I'll sing in glory to his name.
Oh, glory to his name.
Well, now there to my heart was the blood of light.
I'm singing glory to his name.
Come on, give him praise and glory today.
He's worthy.
Hallelujah.
Amen. If you have your Bibles, be turning with me to Jeremiah 29.
It is so good to see each of you in the house of the Lord today.
If you're visiting with us, thank you so much for choosing Hopewell as your place of worship today.
And I pray that you have worshiped the Lord in spirit and in truth and thus far have already encountered the Spirit of the Lord.
Amen.
And I trust before you leave today that you'll be blessed in his grace.
Jeremiah 29, we want to begin at verse four and read just a little bit today.
Amen. Amen. God's good for you there. Say amen.
Verse four reads Jeremiah 29. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,
and all that are carried away captives whom I have cause to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon.
Build you houses and dwell in them and plant gardens and eat the fruit of them.
Take your wives and beget sons and daughters and take your wives for your sons and daughters to husbands,
that they may bear sons and daughters, that you may be increased there and not diminished.
That right there, that just caught me.
Pardon me just a minute. I just had a little encounter with the word.
I don't know how many times I've read that, but that just.
That you may be increased there and not diminished and seek the peace of the city wherewith I have caused you to be carried away captives
and pray unto the Lord for it. For in the peace thereof shall you have peace.
For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, let not your prophets and your diviners that be in the midst of you,
deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams, which you cause to be dreamed.
For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name. I have not sent them, said the Lord.
For thus saith the Lord that after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon,
I will visit you and perform my good word towards you and causing you to return to this place.
For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end.
Then shall you call upon me and you shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you.
And you shall seek me and find me when you shall search for me with all your heart.
And I will be found of you, says the Lord, and I will turn away your captivity.
And I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, saith the Lord,
and I will bring you again into the place which I cause you to be carried away captive.
Just for a little while this morning with the help of the Lord and your participation.
If you don't participate, we'll get out early. Unless I feel like I really got to prove a point, then it'll be longer.
But this only simple thought today. What do you do when the end seems near?
What do you do when the end seems near? Father, I love you.
I thank you for your word and the power of your word and the presence of your spirit in this room today.
Now, ask God in your sanctuary that you cause us to hear what it is the spirit would have to say to the church.
Lord, as we are here now open-minded and our hearts are open and our faith is ready to be lifted,
and Lord, to be built upon your word. I pray, Lord, you'd use me, Lord, somehow, some way to be an encouragement today,
the edifier of the body, and Lord, that you'd quicken our spirits towards you.
We give you praise for it all. In Christ's lovely name, in the church of Ed. Amen.
Ask your neighbor, do you think the end is near?
We look at our text today, even so, Lord, come quickly.
We look at our text this morning. You think about the people of God, the children of God, Israel.
Understand that Israel was firmly aware of their reality, and understand that they are firmly aware of their reality now.
Now, as then, then being in the text, walking out of alignment with the will of God,
but still understanding the reality of God toward them.
If you haven't seen the news, yesterday's attack by Iran has globally, for Christians,
are on high alert and are now looking toward the prophetic end
and trying to understand where we are on God's timetable.
Prior to October 7, 23, just last October, six months ago,
the future for Israel seemed its brightest since its independence on May 14, 1948.
They had signed six Arab-Israeli peace normalization agreements,
and they were working on the seventh with Saudi Arabia just prior to that attack.
Probably as peaceful a time in Israel's recent history that they have known prior to, right up to October 7, last fall.
They were flourishing. Tourism, again, had just really begun to explode, and their economy was picking up.
The attack from Hamas had not only affected Israel, but it has changed the global perspective toward Israel,
especially over the last six months of this war that they are in.
The world in the last six months has seemed to have turned,
and the tide seems to be against the people of Israel again.
I think the words of the psalmist in 83 has given us some insight as to the expectation that we can have,
and even they can have, as the psalmist declares.
