Alliance Christian Church
May 11 2025

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      • John 13:33–35NIV2011

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  • Faithful

    Jeremiah 36 “The Lord spoke to Jeremiah in the fourth year1 that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was ruling over Judah:2 “Get a scroll.3 Write on it everything I have told you to say4 about Israel, Judah, and all the other nations since I began to speak to you in the reign of Josiah until now.5 Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about all the disaster I intend to bring on them, they will all stop doing the evil things they have been doing.6 If they do, I will forgive their sins and the wicked things they have done.”7 So Jeremiah summoned Baruch son of Neriah. Then, Baruch wrote down in a scroll all the Lord’s words that he had told to Jeremiah as they came from his mouth.8 Then Jeremiah told Baruch, “I am no longer allowed to go9 into the Lord’s temple. So you go there the next time all the people of Judah come in from their towns to fast10 in the Lord’s temple. Read out loud where all of them can hear you what I told you the Lord said, which you wrote in the scroll.11 Perhaps then they will ask the…”
    Introduction
    Well done good and faithful servant
    if you have been around for any length of time you know that one of my favorite biblical themes to talk about is kingdom.
    Because it is the one theme that is prominent throughout the entire Bible from genesis to revelation.
    What it looks like to live in a world where god is king.
    And that phrase, well done good and faithful servant, it’s from a parable that Jesus taught about the kingdom in Luke 19
    Where a nobleman goes off to receive a kingdom
    And he leaves his servants behind to invest his wealth while he’s gone
    And one of them takes the money and he just burys it he doesn’t invest it, he doesn’t make it grow. And he gets cast out of thr kingdom
    but the other two, they take the enormous amount of money that the soon to be king has left them and they are faithful with it. They invest and trade and end up doubling the investment
    and when the nobleman returns he tells them well done good and faithful servant.
    More than anything else, the legacy that I want to leave behind is one of faithfulness to the kingdom.
    Transition
    In our text today we’re going to read 3 examples of faithfulness. Or in some cases unfaithfulness…
    Roadmap
    According to Jeremiah, what are qualities of faithfulness
    Point
    Statement: Faithful servants don’t go back on their word just because it’s convenient

    Jeremiah 34:8-22

    Jeremiah 34:8–22 NET 2nd ed.
    The Lord spoke to Jeremiah after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to grant their slaves their freedom. Everyone was supposed to free their male and female Hebrew slaves. No one was supposed to keep a fellow Judean enslaved. All the people and their leaders had agreed to this. They had agreed to free their male and female slaves and not keep them enslaved any longer. They originally complied with the covenant and freed them. But later they had changed their minds. They took back their male and female slaves that they had freed and forced them to be slaves again. The Lord’s message came to Jeremiah, “The Lord God of Israel has a message for you: ‘I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt where they had been slaves. It stipulated, “Every seven years each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you for six years, you shall set them free.” But your ancestors did not obey me or pay any attention to me. Recently, however, you yourselves showed a change of heart and did what is pleasing to me. You granted your fellow countrymen their freedom, and you made a covenant to that effect in my presence in the house that I have claimed for my own. But then you turned right around and showed that you did not honor me. Each of you took back your male and female slaves, whom you had freed as they desired, and you forced them to be your slaves again. So I, the Lord, say: “You have not really obeyed me and granted freedom to your neighbor and fellow countryman. Therefore, I will grant you freedom, the freedom to die in war, or by starvation or disease. I, the Lord, affirm it! I will make all the kingdoms of the earth horrified at what happens to you. I will punish those people who have violated their covenant with me. I will make them like the calf they cut in two and passed between its pieces. I will do so because they did not keep the terms of the covenant they made in my presence. I will punish the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests, and all the other people of the land who passed between the pieces of the calf. I will hand them over to their enemies who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals. I will also hand King Zedekiah of Judah and his officials over to their enemies who want to kill them. I will hand them over to the army of the king of Babylon, even though they have temporarily withdrawn from attacking you. For I, the Lord, affirm that I will soon give the order and bring them back to this city. They will fight against it and capture it and burn it down. I will also make the towns of Judah desolate so that there will be no one living in them.” ’ ”
