Welcome to the Wilton Baptist Church, where we worship God, walk with others, and win people to the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm Pastor Steve, and our congregation is pleased to share this message with you today, and we pray it'll be a blessing and encouragement to you. Blessings as you listen or watch. Call our message, Getting Unstuck. getting unstuck. Years ago in the mountains of West Virginia, following a snowstorm or an ice storm, I was out making some visits and went up on one of those mountains And it was a narrow road, one of those where it's hard to pass another car. And I pulled off so my car wouldn't be in the way of the road. And I pulled over a little bit too far into the ice and in the snow. I had a Chevy Blazer four-wheel drive. It was a car that was difficult to get stuck. It could really... do well in the snow and the ice. But I was I was a little bit too far over. And as I made the visit, I come back. But in those cold winters, and it still happens to me to this day, if I'm standing out in those teen digit numbers, especially my mouth freezes. I mean, it freezes to the point where if I say something, it sounds kind of like the other end of the phone line or the teacher on Charlie Brown. So because I can't move my mouth, it kind of like it freezes in place like this, like a smile kind of like. Like that, it's frozen, and I'm trying to talk, and I think I'm speaking and enunciating as best as I can. So I was cold, I was standing by the SUV, and I was trying to push a little bit and get it moving, and these three guys in a pickup truck drive by. They roll down their window, and they say, hey buddy, you need some help? But remember, my mouth is frozen. And I said, thank you, I really could use some help if you would, it'd be awesome. Something to that effect. And here's what they heard, womp, womp, womp, womp. And they saw me smiling. And they couldn't tell what I was saying. They said, do you want us to help you? And I said, womp, womp, womp, womp, womp. And smiled at them. And they kept driving. I was stranded. I was stuck. Just recently, Natalie went to pick up Summer. Summer, our oldest, was at a camp for college students, a conference for college students. And it was about apologetics and worldview, and it lasted for two weeks. So our oldest has been gone for a while. She prepares for college and everything. And so Natalie went to pick her up in Georgia. The camp was in Georgia, on a mountain in Georgia. And on the way back, she got to the airport. They both got to the airport. And they were stranded. They said, we don't have spare tires. And that airplane you're supposed to go on needs a spare tire. Put on it. It needs a new tire. So you're stuck. So they've been stuck for an extra day. I said, Natalie, I'm not sure. Every time you travel, every time, you get stranded wherever you go. I mean, she's been two or three nights in some places because of things. And so I've been joking with her. I don't know if I want to go on a trip with you again. because you get stuck everywhere you go. How do we get unstuck spiritually? How do we get unstuck spiritually? That's what we're going to answer because the people here were stuck in a spiritual place. Now, Jeremiah mentions several times how they have backslidden. And in some ways, some maybe are spinning their wheels or doing religious things. but they're stuck spiritually, and a lot of them are moving backwards. They're moving away from God instead of moving towards God. You're here today because you want to move towards God. And maybe you're a Christian, maybe you're seeking who the Lord is, you want to know about Him, and maybe you're just spiritually stuck. And you're maybe even moving backwards. But for most of us, I think you're here because you don't want to keep spinning your wheels. You don't want to be stuck on the ice with your SUV. So notice if you would, we'll begin reading in verse 21 of Jeremiah 7. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. Those commands of Leviticus came a little bit longer further back, And you think about Numbers and Deuteronomy, the commands did not come immediately when they were being delivered from Egypt. Those came later. But they added to some of those commands, and they had changed a lot of things. But here's what he says, I didn't give you those commands, verse 23, but this thing commanded I them, saying, obey my voice. He said, I kept it simple overall, so it's very simple, obey my voice. and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people. And walk ye in the ways that I have commanded you." The word ways is the word Derek spelled just like a person whose name is Derek. It means a road or a manor, so the manor in which you're going on that way, as well as the way you're going. And walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you to see some good things happen throughout your life. But they hearkened not, they did not incline their ear, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imaginations of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward." Spinning their wheels, walking backwards, backsliding, that common theme that we find throughout this book. standing at the temple gate guaranteed a large audience. And God told Jeremiah in verse one, I want you to go to the temple. There was a temple there and there were several gates. We don't know which gate it was, but I want you to stand there in the gate. And a lot of people were congregating around that temple for worship or business or otherwise. And I want you to give them this message. Notice in chapter seven, verse one, the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these." They