May 20, 2025 • 55 mins
When Jesus looked at crowds, He saw people who were "helpless and harassed" and responded by sending disciples to preach the kingdom and heal the sick – this powerful pattern shows us how to respond to brokenness today.
• The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus came to give abundant life now, not just in eternity
• We often normalize the work of the enemy (fear, addiction, chronic pain, mental torment) when we should be confronting it
• Jeremiah's story teaches us that God asks us to do things that don't make sense as a sign of hope
• Even when executing judgment, God is already working on His plan for restoration
• As a covenant God, He has promised to remain faithful as long as the sun rises and moon shines
• When we call to God in difficult circumstances, He promises to show us "great and hidden things"
• God delights in us before we know how to love Him back
Will you buy the field? Will you be willing to do what doesn't make sense as a sign of hope that God has a plan?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the Rock Family Sermon of the Week.
For more information about ourchurch, please visit
therockfamilytv Now.
Join us for a message from ourspecial guest speaker.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Last week.
One of the things you said,babe, just stood out to me and
I've thought about it all week.
Y'all were all here.
Y'all were all here, y'all feltthe conviction.
But it was when he was talkingabout when Jesus in Matthew 9
and 10, when Jesus looked out.
Remember he sees the people andhe's moved with compassion.
But it was these two words, Iguess it was just a different
translation than what I had read.
(00:41):
He said that Jesus saw theywere helpless and they were
harassed.
Do you remember him saying that?
Remember that on the screen,that Jesus looks out with
compassion, they're helpless andthey're harassed.
And then we know a few chaptersor a few verses later when he's
saying so I need you to prayfor that harvest.
And then he sends them.
But what does he send them todo?
(01:02):
Because they're helpless andharassed.
He sends them to preach.
Right, who remembers it?
Let's look it up Proclaim asyou go, saying the kingdom of
heaven is at hand.
The second thing he sends themout doing is healing the sick,
raising the dead, cleansing thelepers and casting out demons.
(01:24):
So he sends them out preachingand praying.
Everybody say preaching andpraying because they're helpless
and harassed.
It's not because we're tryingto be all super spiritual, it's
not because we're trying to bealmighty.
Jesus is saying I'm seeingpeople helpless and harassed so
I need to send you out preachingand praying.
(01:44):
What are we preaching?
Are we preaching, oh, it's yourbest life?
Yet no, he's saying you'repreaching that a new kingdom is
here.
See, there's a new way to thinknow.
There's a new option availableto you.
There's a new opportunity.
There's a new king, there's anew covenant, there's a new
baptism of the Holy Spirit.
There's a new king, there's anew covenant, there's a new
baptism of the Holy Spirit.
(02:04):
There's a new reality available, new, new, new, new, new.
Are we following?
So because of that news?
Leprosy, sickness, disease,torment it has to go because
Jesus has power over that.
Okay, so I want to read John 10,10 and 11.
(02:27):
This is Jesus talking and hesays the thief comes to steal,
kill and destroy.
I actually missed only.
The thief comes only to steal,kill and destroy.
But Jesus is saying I came thatthey may have life and have it
abundantly.
Everybody say abundantly,abundantly.
I am the good shepherd.
(02:47):
The good shepherd lays down hislife for the sheep.
So what we're doing today inthis verse is contrasting the
difference between the goodshepherd and the thief.
Can you see the difference?
Because of the brokenness inour world for generations upon
generations, upon generations,we as the believers can start to
(03:08):
normalize the work of the thiefand accept that as just our
fate.
We believe that it'll all bemade right in heaven.
But right now, sometimes wejust accept.
The enemy comes to steal, kill,destroy.
What is he stealing?
He's stealing finances, peace,relationships.
(03:31):
What is he coming to kill?
It was physical illness,tormenting, sickness to the
point of death.
Our doctor reports speakingdeath.
What does he come to destroy?
Self-esteem, a sound mind, yourfuture, your destiny, your
inheritance.
Self-esteem, a sound mind, yourfuture, your destiny, your
inheritance.
So if it looks like a thief, ifit acts like a thief, smells
(03:53):
like a thief.
So in this series that we'reall loving, we got our stickers,
we got our T-shirts.
I see you wearing them.
Do you believe that Jesus haspower over the thief?
Well, we will have abundantlife in heaven, eternal life,
yeah, we will have eternal,amazing life one day.
(04:13):
But he didn't say eternal life.
He said I have come to give youabundant life.
That's now.
Well, does this mean thateverything is just rainbows and
unicorns and gumdrops and gummyworms.
That's what my Evie thinks.
The dream day is all the candythat you could ever eat in the
(04:37):
whole world so abundant life.
When we look at scripture, thatdoesn't mean that everything is
perfect.
It doesn't mean everything iseasy.
When I look in scripture, I seepeople encircled in pain.
I see people persecuted.
Right, we can expect that.
Jesus said I was hated, so ifyou're my followers, go ahead
(04:57):
and expect that, okay, so that'sgoing to be normal for us.
We see suffering for Jesus.
We all like to skip the book ofJob.
I think we might be having somesermons coming up this summer
on that.
That was God filtered.
That was brought on by the Lord, but yet he was fully encircled
in covenant the whole time.
(05:19):
I see resistance from enemieshoping that people will back
down.
I see pruning.
I see feelings of anguish whenyou have to lay your will down
to follow God.
Think about Jesus in the garden.
That wasn't rainbows andunicorns.
(05:40):
I see travailing prayer whenyou are in a place of
intercession, with greatintensity and persistence,
praying for God's purposes to befulfilled.
I see disappointment.
I see people overlooked andunderpaid.
I see unmet expectations.
(06:00):
That's why we know his thoughtsare not our thoughts.
His ways are not our ways.
So sometimes we have an idea ofhow God's going to do something
and it isn't that way and weexperience disappointment.
He says offense, talking aboutimpossible.
He says you know what'simpossible is for you to do this
without offense.
Offenses are going to come, andeven death.
We know it's appointed for allmen a time right.
(06:22):
We know that our bodies do wearout.
But what we cannot normalize inour abundant life with Jesus
debilitating fear, insecurity,chronic pain, nightmares,
terrors, fear of death,addiction, bondage, sin cycles
with no breakthrough, harassingnegative thoughts, taunting
(06:43):
accus, accusation and shame,depression, isolation, belief
systems that rob you of youridentity or tell you people will
never accept you.
All right, church.
Just in case you didn't see itcoming, this series Believe for
the Impossible.
(07:04):
We're not spinning the wheel.
Let's see if you're going towin a prize today from Jesus.
When God breaks into impossiblesituations, his power is making
lesser things submit to hislordship.
(07:24):
Believing for the impossible isthe power of God confronting
evil.
We just had Easter four weeksago, so we're all caught up.
Jesus defeated the powers thatheld humanity in bondage.
So when you see crumbs leftbehind of the thief in your
(07:44):
thought life, in your familylife, in your finances, in your
children.
I don't want you, ladies,bringing your southern charm.
I don't want to call anybodyout.
You know I don't want to make abig deal about anything.
I don't want to just draw toomuch attention to anything.
No, this is our moment where wesay I see you, I see what
(08:09):
you're trying to do, I see whatyou're trying to do with my
friends over here.
I see that.
You see this family over here.
I see my neighbor over here.
You see my coworker.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
That's not abundant life,that's not what you paid for
Jesus.
Yeah, and in that, once we seeit, we recognize this is an
opportunity.
This is an opportunity for thepower of God to be made manifest
(08:35):
in this person, in this family,in this situation.
It's not always overnight, it'snot always right away when
breakthrough and healing comes,but I just need to make sure
we're all on the same page.
It won't be because it's toohard for God and it won't be
(08:56):
because we don't believe.
I don't feel like y'all arewith me, I don't feel like Okay.
Which is why this next one,right here If we are not
emboldened to confront the thiefwith truth.
There is something we don't yetknow about God.
I'm going to read it again.
(09:16):
This is what he's saying to me.
You guys just get to be thebenefactors of that If we are
not emboldened to confront thethief with truth.
There is something I don't yetknow about God and he wants to
reveal it to me.
(09:37):
And do you know that thievesdon't come after what's not
valuable?
The last time I checked Evie'slittle sequin backpack that has
all the little paper things thatshe has made and the trash that
she thinks is treasure ain'tnobody coming to try to steal
that?
She leaves it everywhere we goand it's just right there.
We'll come back five days later.
(09:58):
It's still sitting in thedriveway, but you leave a Louis
Vuitton purse full of cash In 20minutes.
It's not there, right.
So when you say, or when youfeel I'm not valuable, when you
feel worthless or a failure, ifyou see this coming on your kids
(10:19):
any mamas seeing that at times,come on them.
If you hear things in your heador you have friends that are
hearing things like that, areattacking their value.
The thief's been dropping somecrumbs.
Gender, race size, learning,exceptionalities, different ways
(10:41):
of learning If the enemy isusing any of those things to
make you feel less valuable.
He's been dropping some crumbs.
We are the imprint of God, likethe stamp, the image of God
himself, and I need you to knowtoday he delights in you.
(11:04):
We just forget, I'm telling youhe delights in you.
We just forget, I'm telling you, I forget all the time we go
right back into trying to earn,trying to perform, because he's
so awesome and so holy Lord, wewant to do it right and he's
like I delight in you and Idelighted in you before you knew
me, and I delighted in youbefore you knew how to love me
back, and I delighted in you, inyou knew me and I delighted in
(11:28):
you before you knew how to loveme back.
And I delighted in you, in yourweakness, and I delight in you
today, every day, and I am here.
I'm here to help you.
We got to remember this andthis is the message that we're
preaching.
When we see people who arereceiving the lie that they're
not valuable, when the liar doeswhat he does and we don't
confront the lies, we allowthose lies to hold space.
(11:51):
Okay, I want you to begin toask, holy Spirit, where have I
been allowing things to holdspace, because there's something
I don't yet know about you thatyou want to reveal to me, know
about you that you want toreveal to me, okay.
So our teaching text today isgoing to be in Jeremiah, and I
really want to encourage you, dothis with me.
(12:11):
We need to be reading Scripture, not to just find ourselves in
the story, not to placeourselves as the hero of every
story.
We're reading Scripture to seewhat can I learn about you, god?
What is there to learn?
You interacted with people.
This is how you acted, this ishow you responded.
This is what they said, this iswhat happened, and we're
(12:31):
learning God's nature, we'relearning His character through
reading Scripture and we'relearning what's possible, right.
So Jeremiah 1.
Where's all my teenagers, myyoung people, in the room?
I know there's some up here,but you're kind of spread out
and you know what?
If you want to miss Loretta,she says I'm young.
(12:52):
Yeah, I'm going to find myselfin that one too.
So there's a conversation thatJeremiah, who is a youth this is
in the Bible, jeremiah, chapterone he begins to have with the
Lord.
Okay, so we're going to readthis here.
The Lord says to Jeremiahbefore I formed you in the womb.
I knew you Before you were born.
I consecrated you, I appointedyou a prophet to the nations.
This is what Jeremiah says backto God oh Lord, god, behold, I
(13:20):
do not know how to speak.
