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How's everybody today? It's great to see y'all. I can always tell when it's time for me to start because like everything's kind of a lull. Y'all throw your pie plate away and everybody turns to look. So I thought, uh-oh, I must be on. Hey, great to see y'all. I just want to thank y'all again for coming and be a part, being a part of uh of things that we enjoy Tuesday, and and uh I enjoy getting a chance to catch up with you guys, and I know y'all enjoy each other and guys at your table. So I just want to say thank you for you guys being here. It's a joy to be here, and also thanks for letting me uh have this extra shot at um our chronological readings every week. So it's really fun to kind of do and and uh be a part of that. It's fun to be able to catch up on some of the readings. The hardest part about this chronological reading is, and I knew it was going to be this way in my head, but I didn't know how hard it was actually gonna be an experience. You read three chapters a day, and you got 20, that's an average of 21 chapters a week. And I get one Sunday a week. So you think in 21 chapters, that's like 42 sermons that week I could have had that I got a walk past, you know. And so it I knew in my head that was gonna be really hard, but I'm telling you, there are some weeks it's really difficult. Like there's a lot of stuff that we leave on the table, and so it's really a blessing that you guys are supportive in being here, and I get at least a second bite at the apple during the week, you know, and so that's that's a really help. So thank you guys for being here. I just want to say that. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for today. Thank you for, I do thank you for our guys, and I thank you for the chance we have to come and encourage each other. I thank you for our uh team in there that makes lunch every week, and what a blessing it is just to be able to sit down and have a meal together, uh catch up, encourage each other during the week. And so thank you for our staff in there and how they make this possible. And I pray your blessings on them as they cook, as they serve, as they clean up afterwards and all the things that they do. Thank you for them and ask your blessings on them. We now ask that you teach us from your word, you be our teacher, and guide us through this chapter in Jeremiah. We thank you most of all, of all the things we have to be grateful for, we thank you most of all for salvation that comes through Jesus and what that means to us today. So we pray in his name, and everybody said, Amen. Well, as we uh as we plow through uh Jeremiah, it is kind of fun, the chronological reading. We had the stress part of that on what are we gonna focus on, but it is kind of fun because we have time to stop and do stories like the one today. This is not one you're normally going to run to on Sunday mornings or whatever, here in Jeremiah 35. But it is a great, it's a great story. It's a great truth in it, it's a great picture, and it's one of those things that's nice to stop and look at. So here's the story in Jeremiah 35. We'll read some of it, but in a nutshell, here's what happens. Jeremiah's been telling the children of Israel, God's gonna judge you, Babylon's gonna come and overtake you, he's gonna give you into their hands, and you're gonna be taken into captivity for 70 years because you all just kept blowing it. I've asked you to follow, I've given you the instructions, the commands, you're not following, you won't listen, you're not committed, you're not obeying, and I've sent all these prophets to challenge you and to tell you what you're doing wrong, and you just you just don't get it. You're not obeying. And so we're gonna we're gonna have a period of judgment now because of that. So that's what happens. In the midst of that, there's a group of people, sort of a tribe, if you will. Uh here they're referred to as the Rekabites, and they come from a family, we'll do some history in a minute, but um, and they have been faithful to their culture as a family. Uh they come from a group called the Kenites, and we met them originally in the Old Testament with Moses' father-in-law. So you remember when his father-in-law calls him in and says, You're working your fingers to the bone because you're working harder, not smarter. And so you need to set some people out to do some of these judge things and create a structure. You got to lead these people. This is how leadership works. And so he taught him that. And then we would see them periodically throughout. They became a nomadic, extended family, tribe, if you will, and they were shepherds and they would move around and they built relationships with the Israelites, and we would see them show up in the stories periodically. You remember when we did some of the judges, we talked about the judge Barak and Deborah, and Barak was the general, and remember, they, God raised them up to go defeat this pagan king, and the general was cowardly and he wouldn't go. And Deborah, the judge, kept having to make him go, and finally God says, You're not going to get to conquer the king, I'm going to give him to a woman. And you'll remember this story where the king is running away from the Israelites, he's running for his life, and he shows up at a tent, uh, and there is a woman there who takes him in. Y'all remember this