Stir Up Sunday! Jeremiah 23:5-6

We study through books of the Bible here at the village chapel, and we have extra copies.

If you would like one to follow along, raise your hand up real high, and somebody will drop one off for you.

Today we're taking a little bit of a departure from our book study, the Gospel of Luke, as uh today is called Stir Up Sunday in a lot of uh streams of the church, a lot of different sectors of the church.

And um we're gonna so we're gonna depart and run to Jeremiah for a minute.

Um I want to thank our friends from Portland, Oregon, Plymouth, Connecticut.

These are folks that have joined us online over the last week.

Also uh Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, and Illigan City, Lanal Del Norte, Philippines.

I'm I'm I'm probably not saying that right, but I hope I hope you know who you are.

And uh Cebu City also in the Cebu province of the Philippines.

So we're so grateful uh that you have joined us online and hope you're uh uh able to join us again this week as well.

So we call uh, as you turn to Jeremiah 23, it's in the left side of your Bible for those of you that aren't 100% familiar with where Jeremiah is.

Um but we're gonna, like I say, we're gonna call this Stirrup Sunday in keeping with the most of uh uh the folks who who dubbed this last Sunday before Advent with some kind of a name.

They'll either call it Stirrup Sunday or Christ the King's Sunday.

And that goes back um actually all the way to uh Pope Pius XI in 1925 established that Christ the King Sunday uh title.

The Lutheran Church of Sweden, how many Lutherans here?

Lutheran background, anybody?

Okay, both of you?

Okay, that's good.

Um that's okay, we're gonna get some more in.

We got we got pl plenty of room for more Lutherans.

And and maybe once they wake up to this fact, they called it the Sunday of doom.

And and so I'm gonna put happy in front of all of this because I want to wish everyone a happy stirrup Sunday, happy Christ King Sunday.

And even though it sounds odd, a happy Sunday of doom.

Um they focused there, I'm just to defend the Lutherans a little bit.

They focused a little bit on the return of Christ and the final judgment and see that and cast that and tell the story of that.

That's actually a very positive thing, which I agree with them that it is.

There are very good reasons to focus on and be joyful for the final judgment.

Why?

Because Jesus intends to come and set things right.

And that's that's a good thing.

So the doom is not for you and for me.

The doom is for an end to all that is evil and at odds with God in uh in history.

So we're gonna, but we're gonna we're gonna stay with Stir Up Sunday here in the uh village chapel.

That's the way we roll.

And we think that the central message of it is that the coming of Christ, uh, with the coming of Christ in this world, it means that God wants his family back.

And in the personal work of Jesus Christ, God has both come to us and for us.

And so we'll be talking about that kind of stuff uh over the Advent season.

Hope you will indeed uh bring some of your friends along.

I want to look uh at, as we said, Jeremiah 23, 5 through 6.

And if you want to turn there, matter of fact, I'm gonna read uh two verses from Jeremiah chapter 1, real quick, just so you get to know a little bit about this fella.

Jeremiah 1 · chapter mention

He's pretty amazing.

This is Jeremiah's called the weeping prophet.

Uh I don't know if you're a weeper.

I don't know if you um look at the world around you and occasionally the, as Kim said, the ennui, the sort of sadness, the prevailing mood of the time can sometimes be that way.

Um but Jeremiah lived in a time, so we get a little context for what we're gonna read in chapter 23.

Um his prophetic ministry lasted about a little over 40 years, somewhere in the late part of the 7th century BC, which remember the numbers decrease as you come this way.

So that'd be 627 is our best guess, to uh, and he ministered to about 586 BC, which is when Judah gets carried away by Nebuchadnezzar, and it's basically destroyed.

And we don't really know.

We think Jeremiah may have lived past that time a little bit, but the main part of his prophetic ministry in that 40-year period of time from say 625 to 585 or 586 BC.

But notice this first few verses.

The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin.

Look at all the kind of live-body detail, name of his dad, name of the region.

So you get this is not just, you know, sort of made-up stuff.

This is these are names and places and real people, okay?

To whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.

Josiah, one of the few, precious few, of the good kings that we have in once the kingdom splits after Solomon.

And we studied this uh together in 1st and 2nd Kings, so you can go back if you would like to and and review some of this.

