Beth Moore - The God of Again - Part 3
Our theme is "The God of Again," and it made me think of this particular excerpt by G.K. Chesterton, "Orthodoxy", "Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, 'Do it again.'" And any of you who have young children you know exactly what Chesterton is talking about because they want to play the same game again and again. They want to watch the same show again and again. They love the repetition of it. "Let's do it again". But it says, "But the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead". Is anybody paying attention?
"For grown-up people are not strong enough to exalt in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exalt in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, 'Do it again,' to the sun and in the evening, 'Do it again,' to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike. It may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has just never gotten tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy, for we have sinned and grown old and our Father is younger than we". I just want to remind you that he is not tired of you, that if you've sung some of these songs again and again, he is saying over us in our corporate worship, "Oh, sing it again. Sing it again. Sing it again".
If there's an old hymn that your grandmother or your grandfather used to sing and you take it up one day, I'll just be doing goodness knows what, maybe I'm gardening, whatever, and out of nowhere some hymn from my childhood will just come rolling out of my soul and off of my tongue. Perhaps it's God going, "Oh, sing it again. Do it again". With what he's gifted you to do that you wonder has he grown tired of it; maybe you've grown tired of it, but maybe what would get you over your weariness of it is to know that God is ever over you going, "Oh, do it again. I love when you do that. Do it again". The God of again is not tired of you, he is so glad to see you before his throne in worship once again. I want you to recap with me where we were on our two points.
So number one, nothing is more breathtaking than a divine "again" after a disastrous "again". Has anybody recently been through a disastrous again? Can I see anybody's hand? Just disastrous. It's like, "Here we go again". Well, nothing, nothing is more breathtaking. The epitome of grace is a divine again after a disastrous again. Number two, no discovery is less expected than favor in the wilderness. Now, before we launch with reading in Jeremiah, I want you to see what Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary gives for the definitive nutshell version of what is the actual message of Jeremiah, because you and I are not going to be able to pour over 52 chapters in one weekend. But what is the overarching message of Jeremiah? "Theologically, the Book of Jeremiah stimulates the search for the will of God in moments when all the institutions and religious representatives normally in charge of administrating his will are discredited".
I thought it was so profound because it fits in so many ways. Now, I don't want to think in terms of sides here today. Well, if we got into sides and issues where we stand on this, where we stand on, we'd be all over the place, all over the place. But I think we can all agree that a whole lot of the world is looking at American Christianity, going, "Y'all are nuts. Y'all are nuts". And who wants to be in that, when all of you have turned on one another, when there's just, when all of the slander that is going forth between all of these camps, all the discrediting? We are literally living in a day of discrediting because we don't know how to deal with the differences. We just go, "Let's just cut to the chase". And I'll just say that you're just completely discredited so that I don't have to discuss it with you. Anybody understand?
We don't take the time to hear from one another because we already know, "You know what? I have too much at stake to shift on this. I don't want to hear any reason. I don't want to have any reason to change my mind. I just want to say you are discredited in my site". We have come upon such a time on the kingdom calendar. I believe that we are living some of what Revelation 12:12 says when it says that the devil is furious because he knows his time is short. Listen. He knows God is faithful to his Word. You and I may not know if God is always faithful to what he says and we may not be able to psychologically get our mind around that all the time and we're dealing with some of our doubt. The devil knows God tells the truth. The devil is no atheist. He knows that God exists. He knows that he does, but his thing is slandering accusation. He is the accuser of the brothers and sisters.
That's what Revelation 12 says. You can see him all over the church right now because accusation is constant. It's constant. And anytime you see a spirit of accusation, and I mean that with a little s. So I'm not just talking about you see some accusation, I'm talking about when there is a spirit of accusation. And right now in the church, in this nation, there is a spirit of accusation, and when there's a spirit of accusation, that's not the Holy Spirit. The Spirit comes with conviction, not accusation. When you see accusation, that is a work of the devil and that is a work of the devil to divide us because Jesus is preparing a bride that comes together as one. Anybody understand what I'm saying? He is doing everything he can to see if he can thwart that Second Coming, because when he comes, it is over for the devil because it says that, in 2 Thessalonians it says that he literally will simply destroy him by the breath of his mouth, the breath of his mouth.
