welcome back to the Daily Bible Podcast! And now, your hosts, Pastor PJ and Pastor Rod...

Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Howdy and hello, we are back into a, another new book. So I know yesterday we were in a whole book z aniah, but today we start another new book and it's another major profit this time, not a minor profit. So we did Isaiah. Not long ago. Finished up that one. Now we are in the book of Jeremiah, and so we're excited about that. But let's see, what day is today's Thursday as you're listening to this. And so hopefully your week is going well last week before school starts back up. And so soaking up that that sweet time with kiddos and everything before they get back, after going to school. But yeah, everything else is is pretty status quo around here. We're. Going right along. We had the, those projectors on Sunday, so hopefully you, you enjoyed those. That was something that we had long been wanting to get, but we didn't know how to make it work. And thanks to a few people in our church that gave some extra time and efforts and talents to zero things in, we're able to have those projectors up there on the curtains now. Should help line of sight issues and the texts be a little bit bigger on the screens, which should be an improvement for everybody. We're still trying to dial a few things in. I know the lighting was a little bit darker on Sunday and maybe even a little sleepy. But we're not quoting anybody or anything. No, I'm not quoting anyone. But we're still trying to dial some of that in to figure out how do we maintain the crisps of the projector, but also we don't wanna make it, pitch black in there. We want you to have your Bibles with you on Sunday mornings to be able to look at the text and follow along with us. And I know a lot of people. Lot of y'all still use your physical bibles in church on Sunday, which is great. Some of you have screens or tablets or devices that you bring also fine. But you could get a book light. I guess that's what I have here, that's what Pastor Rad is showing me since in your office. It's always so dark and romantic, some might say. That's what I go for. Yep. I always bring a book light from my Bible so I can know what I'm saying. I'm glad you and your Bible have your light. So lemme tell you what I've added to my prayer list and what have you added, which by the way, just really quick here, I've been using PrayerMate for time and eternity it feels like decades as my prayer app. They recently put out a beta that vastly improves their sync engine. Not that kind of beta. And now I can sync between all my devices with my prayer app, so I can update it on my computer using their iOS app, and then I can have it synchronized to my iPad and then have it synchronized to my iPhone. Oh, finally, I feel like I'm living in a whole new world. I thought they were already doing that. They attempted to do that, and it was really hit and miss. Gotcha. Andy, the developer knows that. So you see, finally they put out this beta that they feel really good about. Anyway, long story short, I've updated my prayer list specifically for our church since we have a great building. We're in a great area. It's in our target demographic, our target geographic area that is, so I'm updating it to now reflect the fact that we're hoping for a building. And the interesting thing is that we have to pray for a building that isn't so large, it doesn't make sense, but isn't so small that it's constricting. So I'm praying for the building that's the goldilock zone. It's just right, a 24 7 facility that fits us presently, but also leaves room for us to grow in the future. So if you wanna join me in praying for that would be a great thing. We love the projectors, we love the stage, we love everything that we're doing and enjoying at the Prosper FCA. But let's be honest, that is not the end game we'd like to see. A place that we can call our own. So pray with us about that. We'd love to see what God does. Yep. Yeah, that's a great thing to add to your prayer request. Yeah. I was reminded recently that we don't have, because we don't ask and so let's make sure that we are asking on that and we can trust the Lord with the working out of the details on that. That's right. Let's jump into Jeremiah. Jeremiah one through three. Today as we get in here. Jeremiah is unique because he is a priest prophet, so he's both, and he has a scribe that he uses called Baruch. And Baruch seems to be the one that's writing down the message here. He's gonna be, we're gonna find out a persecuted prophet. And so the people are not gonna what he has to say. And not only are they not gonna listen to him like with Isaiah, but now they're gonna. They're gonna go further. He's gonna suffer physical persecution, harm for his message, and he's going to prophesy during the reign of three different kings. You've got Josiah, Jo, Hoya, Kim and Zakiah. So he's timeframe here is about 6 27 BC all the way through the fall of j Jerusalem, the fall of Judah. 