Dec. 7, 2024

Jeremiah 12 and Adversity

Jeremiah 12 and Adversity

A discussion about Jeremiah 12 and adversity.

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A discussion about Jeremiah 12 and adversity.

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Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is

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the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good afternoon everyone.

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It is Saturday, December the seventh, twenty twenty four. It

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is currently two twenty nine pm Central Time, and I'm

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coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located

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right here in Abilene, Texas. Well. In the last Lie broadcast,

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we talked about motivations, right, what are your motivations? What

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is your motive and a particular action in a particular situation,

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What is your motive in that situation? What are your

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motives and a general sense. We talked about that, and

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we looked at first Samuel chapter twenty six, where everyone

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seems to just assign pure and godly and wonderful motives

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for David's decision not to kill Saul. And I called

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that into question based off history, context, the text itself.

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I think I put forth at least a decent argument.

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I called it a hypothesis. But in that discussion I

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acknowledged something to everyone, right, I said that my motivation,

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my motive for doing that broadcast wasn't godly, wasn't righteous,

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wasn't holy, wasn't because I desired to minister to people.

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My motive was to try to do a broad a

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good broadcast, one that I was pleased with, because the

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two prior I was very unhappy with. I was very

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just irritated with, did not like. So then I'm like, okay,

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I'm going to do a third one, right, and this

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third one, this is going to be the home run.

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The first two were strikeouts. This is going to be

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the home run. I'm going to make up for it.

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This one is going to be so oh good. I'm

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gonna get emails and people are gonna be like, oh wow,

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I've never considered you know, David's motivations there that way.

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That was challenging, that was interesting, that was thought provoking,

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that was wonderful, that was great. Well I finished it.

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Another strikeout. I've got three strikeouts, ladies and gentlemen. At

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this point, I'm gonna be kicked out off the team, right.

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The team's gonna come to You're like, look, you can't hit.

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You just need to go find a new profession, right

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all right, Yeah, I'm gonna take this illustration and run

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it into the ground. All right. So I'm back, ladies

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and gentlemen, I'm back now. I have again being fully transparent.

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There's a football game beginning in about thirty minutes, Texas

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versus Georgia. I'm right here in Texas. It's mandatory that

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I watched the game or they're gonna come revoke my

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Texas citizenship, all right, So I don't want to be

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kicked out of this country and have to go live

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in a you know, one of those states that people

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talk about. No, so I have to watch the game.

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So my motive is get this done as fast as

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possible so that I can go and see it. See,

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none of my motives here are very pure or right.

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And why am I doing another one? Because I want

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to make up for the last three, And probably when

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this one is done, then I'll be like, well maybe

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tomorrow during the first maybe maybe I'll make it up then.

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Because you're always, at least for me, broadcasting, you're always

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chasing it, right, You're always chasing that elusive perfect broadcast,

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because if you could have that one broadcast where you

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don't mispronounce anything, you have subject verb agreement, everything is

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in the proper tense, you do everything correctly. Well, man,

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at that point, then you just stay that's it. That's it.

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This is it? This is it? This is the one,

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and then that's it. You just retire at that moment

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and you just you're done, and you delete everything else

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except that one broadcast, and you pay sixty dollars a

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month just to keep that one broadcast there. Okay, that's

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seems somewhat kind of ridiculous, isn't it. I know that

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is it is ridiculous, but it's the way it works.

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So motive to be pure. Now, there is some possible

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good motives here, right I do, and I mean this,

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I do want to bring our series, our Sermon's two

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point zero app Sermon Challenge series, to some kind of

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dramatic conclusion. I don't know exactly what that looks like,

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but I know this, I'm going to continue to review sermons.

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So we've been in First Samuel twenty six and twenty

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seven for hours. In fact, I could have done more

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work on First Samuel twenty six and twenty seven. I

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really could. But if I'm looking at the numbers again,

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wrong motives, right See, I'm gonna I think I'm in

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this entire broadcast. I'm just gonna keep referencing the last broadcast.

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But that's the wrong motive. Right, But I've been looking.

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I'm like, Okay, I think I've I've done what I

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can't I still think we should be talking about it.

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I mean, personally, what we've done with First Samuel, twenty

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six and twenty seven is one of those things that

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I think makes this podcast unique, and I think it

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justifies why we exis because we're doing things nobody else

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is going to do. Nobody's going to have these discussions.

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So I kind of want to go back to it.

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But at the same time, I want to keep reviewing

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sermons right, review review, review, review, review, so that we

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can end to end this year at least doing what

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we can with this series. And again, I just still

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don't know what I'm going to do in twenty twenty five.

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Some may say, never review another sermon. I don't know.

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I some people say the reviewing the sermon is kind

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of such a it's kind of a it's kind of

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a you know, I'm not really putting in the work, right,

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But I would argue that for every sermon review, look

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at all the other things we do. We basically reviewed

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like fifteen minutes of a sermon and turned into hours

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and hours and hours of other of very important conversations

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and discussions, and we created a completely different interpretation. We

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did the same thing with James. So some people may say,

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well the sermon reviews, stop those, but just think of

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all the content that has flown from like that has

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arisen out of a fifteen or twenty minute review of

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a sermon, All of the PSAW eighty three, all of

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this work on Isaiah forty through fifty five, that entire

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new interpretation of James W One nineteen through twenty seven,

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the work I mean, some of the work in Hebrews

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all because of sermon reviews. So sermon reviews really lead

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to a lot of I think, interesting discussions. So what

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we're gonna do today is we're going to talk about adversity. Adversity. Now,

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adversity is defined as difficulties or misfortune now in your life,

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in my life, we face adversity.

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Right.

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Sometimes the adversity is small, sometimes it is gigantic. Sometimes

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it is like it's really really really bad and anyone

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seeing it going, man, I don't know how you're handling

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that adversity. Now, A lot of people believe when we

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face adversity, we can open our Bible and we will

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be get we have a kind of a guideline, a

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lesson plan and how to handle adversity. Now, this goes

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back to how we handle the text. When we open

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up the Bible, do we see guidelines how to handle adversity?

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And if we do, where did we find those guidelines

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or do we find those guidelines in maybe a historical narrative?

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Now that once again, is the historical narrative prescriptive? Is

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it descriptive? Is it there to teach you? Let are

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we you know, what are we going to do?

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Now?

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I don't know if what this sermon is going to do,

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but the sermon is entitled Facing Adversity. It was uploaded

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maybe fifteen minutes ago. I was just sitting there watching

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the new sermons, saw a knew one. I'm like, you

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know what, let's get this done before before. I mean,

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because you know, the governor of Texas is probably monitoring

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this broadcast. And if I don't, if I don't stop

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right in time for kickoff, you know, the Texas Rangers

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are going to kick in the door and Chuck Norris

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is going to drag Okay, right now now, I'm just

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taking the illustration. I'm going ridiculous with it. But the

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point is, I am guessing that a sermon called facing

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Adversity based off Jeremiah Chapter twelve is going to take

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Jeremiah chapter twelve, and it's one going to make it

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about you and going to make it about me, because

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that's what all sermons do. And then it may turn

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this into some kind of a blueprint and how to

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handle adversity. Now, maybe that's the right way to handle it.

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Maybe it's the wrong way. We know we're not going

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to be able to finish this entire obviously thing. I

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picked it. Another reason I picked it's only twenty six

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minutes long, so it means really the sermon itself, probably

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you get the introduction and you get the summary at

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the end, probably you know more than about fifteen minutes

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of actual teaching. So I don't know how in the

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world you handle James or James Jeremiah twelve basically verses

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one through seven, and about twenty minutes to fifteen minutes.

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I don't know how you pull that off, but I

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definitely am interested. So let's jump in and see what

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we can find before Chuck Norris kicks my front door

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in and as watch the football game. All right, here,

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we go. Are you ready? Let's do this.

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When I plead with you, you let me talk with

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you about your judgments.

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Okay, what happened there is that just where the audio begins.

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Let's back that up. Let's try that. Let's try that again.

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Let's take our Bibles and turn to the Book of Jeremiah,

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and we want to read the first six verses of

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Jeremiah Chapter twelve. Righteous are you, o Lord? When I

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plead with you, you let me talk with you about your judgments?

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Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are

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those happy who deal treacherously? You have planted them, Yes

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they have taken root, they grow, Yes they bear fruit,

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And you are near in their mouth, but far from

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their mind. But you, oh Lord, know me. You have

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seen me, and you have tested my heart towards you.

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Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, Prepare them

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for the day of slaughter. How long will the land

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morn and the herbs of every field wither? The beasts

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and birds are consumed for the wickedness of those who

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dwell there, because they said, he will not see our

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final end. If you have run with the footmen and

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they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses?

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And if in the land of peace in which you

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trusted they wearied you, then how will you do in

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the floodplain of the Jordan. For even your brothers, the

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house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you. Yes,

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they have called a multitude after you. Do not believe them,

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even though they speak smooth words to you. Perhaps something

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you might remember an account I shared a few years

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back about a couple of a group of British soldiers

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from the first Parachute Brigade. This is during World War Two,

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and they were hunkered down in Holland, somewhere near arnham Bridge,

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and they were hiding out in some of the basements

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and cellars of a row of houses in that town,

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and they were taking a lot of German fire. And

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one of the army chaplains, a man by the name

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of Chaplain Egan, was moving from place to place to

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try and check on the men. Into one home and

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he went down into the cellar and there was Sergeant

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Jack Spratt there with a group of his men, and

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so he asked him how they were doing so which

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Sergeant Spratt replied, it's tough, Sir, they're throwing everything at us,

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but the kitchen stove. And just as he said that,

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there was an enormous explosion as the house took a

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direct hit. The ceiling caved in. And then after all

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the dust had settled and the men looked up, sure

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enough there was the kitchen stove. Sometimes in life it

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can be a bit like that. Things seem so bad,

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it just doesn't seem like it can possibly get any worse,

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and then all of a sudden it does.

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All right, So here we go, hopefully in the recording,

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I realized I had the mic. One of the MIC's

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still lying when I was playing that IDEO. Probably if

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you're listening on the summon's two point oh apper Church

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one app you did not hear the echo, so I

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have to see maybe I'll have to use the recording

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from that. So I apologize if you were hearing the

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echo of the hearing the audio twice. But notice what

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he did. He read Jeremiah twelve one through six. I said,

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one through seven. I apologize Jeremiah twelve one through six,

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and then immediately goes into an illustration about World War two,

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and then it becomes about us difficulties, adversity all right,

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So we have been brought into this relatively quick, right,

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we're in Jeremiah twelve. But we have found ourselves in

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it really really really fast. Now I'm not saying it's wrong,

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not saying it's right. I'm saying that we have to

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pay close attention to see what happens to the original

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recipients and do we push them out? Are we gonna

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claim anything here? What's getting ready to happen? Let's find out.

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It's the kind of situation the prophet Jeremiah was facing

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here in the twelve chapter of his prophecy. Things were

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bad at this time. Many people in the country hated

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him somewhat, even plotting on how they could get rid

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of him. The situation was looking very bleak. It was

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a very tough spot they was in, and so Jeremiah,

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in the midst of it, only cries out to the Lord.

