Jeremiah 31
Herald the New Covenant!
In Jeremiah 31:31-33, the prophet heralded the New Covenant between God and His people:
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
What makes the New Covenant different is that it was to be written on the hearts of the people. When God gave the Mosaic Law, He wrote it upon stone tablets. This time He was going to do it differently. When God gave the Abrahamic Covenant, He commanded all the men to be physically circumcised as a sign of the covenant. This time He was going to do it differently. The Holy Spirit would circumcise their hearts, causing them to be sensitive to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, the One who seals the New Covenant by establishing God’s rule from within their hearts, leading them into His rest. Different from King David’s kingdom, it was no longer a nation to be ruled, because Jesus’ Kingdom transcends all geographical boundaries and human constructs. And His banner over us is love!
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
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Jeremiah 30
Persevere in Discipline!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, April 24.
The parent takes a deep breath, saying to her teenage child as she grounds him, “Trust me, one day you will thank me for this and understand that what I am doing is for your good.” Loving parents must discipline their children, to help them reach their full potential. Truly, it is for their good, but that’s a difficult concept for children to comprehend. Solomon taught a key principle of discipline in Proverbs 19:18, “Discipline your son while there is hope, and do not desire his death.” Discipline is an activity of hope and not one of despair.
In the same way that loving parents are exhorted to discipline their children, God, our Heavenly Father, desires to lead us into His life and not punish us unto our deaths. But, to give us life we must face the consequences of our sin, so that we don’t continually return to our folly (Proverbs 26:11). In Jeremiah 30:24, the prophet proclaimed God’s perseverance to discipline Judah as a loving parent, “The fierce anger of the Lord will not turn back until He has performed and until He has accomplished the intent of His heart; in the latter days you will understand this.” Because there was still hope for their return, God disciplined them.
By God’s grace, the same is true for us today. Jesus came to restore us into a right relationship with the Father by dealing with the sin issue that keeps us separated from Him, but we can’t ignore the chastising of the Spirit regarding our sin. We must be mature adults, responding to God’s loving discipline and no longer quenching the work of the Spirit when He convicts us of our need to repent from sin, so that, we may share in His holiness (John 16:7-15; Ephesians 4:30).
Seize the moment and persevere in discipline, trusting that those who do will bear the good fruit of maturity in Christ (Hebrews 12:7-11)
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
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Jeremiah 29
Hold on to the Promise!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, April 23.
The Lord has good plans for your life; in fact, Jeremiah 29:11 promises, “‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.’” This is one of the greatest promises of the Bible, but it must be read in its historical context if we are going to have the faith to hold on to God through our darkest days. It was given at a time when most of the people wanted God’s messenger locked up and shut up. Interestingly, this significant promise is bookended by the punishment of two false prophets for contradicting Jeremiah – Hananiah (Jeremiah 28:15-17) and Shemaiah (Jeremiah 29:30-32). During international turmoil, national division, cultural decay, and religious bankruptcy, God did not forsake His people. Quite the opposite, in Jeremiah 29:5-11, He sent His promise to the exiles in Babylon to give them hope, but also with the expectation that they would return to covenant faithfulness:
“‘Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.’ … For thus says the Lord, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
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The Call to the Great Community 2
Lesson #2:
The Church is One in Christ!
Our new sermon series, “The Call to the Great Community,” is a series of discipleship teachings about the body of Christ and our call to be fellow members of the body of Christ. This is an important call to answer for us individually and corporately for the sake of the mission of Jesus Christ (why He came!) for the glory of God. You have a purpose for belonging!
The big idea from the first teaching last week was that the church is God’s idea; not mine nor yours! From the Scriptures, we learned that the church is the Body of Christ because we exist for the mission of Jesus to the glory of God. The mission of Jesus is the great rescue mission; He came from Heaven to Earth to show us the way to the Father; this has always been God’s Plan A; therefore, the church exists for the mission – to make Jesus known and to continue His mission, as His body for the glory of God. We have a purpose for belonging!