Verse 1, Keep not thou silent, O God, hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God,
for lo, thine enemies make a tumult, and they that hate thee have lifted up their heads.
They have taken crafty counsel against your people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.
They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
For they have consulted together with one consent. They are confederate against thee.
And if you read the remainder of that chapter 83, the names of those nations are called out,
many of which are in coalition today against the people of God.
Leads us to look at Zechariah 12, Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about,
when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people.
Now listen good. All that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces,
though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
What does that mean, Pastor? That means they can come on with it. It's what that means.
Little brother going to stand up strong because father is on his side.
Little sister, if you will. God is on the side of Israel.
God is not on the side of their rebellion against him.
God is not on their side in their rejection of himself.
That's not what I'm saying. God has never been for Israel's sin.
He's always went out of his way to bring them back.
And as we read in our text today, such said occasion,
they are being given over to Babylon because of their rebellion.
But I think in the midst of this text that we've read this morning will give us a little insight.
You say, well, is the near in near pastor you throw debate out there, is it?
Well, it's nearer today than it was yesterday.
That'd be my prophetic utterance to you today.
It's closer today than it was yesterday.
And the reason I can tell you this is in accordance to Luke 21, verse 25 says,
there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon.
We had one of them last week. Amen.
So there's going to be distress over the face of the earth. Right.
We're in the middle of that right now.
People are all torn up, all distressed about everything that's going on.
And in verse 28, he says, and when these things begin to come to pass,
then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption is drawing nigh.
I'm not going to attempt to set a date, but I will set a time when he's good and ready.
Hallelujah.
When the fullness of time comes to pass for his return as it did in his coming to begin with,
then it will happen.
Just be rest assured and not only be rest assured, but be prepared for you know,
for you know not the day nor the hour when the son of man come.
You don't know when he's coming, but he is coming.
He's coming like a thief in the night.
He's going to come and carry us away.
Hallelujah. And I'm going to be ready.
I'm going to be. I said, I'm going to be ready.
I am watching and eternally watching because I know that could be the very day in which we are living.
We are in those end times.
We are in that descriptive of Luke 21 and Matthew 24 with wars and rumors of wars.
I don't know that we're hardly just there yet to fulfill all of the Psalm 83
because Jordan will be one of those that rise up against them.
But yesterday, Jordan was on defense mode.
They were taking out drones and missiles as they were coming over.
So we aren't hardly there yet. Egypt was on their side.
Egypt was in defense of Israel.
So I think we got this a little bit more time.
It could be tomorrow though.
It could be by the setting of this evening, son, the Lord could come.
We must be ready.
We must be on our toes.
So when we stop to think, some scholars actually believe the next great sequence of events
to usher us on into the end times and the soon return of the Lord would be found in Ezekiel 37 through 39
when Gog and Magog make a coalition and they rise up and come up against.
I don't know if you've been watching the news.
Sometimes it's awful depressing and I don't like to watch a whole lot of it.
I don't even like watching the weather anymore.
You can't even count on that.
But I've got something right here as an antidote for that.
I think it's going to help you if we are looking for that last time event to really begin to usher.
I think Iran and Russia has been in conversation and diplomatic conversation more than they ever have.
So I think things are aligning and the pieces of the puzzle are at least coming out of the box
and the picture's been turned over.
And I think the world is looking for the corner pieces.
You know what I'm talking about?
You jigsaws, you look for the corners.
And if you can get the corners and then you get the parameter to all the way around, then you feel in the middle.
Well, I think we've got the parameters put together and we're waiting for the middle to come into pass.
Jesus' coming was the last corner piece to put it all together.
He is the head and the cornerstone.
He's the one that the builders rejected.
And so the parameters and the frame is made.
And there are more pieces coming together than there ever has been in our time of living.
The time could be near.
It is near.
The time for the Lord's return in the coming.
We've got to be watchful.
We've got to be ready.
Watch the news.