5 86 bc give or take. His contemporaries, some of them are gonna be Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. All of them Ezekiel and Daniel towards the end of his time there. But prophesying around the same setting here. And the setting is what we've been reading recently at the end of second Kings and second Chronicles is what we'll get into more even after Josiah. Is that the kings and their failures and their attempts to escape God's impending judgment and Jeremiah's there the whole time kind of saying, Hey, this is not gonna work. God's judgment is coming. And so in chapter one, he's called and commissioned he's set apart by God uniquely even. From the womb, it says in verse five, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you before you were born, I consecrated you Before you were born I appointed you a prophet to the nation. So even before birth, he was known consecrated and appointed. We're gonna be talking this week about, on Sunday morning about the doctrine of election. And here you see an Old Testament allusion to that or. Version of that, and it operated differently. I think during this old covenant, during the Mosaic covenant, but here God was saying of Jeremiah, even before he was born, I've got a purpose for you and I'm gonna use you for that purpose. And so the rest of chapter one is that call and that commission for. Jeremiah to go and be used by God. It's an interesting language that he uses when he speaks about God choosing him while he was still in the womb. Does this have any ramifications or any implications for those of us who would consider ourselves part of the pro-life movement? Absolutely. Yeah. This is a reminder that these lives are gods from the very outset. And so even before, Jeremiah can understand or hear or understand the words, audible words spoken to him, he's. God's sign sealed and delivered him over for the role that he has to play. And so this is not God saying once you become a, once your fetus stage reaches this level, then I consider you to be viable. And then I'll tell you what I have planned for you. Or once you're born and once you're out in the open air, then you'll be viable and I'll be able to tell you what I have for you. Or once you can take care of yourself, then you're viable. And I can tell you what I have for you. Now, this is back in his mother's womb. God is saying I've got a plan and I'm. Purposing something for you specifically. So 100%. This does fit in line and fall in line with our view of being pro-life. You just mentioned election. Would you change your opinion at all if the, this wasn't an elect child? No e everybody has value. Every life has value and it's not ours to decide the beginning or the terminus of a life. That is an act of God. If you talk to any couple that has battled infertility, they will be ready to tell you we can't control. The beginning of a life. There are certain things that can be done on a husband and wife's part to, to do that, but that's God. That's his him, his timing, his and just as we can't decide the beginning, it's not on us to be able to decide the end. It's murder, right? Just like we can't kill somebody outside the womb because it's not our right to take anybody else's life. We can't kill somebody inside the womb because that is a life that God has created and it's not our right or prerogative to be able to end that life. Can you add some more clarification and. Specification, be specific about the end of life issue. Thank you for clarifying the beginning of life. We're in a hundred percent agreement. Talk more about the end of life then, when there are questions about whether to sustain a life with a machine or whether there's, little to no brain activity for a certain person. How does a Christian navigate those issues? Because yeah we're talking about beginning of life issues, right? But what about when you're near the end? And it's hard to know if a peer person would even remain alive if it were not. For some of the medical technologies that we have, are we obligated to use medical technologies to further life? At the end of life. And that's where, God has number one. First, let me say that is an insanely difficult position for anyone to be in, to have especially a loved one in a position where they are being sustained by machines and you have power of attorney and it's on you to decide when to unplug the machines. Thankfully God has given us. Get your pastors involved. Yeah. Get your pastors involved. A hundred percent in that. We wanna walk through situations like that with you. God has given us doctors, he's given us, he's given us science. He's given us the ability to look at different things like brain activity, things like that, to be able to determine, okay. Is this something where, if. Unplugged this machine that this person would end up dying. There's nothing left. There's no viable signs of life left. We have to be sure that we aren't bringing about death, that we aren't changing anything circumstantially about a person's life from the outside that is, is causing them to, to fall into a degraded state that would end up causing them to die. And I separated that out from, if you unplug a, for example, a breathing machine and that breathing machine is no longer gonna move the lungs for them. You are not actively. Executing that person because that person can't sustain that life on their own anymore. And so I know this is confusing the way I'm describing it 'cause it, it's probably not as clear as I'm meaning it for it to be. There's a difference between that and suffocating somebody, is what I'm trying to say. Sure. So whether you're actively participating in their death or whether you're passively letting it happen, is that what you're getting at? What about if it's a food issue? If they're being fed through a tube and you cease the tube feeding because they can't chew and swallow for themselves. That would be in some ways, participating in it. And yet you're not, it