Finally, last week you were invited to find unity with your fellow member by participating in the 150-day Pray the Psalms Discipleship Challenge. Today is Day #7, which means we are praying through Psalm 7. I pray you are finding it meaningful to do this just as you found it meaningful to read through the New Testament together. Belonging doesn’t happen by accident!
Today’s big idea: The Church is One in Christ!
Romans 12:4-5, “For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”
+ How can we demonstrate our unity within our diverse functionality?
Ephesians 4:1-6, “Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.”
+ How should we treat one another to preserve the unity of the Spirit?
John 17:20-26, “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
+ How do we pray for one another to see the fulfillment of John 17 in us?
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Jeremiah 27
Take the Yoke upon You!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, April 19.
Jesus compassionately invited all who are weary and heavy-laden, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). Just like Jesus transformed the Roman cross into a redemptive image of life, so He converted the oxen yoke into a prophetic sign of faith. Six hundred years prior, in Jeremiah 27, God commanded His prophet to take up his yoke. In Jeremiah 27:8-12, the prophet explained the image of the yoke:
“‘It will be, that the nation or the kingdom which will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and which will not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine and with pestilence,’ declares the Lord, ‘until I have destroyed it by his hand. … But the nation which will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will let remain on its land,’ declares the Lord, ‘and they will till it and dwell in it.’” I spoke words like all these to Zedekiah king of Judah, saying, “Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him and his people, and live!”
Jeremiah’s message was unpopular because he commanded the people to choose between political subjugation or destruction. The way of the yoke was to trust God by putting oneself under the rule of Babylon, the instrument of God’s judgment, who was also the only means of survival. What happens when the way of life feels like death to self?
Seize the moment and take up your cross daily! Follow Jesus, who promised in Luke 9:24, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.”
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
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Jeremiah 26
Respond Tenderly to the Truth!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, April 18.
God’s tender mercies are often delivered in hard messages. In the beginning of the rule of King Jehoiakim, Jeremiah was sent on a mercy mission to speak to all the people who had gathered in the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. In Jeremiah 26:3, God explained to the prophet His reasoning for such a difficult message, which he was not allowed to soften for the people’s easier consumption, “Perhaps they will listen and everyone will turn from his evil way, that I may repent of the calamity which I am planning to do to them because of the evil of their deeds.” Because He is rich in mercy, God was giving His chosen people a final opportunity to repent prior to the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the people to Babylon. Unfortunately, as we see in Jeremiah 26:7-9, they would not listen:
When Jeremiah finished speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, “You must die! Why have you prophesied in the name of the Lord saying, ‘This house will be like Shiloh and this city will be desolate, without inhabitant’?”
God gives hard words because He loves His children and only wants the best for them. Unfortunately, not much has changed since the time of Jeremiah. People still want the message preached by God’s messenger to agree with their own sensibilities and loyalties, and if they don’t hear what they want to hear they will often punish the messenger. Back in the day that meant seeking his death, now it usually means criticizing the preacher or leaving the church.
Seize the moment and respond tenderly to the truth! May God’s faithful messengers soften your heart, so that you may live a faithful life to the God who loves you enough to tell you the truth.
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
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Jeremiah 25
Be Thankful for Mercy!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, April 17.
There can be no good news without first hearing the bad news. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news of the kingdom of God because there is a domain of darkness from which we must be saved (Colossians 1:13). There can’t be a chalice of grace for the forgiveness of sin if there isn’t first the cup of wrath that must be satisfied. This important prophetic image was described by the prophet in Jeremiah 25:27-29:
You shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Drink, be drunk, vomit, fall and rise no more because of the sword which I will send among you.’” And it will be, if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you will say to them, “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘You shall surely drink! For behold, I am beginning to work calamity in this city which is called by My name, and shall you be completely free from punishment? You will not be free from punishment; for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth,’ declares the Lord of hosts.”
