Chapel: Britt Merrick, Feb. 3, 2012

there are a few people that you're glad to have around when you're involved in the good fight and we all are and one man that I'm so grateful to be involved with in this this holy war that were involved in spiritually is brett merrick and Britt's one those guys you just want to be with if you've got a fight and and our fight is spiritual it's not we don't fight with human weapons we fight with the weapons that God gives us and I am so grateful for Britain Eric and for a reality Church it it's it's in Santa Barbara it's in Carpinteria it's in Ventura it's in San Francisco in Los Angeles it's in Stockton it's in London and it's going to be in Boston this spring and that's as a sign of God's favor and blessing on this work and I'm grateful for what the Lord is doing in reality and I'm grateful for Brett and his buddies I like these men Brett welcome to Westmont College we love you and we're eager to hear what you had to say to us thanks Ben I love you he such a lovable guy who doesn't love Ben and I love you guys I really do I really care about you in your school I pray for you guys a lot I've been praying for you a lot and I think the Lord has something to say to us so if you have a Bible with you open up to jeremiah 13 if you don't have your Bible that's okay I'll be reading but Jeremiah 13 Lord we ask that you would speak to us this morning you alone know our hearts and you alone God have the power to revive us you know where our hearts have grown dead and cold you know where our hearts are chasing after other and lesser affections you alone know how to capture us revive us enlighten us show us the glory of Christ and so we ask that you alone would do that this morning I humbly ask Lord that you would anoint everything I say for your purposes in your glory you know me Lord you know I am and I feel unworthy to stand in this place thank you for the cross and grace we ask that you would give us ears to hear what the Spirit has to say to Westmont pray it together in Jesus name Amen amen well recently a friend of mine was dating this girl that was just way out of his league you ever known a couple like this were you like see this guy in this grill and you're like how did you hook up with her like there is a God for sure and he loves men this was this is one of those situations like this guy she was so far out of his league it wasn't even funny she was so hot and so in love with Jesus and it was his way beyond him and so all of us his friends were like super stoked for him right we're like praise the Lord this is the best thing ever we don't know how happened it's a sovereign work of God because of his mercy in your life I don't know what it means for her but it's God's mercy for you and we were just stopped and then they got engaged and we're like yes surely the Lord is good and then they broke up and we his friends were devastated just crushed because though we didn't say it to him I don't think any of us have said it to him but we've all been thinking you'll never do better than that like the saddest situation in the world because we're thinking we're looking at immigrant did you only go downhill from here you will never do better than that we're not saying this to him but this is what we're thinking and so we're crushed we're sad we're worried for him honestly and in all humility and loving kindness I have the same worry and sadness for you the students at Westmont because so many of you are just playing games with God you've not fully given yourself to living for the glory of God you're living for the glory of you you're living for yourself your own passion your own pleasure and your own pursuits and though you are betrothed to Jesus you are in essence breaking up with them and you're lukewarm and he's ready to spew out of his mouth and I'm here not by my own accord to tell you that you will never do better than Jesus and the Holy Spirit has to convince you of that you would say that as some sort of confession you even saying that today with your lips but you're not yet convinced in your heart in your mind in your soul that you will never do better than Jesus yet plans you're hoping for and you're looking for all sorts of other things because you're yet to discover being satisfied in him and his love and you don't yet fully realize that when it comes to his love you don't deserve it but when it comes to his love you're in no way worthy of it you don't yet realize when it comes to the fact that God loves you that you are all together totally in and of yourself and in your sin undesirable God doesn't love you because of anything in you God loves you because of who he is and in your sin and your wickedness and your rebellion you are undesirable unworthy and undeserving before God and yet by Christ we're betrothed to him we're betrothed to the one who is the most worthy the most desirable the most deserving in all the universe the one who loves you with a mad everlasting love and I'm sad because many of you don't see it and all humility and love and kindness I'm worried you don't fully believe it that you will never do better in this life than Jesus in the Prophet Jeremiah had the same sort of sadness and worry and concern for the kingdoms of Judah in Israel and so he'd been calling them to repentance unwillingly not on his own accord sent by God he'd been calling Israel and Judah to repent to repent from their other affections competing affections lesser things that they were pursuing after rather than God and they weren't really listening to Jeremiah and and so God has Jeremiah do something interesting here in Jeremiah chapter 13 he gives him this sort of living parable with a loin cloth look what it says in verse 1 Jeremiah's speaking says this is what the Lord said to me going by a linen loin cloth and put it on but do not wash it that right there is a little bit creepy because a loin cloth in