See, we think they're antitheses of one another; there is Jesus and there is the devil. That's not true. All Jesus will have to do when he comes is inhale and exhale and he will blow the devil to kingdom come. Anybody understand what we're saying? The great enemy of Jesus is death. Check your Scriptures on that. It's death. And the last enemy to be overcome, we're told in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, will be death. Now, look with me as we're seeing. So, I just think Jeremiah has so much to say to us right now because certainly not all institutions and all religious representatives normally in charge of preaching his will are discredited, but enough are where we can see, "Lord". I mean, this is like reading our now situation.
Look with me now at Jeremiah 7. I'm so happy to say that either it did live there or God has moved the passages there. It says in verses 23 and 24, "However, I did give them this command: 'Obey me, and then I will be your God, and you will be my people. Follow every way I command you so that it may go well with you.'" 24, "Yet they didn't listen or pay attention but followed their own advice..." Does anybody just want to give a sigh right there? Anybody besides me in the room followed your own advice? And I mean, done it confidently or done it boldly, audaciously. And then, you know, of course, you're in a pit, no time at all, no time at all, going, "Lord, come get me". But they're just, like, "following their own advice and their own stubborn, evil heart and they went backward and not forward. They went backward and not forward".
Here's what I want to just suggest to you this morning. That over the course of a very difficult year, over the course of very, very divisive years, and not just in the nation or on the globe, but among believers in the church, and I think that it has been a time of going backward and I think just a lot of the challenges we've had in the last year have caused us to go backward in our walk of faith instead of forward. You know, it's hard to just, like, walk in place, where, you know, there's usually some movement. We're not just static, there's going to be a dynamic force because we're in a living faith and we're probably either going to be going backwards or we're going to be going forward.
And so, I ask you today, wouldn't this be a wonderful day, I mean, mark it down on your calendar, for us to get on the course of going forward again? 'Cause we kind of been doing our own advice because do not know what else to do, and so we're taking our own advice. Which I don't know about you, but it has been some of the most dangerous stuff I've ever done, is taking my own advice. Now, God can give us wisdom and we can have good advice to give ourselves, but we're getting it ultimately from God, and we're thankful for it. So, walking forward again. So, go with me to Jeremiah 31. Jeremiah 31, back to our passages, and I'll remind you of where he says, "Remember the God of again"? And he says in verse 4, "Again I will build you so that you will be rebuilt, Virgin Israel. You will take up your tambourines again and go out in joyful dancing. You will plant vineyards again on the mountains of Samaria. And the planters will plant and enjoy the fruit".
Again, again, again. And he begins with, "Again, I will build you". Have you ever rebuilt anything and shown it to someone, and you could tell they were not nearly impressed enough because they did not know what it looked like before you had to rebuild it? Anybody know what I'm talking about? Anybody ever had, since we're in this part of Oklahoma, anybody ever had a house torn up by a tornado? Anybody knows what it's like to have a house flood, a place where you were having to rebuild all over again? And it is not enough for you when you're taking someone through it to simply say, "Man, this really is impressive, the work you've done here". No. You want them to understand, "You can't begin to know what has been rebuilt until you know what was torn completely to shreds". You'll notice it even in your relationships if you have like me a marriage that God has worked on and restored over and over again. Can I hear somebody say amen?
I mean like over, Keith and I have fallen back in love over and over again. Maybe some of you just carry it through all the way. I don't know you, I don't understand you, but I'm happy for you. I don't want to have lunch with you, but I'm happy for you. We on the other hand were like two train wrecks. We were like two trains that ran head-on collision. It was strictly lust, strictly lust, and then we tried to build a marriage on that. And listen, that's always a problem. However, we are still together. Why? Because of the God of again. I promise you. I promise you. I promise you. But if somebody said to me, and sometimes it happens that I'll post a picture on Instagram or I'll say something on Twitter, and I'll make reference to Keith and I.