God’s righteous judgment for sin is not only against His chosen people, but against all people, as Paul made clear in Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (cf. Ephesians 2:1-3). The cup of wrath is what we all deserve to drink from for our sin, but God, rich in mercy, extended the chalice of grace to us through faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 6:23). As you read Jeremiah, and learn about God’s wrath for sin, may you find yourself in awe of what Jesus Christ has done for you on the Cross, where He drank the cup of wrath down to its dregs!
Seize the moment and be thankful for God’s mercy (Ephesians 2:4-10)!
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
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Jeremiah 24
Bear Good Fruit!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, April 16.
What happens when you are confused about right and wrong, unable to discern what is good and what is bad? You can sincerely strive to do the right thing, only to find out that you were misled in the goals you were pursuing. That is the situation in Jerusalem as the Babylonians brought the king and his entourage out of Jerusalem (2 Kings 24:10-20). Shouldn’t the people resist the occupying force and fight against Babylon, defending their city unto death? As contrary to common sense as it sounds, God’s will for them was to surrender to the enemy and be taken into Babylonian captivity. The prophet illustrated God’s plan for His people with a prophetic sign in Jeremiah 24:1-2, 5, and 8:
The Lord showed me: behold, two baskets of figs set before the temple of the Lord! One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, and the other basket had very bad figs which could not be eaten due to rottenness. … “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the captives of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans.’ … ‘But like the bad figs which cannot be eaten due to rottenness – indeed, thus says the Lord – so I will abandon Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials, and the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land and the ones who dwell in the land of Egypt.’”
It can be difficult to discern right from wrong, good from evil in today’s world. Ultimately, you must act upon what you believe to be true, as Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:15-20).
Seize the moment and bear good fruit by abiding in Jesus (John 15:1-16). Surrender to God first in every circumstance, and He will help you know the right next step (Romans 12:1-2).
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
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Jeremiah 23
When all is Forlorn!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, April 15.
In The Return of the King, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote, “Oft hope is born when all is forlorn.” What happens to people when despair sets in? After the oracles of judgment against the final kings of Judah, the hope of the Davidic lineage was seemingly lost. The kings had forsaken God, yet, during the devastating consequences of their failures, God renewed the people’s hope, reminding them to trust in Him alone. In Jeremiah 23:5-8, God gave His people an oracle of restoration, promising the Coming Messiah:
“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His name by which He will be called, ‘The Lord our righteousness.’ Therefore behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when they will no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ but, ‘as the Lord lives, who brought up and led back the descendants of the household of Israel from the north land and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ Then they will live on their own soil.”
Hope is a necessary ingredient to life. Without hope, it’s easy to become sad and lonely, with no positive expectation for the future. It’s nearly impossible to be resilient apart from hope; we need a little light to take the right next step. While it is common to derive hope from your personal well-being and healthy relationships, what happens if you don’t have those things?
Seize the moment and hope in the Lord when all is forlorn, anchor your life in Jesus, the Messiah who has come and will return soon (Hebrews 6:19-20).
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
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The Call to the Great Community 1
Lesson #1:
The Church is God’s Idea!
+ INTRO: “The Call to the Great Community” is a series of messages about the body of Christ and our call to be fellow members of the body of Christ and why that is an important call to answer for us individually and corporately for the sake of the mission of Jesus Christ (why He came!) and the glory of God.
+ BODY: The BIG IDEA for today is THE CHURCH IS GOD’S IDEA; NOT MINE OR YOURS!
1) THE CHURCH is the BODY OF CHRIST!
2) BECAUSE THE CHURCH EXISTS FOR THE MISSION OF JESUS TO THE GLORY OF GOD
+ We are redeemed to fulfill the Genesis Commission (Genesis 1:26-27) as the heirs of the Abrahamic Promise (Genesis 12:1-3). To bless all things as Ephesians 1:19b-21 proclaims.
3) THIS IS GOD’S PLAN A!
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