story, and he's exhausted. So she instead of giving him water, gives him warm milk, lets him lay down and take a nap, and while he's laying there, she takes a tent peg and nails his head to the ground with a tent peg. Y'all remember this story? That's this people group. That's this group right here, the Kenites, and she was a part of that. And so that's what happened. And so then we saw him later. There's a guy named uh Jonadab that shows up in the time where they're cleaning up after all the evil of Ahab. And he joins a general named Jehu and goes with them, and they're killing all these false prophets and cleaning up the mess of Ahab. Well, he's gonna show up here in this story. They have been faithful to their culture, and they have remained these people that did that all through. And so God instructs Jeremiah to invite them to the temple as a tribe, right? And that's what's gonna happen. He's going to set up the picture of what faithful obedience looks like, of what commitment looks like. And so, what we're gonna see here is the importance that God places on commitment. So, this in this story here, the group of people are called the Rekhabites, Rekabites. So, because of all the battles and because of Babylon and all these people attacking the Kenites or the Rechabites, they move their tribe into Jerusalem to try to avoid these evil kings that are conquering everybody. And while they're there in Jerusalem, the Bible tells Jeremiah, go to the house of the Rechabites, speak with them, and bring them to the temple and offer them wine to drink, which is kind of a weird sort of instruction. And now we get here to verse five. And so Jeremiah says, I set jars filled with wine and some cups before the sons of the house of the Rechabites, and I said to them, Drink wine. So he's creating this kind of a host sort of a deal. But there's more to it than that. They replied to Jeremiah, We do not drink wine, for Jonadab, son of our ancestor Rechab, commanded, you and your sons must never drink wine. And then he goes on to say, Jonadab told him this you must not build a house or sow seed or plant a vineyard. Those things are not for you. Rather, you must live in tents your whole life, so you may live a long time on the soil where you stay as a temporary resident. We have obeyed the voice of Jonadab, son of our ancestor Rechab, in all that he commanded us, so we have not drunk wine our whole life. We, our wives, our sons, and our daughters. We also have not built houses to live in, and we do not have a vineyard, field, or seed, but we have lived in tents and have obeyed and done as our ancestor Jonadab commanded us. And now we find out why. When this experience happens in the temple, right in front of everybody, we find out that God and Jeremiah have set this up as an object lesson in front of all the people. They have them do this in public right here in the temple, and they say, no, we're not doing that. And we find out that God has set them up as an object lesson of what committed obedience looks like. And he's now going to point out that's what it looks like, and y'all have not obeyed like that. This is what I've asked you to do, and you haven't done that. So here's where we pick up the story. When Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched into the land, we said, Come, let's go into Jerusalem. These are the Rechabites, to get away from the Chaldean and Aramaean army. So we have been living here in Jerusalem. And now we get, Jeremiah tells everybody, this is what the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, says. And we were taught by our ancestors and our dad and our dad before him and our dad before him. Over 200 years, scholars tell us they've been doing it this way. And we're not doing that because that's not who we are. We're not going to do that. We are committed to our lifestyle, to our commands, to our philosophy of life, to how we believe life works. We are committed to that and we follow that. And then God says, Y'all see that? That's what committed obedience looks like, and y'all are not that. I have persistently, continually called you to obey, and you have not done that, and because of that, we're going to exercise judgment. And God has literally created this story and created this moment as the object lesson that he expects a committed lifestyle of obedience, and the Israelites have not done that. And that's why they're about to be conquered by Babylon and taken into captivity because they're doing life how they want to and not the way God has commanded them. And so when we come to the Christian life, we have to realize we have made a commitment. We have made a covenant with God that we have surrendered our life to Him and it is His. And what that requires of us is a committed, consistent, effort-driven lifestyle of living the way God has called us to live. We don't get to do what we want to do. It's not our life anymore. We talk about this a lot, but it's sort of the foundation of the gospel. How do you give your life to Christ? How do you become a Christian? The Bible tells us in Romans chapter 10. If you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. We start with that idea of the resurrection. We realize I'm a sinner, my sins punished. Jesus stepped out of heaven, he went to the cross, he lived a sinless life, and he voluntarily went to the cross so his life could be a substitute for mine. His