The Power of a Transformed Life
Jeremiah 7:1-19
November 15-16, 2025
The title of our message, The Power of a Transformed Life. Very important what God to have for us in His word today. Let's pray and receive from God's word together. Lord, we are so thankful for Your word. We know that God, You send it in power to reveal Your heart, Your desire after us to show us the way of life, the way of glory and honor to Your name. God, pour out Your spirit of life through Your word. Meet us today in this place in Jesus' name and everyone said Amen. The theme of Jeremiah as all of the prophets as we've been seeing is revival. God sends Jeremiah as a young man really to call the people back because they're wandering away going after the gods of the world.
They have forgotten all that God did for them. You go back over the history of Israel, God amazingly, miraculously blessed them. Saving them from the oppression and hardship of their slavery in Egypt, brought them through the Red Sea on dry land, sustained them miraculously in the desert with manna every morning. It's a miracle every day and water from the rock, miraculously God revealed Himself to Israel. More than all of that, God did wondrous things. All of that, more than that, God gave Israel the greatest possible gift He could give. He gave Himself. He made Himself known to them. Of all the nations in the world, He made Himself known to them.
He revealed his glory and His Majesty, and He showed them the beauty of His desire to love on them. This is the very thing that Moses desired, sought more than all things. When Moses had an opportunity to ask for something personal, for something for himself, what did he ask? Now, this is really a very important moment in the history of Israel and in Moses's life. What would you ask if you get to ask for one thing, the greatest, highest request for you personally? What would you want God to do for you personally? Moses says, "One thing for me, show me Your glory." That's the one thing he wanted more than all things. Why?
He had already seen more glory than any living person, but that's why. He has seen the glory. He knew how wonderful, how beautiful, amazing. "I want more. Show me Your glory." Therefore, it says that Moses set up a tent of meeting outside the camp. Anyone who wanted to, no requirement, no law, anyone who wanted to meet God could just go out to the tent of meeting and have a meeting with God. This is amazing. Would you go? How often would you go?
It says that whenever Moses went out to the tent of meeting, the people would stand on their feet and watch because whenever Moses would go, the visible glory of the Lord would descend in that place and that God would speak to Moses like a man speaks to a friend. Now, I love that scene. It's a very important part of where we're going in Jeremiah 7. It leads up to God's desire for Israel to meet them, to be them in a relationship of glory and honor. It's a very important part of the story. Israel forgot all of this. Jeremiah was born during what could be considered the greatest revival in the history of Israel. Josiah was the king.
Josiah, if you remember the story, saw how far Israel had gone away from God, that they had gone so far that they had built altars to Baal or Asherah or Moloch, all the gods of the world, not only in Jerusalem, in the temple itself. Right away he said, "No, not there." In the temple they, built altars to Baal and Asherah. When Josiah arose as king, there was this righteous indignation that rose up in Josiah, "Get those things out of here. Cleanse the temple. Raise money. Repair the temple." A glorious revival happened. Then when Josiah passed from the scene, he died in the battle with the Egyptians, the next king was bad. The next king after him was bad.
Then led Israel down the path again towards destruction, away from God. Jeremiah comes on the scene. Here in Chapter 7, God sends Jeremiah to stand at the gate of the House of the Lord, at the gate of the entry into the temple, with a message to all the people of Judah not to trust in deceptive words, saying, "This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord." Now, how are these deceptive words? There is a deeper message here that's very important. It's all about revival, but not just any kind of revival, the kind of revival that will transform the soul and transform how life is lived.
I. The Temple was Meant to be Emmanuel
That's the message of Jeremiah. It's about the power of a life that's transformed by authentic revival. Jeremiah 7, we'll read the first few verses and, of course, we'll cover the other verses around this at the Wednesday verse-by-verse service. Chapter 7:1, "The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying this, stand in the gate of the Lord's house and proclaim there this word and say this, 'Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter by these gates to worship the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. Amend your ways. Amend your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words, saying this is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.'" Three times.
In Hebrew, when you say something three times, it's very emphatic. Like, "Holy, holy, holy," emphatically declared. These are deceptive words when they say such things to you. How so? We'll see. "For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you practice justice between a man and his neighbor, if you don't oppress the alien, the stranger among you, or the orphan." Who would oppress an orphan? Now, this is the problem. The heart. The heart. If you do not oppress the widow, no, you ought to be protecting widows. Do not shed innocent blood in this place or walk after other gods to your own ruin.
