“OUR HEALER & SAVIOR” Jeremiah 17:14
FBCF – 8/3/25
Jon Daniels (Lauren Milner)
INTRO – When you think of the name “Jeremiah”, who comes to mind? (pics)
- David Jeremiah – Shadow Mtn Community Church, CA
- Jeremiah Smith – WR Ohio State – highest-rated WR in high school recruiting history
- “Jeremiah was a bullfrog” – 3 Dog Night - 1971
- Mine – Jeremiah Johnson
For next 3 Sundays, we are going to be in this “Jeremiah’s” book (show pic) – OT prophet, Jeremiah. This will lead up to revival services w/ Larry Leblanc (slide).
As much as I’m looking forward to our revival services, true, Spirit-sent, Spirit-led, Spirit-empowered revival doesn’t have to wait until that Sunday evening service when Larry shows up. It can begin right now! In fact, many of the 105 people who were here Wed evening for Refresh would tell you that the winds of revival began to blow through our hearts that night.
- Selby Oliver texted Thu. – “Yesterday you asked us along the lines of, what a revival looks like or feels like. Last night was a revival. The Holy Spirit SHOWED OUT.”
Recap from Wed: “revive” – re – “again” – vive – “to live” – Revival is when the people of God come alive again. It’s not that we’ve lost our salvation or have died spiritually after being saved. Revival is a return to the deep, abiding spiritual vitality of a passionate life that is lived for Jesus & Jesus alone! Revival is a life-changing, life-altering moment of returning.
2 Chronicles 7:14 (slide) – Classic definition of revival – not a verse about the USA, but a verse for the people of God from every nation, tribe, & people group. We need to RETURN:
- To who we are – “If my people…”
- To the power of His name – “who are called by my name”
- To humility – “will humble themselves”
- To prayer – “& pray”
- To seeking the face/presence of God – “& seek my face” - "We are powerful in God's presence, but weak, vulnerable, & sinful w/out Him. We often forget this, but Satan never does." (Bill Elliff, The Presence-Centered Life)
- To true repentance – “& turn from their wicked ways”
- THEN God will do a major work in our lives – When we return, He restores. When we repent, He revives. When we reach rock bottom, He reaches down & pulls us up.
Our God is in the reviving business – the restoring business – the healing business – the saving business! He loves you just the way you are but loves you too much to leave you that way!
EXPLANATION – Jeremiah 17:14 (p. 645)
Do you know someone who is stubborn? Spiritual stubbornness is one of the major hindrances to true revival breaking out among God’s people. The OT prophet, Jeremiah, constantly dealt w/ spiritually stubborn, spiritually obstinate, spiritually hard-headed people. Bible calls it “stiff-necked” – to be obstinate & difficult to lead.
- Originally used to describe an ox that refused to be directed by the farmer’s ox goad – long, sharp stick the farmer would use to poke the ox on the neck to get him to turn. An ox that refused to be directed in this way was called “stiff-necked”, refusing to turn his head to go in different direction or take a different path.
Jeremiah was called “the weeping prophet” b/c his entire ministry was centered on the stiff-necked people of God who constantly refused to turn & go in different direction. God gave him the unenviable task of telling the people that, b/c of their continual stiff-necked rejection of God’s call to repentance, His judgment was about to come crashing down on them.
- Jeremiah 7:23-24 – “But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, & I will be your God, & you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’ But they did not obey or incline their ear but walked in their own counsels & the stubbornness of their evil hearts & went backward & not forward.”
SO much like us! We turn away from God in our pride, arrogance, lust, greed, selfishness, pompous “thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought.” And when the Holy Spirit begins to poke & prod us through the reading or preaching of the W of G, we stiffen us our spiritual necks & refuse to go in a different direction – to repent. Worse than that, we don’t just refuse to go in a different direction – we go “backward & not forward” as v. 24 says. And then we act surprised when our lives get turned upside down!
That’s why the altar is so important! Many churches doing away w/ the altar call or public invitation in worship services. But we continue to call people FORWARD b/c we believe that a forward physical response to the forward call of the Spirit in our hearts is an important aspect of corporate worship! (Repeat)
And yet, so many people stiffen up at that point. Some of you are stiffening up even now & we aren’t even at the end of the sermon yet! Here’s why you’re feeling that right now: IT’S B/C IF TRUE REVIVAL COMES, YOU WILL HAVE TO CHANGE!
- “You cannot stay where you are & go w/ God. You cannot continue doing things your way & accomplish God’s purposes in His ways.” (Blackaby)
But we don’t want to change. We don’t want to move forward spiritually, much less physically.
We are comfortable w/ our spiritual sickness…satisfied in our spiritual lostness, when the truth is…
APPLICATION – Only God can heal, save, & revive us!
This verse is a personal request from Jeremiah. He has just delivered another hard word to the people that, if they continue to be stiff-necked, they “will be put to shame”, that “All who turn away from [the Lord] will be written in the dirt, for they have abandoned the Lord, the fountain of living water” (Jeremiah 17:13).
Maybe Jeremiah was feeling his own heart begin to drift away from the Lord – that happens to preachers & prophets sometimes, just like it happens to you. Maybe the heaviness of the message, the weariness of not seeing any response from the people, the loneliness of his ministry was wearing him down. Whatever was happening, this is what he did & what we need to do:
CRY OUT TO THE LORD FOR HEALING – “Heal me, O Lord, & I shall be healed.”
He is Jehovah-Rapha, the God who heals. What kind of healing do you need in your life right now?
- Physical – Stand & let us pray for you
- Emotional – Your life is wracked by anxiety, depression, despair, feelings of hopelessness
- Relational – Many of you are stuck here! Marriage in trouble – Family in turmoil – Friendships torn apart – heart filled w/ bitterness.
- Directional – You are stumbling through your life w/ no clear direction – Isaiah 30:21 – “Whether you turn…”
- Spiritual – You’re saved but you’ve been running from the Lord – stiffening against the conviction of the Holy Spirit – knowing you are out of fellowship w/ Jesus – living in disobedience – which can lead back to all the other sicknesses you are experiencing. You know you need to repent, rededicate, recommit, but you’re scared of what that means for your life.
- It’s time to cry out to the Lord for healing!
CRY OUT TO THE LORD FOR SAVING – “Save me, O Lord, & I shall be saved”
Jeremiah was asking the Lord for literal saving from literal enemies who wanted to shut him down & shut his mouth. That certainly is a valid prayer to pray.
- V. 18 – “…Bring on them the day of destruction; shatter them w/ total destruction.” – WOW!
But there is a greater saving that needs to happen in some of your lives today. You don’t need to be saved from a physical enemy but from the enemies of death & hell. 1 Corinthians 15:26 – “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” Jesus did that on the cross! But if you don’t give your life to Him, death will be the enemy that destroys you & you’ll spend eternity in hell.
Cry out to Him right now to be saved!
CRY OUT TO THE LORD IN PRAISE – “for you are my praise.”
The ONLY right response to the healing & saving that only Jesus can do is to cry out to Him in praise! When He truly heals you – when He truly saves you – when He truly revives you – your only response is to praise HIM, not the preacher – the Messiah, not the messenger – Jesus, not Jon!
So, let’s do that now. And as we do that, some of you need to come forward as the Spirit convicts & prompts you.
- Come forward for the spiritual healing you need
- Come forward for salvation you need
- Come forward to commit & connect to this church
- Come forward in obedience to be baptized
- Come forward to this altar & cry out to the Lord!
CONCLUSION – “So, heal us, O Lord, & we will be healed; save us, O Lord, & we will be saved; for you are the one we praise!”
