The Sandcastle Gospel
Lessons from Jeremiah
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good morning welcome if you're new here among us my name is gene i serve here at c3 church as your lead pastor and you can just call me gene that's okay i'll get a new intro sooner or later i just can't think of anything else that's better my name comes up on the screen doesn't it maybe i don't even need to do it so anyway i'll just move right along adding time to the sermon which we don't need to do so here's the thing in good teaching if you've ever had to teach anybody anything at all good teaching is repetitive the bible is really repetitive and some people have noted that gene i feel like we're doing the same bible study that we did last week kind of it's repetitive but that's good teaching so if you ever taught anybody anything start with the basics and you repeat the basics over and over and over and over again until you get it right so first you crawl then you walk then you run if you try to run first right you don't get it so that's the proper order it's also repetitive so there are some teachings or illustrations or examples that i keep coming back to and sometimes people are like here we go again but don't do that because i'm going when are you going to get it right so it's both ways guys so i use an example throughout this whole series a lot but here's the thing for all the where are you going guys i'm going to go somewhere different with it well i'm going to expand on it but there are beginners here maybe some people are here new to christianity so i just got to explain something that you all do they got to know about this it's the verse of the day christian do not roll your eyes so that's like one of my pet peeves because i've given this example in the past if you don't know this the way christians read their bible 99 of them is kind of like watching a movie five seconds at a time right so if you just did that straight through it would take you years to finish the movie you'd have no idea what it was all about at all but christians do something else they jump all over the place so they'll do a verse over here then they'll do a verse at the beginning and so they're literally scrambled up so most christians just say stuff they repeat verses and they don't know what they're talking about they have no idea what they're saying so if you're new this happens right so you got to try to correct it a little bit because it's kind of crazy well here's the thing i'm going to build on that example for you today so yes it's going somewhere thankfully right so movie let's pick a movie i decided to just make an example of how this would look if we really did this with a movie like christians do with their bible verses so i went back a long time i went back almost 30 years so i went back 29 years that's going to be a number 29 years to 1993. did i get the math right yes okay 29 years to 1993 a movie called alive starring ethan huck and he gets an e at the end of his last name because he's super cool now here's the thing about ethan hawk we met about 30 years ago and here's the thing i remember it he does not so moving on definitely so alive so if you know this movie you're going ooh right it's not a good movie well it's a good movie but it's like kind of a scary movie you don't want to bring the kids to watch this movie we're not going to show it on family movie day so i'll give you the basic premise here if you've never seen the movie or just to remind you because it's like 30 years ago and i don't remember what i did last week so here we go so there's like a rugby team from uruguay i think and they're on a plane they're headed to chile for a game all right so they're all on the plane they're rugby play i think it's rugby so rugby they're flying and they're going over the andes mountains but they're not going over the andes mountains they end up going into the andes mountains the plane crashes and a whole bunch of people die 29 i believe people die based on a true story like in the 70s 1972 so there are survivors and they're in like the main part of the plane but the plane is all broken up and so they get it as warm as they can they're in the snow high altitude right so these there's dead bodies it's a terrible situation some people are unconscious bad but they got to eat so they look around for yep look around for food and what do they find chocolate and wine so now if we just stop reading here we stop watching like some people are like that sounds good to me but they ration it no so they have to ration it out there's an argument about that well some time goes by and they see an airplane and they think that the airplane has spotted them they're good so what do they do gobble up all the chocolate and wine right so that's exactly what they do they eat all the chocolate and wine it's out here's the thing they're not going to be rescued they discover that and it's like oh what do we do what do we eat now here's the thing before you make these people heroes here's the thing you can survive without food for like 40 days right we can fast and you just need water you can't go like more than a week without water well there's snow everywhere why don't you just you know there's so anyway so here we get to the next part there's there's no food but there's dead bodies so kids this is going to be a little scary today but the so earmuffs right so if they can handle it that's cool they eat their friends they eat the dead bodies to survive okay so that's the context we got that keep the context in your head but now like well so here's this line here's the line we're going to use so now they