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He pulls out his complaints before the Lord in these

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opening verses here of chapter twelve, to which the Lord

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then replies to him in response here and says, actually,

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it's going to get worse. They're throwing everything at you.

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Bar the kitchen stove, well, look out, kitchen stove on

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the way.

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Okay, so he went when Jeremiah went to World War two,

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went to us, back to Jeremiah. Okay, that's interesting. He

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takes the text, then says some things that maybe we

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can relate to, and then brings that back to Jeremiah. Okay, no, no,

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no issues with this, all right, this is kind of

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pulling us in. All right. Hey, we know about when

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you know, life throws everything at us, including the kitchen sink,

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the kitchen stove, whatever, whatever phrase you want to utilize.

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We all can understand when life do I say, Okay,

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Jeremiah is going through a similar situation. He cries out

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to God, and God's like, hey, it's going to get worse.

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Oh that's okay. There's a lot we could talk about. Okay,

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all right, so so far this is interesting. Let's see

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where it goes.

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That's essentially what the Lord says to him in these verses.

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He tells him things are about to get worse, not

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to crush him, though, not to leave him feeling totally overwhelmed,

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but in order that he might remember in the midst

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of it all that the Lord himself is his ultimate

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source of help and strength, and with his help then

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he can faithfully and successfully face whatever may come.

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Okay, Now, in jeremiah situation, God is his help. Do

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we can we take from that? Then in whatever adversity

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you face, God is going to help you. Now when

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you say, well, God is going to help you as well?

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Help you in what way? Jeremiah has been given a

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specific task, a specific mission, with specific promises. We cannot

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take the help God gives to Jeremiah and then extract

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from that that God's going to help you in anything

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that he would even look similar, because that's not necessarily well,

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it's not even not necessarily the case. It's not the case.

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It's the same thing when we look at what God

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does for Israel and we extract from that that God's

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going to do similar for us, it's not the case.

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They are they have Covenant promises to them. Jeremiah has

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specific promises to them. We can't say, well, now, God,

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hey you're going through this difficult time. God's going to

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help you. Okay, How is God going to help me?

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Is He going to make the situation get better? Well,

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you can't tell anyone that. Is it going to give

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you some strength? Is it something measurable? Is it just

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a feeling? Is it a feeling now, is that a

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feeling that God is actually giving me or is it

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just a feeling that I'm feeling based off my mind

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saying well, God is there to help me. But there's nothing. Actually,

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there's nothing transactionally happening. It's just my mind saying, oh,

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I feel better because I know God is there. But

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it doesn't mean God is actually doing anything. Now, I'm

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not saying he's trying to extract from that, but there

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seems to be an implication here. There seems to be

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an implication. Let's see if the implication is just implied

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or it becomes explicitly stated.

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That is basically the message in these verses that we've read,

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especially verse five. That's what we want to zoom the

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lens in on this evening. We're going to take that

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as a sort of a window text to cast lights

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on the whole section here, and we're going to look

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at this verse here, with God's help, We're going to

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see three things, warning, a challenge, and an assurance. A

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warning first of all, a warning about the prospects of adversity.

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If you have run with footmen and they have wearied you,

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then how can you contend with horses. Now, before we

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even come to that, let's just back up into chapter

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eleven and to verse eighteen, which is the beginning of

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a new set in the book there, and one that

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deals with the reaction of the people here in Judah

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to Jeremiah as a prophet. He was a young prophet

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at that time, if you remember, raised up by God

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to bring prophetic rebuke to the people of Judah from

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the Lord, to warn them of coming judgments because they're idolatry,

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they're turning away from Him, the one true Living God.

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If you can remember this from a few weeks back,

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how they wanted to be like the other nations around them.

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They were intrigued, They were enticed by the exotic idols

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of the nations around them. They wanted to worship those

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idols themselves. And so Jeremiah has raised up by the

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Lord to rebuke them for that and to warn them

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of judgment, a coming judgment in the form of an

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enemy invasion on the way. Didn't make him popular for

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doing so, though the people. They hated him for that.

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Some even wanted to kill him for that. Let us

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destroy the tree and its fruits, they said. This is

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verse nineteen, let us cut off from the land of

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the living, that his name may be remembered no more.

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So they wanted him gone. They wanted to kill him.

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Verse twenty one says, in fact, so badly did they

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want him gone, they wanted to remove all trace of him.

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Let us destroy the tree and its fruit, they said,

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meaning let's get rid of him before he gets married.

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So he doesn't have any family either, so he doesn't

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leave any kids behind. That's what that means. That's how

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much they hated him. Now, who was this? Who were

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these people who really had it in for Jeremiah. Verse

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twenty one says they were the men of Anathoth, So

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that's his hometown. These were the people of his own hometown,

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his neighbors, friends of the family. Some of them were

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even members of his own family. Verse six that we

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read says, your brothers, your own family, even they have

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betrayed you. They've raised a loud cry against you. This

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is how unpopular Jeremiah was in those days.

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Why why was that?

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What's the reason why is there so many of these

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people want him gone? The answer is his preaching. They

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didn't like the message that he he proclaimed. Look at

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chapter eleven, Verse twenty one. Therefore, this is what the

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Lord says about the men of Anathot who are seeking

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your life and saying, so this is what they were saying,

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do not prophesy in the name of the Lord, or

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you will die by our hands. That was a pretty

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tough crowd he had to preach to if he didn't

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like what he had to say. We're talking here about

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some of the things that we've read earlier on in

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the chapters. His rebuke of the religious men for their corruption,

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along with warnings against idolatry and heathen worship that came

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with it. All of these things made him hugely unpopular

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with the religious establishment and with the ordinary people as well.

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And so Jeremiah, he's in danger. Jeremi is a man

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with a target on his back.

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Now, maybe one of the principles here that would be

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possibly applicable is how truth, speaking truth can put you

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at odds with the religious establishment. That speaking truth can

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actually put you at odds with the religious leaders, right,

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I know, I know people people tend to take this.

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Preachers tend to take See, when we preach to the world,

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they're going to hate us. This is the religious people

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who hate him. This is not the world. This is

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the religious people. Because the religious people did not like

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his message. They had a perceived idea of the way

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it should be and how God should operate and how

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God will work. Even maybe claiming that God had spoken

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to them took them because there's a condemnation of these

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false prophets going out saying God sent us and God

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showed us. No, you didn't see you didn't hear from God.

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But he's speaking against the religious people. Maybe the lesson

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is is when you speak against religious people, they will

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try to kill you. Okay, maybe that's the message here,

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but let's see what he does with it.

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He started to make enemies now amongst some very influential

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and powerful people. His life is in dangers, life is

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on the line, and so what does he do well,

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Jeremiah does what he always did, what we should all

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do when we're facing troubles or fears of any any kind.

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He brings it to the Lord. He cast his burden

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on the Lord. Have we trials and temptations? Is there

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trouble anywhere we should never be discouraged? Take it to

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the Lord in prayer. That's what Jeremiah does at the

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beginning of chapter twelve. Why does the way of the

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wicked prosper? Why are those happy who deal so treacherously?

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He's a bit like asap here, isn't. In Psalm seventy three,

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Jeremiah wants to know why do evil do us prosper?

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Why is it that good things seem to happen to

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bad people? Verse two. You have planted them, Yes, they've

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taken route. They grow, Yes, they bear fruit. They're well

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watered and flourishing. They bear fruit in their season. And

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worse of all, some of them even profess to be

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believer us. God is on their lips, he says, but

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far from their hearts and minds.

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So to me the two lasses, if we want to

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try to draw some application and still stay true to

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the tags, is that speaking truth can put you at

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odds with the religious leadership, with the with the religious world,

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with the religious institution. However you would like to phrase it,

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speaking truth will put you at odds sometimes with those

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who claim to be Christians, profess Christianity within Christianity itself,

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within God's people. And second, what are we to do

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with it? Well? I do agree with this. We are

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to be open and honest with God. He says, take

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it to God in prayer. This is not just taking

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it to God to prayer. This is taking your complaint

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and speaking plainly righteous. Are you a Lord when I

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plead with you? Yet? Let me talk with you about

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your judgments. Why does the way of the wicked prosper?

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Why are those happy who deal so treacherously? You have

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planted them, They have taken root, they grow, Yes, they

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bear fruit. But you are near their mouth, but far

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from their minds. He is being very blunt about his complaint,

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very blunt about his frustration, which means speaking bluntly and

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truthfully to God's people or to the religious leadership or

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to the religious may get you in trouble, but you

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can speak open and honest with God God, and we should.

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There's no use we have to come to God and

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pretend that everything is wonderful and everything is great, and

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we can come to God and just say, I don't

427
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get it. What are you doing? You're supposed to be righteous,

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but yet look at these See none of this makes

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any sense. Your Christianity if it's going, I think the

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if your Christianity's going to be meaningful in any meaningful way,

431
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you have to be blunt and honest with God with

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what you are feeling, even if it comes across as

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Christians would get uncomfortable and say, you shouldn't think that way,

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you shouldn't speak that way. Don't listen to them. Speak

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open and honestly with God, with what you feel and

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what you are and what you desire, no matter how

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ugly it may come across, because then you're being been

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in honest with God. All right, So there's some lessons here.

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Verse two. They got a form of religion, but they

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deny the power there off, and this causes Jeremiah then

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to be perplexed. You can't quite reconcile at this point

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the success of the wicked with his belief in the

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goodness and the sovereign power of God. How long, he says,

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will the land mourn and the herbs of every field wither?

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He's saying, Lord, don't you see what's happening here? Don't

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you see the effects of all of this? The land,

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the whole land is languishing because of this evil and

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the evil doers that prevail. So that is, in essence

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what Jeremiah is doing in this section. He pours out

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his complaints before the Lord in the opening verses of

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chapter twelve, to which the Lord then replies in verse

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five when he says, this is the text we're going

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to think about. If you have run with footmen and

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they have wearied you, how can you contend with horses?

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Now?

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There are different understandings of this. Somethink that's a military

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metaphor that he's using, that God is saying here to Jeremiah,

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you've been fighting with the infantrymen so far and you're struggling,

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So how do you think you're going to get on

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against the cavalry. Others think this is more an athletics

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metaphor in as much as they say, Jeremiah, you've been

462
00:25:21.920 --> 00:25:25.000
in a foot race against the sprinters and you're tired.

463
00:25:25.440 --> 00:25:26.559
How are you going to get on when you have

464
00:25:26.599 --> 00:25:30.559
to run against horses? Slightly different understandings, but if you

465
00:25:30.599 --> 00:25:32.279
think about it either way, it's really the same point

466
00:25:32.359 --> 00:25:35.720
that's being made. Things are going to get harder, things

467
00:25:35.759 --> 00:25:37.599
are going to get more difficult. You think things are

468
00:25:37.680 --> 00:25:40.640
bad now, the Lord says to me, you're pouring out

469
00:25:40.640 --> 00:25:42.640
your lament. Now, how's it going to be when things

470
00:25:42.680 --> 00:25:46.160
get even worse? That's the warning he's giving to him here.

