What will you do in the end? (Jeremiah 5: 27 -31)

       What will you do in the end? (Jeremiah 5: 27 -31)

²⁷ Like cages full of birds, their houses are full of deceit, they have become rich and powerful
²⁸  and have grown fat and sleek, Their evil deeds have no limit; they do not seek justice. They do not promote the case of the fatherless; they do not defend the just cause of the poor.
²⁹ Should I not punish them for this?” declares the Lord. “Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?

³⁰ “A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land:
³¹ The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority,
and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end?

Intro)

 

1. There is a word ‘anticlimax’, This means it start like a dragon, but at the end fail like a tail of snake. In other word, beginning is important, but ending is much more important. There are some people start their lives colorful, but die with shame. For example, chanson singer Édith Piaf who is famous worldwide once said his end of life was lonely, and depressing. There are many celebrities feel the same way. This is result of relying on person more than God, pleasure, and material.

 

2. Novelist Ernest Miller Hemingway who earned Nobel’s parents were faithful Christians, but their son couldn’t live as a Christian. Ernest Miller Hemingway ended up killing himself with pistol at the end. Richman Aristotle onassis’ death is also vain. His son dies from plane crash, soon he dies from illness.

 

Comedian in Korea, Ju il Lee was a comedian who were very entertaining and also admirable personnel, but unfortunately dies from lung cancer due to smoking and drinking.

 

Old Korean actress who had all kinds of fame named Hee la Kim usually smokes 3-4 packs, and drinks often. one day her bad habit caused her to suffer in cerebral infarction, his limbs got paralyzed, couldn’t talk, but with his wife’s care he recovered.

 

 

 

3. Byung Un, Yu who is accused to be the main reason for Sewol ferry’s sink, lived rich life with many different businesses by using false God’s word and deceiving others, but at the end of his life he was running away after people found out what he have done, and he ended up dying in the woods rotting with unrecognizable face. Even now I assume he will be suffering in hell from burning hell fire.

For us we need to always consider what should do at the end than beginning for everything, so tomorrow is important than today and afterlife is more important than current life we are living in. When end of our lives are good everything will be good.

 

 (Body)

A) Big question, what would you do at the end?

1. Jeremiah asked pontiff and people of Jerusalem “what will you do in the end?” and told them ^“A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land” actually there are kingdom and God’s sanctuary. Prophet and pontiff were in the sanctuary, and people had offerings to sacrifice, but at the end they were warned that they will be captured and taken to Babylon, but they didn’t believe it.

 

2. Jeremiah sighed and said “The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end?” Prophet supposed to teach commandments right, but they didn’t, and Prophet’s job was bring sheep as offering, but they miss used their power to rule people of God, but people had no other choose but to follow. What will you do at the end when you are in this situation? How you lived your previously does not matter, but how will you close the end is very important.

 

 3. In today’s text Jeremiah 5:1-4 says ““Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem, look around and consider, search through her squares.” Sodom and Gomorrah collapsed, because there were no 10 good men, but in era of Jeremiah, holy castle Jerusalem there was no single good person...how scary is it? People of Jerusalem swore ‘As surely as the Lord lives,’ still they are swearing falsely.” And this dishonored God’s name. People who should be most honest, but they had made false vow, which is most evil sin they have made. ³ Lord, do not your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain; you crushed them, but they refused correction. They made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent ⁴ I thought, “These are only the poor; they are foolish for they do not know the way of the Lord, the requirements of their God.

 

1. Consequences of Sin

 

1. Prophet gave false prophecy and priest ruled people with their power wrongly was swearing in something else, but God.

 

In Jeremiah 5:7 it says, “Why should I forgive you? Your children have forsaken me and sworn by gods that are not gods. I supplied all their needs yet they committed adultery and thronged to the houses of prostitutes. In Jeremiah 5 there are words saying people are unfaithful to God, which are in 6, 11, and 23.

 

 People of Judah didn’t worship God as their God. Today’s text 23, 24 says ‘²⁴ They do not say to themselves, ‘Let us fear the Lord our God, who gives autumn and spring rains in season, who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest.’²⁵ Your wrongdoings have kept these away;your sins have deprived you of good.’

 

2. In book of Jeremiah it shows how people leave God, and being unfaithful will end.  In verse 15 says “People of Israel,” declares the Lord, “I am bringing a distant nation against you—an ancient and enduring nation, a people whose language you do not know, whose speech you do not understand.” This mean they won’t be able to understand each other due to creation of different languages, soon there will be army of Babylon, and in B.C 586 country of Judah will fall.

 

C) meaning of leaving God today.

 

1. Today what have we done for God to say we have abandoned him? This means we listen to God’s word, but not moving it to action, so let’s look back our lives and think when we hear God’s word that we should follow, but we don’t in our daily basis, because this will leads to God’s saying “you have abandoned me.”

 

1. In book of Revelation God says to people of Laodicea church. “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”

 

Some foods is delicious when it’s in certain temperature, just like this metaphorically we have temperature in our soul. We have to passionate about our faith and towards God.

 

 

1. God have left King Saul, but he says Saul left him first, why God would say it like this? It’s because when God told King Saul to strike Amalek, God told King Saul to kill everything, but King Saul kept sheep and cow as souvenir. In 1 Kings 15:23 says “²³ As for all the other events of Asa’s reign, all his achievements, all he did and the cities he built, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? In his old age, however, his feet became diseased.”

 

Disobeying God’s word is ignoring God, and not moving it to action when God ask to do is leaving God. When people try to choose what is good for them and not and be disobedient, God will take them away from list to bless. 

 

1. When you ignore God’s word that’s ignoring God. King Saul left God and he left God as well, so he couldn’t get help from God and nor kept the peace and starting to collapse.

 

 King Saul could not handle his agony, so he called God, but he didn’t listen to him. He resigned his title as a King and left to find to see shaman to help him out. Saul left God and became a person who serves dead.

 

People of Judah who have been chosen by God, but disobeyed God, and they miserably failed. They were taken by Babylon and tortured, and killed over 70 years.

 

1. Even today God asks us “what will you do at the end?” Loving everyone how will it be? When you confront God what would you say?

 

2. If we are not there to listen God’s word, and turn back on faithful life and chase desire more what would God say? We should have something proud than shamefulness when we meet our God, so we should work harder to keep our faith and grow our passion about believing in God.

 2. If you think you can be happy when you concerns Holy Spirit within you, is the wrong answer. Satan is growling like a lion to shallow us, so don’t live your life with negligence.

 

Keep God’s word close, work hard to pray, get together, loving, and spreading gospel. Make God happy by obedient to his word. We do not have much time and don’t forget we have to confront God at the end.