Amen. It's good to see you all here. Grace and peace to you and peace from God, our father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father, to whom be glory forever and ever, amen. It is an absolute honor to be back before you today. Just absolutely love Scott and Deborah and all of the church and family life community.

And just really, really glad to be here. Anybody ready to know God and do exploits? Amen, that was about half the room. We'll see if we can improve on that here in a moment. My assignment has been to observe the life and ministry of Jeremiah and preach about the many ways where Jeremiah learned more about the God that called him and the God that he served.

I frankly love the book of Jeremiah. He's my favorite prophet. I don't know if Scott knew that when he assigned it to me. And I find the book sadly understandable and fearfully relatable. And hopefully you'll see what I mean by that as we go forward.

But just quickly, his message cost him dearly. Some of you know how that feels. He prophesied during a time of great arrogance. Hello, Western world. He prophesied during a time of great rebellion.

Somebody say America. He prophesied during a time rife with false prophets, people declaring peace, peace when there is no peace. And he prophesied during a time where God had frankly made up his mind. Judah was going to be exiled, it was going to be essentially destroyed, and there was nothing that anybody can do about it, hence the fearfully relatable comment, I just wonder sometimes just where we are on God's clock as a nation, given our immorality and our idolatry. I also find the book of Jeremiah deeply personal.

You learn a lot about the man Jeremiah by reading what he wrote. I find it, although prophetic in tone, almost pastoral in the way that it feels in its emotion and in the heart of the book. And so I'd like to direct your attention to Jeremiah chapter one. We'll read the first five verses just to give some sense of this prophet and his call. And we might jump around a little bit to try to help us all understand how Jeremiah knew his God and what he learned about God and the circumstances thereof.

And so I would like to read for you Jeremiah chapter one. Please join me in the Bible and the first five verses. We'll pray, I'll just introduce things a little bit more and then we'll talk a bit about how we're going to, by God's grace, proceed. Here's Jeremiah chapter one in verse number one, reading from the King James version of the Holy Scriptures. And the words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah, in the thirtieth, thirteenth rather, year of his reign.

It came also in the days of Jehiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month. Then the word of the Lord came unto me saying before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you so much for first of all, your amazing grace towards us and sending your son Jesus to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. We were lost and you found us and we're so grateful.

We thank you for the abiding presence of the spirit of the living God who empowers us and teaches us and anoints us for your service. We pray, Father, now that you would do that, which only you could do, to take the words and the thoughts and the comments of a sinful man and communicate them perfectly by your spirit to your people, that you would cause their ears to be open to thy word, their eyes to see what you want them to see, their hearts to burn like fire because they've heard from you. We need you more than ever before. We admit that we're poor and needy, and we pray, Lord, that you'd help us through this message know you better and Indeed have the word so powerful in us that it burns like fire We love you so much and we give you praise and all of God's people said Amen, So my goal today is to encourage you, quite frankly. I've called this message 10 Ways Jeremiah Grew in His Knowledge of God, and my heart is to give you those 10 ways with a couple of applications.

Those of you who are a little younger, if you pull out your Knowing God coloring book, I want to give you 10 words on each point that you might be able to catch and just kind of jot down and maybe talk about with your parents a little later. So make sure you if you have that or any piece of paper, get that out. But my goal is to encourage you today with 10 events or 10 situations in the life of the prophet Jeremiah whereby he came to know his God. All of these instances required immense faith from Jeremiah, immense trust in the Lord from Jeremiah, and most of them required a very high price of a personal cost from Jeremiah as well. Prayerfully, you will be encouraged to hold fast to God's word when we're all done and do what the Lord commands no matter what it costs you as you grow in your knowledge and your confidence in the sovereign God of the Bible.

Now this book, Jeremiah was written by Jeremiah with likely the assistance of his assistant, scribe Baruch. Jeremiah was from a town called Anathoth. Anathoth was a small town just a few miles northeast of Jerusalem. And before he was summoned by God for prophetic service, Jeremiah grew up in a preacher's house. He grew up the son of a priest.

His father's name was Hilkiah. The book of Jeremiah's main focus was to prophesy the God-impending judgment upon apostate Judah. This judgment was to come in the form of invading Babylonians who would destroy Jerusalem and carry Judah away captive. Jeremiah was to proclaim this message of doom and gloom, at least that's how they viewed him, despite the words of the other contemporary prophets of the day, not all of them, certainly, but the ones who were Jeremiah's enemies, who prophesied again peace, peace, when there was to be no peace, Jeremiah 6 and 14. We can read of Jeremiah's growth in his knowledge of God during his ministry.

Many believing that ministry spanned some five decades from the late 620s BC to the 580s BC or so. And so quite a long time. And In the interest of time, again, I've identified what I believe are 10 areas where in Jeremiah learned much of the God that he served. Jeremiah grew in his knowledge of God through, again, 10 areas. The first is his priestly upbringing, his priestly upbringing.

