REAL MAN TRUCKWORKS & SURVIVAL

GENERAL TOPICS => Faith Discussion => Topic started by: Flyin6 on March 12, 2018, 09:55:07 AM

Title: Mini sermon 5 False Prophets
Post by: Flyin6 on March 12, 2018, 09:55:07 AM
The word I got this morning was a bit different from what I was expecting. Coming from the book of Jeremiah. In chapter 23 starting in verse 9 the word talks about lying prophets.
This is dangerous ground for us to consider. For many men appear to be “Holy men” but are they really??
Matthew 7:16 is clear and states that: By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?

Of course they don’t. They pick grapes…Only grapes come from grape vines.

So we have a metric here. If the guy is prophesizing on his way to the bar to meet his girlfriend that his wife knows nothing about, well, I think we can say his prophesy is less valuable than a campaign promise for transparency from the Obama people!

In the words of the following verses of Jeremiah, I find a warning for us of the America of today:

Jeremiah 23: 1 “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the LORD. 2 Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: “Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done,” declares the LORD.

To me that is scary. God is saying you have scattered MY flock…(HIS!) Now who here feels like they want to be messing with the God of the universe?? OK, no one, good. You who think you have this, that you are bad enough, well, do yourself a favor, call “Naked and alone” or whatever that survival show is called and give that little 21 day trial a try. It will help ground you a bit and set your aim a bit lower.

God deepens his conviction and says he will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done…WHOA! Let me get off this train…Father allow me no successful effort in anything that works against the plans of or the kingdom of God.

Next, God says that although you screwed it up, he is going to fix it. Why you ask? Because he is the unchanging God. One agenda from the beginning, well before the beginning to some non-existing point. Remember God always was, and he always will be…as in never end. And change he does not. Although. Happily, knowing him does change us…or we really don’t know him!

Jeremiah 3 “I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number.4 I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the LORD.

God will fix it. That’s good news. It tells me he is a wingman tucked in closer than any other I ever enjoyed in the military. He will complete the approach although from the last 20 feet down to rocky rollout I never saw the ground and I can only hope that Chalk 2 isn’t about to plow into my aft rotor system while the grunts are pouring out of the back of mine.

The word is a complex thing. Understood when we really surrender to his will and dive in, especially in that prayer closet where we go to meet him. Looking further into Jeremiah, we see a dour warning about those false prophets who pop up and paint the rosy, but incorrect picture.

Jeremiah 23 9-12: 9 concerning the prophets:
My heart is broken within me;
    all my bones tremble.
I am like a drunken man,
    like a strong man overcome by wine,
because of the LORD
    and his holy words.
10 The land is full of adulterers;
    because of the curse the land lies parched
    and the pastures in the wilderness are withered.
The prophets follow an evil course
    and use their power unjustly.
11 “Both prophet and priest are godless;
    even in my temple I find their wickedness,”
declares the LORD.
12 “Therefore their path will become slippery;
    they will be banished to darkness
    and there they will fall.
I will bring disaster on them
    in the year they are punished,”
declares the LORD.

False prophets mislead. False words (Lies) skew the truth and mislead. They can be sugar coated and on sale as a blue light special and we may be tempted to fill up our shopping cart and get all warm and fuzzy that we are on the right course.

But what if they are wrong. What if this great word is not true, how would I know? The answer is really easy. You see God seeks to have a personal relationship with each and every one of us. Not a watered down or generalized message like some of us get on Sundays. He doesn’t say, men and women of God. Nossir, he says, Jane or Bill, or Jimmy, I have this to say to you. He does this when you surrender to him and earnestly listen. Caveat: If you just had an argument with your wife that you didn’t ask forgiveness from, you aren’t likely going to give anything because you aren’t in the perfect will of God.

If you just cussed out your dog for leaving a deposit on the carpet, you mind aint right and you are not on God’s frequency. You have to do the inner personal sweep to identify everything outside the protective walls of your FOB and ask for forgiveness from it. Repent from it, wait a bit then seek his face. Ask to be blood washed and forgiven through the only one who can, Jesus, then in perfect submission, proceed. Then what you get is the truth. If it differs from the wall mart blue light special, I’d take that junk back for a full refund, it is all damaged goods!

God is very troubled and concerned by the damage of the words the false prophets have given to his people. He laments later on in Jeremiah where he says this:

Jeremiah 23 22:23 But if they had stood in my council,
    they would have proclaimed my words to my people
and would have turned them from their evil ways
    and from their evil deeds.
23 “Am I only a God nearby,”
declares the LORD,
    “and not a God far away?

If we would only have stood in his council…If we would have only just read the word, understood it, believed in him and stood on that, then…

So where are you on this? Christianity is more than saying I do! It is a change of you from what you were to something akin to the image of Jesus. Jesus was God! Get that? Do you understand that? He experienced a human life as a man. When he faced the temptations of power, of adultery, of lust, of drinking, of, well all our temptations as a mortal, he beat them all. He did what we would consider to be the impossible.

So how did he do that, and why is it that I cannot you ask? (Actually, being transparent here, I ask!) He did it because he always consulted the father. Remember the example of Jesus speaking to the prostitute at the well. He was asked what the law said concerning her fate? It said should two fornicate, they should be put to death, the man and the woman. But the man was nowhere to be found. While questioning, actually trying to entrap Jesus, he started drawing in the sand. He was asking the father, what do I say concerning this matter. The answer is one that points to the very heart of God himself. Jesus said, “Let he who has no sin, cast the first stone!”

Of course, save for he himself, there were none, nor have there ever been since that day, a sinless one. Mercy and grace triumphed over the law. The law would have won out in any court of the land here in the US. Well, actually, in these perverted days, a skewed version of the law would have triumphed. But in this earlier day, the simple, pure heart of a living God triumphed and true justice was served.

You have to get right with God. Or just forget it and have a great life because if you don’t come to know the savior of the world, this earthly existence with all its quirks, screwed up policies, crime, evil, waste, injustice and all the rest is the only heaven you will ever know!

Learn the word of God. Store it up. Replace the space where you store oil change numbers and cam lift profiles or bank statements with more useful, eternal things. Plant his word and go about replacing temporal stuff with things that will truly change you and others. Read and study Gods word and talk to him often. In the song “I can only imagine, the singer does not know what position he will take when meeting God. I think I will be plastered to the floor for the glory of his is beyond anything. But my spirit will be standing ten feet tall with hands raised high because finally, finally, I get to be with him!
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