I'm only a youth.
God responds back.
Do not say I'm only a youth,for to all whom I send you, you
shall go, and whatever I commandyou, you shall speak.
Do not be afraid of them, for Iam with you to deliver you.
And behold, I have put my wordsin your mouth.
I have set you this day overnations, over kingdoms, to pluck
(13:44):
up and to break down, todestroy and overthrow, to build
and to plant, all right.
So what are we learning aboutGod here?
What are we learning teenagers?
God talks to teenagers.
That's the first thing we'relearning today.
God talks to teenagers.
His youth pastor didn't have tocome and tell him that God had
(14:05):
a call on his life.
He talked directly to Jeremiah.
What else are we learning aboutthis?
God had a plan before he waseven born, for his life.
And did you know that that planwasn't what people thought it
was going to be, becauseJeremiah's father was a priest,
so it would have been assumedthat he would have followed in
(14:26):
his family's footsteps and thathe would have ministered in the
temple.
But that's not what the Lordhad planned for Jeremiah.
See, god gets to choose our way.
It has nothing to do about ourfamily or our tradition or our
history.
God has a specific and uniqueplan for each one of us.
I love this because ministeringin the temple is very important
(14:47):
, but there's never been an hourwhere we needed people on
mission on assignment from theLord anointed, called by God,
young, starting young out, beingGod's mouthpiece outside the
four walls.
Amen.
What else do we understand?
We understand that Godunderstands our fear.
He already promised.
(15:10):
He got in front of it.
He's like yeah, I know you'reafraid, but what does he say?
I'm going to be the delivererwhen you need it.
He says but I can't God.
So what else are we learningwhen we can't?
What does he do?
He equips.
He said I know you can't, see,I've already put my words in
your mouth.
Yeah, you don't have words oryou don't have good ones.
(15:32):
I'm going to take care of that.
So, and if we could read on?
I don't, I can't because oftime.
If we could read on, we'd see.
He also confirms his word toJeremiah Anybody ever heard?
I think I heard, I mean, I feelI mean I did, it was in that
service and it was so strong.
But now that I'm in my car, nowthat I slept on it, I'm not
(15:55):
sure.
Lord, can you confirm it?
So we learn that God's intothat.
And what's so funny to me isthe way he confirms it to
Jeremiah is he has him seesomething specific that was very
meaningful to Jeremiah, that ifany of us had seen it we would
have just been like, yeah, andyou probably have had the Lord
(16:21):
confirm a word to you, right?
But God does that.
He's very specific, he's verypersonal, he's very unique.
He knows the things that you'llgo.
No, that flavor's never there,hadn't been there for five years
.
I'm telling you the Lord knowshe's got my number right.
And then my favorite part alsodon't have time is he tells
(16:45):
Jeremiah I'm going to be the oneto perform it.
You can tell I struggle withperformance, so that really
ministers to me.
He says, because you have seenwell, he's talking about the
confirmation, because you'veseen well, I'm ready to perform
my word.
(17:06):
Okay, let's keep reading.
This is God speaking toJeremiah, verse 17.
But you, jeremiah, dressyourself for work, arise and say
to them everything that Icommand you Do not be dismayed
by them, lest I dismay youbefore them.
And I behold, I make you thisday a fortified city, an iron
(17:26):
pillar, bronze walls against thewhole land, against the kings
of Judah, its officials, itspriests and the people of the
land.
They will fight against you.
You wanted me to just read thehappy parts.
They will fight against you,but they shall not prevail
(17:47):
against you.
All right, that's for somebodyin here.
Yeah, he's like am I doingthings wrong?
Because, man, I'm in a warfare?
No, they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail
against you, for I am with you,declares the Lord to deliver you
.
So what are we learning aboutGod?
When he calls you, he preparesyou, he fortifies you for the
(18:11):
warfare.
Why is God going to have toprotect Jeremiah, you ask?
Because people kill themessenger, and he is God's
messenger.
So let me give you thebackstory, real, real quick, and
then we'll jump into ourteaching text.
The backstory is God's peoplehave been breaking his covenant
(18:34):
for generations.
They have been unfaithful toGod, they have worshiped other
gods, they have disregarded hisways.
He has sent warnings, he hassent messengers to them, he has
sent prophets, he has pleadedwith them.
He has begged them to return.
He has been patient, he hasbeen kind, he's been
long-suffering.
For over a hundred years he hadbeen sending warnings that if
(18:56):
you don't turn back to me,trouble is coming.
I'm going to have to punishthis.
I can't just allow this tocontinue.
Your heart is far from me.
They were even worshiping.
The Bible says they wereworshiping false gods.
They were allowing theirchildren to be sacrificed to
Molech.
I mean, like what's going onwith God's people?
And so he's gonna use Jeremiahto send in the warning like, hey
(19:17):
, it's time God's done.
This is where we're at.
So they don't like the message.
And he's going to deliver amessage to the king himself that
his days are numbered.
There's chaos everywhere.
The city is under siege becauseGod has removed his hand of
protection and he's allowed theenemy to come in because his
(19:40):
people would not return to him.
The king wants to get thepeople of Judah to fight and
Jeremiah's message from the Lordis trying to tell them there is
no point in fighting.
This is from the Lord.
You've known this was coming.
This is what happens when wedon't obey God.
So we're going to pick upJeremiah 32, verse 3 through 5.
(20:01):
This is what the Lord hasJeremiah deliver.
Behold, I am giving the cityinto the hand of the king of
Babylon and he will capture it.
Zedekiah, king of Judah, shallnot escape out of the hand of
the Chaldeans.
He shall surely be given intothe hand of the king of Babylon
(20:21):
and he will speak with him faceto face and see him eye to eye,
and he's going to take Zedekiahto Babylon and there he shall
remain until I visit him,declares the Lord.
Though you fight against theChaldeans, you shall not succeed
.
So the king is furious becausethe city's under siege, no way,
in no way out, no water, famine,pestilence, sword, and he wants
(20:46):
the people of Judah to put up afight.
And here's Jeremiah deliveringthe word of the Lord, saying no,
don't fight.
This is silly, there's no pointin fighting.
Jeremiah 32, verse 7 and 8, hecontinues.
He says the Lord begins to tellhim even more things while he's
stuck in prison.
I don't know if I mentionedthat Jeremiah is in prison as
(21:09):
he's delivering this messagebecause the king did not like
the message he was bringing.
He's been beaten, he's beenpersecuted, he's been thrown
into a pit and now he's in theroyal prison and the Lord comes
to Jeremiah again.
He says Behold, hanamel, theson of Shalom, your uncle, is
going to come to you, jeremiah,and he is going to say buy my
(21:33):
field that's in Anathoth, theright of redemption is yours.
Then Hanamel, my cousin, cameto me in the court of the guard,
in accordance with the word ofthe Lord, and said buy my field,
it's in the land of Benjamin,for the right of possession and
redemption is yours, buy it foryourself.
Then I knew this was the wordof the Lord.
(21:54):
What are we learning about Godhere?
We're learning that whileJeremiah is in prison, while
Jeremiah is obeying God, whileJeremiah is doing God's will,
but things are not going wellbecause the enemy is very angry
with him, that the Lord sends aword, that your cousin's going
to come and ask you to buy afield, a field that's two miles
away from this prison.
(22:14):
I don't know if you can see inthis picture here the city's
falling apart.
The enemy is on every side.
They are in distress, they arein chaos, they are in crisis.
There is no way in and no wayout.
Siege warfare.
I didn't know much about this.
This is where the enemy wouldsurround all four walls of the
city, build up mounds to be ablockade so that they would just
(22:36):
slowly suffocate them.
You couldn't get in.
You couldn't get out Foodcouldn't get in, couldn't get
out Water, couldn't get in, andthen the armies outside could
crawl up to the top and begin todo warfare and you're like a
sitting duck inside.
So this is going down and he'sin prison and the Lord says I
(22:56):
need you to buy the field.
This is a very valuable pieceof land right now, I'm sure,
right.
So what are we learning aboutGod here?
We're learning that we're notthe only one that he asks to do
things that make no sense.
Now, I love real estate.
Do I have any real estatepeople in here?
I absolutely love real estate.
(23:16):
It's just I grew up my parentsthat was their thing like
flipping houses.
So our Sunday afternoonactivity after we would eat
lunch would be to just go drivearound the neighborhoods, even
if we weren't buying, just tosee if there was any sleepers.
You got any house flippers outthere?
You're looking for the sleeper.
It's in a great neighborhoodand it looks like garbage.
That's our next treasure, right?
So I'm all about the realestate, I'm all about it, but
(23:41):
not when it's a piece ofproperty under siege right.
But what does he do?
He does exactly what the Lordtells him to do, and it's one of
the most detailed businesstransactions you'll find in
scripture.
I mean down to how the deed wassigned, how they stored the
deed.
They had to put it in anearthen vessel and do two copies
, because Jeremiah knew this wasgoing to have to last a long
time, like this paperwork, thislegal deed.
(24:04):
This is going to be 70 yearsthat God's people are in
captivity, that this field isgoing to be worthless.
But he does the thing he calls,even from prison.
They do this whole big businessdeal right there from the
prison.
And when it's all done,jeremiah looks back.
Do you ever do something theLord asks you to do and then you
just feel great about it?
Well, he didn't.
(24:25):
He's like God, why?
And he prays for understanding.
So what are we learning here?
It's okay to ask God forunderstanding.
Okay, let's read.
Actually, I'm going to readthis to you because it's a
little bit long.
It says this is Jeremiah'sprayer to God, asking for
understanding.
Jeremiah's prayer to God askingfor understanding.
After I've given the deed ofpurchase, and I prayed to the
(24:48):
Lord, saying oh God, it is youwho made the heavens and the
earth by your great power and byyour outstretched arm.
I know nothing is too hard foryou.
You show steadfast love tothousands, but you repay the
guilt of the fathers to theirchildren after them.
Oh, great and mighty God, whosename is the Lord of hosts,
great in counsel and mighty indeed, your eyes are open to all
(25:12):
the ways of the children of manand you reward each one
according to his ways andaccording to the fruit of his
deeds.
You have shown signs, you'veshown wonders in the land of
Egypt and, to this day, inIsrael and among all of mankind.
You've made a name for yourself.
You brought your people out ofthe land of Egypt with signs and
(25:32):
wonders, with a strong hand andan outstretched arm and with
great terror, and you gave themthis land.
He's rehearsing a covenant, god,are you following with me?
He's rehearsing.
You're the one that gave themthis land, which you swore to
their fathers to give them aland flowing where's Jenny?
With milk and honey.
(25:54):
And they entered the land yougave them and took possession of
it, but they did not obey yourvoice and they didn't walk in
your, your law and they didnothing of all that you
commanded them to do, and that'swhy you have made this disaster
to come upon them.
Behold, the siege mounds havecome up to the city to take it
(26:16):
and, because of the sword andfamine and pestilence, the city
has been given into the hands ofthose who are fighting against
it.
What you spoke, god, that'swhat Jeremiah's saying to the
Lord what you spoke has come topass.
And behold, you see it.