were saying things like, well, God's not going to let the Babylonians come down and take control of this area because this is the temple of the Lord. And God was saying, that's not an excuse for how you've been living, nor is that a reason why. I would not come and chastise and chasten and correct all the evil that's been going on." And then he gives some more instruction that we'll be examining here in the next few moments. These people were backsliding. They were moving back, not forward. And some of us, maybe in a similar way, we are backsliding or maybe we are spinning our wheels. We're stuck. How did they get stuck? What should we do when we are spiritually stuck? That's what I would like to answer today. But first, let's find out why they got stuck. Why were they spinning their wheels, and what were the three sticking points that would cause them to move back from God? There's the false gods, evil practices, and bad hearing. That is the reason why. So let's keep reading where we were at. They were trusting in lying words. He tells them in verse 5 to amend their ways. Verse 6 now. If you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt." Sometimes the things that we do are to our hurt. They will affect us in negative ways to our hurt, to our damage. But he says in verse 7, Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, forever and ever. Behold, ye trust in lying words that cannot profit. Will ye steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not?" The first thing they had was false gods. The first sticking point is a false god, lowercase g-o-d-s. They had several gods. There's Baal mentioned in verse 9. This is one of the Canaanite gods, an evil false deity. And then in verse 18, very interestingly, we have the Queen of Heaven. The children gather wood, and fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough to make cakes. to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, as they may provoke me to anger." So there's Baal, there's the queen of heaven, and he says there's other gods, other deities that they were worshiping, and these are areas of sticking points for them. The word cake here is borrowed from the Akkadian language, and they would bake little cakes, not in an oven, but it would be like an open fire. archaeology has found some of these open fire basically a mold or something I guess so they would have an open fire and they found these little molds in the shape of a female and others in the shape of a star and they would put whatever their dough is in that or whatever the recipe is they would put it in and put it over the fire and it would kind of burn. Some of you campfire people have stuff like that where you cook things over the fire It'd be a similar thing like that. But archaeologists have found things like this from that era over there in the Middle East. Worshipping a female goddess. Now there's two options, two main options. Ishtar was the goddess of love, sexuality, and war. And there's a Mesopotamian influence there that that came into Judah, so perhaps it was Ishtar. Another candidate would be Ashtoreth. You've heard of Ashtoreth. Ashtoreth, same person, or false deity. And so another Canaanite, false god, Ashtoreth. And perhaps it was one of these two, or a combination of both, or for whoever the person was worshiping, maybe one was worshiping Ishtar, the other Ashtoreth. Either way, these were false gods. false deities. They make these little cakes, they would bow down, they would pray in honor of this supposed Queen of Heaven. Now here's one big difference for us as Christians. We know God as God the Father. There is no Queen of Heaven. And there's a big difference. And sometimes, even today, this idea of God being a female is growing in popularity. But He's masculine in nature, as described throughout His Word in the Scripture. So any deity alongside God that's in the place of God or alongside God is a false deity. God does not allow for us to worship God one day and then a false god another and really call ourselves a Christian. For them as Judahites, as people of Judah, well, I'm gonna worship God today and I'll worship Ashtaroth tomorrow. Okay, it doesn't work. God doesn't accept that. A hundred years before this was happening, in Jeremiah's day, Isaiah said, I am the Lord. God said, I am the Lord. That is my name, he says, and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. Today we have a lot of false gods, lowercase g-o-d-s, false gods. Maybe we don't bake cakes and set it in a fire and honor a queen of heaven or bow down to a statue of Baal. But what are some false gods that we're tempted to follow today? Money is one, education, sports, sex, government, drugs, alcohol. Some people follow Satan and they'll let you know it. And others follow other false deities, and they'll tell you all about it. And others follow false religions and are trying to work their way by really humanistic approach. Humanism is a false god as well. Secondly, they had evil practices. This is where they got stuck. Now, we'll just look through at several verses. I read about some Brazilian hunters who are reported to have captured a number of monkeys by having small boots made for the monkeys. They had these small boots, they would fill the boots with pitch, like tar from the jungle, and a hunter sat down inside the monkeys and they pulled off their own boots, and then they put their boots back on and kind of did that a few times, and then they left the area, and these monkeys were watching what the men did with these little boots, with their boots, and so the monkeys came down from the tree And they put these little boots on, but they were full