decide they got to go get help okay so ethan hawk's character another guy the other guy's kind of lazy and complaining or whatever it is and i can't make it it's 50 miles i can't do it so there's mountains and everything and ethan hawk he knows he has to be inspiring right no problem for ethan hawk he's inspiring so he's like you know look at those mountains over there so he decides to encourage him he i don't want to get this line wrong here it's not a bible line so i gotta really look at it look it's magnificent it's god and it'll carry us over every stone i swear so he's kind of mixing up like a little bit of jesus and satan talking with each other i don't know what he's doing there but but anyway yeah so you know it's an inspiring line so here's the thing forget that you know the context right so remember to forget that you know the context and so here's what we're gonna do we're pretending like you never saw the movie you don't know the plot line you didn't listen to me that's totally plausible and so so that that's the mindset that you're in right now right but you're on the tick tock right you're flicking through there and then you're like oh that looks like a young ethan hawk because it is and so you stop and you play it and you just hear that line and you're like i feel pretty motivated and inspired to go from like my bedroom to the to the kitchen in the fridge so that's good it'll get me there so it's inspiring so what do you do you share it with everybody and here's the thing it gets 20 000 views unbelievable so if you're anything like me and this is exactly what i did on tik tok i pinned it to the top because here's the thing i'm never going to get 20 000 views ever again that's it so i'm going to pin it there try posting a few more videos if they don't do that well i'm out i dropped the mic i'm out of tick tock my excuse is that it's crazy in there that's a true story so now you're happy to share this video with anyone anyone who will watch it right because it's inspiring no it's because you got 20 000 views and you want everybody to see that so you're sharing it with anyone who will watch it some time goes by and you find yourself oh here's the thing on a plane right so now you're going to be on a plane but here's the thing about the post you did hashtag ethan hawk right and moon knight just came out so that's what happened it was pilot error every bad pun is intended here so you'll get that in a minute so you're on a plane and now what are you doing there's some free time you're flying you're not going anywhere in florida there's no mountains here so you're going to colorado right snow-capped mountains we've got to make the story good so snow-capped mountains and here's the thing is showing everybody think now you're showing everyone this post but you're on a plane right going to a place with snowy mountains and so there's some old people like me on the plane they've seen the movie and they're like ugh like that's not very well that's not good i don't want to see that or think about that right now i'm flying in a plane some people are nervous and you're like look look at remember what happened you know and this is inspiring so now you notice someone right next to you they're really nervous they've got the windows shade down and everything they don't want to look out a plane they're kind of nervous and so you know you want to be helpful like most christians are you got this inspiring thing and so you know you turn to him and you say hey because you know the movie was from have you ever seen the movie alive the person's like are you kids this person really bringing up a movie where the plane crashes into a mountain and then people eat each other yes you are that's what you're doing right because you don't know the context this is what's happening here so the person they're not responding you don't know why because you don't know the context of what you're doing so you show them the video and they're like ah they're bringing back 30 years of horrible memories back to mine it doesn't work so here's what you decide to do you roll up the shade and sure enough there's a mountain in the distance and you're like i'm being hawk right now and so you look out out the window and you recite the line look dramatic pause it's magnificent it's god it'll carry us over every stone i can't believe i remember that i swear i swear right now the person's like bing bong you know the flight attendant it has the flight can i move my seats why do you want to move your seat and by the way they can't do that because they have to be able to like identify if the plane crashes why do you want to move your seat i think he wants to eat me so there we go so now all that just so that you understand why like if you're going to quote a bible verse you need to know the context you see how stupid we can look or how frightened we can make people in some cases so here's the thing we're in i'll do anything i'll do whatever it takes we're in the rest of the story is where we're looking at the full context of god's word we're looking into what's behind some of these one-liners that we're always saying and we're seeing that like oh maybe i should stop using that verse we'll see it again today so if you're totally new here is what's going on in the background maybe you heard of king david right david and goliath so if we go one person the next person is son solomon rich right and why not so much broke all god's rules for the king that leads to punishment for reobon then there's a civil war jeroboam in the north rehoboam in the south so we have judah israel that's what the bible's talking about when they