"Then I will let you dwell in this place and in the land that I gave to your father's forever and ever. Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words." Really? "Would you steal and murder and commit adultery and swear falsely, lie, and then offer sacrifices to Baal and walk after other gods that you have not known? Then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and then say, 'Oh, we're delivered that we might do all these abominations.' What has this house, which is called by My name become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I have seen it. Even I have seen it, declares the Lord."
These are the verses that we want to look at. Really very important things that God would have for us to understand. Starting with this, that the temple was meant to be Emmanuel. What does the word Emmanuel in Hebrew mean? It means God with us. That's always been the heart of God, to be Emmanuel. You could go from Genesis to Revelation and see this is a wonderful, beautiful theme. God wants to be with us in relationship to us, Emmanuel. The temple was meant to be God with us and be Emmanuel. Therefore, when He says, "Do not trust in deceptive words saying, 'This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.'"
Why are these deceptive words? They didn't understand the purpose of the temple. They didn't understand the heart of God, and they certainly didn't understand revival. They thought it was enough that the temple is restored and repaired. Wasn't that enough? God, isn't that enough? No, there was a deeper message that God meant to touch their soul. They did not understand revival. You know what was interesting, during this time of Jeremiah there were two distinctly different messages that were being proclaimed to people of Israel. There was Jeremiah, who really stood alone, and then all the other prophets of peace.
Jeremiah, he was trying to wake them up from their spiritual stupor, from their spiritual fog and misunderstanding and to open their blind eyes. Like, "Can you not see the danger? Can you not see on the horizon, there's a great storm arising? Can you not see?" All the other prophets were proclaiming a false message of peace safety. "All is well," like Jeremiah 6:13-14, everyone deals falsely. "They have healed the brokenness of my people superficially, saying, 'Peace, peace.'" There is no peace. Can you not see? This is Jeremiah 5:12. They're lying about the Lord.
They say, "Oh, no God would never bring misfortune on us. No, we will never see sword and famine. All is well. Don't worry. All is good. Don't worry." Jeremiah is like, "Can you not see? The signs of the times are right before your eyes, can you not see?" Now, that might remind you of the very message that Jesus gave to the leaders of Israel, trying to help them to understand, "Can you not see?" This is Matthew 16:2-3. Jesus replied and said to them-- Now, He used a very interesting analogy to show the blindness of their misunderstanding. He uses weather.
This is interesting. He says, "Now, look, when it is evening, you say, 'It will be fair weather tomorrow because the sky is red.' Then in the morning, you say, 'Oh, there will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.'" Now, by the way, we have a similar saying today, we say red at night, sailors delight. Red in the morning, sailors take warning. Anybody ever heard of this saying? You don't have to be just from the South to know this. It's a saying because when it's red at night, the way the weather works, it means that it's going to be a nice day tomorrow, but in the morning, when you see red, it means there's a storm coming on the horizon.
Jesus says, "What? You know how to discern the appearance of the sky, you can't discern the signs of the times? I can't wake them up. Can you not see the signs of the times right before your eyes?" The people of Israel thought that there cannot possibly be a disaster if the temple of the Lord was there in Jerusalem. They misunderstood. It brings a very important principle, and that is that there is a distinct difference between the symbol and that which it represents. The temple represented something. It was a massively glorious symbol, however, of something much grander, glorious. The temple of the Lord was a picture of the throne of heaven.
It represented something glorious, but it was a symbol. There's a great difference between the symbol and that which it represents. We can understand that. We have people that use a cross, maybe a jewelry, or on the wall of the home, a cross or whatever. It's a symbol. Of course, what it symbolizes is something amazing. The gospel is represented in all that Jesus did for us on the cross, but the cross itself, a jewelry thing, it's just a cross. There's a big difference between the thing and that which it represents. Religious symbols, things do not have power unto themselves.
However, it's interesting, words themselves are symbols. They represent a deeper understanding. The heart. In other words, they represent, words represent something. That's why, for example, when God accuses Israel, He says, "Israel, they honor Me with their lip service." Ah, there it is, lip. You know what lip service is. They're giving lip to it, but they don't mean it. There's the problem. There's a disconnect between the words and what they represent. You don't mean that. Sometimes I think parents even do that with their kids. For example, young Billy bonks his brother with a toy truck, and his brother starts crying. Mom says to Billy, "Now, Billy, you go say you're sorry."
Billy, he may not feel sorry at all, but he's got to go over there and say, "I'm sorry." Lip service. This is why we hate lies, because the words are disconnected from their meaning. Integrity. What does the word integrity mean? It means that there's a consistency of that which is spoken and done and the construct of the heart. It means something. There's a big difference between the thing and that which it represents. The thing itself has no power. I was thinking of an illustration. When we were kids, we grew up very poor, and we used to play this game in our family called kings.
