What Do You Listen To?

10th Sunday after Pentecost, 8/14/22 Jeremiah 23:23-29 What Do You Listen To? I. What you want to hear? II. What the Lord says? Which news outlet do you most often listen to? I suppose that if I were to go up and down the rows of pews and ask each one of you for an answer to that question, I’d receive a few dozen answers. And that doesn’t surprise me. Your choice of news outlets reflects the fact that you are a unique individual. Your thoughts, attitudes, and opinions have been shaped by your experiences in life. And the older you are, the more sturdy (some would say “rigid”) those thoughts, attitudes, and opinions are. So, if you’re going to spend time listening to some news, you aren’t going to waste your time listening to a viewpoint with which you don’t agree. That only leads to increasing aggravation. You listen to news that reinforces your thoughts, attitudes, and opinions. Most people do the same thing. And that’s why what is true about what’s happening in our world might differ from person to person. That also occurs when it comes to spiritual truths. People tend to gravitate towards spiritual truths that reflect their thoughts, attitudes, and opinions about life in general and, specifically, about the way they want to live their lives. If you don’t like the spiritual message you’re hearing, find a different church or Google what you’re looking for, and you’ll find it. The same was true during the days when Jesus walked this earth. To be sure, there weren’t as many choices for spiritual messages as we have today, but numerous choices existed, nonetheless. There were the opinions of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Zealots. There were countless rabbis and experts in the law, and all of them were under the influence of one Jewish school of thought or another—some conservative, some more liberal. And much the same occurred during the days of the prophet Jeremiah, 600 years before Christ was born. Jeremiah was saying one thing; countless other prophets were saying something else. And the result was that the people gravitated towards the prophet whose message aligned with their thoughts, attitudes, and opinions about life. The problem is, there aren’t multiple narratives when it comes to spiritual truth. Spiritual truth comes from the only true God. Everything else is false, no matter how many people believe that it’s true. Through his prophet Jeremiah, the Lord gives us a choice about spiritual messages this morning. He asks, “What do you listen to?” Join me in hearing what he has to say to us, because his viewpoint is the only one that matters. I. Are you a football fan? If so, then you know that the high school, college, and pro football seasons are right around the corner. And right now, every team’s record is the same: 0-0. And the outlook of every team’s coach is the same: He feels really good about his team. He’s certain that his team has a good chance of winning it all. And that’s what you want to hear about your team. You don’t want to hear that your team won’t be very good this year, that it will likely spend the entire season at the bottom of the standings. No coach would say that about his team right now, even if it were true, because no fan would want to listen to it. If Jeremiah had been a football coach, he would have done just the opposite. He told the truth to his fellow Jews about the future, and the truth about their future couldn’t have been worse. So, just what was going on? Well, Jeremiah had begun his ministry when godly King Josiah was reigning. After 55 years of the evil reign of Manasseh, Josiah was a spiritual breath of fresh air. He carried out spiritual reforms in Judah, reforms that were in keeping with the will of God. But he had a fatal flaw, literally. In 609 BC, he succumbed to sinful pride when he marched out to fight the Egyptian army which was heading north to battle Babylon. The Egyptians crushed Judah and Josiah was mortally wounded. And that was the beginning of the end for Judah. The Egyptians were then crushed by the Babylonians, and, in 605 BC, the Babylonians won their first campaign against Jerusalem, and deported to Babylon the brightest and best Jews—young men such as Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The Babylonians would wage a second campaign in 597 BC, and a third and final campaign in 586 BC, when they completely destroyed Jerusalem. And all the while, godly Jeremiah was sharing God’s truth with his fellow Jews. He implored them to repent. He told them not to resist the Babylonians because they were God’s agent of judgment on his people for their wickedness and idolatry. He pleaded with them to turn to the Lord. But they refused. Instead, they trusted in themselves and their efforts to attain victory and success. And they had plenty of prophets around them who told them