Dr Tom Hover
December 29, 2024
Jeremiah 17:5-10 / Jeremiah 6:16
ULTIMATE RELIANCE! WHOM DO YOU TRUST? / ASK FOR THE OLD PATHS
ULTIMATE RELIANCE! WHOM DO YOU TRUST? Jeremiah 17:5-10
Introduction: The heart and soul of Jeremiah’s prophecy turns on the question: “Do you ultimately rely on God or human cleverness? Your well-being depends on your total trust in God, not in yourself, your family, your vocation, your net worth, or your network.
I. ULTIMATE RELIANCE ON MERE HUMAN’S, CURSES LIFE Jeremiah 17:6, 17:5, Genesis 3:19, Exodus 6:6
A.) The Result of Life Under a Curse Is Despair.
When you fail to trust God alone, life is Diminished, Deprived, and Deserted. Jeremiah uses poetic language to describe the man who refuses to trust God. He tells us What the man Is, what he Misses, and Where he Dwells.
1. Refusal To Trust God Alone Diminishes Life.
Jeremiah 17:6 “For he shall be like the heath in the desert”
2. Refusal To Trust God Alone Deprives Life.
Jeremiah 17:6 “and shall not see when good cometh;”
3. Refusal To Trust God Means a Deserted Life.
Jeremiah 17:6 “but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.”
II. ULTIMATE RELIANCE ON GOD BLESSES LIFE
Jeremiah 17:8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
A.) Life Can and Should Be Lived Under the Blessing of God.
1. Life That Trust God Alone Finds Faithful Resources.
Jeremiah 17:8 “For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters”
Psalm 42:1, Psalm 46:4, John 7:38 God’s resources are abundant. When drought comes, the stream still flows.
2. Life That Trust God Alone Makes Vital Responses.
Jeremiah 17 “and that spreadeth out her roots by the river,”
3. Life That Trust God Alone Demonstrates Stable Reactions. When the heat is on, this life stands stable. Jeremiah 17:8
“and shall not see when heat cometh” In insufficiency it has no worry in a year of drought. Jeremiah 17:8 “and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.” We are to build up each other in the faith. “exhorting one another so much the more. As ye see the day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:25). Hopeful Habakkuk wrote a SONG of Exhortation we all really need! Habakkuk 3:17-19
III. ONLY GOD CAN REVEAL TO YOU WHERE YOUR RELIANCE RESTS
A.) You Cannot Know Your Own Heart.
1. The Heart by Description Jeremiah 17:9
2. The Heart by Diagnosis Jeremiah 17:9 “, and desperately wicked:” Unaided by God, our response to our own Heart must be despair. Jeremiah 17:9 “who can know it?”
B.) Your Hope Rest in This. God Does Know Your Heart Jeremiah 17:10. God and God alone explores your heart, probes your mind, and assays your emotions. God has the clue to the maze and can descend into the dark cavern of our inward life. Be still before God. He will reveal to you the basis of your trust. He will draw to Himself and deposit your trust on Himself
PM Service
ASK FOR THE OLD PATHS Jeremiah 6:16
