Article for September 22, 2024
Jeremiah 11:18–19a 18The Lord made it known to me and I knew; then you showed me their deeds. 19But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter.
My dad once told me why he enjoyed watching football games of teams he did not root for. My dad said he could watch these games and not feel like he had to root for one side or the other. He could just watch for the enjoyment of the game and enjoy when and whoever made the good play.
My dad also told me that I should root for the team of the state I was living in. My dad said this helps you fit into the culture of the state one lives in. I failed my dad because instead of being a Lion’s fan I became a Green Bay Packer’s fan. And when I moved to Ohio, I continued to be a Michigan fan. But what my dad, Paul meant was to be one with those you are in the midst of.
We make choices in our lives because of our loyalty to those things we were brought up to believe. At a time, some things were good and at a time those things changed and were not as they were before. But really, who cares, we were brought up on a belief that nothing should change and why would anything ever change. The truth, only God and His word never changes
If we are talking about God and His word, nothing changed, and the meaning of God’s word remains the same, past present and even into the future. So, who changed if God and His word did not? We changed, slowly and surely, we change as we let the world influence our daily lives and our very thoughts. The world is leading us like lambs to be slaughtered.
Jeremiah 11:19b I did not know it was against me they devised schemes, saying, “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more.”
Tell someone a lie repeatedly and eventually that person will believe it. That is what our world is doing, and more and more people think the lies of the world are our new salvation. You could call it a designer’s salvation. Think about it, you want to call the shots and how you will be saved? Our world is calling the shots, but their shots are all misses. The world will affirm the worlds salvation is eternal death and damnation. But the world can’t see through their own lies.
We are the schemes that are destroying the fruits of God’s churches. Because we call the church our church and we take the church away from God. Do you realize that the churches are dying not because of God but because we are failing to the world more and more each day? But who am I to say anything, to the world I am a hypocrite. And that is another weapon of the evil one to destroy the fruit of God. Deface the good, make the good sound bad, and lie as to how it will be better as we destroy the good.
We are the fruit, those who believe, we are the fruit of God that was created to nourish the world. Instead, we are being rotted by the world who has sold us the idea that we can be a hybrid fruit. The world is trying to tell us we don’t need the true nourishment of the Spirit, we do not need the word of God. The world wants us to live on imitation fruit, imitation nourishment, through hybrid manmade fruit. The world wants you to forget the name of God, forget the name of our savior Jesus Christ and put your faith in the micromanagement of the world.
Jeremiah 11:20 20But, O Lord of hosts, who judges righteously, who tests the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause.
Listen to the words in the verse above. If it is a true believer speaking these words, then it is a request for God to strike the unbeliever. If it is the self-righteous speaking these words, then they do not understand they are asking God to strike them down with the unbeliever.
For the second part of this statement is something we all need to understand. We say we commit our lives to God and then we forget we said these words. Again, the self-righteous say they commit to God when in truth they really commit to their self-righteousness. But to those who believe in God we commit knowing of our sin and knowing we are in need and want for God’s grace and mercy.
James 3:13 13Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.
Wisdom starts with honesty, humbleness, humility, and fearing God. With wisdom we see our frailty caused by our sinful nature and understand that we in this sinful world are all in need of God’s grace and mercy. God is the one whose righteousness covers the sins of man, and the righteousness God covers us with is the righteousness that belongs to His Son our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
James 3:14–15 14But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.
We live in a world of self-righteous hypocrites, and these are not just those who claim to be Christian. We believers and non-believers, church attenders and non-church attenders are all hypocrites. We all suffer from the disease of self-righteousness and sinfulness. We see this disease of self-righteous ambition and demonic disorder every day and it increases and is becoming more chaotic every day.
Our world is depending on its own wisdom and discarding God’s wisdom. Everyone is slowly getting sucked into the world through cunning illusions, misdirection and the clever patients of the evil one. But take heart, Jesus Christ has overcome all this through His sacrifice on the cross for all and especially for all who believe in the salvation Jesus died to give us.
James 3:17–18 17But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
The love of God comes to save all who believe that Jesus died for our sins, died to bring us forgiveness, died to bring us hope. The love of God was resurrected from the dead, given life eternal, and given the right to share this life eternal with all who follow and believe in the will of God. Amen.
Written by Pastor Curtis May
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