The way it works was this, somebody found a broken chair, and there was a leg. The leg of the chair had all these swirly things. Somebody thought, "Hey, that looks like a king's scepter?" Whoever has the leg of the chair is the king of the others and can tell everybody what to do if he had the scepter, the leg of the chair. I'm number five in the list, five out of six. I never got a chance to hold the scepter and be the king. I know. One day, there's a big melee, and they're all wrestling over the thing, all six kids are in there, and the thing fell. I rushed in there and grabbed it, and I go, "[laughs] Now, I'm the king. I can tell everybody what to do. I'm the king."
A. Without God it’s just an earthly vessel
They said, "Oh, you? You got the thing? Game's over." I have been in counseling ever since. This thing has no power. See, this is the point they misunderstood. Without God, this thing is just an earthly vessel. They misunderstood something. Without God, they thought there was a power unto itself, simply in the construct of the temple being there. No, it's a massive religious symbol, but it has no power. It's just empty unless God's glory is in it. They misunderstood. It's like back in their history, like when Israel faced the Philistines in a battle, and somebody then had the bright idea, "I know what, let's go and get the Ark of the Covenant and bring it down into battle." It's got power. What does it represent?
It represents the presence of God. "Go get the Ark of the Covenant." He misunderstood. They bring it into the battle. When it shows up in the field, all the soldiers go, "Yes," they're all roaring. The Philistines are saying, "What is happening in the camp of Israel?" Someone says, "Oh, the Ark of the Covenant is there." "Oh, we must try much harder." They defeat Israel and take the Ark of the Covenant. They misunderstood that things don't have power. Things don't have power to bring good fortune or good luck.
There's no such thing as good luck. There is no such thing. There are no such things as lucky charms, even if some are magically delicious. Some people carry a rabbit's foot for luck. The thing they think it's luck. Although it wasn't very good luck for the rabbit, which is, by the way, the point. By the way, this is an interesting-- the idea of a rabbit's foot bringing a good luck actually originates from a biblical truth that was distorted and turned. The idea is that the death of the rabbit, the rabbit clearly suffered death and clearly suffered misfortune, so that when you carry that rabbit's foot, then all the misfortune that you would have experienced is transferred to the rabbit.
Now you say, "What? That sounds like the gospel of Jesus Christ. All that I deserved fell upon Jesus." What a distortion. There are people who believe that things, religious symbols, have power unto themselves. Certain churches, I think the Orthodox church still today, has icons that they will put in their car or in their house, and believe that that will protect the car or the house. Help a lot if you drove well. They think a symbol would protect. No, the temple without glory is just an empty building. They thought it was enough that the temple was there. Isn't that what God wanted? Wasn't it enough? No. The temple without glory is just an empty building.
By the way, the same is true for you and me. Without God in the soul, the soul is empty. We're just an empty vessel. Without glory, we're just an empty vessel. Unless God is in it, it's in vain. The word vain in Hebrew means empty. God isn't in it, it's empty. Psalm 127, we love this. Psalm 27:1-2, "Unless the Lord builds the house," in other words, if God isn't in it, it's a vain. It's empty. "They labor in vain, who build it. Unless the Lord guards the city, if God isn't in it, the watchman keeps awake in vain." It's empty. "It's vain for you to rise up early to retire late, to eat the bread, the painful labors." If God isn't in it, it is vain, it is empty.
"Do you not know?" He says in that verse, "That it is He who gives to His beloved even while he sleeps. It's not by your effort. It's not by might, nor by power, by my Holy Spirit," says the Lord God Almighty. It's like this in 2 Corinthians 4, "We have this treasure in earthen vessels." We are the earthen vessels here in the analogy. An earthen vessel was, in those days, a clay pot, just a simple clay pot, earthen vessel. That's us. We're the clay pot. The older we get, the more we look like clay pots. It's true. We're just simple clay pots. God puts His glory in simple clay vessels. That's amazing. That's what makes it something, God's glory.
B. The temple was a place to meet God
We have this treasure in earthen vessels so that the surpassing greatness of the power would be of God, not of ourselves. Therefore, we do not lose heart for though the outer man is decaying, the physical body, the more you get old, the more you know that's true. The inner man, however, that's where the glory resides, is being renewed day by day. The temple is a place to meet God. That was what it was there for. They thought the temple was made for God. After all, it's called the house of the Lord. We did it. We built You a beautiful house, Lord, and got lots of decorations and beautiful tapestries and carvings overlaid with gold. What more could God want? The temple was made as a place to meet God.
