I know, LORD, that our lives are not our own. We are not able to plan our own course. So correct me, LORD, but please be gentle. Do not correct me in anger, for I would die. Jeremiah 10:23-24
Jeremiah was a prophet who lived in the years just prior to Nebuchadnezzar defeating and taking the people of Judah into captivity. Jeremiah was told by God to warn the people to be obedient to His commands. The king of Judah, Josiah, had just recently discovered the law, it was found during renovations of the temple. Using the newly discovered law king Josiah made sweeping reforms for the nation of Judah especially for worshipping God and God alone. Jeremiah’s job was to convince the people that these reforms were from God and that only full and complete obedience to God would spare them from being wiped out.
Much of the messages that Jeremiah recorded and preached are in context of convincing people to turn back to God. We also see in Jeremiah’s prophecy as in every other book of the Old Testament evidence of a Savior, a messiah, a redeemer who would someday come.
The most obvious reference in the book of Jeremiah is this one in chapter 23:5-6
“For the time is coming,” says the LORD, “when I will raise up a righteous descendant from King David’s line. He will be a King who rules with wisdom. He will do what is just and right throughout the land. And this will be his name: ‘The LORD Is Our Righteousness.’”
The Scripture that we read this week in Jeremiah 10 is not a direct prophecy for Jesus, but, it is a plea of a preacher for him and his people, to turn back to God and ultimately God out of His mercy and love for us gave us Jesus as a means to escape his correction. We are not punished as we deserve if we give our lives to Jesus Christ. 2 Timothy 1:9 “For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus.”
I’m especially interested in the first line of Jeremiah 10. “I know, LORD, that our lives are not our own. We are not able to plan our own course.” Jesus made several references to this as he taught his followers, he said, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:28 Jesus had a purpose. He was on earth to do something specific. He said, “ you don’t even know God. I know him. If I said otherwise, I would be as great a liar as you! But I do know him and obey him.” John 8:55 If you have been coming to worship here for any length of time you’ve heard Jesus say, “This is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice for many.” Mark 14:24
There are many references in the New Testament to this truth, too, “I know, LORD, that our lives are not our own. We are not able to plan our own course.” In 1 Corinthians 6:19 Paul says, “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself” 1 Peter 2:9 “you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession.”
There are many things that I could preach about the Redeemer, Jesus, but, I’m going to focus our attention this morning on what our response must be. There is only one response for those who have been redeemed by Jesus, who decide to be followers of Jesus. Jesus made it clear.
He simply said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me.” Luke 9:23.
This is the only appropriate response to the Redeemer. This is the only obedient response to the Redeemer. This is an all or nothing invitation. A follower of Jesus understands that God owns them, God paid for them, and they owe Him their life.
Last Sunday as we discussed Jesus the person, I mentioned that one of the things I enjoy doing to discover more about who Jesus is and how I can be more like him with my attitude and priorities is to walk through one of his stories told in the Gospel books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and take note of three parameters.
First, in the story I’m reading what do I observe about the personality of Jesus. Was he kind, generous, angry, patient, was he positive, negative, and/or critical?
Second, what do I discover about his priorities. What does Jesus consider most important; what does he put first and/or what is he willing to sacrifice to achieve his priorities?
Third, how did Jesus display his power? What does he have power over? What really amazes me about his power?
I would like to do this again with you. The story I want to focus on is found in John chapter 7. The people are celebrating a festival called the feast of Shelters. It’s one of the more joyous festivals during the year and falls late in the harvest so there is plenty of food to go around. The Jews are celebrating deliverance from wandering in the desert before they were allowed into the promised land. Think of this celebration like Thanksgiving, a week long feast with family and friends. Like any festival, there would’ve been entertainment in the streets, all kinds of vendors and games.
There were those who already hated Jesus, especially the politicians and Saturday School Teachers, and they were on the lookout for him. And even though Jesus knows this, he goes anyway. The first thing he does is he heads to the temple and begins to teach. The people are amazed by his depth of understanding of Scripture, and they say, “How does he know so much when he hasn’t been trained?” So Jesus told them, “My message is not my own; it comes from God who sent me. Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own. Those who speak for themselves want glory only for themselves, but a person who seeks to honor the one who sent him speaks truth, not lies. Moses gave you the law, but none of you obeys it! In fact, you are trying to kill me.”
The folks listening to him now become ticked off, because, people hate to be confronted. They start to think Jesus is some kind of conspiracy nut case. Notice how fast they went from being amazed to perturbed, all because Jesus pointed out that they were failing to obey the law of Moses. So they respond, “You’re demon possessed! Who’s trying to kill you?” People always revert to name calling when they don’t want to deal with the truth. The world thinks that the message of Jesus is nuts, and if you believe Him and sell out to Him, they will think you’re nuts too. Once the politicians and Saturday School teachers got wind that Jesus was in town they became obsessed with trying to find him. Verse 30 says, “Then the leaders tried to arrest him; but no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come.” God wasn’t ready to give up, yet, He still had more work to do.
