Jeremiah: The Weeping Prophet

Pastor Ronnie, if you would come. And there's somebody I want to recognize today.

This wasn't in the plan, but what do I

do with the plan? I always. But is. Is

Ms. DJ in here? She was sitting back there.

No, she was here. She was. She was. She was here.

Well, Praise the Lord. D.J. matthews has served in children's

ministry for 16 years, and here she is.

Okay. She doesn't have to come down here unless she wants to. Oh,

you want to come down here? Come on. Come on down here. Okay. Come

on.

Ms. DJ has served Children's Ministry for 16 years

and is stepping down after many years of

faithfulness to our kids ministry. And I've asked Pastor Ronnie to come and share a

few thought.

I. Yeah, I'll give you a hug here.

I want to say thank you. From. The

bottom of my heart for what you mean and

have meant to my family.

Margaret was here. You were the most faithful person

she had in the children's ministry.

And I know that it wasn't easy. I know that there were times when it

was hard to get the money together for the gas, and there were

times when the car didn't want to start, and there were times when

you didn't feel well, but, oh, my goodness,

she could always count on you. And then

my little ones. I'm only sad that

you're doing this because June's not going to get to

have you as a teacher. But Jack and Bo,

oh, they would talk about Ms. D.J. all the time. She

meant so much, so very much to them.

And, you know, what God rewards

and what man considers to be, you know,

big and important, has nothing to do with what God rewards.

God rewards faithfulness. And

there's a. When I. When I think of you.

Kevin asked me as I walked in the church this morning to say

something, and I said absolutely. The

first verse that came to mind for me, though. Here.

Did I leave my phone with you? Michelle.

Michelle will bring the verse. The first

verse.

I know you've not had children of your own,

but I'm also very confident

that one of these days on the other

side, you're going to find out how many children you've got.

And the verse that came to mind is Isaiah

Isaiah 49:21

49:21. Then you will say in your heart,

who has borne me these? I was bereaved

and barren, but who has brought up these?

I was left alone. From where have these come?

They've come from your faithfulness. And there's going to be a

multitude of young men and young women. I don't know how young

they'll be. Maybe they'll look old. I don't know. Maybe. But

they're going to be coming up to you and going, thank you. You really meant

so much in my life. And I just want you to. Just

want you to know that. I don't know what, Kevin, I hope he's giving you

a house or a car or something, but

that's up to him. But. Yeah,

I love this woman. She's been faithful. Amen.

Yeah.

Well, Stan, let me give you a blessing.

God is so good. And not just because Hal got a hole

in one on the golf course yesterday, but

because he is who he is. God is faithful.

And, man, I'm just so grateful. Well,

today's going to be one of those messages, and

I just pray that your hearts are open today.

Okay. I'm not going to say what I was thinking to say there. Before

we get started, I want to remind you we started midweek this past week, and

if you are not here, you missed a treat. Pastor Barbee opened her series, the

Eye of the Needle. And really, truly, if you haven't seen it, you can go

online and watch it. But I invite you to come and be

a part of it. It was so rich, and it's going to continue to be

rich. The youth ministry met, children's ministry is up and going. Young

adults following that. So really, if you have capacity Thursday night, six o', clock,

come and join us. And then today, we have open tables right after

service today. So it's. Open tables is an opportunity for you to connect

with people here in the church. And all you need to do is go to

the app. You can sign up there for a restaurant. They're listed there. You can

see Cole. She's right here. And she'll get you pointed in a direction,

because if it's one thing I know about church folk is we like to eat.

Okay? So let's do it together. All right? Today we're

continuing the greatest stories ever told. And we're going to talk about a man

named Jeremiah who's known as the Weeping Prophet.

And so we're going to stand today, and you guys are going to read this

to convince me that you're awake and ready to receive what God has

for us. Okay? So with gusto. Are we ready? Here we go.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

