thinking about grace, which we’ve said is God’s promise to always be glad to see you. Hopefully there have been some inspiring messages preached and you’ve left feeling encouraged by the gospel of Jesus Christ, but I’m aware that in spite of some of the best sermons and truths from Scripture, many of us often feel something less than God’s grace in our lives.
Right, perhaps some of you have thought over that past several weeks something like this: “Levi, you keep saying God is happy to see me, but honestly it doesn’t feel that way, and if I’m even more honest, I don’t know that I’m all that happy to see Him!”
And before we just brush aside this sentiment as someone who just needs to have more faith, walk with me down this road a minute.
Church, there are people in here this morning who have faced down some serious trials and tribulations. I know of people who’ve lost spouses to cancer and disease. I know of folks, good folks, who’ve been cheated on by their spouses, people who’ve been abused, and others who’ve been robbed from. I know of people who’ve lost children to addiction, accidents, and suicide. I know of couples struggling with infertility even as others around them celebrate the birth of yet another child.
There are people in here who’ve lived a sort of exile existence where they’ve felt like worthless outcasts in a foreign land. People who’ve lived such lives that would make even the best of us Christians question the promises of God that are supposedly all true because of Jesus Christ.
If this is you this morning. If you’re one of the exiles, for whom the promises of God feel like nothing more than words on a page. Loved one God wants to speak with you this morning! You are not alone. God sees you. He hears you! He has hope for you and this morning I want to remind you that You’ve Still Got a Reason to Praise!
Because God Keeps His Promises, You and I, all of us, we always have a reason to praise!
And I would like to show you how from Jeremiah 31 this morning.
So turn with me in your Bibles we’re going to cover most of the chapter together and I want you to see that
1. Because God Keeps His Promises you and can press on in hope. vv. 1-30
2. Because God Always Keeps His promises You and I need to press in to Intimacy vv. 31-34
and lastly
3. Because God’s Promises are guaranteed, You and I still got a reason to praise! vv. 35-40
Now for the sake of time, I’m not going to read all of vv. 1-30 (and just as a side note, if you’re not in the habit of reading the chapter a head of time on Sunday mornings before you come, you should get in that habit! It will help you get way more out of the sermon!) Anyways, we’re not going to read all of vv. 1-30. I’m just going to pull out several verses that summarize the section for us. And before we do that I want to clue you in on what we’re going to see.
In vv. 1-30 you’re going to see God’s people living an exile experiencing, which is a whole lot less than the thriving God promised.
You’ll see people who are depressed and downtrodden. People who are being disciplined for sins they themselves committed and/or sins others in their group have committed. There are members in this group, like Jeremiah the prophet who by all accounts have done nothing wrong before the Lord to deserve an exile experience and yet because their people sinned and God is disciplining their people, they too are lumped in on the discipline. So you’ll see people you are depressed and downtrodden, receiving discipline for their own sins or the sins of others in their group.
We’ll also see people who are not living fruitful lives. We’ll see people who are dispersed and alone, discouraged and disabled. We’ll see people who are really living a sorrowful existence in exile, people who’s lives would make even the most commited Christian question the faithfulness of God and His ability to keep His promises and yet God calls these people to press on in Hope. He desires them to know that despite all circumstantial evidence to the contrary, His promises are still true and there is hope for restoration and renewal!
Look at v. 2.
Jeremiah 31:2 “2 This is what the Lord says: “The people who survive the sword will find favor in the wilderness; I will come to give rest to Israel.””
People that survive the sword. Church these are the people got conquered by Babylon. Their towns, cities, homes, fields they all were destroyed.
Can you imagine being conquered and carried away by a foreign nation? Your friends and relatives killed by the sword, your women abused. Your possessions pillaged. You having lost everything that you worked for. Your home. Your stuff. You survived and you’re carried away in nothing but the rags on your back with half of your family at best. You could imagine asking if surviving the sword was better than the alternative? This is a downtrodden and depressed people. A people that have been destroyed.
To them, God says you will find favor in this wilderness! I will give you rest! To these people, God says,
Jeremiah 31:4 “4 I will build you up again, and you, Virgin Israel, will be rebuilt. Again you will take up your timbrels and go out to dance with the joyful.”