The second, his prophetic call. He learned about God through his calling. The third, his boldness in preaching. He learned something about the God that he served as he preached what God gave him to preach. The fourth, his earthly sacrifices.

We'll talk about what it cost him. Fifth, his very unpopular message, very unpopular message that many of the leaders of the day absolutely detested every word that came out of Jeremiah's mouth. His, and some of you pastors, you can say amen right there. You get that. His, number six, his conflict with priests and prophets.

Number seven, his rejection by Judah's leaders. Number eight, his weariness in his mission. Number nine, his anguish and tears over his people. And then I believe he learned a little bit of something about God by his eventual vindication. And so that's a lot.

And so we're gonna move as fast as we can, but is this book, some 52 chapters, quite expansive, covers a long period of time, and we'll do our best to give you some highlights. But as you can see, this man's ministry was very difficult. Almost everything I mentioned, except for just a couple of points where we're arduous and tough on Jeremiah. He's called the weeping prophet for a reason. And so in this process of declaring a very unpopular message to a people that did not want to hear, Jeremiah learned a lot about the God that he served.

And so, as I said, each point will have a couple of applications where hopefully we can take something home, grab a hold of it, and use it to learn more about God for ourselves. Now the first point is his priestly upbringing. His priestly upbringing. As Hilkiah's son, Jeremiah undoubtedly learned much about the God of Israel by watching and learning from his father. He would have been familiar as a priest's son with Genesis and the creation of all things.

He would have been familiar with Genesis 3, the fall of man. He would have been familiar with Genesis 6, at the flood, and the Tower of Babel, and the calling of Abraham, and the raising up of Isaac and Jacob. He would have been familiar with Israel's Exodus from Egypt. He would have known growing up in a priest's house, he would have known about the law of God. He would have been familiar not only with the Ten Commandments but more expansively the different codes of the law of God.

He would have known about the temple, its various sections and and furniture since it was the hub around which all Israeli life depended and revolved. He would have known about the daily sacrifices and the various animals. He would have understood about the priestly garments and the materials that were made of, and how they were put on, and all of those things, and the turban that the high priest wore, and the breastplate, and on top of the hat there, the holiness to the Lord, he would've got that. He would've heard those sermons, and heard his father dealing with those things. He would've understood the Ark of the Covenant, and what was inside, and how it was constructed and what the mercy seat was and what the cherubim were.

And he would have had, my point is, he would have had some sense of holiness of God just based on his upbringing. I'm extrapolating a little, but I think it's appropriate in this case because God called him. He would have known these things, and he would have had an appreciation for the holiness of God. Jeremiah would have likely been in training for the priesthood himself. Now, we don't know if he was, but just given how God lays things out, the priesthood going and staying in family lineages, it's quite possible that perhaps he had an idea one day that perhaps he would be in that local synagogue, or he would take his turn at the temple, or he might be able to one day handle the holy garments or handle different sacrifices.

And it is amazing how sometimes, friends, when we have an idea of what we wanna do in life, and we sketched it out on our mental white boards, God has a way of turning those things upside down. Well, by way of application, as Jeremiah learned of the majesty of God, we too need an appreciation of the fearful holiness of God. One cannot read the extraordinary, intricate and detailed prescriptions of the life of worship in the Old Testament without being in awe of the purity and the wisdom and the splendor of Yahweh. From a New Testament perspective, how can one consider the sinless life, atoning death, and glorious resurrection of Jesus without considering the righteousness of God, his work satisfied on our behalf? One of the greatest weaknesses indeed of the modern church is a lack of reverent fear.

Let us all resolve then to serve God acceptively with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire." And So the first thing we get about Jeremiah, and again, we're extrapolating a bit, but he would have had some sense of the holiness of God just based on his upbringing. And for the young ones, the word there for number one is holy. You write that word in there. He's holy. We can't know God unless we understand that he is holy.

But as we look at Jeremiah chapter one, we move to point two, his prophetic call. Jeremiah was personally told by God in verse four that he was formed and known by God in the womb, that he was set apart to be a prophet unto the nations, despite his reluctance that we read about in verse number six where he says, Lord, don't, you can't call me, I'm just a child. In other words, Lord, I'm too young. Despite his reluctance, He was commanded by God to speak God's words as they were given in verse number seven and that the Lord Himself would be with him in verse number eight Jeremiah was called by God personally like all biblical prophets were They had to know the voice of God so they could speak forth the voice of God. And in Jeremiah's life experiences, God called him personally and would communicate with him personally.

He knew God, my point is, personally. Now, of course, God speaks to us today through his word and by his spirit. And, you know, we're not saying that you're going to hear audible voices, but everybody in this room has heard the voice of God as the Bible has come back to your mind again and again and again with the Spirit of God bringing back to your remembrance those things that you needed to know. You've been called by God yourself. You know the personal God yourself.