Then on the last day of the festival; you know the day you hate to see coming because you know that the next day you have to go back to reality. On the last day you want to really focus on having fun and celebrating and living in the moment. And this was the day Jesus picked to do this, “ On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’”(When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.) When the crowds heard him say this, some of them declared, “Surely this man is the Prophet we’ve been expecting.” Others said, “He is the Messiah.” Still others said, “But he can’t be! Will the Messiah come from Galilee? For the Scriptures clearly state that the Messiah will be born of the royal line of David, in Bethlehem, the village where King David was born.” So the crowd was divided about him. Some even wanted him arrested, but no one laid a hand on him.
There were those in the crowd who started to wonder if Jesus really could be the Redeemer Messiah prophesied in Scripture, and there were those in the crowd that finally connected the dots and affirmed that he was and then there were others who were really annoyed that this guy was ruining their fun and vacation and wanted him arrested. The mood of the festival turned from fun and frolic to conflict and confusion as people debated and argued with each other. Families would’ve been divided. All of a sudden what was a festival turned into an ugly, argumentative and divisive event. Verse 53 says, they broke up and went home.
So what do we learn about Jesus from this story? What do I observe about his personality? You might get something else out of it, and that’s OK, but, what I see is a man completely focused on His mission. Jesus is not intimidated by the fact that he’s being a Debbie downer. He’s confrontational, but, with a purpose. He knows he only has a limited amount of time to train his followers before His mission is done. He takes advantage of the festival and the crowds to get His message out there, knowing that many folks would be leaving the festival and going home. Jesus plan was to plant seeds in the minds of people that He is the Redeemer.
What about His priorities? His priority is to tell people who He is, why He’s there and to point them back to God. He makes a beeline for the temple because that was the Spiritual nerve center of the Jewish people. Even though many people weren’t in the mood to listen to Him, He got His message out there, first by teaching in the temple and getting people to talk about Him for a few days, and then issuing the public invitation on the last day.
And then in His power I see how God protects Jesus from arrest. He’s being hunted like a criminal, any other person would’ve been caught. But God kept Jesus from harm so that He could share His message.
As we process the message this morning I want to share with you what God’s expectation is. I know what it is, because His Bible tells me.
Paul says in Philippians 3:8, “everything is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ”
I have a trash can here. I put garbage in this container. Stuff that I have used or consumed that I don’t need or want anymore, or that is wasted material from being used. This is the word picture Paul paints for us. Everything in my life is trash compared to my relationship with Jesus Christ. In other words, my focus is on Him first before it’s on anything else. I consider my relationship with Jesus worth more than my marriage, worth more than my children, worth more than my own life. That doesn’t mean that my marriage isn’t important to me, it is, or that I don’t love my kids. They know I love them very much, but, my wife and kids know that to me, nothing is more important than knowing and obeying my Redeemer. This is how a follower of Jesus thinks.
My life is not my own. Neither is my marriage, or my children. They belong to God. God owns them as He owns me. So I’m going to empty out the garbage of my life so that I can fill it with what Jesus wants to place in me.
Now what would that be? Jesus tells us in Matthew 13
He says it’s like a farmer who goes out to plant his seeds. Some of the seeds fall on a path and the ground is too hard and the birds came and ate the seeds. Other seeds fell on the ground next to the path that was filled with rocks and even though the seeds sprouted the roots couldn’t go deep enough and the plants withered and died in the sun. Seeds also fell among some weeds and everyone knows that new plants have no chance among well established weeds. These new plants were choked out. But then there were seeds that feel on the ground the farmer prepared for planting, he had tilled it, yanked out the weeds, removed the rocks and he watered every day and these seeds produced a marvelous crop.
Jesus wants me to produce. In order for me to be a follower of Jesus I need to make sure that my heart and mind is being prepared by Him to receive His Word. So as I remove the trash from this can, I replace it with soil. Rich and prepared soil like this potting soil, so that my life doesn’t produce trash, it produces the kind of fruit that Jesus expects of me. And since we don’t have time to watch seeds grow here this morning, I hope this bouquet of flowers will suffice as a word picture that my life is producing something beautiful for Him.
This is why He redeemed me. Not so that I could live my life the way I want, but, so that I would be a slave to Him and bring more souls to know Him, too. After all I am God`s very own possession.
I know, Lord, that our lives are not our own. We are not able to plan our own course.
I pray that you will be a follower of Jesus, too. Just as we shared from the story in Luke 7, when it comes to responding to Jesus as the Redeemer there are those who aren’t sure yet, those who know for sure, and those who know for sure they hate him.
My prayer is that you know for sure He is the Redeemer and you have emptied the trash of your life and consider everything else garbage compared to knowing Him.
