Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we are going to finish up Jeremiah chapter 13. What's God got to say about pride and idolatry and how do these things kind of come together and what's the consequence of them? So let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray. God, we thank you so much for this day. What a blessing it is to get to read your Word. You are good to us. You are kind. And Father, we pray that you would please send us your Holy Spirit to instruct us. Lord, we pray that we would understand your word, that it would work in our hearts, that we would know your truth, and that we would also live it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Here we go. We are at Jeremiah chapter 13. I'm going to wrap it up. Verses 15 through 27. hear and give ear. Do not be proud, for the Lord has spoken. Give glory to Jehovah your God before he causes darkness and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains. And while you are looking for light, he turns it into the shadow of death and makes it dense darkness. But if you will not hear it, my soul will weep in secret for your pride. My eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears, because the Lord's flock has been taken captive. Say to the king and the queen mother, humble yourselves, sit down, for your rule shall collapse, the glory of your crown. or sorry, the crown of your glory. The cities of the south shall be shut up, and no one shall open them. Judah shall be carried away captive, all of it. It shall be wholly carried away captive. Lift up your eyes and see those who come from the north. Where is the flock that was given to you, your beautiful sheep? What will you say when he punishes you? for you have taught them to be chieftains, to be head over you. Will not pangs seize you, like a woman in labor? And if you say in your heart, why have these things come upon me? For the greatness of your iniquity, your skirts have been uncovered, your heels made bare. Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good, who are accustomed to do evil. Therefore, I will scatter them like stubble that passes away by the wind of the wilderness. This is your lot, the portion of your measures from me, says the Lord, because you have forgotten me and trusted in falsehoods. Therefore, I will uncover your skirts over your face that your shame may appear. I have seen your adulteries and your lustful names, the lewdness of your harlotry, your abominations on the hills and in the fields. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! Will you still not be made clean? Well thus, we'll stop there. We need to ask ourselves our three questions. A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in response to these verses? So, A, what's this about? Well, God is telling them, listen up, right? Verse 15, hear and give ear. And then he gives them a command, do not be proud for the Lord has spoken, right? Give God glory. But they've not been doing that. They've been glorying in themselves. And he's telling them the light is about to turn into shadow. He turns it into the shadow of death. But they're not going to hear it. But if you will not hear it, What is God? How is God? Now this is not perfect language because we're speaking of God who doesn't have emotions like we do. He doesn't have passions in the sense that we do. But it says, my soul will weep in secret for your pride. My eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears because the Lord's flock has been taken captive. The Lord is not just, you know, unconnected from his people. But he's deeply invested in his people. And when he said in verse 14, what Deborah and I had looked at last time, that he was not going to take pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them, he wasn't doing this flippantly, without a care. But he says, it's almost like, as if I had eyes, I would be weeping. And he says to go talk to the king and the queen mother and tells them to humble themselves, to sit down, to learn, to listen, to repent. For your rule shall collapse the crown of your glory. He tells them all the cities are going to be captured. The people are going to be taken exile. So lift up your eyes and see, verse 20, those who come from the north, He says that's the way the Babylonians were coming down. They were coming over from Babylon. They'd come over from the east over to the west through the Fertile Crescent and come down the path down to the Mediterranean Sea, head south. And so even though they were from the east, they'd come up and down and the way to Jerusalem and the south was from the north. And what will you say when he punishes you? You've taught them how to rule over you. You taught them how to do these things, he says. Pains will overseas you like a woman in labor. And that's scary, man. My wife has had five children, and I've been in the room each time with her. Especially the last one, I mean, she was crying out to God to please help her. I was worried Olivia was going to die. He says, that's what it's going to be like for you. The most traumatic thing you can imagine in your life. That's what it's going to be like. And if you say in your heart, why have these things come upon me? God says, he knows your lewdness. He knows your promiscuity with idolatry. You're going out. In your pride and in your lustfulness for idols, you prostituted yourself. He says, so I'm going to scatter them like stubble. He says, this is your lot, the portion of your measures from me. Why? Because you have forgotten me and trusted in falsehood. because they had not remembered the Lord, they had not remembered His law, they had not remembered His ways, they had not remembered His redeeming love, they had not remembered Him. The portion He had given them in Canaan, He's going to take away. Their status as His treasured people, His special possession, He was taking away from them. The kingship He had granted to David and to his sons, He was tearing down. The Lord was punishing them for their idolatry, their spiritual adultery. And that's why he says in verse 26, he's going to lift up their skirts over their face, that your shame may appear, that I've seen your adulteries. It talks about them like they're a horse in heat. They're neighing and going after a stallion. He says, it's your lewdness of your harlotry, your abominations on the hills and in the fields. You were like wild animals. You wouldn't be tamed. You wouldn't be content. But you were lusting and running after your idols. And so he says, it's going to be seen for the whole world that your God must have turned his back on you. Woe to you, O Jerusalem, Will you still not be made clean? It's almost like this final plea, isn't it? Will you still not be made clean? Will you still not turn? I'm warning you and warning and warning you and warning you that this is going to come. Will you not repent? So what's this section about? This is, again, God's prophesying his judgment against even the royalty and the whole nation for their spiritual adultery that they were going to be taken captive and sent into exile for their sin. What's the best verse to summarize this? Well, I think in my Bible, I would underline, it's not just going to be one verse. If I only got one verse, I'd probably underline verse 25. But I might do 24 and 25. There's more I have underlined, and I could underline, but those would be probably my two. Is there something you would underline in your Bible? What would you underline if you could only underline one as the best verse? Well, last see calling, what are we called to do? Will we not listen? Will we not turn our ear to hear? Will we not follow His ways? It's not too late. Will you not listen? Will you not make your way clean? Maybe you have been walking towards the way of the world. Maybe the pressures of your family and of your friends and of the culture has been upon you. You've seen your heart turning away from the Lord. Your mind has been away from His thoughts and going in your own ways. Maybe you've had idols of your heart thinking about wanting so much other people's sayings and other people's stuff and other people's lives. Maybe you've seen the Facebook posts, and the Instagram posts, and the TikTok reels, or the YouTube videos, and everybody else's life seems so much better than yours, and you chase after that, all the while forgetting about the Lord. Will you turn? Will you remember Him? There are so many ways in which we might compromise with the philosophy of this age, with the idols of our cultures, When we turn to Him, when we trust Him, when we turn away from our own ways, He sees us. He knows our lives. But thanks be to God that even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. This is the demonstration of God's love for us in our own state of misery. God saved us by sending His only begotten Son. So will you trust in Him? Will you follow Him? Even now, maybe you found yourself straying some. Will you pray that the Holy Spirit would give you the fruits to have self-control? That your mind might be renewed. That you might offer up your body as a living sacrifice. That you might follow Him always. Let's pray. God, we thank you so much for the blessing of your word. And God, we do pray. We need your Holy Spirit to turn us away from our sins, the things that we naturally love, and turn us towards you. God, we need you to turn us away from the ways in which we want to go after our own pleasure, after our own lusts. Lord, I know this. I work with plenty of people who struggle with areas in their life, just lusting after what other people have, and lusting after other people's comforts, as well as lusting after their own sexual gratification. Lord, we pray that you would please let us find our peace in you, and our joy in you, that we'd walk in your ways always. Help us, God. Please turn us to you. Make our path straight, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. May God bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ. May that great shepherd of the sheep turn you from your sin. That his rod and his staff may comfort you as he leads you to the green pastures. I'll see you next time. Bye.