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Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.
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You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.
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Thank you for listening.
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Turn with me in your Bibles to Jeremiah 33, and we're going to look at the first three verses of Jeremiah 33.
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And I want to talk about this understanding salvation's promise of relationship.
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Because what happens when you give your life to Christ, you trust him as your Savior, it opens up a relationship with him.
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And a relationship is something where two people walk together, they communicate together, and God wants to do that in our lives.
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And here, in as we continue to read chronologically through Scripture, we're in plowing our way through Jeremiah, and we're looking at the time of that.
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And so here we hit this incredible scripture.
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Now, this is one of my favorite verses of all time, Jeremiah 33.3.
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Now, I was kind of brainstorming this message with one of our staff guys this week, who I won't share.
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I hate to reveal those things.
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You know, just our sanctity of the office, right?
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So I'm sharing this with this unnamed staff member, and I said, this is my favorite verse.
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And Pastor Dave says to me, Greg, do you know how often you say that's your favorite chapter or your favorite verse?
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Well, probably all the time.
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Whatever chapter we're in happens to be our favorite, right?
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But this is one of this really is one of my favorite verses.
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This is like we live by this with our kids and all of that.
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And so here's what the Bible says, Jeremiah 33, verse 1.
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While he, Jeremiah, was still confined in the guard's courtyard, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time.
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The Lord who made the earth, the Lord who forms it to establish it.
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Yahweh is his name, says this.
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So God, speaking to Jeremiah, says, This is who I am, I am God, and now he speaks to him.
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And he says, Call to me, and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things that you do not know.
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Now that Jeremiah 33, 3, really is one of my one of my all-time favorite verses.
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It was a favorite verse in our family.
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Now, parents, I'm gonna give you a little, give you a little resource here that you'll love.
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There's a uh uh organization, a group of people that write scripture songs called Seeds Kids Worship or Seeds Family Worship.
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We use those sometimes here in my family.
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We use this with all of our kids.
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Parents, you need to Google that and start using those songs with your kids.
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They are great songs.
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Man, they got rock and roll songs and worship songs, and they're they're awesome.
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And they are all scripture, and so they're scripture memory verse songs.
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And so when you sing the song with your kids, and adults will like this music, you are memorizing the verse.
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So when we read this passage of scripture, here's what I hear in my head.
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Call to me and I will answer you.
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Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things, great and unsearchable things you do not know.
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Call to me, and then it says Jeremiah 33, 3.
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So that's one of the few verses that I know the reference to because we sing it with the song.
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And so I hear that in my head all the time.
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It's just there, and that's the power of music attached to scripture.
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And so, parents, this is an incredible way for you to teach your children music and scripture at the same time.
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So, uh Seeds Family Worship, I just encourage that to you as a resource.
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That's a freebie.
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I'll charge you for the music concert.
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No, I'm kidding.
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I don't do that to you very often.
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But I want you to see it's so easy, and that's what I hear, and that's what I get.
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This verse is an incredible verse.
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There's a reason that an organization like that would pick this as one of the verses that they make songs to, they write songs to, because it's this incredible promise.
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And so promises in scripture are awesome.
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We love promises in scripture, but sometimes we don't know how to use them properly.
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So this verse is so powerful and it is so famous.
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This is a verse, you go to a bookstore somewhere and you'll see the verse on a sign and got all these cool signs, and you got this verse on it, you hang them on your house, and you do all this kind of stuff with this verse.
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But sometimes that familiarity, familiarity, means we don't really grasp the full picture of it, or it sort of loses some of its flavor with us.
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But also, it's even more we lose some of that flavor when we don't know how to properly use that promise or read it or understand it in a way that God has written it to us in Scripture.
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So let me just give you a quick primer right here on how you do promises in Scripture.
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So the first question you want to ask that promises, to whom was it written?
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Because a lot of times scriptures are written to individuals, like here, it's written to Jeremiah, or sometimes it's written to like people, like the church or everybody or whatever.
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So, an example here, this is one, it was written to Jeremiah.
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So you can't just go, this is totally mine because it was God speaking to Jeremiah.
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But take another one that we know that we love, 1 John 1 9.
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1 John was written primarily to encourage Christians, and here's what he tells us in 1 John 1 9.
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We love this verse.
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If we confess our sins, then he is faithful to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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And so everybody who was saved, that was written directly to us.
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And so, who is the promise written to?
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Because it helps us understand the promise.
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Then, does it have a specific promise or does it have a general application?
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Like a lot of times we've seen prophecies here in the Old Testament as we've been chronologically reading through that.
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It will have a specific prophecy to a given time, and then sometimes it may have a second layer that speaks into the future.
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Sometimes it does, sometimes it's not.
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Sometimes it's very specific, sometimes it's a little more, it's a little more general application.
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Are there conditions or triggers in the promise?
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So in this one, there is a trigger.
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He invites Jeremiah, call to me, and then he says, and I will tell you great and unsearchable or incomprehensible things.
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Depends on which translation you're looking at.
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All those words are really good.
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And so he says, Call to me.
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He invites him to do that, and then when he does, then God says, I will speak to you.
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It's just like the one I just quoted, 1 John 1 9.
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If we confess our sins, then he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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There is a trigger.
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If we confess our sins, you've got to come to Jesus and confess that sin.
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And when you do, then he forgives.
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If we don't confess that sin, then we have not shown that we know we sinned, that we know we need forgiveness, we have not repented of that sin that's creating a problem.
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So there's a trigger there.
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And there is one here for Jeremiah.
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Call to me and I will show you.
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What happens if Jeremiah does not call on the Lord?
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Right?
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Doesn't work.
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And then finally, how does it apply to us generally as Christians?
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It's easy with one like 1 John 1 9 how that applies, because it's written to all of us.
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Well, how does this one apply when God speaks to Jeremiah and he says, You, Jeremiah, my son, you call on me and I will show you great and mighty things.
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Well, I think here's the application we'll see this morning.
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It may not be exactly the same response God gives us that he gives to Jeremiah, but we do get, as a general application for us, a very clear picture of the heart of God and his desire and purpose for us to walk in relationship with him, call on him, and how he speaks to us.
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That's what the application becomes for us.
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Now, let me give you kind of an example of this.
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Here you see God speaking to Jeremiah, and he says, Call to me and I'll answer you and show you great mighty things.
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So here's what we get.
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Here's what the promise looks like.
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The promise maker is God.
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He is the creator God and the covenant God.
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Look at how he sets this up.
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He says, The Lord who made the earth, the Lord who forms it to establish it, Yahweh is his name, says this.
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Now that's a fascinating kind of intro.
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Verse 1, you get God's already speaking to him.
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Jeremiah is his prophet.
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He already knows who God is.
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He's given messages that God has given him to give, and yet here, when God speaks to him, he makes this big production about who he is.
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Why does that happen?
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It's kind of a strange way to communicate.
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Like if I run into you the hall and I'm gonna give you a greeting, I can walk up and say, Greg, pastor of First Baptist Church, husband of Janet, father of two great kids, grandfather of the two greatest children that ever walked the planet.
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Greg, the mighty voice of God and speaker, greets you and says hello.
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Now we don't normally speak that way unless we're part of the MBA.
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Then they kind of talk that way a lot.
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But we don't generally do that, right?
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So why is God doing this?
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He is making a point to Jeremiah.
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What I am telling you is an incredible invitation that I am giving you.
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I am speaking to you now as the creator God of the universe, and what I'm going to promise to show you, I can show you because I am the maker of everything.
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And I can make it.
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You'll also see that it uses the word Lord twice and then the word Yahweh.
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And as we've talked about before, if you read like the intro before the table of contents in your Bible, it'll tell you why some of these words look weird.
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And so if you read this in chapter 2, the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who forms it to establish, you'll see that that looks weird because the letters are all in capital letters.
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That's actually the word being translated Yahweh.
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And you see, in some translations, um, like this one that we're reading from, gives you Yahweh, so you understand what's happening.
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Yahweh is the covenant name of God to the children of Israel.
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And Jeremiah is a prophet of the Jewish people and of God.
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And so what they would do is they would use that word Yahweh as the name of God.
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Now we say Yahweh, and if you'll see it has the A and the E as vowels in there, but they didn't put vowels in that word because it was so honorific and it was such a holy word, they didn't want to say it out loud or utter it.
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And so what happens is this is the most powerful, the most awesome, the most holy covenant name of God.
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And so he tells Jeremiah, not only am I the creator God, I am the covenant God, and I am about to invite you to ask me, and I'm gonna show you things.
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That is the God who wants to show us things.
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The recipient of this promise is Jeremiah.
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He speaks to you.
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And he says, Call to me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and uncomprehending things you do not know.
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He is speaking to Jeremiah directly, so this is a promise to him as a child of God.
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And then you have the conditions.
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Jeremiah must choose to call on the Lord, as we mentioned a minute ago.
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He's got to reach out to him and call out to him.
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What happens if he doesn't?
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He doesn't hear from the Lord.
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But when he calls out, it triggers God's response to him.