471
00:25:46.240 --> 00:25:50.480
It's a warning about what's to come, adversity, future adversity

472
00:25:50.559 --> 00:25:53.319
for him individually as a prophet. People are going to

473
00:25:53.359 --> 00:25:56.039
turn against him, as we mentioned, not just the people

474
00:25:56.039 --> 00:25:59.079
of his own hometown of Anathoth, they will, oh for sure,

475
00:25:59.240 --> 00:26:02.079
and even members of own family, but many others as well.

476
00:26:02.599 --> 00:26:04.799
He's going to be hated, He'll be attacked, he's going

477
00:26:04.880 --> 00:26:06.559
to be thrown into prison. At one point, he'll be

478
00:26:06.559 --> 00:26:08.799
thrown into the stocks. All of these things he's going

479
00:26:08.839 --> 00:26:11.799
to have to face as an individual, but also them

480
00:26:11.839 --> 00:26:14.119
as a nation as well. Things are going to get worse.

481
00:26:14.640 --> 00:26:18.000
There's an enemy on the way, an enemy superpower. The

482
00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:22.160
Babylonians are cruel and savage people that can come sweeping through.

483
00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:25.480
They're going to destroy the land. They'll attack the people,

484
00:26:25.559 --> 00:26:28.400
they'll take captive many of these people, they'll take them

485
00:26:28.440 --> 00:26:30.799
off into exile for many years to come.

486
00:26:33.079 --> 00:26:35.160
Now, if we want to try to build lessons from this,

487
00:26:35.279 --> 00:26:37.319
I think the first lesson I think we can somewhat.

488
00:26:37.799 --> 00:26:40.279
I think I think is applicable to some level, because

489
00:26:40.279 --> 00:26:44.319
it's always been true. When you speak truth, desire truth,

490
00:26:44.519 --> 00:26:47.200
willing to look at the truth, you find you'll find

491
00:26:47.200 --> 00:26:52.400
yourself at times, literally at odds with the supposed religious leaders,

492
00:26:52.440 --> 00:26:56.240
the religious institution. You will. I think, I think history

493
00:26:56.559 --> 00:26:59.559
proves that many people in the church, many religious leaders,

494
00:26:59.599 --> 00:27:02.279
they just want a form of religion. They just want

495
00:27:02.319 --> 00:27:04.480
to play along. They don't want hard questions, they don't

496
00:27:04.480 --> 00:27:07.960
want difficult they don't want difficult discussions. They just like

497
00:27:08.039 --> 00:27:12.880
the idea of spirituality, Jesus, God, pot luck's fellowships, get

498
00:27:12.920 --> 00:27:17.480
along with people, friends, community, you know, hold hands, sing kumbaya,

499
00:27:17.640 --> 00:27:20.039
all of that stuff. They don't really want anything. They

500
00:27:20.039 --> 00:27:22.160
don't want anything to really mess that up. And you

501
00:27:22.240 --> 00:27:26.000
come speaking the truth. That may be unpleasant. You gots

502
00:27:26.079 --> 00:27:28.000
to go all right, they don't like it. All right,

503
00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:31.160
So we can relate to Jeremiah's dilemma on why he's facing.

504
00:27:31.400 --> 00:27:33.599
I mean, people don't want him, people don't like him,

505
00:27:33.599 --> 00:27:35.960
and people want him dead. And okay, that's some pretty

506
00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:38.839
strong that's a pretty strong situation. Well how does that

507
00:27:38.880 --> 00:27:41.160
make you feel? Well, you get ticked off, you get

508
00:27:41.200 --> 00:27:43.880
irritated by that. Now you can either pretend that everything

509
00:27:43.960 --> 00:27:45.839
is good, or you can go to God and say, God,

510
00:27:45.960 --> 00:27:48.759
I don't get it, I don't understand. I'm ticked off,

511
00:27:48.880 --> 00:27:52.480
And you have to do that. Now, here's the problem.

512
00:27:53.000 --> 00:27:56.680
God's response to Jeremiah is things are gonna get worse. Now.

513
00:27:56.720 --> 00:27:58.880
We got to be very careful here, right, because we

514
00:27:58.920 --> 00:28:02.400
can't just immediately extract from this something for us. Because

515
00:28:02.400 --> 00:28:05.640
we've got to be careful. This fits within a historical setting.

516
00:28:05.920 --> 00:28:08.839
Things are gonna get worse because God has already told

517
00:28:08.880 --> 00:28:12.119
them the Babylonian captivity is coming. So this is very

518
00:28:12.119 --> 00:28:16.200
specific to their historical situation. So I won't say that

519
00:28:16.519 --> 00:28:18.599
when we talk to God in prayer. What do we

520
00:28:18.680 --> 00:28:20.839
do if God says things are gonna get worse? Because

521
00:28:20.880 --> 00:28:23.160
God only talks to us through his word. He doesn't

522
00:28:23.200 --> 00:28:25.319
speak to us any other way. Unless you want to

523
00:28:25.319 --> 00:28:27.599
destroy the concept of solo scripture, we won't go we

524
00:28:27.640 --> 00:28:31.720
won't get into that. But what do you do when

525
00:28:31.759 --> 00:28:33.720
you go to God? Now, now we can bring this

526
00:28:33.759 --> 00:28:35.880
into kind of somewhat of a hypothetical, and I think

527
00:28:35.920 --> 00:28:39.480
this can be somewhat accurate. I think what do you

528
00:28:39.720 --> 00:28:43.119
do as an individual when you go to God and

529
00:28:43.359 --> 00:28:48.200
cry out your frustration, cry out your irritation, cry out

530
00:28:48.200 --> 00:28:51.039
how bothered you are about a situation, not saying God

531
00:28:51.119 --> 00:28:53.240
is going to tell you it's gonna get worse because

532
00:28:53.599 --> 00:28:56.680
God here is speaking directly to people outside of scripture. Okay,

533
00:28:56.720 --> 00:28:59.079
we understand all of that. God spoken different ways at

534
00:28:59.079 --> 00:29:02.440
different times now day, well it's through his word. Okay.

535
00:29:02.799 --> 00:29:06.319
But what if you cry out to God all your frustrations,

536
00:29:06.440 --> 00:29:10.119
all your irritations, all your pain, all your confusion, and

537
00:29:10.720 --> 00:29:15.920
not that God says it, but the situation actually gets worse.

538
00:29:20.440 --> 00:29:26.400
Now that's a very real possibility. That's a very real probability.

539
00:29:28.160 --> 00:29:33.160
Now can we learn anything from this? Are we taking

540
00:29:33.160 --> 00:29:37.400
a lesson and making it prescriptive when it's simply descriptive.

541
00:29:37.640 --> 00:29:38.480
Let's see what he does.

542
00:29:40.799 --> 00:29:43.599
So, Jeremiah, you think it's hard being a prophet? Now

543
00:29:44.119 --> 00:29:47.160
do you think it's tough? Now? You haven't seen anything yet.

544
00:29:47.559 --> 00:29:50.119
You've run with athletes on foot in it's hard. How's

545
00:29:50.160 --> 00:29:52.079
it gonna be when you have to start running with horses.

546
00:29:53.400 --> 00:29:55.640
That's the kind of message that he's giving to him here.

547
00:29:55.680 --> 00:29:58.720
It's a message to time to get ready, debrace yourself,

548
00:29:59.400 --> 00:30:01.960
tough talk. Times are coming. It's not an easy path

549
00:30:02.000 --> 00:30:04.759
that he's on. He needs to be ready for it.

550
00:30:06.480 --> 00:30:08.920
Jesus did the same thing, didn't he When the people

551
00:30:08.960 --> 00:30:10.799
came to him and they wanted to follow him and

552
00:30:10.839 --> 00:30:14.559
be a disciple of his. Jesus said a similar thing. Okay, yeah, sure,

553
00:30:14.640 --> 00:30:17.759
sure thing, do that, but you know, get ready, make

554
00:30:17.799 --> 00:30:20.160
sure that you know what you're in for. Make sure

555
00:30:20.200 --> 00:30:23.440
you count the cost first of all, make sure you

556
00:30:23.480 --> 00:30:25.400
know what's involved. If any man would come after me,

557
00:30:25.559 --> 00:30:29.200
let him take up his cross. Oh it's a hard path.

558
00:30:29.759 --> 00:30:33.319
There's pain and suffering, there's conflict involved in all of this.

559
00:30:33.400 --> 00:30:36.400
So be ready, be prepared for that. Brace yourself for that,

560
00:30:37.400 --> 00:30:39.200
he said. And do you remember some of the people

561
00:30:39.279 --> 00:30:42.960
heard that, and they said, this is a hard saying.

562
00:30:43.240 --> 00:30:46.480
Who can receive it? And they turned and they followed him.

563
00:30:46.480 --> 00:30:49.240
No more, that wasn't what they wanted to hear. That

564
00:30:49.319 --> 00:30:53.680
was a difficult thing to hear. Even Peter, remember, he

565
00:30:53.759 --> 00:30:56.680
balked at that when Jesus. We looked at this. In

566
00:30:56.720 --> 00:30:59.920
Mike's Gospel some months back, Jesus first reveals to the

567
00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:02.920
disciples the nature of his mission. What is that he

568
00:31:03.000 --> 00:31:05.319
himself must do. How he has to go to Jerusalem,

569
00:31:05.359 --> 00:31:07.200
and he's going to suffer at the hands of wicked men,

570
00:31:07.240 --> 00:31:09.799
and he will be killed. And Peter's almost jumped out

571
00:31:09.799 --> 00:31:12.400
of his skin when he heard that, and he took

572
00:31:12.480 --> 00:31:15.279
Jesus to one side and began to rebuke him for that. No, no, no, Lord,

573
00:31:15.440 --> 00:31:18.519
something like that must never happened suffering for Jesus and

574
00:31:18.559 --> 00:31:21.960
for his disciples. So his mind, at least, that isn't

575
00:31:21.960 --> 00:31:24.960
part of the plan. But eventually, of course he came

576
00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:28.160
to see it, and he came to understand that, and

577
00:31:28.200 --> 00:31:30.640
then the need to be ready and be prepared for it.

578
00:31:31.119 --> 00:31:33.440
And so many years later he says the same thing,

579
00:31:33.880 --> 00:31:36.599
doesn't he When he's writing his first letter to those

580
00:31:36.640 --> 00:31:40.240
believers in Asia Minor and they're about to go through

581
00:31:40.240 --> 00:31:42.640
some extreme suffering. The persecution is going to start getting

582
00:31:42.720 --> 00:31:44.640
ramped up for them, and so he writes them, he says,

583
00:31:44.640 --> 00:31:48.720
to be ready, don't get caught out, be prepared. Persecutions

584
00:31:48.720 --> 00:31:52.680
about to get intense, don't be surprised by the fiery trial,

585
00:31:52.720 --> 00:31:55.680
which is to try you. Wants them to be prepared,

586
00:31:56.000 --> 00:31:58.119
wants them to be ready so they can be strong,

587
00:31:58.319 --> 00:32:03.839
so they can stand when the testing time comes. And

588
00:32:03.920 --> 00:32:05.960
as God's people, we need that, don't we. We need

589
00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:08.920
that kind of resilience and endurance so that when testing

590
00:32:08.960 --> 00:32:12.359
times come for us, we too, we can keep going,

591
00:32:12.480 --> 00:32:15.599
We can keep pressing on. I remember reading a biography

592
00:32:15.640 --> 00:32:18.640
about John Marshall. Hear me mention him from time to time.