say that so israel as a whole is later so civil war many many many kings kingdom in the north falls first to assyria now it's judah's turn it's kind of a little more slow moving good king bad king good king bad king but then bad king bad king banking and so now that's where we are we're at the bad kings we had joya kim he was that dude who cut up the scroll right so he doesn't listen he gets taken away by nebuchadnezzar to babylon now you have jehoiah chin and that's where we are second kings 24 8. jehoiah chin was 18 years old when he became king and he reigned in jerusalem three months some versions say and 10 days his mother was nahushta the daughter of of el nathan from jerusalem jehoiachin did what was evil in the lord's sight just as his father had done so if your bible says jaconiah or something like that it's the same name i don't know why these bible translators do that they just want to confuse you same person if your bible says that now parallel accounts i'm going to do this fast because i've explained this before so there are many books of the bible and sometimes they're giving a parallel account of the same-ish thing with some different details it seems that in chronicles first and second chronicles the chronicler comes along and you know maybe he has for second kings a source material but he's saying you know i'm going to add this detail it looks like he covers judah and the south more or the person who wrote it more than whoever did first and second kings so they give us little details like jehoiakim getting taken away that wasn't in second kings so these accounts are good but today we're gonna stick in second kings because it gives us the info we need second chronicles really doesn't give us that much more but we also saw that prophets are weaving their way through this account the bible is not in chronological order so you have to kind of rearrange it now we looked at the first three chapters of daniel some jeremiah but jeremiah gets especially confusing so i made you a chart okay that joke is always old now so i didn't draw me we know why but i came up with the chronological order there so you see that jeremiah is going to weave its way through but the problem with jeremiah is it's not chronological within itself it jumps all over the place so it can be extremely confusing so i'm going to try to put it kind of in order ish for you and there are some places when you look at it it's not a definitely so i feel like a probably that's about where that goes it can get very very confusing and difficult so let's go to jeremiah where there's a prophecy about the king we're talking about jehoiachin jeremiah 22 24 surely as i live says the lord i will abandon you jehoiah chin son of jehoiah kim kim king of judah even if you were the signet ring on my right hand i would pull you off i will hand you over to those who seek to kill you those you so desperately fear to king nebuchadnezzar of babylon and the mighty babylonian army i will expel you and your mother from this land and you will die in a foreign country not in your native land you will never again return to the land you yearn for and that is exactly what happens the prophecy comes true second kings 24 10. during jehoiachin's reign the officers of king nebuchadnezzar of babylon came up against jerusalem and besieged it nebuchadnezzar himself arrived at the city during the siege then king jehoiachin along with the queen mother his advisors his commanders and his officials surrendered to the babylonians in the eighth year of king nebuchadnezzar's reign he took jehoiachin prisoner as the lord had said beforehand nebuchadnezzar carried away all the treasures from the lord's temple and the royal palace he stripped away all the gold objects that king solomon of israel had placed in the temple king nebuchadnezzar took all of jerusalem captive including all the commanders and the best of the soldiers craftsmen and artisans 10 000 and all only the poorest people some prophets were left in the land now if we go back to jeremiah and try to do this chronologically we get to chapter 23 we see that there's going to be a righteous descendant pointing to jesus but really the bulk of this is just these warnings against these false prophets so you have false prophets both places saying everything's going to be just fine it's going to be over really soon like just a couple of years or whatever so we'll see that happening here so trying to give people hope but they're doing so falsely it's not what god said is going to happen so that's going on a lot in the church right they don't say what this says so same today so that's what's happening a lot of the false teachers they're doing so for prosperity usually and that is happening in the church today if we go to chapter 24 just an interesting thing i want to point out so here in chapter 23 jeremiah chapter 24 it's like the good and bad figs and i kind of talked about this last week and my wife was quick to point out like i said good fruit and bad fruit and she's good with galatians so she's thinking no that's just the flesh there's no fruit i'm thinking no no good figs bad fig so it's like good fruit bad fruit you can have the fruit of the flesh i think i was saying but that's just like the bad figs the idea here just so you understand is that these people are getting what they deserve so remember if you're new you're like god so mean no these people are mean they're really really bad they are well we'll see what they're going to do i want to spoil this part but they're killing their own children they're sacrificing their own children to false gods it's bad so he's punishing them so