Introduction:
3 Ways to Provoke God (Jeremiah 32:26-42):
- Turn your
Back to God, not your Face. (Jer 32:33a)
See: Romans 1:21
- Ignore God's Word . (Jer 32:33b)
- Set up your Abominations . (Jer 32:34-35)
God's Response When We Provoke Him:
- We Reap what we Sow . (Jer 32:36)
See: Gal 6:7
- God Redeems what we Reap . (Jer 32:37)
See: Romans 8:28
Our Response to God's Response:
- Be His People . (Jer 32:38-39)
- Buy the Field . (Jer 32:40-41)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:47-01:49
So for those of you that don't know, my name is Dan Thompson.
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I'm one of the elders here at Harvest and my wife Alicia and I run the Aero Student Ministry.
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And it was way back in September that I saw that I would get the opportunity to speak after Pastor Jeff's series on self-control.
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And coming off this very serious and sobering set of messages, I thought this was a perfect opportunity for an upbeat sermon, right?
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a positive, encouraging message of how God loves us.
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And actually, last year, I had already prepared a sermon on the fact that Jesus is going to prepare a place for us, and he's gonna someday come back and bring us there, hopefully very soon.
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So it was perfect.
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Pastor Jeff gets to spend the first four weeks of the month being the bad cop, and I get to come in at the end as the good cop.
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But God had other plans.
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So he had a different message that he wanted me to share with you this morning, And I could not shake this passage that we're about to look at and its relevance for our time.
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So instead of looking at heaven, we are going to look at how we provoke God's anger.
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A nice, feel-good message.
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(Laughter)
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So "provoke" is the key word of our passage today.
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Now, provoking isn't inherently a negative thing, right?
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Books or movies can be thought-provoking.
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We've heard way more than we wanted to about how a vaccine can provoke immune response, but most of the time when we think of the word provoke, we think of it as a negative thing.
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We think of doing something to make somebody else angry.
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Like we think of provoking a wild animal, like this.
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Yeah, just not really smart at all to provoke a lion.
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But when I think of the word provoke, there is one example that I can think of that surpasses all other types of provoking.
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I think of a middle child.
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So, my life has been summarized nicely by the birth order book.
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I'm the oldest of three boys, born to a mother who's the middle of three girls, and I have three daughters of my own.
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So, I know a thing or two about middle children.
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And because I'm not a middle child, I will not continue to propagate their lie about how they are always forgotten or ignored.
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you know, the Marsha, Marsha, Marsha complex.
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But I do know that it is their paranoia of being ignored that is what drives middle children to provoke their siblings and their parents.
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They provoke for attention.
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And no middle child will deny this because they recognize this is how they survive.
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In my house, it is easy to know where my middle daughter is.
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Just listen for the frustrated scream from one of her sisters, "Evie!" And this is the picture that I have in my mind when we read our passes today.
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But to be a bit more precise, Webster's definition is to call forth a feeling or action to invite anger.
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And this is what we do to God.
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Whether intentionally or not, we invite his anger by our actions.
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Now, I wanna take a closer look, so turn in your Bibles to Jeremiah 32, And while you're turning there, let's set the background for this passage.
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We are at the tail end of the Jewish monarchies.
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We're about 400 years after King David, and we are actually in the last days of the very last king, Zedekiah, right before Babylon finishes off Judah for good.
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And in fact, for nearly 30 chapters, God has been telling Jeremiah that Babylon, a godless and powerful empire, would destroy the remaining kingdom of Judah and the city of Jerusalem.
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And in fact, Jeremiah had been declaring not only God's word against Jerusalem, but he had also been declaring that King Zedekiah would not escape, and that the king himself would be taken in captivity.
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And for some reason the king didn't like that very much, so he locked up Jeremiah in prison so he couldn't keep spreading any unfavorable news.
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This is how censorship worked before social media.
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During chapter 32, Babylon is currently besieging the city of Jerusalem.
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And during that siege, while Jeremiah is in jail, God told Jeremiah to buy a field right in the area destroyed by Babylon.
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So this was very confusing to Jeremiah.
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But try to put yourself in Jeremiah's shoes for a minute.