It was a place where the soul could behold the beauty of the Lord, a place where the soul could reside in the presence and the glory of the Almighty. A tent of meeting, but way more beautiful. A place to meet God. What's interesting, God says in Isaiah 66:1-2, "Thus says the Lord, 'Heaven is my throne. Earth is my foot stool. Where is the house you will build for Me? Do you think I need a house?'" I just love this idea. Look, "All of heaven is My throne. Earth is my footstool. Where is the house You will build for me? You think I need a house? Where is the place that I may rest? My hand made all these things, and thus all these things came into being,' declares the Lord, but to this one, I will look."
I love this. "All of heaven is my throne, but to this one, I delight. To him who's humble, contrite of spirit, who trembles at My word." Ah, I will be Emmanuel. Something beautiful, something glorious. I will be Emmanuel. A place where the soul can meet God. Beautiful picture. When Solomon, after he had built this glorious house of the Lord, he called all Israel together, stood before them to dedicate that marvelous house, the place where God's glory would dwell among them in Jerusalem. He lifted up his voice in amazing prayer, dedicating the house of the Lord. He said, "Oh, Lord God of Israel, there is none like You in heaven and on earth, keeping covenant, showing loving kindness to your servants, notice, who walk before you with all their heart."
That's the what it was meant to be. On and on, and he continued in this beautiful prayer of dedication. God responded, this is 1 Kings 9. God says to Solomon, "I heard your prayer, and I have chosen this place. My eyes will be open. My ears will be attentive to the prayer offered in this place." It's a place to meet God, to offer prayer from a soul that's right. "My eyes are open, my ears will be attentive to the prayer offered in this place. I have chosen and consecrated this house that My name may be there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there always." A place to meet God. If you turn away, if you don't meet God anymore, it's a place to meet God. I'm not going to be here alone.
"If you turn away and go forsake My statutes and My commandments, and then go and serve other gods and worship them, I will uproot you from this land and this house that I have consecrated for My name. I will cast this house out to out of My sight. You think this house is for me? You think that I need this house. I will cast this house out of my sight. I'll make it a proverb and a byword among the people." No, it's for you to meet God there. Interesting, back in Jeremiah 7:11, he says, "Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den robbers." What is a den of robbers? It's a mancave for robbers. It's a place for them to bounce together.
What? Do you not understand? This was the accusations. It's a den of robbers. Now, you might recognize that phrase, by the way, Jesus used that phrase. He quoted it on the day of the triumphant entry, the day that Jesus entered Jerusalem. He saw those who were buying and selling in the temple and money changers and seats of those selling doves at exorbitant prices. Many changing at exorbitant prices. They're standing in the way, taking advantage of those who want to worship. Jesus, you know the story, righteous indignation rises up in Jesus, and He takes hold the tables and He overturns down, doves flying, money flying.
"Get out, this is My Father's house. It is to be a house of prayer, a place to meet God. You have made it a den of robbers," quoting from Jeremiah. God is not impressed with empty words, empty hearts, or empty religion. It's a place to come to behold the beauty of the Lord, to meditate there in His temple. I love quoting David. Psalm 27, the one thing David asked, the highest foremost that David asked, "One thing I ask and that I shall seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord." David understood what many people do not understand. Oh, I tell you, if people can only understand this, it would transform their lives.
II. Life is Lived from that which Fills the Heart
That is the point. Life is lived from that which fills the heart. That is the point. Life is about living. God connects the heart to the way the life is lived. In other words, how you live matters. It is the result of meeting God. How you treat your neighbor, how you care. Do you care? Do you care? That's the thing, do you care? It's like those who love God, love others. One comes from the other. If you love God, you'll love others. See, Jesus connects the heart to the words, to the life. Luke 6:45, love quoting it. Jesus said, "The good man out of the good treasure of his heart will bring forth what is good." Where do you get good treasure? Where do you get this? Abiding in the beauty, abiding in the word which is life, abiding in the glory.
A. Those who love God love others
"The good man out of the good treasure will bring forth out of that which is good." Now, that's true. We know where evil comes from. "Out of the evil heart will bring forth that which is evil." For the mouth speaks, the life is lived, from that which fills the heart. God connects the life live to the heart. Those who have a heart after God will find that their lives follow in the ways of God. The greatest and foremost of all that God ever said, Jesus was asked, "What is the highest, the greatest of all the things that God has ever spoken?" Jesus quoted Deuteronomy and said, "The greatest, the foremost is this, that you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart." Comes from the soul, doesn't it?