But I think there's some other things we can do.
Is Israel the forecast for the future?
Are they the forecasting instrument for and of the end of time?
Here's another forecast instrument.
A tourist traveling through West Texas stopped at a gas station, an old mom and pop gas station,
one with a porch on it.
How many remember those days?
We're telling on ourselves now.
But what he observes is a piece of rope hanging off the porch.
He said, hey, what's that rope?
There's a sign there that said weather forecasting.
So he asked the man sitting in the chair on the porch, what's that supposed to mean?
He said, well, if it's swaying side to side, it's windy.
He said if water is dripping from it, it's raining.
He said if it's froze still, if it's cold.
He said if it's gone, it was a tornado.
I think instead of watching so much about Israel, we need to be paying more attention to the church.
I think the church is the forecaster for the full force of end time events.
As long as you see the church here, I think you're good.
The wind may be blowing, huh?
It may be swinging.
We may be dripping soaking wet or we may be froze still.
But as long as we still here, there's hope for the world.
My God, I said there's hope for the world.
The forecasting indicator for the world is the church of the living God.
They are the people of God engrafted.
We've been bought in.
We've been brought in.
And the price has been paid.
The precious blood has been poured out.
So what I'm keeping my eye on is the church.
And by virtue of the church, I'm keeping one eye toward the eastern clouds.
And I'm keeping one ear open, listening for the trumpeter to sound that I may hear the shout of that archangel saying,
Come up hither, come up hither.
That's the forecaster for end time events.
And when the church is out, then all holes are off.
But we can read the times.
Israel is a forecasting agent for the end of the age.
But keep your eye on the church.
Better yet, as long as you stay in it, you're going to be all right.
Remain in the arc of the safety of his redemptive work through his blood.
What does that mean?
Stay sin free and you're going to be good to go.
We'll just get simple with it.
We'll just explain it.
As a believer, you and I, we find ourselves searching and scratching our heads from time to time.
And much perplexed by the anti-Christian decisions that our nation makes.
And it seems like I've just woken up and our nation just seems to have took a hard left.
It just seemed I don't know if I've not been paying as close attention as I should have.
But I scratch my head and I do ponder sometimes at how in the world could we be this far away from God's idea
and plan of what life is supposed to be about.
And when people of our nation march for the right to murder, hello, innocent blood.
And they march for it and get violent about it, about the right to do it and commit it.
I just go, really?
And then we march and we protest for the right to allow children to mutilate themselves.
They got a right. Mine did.
They had a right to do what I told them to and that's about it.
They had a right, all right.
And they better have been careful of how they done that.
But our nation, that's how far away we're getting.
Marriage, next thing you know, it's going to be people and dogs and animals.
Hello, don't think it's strange. It'll happen.
Multi-millionaires are already leaving their wealth to cats and dogs.
You have to get your head out saying, read something every now and then, you'll see it's going on.
And so I am remained and left behind somewhat perplexed.
Pardon me, but for the stupidity of our nation, it can't be ignorance because surely they know better.
You know, I've got a little leeway for ignorance.
You can be taught, but you can't fix stupid.
You know, for you visitors, hopefully you'll make it back next week.
You know, this is about as straight as I'm just plain.
But that's the shape that we're in and we're eyeing the end of time.
And then the last day, Seth, God, there's going to be some things it takes over.
Men are going to be drawing away from God.
We're talking about the church now.
They're going to be heaping to themselves, having tingling, itching ears.
Somebody that will come in and tell them the way they want to live is quite all right.
As long as you're not offending anybody, well, forget the offending,
as long as you're not affecting or bothering anybody, you do whatever you want to.
And God's a great big God of love.
And we're all going to make it at the end and that all roads lead to heaven.
That's not what you're going to hear from me.
There's one way to heaven.
There is only one way to heaven and all roads don't leave there.
Jesus declared, I am the way, the truth and the life.
And no man come to the Father but by me.