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Imagine that America is under attack from a foreign invader Washington DC is literally surrounded by the enemy who's already ravaged the country and You have been imprisoned because you've been preaching God's Word and in the face of this looming darkness You have been fervently and tearfully on your face before your God looking for a solution and word comes and the word from God that you've anxiously been awaiting for Is that you should invest in that new Ryan Holmes development in Alexandria, Virginia?
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Wait what?
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There's national destruction happening spiritual oppression and the solution is real estate. Oh and and make sure you do the paperwork right - Jeremiah is confused as any of us would be So he again goes to God for understanding and he basically says look God I get judgment You you get you've given us this blessing of the promised land But you told us that we had to obey you to stay here and we have repeatedly disobeyed you Even as you continue to offer opportunities for repentance and now the promise judgment has come I get that that totally makes sense. But why in the world am I supposed to buy this field and That's where we pick up God's response to Jeremiah's confusion. So let's begin in verse 26 The Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah behold. I am the Lord the God of all flesh is anything too hard for me Therefore thus says the Lord behold I am giving this city into the hands of the Chaldeans the Babylonians and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon and he shall capture it The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city shall come and set this city on fire and burn it With the houses of the one whose roofs Offerings have been made to bail and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods to provoke me to anger for the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done nothing but evil and there in my sight from their youth and The children of Israel have done nothing but provoke me to anger by the work of their hands declares the Lord This city has aroused my anger and my wrath from the day It was built to this day and so I will remove it from my sight because of all the evil of the children of Israel and and the children of Judah that they did to provoke me to anger their kings and their officials their priests and their prophets the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem they have turned to me their back and not their face and although I have taught them persistently they have not listened to receive instruction they have set up their abominations in the house that is called by my name to defile it so we'll stop there here is our word provoke. It shows up three times in just a few verses. God again confirms, "Oh yeah, that judgment, it's happening and it's deserved." But God also gives us some insight into things that his people do to that provoke his anger. So let's first take a look at the three that are listed here.
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Let's look at three ways to provoke God. First way to provoke God is that you turn your back to God, not your face. They have turned to me their back, not their face. That's what it says in verse 33.
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I think we all get this image. And if you have a teenager, you really get why this would make somebody mad. Imagine that you work tirelessly for your family to provide for them. And in addition to bringing your children into this world and giving them life, you have given them an amazing place to live. They always have food on the table and extra in the fridge. And you work even to be able to afford luxuries of instant communication and limitless information at your fingertips. Oh, and not just one for you, but individually for every member of your household above a certain age. What should a response to this extravagant luxury be?
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I can tell you what it shouldn't look like.
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Wow.
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Thanks.
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Last kid in my class to get one, so at least I joined the 21st century.
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I said thanks.
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Are you still here?
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Is the Wi-Fi out?
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When you're respectful and grateful, you turn your face toward people.
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When you're indifferent towards a person or what they've done to you, you turn your back to them.
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And we always start provoking God with our ingratitude.
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Always.
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It is a lack of conscious gratitude that will begin the sinful downward spiral that Paul discusses in Romans 1.
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"For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him." A little while back, a friend here at church passed this thought exercise on to me.
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Imagine if when you woke up today, the only things that you had, all that you had, were the things that you thanked God for yesterday. Would we have a vehicle to get into?
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Would we have a job to go to? Would we have our family, our health, a home? Would we have shoes on our feet? Would we have anything at all? Ouch. I fail this exercise every time.
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Because our natural tendency is to turn our back toward God, even as the redeemed children of God.
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Gratitude takes work.
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And the point is not that we itemize every blessing that God has provided.
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It's a matter of our posture.
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Are we giving God our back or our face?
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We provoke God when we turn our backs to him, not our faces.
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Now, which posture sounds more like that of our countries?
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Do we give God our faces or our backs?
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Now we've all been disgusted by the growing sense of entitlement that seems to pervade America.
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We can't even spend hardly one day per year giving thanks.
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Let me recap the holiday season we just lived through.
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Starts off in October with the "gimme gimme" candy of Halloween, followed by the "gimme gimme" turkey of Thanksgiving dinner, quickly followed and maybe even interrupted by the "gimme gimme" stuff of Black Friday, and to round it all out, it's the gimme gimme presents of Christmas.
