Jehovah Tsidkenu: The Lord is our Righteousness
Samuel M. Stone
Trinity, Dec. 3, 2006
14 “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring forth for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 16 In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’
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Today is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent means "coming" or "arrival." It’s a time for preparation for the arrival of Jesus Christ. What do you do in preparation for someone important coming to your home? Let’s say, the President or some VIP is coming to your house. What would you do? You will definitely clean your house and decorate it for the arrival of the VIP.
Advent is a time for house cleaning. Most importantly our inner house—our hearts. It is easy to see our physical house getting cluttered or dirty, but it takes some attention to be aware of the clutter inside our heart. When our heart is cluttered, we feel heavy. Sometime we say, "My heart is heavy." Technically we call it stress. So in these three weeks I want to help you do the inner-house cleaning, to sweep away your stress, in preparation for the coming of the Prince of Peace into your heart.
Let’s see what we can learn from today’s passage, Jeremiah 33:14-16, on handling stress. If you read the context you will see that Jeremiah was going through a very stressful time. In fact, he was in prison. King Zedekiah put him in prison because he criticized him. He delivered a message from the Lord telling the King that the Lord is giving his kingdom to the enemies because he has been an unjust ruler. There was also a war going on and Jerusalem was surrounded by the Babylonians and it was the year before Jerusalem fell into the hands of the Babylonians. Just imagine his tress, as a prophet who cares about the nation to see the chaos in front of his eyes.
That’s the context of this passage. Let’s see if we can learn something that we can apply in our lives to sweep our stress. When you clean your house, you use different tools and equipments, such as blooms, vacuums cleaners, mops, dusters, and so on.
From this passage we learn three tools that Jeremiah used to help himself and the people of Israel to sweep their stress.
The first tool you need to sweep your stress is
1. Look at the End Result
Jeremiah says, "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord..." He says, "Look! Behold!" When we are stressed out we are looking at the wrong place. He says, look at the right place. Look at the end results. Look at the days that are coming!
When you are stressed out, your focused is mostly on the present mess. When you turn your focus to the end result, your heart becomes lighter.
We have two little very talkative spring birds at home—our two daughters. You just can’t have a quiet moment when they are around, and Sophie was complaining, and sometimes I also feel my ears are bursting by the noise of the kids. Maybe that’s why their grandparents moved out! Last night my cousin Christina from California called me and we chatted for a long time. One of the topics was that she almost went into depression lately because for the first time in her life, she realize that has become an empty-nester. Two of her kids just got married and moved out and the other two are away in college. I told Sophie about it and we said to each other, let’s enjoy our kids when they are with us. It won’t be long that we will feel our home too quiet and we will miss these days. By that time we will be looking forward to the reunions.
Jeremiah was surrounded by some serious mess. The king and the government was a mess. Sounds familiar? His life was a mess; he was being imprisoned. His country was a mess; there was a war going on. The people were discouraged. Jeremiah says, "Look, look at the end." His message was the message of hope. And he said this while he from the prison. Hope is the best stress sweeping tool. You need hope to cope. There is light at the end of the tunnel.
I remember I went to a trade expo in San Francisco, years ago. I got to a place where they sold bumper stickers and posters. One of the posters said, "In order to conserve electricity, we have turned off the light at the end of the tunnel." But for Christians, the light at the end of the tunnel is not controlled by human beings. It can’t be turned off because it is the light of Jesus Christ. It has been shining for thousands of years and guided the paths of billions of people.
When you are stressed out, LOOK, look at the cross. The cross is empty. An empty cross represents the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It means there is life on the other side of suffering and death. And that life not only the real life because it is a perfect life full of joy; no more tears, no more pain, no more suffering. What you are dealing with right here, right now is just temporary.
Even though you can’t physically experience that eternal and perfect life until you are there, you can definitely spiritually, mentally, and emotionally experience it right now when you "look" at that end. It sweeps away a great deal of your stress and it also gives you the right perspective to handle the present issues.
2. Trust in God’s Promises
"... I will fulfill the promise I made." This is one of the places God says, that he will fulfill the promise made to the house of Israel and Judah. In fact, the entire Bible is about promises. We have the Old Testament and New Testament. Testament means promise.
Jesus’ is known to be the Promised One because Jeremiah said that the Lord says, "In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring forth for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land." v.15. That’s why in the Bible Jesus was sometimes called the Son of David because he was a Branch that spring forth from David.
Because human beings are created in the image of God, you can see the reflection of God in the people when they keep their promises.