The highest, the greatest that you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, all your strength. The second greatest is like you. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. He said, "On these two, hang the entirety of all of the law and prophets." The Old Testament hangs on those two great ones. Those who love God, love others, because when you dwell there in that place, it's a place to meet God. You can meet God today because His Holy Spirit is resident in the soul. You are called the temple of the Lord today. There's a temple. There's no temple in Jerusalem, but there's a temple right here. When you're present, the Holy Spirit is present.
You can meet God, you can know Him, and to know Him is to know His ways. I want to know your ways. In that prayer I quoted earlier, Moses said this in that prayer, he said "I pray, let me know your ways. I want to know you. I want to know you. Show me you. I'm going to know you. I want to know your ways. I want to know your heart. I want to know you because I want to find favor in your sight. I want us to have a relationship with beauty and glory. I want to know you more. I want to know your ways. Show me your ways."
There in Jeremiah 24:7, it's a great theme, "I will give them a heart to know me, for I am the Lord, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me, and they'll return Me their whole heart." When you abide near to God, you meet God. You want to know Him. That's why you do that. I want to see the beauty of the Lord. I want to know your heart. I want to know your ways. I want your ways to be my ways. I want my life to be changed. God will show you His ways. Like Exodus 23:4, the ways of God are higher than our ways.
He says, "Look, if you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey, and it's wandering away, got out of the pen, and it's wandering away, go and get it and return it to him." Now, that's not the way a man, that's not the way we are. If you have an a so-called an enemy, someone that you dislike, someone who dislikes you, I suppose, and then you see his ox or donkey got out of the pen, it's wandering out toward the desert, a lot of people say, "Serves him right, the old sticker." God says, "No, that's not My way. Go get it and bring it to him." Love your enemies. Pray for those to persecute you.
Jesus said, "No, My way is different than your way." If you know God, then you know His way is different than your way, and you want His way to be your way. Exodus 22, if you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, in those days, somebody can borrow something, and they give a pledge, a cloak was very valuable. They would sleep in their cloak. It would keep them warm at night. "If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, I want you to return it to him before sun sets because I am gracious. That's who I am. That is my way. I want you to be gracious because I am gracious. I want you to be loving. I want to love your neighbor.
B. The beautiful soul comes from God
I want you to love the orphan. I want you to care for the widow. I want you to have truth in your business. This is the way I am. I want this to be the way you are." It comes because you have abided there in the nearness of God. The beautiful soul comes from God. God wants to do and transform your work in your soul. If He transforms your soul, it will transform your life. People will see it. They'll see your life. On Wednesday, I used the analogy of the moon. The moon has no glory into itself. The moon has no light. It's just dark until the light of the sun comes upon it.
Then on a dark night, you look up, and it's a full moon. It lights up the earth because not of its own light, because it reflects the glory, the light of the sun, and in the same way, it's the glory of God upon our lives that people can see something of God's glory besides the people. Wouldn't it be amazing if somebody could look at your life and say, "What is it about you? What is it? There's something about you. What is that? Something very beautiful, something amazing. What is it?" Wouldn't that be amazing? Then you would know, and you could say, "God did that. God's done something amazing in me. God did that. You know me from before, I was a mess. Look what God did. God did that."
You were reflecting the glory, you're giving glory, you're speaking glory because you met God. You saw how beautiful, God did something beautiful on you. Meet God. He's inviting you to know Him. "I want you to know me. Know me. I want to be Emmanuel to you. Let's walk together in this. This journey of life, let's walk this together. It'll be beautiful. Oh, there'll be hard things. There'll be difficult things, but I'll be there with you." Even through the valley, the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for Thy word with me. "I'll walk with you, and I'll show you My ways, and then you'll know how your ways can be transformed by it."
Let's pray. Lord, we are so thankful, how amazing You are that You have invited us to the place in the nearness of God to behold the beauty, to know His ways. Church, how many would say to the Lord today, "I want to know You more. I want to know You. I want to know Your ways. I want to know the beauty. I want to know the glory. I want to know more of You. I want to walk with You in this journey of life. I want You in it. God, without You in it, it's empty, it's nothing, it's vain. I want You in it. God, that's my heart. That's my soul. I want You. I want to know You."
Church, how many would say that to the Lord as a prayer of your heart? Would you just raise your hand as a way of expressing that prayer to the Lord? "I want to know You more. I want to know Your ways. I want Your ways to be my ways. I want to know the beauty. I want to know the glory. I want to walk with You in this journey." God, we love You and honor You. You've stirred us up. You've drawn us to Yourself. You poured out Your spirit of life, and we give You praise and honor for it. In Jesus' name, and everyone said-- Yes, let's give the Lord praise. Can we do that? Amen.