what he's doing is he's sending these bad people away right even though they're from judah israelites they're sending him away to be punished so it's like going to be a 70-year timeout that's basically what's happening because they're so wicked they're evil that's what's happening but there are some that refuse to go including a now puppet king put there by nebuchadnezzar zedekiah so he's no good so he's like this puppet ruler just a client king as long as you know he pays what he should he's going to leave him alone so they're kind of like traitors think about it that way so they're the bad figs that stay there don't take god's punishment the good figs they're good but not good enough to get out of the exile so they're taken away to babylonia so that's what's happening here and the good and bad figs so here's where jeremiah gets really confusing because if you turn the page we're in another king's reign all of a sudden it's like we got to go backwards again so we have to make a jump to jeremiah 29 that's what's happening during this time and we're going to get some key verses here that will hang on today jeremiah 29 1 jeremiah wrote a letter from jerusalem to the elders priests prophets and all the people who had been exiled to babylon by king nebuchadnezzar those are the people taken away jeremiah maybe he's one of the poor people he stays in jerusalem but he's not a bad fig this was after king jehoiachin the queen mother the court officials and other officials of judah and all the craftsmen artisans had been deported from jerusalem he sent the letter with alaysa son of shaphen and gemariah son of phil kaya when they went to babylon as king zedekiah's ambassadors to nebuchadnezzar so the client king they're sending ambassadors to him probably paying him money and stuff this is what the letter said this is what the lord of heaven's armies the god of israel says to all the captives he is exiled to babylon from jerusalem build homes and plan to stay plant gardens and eat the food they produce marry and have children then find spouses for them so that you may have grandchildren multiply do not dwindle away and work for the peace and prosperity of the city where i sent you into exile pray to the lord for it for its welfare will determine your welfare this is what the lord of heaven's armies and the god of israel says do not let the prophets and fortune tellers who are with you in the land of babylon trick you do not listen to their dreams because they are telling you lies in my name i have not sent them says the lord this is what the lord says you will be in babylon for 70 years but then i will come and do for you all the good things i have promised and it will bring you home again for i know the plans i have for you says the lord there are plans for good and not for disaster to give you a future and a hope sound familiar yeah but context context context think think before you share think carefully here right in those days verse if you keep reading verse 12 will say in those days when you pray then i will listen think about it right so think about being my age right you're not 20 years old or something like that i'm not listening to you now you're going to go away in exile right you've just been defeated you're going to experience horrible atrocities and you're going to go into exile and you're getting stuck in that place not your native land for 70 years and it's in babylon so guess what you can't worship god there think about it can't go to church anymore none of it you're gone 70 years and unless you're like 20 what the plans like what you're not going to see those plans you're going to die that's what's going to happen because it's 70 years so basically barely anyone listening to this is going to see that prosperity what's really being said here is i'm punishing you all corporately and then when you're done with the big timeout and die i will reward your ancestors corporately it's not about you so first of all you're not in captivity in babylon right that's not you right you're not experiencing that stuff stop it like no no you're not in chains and naked and everything being beaten no it's not about you it's not even about the people he's writing to for the most part they're not going to see it so you see the backdrop here and then when you use it if someone knows a story right they're like that person on the plane like duh it sounds crazy sound like crazy people so not about you and furthermore if you look wholeheartedly then then you may get it and to the people who wouldn't listen i will send war famine and disease upon them and i'll make them like the bad figs too rotten to eat again and you who are in exile it continues you haven't listened either you haven't listened he's putting them in the group forget it you're all bad fix that's why you're getting the punishment i have to punish you again with the false teachers don't let these false teachers take my word and use it wrongly they're lying to you you got to take the punishment that's what it's all about now again another earmuffs warning right so kids if there's kids in the kid's room i would just turn the volume off for a minute um earmuffs warning we have a kids ministry so yeah be in there so just a little bit scary here so i've made my case i think at this point like the defense can rest it's really silly to be using that verse for like i want a new job or a car like no no no this is not what this is about right so it's already silly it'll get worse so it's so bad in these sieges and in this captivity it's so bad that they resort to cannibalism and they're told about it jeremiah 19 9 it was predicted i will