593
00:32:18.680 --> 00:32:21.039
He was a minister in England many years ago. It's

594
00:32:21.079 --> 00:32:23.839
gone to be with the Lord now. But this was

595
00:32:23.880 --> 00:32:27.799
a ban of biography about him, and he was a

596
00:32:27.839 --> 00:32:30.160
young man. He ministered in hemel Hempstead for many years

597
00:32:30.279 --> 00:32:32.279
and the church he went to begin with it was

598
00:32:32.480 --> 00:32:35.079
quite a liberal church, and so he had a number

599
00:32:35.079 --> 00:32:37.400
of people who were quite opposed him when he first

600
00:32:37.400 --> 00:32:40.680
came there. And there was one particular church meeting that

601
00:32:40.720 --> 00:32:43.000
they had was a very difficult meeting for him, and

602
00:32:43.039 --> 00:32:46.880
one member of the church brutally criticized him during this

603
00:32:46.920 --> 00:32:49.519
particular meeting. And at the close of this meeting he

604
00:32:49.559 --> 00:32:51.880
felt like he'd taken a bit of a battery. And

605
00:32:51.920 --> 00:32:53.839
as he was on his way out, he was handed

606
00:32:53.839 --> 00:32:57.559
a note by an elderly lady called Queenie now Queen

607
00:32:57.599 --> 00:33:00.880
He was the daughter of the previous minister, and she

608
00:33:01.079 --> 00:33:04.440
was a staunch lover of the gospel. She really supported

609
00:33:04.519 --> 00:33:06.440
John Marshall. She would try and encourage him as much

610
00:33:06.440 --> 00:33:08.759
as she could, and she passed this little note to him,

611
00:33:08.880 --> 00:33:10.319
and so he grabbed it and he took it away

612
00:33:10.319 --> 00:33:13.599
feeling sure that this was another encouraging gem from Queene,

613
00:33:13.960 --> 00:33:15.240
and he got it home and he opened it up

614
00:33:15.279 --> 00:33:17.720
and he read the words of Proverbs twenty four, verse ten.

615
00:33:18.640 --> 00:33:21.759
If thou faints in the day of adversity, thy strength

616
00:33:21.839 --> 00:33:28.319
is small. His biographer said, although it's not what he anticipated,

617
00:33:28.880 --> 00:33:32.519
John took the timely words to heart, and in a way,

618
00:33:32.559 --> 00:33:34.640
it's what God is doing for Jeremiah. Here he's saying

619
00:33:34.640 --> 00:33:37.839
to him, gird yourself up, be strong, don't faint. If

620
00:33:37.880 --> 00:33:39.680
you're fainting. Now, what are you going to be like

621
00:33:39.720 --> 00:33:43.720
when real trouble comes? Now, you know, let's think about that.

622
00:33:43.880 --> 00:33:44.640
How can he do that?

623
00:33:44.799 --> 00:33:44.920
Well?

624
00:33:44.960 --> 00:33:48.519
How can we do that when challenges come to us,

625
00:33:48.880 --> 00:33:51.839
or as we try to prepare ourselves for possible difficulties

626
00:33:51.839 --> 00:33:54.079
that may lie ahead in the future, How can we

627
00:33:54.119 --> 00:33:55.920
do that? That's going to be our second point here.

628
00:33:56.200 --> 00:33:59.960
That was the warning the prospect of adversity. Secondly, consider

629
00:34:00.079 --> 00:34:03.519
of the challenge here and the use of a sporting analogy.

630
00:34:04.400 --> 00:34:06.039
And here we want to drill down a bit into

631
00:34:06.039 --> 00:34:08.519
this comparison the Lord gives him. If you've run with

632
00:34:08.559 --> 00:34:11.159
the footman and they've wearied you, how can you contend

633
00:34:11.159 --> 00:34:15.599
with horses. It's as if the Lord is taking Jeremiah

634
00:34:15.599 --> 00:34:18.960
down to the racetrack the local athletics stadium here, and

635
00:34:19.000 --> 00:34:21.239
he's got Jeremiah to run a few races. Maybe he

636
00:34:21.280 --> 00:34:23.519
does one hundred meters, then he does the two hundred,

637
00:34:23.679 --> 00:34:26.039
and then after that the four by one hundred relay

638
00:34:26.079 --> 00:34:29.119
as well, and after that, Jeremiah is whipped. He's totally exhausted.

639
00:34:29.119 --> 00:34:30.960
You imagine he's on the side of the track, he's heaving,

640
00:34:31.320 --> 00:34:34.159
he's gulping down the gatorade, trying to get his strength back.

641
00:34:34.440 --> 00:34:36.119
And then it's as if the Lord says to him, okay,

642
00:34:36.480 --> 00:34:39.400
now for the horses. Are you ready for that? Ready

643
00:34:39.400 --> 00:34:41.719
to compete against them? You've run against some athletes. Now

644
00:34:41.719 --> 00:34:44.559
I want you to run against some thoroughbreds. Let's put

645
00:34:44.599 --> 00:34:49.400
you up against a secretariat. You might say, in this country,

646
00:34:49.840 --> 00:34:52.840
red Rum, we'd say, in my country, you know, the elites,

647
00:34:52.920 --> 00:34:55.280
the thoroughbred race horses. Let's see how you get on

648
00:34:55.360 --> 00:34:57.760
with them. Now, horses in those days, they weren't as

649
00:34:58.079 --> 00:35:00.760
strong and powerful as they are today, but they'd still

650
00:35:00.800 --> 00:35:05.719
be more than enough to outstrip Jeremiah easily. And that's

651
00:35:05.760 --> 00:35:08.519
the point here. You're worn out running against men? What

652
00:35:08.559 --> 00:35:09.679
are you going to be like when you try and

653
00:35:09.760 --> 00:35:12.880
run against a horse? That's one analogy. And then if

654
00:35:12.880 --> 00:35:15.320
you look in verse five B, he develops that and

655
00:35:15.320 --> 00:35:17.679
he says, if in the land of peace in which

656
00:35:17.719 --> 00:35:20.000
you trusted, they wearied you, how will you do in

657
00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:23.360
the flood plain of the Jordan? Some translations, how it

658
00:35:23.360 --> 00:35:25.519
may be in your version it says the thickets by

659
00:35:25.599 --> 00:35:28.400
the Jordan. So again it's a contrast here between the

660
00:35:28.480 --> 00:35:30.880
land of peace that was a reference to the open

661
00:35:30.920 --> 00:35:34.960
flat country around Jeremiah's home village of Anathoth near Jerusalem,

662
00:35:35.119 --> 00:35:38.679
contrasted with the flood plains or the thickets of Jordan,

663
00:35:39.039 --> 00:35:42.760
which the experts say refers to this thick, jungle like

664
00:35:42.840 --> 00:35:45.079
region near the Jordan River, which was known to have

665
00:35:45.760 --> 00:35:50.119
lions roaming around in it. And so again there's a

666
00:35:50.159 --> 00:35:53.280
contrast here, Jeremiah, if you struggle on the easy, open

667
00:35:53.320 --> 00:35:56.559
meadow land around your own town, how can you possibly

668
00:35:56.960 --> 00:36:01.639
hope to cope with the thick, line infested jungle surrounding

669
00:36:01.679 --> 00:36:04.119
the Jordan. Today? You might say, if a man stumbles

670
00:36:04.159 --> 00:36:06.880
as he's walking through Central Park, how is he possibly

671
00:36:06.920 --> 00:36:10.320
gonna make it across the rocky mountains. It's that sort

672
00:36:10.320 --> 00:36:13.480
of thing preparing him. You know, how are you gonna

673
00:36:13.480 --> 00:36:15.800
cope when trouble comes again? The immediate reference is to

674
00:36:15.840 --> 00:36:18.239
the coming of the Babylonians. If he thinks things are

675
00:36:18.280 --> 00:36:21.440
bad and he's feeling sorry for himself, now just wait

676
00:36:21.480 --> 00:36:24.159
until the Babylonians start moving in. How are you gonna

677
00:36:24.199 --> 00:36:27.599
fare then when life starts to get really hard.

678
00:36:29.199 --> 00:36:32.800
Now he's doing a great job painting this picture. I mean,

679
00:36:32.800 --> 00:36:34.199
I love it. I love it. I like the way

680
00:36:34.239 --> 00:36:36.039
he preaches, I like the way he teaches. This is

681
00:36:36.119 --> 00:36:39.639
good stuff. Now my concern is he wants to say

682
00:36:39.679 --> 00:36:42.360
that what how can we make it? How? How can

683
00:36:42.440 --> 00:36:45.039
Jeremiah make it? The text does not be does not

684
00:36:45.079 --> 00:36:48.360
seem to be providing any answers. God is just basically saying, look,

685
00:36:48.599 --> 00:36:50.360
if you can't, if you can't make it in this,

686
00:36:50.599 --> 00:36:52.320
how are you gonna make it here? How are you

687
00:36:52.360 --> 00:36:54.639
gonna make it here? He he doesn't seem to be

688
00:36:54.679 --> 00:36:58.239
providing any answers any way, shape or form. So where

689
00:36:58.280 --> 00:37:00.880
is he going to pull the answers from now? Either

690
00:37:00.960 --> 00:37:03.800
he's going to pull the answers from somewhere else and

691
00:37:03.880 --> 00:37:07.519
apply him to us. But shouldn't the question be what

692
00:37:08.280 --> 00:37:13.039
solution does God give Jeremiah. Jeremiah is like, look, man,

693
00:37:13.199 --> 00:37:15.880
what is going on? And God's response is it's going

694
00:37:15.920 --> 00:37:18.079
to get worse. And if you can't handle this, how

695
00:37:18.079 --> 00:37:20.239
are you going to handle it when it gets worse? Well,

696
00:37:20.280 --> 00:37:24.320
then what's the solution for Jeremiah? Now? Is this sermon

697
00:37:24.400 --> 00:37:27.039
going to give us the solution God gives Jeremiah and

698
00:37:27.079 --> 00:37:28.920
then apply it to us, or is he going to

699
00:37:28.960 --> 00:37:32.039
forget Jeremiah go to other verses and then apply that

700
00:37:32.159 --> 00:37:32.519
to us.

701
00:37:33.079 --> 00:37:38.599
Let's find out that's the analogy here for Jeremiah and

702
00:37:38.719 --> 00:37:43.199
for us as well. When we face trials and troubles

703
00:37:43.239 --> 00:37:45.360
in our lives, the think about the smaller ones, the

704
00:37:45.440 --> 00:37:49.400
minor irritations, the less aggrievances. How do we react? Then?

