Deaf Hearts & Ancient Paths
Download MP3One of my favorite things about our church, is that I can hear my brothers and my sisters sing. So thank you for singing along with us today. As everyone's finding your seat, we're gonna continue our journey this morning as we study the book of Jeremiah together. For those of you may not be familiar, Jeremiah is in the Old Testament. It's one of the five major prophets of the Old Testament.
Cole Ragsdale:It's major just because it's long. A little Bible trivia for you. Jeremiah is actually the longest book in the Bible. So if you ever get asked on Jeopardy, you got it. It's Jeremiah.
Cole Ragsdale:It also it's a story of repentance. That Jeremiah is a prophet calling upon God's people to return home to repent. Over 100 times in the book of Jeremiah we're gonna be hearing this message of repentance. Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet as he's someone who is crying out to the Lord for a people. We could also call him the persevering prophet that a 100 times he calls the people to repent.
Cole Ragsdale:We only know of two people who converted as a result of Jeremiah's ministry but yet he persevered faithfully. And so today we're gonna be in Jeremiah chapter six and we're gonna continue this theme of Jeremiah calling people to repentance. So it's about a couple months ago my wife and I are asleep and we began to hear the wonderful beeping of our smoke alarm. And like any good husband I went and ripped the thing out of the ceiling. There was no searching for a battery.
Cole Ragsdale:There was no replacing. And might I add this was two months ago when I grabbed this off of the the dresser this morning. It has not been replaced. It was a beeping. It was a nuisance.
Cole Ragsdale:It was not fun. But the thing is like this smoke alarm, it is designed to protect. It is designed to warn, to guide, that like it's in fact like law for this to be installed into my home. Not because the smoke alarm company hates my family, but because actually the smoke alarm company like loves my family and wants to protect them. And and it's supposed to sound the alarm if something is wrong in your house.
Cole Ragsdale:That there is a fire brewing. And in the same way Jeremiah is sounding the alarm to God's people. That Jeremiah is calling them to repent, to return, to come home and to live in God's way. But instead of listening and obeying the voice of God, they've ripped it out of the ceiling. That they have disarmed or disabled God's voice in their hearts and in their lives.
Cole Ragsdale:And I start there this morning because I think if we're honest with each other and if and then if we're not mindful, if we're not careful, that you and I we can also disable God's voice in our lives. That we can instead of heeding the word of God, instead of heeding the warning of God and living in obedience from that. That we decide hey God, it's a little bit of a nuisance. It's a little it's a little annoying to hear that voice and so we rip his voice out of the ceiling for peace to be in our home when in fact we might not have any peace at all. Now in a room like this I know that it might just not be an outright rejection to God's to God's voice, but it might be a quiet resistance.
Cole Ragsdale:Now this quiet resistance it might look like this, that we would become a people who love to learn, but hate to change. That we love to come into a place like this, hear some cool things about Jeremiah or about the Bible or sit in a woman's Bible study or our men's breakfast or in our home groups. We'd love to learn. Man, but when it comes to actually changing the way that we live, the way that we think, the way we believe, we're not so interested. Or maybe this quiet resistance looks like seeing the Bible as one of the options for good advice versus seeing it as absolute truth.
Cole Ragsdale:Or maybe this quiet resistance looks like being present at spiritual things, but not actually participating at the heart level. That we have proximity to spirituality. We have proximity to spiritual people, but we don't actually participate in it when we're present. And so thankfully as we look at Jeremiah six he's gonna give us the warning signs of what a deaf heart look like. Of a heart that has hardened itself.
Cole Ragsdale:A heart that has calloused itself against the voice of God. And then simultaneously Jeremiah is also gonna invite us to walk the ancient paths that God has given us in order that we would find rest for our souls, in order that we would hear his voice and obey. So if I was to title this morning's message it would simply be deaf hearts and ancient paths. We're gonna be in Jeremiah chapter six verses 10 through 17 today. And as we look at these these seven verses we're gonna kinda see two primary movements.