How then can they call on the one they have not

believed in? And how can they believe in the

one of whom they have not heard? And how can they

hear without someone preaching to them. And

how can anyone preach unless they are sent

as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of those

who bring the good news. And one verse from Jeremiah,

if you've raced,

how can you compete with horses? Father, thank you for your

word. Thank you that it brings life. I pray, Lord, that you would pierce

our hearts today. And Lord, that you would remove the distractions today

so that we can lean into the eternal thoughts and purposes of of your

plan today. We love you and we thank you for this great gift. In Jesus

name, amen. You may be seated. This morning,

we're going to talk about Jeremiah today. And one of the main

reasons I put Jeremiah 12:5 up there, because that's actually a life

Jeremiah 12:5

verse of mine. I love

the book of Jeremiah and I believe that it conveys some real important

reminders and truths for us. Going to do a little bit of a flyover of

Jeremiah and get kind of to the crux of what I want to talk about

and draw from Jeremiah's story,

Jeremiah's book. But before I do, I've got to give some historical context

to kind of set up where I want to go. So Israel, the nation

Israel was really divided up into 12 tribes. And you remember we

learned about King Saul. The people said, we want a king. And the Lord said,

all right, I'll give you a king. And he gave them Saul. And Saul actually

started out as a pretty good king, but he went

downhill pretty fast. And his son David took over the kingdom and

then King Solomon. And so these kings ruled The Israelites,

the 12 tribes, Israel. And then Solomon

died and his son Rehoboam became king. Now when

Rehoboam became king, the people went to him and said,

hey, we want you to lessen the taxes and lessen

the burden of work you're placing on us that your

father did. And instead of listening to the people and doing that, he

listened to some friends of his. And his friends said, no, you should

multiply the taxes, you should multiply the work, make it harder. And that's what

he did. And what that did is it caused a division with.

And what happened is they divided into two different sections.

The 10 tribes broke away, 10 tribes

rebelled and broke away and went to

created the northern kingdom, which was Israel. And two tribes, Judah and

Benjamin stayed and were the southern kingdom.

So at this period of time, we've got two the divided

nation. We have Israel and we have Judah. And this is the makeup of

the tribes. And Israel in

the north, as is in keeping with rebellion, Israel in the

north started to walk away from the Lord started to

dabble into sin, get into sin, get into false gods, and get

into some things that they obviously shouldn't have been getting into. But they

basically walked away from the Lord. Now in the southern kingdom, that's where Jerusalem

is. And that's where. So they disconnected from everything. They moved away.

And guess what? What happens when we rebel is we.

We lend ourselves to destruction. And so in 722 BC, Assyria

conquers Israel because of their sin.

Israel is destroyed at this moment. These people are destroyed.

They're conquered because of their. Because of their

sin. Sin lends to

destruction. And the tribes of Judah, the two

tribes of Judah watched it happen.

And the reason I wanted to set this historical context is for this

point right here, the tribes of Judah watched

Israel be taken over by the Assyrians because of their

actions. And in the context of today's message,

I would like to suggest that in our world and the

people we see and walk alongside every day, I believe that the church

is watching it happen too. The church

is watching it happen too.

So this downfall happens with

Israel. The two tribes are watching it. And all

of a sudden what starts happening in Judah is

that they start to. They start to dabble their toe into some

sin. They start getting comfortable and complacent and. And they

start to listen to some false prophets. It wasn't that Judah stopped

believing in God, but they got real comfortable

that they started to listen to some voices that paraded around

as if it was coming from the Lord, but it wasn't coming from the Lord.

So the Lord raises up a true prophet by the name of

Jeremiah. And I love how the book starts in Jeremiah because

he. He looks at Jeremiah and he calls him, and he says, jeremiah,

I want to use you. I knew you before you were

even created. I knew you in your mother's womb. And

I believe that. I want to use. Lord says, I want to use you

to be my mouthpiece. I'm gonna put my very words

in your mouth and I want you to be obedient to speak them. I love

how the book starts, because here's the thing. When God calls you to something, when

he raises you up for something, he always equips you. And he will give you

his word. He will always. He will always provide the foundation

that you need to walk on. And because it comes from him. And he raises

up a Jeremiah who's going to car the very

heartbeat of his God, who's going to carry the very heartbeat

of his God. And so he raises up

Jeremiah. And Jeremiah goes around and he begins to proclaim

the word of God. And he says to the people of Judah, he says,

listen, turn from your wicked ways.

Turn to the real true God. Don't

dabble in this sin or you're going to be exiled.

This is going to happen. And some other false prophets

were conveying a different message, an opposite message.

They were saying, there's going to be peace. There's going to be peace.

Jeremiah, moved to tears, continued to

proclaim what God was saying to the people of

Judah. Move toward God. Look at God. God

doesn't want you to be exiled. But this is going to happen if you don't

turn from your ways. Well, lo and behold, just like people, they continued

in their ways. They continued in their ways

and they were exiled. In 586 BC they were exiled

to Babylon, just like Jeremiah foretold.