of tar, and so their feet got stuck, and then the hunters come back, and they easily captured the monkeys. This is how we get stuck sometimes. We watch what other people are doing, bad examples, we watch what the world's doing, bad examples, and we can have evil practices that develop in our life. We become enamored with those things. We watch bad examples, and then we can get caught up in something wrong. Notice in verse 6, they were oppressing the vulnerable. He says, if you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, the widow, and shed not innocent blood. They also were stealing, murdering, and adulterating, and lying. In verse 9, will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely? and burn incense and to bail and walk after other gods whom you know not. And so they had these evil practices. They had a religion that had become a den of robbers. And Jesus even references this when he takes the money changers and kicks them out a long years later. He says, is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? And so you had some of the false practices there of religion taking place. And perhaps the most tragic of all is in verse 31. I have to turn a page, maybe you do as well, but look at it if you would. They have built the high places of Tophet, that's a location, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, it's this valley that Tophet's in, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire. Which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart. They were conducting child sacrifices to Molech. Molech is a false god. And they would do this in this valley, in this area called Tophet. Anytime in the Bible you see Tophet, just know you might want to write Molech beside it because this is another one of those false deities that, in his case, demanded human sacrifice, and some of God's people were following along with this. We've found, people have found different illustrations of this from Nisha, of human sacrifice. And things like this taking place, and this was happening, and Molech is identified with Melech or Milku from a Tartu. These are other, what was considered netherworld deity world. And excavations there have discovered what Jeremiah mentions right here. There's a place where they would sacrifice their infants, perhaps toddlers, their children to the Lord. One person described this, that Judah was outdoing the heathen, the heathen who rarely made sacrifices. Those in Judah were making a lot of sacrifices. They knew there was an army amassing to the north. Israel had already been conquered. Judah is the remaining two tribes and a half surrounding Jerusalem. And so some of them were actually sacrificing their kids on an altar to Molech. Why in the world, why in the world would someone cook their child like this? Here's an image. This is what Molech would have looked like. They found different things like this. Can you guys show that picture there? Why cook their kids? Why were they sacrificing the false gods? What a terrible thing. So Moloch is, I'll just illustrate it since the slide's not working. It'd be like a metal image with its arms outstretched like this, okay? A lot of bell statues are very similar with their arms outstretched. And what they would do is they would heat up a bonfire around the base of it or right under the hands. And just imagine this, they would take their child, nothing's wrong with the child, nothing's, I mean, even if there was, it's perfectly, this little child, this baby, and sat it and watched them cook. They would bow down and pray to Molech. God's people should have known better. This is the Jewish people in Israel proper, just outside of Jerusalem, not too far away, that are bowing down and sacrificing their own kids. Now, we see that and know that's barbaric, it's insane, it's terrible. That's a terrible thing. Why would anyone kill a pre-born? Okay, what's pre-born? Well, let's say you have a baby that's a month old, they put it on the fire. What if it's pre-born? What if it's eight months in term, seven months in term? There's not much of a difference, and even if there were, it's still a child who's dependent on its mother while in the womb. But it's still a separate person, separate set of DNA, has its own heartbeat, all those things, you know? So when we see them and say, how barbaric, our society is not anywhere better at all. Why would somebody do this? Here's Exodus. Here's what God describes in Exodus 22, verse 22 through 25. If men strive and herd a woman with child so that her fruit depart from her, that means the baby would die. then, and yet no mischief follow, he shall surely be punished as according to the woman's husband will lay upon him, and he shall pay as the judge has determined. If any mischief follow, basically if he's assaulting her, he continues the assault, the baby dies, then thou shalt give life for life. He gets the death penalty because he killed the baby in a mama. That's what that says, that's what it means. It's not on the screen. Look, just write it down if you want to. That's Exodus 22, verses 22 through 25. That's a big deal. God sees that as a baby who's not just a potential life, but a life. something that God made and has given life. So, it's such an important thing for us to consider. How about this then, bad hearing? Bad hearing is next, verse 23 through 24, Notice, if you would, as we continue. They had bad hearing, they had other things distracting them or getting their attention other than, let's follow the Lord, let's go the way that He has called us to. They hearkened not. They did not listen to respond. They didn't care what God had been saying, what God had called them