Cole Ragsdale:In verses 10 through 15 we're gonna see the the warning. That then specifically the dangers of a deaf heart. The dangers of a deaf heart. And then in verse 16 we're going to see the invitation. God's invitation to his people and God's invitation to us this morning to walk the ancient paths that give rest.
Cole Ragsdale:The dangers of a deaf heart and the invitation to ancient paths. Before we go any further, let's pray together. Father we thank you for sacred moments like this, where your people are gathered around your word, not to hear from me, but to hear from you. And so if you would in your seat, would you pray? And would you ask God to speak to you through his word this morning?
Cole Ragsdale:And if you would be willing, would you pray for me that I would be helpful to you? And so Father, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and be remembered no more. But your words would remain and that they would change us. And Father, pray these things for your glory sake through the Son and by the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Cole Ragsdale:If you've got your worship guide or a copy of the scriptures, Jeremiah chapter six starting in verse 10. Redeemer Community Church, this is God's word for you this morning. God's word says this, to whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot listen. Behold, the word of the Lord is to them an object of scorn and they take no pleasure in it.
Cole Ragsdale:Therefore I am full of the wrath of the Lord and I am weary of holding it in. Pour it out upon the children in the street and upon the gatherings of young men also, both husband and wife shall be taken, the elderly and the very aged. Their houses shall be turned over to others, their fields and wives together for I will stretch out my hand against the inhabitants of the land, declares the Lord. From the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain. And from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely.
Cole Ragsdale:They have healed the wound of my people lightly saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed. They did not even know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall.
Cole Ragsdale:At the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown says the Lord. Thus says the Lord, stand by the roads and look and ask for the ancient paths where the good way is and walk in it and find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not walk in it. I sent watchmen over you saying, pay attention to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, we will not pay attention.
Cole Ragsdale:This is the word of the Lord. Let's study Jeremiah chapter six together. Let's start in verse 10. Jeremiah begins by saying, to whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear? Behold their ears are uncircumcised.
Cole Ragsdale:They cannot listen. We see that Jeremiah and Yahweh God are having this dialogue here. And in verse 10 we obviously see this constant repetition and this emphasis on hearing. He's trying to speak that people will hear. It's a question mark because no one's listening.
Cole Ragsdale:We hear of the ears of God's people that they are uncircumcised. Now this idea of being uncircumcised, their ears being uncircumcised is a metaphor. All throughout the Old Testament this would be this idea of being unskilled or inept. You can almost translate this, their ears are closed. Eugene Peterson, he would translate this, the people's ears are full of wax.
Cole Ragsdale:That they are not listening to the word of God. That they have disabled God's voice from their life. It's also ironic because to be circumcised was the sign of God's covenantal relationship with his people. That these were a people to be marked by God and moved by God. But these people have ears that are unmarked by God and thus they're unmoved by this God.
Cole Ragsdale:They're just saying, hey, your ears they don't work. And because of this and and it continues in verse 10 that we see that the word of the Lord is to them an object of scorn. That God's word to the people is now something that they're embarrassed by. They have shame and they're embarrassed by it. That they have reproach towards it.
Cole Ragsdale:Maybe the best word in the and to translate this here would be that they have a disrespect for the word of God. And it's sad to see it goes on to say that they take no pleasure in it. Where we as the people of God are formed by the word of God that we see this book as God's gift to us. We see this book as an invitation to hear from God that we know because of second Timothy three sixteen and seventeen that every word of this book is God breathed and is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness. That the man of God, the woman of God would be equipped and complete for every good work.
Cole Ragsdale:That this book is God's breath on a page. That God has spoken to us and he has not stuttered. It is something that we are to delight in like the Psalmist says in Psalm one. Something we're to rejoice in. I mean, have you ever have you ever thought whenever we read scripture here at Redeemer, there is always a response at the end.
Cole Ragsdale:And the response is, thanks be to God. I did not grow up in that tradition. And and we don't say it just because it's tradition. We say it because it's true. Because we believe that this book is a gift from God in which the only right response would be, thank you.