See, jeremiah knows he didn'tjust give me a word to deliver
(26:37):
from a far, far, far off place.
God's actually present.
He's here with me, god.
You see the devastation, yousee what's going on.
You see the city under siege,but yet, oh Lord, you said to me
buy the field for money and getthe witnesses.
You know he had to pay, he hadto use his own money.
You know, sometimes we think theLord, like, shows us something
(26:57):
that needs to be done and thatmeant we're just supposed to
prophesy it and somebody else isgonna do it.
Somebody else is gonna writethe check for that.
Somebody else is going to writethe check for that.
He had to count out 17 shekelsof silver.
Do you think that money mighthave been a little bit important
when there's no water or foodfor anybody?
God answers him.
(27:18):
See, when we pray forunderstanding, we can read this
and learn about the characterand nature of God.
He doesn't just ask us to belike servants that he doesn't
share what he's doing.
It doesn't mean we have tounderstand what he's doing, to
obey, but we can seek him andhe'll reveal things to us.
So this was the Lord's responseback to him.
Let me tell you why I had youby the land.
(27:41):
Verse 37,.
Behold, I'm going to gatherthem from all the countries that
I drove them to in my anger andmy wrath.
I'm going to bring them back tothis place and I'm going to
make them dwell in safety.
They shall be my people and Iwill be their God.
I will give them one heart andone way that they may fear me
(28:03):
forever.
I'm going to pause right hereIn worship today.
What I felt like the Lord wasdoing in the room was filling us
with the fear of the Lord.
The fear of the Lord.
I just felt him.
That's not the scary thing,that's the awe.
That's where you're just.
You're just so in awe of hisgoodness and his beauty and his
mercy and his power, that you,just, you just want to look at
it.
You're not even worried aboutall these things, you're not
(28:24):
even worried about the cityunder siege around you, because
all you can see is how amazingand powerful and huge he is.
That's the fear of the Lord,and this was part of what
Jeremiah was speaking.
I'm sorry.
When I pause and I lose my place.
Okay, we were in verse 39.
I will give them one heart andone way that they may fear me
(28:45):
forever for their own good andfor the good of their children
after them, and I will make withthem an everlasting covenant.
See, we're not people ofcovenant by nature, so that word
doesn't even resonate with us.
We're actually very selfish bynature.
But that's not God's nature.
He is a covenant God.
He's like a forever,everlasting God.
(29:06):
And so he says I'm going tomake with them an everlasting
covenant that I will not turnaway from doing good to them and
I will put the fear of me intheir hearts so that they may
not turn from me.
And I will rejoice in doingthem good and I will plant them
in this land of faithfulnesswith all this.
(29:26):
Is God saying this I'm going toplant them in faithfulness with
all my heart and all my soul.
I don't even think I've everthought about God using language
like that towards us.
Okay, so he reveals to Jeremiahthat, even though there's
consequence right now because oftheir actions, that he already
(29:49):
has a plan to gather them back.
He already has a plan to redeem, he already has a plan to
restore because he's a covenantGod.
All right, so we have these twothings here that we're going to
look at.
While God is gracious, he's alsosovereign and he's just, and he
holds people accountable fortheir responses to him.
(30:13):
We don't like that.
Just tell me about theooey-gooey forgiveness of Jesus.
Can we just stop there?
He is righteousness and justice.
He's sovereign, he's good, buthe holds people accountable for
(30:38):
their responses.
You know, every single timewhen you go and read Scripture,
you don't have time to look atit today.
Every single time we see theLord have to issue a punishment,
you know that he's alreadyworked on the back end to bring
about the remedy.
Go look for it, it's really fun.
Go watch it.
When he exercises divinejudgment, it's always to elicit
(31:00):
a specific response from hispeople.
It's just like a good fatherdoes with his children.
I got parents in here.
If you never, ever, ever, ever,ever do anything, when your
children are pummeling eachother and hurting each other
over something silly and youjust allow a play fight to
(31:21):
become a wrestle fight, tobecome a punching fight, to
become a swinging elbows fight,teeth are getting knocked out.
Oh, but you're so good, You'reso patient, right, isn't there a
?
There's a line where you movefrom patient and kind to no.
I need to take care of this.
This is not healthy for thefamily.
This is not good for them.
(31:42):
This is not creating a safeplace for my children.
Are you following?
Hebrews 12, 5 through 11 sayshave you forgotten the
exhortation that addresses youas sons?
My son, do not regard lightlythe discipline of the Lord and
do not be weary when reproved byhim.
(32:03):
He addresses you as sons.
For what son is there whom afather does not discipline?
If you are left withoutdiscipline, in which all have
participated, then you areillegitimate children and not
(32:24):
sons.
Besides this, we have hadearthly fathers who disciplined
us and we respected them for it.
Shall we not much more besubject to the father of spirits
and live For?
They disciplined us for a shorttime, as it seemed best to them
, but he disciplines us for ourgood that we may share in his
(32:46):
holiness.
For the moment, all disciplineseems painful and not pleasant,
but later it yields thepeaceable fruit of righteousness
to those who have been trainedby it.
We have a good father, we havea good king, and the tension
(33:07):
between the two here is that, atthe very same time, the city is
under siege.
He has a word for Jeremiahsaying behold, I am the Lord.
Is anything too hard for me?
Yeah, come on, do that.
Maybe while you do this it'llstart to sink in a little bit.
See, he already knows it's toohard for them to get their act
(33:31):
together, so he's already got aplan in motion because he loves
his people.
He is a covenant God.
He loves you, he already knowsall the stuff you've messed up
and he's already gone in frontof you to make a way back.
Isn't that amazing?
I don't know what you're goingthrough right now.
(33:53):
I don't know a room this size,the diversity, the amount of
things happening in people'slives and families and extended
lives that could be causing youto feel a lot like a city under
siege, you know.
But there's things with peopleclose to us and I see the pain,
(34:15):
I see the struggle.
It feels like there's no way inand no way out.
It feels like this is how ithas to be.
Maybe somebody you love hasrejected God so many times, over
and over and over, and whatyou're watching before your eyes
is painful because God'sfinally given them what they
(34:36):
want.
You know, eventually we have afree will.
He reaches out, he extends, hecalls to us, but then eventually
he's like, okay, well, ifthat's what you want, then go
ahead.
Go ahead, have what you want,right.
But when you're the loved oneand you're watching that closely
, it's painful to see.
Maybe you've had a doctor'sreport with no hope.
(34:57):
I'm so thankful for doctors,but I have also been in the room
before when a report is givenand everything.
The way that that doctorreleased that to me was hopeless
death.
I mean like you didn't evenhave the results from the test
and you're already saying thatmy child's not going to live.
You think you might want towait and see what those
chromosomes say before you goahead and speak that Like are
not going to live.
You think you might want towait and see what those
(35:18):
chromosomes say before you goahead and speak that Like you
can be in a place like that.
I don't know what the pit isthat you feel like you've been
thrown into.
People got thrown into pits alot in the Bible if you looked
at it.
Jeremiah wasn't the only one.
Maybe you feel like you've beenthrown into a pit by people who
want to suppress the truth.
You're speaking truth.
You are God's mouthpiece, butbecause of that, you've been
(35:41):
thrown into a pit.
Well, I just came here today toremind you you serve a covenant
God.
He doesn't leave us in thatplace.
I love in verse 20, I love this, I love this, I love this.
He's talking about what it isto be a covenant God to his
people.
He says let me okay, you peopledon't understand this because
(36:04):
you're not covenant people,you're contractual people.
So when you get tired ofsomebody, you move on.
When that friend isn't funanymore, you move on right.
He's like let me explain how,when I am a covenant God to my
people, what that looks like.
So when the sun stops coming upthis is verse 20, when the moon
stops shining, that's when I'mgoing to stop showing up for you
(36:27):
.
Just get a picture of thatEvery morning.
When you get up and the suncomes up, god, you're still here
with me, you love me, you havea plan for me.
You have a plan for my family.
You're not done.
This is not the end of thestory, because he's a covenant
God.
You know, I don't even know.
On this Mother's Day, we'realways so sensitive to this
(36:49):
because Mother's Day is veryhappy for some and it's not
happy for others.
Many of us have lost a motherin this room, even recently.
There's still pain, there'sstill pain, there's still
frustration.
And a couple of people justcome to mind and I want to talk
to you.
If you're in this room andyou've been battling infertility
, I want to talk to you.
(37:10):
The enemy is a liar and he likesto tell us that this is just
the way it's going to be.
He likes to tell you there'ssomething wrong with you, that
what he can give, what the Lordcan give to everybody else, he
can't give to you.
It causes fear.
You start to feel like you'regoing to all the things you're
going to miss out on.
In fact, the enemy will be realclever to just kind of parade
(37:30):
in front of you all the thingsthat you don't get to experience
because of that.
And so I want to read Psalm 127,three through five.
It says behold, children are agift of the Lord, and the fruit
of the womb is a reward, likearrows in the hand of a warrior.
So are the children of one'syouth.
How blessed is the man whosequiver is full of them.
(37:53):
Children are a gift of the.
Are they a gift from thefertility clinic?
Are they something that youearn because you're so perfect?
Children are a gift from theLord.
So, lord, we come intoagreement with you that he gives
good gifts to his children.
Who ask today?
Maybe a doctor has said this isimpossible.
Well, good news we're learningthat with God, all things are
(38:17):
possible.
Well, good news, we're learningthat with God, all things are
possible.
I want to say over you Psalm145.16.
This is about the God we serve.
We're reading scripture tolearn about the nature of our
covenant God.
It says God, you open your handand you satisfy the desire of
every living thing.
(38:37):
Why would he put a desire inyour heart that he doesn't plan
to satisfy?
Is anything too hard for God?
It's not up to us how he doesit.
The Lord will give grace andglory.
This is Psalm 84.
No good thing will he withholdfrom those who walk uprightly.
(39:02):
The enemy's favorite thing totell you and this works in any
situation, not just infertilitythat you're the only one and
that no one understands.
Classic Like.
The more you're around thisstuff, you realize he doesn't
have anything new to throw atyou.
And that's why you need thebody of Christ, because the
minute that you're vulnerableenough to tell your friend group
, to tell your church family,this is what I'm feeling.
(39:24):
They go oh, oh, no, no, no, no,no, no, no.
He came at me with that, like10 years ago.
Let me tell you how you'regoing to get victory over that.
But when we keep it inside,trying to just fight it on our
own, he tells you that no onecan understand.
Right, you're the only one.
You're the only one in yourfriend group.
But when we read scripture, wesee Sarah, rebecca, rachel, the
(39:52):
wife of Manoah, hannah andElizabeth.
They experienced childlessness.
So no, you're not the only one.
And when we read their story,we find out that their
barrenness was an opportunityfor the outworking of divine
purpose.
If that's, you just hold upyour hand, lord, let my
(40:12):
barrenness be an opportunity forthe outworking of divine
purpose.
We find out that the childrenfinally born to these women in
Scripture all became veryimportant figures in God's story
, ones that we draw hope fromtoday and preach about on a
weekly basis.