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And oh, by the way, making sure that at any point through that process, if we have the slightest frustration, we need to broadcast it on all forms of social media.
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So yeah, America has decidedly given God our back, not our face.
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That's the first way that we provoke God.
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The second way that we provoke God is that we ignore God's Word.
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Let me finish the rest of verse 33.
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It says, "Although I have taught them persistently, "they have not listened to receive instruction." Now I'm not gonna spend a whole lot of time on this, 'cause I imagine how many examples we could talk about here.
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But think of your own life.
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How many times a day do you fail to obey God's word?
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I mean, if we're honest, we know that most of the time, most of our day is not spent listening to God's instruction.
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Most of the time we do our own thing.
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At best, God's word is an afterthought.
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Again, look at our country.
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How well is America obeying God's word?
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Well, we've denied that sex is only good in marriage.
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We've denied that marriage is only between a man and a woman and we've gone so far to deny the basic construct of man and woman altogether.
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I mean, just surf around Netflix for a few minutes and you tell me how well we are listening to God's instruction.
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And the problem is, is God's people haven't really performed much better and we know better.
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Bible believing and Bible preaching churches are becoming less common with each year.
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So why does this provoke God?
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Well, for the parents in the room, how frustrating is it when your kids disobey your commands?
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For the managers listening, how frustrating is it when your reports ignore your direction?
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Teachers, how frustrating is it when your students reject your instruction?
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Medical people, how frustrating is it when your patients disregard your expert advice?
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Coaches, what about when your team refuses to follow your game plan?
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You could go on and on here We all get this when you ignore authority you irritate that authority We provoke God when we ignore God's Word as I said, we could spend all day here. So we're gonna move on The third and final way in this passage and there's many others outside of this passage But the third and final way in this passage to provoke God is to set up your abominations Look at verse 34. They set up their abominations in the house that is called by my name to defile it Now there's a progression with how we provoke God it starts with ingratitude Which ultimately will turn into disobedience and if that disobedience is left unchecked, it's gonna turn into abomination Now when we hear the word abomination come from God's mouth, we should really stop and think about that Because an abomination to God is something he is particularly disgusted by So what are the Israelites actually do? Well, we have to keep reading to find out go back to verse 35 They built the high places of Baal in the valley of the son of Hinnom Stop there So what was a high place?
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Well, the high places are places of religious worship most often idol worship and they included things like animal sacrifices burning of incense, your daughters walking through fire, and even human sacrifices.
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And the root issue here is that these high places were where gods other than the one true God were worshipped.
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And that included Baal, or fertility gods, or gods of the Sun, or the Moon, or the constellation, and many others.
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But we don't have that issue today, do we?
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Most of us aren't going somewhere to offer incense to a little statue. I mean, I did see a lot of that in Thailand, But in America, we don't really have to worry about that, do we?
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Well, we may not have as much statue worship today, but we definitely have our high places.
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Have you set up a high place for technology?
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Do you worship at the altar of the almighty cell phone?
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What about entertainment? How's your living room set up?
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Do you have a high place to religiously keep up with your shows no matter how much trash they shove into a season?
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Here's one. What about safety?
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Safety and health may have the most loyal worshipers in these pandemic days.
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What level of sacrifice of our children are we willing to make in the name of health and safety?
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Have we made them walk through the fire of vaccination, virtual learning, masking, and all other manner of emotional trauma over the past two years?
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We might not have deified pillars at our high places, but we certainly have our share of them.
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Just look, if you want to know where a high place is, Just look at the area where people lose their mind when you take something away.
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That's a high place.
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And the last part of verse 35 seems to list the worst of all.
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And they offered up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter in my mind that they should do this abomination to cause Judah to sin.
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If you're not uncomfortable yet, We're gonna get there real quick.
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So what's going on with this?
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Well, there's much debate about who or what Molech is.
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So let's not worry about that.
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The important thing to know is that the Israelites had so perverted God's interpretation of life that they, instead of thanking God for the blessing of their children, they offered them as sacrifices to foreign gods.
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They would basically burn their firstborn at the garbage dump to avoid some ominous future.
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So this is pretty horrific, right?