Our God is holy and without holiness no man shall see God.
There's a criteria to this thing.
There's a way to live it.
There's a way to live it out.
And it's not to your heart's pleasure because the heart of all members is evil.
We all right?
The all out assault on moral Christian values, I never thought I'd see the day.
It's hard to understand that so many cannot and will refuse to see the blessings
that we have and that we've been afforded because of the alignment of the standards
of faith and morality and the practice of Judeo-Christian actions in our laws.
All of the founding fathers were not Christians, by the way,
but they understood to have a society it had to be based upon the morality
and the teaching and the laws and the work of God's Word.
So it was woven into the framework of the documents that we have governing our nation.
But as man's heart grows continually more evil, they are drawn away from those
statutes and principles and all they want to do is change them, change them,
change them, change them, change them.
Change them. Why?
Because when you see those things present it brings about a conviction in the heart
of even a sinful man.
You know why I've told you before why they raise so much cane to get Scripture
out of courthouses and to take the Ten Commandments off the wall because when
you're sitting there a criminal and you've committed murder and you're just
looking around the room waiting on your case to be called up and your attention
is drawn to the Ten Commandments and you see where God says,
thou shalt not kill.
When you've robbed your neighbor blind and you're looking around the room
waiting on your case to come up, you see the words thou shalt not steal.
And then you look up to the top, thou shalt love the Lord thy God and have
no other gods before you.
And then you read down toward the bottom and you see remember the seventh day
and keep it holy.
And if you were took to Sunday school when you were a young child and you're
sitting in a courtroom chained up and bound and you begin to read,
it causes a stirring in you because if you've ever been taught and if you ever
knew the way, you can't get away from it.
And it causes conviction to come into a human's heart and they are bowing down
and they don't want to see it.
Even unbelievers struggle to understand the condition of things.
As I mentioned two weeks ago, we live in a world who keep waiting on it to change.
One thing we cannot do is to lose our heart or begin to live without purpose,
principle or vision.
Just because you see the wickedness of the world rising up, you cannot live
without purpose.
You cannot have life without vision.
You have to see the purpose that God has for you in your life and own your life.
And I think if we'll look, just breathe, if you'll give me a few minutes,
and we'll look at the 29 Jeremiah here and we'll see some of those.
We'll begin to stop and think about how God is aligning things.
It was probably one of Israel's darkest moments.
God was still speaking in it though.
When you think about it, they have just been told God says the Babylon's coming
to carry you away.
They're going to take you away and you're going to be held and bound in
captivity.
And he told them why, because my prophets that are calling me being the one who
sent them, they are not.
They are lying to you.
They're misaligning you.
They're telling you everything is all right and everything's hunky-dory.
But that's not what I've said.
I've sent word to you that you need to turn around.
You need to turn back toward me.
You need to forsake your sin and follow and serve me.
But you wouldn't have it and they wouldn't bring it.
And he even told O'Bennie and I there, he said before the year is out, you will be
dead because you prophesied lies to my people.
And seven months later, he fell over dead because he wouldn't bring the word of the
Lord to the people of the Lord.
And here, I'm not going to be one of those.
I want to live out the year.
Hello?
I don't want to leave this world in seven months, but I'm going to tell us the
truth.
The Lord is calling his church to repentance.
The Lord is calling us to come near to him and draw nigh unto him because of his
faithfulness and goodness.
And I can hear a word like he sent to Jeremiah to tell his people.
Proverbs 4.18 says, But the path of the just is like the shining sun that shines
ever brighter unto the perfect day.
When we think about it, in the darkest day of Israel, God was still speaking to
them.
He was still prophesying and having his servants stand up.
He's still speaking to his church today.
He's not abandoning the church in an amoral society and in an amoral world.
He's still telling us he's God and he's still on the throne.
Amen.
He's still there and his word is still true and he's still promising to us in
the dark, dark reality.
Our light in our culture must shine through.
