(Sermon by Pastor Michael D. Schultz 03/04/07)

INTRODUCTION:

King David was described as a man after God’s own heart.  Let’s expand on that this morning and talk about what a group of people would be like if they were a church after God’s own heart.

For several centuries, God’s people worshiped him at the tabernacle in Shiloh.  But the day came when the worship at Shiloh wasn’t really worship any more, and the church at Shiloh was destroyed.  In Jeremiah’s day the temple of Jerusalem had been standing for around 300 years.  Twenty-five years after this episode, Jerusalem and its temple church were destroyed.  The temple was rebuilt in Jerusalem and by Jesus’ time it had stood for another 500 years.  Forty years after Jesus went back to heaven, the church in Jerusalem was destroyed again.  Paul started a church in Ephesus in the 50’s A.D.  About fifty years later John wrote this in Revelation:   If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand (church) from its place.

See the point?  Thousands of places have had churches but not all of them have remained.  In Jeremiah’s day, the temple in Jerusalem was a church which bore God’s name but its people had no concern at all for God’s will.  So Jeremiah told them their church and their city were slated for destruction.  They wouldn’t remain.  In doing that Jeremiah also gives us information about what God wants churches to be all about.  Jeremiah 26 describes...

A Church After God’s Own Heart

A church after God’s own heart will have preachers who call for repentance and people who live in repentance.  The goal of this sermon is that we all see that this is what our church needs to be.

What do you think will be the more popular message on any given Sunday?  “Our church has been growing lately, offerings are up, and things are generally going well.”  OR  “God’s had it up to here with you and he’s as angry as he can be.”  A preacher named Jeremiah delivered the latter of those two messages, and it came nigh unto costing him his life.  So what is it that you want to hear?

How about a big new building fully paid for?  A congregational ministry that has everything from A to Z, something for everyone, including free 24 hour child care seven days a week.  How about a huge Lutheran school with a marching band, an award winning choir, and boys and girls sports teams that have accumulated more trophies than there is space to store them.  How about sermons that always give you a nice chuckle and a warm, fuzzy feeling inside?  And to top it all off – there’s always enough money in the treasury that there never has to be any preaching about offerings?

If all of that and more were a description of Sola Fide, I might see myself on a billboard in this city.  Sola Fide might become a big name kind of church.  People might even learn to pronounce it.

Or I could tell you that you’ve been wicked, that your hearts are filled with evil, that the Lord is fuming with rage, and that unless you change your ways you’re destined for destruction.  Then I could have the nerve to say that’s not what I say, that’s what God says.  And I could add that what you think of me for saying that doesn’t make a bit of difference; what matters is that you recognize that what you’re being told about your evil behavior is what God says, and that if he doesn’t see things change, you’re history.  What would you think about me and about this church then?  Would it make you angry to hear that?  Would you think, “There are plenty of churches in this town that I can go to without being preached at like that!”  Would you think, “That preacher has to go.  Either he’s going to go or I’m going to go.”  Would you think, “Some way, somehow, his voice needs to be silenced.”

A church after God’s own heart  will have preachers who call for repentance.  There are and there always will be preachers who will change or adapt to make as many people happy as they possibly can or preachers who will add or omit whatever it takes to grow the church as quickly as possible.  Include me in the mix when I tell you this: Don’t let a preacher like that in the doors and don’t you dare let him in this pulpit.

Why is it so important to have preachers who call for repentance?  Because God calls for repentance.  If we think that in this church we can be whoever we want and do whatever we want, if we think that we can just pay, pray and obey without bringing God a broken and contrite heart, he’s going to destroy us with such force that we’re not going to know what hit us.  Look at the churches of the centuries, churches which carried God’s name, but churches he destroyed because the people didn’t repent.

Can you see what this is all about?  The church isn’t an organization or a club where people come together in an effort to preserve and enlarge the institution.  The church of which Jesus is the head is a group of people who have repentant hearts.  I’m bringing you God’s call to repent and what you think of me for saying this isn’t the point.  The point is, “What does God think of you.”  He can see through you and he knows the motives behind all you do and all your secret thoughts.  That should make you shudder, shouldn’t it?

And yet, for everything that he sees in you, the Lord’s heart is still filled with love for you.  He wouldn’t be issuing the call to repent if he didn’t love you.  He wouldn’t invite you to confess your sins to him if he didn’t love you.  And he wouldn’t have placed all your sins on his dear Son and crushed him instead of you if he didn’t love you.

A church after God’s own heart will have people who live in repentance.  The section of history that you heard from Jeremiah today can be summarized very simply: No repentance and your church will come to ruin.  Repent and there will be no ruin.

For telling this to you, you can do with me whatever seems good and right to you.  The truth is, the Lord would have me share these words with you.  Your sins will be your ruin.  God will bring disaster down on your head because of them.  Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the LORD your God.  Then the LORD will relent and not bring the disaster he has pronounced against you.  Bring your evil actions and your evil self before the Lord Almighty and humble yourself before him.  Acknowledge your sins to him, all of them, known and unknown.  

Be assured of this: The Lord is the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness.  He doesn’t treat you as your sins deserve.  In love for you he chose to treat Jesus as your sins deserve.  Because Jesus, the Lamb of God, was slain, the Lord has forgiven your wickedness, rebellion and sin.  Because the slain Lamb of God rose from the dead, God’s books show no record of any wrong for you.  Your name has been written in the lamb’s book of life.

Be a church after God’s own heart.  Say in your heart, “What we’ve heard today is from the Lord our God.”  Believe with sincere sadness that your sins were like scarlet, but believe with great gladness that in Christ they are as white as snow. 

(Top Of Page)

(Back To Archive)

(Current Worship Page)