what they wanted to hear. Listen to what they Lord said about them, “I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds? They think the dreams they tell one another will make my people forget my name, just as their ancestors forgot my name through Baal worship.” These false prophets claimed to have received their messages via dreams from the Lord. On the basis of those dreams, the false prophets were telling the people, “Resist the Babylonians. All will be fine. Jeremiah is lying when he says that Jerusalem will be destroyed. How could such a thing happen? The Temple of God is here in Jerusalem. Prosperity and success are right around the corner. There’s no need to repent. Keep living as you have been and don’t let Jeremiah tell you that your sinful life fills God with anger.” Can you hear them? Indeed, you can, because it’s the same thing false prophets are preaching today. But if their message was false, why were the people listening to them? Because it’s what they wanted to hear. But what about you? What about me? What do you listen to? Is it what you want to hear, even if it’s not true? Perhaps you’re thinking, “But Pastor, you’ve got it wrong. All of us here this morning are God’s people who want to hear the truth. That’s why we’re here. We could be in some other church listening to some spiritual messages that are false, but we want to be here because we know we’re hearing the truth here.” Fair enough. But are there times when you don’t want to hear the truth? Are there times when you want to hear that God doesn’t mind if you’re lazy when it comes to your spiritual life? Are there times when you want to hear that God doesn’t mind taking second or third or fourth place in your life for the next few hours or days while you enjoy yourself, even if it’s sinful? Are there times when you want to hear that God is putting a smiley sticker next to your name on heaven’s refrigerator door because you’re not like other people, sinners that they are? You see, we might not be as sinfully crass in our choices of what to listen to as the people of Jeremiah’s day were, but we’re guilty just the same. II. If the people of Jeremiah’s day were wondering what they should be listening to, God wasted no time in letting them know. He states, “Let the prophet who has a dream recount the dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?” declares the LORD. “Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” False teachings about spiritual issues are straw. The spiritual dreams, thoughts, and feelings of people who don’t know what God says in his word are not only useless, they’re also spiritually harmful, and potentially deadly. God’s word is truth. It’s grain. It’s food for our souls. It’s powerful and effective. God likens his word to fire. In what way? It burns up what is false and purifies so that only the truth is left. It’s like a hammer. It pounds away at what is false, shatters spiritual lies to pieces, and leaves only the rock of his truth still standing. God wanted the truth of his word to rescue his people, not from the invading Babylonian army, but from the forces of hell. Like breathing carbon monoxide and not knowing it, his people were sucking in the deadly spiritual air of the false prophets who only encouraged them in their sinful ways and damning unbelief. In his eternal love for them, the Lord pleaded with them only to listen to his word, which is truth, divine truth, saving truth. He begs you and me, “Don’t listen to the world’s lies; listen only to what I say.” So, back to our question, “What do you listen to?” Is it what the Lord says? Is it only what the Lord says? If only it were that simple. But we know it isn’t easy. The assaults on the truth of God’s word bombard us daily. Our sinful world has never tolerated the truth of God’s word, and that’s become alarmingly apparent in our world today. If you are a Christian who takes a stance on God’s truth, you will be assaulted. Jesus told us to expect it. He didn’t come to bring peace, but division (Lk. 12:51). It’s always been that way. In fact, that struggle even occurs right here, inside you and me. Our sinful nature battles every truth of God. It screams for us to do as we sinfully please, to be as vengeful, selfish, arrogant, and immoral as we want. With all these false messages assaulting us within and without, what can we do? Listen to Jesus. He always and only listened to the truth of his heavenly Father. He knows the struggles we face to listen to his truth and how often we choose to listen to what is false. That’s why he listened to his Father’s plan of salvation which led him to sacrifice himself on the cross for you, for me. What we needed him to do most of all, he did for us, all of us. So now…what do you listen to? Listen to your Savior. He always tells you what is true, loving, and best for you. Amen.