705
00:37:49.679 --> 00:37:53.679
Do we get irritable and all bent out of shape

706
00:37:54.239 --> 00:37:58.880
over relatively minor things that happen in our lives? Because

707
00:37:58.880 --> 00:38:00.679
if that's the case, what are you going to be

708
00:38:00.800 --> 00:38:04.280
like when the really big situation comes along? If you

709
00:38:04.440 --> 00:38:07.239
like that running with the footman, to use Jeremiah's analogy,

710
00:38:07.320 --> 00:38:09.800
what will you be like when you're running with horses?

711
00:38:09.840 --> 00:38:11.400
What kind of state will you be in when the

712
00:38:11.480 --> 00:38:15.599
really big trial comes, which is why, just by way

713
00:38:15.639 --> 00:38:18.079
of a practical application here, we need to we need

714
00:38:18.119 --> 00:38:21.559
to train ourselves for those situations by the way that

715
00:38:21.599 --> 00:38:25.880
we respond to lesser trials, so that when they come along,

716
00:38:25.960 --> 00:38:28.840
you know, the minor annoyances, the minor irritations I'm talking

717
00:38:28.840 --> 00:38:31.880
about here, everyday aggravations, the setbacks that we can encounter.

718
00:38:32.119 --> 00:38:35.719
Instead of getting really worked up by those things, getting

719
00:38:35.760 --> 00:38:39.639
really irritated, blowing a fuse, flying off the handle at

720
00:38:39.639 --> 00:38:41.960
that situation or even at people around us, what we

721
00:38:42.039 --> 00:38:44.760
need to do instead in that situation, with God's help

722
00:38:44.880 --> 00:38:45.719
is learn to cope.

723
00:38:48.119 --> 00:38:51.199
Okay, now this gets a little confusing. Okay, Natty, Now

724
00:38:51.440 --> 00:38:54.079
this goes to typical preaching, and this is why I

725
00:38:54.119 --> 00:38:56.039
have so many issues with preaching. So wait a minute.

726
00:38:56.079 --> 00:38:59.599
So the lesson is is, hey, if you can't handle this,

727
00:38:59.679 --> 00:39:01.400
how you to handle the hard things? So then what

728
00:39:01.440 --> 00:39:03.159
we're supposed to take from that is we have to

729
00:39:03.239 --> 00:39:07.880
train ourselves. We have to train ourselves by handling the

730
00:39:07.960 --> 00:39:13.880
small irritant irritant irritations so that when big adversity comes

731
00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:16.480
we will be prepared to handle it. So the lesson

732
00:39:16.519 --> 00:39:20.039
from this is train yourself when you face small things,

733
00:39:20.360 --> 00:39:23.320
handle it, so you'll be able to handle big adversity.

734
00:39:24.000 --> 00:39:26.239
But with God's help. Now, this is where it gets confusing.

735
00:39:26.480 --> 00:39:30.679
So God's gonna help me do it? What does God? Just?

736
00:39:30.760 --> 00:39:33.320
What does God do? Does he help me by removing this?

737
00:39:33.599 --> 00:39:35.440
Or is it just a feeling? I get? See? This

738
00:39:35.519 --> 00:39:39.119
is such? This is so vague. So the lesson is

739
00:39:39.119 --> 00:39:43.360
what is God telling Jeremiah, Hey, figure out how to

740
00:39:43.360 --> 00:39:45.679
handle this so that you'll be ready to handle that.

741
00:39:48.159 --> 00:39:50.800
If you learn how to handle and is there? And

742
00:39:50.840 --> 00:39:53.760
again we could really are We could really argue, is

743
00:39:53.840 --> 00:39:59.559
there truth? If I learn to handle minor adversity, I'll

744
00:39:59.559 --> 00:40:03.800
be better prepared to handle big adversity. Can anything really

745
00:40:03.840 --> 00:40:12.480
prepare you to handle big adversity? Oh? The power went

746
00:40:12.519 --> 00:40:17.000
out and I missed my favorite TV show? Oh okay, well, okay,

747
00:40:17.039 --> 00:40:20.639
I'm gonna handle this calmly, okay, good, good good? And

748
00:40:20.679 --> 00:40:25.639
then six months later your loved one dies because because

749
00:40:25.639 --> 00:40:29.440
some horrible tragedy. Did the handling the TV prepare you

750
00:40:29.480 --> 00:40:33.159
for this? I don't know if that really works that way?

751
00:40:34.519 --> 00:40:39.519
Is that the lesson? Here? Is the lesson, Jeremiah, figure

752
00:40:39.519 --> 00:40:41.400
out how to handle this, and then you'll be prepared

753
00:40:41.440 --> 00:40:43.199
to handle that. I don't know if that's the.

754
00:40:43.239 --> 00:40:51.159
Lesson, pray and cope with the situation. Take yourself in hand,

755
00:40:51.360 --> 00:40:53.719
say to yourself, this is nothing. Really, Why am I

756
00:40:53.719 --> 00:40:55.519
getting so wked up? This is only a very small

757
00:40:55.559 --> 00:40:57.960
thing in the big scheme of things. This is only

758
00:40:58.039 --> 00:40:59.880
a little thing. It's only a mine annoyance, not a

759
00:41:00.079 --> 00:41:02.880
big deal. Let's tallt yourself in that way. And what

760
00:41:02.880 --> 00:41:05.000
you'll be doing at the same time is you're training yourself.

761
00:41:05.039 --> 00:41:07.519
Then you're preparing yourself to cope with much bigger trials

762
00:41:07.519 --> 00:41:08.400
when they come along.

763
00:41:11.280 --> 00:41:14.000
I know he mentioned God's help, but if you really

764
00:41:14.039 --> 00:41:19.000
listen it is this is all about self help improvement.

765
00:41:20.559 --> 00:41:24.440
Train yourself to handle adversity. How do you face adversity

766
00:41:24.960 --> 00:41:29.800
by training yourself to handle averse adversity? So the Christian

767
00:41:29.920 --> 00:41:34.239
secret to handling adversity is training yourself to handle adversity.

768
00:41:34.360 --> 00:41:38.000
And how do you train yourself by handling small adversity

769
00:41:38.119 --> 00:41:41.320
so you'll be better you'll be better equipped to handle

770
00:41:41.599 --> 00:41:47.440
big adversity. Is that the Christian message is that the

771
00:41:47.440 --> 00:41:53.519
message from Jeremiah. I'm just presenting it to you. You

772
00:41:53.840 --> 00:41:56.119
can tell me if you think this works.

773
00:41:58.199 --> 00:42:00.880
Which is often why if you think it. That's often

774
00:42:00.920 --> 00:42:03.159
why trials and troubles come along in the first place.

775
00:42:03.639 --> 00:42:05.920
They're part of that training process that we go through.

776
00:42:05.960 --> 00:42:07.840
It's God putting us into the gym, as it were

777
00:42:08.440 --> 00:42:11.960
putting us through our paces, giving us a workout spiritually

778
00:42:12.559 --> 00:42:15.960
in order to build strength, to build endurance, so that

779
00:42:16.039 --> 00:42:20.239
when eventually later on the big challenge comes, then we're

780
00:42:20.280 --> 00:42:23.320
ready for that. We're prepared by the lesser trials we've

781
00:42:23.360 --> 00:42:27.079
been through. We're ready when the bigger one comes. Maybe

782
00:42:27.079 --> 00:42:30.280
an illustration will help. Think about Winston Churchill. You know

783
00:42:30.320 --> 00:42:32.239
in this regard he wasn't a Christian man as far

784
00:42:32.239 --> 00:42:34.639
as I know, but just as an example of how

785
00:42:34.800 --> 00:42:39.280
someone is providentially prepared by lesser trials for a bigger one.

786
00:42:39.559 --> 00:42:41.920
He became Prime Minister on tenth of May nineteen forty.

787
00:42:42.119 --> 00:42:44.800
Prior to that, he'd served as a British soldier and

788
00:42:44.840 --> 00:42:48.719
had taken fire in many situations. He'd held various high

789
00:42:48.800 --> 00:42:52.840
level positions in government, including First Lord of the Admiralty

790
00:42:53.079 --> 00:42:56.599
during World War One, numerous trials and crises that he'd

791
00:42:56.639 --> 00:43:00.519
been through, and so when he's eventually appointed as minister

792
00:43:01.000 --> 00:43:04.360
in nineteen forty, he walks across the courtyard to Buckingham

793
00:43:04.360 --> 00:43:06.760
Palace to receive the invitation from the King, and as

794
00:43:06.760 --> 00:43:08.559
he does so, this thought is going through his mind.

795
00:43:08.880 --> 00:43:10.559
He recalls this later on, He says, I felt I

796
00:43:10.639 --> 00:43:13.760
was walking with destiny, and that all my past life

797
00:43:13.760 --> 00:43:16.840
had been but a preparation for this hour and for

798
00:43:16.880 --> 00:43:22.039
this trial. Past troubles and trials had prepared him for

799
00:43:22.079 --> 00:43:26.679
that greatest of all tests. Or you know, a biblical example.

800
00:43:26.679 --> 00:43:29.000
Think about Daniel when he arrived as a young man

801
00:43:29.039 --> 00:43:33.760
in Nebucenza's court, being subject to that Babylonian indoctrination program.

802
00:43:34.280 --> 00:43:36.639
That was a severe test, wasn't it? And yet he

803
00:43:36.679 --> 00:43:40.199
remained steadfast faithful through her. He refused to defile himself

804
00:43:40.199 --> 00:43:43.480
with the portion of the king's meat. He wouldn't faithfully

805
00:43:43.480 --> 00:43:46.679
devoted to the Lord in that challenge. So that in

806
00:43:46.760 --> 00:43:50.320
years to come, when Darius came to power and passed

807
00:43:50.360 --> 00:43:52.599
that decree that no one was to pray to anyone

808
00:43:52.639 --> 00:43:56.159
except to him, what would Daniel do in that situation?

809
00:43:56.800 --> 00:43:59.519
Would he remain faithful to the Lord there as well?

810
00:43:59.519 --> 00:44:01.599
You know, his life life is on the line. What

811
00:44:01.639 --> 00:44:04.280
would Daniel do? Went back up to his room, I

812
00:44:04.360 --> 00:44:07.039
open the windows, towards Rusom, go down on his knees

813
00:44:07.079 --> 00:44:10.480
and prayed three times, just as he had done before.

814
00:44:10.519 --> 00:44:14.239
It says he was dead foss on waving, totally faithful

815
00:44:14.280 --> 00:44:16.559
to the Lord. How did he do that? How did

816
00:44:16.599 --> 00:44:18.360
he remain so strong even though his life is on

817
00:44:18.400 --> 00:44:19.760
the line. Now he gonna be thrown to the lines.

818
00:44:19.800 --> 00:44:22.400
He was thrown to the lines. The reason is he

819
00:44:22.480 --> 00:44:23.079
been prepared.

