“Deaf in Prosperity” – FBC Morning Light (10/10/2023)

Well a good Tuesday morning to you. Today again we're reading in Jeremiah, this time chapters 21 and 22, Titus chapter 2, and wrapping up the book of Proverbs today with Proverbs 31. I want to go back to the book of Jeremiah and look at just one verse in chapter 22, and I think it's a verse that is pretty apropos for our age, our culture, our nation, our society.

You know there's a lot of things in the prophetic writings in the Old Testament that, you know, the prophets were prophesying to Judah or to Israel or to both, and we can we can conclude that, you know, there's really not much there for us because after all they were preaching to Old Testament Israel.

But there are a lot of parallels and a lot of things that we can see and that apply to us even in our modern culture, and even though our country is not God's chosen land, if you will, like Israel was, we can see in these Old Testament prophets how God works and why he works, how he does the things he does, and why he does the things he does.

And we can also see the qualities in people that bring about the responses or the actions that God brings upon them. So for example, in today's passage in Jeremiah 22, the Lord says in verse 21,. Now you get the obvious connection there, right, between the attitudes of these Old Testament recipients of God's prophetic word and the New Testament world in which we live, the United States of America, a very prosperous nation, the most prosperous nation on the planet, more prosperous than any nation probably in the history of, at least in modern history, and you know, we don't really have a good grasp on comparing apples to apples in ancient history, I suppose, but extremely prosperous land is ours.

And have we not witnessed in our own lifetime, depending on how old you are, I know I have witnessed in my lifetime. I was born in 1958, before, I think that was just before the Supreme Court ruled that the Bible does not have a place in public schools, and you know, therefore, if somebody in your school classroom objected to the Bible being read, and this is the way it all started, that, you know, the teacher had to stop, couldn't do it.

I remember in elementary school, this principal would come over the loudspeaker, and this would have been in the late 60s, the principal came over the loudspeaker every morning, led us in the Pledge of Allegiance, and then prayed the Lord's Prayer, and then the day started.

Of course, none of that is done anymore, especially the Lord's Prayer part. It was not uncommon for teachers to read a Bible verse or something, but not anymore, of course. And in our prosperity as a nation, we have more and more taken the official stance that we really don't want to hear what God has to say.

We don't really want to hear it. I remember years ago, I was living in Vermont, and in the town we were living in, they have an annual town meeting day, and I was asked by the town council this one year to come and bring the opening invocation.

And so they still recognized prayer, but it was very interesting. When I came and I went to the thing, the meeting, and introduced myself, the chair of the council said, now you are going to pray a non-sectarian prayer, aren't you?

Which, what he meant by that is, pray some kind of generic thing to a generic God. And I said, well, I will be leading in prayer, yes, thank you. And, you know, I prayed the way I pray. You know, I prayed to the Heavenly Father, and I prayed in the name of Jesus, and that was not at all appreciated.

The reason why is because as a nation, as a society, as a culture, we have more and more closed our ears to what the Lord has to say. Well, if we do that, as these Old Testament Israelites or people of Judah did, then what can we expect?

The Lord goes on to say in verse 22, the wind shall eat up all your rulers, and your lovers shall go into captivity. Surely then you will be ashamed and humiliated for all your wickedness. Now again, I'm not trying to paint a parallel, a one-to-one parallel, between Old Testament Judah and the United States of America.

What I am just simply pointing out is getting an idea of how God works, what God does, and why He does it. And I think we can say that when a people says, I don't want to hear what God has to say, God responds with, okay, you're gonna be sorry.

You're gonna be sorry. And so as we look at our nation, and as we listen to our political leaders and so forth, and hear their attitude toward God's Word, they'll tell you a lot about what we can expect as a nation if they come to power, and as they hold power, and perhaps even what they might expect, if not in this life, then certainly in the next.

Let's be sure we don't have this attitude in our prosperity where we say, I'm not gonna hear. I don't need to hear what God has to say. After all, I've got it made. So our Father and our God, deliver us from such a foolish, foolish attitude, we pray.

In Jesus' name and for His sake, amen. All right, listen, have a good rest of your Tuesday, and I trust the Lord will bless you in it. Good day.