You've been called by him to do something. Everybody in the room, if you're a believer, has been called by God for a unique and precious purpose. Jeremiah got that. He understood that he, like us, had some fears and some trepidations, but he understood his prophetic call, and God made it extremely clear for him. The Lord gave wonderful promises of protection and power to Jeremiah.

In Jeremiah 1 and verse 8, he says, Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth and the Lord said unto me behold I have put my words in thy mouth see I have this day set thee over nations and over kingdoms to root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down and to build and to plant. He gave him a very difficult assignment not just to build up but to pull down, not just to plant but to root out. And he told him, I'll be with you to deliver thee. And he put forth his hand and he touched his mouth.

And if you read a little further in chapter one, we read images of an almond tree in a boiling pot. The Lord instructed Jeremiah through these things. One commentator said the almond tree is a first sign of spring, and it indicated the nearness of the fulfillment of God's word. And the boiling pot facing away from the north was Babylon, ready to boil over unto Judah because the people forsook God for idolatry. But I find it interesting that Jeremiah said, I'm too young, I can't do this.

And I wonder sometimes what excuse we're giving God when God's calling us. How many of you are being called by God right now to be a greater light in your community? How many of you are being called by God? You've read his word, you were studying the great commission, or you're studying the life of the apostle Paul, or whatever, and you got a sense as you were reading the scriptures that God wanted you to be a better son or a better daughter or to share the gospel in your sphere, in your community. And I wonder if you, like Jeremiah, have an excuse at the ready, Oh, I'm too young.

I can't do this, Lord. Maybe you need to skip me and give this call to somebody else. But Jeremiah learned about the God that he served because the God that he served called him personally. Well, beloved, what do you think happened to you when you repented and believed it wasn't because you chose God, it was because he chose you. And so by way of application, when God calls us, guess what he does?

Praise God, He strengthens us for the task. He equips us and teaches us. He has promised to help us and He has promised to guide us. And so I say to some of you in this room today, who you said there's something beginning to burn in you for a nation or for a tribe or for a tongue somewhere around the world or perhaps in your own community or perhaps you're one of those ones that Scott was talking about that wants to take the mantle one of these days of church and family life and continue to push forward this efficiency of scripture or you're not too young to begin to know the God that called you and begin to allow the Lord to prepare you just like he told Jeremiah he would be with him guess what he'll be with you too so when God calls us he he strengthens us for the task he equips us and teaches us he has promised to help us he has promised to guide us Jesus said the comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I've said unto you and that same comforter lives in us hallelujah he is our earnest and he is our seal he is our sanctifier and the anointing who teaches us and so young ones if you're writing I want you to write the word mission because guess what?

If God hadn't already, God's going to give you one. And there's nothing worse than an aimless Christian life. Say amen if you can. Amen. So number three, Jeremiah learned about the God that he served through the boldness of his preaching, through the message that he was given to communicate.

As chapter one begins to close, here's what we read. Jeremiah one and 17. Thou therefore gird up thy loins and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee. Be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them. For behold, I have made thee this day a defensed city, an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.

And they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee, for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee. Jeremiah learned something about the God that he served. He learned that he could trust him. Jeremiah would need great courage to do what God had called him to do. Now again, here's a little boy from from Anathoth, and we think Jeremiah was reasonably young when he was called, given the breadth of his ministry, the length of his ministry.

He may have been 20 years old, or in his early 20s or late teens. And so here's this young man who's given this great call by God, and he didn't say, go tell everybody that everything's gonna be okay, and give them four steps to blessing and three steps to get you a new Lexus. No, he said, I want you to prophesy against everybody. Right, I'm gonna send you up to kings, and I'm gonna send you in places that others wouldn't dare speak. I'm going to send you in there and I'm not going to send you in there with an affirming message.

I'm not going to send you in there with a message that they want to hear, but I'm going to make you an iron pillar. I'm going to send you in there and I'm going to tell them that judgment is coming upon them because of their iniquity and because of their sinfulness and their wickedness and their rebellion against me. It would require tremendous courage. I'm imagining Jeremiah going, well, can I just take my dad's job one day when he's done? Can I just do that or wouldn't it be a lot safer?

There's that word again. Wouldn't it be a lot safer to just kind of take up pastoral residence, you know, at the local synagogue or take my turn? You know, if they're allowing anaphoth priests again to go into the temple, maybe I can just take my turn and I'll kill a bull or something or I'll, you know, I'll clean up the altar and go home. No, no, no, no, no, Jeremiah, that maybe that's what you were thinking that was going to happen, but I've given you something else I want you to do and it's going to require great courage. Jeremiah's message was one of impending judgment and was commanded to be preached to the big, to the small, to those of high stature and low estate.