But Josiah, one of the good kings, just one of just a handful of them.

And there were 39 total kings between the north and southern kings, the two kingdoms.

But Josiah would be one of the good ones.

And he died in uh 609 uh BC in a battle.

It was sort of a bit of uh collateral damage, really, between this big war that was going on between the Egyptians and the Babylonians, and he went to enter into it and he ended up being killed in that battle.

But it came about in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, verse 3, until the end of the 11th year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the exile of Jerusalem in the fifth month.

The exile of Jerusalem began.

It took some time, didn't all happen right in 586, 587.

Took some time, but it began after that battle of Carchimish in 605 B.C.

And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, verse 4 of chapter 1 says, Well, this is gonna happen over and over again because Jeremiah is indeed speaking the word of the Lord.

Jump over with me to chapter 23 of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 23 · chapter mention

Chapter 23.

Let me hear the rustle of pages or the swipe of glass.

Either one.

I'll take it.

I love to hear that.

Um, chapter 23.

And here, just this is uh after Josiah and uh has already passed away.

Uh Jeremiah is still on the ground, he's still prophesying.

There are four kings left after Josiah.

None, all four of them are horrible, wretched.

The final one is a guy named Zedekiah.

Um we'll talk more about him in a second, but watch, watch what happens.

And into that kind of a really negative, difficult, dark, uh, traumatic time, um, the Lord speaks through Jeremiah and says this.

Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pastor.

Now, this is poetic language.

It's it's he's speaking in metaphor.

He's shepherds are the kings, and he's saying, Woe to these kings, these four kings especially at that particular moment that have really destroyed Judah, turned them away from Yahweh, from God.

And um, and they have scattered the sheep of the Lord's pasture.

And this is what declare this is what the Lord declares.

Verse 2 Therefore, thus says the Lord God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who are attending my flock, my people, you've scattered my flock, you've driven them away, and have not attended to them.

Behold, I'm about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds, declares the Lord.

Uh is the Hebrew word, and there's a little bit of play of words there.

The Lord is accusing these shepherds, these kings, of not tending to the Lord's people.

And so the Lord is going to tend to them.

And uh it's it's he's he's telling them I'm holding them responsible for their failure in leadership and for their evil.

Verse 3, I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and shall bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply.

Yes, it was God who said, I have driven them there.

That's right.

You read that correctly.

Um see, we're going to continue to make the argument here at the village chapel that God is both righteous in his judgment and in his restoration.

Both.

Okay?

And so we need to remind ourselves of that over and over again.

I think we get a we misunderstand who God is, what God's role in the universe is, and what our role and our place in the universe is.

God is God.

I'm not.

He's not to fit in.

I'm not, I'm not to try to fit him into my agenda and conform him to my image.

No, no, no, no, no.

It's the other way around.

He's the creator.

We're the creatures.

And when we blur that line, creator, creatures, when we blur that line, there's so much mischief and harm that we do to ourselves, to our children, to our society, and to our culture.

So the Lord, sovereign that he is over the universe, over his creation, and over his people, not only is righteous in judging them and scattering them abroad, but he's also righteous in restoring them and bringing them back.

He says, I'll gather them, verse three, the remnant of my flock, I'm gonna gather them back.

They will be fruitful and multiply.

Verse 4, I'll raise up shepherds over them and they will tend them.

In other words, they'll do what these four, especially these last four shepherds of Judah, did not do.

They failed, their failed leadership was quite harmful to God's people.

But he's gonna raise up new shepherds that will tend to them.

And they won't be afraid any longer, nor will they be terrified, nor will any of them be missing, declared the Lord.

You see how much promise there is in that verse.

Um, to never be afraid again.

We say it all the time around here.

Most often repeated command in the Bible is do not fear.

God does not want you to be afraid of him.

The fear of the Lord is a good thing, fear in the sense of respect, awe, astonishment, um, fealty.

I'm I'm I am his.

I serve him at the pleasure of the King, my King Jesus.

Yes.

Um, and so there's that.

But this kind of being afraid, terrified, all that sort of thing is different.

And then here's the these this these are the two verses we're going to study and look a little bit closer at today.