Cole Ragsdale:That you have revealed yourself to us. That the creator and sustainer of everyone and everything has made himself known. And when we hear the word read, we would then say, thank you. And so maybe just like a slight challenge to you this morning is next Sunday when you hear the word of God read and we respond thanks be to God. May it not just be out of rote memory or tradition, but out of the overflow of your heart.
Cole Ragsdale:That you would say, thanks be to God because it's not an object of scorn, but it is a gift. So our first kind of warning, the dangers of a deaf heart is one that is closed off to God's voice. But what we see is closed ears will always lead to a calloused heart. In verses 13 through 15, we're gonna get an account of the sin that Israel continue in Judah continue to to have and it's a callous heart to God. But before then in verses eleven and twelve we see that the wrath of God, the right and just wrath of God will be poured out on these people because of their sin and because of their iniquity.
Cole Ragsdale:Because they have lost sight of the severity of their sin before a holy God. Let let's see it. It's in verse 13. It says for from the least to the greatest of them. From the toddler to the elderly, from the blue collar to the white collar, everyone is greedy for unjust gain.
Cole Ragsdale:And from prophet to priest everyone deals falsely. They have healed the wound of my people lightly saying peace, peace when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not ashamed at all. They did not even know how to blush.
Cole Ragsdale:Now what I want us to see here is that they're saying, hey, everything is good within our place. We're we're doing awesome. When Jeremiah is saying just the opposite. See to declare peace when there is no peace is not compassion, it's cruelty. I want you to imagine you're standing in a doctor's office and there's someone who has stage four cancer.
Cole Ragsdale:And the doctor walks in and instead of addressing the condition at hand says, oh, you're completely healthy. You're fine. Go live your life. That's not compassion. It's cruelty.
Cole Ragsdale:And in the same way God's people here are saying we are not sinful. We are we are healthy and happy. We are all good. We're saying peace peace when there is no peace. And in fact they've become incredibly comfortable with their sin.
Cole Ragsdale:Verse 15 it says they have a were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No. They were not at all ashamed. They did not know how to blush. Other translations would say that they had forgotten how to blush.
Cole Ragsdale:So you see Israel, the warning here is the dangers of a deaf heart that they have ears that are closed off to the voice of God and a heart that is calloused to the commands of God. And so for us, what does it look like for us to get comfortable with our sin? Now I know that we might not be in a place where we're saying, hey peace peace when there's no peace. There may be some things in your life that you are very ashamed of. But there is a real easy reality.
Cole Ragsdale:And instead for us to instead of repent from our sin and call it what it is, we choose to rename our sin in order that we would be more comfortable with it. Instead of repenting from our sin we choose to rename our sin in order that we would not have to blush at it. Maybe it sounds something like this. That we rename our sin of gossip as concern. That we rename greed as stewardship.
Cole Ragsdale:We rename lust as our struggle. We rename pride as confidence. We rename laziness as rest. We rename our anger as passion. We rename our envy as ambition.
Cole Ragsdale:Hate these two. We rename our gluttony as self care. We rename fear of man as compassion. We rename our cynicism as discernment. We rename our impatience as efficiency.
Cole Ragsdale:We rename our materialism as excellence. We rename our control as responsibility. But it's much easier for us to simply rename our sin to be comfortable with. It's much easier to manage our sin than to kill it. And so I would just ask you this morning, is there any part of you, is there any part of your heart in which you're saying peace, peace and there is no peace?
Cole Ragsdale:Is there any sin by which God's wrath burns against that you would say, I'm not ashamed at all and I don't know how to blush? And maybe we need to hear that we need to kill our sin before our sin kills us. Because the wages of sin is death. May we kill our sin and not simply manage it. That a deaf heart leads to a calloused heart, which leads to a directionless and a deadly life.
Cole Ragsdale:That we get desensitized to the sin in our life. Maybe think about it this way. This past weekend Georgia Florida played in their classic football game. I'm not allowed to call it the largest cocktail party in the South. It's a whole thing.
Cole Ragsdale:But every year I would be curious, my parents did it in the eighties. They everyone goes to Saint Simons Island for something that is called Frat Beach on the island. McCall gets it. And approximately four to 5,000 college students all make their way to one section of the beach, costumes, more alcohol than I've ever seen in my life all in one place. And I remember going as an 18 year old right out of high school.
Cole Ragsdale:And I walked up to this beach and my eyes were like, boop. Like where am I? Like I've never seen anything like this. Like it was horrifying, kind of fun, ready to leave. Like like one of those experiences watching people get thrown into the back of the truck.
Cole Ragsdale:Like it was just And then I went as a senior, as a 22 year old. Four years of college, had been there before. All of a sudden it didn't seem so bad. What had happened? Frat Beach hadn't changed.
Cole Ragsdale:I changed. That I had become desensitized to what I was seeing. And in the same way, it seems like the people of God have become desensitized to the sin in their life. They had become comfortable with it. And so I would just ask you, what is your frat beach in your life?
Cole Ragsdale:What is the thing that has become desensitized in your soul that is still an affront to the holiness of God? In which we don't need to rename it, we need to repent from it. So I have diagnostic questions for us to ask one another as a church, maybe even in your home group of whether or not you have the warning signs of a deaf heart or a deaf heart and a calloused soul. The first one is this, are you religiously active but spiritually numb? That you come to a place like this on Sundays or show up to a home on Wednesdays or Sundays that you are religiously active, but it is simply an idea not a felt experience or reality of interacting with the living God.
Cole Ragsdale:Are you religiously active, but spiritually numb? Second question, do you tremble at the word of God? Or maybe another way to say it, do you respect the word of God? Does the word of God have an authoritative role in your life in which you sit beneath it and allow for the weight of God's word to press on you? And not just the church parts, but every aspect of yourself and soul.
Cole Ragsdale:Do you tremble at the word of God? Third question. Do you want community minus confession? Do you want to be a part in of a group, but never to be fully known and fully loved? Because to step into confession would be to reveal the ugly parts of us.
Cole Ragsdale:Do you want community but minus confession? Fourth question, are you still amazed by grace That a holy God would love someone like us. That the grace of God is still an overwhelming reality. You still sit in awe and wonder that this God who is the transcendent one is also imminent and with us. Are you still amazed by grace?
Cole Ragsdale:Fifth question, is your faith about maintenance or God's mission? Is your life about making sure that you can tweak and twist your life for your best life now? Or are you participating in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit's cosmic plan for redemption to renew all things? Is your life about maintenance or God's mission? Do you have a deaf heart this morning?
Cole Ragsdale:Do you have a calloused soul this morning? And if so, here would be the application that I would present to you from Jeremiah six ten through 15, is confession. That confession cracks the calloused heart. That confession to God and confession to community cracks the calloused heart. Now if you're like me and you hear the word confession for the longest time growing up, that was just like, that's a church word that means nothing to me.
Cole Ragsdale:Maybe think about it this way. If if you've traveled recently and you checked a bag, you know lots of people they get their bag, they put pink or pink duct tape on it or they have you know your name tag so whenever it makes its way around the baggage claim you can see your bag, know it's yours. And and so you show up to the baggage claim and there's all the people are rustling around and you finally see your bag. And what do you do? You're like, that's my bag.
Cole Ragsdale:It's got my name on it. It's got my pink duct tape. You go grab your bag. You claim it. You say this is mine and you go home.
Cole Ragsdale:But typically when it comes to our sin, we see our bag and it begins to make its way around the carousel. That's not mine. Who put pink duct tape on their bag? Not me. Like Colerag, like that's not me.
Cole Ragsdale:That we don't want to claim our baggage. That confession is simply claiming what is ours and bringing it to God and saying, God, this is mine. God, this lust, this is mine. God, this greed, it's mine. God, this gluttony, it's mine.
Cole Ragsdale:God, this materialism, this is mine. And here the good news of the gospel this morning, that when we bring God our junk, He gives us Jesus's righteousness. That He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God. So what baggage do you need to claim this morning? Not for you to grip tightly, but for you to hand it over to your God and hear him say in response to you, daughter, son, thank you for bringing this.
Cole Ragsdale:Here is the righteousness of my son. Confession cracks the calloused heart. These are the warning signs, the dangers of a deaf heart. But thankfully God does not leave the people of God with warning signs, but also an invitation. And the invitation is extended to us as well.