You see, friends, God's mind was made up. Not only that, but God wanted his people to understand how he felt about their rebellion. As a result, some of the most visceral language in prophetic literature we find in the book of Jeremiah, perhaps topped only by Ezekiel. For example, Jeremiah says in Jeremiah chapter three and verses one and two, they say, if a man put away his wife and she go from him and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? Shall not that land be greatly polluted?

But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers." Now, that'll cause you to win friends and influence people. "'Yet return again to me, saith the Lord. Lift up thine eyes unto the high places and see what thou hast not been lain with.'" In other words, you've been with everybody in the ways that thou has sat for them as the Arabian in the wilderness and thou has polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness. Yeah, young man, go tell them that. Oh, yeah, it was required great courage, great courage.

Jeremiah 3 and 6 says, The Lord said also unto me in the days of Jeziah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? She hath gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot. Well, Jeremiah learned something about the God that he served. He grew in his knowledge of God by learning that God's truth must be preached regardless of the cost. His word is forever settled in heaven and will not return unto him void, but shall accomplish that which he pleases and it shall prosper in a thing where unto he sends it.

Let us be friends reminded of the same. Let us become more comfortable communicating uncomfortable truths. Say it again. Let us be more comfortable communicating uncomfortable truths. Not that we take it flippantly or arrogantly, but in the day in which we live where everyone in this room has probably prayed for revival and prayed for reformation, revival and reformation requires communicating uncomfortable truths.

Essentially, when you need reformation, you've gotten off track, and you have to come back to the Word of God. That is an uncomfortable place for someone to herald before you that what you're doing is wrong. Beloved, this is perhaps why our nation continues to languish in many of our churches as well, because courage, prophetic courage like Jeremiah had or some of the other prophets is needed now more than ever. We're so interested in not offending people that we offend God by our wickedness and our sinfulness, our unwillingness to communicate uncomfortable truths. And so let us also Be rightly motivated.

Just as judgment was coming to Judah, a worse one is coming to the whole world. We forget that the Lord is returning, that there is a day of judgment, and that so often the law of God has to break our hearts before the gospel of God heals them. The prophetic voice is most certainly needed. And so if you're writing a word right there, just write the word courage. Courage.

Jeremiah learned something of God as he had to walk in a level of courage beyond his years, beyond his station, as he was raised up as a prophet of God. Number four, his earthly sacrifices. Jeremiah learned of the God. He knew God at a higher level because, in a deeper level, because of his earthly sacrifice. What do you mean by that, Carlton, earthly sacrifices?

Because of his calling in the times in which he lived, which he lived, Jeremiah was not allowed to marry. Jeremiah had to possibly discontinue training for the priesthood. Can't be certain of that, but certainly we know this one for sure. He would not be able to marry, not be able to take a wife and family. Jeremiah chapter 16 verses one through four, the word of the Lord came unto me also saying, thou shalt not take thee a wife.

And I don't know about you, but again, this is, if I'm Jeremiah right now, I'm kinda going, Lord, are you, really? Okay, So, okay, so first of all, I'm happily here in Anathoth. My dad is a priest, things are going pretty good. You give me this very hard message. I'm just, no one's gonna wanna be around me and be my friend talking like this.

And now you're telling me I can't marry either? Well, the word of the Lord came also unto me saying, thou shalt not take thee a wife. That's pretty clear. Neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place for thus saith the Lord concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that were born in this place and concerning their mothers that bear them and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land. They shall die grievous deaths.

They shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried, but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth and they shall be consumed by the sword and the famine and their carcasses shall be meat for the fowls of heaven and for the beasts of the earth." And although the prohibition was a kindness, certainly because it would have been very difficult for any man to see his family go through such an arduous time because the Babylonians were in fact coming. And so not having his family suffer was the grace. His prophecies came with a price. His calling came with a cost. Here's what we can learn.

Jeremiah learned of the sustaining grace and the kindness of God, sparing him the pain of worry about a family doing God's judgment upon the land. But still, as a man. How might a wife and children comforted Jeremiah? How might his heart have been touched by walking in covenant with a godly wife and raising up godly seed? You see, friends, if we really do want to see things change, it's not going to be easy.

And it's going to come with a price. It's gonna come with a cost. And I know from experience that I've been in situations where I knew what to do, but doing that thing would cost me dearly, possibly friends, maybe money, possibly members in my church, saying the things that need to be said when we find ourselves out of alignment with the word of God, doing the things that need to be done to fulfill the will of God, sounds great and makes great amen material, but often come with a price. Jeremiah would not only have a very unpopular message wherein he'd have to lean heavily on the God that called him because everybody would hate everything that he had to say. And we'll talk more about that here in a few.

But he couldn't even take a wife. God said, no, son, not you, not you. They'll die here. And it was a kindness and it was a grace, but put yourself in Jeremiah's position. What was better for a Jew in this time, and indeed all of God's people, than family and marriage and children?