Your faith and your hope and your desire to know God and please God must be seen
in a community and people's lives who do not know God.
You and I are the demonstrators.
You and I are the examples that you can live a good life, a clean life, a moral
life, a righteous life and be blessed of God because he is moral, he is righteous,
he is holy and he is faithful.
And when they see that in our life and we're shining light in the darkness that
is around us, it instills hope in a people who have no hope.
Y'all right?
We're still good?
When we find ourselves in a place so unfamiliar and unrecognizable, we should
remind ourselves of the message the Lord spoke through the prophet Jeremiah in
our text.
The first thing we need to be reminded of is that we must be steadfast in prayer.
Look at verse 7.
He said, and seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried
away captive and pray to the Lord for it, for in its peace you will have peace.
We still have a responsibility to pray.
Amen.
God was letting them know.
He said, here's what I want you to do.
When they come and carry you away to Babylon, when you get there, you go ahead
and build houses, you go ahead and plant gardens, you go ahead and eat the fruit
of it, you go ahead and have your sons marry and your daughters marry and your
grandchildren to marry because you're going to be there for 70 long years.
But while you are there, you better not stop praying for the peace of Babylon.
Why?
Because, honey, you're living in Babylon.
We better not stop praying for America because we're living in Babylon.
Hey, are you hearing me?
We're living in a Sodom and Gomorrah of our day.
And the depravity of man and the perversion of sin that's on a rampant,
somebody better pray for this nation.
Why?
Because when this nation is in peace, that means you and I are in peace.
And that's what God was telling them.
You better pray for Babylon because as long as you are there, you'll want the
peace that's on their house to be on your house because what will happen is the
enemy will come through and not care one way or the other who you are.
They're just going to wreak havoc.
I'm telling you today, the enemy doesn't care who you are.
There's a lion out seeking to kill, steal, and destroy.
He's roaring on every side.
One thing I do know, God has given a word and he said, pray, pray, pray,
pray for their peace.
Somebody needs to start bending a knee and praying for the peace and the
prosperity again of God's good hand on this nation.
How do we pray, 2 Chronicles 7-14, if my people who are called by my name will
not be saved from themselves?
Seek my face, turn from their wicked ways, then and then only.
Oh, come on now.
It doesn't mean every person under the banner of that nation was saved.
It means that his people were sparing those people's lives.
God said, I will hear if my people.
He's looking for his people to bow down in the street and lift up his name.
He's looking for his people to bow down and lift up his name so that they be
empowered with the light and the love of truth that they may invade the
rainbow brigade and preach the good news of Jesus Christ and the saving
grace of God Almighty.
Hallelujah.
It wasn't that Babylon was going to acquire the peace of God.
It was only that if God's people prayed, then by virtue of their presence, oh,
my God, by virtue of their presence, then Babylon would be blessed.
Can I tell you somebody close to you is being blessed because of your prayer
and because of God's favor on your life?
So don't quit now.
Don't give up now.
But they're heathens.
But it's his grace.
It's able.
And if you keep getting that grace on your life, that grace is going to spread
over their life.
And who knows the day that they bow a subjected knee to the wonderful grace of
redemption?
Hallelujah.
Seek the peace of that city.
We're steadfast in prayer.
We have responsibility to pray.
See, I get double time to preach today.
I didn't get to last week.
In light of current events, there's no other option for the church but to pray.
And with that note, mark your calendars the month of May.
Every Thursday evening from 7 to 830, right here in this sanctuary, we're
going to have an hour and a half of prayer right here.
You say, did that just come up?
No, it actually came up when the Holy Ghost fell in this place on Wednesday
night.
Hallelujah.
And the Lord stirred our heart.
We are living in and we are functioning from and enjoying the blessings that we
are because of a couple years ago of a labor of prayer that happened on
Thursday mornings.
I know some of you got to go to work, so we're making it in the evening so
you can get home, get refreshed, get your mind set right, and make your way in
and pray.