death could be a substitute for mine, because there's no judgment attached to it. And then he rose again, conquering death and sin, having paid the judgment of God to offer us new life. And so when we come, the first thing you have to do as a Christian is believe that that's true. That Jesus did pay the price for our sins. He did rise again, and we're placing our faith and trust in him and what he did on the cross. But it's not just that, it is also the fact that you must confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. And that is a picture of I am surrendering my life to him. One of the pastors at Bellevue, when I was a kid, where I grew up, used to say all the time, you have given your life in fee simple to Jesus. And real estate people know what that is, lawyers know what that is. Fee simple, that was the way they used to describe that when you conveyed a piece of property, when you sold it to someone else, you no longer had no more rights into that property. It was not yours anymore. They owned it, lock, stock, and barrel. It was gone, it was given away, it was sold, it was transferred in fee simple, and that means they are the sole owners of that land, and you have no more authority in that land whatsoever. And he used to say all the time, you've given your life and fee simple to Jesus. And so what that means is you got no more opportunity to control your life anymore. It is now Jesus' life. He is the Lord of your life, and you are living in a committed structure of obedience to him and his commands and how it works. And God demands that, expects that. That's what it means. All throughout the New Testament, you see all these passages where he says, you used to be, and then he would describe all these sins, you used to be that. And so he is, that's why this judgment is serious with the children of Israel, and God literally goes to this theatrical exercise of putting on this object lesson to show that's what obedient looks like, and you guys are not there. Like that's what he shows. So then the next question becomes how do you do that? Well, how so how do we apply that in our lives? Obedience is not a happenstance. We don't wander our way into obedience. It is the result of an intentional commitment and intentional effort. And that's why you get details in this story. It's fun when you read this chapter, they go over and over and over with this business about don't drink wine and don't plant gardens and you know, wander through and live as a nomad, you know, over and over, and they repeat this over and over and over and over. And so, why is he repeating all of that? Part of this object lesson is to teach us what obedience is and how we do it. And he is elevating them as an example of what obedience looks like. And so he gives us this is the command of the patriarch Jonadab that he gives. And generation after generation after generation, they have been faithful to that, therefore they have been in committed obedience to what their father says. Now, God is not setting up, when you read this, God is not setting up that you have to live in tents and you can't drink wine, you can't do all that. That's not the point. When he honors them, he says, Because you have obeyed the command of Jonadab your father and kept all his precepts and done all that he commanded, God is blessing them because of the illustration of committed obedience. He's not saying that those are God's words, he is saying that you are this illustration, and because of that I'm going to bless you. And so he shows how we live in committed obedience. And so here's just some ideas I want you to take from that. First of all, obedience begins with a sense of identity. Now, how often do they say, I mean, over and over in here, we are the descendants of Jonadab, who is the descendant of Rechab, and this is what they told us to do. I mean, over and over and over, it's repeating that. Then when God speaks to the children of Israel, he says, this is the word of the God of armies, the Lord of hosts. He's continually repeating who he is. And what he's trying to help them understand is identity begins, is the foundation that begins the journey of obedience. You have to realize I am a blood-bought child of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. I have been adopted into the family of God because Jesus shed his blood for me. He died for me. He paid the ransom for my sin. He paid the price for my sin. I am his. He has purchased my life with his blood. And my identity now is I'm no longer Greg. I am Prince John Gregory Addison of the King of Kings and the Lord of the Lords, and I am that because I was bought with a price. And the price was Jesus shed blood on the cross. And so it's not my life anymore. I don't have a right to be just Greg and do whatever I wanted to do. My identity is I am a Christian. I am a follower of Christ. I am purchased with his blood. In the same way that they are, they are Rechabites. They are the descendants of Jonadab. They are the descendants of Rechab. They have this history and identity, and this is who we are, and therefore this is what we do. I've told you this before, I've shared this story before. This is what my dad used to say all the time. I'm so glad that I was a parent in the in the in the late 90s and 2000s and not in the 70s and 80s, like many of you were parents then. I mean, I don't know, I don't know that I could have done