Well, no, not for you, Jeremiah. Bible tells us in Luke 14 and 28 that we too must count the cost when we say yes to Jesus. Indeed, so many come to Jesus or come to Jesus because someone told them coming to Jesus will make everything better. Well, what Bible are they reading? And have you read just a little bit of church history?

No, not at all. Not at all. And so that's why when pragmatism becomes our God, we produce many false converts. When you tickle, you have to tickle people's ears to come to Jesus instead of the hard truths of scripture, we come to Jesus because we have been made aware of our sin before our holy God. And that it breaks us and we crumble under the weight of it and we flee to the cross for forgiveness That's why we come to Jesus But there's so many people saying you come to Jesus and you make all your dreams come true And this is this is a Bible and it's about you It's about you know Bibles about God Amen and But that's a very unpopular message these days.

Well, Jeremiah learned about the sustaining grace of God. He may not have a wife, and he may not be able to have children, but he had God. He had God. Number five, his very unpopular message, his very own. Oh, and by the way, the word for number four was sacrifice children.

If you're following along, write the word sacrifice. Write the word sacrifice. Number five is very unpopular message. Now, Jeremiah was not only sent to Judah to rebuke their sin but also to declare God's judgment. His message was essentially this.

Now, how's this for your marketing campaign? There is nothing you can do kings of Judah and Populace of Judah God is giving you over to the king of Babylon. It doesn't matter what you do you can you can have a revival tent meeting not gonna work you can you can go to you know sackcloth and ashes right now still not going to work here's the only thing that you can do submit to them submit to the invaders and live that's your option Your other option is to resist them and die. But either way, you know, either way, Babylon is going to fulfill God's commands to judge his own people. That was his message.

Submit to the king of Babylon and live, resist him and die. Jeremiah 27 and 12 says, I spake also to Zedekiah, king of Judah, according to all these words, saying bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon. What king wants to hear that kind of language? That's right, king. Bow your head under the yoke of another king.

That's the only way you survive this. God is serious. The prophetic clock has run out. The sins of Manasseh have piled too high. There's been too much immorality.

There's been too much adultery. There's been too much wickedness and too much rebellion. I'm done. Babylon is coming. This is your only option.

Now bear in mind there are prophets in other places. I wish we had more time, but there are prophets in other places coming to the leaders and the governors saying, no, no, no, Jeremiah, he's a little weird there. He's a one-off. Don't believe him. Everything is going to be okay.

Everything is going to be all right. You know, let's go to the barbecue, it's all good. It's gonna be great, it's gonna be great, I mean yeah they're rumming over there, but it's gonna be great. That might happen to other lands and other people, but that's not gonna happen to us. Anybody seeing any of us in this?

You know, that's happening in their schools, not ours. That's happening in their county, not ours. That's happening in their churches, not ours. Well, that was Jeremiah's message. Submit your neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him and live.

And so by way of application, Jeremiah learned to trust God despite the immense unpopularity of his message. This message was absolutely despised. And we'll get into that a little bit more as we go. But it brought him a lot of pain. Nevertheless, he obeyed in faith, and listen to this now, he said it just like God gave him to say it.

I'm probably not the only one that has, you know, thought he knew better than God a time or two and tried to soften God's message at times because maybe it might be perceived as too harsh. But the truth of the matter is, I don't have the authority to do that. God said what he said, and our job is to submit. Well, that was Jeremiah's role, to be that iron pillar, to be that strong and hard place upon which kings would break and God's word would go forward. Much of what our nation and church needs to hear right now is extraordinarily unpopular.

Now, maybe not to the folks in this room, we probably love what we know what we're reading and saying and doing. But who wants to who wants their family to reform according to the word of God? You know, who wants to you know who who wants to go through, you know, talking about the wider culture? How unpopular is it to rail a bit against the evil that we're seeing in the school systems or to stand against the very popular transgenderism right now where it's just exploding in our young communities primarily because people see other people doing it and it looks pretty cool. It's become cool to us.

Or it goes on and on. And so the message that we need to hear right now, repent and turn again to the Holy Scriptures, is an extremely unpopular message, but reformation can only come by doing these things and returning, as we read about in Jeremiah, to the old paths. The cultural idols of health, wealth, and success have shown their inability not only to save, but also to satisfy. It just leaves us thirsty and lost. Nevertheless, it's still a very unpopular message.

Despite the opposition, however, we must proclaim the straight gate and the narrow road to life. There is only one way to the Father and that is but by Jesus Christ. There's only one name on heaven whereby men must be saved and God in his great providence and care for us has given us prescriptions for all the important parts of life indeed all of life Including family and church and there's no way forward because you know just to use the example if we don't Submit our necks right to to God's word and be yoked therein, that is to say, be guided by and pulled along by the Spirit of God and the Holy Scriptures, then it'll look like a bomb went off in our communities. It'll look like we've been invaded by the Babylonians and believe Him. And, brethren and sisters, isn't that what has actually happened to us?

