To See or be SDoing It God’s Way
Keith McFarren
June 21, 2026
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Can
you imagine being born into a family of slaves?
That’s all your family has ever been or ever known.  Slaves.
Nothing else.  And they will
continue to be slaves forever…and so will you.
There will never be a chance for a better lifestyle.  You’re going to be a slave forever.  Not much to look forward to is there?
    Then one day you find out that God has
seen your misery and heard your cries for deliverance.  And He is going to do something about
it.  God, along with a guy named Moses,
is going to lead you and your family out of bondage and into freedom.  In fact, God, along with Moses, is going to
help not only your family but over 2 million other Israelites escape the
bondage of your captives, the Egyptians.  

    And on top of all of this God has a place
for you to go – a place he calls the Promised Land.  A place described in Numbers 13 as the Land
of Milk and Honey.  A place that is
covered with beautiful hillsides, hillsides covered with fig, date and nut
trees.  
    He says that He will provide you with a
cloud to
follow
during the day and a pillar of fire to follow at night so that you will never
get lost on the way to the Promised Land.  
And he will provide you with the food you need and the water that you
will need.  You’ve got it made.  All you need to do is follow.
   So you think “Hey, this is alright.”  All you have to do is follow the cloud during
the day and the pillar of fire at night. God will lead us to the Promised
Land.  Pretty simple.  
    But it wasn’t that simple.  Because the people didn’t stay happy.  Oh, they were happy for a while but pretty
soon they wanted more food and they wanted more water.  Some of the people even said that they would
rather go back to being a slave because the food and water were more
plentiful.    
    And they didn’t like following God’s
rules. They didn’t like God’s rules for this and they didn’t like God’s rules
for that.  Over a period of time they became
chronic complainers who wanted to do things their way – not Gods way.  Sounds like you and me sometimes doesn’t
it?  
    Two months after their escape from Egypt,
God brought his people to the base of Mt. Sinai.  This was the place where he would give them
the 10 Commandments…the laws and guidelines for living a Godly life..  
    The first 4 commandments told them how to
live and maintain a relationship with Him.
The other 6 told how to deal socially with one another  The first commandment said do not worship any
other gods besides me (Exodus 20:3).  
The
second commandment said not make idols of any kind (Exodus 20:4).
    So God said that you can have only one
God.  No idols allowed.  This didn’t set very well with the Israelites
because   while they were under the
control of the Egyptians they picked up some really bad habits.  
    While they were praying to the God of
Israel to free them from slavery, they were, at the same time also worshipping
the same gods and idols that the Egyptians did.
But this wasn’t something new.  
    From the very beginning of time God has warned
his people about pagan gods and idols.
He told them it was wrong and He didn’t like it.  But, just like you and me, we don’t always
listen to what God tells us.  We let it
go in one ear and out the other.  We don’t
pay attention.
So
here is a God that freed his people from slavery in Egypt.  He watched over them day and night.  He provided a cloud for them to follow during
the day and fire for them to follow at night.
He provided them with food and water.
And He tells them that He will always be with them.  
    But they still aren’t happy.   God’s rules are too strict.  There wasn’t enough food and water to satisfy
them.  And He wouldn’t let them worship
whomever they wanted.  All of a sudden it’s
not so much fun being on God’s team because there are too many rules and
regulations.
And
all of this hurt God.  All he wanted was
for the people to listen to him and to follow him so He could lead them to the
Promised Land.   God has a 100%
commitment to us and He wants a 100% commitment from us back to Him.
   Over and over again God said “Listen to me.”  But, like you, and like me, and like the
Israelites, we don’t always want to hear what God is saying.  Instead, we ignore him and we go on with our
lives.
    The Israelites were released from slavery
in the year 1260 BC.  That’s 1260 years
before Christ.  So now let’s fast forward
to the year 600 BC.  600 years before
Christ.  That’s a difference of 660
years.  
    During that 660 year period God continued
to work, and He worked hard, to get his people to listen to Him.  And it still didn’t work.   They still wanted to do things their
way.  They still wanted to worship their
pagan gods and idols and live their lives “their way” and not Gods way.
 