And I wonder if you wouldn't mind reading them aloud with me from the screen so that we're all in the same translation.

Ready?

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land.

In his days, Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely, and this is his name by which he will be called.

The Lord our righteousness.

And look down to your Bible, verse 7, therefore, behold the days are coming, declares the Lord, when they will no longer say, as the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt, but as the Lord lives who brought up and led back the descendants of the household of Israel from the north land and from all the countries where I had driven them, then they will live on their own soil.

And this is, I mean, you have to just again kind of keep the background in mind.

For Jewish people always referring back to the Exodus, it's like the it's like the ultimate deliverance act that God in all of their history.

And what Jeremiah is prophesying is that, yeah, well, we think that was a big deal.

Wait till you see what God's about to do.

These days are coming that are just gonna completely dwarf that act of deliverance because of this righteous branch, this root of David that God is gonna raise up.

And it's gonna go beyond even the Exodus that you uh thought was so great.

So before I get too much deeper into the sermon, here's the outline in advance.

I like to give that to you.

I know some of you are sitting in the sun over here.

You may uh drop off or nod off, and I want to make sure you at least get this much.

We're gonna talk about the promise of a king, the purpose of his reign, and the peace that only he can bring.

Before we do that, would you allow me to pray for illumination?

Lord, you never go away from us.

Yet we, and I mean we all the way back to these children of Judah that we're reading about, these leaders, these shepherds, these kings, the false prophets, the false priests.

We often go away from you, and we have difficulty returning to you.

Come today, Lord.

Stir us up, call us back, kindle and rekindle us.

Be our fire and our sweetness.

Let us love and let us run to you, we pray, in Jesus' name.

Amen and amen.

So, first, the promise of a king.

God, it says here in verse, look, you can look at verses five and six.

God is going to raise up a righteous branch, a descendant, in other words, from the ancestral line of great King David.

And this is a promise that goes back to uh if you were with us when we studied 2 Samuel chapter 7, um, you're welcome to go back and look at that as well.

2 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

But that's that amazing promise the Lord made.

This branch, this root or shoot, as it might say in one of your English translations, whichever one you have, would be the kind of king that everyone has always wanted.

Well, that's right, especially remember, you're in the middle of Judah, who's just had four really crummy kings.

And I don't, I don't just mean they, you know, they weren't good on the microphone or in front of a camera.

I mean these were evil people.

Um their slice of history makes our slice of history look like a cakewalk.

Okay?

Everything about their slice of history was horrible.

They had been run over by, not one, not two, but three different kingdoms.

Egyptian, Assyrian, and Babylonian kingdoms had completely run over top of Israel.

In 722 BC, just a few hundred years, a couple hundred and a half years before this time that we're in right here, Assyria had literally dismantled the northern kingdom and all ten of its tribes.

So understand that the land had been ravaged.

Even though it was a split country, north and south, the stories were horrible.

That traveled down through that part of the world.

And then along comes Babylon, who had completely destroyed and annihilated both Assyria and Egypt.

And they're gonna take away the southern kingdom and carry them all away.

So their slice of history was horrible, I'm sure.

They were asking questions, and their questions had to be and include how could this have happened?

Where was God in all of this?

Most of us, our times aren't that grim.

We have our own trouble, and it's very real, and I don't mean to dismiss it.

It can be very dark here.

We ask similar questions, don't we?

Where was God when this happened?

Or why didn't God make that happen?

That I thought he had promised to me.

If God is both good and all-powerful, why does God allow pain, evil, and suffering?

If you've had philosophy 101 in any kind of a course, you've been asked that question.

And while we cannot answer every single question that arises in troubled minds and troubled hearts, especially about suffering and pain and evil, the one thing that we do know that the Bible teaches is that God never leaves his people alone.

He will never leave us or forsake us.

That's the way Jesus said it.

And we need to remind ourselves over and over and over again, even if I can't explain why this one thing has happened, or this one thing is about to happen or is happening, I have someone to turn to, to run to, to fall before, to weep, to even cry out to for help.

It's not an empty void, just impersonal universe that I live in.

There is a real God who is really sovereign.

And yes, even in the times of difficulty as well as in the times of plenty, Warren Risby says, we don't live on explanations.