Our communities are in shambles. Our churches look like amusement parks. Our children are growing up with no fear of God. Our marriages are not only egalitarian, but a nightmare where husband and wife aren't happy. That's what's happened.

And we need the courage of a Jeremiah to go in and say, okay, here's what the Lord has actually said and leave the results up to God. And so if you're riding along with me, young ones, write the word speak in there with an exclamation point. When God, whatever God has said in his word, that's what we say. And we don't back off of it and we don't mitigate it and we don't try to fix it. Right.

It doesn't need to be fixed. It is the word of God. Number six, his conflict with priests and prophets, The spiritual leaders of the day proclaimed the exact opposite of Jeremiah's preaching, and God was not amused. In Jeremiah chapter 8, we read this in verse 10, therefore, I will give their wives unto others and their fields to them that inherit them for everyone from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness from the prophet, even unto the priest. Everyone dealeth falsely, for they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly or lightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace." Jeremiah said of such prophets in Jeremiah 27 and 15 he said for I have not or the Lord has said for I have not sent them sayeth the Lord for they they prophesy a lie in my name that I might drive you out and that ye might perish, ye and the prophets that prophesy against you." Friends, it's actually a judgment when people listen more to the false than to the true.

Right? It is a deadening of our spiritual eyes and ears. It's a judgment when it falls upon a nation, it falls upon a people where they are more excited about what is clearly not true than they are about what's true. The Lord said, I'm going to allow you to listen to them. I'm going to cause you to listen to these false prophets that I might drive you out and that ye might perish.

We read in Jeremiah 27 and 17, hearken not unto them, he's still trying, serve the king of Babylon and live. He said, I know you don't like what I'm saying, that Babylon is gonna come, that Judah is leaving the land, that there's gonna be destruction, there's gonna be doom, right? It was, he's perceived as this doomsaying prophet, but doom was actually coming, It really was coming. And so I know you don't like what I'm saying, but nevertheless, submit to the king and at least you'll live. At least you'll keep on living.

You'll be in a different place, but at least you'll keep on living. No, no, no. The false prophets, they didn't want to hear that. They didn't want to disrupt the status quo, nor lose influence with those who are over them, the kings and the governors and so forth, the other officials. No, no, no, no.

You keep on doing what you're doing. Everything's going to be okay. It's going to be peaceful. It's going to be kind. It's going to be great.

Everybody's going to get along. We're going to do okay. And there are people doing that now. There are people all around us now saying the same thing. We look at our financial system.

We look at our, you know, where we are morally and spiritually as a country, breaking literally from the inside where the good has been called evil, evil has been called good. And We're applauding the evil and the wicked, and we're booing now the holy and the pure. And there are people even in the church who are rolling over because it's popular, because who wants conflict, and who wants to lose Twitter followers and Facebook friends? And money, that's another story. But applications, false teaching abounds in our day as well.

Abounds in our day. Many have chosen to affirm sin and transgression and given false assurances that these things are okay. But friends, they are certainly not okay. Jeremiah learned how susceptible people are to falsehood and the power of human desire for peace and safety. He learned that God will not be mocked, that judgment will eventually come, and that God nevertheless loves enough to send his word even unto a stiff necked people.

We must be careful what we speak, and there's your word, young ones, teens, young adults, there's your word if you're not taking other notes, speak, was the previous word, here's your word for you, conflict. We must be careful what we speak. We must do it God's way, even if it brings us into, here's the word again, conflict. God holds us, leaders in particular, but he holds his people accountable. We must hold fast to the truth.

And so yeah, there was a lot more I could say there with priests and prophets, but again in the interest of time, this is a really big clock. I don't know who put that there, praise God. That bad boy is just a ticket, man. But there's, but there was Jeremiah, you know, with his assistant, you know, in the vast, vast, vast minority, And then there was a large group over here of prophets who were popular and who had the ear of the people and the king and so forth. And there were a small group of people who were listening to Jeremiah, and then an influential group of people who were listening to the false prophets.

And so as a result, number seven, Jeremiah was rejected quite a bit by Israel's, or by Judah's leaders. I'll give you a couple examples quickly. There was a man named Pashur, who was the chief governor of the house of the Lord. Scripture says in Jeremiah chapter 20, now, Pasher, the son of Emma, the priest who was also chief governor of the house of the Lord, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things. Then Pasher smote Jeremiah, the prophet.

That's King James language for he hit him. I mean, I don't know how he did it. Was it a jab, was it a cross? I don't know what he did, but he hit him. Or did he have someone else do it?

But he smote him, right? He put hands on him in some form. He put hands on God's man. He smote Jeremiah the prophet. Now again, let your mind go back.