to. In verse 27, they didn't answer God's call. Therefore thou shalt speak all these words, Jeremiah, but they will not hearken to thee. Thou also shalt call unto them, but they will not answer thee." They're not going to listen to what you say, Jeremiah, but I want you to preach it anyway. I want you to give this message anyway to the people. And they refuse to talk about the truth. Notice in the next verse 28, but they, thou shalt say to them, this is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, nor receive with correction. Truth is perished. and is cut off from their mouth. Have you ever been talking to somebody, and maybe it becomes a tense conversation, and you're talking truth, and you're trying just to talk, and let's discuss this. Let's figure out an answer to this. Let's solve this problem together, okay? And then they turn around and walk away. They don't want to talk. I don't want to keep talking about that. They just walk away. All right, that's what they did. We don't like what Jeremiah is saying. We're gonna turn around and walk away. We're gonna reject the truth that Jeremiah was preaching and giving to them. So what is the result then of being spiritually stuck? There's three options that they have. They could go forward, they could go backward, or they could stay where they're at. Staying, by the way, is not neutral. We think if we stay, if we just maintain, that's not neutral. We are to advance in our Christian life. We are to walk and grow closer to our God. So if you're just staying still, I'm just gonna stay pat, stay put right here. Okay, that's not the same thing as spiritual growth. you're just one step back from backsliding more. We want to keep going forward, keep advancing with the Lord. So that's your three options. Instead of turning back to God, The people become hard and hateful to God. They refuse to change for good. And judgment is the result to remain stuck or moving backwards. And God cites an example in verses 11 through 16. He says, remember Shiloh? Now our middle daughter, her middle name is Shiloh. And that's where the tabernacle was taken for a long time. The tabernacle was there whenever they transported into into Israel and David eventually got it over to there before the the tabernacle or the temple was built but notice if you would verse 11 Let's go to verse 13, and now, because ye have done all this, he mentions in verse 12, Shiloh, because ye have done all this, saith the Lord, and I spake unto you, rising early and speaking, but ye heard not, and I called you, but ye answered not. Therefore I will do unto this house which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave you, and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. Here's what happened to Shiloh. The Canaanites came in and took the Ark of the Covenant. They took the ark, they carried it away, they destroyed all the people, and Shiloh was never a central hub for spiritual things again. That happened. God said, remember what I did there? That's what I'm gonna do because of this. So this is one of the results. Judgment is one of the results of their backsliding and moving away from the Lord. So how do we get unstuck? All right, how do we get unstuck? I'm stuck, I'm spiritually stuck, what do I do? Well, in verses three through five, he says to amend your ways, amend your ways. Verse three, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies, the God of Israel, amend your ways. The word amend here is the word yathab, and it means to be good, well, and it's interesting, it's not just do good, but be good, be good. Not just doing good things, but being good. So to do well, to be well. Amend your ways. and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in His place. Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these. For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if ye thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, If you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, the widow that shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods through their hurt, then I will cause you to dwell in this place. Then there's some good benefits then that are not backsliding anymore. So here is how do we get unstuck? We need to make some changes. What needs to change? What needs to change in your life today? What needs to change in our families? What needs to change in our country. Healthy change gets us unstuck. Healthy change. All of us should consider healthy change in our life. The first one is this, verse four, to trust with ongoing faith. He says, trust ye not in lying words. He says it again later. We read it just a little while ago. They were believing things that were not true. They were believing lies. When you trusted Christ as your Lord and Savior, you trusted him, and as a Christian, you have an ongoing faith. He is my God. He's not your God today, and he's not your God tomorrow because I have some other God. That's not how it works. He is my God. It continues. It's consistent. He is my Lord. Now, when it comes to our faith and our trust, trying harder isn't the answer. I'm gonna try harder to feel closer to God. That's not what the answer is. During this time with our, all the ladies gone from my house, it's just me and Kyle, we've been hanging out, and he's like, every day, let's go fishing, let's go fishing. So we went fishing, and you know, get all the work done, I need to get done, let's go fishing. So we went recently, we were on the water, the longest I've ever been on the water on a fishing trip, four and a half hours. Four and a half hours on this kayak. And it was amazing. We went to Saratoga Lake, the biggest lake we've ever been