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In fact, it's so horrific that in our civilized day, even the most permissive person would never stand for this kind of barbarism.
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Have we finally reached the limit of the evil of our age?
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Tragically, no.
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This is not our limit either.
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Let me ask you this, what exactly is an abortion?
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Not gonna go into the graphic details of it, but as science has made clearer and clearer, life begins at conception.
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So abortion is the killing of a child, and often the would-have-been firstborn child.
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But that's not really child sacrifice, is it?
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What are the reasons that our country allows abortion?
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Is it in the name of freedom?
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Is it economic?
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Is it to protect a reputation?
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Is it to avoid some ominous future?
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Is it for a career?
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Is it simply for inconvenience?
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If you are willing to look in the face of abortion, you will find some striking resemblances to offering children to Molech.
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And don't miss this point.
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What actually provokes God here?
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I mean, all of us get that evil actions should be punished.
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This part of justice we're all on board with.
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And many of us presume that we have our hands clean of abortion. So we don't have objections to punishment coming to those who participate in, advocate for, or encourage abortion. But when it comes to abominations, God isn't so targeted in his judgment. When it comes to abominations, these actions are so contrary to God's character, so contrary to the image of God in which we were made. So when it comes to abomination, God those that are directly linked to this evil.
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But we are to fight for a world where these abominations are no more.
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Do you care that abortion is not only legal but celebrated?
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Do you care how prevalent abortion actually is?
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Kerry gave us the stat for Pittsburgh, but even by the most conservative rates, by the end of this sermon, there will have been enough abortions in this country to wipe out two to three kindergarten classes.
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Do we care that our medical progress is bolstered by abortion, that many vaccines and treatments are developed or manufactured using cell lines from abortions?
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All the COVID vaccines that are currently approved are stained by abortion.
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How many of our children will we sacrifice for the safety of our society?
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Do we care that our culture promotes a demonic parody of human dignity, that we will celebrate any and every kind of sexual perversion, But if it's figured out that your child in the womb has Down syndrome, it's time to terminate that pregnancy?
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Do we care that we describe this abomination in such callous terms like terminating a pregnancy, reproductive rights, or family planning services?
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Do we care for these mothers and fathers who are killing their own children?
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Do we care for the doctors, staff, and a world around us that's so warped in their thinking that they would allow this abomination to continue?
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I don't think we care. We don't care enough anyway.
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The first time that the Bible talks about sacrificing children to Molech appears in Leviticus 20, when God is giving Israel the laws concerning holiness and purity.
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And he uses an interesting phrase. He says, "If the people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man," when he gives one of his children to Molech.
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God calls out the people if they at all close their eyes to this great evil.
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What does this mean? It means that we cannot see this abomination and do nothing. We have to take action against the evil. We don't have authority to take action against the evildoers. That's for God to deal with, preferably through the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. But we cannot close our eyes to such great evil and expect God to do nothing.
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Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a pastor in Germany during the rise of Hitler.
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He stood as one of the very rare voices in the German churches who spoke against Hitler and his treatment of the Jews.
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And he was not just a voice against the Nazis, but he actually was hanged because of his involvement in an attempt to assassinate Hitler.
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And he is attributed with saying this quote, "Silence in the face of evil is evil, is itself evil." God will not hold us guiltless.
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Not to speak is to speak.
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Not to act is to act.
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In America alone, abortion has exceeded the death count of 10 holocausts.
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That's plenty of provoking God.
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So unfortunately, our situation may be more similar to Judah's in Jeremiah 32.
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And if listening to this makes you uncomfortable, remember abortion is just one of many abominations that go on in our country.
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And all this was just a really long introduction to the real message.
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So now let's look at God's response when we provoke Him.
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The first response God has when we provoke Him is that we reap what we sow.
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Let me read verse 36.
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Now therefore thus says the Lord the God of Israel concerning this city of which you say it is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, by famine, and by pestilence." Throughout this chapter, God has confirmed that this disaster is happening.
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God has told them for 30 chapters that Babylon is coming to bring God's judgment.
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He's repeatedly offered them chances to repent through Jeremiah and others.
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And most of the time, their response is to kill the messengers or to jail them.
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So when we provoke God, there are consequences for that.
