I. EXORDIUM:
Are you trusting in men?
No. Only in JESUS CHRIST and GOD do I put my trust.
John 14:1 (Amplified Bible)
DO NOT let your hearts be troubled (distressed, agitated). You believe in and adhere to and trust in and rely on God; believe in and adhere to and trust in and rely also on Me.
II. AUDIENCE PROFILE:
Believers/unbelievers
III. OBJECTIVES:
To show that GOD will not allow us to be cursed by putting our trust in men and ourselves but only trusting in GOD.
IV. TEXT:
Jeremiah 17:5 (Amplified Bible)
Thus says the Lord: Cursed [with great evil] is the strong man who trusts in and relies on frail man, making weak [human] flesh his arm, and whose mind and heart turn aside from the Lord.
V. THESIS:
Praise, worship, glorify, adore, bless, honor, acknowledge and thank You very much LORD JESUS You will never let me trust in other people and myself, but will only keep me trusting in You, hoping in You and putting my confidence in You.
VI. TITLE:
Don't trust in man to avoid the curse
VII. EXPLICATION: [Source: Thompson Chain - Bible Book Outlines]
A. AUTHOR: Jeremiah, the "weeping prophet"
B. DATE WRITTEN: During the ministry of Jeremiah (c. 627-580 b.c.)
C. PURPOSE: To declare God's judgment upon His people and call them to repentance and spiritual restoration.
D. TO WHOM WRITTEN: The nation of Judah
E. MAIN THEMES: The backsliding, bondage, and restoration of the Jews.—Thompson Chain - Bible Book Outlines
F. KEYWORD: heart (Jeremiah 17:9)
G. KEY VERSES: Jeremiah 2:19, Jeremiah 31:33
Jeremiah 2:19 (Amplified Bible)
Your own wickedness shall chasten and correct you, and your backslidings and desertion of faith shall reprove you. Know therefore and recognize that this is an evil and bitter thing: [first,] you have forsaken the Lord your God; [second,] you are indifferent to Me and the fear of Me is not in you, says the Lord of hosts.
Jeremiah 31:33 (Amplified Bible)
But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, says the Lord, I will put My law within them, and on their hearts will I write it; and I will be their God, and they will be My people.
H. PROMINENT PEOPLE: Jeremiah, the kings of Judah, Baruch, Nebuchadnezzar, the Rechabites—Thompson Chain - Bible Book Outlines
VIII. MAIN BODY:
Jeremiah 17:5 (Amplified Bible)
Thus says the Lord: Cursed [with great evil] is the strong man who trusts in and relies on frail man, making weak [human] flesh his arm, and whose mind and heart turn aside from the Lord.
Jeremiah 17:5 (New King James Version)
Thus says the Lord: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the Lord.
A. A man is cursed if he also trusts in man and man's strength
"Thus says the Lord: Cursed [with great evil] is the strong man who trusts in and relies on frail man, making weak [human] flesh his arm,"
Psalms 62:9 (Amplified Bible)
Men of low degree [in the social scale] are emptiness (futility, a breath) and men of high degree [in the same scale] are a lie and a delusion. In the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath.
Psalms 118:8-9 (Amplified Bible)
It is better to trust and take refuge in the Lord than to put confidence in man.
It is better to trust and take refuge in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.
Psalms 146:3-4 (Amplified Bible)
Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no help.
When his breath leaves him, he returns to his earth; in that very day his [previous] thoughts, plans, and purposes perish.
Isaiah 2:22 (Amplified Bible)
Cease to trust in [weak, frail, and dying] man, whose breath is in his nostrils [for so short a time]; in what sense can he be counted as having intrinsic worth?
Isaiah 30:1-7 (Amplified Bible)
WOE TO the rebellious children, says the Lord, who take counsel and carry out a plan, but not Mine, and who make a league and pour out a drink offering, but not of My Spirit, thus adding sin to sin;
Who set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked Me—to flee to the stronghold of Pharaoh and to strengthen themselves in his strength and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!
Therefore shall the strength and protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt be to your humiliation and confusion.
For though [Pharaoh’s] officials are at Zoan and his ambassadors arrive at Hanes [in Egypt],
Yet will all be ashamed because of a people [the Egyptians] who cannot profit them, who are not a help or benefit, but a shame and disgrace.
A mournful, inspired prediction (a burden to be lifted up) concerning the beasts of the South (the Negeb): Oh, the heavy burden, the load of treasures going to Egypt! Through a land of trouble and anguish, in which are lioness and lion, viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches upon the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures upon the humps of camels, to a people that will not and cannot profit them.
For Egypt’s help is worthless and toward no purpose. Therefore I have called her Rahab Who Sits Still.
Isaiah 31:1-9 (Amplified Bible)
WOE TO those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses and trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they look not to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek and consult the Lord!
And yet He is wise and brings calamity and does not retract His words; He will arise against the house (the whole race) of evildoers and against the helpers of those who work iniquity.
Now the Egyptians are men and not God, and their horses are flesh and not spirit; and when the Lord stretches out His hand, both [Egypt] who helps will stumble, and [Judah] who is helped will fall, and they will all perish and be consumed together.
