From Broken Cisterns to the Fountain of Living Water

The indictment is where the rubber hits the road for us. This is where Jeremiah is a prophet for us, for me, and for you, for our time and our place, a mirror for us to peer into. It is the word of God for you and me. His words tumble down through the centuries and fall squarely in our ears. God's people, all people, even God's people, are tempted to forsake the fountain of living water and carve out cisterns that are cracked and that cannot and will not satisfy. [00:47:24] (34 seconds)  #JeremiahMirror

If we look for hope or peace or truth or life anywhere apart from the Lord, apart from Jesus, we are digging and carving out cisterns that are cracked and leaking, that can't hold water. It is a vain pursuit, a road that leads to hopelessness and despair and death. Anyone else been down that road besides me? Come on, you guys. I know you. We've all been down those roads. Amen? [00:49:49] (32 seconds)  #SeekJesusOnly

Even churches dig broken cisterns at times. All the while, the fountain of living water stands with open arms, ready to pour out hope and forgiveness and unity and truth and life. We're all guilty at times of digging cracked cisterns in one way or another, and we've been tempted away from the Lord. And we can easily get lost in self pursuits or fall into unhealthy habits or or self righteousness. [00:51:39] (23 seconds)  #EvenChurchesFall

Through Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. Jesus will fulfill it all. He will con he will accomplish the conditions of the old covenant, the law. He says, I didn't come to abolish the law, but to fill it. And through him, we are born again. We are born again. Given hearts of flesh not of sown, that's in Ezekiel coming up, reconciled and placed back into this intimate relationship with the father. We are made children of God as an utter gift and given living water, the holy spirit, to drink and to fill us. [00:55:30] (35 seconds)  #BornAgainLivingWater

They have turned and forsaken the fountain of living water, and then they've carved out for themselves things that are broken that can't hold water. You know what a cistern is? I don't know if people under the age of 60 know what a cistern is. People used to gather water from the rain off their farms and houses, and they had cisterns dug near that all of the downspouts ran into because it gave them water for toilets and for washing. It gave them for water in the house. [00:45:41] (33 seconds)  #CisternExplained

In Jeremiah's, we see God's plans of transformation, of a heart connection, of healing and reconciliation, his plan of salvation, a personal relationship with each of us, of unfolding where he will forgive our iniquity and remember our sins no more. The God who knows all things chooses to forget some things, your sins. How does this happen? How is gonna God gonna accomplish this new covenant? How will it be written on our hearts? [00:54:52] (37 seconds)  #ForgivenAndRestored

Jeremiah is a prophet in the Southern Kingdom Of Judah. Now you may remember that the kingdoms have been split. Right? Israel in the North has been conquered, already by the Assyrians. And so when when Jeremiah hits the scene as a priest and a prophet, the the kingdom in the of Israel in the North had had fallen a hundred years before to the Syrian army. So Jeremiah was a prophet in Jerusalem, the Southern Kingdom Of Judah, and we can see in the first lines of chapter one, [00:29:26] (27 seconds)  #JeremiahInJudah

and not only that, a number of other nations. It's interesting because when the Lord says, placed you over nations and kingdoms, he means that. And we see this in Jeremiah that Jeremiah pronounces judgment not only over the kingdom of Judah and God's people, but also over Egypt and Philistai and Moab and Edom and Ammon and Damascus and Hezor. And he uses Babylonians, the Babylonian empire, this pagan heathen nation, God uses them as his judgment over these nations. [00:33:40] (32 seconds)  #JudgmentOnNations