    Illustration
    Any time we’re talking about slavery and slaves in the ancient world, we have to make sure that we’re taking the time to clarify what exactly it is we are talking about
    One of the first jobs I had after college was doing construction and landscaping for a company north of Denver Colorado
    In that job I was responsible for various very expensive pieces of equipment
    50,000 pickup trucks
    75,000 skid steer loaders
    100,000 dollar John Deere tractors
    And one of the policies that every employee signed when they worked there was a statement that said, in the event that a piece of company property is damaged or destroyed, and the employee is found to be at fault, the employee is responsible for paying to replace or repair the property
    In effect, what that means is, if you’re driving a truck and you get in a wreck, and it’s your fault, you pay for it
    If you operate a piece of equipment in an unsafe manner, and you damage it, you pay for the repairs
    That seems fair
    That was the official policy
    But here’s what the unofficial policy was
    Let’s say you wreck a company pickup truck, and the repairs come to $3,000 dollars
    The boss is going to pull you into his office and say look. We know you don’t have 3 grand,
    On top of that, you can pay us the money for the repairs, we can take it out of your paycheck…or
    If you want, you can work free fridays for the next 5 weeks and we’ll call it even.
    And usually freee fridays came to a LOT less than the amount it would have actually cost
    So unofficially, the way it worked was, you were on the clock Monday through Thursday, 10 hours a day
    And then on Friday you came in and worked in the shop for. Free.
    That scenario is a LOT more like what slavery in the ancient world was
    It was a contracted amount of time that someone worked in order to pay off a debt.
    And there was an end date. As soon as you had worked enough to pay off your debt you were not longer a slave
    Explanation
    On top of that, in order to protect slaves in that time god had built in a sunset mechanism
    No matter what, every 7 years every slave contract was ended
    What’s going on here in Jeremiah is that all of the people of Judah had made an oath to release all of their slaves
    To cancel their debts
    And typically, if that’s the arrangement, you kind of build that into your financial equation
    You’re planning out your farm or your business or whatever, and you kind of know, ok, after this many years i have to cancel my debts, all of my bond servants are released from the debt they owe me
    And you can kind of run the numbers and figure out how to make sure your business or whatever is profitable
    And as long as there are no extenuating circumstances, this 7 year debt release policy is not that big of a deal
    Well, Babylon definitely fits the bill as an extenuating circumstances
    All of a sudden all of these business owners and farmers are looking around and realizing, uh oh, Babylon is invading, we’re at war. I need to figure out a way to shore up their holdings. And cut their losses.
    And theyre looking at their slaves, their bond servants, and going “you know, i know I said I was going to release you…but you know, money is tight right now, we’re in unprecedented times…im going to have to take it back.
    Application
    How often do we find ourselves in a position where we think I know I said i was going to do this
    But things were different then
    I know I said I was going to volunteer more at the church but gah you know this thing came up, and it’s a different situation now
    I know I said I was going to read through the Bible in a year, but gah, you know im just so busy now….
    But faithfulness isnt just faithfulness when its convenient
    We dont get to tell god, never mind. That promise ‘I made, that commitment I made, back when it was convenient. Well its not
    Transition
    One or two sentences to smoothly shift to the next part
    Point
    Statement
    Faithful followers stick to their convictions
    Explanation