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And then the setting.
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Notice what it says here in verse 1.
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While he was still confined in the guard's courtyard.
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So what's happened is uh you read a couple of chapters early, which is earlier, which is nice to be reading chronologically through, you see this picture and you understand what that means.
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Jeremiah was called to be a prophet.
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God told him when he called him, you're gonna speak to the children of Israel and you're gonna call out their sin and call them to repentance, and they're not gonna listen to you.
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Now, who'd like to go to that church?
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Come be our pastor, and nobody's gonna listen to you whatsoever, but we still want you to be your pastor.
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At least a third of the people listen to most pastors in most churches, right?
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I'm kidding, that was a joke.
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So he calls them to that.
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And that's what happens.
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Jeremiah says, look, if you don't repent of your sin, God's gonna use Babylon, he's gonna conquer you.
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And so this happens.
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Uh and he keeps preaching that, he keeps preaching that, makes the king mad, people get mad, and he keeps saying, Listen, you haven't repented, Babylon's gonna come conquer you.
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And sure enough, what happens right now in this moment, Babylon is sea in siege around the city of Jerusalem.
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And so the king got sick of that, he got frustrated with Jeremiah, he puts him in prison, and basically there is an area in the courtyard of the temple where he is holding him captive.
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And so when it says he's still confined in the guard's courtyard, that's where he is, he's in prison for preaching this message of repentance.
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And so here God shows up in Jeremiah's life and he speaks to him in this incredibly difficult time.
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He's in prison, he's under persecution for preaching the message of God.
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They've put him in prison because of that.
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He's in this terrible struggle time, and in the midst of that, God shows up in his life directly to him individually and invites him to call to me, and I will show you these incredible things.
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It's a powerful picture when you think through that.
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And so here's that becomes the what we're looking at in this is that God wants to step into our lives, and he may not show you, he's probably not going to show you what he showed Jeremiah, but he's going to show you himself.
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And so the application becomes that: that God works this way with all of his children.
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As you're studying God's word, we could go over and over and over, event after event after event, where God shows up like this in someone's life and speaks into them.
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And this promise is powerful because this promise illustrates who God is and therefore who he wants to be in our lives.
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In fact, who he wants to be is to reveal himself in this incredible way.
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Here's what he tells Jeremiah call to me and I will answer you, and I will show you great.
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And then one translation says mighty, one translation says unsearchable, one translation says incomprehensible, and God is saying, I have massively powerful, wonderful things that you would not know on your own that I want to reveal into your life.
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In fact, this word that's translated unsearchable, incomprehensible.
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Scholars tell us it's like a word picture, and it's really interesting the choice of this word.
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It is the idea of things protected behind a wall that you end up in siege because you can't breach the wall.
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And here they are in siege around Jerusalem, and Jeremiah and Judah so far is protected, Jerusalem is protected behind this wall.
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And he uses this word picture, and he says, These are things that you can't get to, but son, I love you, and I am going to open it up to you, and I'm going to show you incredible things.
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See, when God reveals himself, especially when he starts off saying, I am the Lord God, creator of the universe, and I am the Lord who accomplished all of creation, and I am Yahweh, and my covenant is always true.
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Buckle up your seatbelt.
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I'm about to reveal myself to you.
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He's about to reveal something incredible because he's God.
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Now, just so you'll see, instead of going through story after story after story, I just want to give you two scripture verses that affirm this same kind of a principle that help us understand how to read and how to grasp a hold of Jeremiah 30, 33.
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Here's Ephesians chapter 3, and this is Paul writing to the churches.
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You know, in these letters, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, this is Paul writing to churches in these cities.
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Here's the city of Ephesus.
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But because he's writing to churches, he's also writing directly to us as a part of the body of Christ and churches.
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And Paul is saying, as their pastor who planted their church, here is his prayer for them as their pastor.
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I have prayed this prayer, and the one you'll read in a moment, over you as a church.
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This is what pastors do.
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Here's what he says for this reason, I, Paul, kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.
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You see, Paul has looked at and understand the magnitude of God in the same way God told Jeremiah, I am the Lord, creator of the universe, I'm the Lord, I created and accomplished all this, and I'm Yahweh.
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Paul is relying on that same personage of God to answer this prayer.
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And he says, I pray that he, God, may grant you the church according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in the inner man through his spirit.
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Now, what kind of power does the creator God of the universe bring into your life when he shows up?
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And that the Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith.
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I, Paul, pray that you, the church, being rooted and firmly established in love, that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width and height and depth of God's love.
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Don't you just think about that for a minute?
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Jeremiah, I will show you great and incomprehensible things.
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And Paul says, I pray that God will reveal to you the height and breadth and depth and width of his love.
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It has to be revealed to us because God is so great and his love is so great, we cannot comprehend it on our own.
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It has to be taught and revealed to us.
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I got a chance to spend the weekend with our grandkids, so you know I'm about to tell a grandkids story.
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So here's what happens.
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We come walking in our daughter Mabry's house, and we come in through the garage and we open the door, and this is our routine, and we say knock, knock, and all of a sudden, my two and a half-year-old grandson, Killian, says, Bomber! Now, why does he say that?
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Because he loves Bomber.
00:19:31.920 --> 00:19:33.920
And he knows Bomber loves him.
00:19:34.160 --> 00:19:40.720
And in his two and a half-year-old mind, he knows that he and Bomber are about to roll around on the floor playing G.I.
00:19:40.880 --> 00:19:42.880
Joes and Weeble Cowboys.
00:19:43.039 --> 00:19:44.240
Y'all know Weebles?
00:19:45.200 --> 00:19:47.599
Weebles wobble, but they don't fall down.
00:19:47.680 --> 00:19:48.640
Does that help you remember?
00:19:48.799 --> 00:19:49.279
Weebles?
00:19:49.599 --> 00:19:49.920
Okay.
00:19:50.079 --> 00:20:02.880
So we're playing all this, and he's gonna get tickled, and he's gonna tickle me, and we're gonna have all this fun, and we're gonna ride these bouncy horses and stick horses together, and we're gonna do all this stuff, and he knows that because he knows Bomber loves him, and that's what Bomber does when he shows up.
00:20:03.119 --> 00:20:08.799
And so he's Bomber! Because he knows Bomber loves him.
00:20:09.039 --> 00:20:10.960
Now, let me ask you a question.
00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:32.960
In two and a half-year-old Killian's mind and heart, even though he's the smartest two and a half-year-old in the history of the world, compare the amount of love that I have in my heart for him and the amount that he can understand as a two and a half-year-old.
00:20:33.839 --> 00:20:35.200
Which is greater.
00:20:37.599 --> 00:20:50.160
In fact, it will take a killian years to understand the height and breadth and depth and length of Bomber's love for him.
00:20:50.960 --> 00:21:00.400
Because he has to mature and go through other experiences to understand how much that love is there and what commitment to him is.
00:21:00.640 --> 00:21:09.359
And when Bomber bails him out, and how Bomber encourages him, and all the things that Bomber will do over the course, he has to learn that.
00:21:11.599 --> 00:21:14.079
That's what our Christian life is like.
00:21:14.880 --> 00:21:19.680
However long you've been a Christian, a brand new Christian or 40 years.
00:21:20.400 --> 00:21:32.880
You compare your understanding of God's love to the creator covenant God of the universe and his capacity and love for you.
00:21:33.519 --> 00:21:37.200
There is still so much to learn.
00:21:37.759 --> 00:21:44.480
There is so much you can learn about how much God loves you and what he wants to do in your life and what is there.
00:21:44.640 --> 00:21:54.480
And that's why Paul has to pray and ask for us to get a hunger for the understanding of how much God loves us.
00:21:54.640 --> 00:22:02.160
That's why God spoke to Jeremiah and said, Call to me and I will show you great, mighty, Incomprehensible things.
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God's love is so incomprehensible for us.
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We cannot put our arms around all of that.
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And it takes a lifetime of relationship, of constantly walking with Him to learn this unsearchable, this incomprehensible, surpassing knowledge, as it says in verse 19, of God's love for you.
00:22:24.960 --> 00:22:27.920
Pastor I grew up used to say this to us all the time.
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I don't know how much Jesus you have, but you have all the Jesus you want.
00:22:36.960 --> 00:22:40.799
We have to want to know more.
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To call out to him, to grow in that, to understand those things.
00:22:47.039 --> 00:22:52.640
Paul says that's what he's praying for them, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
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This is God showing up in Jeremiah's life, even in the midst of difficulty, and wanting to pour himself and reveal himself into the life of Jeremiah.
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And Paul says, God wants that to happen with you as the church.
00:23:07.359 --> 00:23:12.400
And I am praying that you get that hunger and that God does that in your life.
00:23:12.559 --> 00:23:13.920
Now listen what else he says.
00:23:14.079 --> 00:23:20.559
Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we think or ask.
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Another version says, all that we think or imagine according to the power that works in us.