Their names were Isaac, jacob,joseph, samson, samuel and John
(40:37):
the Baptist Jacob Joseph, samson, samuel and John the Baptist.
We come alongside you today andwe repeat the words of the Lord
in Genesis 18, 14, that he saidto Sarah is anything too
difficult or too wonderful forGod at the appointed time?
That's what God has to sayabout it.
(40:58):
When the season comes, the Lordsays I will return to you,
sarah, and you will have a son.
So, lord, we come intoagreement with our church family
, with families here today.
Oh, britt, that was what he didfor them.
Okay, as a church family today,this is gonna be our theme song
(41:19):
, it's going to be our fightsong, okay.
Habakkuk 3.2 says Lord, I'veheard of your fame.
I stand in awe of your deeds.
Repeat them in our day.
Yeah, that was their story.
But if you could do it, thenyou're the God who doesn't
change.
If you could do it for allthose ladies, I believe you can
(41:40):
do it for me.
Maybe you're another family inhere that just says you know,
god gave us children and we dideverything we knew to do.
We weren't perfect parents, butwe did everything we could,
trying to serve God.
And our children have chosen adifferent path In your heart as
(42:03):
a mom, as a dad.
Prodigals, prodigals.
So we read in scripture Lord,what is your nature over
prodigals?
You know, we have the classicparable of the prodigal son,
Every one of you in here knowsthe story.
The story is actually about twosons who receive their
(42:24):
inheritance, but one of the sonssquanders the inheritance.
He wastes the inheritance.
That's the one that we alwaysreference.
Okay, so the story we know.
Because you've been in church along time, many of you have
been in church a long time weknow that the story isn't
actually about the sons.
It's actually about thecovenant, love of the Father.
(42:49):
Okay, and so when you thinkabout inheritance, all through
the New Testament, inheritancewas always spoken of as what we
have received from Christ.
Everything that you've beengiven in the new covenant a new
heart, a new mind, forgivenessof sin that he would not
remember anymore, the ability toserve him right, the Holy
Spirit, all the things that wereavailable to you in the new
(43:10):
covenant those were yourinheritance, that is, your
spiritual inheritance.
In fact, it says Jesus looks atus and says that we are his
inheritance and we look at himand say that he is ours.
So if the story is about a sonwho is wasteful with inheritance
, I think that every one of usin this room can be the son in
(43:30):
the story.
I can.
I've been wasteful of theinheritance, of what Jesus has
done for me at times, but whatwe read about this is the
covenant love of the inheritanceof what Jesus has done for me
at times, but what we read aboutthis is the covenant love of
the Father.
And the part of the story thatI want to highlight today is the
thing that brought the turn forthe son.
The thing that brought him homewas when he had the aha moment
(43:56):
and he was able to compare thelack that he had now to the
abundance that he had in hisfather's house.
And I just say that over to you, instead of us worrying about
the path that they're on, whatif we just come alongside this
passage of Scripture and say,lord, I just pray that whatever
(44:18):
you need to do to open theireyes, that they would be able to
compare the lack from this paththat they've chosen to the
abundance of love, perfect love,provision, peace of mind that
was found in you and found inour home, and that they would
come and that they would comehome.
So, lord, we trust you today.
(44:44):
Lord, we trust you, jesus, overthe sons and daughters
represented here that need tocome home.
Lord, we trust that you're acovenant God, that you actually
love them more than theirbiological parents do and that
even when they began to turnaway from you, you were already
making a plan and a path tobring them back, Because that's
what a covenant God does.
(45:05):
Jeremiah 31,.
I'm going to say this to you,mamas who are hurting over a
prodigal son or daughter this iswhat the Lord had Jeremiah say.
Thus says the Lord.
The Lord had Jeremiah say.
Thus says the Lord.
A voice is heard in Ramah,lamentation and bitter weeping,
because Rachel is weeping forher children.
Pause.
(45:26):
The Lord hears.
What are we learning throughthis?
The Lord hears when we weepover our children.
I don't feel like minorprodigals, but I weep over them
because I can see, sometimes,the hardness of their heart
towards the things of the Lord.
He hears me when I pray.
Rachel is weeping for herchildren.
She refuses to be comforted forher children because they are
(45:49):
no more.
And this says the Lord Stop.
He says Keep your voice fromweeping and your eyes from tears
, for there is a reward for yourwork, declares the Lord.
They shall come back from theland of the enemy.
There is hope for your future,declares the Lord.
They shall come back from theland of the enemy.
There is hope for your future,declares the Lord, and your
children shall come back totheir own country.
(46:11):
So we come into agreement withyou over this.
There will be a reward.
Last group, near to my heartYou're caretaking.
You're caretaking Familymembers.
(46:39):
There's times you don't get tobe a part.
Miss Jeanette, pastor Tim'swife caretaking for her sweet
and precious mama.
You have to lay down thingsthat you want to do to take care
of people that are in yourfamily.
Maybe you're a shut-in.
Maybe you're isolated.
Maybe health the body wearingout it doesn't allow you to be
at all the things anymore thatyou always want to do.
Ms Loretta, you know about thisright.
(47:06):
Maybe there's been doctor'sreports.
Maybe you're like Miss Betty,watching from home every Sunday.
I love you, miss Betty Kibler.
She texts me from her recliner,jeremiah, verse 3, 33, 3.
He says call to me, jeremiah.
You're in prison, the city'sunder siege, you can't get in
(47:27):
and you can't get out.
Everybody wants to kill you.
You've already wasted yourmoney on a piece of land that
has no value, but if you'll callto me, I'm going to answer you
and I'm going to tell you greatand hidden things you have not
known.
(47:47):
He's a covenant God in old age.
He gives another example justlike the sun and the moon, he
says when you can measure all ofthe heavens and the foundations
of the earth, so when youfigure out that little math
calculation of all the heavensand the earth, that's when I'm
going to stop showing up for you.
That's covenant love.
(48:09):
He says there's a divineexchange.
I'm just picturing people intheir recliners right now.
I'm picturing people that can'tget out all the time.
I'm picturing people that can'twalk up the big ramp to get
here, but they're watching fromhome.
When you call to me, there is adivine exchange.
It's more than just me showingup for you, says the Lord.
(48:29):
I'm actually going to tell youthings.
I'm going to share with youthings, miss Loretta, great and
marvelous things that you do notknow.
I'm ready.
I'm calling it out Paul andCurtis.
I'm calling it out Mom and Dad.
I'm calling it out All myEagles.
Where are you?
I know y'all blowing and going,but I'm going to go ahead and
(48:51):
just put it out there early.
I'm ready to start receivingsome prophetic words from people
that were sitting in reclinersand because they called to the
Lord and the Lord began to sharewith them things that we don't
know, because, see, we're outbusy, we're out working, we're
trying to raise kids.
Right, it's the generations.
It's the generations we needone another today.
(49:12):
Receive that today.
I pray that you receive that.
Stand up with me, everybody.
You know, if you're hurtingtoday in anything that I said
today, remember I said the Holyspirit doesn't miss a thing.
You're like, well, you didn'teven talk about me.
I don't have to.
I don't have to.
If you were hurting, you'rebroken.
(49:33):
Today you need the power of theliving God.
Please come down.
We've got prayer people, we gotdeacons, we got elders, some of
you on the freedom prayer team.
You feel like you're supposedto come down and pray.
Please come and pray.
We want to pray with you, wewant to believe with you.
We want to see the power of Godactivated in your life.
But the last thing that I wantto share today I actually mean
(49:54):
that I think sometimes you thinkwe say that.
I actually mean that If theLord pricked your heart in any
place and you want prayer, Iwant you to come down.
I'm going to talk to the restof them, but I want you to come
down because don't miss, don'tmiss sharing in the power of
agreement.
Yeah, you believe it, but whatabout agreement?
What about having a leader praywith you, pray over you, speak
(50:19):
to you, but for the rest of us,the very last thing.
Back to this field.
Why did the Lord pick thisteaching text today, that
Jeremiah buys the field?
I think my question is, aswe're believing for the
(50:40):
impossible, as we're leaning inthat nothing is too hard for God
, as we're calling out to himand he's answering with great
and mighty things we didn't knowbefore, words of wisdom, words
of knowledge.
My question today is will youbuy the field?
Will you be willing to do whatdoesn't make sense, but the Lord
(51:03):
needs it to be the sign?
Can you be the sign?
The sign of what?
The sign of hope?
The sign that God has a plan?
The sign that God's not done?
Can you be the sign that youactually have to invest yourself
into something that doesn'tprofit you?
It doesn't benefit you, it'snot that wise investment that
(51:24):
you're going to talk about atlunch and be able to show what
God is prospering in your life?
This is just sacrificial.
This is just obedience.
This is just things that don'tmake sense.
This is things that actuallyhighlight the beauty of the Lord
.
Okay, I want you to be on thelook for these things this week.
He's a covenant God.
God, how do you want to use meto be the sign that when the sun
(51:47):
stops coming up, that that'swhen you'll stop showing up for
us?
See, people need to know that,people need to see that, people
need to feel that and God willactually use us to do things
that you know what.
They don't benefit us, but it'sa sign to those that are coming
.
You know, 70 years later, god'speople were going to be brought
back and there was going to bea deed filled out with a notary,
(52:11):
hidden in an earthen vessel,stored and protected of God's
faithfulness.
Yeah, come on.
All right, let's just pray.
Will you pray with me?
Bow your heads, let's pray,holy Spirit, we just thank you.
We thank you on this Mother'sDay.
(52:33):
We thank you on this Mother'sDay that you are present.
Jesus, you are here.
We love you, we worship you, weexalt you, we acknowledge you.
God, I thank you that you haveplans.
You have plans for your people.
God, I thank you that you haveplans.
You have plans for your people,god.
I thank you, lord, that you wantto speak to us and God, we're
here, saying we're here, lord,we're listening.
(52:53):
God, use us, move through us.
God, lord, I pray that youwould begin to activate within
us.
Lord, activate faith, activatefaith today, god, we want to
believe.
We want to believe, god, thatyou are able to do exceedingly,
abundantly, more than we couldeven think to ask you for Lord.
(53:17):
God, we just repent today, god,for praying small prayers.
God, we repent God fornormalizing things that are not
of you.
God.
We repent God for normalizingthings that are not of you.
We repent, lord, for sittingback and letting people around
us be harassed and helpless whenwe know the good shepherd.
We know there's a good shepherdwho came to heal and to bring
abundant life.
God, we just place ourselvesbefore you today, god.
(53:40):
We pray for every familybelieving for children, god, we
pray for every family, god,needing a supernatural work,
needing the miraculous power ofGod to break in into their
family, god, and we say, yes,nothing is too hard for you,
lord.
God, we lift up every son anddaughter of this family, of this
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house, the Rock family, god, wedeclare that every boy, every
girl will serve you all the daysof their life.
They will dwell in the house ofthe Lord, forever and ever.
They will gaze at your templeand choir in your temple and
gaze at your beauty, lord, god,we thank you, god, that you
would use us, lord.
Use us, lord, to be the sign.
(54:23):
God.
I pray right now, god, forcreative gifts to be delivered
in your people.
