Greetings brothers and sisters in Christ. This week our suggested reading is Jeremiah 23. I am sorry for the late posting. Unfortunately I have been dealing with a company emergency, so I have been away from home and unable to finish and post until now. I pray that this will still be a blessing. Below are some suggested preaching points.
Intro and read Jeremiah 23
Be carful who you believe. Many of you who think you are right with God and bound for heaven may be following false teachers, or false beliefs. The bible mentions false teachers and false prophets many times. I’m not here to give you a list of who is true and who is false, but I’m here to encourage you, to plead with you, to examine what you believe and why you believe it. Eternity is imminent. You may live for another 80 years, but you are not even promised tomorrow, so find the truth and get right with God while he has given you time. And the truth is this: We are all sinners, moral criminals in God’s court, who are worthy of death and hell. But God, because of his love, mercy, and grace, provided a way for our sins to be atoned for and for us to be right before Him, through the death and resurrection of His son, Jesus Christ.
Have you been taught something different? Don’t take my word for it. Check out God’s word. In this passage Jeremiah talks about some of the false ideas and beliefs of false teachers and prophets.
Do they have no fear of the holiness of God? The greatest men in scripture trembled before God’s holiness. Yes, God is loving, and is a father to His children, but just a glimpse of His holiness was enough to make the most righteous men in the bible fall on their faces before him and cry for mercy. Moses, Isaiah, and here Jeremiah are just a few examples.
Are they ungodly? The man, prophet or otherwise, who claims to follow God and lives an abominable and wicked life before Him, is a liar. We all make mistakes, and we all sin, even the most committed follow. But the person who claims belief and lives in unrepentant sin, is a liar. (See 1 John)
Do they fill you with vain hopes and say all will be well with you? If you despise the Lord and hate His will, and they give you confidence that everything will be fine, they are lying. They say that it will be well for you, and though you stubbornly follow your own heart, no disaster will fall. God is good, and does provide for His children, but the only way you will receive your best life now is if you are going to hell. Do as God’s word says, and store up your rewards in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal.
Do they encourage behaviors that God hates? God hates sin, and will punish iniquity. If a teacher does not deal with sin, he is not a true teacher of God. This chapter states that if they had stood in God’s council, they would have proclaimed God’s word to the people, and turned them from their evil ways and evil deeds.
Go through God’s law and show them their sinful state before a holy God
Preach the cross and the resurrection.
If you want to have a right relationship with your creator, do what His word says. Repent of your sins and put your faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. The book of 2 Timothy says that the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. Don’t make this foolish mistake. Find the truth, and get right with your creator through repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21).
Thanks for being part of Project Ezra. It’s just a week until Halloween now. We have more people joining again, and I pray you will be one of them. If not, please be in prayer for your brothers and sisters on the street.
For the praise of His glory,
Dan
Friday, October 22, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Thanks for the timely and great teaching. It is interesting how the Lord is consistent about teaching all of his children the same lesson so we are all on the same page, so to speak. Over the last month, the Holy Spirit has consistently led me to teachings about believers not giving enough focus on the Person of Christ. It grieves the Lord because people "feel a need" to be busy doing some project instead of spending time at His feet. Mike and I listened to an interview with the author of "The Jesus Manifesto" today regarding that very subject. People are going off on tangents like social justice, leadership, etc., all important as long as Christ is kept the focus and we continue to learn about Him and then share that knowledge for the purpose to bringing people to Christ. It seems like the attitude is "now that one is a believer there is nothing new to learn about the Lord"...so move on to some area of need and focus completely on that, letting slip other areas just as important. Over the last few days I have been drawn to Malachi which talks about how his people have let the Lord's house become a mess requiring work. If you read between the lines for today, we are also His house and are in need of cleaning up wrong attitudes, desires, social behavior, etc., and redirecting our energy to focus on learning about our Lord the infinite One. It will take us an eternity to try to comprehend who He is. ~Cate
ReplyDelete