00:23:28.559 --> 00:23:41.359
Imagine now calling to the Lord when he says, I am the creator God of the universe, and I accomplished everything that you could possibly ever see, and I am the covenant God, and now I want you to pray.
00:23:42.079 --> 00:23:47.359
To him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think, or even imagine.
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That's the power of who he is in our lives.
00:23:49.680 --> 00:23:52.799
And so this is exactly the same thing Paul is saying.
00:23:52.960 --> 00:24:02.400
He's read Jeremiah and he's understand this is the character of God and how God wants to reveal in our lives, and now you as the church, I want you to know that God.
00:24:02.880 --> 00:24:06.240
The same one that showed up in the courtyard of Jeremiah.
00:24:06.400 --> 00:24:08.960
Keep reading what this verse says.
00:24:10.240 --> 00:24:12.240
Do we go on to the next verse?
00:24:13.359 --> 00:24:16.799
Colossians is a similar prayer.
00:24:16.960 --> 00:24:24.559
It's another church, group of churches in the city called Colossae, but he's praying exactly the same way as we see in Jeremiah 33, 3.
00:24:24.799 --> 00:24:31.680
For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we Paul and the guys with him on his mission trip haven't stopped praying for you.
00:24:31.759 --> 00:24:39.920
We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
00:24:40.160 --> 00:24:41.519
Why do they have to be filled?
00:24:41.680 --> 00:24:46.079
Because there's so much more that they don't know that they can learn.
00:24:46.400 --> 00:24:56.640
So that, he's praying this for this purpose, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work, and growing in the knowledge of God.
00:24:56.960 --> 00:25:12.400
May you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience, with joy giving thanks to the Father who has enabled you to share the saints' inheritance in the light.
00:25:12.559 --> 00:25:15.039
It's the same type of prayer he's praying.
00:25:15.200 --> 00:25:25.759
And he's praying that because he understands that's the power of a relationship with God and what he wants to do in your life and who he wants to be there.
00:25:26.240 --> 00:25:30.559
Walking with God doesn't mean that you're behaving this, behaving this, and avoiding that.
00:25:30.720 --> 00:25:39.039
Walking with God means you get up in the morning and you call to him and you walk with him and he shares with you and you go through the day with the knowledge of this.
00:25:39.119 --> 00:25:43.839
It means some mornings he gives you a vision about what's to happen, about to happen.
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And he wants you to be in that, he wants you to do in that, he wants you to step into that because he wants to work in your life.
00:25:50.960 --> 00:26:03.279
The fullness of God's power and us strengthen with all of that power in who we are to be able to walk in joy and thanksgiving and power and patience and endurance through these things he's set before us.
00:26:03.519 --> 00:26:05.200
That's what it means to walk with God.
00:26:05.279 --> 00:26:06.799
That's the power of relationship.
00:26:06.960 --> 00:26:19.440
It is walking with him and him revealing himself to us and teaching us and growing us and challenging us and us following and learning more and more and more about the height and breadth and depth and love of how much Jesus loves you.
00:26:20.079 --> 00:26:23.920
So now let's go back to that promise and let's apply it.
00:26:24.160 --> 00:26:27.599
Let's make it more than just the picture on the wall.
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He desires to communicate with us.
00:26:31.039 --> 00:26:38.400
He literally showed up in that courtyard where Jeremiah's in prison to give him this word.
00:26:38.960 --> 00:26:43.039
And he invited Jeremiah to call on him.
00:26:45.680 --> 00:26:46.720
Call on me.
00:26:47.119 --> 00:26:50.880
Son, I'm proud of you for walking in the journey that I've asked you to do.
00:26:50.960 --> 00:26:58.480
And here I am in the midst of all of this, and I am calling you, inviting you, call on me.
00:27:01.279 --> 00:27:04.160
Let's communicate together.
00:27:05.119 --> 00:27:06.799
Here's the next thing I want you to see.
00:27:06.960 --> 00:27:10.160
Our relationship is with Almighty God.
00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:17.279
He does not waste words in this introduction that he gives Jeremiah.
00:27:17.519 --> 00:27:23.920
He is revealing himself in a powerful way, and he is saying, son, listen to who's talking to you.
00:27:24.799 --> 00:27:27.200
This is not some schmo out there talking.
00:27:27.359 --> 00:27:29.920
This is not just some whatever's going on.
00:27:30.079 --> 00:27:32.559
This is the creator God of the universe.
00:27:32.720 --> 00:27:34.319
I am in covenant with you.
00:27:34.480 --> 00:27:35.920
That is how much I love you.
00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:43.759
So when you speak to me, I am about to share with you something that is beyond what you can imagine because that's who I am.
00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:45.519
And I am beyond.
00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:46.720
I am more.
00:27:47.440 --> 00:27:50.319
I am the creator God of the universe.
00:27:50.640 --> 00:28:00.880
And it calls us to worship and trust and pray and listen all the more because we realize who is talking to us in this relationship.
00:28:01.200 --> 00:28:08.000
It's the same thing when Paul is giving all these honorifics, the power of God he can do beyond all you think or imagine and all this stuff.
00:28:08.160 --> 00:28:11.920
He's giving all that stuff because we need to know who is talking to us.
00:28:12.960 --> 00:28:16.240
And that leads to this other application.
00:28:16.480 --> 00:28:19.839
We should seek him based on faith and expectation.
00:28:20.079 --> 00:28:22.559
We should believe that God has something to say to us.
00:28:22.720 --> 00:28:28.640
He says, You call to me and I'm going to show you great and incomprehensible things.
00:28:29.119 --> 00:28:32.079
Jeremiah, I'm about to show you some stuff, son.
00:28:32.559 --> 00:28:36.880
I'm about to open it up and draw you in.
00:28:39.599 --> 00:28:41.920
So here's the application for us.
00:28:42.559 --> 00:28:44.880
Now, how do I apply this promise?
00:28:45.200 --> 00:28:45.839
Call.
00:28:46.240 --> 00:28:47.839
You have to call.
00:28:48.400 --> 00:29:00.319
You have to get up in the morning and get your Bible, and you have to sit before the Lord and turn off the stuff and set down your phone, and you've got to call on the name of the Lord.
00:29:00.799 --> 00:29:02.319
You call on him.
00:29:02.960 --> 00:29:07.440
Lord, I am here and I want you to speak.
00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:12.640
Lord, I am here and I have this request and I need direction or I need whatever.
00:29:12.720 --> 00:29:15.519
And Lord, I am here calling on you.
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I am ready to listen.
00:29:19.519 --> 00:29:21.039
Lord, speak.
00:29:21.279 --> 00:29:23.200
I'm calling you to speak.
00:29:23.519 --> 00:29:36.640
We have way too many Christians that they treat this like a behavior modification or a life philosophy that we follow most of the time, and we go about doing our own thing, and we're not walking in relationship.
00:29:36.799 --> 00:29:44.160
We don't have this idea, this understanding that God has intervened into your life and he has invited you to speak to him.
00:29:44.559 --> 00:29:51.839
And not only has he invited you to speak to him, he has invited you to call on him in a way that he'll speak to you.
00:29:52.240 --> 00:29:55.519
I don't know how much Jesus you have, but you have all you want.
00:29:56.559 --> 00:30:12.400
And the point of this story like this and a promise like this is God showing his character and revealing it one more time in the life of a real person to stir our hearts to want more of who God is.
00:30:12.799 --> 00:30:16.079
And then he says, listen, we should listen.
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Call me and I will tell you.
00:30:23.200 --> 00:30:24.799
We should listen.
00:30:25.680 --> 00:30:27.279
Man, we have these prayer requests.
00:30:27.359 --> 00:30:44.240
We come and we go, God, I need you to help Aunt Gertrude's like big toe hangnail thing in it, and got whatever, and Uncle Joe's got gout, and my boss is a jerk, and here I've given you my request, and then we go, coffee's ready, and the kids are waking up and we do our own thing.
00:30:45.359 --> 00:30:45.680
No?
00:30:47.200 --> 00:30:51.680
If we believe God's gonna speak to us, then there's a listening component.
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Lord, I'm gonna sit here with your word, and I'm gonna call to you, and I'm gonna listen.
00:30:58.799 --> 00:31:00.400
What do you want to share?
00:31:01.920 --> 00:31:03.440
What do you want to do?
00:31:05.119 --> 00:31:06.319
Where are we going?
00:31:08.720 --> 00:31:11.599
Lord, I'm struggling and I'm calling to you.
00:31:12.480 --> 00:31:17.119
I need some more of that height and width and depth and breadth.
00:31:17.440 --> 00:31:18.640
Love deal.
00:31:20.160 --> 00:31:21.599
I feel alone.
00:31:23.039 --> 00:31:24.720
Will you speak to me?
00:31:25.519 --> 00:31:26.880
And don't run off.
00:31:27.680 --> 00:31:29.519
You gotta sit and listen.
00:31:31.119 --> 00:31:34.880
You can do scroll for hours on your dumb phone.
00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:41.039
You can't sit and listen for the voice of God when He has promised to reveal Himself to you.
