One of Jeremiah’s key themes is that of tearing down and building up. In this passage the prophet Jeremiah seeks to tear down Israel’s inappropriate attraction to idols while building up their vision of God. God, unlike the useless idols of the world, is the unique, living, and eternal king who is worthy of Judah’s worship, as well as ours.

One of the great challenges of every age is understanding how we relate to and enjoy a relationship with the God of the universe. One of the most common responses to this desire is to be religious. Religion is an attempt to engage with and practice devotion to God. But is religion helpful in this pursuit? What is the way to engage with God? In Jeremiah 7 we get a strong warning about the dangers of being religious in pursuit, but being devoid of a relationship with God in practice. In this section of Scripture God gives us a strong warning about the folly of religiosity without a genuine relationship with him.

We live in a world that is full of despair. At a personal, community, and global level our world is full of hardship and difficulty. Our situation, of course, is nothing new. It is in a similar context that God called a prophet named Jeremiah to speak words of judgment and hope. In the opening of the book of Jeremiah we see God’s calling of the prophet and are reminded again, that no matter how difficult our circumstances God’s presence brings us confidence.

The end result of Philip’s preaching in Samaria is summarised in Acts 8:8 “So there was great joy in that city.” As we launch our Blacktown campus today this text challenges us to ask the question, “What will it take for MBM to bring great joy to Blacktown?”