Jeremiah's in an a thought. He's having a good old time. His dad is a preacher. Here comes God. God comes in.

This God that we want to know better. This God that we want to serve harder. This God that we want to love more deeply with the same God comes to Jeremiah and says, Hey, I give I'm giving you my word. Fast forward. All of a sudden he is saying the things that God has called him to say and leaders I mean this man was chief governor of the house of the Lord smoked Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stock so he goes from anaphoth possibly dreaming about a career in pastoral ministry to the stockade.

Can you imagine Jeremiah at this point like, Lord, what in the world? Really? But that's what happened to Jeremiah. He put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was in the house of the Lord. Now we keep reading in Jeremiah 20 and we find the next day, the pastor called for Jeremiah.

He released him from the stocks and Jeremiah begins to rebuke him prophetically and literally says, changes his name in the process and said, we're not going to call you pastor anymore. We're going to call you a name that literally means man of terror, because what God's gonna, or man who lives with terror, because what God's gonna do with you, he's gonna allow you to see your friends and family destroyed and carried away, and then you're gonna be carried away and taken on to Babylon, But that's just one example of the conflict. There was another one, if we go a little further in Jeremiah chapter 26, there was the famous rejection by the arrogant king Jehagim. The Lord had commanded Jeremiah to write down many of his prophecies on a scroll. This was done again by his assistant baruch and his assistant And jeremiah commanded baruch to read the scroll at the temple It while baruch was reading the scroll at the temple It was heard by government officials and the word got back to the king and he said king says well call this guy I want to hear what he has to say here And so Baruch goes before the king and it was read before the king and the king hated the words of Jeremiah so badly that as the words were being read, he took a knife and cut the words out and threw them into a fire.

And as he kept reading, I don't like this one. I don't like that one. And I don't like that one. Well, before we talk too bad about the king, and we probably can, you know, there's a whole lot of us that would love to cancel certain verses too. Amen, somebody.

All right, you know, I like this one, but I don't like that one. I love it when my husband's supposed to love me, I hate submitting to him. Always gets quiet there. Well, vice versa, right? I love submitting to my husband, but he refuses to love me.

I don't really like honoring my parents. I like it when they give me stuff, but I don't really like honoring my parents. You know, this whole thing of how worship ought to unfold, I really don't kind of like that. Can we just skip over chapters? You know, those chapters we don't like, Ephesians 5, 1 Corinthians 11, 1 Corinthians 14.

Amen, somebody at the Church and Family Life Conference. Amen! So, just cut them out, right? Erase them, do something with them. We don't like these things.

The Lord commanded that Jeremiah rewrite the scroll. No, it's not getting away that easy, King. So he rewrites the scroll, and in the same prophecy, and then he prophesies against the king, telling him that the king is gonna die for that kind of foolishness. And his son's rule will be short-lived as well. And they're gonna lack an heir on the throne.

And so there was a consequence for that kind of arrogance, that kind of presumption, that kind of rebellion. There was another example where Jeremiah probably, the most famous Jeremiah, lowered into a dungeon or lowered into a cistern because Pashas son Gedaliah and another guy really didn't like Jeremiah very much and accused him of harming the people with his words. They were trying to gear up for battle and harming the people. You say you're harming the people. What we're trying to get them motivated to fight Jeremiah's going.

You're not gonna You're not gonna win this fight. The Lord has already said you're not gonna win this fight. You can gear up and go against Babylon if you want to, but you're gonna lose. And so they know Jeremiah. He's harming the populace, and he's harming the soldiers, and he's taking their morale down.

Can we kill him? Can we please just kill him? Yep, go ahead and kill him. Okay, first thing we're gonna do You're gonna we're gonna go lay hands on him and go lower him down to the cistern here It's not not water down there anymore It's just mud and filth and junk and dirt and so Jeremiah is put in ropes and lower down into the dungeon or lower down into the cistern and in a an Ethiopian eunuch had to come save Jeremiah going to the king behind their back and saying hey what they're doing to Jeremiah here is really Wrong, right? But so but that's just three quick examples.

His life was one of constant conflict. Why do we think knowing God better, knowing God better is going to make us more popular? Where does that come from? Now, we're not actively trying to go into conflict with people. We want to love everybody as well as we possibly can and give them Christ, you know, as often as we possibly can.

But your very existence, wanting to know the God of the Bible and wanted to follow his ways and his paths sets you at odds with the culture at large. It's just what it is, as Kevin Swanson said earlier, it's a battle. It's a battle every minute of it. It's a spiritual battle. It's two kinds of people in the world, the children of God and children of the devil.

If you're a child of God, you're in a fight. You're in a fight. And so if you're writing the word there is overcome because Jeremiah learned something about about God during this process even the midst of conflict Jeremiah learned that if God is for him who can be against him He said but the Lord who is with me is as a mighty terrible one. Therefore my persecutors shall stumble. They shall not prevail.