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Galatians 6, 7 says, "Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever one sows, that he will also reap." This is a simple principle to understand, right? When you plant corn, you're gonna get corn. When you plant watermelon seeds, you'll get watermelons. When you plant garbanzo beans, you'll get... wait, you get chickpeas?
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I did the same thing, just in case you didn't know that.
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This principle is always true.
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Whatever you plant or sow, you will reap the fruit of that plant, assuming that it grows.
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You should never expect to plant a pumpkin and magically get lima beans.
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It's just not happening.
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But this simple farming principle is true in all of life.
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If you spend time practicing the piano, you're going to get better at playing the piano, not necessarily better at cooking.
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If you spend time training as a police officer, you'll become a better officer, but not necessarily a better accountant.
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And just like in farming, success isn't guaranteed either.
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Practicing the piano doesn't mean you're going to be the next Mozart.
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But what is guaranteed is that you plant and harvest in kind.
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You sow and reap the same kinds of things.
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This is true for good things, and it's true for bad things.
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If you sow lies, then you will eventually reap the consequences for lying.
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Like Pastor Jeff talked about this month, if you sow sexual immorality, you will reap the many consequences for those decisions.
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This principle is true for us as individuals, but it's also true for nations.
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If a nation sows generosity with its neighbors, then it's likely going to reap allies in a time of need.
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But if a nation sows corrupt dealings and steals intellectual property from its other nations, then it's likely going to reap enemies or at least trade restrictions.
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And if a nation calls out to God for repentance and seeks to be righteous and value people, then it will reap God's forgiveness and blessings.
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But if a nation promotes that man is a cosmic accident, an upright walking animal, then the nation will reap an identity where individuals have no value and where instinctual sexual urges go completely unchecked.
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Now for Israel, this meant that their decision to sow godlessness brought judgment in the form of godless Babylon.
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Their decision to be ungrateful for the promised land that God had given them led them to be exiled from it.
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For us, for our sins as individuals and as a nation, I don't know for certain what the harvest will look like, but remember, it's insanity to think that you'll get corn by planting watermelon seeds.
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Don't be deceived.
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God is not mocked.
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When we provoke God, we reap what we sow.
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But thankfully, God has a second response when we provoke Him.
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The other response that God has provided when we provoke Him is that God redeems what we reap.
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Let me continue with verse 37.
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"Behold, I will gather them from all the countries with which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation, and I will bring them back this place and I will make them dwell in safety." God loves to be a rescuer. He is the master of letting things play out to their worst and then coming in in the clutch. Right, Matt?
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This is his grace. There is no question that we deserve what we reap, but because of his love for us, God wants to redeem the disasters that we've made for ourselves. How can this happen? Well, For example, God can heal the wounds left on people by abortion.
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Complete redemption is available to all affected.
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The women, the men, the doctors, and even a director of a Planned Parenthood clinic.
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That's the story of Abby Johnson, who left the abortion industry to become a pro-life advocate.
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Or as another example, God may allow a man to persist in sexual immorality to the point where he gets caught and nearly destroys his marriage.
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But God is able to give him a repentant heart to seek reconciliation with his wife.
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And God is able to pour out grace to his wife that allows her to forgive the unforgivable.
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And the end result is a strong marriage forged by God's redeeming grace.
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Or as the ultimate example, God allowed envious religious leaders to murder his only son.
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But God used the death of Christ as the victory over sin and death, saving us from the judgment we all deserve.
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This redemption can happen for a nation as well.
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For Israel, it was the promise that God would bring them back to the promised land, which He has clearly done in our day.
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I don't know what it might mean for America, but it does give me hope for our country.
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Until we are no more, God is always able to redeem our position, no matter how disastrous.
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God specializes in resurrecting dead things.
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In fact, this is how He even starts in verse 27, "Is anything too hard for me? No." first response, reaping what we sow, that's guaranteed to all. It doesn't matter who you are. But the second response of God's redemption, that's not guaranteed to everybody. Now you hear people say everything happens for a reason and that's true. And in the church we like to quote Romans 8 which says, "We know that all things work together for good." But it doesn't really say that. It says, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. God offers redemption to everyone and to anybody, but his promise to redeem what we have reaped is based on our response to his love. If we don't love God, then we are left to reap what we have sown. So how do we know if we love God? Well, it comes down to our response for his offer of redemption. So finally and quickly, let's Let's look at our response to God's response.
