![\"Polluted](\"http:\/\/www.all-creatures.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/lambleft.jpg\")
<\/a>A Sermon Delivered to<\/p>\n
The Compassion Internet Church<\/p>\n
24 November 2013<\/p>\n
Frank L. Hoffman, Pastor<\/p>\n
Scripture References:<\/p>\n
Jeremiah 23:1-12
\nColossians 1:9-20<\/p>\n
Polluted clergy (pastors \u2013 priests \u2013 prophets) are one of the major problems in Christianity and other religions today, for God\u2019s heavenly will for their lives has been polluted with the corrupted and ungodly ways of the world.<\/p>\n
This happens in the same way that good drinking water can become polluted with sewage.<\/p>\n
These polluted clergy (pastors \u2013 priests \u2013 prophets) make people spiritually sick, just as polluted water makes people physically sick.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s think about this pollution as we are entering the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season.<\/p>\n
In Jeremiah 23:1-12, we are given several interesting comparisons of this pollution as we span the 2,600 years between the time that Jeremiah wrote these words and today.<\/p>\n
1. “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture!” declares the LORD.<\/p>\n
These shepherds are the polluted clergy (pastors \u2013 priests \u2013 prophets) we are talking about in the church today, and the sheep are the members of the congregations.<\/p>\n
2. Therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel concerning the shepherds who are tending My people: “You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not attended to them; behold, I am about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds,” declares the LORD.<\/p>\n
Every day we hear from people who have been turned away from the church because of the hardness of heart that they have encountered coming from the clergy and church leaders, particularly when it comes to animal issues and the people who care about them and don\u2019t eat them.<\/p>\n
3. “Then I Myself shall gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and shall bring them back to their pasture; and they will be fruitful and multiply.<\/p>\n
The remnant are the compassionate people who have been driven away from the church, or who continue to struggle within the church, and who do their best to live as peacemaking children of God according to His heavenly will.<\/p>\n
4. “I shall also raise up shepherds over them and they will tend them; and they will not be afraid any longer, nor be terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the LORD.<\/p>\n
These shepherds are new clergy who have not been polluted by the evil and corrupt ways of the world.<\/p>\n
These are pastors, priests, prophets, and other leaders who are working to free creation from its present corruption, and end the suffering and death of millions of our fellow human beings and billions of animals every year.<\/p>\n
5. “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD,
\n“When I shall raise up for David a righteous Branch;
\nAnd He will reign as king and act wisely
\nAnd do justice and righteousness in the land.<\/p>\n
This righteous branch is Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
6. “In His days Judah will be saved,
\nAnd Israel will dwell securely;
\nAnd this is His name by which He will be called,
\n‘The LORD our righteousness.’<\/p>\n
This has not happened because the polluted clergy (pastors \u2013 priests \u2013 prophets) have rejected Jesus\u2019 peaceful teachings in favor of the corrupted ways of the world and, as a result, have turned their congregation away from the heavenly will of God which has no place for pain, suffering, mourning or death.<\/p>\n
7. “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when they will no longer say, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt,’<\/p>\n
8. but, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up and led back the descendants of the household of Israel from the north land and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ Then they will live on their own soil.”<\/p>\n
This is all part of what will happen when we and the Lord, working together, will end the corruption of creation, and the Lord will usher in His heavenly reign here on earth.<\/p>\n
Then Jeremiah looks at the present situation from his own position, and that of the others who are working diligently to turn people back to the heavenly will of God.<\/p>\n
9. As for the prophets:
\nMy heart is broken within me,
\nAll my bones tremble;
\nI have become like a drunken man,
\nEven like a man overcome with wine,
\nBecause of the LORD
\nAnd because of His holy words.<\/p>\n
We feel this way and we hear from many other people all the time who feel the same way.<\/p>\n
There is just so much evil in the world around us that we feel helpless to end it, but struggle along anyway, for it is the only way we can think of to end the suffering and corruption around us.<\/p>\n
10. For the land is full of adulterers;
\nFor the land mourns because of the curse.
\nThe pastures of the wilderness have dried up.
\nTheir course also is evil,
\nAnd their might is not right.<\/p>\n
11. “For both prophet and priest are polluted;
\nEven in My house I have found their wickedness,” declares the LORD.<\/p>\n
This is what we all need to overcome.<\/p>\n
The time for the polluted clergy (pastors \u2013 priests \u2013 prophets) upon this earth is coming to an end, and we who are in the heavenly will of our Father as peacemaking children of God must continue to keep the pressure on until we have true and lasting peace for all living beings.<\/p>\n
12. “Therefore their way will be like slippery paths to them,
\nThey will be driven away into the gloom and fall down in it;
\nFor I shall bring calamity upon them,
\nThe year of their punishment,” declares the LORD.
\nNASB<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s continue our discussion about the polluted clergy (pastors \u2013 priests \u2013 prophets) as we look at Colossians 1:9-20.<\/p>\n
9. For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,<\/p>\n
10. so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;<\/p>\n
11. strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously<\/p>\n
12. giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.<\/p>\n
We need all of this blessing to take a firm stand against the evil and corrupted ways of the world around us.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s look at this from the position of turkeys.<\/p>\n
Are they being allowed to live according to the creation and heavenly will of God?<\/p>\n
No they\u2019re not!<\/p>\n
Why?<\/p>\n
Because selfish and worldly people are causing them to suffer horribly and die by the millions so that they can gluttonously dine on their roasted corpses.<\/p>\n
And what is even worse, the polluted clergy (pastors \u2013 priests \u2013 prophets) go right along with these ungodly ways and even encourage them, which in turn cause more corruption in the world around us.<\/p>\n
13. For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,<\/p>\n
This is why we can see the difference between good and evil, and take a peaceful stand against the evil and darkness in the world.<\/p>\n
14. in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.<\/p>\n
Just as the corrupted and polluted people in the world could have, if they repent and truly see to follow Jesus and the heavenly will of God.<\/p>\n
15. And He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation.<\/p>\n
16. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities \u2014 all things have been created by Him and for Him.<\/p>\n
They were not created for suffering and death.<\/p>\n
They were not created to support evil in the world.<\/p>\n
They were created to honor God according to His heavenly and peaceful will.<\/p>\n
17. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.<\/p>\n
The Lord wants all of us and all the other animals to be held together in love.<\/p>\n
He doesn\u2019t want us torn apart, with a leg going to that person and a piece of breast going to this person to devour into the grave of their bodies.<\/p>\n
He wants us to live in peace, for it is the only way we truly honor God.<\/p>\n
18. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything.<\/p>\n
Thus, the polluted clergy (pastors \u2013 priests \u2013 prophets) must go, for they are a hindrance to the Lord\u2019s heavenly will upon this earth.<\/p>\n
19. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in Him,<\/p>\n
20. and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
\nNASB<\/p>\n
The only way that all of creation can be reconciled to the Lord is to end the corruption to which all of creation has been subjected.<\/p>\n
Every one of us can help this to come about by becoming peacemaking children of God who do everything in their power to end the corruption of creation by living in the heavenly will of God.<\/p>\n
If we\u2019re willing, then look at what we\u2019re wearing, and what we put on our plates.<\/p>\n
If none of it contains any animal products, then we have moved away from the products of this corrupted earth and the polluted clergy (pastors \u2013 priests \u2013 prophets) who support the continued corruption, and we are truly honoring God, which is the real Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n
Amen.<\/p>\n
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