Creative and witty gifts, wordsof wisdom, words of knowledge.
God, I pray for the creativearts to be on the move in this
room.
God, let the beauty of the Lordbe on display, god, even
through what we make and what wecreate, god, let it could be a
(54:45):
sign and a wonder to thegenerations and to the world
around us.
God, we love you today, wetrust you, we believe, we thank
you, god, lord, and we will befaithful to honor you this week
as we go out of this place today.
Have a Jesus-filled week.
Welcome to the Rock Family Sermon of the Week.
For more information about ourchurch, please visit
therockfamilytv Now.
Join us for a message from ourspecial guest speaker.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Last week.
One of the things you said,babe, just stood out to me and
I've thought about it all week.
Y'all were all here.
Y'all were all here, y'all feltthe conviction.
But it was when he was talkingabout when Jesus in Matthew 9
and 10, when Jesus looked out.
Remember he sees the people andhe's moved with compassion.
But it was these two words, Iguess it was just a different
translation than what I had read.
(00:41):
He said that Jesus saw theywere helpless and they were
harassed.
Do you remember him saying that?
Remember that on the screen,that Jesus looks out with
compassion, they're helpless andthey're harassed.
And then we know a few chaptersor a few verses later when he's
saying so I need you to prayfor that harvest.
And then he sends them.
But what does he send them todo?
(01:02):
Because they're helpless andharassed.
He sends them to preach.
Right, who remembers it?
Let's look it up Proclaim asyou go, saying the kingdom of
heaven is at hand.
The second thing he sends themout doing is healing the sick,
raising the dead, cleansing thelepers and casting out demons.
(01:24):
So he sends them out preachingand praying.
Everybody say preaching andpraying because they're helpless
and harassed.
It's not because we're tryingto be all super spiritual, it's
not because we're trying to bealmighty.
Jesus is saying I'm seeingpeople helpless and harassed so
I need to send you out preachingand praying.
(01:44):
What are we preaching?
Are we preaching, oh, it's yourbest life?
Yet no, he's saying you'repreaching that a new kingdom is
here.
See, there's a new way to thinknow.
There's a new option availableto you.
There's a new opportunity.
There's a new king, there's anew covenant, there's a new
baptism of the Holy Spirit.
There's a new king, there's anew covenant, there's a new
baptism of the Holy Spirit.
(02:04):
There's a new reality available, new, new, new, new, new.
Are we following?
So because of that news?
Leprosy, sickness, disease,torment it has to go because
Jesus has power over that.
Okay, so I want to read John 10,10 and 11.
(02:27):
This is Jesus talking and hesays the thief comes to steal,
kill and destroy.
I actually missed only.
The thief comes only to steal,kill and destroy.
But Jesus is saying I came thatthey may have life and have it
abundantly.
Everybody say abundantly,abundantly.
I am the good shepherd.
(02:47):
The good shepherd lays down hislife for the sheep.
So what we're doing today inthis verse is contrasting the
difference between the goodshepherd and the thief.
Can you see the difference?
Because of the brokenness inour world for generations upon
generations, upon generations,we as the believers can start to
(03:08):
normalize the work of the thiefand accept that as just our
fate.
We believe that it'll all bemade right in heaven.
But right now, sometimes wejust accept.
The enemy comes to steal, kill,destroy.
What is he stealing?
He's stealing finances, peace,relationships.
(03:31):
What is he coming to kill?
It was physical illness,tormenting, sickness to the
point of death.
Our doctor reports speakingdeath.
What does he come to destroy?
Self-esteem, a sound mind, yourfuture, your destiny, your
inheritance.
Self-esteem, a sound mind, yourfuture, your destiny, your
inheritance.
So if it looks like a thief, ifit acts like a thief, smells
(03:53):
like a thief.
So in this series that we'reall loving, we got our stickers,
we got our T-shirts.
I see you wearing them.
Do you believe that Jesus haspower over the thief?
Well, we will have abundantlife in heaven, eternal life,
yeah, we will have eternal,amazing life one day.
(04:13):
But he didn't say eternal life.
He said I have come to give youabundant life.
That's now.
Well, does this mean thateverything is just rainbows and
unicorns and gumdrops and gummyworms.
That's what my Evie thinks.
The dream day is all the candythat you could ever eat in the
(04:37):
whole world so abundant life.
When we look at scripture, thatdoesn't mean that everything is
perfect.
It doesn't mean everything iseasy.
When I look in scripture, I seepeople encircled in pain.
I see people persecuted.
Right, we can expect that.
Jesus said I was hated, so ifyou're my followers, go ahead
(04:57):
and expect that, okay, so that'sgoing to be normal for us.
We see suffering for Jesus.
We all like to skip the book ofJob.
I think we might be having somesermons coming up this summer
on that.
That was God filtered.
That was brought on by the Lord, but yet he was fully encircled
in covenant the whole time.
(05:19):
I see resistance from enemieshoping that people will back
down.
I see pruning.
I see feelings of anguish whenyou have to lay your will down
to follow God.
Think about Jesus in the garden.
That wasn't rainbows andunicorns.
(05:40):
I see travailing prayer whenyou are in a place of
intercession, with greatintensity and persistence,
praying for God's purposes to befulfilled.
I see disappointment.
I see people overlooked andunderpaid.
I see unmet expectations.
(06:00):
That's why we know his thoughtsare not our thoughts.
His ways are not our ways.
So sometimes we have an idea ofhow God's going to do something
and it isn't that way and weexperience disappointment.
He says offense, talking aboutimpossible.
He says you know what'simpossible is for you to do this
without offense.
Offenses are going to come, andeven death.
We know it's appointed for allmen a time right.
(06:22):
We know that our bodies do wearout.
But what we cannot normalize inour abundant life with Jesus
debilitating fear, insecurity,chronic pain, nightmares,
terrors, fear of death,addiction, bondage, sin cycles
with no breakthrough, harassingnegative thoughts, taunting
(06:43):
accus, accusation and shame,depression, isolation, belief
systems that rob you of youridentity or tell you people will
never accept you.
All right, church.
Just in case you didn't see itcoming, this series Believe for
the Impossible.
(07:04):
We're not spinning the wheel.
Let's see if you're going towin a prize today from Jesus.
When God breaks into impossiblesituations, his power is making
lesser things submit to hislordship.
(07:24):
Believing for the impossible isthe power of God confronting
evil.
We just had Easter four weeksago, so we're all caught up.
Jesus defeated the powers thatheld humanity in bondage.
So when you see crumbs leftbehind of the thief in your
(07:44):
thought life, in your familylife, in your finances, in your
children.
I don't want you, ladies,bringing your southern charm.
I don't want to call anybodyout.
You know I don't want to make abig deal about anything.
I don't want to just draw toomuch attention to anything.
No, this is our moment where wesay I see you, I see what
(08:09):
you're trying to do, I see whatyou're trying to do with my
friends over here.
I see that.
You see this family over here.
I see my neighbor over here.
You see my coworker.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
That's not abundant life,that's not what you paid for
Jesus.
Yeah, and in that, once we seeit, we recognize this is an
opportunity.
This is an opportunity for thepower of God to be made manifest
(08:35):
in this person, in this family,in this situation.
It's not always overnight, it'snot always right away when
breakthrough and healing comes,but I just need to make sure
we're all on the same page.
It won't be because it's toohard for God and it won't be
(08:56):
because we don't believe.
I don't feel like y'all arewith me, I don't feel like Okay.
Which is why this next one,right here If we are not
emboldened to confront the thiefwith truth.
There is something we don't yetknow about God.
I'm going to read it again.
(09:16):
This is what he's saying to me.
You guys just get to be thebenefactors of that If we are
not emboldened to confront thethief with truth.
There is something I don't yetknow about God and he wants to
reveal it to me.
(09:37):
And do you know that thievesdon't come after what's not
valuable?
The last time I checked Evie'slittle sequin backpack that has
all the little paper things thatshe has made and the trash that
she thinks is treasure ain'tnobody coming to try to steal
that?
She leaves it everywhere we goand it's just right there.
We'll come back five days later.
(09:58):
It's still sitting in thedriveway, but you leave a Louis
Vuitton purse full of cash In 20minutes.
It's not there, right.
So when you say, or when youfeel I'm not valuable, when you
feel worthless or a failure, ifyou see this coming on your kids
(10:19):
any mamas seeing that at times,come on them.
If you hear things in your heador you have friends that are
hearing things like that, areattacking their value.
The thief's been dropping somecrumbs.
Gender, race size, learning,exceptionalities, different ways
(10:41):
of learning If the enemy isusing any of those things to
make you feel less valuable.
He's been dropping some crumbs.
We are the imprint of God, likethe stamp, the image of God
himself, and I need you to knowtoday he delights in you.
(11:04):
We just forget, I'm telling youhe delights in you.
We just forget, I'm telling you, I forget all the time we go
right back into trying to earn,trying to perform, because he's
so awesome and so holy Lord, wewant to do it right and he's
like I delight in you and Idelighted in you before you knew
me, and I delighted in youbefore you knew how to love me
back, and I delighted in you, inyou knew me and I delighted in
(11:28):
you before you knew how to loveme back.
And I delighted in you, in yourweakness, and I delight in you
today, every day, and I am here.
I'm here to help you.
We got to remember this andthis is the message that we're
preaching.
When we see people who arereceiving the lie that they're
not valuable, when the liar doeswhat he does and we don't
confront the lies, we allowthose lies to hold space.
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Okay, I want you to begin toask, holy Spirit, where have I
been allowing things to holdspace, because there's something
I don't yet know about you thatyou want to reveal to me, know
about you that you want toreveal to me, okay.
So our teaching text today isgoing to be in Jeremiah, and I
really want to encourage you, dothis with me.
(12:11):
We need to be reading Scripture, not to just find ourselves in
the story, not to placeourselves as the hero of every
story.
We're reading Scripture to seewhat can I learn about you, god?
What is there to learn?
You interacted with people.
This is how you acted, this ishow you responded.
This is what they said, this iswhat happened, and we're
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learning God's nature, we'relearning His character through
reading Scripture and we'relearning what's possible, right.
So Jeremiah 1.
Where's all my teenagers, myyoung people, in the room?
I know there's some up here,but you're kind of spread out
and you know what?
If you want to miss Loretta,she says I'm young.
(12:52):
Yeah, I'm going to find myselfin that one too.
So there's a conversation thatJeremiah, who is a youth this is
in the Bible, jeremiah, chapterone he begins to have with the
Lord.
Okay, so we're going to readthis here.
The Lord says to Jeremiahbefore I formed you in the womb.
I knew you Before you were born.
I consecrated you, I appointedyou a prophet to the nations.
This is what Jeremiah says backto God oh Lord, god, behold, I
(13:20):
do not know how to speak.
I'm only a youth.
God responds back.
Do not say I'm only a youth,for to all whom I send you, you
shall go, and whatever I commandyou, you shall speak.
Do not be afraid of them, for Iam with you to deliver you.
And behold, I have put my wordsin your mouth.
I have set you this day overnations, over kingdoms, to pluck
(13:44):
up and to break down, todestroy and overthrow, to build
and to plant, all right.