To these people who have been dispersed and disabled, who are living a sorrowful existence and seemingly fruitless life God says
Jeremiah 31:7–14 “7 ...“Sing with joy for Jacob; shout for the foremost of the nations. Make your praises heard, and say, ‘Lord, save your people, the remnant of Israel.’ 8 See, I will bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the ends of the earth. Among them will be the blind and the lame, expectant mothers and women in labor; a great throng will return. 9 They will come with weeping; they will pray as I bring them back. I will lead them beside streams of water on a level path where they will not stumble…
10 “Hear the word of the Lord, you nations; proclaim it in distant coastlands: ‘He who scattered Israel will gather them and will watch over his flock like a shepherd.’ 11 For the Lord will deliver Jacob and redeem them from the hand of those stronger than they. 12 They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion; they will rejoice in the bounty of the Lord— the grain, the new wine and the olive oil, the young of the flocks and herds. They will be like a well-watered garden, and they will sorrow no more. 13 Then young women will dance and be glad, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.”
The Lord acknowledges that as a people they are undergoing discipline but that He has not forgotten them. He’s heard their moaning and their mourning and will return them back to the promised land of blessing. Jeremiah 31:16–18 “16 This is what the Lord says: “Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work will be rewarded,” declares the Lord. “They will return from the land of the enemy. 17 So there is hope for your descendants,” declares the Lord. “Your children will return to their own land. 18 “I have surely heard Ephraim’s moaning: ‘You disciplined me like an unruly calf, and I have been disciplined. Restore me, and I will return, because you are the Lord my God.”
Here’s the deal Church,
vv. 1-30 of Jeremiah clues us in to the reality that just because God promises us salvation in Jesus does not mean we are promised an easy or carefree existence in this life.
(Title Screen)The reality is, life will inevitably bring hardship across our path and there will come a day where the circumstances of our lives make us loose hope and call into question the promises of God as we live an exile existence in this life.
Sometimes hardship comes because of our own doing, because we rebel and sin and disobey God and open ourselves up to horrible consequences in this life and the Lord’s discipline.
Other times the hardship that comes is no fault of our own at all. Sometimes it’s because of the group we’re associated with and the choices they make or simply the reality of living in a world that is far from what God desires or designed.
Hear me say this, there is not always a direct cause and effect association to the hardships you and I are forced to endure. Sometimes there is and it’s obvious. Other times the ways of God and His permission of hardship into our life is a mystery.
But here’s what I want you to see, hardship does not remove hope from our lives!
If you know the God of faithful promises, then you always have a reason to hope and you must press on in that hope!
There is no one too depressed who God cannot return to joy! There is no person too far dispersed that God cannot hunt down and gather back into the fold! There is no one too disabled that God cannot heal! There is no one so sorrowful that God cannot comfort! There is no one too enslaved and bound up that God cannot deliver!
To all of these folks, who have been dealt a raw deal in this life of exile, God says
Jeremiah 31:16–17 “16 This is what the Lord says: “Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work will be rewarded,” declares the Lord. “They will return from the land of the enemy. 17 So there is hope for your descendants,” declares the Lord. “Your children will return to their own land.”
And what is this work that will be rewarded? It’s the fight for hope! Press on in hope. Do not loose heart! God is for you, even though it doesn’t always feel that way. When Israel felt that God was against her, listen to what He says to reassure them…
Jeremiah 31:20 “20 Is not Ephraim my dear son, the child in whom I delight? Though I often speak against him, I still remember him. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I have great compassion for him,” declares the Lord.”
I love this! I feel like I could speak this to my son some days! Though I often speak against you because you need discipline! I love you! I remember you! Your my son! I want nothing but the best for you! That’s what God is saying!
I know it hurts, this hardship you’re walking in but I care! You’re my child!
Loved one, God knows the hardships of life and He cares. Hardships do not mean God has forgot His promises to you in Jesus. Quite the contrary, because of the Promise God kept through Jesus, you can press on in hope no matter the hardship your facing.
And you may be thinking, easy for you to say.
I hear that. I don’t know your pain. I don’t know the prayers or questions that have gone unanswered in your heart. And I can’t fix your hurt. But here’s what I can do, I can invite you to press in to intimacy with the Father.
Hear me Church, Because God keeps promises you can press in to intimacy with Him.
This is what vv. 31-34 are all about.
These are some of the most important verses in the entire Scripture because here we learn of the New Covenant that God plans to establish between Himself and anyone who would come to faith in Jesus Christ. These are the marriage vows of the New Covenant the Lord speaks to those of the faith.
