Jeremiah 7-10

Please turn to Jeremiah.

You're going to need a Bible tonight.

So if you haven't got a Bible, greeters are there.

!

And it's grown.

I think there are probably about 50-odd, 60-odd there this morning.

So I'm lots to be thankful for.

Thank you for your prayers.

This week, Jeremiah 7 to 10.

And next week, Jeremiah 11 to 15.

So that's your homework.

Jeremiah chapter 11 to 15.

Jeremiah 11 · chapter mention

I've had to prepare this sermon and slave over it and work hard at it.

Jeremiah, on the other hand, is given a sermon.

God dictates it to him.

And it is an absolute belter, as you'd expect.

Interestingly, the sermon is not preached straight away.

We're going to have to wait until chapter 26 until he delivers it.

But in Jeremiah's collected works, really, it's included to back up the impact of chapters 2 to 6.

Because Jeremiah wants to convince his initial hearers and the hearers that are in Babylon in exile,

and to convince us of this very simple truth.

That religion kills, but God gives life.

And that is the message of Jeremiah 7 to 10, really.

Religion kills, but God gives life.

Chapter 7, verse 1 to 8, verse 3 revolves around that first part.

Religion kills.

And one of the interesting things about Jeremiah, especially in these early chapters,

is how poetry and prose is mixed up.

There's the roller coaster of really intense poetry, of chapter 2 to 6.

But in chapter 7, you get gentle prose in order to kind of calm us all down.

And look at how it begins.

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord.

Stand in the gate of the Lord's house and proclaim there this word,

and say, hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord.

And God gives Jeremiah the sermon to preach.

He says, go to the turnstiles of the temple, where you'll have maximum impact.

Go to the welcoming door, and where people mill around, where people go in and people leave.

And the message of this sermon is, verse 3, religion kills.

Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place.

Do not trust in these deceptive words.

This is the temple of the Lord.

The temple of the Lord.

The temple of the Lord.

That was the religious mantra of the day.

That the temple is indestructible, inviolable.

And therefore, we're secure.

And Jeremiah says, it's deadly.

Anyway, back in the days of Hezekiah, when the Assyrians had threatened God,

threatened God's people, God had said this to them.

He said, thus says the Lord concerning the king of Syria,

he shall not come into the city, nor shoot an arrow there,

or come before it with a shield, or cast a siege mount against it.

By the way that he came, by the same he shall return.

And he will not come into the city, declares the Lord,

for I will defend the city to save it for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.

And that promise had been turned into a national slogan.

God has always defended the temple, and he always will.

Except he won't.

And no amount of repeating that slogan will make any difference.

According to verse 8, they are deceptive words, and they need to amend their ways.

And if they don't, their religion will kill them.

It's one of the things that's most surprising about the Bible,

that it is so anti-religion.

From the beginning to the end, the Bible exposes human religious activity,

whether they're talking about doing the right thing, or going to the right place,

or saying the right words without reference to God.

He says it is toxic to people like you and I.

And in this case, the focus falls on treasuring the temple as the symbol of God's sponsorship of his people.

Their underlying attitude was, we've got the temple, we are the people of God,

so we can live any way we like, but God says, think again.

Now, I should warn you that Jeremiah's sermon is not a happy sermon.

And the logic of the chapter is that spiritual hypocrisy,

which flows out of spiritual deafness, will lead to spiritual death.

Chapter 7, verse 5, God addresses their spiritual hypocrisy head on.

He says,

And it seems that they are showing up to the temple like model Jews,

but at home they're deceiving each other.

They exploit the vulnerable.

They worship other gods.

In other words, they are hypocrites.

Now, there is a sense, isn't there, that we're all hypocrites.

And we'll never escape that.

There's always going to be some disconnect between what we say and what we do.

And we need to face that truth about ourselves and be quick to admit it.

The fact that we have been joined to the Lord Jesus,

and yet are still sinful,

means that we never quite manage to live up to what we say.

But there's another sense in which we need to take very, very seriously

the fact that hypocrisy is ultimately fatal.

We can never just dismiss hypocrisy as an unfortunate part of the human condition

between now and the new creation.

Hypocrisy in the Bible, particularly spiritual hypocrisy,

is the ultimate sign that all is not well with our walk with the Lord.

And what the Lord tells Jeremiah to say to his people,

look with me at verse 8,

Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail.

Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely?

Make offerings to Baal.

Will you go after other gods that you've not known?

And then you come and you stand before me in this house,

which is called by my name,

and you say,

we are delivered.

Only you go on doing those abominations.

Has this house,

which is called by my name,

become a den of robbers in your eyes?

Behold, I myself have seen it,

declares the Lord.

Your lives give you away.

You're living a double life.

You've made the temple a hideout for criminals.

Can't you see that?

And that's the problem, isn't it, with spiritual hypocrisy.

It's always painfully obvious to other people,

but it's so difficult to spot in ourselves.

Why is that?

Think about that.

It's because spiritual hypocrisy is caused by spiritual deafness,

which is what makes it so difficult to hear,

when other people,

and even God himself,

are shouting hypocrite at us.

There's nothing subtle about Jeremiah.

Look at verse 13.

Now,

because you've done all these things,

declares the Lord,

when I spoke to you persistently,

you did not listen,

and when I called you,

you did not answer.

Therefore,

I will do to the house that is called by my name,

and in which you trust,

and to the place I gave to you and your fathers,

as I did to Shiloh.

And I will cast you out of my sight,

as I cast all your kinsmen,

all the offspring of Ephraim.

He's saying,

just as

God's chosen place in Shiloh,

it was closed down,

because of the corruption of Eli's sons,

and just as the land of Israel fell to the Assyrians,

now the temple of the Lord is going to go the same way.

Ignoring God leads to pretense,

which leads to judgment.

And that is just the way it is.

Back in the beginning,

God had freely given,

and graciously given,

and chosen Israel as his people,

as his son.

Not because of any goodness in them,

but because he loved them.

He said he would come,

and make his presence obvious,

that he would live right at the center of their national life.

He spelled out for them,

do you remember in great detail,

how they would live a beautiful life with him.

And all Israel had to do was listen,

and obey,

and they would be blessed.

And they would delight in life with God himself.

But they wouldn't listen.

And instead,

they got religious.

Chapter 7, verse 22,

For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt,

I did not speak to your fathers,

or command them,

considering burnt offerings or sacrifices,

but this command I gave them,

listen to my voice.

And I will be your God,

and you shall be my people,

and walk in all the ways that I command you,

that it may be well with you.

But verse 24,

they didn't obey,

they didn't incline their ear,

it's the same word, listen,

but they walked in their own counsel,

the stubbornness of their heart.

And they went backwards, not forward.

From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day,

I persistently sent all my servants,

the prophets, to them day after day,

yet you did not listen to me,

or incline your ear.

Verse 27,

So you shall speak all these words to them,

but they will not listen to you.

Verse 28,

And you shall say to them,

this is the nation that did not listen to the voice of the Lord their God,

and did not accept discipline.

Truth has perished,

it's cut off from their lips.

God says to them,

you need to read your Bible in the right order.

You need to go to Exodus 20,

Deuteronomy 4,

because the basic model of following me is listening.

Listening to God's word,

and everything else flows from that.

We listen,

and then we obey.

In every detail of life,

and that includes sacrifice,

but religion just does not listen.

It runs straight to the empty conveniences of religious ritual.

I hope you can see the issue here.

Spiritual deafness leads inevitably to spiritual hypocrisy,

and then it will lead to spiritual death.

And that explains chapter 7,

verse 16,

and following where Jeremiah says these awful words.

Look at verse 16,

As for you,

do not pray for this people,

or lift up a cry or prayer for them,

and do not intercede for me,

for I will not hear you.

Do you not see what you're doing

in the cities of Judah

and in the streets of Jerusalem?

The children gather wood,

the fathers kindle fire,

the women need dough

to make cakes for the queen of heaven,

the queen of heaven.

And they pour out drink offerings to other gods

to provoke me to anger.

Is it I they provoke,

declares the Lord?

Is it not themselves to their own shame?

Therefore,

thus says the Lord God,

behold,

my anger and my wrath

will be poured out on this place.

God says,

there's no point praying now.

The die is cast.

And God has promised blessing

if you will listen,

but if you refuse to listen,

he promises curse.

And God is doing what he promised.

So do not pray to me

asking me to do what I've not promised to do,

God says.

Spiritual deafness

leads to spiritual hypocrisy,

which in turn leads to spiritual death.