gets more tricky. It's with some of those questions. How do you feel about that there? I think a lot of it comes down to the cognitive awareness. I think if you see somebody that is able to, even in a state where maybe they can't talk, if they can respond if you talk to them and say, Hey, squeeze my hand, and they squeeze your hand. I think you're dealing with somebody whose brain activity is still there. Yeah. You're dealing with it. That life is still present there. That soul is still there with within the body. I think when you get into a state, when a person's truly in a vegetative state where there's no response they're not responding to you at all, that they're not showing any sort of brain activity to physical stimuli either, running a pin up the foot or something like that, that they'll often do. There's nothing there, and yet you're feeding them on a feeding tube and you're keeping the breathing machine going. I think at that point you realize, okay. This is us sustaining a life that God has. Already taken away. I don't think it's necessarily wrong. I wouldn't say, Hey, you need to stop this. I don't know that I would get to that point, but I also don't know that I would look at a family who's decided we're gonna let them go and go to be with Jesus and say that you're doing something that's wrong by doing that either. Yeah, this gets really challenging really quickly for sure. 'cause there are so many different layers of questions that we're asking a hundred percent stewardship, responsibility, ethical responsibility. What is our role and how do we interact with this? And part of this is a blessing that we have so many advanced technologies that give us insight that we've never had before. On the other side of this, we're on holy ground. We're interacting in an area that usually, and for most of human history, this has been God's domain. Yep. It's only up until the last 100 years. And even closer than that, when we started getting into functional magnetic resonant resonance, we talked about the prick test on the foot. We could do that and as possible that nothing registers on the. On the scale, but inside there's still something happening. There's so much about the human body and the human mind that we still don't know, right? We just have to confess ignorance. So we would suggest that in all these things, you're prayerfully pursuing this with your pastors in tow with obviously, there's so many other questions with your doctors getting their medical advice and input and then tread carefully and tread faithfully before the Lord as you make these decisions. Yeah. One thing we know to be sure 100% is. We've seen a lot of, they call it made MAID medical assistance and dying, and that's on the rise that we would say a hundred percent is out of bounds for a believer. That is not ours to participate in for us as individuals to say of ourselves. Yeah, I want that. Or to say for somebody that we love, yeah, we're okay with them doing that. Either we need to speak out against that because that is. That is taking a life before God is de deemed, that's time to take that life. It's called suicide. Exactly. And the Bible frowns on that. Exactly. God frowns on that more specifically. Yeah. Because life is a gift and even though it's a hard gift sometimes sometimes there's a dark providence. But he's given it to you for good. He will glorify himself through it. And he will do good in your life if you allow him to. Yeah. Yeah. Jeremiah receives a little bit of a commission similar to Isaiah's except a little bit more intensely. In verse 18, he says, I God says this. I behold, I this day make you a fortified city and iron pillar, bronze walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, it's officials, it's priests, and the people of the land. They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you. For I am with you, declares the Lord to deliver you that's the commission that Jeremiah receives. Not much better than Isaiah's, and with, in fact, probably worse 'cause Isaiah was told, Hey, go and talk to them. They're just not gonna listen to you, and they're not gonna see what you have to say for Jeremiah. He's saying they're gonna fight against you. This is going to get they the opposition's gonna be pretty intense, but I'm gonna be with you to to, to protect you and to preserve you through all of this. That's where he goes in chapter two is this first message. The word of the Lord came to me saying, go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem. So we're talking to the southern nation, we're talking to the southern kingdoms. This is what God says. And so this is the announcement of his impending wrath. God asks a rhetorical question in verse four, what wrong did your fathers find in me? That they went far from me and went after worthless in things and became worthless? God's saying, can you point out my fault, my failure? And that's why I say it's rhetorical because there is no fault or failure with God, the fault or failure. Was with the people, not with the Lord. He indicts the priests, the religious leaders. In verse eight, the priest did not say, where's the Lord? Those who handle the law did not know me. The shepherds transgressed against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit. And so again, God is calling them out. And then the absurdity of it all in verse 11, has a nation changed its Gods, even though they are no gods at all. But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. And