Kendra and I recently helped her parents–Ken and Nelda–celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. Ken and Nelda met in the Midland/Odessa, TX area. He was a fresh-faced and muscled Army man. She was an attractive and confident office worker. They dated four months. Then Ken popped the question. Nelda’s “Yes!” launched a world tour, as Ken’s army career took them from state to state and country to country. Their love endured numerous moves, long separations due to war, and the challenges of cancer and multiple sclerosis. Fifty years after their wedding day, their children, childhood friends, siblings, in-laws, neighbors, nephews and nieces crowded into the backyard of Ken and Nelda’s stucco home in sunny Phoenix. Kendra’s brother smoked beef ribs, brisket, and pulled pork in a smoker the size of a swimming pool. A cake fashioned in the shape of the earth was presented–a flag waving proudly from each place on that globe where Ken and Nelda had lived. The back porch was filled with portable tables and folding chairs. Family members shared stories and laughed. Nelda cried for joy. Ken smiled and shook hands. My daughter Jordan and my brother’s son Joshua provided entertainment. Before we ate, we held hands in a giant circle and thanked God for the blessing of this marriage and a love that had lasted fifty years. What a joy it was to celebrate this love!
Our text this morning reveals that God has a love worth celebrating. God has a love that endures what seems unbearable. God has a love that makes fifty years look like a day: “If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man’s wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? declares the Lord. 2 Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been ravished? By the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers like an Arab in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your vile whoredom. 3 Therefore the showers have been withheld, and the spring rain has not come; yet you have the forehead of a whore; you refuse to be ashamed. 4 Have you not just now called to me, ‘My father, you are the friend of my youth— 5 will he be angry forever, will he be indignant to the end?’ Behold, you have spoken, but you have done all the evil that you could.” 6 The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? 7 And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8 She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. 9 Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree.10 Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord.” 11 And the Lord said to me, “Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. (Jer. 3:1-11 ESV).
God is speaking to two groups of people. One is called Judah. The other is called Israel. This was at a time when there had been civil war among the people of God. They had split into a northern kingdom–Israel, and a southern kingdom–Judah. And God uses the image of marriage to describe how much he loved them both. God loved Israel as passionately as any groom has ever loved a bride. But Israel turned away. She had another love. She “went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore” (v. 7). This is a reference to idol worship. God gave his heart to the people of Israel. But the people of Israel gave their hearts to other gods. Israel had another love. And it broke God’s heart.
Israel’s sister Judah saw Israel’s passion for things besides God. She saw God’s heartbreak. Thus, you’d think, sister Judah would have learned a lesson. But, just like her sister, Judah had another love. She “played the whore with many lovers” (v. 1), “committing adultery with stone and tree” (v. 9). This is another reference to idol worship. God gave his heart to the people of Judah. But Judah gave hear heart to other gods. Judah had another love.
In his book Counterfeit Gods Timothy Keller illustrates how this story of unrequited love plays out in our lives today. Kellers describes how God has a heart for us. But we have a heart for at least three other gods: money, sex and power. Keller argues that these modern idols get most of our passion today. Keller defines an idol in this way: “anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God…” Keller argues that God has given his heart to us. But we have given our heart to money, sex or power. We have another love. And it breaks God’s heart.
Yet nothing, not even our other loves, keeps God from loving us: 12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, “‘Return, faithless Israel, declares the Lord. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the Lord; I will not be angry forever. 13 Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the Lord your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the Lord. 14 Return, O faithless children, declares the Lord; for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. 15 “‘And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. (Jer. 3:12-15 ESV)
God asks Jeremiah to face north. North is the direction into which Israel was dragged away when the nation of Assyria invaded her. Israel gave her heart to pagan gods. So God allowed a pagan nation—Assyria—to drag the people of Israel away to the north. Nonetheless, God speaks to her through Jeremiah. “I still love you. Just admit that what you did was wrong, and I’ll take you back. We can return to the way things once were. Not even your other love can keep me from loving you.”
It’s a stunning plea. Though Israel has another love, God wants her back. God’s heart still beats for her.
And God’s heart still beats for us. Though we have other loves, God’s love for us never fades. Though we’ve been dragged away into bondage by the gods of money, sex and power, God still loves us. His passion for us still burns. And just as he did through Jeremiah, so now through Jesus God faces north and he pleads with us: “I still love you. Just admit that what you did was wrong, and I’ll take you back. We can return to the way things once were. Not even your other love can keep me from loving you.”
It would be tempting to end this Bible love-story here. But there’s more to explore. The story doesn’t end with us returning to God, being washed in his love, and glowing radiantly in the warmth of his love. The story doesn’t end with us gathering for worship on Sundays and singing of God’s great love. The story doesn’t end with us waking each morning and reading God’s love letters to us. There’s more to the story. Because, as it turns out, God has another love: 16 And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the Lord, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again. 17 At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart. (Jer. 3:16-17 ESV)
God has another love. Yes, he loves Judah. Yes, he loves Israel. Yes, he loves you. But his heart beats for more. His heart also beats for the nations. God dreams of the day when “all nations” shall gather to him and “they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart.”