essence is like underwear they're like boxers like in the hot weather still today in areas in that region you could see men still wearing this it's basically chonies guts is going by and linen loincloth put it on and don't wash your chonies so by the way the loin cloth is a picture of y'all so I bought the loin cloth is the Lord directed me and I put it on then the Lord gave me another message take the linen loin cloth you are wearing and go to the Euphrates River hide it there in a hole in the rocks see how it's creepy take your knees off put him this little hole by the river so I wasn't hit it by the year for a days as the Lord had instructed me a long time afterward the Lord said to me go back to the afraid he's and get the loin cloth I told you to hide there so I went to the afraid he's and dug it out of the hole where I had hidden it but now it was rotting and falling apart the loin cloth was good for nothing then I received this message from the Lord this is what the Lord says this shows how I will rot away pride of Judah and Jerusalem these wicked people refuse to listen to me they stubbornly follow their own desires and worship other gods therefore they will become like this loin cloth good-for-nothing the loin cloth clings to a man's waist listen so I created Judah and Israel to cling to me says the Lord so I created Judah and Israel to cling to me says the Lord they were to be my people my pride my glory and honor to my name but they wouldn't listen to me verse 12 so tell them says Jeremiah tell them this is what the Lord the God of Israel says may all your jars be filled with wine and they'll reply greenly of course jars are made to be filled with wine this is a good word from the Lord then tell them no this is what the Lord means I will fill everyone in this land with drunkenness which in the profits is a symbol of judgment I'll judge everyone in this land from the king sitting on David's throne to the priests and the prophets right down to the common people of Jerusalem I will smash them against each other even parents against children says the Lord I will not let my pity or mercy or compassion keep me from destroying them Wow and then jeremiah says listen verse 15 and pay attention do not be arrogant for the lord has spoken give glory to the Lord your God before it is too late acknowledge him before he brings darkness upon you causing you to stumble and fall on the darkening mountains for then you will look for light you'll find only terrible darkness and gloom and if you still refuse to listen why the prophet Jeremiah says will weep alone because of your pride my eyes will overflow with tears because the Lord's flock will be led away into exile we will never do better than Jesus we were made to cling to him everything about us is made for him we were spoken into existence for his pleasure and we will never know true pleasure until we find all of it in him you will never do better than Jesus and we are fully undeserving of his love not worthy of it in any way in our sin we are undesirable in his eyes apart from Christ and yet through the cross we are brought to the most desirable worthy wonderful one in all of the universe who loves us with a mad unending always pursuing love but some of you find yourselves like Judah and Israel found themselves here in chapter 13 living for following after your own desires and I just want to say to you that as this loin cloth that was hidden in the rocks then pulled out by Jeremiah as it became good for nothing if that's the way that you live for the rest of your days your life will be good for nothing you'll come to the end of it all and we will have met nothing you'll always be unsatisfied you'll always be looking for that something and it will always be striving after the wind it will always come to nothing because you will never do better than Jesus you were made for him you were created to cling to him and you've been chosen for so much more than to live for nothing hear the words from Ephesians one which is even before he made the world God loved you and chose you in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes God decided in advance to adopt you into his own family by bringing you to himself through Jesus Christ that is what he wanted to do and it gave him great pleasure not because of who you are but because who he is God loves you before he ever spoke the world into existence he chose you in Christ and this adopting you through Christ and bringing to himself has given God great pleasure you're made for him and he rejoices over you in his love here the Prophet Zephaniah for the Lord your God is living among you he's a mighty Savior he will take delight in you with gladness with his love he will calm all your fears with his love he will come all your fears your fears will ever amount to anything will this ever be resolved will I ever get beyond this pain will my life ever count for anything will ever make up for that in his love he will come all your fears he will rejoice over you with joyful songs he loves us in a way that escapes any human description and any verbose attempt to speak of it can only be pictured in the cross of Jesus Christ he loves you in animal way and yet here we are living for ourselves we won't have it though were created to cling to him you see no I I don't I don't want to be the guy with this message I honestly planned other ones until I prayed but the Lord says you're not you're not clinging to him but your heart is consumed with so many other things having to do with you when you're looking for joy and meaning and satisfaction and pleasure in so many places but you'll never do better than Jesus and I have to tell you it's just not okay it's not okay God spoke to the whole world through Israel and Exodus 20 verse 5 when he said I the Lord your God am a jealous God and I will not tolerate your affection for other gods God wants you to hear this