This Sunday's Worship Materials can be found in the "Featured Sermon" below. We meet in person at Harper Park Middle School, and the service is also livestreamed on our YouTube channel.

The Prophet's Plea to Return (Jeremiah 3:1-18)

September 23, 2018 Speaker: Dr. David Silvernail Series: Jeremiah - Faithful Living in a Fallen World

Topic: Sermons Passage: Jeremiah 3:1–18

Have you ever gotten lost? Just driving around with absolutely no idea where you are or how to get where you're supposed to be going? That happens a lot less than it used to with the advent of GPS devices and map apps on our phones. But it's enormously frustrating when it does happen. And it still happens sometimes (usually when your phone dies and you forgot your car charger). At some point you simply have to return to your last known place and start again.

But what do you do when the whole society has lost its way? In Jeremiah 3:1-18, our text for this week, the people of Judah have forgotten God's Law, God's Word, truth, morality, and just common decency. From a spiritual standpoint, they are utterly lost. Moreover, they have been reminded that the northern kingdom of Israel has already lost its way and been judged by God. They were sent into exile and the people of Judah are supposed to learn from the example of their sister nation, whom Jeremiah calls "faithless Israel." But they just can't seem to learn the most obvious lessons. And so this week's sermon is about the Prophet's Plea to Return.

Now, it's very likely that Jeremiah, a 6th Century prophet [B.C], had read and reflected on the work of Hosea, an 8th Century prophet. Which means that Hosea lived a couple hundred years before Jeremiah. And Hosea had already lived through this exact same problem. Hosea’s book develops at great length the analogy between Israel and a unfaithful wife: apostasy as a form of spiritual adultery. This horrible but telling analogy played out in a number of ways ­- not least of all in God’s remarkably faithful love for his unfaithful bride. Some elements of Hosea are picked up and developed by Jeremiah in chapter 3.

And so Jeremiah is reminding them, once again, that these words are coming from the Lord Himself. In our passage this week, we see Jeremiah invoking some version of "declares the Lord" 9 times in 18 verses. And once again, we see that the main character is neither the people nor the prophet, but rather "The Word of the Lord." God is the One giving Jeremiah the words to say. Words that are hard to hear. Words that show us how much God loves faithfulness in His people. Words that show how much unfaithfulness breaks His heart. As we've already seen, Jeremiah could be writing about present-day America. He is truly an Ancient Prophet for Modern Times. And yet, even in the midst of His darkest condemnations, He always holds out the light of hope. And that's such Good News. I'm looking forward to sharing that Good News with you on Sunday. See you then, Dr. Dave