820
00:44:25.519 --> 00:44:29.159
What's interesting is he's going other places to find the

821
00:44:29.199 --> 00:44:34.440
supposed answer for how Jeremiah should handle the adversity. The

822
00:44:34.559 --> 00:44:40.440
question should be Jeremiah's facing adversity. He's upset. God says

823
00:44:40.480 --> 00:44:42.599
it's going to get worse, and if you can't handle this,

824
00:44:42.679 --> 00:44:44.639
how are you going to handle what's to come? The

825
00:44:44.760 --> 00:44:48.480
question should be does God provide Jeremiah any answer and

826
00:44:48.559 --> 00:44:51.679
how to handle the adversity? Does he provide any So

827
00:44:52.199 --> 00:44:54.519
that's really the question. I almost want to leave it there.

828
00:44:54.639 --> 00:44:57.239
He's almost done. I may let him go just a

829
00:44:57.239 --> 00:45:00.159
couple of more minutes. But while we were listening, I

830
00:45:00.199 --> 00:45:04.639
did ask Ai, hey, did God provide Jeremiah answer and

831
00:45:04.679 --> 00:45:09.039
how to handle the adversity? Ai said, God does not

832
00:45:09.280 --> 00:45:12.280
provide a direct, step by step answer for how Jeremiah

833
00:45:12.280 --> 00:45:17.519
should handle adversity. Instead, God gives a challenge and a

834
00:45:17.599 --> 00:45:25.199
revelation that reframes Jeremiah's perspective on a situation. Right, So

835
00:45:25.320 --> 00:45:29.119
God's response in Jeremiah twelve five to six is a

836
00:45:29.239 --> 00:45:32.920
challenge to preserve or to persevere. I should say God

837
00:45:32.920 --> 00:45:37.119
asked rhetorical questions, which we've now discussed. These questions essentially

838
00:45:37.119 --> 00:45:40.320
tell Jeremiah that the current challenges are preparation for even

839
00:45:40.360 --> 00:45:43.440
greater difficulties ahead. God's answer is not one of comfort,

840
00:45:43.440 --> 00:45:46.159
but of calling Jeremiah a greater endurance and trust in

841
00:45:46.199 --> 00:45:50.199
God amidst escalating trials. Now, some will say AI does

842
00:45:50.280 --> 00:45:54.719
say that this was preparation for even greater difficulties. So

843
00:45:54.840 --> 00:45:57.480
AI seems to go with the direction. Maybe this pastor

844
00:45:57.559 --> 00:46:00.880
is going, hey, hey, if you can't handle this, then

845
00:46:00.880 --> 00:46:02.840
how are you going to be able to handle this?

846
00:46:03.119 --> 00:46:05.679
So this is preparing you for that? But is it?

847
00:46:06.039 --> 00:46:08.000
I don't know if that's what the text is saying.

848
00:46:08.039 --> 00:46:09.960
I don't even know if I agree with AI on this,

849
00:46:14.039 --> 00:46:17.480
I don't know. And if it says that this is saying,

850
00:46:19.840 --> 00:46:23.199
if it says have greater endurance and trust in God,

851
00:46:23.360 --> 00:46:25.679
well trust in God God is the one seeing that

852
00:46:25.719 --> 00:46:28.039
things are coming. I do to trust God to do

853
00:46:28.119 --> 00:46:34.880
what like, I don't know. Then there's a revelation of

854
00:46:34.880 --> 00:46:38.199
deeper adversity. Verse six reveals that Jeremiah's own family has

855
00:46:38.239 --> 00:46:41.519
betrayed him, even plotting against him. This adds layer of

856
00:46:41.559 --> 00:46:47.000
personal adversity to the external challenge, so so there's no

857
00:46:47.039 --> 00:46:49.039
real answer. God just basically is like, Hey, if you

858
00:46:49.039 --> 00:46:50.880
think it's bad, now, it's gonna get worse. I don't

859
00:46:50.880 --> 00:46:54.400
know how that is really there to say, I'm preparing

860
00:46:54.440 --> 00:46:56.559
you for the worst. I don't know. I don't know

861
00:46:56.599 --> 00:47:00.280
about that. AI does say God's response to does not

862
00:47:00.320 --> 00:47:03.320
provide a solution in the traditional sense, such as a

863
00:47:03.360 --> 00:47:07.239
plan to alleviate Jeremiah is suffering or eliminate his enemies,

864
00:47:07.239 --> 00:47:13.440
and said his response serves to reframe Jeremiah's perspective. God

865
00:47:13.480 --> 00:47:18.639
directs Jeremiah's focus from the immediate injustice to the necessity

866
00:47:18.880 --> 00:47:21.960
of enduring greater challenges. It says, if God is saying

867
00:47:22.280 --> 00:47:25.840
you face small battles, prepare yourself for larger ones, I'm

868
00:47:28.719 --> 00:47:32.760
I don't know. So maybe this pastor is handling it

869
00:47:32.840 --> 00:47:34.960
the way everybody else should handle I just don't know.

870
00:47:35.039 --> 00:47:37.480
I don't. I have a hard time seeing that. Hey,

871
00:47:38.000 --> 00:47:41.760
prepare yourself for worse. So basically the Christian answer to

872
00:47:41.840 --> 00:47:49.559
adversity is what prepare yourself? Come on, come on, embrace it,

873
00:47:50.320 --> 00:47:53.800
handle it, and then you can do it. There seems

874
00:47:53.800 --> 00:47:55.800
to be no grace there. There doesn't seem to be

875
00:47:55.880 --> 00:47:59.840
any I know, even Ai throws it in a little

876
00:47:59.880 --> 00:48:02.239
bit in the past. Well God will help you. Well,

877
00:48:02.280 --> 00:48:04.920
then I don't need to if God is God just

878
00:48:04.960 --> 00:48:08.519
doing the helping or then it gets confusing, all right now,

879
00:48:09.159 --> 00:48:13.280
Ai says, impliciting God's words is a call for Jeremiah

880
00:48:13.320 --> 00:48:16.360
to deepen his reliance on God. While God doesn't remove

881
00:48:16.400 --> 00:48:19.400
the adversity, he reminds Jeremiah that he is being prepared

882
00:48:19.440 --> 00:48:23.960
for a higher purpose. By telling Jeremiah about his family's betrayal,

883
00:48:24.000 --> 00:48:26.360
God gives him clarity about the depth of the adversity

884
00:48:26.400 --> 00:48:30.119
he faces. This knowledge would help Jeremiah navigate his circumstances

885
00:48:30.280 --> 00:48:37.000
with greater awareness. I don't maybe this text was never

886
00:48:37.119 --> 00:48:40.519
designed to offer any help. Maybe the point to me,

887
00:48:41.119 --> 00:48:44.679
maybe the correct way to handle this text is sometimes

888
00:48:44.719 --> 00:48:48.800
when we face diversity and we cry out to God,

889
00:48:48.960 --> 00:48:51.519
we're not going to get an answer. We're not going

890
00:48:51.559 --> 00:48:53.360
to get an answer that, oh, this is what you

891
00:48:53.400 --> 00:48:55.119
need to do, or I'm gonna make it better. He

892
00:48:55.159 --> 00:48:57.679
doesn't promise to make it better. He tells him it's

893
00:48:57.719 --> 00:49:01.559
going to get worse. Sometimes we face adversity and we

894
00:49:01.639 --> 00:49:04.000
don't have any answer in how to handle it, and

895
00:49:04.039 --> 00:49:06.199
we have no promise that it's going to get better.

896
00:49:08.239 --> 00:49:09.920
Let's see what the pastor just wraps this.

897
00:49:09.960 --> 00:49:15.119
Up providentially prepared by that testing he went through in

898
00:49:15.199 --> 00:49:20.239
Nebukneza's court. That was the providential gym workout, you could say,

899
00:49:20.480 --> 00:49:23.280
to strengthen him and preparing for an even greater trial

900
00:49:23.280 --> 00:49:27.599
that he would face in Darius's court. And so this

901
00:49:27.719 --> 00:49:30.639
helps us, then, doesn't It shows us the way that

902
00:49:30.679 --> 00:49:34.320
we too should process, We should view all the trials

903
00:49:34.360 --> 00:49:37.679
that we go through. Maybe I don't know, maybe you're

904
00:49:37.679 --> 00:49:40.000
going through a very intense one right now, and perhaps

905
00:49:40.039 --> 00:49:43.000
you're vexed and you're perplexed. Why am I having to

906
00:49:43.039 --> 00:49:45.719
go through this right now? What is going on here?

907
00:49:46.159 --> 00:49:48.320
What's this all about? What's the purpose in all of this?

908
00:49:48.480 --> 00:49:51.719
It could be spiritually speaking, the Lord has you in

909
00:49:51.719 --> 00:49:57.000
the gym that he's got you on a spiritual workout

910
00:49:57.159 --> 00:49:59.679
on the treadmill as it were, on the weights machine,

911
00:50:00.039 --> 00:50:02.039
because he wants to put some strength and power and

912
00:50:02.079 --> 00:50:04.800
endure us into you, maybe with an eye to the future,

913
00:50:06.119 --> 00:50:08.199
for an even greater work that he has for you

914
00:50:08.280 --> 00:50:12.159
to do then. And so don't don't duck out, don't

915
00:50:12.199 --> 00:50:14.760
don't run away from it, but prayerfully trust the Lord

916
00:50:14.840 --> 00:50:17.480
for all that he's doing, and pray, Lord, make me

917
00:50:17.599 --> 00:50:19.320
to be the man or woman you would have me

918
00:50:19.440 --> 00:50:21.920
to be ready in time for whatever it may be,

919
00:50:22.000 --> 00:50:24.079
even a greater challenge you may have for me in

920
00:50:24.119 --> 00:50:24.760
the future.

921
00:50:26.760 --> 00:50:30.960
That is. I'm having a hard time with this, all right,

922
00:50:31.000 --> 00:50:33.840
So so I'm gonna I'm now again, this is a

923
00:50:33.960 --> 00:50:36.719
historical narrative. So I think we're already doing possible damage

924
00:50:36.760 --> 00:50:39.119
by trying to take this and make this applicable to us.

925
00:50:39.159 --> 00:50:41.000
But if we're gonna make it applicable to us, the

926
00:50:41.119 --> 00:50:44.280
lesson that I'm getting is this. Hey, you remember in

927
00:50:44.320 --> 00:50:47.519
that October when you were standing in the Buffalo Gap

928
00:50:47.599 --> 00:50:51.320
cemetery and they were burying your mother and you were young. Hey,

929
00:50:52.079 --> 00:50:56.880
I was just God preparing you for greater tragedy to come. Oh,

930
00:50:57.039 --> 00:51:00.960
remember when you stood in the graveside outside of Buffalo

931
00:51:01.039 --> 00:51:04.320
Gap when your father died of cancer. Oh, he was

932
00:51:04.400 --> 00:51:07.280
just preparing you for more tragedy to come. Aren't you

933
00:51:07.400 --> 00:51:10.480
so glad that God prepares you for tragedy by allowing

934
00:51:10.519 --> 00:51:17.000
you to endure tragedy? See, I lost both parents? How

935
00:51:17.079 --> 00:51:24.960
was that preparing me for greater tragedy? Oh? You remember

936
00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:28.360
those years of a physical abuse? Hey? Aren't you glad

937
00:51:28.519 --> 00:51:31.280
he was prepared? Like I don't even see. Hey, hey,

938
00:51:31.320 --> 00:51:35.320
I know you your loved one died, But hey, you

939
00:51:35.360 --> 00:51:38.840
know he was just prepared. That's a weird. See, all

940
00:51:38.960 --> 00:51:43.039
tragedy and all adversity is simply preparing you for more adversity.

