What if God does not answer Me?
Jeremiah 29:11-13 • Sermon • Submitted
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Title: What if God does not answer Me?
Text:
Application: People want a God to give them everything they ask for. They want to hear in the storm, it will not affect you. They want to hear they will be free from sufferings. People just want God’s blessings, but they want it now! Give me peace (welfare), a future, and a hope. Give me a prescription for my problems. So we come to Jeremiah, and we lean on a verse for personal satisfaction, BUT, what does it really say? Can we rely on it for immediate results?
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
1. There is always a ROOT cause to the problem.
1. There is always a ROOT cause to the problem.
Think about this. What was the Problem? They abandoned the Word of God.
18 “Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites.
19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes,
20 that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.
10 And Moses commanded them, saying: “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles,
11 when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.
12 Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the Lord your God and carefully observe all the words of this law,
13 and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess.”
Notes: God always is in control. was fulfilled in (We want a King)
A copy of the law was for private reading and every 7 years the people were to hear at a public setting the Word of God.
Jeremiah was born during a very wicked King. His name was Manesseh. He destroyed the Work of his father Hezekiah. He reigned 52 years and built pagan alters, involved the people in soothsaying, witchcraft, consulted fortune tellers, and built a carved image of the goddess Asherah in the temple and temple ritual prostitution occurred.
Josiah was 8 when he took the throne and for a moment he attempted to bring revival b/c Hilkiah the high priest (the one who made sacrifice for the people behind the veil once a year, and possibly Jeremiah’s father) discovers the lost book of the Law in the wall.
Jeremiah was called to preach the Word of God and remind the people they must repent. He was called to pluck, destroy, break down, overthrow, and build and to plant. (notice 4 negatives before 2 positives).
10 See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, To root out and to pull down, To destroy and to throw down, To build and to plant.”
The people sinned with two great sins
13 “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.
1. Forsakened God
2. Made cisterns that could not hold water
They forgot God
32 Can a virgin forget her ornaments, Or a bride her attire? Yet My people have forgotten Me days without number.
They played the Harlot
1 “They say, ‘If a man divorces his wife, And she goes from him And becomes another man’s, May he return to her again?’ Would not that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers; Yet return to Me,” says the Lord.
Jeremiah stood In the temple door and proclaimed to them judgement was coming
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
2 “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord!’ ”
He was basically proclaiming the Word of God to a people who had not heard the Word in over 100 years.
Today, less than 20 % attend some form of church. Fornication, adultery, millions of babies are aborted, divorce is rapidly happening, homosexuality is legal across the states, and worse is yet to come.
Sept 7th 2017- A man sues The State of Alabama b/c they will not recognize him being married to his computer. He considers himself a ex-gay and ex- transgender and now is an active machinist meaning he is married to his laptop.
When you break God’s law there is no morality. Then comes someone along saying you can’t stop love, it’s my right. So they say, I want to have sexual relationships with children and I want to mate with my animals, and I love _____ and the state can’t stop me.
Jeremiah proclaims to Word to a sick, twisted mind, kind of people. 41 years he proclaims and no one repents. He proclaimed b/c the neglected the Word of God and he proclaimed no matter the cost and no matter the response.
It was generational sin. Meaning that the wickedness occurred b/c once generation let their guard down and did not tell the next.
2. Everything comes with a PRICE.
2. Everything comes with a PRICE.
41 years with no results.
23 years documented and no repentance
2 which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying:
God says:
6 For even your brothers, the house of your father, Even they have dealt treacherously with you; Yes, they have called a multitude after you. Do not believe them, Even though they speak smooth words to you.
He almost gives up:
9 Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him, Nor speak anymore in His name.” But His word was in my heart like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, And I could not.
People wanted him dead:
8 Now it happened, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, “You will surely die!
This verse comes with 70 years of exile to the Babylonians. We see God’s plan even in the midst of using wicked people.
So when the marriage fails, the cancer is not healed, a job is lost, or the bank want give you a loan, did God break His promise?
Remember, the people God promised this to would never see it occur. We bounce the ideas through our head, This is my fault and Did I cause this? The reason we do this is b/c we expect immediate results for whatever hardship we are in.
What about peace, prosperity, and personal happiness?
Instead their circumstance was shackles, oppression, and exile.
When do we grow the most? Is it when we work for it or when it is handed to us?
3. The Plan was for PEACE.
3. The Plan was for PEACE.
“shalom”
4 things to remember:
A. Pray about the present and don’t complain
B. Realize He is not finished
C. Give Him Time
D. Live by Faith
Story of Daniel : Shadrach, Meshac, and Abednego (possibly tell EV Hill story). They would not bend b/c the immediate results did not matter.
4. God wanted them to know their FUTURE HOPE.
4. God wanted them to know their FUTURE HOPE.
5 Things for you to be reminded of:
A. It was not immediate
B. Many would visually never experience this promise
C. They believed it would occur
D. Trust in His promises
E. Life is one step to Eternity
Remember Jesus is our Hope
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
A. Forgive your sins
B. Make you a Child of God
C. H.S will come to comfort you
D. Prepare a place for you
E. Come back to get you
F. Live forever with Me
5. God wanted INTIMACY.
5. God wanted INTIMACY.
12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
A. Call to me
B. Pray to Me
C. I will hear you
D. You will seek Me
E. You will find Me
All of this was during the 70 years exile even though they didn’t see immediate results, God was there with them. He does not want one single evil circumstance to come against us.
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
6. God desires our WORSHIP
6. God desires our WORSHIP
After 70 years they came back. He stayed true to His promise. They rebuilt the temple and rebuilt the walls.
5 And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up.
6 And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. Then all the people answered, “Amen, Amen!” while lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
He will give you hope in the midst of suffering.
What if God does not answer Me?
He is not finished Yet.
Do you feel like God is not listening. Trust in His promise and give all your current problems over to Him. Tell him, Jesus, I may not can see results, but I trust you with my life. I need you every hour.