We may not be able to figure all of this out, but we do live on promises.

And the promises of God are based on the character of God.

Now, how many of you have ever been promised something?

And the person who promised that something to you was not, they just weren't able to deliver.

Raise your hand, okay?

Raise your hand.

Come on, we can all do this.

Don't you know any politicians?

Don't you know?

Don't you know any pastors?

I'm sad to say.

I mean it's true, it really is.

Um, and don't you know any people, let's be honest.

Human beings, sadly, even the best, the ones that love us the most, the ones that have walked with us the long, all of it, we all fail one another at one point, one time.

And so when we look to the God of the Bible, especially when we look to the person of Jesus, whom all of Advent is is leading up to the coming, the arrival of Jesus, um, we we want to remind ourselves over and over again, each and every Sunday, that while we can't explain everything like Rearsby has said, what we can do is look to the God who makes promises and keeps promises.

And I bet if I if I were to, well, matter of fact, I'm gonna go ahead and do it.

If I were to ask, how many of you in this room have ever experienced that God keeps his promises?

And you you know this personally.

Yeah, this is, and this is just, and I know that if we had a little more time, more hands would go up because you'd think back, oh yeah, that time.

Oh yeah, that time.

And I can't always explain, like I say, what's gone on in my life and why God's allowed this or that to happen.

But man, the rear view mirror in my life is filled with just, it just says God is faithful.

It's massive.

I can't always see it in the windshield.

I can't always see it out the side windows, but my rear view mirror tells me God, the God of the Bible, is faithful.

Uh, our good friend Chris Wright, in his uh commentary on Jeremiah, which is great, by the way, it's called Grace in the End.

He said, if Jeremiah the man spoke in his day, and if Jeremiah the book still speaks today, in both cases, it is because of the God who called the man to speak and commanded the book to be written.

So we must encounter the God of Jeremiah.

An encounter that should be both profoundly disturbing and ultimately reassuring, as it was for him.

And so this God of the Bible is full of surprises, and we will make the argument, especially when we go back to Luke after we turn the corner around the new year, that in Jesus, every one of God's surprises becomes fulfillment.

We see God's promises and surprises in the fulfillment and their fulfillment in the person and work of Christ.

How so, you say?

Well, here we have the promise of this righteous branch.

Um Jeremiah is pointing forward to Jesus.

Jesus, the root of David, the descendant of David, the one who will be the king who will reign, and he will reign with wisdom, as Jeremiah says.

He will reign with righteousness and with justice.

And in him, both Israel and Judah will be saved and safe.

Safe and secure in Christ.

Doesn't mean we don't go through bumpy waters, doesn't mean we don't ride out on the boat like Jesus did with his disciples and experience storms.

We will.

But Jesus in our boat makes all the difference.

Somebody say amen.

Yeah.

I don't know what people do who don't have Jesus in their boat.

But we who have suffered some, we who who have gone through some pain, some difficulty.

We turn to this God, the God that Jeremiah worshiped, the God that Jeremiah spoke on behalf of, who points forward to Jesus and all of the fulfillment of God's promises found in Jesus, including rising from the dead, defeating our last and greatest enemy, death itself.

And see, that that's the difference.

That's what makes the difference about the Christian faith.

See?

If he can do that, he is worthy of our trust.

Amen?

Yeah, that is so true.

Calvin, we should ask God to increase our hope when it's small, awaken it when it's dormant, confirm it when it is wavering, strengthen it when it is weak, raise it up when it is overthrown.

These quotes, all of this will be up on the website.

I think it's even up there even now if you use the QR code to dial in to the sermon.

Very important quote there, I think.

And we always want to turn to the Lord because this isn't just a give me a J, kind of a Jesus cheer session when we talk about stirrup Sunday.

That's not what this is.

I'm one of the guys, I'm just cynical enough.

Last name is Thomas.

I'm enough of a doubter.

I'm just on the edge.

You know, I'm just that guy that I don't like that kind of stuff.

I don't like give me a J! I don't like that stuff.

It just seems to trivialize the whole thing for me.

And was it helpful when I was a teenager?

Yes, it probably was.

If we can't keep our hands in our pockets at a sporting event, well, how in the world can we do it when we come to church?

