Make a U-Turn Before It's Too Late

Sermon Starter:  Make a U-Turn Before It's Too Late
Text:  Jeremiah 18:11, 18:15
Purpose:  To show Christians the progression of sin's deceit and encourage believers to turn back to the Lord.

Introduction.

I.  The Progression of Sin  [c.f., Jeremiah 2:32; 3:21; 6:16; Malachi 2:8]

All sin goes through a progression; as we continually give in to our habits, our vices, our wrong desires, our evil ways, our hidden faults - sin begins to entangle itself around our heart.  Every sin has the potential to poison us.  If we continue to go down the dark path of our own devices, we will find our heart growing colder and colder toward Jesus.  Here is the progression:  Jeremiah 18:15-16

     A. Forsaking or forgetting God.  All sin begins with the basic step of forsaking His ways and His laws.  The people of Israel had decided to forsake the Lord; they forgot Him in their daily walk and they forgot to meet with Him and get to know Him.  Once we forget God, we move on to ...

     B.  Worshipping something else.  Sin is not committed only once; its purpose is to change our hearts so that sin is committed again and again.  What happens as we habitually revisit the same sins perpetually?  We are worshipping at the altar of our man made idol.  Once we have fallen in love with an idol, we may ...

     C.  Cause others to stumble.  Sin does not just affect me; the secret sins are the worst.  We work all the time to hide them, but all the while - we are leading ourselves and others away from the Lord.  Even if we don't deliberately tell someone to watch a bad movie, the bad movie may affect us so much that people can no longer see Christ in us.  Many other examples could be cited. 

     D.  Walk continually in the wrong way. Just because something is new doesn't make it bad; however, the best kept truths are ones that have existed for thousands of  years as revealed to us in the Holy Bible.   It is these truths that Satan will attack and that false idols will keep us away from. 

     E.  Desolation.  Desolation is always the end of sin; often times, God doesn't have to do anything.  Our sin destroys us, brings us enormous guilt, and causes us to hate the very thing that we have done.  In fact, a part of us may die.  (2 Samuel 13:15) 

In other instances, such as Jeremiah 18:16, we will find ourselves outside the protection of God as a laughing stock amongst others.  This sin could literally kill us; make a U-turn!  Turn back to the Lord.


II. The Promise of God.  Jeremiah 18:7-8.  [c.f., Ezekiel 33:14]

While it is true that this portion of scripture is speaking primarily of the ways of God among the Jews or among other nations, nations are made up of individuals.  Surely in many ways, the way He deals with nations is similar to the way He deals with people.

God proclaims that if He has decided to destroy a nation, His anger can be reversed through one step:  a.  Turn from their evil.  This means, to turn not only our hearts, love, and affection away, but to turn our lives away.  We shall no longer look at sin, consider sin, entertain sin, love sin, or do sin. 

Conclusion.