So God said “If I can’t get you to listen to me one way maybe I can get
you to listen to me another way.  So he
sent Prophets to speak for him.  The
prophets said, “If you do not listen to the Lord and do what he says then you
will pay a price.”  And, they would
finish their sermon or speech with the statement “Thus says the Lord.”  In other words I am speaking for the Lord,
and this is what He has told me to say.
So pay attention!!
  The prophet Jeremiah was called by God when
he was in his late teens or early twenties.
And although he spent 40 years as a spokesman for God, Israel never
listened to him.  
  Over that 40 year period he was thrown into
prison, thrown into a cistern, taken back to Egypt against his will, rejected
by his family, his neighbors, his friends, and false priests…all while
preaching Gods word of doom and telling of the upcoming fate of Israel if they
didn’t repent.  
    Over and over again he told them, “Repent
and turn to God, or he will punish you.” And because they rejected God’s word
Jeremiah began to predict the destruction of Jerusalem and its people.  
    And he says this in Jeremiah Chapter 4, “A
scorching wind from the barren heights in the desert blows toward my people,
but not to winnow or cleanse: a wind too strong, for that comes from me.”  Now this isn’t a cool refreshing breeze God
is talking about.  God is comparing the
Babylonian army, which will one day destroy them, to a whirlwind that is going
to go ripping thru the land and destroy everything.  
    Jeremiah goes on to say in verses 22 – 28
that since you won’t listen to God and you want to do things your way you are
going to be destroyed.  
    But even in a destructive statement like
this Gods grace always shines through because God always leaves an opening for
those that follow Him.  
    Over 90 times throughout the Bible God
refers to a remnant of people that will be left over after a war or some
destructive force.  And that “remnant” means
those that follow him. In other words, He is saying that “those that listen to
me, those that follow me, will survive.”
They will be OK.
What
kind of harsh, scorching wind has brought you to your knees?  What kind of wind has changed you life?  It could be a wind that has brought you
health problems.  It could be a wind that
has brought financial problems into your life.
Or a wind that has caused family problems.  It could be a harsh, scorching wind that
because of your own stupidity or your own arrogance, has knocked you on your
rear end.  We all have these strong
whirlwinds that enter our lives.  And
sometimes they knock us down and we don’t know if we can get up or not.
    Know that the wind may knock you
down.  And it will.  I’ve been knocked down…for all sorts of
reasons.  You’ve been knocked down.  But know that it will not destroy you.  Just as God promised to take care of his
people in our reading this morning, God will take care of you also.  
    No matter how much of a shambles your
world is in He will take care of you.
All you need to do is ask.  Ask
for strength.  He doesn’t care who you
are, where you come from, or what you have done in the past.  He will be there to lift you from your knees
and help you move forward.
    And if you think that maybe you aren’t
good enough to be on Gods team, think again.
If God can forgive Paul He can forgive anyone.  
    Paul (or Saul as he was called before his
conversion) was a Pharisee’s Pharisee.
He knew every Jewish law inside out and upside down.  He lived and breathed the law.  He knew every rule and every regulation.  And he hated Christians.  There was nothing that Saul liked any better
than to chase, catch and kill Christians.  
   
    Paul (Saul as he was called then) was
there giving his approval for the stoning death of Stephen in Acts
7:57-60.   Stephens death was nothing
more than entertainment to Saul.  He had
a front row seat.  It was like you or me
going to a movie or on vacation.  It just
didn’t get any better than this.    
    He knew that he was the world’s worst
sinner.  He knew he didn’t deserve Gods
grace and mercy.  But Gods grace and
mercy is not set apart for just some people.
It is all inclusive.  Jesus came
into the world to save sinners and no sinner, no one person, is beyond saving.
    Maybe you feel so guilt ridden because of
your past that you don’t think God could ever forgive you and accept you.  Maybe you feel guilty because of the way you’re
living your life today…because of the things you’re thinking and the things you’re
doing.
    Take a look at Paul.  He didn’t believe in the teachings of
Jesus.  He hunted down and murdered
Christians.  Yet God is all about grace…and
God forgave him.  And Paul was never
afraid to share his past, because he knew his failures would allow others to
have hope.  
    He tells us in 1 Timothy that, “Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners” - and I am the worst of them all (1
Timothy 1:15).  No one is outside of Gods
mercy or beyond the reach of his salvation.
Listen as I repeat that statement.
No one is outside of Gods mercy or beyond the reach of his salvation. No
one.
    Maybe you’re like the Israelites and want
to do things your way.  Maybe you have
put God on the back burner of your life and want to try to live life your
way.  If you have…that’s okay…he’ll
wait.  He’ll wait because he knows that
we have a tendency to drift this way and that way off the narrow and straight
pathway.  He’ll wait because he loves you
and he wants to help you get your life straightened out.
    He’ll wait because there is nothing more
that He would like to do than to reach out his hand to you while you’re down
and out and have you take hold of it.
Take hold of his hand and say, “Lord, you’ve finally got my attention.”  “I’m tired of trying to live life my
way.  Let’s do things…your way.”