And God tells Jeremiah,

make the point with brutal force

in what is left of this little sermon.

They're to call in,

verse 29,

the bald, mourning woman.

Cut off your hair,

cast it away,

raise a lamentation on the bare heights,

for the Lord has rejected and forsaken

this generation of his wrath.

Psalm verse 30,

the spiritual death of exile is on the way.

They've set their detestable things

in the house that's called by my name

to defile it.

They've built the high places in Topheth,

which is a fire pit,

which is in the valley of the son of Hortinum,

to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire,

which I did not command,

nor did it even come into my mind.

There's dead bodies everywhere,

verses 32 and 33.

But worse is to come.

Chapter 8 is one of the darkest passages

in the whole of the Bible.

Judah's fate is sealed.

The bones of the kings of Judah,

the bones of its officials,

the bones of the priests,

the bones of the prophets,

and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem

shall be brought out of their tombs.

And they shall be spread before the sun and the moon

and all the hosts of heaven,

which they've loved and served,

which they've gone after,

and which they've sought and worshipped.

And they shall be gathered or burned.

They shall not be gathered or burned,

and they shall be as dung on the surface of the ground.

Death shall be preferred to life

by all the remnant that remains of this evil family

in all the places where I've driven them,

declares the Lord of hosts.

Do you get the point?

It's really simple.

Spiritual hypocrisy begins with spiritual deafness,

and in the end it leads to spiritual death.

And that's God's sermon outline to Jeremiah.

We're going to find out how it played out

when he preached it.

You can probably guess how it played out.

I wonder how it played out

to those who were actually in exile,

to those who are reflecting on their experience

a generation and a half later.

But what has it got to do with us today?

So the first application is really obvious, isn't it?

Are you spiritually deaf?

Because spiritual deafness is a condition

that persists this side of Jesus' coming.

You don't need to tell me,

you don't need me to tell you

that it's more than possible

to be a follower of the Lord Jesus

and to be exposed to the Word of God

and not pay the blindest bit of attention to it.

It's possible to get out of the bed in the morning

to congratulate yourself

that you've opened up your Bible

and to allow your eye to range over the page

without hearing and believing the Word of God.

It's possible to sit through church,

allowing God speaking into our lives

without realizing that it's actually God

who speaks to us

and about us.

And then we have a spiritual hearing problem.

And if we don't address

our spiritual hearing problem,

in the end,

it will lead into full-blown spiritual deafness,

which in turn

will produce all kinds of complications.

And is this the pressing need

that you and I need to address?

Because act quickly.

Because spiritual deafness

will inevitably,

and it will quickly lead

to spiritual hypocrisy

if you don't do anything about it.

It's spiritual deafness

which allows you and I

to have an inflated view of ourselves.

It's spiritual deafness

that creates the context

where we can start to deceive ourselves.

And see,

if we aren't hearing God speak,

what does God do when he speaks?

He corrects,

he shapes us,

he exposes us,

he humbles us,

he straightens out our thinking.

And if we refuse to hear him,

sooner or later,

we start to believe our own publicity

about ourselves.

We start thinking about ourselves

more highly than we ought

and gradually we start judging other people

by the measure of our own

incredibly high standard.

And we become smug and pharisaical

and high-handed and hard-hearted.

And our antenna becomes finely tuned

to detect the sins of others,

but it's oblivious for our own.

And it stinks.

And so I hope you know

that nothing does more damage

to the church

than the corrosive stench of hypocrisy.

You see,

the problem with spiritual deafness

is this,

it's progressive.

You don't wake up one day

and suddenly you're spiritually deaf.

It gradually happens,

doesn't it?

And the thing is this,

as we stop listening,

it becomes harder and harder to listen.

And so it becomes easier and easier

to continue in our hypocrisy.

The more that we ignore God,

the easier it is to ignore God

and we do damage to ourselves.

And the easier it becomes to dissipate.

It's not rocket science.

And so,

children,

your parents,

they tell you this,

I hope,

that the more that you sin,

the easier it becomes to sin.

It's why mum and dad,

they want to correct you,

they want to stop you in your tracks

while it's beginning,

because the more you sin,

the easier it becomes to sin.

And so,

children and young people,

you need to know

that it's not just for you,

it's for us as well.

The pastor who calls his people

to repentance and faith,

but he refuses to apologise

to his family for anything.

