1. Jeremiah: Watching the Lights Go Out in Jerusalem
Reading the Old Testament Prophets (Jeremiah-Malachi) 02

2. We can dislike what God is calling us to do.
Jeremiah 1:6 “Alas, Sovereign LORD,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”

3. We can dislike what God is calling us to do.
Jeremiah 7: Then the carcasses of this people will become food for the birds and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away. 34 I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, for the land will become desolate.

4. Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
Jeremiah 1:7-8 7 But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. 8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the LORD.

5. We can go backward, not forward, in our Christian journey.
Jeremiah 7: but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you. 24 But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.

6. We can go backward, not forward, in our Christian journey.
Jeremiah 7: but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you. 24 But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.

8. We can drift into idolatry – craving, wanting, enjoying, being satisfied by anything we treasure more than God.
Jeremiah 2: “But my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols. 12 Be appalled at this, you heavens, and shudder with great horror,” declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 2:13 “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”

9. Jeremiah 3:11 The LORD said to me, “Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah.”
Jeremiah 5:7 “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.”
Jeremiah 7:16 “So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you.”

10. We can drift into idolatry – craving, wanting, enjoying, being satisfied by anything we treasure more than God.

11. We can face increasingly harsher consequences for resisting God.
Jeremiah 15:6-7 6 “You have rejected me,” declares the LORD. “You keep on backsliding. So I will reach out and destroy you; I am tired of holding back I will bring bereavement and destruction on my people, for they have not changed their ways.

12. We can face increasingly harsher consequences for resisting God.
Jeremiah 32: Therefore this is what the LORD says: I am about to give this city into the hands of the Babylonians and to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who will capture it. 29 The Babylonians who are attacking this city will come in and set it on fire; they will burn it down, along with the houses where the people aroused my anger by burning incense on the roofs to Baal “The people of Israel and Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight from their youth ”

14. We can experience God’s promised restoration!
Jeremiah 30:3 The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will bring my people Israel and Judah back from captivity and restore them to the land I gave their ancestors to possess,’ says the LORD.”
Jeremiah 25:12 “But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt,” declares the LORD, “and will make it desolate forever.”
We can experience God’s promised restoration!

15. “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).