morning is he's jealous for you right now in this moment where you said God is jealous for you and because it was great loving because of his wisdom he will not tolerate your affection for any other gods and just as God said unless you turn and repent I'm going to judge Judah in Israel God will discipline us for our other false lesser affections whom the Lord loves he disciplines and let me say from experience the chastening of the Lord the discipline of the Lord that brings about tremendous good can be tremendously difficult and painful in our lives he does it because of love he does it perfectly but he doesn't he disciplines those whom he loves so again hear the voice of Jeremiah listen and pay attention verse 15 do not be arrogant for the Lord has spoken give glory to the Lord your God before it's too late acknowledge him before he brings darkness upon you the New Testament says God will not be mocked you will reap what you sow Dimas comes to mind about whom Paul said in second Timothy Dimas has deserted me because he loved the things of this life he was once on mission for God's glory involved in the things of the kingdom but he loved the things of this life am a jealous God I will not tolerate your affection for other gods he loved the things of this life what are you gonna do with your life what's your life going to be about what's your passion your purpose your glory where are you going to seek to find joy and pleasure and meaning you'll never find them without giving themselves fully to Christ but many of you are just playing games today it's not about him you're just going through the Christian motions think because you're at a Christian school that somehow God is impressed please I want to temper myself because I don't I don't want to strike the rock when I'm only supposed to speak to the rock don't don't let my tone dissuade you in any way of God's passionate pursuing love for you this morning please God don't let me get in the way of that he wants you and he's jealous for you in this moment and the things of this life that you love so much that you're clinging to that you're pursuing every other delight we'll only ever let you down you will never do better than Jesus think of the psalmist who said one thing I ask of the Lord the thing I seek most is to live in the house with Lord all the days of my life delighting in the Lord's perfections I don't know how to unpack that phrase delighting in the Lord's perfections I just know that the Lord has more for us than we're currently thinking then we need to be asking the Holy Spirit to read yield to us the glory and magnificence of Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit would revive our hearts to the fact that Jesus is more wonderful than anyone or anything else the Word of God is true and the psalmist is right when he speaks of delighting in the Lord's perfections but you feel justified in your waywardness listen to me brother listen to me sister Grace is not an excuse and feels oh you're the first one that's ever been tempted by the things of the world so you're going to be the first one to prove that they're worthy of our affection you have a sense of entitlement but you deserve nothing and you feel now so you're invincible and you don't sense your tremendous need for a savior this is not true of all of you but for many of your life just hasn't happened to you yet where will you turn when the horror and the results of your sins finally become clear to you when you're athletic gift is gone when your intellectual prowess is gone when your good looks are gone where will you turn when your career doesn't pan out and you never get to that tax bracket that your parents expected of you where would you turn when the tug of alcohol upon your body and mind and soul becomes so strong that you can't say no to it where will you turn when you wake up one morning you look at your spouse and you're no longer in love with them where will you turn when the pressure of family and kids and responsibilities becomes too much to whom or you turn when your daughter is diagnosed in cancer with cancer where will you turn and those nearest you abandon you where will you turn you will turn to Jesus and he will be there because he is not like us he will never leave us he will never forsake us he will never abandon us therefore he is always pursuing us but why not turn to him today why not in these moments on this morning turn to him why not hear the Holy Spirit say to your heart you will never do better than Jesus just stop now and surrender to his love we got a few minutes I'm going to ask the worship team to come up and sing that Brook Frazier song again if you guys would because we need just a few minutes to process and repent I want to read from the Prophet Joel Joel chapter 2 this is what the Lord says turn to me now while there's still time give me your hearts come with fasting weeping and mourning don't tear your clothes and grief so making some outward mere profession but tear your hearts instead return to the Lord your God for he's merciful and compassionate slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love he is eager to relent and not to punish guys I love you but the Lord loves you more than a new description and he's jealous for you and in these moments is a band sings let the Holy Spirit catch your heart up into repentance that will be turned to praise please know that repentance is not a bad word it's the most beautiful wort Peter said to the nation of Israel time of refreshing will come from being in the presence of the Lord as you repent Westmont we need to repent we need to be revived by the Spirit of God for the glory of God in this moment

Channel: Westmont College

Views: 7,188

Rating: 4.8222222 out of 5

Keywords: Westmont, Westmont Chapel, Britt Merrick

Id: FlndS8VBMPE

Length: 25min 41sec (1541 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 08 2012