“Reasons to Boast” – FBC Morning Light (10/4/2023)

Reasons to Boast in the Lord

Well a good Wednesday morning to you. So today in our Bible reading we're in Jeremiah again chapters 9 and 10, 2 Timothy chapter 2, and Proverbs 27. And once again, so three days in a row here, we're in the Old Testament prophecy of Jeremiah, and I want to focus on a couple of verses in chapter 9.

You know, I don't know if you're on Facebook or not, if you're utilizing that social media stuff. I am. The church has a Facebook account, and it's under my personal Facebook account and so forth. And so, I mean, I don't have a ton of friends, quote-unquote, on Facebook.

Maybe 300, I don't know, whatever it is. But it's really fascinating to kind of scroll through Facebook sometimes and see what it is people are boasting about. You ever do that? Does it ever make you aggravated sometimes?

Well, fortunately most of the people who are friends of mine on Facebook, you know, there's not a whole lot of personal boasting going on, but I think of one in particular, an individual who very frequently will post things about one of his children.

You know, a picture of one of his kids, you know, reading a book or something, and it's some...and they're young children, you know, elementary age, and they're reading some Christian classic book, and he's posting a picture of the child reading this book, and you know, he's so happy about this.

And another time, others are, you know, a child holding a hymnal and singing hymns, you know, apparently singing hymns out of this hymnal, and again, they're young children. And it's easy to see those things and get an implied sort of boasting about the state, the spiritual status, stature of the children, which...and I want to be careful here, I don't want to be too judgmental and critical, you know, I don't want to do that either, but to me it's almost a little bit icky, if you know what I mean.

It almost seems like Dad and Mom are kind of boasting about what a good job they have done, that their young children are sitting around reading, you know, Christian books and, you know, have their hymnals and so on and so forth.

And yeah, and to broadcast that on a social media platform, I personally find that a little icky. I feel like that's a perhaps an unnecessary level of boasting, and it reminds me, well, it kind of ties into what we read in Jeremiah 9, where the Lord says, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches.

You say, well, what's the connection there with the guy posting pictures of his kids doing...well, because there's almost the implication that says, you know, we're so wise to have reared our children in such a way that they love to sit around and read, da-da-da-da-da-da-da, and it almost sends the message to the parent who, you know, loves their kids and loves the Lord and tries to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, it almost sends the message to such parents that they are far inferior to these incredibly wise parents if their kids don't sit around in the same sort of manner.

Well, the Lord says, look, let's not glory in these things, let's not boast in our wisdom, let's not boast in our might, how powerful and strong we are, let's not boast in our riches, how wealthy we are, what we can spend our money on, but he goes on to say, let him who glories, glory in this.

All right, what can we glory in? Glory in this, the Lord says, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord exercising loving-kindness, that is his steadfast love, judgment or justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight.

So if we have any room for boasting, it would only be that God in his grace has allowed us to discover and understand the character of God, what he is like and what he likes, and that we have come to really value those things, and we treasure our God and treasure his character and treasure who he is.

If we have come to such a place, let's boast in the grace of our God that has so graciously opened our eyes and helped us to see these things that we would not otherwise see. It is in these things that the Lord delights, and the implication is, so should I.

And if I come to the place in my life where I delight in that which God delights in, it is by his grace that I do so, and it is in that that I should glory, boast, be glad about, the grace of my God. So let's be careful.

Let's be careful how and if we're boastful. What are we boastful about? What are we proud of? What do we glory in? Let's glory in our Redeemer. Let's glory in his grace to us. Our Father and our God, I pray that you would help us to be careful not to be proud people, proud of our wisdom, proud of our power, our ability, our strength, proud of our possessions, our riches, what we have.

O Lord, I pray, may we know you, and thereby glory in your grace to us. And this we pray in Jesus' name, and for his sake. Amen. All right, well listen, have a good rest of your Wednesday, and may the Lord bless you in it.

Good day.