on in this little kayak. And something that we've learned is you've got to be careful where you cast because your line can get stuck. And we've been getting these really nice lures. And here's what happens. If you get close to that tree, if you get close to that tree and that hook gets stuck, the harder you pull, The harder it is to get it out. And so we're like, let's maneuver the boat over here, and let's move, let's get a little closer, let's try to get this thing out. In our Christian life, the harder you try, the more stuck you're gonna get. We have to let God work through our lives. We wanna work, we wanna change. Let God change you. Let God affect you. Now, our faith is in God. It's not in luck. It's not in chance. It's not in circumstance. Remember the people in Shiloh? They were trusting in the ark to deliver them. God says, the ark didn't deliver them. And he says, you're looking at the temple and you're saying the temple is going to deliver us. And he said, the temple is not going to deliver you. Here's our problem. We start to trust in our ritual, we start to trust in our routine, we start to trust in religion. They were believing that if they had the ark, they'd be okay. But folks, it's not the ark, it's the God of the ark. If we have the temple, we'll be all right, everything will be good. It's not the temple, it's the God of the temple. We trust in God, not the stuff, not the circumstance, not the things that perhaps God's even given to us. Now, at least two concepts come into play about this. as they are believing in this temple, there was a strong belief that they had that God would intervene because years earlier when Hezekiah was doing his ministry, they were praying and God intervened. And they said, as long as we have the temple, then we'll be all right. But that was not the case. Instead of trusting God, they trusted a symbol of God. We don't trust in the symbol of God. We trust God himself. We trust Christ himself. Sometimes we trust past victories. Oh, God did this in the past, and I'm trusting that past victory instead of trusting the God who gave us that past victory. Think about salvation for just a moment. When you trust in Christ, you establish an ongoing relationship which is rooted in an ongoing faith, trust, and dependence on God and God alone for your salvation. What a beautiful thing this is. Christians live with relational, continual faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as their God and Savior. And so trust with an ongoing faith. Number two, institute justice. Notice in verses five, And six, if you thoroughly amend your ways you're doing, thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, oppress not the stranger, oppress not the fatherless, oppress not the widow, and shed not innocent blood in his place. Okay, so he's talking about justice, instituting justice. Notice the phrase thoroughly amend, it's the same Hebrew word. back to back. That gives an extra emphasis. That's where the word thoroughly comes in. Yatab, yatab, thoroughly amend. Not just amend it, thoroughly amend it. He says thoroughly execute. It's a different word. It's asah, asah, twice. It's used twice in a row to give that emphasis of thoroughly executing. So to thoroughly amend is to be, to thoroughly execute is actually do. So to be and to do is what the emphasis is in verse 5. And he says, oppress not. The word oppress here means to do wrong, to oppress, to crush, to extort even, to extort, to defraud, to laden, to add a burden. to them, to oppress. A stranger, notice the word strangers here, I think it's the word ger, ger, there it is, ger, means a sojourner, a stranger, an alien. You can see how it's used throughout the scripture. Strangers, 25 times, sojourner, five times. Strangers or alien, in verse 40, or 40 times there, an alien, so someone who's passing through, someone who's a sojourner. In the case of the Israelites, when God says, oppressed not the stranger, this should have taken on a big meaning. The underlying argument for caring for the vulnerable is the fact that the Hebrew people have been slaves in Egypt. for several hundred years, they were slaves in Egypt. And so God said, you need to be careful to make sure that you don't take advantage of those who are having a difficult time, or those who are ones that could be slaves, or could be a widow here, or an orphan. He gives them a special status of make sure you're watching out for them. Now these strangers could have been different nationalities than the Hebrews. They were converse to Judaism. Some were not converse to Judaism. Some would have looked different or talked different or had a different language such as the Babylonian or Egyptian language. And think about this for just a moment. Jeremiah expected God and God expected that they should not be oppressors. They should not oppress the strangers. And I'll just share a couple things. These are not political comments, but this is a truth from scripture. People are not political pawns. And we see a problem in America today with immigration and things such as this, of what to do in this regard. You expect a guest to come through your front door. It makes a big difference if they come through the front door or if they crawl through a window. There's a big difference in that. And how you approach them and how you interact with them, things like this. To not assimilate immigrants, according to what God tells Jeremiah to tell the people here, is an oppression to them. Because evil people will more easily take advantage of them. All right? Think about this. Integrate immigrants intelligently. Welcoming immigrants under the cover of darkness does them a