Read it with me: Jeremiah 31:31–34
“31 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. 33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.””
Here’s the deal, You and I, we get into a very dangerous place with the Lord when we start to equate the presence of hardship in our lives with the lack God’s grace and favor in our lives.
This comes from a misunderstanding of God’s promises. You see, God did not promise you or me a perfect life this side of heaven! He did not promise us health, wealth or prosperity. He promised us a relationship where He will be faithful and devoted to us in sickness and in health, in wealth and in poverty, and not even death can break this devotion, because He conquered it
But there is a danger to harden our hearts towards God when hardship comes. When hardship comes you and I will inevitably begin to question God’s devotion and His promises to us but here’s what I want you to see, because God always keeps His promises to be faithful to you alone, we need to press in to intimacy! Rather than running from God when hardship comes, the New Covenant promise invites us to run to Him!
This means, if you’re angry or in pain or confused or sad, suffering heartbreak or grieving the loss of someone you loved, God wants to hear about it from you. Like a good husband, He wants to listen to you pour our your heart and because of His promise to be faithfully devoted to you alone, there’s nothing you can say that will ever make Him leave!
This means God invites you to tell Him all of your hurts and hang ups. He desires for you to be open and honest with Him. It means pouring out your soul and heart to Him!
This new Covenant that God makes with His people here in Jeremiah 31 is a promise of personal relationship not prefect performance or understanding! In this New Covenant, God is promising to give you Himself and also He’s promising to give you a persistent desire to know Him!
Church, do you know when I know that a marriage over? Wes and I have the privilege and pain of counseling marriages here at Crossroads and we both know when a marriage is over. You probably can guess at the answer. A marriage over when the commitment and desire to work on the relationship is over. When a spouse comes into the room with no desire to work on the relationship because they just don’t care anymore. It’s done! Barring a miracle of God to tear out that stony dead heart that lacks the want to and replacing it with a soft heart that desires to work on things, the marriage is dead.
Now that said, another couple may be in a dumpster fire, but if the desire is still there to work on the relationship, then there is hope! And this is precisely what God promises to give us when you and I come to Him in faith. He promises to be faithful to us alone, to be devoted to us in love, no matter what and to give us a persistent desire to know Him! As confusing as life gets, as our prayers and questions go unanswered, as we face down hurt and hardship of all kinds, God promises to stay with us, to give us His presence and to maintain in us a desire to know Him! We might be angry with Him, we might be frustrated and sad but He will fan into the flame a persistent desire to press in to intimacy with Him!
Here’s what this means, you may drop the ball hard and commit all kinds of terrible sins in your life personally. You may not be the person you know that God wants you to be. You may fail. Again. At the same things. Over and Over, but if the desire to know the Lord is still present, His promises still stands!
This is how you can know that you’re saved Church! It’s not by your works, it’s by your desire! Do you want to know Jesus! Do you desire to love Him and live for Him, even if you don’t always, if you desire to do so, God’s promise still stands! Your sins are forgiven if you know Jesus and desire to know Jesus!
And part of knowing Jesus means that when the going gets tough, you don’t bail on Him! That’s not what we do in our personal relationships that last! Right! When the going gets tough we don’t bail. We press in. We make our junk known! We work it out!
You may be going through hardship right now, questioning the promises of God in your life… the going may be very hard at the moment, but don’t bail on intimacy with the Father! Press in to it and know that if you do, God will prove His promises in your life.
How do I know, because His promises are guaranteed! Is God a man that He should lie? Of Course not!
Jeremiah 31:35–40
“35 This is what the Lord says, he who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the Lord Almighty is his name: 36 “Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,” declares the Lord, “will Israel ever cease being a nation before me.” 37 This is what the Lord says: “Only if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below be searched out will I reject all the descendants of Israel because of all they have done,” declares the Lord. 38 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when this city will be rebuilt for me from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. 39 The measuring line will stretch from there straight to the hill of Gareb and then turn to Goah. 40 The whole valley where dead bodies and ashes are thrown, and all the terraces out to the Kidron Valley on the east as far as the corner of the Horse Gate, will be holy to the Lord. The city will never again be uprooted or demolished.”
Church, because God’s promise is Guaranteed, you’ve still got a reason to praise.