One day, President Abraham Lincoln was riding in a coach with a colonel from Kentucky. The colonel took a bottle of whiskey out of his pocket. He offered Lincoln a drink. Lincoln said, “No thank you, Colonel. I never drink whiskey.” After a little while, the colonel took some cigars out of his pocket and offered one to Lincoln. Again Lincoln said, “No, thank you, Colonel.” Then Lincoln said, “I want to tell you a story.”
“One day, when I was about nine years old, my mother called me to her bed. She was very sick. She said, ‘Abe, the doctor tells me that I am not going to get well. I want you to be a good boy. I want you to promise me before I go that you will never use whiskey or tobacco as long as you live.’ I promised my mother that I never would, and up to this hour, I’ve kept this promise! Would you advise me to break that promise?”
The colonel put his hand on Lincoln’s shoulder and said, “Mr. Lincoln, I would not have you break that promise for the world! It is one of the best promises you ever made. I would give a thousand dollars today if I had made my mother a promise like that and had kept it like you have done. I would be a much better man than I am!” (Martin M. Hyzer, 15K-WS)
Lewis Smedes wrote in his book, “A Chorus of Witnesses”.
"Yes, somewhere people still make and keep promises. They choose not to quit when the going gets rough because they promised once to see it through. They stick to lost causes. They hold on to a love grown cold. They stay with people who have become pains in the neck. They still dare to make promises and care enough to keep the promises they make. I want to say to you that if you have a ship you will not desert, if you have people you will not forsake, if you have causes you will not abandon, then you are like God."
That’s what God is like. He is faithful and he keeps his promises. Do you know that there are more than 7000 promises in the Bible? I recommend that you buy a book that has all the verses of God’s promises in the Bible and keep it on your desk or bed site so that you can pick it up and read it. Or you can pick a Bible that has all those verses listed in the back of the Bible. I have one called the Little Book of God’s Promises.
When you are stressed out, you forget God’s promises and make it harder on your heart. So you need to remind yourself of God’s promises by reading God’s word regularly.
3. Stop being righteous
Jeremiah says, on that day, Jerusalem will be called "Jehovah Tsidkenu, The Lord is our Righteousness." Looking at Jerusalem today, we all know that that is not happening yet, but that day will surely come and we call it the second coming of Christ when the salvation is complete. "The Lord is our Righteousness" is also the name of Jesus Christ (Jeremiah 23:6).
One of the universal stress generators is self-righteousness. That is because we want to earn our way to heaven by being righteous, doing the right thing, saying the right words, making the right choices, giving the right gifts, and eating the right amount during this holiday season. But, you can’t do it. It will add up a great deal of stress on you. The Bible says, we are fallen beings, and in Romans 3:10 it says, "There is no one who is righteous, not even one."
Those that have been to or learned about the 12 Step programs know that the first step is to admit that I am powerless. That’s what they call hitting the bottom. Then the next step is to depend on the higher power.
Some people are actually addicted to stress. Maybe my cousin was one. She ran a printing press and raised four kids. She was stressed out all the time, but she was always cheerful. Now suddenly the kids have left home and the business has been sold, she felt very uncomfortable without the stress. But she handles her life well and she is one of the people in the world that I admire most. She is a preacher’s kid and grew up knowing that we are powerless and God is the power to depend on. She went through ups and downs in life but she passed them with flying colors.
The good news is that you don’t have to be righteous by yourself. You are already righteous because you believe in Jesus Christ, and his name is "Jehovah Tsikenue - The Lord is our Righteousness." Isaiah also says,
"Only in the Lord, it shall be said of me,
are righteousness and strength;" (Isaiah 45:24)
What a stress sweeper! Some people look at the end and worry that they might not get in to heaven because they have messed up so much in life and they failed when they tried hard to do the right things. But "Only in the Lord, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength." "Only in the Lord," so don’t try this at home or by any other way, or you have all the reason to be stressed out.
Commit your life to Jesus Christ. You will experience a bright future at the end, blessings according to God’s wonderful promises, and a peace of mind right now because the Lord is your righteousness!
May God bless you all! Amen.
Samuel M. Stone
Trinity Presbyterian Church
Dec. 3, 2006
[This sermon is crafted using Rich Warren’s expository and purpose-driven method called Sermon CRAFT. I find it very effective in transforming life, but it takes a lot of practice. If you have attended Rich’s preaching seminars, or watched the videos lessons, and want to practice this method with me, please join me at the collaborative online workshop www.SermonCRAFT.com.]
