The passage

1Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people. 23This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, 24but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord.

Also referenced today

The shape of the message

1. Jeremiah’s heartbreak and tears over a sinful people
2. God’s assessment: refusing to acknowledge him and the moral collapse that follows
3. God’s visiting: refining, correction, and punishment tied to persistent sin
4. The coming calamity and the call to mourn
5. True boasting: not in wisdom, strength, or riches but in knowing the Lord
6. Outward ritual versus inward reality: circumcision of the heart and false confidence

Questions to hold while you listen

• Where do you most feel the tension Jeremiah felt—anger at sin and compassion for people—and what would it look like to speak truth with a broken heart?
• How have you seen “failure to acknowledge God” affect the way people treat each other, as Jeremiah 9 describes?
• What do you most want people to admire about you: wisdom, power, kindness, or riches, and how does that compare with God’s priority in Jeremiah 9:23–24?
• What forms of external religiosity can become a false confidence, and what would “internal reality rather than external religiosity” look like in everyday life?
• Jeremiah 9 lists reasons for suffering tied to forsaking God; which of the five grievances stands out to you as most pressing to repent of?

Notes

This week

Set aside hypocrisy, sophistication, and the illusion of being “smart,” and watch for ways you boast in achievements rather than walking to glorify God. Aim to practice kindness, justice, and righteousness in a way that reflects knowing and fearing the Lord.