Cole Ragsdale:Let's look at verse 16 together. Thus says the Lord, stand by the roads and look and ask for the ancient paths where the good way is and walk in it and find rest for your souls. In verse 16, this invitation has six verbs that drives the way. And by six verbs, I mean five verbs, that drive the way. Stand, look, ask, walk, and find.
Cole Ragsdale:Let's look at them together. The first two verbs that go together are stand and look. Stand by the roads and look. These are verbs of attention. These are imperatives of awareness.
Cole Ragsdale:Like like see where you are. Get your bearings. Like get your compass out. Where are you? Maybe think about it this way.
Cole Ragsdale:You're out surfing if you're really talented or you're boogie boarding and the rip current just like is sending you down the way and you finally look up and you realize that your house or your beach access is miles away. That you've been drifting away, that the current has taken you away. And Jeremiah is saying to the people you've been taken away by a culture of sin. You've been moved down the way. Look, stand, look, where are you?
Cole Ragsdale:And as you stand and look, as you get your bearings, ask for the ancient paths. This could be translated inquire earnestly. This is a verb of humility of saying, hey, I don't know where to go. I'm asking to inquire earnestly of the ancient paths. Now for our twenty first century years this means very little.
Cole Ragsdale:We live in a paved society like a new road is a good road, and an old road is a bad road. I mean because there are sometimes two eighty, 31 it's like old road bad road, need a new one. But for this first century audience an ancient road was a well used road, which was a safe road and was a trusted road. That this is not a callback to the good old days, but to God's proven way. That ask where are these ancient paths where the good way is.
Cole Ragsdale:And then it's a call to walk in them. That it's never just listen and learn, but it's always walk and obey. That I need to walk down this road. And then the beautiful promise of verse 16 is what do we find on this ancient path? What do we find on this good way?
Cole Ragsdale:It's rest for our souls. It's the thing that deep down we are all longing for. So as we ask for these ancient paths, hopefully you're wondering what are those? Like what are these ancient paths? Like we should be asking so that we can walk down them, so that we can find this way.
Cole Ragsdale:And I think that throughout the Bible God has given us some very very clear ancient paths. And I wanna say three of them very clearly. Some college students are gonna laugh at me in just a second. The three paths that I wanna present to you today is word, prayer, and worship. Word, prayer, and worship.
Cole Ragsdale:That if you go to Acts chapter two in the first gathering of believers you're going to see word, prayer, and worship. That whether or not you find yourself in Birmingham or in Calcutta and God's people are gathered, you know what you're gonna find? Word, prayer, and worship. If it's 2025 or 2065 or 1762, you know what you're gonna find in a gathering of Christians? Word, prayer, and worship.
Cole Ragsdale:That everywhere, always, by all, in all places, word, prayer, and worship are found. So what is the word? The word is a gift from God. It is an invitation from God to choose truth in an age of confusion. That we are told so many different messages, but it's an ancient path that removes confusion in which we can learn truth.
Cole Ragsdale:It's the word of God. Word. And we also have prayer. What is prayer? Prayer is a gift from God.
Cole Ragsdale:It's an invitation from God to choose communion with God in an age of distraction. That we have these devices that buzz in our pockets all the time and it's almost impossible to have this moment in which we're communing with the living God. That prayer is not for God, it's for us. To commune with him, to know him and love him and have relationship with him. And then lastly, see that we have worship.
Cole Ragsdale:That worship is not only songs that we sing, but worship is an invitation from God. It's a gift from God to choose a life of exalting God and serving neighbor in an age of individualism. That everything in our culture screams me me me me and worship gets our eyes up in which we behold the glory of God and we choose to serve neighbor. That worship is not just song. Like I mean Romans chapter 12 verse one.
Cole Ragsdale:Therefore brothers and sisters in view of God's mercies, present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to him. This is your spiritual act of worship. Word, prayer, and worship. And in all of those you'll find that God's people are gathered around God's word by God's spirit. That these are the ancient paths that we have been given to walk down.