For the Lord has said to me, As the lion or the young lion growls over his prey—and though a large band of shepherds is called out against him, he will not be terrified at their voice or daunted at their noise—so the Lord of hosts will come down to fight upon Mount Zion and upon its hills.
Like birds hovering, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem; He will protect and deliver it, He will pass over and spare and preserve it.
Return, O children of Israel, to Him against Whom you have so deeply plunged into revolt.
For in that day every man of you will cast away [in contempt and disgust] his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your own hands have sinfully made for you.
Then the Assyrian shall fall by a sword not of man; and a sword, not of men [but of God], shall devour him. And he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be subjected to forced labor.
[In his flight] he shall pass beyond his rock [refuge and stronghold] because of terror; even his officers shall desert the standard in fear and panic, says the Lord, Whose fire is in Zion and Whose furnace is in Jerusalem.
Isaiah 36:6 (Amplified Bible)
Behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised and broken reed, Egypt, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust and rely on him.
Ezekiel 29:6-7 (Amplified Bible)
And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service], because they have been a [deceitful] staff [made of fragile] reeds to the house of Israel.
When they grasped you with the hand and leaned upon you, you broke and tore their whole shoulder, and [by injuring their muscles made them so stiff and rigid that] they could do no more than stand.
I am being trained by the LORD JESUS CHRIST not to trust in my own talents, abilities, gifts and skills which all came from Him so that we can bring them all to subjection under the LORD JESUS CHRIST commands, and rulership (Kingdom of GOD). He will be the One to perfect His will and purpose in my life not me, nor any supervisor that rules over me or else be like Joseph, he sufered terribly so that GOD can exalt Him and for Him to accept this, GOD exalts us not men.
Psalms 138:8 (Amplified Bible)
The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, endure forever—forsake not the works of Your own hands.
Psalms 138:8 (The Message)
Finish what you started in me, God. Your love is eternal—don't quit on me now.
We all started at some point in our life like the life of Joseph, the dreamer fulfilling his dreams, yet being proud of himself not proud on GOD.
2 Corinthians 1:12 (Amplified Bible)
It is a reason for pride and exultation to which our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world [generally] and especially toward you, with devout and pure motives and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God (the unmerited favor and merciful kindness by which God, exerting His holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, and keeps, strengthens, and increases them in Christian virtues).
Psalms 75:6-7 (Amplified Bible)
For not from the east nor from the west nor from the south come promotion and lifting up.
But God is the Judge! He puts down one and lifts up another.
USE IN WORSHIP SONG:
You know better than I by: Dallyn Vail Bayles (from Joseph King of Dreams)
B. A man like that departs from the LORD
"and whose mind and heart turn aside from the Lord"
The bible says that when you trust in man rather than trusting the LORD GOD who created all of us, our minds and our hearts already turned aside from the LORD. A natural man is unaware of this, he still knows in his heart that GOD will save him from hell, will answer all his prayers, but to his dismay, he already turned away from the LORD. How can the LORD JESUS help him out if he's so far away in belief in men and in himself not in GOD.
Psalms 18:21 (Amplified Bible)
For I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God.
Isaiah 59:15 (Amplified Bible)
Yes, truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. And the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice.
Ezekiel 6:9 (Amplified Bible)
Then those of you who escape shall [earnestly] remember Me among the nations to which they shall be carried captive, how that I have been broken by their lewdness and have Myself broken their wanton heart which has departed from Me and blinded their eyes which turn after their idols wantonly; and they shall be loathsome in their own sight for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.
Hosea 1:2 (Amplified Bible)
When the Lord first spoke with and through Hosea, the Lord said to him, Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of [her] harlotry, for the land commits great whoredom by departing from the Lord.
Hebrews 3:12 (Amplified Bible)
[Therefore beware] brethren, take care, lest there be in any one of you a wicked, unbelieving heart [which refuses to cleave to, trust in, and rely on Him], leading you to turn away and desert or stand aloof from the living God.
Get rid of the unbelieving heart in all of us, keep on hearing and hearing GOD'S WORDS, keep on attending services and bible studies that preaches GOD'S WORDS. I have a small group at work, where they value their vices and their wanderings on different places rather than place a priority for GOD'S WORDS. GOD'S WORDS is not in their heart so I decided to close down the bible study, because it's just a waste of time and theirs as well, if they will give no place or priority for GOD'S WORDS, GOD will not place any priority on them as well.
As for us, increase our faith, continue to read, listen, you have to "hear" from GOD Himself, let the written word become a revealed WORD OF GOD for you.
Romans 10:17 (Amplified Bible)
So faith comes by hearing [what is told], and what is heard comes by the preaching [of the message that came from the lips] of Christ (the Messiah Himself).
Matthew 4:4 (Amplified Bible)
But He replied, It has been written, Man shall not live and be upheld and sustained by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.
IX. CONCLUSION:
Praise, worship, glorify, adore, bless, honor, acknowledge and thank You very much LORD JESUS You will never let me trust in other people and myself, but will only keep me trusting in You, hoping in You and putting my confidence in You.
