Sermon Tone Analysis
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Stupid People
Forest Gump in that movie said “Stupid is as stupid does.”
People do a lot of stupid things sometimes.
I’ve been known to do my share of stupid things over my lifetime.
Don’t ask because I’m not telling what they are.
I Googled stupid things that people do and came across some pretty stupid but funny things.
One person wrote that his brother had a girlfriend who thought that Abraham Lincoln was the first black president because he is dark on a penny.
Their mom said to her that he is green on the 5 dollar bill that doesn’t make him a Martian.
Another guy wrote about a guy who was out shooting his new pistol.
He checked his target after the first couple of rounds and there were no holes in it so he assumed that there was something wrong with the gun.
He pointed the gun at the palm of his hand and fired, he found out there wasn’t anything wrong with the gun.
Another guy wrote about his room mates girlfriend who boiled water on there electric stove on low because she didn’t like to see the coils turn red.
Stupid is as stupid does.
Often times when we do something stupid there are some consequences.
When deep frying turkeys became a popular things you heard about people burning their houses down.
The warnings were that the turkey need to be thawed before you put it into the oil.
If you didn’t the oil would boil up and out and catch on fire.
Judah and Israel are a good example of people doing stupid things.
They were offered blessings upon blessings if they would follow God and be obedient to Him.
They were told of the curses and punishment that would happen if they turned their backs on God.
It seems like a simple thing, follow God and get all the good or turn your back on God and suffer the consequences.
To me and maybe to you it sounds like a no brainier.
It wasn’t only all of Israel that would be blessed, but it would be the entire world.
If you back up a little bit to the beginning of this chapter, you read these words.
Do you see that? “The nations will enjoy God’s blessings; they will boast about him.”
There is a cause and effect with their obedience to God.
If they stop wandering away, if they get rid of their idols, if they swear by the living God in truth, justice, and righteousness, then.
Then the nations will enjoy God’s blessings.
Paul wrote about God’s blessings in his letter to the Galatians.
This idea got be to digging a little bit more.
Paul wrote:
In our western selfish culture in the church we often think that to be blessed that we are blessed in some material sense.
If that were true, then why are some of the strongest Christians some of the most materially poor people in the world?
What was it about Abraham’s faith?
Hebrews 11:8-10 “8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance.
He went out without knowing where he was going.
9 By faith he lived in the land he had been promised as a stranger.
He lived in tents along with Isaac and Jacob, who were coheirs of the same promise.
10 He was looking forward to a city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”
Abraham’s faith was far beyond any material blessing.
It was a faith looking to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Israel did not answer that call to repentance and they did not return to God.
Jeremiah wrote:
God is saying that judgement was coming because they did not return to God.
Jeremiah throughout this chapter repeats in different ways this call to repentance and obedience to God.
Jeremiah 4:3 “3 This is what the Lord says to the people of Judah and to the residents of Jerusalem: Break up your hard rocky soil; don’t plant among the thorns.”
We can become so self satisfied that our hearts and lives can become hard and rocky.
When a farmer plows his fields it is a radical change for that land.
When we come to faith in Jesus it is not just something nice that we do.
It is to be a radical change in our lives.
Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans
Romans 6:1-3 “1 So what are we going to say?
Should we continue sinning so grace will multiply?
2 Absolutely not!
All of us died to sin.
How can we still live in it?
3 Or don’t you know that all who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?”
He is writing about a radical change.
Died to sin, baptized into his death.
That is an extremely radical change in our lives.
Yet the sad thing is that many who profess the name of Jesus have not died to sin, they haven’t been baptized into Jesus death.
They live like Jesus has made no difference at all in their lives.
Jeremiah goes on in verse 4 to
Jeremiah 4:4 “4 Dedicate yourselves to the Lord; don’t be thick-skinned, people of Judah and residents of Jerusalem, or else my anger will spread like a wildfire.
It will burn, with no one to put it out, because of your evil deeds.”
Other translations use the word “circumcise” rather than dedicate.
Again this is about a radical change in a person’s relationship with God.
The people of Israel had gotten caught up worshipping idols rather than God.
Western Christians get caught up in worshipping idols of our own making.
We worship at the feet of politicians.
The worship is about how I can benefit from what that person is promising.
They worship the the power rather than the one who permits that person to be in leadership.
People worship the idols of internet influencers, musicians, movie and TV stars, the movers and shakers of the world.
They worship their cars, homes, and toys.
Jeremiah wrote about what needed to be said over and over again in many different ways.
His message always went to the heart.
Jesus said
Jesus said that in the Sermon on the Mount.
He addressed religion that wasn’t about relationship.
He was calling people into a relationship with the Father.
Just a few verses prior to this one he taught how to pray.
Where is your treasure this morning?
Is it in the things you have or are you storing up treasures in heaven?
Have you had a radical change in your heart?
What would Jesus say to you today about your treasures?
Jeremiah continues with the warning of coming judgement.
He says beginning there in verse 6
Don’t just stand there, do something is something we might say if we are working and others are just standing around.
There is nothing more frustrating than to be working hard and someone is just standing there and watching you.
It’s like that person who gets a flat tire and is in the process of changing it and someone asks “did you get a flat tire?”
If that happens just reply, nope, the other three just swelled up.
Jeremiah says to “Set up a flag to Zion.”
To set up a flag or to raise a flag means to bring attention to something.
Jeremiah is saying there is coming judgement so raise the flag to warn people.
It is kind of a “Houston we have a problem” moment.
Do we raise the flag to warn people of the dangers we face in our culture?
Jesus said to go and make disciples but we are often content sitting and hoping that they will come to us.
The world is rushing headlong into judgement.
Millions and millions and millions do not know Jesus.
Way to many have a false idea of what it means to be a Christian.
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