    Jeremiah 35

    Jeremiah 35 NET 2nd ed.
    The Lord spoke to Jeremiah when Jehoiakim son of Josiah was ruling over Judah: “Go to the Rechabite community. Invite them to come into one of the side rooms of the Lord’s temple and offer them some wine to drink.” So I went and got Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah the grandson of Habazziniah, his brothers, all his sons, and all the rest of the Rechabite community. I took them to the Lord’s temple. I took them into the room where the disciples of the prophet Hanan son of Igdaliah stayed. That room was next to the one where the temple officers stayed and above the room where Maaseiah son of Shallum, one of the doorkeepers of the temple, stayed. Then I set cups and pitchers full of wine in front of the members of the Rechabite community and said to them, “Have some wine.” But they answered, “We do not drink wine because our ancestor Jonadab son of Rechab commanded us not to. He told us, ‘You and your children must never drink wine. Do not build houses. Do not plant crops. Do not plant a vineyard or own one. Live in tents all your lives. If you do these things you will live a long time in the land that you wander about on.’ We and our wives and our sons and daughters have obeyed everything our ancestor Jonadab son of Rechab commanded us. We have never drunk wine. We have not built any houses to live in. We do not own any vineyards, fields, or crops. We have lived in tents. We have obeyed our ancestor Jonadab and done exactly as he commanded us. But when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded the land we said, ‘Let’s get up and go to Jerusalem to get away from the Babylonian and Aramean armies.’ That is why we are staying here in Jerusalem.” Then the Lord’s message came to Jeremiah. The Lord of Heaven’s Armies God of Israel, told him, “Go and speak to the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem. Tell them, ‘I, the Lord, say: “You must learn a lesson from this about obeying what I say. Jonadab son of Rechab ordered his descendants not to drink wine. His orders have been carried out. To this day his descendants have drunk no wine because they have obeyed what their ancestor commanded them. But I have spoken to you over and over again, but you have not obeyed me. I sent all my servants the prophets to warn you over and over again. They said, ‘Every one of you, stop doing the evil things you have been doing and do what is right. Do not pay allegiance to other gods and worship them. Then you can continue to live in this land that I gave to you and your ancestors.’ But you did not pay any attention or listen to me. Yes, the descendants of Jonadab son of Rechab have carried out the orders that their ancestor gave them. But you people have not obeyed me! So I, the Lord, God of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, say: ‘I will soon bring on Judah and all the citizens of Jerusalem all the disaster that I threatened to bring on them. I will do this because I spoke to them but they did not listen. I called out to them but they did not answer.” ’ ” Then Jeremiah spoke to the Rechabite community, “The Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel says, ‘You have obeyed the orders of your ancestor Jonadab. You have followed all his instructions. You have done exactly as he commanded you.’ So the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says, ‘Jonadab son of Rechab will never lack a male descendant to serve me.’ ”
    Argumentation
    So these rechabites
    These are non-Jewish people who are living in Jerusalem
    Its important for you to know that theyre not Jewish
    Because that means that they are NOT followers of God
    And at one point in their history they had made an oath, they had made a promise that they were not going to drink wine, they were not going to build houses, they were not going to own crops or vineyards
    They had made a generational promise that they were going to live as nomads
    And none of these things, drinking wine, living in tents, not having crops, none of these are commands from god
    So why is God so impressed at these people? They’re not following the law of moses, theyre not in the covenant.
    They seem to have a completely different set of rules
    God commends them because regardless of whether or not their convictions are from God, theyre keeping their convictions.
    God has Jeremiah bring these people into the temple area and offer them wine, and theyre like thanks so much for your hospitality, but we’re going to have to refuse. Sorry, we kind of have a thing
    Illustration
    And the reason I made such a big deal about them being non-Jews
    Is because I think at a certain level the convictions you keep are important
    There are a lot of Christian’s today who practice things that I would look at and say “why are you doing that, thats not in the Bible at all”
    A lot of Christian’s celebrate Lent for example
    Where before Easter they give something up to show their dedication to God
    A lot of Christians practice fasting
    Where they wont eat on certain days
    Or they wont eat meat on certain days, as a show of their dedication to God
    And personally, my view point is, why are you doing that, its not in scripture
    However. I also lose a lot of respect for people who hold those convictions and then choose not to keep them
    in romans 14, Paul is talking about how there are some Christian’s who believe that they can eat any kind of food, and other Christian’s who believe they can only eat vegetables
    And Paul basically says, look i think that the lord has told us theres nothing wrong with eating meat
    However, if someone is convinced in his own mind that eating meat is sinful, then for him it IS sinful
    Romans 14:23 NET 2nd ed.
    But the man who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not do so from faith, and whatever is not from faith is sin.
    Application
    In other words, if you have a conviction, you need to keep that conviction
    If you have a conviction that the best way to serve god is by only reading the King James Bible
    And you believe that if you are reading another translation thats somehow dishonering god
    First of all, I’ll probably tell you why I think you’re wrong
    But also, if thats what youre convinced of, and I catch you reading the NIV, were going to have a talk
    if you have a conviction that the best way to to worship god is by not eating meat and I catch you with a slim Jim, we’re going to have problems.
    What are your convictions?
    Transition
    One or two sentences to smoothly shift to the next part
    Point
    Statement
    Faithful followers are willing to hear things they don’t like
    Explanation