I don't care if you come in and pray for five minutes, ten minutes, or two
hours.
The doors are locked when you leave.
But we have an obligation to pray.
We need to intercede for our nation.
You do realize, thankfully, on my part and opinion, you have yours, but
thankfully, the U.S. was part of that defense coalition defending Israel
yesterday.
Hallelujah.
Intercepting dozens of missiles and those drones that were coming in on
attack.
Thankfully, we were there in support.
And you do know what could stem from that, right?
The heathen is going to rage.
Are you hearing me?
So we have to pray.
We have to engage in God's grace and have supplication for his mercy upon
our nation.
We've got to pray.
Psalm 122 and 6 says pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
They shall prosper that love thee.
Hebrews 1025, for us, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as
the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much more as you see
the day approaching.
Time for laying out a church and laying out a worship is not now.
Not as we see if we're talking and what we're discussing is forecasting the
end.
We don't have time for that.
It's forecasting the end.
We don't have time to mess around.
You don't have time to dilly-dally.
You don't have time to be in and out and in and out and in and out of God's
grace.
I can understand a little up and down in life because I have them myself, but
we can't have the in and out.
Serving God today, sinning tomorrow, serving God next Sunday, sinning on
Wednesday through Saturday, trying to get back in on Sunday.
You can't have an in and out relationship with God.
It's okay because when you're down, he'll lift you up.
Hallelujah.
Amen.
But thank God while you're out, he'll never allow his grace to escape you,
but he'll always be seeking you to bring you back in.
We can have our ups and downs, but not our in and outs.
Whoo.
The nation of Israel would eventually be restored back to their home because
God said that's what he was going to do.
I'll bring you back to this place.
Seventy years in verse 10, when this is over, God said, I'll pay heed to my
people.
He said, I'll visit you with my good word.
Isn't that wonderful?
I'll visit you with my good word.
His blessings.
I got hung up in reading, these things flushed through my mind when we read
verse 6 in our reading this morning.
He said that you may be increased there and not diminished because he's already
sent his good word.
He said, go and you're going to prosper while you're there.
Plant, if God said you're going to reap in the garden that you're to sow, that
means God's going to bless the garden that you till the ground of and you plant
and you sow.
He said, if you're going to eat the fruit of it, that means God's going to
bless it.
He's already given him a good word.
He said, you'll not diminish there, but you will flourish there.
Somebody needs to hear that this morning where you are, the condition and the
situation where you are.
You may feel like you've been taken captive, but you've not forsaken God.
God says to you this morning, hang on.
He's going to perform and visit you and his good word is coming your way.
If he's made a good promise to you, God is going to fulfill that.
He said, I'll not see you diminish, but I'll see you flourish there.
My good word, Jeremiah 24, 5 and 6, the word of the Lord came to me saying,
thus says the Lord God of Israel, like these good figs, so will I acknowledge
those who were carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this
place for their own good into the land of the Chaldeans, for I will set my eyes
on them for good.
Are you hearing this?
I will set my eyes on them for good and I will bring them back to this land and
I will build them and not pull them down and I will plant them and not plug them
up.
It doesn't matter how many rise up against them or how it looks like they
may be destroyed or defeated.
God said, it will not happen on my watch.
And if God has said it, rest assured everyone else will fail, but his word will
stand.
Why, pastor?
Because God is not a man that he should lie.
Everything that he says is true and will be.
Still got a few more minutes?
God has limits set for the triumph of evil.
What does that mean?
God's got a line drawn and the devil can't cross it.
How do we know so?
Look at what happened in the life of Job.
He was a wise man.
He was a righteous man.
He was a wealthy man.
He was a man blessed of God, right?
And he's in staff meeting in heaven and the devil shows up.
And God says to the devil, don't get this one wrong, it wasn't the devil said to
God.
God said to the devil, have you considered my servant Job?
Now, I don't know about you, but that's not a line I won't get in.