So what are we learning aboutGod here?
What are we learning teenagers?
God talks to teenagers.
That's the first thing we'relearning today.
God talks to teenagers.
His youth pastor didn't have tocome and tell him that God had
(14:05):
a call on his life.
He talked directly to Jeremiah.
What else are we learning aboutthis?
God had a plan before he waseven born, for his life.
And did you know that that planwasn't what people thought it
was going to be, becauseJeremiah's father was a priest,
so it would have been assumedthat he would have followed in
(14:26):
his family's footsteps and thathe would have ministered in the
temple.
But that's not what the Lordhad planned for Jeremiah.
See, god gets to choose our way.
It has nothing to do about ourfamily or our tradition or our
history.
God has a specific and uniqueplan for each one of us.
I love this because ministeringin the temple is very important
(14:47):
, but there's never been an hourwhere we needed people on
mission on assignment from theLord anointed, called by God,
young, starting young out, beingGod's mouthpiece outside the
four walls.
Amen.
What else do we understand?
We understand that Godunderstands our fear.
He already promised.
(15:10):
He got in front of it.
He's like yeah, I know you'reafraid, but what does he say?
I'm going to be the delivererwhen you need it.
He says but I can't God.
So what else are we learningwhen we can't?
What does he do?
He equips.
He said I know you can't, see,I've already put my words in
your mouth.
Yeah, you don't have words oryou don't have good ones.
(15:32):
I'm going to take care of that.
So, and if we could read on?
I don't, I can't because oftime.
If we could read on, we'd see.
He also confirms his word toJeremiah Anybody ever heard?
I think I heard, I mean, I feelI mean I did, it was in that
service and it was so strong.
But now that I'm in my car, nowthat I slept on it, I'm not
(15:55):
sure.
Lord, can you confirm it?
So we learn that God's intothat.
And what's so funny to me isthe way he confirms it to
Jeremiah is he has him seesomething specific that was very
meaningful to Jeremiah, that ifany of us had seen it we would
have just been like, yeah, andyou probably have had the Lord
(16:21):
confirm a word to you, right?
But God does that.
He's very specific, he's verypersonal, he's very unique.
He knows the things that you'llgo.
No, that flavor's never there,hadn't been there for five years
.
I'm telling you the Lord knowshe's got my number right.
And then my favorite part alsodon't have time is he tells
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Jeremiah I'm going to be the oneto perform it.
You can tell I struggle withperformance, so that really
ministers to me.
He says, because you have seenwell, he's talking about the
confirmation, because you'veseen well, I'm ready to perform
my word.
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Okay, let's keep reading.
This is God speaking toJeremiah, verse 17.
But you, jeremiah, dressyourself for work, arise and say
to them everything that Icommand you Do not be dismayed
by them, lest I dismay youbefore them.
And I behold, I make you thisday a fortified city, an iron
(17:26):
pillar, bronze walls against thewhole land, against the kings
of Judah, its officials, itspriests and the people of the
land.
They will fight against you.
You wanted me to just read thehappy parts.
They will fight against you,but they shall not prevail
(17:47):
against you.
All right, that's for somebodyin here.
Yeah, he's like am I doingthings wrong?
Because, man, I'm in a warfare?
No, they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail
against you, for I am with you,declares the Lord to deliver you
.
So what are we learning aboutGod?
When he calls you, he preparesyou, he fortifies you for the
(18:11):
warfare.
Why is God going to have toprotect Jeremiah, you ask?
Because people kill themessenger, and he is God's
messenger.
So let me give you thebackstory, real, real quick, and
then we'll jump into ourteaching text.
The backstory is God's peoplehave been breaking his covenant
(18:34):
for generations.
They have been unfaithful toGod, they have worshiped other
gods, they have disregarded hisways.
He has sent warnings, he hassent messengers to them, he has
sent prophets, he has pleadedwith them.
He has begged them to return.
He has been patient, he hasbeen kind, he's been
long-suffering.
For over a hundred years he hadbeen sending warnings that if
(18:56):
you don't turn back to me,trouble is coming.
I'm going to have to punishthis.
I can't just allow this tocontinue.
Your heart is far from me.
They were even worshiping.
The Bible says they wereworshiping false gods.
They were allowing theirchildren to be sacrificed to
Molech.
I mean, like what's going onwith God's people?
And so he's gonna use Jeremiahto send in the warning like, hey
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, it's time God's done.
This is where we're at.
So they don't like the message.
And he's going to deliver amessage to the king himself that
his days are numbered.
There's chaos everywhere.
The city is under siege becauseGod has removed his hand of
protection and he's allowed theenemy to come in because his
(19:40):
people would not return to him.
The king wants to get thepeople of Judah to fight and
Jeremiah's message from the Lordis trying to tell them there is
no point in fighting.
This is from the Lord.
You've known this was coming.
This is what happens when wedon't obey God.
So we're going to pick upJeremiah 32, verse 3 through 5.
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This is what the Lord hasJeremiah deliver.
Behold, I am giving the cityinto the hand of the king of
Babylon and he will capture it.
Zedekiah, king of Judah, shallnot escape out of the hand of
the Chaldeans.
He shall surely be given intothe hand of the king of Babylon
(20:21):
and he will speak with him faceto face and see him eye to eye,
and he's going to take Zedekiahto Babylon and there he shall
remain until I visit him,declares the Lord.
Though you fight against theChaldeans, you shall not succeed
.
So the king is furious becausethe city's under siege, no way,
in no way out, no water, famine,pestilence, sword, and he wants
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the people of Judah to put up afight.
And here's Jeremiah deliveringthe word of the Lord, saying no,
don't fight.
This is silly, there's no pointin fighting.
Jeremiah 32, verse 7 and 8, hecontinues.
He says the Lord begins to tellhim even more things while he's
stuck in prison.
I don't know if I mentionedthat Jeremiah is in prison as
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he's delivering this messagebecause the king did not like
the message he was bringing.
He's been beaten, he's beenpersecuted, he's been thrown
into a pit and now he's in theroyal prison and the Lord comes
to Jeremiah again.
He says Behold, hanamel, theson of Shalom, your uncle, is
going to come to you, jeremiah,and he is going to say buy my
(21:33):
field that's in Anathoth, theright of redemption is yours.
Then Hanamel, my cousin, cameto me in the court of the guard,
in accordance with the word ofthe Lord, and said buy my field,
it's in the land of Benjamin,for the right of possession and
redemption is yours, buy it foryourself.
Then I knew this was the wordof the Lord.
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What are we learning about Godhere?
We're learning that whileJeremiah is in prison, while
Jeremiah is obeying God, whileJeremiah is doing God's will,
but things are not going wellbecause the enemy is very angry
with him, that the Lord sends aword, that your cousin's going
to come and ask you to buy afield, a field that's two miles
away from this prison.
(22:14):
I don't know if you can see inthis picture here the city's
falling apart.
The enemy is on every side.
They are in distress, they arein chaos, they are in crisis.
There is no way in and no wayout.
Siege warfare.
I didn't know much about this.
This is where the enemy wouldsurround all four walls of the
city, build up mounds to be ablockade so that they would just
(22:36):
slowly suffocate them.
You couldn't get in.
You couldn't get out Foodcouldn't get in, couldn't get
out Water, couldn't get in, andthen the armies outside could
crawl up to the top and begin todo warfare and you're like a
sitting duck inside.
So this is going down and he'sin prison and the Lord says I
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need you to buy the field.
This is a very valuable pieceof land right now, I'm sure,
right.
So what are we learning aboutGod here?
We're learning that we're notthe only one that he asks to do
things that make no sense.
Now, I love real estate.
Do I have any real estatepeople in here?
I absolutely love real estate.
(23:16):
It's just I grew up my parentsthat was their thing like
flipping houses.
So our Sunday afternoonactivity after we would eat
lunch would be to just go drivearound the neighborhoods, even
if we weren't buying, just tosee if there was any sleepers.
You got any house flippers outthere?
You're looking for the sleeper.
It's in a great neighborhoodand it looks like garbage.
That's our next treasure, right?
So I'm all about the realestate, I'm all about it, but
(23:41):
not when it's a piece ofproperty under siege right.
But what does he do?
He does exactly what the Lordtells him to do, and it's one of
the most detailed businesstransactions you'll find in
scripture.
I mean down to how the deed wassigned, how they stored the
deed.
They had to put it in anearthen vessel and do two copies
, because Jeremiah knew this wasgoing to have to last a long
time, like this paperwork, thislegal deed.
(24:04):
This is going to be 70 yearsthat God's people are in
captivity, that this field isgoing to be worthless.
But he does the thing he calls,even from prison.
They do this whole big businessdeal right there from the
prison.
And when it's all done,jeremiah looks back.
Do you ever do something theLord asks you to do and then you
just feel great about it?
Well, he didn't.
(24:25):
He's like God, why?
And he prays for understanding.
So what are we learning here?
It's okay to ask God forunderstanding.
Okay, let's read.
Actually, I'm going to readthis to you because it's a
little bit long.
It says this is Jeremiah'sprayer to God, asking for
understanding.
Jeremiah's prayer to God askingfor understanding.
After I've given the deed ofpurchase, and I prayed to the
(24:48):
Lord, saying oh God, it is youwho made the heavens and the
earth by your great power and byyour outstretched arm.
I know nothing is too hard foryou.
You show steadfast love tothousands, but you repay the
guilt of the fathers to theirchildren after them.
Oh, great and mighty God, whosename is the Lord of hosts,
great in counsel and mighty indeed, your eyes are open to all
(25:12):
the ways of the children of manand you reward each one
according to his ways andaccording to the fruit of his
deeds.
You have shown signs, you'veshown wonders in the land of
Egypt and, to this day, inIsrael and among all of mankind.
You've made a name for yourself.
You brought your people out ofthe land of Egypt with signs and
(25:32):
wonders, with a strong hand andan outstretched arm and with
great terror, and you gave themthis land.
He's rehearsing a covenant, god,are you following with me?
He's rehearsing.
You're the one that gave themthis land, which you swore to
their fathers to give them aland flowing where's Jenny?
With milk and honey.
(25:54):
And they entered the land yougave them and took possession of
it, but they did not obey yourvoice and they didn't walk in
your, your law and they didnothing of all that you
commanded them to do, and that'swhy you have made this disaster
to come upon them.
Behold, the siege mounds havecome up to the city to take it
(26:16):
and, because of the sword andfamine and pestilence, the city
has been given into the hands ofthose who are fighting against
it.
What you spoke, god, that'swhat Jeremiah's saying to the
Lord what you spoke has come topass.
And behold, you see it.
See, jeremiah knows he didn'tjust give me a word to deliver
(26:37):
from a far, far, far off place.
God's actually present.
He's here with me, god.
You see the devastation, yousee what's going on.
You see the city under siege,but yet, oh Lord, you said to me
buy the field for money and getthe witnesses.
You know he had to pay, he hadto use his own money.
You know, sometimes we think theLord, like, shows us something
(26:57):
that needs to be done and thatmeant we're just supposed to
prophesy it and somebody else isgonna do it.