941
00:51:43.480 --> 00:51:46.920
Oh man, this is bad. Hey, it's gonna get worse.

942
00:51:47.079 --> 00:51:50.599
So just see, this is preparing I that I don't

943
00:51:50.719 --> 00:51:53.000
know about this. I don't know about this.

944
00:51:56.840 --> 00:51:58.960
That's what we have here in these verses in jeremih

945
00:51:59.000 --> 00:52:03.000
Chapter twelve, warning the prospect of adversity, the challenge of

946
00:52:03.039 --> 00:52:07.079
the sporting analogy. Finally, think about the encouragement here, the

947
00:52:07.119 --> 00:52:11.599
promise of sufficiency. Just going back to that question there

948
00:52:12.719 --> 00:52:17.440
verse five, how can you contend with horses? What's the

949
00:52:17.480 --> 00:52:21.400
answer to that? Or the answer is we can't. We

950
00:52:21.480 --> 00:52:24.400
can't compete with horses. Actually, in the UK there is

951
00:52:24.440 --> 00:52:26.719
a race every year man be Horse. They have it

952
00:52:26.760 --> 00:52:28.840
in Wales. It's been going off for about fifty years now,

953
00:52:29.239 --> 00:52:31.719
and I think it's a twenty kilometer race or something

954
00:52:31.760 --> 00:52:33.400
like that, where a man does run against a horse

955
00:52:33.519 --> 00:52:35.480
and the man hardly ever wins. I think it maybe

956
00:52:35.639 --> 00:52:37.800
three or four times in fifty years that a man

957
00:52:37.840 --> 00:52:40.639
has won. Man isn't strong enough to run faster than

958
00:52:40.639 --> 00:52:43.480
a horse. Same with a line infested jungle. Who can

959
00:52:43.519 --> 00:52:45.639
walk through a line infested jungle and come out alive?

960
00:52:46.199 --> 00:52:49.559
It's impossible. We can't do these things, run against horses,

961
00:52:49.840 --> 00:52:52.559
walk through line infested jungles. We can't do that on

962
00:52:52.599 --> 00:52:55.400
our own. But that, you see, is the point here.

963
00:52:55.519 --> 00:52:59.400
Jeremiah isn't to do these things on his own. The

964
00:52:59.480 --> 00:53:02.559
Lord will help him.

965
00:53:03.199 --> 00:53:05.880
Oh now, okay, now I do agree. Now you could

966
00:53:05.920 --> 00:53:09.960
look at this as hey, you can't handle it. You can't.

967
00:53:10.480 --> 00:53:13.719
Now in Jeremiah's situation, God is going to step in,

968
00:53:13.960 --> 00:53:16.760
preserve him, protect him, because he gives him all these promises.

969
00:53:16.800 --> 00:53:19.199
If you go all the way back to Jeremiah one. Okay,

970
00:53:19.239 --> 00:53:22.199
but I can't extrapolate from that the God's now going

971
00:53:22.280 --> 00:53:26.039
to step in and help me. Right that God, What

972
00:53:26.079 --> 00:53:29.840
can I say God is specifically going to do for me? Now?

973
00:53:29.920 --> 00:53:33.960
What I can say is when I face adversity in

974
00:53:34.079 --> 00:53:37.519
my life is falling apart, in many cases, I cannot

975
00:53:37.559 --> 00:53:40.760
handle it. But I can trust in one who died

976
00:53:40.880 --> 00:53:45.840
for me, who then guarantees me eternal salvation, and then

977
00:53:46.000 --> 00:53:48.840
he guarantees me a time that will come there'll be

978
00:53:48.880 --> 00:53:51.320
no more pain, no more suffering, and no more death.

979
00:53:51.599 --> 00:53:55.079
Now that I can trust in that God will ultimately help.

980
00:53:55.639 --> 00:53:58.079
We got to be very careful here because if we

981
00:53:58.119 --> 00:54:01.559
extrapolate from Jeremiah, God going to help him, and he's

982
00:54:01.559 --> 00:54:03.800
going to help us in a similar way. I cannot

983
00:54:04.000 --> 00:54:07.440
do that. There are specific promises to Jeremiah that are

984
00:54:07.519 --> 00:54:12.239
not given to us. So maybe it's best to say

985
00:54:12.639 --> 00:54:15.840
I can't do these things right. We can't. It's not

986
00:54:15.880 --> 00:54:20.079
that it's preparing us too. We can't. We can't truly

987
00:54:20.159 --> 00:54:23.360
handle I think maybe is that a better way of

988
00:54:23.400 --> 00:54:24.039
looking at it.

989
00:54:26.119 --> 00:54:28.320
The Lord will uphold him, The Lord will be with

990
00:54:28.440 --> 00:54:30.719
him to enable him to do all these things. That

991
00:54:30.800 --> 00:54:33.079
was the promise the Lord gave to Jeremy at the beginning.

992
00:54:33.199 --> 00:54:36.199
Of the book, Chapter one, verse nineteen. They will fight

993
00:54:36.280 --> 00:54:39.320
against you, but they will not overcome you. For I

994
00:54:39.440 --> 00:54:43.440
am with you, and I will rescue you, says the Lord.

995
00:54:44.480 --> 00:54:46.239
He can't do it on his own. There's no way

996
00:54:46.239 --> 00:54:48.280
he could face all these challenges on his own. But

997
00:54:48.360 --> 00:54:50.719
he wasn't going to be on his own. The Lord

998
00:54:50.760 --> 00:54:53.039
would be with him and help him, which he did

999
00:54:53.079 --> 00:54:58.039
from a forty years. He sustained him and upheld him throughout.

1000
00:54:58.960 --> 00:55:04.559
Okay, he acknowledged Jeremiah received specific promises. Those are not

1001
00:55:04.840 --> 00:55:10.960
for us, not being carried out, and these are very tangible,

1002
00:55:11.079 --> 00:55:16.280
specific materialistic, physical preservation, protection and promises that we do

1003
00:55:16.360 --> 00:55:16.800
not have.

1004
00:55:20.119 --> 00:55:23.679
And so that's the message he's communicating here. Yes, it's

1005
00:55:23.719 --> 00:55:27.280
a warning of coming adversity, but there's the promise, there's

1006
00:55:27.320 --> 00:55:32.440
the assurance here of divine sufficiency. That's what God is

1007
00:55:32.480 --> 00:55:37.440
saying to Jeremiah and to us. Yes, there are challenges ahead,

1008
00:55:38.159 --> 00:55:40.639
maybe trials, maybe difficult ones that we have to face

1009
00:55:40.639 --> 00:55:42.719
and left to ourselves. You know who could do it?

1010
00:55:43.159 --> 00:55:45.280
No one, We couldn't. It'd be like running against a

1011
00:55:45.320 --> 00:55:48.320
thoroughbred race source. It would be like wandering through a

1012
00:55:48.400 --> 00:55:52.719
line infested jungle. No, hope, no chance. But that's the

1013
00:55:52.719 --> 00:55:55.760
way it's meant to be, to break us away from

1014
00:55:55.800 --> 00:55:59.760
our confidence in ourselves, to make us recognize as the Lord.

1015
00:56:00.679 --> 00:56:04.039
He alone, He alone is the source of my strength.

1016
00:56:04.599 --> 00:56:07.519
He is my sufficiency. With his help, Sami says, I

1017
00:56:07.519 --> 00:56:12.280
can run against the troop with his help Isaiah faulty.

1018
00:56:12.360 --> 00:56:14.960
We can run and not grow weary. We can walk

1019
00:56:15.000 --> 00:56:17.000
and not faint.

1020
00:56:17.960 --> 00:56:20.840
Oh no, Now he's taking isaiah promises and making them

1021
00:56:20.880 --> 00:56:24.760
about us. It was about them. Oh man, okay, Oh

1022
00:56:26.079 --> 00:56:28.880
this is the stuff that always drives me crazy. These

1023
00:56:28.920 --> 00:56:32.599
are promises given to specific people in specific historical context.

1024
00:56:32.719 --> 00:56:34.559
When you say God's gonna step in and do this

1025
00:56:34.559 --> 00:56:35.880
for me, or do this for me, or do this

1026
00:56:35.920 --> 00:56:40.039
for me, you've got to then it's just vague. It's

1027
00:56:40.199 --> 00:56:44.119
just it's meaningless. It's it's vanity of vanities. God's gonna

1028
00:56:44.119 --> 00:56:46.199
help how well, I'm not gonna tell you God's gonna

1029
00:56:46.199 --> 00:56:48.199
step in and sustain you. I'm not gonna tell you how.

1030
00:56:48.239 --> 00:56:49.719
I'm not gonna tell you what it looks like. Is

1031
00:56:49.719 --> 00:56:54.199
it tangible, is it physical? Is it material? Or Because

1032
00:56:54.239 --> 00:56:57.320
I know plenty of Christians throughout church history who died,

1033
00:56:57.400 --> 00:57:00.320
God obviously did not protect they this happen, and then

1034
00:57:00.400 --> 00:57:02.960
this happened, and this happened, and this happened, and this happened.

1035
00:57:03.000 --> 00:57:07.239
Where was It wasn't physical, it wasn't material, So where

1036
00:57:07.280 --> 00:57:11.679
is it going to happen? Oh, you man?

1037
00:57:15.079 --> 00:57:18.239
Alexander MacLaren, in his sermon on this text, he says,

1038
00:57:18.320 --> 00:57:21.039
think of the power that will fit us for all crises.

1039
00:57:21.199 --> 00:57:23.639
With the power of Jesus in our spirits, we shall

1040
00:57:23.679 --> 00:57:25.719
never have to attempt a duty for which we are

1041
00:57:25.760 --> 00:57:29.079
not strengthened, nor to affront a danger from and in

1042
00:57:29.119 --> 00:57:31.960
which He will not defend us with his life in us,

1043
00:57:32.000 --> 00:57:33.039
we shall be ready.

1044
00:57:35.000 --> 00:57:38.000
Well, that's great that you quoted a sermon. There's no

1045
00:57:38.360 --> 00:57:43.360
danger that God won't protect us from. That's just ridiculous.

1046
00:57:43.480 --> 00:57:47.320
If we truly believe that, then why do churches have security?

1047
00:57:47.360 --> 00:57:50.599
And we shouldn't be worried about any God's gonna protect me.

