31 July 2022 Sunday Morning Service
Bible
Jeremiah 2:9-19
Luke 3:1-20
Jeremiah
2:9 “Therefore I bring charges against you again,” declares the LORD. “And I will bring charges against your children’s children.
2:10 Cross over to the coasts of Kittim and look, send to Kedar and observe closely; see if there has ever been anything like this:
2:11 Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols.
2:12 Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror,” declares the LORD.
2:13 “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
2:14 Is Israel a servant, a slave by birth? Why then has he become plunder?
2:15 Lions have roared; they have growled at him. They have laid waste his land; his towns are burned and deserted.
2:16 Also, the men of Memphis and Pahpanhes have shaved the crown of your head.
2:17 Have you not brought this on yourselves by forsaking the LORD your God when he led you in the way?
2:18 Now why go to Egypt to drink water from the Shihor? And why go to Assyria to drink water from the River?
2:19 Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the LORD your God and have no awe of me,” declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.
Luke
3:1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar–when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene–
3:2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert.
3:3 He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
3:4 As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.
3:5 Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth.
3:6 And all mankind will see God’s salvation.'”
3:7 John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
3:8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.
3:9 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
3:10 “What should we do then?” the crowd asked.
3:11 John answered, “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.”
3:12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”
3:13 “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them.
3:14 Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely–be content with your pay.”
3:15 The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ.
3:16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
3:17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
3:18 And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them.
3:19 But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the other evil things he had done,
3:20 Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison.