Sermon Cloud

Is it Worth the Price
    Jeremiah 15:10-21
    FCOCLH, 9/6/09

    Jeremiah, like most other key cogs in the story of God’s interaction with humanity, didn’t jump at that opportunity.  His first words when he heard God call him were: “Uh, God, I don’t speak too good.  Even if I did, I am so young that no one will listen to me.”  God said, “You are my man.  I will give you words to speak.  I will give you strength to withstand the physical and emotional persecution you will have to endure because of my message.”  Ominous words.   God was inviting Jeremiah to a life of suffering. Jeremiah would spend time in the “hole” –completely isolated, both physically and emotionally.  You won’t marry, you won’t join in feasts and revelry for someone else’s happy moment.  You won’t visit any grieving friends. (16:2-9).  You won’t celebrate the joys of life or share in life’s sorrows with those you love.  I’m talking about complete emotional isolation.  Oh, by the way along with this emotional separation, Jeremiah also was literally thrown into a hole.
    A person cannot read the book of Jeremiah or hear about his life without being prompted to ask the question: “Is it worth it?”  Jeremiah must have asked that question.  He was called to deliver an immutable message of assured self-destruction.  The response of his hearers was difficult enough, but he also had to endure the disappointment and grief of knowing the ill-fate of his dear homeland.  Though he was one of the few people with a genuine concern for the people around him, he was rejected because the message he delivered was a harsh one.  Is his rejection any wonder?  Listen to the message Jeremiah took to his beloved homeland.  The LORD called you a thriving olive tree with fruit beautiful in form. But with the roar of a mighty storm he will set it on fire, and its branches will be broken. The LORD Almighty, who planted you, has decreed disaster for you, because the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done evil and provoked me to anger by burning incense to Baal. (Jeremiah 11:16-17) Do you hear the desperation and the imminent disaster in the message of Jeremiah?
    I think there are times when our message should mirror Jeremiah’s message, but unlike Jeremiah who chose to be obedient to the call to deliver the difficult message, we shirk at the responsibility.  I know I do.  Think about it, all around us there are people headed for destruction.  We have a message that they need to hear.  It will change their life if they let it.  Jeremiah spoke his message boldly.  He declared it in the busiest, most crowded places in the busy city of Jerusalem.  Once, maybe twice Jeremiah declared the Lord’s message in the gateway to the temple.  It is recorded twice in the Book of Jeremiah in chapter 7 & in 26.  
    He declared the message to those in the seats of power.  I will hand over Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials and the people in this city who survive the plague, sword and famine, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to their enemies who seek their lives. He will put them to the sword; he will show them no mercy or pity or compassion.'  Jeremiah 21:7  For this is what the LORD says about the palace of the king of Judah: "Though you are like Gilead to me, like the summit of Lebanon, I will surely make you like a desert, like towns not inhabited. Jeremiah 22:6
    He spoke it to the religious leaders of his day.  Now Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the LORD. The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, "The LORD does not call your name Pashhur, but Terror On Every Side. For thus says the LORD: Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. He shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall strike them down with the sword. Moreover, I will give all the wealth of the city, all its gains, all its prized belongings, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them and seize them and carry them to Babylon. And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. To Babylon you shall go, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely."  --Jeremiah 20:1-6
    He spoke it creatively.  In the thirteenth chapter of Jeremiah, God instructs Jeremiah to use wineskins, and a linen cloth as object lessons for the people of Judah.  In chapter 27 a yoke becomes another object lesson.  All these lessons point to the destruction of Judah.  Jeremiah didn’t enjoy delivering this message.  O LORD, you deceived me, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long. Jeremiah 20:7-8
    He paid dearly for his boldness.  It didn’t matter to those whom he was speaking against that Jeremiah didn’t enjoy delivering this difficult message.  His own people became his enemies.  He was warned over and over again to stop speaking.  He was called an enemy sympathizer and even accused deserting Judah for the Babylonians.   He was thrown into a cistern.  All of these things were bad enough, and I am sure each one of them took its toll, but perhaps the worse was when he went to his hometown and the Lord revealed to him that there was a plot underway by the people in his own hometown to kill him.  I hear many whispering, "Terror on every side! Report him! Let's report him!" All my friends are waiting for me to slip, saying, "Perhaps he will be deceived; then we will prevail over him and take our revenge on him."  Jeremiah 20:10
    I’ve heard a few people mention that they are struck by how sad the book of Jeremiah is.  It is a sad book.  Not completely, we will through this series get to the hope and joy that is found in Jeremiah, but I want to think about the sadness for a moment.  Jeremiah lived a difficult life.  Perhaps there were times in his life that he was suicidal. He certainly wished that he had never been born:  Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me not be blessed! --Jeremiah 20:14  Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame? Jeremiah 20:18
    Many times it is from those whose life is most difficult that we learn life’s greatest lessons.  
•    From Corrie Ten Boom we learn that even the horrors of Nazi concentration camps cannot take away the joy that is found in the LORD.  
•    From Joni Earikson Tada we learn that physical handicap need not rob us of our worth and usefulness in God’s Kingdom our contentment in the life we live.  
•    From the small Amish community in central PA whose children were taken from them in a violent, unjust barrage of gunfire we learn the power of forgiveness.
•    From the small groups of Christians the world over who worship in dark corners because they risk their lives to live their faith openly, we learn that true security is not found in the things of this life, but it is in treasures stored in heaven.
    These are all people who must have asked many times at different crossroads: “Is it worth it?”  We learn from them because they answered with a resounding “Yes! It is worth it.  If you don’t believe it, watch me live the rest of my life.  I plan to live it with vigor and excitement.  I’ll show you unquestioning obedience and harrowing commitment.  You may wonder why I do it, but you will never think my life boring, and you will never question from where my hope comes.  The name of Jesus is always on my lips.  The promises he made are always what I see beyond the horizon.  I actually wonder how others can live their life so hesitatingly, so safe, so unwilling to try hard.  You may pity me my infirmity, but I pity you your ease, your lack of adventure.”  
    I guess the question I am asking myself lately and I want to ask you this morning is this: “Is it worth it?”  Will you and I face the hardships that true discipleship might require.  Is it worth it to tell someone there is hope in Jesus, when you are pretty sure they won’t listen.  That is what Jeremiah faced.  He knew that the people of Judah wouldn’t hear or respond to his message, but he spoke it anyway.  He knew that they would destroy him if they could, but he spoke it anyway.  He knew that the message would isolate him in every way, but he spoke the message.  He said he had no choice.  I suspect he did.  There were other prophets.  They were false prophets.  Perhaps some of them heard the message from God, just as Jeremiah did, but they chose to deliver the message of the people instead.  That message wouldn’t make enemies.  It would make friends.  They were Jeremiah’s arch enemies.  I have to think that Jeremiah had the same opportunity to speak what the people wanted to hear, but he said the Lord’s message burned inside him.  What made the message burn was Jeremiah’s commitment.  He was committed to the Lord.  He was completely sold out to God, even his own safety would be second place to God.  He trusted God & no one else.  He could have trusted the kings, then he would have delivered messages that would please them & they would protect him. He knew the kings would fall.  He chose to trust God.
    You know, it still comes down to those two things.  Commitment and trust.  Are you committed to God over and above everything else?  Even your own reputation and your own safety and your own success?  Do you trust God exclusively, or are you hanging on to people or things that cannot save you?