So that gives us a flyover of what we're dealing with here with

Jeremiah. And we're going to focus in on Jeremiah

and his heartbeat and his posture toward people and the people. In

Jeremiah 6 it says this. They dress the wound of my people as though it

were not sin serious. Peace. Peace, they say, when there is no peace.

This is coming from the mouthpiece of the false prophets.

There are people who are parading around as if they knew Jehovah,

God, and they were proclaiming this false word. Can I

tell you, it's dangerous to listen to false prophets. It's

dangerous to listen to people who are proclaiming a

gospel or a truth that does not line up with the word of God.

But whose responsibility is it to know the difference?

It's yours. It's yours. Jeremiah 9

says this. Oh, that my head were a spring of water, my eyes a fountain

of tears. I would weep days and night for the slaying of my

people. Jeremiah, weeping, crying,

heartbroken over the condition of the

people, the condition of the people

of God. And so this brings us to the crux of what I want to

talk to you today about. And it is this.

Do you have tears for the lost?

When was the last time

you shed tears over someone's

eternity? When was the last

time you shed tears for someone

who was lost? When was

the last time you even thought that there were people who were lost?

There's coming a day when God is going to split this sky open

and he hasn't done it yet. Why do you think he's relenting to do so?

Why do you think he's not in the heavens yet? Why?

Why do you think he's not open the skies because there are people, there

are still people who need to hear the good news of the gospel of Jesus

Christ. And so today I want to

examine three possibilities of why we may not carry tears

for the lost. The first reason is this.

We are so distracted.

We are so distracted. And many times the

biggest distraction in our life we carry around

because we will open our phone, we will look at our phone, we will talk

on our phone mo more mo mo

talk on our phone more than we will open the word and talk to the

Lord. We will be

devastated if we lose this thing. Some of us are trying to find where the

last place we put our Bible was so we can make sure we have it

for church.

We are so distracted. Culture, society

moving so fast. Distraction, distraction, distraction,

distraction. Constant things in front of us

that just take our focus off of the things that would allow

our hearts to break for what breaks his. We

are so distracted. My wife and I took our kids to the Grand

Canyon a couple years ago. If you ever get a chance to go to the

Grand Canyon, I highly recommend it. I was so excited for my kids to see

the Grand Canyon. Grand Canyon is vast and

majestic and beautiful. And so we were driving out there. And if you ever made

that drive, it's a drive. You gotta plan your day to get out there.

So we got out there to the Grand Canyon, and I'm so excited to show

Hadassah, Lucy, Ruby and Nora. I'm so excited to show them the Grand Canyon.

And we get there, and my breath was literally taken away.

And I just wanted them to see this moment, to remember

this moment. And they were so excited

when they got there and saw this squirrel.

They spent our entire two or three hours chasing this squirrel

and paying zero attention to the wonder that was right

before us. Can I tell you that you

have a God who's standing right before you? But we pay too

much attention to the squirrels all around us.

Some of us are too distracted that the pastor didn't say hello to us this

morning, that we can't listen to the word or worship or get through it. We

are so distracted by the things that don't matter. We're so

distracted by things that come by so fast and move us so

fast, by the text messages and the sounds and the phone

and the ads and the reels and the Instagram and the Facebook and

all of the things that we're so distracted that we can't focus

enough to really hear the voice of God, let alone carry the

heart of our sovereign God. We are so

distracted.

And what happens in the distraction? I want you to go with me for a

minute here. What happens, I believe, in the distractions

is we only pick up from fragments of what the Lord

is actually saying to us. But when we are in a

mode to project or to share or to rend what God's

given us, we speak fully from a fragmented position.

And what happens is the truth begins to get diluted and

shallow because we only present the gospel from a

shallow perspective. Because we take a fraction and we make it the whole thing.

Can I tell you, this is what happened in Judah, this is what happened in

Israel, is that generation after generation is getting

fragment of who this glorious God is. And so they begin to tip their

toe into sin, but try to keep their toe in the kingdom. And I want

to say we're not too far from that, folks. Can

I tell you today that Satan, our

enemy, he is after your kids. He is

after the generation to come. And this little

booger of a devil, he is the most. One of the

most patient beings on the earth. He will just

wait. Because if he can plant a seed,

one little seed in your life to distract

you enough, he doesn't have to do any destruction. You'll destroy yourself.