The youth group leader

who desperately wants

to disciple the young people

and yet he thinks

he's got nothing to learn.

The husband who insists

that his wife submit to him,

but he's actually got no,

interest in submitting

to the Lord Jesus.

The elder who rails

against the immorality of society,

but secretly is addicted to porn.

The friend who prides herself

on loyalty,

but she'll use any confidence

for her own interests.

The young person who prays

that her friends

will come to know

the Lord Jesus,

but she indulges in gossip

about others.

Hypocrisy comes in many forms

and many guises,

but it's dangerous

and we may have slipped

into that.

And so many of us

are really skilled manipulators,

aren't they?

You know what to say to me,

I know what to say to you,

and we can hide the reality

of our hearts really easily.

And so tonight

would be a great time

to come clean before God.

Because let me tell you this,

spiritual hypocrisy

will end up in only one place,

and you are dicing

with spiritual death tonight,

if that's you.

And so these issues,

according to the Lord Jesus,

they're not small issues,

are they?

This kind of pretense

imperils your very soul.

And I don't think

it's wrong to say this,

that actually this is,

in many ways,

the dominant note

of Jesus' ministry,

isn't it?

Nowhere does this note

of the danger of hypocrisy

sound more clearly

than in Luke 18.

Jesus told this parable

to some who trusted in themselves

and that they were righteous

and they treated others

with contempt.

There's two men

who went up to the temple

to pray.

One was a Pharisee

and the other a tax collector.

And the Pharisee stood by himself

and he prayed,

God, I thank you

that I'm not like other men.

I'm pretty decent.

I'm not an extortioner.

I'm not unjust and adulterer.

I'm not like this tax collector.

I fast twice a week.

I give a tithe of all I get.

But the tax collector,

he stood at a far off

in a distance

and he wouldn't even lift up

his eyes to heaven.

And he beat his breast

and he said,

God, be merciful to me,

a sinner.

And Jesus says,

I tell you that this man

went home to his house

justified right with God

rather than the other.

For everyone who exalts himself

will be humbled

and the one who humbles himself

will be exalted.

Religion kills.

And spiritual deafness

leads to spiritual hypocrisy,

which leads to spiritual death.

And this is a hard message

to preach

and it's a hard message

to hear.

And one of the effects

of religion

is the hardness

against anyone

who exposes

our pretense.

And so what happened

to Jeremiah

is what ultimately

happened to the Lord Jesus.

Why did the Pharisees

and the religious leaders

kill Jesus?

Because his message

was exactly the same

as Jeremiah.

Religion kills,

but secondly,

only God gives life.

And that takes us

to the second movement

of the section

from 8.4 to 10.25.

And the gentle prose

of the temple sermon

in 7.1 to 8.3,

well, you're back

to the poetry,

searing poetry.

of Jeremiah

in chapter 8 to 10.

Initially,

the focus

is on the fact

that,

well, let's look,

according to 8.4,

that people get up

when they fall down

and come back

when they go away,

but not Israel.

Verse 5.

Why then has this people

turned away

in perpetual,

continual backsliding?

They hold fast to deceit,

they refuse to return.

Even the stork in heaven,

the birds knows their times,

the turtle dove

that swallow the crane,

they keep the time

in their coming,

but my people

know not

the rules of the Lord.

Verse 8,

God's people say,

we're wise

and the law

of the Lord

is with us,

but verse 9,

they've rejected

the word of the Lord.

So what wisdom

is in them?

Disaster is approaching.

The leaders of Israel

are delusional.

Look at verse 11,

they've healed the wound

of my people lightly,

saying peace,

peace,

when there is no peace.

Were they ashamed

when they committed

abomination?

No,

they were not at all ashamed.

They didn't know

how to blush.

And when catastrophe

looms in chapter 8,

verse 14,

they're apparently

taken in their stride.

Why do we sit still?

Let us gather together.

Let us go down the pub.

Let's go into the

fortified cities

and perish there.

For the Lord,

our God,

has doomed us to perish

and he's given us

poison water to drink

because we've sinned

against the Lord.

Let's just die now.

And what effect

does this have

on Jeremiah,

verse 18?

My joy is gone.

Grief is upon me.

My heart is sick

within me.

Behold,

the cry of the daughter

of my people

from the length

and breadth of the land

is the Lord

not in Zion.

