People in the Know:What Matters Most

 November 9 2025

Jeremiah 9:1-7, 12-13, 23-24

         As I have been studying passages from Jeremiah, I seem to find connections between what the sorrow of Jeremiah and songs with somewhat similar themes. When I meditated on this ninth chapter of Jeremiah, what came to mind is a country western song from back in the nineties. I have no clue why I remembered the song or why I even recalled this song while listening to Jeremiah. Regardless, the lyrics of the song do seem to assist us to make sense of what Jeremiah deems is so tragic.The song is called, “What matters most”, by Ty Herndon. The song is about a man whose girlfriend has left him. Now, he admits that her leaving is solely on him. You see, he knew a lot about her, the blue of her eyes, when and where she was born and even what her favorite song was. He knew what she read, her car and what clothes she liked to wear. Yes, he knew much about her but what he admits is that he had not paid attention to what matters most. So just what is it that matters most? The answer to what matters most is what mattered most to the one he loved, those dreams she dreamed behind closed doors.So, he laments, that when she walked out the door he was left with the cold facts of who she was and nothing more.He simply had not paid attention to what mattered most.

         Now this song seems to capture the same sentiment of Jeremiah because the people he spoke to were the people who were supposed to be in the know about God. Yet, they were much like this man who had lost his girlfriend because they knew much about God, yet, just like the man in the song found out much to late, they simply paid no attention to what mattered most when it came to their relationship with God. You see, much like the girl who had left her boyfriend in tears because he had never taken the time to know her dreams and longings, so too the people who were supposed to be in the know about God did not know the dreams and longings God held in his heart. You see, the people of God simply paid no attention to what mattered most to God. 

         In this series of messages entitled, “People in the Know”, we are looking at the prophet Jeremiah. The reason for this title is that Jeremiah was passionate about the people of God being those who were in the know about God. Did not God’s people remember how God used to be known by his people like a husband is known by his bride. They were to have been people who had a certainty about God for they were supposed to know God as being a God of faithful, loyal love, a God who was quick to hear their cries when they were troubled, and a God who served them by preparing all that they needed for life. Yet, this is not what Jeremiah found among the people who were to be people in the know. No longer did the people live with any certainty about the God they were supposed to be in the know about. Fear gripped their hearts leading them to become puffed up people, gripped by the bad sort of pride. They decided to live without the steady drumbeat of God’s love in their life, they no longer needed to have God fight their battles or provide for them. No, they could go it alone, and so their life was like trying to drink water out of a mud hole instead of tapping into the life-giving water that flows from the throne of God.

         Well, the turning away from God by the people of God had far reaching effects especially when it came to their worship of God. You see, if worship does not proceed from a certainty of God’s love for us, then result is that our relationship with God gets off on the wrong foot. We will offer sacrifices as a means to gain God’s acceptance and approval. Without knowing the abiding love of God, we will be uncertain of how to approach God in order to gain access into his presence, and thus the intimacy of prayer is replaced by deal making, Since the only means of knowing where we stand with God is our circumstances we will let our good fortunes indicate that we are now in God’s good favor. When we become convinced that we now have established our relationship with God then we begin to live in any way that we want because we foolishly believe that God will fulfill our every demand. 

         This way of worshipping God is what Jeremiah had witnessed when he stood at the Temple gate calling his people to come back and know God once again. The people who were to be in the know about God now were found to be breaking the very law that they had once promised to keep. The Ten Commandments were like the marriage vows for God and his bride, Israel, and now Israel had broken every one of them. This was the result of the people of God being no longer certain of the God they were supposed to be in the know about. Jeremiah lays the uncertainty of his people squarely, first at the feet of the priests, who no longer knew where the presence of God was to be found, at the feet of prophets who no longer proclaimed the purposes of God, and at the feet of the rulers, the shepherds who no longer led the people of God on the paths of God. So, the people of God no longer knew where the presence of God is to be found, they no longer remembered the purposes of God and they were no longer walking on the paths God laid out that lead us on to eternal life. 

         Well, as tragic as this was for the people of God all was not lost for as Jeremiah told his audience at the Temple, before God even asked for sacrifices for his people, God spoke to them, asking them to trust and obey his voice. When the people of God would have heard of the voice of God, they would have remembered the command God had given them, that every morning, they were to, “Hear”. They were to know that God was speaking to them from a heart overflowing with love for them. What God told them every morning was that they were to remember that he was one God. Now this to us might mean that our God is the only God out there but there is more to this knowing that our God is one God. What this can also mean is that our God is a God who is whole, undivided and single in his devotion, his love for his people. This is very similar to what the people of Israel were often called by God to have a heart that is whole, undivided and single in its devotion to God. 

         So, even though the people of God had priests, prophets and rulers who were corrupt, they nonetheless, still had their morning prayer reminding them that their God was speaking to them solely out of his love for them. Every morning God called his people to hear his voice and then respond by loving God with all of their heart, all of their soul, and with all that they had been given. So as their God is one with them they in turn were to have one devotion toward their God, a unity of their heart, soul and strength given in love to him. Yet, as good as this might sound, we may be left wondering just how we can show the love of our heart, our soul and our strength to God. The good news is that God has not left something so important to our own whims, hardly, for the way that God calls us to love him is what matters most to God. 