You'll destroy yourself. The enemy is after

our kids. Why was Moses put in a

basket? Why was he literally put in a basket? He

was put in a basket because he was. They were trying to save his life.

Kill the kids. Why did Jesus have to flee to Egypt?

Kill the kids in our society,

in our generation, what is the enemy

doing to attack the next generation so that the word of God doesn't go

forward? Well, let's make sure divorce happens in the homes so that we

lose the sanctity of marriage and we pollute

marriage so it's not attractive to kids to get married.

So let's have broken homes. Let's distract

them enough and numb ourselves enough that we don't even know how to have a

common conversation and shake somebody's hand and say hello, let's get

distracted enough. Why? So that there's no connection

between individuals. They just hook up.

Abortion, let's kill the kids.

Identity issues in our generation so that there is no

procreation, there is no supplying the

next generation, because guess what? He wants to kill off the generation.

Are you following me? You have a responsibility,

parents. Because here's the problem. And in pews across

America, parents come and sit in sanctuaries in the

pews, will shout hallelujah and amen and show their kids something

different when they get home, we're part of the problem as well,

because we will come in here and we'll put on a smile. I love you

so much. It's so good. I love you. Oh, you're so great. And then we

will get home and we will gossip, we will chatter, we will slander, we will

watch things, we will do things. And we are painting for our children

something completely different than we are projecting when we're around the things of the

Lord. What does your life look like? We are so

distracted. Why don't we have tears for the lost? Maybe it's

because some of us are lost ourselves.

Tears for love. We are so distracted. It's one of the reasons why you cannot

convince me that children's and youth ministries are the most important ministries of a church.

It's the most important because we are investing into

undeveloped minds every day as parents

and in the church, raising kids up who are

hearing the word of God's truth and man. I can

tell you, in that undeveloped state as an educator, in that undeveloped

state of. We are training them by our actions when we render

some type of truth. They are watching you to see if you walk out. What

you say you believe

the enemy's out. The enemy's out to kill generations.

And the people of Judah were distracted because they had one foot in the

kingdom and the other in the world. The second reason I believe that we don't

have tears for the lost is because we accept the counterfeit.

We are willing to accept the counterfeit.

Let's look at some counterfeits today, shall we? If it's not Mountain

Dew, it's got to be Mountain View.

If you've not seen the Lion King, check out the lion thing with

Chufasa.

Looking for something to dip in your milk? Try cream between.

Now, I love me some Adidas, but I'm not too fond of AIDS.

And I've washed my body with Dove. But I'm not so fond of washing it

with Dave.

I can't believe it's not butter. Well, how about I think it tastes like

butter

and if it's not Sony, it must be phony.

Listen, the enemy's greatest talent is creating

counterfeits that look like the real thing. The

enemy's greatest talent is creating counterfeits that look like the real

thing. I used to. This is no shame, what I'm about to say, so let

it fly out. Don't be offended. You know, I

used to go to Kroger or somewhere and I

would be buying chicken. I like some Chicken. And I would

just go and get the cheapest chicken. And then one day Ronnie

said, have you ever actually had real chicken? He actually said,

have you had like real chicken? And I'm like, why eat chicken? You know? He's

like, no, no. Have you had no injection, like actual, like real

chicken? And so I went out and got some $30 chicken piece

and I put it in a fry pan. It's

the best chicken I've ever tasted in my life.

But I had become so accustomed to counterfeit.

I become so accustomed that I didn't even really know that

there was something better. I believe that in

our lives we can get to a place where

we so lean into the counterfeit that we actually take

God's label and we slap it on the counterfeit. We say, this is my God.

Counterfeits are dangerous because they keep you comfortable until

it's too late. Over in Second Corinthians, Satan

himself masquerades as an angel of light. Is it

not surprising, then his servants also masquerade as servants

of righteousness? Their end will be what their actions

deserve. And I tell you that the

enemy of your soul knows how to put on a shirt that says I love

Jesus. He knows how to smile. He knows how to speak

the lingo. But here's the thing,

when it comes to counterfeit, they actually employ people

in this country to look for counterfeit dollar bills,

okay? If you get employed to look

for counterfeit dollar bills, you don't spend time

with the counterfeit learning what the counterfeit holds. You spend time

with the real thing so that when the counterfeit comes, you can recognize this

is real. And can I tell you, the way that

you recognize a counterfeit is by spending time with the real

God, by spending time with truly who he is, by getting

in his word. Because let me tell you, the counterfeit

sounds very familiar. This is why when you go

to that store and they, you give them a 20 ounce counterfeit, they have to

hold it up to the light because they're trying to make sure. Why? Because it

looks just like. Looks just like it. And

some of us will order our entire lives based on a

counterfeit because we don't know the real thing.

