BECOMING A BLESSED PERSON

Sermon Notes, July 29, 2018

Rev. Ricky Hoosier

            Pastor Garry and Beccy McGlinchy were on vacation, so Ricky Hoosier filled the pulpit Sunday.  His sermon was titled “Becoming a Blessed Person,” and was based on Jeremiah 17:1-10.

            In Jeremiah 16 and 17 we find the prophet in the middle of a one-on-one conversation with the Lord.  Harsh things were said.  The people of Judah were not to marry or have children in the land.  They would not be able to mourn or bury the dead, because they had forsaken God and followed other gods.  This is all to happen to the people who called themselves blessed.

In verse 1 of chapter 17, the sin of Judah had become so deeply engraved on their hearts that ordinary means were insufficient to remove it.  Engraving is done on hard surfaces; their hearts were hard, and the only way to deal with their sin was to break it into pieces. 

Verse 2 says “Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles beside the spreading trees and on the high hills.”  Children learn what they see their parents do.  As parents, it’s our responsibility to teach our children God’s ways, by the way we live.

In verses 3 and 4 we can see why God had to break up the country, in order to have a new beginning.  “All your treasure . . . I will give away because of sin throughout your country . . .   you will lose the inheritance I gave you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, for you have kindled my anger, and it will burn forever.”  We need to be broken to become a new creation. 

Verse 5 and 6 say “Cursed is the one who trusts in man. . . whose heart turns away from the Lord. . .“  There are people today who have acquired all these things.  They say, “This is mine.  I worked hard for this.”  In the world, that is where their worship is.  If God withdraws His hand, what happens to them?  If we go through life depending on people, how can we serve God?  God wants ALL our attention.  Verse 6 says that the one who trusts in man is like a bush in the wasteland.  They dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.

Verses 7 and 8 say, “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.  They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.”  He flourishes in adverse circumstances.  The key word is PLANTED by the water. That is where we get our strength, when we plant our roots deep enough to reach the Living Water, God.  Hidden resources get us through.  The one who trusts the Lord lives without anxiety.  He produces fruit.   We can grow and prosper.  Read Psalm 1.  

Verses 9 and 10 speak of the heart.  Verse 9 asks “Who can understand it?”    And verse 10 answers the question.  “I, the Lord search the heart and examine the mind to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.” The heart, the inner man, the essential self, is where all action, will, and reasoning spring.  Can say we’re blessed?  If our feet are planted on the Solid Rock, our roots in the stream, we are truly blessed.