Is her king

not in her?

Don't worry.

It's okay.

God is on our side.

Why have you

provoked me to anger

with their carved image

and their foreign gods?

The harvest has passed.

The summer has ended

and we are not saved.

What is God doing?

But as the inevitable comes,

it breaks Jeremiah's heart.

For the wound

of the daughter

of my people

is my heart wounded.

I mourn

and dismay

has taken hold of me.

He says,

is there no balm

in Gilead?

Is there no physician

there?

Why then

is the health

of my people

not being restored?

The problem

isn't that healing

is unavailable

for the people

of Judah

and there's plentiful

supplies

in the ancient

chemist's warehouse.

That was filled

but Israel

refuses to ask

for help.

So Jeremiah

laments

chapter 9

verse 1.

I don't know

whether you notice

something strange

there.

there.

Chapter 8

and verse 18

it's really clear

that it's Jeremiah

that is bemoaning

the state of God's people.

He's preaching

and yet by the end

of his sermon

it is God's words.

It seems that

the words of the prophet

and the words of the Lord

have morphed.

Jeremiah's words

are Yahweh's words

and vice versa.

Jeremiah's pain

is the Lord's pain.

Jeremiah's longings

are the Lord's longings.

Both God

and his prophet

care for his people

to come back.

And so

if I say this reverently

we see God

up close

and personal

in the ministry

of Jeremiah.

The emotional temperature

continues to rise

and Yahweh

and his prophet

they expose

the sin

of the people

and the inevitable

response from God

chapter 9

verse 6

he being oppression

upon oppression

deceit upon deceit

they refuse to know

he declares the Lord.

Therefore thus says

the Lord of hosts

behold I will

refine them

and test them.

Verse 9

shall I not punish them?

Verse 11

I'll make Jerusalem

a heap of ruins

a lair of jackals

and I'll make the cities

of Judah

a destruction

without an inhabitant.

And then chapter 9

verse 12

well you've got another

calm and collected

prose section

and it sums up

the situation

who is the man

so wise

that he can understand this?

To whom has the mouth

of the Lord spoken

that he may declare it?

Why is the land ruined?

Well because

verse 13

because they forsaken

my law

that I've set before them

they've not obeyed by voice

or walked in accord with it

they've stubbornly

followed their own hearts

and have gone after the Baals

as their fathers taught.

Therefore thus says

the Lord of hosts

the God of Israel

behold I'll feed this people

with bitter food

and give them poisonous water

I'm going to scatter them

among the nations

and I'll set the sword

after them

until I've consumed them

and at this point

the mourning women

come again

verse 17 to 22

the sad ladies

have sung

and it looks like

it's all over.

And at this point

you can be forgiven

of thinking

I thought the second point

of this passage

was only God brings life

doesn't sound it.