disadvantage, because here's why. Because now evil people can take advantage of them. Hire them for jobs that people don't want to do or not pay them the wages or abduct people because nobody knows that they're here. There's a lot of problems that happen. if people are welcomed in an unwelcoming-type way. A lot of oppression, fraud, neglect, and wrong. That's not a political statement. I mean, that's just a truth statement here, that welcoming immigrants should be done in a way that, here, we're not going to oppress you. We're not going to let other people oppress you because they don't know anything about you. Or they know that you're here, and other people, you see how complicated we've made this. It should be rather simple, really. So to Jeremiah, immigrants were to have the same opportunities as everyone else, not more, not less, assimilate them, integrate them, include them smartly so that they're not a prey for an easy target for evil. Now, some of the strangers, this is interesting, some of Jeremiah's strangers, they would have been people who were escaping the superpowers of their day, Babylonian, Egypt, Syria, other places like that. And there's not really special classes of people. People are people. People are people. The same justice for one should be expected for all. And what God is telling Jeremiah is that people are not respecting these others. They're not adjusting for their circumstance, but we should respond to their circumstance. Notice this, the stranger, The orphaned and the widow, those are all circumstances. A stranger may be vulnerable. The fatherless, so this would be orphans. Orphans, many of whom Jeremiah preached to, would have been orphans, families torn apart by war, their fathers killed in battle. Whether it was the Syrians years earlier or the Babylonians would come, or the civil war between Israel and Judah that had already taken place for many years. An orphan may be gullible. And then the widow, her husband died. She's perhaps left destitute. He died in battle, maybe when the Assyrians first attacked or the Babylonians or that civil war, but perhaps she's grieving, the widow's grieving, and God says, don't take advantage of people. Don't put the strangers and these orphans and the widows in a place where evil people can take advantage of them. Don't oppress them. don't oppress them. Then he says, shed not, as the verse continues there in verse six, he says, shed not innocent blood. Innocent blood, the most pure, perfect humanity would be a child. Imperfect, of course, we still have that sin nature, but here's a child, innocent blood, Think back to verse 31 where the people were sacrificing their own kids to Molech, that false god. Shedding innocent blood happens anytime there's a false god involved, a false god involved. Think about abortion then. When abortion willingly happens, an innocent is killed. A false god is praised. A sacrifice that the true god did not ask for is being offered to a false god for whatever the reason is, It's a false sacrifice to somebody, to some false deity. One nurse wrote, I'm a housewife, a registered nurse from Jacksonville, Florida, and I work the 11 to 7 a.m. shift when we were not busy. I would go out to the nursery. and try to help out with the newborns. One night, she said, I saw a bassinet outside the nursery. There was a baby in this bassinet crying, a perfectly formed baby, but there was a difference with this child. She had been scalded and the child was the child of a saline abortion. Saline abortions at one point accounted for 27% of the abortions in our United States. They're used a little bit less today, but here's what she saw. She said, this little girl looked as if she had been put in a pot of boiling water. No doctor, nurse, no parent to comfort this hurt, burned child. She was left alone to die in pain. They wouldn't let her in a nursery. They didn't even bother to cover her. What a sad state of affairs in our country. She said, I was ashamed of my profession that night. It's hard to believe in our modern hospital that this happens. This should be a place of healing the sick, not a place to kill, she said. She asked another nurse at the hospital what they do with their babies that are aborted by saline. And unlike my hospital where the baby was left alone struggling for breath, the hospital of the other nurse that she spoke to said that they put the infants in a bucket and put a lid on it to suffocate the baby. What a barbaric, sad, sad thing. Any time a child, an infant, an innocent, as God says here, is killed, It's a sacrifice to a false God. God is a God of life, not death. God is interested in your life. Whether it's salt burning, a chemical thing, a suction dismemberment, putting on a fireplace like what the Hebrews did there at Tophat to Molech, it's a wicked practice and our nation is not any better than what Jeremiah witnessed in his day. Don't walk after false gods. He continues in verse 6. Oppress these not. And then he says, and neither walk after false gods, to your hurt. Yes, these things are to our hurt. The reason all these other sins are happening that Jeremiah mentioned and listed off was because he had a false god. They were doing things that God had even said don't do, and doing things that these false gods said to do instead. So the healthy change we need is to trust with an ongoing faith, institute justice, and in verse 23, we should simply obey the Lord. So we listen to the Lord, we want to obey the Lord. This thing I commanded them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God. Ye shall be my people, and walk in your ways, that I have commanded you that it may be well with you. I would imagine you're