Running with the Horses WT 04-18-04 am
Jeremiah 12:5
Jeremiah 12:5 If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and [if] in the land of peace, [wherein] thou trustedst, [they wearied thee], then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?
What puzzles me in life is why people live so badly.
It’s not that everyone lives wickedly, although there are a good share that do…
But even those that don’t… just seem so content with the ordinary, the mundane, the every day grind.
Even those who are prominent in our culture leave little to admire and much less to imitate.
Famous entertainers amuse a world of bored sleepwalkers
Spoiled athletes play games for lazy spectators
Insane criminals plaster the headlines for couch potatoes
And if you’re content with the status quo…
If you’re content to just live life in the ordinary, then
You’ll fit right in with the above.
But if you’re tired of the norm…
If you’re sick of the headlines…
If you’re incensed by the wickedness of television
And radio and entertainment…
If you’ve at all felt the tug in your soul that hungers after righteousness…
Then this message is for you this morning!
The condition of our society has deteriorated so… that we’ve become a nation that instead of punishing crime, we have elevated obscure criminals to become national heroes as we’ve plastered their names across the airwaves and in print.
The Media feeds this nation’s raving hunger with stories of who murdered who, providing us with psychological profiles of these insane, wicked monsters of horror.
The Judicial system spends billions of dollars yearly in what has become a national soap opera of man’s depravity.
T.V. talk shows such as Jay Leno, Jenny Jones, Jerry Springer, Oprah Winfrey, Rosie O’Donnell, and Sally Jessie Raphael, just to name a few, have done nothing more than to feed rotten, spoiled meat to a blood thirsty generation of human vultures who identify themselves as being “civilized” and “educated”.
And even in our Church movements, Christians have become more interested with the latest immoral scandals than they have in the moving of the Spirit of God.
Gossip columns run much longer than Good Samaritan columns…
Telephone wires buzz not with prayer requests but with hot juicy information that just has to be passed on with the “Oh my’s” and “I just can’t hardly believe it” and “Did you know”…
If, on the other hand, we look around for what it means to be a mature, whole, blessed person, we don’t find much. These people are around, maybe as many of them as ever, but they aren’t easy to pick out.
No journalist interviews them.
No talk show features them.
They are not admired.
They are not looked up to.
They do not set trends.
There is no cash value in them.
No Oscars are given for integrity.
And they never make the list for the top 100 most influential people in America.
NEVERTHELESS…
The true blood bought child of God, forgiven of their sins, name recorded in the Lamb’s book of Life, final destination Heaven… was never called to run with the Turkeys, but rather called to FLY with the Eagles!!!!
When we get to a point where we are thoroughly disgusted with the way this world is going, and get tired of the pig slop that’s being fed us…
There is a God instilled hunger put within each of us that craves wholeness and freshness.
It is a hunger for Righteousness!
And JESUS said, Matthew 5:6 Blessed [are] they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
You will never find fulfillment in following after the celebrities of this world such as Britney Spears or Jennifer Lopez or Mel Gibson or Tom Hanks…
BUT you can look to Scripture and find men and women of faith who were made from the same lump of clay you and I were…
And from their lives, we are shown their risings, their downfalls, their accomplishments and their failures…
But what sets them apart is the fact that they had a hunger for righteousness… they set their mind and heart to follow after God… and they were found named in the Hebrew’s Hall of Faith.
And their stories were given to us as ensamples or examples of how we should live, not that we fall to HERO worship, but rather that we use their lives and their testimony as a pattern to follow after Christ.
These persons we meet on the pages of Scripture are remarkable for the intensity with which they lived in Righteousness and Holiness unto God.
And we therefore look at people like Joseph, who could have let down his moral standard of conduct and melted to the seducing wiles of Potipher’s wife, but rather ran from the temptation, keeping his integrity and his commitment intact…
We can look at the three Hebrew Children who could have swayed in their faith at the very thought of being burned alive in a fiery furnace, but would not bow their knees to the image
We can look at men like Daniel who was about to become dinner for a pack of hungry lions because he refused to give up his prayer life…
We can look at women like the Mother of Moses who could easily have succumbed to fear of Pharoah and given up her baby boy to be killed along with thousands of other Israelite baby boys, but rather by faith hid him in an ark at the river bank, knowing that God would protect him…
We can look at Mary the mother of Jesus who could have doubted what was taking place as she began to carry the savior of this world, but rather by faith lived her life according to the Angel’s words and brought forth that precious baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger….
Do you understand what I’m preaching to you this morning? All of these I’ve mentioned and many more could have lived normal, dull, mundane, 2nd class citizen lives….
But they didn’t. WHY?
It’s found in our text:
Jeremiah 12:5 If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses?
Our text this morning comes from time in Jeremiah’s life when, worn down by the opposition and absorbed in self-pity,
-he was about to surrender to a premature death.
-He was ready to abandon his unique calling of God and settle for being average.
At that critical moment he heard the reprimand:
If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses?
Life is difficult, Jeremiah. Are you going to quit at the first wave of opposition?
Are you going to retreat when you find that there is more to life than finding three meals a day and a dry place to sleep at night?
Are you going to run home the minute you find that the mass of men and women are more interested in keeping their feet warm than in living at risk to the glory of God?
Are you going to live cautiously or courageously?
I called you to live at your best, to pursue righteousness, to sustain a drive toward excellence.
It is easier to be a freeloader. Easier to be a leech.
It is easier to relax in the embracing arms of The Average.
Easier, but not better.
Easier but not more significant.
Easier but not more fulfilling.
I called you to a life of purpose far beyond what you think yourself capable of living
-and promised you adequate strength to fulfill the will of God for your life.
Now at the first sign of difficulty you are ready to quit.
If this run-of-the-mill crowd of average fatigues you,
what will you do when the real race starts, the race with the swift and determined horses of excellence?
What is it you really want, Jeremiah, do you want to shuffle along with this crowd, or run with the horses?”
It is unlikely, I think, that Jeremiah was spontaneous or quick in his reply to God’s question.
He weighed the options. He counted the cost.
The response when it came was not verbal but biographical. His life became his answer, “I’ll run with the horses.”