00:31:41.599 --> 00:31:43.279
Listen, listen.
00:31:44.079 --> 00:31:45.359
And then expect.
00:31:45.680 --> 00:31:48.720
And I think this may even be the biggest challenge for us.
00:31:49.279 --> 00:31:52.960
You got to expect to be faith challenged.
00:31:54.319 --> 00:32:02.240
One reason that God says to Jeremiah, I am the creator God of the universe and all of that, is because how are you gonna understand?
00:32:02.400 --> 00:32:12.799
You got to brace yourself and strap on your seatbelt to hear God speak in this way if you have not expanded your picture of who God is.
00:32:13.119 --> 00:32:26.799
And when you've expanded your picture of who God is through worship and all of that, then you come to Him and now you're going, okay, I'm gonna ask God to do, and God's gonna move, and when God moves, it's the creator God of the universe who moves.
00:32:27.599 --> 00:32:32.160
We got way too small pictures of God and way too small prayers.
00:32:32.799 --> 00:32:44.799
If he can do all beyond we can think or imagine or incomprehensible, as he said to Jeremiah, then where's the vision for your life and ministry and people that you can impact?
00:32:46.799 --> 00:32:48.720
Where is the vision for that?
00:32:50.480 --> 00:32:56.319
How can God use you where he's planted you in dramatic, mighty ways?
00:32:56.960 --> 00:33:08.079
If you come to him with a prayer request and you ask him to use me in my school or use me in my neighborhood or use me in my work, and you thought it up, it's not big enough.
00:33:08.640 --> 00:33:09.759
I didn't say that.
00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:11.680
Scripture says that.
00:33:12.400 --> 00:33:20.240
Paul specifically calls us to the same creator God as spoke in Jeremiah's life.
00:33:20.480 --> 00:33:23.039
Beyond all you can think or imagine.
00:33:23.359 --> 00:33:25.920
Incomprehensible, unsearchable.
00:33:26.240 --> 00:33:30.000
God wants to do more with your life than you could ever imagine.
00:33:30.799 --> 00:33:34.720
I don't know what that is, but I know it's who God is.
00:33:36.480 --> 00:33:37.920
We're not making this up.
00:33:38.240 --> 00:33:51.200
To walk by faith in relationship with the creator God of the universe to ask him to speak into our lives means that we are asking the God who accomplished all things to speak into our lives.
00:33:51.599 --> 00:33:54.160
At some point that's got to be true.
00:33:54.640 --> 00:34:05.440
At some point, we've got to believe that God wants to do something God-sized in your life, in your Sunday school class, in your ministry, in our church, in your family.
00:34:05.599 --> 00:34:11.039
You've got to believe that the creator God of the universe is on the move.
00:34:12.719 --> 00:34:19.360
And we've got way too small of a God and way too small prayers and way too small faith.
00:34:20.639 --> 00:34:24.480
And sometimes you just got to get with that to be heard.
00:34:26.400 --> 00:34:29.280
I mean, we've got to believe that God works.
00:34:29.519 --> 00:34:33.519
Why does God baptize people in other churches all the time and we're pleading?
00:34:34.079 --> 00:34:47.840
Because we don't have enough faith, and we haven't asked the creator God of the universe and invited him into our lives to share his uncomprehensible love and nature and power in us.
00:34:50.320 --> 00:34:53.119
This is an incredible invitation.
00:34:53.920 --> 00:35:03.920
Call to me, and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and unsearchable things.
00:35:06.159 --> 00:35:08.719
We should have a vision for our lives.
00:35:09.760 --> 00:35:11.679
What does God want to do?
00:35:12.400 --> 00:35:15.039
What does he want to do with your children?
00:35:17.119 --> 00:35:21.840
Your grandchildren, your ministry.
00:35:22.639 --> 00:35:29.440
If you've never accepted Christ as your Savior, listen, I'm going to try to help you understand this as best as I can.
00:35:30.400 --> 00:35:33.039
God has a plan for your life.
00:35:33.519 --> 00:35:52.000
And He wants to save you, and He wants to inhabit your life, and He will guide you to fix what's broken, but even more than that, He will lead you to a place where He will do things through you that you never dreamed would happen in your life.
00:35:52.239 --> 00:35:54.880
That's what God wants to do when He wants to save you.
00:35:55.199 --> 00:35:59.119
He wants to come in and inhabit your life with the fullness of who he is.
00:35:59.199 --> 00:36:01.440
That's what those prayers were that Paul was praying.
00:36:01.599 --> 00:36:09.280
That people would understand that, that you would have him in you and the full power of God and the surpassing knowledge of his love and all of that would come into your life.
00:36:09.440 --> 00:36:11.039
Why do you give your life to Jesus?
00:36:11.199 --> 00:36:15.760
Yes, you give your life to Jesus because he died for you and he paid the price for your sins.
00:36:15.920 --> 00:36:20.639
But he paid the price for your sins to open up the plan that he has for your life.
00:36:20.960 --> 00:36:27.920
And he loves you both in grace and mercy to forgive your sins, but he loves you in purpose to want to work in your life.
00:36:28.079 --> 00:36:30.400
Give your life to Jesus Christ.
00:36:31.039 --> 00:36:40.800
Because he wants to do these unsearchable things in your life and walk with you and reveal himself to you.
00:36:41.280 --> 00:36:50.320
Whoever you are and wherever you've been and whatever you have done, he wants to save you and be in a relationship with you.
00:36:50.559 --> 00:36:52.480
Give your life to Jesus.
00:36:52.800 --> 00:36:59.760
And church family, man, take this home and call on the Lord.
00:37:00.800 --> 00:37:13.199
Listen and expect in faith something from the creator God of the universe who died on the cross and rose again to save you.
00:37:16.320 --> 00:37:20.000
If you've never been saved, listen to part of the service we call an invitation.
00:37:20.079 --> 00:37:23.360
I'm going to invite you in a moment, God's people are going to stand and sing.
00:37:23.599 --> 00:37:25.679
It's a testimony, is what it is.
00:37:25.840 --> 00:37:29.360
They're singing a testimony if they believe what the word of God says.
00:37:29.599 --> 00:37:32.880
And if you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, I want to invite you to come.
00:37:33.119 --> 00:37:35.280
We'll have pastors and deacons here at the front.
00:37:35.599 --> 00:37:36.400
You just come.
00:37:36.559 --> 00:37:38.800
We'll pray with you, we'll walk with you, answer questions.
00:37:38.960 --> 00:37:40.880
Whatever it is you need, we're here for you.
00:37:41.119 --> 00:37:44.719
If you're already saved, you need a church home, come grow with us.
00:37:44.880 --> 00:37:45.920
Come learn with us.
00:37:46.079 --> 00:37:47.199
We want you to be here.
00:37:47.360 --> 00:37:48.000
You come.
00:37:48.400 --> 00:37:51.280
If you want to pray, the altar's open, you come and pray.
00:37:51.519 --> 00:37:56.000
Listen, don't leave here the same as you were when you left, when you got here.
00:37:56.239 --> 00:37:57.280
Leave different.
00:37:57.519 --> 00:38:09.039
In this invitation time, you may not have something to pray for at the front, but you have something as you're worshiping to do with the Lord and to open yourself up to call on Him and listen to Him.
00:38:09.360 --> 00:38:11.440
Lord, we love you and we thank you.
00:38:11.599 --> 00:38:15.519
And we pray these things in the name of Jesus and all God's people say.
00:38:21.039 --> 00:38:23.840
Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.
00:38:24.000 --> 00:38:31.440
Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.
00:38:31.760 --> 00:38:38.079
Thank you for listening to chapter and first, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.
00:00:03.120 --> 00:00:13.919
Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.
00:00:14.160 --> 00:00:19.359
You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.
00:00:19.600 --> 00:00:21.280
Thank you for listening.
00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:28.239
Turn with me in your Bibles to Jeremiah 33, and we're going to look at the first three verses of Jeremiah 33.
00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:33.840
And I want to talk about this understanding salvation's promise of relationship.
00:00:34.079 --> 00:00:40.079
Because what happens when you give your life to Christ, you trust him as your Savior, it opens up a relationship with him.
00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:48.640
And a relationship is something where two people walk together, they communicate together, and God wants to do that in our lives.
00:00:49.119 --> 00:00:58.000
And here, in as we continue to read chronologically through Scripture, we're in plowing our way through Jeremiah, and we're looking at the time of that.
00:00:58.079 --> 00:01:02.479
And so here we hit this incredible scripture.
00:01:03.439 --> 00:01:09.040
Now, this is one of my favorite verses of all time, Jeremiah 33.3.
00:01:09.359 --> 00:01:16.000
Now, I was kind of brainstorming this message with one of our staff guys this week, who I won't share.
00:01:16.159 --> 00:01:17.840
I hate to reveal those things.
00:01:18.079 --> 00:01:20.560
You know, just our sanctity of the office, right?
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So I'm sharing this with this unnamed staff member, and I said, this is my favorite verse.
