Sermon Podcast - Round Rock Church of Christ

Although fear in the sense of frightened has a limited role in our relationship with God, a fuller application of fear is one of awe because of his majesty. The people in Jeremiah’s day lost that. Life at its best is lived in awe of God.

God has always had a soft spot in his heart for the poor and needy. Their treatment of those less fortunate showed that the people of Judah didn’t really get God. A life lived at its best shares God’s heart for those less fortunate.

We live in a society with competing “deities,” such as money, power, beauty. This sermon will point to the value of a life that has God in his rightful place, at the center.

There is a strong message of impending judgement and punishment in Jeremiah, but the purpose was to help God’s people live like God’s people.  The goal of this sermon will be to value obedience as an essential for living life at its best. We will never become so mature that obedience is unimportant. 

Within a culture so often dictated by the pursuit of power through strength, how do we make sense of God's insistence that power is made perfect through weakness?

Jeremiah seems like an unlikely source for a series on living a full life, as his was marked by mostly rejection and failure. Jeremiah was, after all, the Weeping Prophet. But what Jeremiah teaches us is the value of being faithful in whatever circumstances we find ourselves. We’re not giving up on God, because God’s not giving up on us.

Something within us loves to be right and hates to be wrong. But what if I was to tell you that when God proves us wrong, this wrongness is a gift. Through the story of Jesus healing on the sabbath, we come to see what it looks like for God to rightly and lovingly prove us wrong for the sake of healing.

The goal of the series is to inspire and equip us to fully embrace the life to which God has called us. This sermon will introduce Jeremiah and his reluctance to accept God’s call for his life. Will we dare to dream the dreams God has for us?

Just before Jesus went to the cross, he reassured his disciples that they would not be left alone. He told them that they would have an advocate, one who would help them know the truth as they lived through confusing circumstances.  That advocate is the Holy Spirit.

Satan is referred to in the Bible as the father of lies. He tries to deceive us into thinking things that will derail or limit our relationship with God. One of the roles assigned to the Holy Spirit is to come alongside us, and counter those lies with God’s truth. God is guiding us safely home through his Spirit.

One of the most valued blessings of the Holy Spirit being within us is that he knows our hearts. From that vantage point, he is able to convey to God all that we experience.  In our text today, Paul says that the Holy Spirit intercedes with us before God.

In a sense, the Holy Spirit is our interpreter with God. Because he is a part of God, he knows and participates in the will of God. So he is able to blend our needs with God’s will.