Jesus alludes to this text in Matt. 8:5-13—the core text for this Sunday morning series. Last Sunday, Eric showed us how in Matt. 8 Jesus paints an image of a God who has invited nations from the east and west to recline at his table with him. Jesus speaks of a God who has another love. His heart beats for us. But it also beats for the nations. He longs for us to share the table with him. But he also longs for the nations—from east to west—to share that table. And when Jesus paints that image in Matt. 8, he’s using the colors provided by texts like Jer. 3.
In Jeremiah 3, God envisions a time when Judah and Israel become a people through whom the nations encounter God. 16 And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the Lord, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again. 17 At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart. (Jer. 3:16-17 ESV) God envisions a time when he woos the nations to himself through Judah and Israel.
And the love relationship God forms with the nations will be one that isn’t limited by cold rituals and relics like the Ark of the Covenant. This sacred box contained copies of the Ten Commandments and represented the presence of God. This ark was carried into battle around Jericho. Solomon brought this ark into his temple and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. The ark was the symbolic presence of God. But now God envisions a time when he is so present through his people that the Ark is no longer needed. God’s people become the presence of God. God’s people become the means by which all nations are won to God’s everlasting love. God has another love. And he means to partner with us to reach that love.
One of the ways in which God is partnering with Highland to reach that other love is through our ministry in the Philippines. Oh, how God loves the 92 million people of the Philippines! Oh, how God longs for them to be at his table! And God is using our ministry in the Philippines to share his love with them.
Several months ago some Highlanders travelled to see our work in the Philippines first hand. We asked them to share on video some of what they experienced. We’ll watch that video in a moment. Then Highland’s Women’s Minister Lawana Maxwell will share her own testimony. Lawana has travelled to our Philippines mission site twice and is on the phone with our missionaries in the Philippines about once a month. She’s has seen first-hand how God is reaching his other love—the Philippines—through Highland. First, let’s watch this video and then we’ll hear from Lawana.
One of the ways God is partnering with Highland to reach other loves like the Philippines is through our Outreach Contribution. Our biannual Outreach Contribution funds more than twenty of Highland’s ministries to the needy, the nations and our neighbors.
• It makes possible ministries to the needy like 1) LaRose Elementary—a downtown school we’ve adopted; 2) Agape Child and Family Services—an organization blessing children and families in the Mid-South; 3) Families in Transition—a ministry providing resources to homeless and pregnant women; 4) HopeWorks—an organization providing training and empowerment to the unemployed; 5) Lifeline—a ministry to those who come to Highland with financial needs; and 6) Member Services—a ministry which helps Highland members who have financial needs.
• The Outreach Contribution makes possible ministries to the nations like the 1) Melanesian Bible College in Papua New Guinea which trains church leaders and helps start new churches; 2) the ministry of Nathan and Karen Luther in the Philippines who work with the Shiloh Christian School and numerous congregations; 3) the Ministry of Theological Education which helps equip church leaders in mission churches; 4) the Ukrainian Education Center—a ministry to students and young adults in Kiev; 5) the Bila Tserkva Church of Christ which Highland helped start; 6) World Bible School—which teaches the Bible to interested people around the world; 7) Harding School of Theology which trains church planters, missionaries and other Christian leaders; and 8) funds for a new global missions work.
• It makes possible ministries to our neighbors like 1) Macon Hall Elementary—a local school we’ve adopted; 2) LeBonheur Children’s Hospital where we’ve adopted the NICU; 3) Soma—the campus ministry at the University of Memphis; 4) Tennessee Children’s Home; 5) Paragould Children’s Home; 6) Sunnybrook Children’s Home; and 7) Timothy Hill Children’s Ranch.
When you give $151,000 on April 28, you make these ministries possible. You allow God’s presence to become known in places all around the world.
One way to show your love for God’s other love is to give on that Sunday. But there’s something you can do this week. One of the most practical ways of showing love for a person or a group is to pray for them. This week I want to urge you to pray every day for every one of our ministries to the nations. This is part of the way we serve others—one of the four things we focus on at Highland. This week serve others, share God’s love for the nations, by praying for Highland’s ministries to the nations. Let’s close by doing that very thing:
Papua New Guinea (MBC & Clinic)
Luthers/Philippines (Ministry & U. S. Travel)
Ministry of Theological Education
Ukraine (UEC)
Bila Tserkva (Ministry and Building Fund)
World Bible School
Harding School of Theology
Vision 2018 New Global Work
Mission Travel Assistance Fund
Missions Contingency Fund