And I hope I’ve shown you why that’s the case this morning. Is it because all the circumstances in your life are great? Goodness no!
It’s because you have God through Jesus Christ! And if you have God, you have enough!
If you have God, you have everything you need!
I want you to think with me for a minute about Job. Job is a man who suffered tremendous hardship and it was of no fault of his own! He was the butt-end of a duel between God and the Devil! Job suffered precisely because He worshipped the Lord. God permitted Satan to mess with Job in order that Job’s life would show the world the worth of knowing God.
It was horrible. Job’s property was destroyed. Job’s kids, friends, workers, were killed. And the friends he had left came not to comfort but to accuse him of impropriety that did not exist. And lastly Job got afflicted with a horrible skin eating disease. And the person closest to him in this life, the one who was supposed to be his helpmate and encourager, his wife gave up on Job and told him to curse God and die!
She encouraged Job to give up hope and die!
But Job didn’t do that. Job pressed on in hope by pressing in to intimacy with God. He demanded an answer from God! He poured his heart out to the Father. How dare you deal me this deck God! Show yourself! Answer me he says! Job demands answers from God!
And get this, Job never gets them! He never gets a why! God never tells Job about Satan’s accusations or the Divine testing. God never answers any of Job’s questions or demands. But do you now what God gives Job instead? God gives Job Himself!
God shows up and shows Job a bit of His glory!
Do you know where I keep the Lightning Job? Can you speak to the waves this far you shall come and no farther! Do you have a dragon, the great Leviathan on a leash! Did you appoint the sun to shine. Did you hang the moon and the stars in the sky Job? Do you know all? See all? Will anything ever vanish from my sight? Can you measure the foundations of the earth?
God responds to Jobs prayer for answers with a greater revealing of Himself, a deeper intimacy and that Church is enough for Job!
Job realizes He still has a reason to praise because despite all His earthly loss, He still has the one thing worth having, a relationship with The Father in Heaven and no one and nothing can ever take that from Him! And that truth, is enough for Job!
And some may say well, easy for Job, God restores all his stuff and family. Right, he has more children and get gets all his wealth back. To that person I would say, can you replace a child of yours who passes with the birth of another? Of course you can’t. That grief and loss is something you’ll always carry. I’m sure Job carried it, but even that grief did not steal his reason to praise.
Because God Keeps His Promise to Give us Himself, You and I still have a reason to praise.
And you still may not be convinced. The hardship you’re facing, the pain and hurt you feel, the exile you’re living it may simply be too much.
Loved one, look at verse 15 real quick with me.
Jeremiah 31:15 “15 This is what the Lord says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.””
First, I want you to see by this verse that God is not offended by your emotions! He’s not saying you shouldn’t feel the way you feel! Here we see women refusing to be comforted because her children are no more.
And it’s in the New Testament where we learn what this is all about. You see this verse is a prophecy of what’s going to happen when God Himself shows up in our history on earth!
Jesus, the Messiah, the Promised one is finally born the book of Matthew, but His arrival does not put an end to earthly hardship, in some ways it makes things worse. As it turns out, King Herod, the present King of the Jews, doesn’t really like the idea of a New King of the Jews and so He murders all the 2 year old boys and younger in Bethlehem to try and snuff out this would be rival.
Can you even imagine. Imagine a political ruler coming to Napoleon, hearing of a prophecy about a rival ruler who is only a baby at the moment and then killing your 2 year old because of it!
Don’t move past this Church. Real children were murdered because of this! Real families, lost real futures and experienced the worst pain imaginable? A parent loosing a child. I can’t think of much worse. I can’t think of a deeper hurt. And why? Because of Jesus’ presence in their town.
Now, let me ask you this, did God keep His promise to those people?
Yes, absolutely He did. And you say how could you say that, because Jesus didn’t stay a baby! Jesus grew in wisdom and stature before God and man and when it came time He did not consider equality with God something to cling to but He took on flesh and became like us and became obedient to death on the Cross taking our sin and our shame and then raising to new life so that no matter how hard it gets here you and I can press on in hope and we can press in to intimacy knowing that there is nothing, no height or depth, no sin or demon, nothing in all of creation, not even death itself, that could ever separate us from the love that is ours in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I know it hurts Church. I know life is hard, but because God’s Promise is Guaranteed in Christ, we still got a reason to praise. Press on in hope. Press in to intimacy.
Pray.