see to it this is the lord speaking i will see to it that your enemies lay siege to the city until all the food is gone those then those trapped inside will eat their own sons and daughters and friends they will even be driven to utter despair just stop and think about doing that seriously crazy also another book lamentations it's at the end so after jeremiah there are naturally laments right you're sad you're singing very sad songs it's bad two times in that short five chapter book it's kind of like the psalms but real sad two times it talks about this end to chapter two and four where it says lamentations 4 10 tender hearted women have cooked their own children they have eaten them to survive the siege that's in your bibles people and so you know you're not going to put that verse out right and then take the coffee cup i love jesus and like get the picture with your pencil because i study my bible right nope that's not going to be the section that's not a verse of the day i haven't seen that one come up you know so it's crazy so it's really really bad now here's the thing i want to tie some stuff together here because we're going to go back we saw this already and some of you might not remember it so i'm going to give you a little background here we're going to go to deuteronomy and we're going to go to moses and at the end of deuteronomy it says that he was a prophet he's somebody who speaks on behalf of the lord he's a prophet it calls him a prophet just with that in mind like jeremiah now if we go back we kind of see a funny section and it's this ritual that they're going to have to do there's all these different things that they're going to have to do when they get to the promised land so again right it's not seven years but 40 years they're going to wander around right a year for each day that they scouted out the land and then they were disobedient they're too afraid to go into it so fine you're afraid to go into it 40 years you're going to wander around the desert he's going to provide the maniform and some quail sometimes when they complain right and that then then same type of situation then you're going to get to the promised land and you're going to do all this stuff and one of the weird things they're going to do is they're going to go up on two mountains half the tribes one half the tribes on the other gerrism and ibal and they're going to go on these mountains half the tribes are going to pronounce a curse over them for not obeying the law if you don't obey god's law curses on you then the other half they're going to pronounce the blessings that you get if and the rare occasion you actually obey which is why if you look at chapter 27 it's all curses chapter 28 just the top of it i think the first 14 or so verses of it are the blessings but then 15 through 60 68 68 curses so tons of curses on them why why are there so many curses because they're not going to obey that's the prophecy moses knows that so the lord tells them they're not going to obey me so these are all the curses they're going to get now here's the funny thing i once had somebody think they were really smart they're like gene you know we're always to be blessed and you know god just always wants us to be happy all the time and never punish us or anything even though like there's huge things about it and jesus says so too and so does paul peter james john everybody says it right but they don't want it nope nope nope that doesn't apply to me at all you know i'm just going to get the blessings and so what did this individual do i didn't like add what i was going to say about him what did he do he quoted deuteronomy 28 as his proof text i was like i didn't answer them like i had nothing to say i'm like if you don't have anything nice to say don't say it this guy's crazy are you you're really using that is like your blessings verse so try to like argue with me like dude didn't even read the rest of the page you know where it's horrible and i want to show you this this is what it says in the midst of this text deuteronomy 28 53 the siege ah that's going to happen because you're disobedient and terrible distress of the enemy's attack will be so severe that you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters whom the lord god has given to you the most tender hearted man among you will have no compassion for his own brother his beloved wife and his surviving children he will refuse to share with them the flesh he is devouring the flesh of his own children because he has nothing to eat during the siege in terrible distress that your enemy will inflict on your towns the most tender and delicate woman among you so delicate she would not so much as touch the ground with her foot will be selfish toward the husband she loves and toward her own son or daughter she will hide from them the after birth and the new baby she has borne so that she herself can secretly eat them she'll have nothing else to eat during the siege in terrible distress that your enemy will inflict on your towns and that's the rest of the story think about that for a second and i didn't know the bible said that yes it does right so don't ever use 29 11 about your job ever again i don't want to hear it because that's all the stuff that comes in my head when you people do that i'm like oh that is distasteful it's distasteful the pond was not intended that was bad i just i accident i accidentally i joked so much i accidentally joke like it's terrible sorry okay but anyway and it's the same thing moses it's horrible right takes him out up on the mountain and he's like look moses he's about to die look that's the promised land isn't