What are you saying?
Let the teacher's pet get that.
I've never been one, so let the teacher's pet get called out for that.
How would you like the devil to say, Satan, have you considered Fred lately my servant?
I say, Lord, I didn't have my hand up.
I'm sure Job didn't have his hand up either.
But God knew Job and he knew the favor that he had on Job's life and he knew that Job
wasn't going to let him down.
Oh, he griped and belly ached like the rest of us.
He did.
Go read it.
But he didn't give up.
In all the things that come against him, he didn't turn on God.
Didn't say he didn't have trouble.
Have you considered?
Sometimes we're brought into consideration of God.
God has confidence in our confidence in him because he is confident in himself.
God knew all along it wasn't about Job, it was just about Job believing in him.
And when the enemy come up, he said, here's as far as you can go.
Take everything the man owns.
But if you lay a finger on him, huh?
Sometimes we're so caught up in the things that we own, we forget in whom's possession we are.
Job didn't forget it.
He said the Lord gives and the Lord takes away.
But blessed be the name of the Lord.
Can you say that?
It's another thing to say it when they've got a truckload of wheels coming after your house.
Huh?
They coming to get that thing.
They can have it.
My hopes not tied up in a double wide anyway.
Hello?
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Let them have it.
30 years ago.
Let them have it.
Thank God they didn't have to come and get it.
I sold it to my uncle.
Right before they took ownership.
Hello?
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Can you say it then?
Can you declare it then?
Can you say it when a child is bleeding out?
Can you bless the name of the Lord?
Can you say it when they call and say, paralyzed from the middle of the chest down?
Can you praise him anyway?
Can you glorify him in the tribulation?
I hope that we can because God is faithful through every tribulation and every trial.
He said, I'll not have you diminished up, but I will cause you to flourish.
It doesn't mean you're going to have more money than you know what to do with,
but it means he's going to touch your faith.
He's going to lift you up.
And in the midst of every trial, you'll not be diminished, but elevated.
Well, hallelujah.
What do you do when it seems like the end is near?
You pray.
You have faith in God.
You live in hope.
I'm going to skip toward the end here.
Verse 11, Chapter 29 is one of our favorites.
It's one of those tongue in cheeks, for I know the plans that I have for you, saith God.
Not a rude ending, but a future and a hope for your future.
That's after he just told them in verse 10, you're going to be there 70 years.
See, when you pull that verse out and you just quote it without knowing what surrounds it,
it's good and it's powerful, but when you know what surrounds it,
my Lord, it even grows in strength and power for our life.
You're going to be going over there for 70 years, but pray for their peace
because you'll be at peace.
And as long as you're there praying for peace, I'm going to be with you.
And I'm not going to leave you there.
I will come and get you and bring you home.
This world is not my home.
I'm only passing through.
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.
Build a house, stay awhile, plant a garden, but don't get used to it.
I'm coming to get you out.
Plant a garden, live in this old Babylon that we have a slice of.
Enjoy the freedoms that still remain that you have.
Worship Him in spirit and truth.
Forsake not this sinning of yourself together for you never know.
And we've already been tested to see that folks will stay home.
Trial run was a success.
We can shut the door of the church.
But I actually think if said circumstances were different than what they were,
I think there'd have been a few more open doors for myself.
And I can only speak for me and hope well because that's the only one I've been
giving charge over to lead.
Your health for those few weeks until they figured some things out was more important.
I think we had enough faith and enough of the Spirit of God to maintain us for a little while.
But when they just come out and say, because we said so, uh-uh.
No. All four of them out front will be open.
I'll be out there with the kids waving one of them signs, you're welcome here.
We're not doing that.
But those signs are nearing us.
We must be prepared so we live with hope.
Stand with me and I'll run through this.
God said, I know the thoughts that I have for you and expect it in, meaning a hopeful future.
The apathy of this world shouldn't take root in your heart.