Cole Ragsdale:Not so that we could be religiously dutiful people, but nor that we would find rest for our souls. And I truly believe that if we will walk these ancient paths together, it will change us. I have permission to share the story. My wife Jamieson would tell you that her four years in college at the University of Georgia were the most formative four years of her life. And Jamieson did two things that made that happen.
Cole Ragsdale:She was the busiest person I'd ever met. Pre med, d one athlete, like had no she was the girl was doing the thing. But there was two things she was committed to. Wednesday morning she would go to women's Bible study with Lisa Mason and they would study the Bible together. And then on Sunday morning, she sat under the teaching of doctor Lee Mason for four years and listened to God's word preached.
Cole Ragsdale:And she was unwilling to miss those two things. O chem test, whatever, like I'm going. Like big game on, like I'm going. And it changed her life. Like the woman that I married, the one who's discipling our kids was shaped and formed not by flashy big experiences, whatever, like consistency in community.
Cole Ragsdale:Walking the ancient path day after day, week after week, and it changed her. And it gave God gave Jamison rest for her soul. And so super practical for us this morning, hope this is helpful, is I wanna challenge us to walk the ancient paths together. Tommy Jackson, he's a Washington Nationals baseball scout taught me this. He calls it grabbing 15.
Cole Ragsdale:And it's five five five. For five minutes, set a timer on your watch and phone and read God's word. Then when that timer goes off, set it again for five more minutes and pray about what you just read in God's word for five minutes. Timer goes off, grab your air pods and put on your favorite worship song and sing your heart to God for five minutes. If you've got fifteen minutes, you can walk the ancient path.
Cole Ragsdale:Maybe like, Cole, I'm at the 09:40 service Redeemer Community Church. That's child's play. Okay. 777. +1 01010.
Cole Ragsdale:202020. Like like what but what I would say, I would rather you spend fifteen minutes with God every day for the next year than spend an hour with God once a month for the next year. That consistency in community changes us. When we're interacting with the living and Holy God, we have no option but to change. So that's personally communally what I would challenge us to for members of this church who are in a home group.
Cole Ragsdale:Can I just challenge you this week? Show up to home group this week, prepared to participate and pray. Like come ready to talk about God's word and to pray for your sisters and brothers. Walk the ancient path together. It's a warning to the dangers of a deaf heart in 10 through 15.
Cole Ragsdale:It's an invitation to walk the ancient path in verse 16. But here the tragic response to God's people at the end of 16 and verse 17. But they said, we will not walk in it. I set watchmen over you saying, pay attention to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, we will not pay attention.
Cole Ragsdale:That Judah has ripped the smoke alarm, has ripped God's voice out of their lives and they're uninterested in hearing it. What will be said of us? Will we be a people who hear God's voice and respond in obedience? Jeremiah points us to an ancient path. And later on in human history, the man named Jesus of Nazareth comes, not to point to the path, but to be the path.
Cole Ragsdale:John chapter 14 verse six, Jesus says these words, I am the way, the path, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the father except through me. That Jesus is making the claim, I am the good way. I am the one who will guide you home, and I will I am the one who will give you rest for your soul. Jesus will go on to say in Matthew chapter 11 verse 28, come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Cole Ragsdale:Jesus might as well have been quoting Jeremiah chapter six. So today, if your sin feels heavier than you can burden, if you are horrified to claim the baggage of your sin, the one thing you've got to do today is come to Jesus. Come to him and lay it before him and trust in him. Or maybe you are exhausted by the work social life of your Birmingham ecosystem. And the one thing you need to do today is come to Jesus and find rest for your soul.
Cole Ragsdale:Because God's rest is always found on God's road, and God's road is Jesus. So church may we come to him. Let's pray together. Father we pray that your spirit would do the thing that only you can do. Would you crack our calloused hearts?
Cole Ragsdale:And Lord, may you help us to walk down your ancient paths. I pray that my sisters and brothers would receive the gift of word, prayer, and worship today and would commune with you. And father, I pray that even as we sing these songs in response, that we would come to Jesus. And we pray these things for your glory's sake through the present strong name of Jesus. Amen.