then the main indictment here in verse 13, for my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me the foun of living waters. And hued out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. They've rejected Yahweh, in other words, and turned to faults. Gods turned to things that will never satisfy, nor can they ever deliver. And Jeremiah's opening messages is pretty direct and pretty confrontational here from the word go. This is not an easing into anything here. Look across the page at verse 19. He says of the people here, he says, your evil will chastise you. Your apostasy will approve you or reprove you, not approve. You, reprove you. No one. See that it's evil and bitter for you to forsake the Lord your God. And then here's another layer to this. The fear of me is not in you declares the Lord of host. And so not only have they. Rejected God and gone after idols. But underlying that is the fact that they don't fear the Lord. And we talked about that a little bit in Zephaniah. They thought the Lord was complacent. God's not gonna do anything. You brought up second Peter three. When they say, where's the promise of his coming? Similar here there's no fear of Yahweh. He's not, he doesn't care if I forsake him and go after broken cisterns that can hold no water. And yet the reality, God does care. He's compares the vineyard, again a familiar metaphor. In verse 21, similar to Isaiah five, he says, I planted you a choice vine, holy, pure seed, but you've turned, degenerate and become a wild vine. Similar again to Isaiah five when they produced wild grapes instead of the good grapes. And so in the end, God is gonna say in chapter two, Hey, let your gods. Deliver you, you've turned your back to me. Hey, where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise. This is verse 28. If they can save you for as many as your cities are, your gods owe. Judah, my people, verse 32, have forgotten me days without number. And so God is coming out double barreled here against the people of Judah here and confronting them specifically on the rejection of him and their turning to the idols. And I guess it's always a helpful reminder for us to recognize that idolatry never satisfies. We always talk about the fact that idolatry does look different today than it did yesterday, but it's still the same kind of heart sin. And ultimately, what it looks like is us replacing God with something else, something lesser, because there's nothing higher than God. I love the words that Jeremiah utilizes. It's just as relevant for us today as it was yesterday. We don't wanna forsake the fountain of living waters. God himself is the fountain from which we derive thirst, quenching joy and gladness, thirst satisfying. Fullness. I can't think of a better way to put this. I'm just trying to, I'm reaching for all my vocabulary here, and yet so often we go to so many lesser things, and I'm glad that you're reading your Bible today. I'm glad that you're spending time here because this is the Fountain of Living waters. The Bible directs us to Christ. You just talked about the vine analogy. Jesus says, I am the v. And when you're connected to me, you produce great fruit, and that takes time. That takes time. Producing fruit is not an automatic process. Finding your thirst satisfied and quenched doesn't happen. The moment you put your lips to the water, it takes sometimes a few seconds to finally say, yeah, my, my thirst is being quenched. My, my hunger is satisfied. This is where it's at, guys. This is so often what we get wrong. We overcomplicate it, we make it more difficult than we need to. Jeremiah chapter two reminds us that there are so many different options and avenues for us. The world's gonna present us different ways to satisfy our flesh, but the only thing that satisfies us is actually internal. And that's what God offers through Christ by the power of His spirit. So it's a good thing. You're in your Bible. This is how God feeds us. This is how God satisfies us. Stay at it. It is worth it. In chapter three, he continues from where he left off in, in chapter two, and he confronts their unrepentant or their lack of repentance in chapter three, their false repentance. Verse one, towards the end, you have played the immoral woman with many lovers, and would you return to me declares the Lord? In other words, you think you can come back here and you can come back and just give me lip service and everything's gonna be okay? And we know it's a lack of repentance because in verse three, therefore the showers have been withheld. The spring rain has not come yet. You have the forehead of. An immoral woman and you refuse to be ashamed. And so he's confronting them in their shame and saying, you don't even know enough to be ashamed. You don't sense your sin enough to feel that you have done something wrong and stupid, and chasing after these idols and these faults of gods who can't do anything and can't save you. But I mentioned I believe yesterday Jeremiah is a book where God does hold out some hope still to the stubborn nation for the remnant, and that's where he turns in the rest of chapter three during the time of King Josiah. So again we talked about when did this take place because. Where does it fit in all of this negativity, similar to the negativity in Josiah too. But he's going to call to her and he's going to say initially, Hey, you didn't learn from what you saw happen in Jerusalem. In fact, you've sinned even greater than those in Jerusalem