Do not allow the apathy and the disdain for God and righteousness and things that are holy in this world
detour you from your hope and your faith in God.
Thus saith the Lord.
Jeremiah 31, refrain your voice from weeping.
Wow.
And your eyes from tears for your work shall be rewarded, says the Lord.
Your children shall come back from the land of the enemy.
There is hope in your future, says the Lord, that your children shall come back to their own border.
It's like what mama used to tell me, dry it up, son.
Especially if you were kind of whining and wanting something.
You got that.
You better dry it up before I give you something to cry for.
Words that are seldom used anymore.
Take it from your pastor, try them out.
And if they don't stop, implement and you'll see a world of good in your life and theirs.
I said, dry up those tears.
I told you I was coming to get you.
I'm not going to leave you there.
That ought to give a lot of us a lot of hope this morning.
Wherever you're feeling like you're being held captive, whatever the thing or situation or circumstance,
whatever crisis that may have you feeling like you're in prison, God said,
I'm not going to leave you in that mess.
Dry it up.
Hold back from weeping.
Try a little rejoicing.
It could be today that you get out of it.
It could be tomorrow.
But you're getting out.
How do you know, pastor, if he said it to you?
Take my word for it.
Take his.
He told his right, I'm not going to leave you there.
And if you read ahead, 70 years he went in there and got them.
Brought them out.
When he said no enemy is going to destroy them today, God means that.
That's exactly what he means.
We're going to be people of hope.
Hope of revival, hope of a restored nation, hope of our eternal home that we have awaiting us
because we're just passing through.
This world is not our home.
You're just passing through, child of God.
And he said he was going to come get us.
That's why we need to keep our eye on the church.
Two will be in the field working, one will be taking, one will be left behind.
Huh?
Two will be in bed sleeping, one will be taking, one will be left behind.
One will be behind the wheel driving, one will be in the seat riding.
One will be taking, one will be left behind.
It's the church we need to be watching.
Israel may be part of the forecasting system, but the church is where you better keep your eye.
He died for you.
So what we do, we move forward in faith.
That's what you do.
You move forward in hope, you move forward in prayer, and you move forward in faith.
I know.
Look at verse 12.
Then shall you call upon me and you shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you.
You shall seek me and you'll find me when you shall search for me with all your heart.
Can't do this thing half-hearted, people.
Are you hearing me?
You can't do this half-hearted.
You don't get to heaven half in and half out.
It's all or nothing.
I will be found of you, says the Lord, and I will turn away your captivity.
You hear it?
And I will gather you from all the nations, all the places where there I have driven you,
you say the Lord, and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.
May 14, 1948.
Jews came from all around the world home.
Well, that took an awful long time.
God doesn't work on mine your time.
He works on His Word.
And the man of eternity, you and I are not even a millisecond.
I heard 50, 60, 70, 80 years, whatever you got working for you.
Not even a blimp on the radar of time.
God works on His Word.
Remember, we've discussed it.
When the fullness of time came, God sent His Son into the world, right?
And when the fullness of that time comes again, He's going to send Him back in the clouds first.
And the dead in Christ are going to rise first.
They get to come up first.
And we which are alive and remain shall be changed.
And together.
They just got to stand there a second, wait on us.
You know, when your wife says, let me run in and change, I'll be just a minute.
Just sit down, turn on ES and PN.
Get you a baloney sandwich.
You got a few minutes.
And when the fullness of time comes, she'll come out ready and you'll be grateful.
When the fullness of time comes and He calls us to Himself, my, won't we be grateful?
What do you do when it looks like the end is near?
You pray, you hope, and you keep on believing.
And as long as you have to stay where you are, go ahead and plant your garden.
Let's over at my house, you had to put it in a bucket until the last of May.
Ground's too wet.
I was told I put a building where the garden was supposed to win.
He'll not see you diminish, folks.
But He'll cause you to prosper where you are.
Heavenly Father, I love you today.