Preaching, Update

For the last week or so, I've been working on my sermon for this Sunday.  I've decided to go with the text of Jeremiah 2:11-13.

Has a nation changed its gods,

even though they are no gods?

But my people have changed their glory

for that which does not profit.

Be appalled, O heavens, at this;

be shocked, be utterly desolate,

declares the LORD,

for my people have committed two evils:

they have forsaken me,

the fountain of living waters,

and hewed out cisterns for themselves,

broken cisterns that can hold no water.

What really jumped out at me from this passage is verse 11- "My people have changed their glory for that which does not profit."  Isaiah 60 tells us that their glory is God Himself.  So just like in Romans 1, when humanity "exchanges the glory of the immortal God for images," here the people of Israel exchange the glory of God for that which does not profit-- the fountain of living water in exchange for broken cisterns.  Do you see what the implications of verse 11 are?  If the charge is that they exchanged their glory for what does not profit, the obvious implication is: "Pursue the glory that profits!"  It's Christian hedonism, and its everywhere you look.  So my sermon on Sunday is going to be all about this glory that profits.  The title of the sermon is, "Fountains, Faith, and Fullness: Pursuing the Glory that Profits."