We should be, yay! Yeah, that's true.

That's true.

But we're not all Pentecostal, and I thank God for my Presbyterian frozen chosen brothers.

Um we we because I don't always feel this way, you know.

So it's not about feelings, is the point.

It's about the direction and the object of my faith.

And I I want us all, as we I want to stir you up to direct your faith to the righteous branch, to the root of David, to the one who will reign in wisdom with righteousness and justice.

I want you to know that you can hope in him, that you can trust in him.

You should turn to him as Calvin did right there.

Secondly, not um only do we want to stir you up to the promise of the king, we're gonna stir you up to the purpose of his reign as well.

That last king that I mentioned, the four kings, the last one in Judah was Zedekiah.

Notice up on the screen, I'm not sure I wrote this all as clearly as I should have, but his name means the righteousness of the Lord, which is really ironic, because he totally belied the meaning of his name.

I mean, this guy was wretched.

As a matter of fact, in 2 Kings at the end of the book, as it's describing Zedekiah there, here's his resume.

And Zedekiah did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.

Okay?

So here, this guy with a name, the righteousness of the Lord, is doing everything unrighteous that he can possibly do.

He's got the jersey on, but he's not actually on the team.

How about me?

How about you, Christian?

Wearing the jersey only or actually on the team?

Um, this is important for us.

We need to be stirred up, awaken to those kinds of questions.

Zedekiah, um, like I say, ironic about his name.

But the righteous branch is called the Lord our righteousness, Yahweh Sid Kinu.

And uh what's really funny is that Jesus, the righteous branch, actually lived up to his name.

And then go further, okay?

In stark contrast to Zedekiah, not only do the righteous man live up to his name, but he doesn't just reflect God's righteousness, he conveys God's righteousness.

It says in the end of verse 6 there, his name shall be called what?

The Lord our righteousness.

Not following the rules is my righteousness, not going to the village chapel is my righteousness, not just taking all kinds of marching in the right parades and marching in the right protests, that's not my righteousness.

Not voting one way or another, that's not my righteousness.

My righteousness is Jesus, the righteous branch, the root of David.

He's the one who is himself my righteousness.

Now, get this, because some of you have difficulty forgiving yourselves, some of you have difficulty with shame and guilt and all that sort of thing.

Please understand, when you when those thoughts are crossing your mind, it's because you're thinking it's about you.

It's not about you.

Your righteousness is about him.

He's your righteousness.

You gotta you gotta sit in that, you gotta live in that, you gotta walk in that, and you gotta rest in that, and you can be free in that.

That's really, really important.

This, this is, I know this isn't the most well-known verse in Jeremiah 29.11, it's probably more well-known, those of you that know it.

But this may be for me the two most beautiful verses in Jeremiah.

I wonder if the Apostle Paul, who knew the Old Testament well, I wonder when he read verse 6, his name shall be called the Lord our righteousness.

I wonder if this is what inspired.

Will you read aloud with me the Apostle Paul to write?

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

Are you Christian?

If you are, you are in Christ Jesus.

And I love Romans 8.

It begins with no condemnation, and it ends with a lot of you are familiar with the end of chapter 8, it ends with no separation.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God that's in Christ.

So this great book ends for chapter 8.

No condemnation, no separation.

Nothing can drive me away from God, nothing can, I'm not found guilty at all.

But why?

Because I'm in Christ Jesus.

And therefore the love of God is mine forever, and nothing can separate me from it.

No condemnation, no separation.

What if the Apostle Paul had Jeremiah 23, verses 5 and 6 in mind?

Jeremiah 23:5

I wonder if when he wrote this, he had that in mind.

Read with me.

But by his doing, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, just as it is written, let him who boasts boast in the Lord.

So we don't boast in ourselves.

We boast in the Lord.

It's his righteousness.

So when we say we're righteous, we're in right standing with God, it's not because of anything we've done.

It's because we trust in Christ who has done it all.

He's done everything necessary for me.

And did you notice those same descriptors from Jeremiah 23, 5 and 6 about the righteous king, the righteous branch?

He will reign in what?

Wisdom and in justice, right?

That's just so beautiful.

And in righteousness.