or in Israel. Rather, you didn't learn from what you saw in Israel. You've sinned even more greatly than they did because you didn't learn the lesson from them. But still come back to me. Come back to me, and that's the call and the promises beginning in verse 15, that God would restore the people. And this is looking forward, anticipating, I believe, the millennial kingdom here. Again, I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. Remember back in chapter one, that was one of the indictments. God had the shepherds were not shepherding them, not leading them the way they should. And looking verse 17, and at that time in Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord in all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem. So again I think this is another reference where we could see how the Messiah is going to be divine. But to your point too, this could just be an illusion. Like he used to talk about his named dwelling in the temple with the people in Israel. But we know because this is talking about the millennial kingdom, that this is the Messiah, that this is gonna be Jesus sitting on the throne and that Jesus. Is one with the father, he's one with Yahweh. And so he's able to claim that name, that divine title as well. And so in, in chapter three he's calling for them for repentance. And yet unfortunately it's not gonna go well. They're not gonna heed this at this time. There's a faithful remnant that will but by and large not the people as a whole will not heed the call to repent. Sad as it seems. Yeah. Yeah. Anything else on, on chapter three? Isn't it amazing that the fact that they were so obstinate, we can always look at them and I struggle with this. I see them like, what are you guys doing? Why do you do this? Why are there are so many things wrong with you? What is wrong with you? I have to remember, and maybe you need this reminder too, you as an audience, not you as a new No, I do too. Yeah, no, for sure. You probably need it too. Yeah. We are products of grace. Yeah. What we see by God's grace, our obedience is a work of God's grace. Our understanding, if we have more understanding than the next Christian, that's a work of God's grace. And every time we see the failures of Israel, it is a reminder to us that you're not a big hotshot. This is you, Israel, is you. Israel went astray. Not because they didn't have sufficient knowledge, not because they didn't have the blessings. Romans chapter two tells us that they were the recipients of those blessings. They had everything, and yet they toss it aside in part because they did not have something that you and I now have. Under the new covenant, which is of course God's grace, but manifest by the Son through his spirit, we now have the spirit of God residing in us. Just like the temple pointed to the spirit's dwelling with us. We now get to enjoy the fact that the Spirit is with us. He propels us forward. He moves us into a closer relationship with him. He's the one that sustains us. So every time you see their failures and you think ts, tsk. Why couldn't you be as good as I am? Remember, you are a product of God's grace. Everything about you is him working for your good. Everything. There's nothing good that you enjoy. That is not him, the degree that you earned. He did that through you, the family that you have with the discipline, kids that you have. He did that. Through you all the good. The car that you drive, he gave that to you. Everything's a matter of God's grace. So don't forget that as you read through this, maybe thank God for the fact that you have what you have. Maybe not in a boastful way, but to recognize, man, I'm a product of God's grace and I should thank him for that. There's that song, what is it? Citizens, kids of Grace. Oh yeah. Yeah. I think that's a, I think that's Lewis. Are Zuma's favorite song? Is it I one of favorite songs? Yeah. Favorite song right there. Hey, let's pray and then we'll be done with this episode. God we thank you for that rich reality that we are children of grace, sons and daughters of grace, and we pray for humility in keeping with that, that we would remember that. And Lord, I'm even reminded of. Times that things can look so simple. And the reminder of second Corinthians chapter four, which says, the God of this world has blinded the eyes of the lost to keep them from seeing the light of the glory of Christ in. If we think that we stumbled upon that in our own wisdom, then we're fooling ourselves. It's simply a work of you in our lives to remove that veil so that we could see. And we are eternally grateful to you for that. And we pray that you would cause that to be true of more people. And use us to be the mouthpiece, the messengers, to proclaim that truth that more might come to faith as well. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Keeper in your Bible. Tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. See you.

Well, thank you for listening to another episode of the Daily Bible Podcast, folks! We're honored to have you join us. This is a ministry of Compass Bible Church in north Texas. You can find out more information about our Church at compassntx.org or, learn more about Pastor PJ by going to BestPastorEver.com. We would love for you to leave a review, to rate, or to share this podcast on whatever platform you're listening on, and we hope to see you again tomorrow for another episode of the Daily Bible Podcast. Yeehaw!

Yeah. I would agree with everything that you said