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And Pastor Dave says to me, Greg, do you know how often you say that's your favorite chapter or your favorite verse?
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Well, probably all the time.
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Whatever chapter we're in happens to be our favorite, right?
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But this is one of this really is one of my favorite verses.
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This is like we live by this with our kids and all of that.
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And so here's what the Bible says, Jeremiah 33, verse 1.
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While he, Jeremiah, was still confined in the guard's courtyard, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time.
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The Lord who made the earth, the Lord who forms it to establish it.
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Yahweh is his name, says this.
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So God, speaking to Jeremiah, says, This is who I am, I am God, and now he speaks to him.
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And he says, Call to me, and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things that you do not know.
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Now that Jeremiah 33, 3, really is one of my one of my all-time favorite verses.
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It was a favorite verse in our family.
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Now, parents, I'm gonna give you a little, give you a little resource here that you'll love.
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There's a uh uh organization, a group of people that write scripture songs called Seeds Kids Worship or Seeds Family Worship.
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We use those sometimes here in my family.
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We use this with all of our kids.
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Parents, you need to Google that and start using those songs with your kids.
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They are great songs.
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Man, they got rock and roll songs and worship songs, and they're they're awesome.
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And they are all scripture, and so they're scripture memory verse songs.
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And so when you sing the song with your kids, and adults will like this music, you are memorizing the verse.
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So when we read this passage of scripture, here's what I hear in my head.
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Call to me and I will answer you.
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Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things, great and unsearchable things you do not know.
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Call to me, and then it says Jeremiah 33, 3.
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So that's one of the few verses that I know the reference to because we sing it with the song.
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And so I hear that in my head all the time.
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It's just there, and that's the power of music attached to scripture.
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And so, parents, this is an incredible way for you to teach your children music and scripture at the same time.
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So, uh Seeds Family Worship, I just encourage that to you as a resource.
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That's a freebie.
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I'll charge you for the music concert.
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No, I'm kidding.
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I don't do that to you very often.
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But I want you to see it's so easy, and that's what I hear, and that's what I get.
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This verse is an incredible verse.
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There's a reason that an organization like that would pick this as one of the verses that they make songs to, they write songs to, because it's this incredible promise.
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And so promises in scripture are awesome.
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We love promises in scripture, but sometimes we don't know how to use them properly.
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So this verse is so powerful and it is so famous.
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This is a verse, you go to a bookstore somewhere and you'll see the verse on a sign and got all these cool signs, and you got this verse on it, you hang them on your house, and you do all this kind of stuff with this verse.
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But sometimes that familiarity, familiarity, means we don't really grasp the full picture of it, or it sort of loses some of its flavor with us.
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But also, it's even more we lose some of that flavor when we don't know how to properly use that promise or read it or understand it in a way that God has written it to us in Scripture.
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So let me just give you a quick primer right here on how you do promises in Scripture.
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So the first question you want to ask that promises, to whom was it written?
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Because a lot of times scriptures are written to individuals, like here, it's written to Jeremiah, or sometimes it's written to like people, like the church or everybody or whatever.
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So, an example here, this is one, it was written to Jeremiah.
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So you can't just go, this is totally mine because it was God speaking to Jeremiah.
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But take another one that we know that we love, 1 John 1 9.
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1 John was written primarily to encourage Christians, and here's what he tells us in 1 John 1 9.
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We love this verse.
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If we confess our sins, then he is faithful to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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And so everybody who was saved, that was written directly to us.
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And so, who is the promise written to?
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Because it helps us understand the promise.
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Then, does it have a specific promise or does it have a general application?
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Like a lot of times we've seen prophecies here in the Old Testament as we've been chronologically reading through that.
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It will have a specific prophecy to a given time, and then sometimes it may have a second layer that speaks into the future.
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Sometimes it does, sometimes it's not.
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Sometimes it's very specific, sometimes it's a little more, it's a little more general application.
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Are there conditions or triggers in the promise?
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So in this one, there is a trigger.
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He invites Jeremiah, call to me, and then he says, and I will tell you great and unsearchable or incomprehensible things.
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Depends on which translation you're looking at.
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All those words are really good.
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And so he says, Call to me.
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He invites him to do that, and then when he does, then God says, I will speak to you.
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It's just like the one I just quoted, 1 John 1 9.
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If we confess our sins, then he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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There is a trigger.
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If we confess our sins, you've got to come to Jesus and confess that sin.
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And when you do, then he forgives.
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If we don't confess that sin, then we have not shown that we know we sinned, that we know we need forgiveness, we have not repented of that sin that's creating a problem.
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So there's a trigger there.
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And there is one here for Jeremiah.
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Call to me and I will show you.
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What happens if Jeremiah does not call on the Lord?
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Right?
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Doesn't work.
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And then finally, how does it apply to us generally as Christians?
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It's easy with one like 1 John 1 9 how that applies, because it's written to all of us.
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Well, how does this one apply when God speaks to Jeremiah and he says, You, Jeremiah, my son, you call on me and I will show you great and mighty things.
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Well, I think here's the application we'll see this morning.
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It may not be exactly the same response God gives us that he gives to Jeremiah, but we do get, as a general application for us, a very clear picture of the heart of God and his desire and purpose for us to walk in relationship with him, call on him, and how he speaks to us.
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That's what the application becomes for us.
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Now, let me give you kind of an example of this.
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Here you see God speaking to Jeremiah, and he says, Call to me and I'll answer you and show you great mighty things.
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So here's what we get.
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Here's what the promise looks like.
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The promise maker is God.
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He is the creator God and the covenant God.
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Look at how he sets this up.
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He says, The Lord who made the earth, the Lord who forms it to establish it, Yahweh is his name, says this.
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Now that's a fascinating kind of intro.
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Verse 1, you get God's already speaking to him.
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Jeremiah is his prophet.
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He already knows who God is.
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He's given messages that God has given him to give, and yet here, when God speaks to him, he makes this big production about who he is.
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Why does that happen?
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It's kind of a strange way to communicate.
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Like if I run into you the hall and I'm gonna give you a greeting, I can walk up and say, Greg, pastor of First Baptist Church, husband of Janet, father of two great kids, grandfather of the two greatest children that ever walked the planet.
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Greg, the mighty voice of God and speaker, greets you and says hello.
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Now we don't normally speak that way unless we're part of the MBA.
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Then they kind of talk that way a lot.
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But we don't generally do that, right?
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So why is God doing this?
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He is making a point to Jeremiah.
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What I am telling you is an incredible invitation that I am giving you.
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I am speaking to you now as the creator God of the universe, and what I'm going to promise to show you, I can show you because I am the maker of everything.
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And I can make it.
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You'll also see that it uses the word Lord twice and then the word Yahweh.
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And as we've talked about before, if you read like the intro before the table of contents in your Bible, it'll tell you why some of these words look weird.
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And so if you read this in chapter 2, the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who forms it to establish, you'll see that that looks weird because the letters are all in capital letters.
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That's actually the word being translated Yahweh.
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And you see, in some translations, um, like this one that we're reading from, gives you Yahweh, so you understand what's happening.
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Yahweh is the covenant name of God to the children of Israel.
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And Jeremiah is a prophet of the Jewish people and of God.
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And so what they would do is they would use that word Yahweh as the name of God.
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Now we say Yahweh, and if you'll see it has the A and the E as vowels in there, but they didn't put vowels in that word because it was so honorific and it was such a holy word, they didn't want to say it out loud or utter it.
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And so what happens is this is the most powerful, the most awesome, the most holy covenant name of God.
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And so he tells Jeremiah, not only am I the creator God, I am the covenant God, and I am about to invite you to ask me, and I'm gonna show you things.
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That is the God who wants to show us things.
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The recipient of this promise is Jeremiah.
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He speaks to you.
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And he says, Call to me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and uncomprehending things you do not know.
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He is speaking to Jeremiah directly, so this is a promise to him as a child of God.
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And then you have the conditions.
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Jeremiah must choose to call on the Lord, as we mentioned a minute ago.
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He's got to reach out to him and call out to him.
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What happens if he doesn't?
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He doesn't hear from the Lord.
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But when he calls out, it triggers God's response to him.
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And then the setting.
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Notice what it says here in verse 1.
00:12:22.639 --> 00:12:26.000
While he was still confined in the guard's courtyard.
00:12:26.240 --> 00:12:38.159
So what's happened is uh you read a couple of chapters early, which is earlier, which is nice to be reading chronologically through, you see this picture and you understand what that means.
00:12:39.039 --> 00:12:41.519
Jeremiah was called to be a prophet.
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God told him when he called him, you're gonna speak to the children of Israel and you're gonna call out their sin and call them to repentance, and they're not gonna listen to you.
00:12:48.960 --> 00:12:51.279
Now, who'd like to go to that church?
00:12:51.679 --> 00:12:56.159
Come be our pastor, and nobody's gonna listen to you whatsoever, but we still want you to be your pastor.
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At least a third of the people listen to most pastors in most churches, right?
00:13:00.559 --> 00:13:02.240
I'm kidding, that was a joke.