1048
00:57:50.599 --> 00:57:53.360
God's gonna protect me. God's gonna protect me. And this

1049
00:57:53.519 --> 00:57:58.159
leads to the very mind Today. On the Christian Post website,

1050
00:57:58.559 --> 00:58:00.679
there's an article about a gun men who went to

1051
00:58:00.679 --> 00:58:05.760
a Seventh Day Adventist school and shot two kindergarteners. The

1052
00:58:05.960 --> 00:58:11.719
first comment posted under that article on the Christian Post,

1053
00:58:11.760 --> 00:58:15.000
a Christian website, was well, the school needs to ask

1054
00:58:15.039 --> 00:58:18.440
itself why this happened and why God did not protect

1055
00:58:18.519 --> 00:58:21.079
these kids, as if it was the school's fault that

1056
00:58:21.119 --> 00:58:24.280
they had done something spiritually, because of course God's going

1057
00:58:24.320 --> 00:58:27.000
to protect a Christian school. Of course God's going to

1058
00:58:27.039 --> 00:58:37.159
protect Christian kids. It doesn't work that way.

1059
00:58:38.760 --> 00:58:46.559
That's just ah okay. You see, he's saying, with his help,

1060
00:58:46.599 --> 00:58:49.400
we can face whatever challenges may come to us in life,

1061
00:58:50.039 --> 00:58:56.039
even the fascest of them all nice death. There's a

1062
00:58:56.079 --> 00:58:58.800
Scottish preacher some years back in the early nineteen hundreds.

1063
00:58:58.800 --> 00:59:01.679
His name was Arthur Gossip, and his wife died when

1064
00:59:01.719 --> 00:59:04.039
they were both in middle years, and as you can imagine,

1065
00:59:04.079 --> 00:59:06.719
he was devastated by that. He then had to preach

1066
00:59:06.760 --> 00:59:09.000
the following Sunday.

1067
00:59:09.840 --> 00:59:13.800
I mean, guess his wife dies, but Guid helps him preach.

1068
00:59:14.519 --> 00:59:17.360
Why wouldn't Gud just help I don't know his wife

1069
00:59:17.480 --> 00:59:18.039
not die?

1070
00:59:22.239 --> 00:59:23.880
And so he got up, he stood in the paul

1071
00:59:23.880 --> 00:59:25.880
pit like this one, and his first sentence to the

1072
00:59:25.880 --> 00:59:30.480
congregation was when life tumbles in what then? And then

1073
00:59:30.480 --> 00:59:34.360
he began to preach from these words. Jamy twelve, verse five.

1074
00:59:34.880 --> 00:59:36.960
If you have run with the footmen and they've wearied you,

1075
00:59:37.000 --> 00:59:39.159
then how can you contend with horses? If in the

1076
00:59:39.239 --> 00:59:41.679
land of peace in which you trusted they wearied you,

1077
00:59:41.880 --> 00:59:44.760
how will you do in the swelling flood of the Jordan?

1078
00:59:45.519 --> 00:59:47.920
And Gossip said this, You don't need to be afraid.

1079
00:59:48.400 --> 00:59:50.559
Our hearts are very frail, and there are places where

1080
00:59:50.559 --> 00:59:53.000
the road is very steep and very lonely. But we

1081
00:59:53.079 --> 00:59:55.719
have a wonderful God, And as Paul puts it, who

1082
00:59:55.719 --> 00:59:58.920
can separate us from his love? Not death? No, not

1083
00:59:59.039 --> 01:00:01.599
death for st And in the roaring of the Jordan,

1084
01:00:01.719 --> 01:00:04.360
cold with its dreadful chill, and very conscious of the

1085
01:00:04.440 --> 01:00:08.039
terror of its rushing, I too, like hopeful in Pilgrim's progress,

1086
01:00:08.199 --> 01:00:10.079
can call back to you, who, one day in your

1087
01:00:10.159 --> 01:00:12.239
term will have to cross it. Be a good cheer,

1088
01:00:12.280 --> 01:00:14.760
my brother, my sister, for I feel the bottom and

1089
01:00:14.800 --> 01:00:19.920
it is sound he's saying, in that worst of all trials,

1090
01:00:20.320 --> 01:00:25.159
as Jeremiah could say, the presence of the Lord is enough.

1091
01:00:25.880 --> 01:00:29.079
We don't need to be afraid. Having Him with us

1092
01:00:29.679 --> 01:00:30.159
is enough.

1093
01:00:34.239 --> 01:00:38.880
And that's the sermon. There you have it. I don't

1094
01:00:38.920 --> 01:00:42.159
know what you do with that. I mean, he speaks

1095
01:00:42.239 --> 01:00:47.039
really well, articulate, great, makes some great points. Hey, he

1096
01:00:47.440 --> 01:00:51.079
definitely stayed with the text. There's much I love about it,

1097
01:00:51.119 --> 01:00:55.079
but man alive, it leaves me with Okay, so God's

1098
01:00:55.119 --> 01:00:58.440
gonna help me? Well okay, wait, so the God who

1099
01:00:58.480 --> 01:01:01.679
did nothing to save your and now that God you're

1100
01:01:01.679 --> 01:01:07.599
gonna turn to for help. Under the Christian Post article,

1101
01:01:07.599 --> 01:01:09.320
I think there was some comments like, oh, I hope

1102
01:01:09.360 --> 01:01:12.039
these people, you know, pray that God will give them comfort?

1103
01:01:12.119 --> 01:01:15.639
How about God stopping the shooter from shooting their kindergarteners?

1104
01:01:15.840 --> 01:01:18.840
Like like, I know I'm never supposed to ask these questions,

1105
01:01:19.280 --> 01:01:22.400
but these are the like Christians just say weird things

1106
01:01:22.400 --> 01:01:25.960
about comfort and God being there. Hey, hey, I know,

1107
01:01:26.280 --> 01:01:29.800
I know fifteen people just died, but pray. Oh I'm

1108
01:01:29.800 --> 01:01:32.400
gonna pray for them. Pray for whom the dead people,

1109
01:01:32.679 --> 01:01:34.480
pray for the life. Pray We're gonna pray to the

1110
01:01:34.519 --> 01:01:36.880
God who didn't stop the fifteen people from dying. Like

1111
01:01:37.599 --> 01:01:40.199
do we ever think about what we say and what

1112
01:01:40.239 --> 01:01:48.360
it means? And Jeremiah's case, God is basically basically like, Hey,

1113
01:01:48.519 --> 01:01:50.880
you think it's bad, It's gonna get worse. He doesn't

1114
01:01:50.880 --> 01:01:56.119
give them, actually any any any tangible hope. Now, Jeremiah

1115
01:01:56.400 --> 01:01:58.360
may be reminded we would have to go through the

1116
01:01:58.360 --> 01:02:01.480
rest of the chapter, but he doesn't seem to give

1117
01:02:01.559 --> 01:02:04.800
him any specific answers. Now, what Jeremiah has is God's

1118
01:02:04.840 --> 01:02:09.320
promises given specifically to him. Now, do we have any promises?

1119
01:02:09.559 --> 01:02:13.119
We have promises, right, we have promises of forgiveness of sins.

1120
01:02:13.159 --> 01:02:15.840
We have promises of imputed righteousness. We have promise of

1121
01:02:16.920 --> 01:02:18.920
nothing can separate us from the love of God. We

1122
01:02:19.239 --> 01:02:22.239
have promise of eternal life. We have promise that in glory,

1123
01:02:22.960 --> 01:02:25.960
no more pain, no more suffering, no more death, glorified body. Yes,

1124
01:02:26.039 --> 01:02:28.079
we have some promises, but so many times we want

1125
01:02:28.119 --> 01:02:32.480
to take promises, try to bring them over into the physical, which, well,

1126
01:02:32.679 --> 01:02:40.000
that leads to major problems, so that you can do

1127
01:02:40.039 --> 01:02:41.960
what you want. Now, I'm going to have a problem

1128
01:02:42.639 --> 01:02:44.679
because any minute I'm going to hear this at my

1129
01:02:44.719 --> 01:02:51.119
front door. Texas Rangers. Texas Rangers open up and they're

1130
01:02:51.119 --> 01:02:53.320
going to come in and they're gonna have their guns drawn,

1131
01:02:53.400 --> 01:02:54.960
and they're going like, why are you not watching the

1132
01:02:55.000 --> 01:02:58.280
Texas football game? You know that the Constitution of the

1133
01:02:58.320 --> 01:03:01.760
Country of Texas says you must watch the Texas Longhorns.

1134
01:03:01.840 --> 01:03:04.840
It is in the law. What are you doing? And

1135
01:03:04.880 --> 01:03:06.840
I'm going I'm going to probably end up in prison

1136
01:03:07.639 --> 01:03:09.679
an adversity, and I guess you can send me a

1137
01:03:09.719 --> 01:03:13.840
note with Jeremiah twelve in it. Okay, all right, a

1138
01:03:13.880 --> 01:03:16.599
little bit of humor there, but I am missing the game,

1139
01:03:16.639 --> 01:03:19.320
and I did want to hear the game. But all right,

1140
01:03:19.360 --> 01:03:22.440
there's another sermon review for our sermon's two point oh

1141
01:03:22.559 --> 01:03:24.760
sermon app challenge. So you can write that sermon down.

1142
01:03:24.800 --> 01:03:27.480
You've just heard the entire thing, and then you can

1143
01:03:27.480 --> 01:03:31.559
think about how you does Jeremiah twelve tell us how

1144
01:03:31.559 --> 01:03:37.679
to face adversity? And if we go with the theory

1145
01:03:38.039 --> 01:03:41.280
that God God gives us or allows us to go

1146
01:03:41.320 --> 01:03:45.679
through adversity because it's preparing us for greater adversity, is

1147
01:03:46.000 --> 01:03:48.119
that really the I mean, I don't do you find

1148
01:03:48.199 --> 01:03:48.800
comfort in that?

1149
01:03:49.840 --> 01:03:50.000
Man?

1150
01:03:50.039 --> 01:03:52.119
I'm so glad when I was young my mother died

1151
01:03:52.320 --> 01:03:55.519
because it prepared me for well, my father dying. Well,

1152
01:03:55.559 --> 01:03:58.159
I'm glad my father died because that prepared me. Well.

1153
01:03:58.199 --> 01:04:02.239
I mean, I don't know how that. I don't even

1154
01:04:02.280 --> 01:04:06.559
know how that works. I'm glad I was abused because

1155
01:04:06.559 --> 01:04:09.400
then that prepared me for my mother to die. Then

1156
01:04:09.440 --> 01:04:13.360
that prepared me for my father to die. What I like,

1157
01:04:13.440 --> 01:04:15.599
I don't, I don't. I don't really know how that

1158
01:04:15.679 --> 01:04:22.480
actually works. I I but hey, you you you can

1159
01:04:22.480 --> 01:04:24.920
tell me, all right. Thanks for listening. Everyone, have a

1160
01:04:24.920 --> 01:04:28.840
great day. Now it's football time and I'm probably gonna

1161
01:04:28.840 --> 01:04:31.519
go now turn it on and face great adversities. A

1162
01:04:31.519 --> 01:04:32.840
little bit of a joke. Thanks for listening.

1163
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God bless