They shall be greatly ashamed for they shall not prosper. Their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten. Jeremiah 20 and 11. During moments of rejection for God's truth, let us remember too that ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Number eight, Jeremiah was very weary in his mission.

He learned something about God, even in his weariness. Without a doubt, one of the most famous verses in Jeremiah is found in chapter 20. After the conflict that I mentioned with Pashor, who sent for him from the stockade, Jeremiah said these words, "'O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived. "'Thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed. "'I am in derision daily, everyone mocketh me, "'for since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence, "'and spoil because of the word of the Lord.

I was made a reproach and in a derision daily. Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak anymore in his name. Jeremiah said, Lord, I'm done. I can't do this anymore. Every place I go, I'm mocked.

I'm in conflict. I'm in the stockades over here. I'm down in the cistern over here, they want me dead, I'm finished. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire, shut up in my bones. I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay.

In other words, his weariness from trying to keep the word bottled up on the inside of him, as opposed to proclaiming it, was greater than the weariness of his mission. Jeremiah learned that God may give very difficult assignments to his people. He felt the weight of his very unpopular ministry. He lamented the price that he had to pay, at one point even determining not to speak God's words anymore. Yet the call of God was too strong.

The prophetic word was like fire, shut up in his bones. Anybody want that? Anybody want that where your desire to serve God is greater than your fear of man. Anybody want that? Don't you want to leave this conference a little bit more, and I'm not talking emotionalism, but a little bit more on fire for God, willing to quickly move when he says move regardless of what it costs you?

Well, as we try to bring this thing in for a very quick landing that clock, my Lord. Jeremiah's anguish over his people, he's called a weeping prophet for a reason. He cried out, my bowels, my bowels, and King James, or in a New Living translation, says, my heart, my heart, when he saw the pain that his people was going, we're going through, he said, My I cannot hold my peace because thou has heard. He cried destruction upon destruction. The whole land is spoiled.

And he cried and he wept. And the Lord answered, he said, my people are foolish. They have not known me. They are sodish children and none have understanding. In other words, Jeremiah, I sympathize with you, but it is going to be what it's going to be.

Jeremiah's often again called this prophet that weeps. He says, mine eyes are a fountain of tears. He said, my eyes shall weep sore and run down with tears because the Lord's flock is carried away captive. He learned in this process of the great love of God, through his sadness, Jeremiah reflected the heart of God who longed for his people to love and obey him and yet they turned away from him. So if you're writing, I want you to write the word love.

And the last one in number eight, I want you to write the word obedience, because these things cause us to know God better. God loved his people. Jeremiah loved the people that he was called to prophesy to, and it broke his heart. Jeremiah was eventually vindicated in 597 BC. Judah was besieged by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar with the city falling in 586 BC.

Everything was set on fire. Everything that they knew was essentially destroyed. Despite the carnage, Jeremiah saw the truth of God's words. He saw that God would take care of him. Jeremiah did not go into the kind of captivity that they did, but in fact was pretty amazingly taken care of by city officials.

What we can learn from that, Jeremiah learned about the power of God to keep his word and the providence of God to care for his servants. Yeah, it wasn't easy. Yeah, it took a lot out of him. But in the end, God did exactly what he said he was gonna do and he took care of his servant to boot. So you just write the word protection, just circle it, protection, God will protect you when he's giving you an assignment.

Be obedient and do what he's called you to do. Lest we conclude that Jeremiah was all doom and gloom. I'll leave you with this this final verse because it's most certainly is not one of the most beautiful passages of scripture in the whole Bible is found in the book of Jeremiah Jeremiah chapter 31 verse 31. Behold, the days come, say that the Lord that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they break, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after Those days saith the Lord I will put my laws and their inward parts and write it in their hearts I will be their God and they will be my people And they shall no more teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.

A beautiful passage of scripture fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. Friends, Jeremiah had a very difficult ministry. He learned about the sustaining power and grace of God through it all. I encourage all of you, no matter what assignment the Lord has given you, even the very unpopular ones, hold fast to his word, Trust Him, obey Him, and in the end, in getting glory for Himself, the Lord always protects and vindicates His people. Let's pray.

Father, thank you once again for the honor to stand before your people. Thank you, Father, for just this quick trip through this wonderful book wherein we learn that you're a God who is serious about sin, serious about the lives of your people, serious about rising up early, though, and sending prophets to them because you love them so much. Father, we pray that there will be more Jeremiahs in our land, men and women in their spheres of influence in their homes and in their churches and amongst their children who are willing to stand on what you said. Some will say I'm too young. Some will say, Lord, this is too inconvenient.

Some have already have plans to do other things, but help them not to resist your call, but to obey your call for the upbuilding of your kingdom. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you.