00:13:02.480 --> 00:13:04.080
So he calls them to that.
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And that's what happens.
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Jeremiah says, look, if you don't repent of your sin, God's gonna use Babylon, he's gonna conquer you.
00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:12.000
And so this happens.
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Uh and he keeps preaching that, he keeps preaching that, makes the king mad, people get mad, and he keeps saying, Listen, you haven't repented, Babylon's gonna come conquer you.
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And sure enough, what happens right now in this moment, Babylon is sea in siege around the city of Jerusalem.
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And so the king got sick of that, he got frustrated with Jeremiah, he puts him in prison, and basically there is an area in the courtyard of the temple where he is holding him captive.
00:13:38.799 --> 00:13:46.639
And so when it says he's still confined in the guard's courtyard, that's where he is, he's in prison for preaching this message of repentance.
00:13:46.879 --> 00:13:55.039
And so here God shows up in Jeremiah's life and he speaks to him in this incredibly difficult time.
00:13:55.759 --> 00:13:59.600
He's in prison, he's under persecution for preaching the message of God.
00:13:59.759 --> 00:14:01.600
They've put him in prison because of that.
00:14:01.759 --> 00:14:17.600
He's in this terrible struggle time, and in the midst of that, God shows up in his life directly to him individually and invites him to call to me, and I will show you these incredible things.
00:14:19.279 --> 00:14:22.720
It's a powerful picture when you think through that.
00:14:22.879 --> 00:14:38.480
And so here's that becomes the what we're looking at in this is that God wants to step into our lives, and he may not show you, he's probably not going to show you what he showed Jeremiah, but he's going to show you himself.
00:14:39.120 --> 00:14:46.879
And so the application becomes that: that God works this way with all of his children.
00:14:47.039 --> 00:14:57.759
As you're studying God's word, we could go over and over and over, event after event after event, where God shows up like this in someone's life and speaks into them.
00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:09.360
And this promise is powerful because this promise illustrates who God is and therefore who he wants to be in our lives.
00:15:10.159 --> 00:15:15.039
In fact, who he wants to be is to reveal himself in this incredible way.
00:15:15.200 --> 00:15:20.240
Here's what he tells Jeremiah call to me and I will answer you, and I will show you great.
00:15:20.399 --> 00:15:40.000
And then one translation says mighty, one translation says unsearchable, one translation says incomprehensible, and God is saying, I have massively powerful, wonderful things that you would not know on your own that I want to reveal into your life.
00:15:40.399 --> 00:15:45.279
In fact, this word that's translated unsearchable, incomprehensible.
00:15:45.519 --> 00:15:50.799
Scholars tell us it's like a word picture, and it's really interesting the choice of this word.
00:15:51.039 --> 00:15:59.519
It is the idea of things protected behind a wall that you end up in siege because you can't breach the wall.
00:15:59.759 --> 00:16:09.519
And here they are in siege around Jerusalem, and Jeremiah and Judah so far is protected, Jerusalem is protected behind this wall.
00:16:09.600 --> 00:16:20.720
And he uses this word picture, and he says, These are things that you can't get to, but son, I love you, and I am going to open it up to you, and I'm going to show you incredible things.
00:16:22.080 --> 00:16:37.039
See, when God reveals himself, especially when he starts off saying, I am the Lord God, creator of the universe, and I am the Lord who accomplished all of creation, and I am Yahweh, and my covenant is always true.
00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:39.759
Buckle up your seatbelt.
00:16:39.840 --> 00:16:42.000
I'm about to reveal myself to you.
00:16:42.240 --> 00:16:46.320
He's about to reveal something incredible because he's God.
00:16:46.799 --> 00:16:59.840
Now, just so you'll see, instead of going through story after story after story, I just want to give you two scripture verses that affirm this same kind of a principle that help us understand how to read and how to grasp a hold of Jeremiah 30, 33.
00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:04.160
Here's Ephesians chapter 3, and this is Paul writing to the churches.
00:17:04.240 --> 00:17:09.359
You know, in these letters, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, this is Paul writing to churches in these cities.
00:17:09.519 --> 00:17:10.960
Here's the city of Ephesus.
00:17:11.119 --> 00:17:18.559
But because he's writing to churches, he's also writing directly to us as a part of the body of Christ and churches.
00:17:18.720 --> 00:17:26.000
And Paul is saying, as their pastor who planted their church, here is his prayer for them as their pastor.
00:17:26.240 --> 00:17:30.559
I have prayed this prayer, and the one you'll read in a moment, over you as a church.
00:17:30.720 --> 00:17:31.920
This is what pastors do.
00:17:32.079 --> 00:17:40.319
Here's what he says for this reason, I, Paul, kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.
00:17:40.559 --> 00:17:52.000
You see, Paul has looked at and understand the magnitude of God in the same way God told Jeremiah, I am the Lord, creator of the universe, I'm the Lord, I created and accomplished all this, and I'm Yahweh.
00:17:52.240 --> 00:17:56.400
Paul is relying on that same personage of God to answer this prayer.
00:17:56.480 --> 00:18:08.640
And he says, I pray that he, God, may grant you the church according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in the inner man through his spirit.
00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:15.359
Now, what kind of power does the creator God of the universe bring into your life when he shows up?
00:18:15.839 --> 00:18:19.920
And that the Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith.
00:18:20.240 --> 00:18:34.319
I, Paul, pray that you, the church, being rooted and firmly established in love, that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width and height and depth of God's love.
00:18:35.119 --> 00:18:37.039
Don't you just think about that for a minute?
00:18:37.359 --> 00:18:43.920
Jeremiah, I will show you great and incomprehensible things.
00:18:44.160 --> 00:18:51.759
And Paul says, I pray that God will reveal to you the height and breadth and depth and width of his love.
00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:58.880
It has to be revealed to us because God is so great and his love is so great, we cannot comprehend it on our own.
00:18:59.119 --> 00:19:01.759
It has to be taught and revealed to us.
00:19:02.559 --> 00:19:09.440
I got a chance to spend the weekend with our grandkids, so you know I'm about to tell a grandkids story.
00:19:09.920 --> 00:19:11.200
So here's what happens.
00:19:11.359 --> 00:19:29.599
We come walking in our daughter Mabry's house, and we come in through the garage and we open the door, and this is our routine, and we say knock, knock, and all of a sudden, my two and a half-year-old grandson, Killian, says, Bomber! Now, why does he say that?
00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:31.519
Because he loves Bomber.
00:19:31.920 --> 00:19:33.920
And he knows Bomber loves him.
00:19:34.160 --> 00:19:40.720
And in his two and a half-year-old mind, he knows that he and Bomber are about to roll around on the floor playing G.I.
00:19:40.880 --> 00:19:42.880
Joes and Weeble Cowboys.
00:19:43.039 --> 00:19:44.240
Y'all know Weebles?
00:19:45.200 --> 00:19:47.599
Weebles wobble, but they don't fall down.
00:19:47.680 --> 00:19:48.640
Does that help you remember?
00:19:48.799 --> 00:19:49.279
Weebles?
00:19:49.599 --> 00:19:49.920
Okay.
00:19:50.079 --> 00:20:02.880
So we're playing all this, and he's gonna get tickled, and he's gonna tickle me, and we're gonna have all this fun, and we're gonna ride these bouncy horses and stick horses together, and we're gonna do all this stuff, and he knows that because he knows Bomber loves him, and that's what Bomber does when he shows up.
00:20:03.119 --> 00:20:08.799
And so he's Bomber! Because he knows Bomber loves him.
00:20:09.039 --> 00:20:10.960
Now, let me ask you a question.
00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:32.960
In two and a half-year-old Killian's mind and heart, even though he's the smartest two and a half-year-old in the history of the world, compare the amount of love that I have in my heart for him and the amount that he can understand as a two and a half-year-old.
00:20:33.839 --> 00:20:35.200
Which is greater.
00:20:37.599 --> 00:20:50.160
In fact, it will take a killian years to understand the height and breadth and depth and length of Bomber's love for him.
00:20:50.960 --> 00:21:00.400
Because he has to mature and go through other experiences to understand how much that love is there and what commitment to him is.
00:21:00.640 --> 00:21:09.359
And when Bomber bails him out, and how Bomber encourages him, and all the things that Bomber will do over the course, he has to learn that.
00:21:11.599 --> 00:21:14.079
That's what our Christian life is like.
00:21:14.880 --> 00:21:19.680
However long you've been a Christian, a brand new Christian or 40 years.
00:21:20.400 --> 00:21:32.880
You compare your understanding of God's love to the creator covenant God of the universe and his capacity and love for you.
00:21:33.519 --> 00:21:37.200
There is still so much to learn.
00:21:37.759 --> 00:21:44.480
There is so much you can learn about how much God loves you and what he wants to do in your life and what is there.
00:21:44.640 --> 00:21:54.480
And that's why Paul has to pray and ask for us to get a hunger for the understanding of how much God loves us.