what my parents did. My dad would give me keys to his car or mom's car before he ever bought me some Jalopy that's the high school car, right? Like we all probably all had some hoopty when we were in high school. But before that, he would give me the keys to mom's car, which was an expensive family car, you know, all that. And I would leave the house at 5 o'clock or 5.30, and I would expect it to be home at midnight, and they had no idea where I was. They had no way to track me. And they would sit there, and then when it was 5 till 12, they would start watching, is Greg gonna make it at midnight or not? And they had no idea where we are. Y'all remember these days, right? I mean, it was like you, it was an act of faith to let your kids go out on a date. You had no idea where they were. They would tell you where they were, but you can't, you couldn't track in those days, right? Y'all remember that, right? I mean, I don't know that I had the, I don't know that I could have done that. I mean, I have good kids, and I don't know that I still could have trusted them to do that. My parents did, but my dad would tell me, he would hold out the keys, and I would reach for them, and he would pull them back, and he would say, Listen, you know who you are. When you walk out of this house, you carry two names with you. You are an Addison and you are a Christian. And it has cost us a lot and decades to build a testimony for both. And you walk out of here with our testimony in your hands, and don't you mess it up. And I and then he'd give me the car keys. I mean, it was intimidating. My dad was an intimidating dude, man. He was a 6'3, tall, fearsome looking guy. He was a national vice president in his company, and he tore people apart for a living and whatever, and he was this country dude from Osaka, Mississippi, and so he had that vibe, and then he was also this brilliant PhD level chemist and all that. It was like he was intimidating in every way. He was a great dad, loved us, but it was he was that way. And people used to say this about dads, they'd go, Man, my dad was tough. It was my way, or the highway. That's what he told us, my way. Or the highway. And I'd say, Your dad's a wimp. We didn't get the highway option in my house. It was only dad's way. And when he said, Don't you take our name out there and drag it through the mud and mess it up, that was an identity thing. He was teaching obedience through teaching the importance of understanding who you are. One of the most fundamental things that we understand as a Christian is who we are in Jesus. And when he is lauding and validating and honoring this form of obedience, he is teaching the people, you have not understood who you are as the people of God, as the people of Israel. When God keeps repeating, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, and the God of armies, and thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, and he repeats that over and over and over. He's trying to say, this is the identity of who you're supposed to be, and you are not living in that identity. You are not who you are. And obedience in a committed fashion begins with understanding who we are, what our identity is and who we are. And then the next thing, it has a structure. They have a specific plan. Now, whether this is how your family lives or not, they knew how their family lived. You don't drink wine, you don't plant vineyards, you're not farmers, you are shepherds, we are living in tents, we are on nomads, this is what we do. This is who we are, this is how we do this, right? And this is the structure that you're going to live under. And so obedience means that you are structuring your life. You know what the commands are, you own the commands, you memorize the commands, you structure your life to follow the commands. You are pursuing those commands. There is a structure to life. I used to tell single adults when I was a singles pastor all the time. That was a hard, that was a great time in life, but it was also hard. If you think about it, they have very little accountability or structure. They're 25 years old. Their boss knows if they show up to work or not, but other than that, they got money, they got freedom. Mom and dad don't know where they are. They are doing however they want to do. If they want to go have a steak after work, they don't have to call their wife and go, hey, sweetheart, the fellows want me to go have a burger after work. Is that okay? Do we have anything going on? They don't have any of that accountability and structure in life. They're free, right? And they can do whatever. And that's a struggle because if you don't have to do these things, there is a positive effect in life that happens when you have roots and you have structure. God's word, when he's talking about discipleship, so much of that is structure. Pursue this, don't do that. Put your mind on this, take every thought captive, stay away from these things. Flee temptation, resist the devil, pursue this, do this, pray this way, put on the armor of God. There is a structure to living the Christian life. And you cannot live it effectively without being in God's word, finding out the structure, being obedient to it. Psalm 119, how does a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to your word. We have to take the structure of Scripture and follow it. We have to build it into our lives. You cannot just