here because you want to follow God. and you can follow God, and He will be your God, and you will be His person and His people. God clearly states for them again that what He wants is their obedience. Coming to the temple is wonderful, but it's no substitute for in daily life obeying the Lord. It's been said that some people go to church to eye the clothes, and others go to church to close their eyes. Whatever your case is, we want to continue our walk with God throughout the week. May it be true that we would truly worship God, not just as we've gathered, but as God changes us from day to day to be more and more like Jesus. The voice of God is very clear. His commands are concise. Jesus said in Matthew 22, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. The second is likened to it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Basically, the Bible summarized is this, love God and love others. Imagine with me for just a moment, if the people in Jerusalem that Jeremiah was preaching to had just loved God and loved other people, all the other sins and the terrible things that we've talked about, wouldn't have happened. The judgment that was about to pound down and rain down upon them wouldn't have happened. It's because they neglected to obey God. And God's promise is true. He said, I'll be your God. You'll be my people. Christian, that's true for us. God is our God. We are His people and it will be well with us. Not perfect, not everything goes well, you're gonna have problems still. Yes, you're gonna get stuck in airports and have tires blow out and cars not start and we develop our sickness and cancers and there's death, it's all part of life. But we have a peace, we have an assurance, we know that God is with us, that God is our God and that we're His people no matter what may go on. that word yatab, to thoroughly amend, to be good, to be well-pleasing, to be better. And when we obey the Lord, that's when we start to become more like Christ. Our conduct is changed as we walk in His ways. Oh, let's love God today. Let's love other people. Let's keep these commandments that God has given and just start with those two and the rest of them really start to work themselves out as we yield ourselves to the scriptures and to the Holy Spirit. Healthy change gets us unstuck. What change do we need? Trust with an ongoing faith, institute justice, and obey the Lord. A lot of you have the serenity prayer on a wall or a decoration or something. You could pray this and believe and ask God for this. Oh God, give us the serenity to accept what cannot be changed. Courage to change what should be changed. And Lord, give us the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. There's some areas that all of us could change to become more like Christ. Go ahead and find that today and then change it. Let's become more like Christ and see what God does in our life. Let's take a moment to pray. Thank you for your good participation here this morning. There's the questions. You can read them on the screen if you like. I'll just review these with you as you respond. I'm a Christian. I have an ongoing faith in the gospel of Christ. I know it. I'm a Christian. I have an ongoing faith in the gospel of Christ. Anybody like that? Just raise your hand. I know it. I'm a Christian. I'm born again. I see many hands. God bless you. Yeah, thank you. Put your hands down. If you don't have an ongoing faith, if you've never trusted Christ, or if you have some doubts, settle that today. Believe the gospel for yourself. Next question, I will look for ways, as a Christian, I will look for ways to be just with my neighbors, to do the right thing towards other people. God has challenged me that I would do justice towards others, my neighbors and others around me. Anybody like that? I see some ways I could do better, do right. I see several hands. God bless you. Thank you. And then I purpose to obey the Lord. With God's help, I will walk in His ways. I purpose to obey God. There's some areas that I know I've been disobedient. Lord, forgive me. I'm gonna turn that around with your help and power, and by your grace, I want to obey you. Anybody like that? There's some things that God's challenged. God bless. Thank you, thank you. And then friends, if you've never trusted Christ, maybe you say, I want to believe. If you wanna know more about salvation, talk to me following a service. Let's talk, we'll find a quiet place and you can know Jesus Christ has forgiven you entirely of all your sin. You can know it for certain. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this message that Jeremiah preached, the message you gave. What a terrible society they had become. We're so similar today because we have false gods abounding around us. Let us not be distracted to follow false gods, to run after evil ways and practices like the Hebrews had done. Let us be like Jeremiah, to know the truth, to share the truth with others, to encourage others. Father, we pray and commit these decisions to you. There's areas that we can obey. Help us to obey. Continue to prompt us and challenge us, encourage us to obey, and give each one the courage to do what they know you've called them to do. And Lord, we pray that you would just strengthen us in our walk with you. If there's one without Christ, we pray that today they would choose Christ to be born again to believe the gospel. Let us do justice towards others and to take this message to heart, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, thanks for coming today. It was great to see everyone. I hope that you can stay cool on this hot day and I look forward to seeing you next week. God bless.