Like, here recently I posted a picture of Keith and I have this tiny, little vineyard that I've been working on and I just love it so much and I'm obsessed with it. Its 15 different grape vines. And he was down pulling weeds with me. And when we first started it, he just thought I was a nut. He even told me. He said, "You know, I thought you'd lose interest in 6 months". Well, I didn't. I mean, I'm just completely obsessed. And so, he was just pulling weeds with me last Saturday. He was pulling weeds around, making sure that all the vines are flourishing, everybody is doing well, and on his hands and knees. And I looked around.
I said, "Babe, it just means the world to me that you're taking interest in my vines". And he looked at me, he said, "Baby, I'm not taking interest in your vines. I'm interested in you, and you are interested in the vines". Well, I posted that, and some people went, "Oh, I want a marriage like yours 'cause sounds so romantic". Only I just want to say to you, that's happened again. That's a new again like the last again and the la... So, I have to tell people, "Oh, oh, no. You need to know". 'Cause I feel like no, no, you're not impressed enough because you don't know what the Lord has brought us through 'cause I can't tell you some of it. Anybody tracking with me this morning? Rebuilding.
Rebuilding. So, this is exactly what he does. So, he says, "I am going to build you again". But to make absolutely sure that the audience, the readers, the listeners are fully impressed, he goes to the trouble to say, "This is where you been," so that when we're rebuild it's like... So, I want you to look with me where they had been. Just we could go all over Jeremiah. Remember he's like, "No, not you again. Not you again". But let's look right here in 30:12 through 17. So, look one chapter previous. Remember this is part of these two chapters of Scripture, are the little scroll in Jeremiah, the little scroll of consolation. You see all the poetry in it.
So this is going to be poetry right here. I'm reading Jeremiah 30, and I'm reading starting at verse 12, and I'm going to read through 17. "For this is what the Lord says: 'Your injury is incurable, your wound most severe. You have no defender for your case. There's no remedy for your sores and no healing for you. All your lovers have forgotten you. They no longer look for you, for I have struck you as an enemy would, with the discipline of someone cruel, because of your enormous guilt and your innumerable sins. Why do you cry out about your injury? Your pain has no cure. I have done these things to you because of your enormous guilt and your innumerable sins. Nevertheless, all who devoured you will be devoured. All your adversaries, all of them, will go off into exile. Those who plunder you will be plundered and all who raided you will be raided. But I will bring you health and I will heal you of your wounds,' this is the Lord's declaration, 'for they call you outcast, Zion whom nobody cares about.'"
Walter Brueggemann in his commentary on Jeremiah points out that at this point in the poetry God is taking offense because although the nations are saying about Israel, his own people, what God has already acknowledged, and that's what a mess they are, once they start acting like she's an outcast, once they start insulting her, you know how this is. If you're a parent, you can be so upset with your child you do not know what to do and you can know that what they've done is, like, out of bounds, but let somebody else start talking about them and you're like, "Oh-oh, I'm going to deal with you". I have never acted uglier in my life than I have acted over my children. Anybody know what I'm talking about?
Now, I mean I... you would think, you grow up thinking you would never be where you could honestly take every hair off the head of a 13-year-old, anybody, till they're mean to your child and it's like, "Oh, no. Give me a pair of tweezers. I want to do it one by one. One or maybe just hunks. I want to do it hunks of hair just one at a time. Just one at a time I want to take because..." And, of course, God's not evil, but he's been put in a situation where he goes, "Listen. I'm going to be the first to say, you're wound is been uncurable. But when they who have lured you into their ways, then use you..." And, again, understand with me that he thinks of idolatry as adultery. Basically lie down with you, and now they're not texting you. Oh, they've forgotten about you.