And the apostle Paul picks up on that again right here, those same descriptors.

2 Corinthians 5.21.

Some of you know this really well.

Let's read.

He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

So let me give you the uh uh, which these these pronouns refer to.

He, God the Father, made him, Jesus God the Son, who knew no sin to become sin or to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

What an amazing exchange.

So when you do gift exchanges, if you do gift exchanges this year, that's awesome.

They're kind of like small, glimmering little bits of confetti pointing to the ultimate exchange.

Here's the ultimate exchange.

I give you my failed life, my failed attempts at righteousness.

I give the Lord Jesus all of my sin.

I confess it all to him.

What does he give me?

A robe of righteousness.

He puts a robe of righteousness on you and on me.

What an amazing exchange that is.

Who wouldn't want that?

Lewis.

In mere Christianity, you gotta read that we make it a habit of reading it once a year in our household.

The world is a great sculpture shop.

We're the statues, and there's a rumor going around the shop as some of us are someday gonna come to life.

Yeah.

You need a little of that in your life this year?

Turn to Jesus, turn to the Lord, the righteous king, the righteous branch that all the way back in Jeremiah, and next week we're even going further back in the Old Testament to see this whole thing foreshadowed even more.

So this is gonna be really, really amazing.

Lastly, the promise of a king, the purpose of his reign, and the peace that only he can give.

I love this.

Jeremiah promises that in the days of this righteous branch of King Judah will be saved, and Israel will live in safety.

That's what I really, really love there.

It's in uh verse 6.

Look at that.

In his days.

Whose days?

In the days of the righteous branch.

Are we in his days now?

Yes, we're in his days.

And we'll really be in his days when he returns the second time, this second Advent of Jesus, that Kim will be talking about in her podcast.

I want to make sure you dial into that because she's gonna be talking about the podcast.

She's gonna be talking about the advent that's already happened and the advent yet to come.

But in his days, Judah, that's the southern kingdom, will be saved.

Israel, that's the northern kingdom, it will dwell securely.

And this is his name by which he will be called the Lord our righteousness.

So I like that there are these personal pronouns that Jeremiah has immediately shifted to after using this metaphor of the righteous branch.

And you, if you're a literalist like I am, sometimes you think he's talking about a tree or he's talking about some kind of vine or something.

But no, he immediately starts using personal pronouns when he's talking about this righteous branch.

So that means this righteous branch is a poetic statement.

It's a design to show us to point us to a person.

And this person, indeed, we would argue, is Messiah Jesus.

And Judah, the southern kingdom, Israel, the northern king.

In other words, the totality of God's people will rest in safety and security because Jesus is righteous.

Jesus is wise, Jesus is just.

Verse 7 and 8, he will then bring us, uh, we will live on their own land and their own soil at the end of verse 8.

And surely partial fulfillment of that has got to be when Cyrus in 538 BC allows uh so many of the Jews to begin returning to uh to the promised land, to Jerusalem, to rebuild the walls, you see.

In the time, this is in the time of uh Nehemiah and it and uh Ezra, that sort of thing.

So that's partially fulfilled there.

But man, when the Lord doesn't just restore one little part of the planet, but the whole new heavens and new earth comes, we are just gonna rest safe and secure for all of eternity.

I don't know about you, but I'm stirred up about that.

I'd like that to happen.

Um I turned 70 this year.

The older I get, the more things creak.

And I feel like the Tin Man and the Wizard of Oz.

I just need a little oil here and a little oil there.

And you guys that are 40 and 30 and 20 and teens, don't worry, it's coming.

Yeah, you're going, what's he talking about?

I don't know what that is.

Um, this is where it goes, but I'm stirred to hope.

I'm stirred to action too to serve him.

I'm stirred to hope because of who he is.

I'm stirred to action because I want to get busy walking in his wisdom, working with him toward justice and righteousness in this world.

And I, by the way, I love that video and all that it showed us about how God is using you, your faithfulness, our faithfulness together, to actually make a difference in the lives of some folks that are really hurting.

And I appreciate that so much.

But we need to take our our words, what we believe, and turn it into what we do as well.

So it's words and deeds both.

And then also we need to be stirred not only to uh to deeds, but also to the kind of robust worship that, not just because, again, not just to do a give me a J, give me an E, give me an S, not that.