    Jeremiah 36

    Jeremiah 36:1–26 NET 2nd ed.
    The Lord spoke to Jeremiah in the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was ruling over Judah: “Get a scroll. Write on it everything I have told you to say about Israel, Judah, and all the other nations since I began to speak to you in the reign of Josiah until now. Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about all the disaster I intend to bring on them, they will all stop doing the evil things they have been doing. If they do, I will forgive their sins and the wicked things they have done.” So Jeremiah summoned Baruch son of Neriah. Then, Baruch wrote down in a scroll all the Lord’s words that he had told to Jeremiah as they came from his mouth. Then Jeremiah told Baruch, “I am no longer allowed to go into the Lord’s temple. So you go there the next time all the people of Judah come in from their towns to fast in the Lord’s temple. Read out loud where all of them can hear you what I told you the Lord said, which you wrote in the scroll. Perhaps then they will ask the Lord for mercy and will all stop doing the evil things they have been doing. For the Lord has threatened to bring great anger and wrath against these people.” So Baruch son of Neriah did exactly what the prophet Jeremiah told him to do. He read what the Lord had said from the scroll in the temple of the Lord. All the people living in Jerusalem and all the people who came into Jerusalem from the towns of Judah observed a fast before the Lord. The fast took place in the ninth month of the fifth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was ruling over Judah. At that time Baruch went into the temple of the Lord. He stood in the entrance of the room of Gemariah the son of Shaphan who had been the royal secretary. That room was in the upper court near the entrance of the New Gate. There, where all the people could hear him, he read from the scroll what Jeremiah had said. Micaiah, who was the son of Gemariah and the grandson of Shaphan, heard Baruch read from the scroll everything the Lord had said. He went down to the chamber of the royal secretary in the king’s palace and found all the court officials in session there. Elishama the royal secretary, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Achbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the other officials were seated there. Micaiah told them everything he had heard Baruch read from the scroll in the hearing of the people. All the officials sent Jehudi, who was the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch. They ordered him to tell Baruch, “Come here and bring with you the scroll you read in the hearing of the people.” So Baruch son of Neriah went to them, carrying the scroll in his hand. They said to him, “Please sit down and read it to us.” So Baruch sat down and read it to them. When they had heard it all, they expressed their alarm to one another. Then they said to Baruch, “We must certainly give the king a report about everything you have read!” Then they asked Baruch, “How did you come to write all these words? Do they actually come from Jeremiah’s mouth?” Baruch answered, “Yes, they came from his own mouth. He dictated all these words to me and I wrote them down in ink on this scroll.” Then the officials said to Baruch, “You and Jeremiah must go and hide. You must not let anyone know where you are.” The officials put the scroll in the room of Elishama, the royal secretary, for safekeeping. Then they went to the court and reported everything to the king. The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll. He went and got it from the room of Elishama, the royal secretary. Then he himself read it to the king and all the officials who were standing around him. Since it was the ninth month of the year, the king was sitting in his winter quarters. A fire was burning in the firepot in front of him. As soon as Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king would cut them off with a penknife and throw them on the fire in the firepot. He kept doing so until the whole scroll was burned up in the fire. Neither he nor any of his attendants showed any alarm when they heard all that had been read. Nor did they tear their clothes to show any grief or sorrow. The king did not even listen to Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah, who had urged him not to burn the scroll. He also ordered Jerahmeel, who was one of the royal princes, Seraiah son of Azriel, and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest the scribe Baruch and the prophet Jeremiah. However, the Lord hid them.
    We know what was on that scroll, because from our best understanding, what was on that scroll was a lot of what we have been reading for the past 34 chapters
    it’s convicting stuff.
    It’s “turn back now or you’ll be destroyed” stuff
    And jehoiakim has so much contempt that he burns the scroll in the fire.
    Because the message he’s receiving isn’t easy to hear.
    Argumentation
    It’s easy to be faithful to God’s word, when the word is easy
    There’s a lot in this book that is easy to be faithful to
    The gospel literally means good news.
    This book IS good news
    Good news that God interacts with his people throughout history
    Good news that he sent his son
    To live a perfect life,
    This is good news.
    Being faithful is easy, when it’s easy.
    Illustration
    Illustration about Mom’s how wonderful it is and how easy it is to be a mom in the “easy” moments
    And how hard it is in the hard moments
    But you did it, and you do it, not because it’s easy. But because it’s worth it.
    Application
    That’s what Jehoiakim doesn’t understand
    He’s hearing the hard parts, but he’s so blinded by his own power and corruption that he can’t see the good
    And it breeds contempt
    When we read God’s word, there’s good news here, there’s also hard stuff
    There’s hard stuff in here that tells me I need to watch my sin
    I need to live a faithful life
    I need to aim my heart toward Christ and love people the way he did
    And that’s not always easy.
    Elaborate…
    Transition
    I want to be known as a faithful servant
    Someone who is faithful, even when it’s not convenient
    Someone who holds to my convictions, even when I’m tempted, even when someone takes me into the metaphorical temple room, and places the metaphorical wine in front of me
    Someone who is faithful not just when it’s easy. But when it’s hard.
    Conclusion
    God ends up getting so mad at jehoiakim that he goes to jeremiah and has jeremiah dictate the entire thing AGAIN
    to baruch, this time with even more.
    Presumably, the rest of the book here is the “even more” part
    We can’t be for certain, but most scholars think that the entire book up until this point was what was on the first scroll.
    And that the rest of what we’re getting is going to be the “even more” part.
    Think about this for a second, God comissioned Jeremiah to write down the messages he preached. This is the inspired word of God through the mouth of the prophet.
    And the king, in his contempt, destroys it. The only copy.
    In other words, this book that we’re reading, could have been lost to history.
    But it wasn’t. And god made sure of it.
    Why?
    We’ve been talking about our faithfulness, this whole time, but we need to recognize God’s faithfulness.
    Because when I fall short at being a good and faithful servant, God is always faithful.
    He was faithful to make sure that HIS word was transmitted correctly, even when the king tried to silence it.
    He was faithful to keep the promises he made to israel, and bring them out of babylon after 70 years
    Faithful to establish a new covenant
    Faithful to send his son
    Faithful to die on the cross
    And I thank God, that I am not ultimately judged by my ability to be a faithful servant.
    It’s something I strive toward. It’s something I think we should all strive toward every day
    But I thank God that I’m made righteous not by myself, but by Christ’s faithfulness.
    Close out, pray.

      • Romans 14:23GS-NETBIBLE

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