So we start our annual review of Core Values.  Simplicity first.  This is the sense that while life isn’t easy, it isn’t really complicated.  Or it doesn’t have to be.  It is possible to focus on just a few things and turn away from the many distractions that call out to us.

For the sermon I’ll be looking at Jeremiah 9.  Specifically, I’ll focus on the poetic phrases in verses 23-24.  It’s so natural to place our confidence in our knowledge, our proficiency, or our wealth.  These are the ways we are constantly tempted to establish our worth.

Of course we don’t go around literally boasting.  But boasting has a sense that we’re placing our marbles in a given basket.  It’s where we we put our confidence.  It where we get a sense of self.

Our lives get increasingly complex as we pursue thing other things with more energy than our simple confidence in God.  What does it mean to “understand and know Me”?  Seems like we’d be choosing Him over those other things.  He’s where our treasure is.  Even if we lack wisdom, proficiency, or wealth.  What would it look like to do that?  What loss might it involve?  What might be gained?