And, again, talking in spiritual terms, they've slept with you, and you haven't heard from them since, and you're an outcast to them, trying to avoid you. And now, like, he's taken up the offense. He's going to defense and he said, "I'll deal with them. I will deal with those lambs that treated you like an outcast". Where I want to get you mentally by the power of the Holy Spirit as we take on this material today for these next few minutes is to a time in your life, whether it is now or whether it was somewhat past, years past, months past, when something just felt unrecoverable. I wonder if you yourself have ever felt like beyond recovery when our wound, our sickness is just incurable, when there's no rebuilding because it's all been burned to the ground. And sometimes it's been burned to the ground by somebody else.
So then there's that blame. Sometimes it's been burned to the ground because of our own hands. Maybe we feel like, no, it was God who just burned it to the ground. He asked this question in 8:22 that we've sung so many times if you know any of the old hymns: "Is there no balm in Gilead"? Gilead was known for this ointment that was effective for healing wounds. It's like can't you find anything to heal your wounds when there's no cure, no antibiotic, no vaccination, no medication, no amount of essential oils? Anybody know what I'm talking about? There is not enough lavender you can rub on your feet to sleep at a time like this. There is not enough peppermint oil you can rub on your temples to get rid of your headache 'cause it's not that kind of thing, because it's not a sickness of the body, it's a sickness of the heart, the natural heart.
We're told in Jeremiah 17:5 through 9... Well, in fact, we need to turn to it because it's that important. Turn with me there, Jeremiah 17:4 through 9. I'm seeing well something that I have highlighted in yellow marker and it's in 4 where he says, and this is God talking to Judah and he's saying, like, "You will, on your own, relinquish your inheritance that I gave you". That was, "Look what I have given you". And I mean with your own hands just going, "Oh, I'll just relinquish it. Relinqui..." If you and I, we're not them. We're under the new covenant, but if you and I only knew what had been entrusted to us, the inheritance that is ours in Christ Jesus and how we just like toss it out there like it doesn't make any difference. It's like, "Relinquish it. I'll relinquish it".
Now, he says starting in verse 5, this is what the Lord says, this is under old covenant, but it's got such an important truth with it, "Cursed is the person who trusts in mankind. He makes human flesh his strength and his heart turns from the Lord. He will be like a juniper in the Arabah. He cannot see good when it comes but dwells in the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land where no one lives". He's saying like, "You want to put your trust in mankind? Because when you do that, you will get where you can't even recognize good when it comes". In verse 7, "The person who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence indeed is the Lord, is blessed. He will be like a tree planted by water. It sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn't fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit".
And then he says this, 9 and 10, "The heart is more deceitful than anything else and incurable. Who can understand it"? Then he says, "I, the Lord, examine the mind, I test the heart to give to each one according to his way, according to what his actions deserve". I want you to see is, the heart is deceitfully wicked? He said more than anything else. What he's talking about, of course, is the natural heart, just our fleshly heart, just our carnal desires, that how often our heart will say, "You know, just the heart wants what the heart wants".
Well, let me tell you something. What we don't want to get confused about is thinking that desire is not of God. The reason we know this thing that we would call desire or want is because we are created in the image of God who desires and wants. I love the fact that he said that Jesus in the Gospel of John, the very first words out of his mouth when he turns around and there were those two that become his disciples, two men behind him, following him, he turns around and he looks at them and says, "What is it you seek? What is it you really want? What is it you really want"? When was the last time you poured that out to God? What is it you really want? What do you really want out of life? What is it you want? What is it you desire?
So listen. Desire is born of God. We were created because we were desired by him. You've been chosen in him because he desired to choose you in him. It's when we're just set to the course of our fleshly, natural, carnal nature and what it is craving that all of a sudden it will lie to us and lie to us and lie to us. Tell us that, "This is what I want". And then we just rock-reap the whirlwind, reap the whirlwind just demanding what we want, just demanding what we want.