show up at church or show up at this thing and do how you want to and be like that's living the Christian life. There's a structure to it. And so we see a structure, and they're following that structure because they have a structure and they know what they're supposed to do, they know how they're supposed to do it, and they follow it because they're Rechabites. And then this whole thing involves a lot of build a positive direction and stay away from the negative direction. And so this deal about being nomads and live as pilgrims on this land, all that kind of, they're doing that. Don't grow farms, don't sink roots in that spot. He is keeping them away from things like the city. Because all this stuff happens in the city. You remember the story of Lot and Abraham, and they get to the land of Canaan and where they're going to stake their tents. And Abraham gives Lot his nephew the choice. And the Bible says that Lot planted his tents and all that in the direction of Sodom and Gomorrah. He put himself where he could see that, he was close to that, he had access to that. And before you know it, you find Lot living in Sodom and Gomorrah. He's a part of that, of those cities, he's a part of the culture of that, and then that's a problem. And God brings judgment on them. They were so evil, but he was there, and his family is at risk because of that. He left open the opportunity to be tempted by that. And so many people in today's world, we leave open the opportunities for temptation. The Bible tells us, resist the devil, because he's a defeated enemy, but it says flee temptation. Jesus said, you stay out of temptation because your heart may be right, but your flesh is weak and you're going to give in. I gave you on your sheet just a few of examples of those scripture, but the Bible repeats over and over. You pursue and engage with godly things and you flee temptation. You stay away from it because our nature is to give in. And we are weak in those areas of temptation. This right here. Or your iPad. You get your phone out, you know. The all manner of evil you can get in apps and do right here. And we leave this open and we have to deal with this in so many ways, and then there's temptation that flows from all that. It's just frightening. We give 14-year-old boys raging with hormones, going into puberty, access to all the porn in the world, right? It's just, it's, we just, we just do so many things that are like we just blindly do it because the world does it, and we don't teach what we're supposed to be teaching. And so, as granddads, you need to be reminding your sons and daughters, this is how you create obedience. This is the this is the how-to right here. So, granddads, you need to be doing that. Dads, you need to be teaching your kids this. You need to be teaching your kids that are teaching your grandkids how to do this. That this is how obedience works. It's not an accident. It doesn't happen by happenstance. It happens through effort and planning and work. That's how we grow and obey. And then finally, God rewards obedience. Why do we work that hard? Because God blesses that. I love that. I mean, how much are we like that? I have spoken to you, comma, persistently, comma, but you have not listened to me. But then the children of Rechabot, the Rechabites, because he could use them as an example to teach what obedience was and commitment was, because you have obeyed the command of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done all that he commanded you. Therefore, and then he puts his thumbprint on this again, says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, when he tells Jeremiah to say that, that is God saying, Y'all better listen to me. I'm putting my thumbprint on this promise. And then he says, Jonadab the son of Rechab, not that generation, but Jonadab who started this, Jonadab who taught this, Jonadab who established identity for his family, Jonadab who gave the structure of how to do it, Jonadab who taught them to follow that, Jonadab who taught them with such clarity and passion and focus and ability. It was a strong enough teaching that it created an identity that lasted for generations. Jonadab will never not have progeny on the earth because of his work. I mean, that's incredible. God blesses that. I mean, when you think about that, that is an awesome thing. Can you imagine the promise that there'll be a little Addison running around somewhere on the planet until Jesus comes back? Like, how cool is that, right? It may be frightening for the world around us. I don't know. But it's awesome. That's God's blessing for being obedient, for being committed in obedience. And it's just one of those things that when we get our minds around, God blesses us when we live to our identity. And when we do the effort to structure our lives to pursue Him, God blesses that pursuit and He blesses that commitment. So I hope that's an encouragement to you. That's a great picture in Scripture right there to walk through. Let me pray for us. Lord, we thank you for today. Thank you for our time together again. Thank you for these men, and thank you for being faithful. Father, I pray your blessings on them. And I pray, Father, that you'll engage them. I pray that you'll give them the kind of fruit in their families that Jonadab had in his. We pray these things in Jesus' name. And everybody said Hey, great to see you guys today.