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Let me read the last few verses.
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"And they shall be My people, and I will be their God.
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And I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever for their own good and the good of their children after them.
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I will make with them an everlasting covenant, and I will not turn away from doing good to them.
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And I will put the fear of Me in their hearts that they may not turn from Me, and I will rejoice in doing good.
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and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness with all my heart and all my soul.
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For thus says the Lord, just as I have brought this great disaster upon this people, so I will bring upon them all the good that I promised them." Our response to God's response is to first be His people.
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And for us to be His people, we must have His heart and follow His way.
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We must stop doing the things that provoke him.
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We must be grateful for all that he has provided and remind other people to be grateful as well.
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We must obey his instruction and teach others his word.
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And we must fight for a world where these abominations are no more.
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Now I hope that it means for us that we will partner with organizations like Choices who seek to give these hurting parents a real choice against killing their own children.
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And I hope it causes us to stand up against other evils that we see in our land.
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I hope we will stand and speak against all of the abominations that provoke him to anger.
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I hope that we sow a different kind of seed to reap a different kind of harvest.
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We first need to be his people.
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Now Jesus has called us to be light in this dark world.
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But the thing about darkness is that it can't grow on its own.
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Darkness only grows when the light gets dimmer.
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So be the light and be his people.
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And finally, our second response to God's response is to buy the field.
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This whole chapter started because God told Jeremiah to buy a field during a time when it made no sense to do so.
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God's answer to Jeremiah's confusion is for Jeremiah to see past the dark circumstances, the hope in God's promise of redemption, to trust and obey even when we don't understand.
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Now the final verses speak of being planted in the land because of the good that God plans to do.
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Now this specific covenant was for Israel, and America is not Israel.
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And God ultimately fulfilled the covenant by offering us his son, Jesus, as our redemption and the hope for mankind.
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but the principle for Jeremiah and for us remains true.
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God commands us to be planted where He has called us.
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He calls us to buy the field.
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He wants us to seek the prosperity of the land around us even as disaster looms.
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We cannot be like Jonah sitting on the hillside awaiting fire to fall from heaven on the godless people who deserve judgment.
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We must instead buy the field.
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and invest in the people around us who need redemption as badly as we do.
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In addition to calling us to be light, Jesus called us to be salt.
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And salt is a preservative.
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It helps to slow down the decay.
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No, it can't stop the decay, but it certainly can delay it.
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We have to be salt in this world.
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We have to try to slow the decay.
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We have to buy the field and invest in the good of the land around us God and to trust Him. Yes, as believers, we look forward to heaven more than the concerns of this world. That is true. But until we get to heaven, we have a job to do here. So be His people and by the field. Let's pray. God, I thank you. I thank you that you love us, God. God, we deserve so much, so much disaster and destruction that we've made for ourselves.
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And I know me as a impatient person, I would say, fine, if that's what you want, have at it.
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But not you, God.
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God, you're patient and loving.
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And you give us opportunity to not only be forgiven, not only avoid the disaster that is coming, but you give us the opportunity to be your hands and feet and help to fix it.
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God, you offer us an opportunity to partner with you, to be redeemers like you are.
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And God, I pray that we would do that.
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God, I pray that we would be your people.
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God, I pray that we would buy the field.
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I thank you that you are with us in all of that, strengthening us and equipping us to do the things that are hard, to do the things that look so much bigger than what we can do as one person.
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But I pray that we would be your people and buy the field.
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Thank you for all that you're doing, and I pray that you are blessed by this service.
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In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Jeremiah 32:26-42
What kinds of ways do we provoke God as a nation? As the Church? And as individuals?
Describe your reaction to God's responses when we provoke Him?
How have you seen God redeem the consequences that we reap?
What does it mean to you to "Be His People"? How is the Holy Spirit convicting you to grow in this?
What does it mean to you to "Buy The Field"? How is the Holy Spirit convicting you to grow in this?
Breakout
What abominations in your life have you set up or have been set up around you? What are you going to do about them? Pray for one another to be God's people and serve Him always.