Somebody else is gonna writethe check for that.
Somebody else is going to writethe check for that.
He had to count out 17 shekelsof silver.
Do you think that money mighthave been a little bit important
when there's no water or foodfor anybody?
God answers him.
(27:18):
See, when we pray forunderstanding, we can read this
and learn about the characterand nature of God.
He doesn't just ask us to belike servants that he doesn't
share what he's doing.
It doesn't mean we have tounderstand what he's doing, to
obey, but we can seek him andhe'll reveal things to us.
So this was the Lord's responseback to him.
Let me tell you why I had youby the land.
(27:41):
Verse 37,.
Behold, I'm going to gatherthem from all the countries that
I drove them to in my anger andmy wrath.
I'm going to bring them back tothis place and I'm going to
make them dwell in safety.
They shall be my people and Iwill be their God.
I will give them one heart andone way that they may fear me
(28:03):
forever.
I'm going to pause right hereIn worship today.
What I felt like the Lord wasdoing in the room was filling us
with the fear of the Lord.
The fear of the Lord.
I just felt him.
That's not the scary thing,that's the awe.
That's where you're just.
You're just so in awe of hisgoodness and his beauty and his
mercy and his power, that you,just, you just want to look at
it.
You're not even worried aboutall these things, you're not
(28:24):
even worried about the cityunder siege around you, because
all you can see is how amazingand powerful and huge he is.
That's the fear of the Lord,and this was part of what
Jeremiah was speaking.
I'm sorry.
When I pause and I lose my place.
Okay, we were in verse 39.
I will give them one heart andone way that they may fear me
(28:45):
forever for their own good andfor the good of their children
after them, and I will make withthem an everlasting covenant.
See, we're not people ofcovenant by nature, so that word
doesn't even resonate with us.
We're actually very selfish bynature.
But that's not God's nature.
He is a covenant God.
He's like a forever,everlasting God.
(29:06):
And so he says I'm going tomake with them an everlasting
covenant that I will not turnaway from doing good to them and
I will put the fear of me intheir hearts so that they may
not turn from me.
And I will rejoice in doingthem good and I will plant them
in this land of faithfulnesswith all this.
(29:26):
Is God saying this I'm going toplant them in faithfulness with
all my heart and all my soul.
I don't even think I've everthought about God using language
like that towards us.
Okay, so he reveals to Jeremiahthat, even though there's
consequence right now because oftheir actions, that he already
(29:49):
has a plan to gather them back.
He already has a plan to redeem, he already has a plan to
restore because he's a covenantGod.
All right, so we have these twothings here that we're going to
look at.
While God is gracious, he's alsosovereign and he's just, and he
holds people accountable fortheir responses to him.
(30:13):
We don't like that.
Just tell me about theooey-gooey forgiveness of Jesus.
Can we just stop there?
He is righteousness and justice.
He's sovereign, he's good, buthe holds people accountable for
(30:38):
their responses.
You know, every single timewhen you go and read Scripture,
you don't have time to look atit today.
Every single time we see theLord have to issue a punishment,
you know that he's alreadyworked on the back end to bring
about the remedy.
Go look for it, it's really fun.
Go watch it.
When he exercises divinejudgment, it's always to elicit
(31:00):
a specific response from hispeople.
It's just like a good fatherdoes with his children.
I got parents in here.
If you never, ever, ever, ever,ever do anything, when your
children are pummeling eachother and hurting each other
over something silly and youjust allow a play fight to
(31:21):
become a wrestle fight, tobecome a punching fight, to
become a swinging elbows fight,teeth are getting knocked out.
Oh, but you're so good, You'reso patient, right, isn't there a
?
There's a line where you movefrom patient and kind to no.
I need to take care of this.
This is not healthy for thefamily.
This is not good for them.
(31:42):
This is not creating a safeplace for my children.
Are you following?
Hebrews 12, 5 through 11 sayshave you forgotten the
exhortation that addresses youas sons?
My son, do not regard lightlythe discipline of the Lord and
do not be weary when reproved byhim.
(32:03):
He addresses you as sons.
For what son is there whom afather does not discipline?
If you are left withoutdiscipline, in which all have
participated, then you areillegitimate children and not
(32:24):
sons.
Besides this, we have hadearthly fathers who disciplined
us and we respected them for it.
Shall we not much more besubject to the father of spirits
and live For?
They disciplined us for a shorttime, as it seemed best to them
, but he disciplines us for ourgood that we may share in his
(32:46):
holiness.
For the moment, all disciplineseems painful and not pleasant,
but later it yields thepeaceable fruit of righteousness
to those who have been trainedby it.
We have a good father, we havea good king, and the tension
(33:07):
between the two here is that, atthe very same time, the city is
under siege.
He has a word for Jeremiahsaying behold, I am the Lord.
Is anything too hard for me?
Yeah, come on, do that.
Maybe while you do this it'llstart to sink in a little bit.
See, he already knows it's toohard for them to get their act
(33:31):
together, so he's already got aplan in motion because he loves
his people.
He is a covenant God.
He loves you, he already knowsall the stuff you've messed up
and he's already gone in frontof you to make a way back.
Isn't that amazing?
I don't know what you're goingthrough right now.
(33:53):
I don't know a room this size,the diversity, the amount of
things happening in people'slives and families and extended
lives that could be causing youto feel a lot like a city under
siege, you know.
But there's things with peopleclose to us and I see the pain,
(34:15):
I see the struggle.
It feels like there's no way inand no way out.
It feels like this is how ithas to be.
Maybe somebody you love hasrejected God so many times, over
and over and over, and whatyou're watching before your eyes
is painful because God'sfinally given them what they
(34:36):
want.
You know, eventually we have afree will.
He reaches out, he extends, hecalls to us, but then eventually
he's like, okay, well, ifthat's what you want, then go
ahead.
Go ahead, have what you want,right.
But when you're the loved oneand you're watching that closely
, it's painful to see.
Maybe you've had a doctor'sreport with no hope.
(34:57):
I'm so thankful for doctors,but I have also been in the room
before when a report is givenand everything.
The way that that doctorreleased that to me was hopeless
death.
I mean like you didn't evenhave the results from the test
and you're already saying thatmy child's not going to live.
You think you might want towait and see what those
chromosomes say before you goahead and speak that Like are
not going to live.
You think you might want towait and see what those
(35:18):
chromosomes say before you goahead and speak that Like you
can be in a place like that.
I don't know what the pit isthat you feel like you've been
thrown into.
People got thrown into pits alot in the Bible if you looked
at it.
Jeremiah wasn't the only one.
Maybe you feel like you've beenthrown into a pit by people who
want to suppress the truth.
You're speaking truth.
You are God's mouthpiece, butbecause of that, you've been
(35:41):
thrown into a pit.
Well, I just came here today toremind you you serve a covenant
God.
He doesn't leave us in thatplace.
I love in verse 20, I love this, I love this, I love this.
He's talking about what it isto be a covenant God to his
people.
He says let me okay, you peopledon't understand this because
(36:04):
you're not covenant people,you're contractual people.
So when you get tired ofsomebody, you move on.
When that friend isn't funanymore, you move on right.
He's like let me explain how,when I am a covenant God to my
people, what that looks like.
So when the sun stops coming upthis is verse 20, when the moon
stops shining, that's when I'mgoing to stop showing up for you
(36:27):
.
Just get a picture of thatEvery morning.
When you get up and the suncomes up, god, you're still here
with me, you love me, you havea plan for me.
You have a plan for my family.
You're not done.
This is not the end of thestory, because he's a covenant
God.
You know, I don't even know.
On this Mother's Day, we'realways so sensitive to this
(36:49):
because Mother's Day is veryhappy for some and it's not
happy for others.
Many of us have lost a motherin this room, even recently.
There's still pain, there'sstill pain, there's still
frustration.
And a couple of people justcome to mind and I want to talk
to you.
If you're in this room andyou've been battling infertility
, I want to talk to you.
(37:10):
The enemy is a liar and he likesto tell us that this is just
the way it's going to be.
He likes to tell you there'ssomething wrong with you, that
what he can give, what the Lordcan give to everybody else, he
can't give to you.
It causes fear.
You start to feel like you'regoing to all the things you're
going to miss out on.
In fact, the enemy will be realclever to just kind of parade
(37:30):
in front of you all the thingsthat you don't get to experience
because of that.
And so I want to read Psalm 127,three through five.
It says behold, children are agift of the Lord, and the fruit
of the womb is a reward, likearrows in the hand of a warrior.
So are the children of one'syouth.
How blessed is the man whosequiver is full of them.
(37:53):
Children are a gift of the.
Are they a gift from thefertility clinic?
Are they something that youearn because you're so perfect?
Children are a gift from theLord.
So, lord, we come intoagreement with you that he gives
good gifts to his children.
Who ask today?
Maybe a doctor has said this isimpossible.
Well, good news we're learningthat with God, all things are
(38:17):
possible.
Well, good news, we're learningthat with God, all things are
possible.
I want to say over you Psalm145.16.
This is about the God we serve.
We're reading scripture tolearn about the nature of our
covenant God.
It says God, you open your handand you satisfy the desire of
every living thing.
(38:37):
Why would he put a desire inyour heart that he doesn't plan
to satisfy?
Is anything too hard for God?
It's not up to us how he doesit.
The Lord will give grace andglory.
This is Psalm 84.
No good thing will he withholdfrom those who walk uprightly.
(39:02):
The enemy's favorite thing totell you and this works in any
situation, not just infertilitythat you're the only one and
that no one understands.
Classic Like.
The more you're around thisstuff, you realize he doesn't
have anything new to throw atyou.
And that's why you need thebody of Christ, because the
minute that you're vulnerableenough to tell your friend group
, to tell your church family,this is what I'm feeling.
(39:24):
They go oh, oh, no, no, no, no,no, no, no.
He came at me with that, like10 years ago.
Let me tell you how you'regoing to get victory over that.
But when we keep it inside,trying to just fight it on our
own, he tells you that no onecan understand.
Right, you're the only one.
You're the only one in yourfriend group.
But when we read scripture, wesee Sarah, rebecca, rachel, the
(39:52):
wife of Manoah, hannah andElizabeth.
They experienced childlessness.
So no, you're not the only one.
And when we read their story,we find out that their
barrenness was an opportunityfor the outworking of divine
purpose.
If that's, you just hold upyour hand, lord, let my
(40:12):
barrenness be an opportunity forthe outworking of divine
purpose.
We find out that the childrenfinally born to these women in
Scripture all became veryimportant figures in God's story
, ones that we draw hope fromtoday and preach about on a
weekly basis.
Their names were Isaac, jacob,joseph, samson, samuel and John
(40:37):
the Baptist Jacob Joseph, samson, samuel and John the Baptist.
We come alongside you today andwe repeat the words of the Lord
in Genesis 18, 14, that he saidto Sarah is anything too
difficult or too wonderful forGod at the appointed time?
That's what God has to sayabout it.
(40:58):
When the season comes, the Lordsays I will return to you,
sarah, and you will have a son.
So, lord, we come intoagreement with our church family
, with families here today.