it awesome you're not going to get to see it that's what happens to him you're not going to get to see it your people all sinned and by the way he couldn't keep him in control so that's it so again it's one of those not you not now not yet sections of scripture so it's a prophetic picture of the future like jeremiah 29 same thing in deuteronomy it's surrounded by great tragedy and distress it's not a good time it's horrible you see the bible isn't short-sighted like these false teachers are right so the crux of the false teachings you know here now immediate now immediately i want it now right so they they fit perfectly in to the next generation everything's got to be immediate now fast me me me me me me me when jesus says die die die die die die die like that's got to go do me me me none of that that is not christian speak me no jesus tells us jesus wash his feet what yeah then how much more should you do it's not about you but people don't want to hear that so for those who are new here there's a thing called the prosperity gospel that's a thing and i'll show you both sides of the coin but that's a big thing basically like anything else here in america christianity has been commercialized horribly absolutely horribly just it's terrible right so when we think of like the masses right you know it's the mainstream you think about mainstream anything you know it's probably not true well mainstream christianity same thing you got a lot of people suiting up trying to look their best on a sunday and then as soon as they get out the door they're not being anything like jesus at all and that's what's going on that's it but if you don't call out sin you don't talk about people eating their children you know if you don't preach like as you can see huge portions of the bible well these people are going to like that right because we've made it commercially palatable not upon and and and so we just fed them spoon fed them not another pun i can't stop and so that's that's what they do right so we get that we get that and everything else but it can't be in christianity really the bible talks about it it's gonna happen it says i read that to you recently right in second timothy in these times well what the false teachers are going to what flourish you know and then real christians are going to what suffer that's what it says all over the place so they preach this here now and they prey on short-sightedness and ignorance that's what they're doing they're not going to read you any of that stuff you're going to hear that so there are many who will use jeremiah right to just claim these blessings and now you can see i hope i educated you into how just like disrespectful and ignorant that is it's crazy you know imagine taking a line out like some horrible holocaust movie and then using it like oh yeah man you're gonna be rich what like are you aware of what these people went through and now that you are well what are you gonna do about it you know have some respect it's disrespectful and especially to claim it on some shallow material thing that you can survive without and you've got plenty of food by the way you know it's it's just crazy it misses the point now a quick disclaimer here god gives there's nothing wrong with having stuff nothing nothing both sides of the coin there's not god will bless us sometimes he will give he can do that but the bible also says you will suffer sometimes but you will be blessed sometimes right so back and forth it's okay the bible says clearly will prosper in some occasions and it says clearly we'll suffer in some occasions we've got to deal with both things it's not one or the other it's both depending on the lord's timing and we don't know what that is all the time so here's the thing if you have stuff the important point is don't be greedy with it and don't be a slave to it that's it so it's the health and wealth gospel so if we go to places like first and second timothy if we go to first timothy we see there's a warning about it for timothy 6 in particular and he says hey look tell the rich people to what you know be generous how do you think the churches started how do you think they supported these people they need some benefactors to help them out so he's not like timothy chase them away and tell them to sell everything or they're going to hell no be really generous you see this in james too there are rich people in church and they keep telling the same thing be really generous don't be a slave to that money but he tells timothy flee from those things we'll be good with food and clothing that's it i want timothy playing with that fire because he knows it's dangerous it's very dangerous so jesus think about this parable the sower he teaches that what what chokes out the plant from growing up wealth wealth can just choke out god's word from your life he warns about it see the danger of prosperity is simple it binds us to the world prosperity can lead us to think that we found our place in the world but in reality the world has found its place in us not good the point from moses to jehoiachin where we are today is that god is enough he's able but he's enough so if we go to the best commentary we have on the old testament the new testament we see some interesting things so i explained this to you in the past really really quick you can't be a new testament christian sorry wrong can't do it why because 33 percent-ish of the new testament is old testament quotes or paraphrase you can't do it right so and if you don't read the old testament you have no idea again what you're talking about or what these people are referencing or the context behind it so