We're All Looking

How did I get this far from where I meant to be?

Nobody wakes up one morning and decides to ruin their life. It happens a degree at a time, a Sunday skipped, a conversation avoided, a small compromise, until you look up and the destination is a mile off. Jeremiah watched a whole nation drift that way, and God keeps asking them to remember the devotion of their youth.

Yahweh says, “What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after worthless vanity, and have become worthless?

Jeremiah 2:5

Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, “Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Yahweh says, “I remember for you the kindness of your youth, your love as a bride, how you went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.

Jeremiah 2:1–2

But I have this against you, that you left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the first works; or else I am coming to you swiftly, and will move your lamp stand out of its place, unless you repent.

Revelation 2:4–5

He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs. He wanted to fill his belly with the pods that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any. But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying with hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.”’ “He arose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him.

Luke 15:15–20

Why do I keep giving myself to things that overpromise and leave me empty?

The pastor's first trip to the garment district in New York cost him a hundred dollars and a yellow wrist, and the watch said Plex. Idols work that way on a much larger scale. Israel traded weighty glory for something that has no substance, and the empty feeling afterward is the receipt.

Has a nation changed its gods, which really are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which doesn’t profit.

Jeremiah 2:11

“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut out cisterns for themselves: broken cisterns that can’t hold water.

Jeremiah 2:13

…and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, four-footed animals, and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves; who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

Romans 1:23–25

“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”

Ecclesiastes 1:2

Those who regard vain idols forsake their own mercy.

Jonah 2:8

If I'm not one thing that others bow to, what is it that I am actually looking for?

The sermon says we are not all that different from the more religious nation. Everybody worships, everyone gives their heart away to something. The person who has been burned by a ministry or a friend may have simply moved their devotion to something else rather than stopped having one.

Yahweh says, “What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after worthless vanity, and have become worthless?

Jeremiah 2:5

…and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, four-footed animals, and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves; who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

Romans 1:23–25

When the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.” Aaron said to them, “Take off the golden rings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me.” All the people took off the golden rings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. He received what they handed him, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molded calf. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

Exodus 32:1–4

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t serve both God and Mammon.

Matthew 6:24

Where does the water come from that won't run out?

Cisterns are dug and they crack, and the water keeps draining. The spring is different, and it is given rather than earned. At the Feast of Booths, with the priest pouring out the golden jug, Jesus stood up and told a thirsty crowd where the living water was.

Now on the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink! He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, from within him will flow rivers of living water.”

John 7:37–38

“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut out cisterns for themselves: broken cisterns that can’t hold water.

Jeremiah 2:13

Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

John 4:13–14

“Hey! Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which doesn’t satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in richness. Turn your ear, and come to me. Hear, and your soul will live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

Isaiah 55:1–3

As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

Psalms 42:1–2