00:21:54.640 --> 00:22:02.160
That's why God spoke to Jeremiah and said, Call to me and I will show you great, mighty, Incomprehensible things.
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God's love is so incomprehensible for us.
00:22:05.519 --> 00:22:08.400
We cannot put our arms around all of that.
00:22:08.559 --> 00:22:23.680
And it takes a lifetime of relationship, of constantly walking with Him to learn this unsearchable, this incomprehensible, surpassing knowledge, as it says in verse 19, of God's love for you.
00:22:24.960 --> 00:22:27.920
Pastor I grew up used to say this to us all the time.
00:22:28.640 --> 00:22:34.319
I don't know how much Jesus you have, but you have all the Jesus you want.
00:22:36.960 --> 00:22:40.799
We have to want to know more.
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To call out to him, to grow in that, to understand those things.
00:22:47.039 --> 00:22:52.640
Paul says that's what he's praying for them, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
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This is God showing up in Jeremiah's life, even in the midst of difficulty, and wanting to pour himself and reveal himself into the life of Jeremiah.
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And Paul says, God wants that to happen with you as the church.
00:23:07.359 --> 00:23:12.400
And I am praying that you get that hunger and that God does that in your life.
00:23:12.559 --> 00:23:13.920
Now listen what else he says.
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Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we think or ask.
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Another version says, all that we think or imagine according to the power that works in us.
00:23:28.559 --> 00:23:41.359
Imagine now calling to the Lord when he says, I am the creator God of the universe, and I accomplished everything that you could possibly ever see, and I am the covenant God, and now I want you to pray.
00:23:42.079 --> 00:23:47.359
To him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think, or even imagine.
00:23:47.519 --> 00:23:49.519
That's the power of who he is in our lives.
00:23:49.680 --> 00:23:52.799
And so this is exactly the same thing Paul is saying.
00:23:52.960 --> 00:24:02.400
He's read Jeremiah and he's understand this is the character of God and how God wants to reveal in our lives, and now you as the church, I want you to know that God.
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The same one that showed up in the courtyard of Jeremiah.
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Keep reading what this verse says.
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Do we go on to the next verse?
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Colossians is a similar prayer.
00:24:16.960 --> 00:24:24.559
It's another church, group of churches in the city called Colossae, but he's praying exactly the same way as we see in Jeremiah 33, 3.
00:24:24.799 --> 00:24:31.680
For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we Paul and the guys with him on his mission trip haven't stopped praying for you.
00:24:31.759 --> 00:24:39.920
We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
00:24:40.160 --> 00:24:41.519
Why do they have to be filled?
00:24:41.680 --> 00:24:46.079
Because there's so much more that they don't know that they can learn.
00:24:46.400 --> 00:24:56.640
So that, he's praying this for this purpose, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work, and growing in the knowledge of God.
00:24:56.960 --> 00:25:12.400
May you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience, with joy giving thanks to the Father who has enabled you to share the saints' inheritance in the light.
00:25:12.559 --> 00:25:15.039
It's the same type of prayer he's praying.
00:25:15.200 --> 00:25:25.759
And he's praying that because he understands that's the power of a relationship with God and what he wants to do in your life and who he wants to be there.
00:25:26.240 --> 00:25:30.559
Walking with God doesn't mean that you're behaving this, behaving this, and avoiding that.
00:25:30.720 --> 00:25:39.039
Walking with God means you get up in the morning and you call to him and you walk with him and he shares with you and you go through the day with the knowledge of this.
00:25:39.119 --> 00:25:43.839
It means some mornings he gives you a vision about what's to happen, about to happen.
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And he wants you to be in that, he wants you to do in that, he wants you to step into that because he wants to work in your life.
00:25:50.960 --> 00:26:03.279
The fullness of God's power and us strengthen with all of that power in who we are to be able to walk in joy and thanksgiving and power and patience and endurance through these things he's set before us.
00:26:03.519 --> 00:26:05.200
That's what it means to walk with God.
00:26:05.279 --> 00:26:06.799
That's the power of relationship.
00:26:06.960 --> 00:26:19.440
It is walking with him and him revealing himself to us and teaching us and growing us and challenging us and us following and learning more and more and more about the height and breadth and depth and love of how much Jesus loves you.
00:26:20.079 --> 00:26:23.920
So now let's go back to that promise and let's apply it.
00:26:24.160 --> 00:26:27.599
Let's make it more than just the picture on the wall.
00:26:28.160 --> 00:26:30.720
He desires to communicate with us.
00:26:31.039 --> 00:26:38.400
He literally showed up in that courtyard where Jeremiah's in prison to give him this word.
00:26:38.960 --> 00:26:43.039
And he invited Jeremiah to call on him.
00:26:45.680 --> 00:26:46.720
Call on me.
00:26:47.119 --> 00:26:50.880
Son, I'm proud of you for walking in the journey that I've asked you to do.
00:26:50.960 --> 00:26:58.480
And here I am in the midst of all of this, and I am calling you, inviting you, call on me.
00:27:01.279 --> 00:27:04.160
Let's communicate together.
00:27:05.119 --> 00:27:06.799
Here's the next thing I want you to see.
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Our relationship is with Almighty God.
00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:17.279
He does not waste words in this introduction that he gives Jeremiah.
00:27:17.519 --> 00:27:23.920
He is revealing himself in a powerful way, and he is saying, son, listen to who's talking to you.
00:27:24.799 --> 00:27:27.200
This is not some schmo out there talking.
00:27:27.359 --> 00:27:29.920
This is not just some whatever's going on.
00:27:30.079 --> 00:27:32.559
This is the creator God of the universe.
00:27:32.720 --> 00:27:34.319
I am in covenant with you.
00:27:34.480 --> 00:27:35.920
That is how much I love you.
00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:43.759
So when you speak to me, I am about to share with you something that is beyond what you can imagine because that's who I am.
00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:45.519
And I am beyond.
00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:46.720
I am more.
00:27:47.440 --> 00:27:50.319
I am the creator God of the universe.
00:27:50.640 --> 00:28:00.880
And it calls us to worship and trust and pray and listen all the more because we realize who is talking to us in this relationship.
00:28:01.200 --> 00:28:08.000
It's the same thing when Paul is giving all these honorifics, the power of God he can do beyond all you think or imagine and all this stuff.
00:28:08.160 --> 00:28:11.920
He's giving all that stuff because we need to know who is talking to us.
00:28:12.960 --> 00:28:16.240
And that leads to this other application.
00:28:16.480 --> 00:28:19.839
We should seek him based on faith and expectation.
00:28:20.079 --> 00:28:22.559
We should believe that God has something to say to us.
00:28:22.720 --> 00:28:28.640
He says, You call to me and I'm going to show you great and incomprehensible things.
00:28:29.119 --> 00:28:32.079
Jeremiah, I'm about to show you some stuff, son.
00:28:32.559 --> 00:28:36.880
I'm about to open it up and draw you in.
00:28:39.599 --> 00:28:41.920
So here's the application for us.
00:28:42.559 --> 00:28:44.880
Now, how do I apply this promise?
00:28:45.200 --> 00:28:45.839
Call.
00:28:46.240 --> 00:28:47.839
You have to call.
00:28:48.400 --> 00:29:00.319
You have to get up in the morning and get your Bible, and you have to sit before the Lord and turn off the stuff and set down your phone, and you've got to call on the name of the Lord.
00:29:00.799 --> 00:29:02.319
You call on him.
00:29:02.960 --> 00:29:07.440
Lord, I am here and I want you to speak.
00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:12.640
Lord, I am here and I have this request and I need direction or I need whatever.
00:29:12.720 --> 00:29:15.519
And Lord, I am here calling on you.
00:29:17.279 --> 00:29:19.200
I am ready to listen.
00:29:19.519 --> 00:29:21.039
Lord, speak.
00:29:21.279 --> 00:29:23.200
I'm calling you to speak.
00:29:23.519 --> 00:29:36.640
We have way too many Christians that they treat this like a behavior modification or a life philosophy that we follow most of the time, and we go about doing our own thing, and we're not walking in relationship.
00:29:36.799 --> 00:29:44.160
We don't have this idea, this understanding that God has intervened into your life and he has invited you to speak to him.
00:29:44.559 --> 00:29:51.839
And not only has he invited you to speak to him, he has invited you to call on him in a way that he'll speak to you.
00:29:52.240 --> 00:29:55.519
I don't know how much Jesus you have, but you have all you want.
00:29:56.559 --> 00:30:12.400
And the point of this story like this and a promise like this is God showing his character and revealing it one more time in the life of a real person to stir our hearts to want more of who God is.
00:30:12.799 --> 00:30:16.079
And then he says, listen, we should listen.
00:30:16.960 --> 00:30:20.799
Call me and I will tell you.
00:30:23.200 --> 00:30:24.799
We should listen.
00:30:25.680 --> 00:30:27.279
Man, we have these prayer requests.