you don't even understand the new testament if you don't know the old and for as much as jeremiah 29 11 is quoted by christians today in the church it is not quoted at all in the new testament at once you know it is jeremiah 12 in james so we look at james i gave you some of the context a real problem in the book of james for that church is there a lot of wealthy people in it but the problem is they're not being generous right so they're treating the poor people unfairly you know they're saying i'm going to sit up here in the prominent seats and you go sit in the back or whatever because you're poor so that's the context of what's going on so he's a little harsh with them but listen to it james 5 1. look here you rich people we've been grown with anguish because of all the terrible troubles ahead of you your wealth is rotting away and your fine clothes are moth eaten rags your gold and silver are corroded the very wealth you are counting on will eat away your flesh like fire this corroded treasure you have hoarded will testify against you on the day of judgment yeah they're going to be judged for listen hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay the cries of those who who harvest your fields have reached the ears of the lord of heaven's armies you have spent your years on earth and luxury satisfying your every desire you have fattened yourselves for the day of slaughter jeremiah 5 5 or sorry james 5 5 is a reference to jeremiah 12 2-3 lord you always give me justice when i bring my case before you so let me bring you this complaint why are the wicked so prosperous why are evil people so happy you have planted them and they've taken up root and prospered your name is on their lips but you're far from their hearts lip service but as for me lord you know my heart you see me and test my thoughts drag these people away like sheep to be butchered set them aside to be slaughtered they're prosperous here but what happens gone so what he's saying if you go back to chapter one i'm not gonna put all the verses on the screen we're gonna come to a close here the problem is as that their loyalty is divided between the world and god one foot in one foot out that's a problem for god he does not want half of you he wants all of you they will fade away the rich people and all their stuff like a flower in the field we can have wealth but be sure to do the right thing with it it's important mustn't have divided loyalty yet there are so many who just don't get it and this is so repetitive this is a topic where it's hard for me to pick verses i started the message it has like all verses and it was like two hours long that's how repetitive this is it's repetitive but you know got it paul just quick recap read philippians a little homework there's another verse in there that i don't like fourth or third i can do all things through christ it gives me strength yeah you can endure in prison like paul and be tortured you can do all things all right but if you read the whole thing he talks about suffering for christ and the necessity of that the expectation of his suffering he says you should expect to join christ in his suffering you know what he says though it's interesting and i did this couple weeks ago just be quick he's in prison he thinks he could die and he's like you know that would be much better to just die and go home and be with the lord now think about it he's a believer so he's like heaven sounds pretty nice right now but for your sake i'll stick around a little bit longer for me dying is game this is his mindset it's the mindset of a real believer i just cannot wait to be with you lord make sense right if we're calling ourselves christians you'll want to stick around he's got the right attitude then you have the poem about jesus take on jesus make your own attitude that of christ jesus right recited that for you that's that's the point and he makes the point that listen we're citizens of heaven not here twice in that letter we're citizens of heaven he makes it after the contrast of the falsies warning about false teachers is their god is their belly all right so they're enemies of the cross of christ why because of their greed that's the reason and then he tells them but ah we're not citizens here we're citizens of heaven don't worry about that stuff don't believe them that's it life here's temporary think about it if you believe in heaven you believe in eternal life why try to manufacture a counterfeit version here what's the point i call this kind of like false gospel the sand castle gospel it's silly you're just building something up that's just gonna god's gonna sweep away if you know this whole story it's gone so here's the perspective think of it like vacation if you go on vacation you don't plan on staying there well we did that right so we came to naples on vacation we're like we're staying so i just blew up my whole illustration yeah i didn't think that one through but anyway you get my point right you go on vacation somewhere i'm not gonna live in disney i'd love to do that like live in a castle or something that would be like my wife's dream you know get to live but i keep telling her it's noisy there's all these people outside yelling and kids so it's not like a 55 plus retirement community right so it's not quiet bad place to live but we don't stay there but what do we do when we're there we have a good time right so we're on vacation we have a good time but it's not permanent so we'll go to the beach we'll make a sand castle but we know somebody's going to kick it down right or the wave's going to wash it away it's not permanent but we have a good time you