Oh, britt, that was what he didfor them.
Okay, as a church family today,this is gonna be our theme song
(41:19):
, it's going to be our fightsong, okay.
Habakkuk 3.2 says Lord, I'veheard of your fame.
I stand in awe of your deeds.
Repeat them in our day.
Yeah, that was their story.
But if you could do it, thenyou're the God who doesn't
change.
If you could do it for allthose ladies, I believe you can
(41:40):
do it for me.
Maybe you're another family inhere that just says you know,
god gave us children and we dideverything we knew to do.
We weren't perfect parents, butwe did everything we could,
trying to serve God.
And our children have chosen adifferent path In your heart as
(42:03):
a mom, as a dad.
Prodigals, prodigals.
So we read in scripture Lord,what is your nature over
prodigals?
You know, we have the classicparable of the prodigal son,
Every one of you in here knowsthe story.
The story is actually about twosons who receive their
(42:24):
inheritance, but one of the sonssquanders the inheritance.
He wastes the inheritance.
That's the one that we alwaysreference.
Okay, so the story we know.
Because you've been in church along time, many of you have
been in church a long time weknow that the story isn't
actually about the sons.
It's actually about thecovenant, love of the Father.
(42:49):
Okay, and so when you thinkabout inheritance, all through
the New Testament, inheritancewas always spoken of as what we
have received from Christ.
Everything that you've beengiven in the new covenant a new
heart, a new mind, forgivenessof sin that he would not
remember anymore, the ability toserve him right, the Holy
Spirit, all the things that wereavailable to you in the new
(43:10):
covenant those were yourinheritance, that is, your
spiritual inheritance.
In fact, it says Jesus looks atus and says that we are his
inheritance and we look at himand say that he is ours.
So if the story is about a sonwho is wasteful with inheritance
, I think that every one of usin this room can be the son in
(43:30):
the story.
I can.
I've been wasteful of theinheritance, of what Jesus has
done for me at times, but whatwe read about this is the
covenant love of the inheritanceof what Jesus has done for me
at times, but what we read aboutthis is the covenant love of
the Father.
And the part of the story thatI want to highlight today is the
thing that brought the turn forthe son.
The thing that brought him homewas when he had the aha moment
(43:56):
and he was able to compare thelack that he had now to the
abundance that he had in hisfather's house.
And I just say that over to you, instead of us worrying about
the path that they're on, whatif we just come alongside this
passage of Scripture and say,lord, I just pray that whatever
(44:18):
you need to do to open theireyes, that they would be able to
compare the lack from this paththat they've chosen to the
abundance of love, perfect love,provision, peace of mind that
was found in you and found inour home, and that they would
come and that they would comehome.
So, lord, we trust you today.
(44:44):
Lord, we trust you, jesus, overthe sons and daughters
represented here that need tocome home.
Lord, we trust that you're acovenant God, that you actually
love them more than theirbiological parents do and that
even when they began to turnaway from you, you were already
making a plan and a path tobring them back, Because that's
what a covenant God does.
(45:05):
Jeremiah 31,.
I'm going to say this to you,mamas who are hurting over a
prodigal son or daughter this iswhat the Lord had Jeremiah say.
Thus says the Lord.
The Lord had Jeremiah say.
Thus says the Lord.
A voice is heard in Ramah,lamentation and bitter weeping,
because Rachel is weeping forher children.
Pause.
(45:26):
The Lord hears.
What are we learning throughthis?
The Lord hears when we weepover our children.
I don't feel like minorprodigals, but I weep over them
because I can see, sometimes,the hardness of their heart
towards the things of the Lord.
He hears me when I pray.
Rachel is weeping for herchildren.
She refuses to be comforted forher children because they are
(45:49):
no more.
And this says the Lord Stop.
He says Keep your voice fromweeping and your eyes from tears
, for there is a reward for yourwork, declares the Lord.
They shall come back from theland of the enemy.
There is hope for your future,declares the Lord.
They shall come back from theland of the enemy.
There is hope for your future,declares the Lord, and your
children shall come back totheir own country.
(46:11):
So we come into agreement withyou over this.
There will be a reward.
Last group, near to my heartYou're caretaking.
You're caretaking Familymembers.
(46:39):
There's times you don't get tobe a part.
Miss Jeanette, pastor Tim'swife caretaking for her sweet
and precious mama.
You have to lay down thingsthat you want to do to take care
of people that are in yourfamily.
Maybe you're a shut-in.
Maybe you're isolated.
Maybe health the body wearingout it doesn't allow you to be
at all the things anymore thatyou always want to do.
Ms Loretta, you know about thisright.
(47:06):
Maybe there's been doctor'sreports.
Maybe you're like Miss Betty,watching from home every Sunday.
I love you, miss Betty Kibler.
She texts me from her recliner,jeremiah, verse 3, 33, 3.
He says call to me, jeremiah.
You're in prison, the city'sunder siege, you can't get in
(47:27):
and you can't get out.
Everybody wants to kill you.
You've already wasted yourmoney on a piece of land that
has no value, but if you'll callto me, I'm going to answer you
and I'm going to tell you greatand hidden things you have not
known.
(47:47):
He's a covenant God in old age.
He gives another example justlike the sun and the moon, he
says when you can measure all ofthe heavens and the foundations
of the earth, so when youfigure out that little math
calculation of all the heavensand the earth, that's when I'm
going to stop showing up for you.
That's covenant love.
(48:09):
He says there's a divineexchange.
I'm just picturing people intheir recliners right now.
I'm picturing people that can'tget out all the time.
I'm picturing people that can'twalk up the big ramp to get
here, but they're watching fromhome.
When you call to me, there is adivine exchange.
It's more than just me showingup for you, says the Lord.
(48:29):
I'm actually going to tell youthings.
I'm going to share with youthings, miss Loretta, great and
marvelous things that you do notknow.
I'm ready.
I'm calling it out Paul andCurtis.
I'm calling it out Mom and Dad.
I'm calling it out All myEagles.
Where are you?
I know y'all blowing and going,but I'm going to go ahead and
(48:51):
just put it out there early.
I'm ready to start receivingsome prophetic words from people
that were sitting in reclinersand because they called to the
Lord and the Lord began to sharewith them things that we don't
know, because, see, we're outbusy, we're out working, we're
trying to raise kids.
Right, it's the generations.
It's the generations we needone another today.
(49:12):
Receive that today.
I pray that you receive that.
Stand up with me, everybody.
You know, if you're hurtingtoday in anything that I said
today, remember I said the Holyspirit doesn't miss a thing.
You're like, well, you didn'teven talk about me.
I don't have to.
I don't have to.
If you were hurting, you'rebroken.
(49:33):
Today you need the power of theliving God.
Please come down.
We've got prayer people, we gotdeacons, we got elders, some of
you on the freedom prayer team.
You feel like you're supposedto come down and pray.
Please come and pray.
We want to pray with you, wewant to believe with you.
We want to see the power of Godactivated in your life.
But the last thing that I wantto share today I actually mean
(49:54):
that I think sometimes you thinkwe say that.
I actually mean that If theLord pricked your heart in any
place and you want prayer, Iwant you to come down.
I'm going to talk to the restof them, but I want you to come
down because don't miss, don'tmiss sharing in the power of
agreement.
Yeah, you believe it, but whatabout agreement?
What about having a leader praywith you, pray over you, speak
(50:19):
to you, but for the rest of us,the very last thing.
Back to this field.
Why did the Lord pick thisteaching text today, that
Jeremiah buys the field?
I think my question is, aswe're believing for the
(50:40):
impossible, as we're leaning inthat nothing is too hard for God
, as we're calling out to himand he's answering with great
and mighty things we didn't knowbefore, words of wisdom, words
of knowledge.
My question today is will youbuy the field?
Will you be willing to do whatdoesn't make sense, but the Lord
(51:03):
needs it to be the sign?
Can you be the sign?
The sign of what?
The sign of hope?
The sign that God has a plan?
The sign that God's not done?
Can you be the sign that youactually have to invest yourself
into something that doesn'tprofit you?
It doesn't benefit you, it'snot that wise investment that
(51:24):
you're going to talk about atlunch and be able to show what
God is prospering in your life?
This is just sacrificial.
This is just obedience.
This is just things that don'tmake sense.
This is things that actuallyhighlight the beauty of the Lord
.
Okay, I want you to be on thelook for these things this week.
He's a covenant God.
God, how do you want to use meto be the sign that when the sun
(51:47):
stops coming up, that that'swhen you'll stop showing up for
us?
See, people need to know that,people need to see that, people
need to feel that and God willactually use us to do things
that you know what.
They don't benefit us, but it'sa sign to those that are coming
.
You know, 70 years later, god'speople were going to be brought
back and there was going to bea deed filled out with a notary,
(52:11):
hidden in an earthen vessel,stored and protected of God's
faithfulness.
Yeah, come on.
All right, let's just pray.
Will you pray with me?
Bow your heads, let's pray,holy Spirit, we just thank you.
We thank you on this Mother'sDay.
(52:33):
We thank you on this Mother'sDay that you are present.
Jesus, you are here.
We love you, we worship you, weexalt you, we acknowledge you.
God, I thank you that you haveplans.
You have plans for your people.
God, I thank you that you haveplans.
You have plans for your people,god.
I thank you, lord, that you wantto speak to us and God, we're
here, saying we're here, lord,we're listening.
(52:53):
God, use us, move through us.
God, lord, I pray that youwould begin to activate within
us.
Lord, activate faith, activatefaith today, god, we want to
believe.
We want to believe, god, thatyou are able to do exceedingly,
abundantly, more than we couldeven think to ask you for Lord.
(53:17):
God, we just repent today, god,for praying small prayers.
God, we repent God fornormalizing things that are not
of you.
God.
We repent God for normalizingthings that are not of you.
We repent, lord, for sittingback and letting people around
us be harassed and helpless whenwe know the good shepherd.
We know there's a good shepherdwho came to heal and to bring
abundant life.
God, we just place ourselvesbefore you today, god.
(53:40):
We pray for every familybelieving for children, god, we
pray for every family, god,needing a supernatural work,
needing the miraculous power ofGod to break in into their
family, god, and we say, yes,nothing is too hard for you,
lord.
God, we lift up every son anddaughter of this family, of this
(54:01):
house, the Rock family, god, wedeclare that every boy, every
girl will serve you all the daysof their life.
They will dwell in the house ofthe Lord, forever and ever.
They will gaze at your templeand choir in your temple and
gaze at your beauty, lord, god,we thank you, god, that you
would use us, lord.
Use us, lord, to be the sign.
(54:23):
God.
I pray right now, god, forcreative gifts to be delivered
in your people.
Creative and witty gifts, wordsof wisdom, words of knowledge.
God, I pray for the creativearts to be on the move in this
room.
God, let the beauty of the Lordbe on display, god, even
through what we make and what wecreate, god, let it could be a
(54:45):
sign and a wonder to thegenerations and to the world
around us.
God, we love you today, wetrust you, we believe, we thank
you, god, lord, and we will befaithful to honor you this week
as we go out of this place today.
Have a Jesus-filled week.
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