00:30:27.359 --> 00:30:44.240
We come and we go, God, I need you to help Aunt Gertrude's like big toe hangnail thing in it, and got whatever, and Uncle Joe's got gout, and my boss is a jerk, and here I've given you my request, and then we go, coffee's ready, and the kids are waking up and we do our own thing.
00:30:45.359 --> 00:30:45.680
No?
00:30:47.200 --> 00:30:51.680
If we believe God's gonna speak to us, then there's a listening component.
00:30:52.000 --> 00:30:56.960
Lord, I'm gonna sit here with your word, and I'm gonna call to you, and I'm gonna listen.
00:30:58.799 --> 00:31:00.400
What do you want to share?
00:31:01.920 --> 00:31:03.440
What do you want to do?
00:31:05.119 --> 00:31:06.319
Where are we going?
00:31:08.720 --> 00:31:11.599
Lord, I'm struggling and I'm calling to you.
00:31:12.480 --> 00:31:17.119
I need some more of that height and width and depth and breadth.
00:31:17.440 --> 00:31:18.640
Love deal.
00:31:20.160 --> 00:31:21.599
I feel alone.
00:31:23.039 --> 00:31:24.720
Will you speak to me?
00:31:25.519 --> 00:31:26.880
And don't run off.
00:31:27.680 --> 00:31:29.519
You gotta sit and listen.
00:31:31.119 --> 00:31:34.880
You can do scroll for hours on your dumb phone.
00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:41.039
You can't sit and listen for the voice of God when He has promised to reveal Himself to you.
00:31:41.599 --> 00:31:43.279
Listen, listen.
00:31:44.079 --> 00:31:45.359
And then expect.
00:31:45.680 --> 00:31:48.720
And I think this may even be the biggest challenge for us.
00:31:49.279 --> 00:31:52.960
You got to expect to be faith challenged.
00:31:54.319 --> 00:32:02.240
One reason that God says to Jeremiah, I am the creator God of the universe and all of that, is because how are you gonna understand?
00:32:02.400 --> 00:32:12.799
You got to brace yourself and strap on your seatbelt to hear God speak in this way if you have not expanded your picture of who God is.
00:32:13.119 --> 00:32:26.799
And when you've expanded your picture of who God is through worship and all of that, then you come to Him and now you're going, okay, I'm gonna ask God to do, and God's gonna move, and when God moves, it's the creator God of the universe who moves.
00:32:27.599 --> 00:32:32.160
We got way too small pictures of God and way too small prayers.
00:32:32.799 --> 00:32:44.799
If he can do all beyond we can think or imagine or incomprehensible, as he said to Jeremiah, then where's the vision for your life and ministry and people that you can impact?
00:32:46.799 --> 00:32:48.720
Where is the vision for that?
00:32:50.480 --> 00:32:56.319
How can God use you where he's planted you in dramatic, mighty ways?
00:32:56.960 --> 00:33:08.079
If you come to him with a prayer request and you ask him to use me in my school or use me in my neighborhood or use me in my work, and you thought it up, it's not big enough.
00:33:08.640 --> 00:33:09.759
I didn't say that.
00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:11.680
Scripture says that.
00:33:12.400 --> 00:33:20.240
Paul specifically calls us to the same creator God as spoke in Jeremiah's life.
00:33:20.480 --> 00:33:23.039
Beyond all you can think or imagine.
00:33:23.359 --> 00:33:25.920
Incomprehensible, unsearchable.
00:33:26.240 --> 00:33:30.000
God wants to do more with your life than you could ever imagine.
00:33:30.799 --> 00:33:34.720
I don't know what that is, but I know it's who God is.
00:33:36.480 --> 00:33:37.920
We're not making this up.
00:33:38.240 --> 00:33:51.200
To walk by faith in relationship with the creator God of the universe to ask him to speak into our lives means that we are asking the God who accomplished all things to speak into our lives.
00:33:51.599 --> 00:33:54.160
At some point that's got to be true.
00:33:54.640 --> 00:34:05.440
At some point, we've got to believe that God wants to do something God-sized in your life, in your Sunday school class, in your ministry, in our church, in your family.
00:34:05.599 --> 00:34:11.039
You've got to believe that the creator God of the universe is on the move.
00:34:12.719 --> 00:34:19.360
And we've got way too small of a God and way too small prayers and way too small faith.
00:34:20.639 --> 00:34:24.480
And sometimes you just got to get with that to be heard.
00:34:26.400 --> 00:34:29.280
I mean, we've got to believe that God works.
00:34:29.519 --> 00:34:33.519
Why does God baptize people in other churches all the time and we're pleading?
00:34:34.079 --> 00:34:47.840
Because we don't have enough faith, and we haven't asked the creator God of the universe and invited him into our lives to share his uncomprehensible love and nature and power in us.
00:34:50.320 --> 00:34:53.119
This is an incredible invitation.
00:34:53.920 --> 00:35:03.920
Call to me, and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and unsearchable things.
00:35:06.159 --> 00:35:08.719
We should have a vision for our lives.
00:35:09.760 --> 00:35:11.679
What does God want to do?
00:35:12.400 --> 00:35:15.039
What does he want to do with your children?
00:35:17.119 --> 00:35:21.840
Your grandchildren, your ministry.
00:35:22.639 --> 00:35:29.440
If you've never accepted Christ as your Savior, listen, I'm going to try to help you understand this as best as I can.
00:35:30.400 --> 00:35:33.039
God has a plan for your life.
00:35:33.519 --> 00:35:52.000
And He wants to save you, and He wants to inhabit your life, and He will guide you to fix what's broken, but even more than that, He will lead you to a place where He will do things through you that you never dreamed would happen in your life.
00:35:52.239 --> 00:35:54.880
That's what God wants to do when He wants to save you.
00:35:55.199 --> 00:35:59.119
He wants to come in and inhabit your life with the fullness of who he is.
00:35:59.199 --> 00:36:01.440
That's what those prayers were that Paul was praying.
00:36:01.599 --> 00:36:09.280
That people would understand that, that you would have him in you and the full power of God and the surpassing knowledge of his love and all of that would come into your life.
00:36:09.440 --> 00:36:11.039
Why do you give your life to Jesus?
00:36:11.199 --> 00:36:15.760
Yes, you give your life to Jesus because he died for you and he paid the price for your sins.
00:36:15.920 --> 00:36:20.639
But he paid the price for your sins to open up the plan that he has for your life.
00:36:20.960 --> 00:36:27.920
And he loves you both in grace and mercy to forgive your sins, but he loves you in purpose to want to work in your life.
00:36:28.079 --> 00:36:30.400
Give your life to Jesus Christ.
00:36:31.039 --> 00:36:40.800
Because he wants to do these unsearchable things in your life and walk with you and reveal himself to you.
00:36:41.280 --> 00:36:50.320
Whoever you are and wherever you've been and whatever you have done, he wants to save you and be in a relationship with you.
00:36:50.559 --> 00:36:52.480
Give your life to Jesus.
00:36:52.800 --> 00:36:59.760
And church family, man, take this home and call on the Lord.
00:37:00.800 --> 00:37:13.199
Listen and expect in faith something from the creator God of the universe who died on the cross and rose again to save you.
00:37:16.320 --> 00:37:20.000
If you've never been saved, listen to part of the service we call an invitation.
00:37:20.079 --> 00:37:23.360
I'm going to invite you in a moment, God's people are going to stand and sing.
00:37:23.599 --> 00:37:25.679
It's a testimony, is what it is.
00:37:25.840 --> 00:37:29.360
They're singing a testimony if they believe what the word of God says.
00:37:29.599 --> 00:37:32.880
And if you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, I want to invite you to come.
00:37:33.119 --> 00:37:35.280
We'll have pastors and deacons here at the front.
00:37:35.599 --> 00:37:36.400
You just come.
00:37:36.559 --> 00:37:38.800
We'll pray with you, we'll walk with you, answer questions.
00:37:38.960 --> 00:37:40.880
Whatever it is you need, we're here for you.
00:37:41.119 --> 00:37:44.719
If you're already saved, you need a church home, come grow with us.
00:37:44.880 --> 00:37:45.920
Come learn with us.
00:37:46.079 --> 00:37:47.199
We want you to be here.
00:37:47.360 --> 00:37:48.000
You come.
00:37:48.400 --> 00:37:51.280
If you want to pray, the altar's open, you come and pray.
00:37:51.519 --> 00:37:56.000
Listen, don't leave here the same as you were when you left, when you got here.
00:37:56.239 --> 00:37:57.280
Leave different.
00:37:57.519 --> 00:38:09.039
In this invitation time, you may not have something to pray for at the front, but you have something as you're worshiping to do with the Lord and to open yourself up to call on Him and listen to Him.
00:38:09.360 --> 00:38:11.440
Lord, we love you and we thank you.
00:38:11.599 --> 00:38:15.519
And we pray these things in the name of Jesus and all God's people say.
00:38:21.039 --> 00:38:23.840
Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.
00:38:24.000 --> 00:38:31.440
Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.
00:38:31.760 --> 00:38:38.079
Thank you for listening to chapter and first, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.