see both we can do both things so you don't go on the vacation and go we're going to have to go back home that's my dad my dad that's it you can't take him anywhere he's like we gotta go back home yeah i'm like we just got here you know but some people live their lives like that and that's terrible right here's another one you're gonna be with jesus thank goodness dad maybe he'll be he's complaining to jesus about something there's something not right with heaven some people are like that we don't want to be like that we talked about the curmudgeon no no no we're going to have a good time but this is vacation we're just passing through and then it's going to be over right we've got to deal with it so this is what jesus says if you read the sermon on the mount matthew five through seven don't interrupt jesus don't stop reading read five all the way through seven otherwise what you're doing is you're like jesus shut up for a minute i gotta do something more important no no all the way through it's meant to be heard or read all the way through all three chapters it's a sermon take you about a half hour i think you can deal with it but he says some important things he starts with the famous beatitudes and what does he say what's the first thing he says blessed are the poor blessed are the poor luke sermon on the plane probably says the same stuff but different variation it's a little different but he goes on to the woes so this is like luke 6 verse 20 and 24 5. right woe to you who are rich you've had your happiness now that's it right so if you've hoarded all this stuff you see poor people whatever it is you're not generous you're not supporting your church you're not doing anything with the money or you're just taking like a little bit and here's my leftovers woe to you you've had all the happiness you're ever going to get that's it it's bad well the end of the sermon on the mount i'm not to mention matthew 6 right store your treasure where in heaven where the moths and rust can't get it not here but check out the way he ends as we kind of come to a close here matthew 7 24 anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise like a person who builds a house on solid rock though the rain comes in torrents and the flood waters rise and winds beat against that house it won't collapse because it is built on bedrock but anyone who hears my teaching and doesn't obey obey is foolish like a person who builds a house on sand when the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house it will collapse with a mighty crash and he drops the mic that's it that's the end of the sermon important point that rock is christ everything is built upon that rock nothing else as we discussed last week we must not put our faith in anything in the world it will all fade away what happens have you seen people through all this stuff what happens when they put their faith in the government they lose their minds we've lost people from the church they like actually became affiliates with these political organizations over their christianity that's what happens you fall away it's sad you can't put your faith in anything in this world nothing there's nothing in this world that it can offer you that is better than what god has right now for you and in the future for you even if it's a bad vacation nothing in christ and christ alone no buts that's it if you really believe in heaven you really believe in this why don't you have all your hope and eternal life it's going to be better so as we close i want to look at hebrews again if you know hebrews really well when you get to chapter 8 the author preacher hebrews is quoting a really large section of jeremiah 31. jeremiah 31 because if we go past 20 we see again and again the hope is in eternity it's in the future everything right here now it's in the future that's where our hope lies there will be a new covenant god will write his law on our hearts we don't need the law of moses anymore all those curses they're gone it's our new covenant in christ and if we keep reading we ended with hebrews 10 remember remember when you were on fire for jesus stay that way remember when everything you had that's what's happening to these people was taken away from you oh everything so what are we gonna do pastor gene what if they take our stuff hebrews you accepted it with joy that's what the word of god says you accepted it with joy why hebrews 10 read it for yourself because you knew there were better things waiting in heaven for you who cares i get to go to heaven and we talked about this pity those people pity them that's scary what awaits them right so we should have hearts of mercy and love for people even if they're attacking us gosh you're torturing me or imprisoning this what's happening to these people but they're thinking if they're thinking like paul he's trying to get the prison guards to convert because he knows like there's nothing you can do to me that's worse than what god is going to do to you mercy pity them pray for them it's going to be bad there are better things waiting ahead so that's my encouragement to you this morning i'd like to pray for you lord i thank you for everyone who came everyone tuning in and watching online we pray for we have a lot of people traveling right now so bless them give them traveling mercies but lord i pray that just our focus is on you whether we're in prosperity or we're in pain regardless of the circumstance the only place we turn is to you and that we act as vehicles of your grace your mercy your patience your kindness your love your goodness and your self-control i ask these things in jesus name amen so you