27 February 2022 Sunday Morning Service

Bible
Jeremiah 7:1-26
1 John 5:1-21

Jeremiah
7:1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
7:2 “Stand at the gate of the LORD’S house and there proclaim this message: “‘Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the LORD.
7:3 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place.
7:4 Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!”
7:5 If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly,
7:6 if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm,
7:7 then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever.
7:8 But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.
7:9 “‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known,
7:10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”–safe to do all these detestable things?
7:11 Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the LORD.
7:12 “‘Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.
7:13 While you were doing all these things, declares the LORD, I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer.
7:14 Therefore, what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears my Name, the temple you trust in, the place I gave to you and your fathers.
7:15 I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did all your brothers, the people of Ephraim.’
7:16 “So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you.
7:17 Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
7:18 The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes of bread for the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger.
7:19 But am I the one they are provoking? declares the LORD. Are they not rather harming themselves, to their own shame?
7:20 “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: My anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground, and it will burn and not be quenched.
7:21 “‘This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves!
7:22 For when I brought your forefathers out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices,
7:23 but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you.
7:24 But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.
7:25 From the time your forefathers left Egypt until now, day after day, again and again I sent you my servants the prophets.
7:26 But they did not listen to me or pay attention. They were stiff-necked and did more evil than their forefathers.’

1 John
5:1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
5:2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.
5:3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,
5:4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
5:5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
5:6 This is the one who came by water and blood–Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
5:7 For there are three that testify:
5:8 the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.
5:9 We accept man’s testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son.
5:10 Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son.
5:11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
5:12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
5:13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
5:14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
5:15 And if we know that he hears us–whatever we ask–we know that we have what we asked of him.
5:16 If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that.
5:17 All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.
5:18 We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.
5:19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.
5:20 We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true–even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
5:21 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.