         You see, what matters most to God is matters most to us to brag about, as strange as that might sound. Listen to what is found in the twenty-fourth verse, of the ninth chapter of Jeremiah, “…let the one who boasts boast in this, that they understand me and know me, that I am a God of steadfast love, justice and righteousness in the land. For in these I delight…” When we hear of God’s delight, we can be certain that this is what matters most to him. You see, each new day is a day for each of us to come to understand and know the God who knows us and loves us. We come to know God, not as we come to know Math or English, by cracking open a textbook, but rather as we learn a new skill, through hands-on learning. When God calls us to love him with all of our hearts, the result is that we will love with the same steadfast love as God first loved us. When God calls us to love him with all of our soul or life, the result is that we will be people of justice, just as our God is a God of justice. And as God calls us to love him with all of our strength, the result of loving God this way is that the land will be filled with righteousness. Now we might be at a loss to see how we can get from our love of God to having a life marked by these outcomes so let’s look a little closer at each of these ways that we love God.

         Well, when we love God with all of our heart, what God expects is that we will have a heart that is attuned to the faithful, loyal love of God. In the Hebrew thought, the heart is depicted by two symbols, the inner view of a tent or house, and a shepherds crook. The idea is that our hearts are like our inner shepherd which guides our lives. So, when God calls us to love him with all of our hearts he is saying to us that our hearts are to lead with love. We are to let love, and love alone to guide what we do and where we go throughout our day.

         In much the same manner, when we hear the call of God to love him with all of our soul of life, the result of this love is going to be justice. Justice is ultimately about judgment, and making certain that our judgments are fair and equal for all people. What makes us all equals is that we all have souls, a life given to us by God. So to love God with our life is to judge others worthy of life just as God has first found us worthy of life. This means that we demonstrate the love we have for God for giving us our very soul, our life, is that we then turn and make a choice to give others life. This means that we will be constantly aware, listening and looking for where others are crying out in despair. Just as God is quick to come to our aid, so too are we to do likewise to those around us for we know that this is the way that we love God with all of our soul or life.

         So when we come at last to God’s call for us to love him with all that we have been given, what is called in scriptures as being our strength, we are not surprised that what is expected is that righteousness will be evident in our actions. As God serves us by providing for us all that we need for life, we too are to serve others who stand in need of what they need for life. We are to be those who through our generosity help others keep from being overwhelmed by their anxiety and worry. So, when God becomes made known through our actions, then people are able to have a real certainty that God indeed does love all people.

         What I have just described is what matters most to God. This is what should matter the most to us of we indeed claim to love God with all of our heart, and our soul or life and our strength, all of the stuff that God has given to us. You see, when we allow love to guide us through our day, when we judge all meet as being worthy of life, listening close for those in need of life and when we use what God has provided to us to demonstrate his love to them, we have fulfilled what God has always dreamed that we would do. You see, God’s call to love him is actually a call to make him known to those around us; this is what brings the greatest pleasure to the God who loves us. So when we live as God anticipates we will live as people who can make the outrageous claim that we know God, I mean really know him, because our life is living proof that backs up our boasting.

         You see, God tells us, “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not he powerful man boast in his power, nor let the rich man boast in his riches…” God says that these very normal ways we puff ourselves up are in all reality, nothing to write home about. The reason is that they cannot do what God calls us to do. You see, those who are wise use that wisdom to set them apart from everyone else. Their wisdom separates them from the average bear. The same holds true for power and riches for in each case, when one has a lot of power or riches, these are bragged about because they are now set apart from the average. Now they stand above the crowd, looking down on others. How very different our life is when we boast of knowing God, knowing what really matters most to God. Instead, of being superheated from the rest of humanity, our actions instead unite us together. This should be expected when we are people who are led by the faith, loyal love of God for by his loyalty to us we find that we are at last able to be loyal with one another. And when we judge everyone as being worthy of life then every life takes on a new importance and value. So what we have been given to us can become an answer to someone else’s prayer. We groan in prayer as we hear the groans of those enslaved to fear who long to be set free from their anxiety and worry. We can boast that we now understand and know God because we have gone to the hands-on school that God calls us to attend every day. This is the very dream of God which flows out of his heart into our hearts, to be caught by us, and so lived out by us. When we can boast of understanding and knowing God because have lived as God first loved us, then we can say that we are indeed paying attention to what matters most to God.

         You see, when we at last know what matters most to God we can then realize why the witness of Jeremiah was such a tragedy in the eyes of God. What was so evident was that falsehood and not truth, this is what was growing strong in the land God had promised to his people. The people who were supposed to be in the know about God just went from doing evil to doing more evil. God is right in saying that the people who claimed to know him had absolutely no clue who their God is. This truth becomes more evident when God looks and he sees that everyone has to keep a watch out for their neighbor or else they are in danger of being deceived by them. Even ones brothers or sisters were not able to be trusted. No longer, Jeremiah tells us, does anyone speak the truth for they have all learned to be pretty good at lying. Th only thing that they work real hard at all day long is seeing just how crooked they can be in their dealings with each other. As these people heap oppression upon oppression in their dealings with each other it is clear that not only do they not know God, they further refuse to know God. Just like the man song found out too late, the people of God also found out too late that they should have paid more attention to what matters most to God. You see, we need to know what matters most to God and make sure that what matters most to God, matters most to us. 

         Jeremiah shows us that if we really know God, if we really are aware of what matters most to God then this will be quite evident in the way that we treat each other. Are we filling our days doing activities that raise us above the average or do we spend our days knowing God, being lead by love, judging others worthy of life and sharing life with those in need, a life that unites us together in love. We must ask ourselves everyday, to others know that I know God? Is what matters most to God really what matters most to us? Let us remember, that our lives tell the truth about us! Amen!