Purge

(Poem that accomponies my sermon Gideon's Purge from Judges 6-7)

I think I heard the Lord say “purge”

To cleanse, remove, deny the urge...

To allow my light & this world's sin to merge

Sin says "you’ve been good & deserve to splurge"

Sin goes on to say "God’s too good to scourge"

"Shoot if you fall, you’ll emerge..."

"This is America, respect the urge."

I think I heard the Lord say verge

Of where wisdom and power and revival emerge

Of when God’s word & love & will converge

Baptizing us in the Spirit’s surge

Filling us with love’s overwhelming gurge

Till God’s ways and my ways soon diverge

To live like this, Lord, I’ll need your “curge”

‘Cause I know I heard the Lord say to purge.

©Alexander Gee Jr 2011

I Will Be You God and You Will Be My People (Sermon)

Sermon: I Will Be Your God and You Will Be My People

Character is the ability to follow through on a resolution long after the emotion with which it was made has passed.

(Brian Tracy)

Jeremiah 31:31-34

31 "The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to ^[d^] them, ^[e^] " declares the LORD. 33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

Recap: God frees Israel from Egyptian Bondage in order to given them liberty and a relationship with a real God.

• Following God Almighty whole-heartedly requires a total break for former gods
• fear, comfort, selfishness, greed, hatred

• God’s presence was revealed...God’s character is taught (they didn’t know God)

• A full-break with the old god is required in order to clearly see God Almighty

• Israel needed to be retrained (spiritually, attitudinally, emotionally) before they could handle the Promised Land.

• God is certainly with the destitute...but at some point, God expects the destitute to have a hand in bringing other broken people to God.

Today: We fast forward to Jeremiah: (Jere 31:31-34)

• He prophesies because Israel forgot or ignored what happened in Egypt, Sinai and Canaan

• He prophesied that Jerusalem should surrender to Babylonian powers

• He further prophesies of a New Covenant and points to Calvary

Where I want to end up:

• Israel often felt like an orphan, a nomad or an refugee.... Neither had roots or stability!

• God offered them a promise to be their God and they’s be the people of God
• Become a people was dependent upon having a leader (God)

• God wants to renew our minds and give us new character that will beckon his continued presence in, and pleasure with, our lives.

Questions:

• Do you find yourself feeling alienated from the plan of God and the center of that will?

• As a believer, Is God an after thought in your life?

• How is the New Covenant working for you?

• How do you follow the presence of God to a place where the Holy Spirit can begin to write the truths of God into the fiber of your being?

• The Lord God Almighty is willing to be your God...are you willing to be God’s People?

Challenge:

• When we fail to pursue the God Who is pursuing us; we find that we have fallen prey to a lesser god that has been desiring to pursue us in order to devour us.

• It’s is God’s character that ushers the Presence of God into our midst