I don't know what you feel

listening to these sermons

I can tell you what I feel

preparing them

it makes me

want to yell

okay

I get it

stop

enough

enough

there's no

new information here

it's the same thing

over and over

and over again

announce the spiritually deaf people

until we get to chapter 9

verses 23 and 24

you know these beautiful verses

I hope

look at them

chapter 9

verse 23 to 24

let not the wise man

boast in his wisdom

let not the mighty man

boast in his might

let not the rich man

boast in his riches

but let him who boasts

boast in this

that he understands

and knows me

that I am the Lord

who practices

steadfast covenant love

justice and righteousness

on the earth

for in these things

I delight to

praise the Lord

and at this point

God strides

like a colossus

onto the centre stage

and he dominates

the rest of this long section

Jeremiah urges his people

choose God

because no one

and nothing

compares to him

let him who boasts

boast in this

and he understands

and knows me

and so

you do know

don't you

I hope that

there's a sense

in which all our deficiencies

and all our struggles

in life

can be traced back

to this one question

all our issues

in life

boil down to this

one question

do we

know

God

because it's the knowledge

of God

that can stop us

in our tracks

it is God himself

who can wean us

off all

inferior pleasures

it's God himself

who shows us

the emptiness

of every other oath

it's the knowledge

of God

which draws us

to faith and repentance

it's the knowledge

of God

which softens our heart

and puts steel

in our backbone

and that is why

God himself

towers over these chapters

it's God

who will judge

every nation

that's uncircumcised

chapter 9

25 to 27

it's God

who in chapter 10

mocks all superstition

and their idols

it's an amazing

I don't know

whether he picked it up

look at chapter 10

verse 1

their idols

are like scarecrows

in a cucumber field

and they cannot speak

they're going to be carried

for they cannot walk

don't be afraid of them

they can't do evil

neither it's in them

to do good

at which point

Jeremiah warms

to his theme

he's a brilliant preacher

there's none like you

oh Lord

you are great

your name is great

in might

who would not fear

you oh king of the nations

for this is your due

for among all the wise

ones of the nations

and in all their kingdoms

there is none like you

and not to acknowledge you

and not to acknowledge God

is both stupid and foolish

verse 10

but the Lord is the true God

he's the living God

and the everlasting king

and his wrath

the earth quakes

and the nations

cannot endure

his indignation

verse 12

it is he who made the earth

by his power

verse 13

when he edits his voice

there's a tumult of waters

in the heavens

and he makes the mist rise

he makes lightning

it's not difficult

but it is relentless

and Jeremiah is driving home

this really simple truth

that God

is God

and you are not

verse 14

it's really

seeker sensitive language

every man is stupid

and without knowledge

every goldsmith

is put to shame

by their idols

verse 16

not like these

is he who is the portion

of Jacob

for he is the one

who formed all things

the Lord of hosts

is his name

only God can give Israel

hope and a future

and yes

chapter 10

verse 18

there is going to be

judgment in the short term

they're going to be

slung out the land

but it's not

a permanent reaction

it's a huge blow

but it's the wound

of a lover

Jeremiah cries out

in verse 19

again

woe is me

because my hurt

my wound is grievous

but I say truly

this is an affliction

and I must bear it

the invading forces

approach 1022

Jeremiah affirms

that it's in God alone

they can find hope

I know oh Lord

for the way of man

is not in himself

that it's not in man

who walks

the directest steps

correct me oh Lord

but in justice

not in your anger

lest you bring me

to nothing

pour out your wrath

but rescue me

and as passages

we read this

we find that they're moving

and they're compelling

they're heart wrenching

appeals

for people like

you and I

to come home to God

to come home to God

in repentance

and faith

so there is something

isn't there

absolutely exhausting

about Jeremiah

because in chapter

after chapter

it is hammered home

to people like you

and I

that religion kills

but only God

gives life

and the not listening

to God

can only end up

in one place

and so I hope

that this book

is growing on you

like it's grown on me

because in the fabric

of this book

we see God's

overarching purpose

the reason why

it's in the Bible

is to prepare us

for the arrival

of one

who came to a temple

and when he came

to a temple

he saw that it again

had become

do you remember

a den of thieves

and robbers

and one who came

to speak truth

to those who have

years to hear

and one who came

to confront

spiritual hypocrisy

in all its ugliness

and one who said

of Jerusalem

O Jerusalem

Jerusalem

the city

that kills

the prophet

and stones

those who are

sent to it

how often

I would have

gathered your

children together

as a hen

gathers her brood

under her wings

but you were not

willing

behold

your house

is forsaken

and I tell you

you will not see me

until you say

blessed is he

who comes

in the name

of the Lord

you see

Jeremiah's experience

is played out

for us

in overwhelming

detail

so that we might

hear the voice

of the one

who is to come

and says

all things

have been handed

over to me

by my father

and no one

knows the son

except the father

and no one

knows the father

except the son

and anyone

the son chooses

to reveal him to

who says

to you tonight

come to me

all you

who labor

and are heavy laden

and I will

give you rest

take my yoke

upon you

and learn from me

from gentle

and lowly

in heart

and you will

find rest

for yourselves

and my yoke

is easy

and my burden

is light

and one

who comes

and says

to you

I have come

that you may

have life

and you might

have it to the

full

and the message

of these chapters

is actually

relatively simple

religion kills

but God

gives life

and I wonder

tonight

as you sit

there

that your

greatest need

and my

greatest need

is to come

back

and to start

to boast

in him

once more

because let

not the

wise man

boast in

his wisdom

or the

mighty man

in his

might

and let

not the

rich man

boast in

his riches

but let

him who

boasts

boast in

this

that he

understands

and knows

me

and that

is the

word that

you need

to hear

and that

is the

word that

I need

to hear

let's pray