But because God deserves better than milk toast, bland, boring worship.

He deserves more than I, even when I think I'm giving my best, he deserves more than that.

Um, so we all need to let that settle.

And that again, I don't I don't want to come in here next week and you all be swinging from the chandeliers.

I'm not talking about that.

I'm just talking about you, you could come in here and and be pretty reserved and still really mean it.

And please understand it.

So it's not about your, it's not just about your physical display, but it's also not it's not never about your physical display.

Love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your all of your mind, with all of your strength.

That's your physical person as well.

And we need to, so we need to, we need to, yes, we need to love him.

We need to sing to him, which is the that's the second most often repeated command in the Bible.

Sing! And it's usually in reference to singing and worshiping the Lord.

I do love the way you sing, it always inspires me.

As we get closer to Advent, then beginning next week.

The Christmas message, according to Packer, is that there's hope for a ruined humanity, hope for pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory.

Um I think Packer is right there.

And as we move toward Christmas, that's what we want to focus in on the incarnation, this miracle, this amazing thing that has happened.

And why did God do it?

And why does it really matter?

And the the great news for us as Bible believers and as people, uh people of Christmas, if you will, or people of the incarnation, we we can enjoy all of the outside lights.

Somebody put your outside lights up.

Anybody?

Okay, we we did yesterday, and it's I'm disappointed.

I had a sidebar here, but man, do you ever buy a whole bunch of lights and start plugging them in and they're the wrong color?

They're just not right.

And I felt like Jeffy Chase, a little, I felt like I, and I plug them in and it's just you know, it's just not right.

Um back to the original.

Wrestling with my first world problem there, my my color of my lights, you know.

But the let me watch this, but the light of the world has indeed come into the world, and he can push back the darkness in our world.

The darkness in our world that we sometimes walk right past, don't even see.

The darkness in our world that is constantly thrown at us if we're on social media, if we're on um networks or or or cable news or whatever it is, just constantly tossing darkness at us.

Um I think, man, one of the best things you can do is turn it all off, get in the scriptures, and get before your righteous king.

Spend time with him.

Um more time with him.

Heard a heard a sermon by a guy named D.A.

Carson last week that really moved me.

Um uh he was talking about his dad.

His dad was a pastor, never spoke at a conference, just a faithful pastor in a small church somewhere, and nobody ever heard of him or anything like that.

But his dad gave Don uh Carson his his uh sort of his journals.

And in there, there was a prayer written.

He said, This is this is me praying.

Um, or this was him praying.

He just said, Lord, keep me from the sins of older men.

And and and and one of them was that uh I just want to pray more.

I don't want to look back and think I didn't pray you know enough.

I didn't spend enough time with you.

He also said, I don't want to turn on the television too quickly.

And sometimes we just leave it rolling in some houses, right?

I I need to not do that.

Um I I also need to spend more time with my father who's in heaven.

So there's really, really uh great testimony and uh uh uh legacy he left behind.

So here's the great news.

I hope this stirs you up.

Jesus is the king we've always wanted.

And Jesus is the king we've always needed.

You believe that?

Say amen.

Yeah?

I want that king.

But sometimes we don't want the king that we actually need.

Sometimes we we we get the king, and I'm not talking necessarily just about politics, but but you could certainly include it.

But sometimes we get what we wanted and and we don't like what we got.

Um I'm I've been on the planet long enough to have seen that happen multiple times.

I don't always know.

That's why I need a righteous branch who will reign in wisdom.

He knows way better than I do.

So I want to trust him with the outcomes.

All outcomes.

Okay?

I want a righteous king who will reign and work for justice, bring about justice and righteousness in the land.

Here is what, uh, if I were to summarize the whole message, um, I wonder if you would stand with me and we would read these three lines out loud.

If if you agree with this, this is our cry to God.

This is what we want him to stir us up to.

Um and if if you if you look at these and you agree with me, would you read aloud with me?

Stir us up, Lord, and awaken us to our need for redemption.

Stir us up, Lord, to acknowledge that we are hungry for something only you can give.

Stir us up, Lord, to place our faith in King Jesus, who is himself our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

Amen.