Johnny was gazing at his new baby brother, who lay squealing and crying in his crib. He asked his mom, "Has he come from heaven?" His mom replied, "Yes, dear." Johnny muttered, "No wonder they put him out!" Two little girls were comparing their bedtimes. The first one said, "I get to stay up until nine o’clock." The other girl said, "Really? I have to go to bed at eight o’clock. My mother is an hour meaner than yours." Brian had really acted up at church and as a punishment, his folks told him that he would have to eat his Sunday lunch by himself. His mom set up small table not far from the dinner table where the rest of the family sat. The dad asked, "Brian, would you be willing to pray for the meal?" Brian bowed his head and said, "Thank You, Lord, for preparing a table before me in the presence of my enemies." Kids are a challenge, but you know, kids are really a blast.

It’s great watching our kids grow up. It’s always a big deal when a baby takes his or her first steps. They teeter and totter and then fall upon their diapered bottom and they get up and try again. They use the coffee table for stability, leaving handprints and a sticky film on it until they get the nerve to let go. And, when they get the hang of this walking thing, they go "full tilt"—and life is never the same again. They head off to kindergarten and moms cry. They enter middle school and moms cry again…and get somewhat fearful. They turn sixteen and the state in its infinite wisdom, believes that they should be able to operate 4000 pound pieces of machinery on roadways. High school graduation, college or jobs…and eventually, they leave home.

With all of these milestones, we want our kids to become independent. We want them to be able to pave their own way and to make it on their own. We would like them to become viable, productive adults. So, we may attempt to motivate them by saying things like, "There’s no such thing as a free lunch" or "life is what you make of it." But…in teaching them to become INDEPENDENT from us, we want them to remain interdependent upon the family and check in with us from time to time. (And they probably will when they need money.) But, in the midst of this journey toward independence, we don’t want them to become independent from God.

We have an inborn desire to control our own lives. Our sinful, human nature pulls us in that direction. We do want to chart our own course and shape the events of our lives. But in our quest for autonomy, we may break ranks with God and go our own way.

There is a big difference between taking responsibility for our lives and trying to live independently from God. Jeremiah 17 describes two types of people in verses 5-8—the person who lives independently from God and the one who trusts God. Vs. 5-8 "Thus says the Lord: ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man & makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, & shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust in the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, & does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, & is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.’" Seven chapters earlier, Jeremiah declares (10:23--NIV) "I know, O Lord, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps."

Do you recall having an essay section in a test or examination in high school or college? Often, the teacher or "prof" would ask you to "compare and contrast" two or more things or ideas. That method works well with the four verses before us in Jeremiah 17. Let’s compare and contrast the differences between the independent man of verses 5 & 6 and the man who is dependent upon God in verses 7 & 8.

1. The Fixed State of the Two Men.

• From bondage to spiritual faith
• From spiritual faith to great courage;
• From courage to liberty;
• From liberty to complacency;
• From complacency to apathy;
• From apathy to dependency;
• From dependency back to bondage.

1. The Foundations of the Two Men.

What I want to point out is when anyone is totally dependent upon themselves, upon someone else, or upon a government or organization, they will soon implode from the burden of using up all their energy and resources to satisfy their level of need. They will become like the scrub bush described in Jer. 17:6. The independent man is described as a shrub in the desert. The prophet Isaiah describes our "flesh" in perishable terms in chapter 40:6-7 "A voice says, ‘Cry!’ And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’ All flesh is grass & all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass." Isaiah describes them further in verse 24: "Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth when he blows on them, & they wither, & the tempest carries them off like stubble."

On the flipside, our Jeremiah passage tells us that the person who is dependent upon God is like a "tree planted by water." While the desert shrub has shallow roots, the roots of this tree are deep. Verse 8 says that the tree "sends out its roots by the stream." That sending of roots is done with intensity and with great vigorous action. The desert shrub of the independent man appears to have no connection to the source of life, where the one who trusts in God is dynamically connected to the Source of life. Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4:13-14 "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

I’ve quoted Patrick Morley a few times recently. He’s a PCA author who wrote The Man in the Mirror and in it, he writes, "The turning point of our lives is when we stop seeking the God we want and start seeking the God who is." Author John White thinks current Americans have reduced God to meet their preconceived definition of God. He writes, "During the past half century, God has been trivialized, packaged for entertainment, presented as a sort of psychological panacea, a heavenly glue to keep happy families together, a celestial slot machine to respond to our whims, a formula for success, a fund raiser for pseudo-religious enterprises, a slick phrase for bumper stickers, and a sort of holy pie and ice cream." We need the God WHO IS, not necessarily the God that WE WANT.

Are you guilty this morning of attempting to "create" God to fit your wants and needs? Are you looking for a "Santa Claus God" who hands out goodies, or a "vending machine God" who dispenses packaged answers to your wants, or a "butler God" who waits upon you hand and foot? Or are you seeking the holy, sovereign God of Scripture who, through His grace and mercy, has stooped to redeem His creation by sending His one and only Son, Jesus Christ to earth? Are you a "desert shrub" this morning or a "tree" that is planted by the stream?

 

2. The Fruitfulness of the Two Men.

The Bible is filled with promises of God’s provision to His people—to those who completely trust Him. Psalm 91:9-11 "Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place—the Most High who is my refuge—no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways."

I want to issue a challenge to you this morning. Will you commit to become a tree of faith—the kind of tree that even when the dry periods strike, there is still a deep source of life within itself to make it to the harvest? Whether you are a "bush" or a "tree" goes back to who or what you are placing your dependence upon in this life. It all boils down to your relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

I have tried to show you today that there are only two places you can choose to live spiritually. Too many of us keep going from one to the other so much that you would think that we are snowbirds. One place is restricted to Christians while the other place is open to everyone else.

A man became lost in his travels and fell into a bed of quicksand. Confucius saw the man’s predicament and said, "It is evident that men should stay out of places such as this." Next, Buddha observed the situation and said, "Let that man’s plight be a lesson to rest of the world." Then Mohammed came bay and said to the sinking man, "It is the will of Allah." Finally Jesus saw the man and said, "Take my hand, beloved, for I will save you."

If you’re struggling in this arena of independence vs. dependence, it may be time to get out of the desert of self-dependency and stretch out your roots at the streams of living water. As verse 7 in our text declares, "Blessed is the man (or woman) who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord." Let’s pray.

Please visit us at our next worship service.

We offer "An Unchanging Word To A Changing World"

In Christ,
Bill Bratley - Pastor

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