Reason we don't have tears for the loss is because we settle for the

counterfeit. And the people of Judah accepted the counterfeit.

Might I suggest today that counterfeits don't just live on shelves, they live in

pulpits, playlists and priorities.

We turn on the TV and we just hear somebody, as long as they say

Jesus Whatever else they're saying, we just buy into it and believe it. In fact,

some of you have mailed checks for 1999 to people that have just said Jesus

and the rest of it was garbage.

Playlists that we have in our ear, lies just feeding into us. And we just

buy into them and we just live our lives with the lie.

Priorities. Now, I'm all about some

boundaries. You read that book, Boundaries. I'm all about some boundaries, okay? But sometimes we

use that as an idol in our life to not do the things we're supposed.

Supposed to do. Your

priority is what the God of the universe tells you to do.

That's your priority. And for Jeremiah, it was go share my word and

they're going to throw you stones at you, they're going to spit at you.

That was Jeremiah's priority because it was God's calling

in his life.

And lastly, I believe it's because we settle for the shallow.

We settle for shallow.

A deluded truth. This is what 2 Timothy

tells us. @ the end of times, there's going to

be terrible things that happen. People will be lovers of

themselves, lovers of money,

boastful, proud, abusive,

disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self

control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash,

conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

Having a form of godliness but denying its power.

Do you know any of these people?

And then he continues. He didn't stop there, does he? He says, don't have anything

to do with these people. The people

of Judah,

rubbing elbows with people who are all of these things,

building strong friendships and relationships and marrying the people who

are engaging in all of this stuff,

and it leads to their exile. Might I suggest to us

that we need to have our eyes open to the areas in

our lives that this might describe.

Why is this important? Because we need to have tears

for the lost. We need to

shed tears. Why should. Why do we need to. Why should I cry for the

lost? Because we're talking about a matter of life and death.

We're talking about a matter of life and. Can I, guys,

Can I just.

If my kid runs out into the road and a Mack truck is

coming at one of them, there is nothing on this

planet that would stop me from jumping as far as I can into that street

to push them out of the way. And Jeremiah's heart,

his heartbeat, and the love that he had for the people was to say,

destruction is coming at 100 miles an hour.

And he's willing to jump out in front of that Mack truck to push them

out of the way. What about you?

What about you? What about us?

It's the same heart problem as Judah's day.

And as surely as. And just as surely as Babylon came for

Jerusalem, Jesus is going to return for his church.

He's going to come back. Here's the good news. The gospel is

this. Jesus Christ came and he lived an impeccable

life, a perfect life. Why? Because God the Father

told him to go. And he said, yes, I'll do it. He came down, he

lived a perfect life. And guess what? We sin. And

there's a penalty for our sin. There's a penalty for all these things, and that

penalty is death. And Jesus came. Jesus Christ came to this

planet to pay the death penalty because

only he could pay it. And so he pays this death

penalty. But here's the power behind the story. He told us that

three days later, I'm coming back to life. And guess what? He did. He

came back to life. Today he's sitting by the right hand of God. I believe

he's alive and well today. And because of the power of the

resurrection, you and I can now have eternal life with Jesus

Christ forevermore. And that's something to be excited about. That's

something to. If you want to praise him for something, don't praise him because he

met your water bill. That's a good thing to praise him for. Praise him because

there's food on the table. That's a good thing to praise him for. Praise him

because you went from death to life. And not only from death to life.

The promise is, is that he's coming back one day for you. He's coming

back. And there's somebody here. I believe there's somebody here today.

All in my spirit. There's somebody here today that you feel as if you have

gone so far that you have no way back. Can I tell you, this verse

is coming up later. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.

His mercies are new every single morning. And I believe that

today, if you are here in a place and you're. That this guy could have

anything to do with me because you don't know what I've done. Let me tell

you. He knows everything you've done. And this morning he said, I want you. This

morning he said, I love you. This morning he said, come to me. Come to

me. I will change your life and show you things that you can.

Indescribably extraordinary things. And it's available for you today.

Let me tell you, there's a dying world out there that also needs to hear

that message. And there's a dying world out there that you are passing by

every single day. Guys, do you have tears for the lost? Do

you have tears for those whose eternity is going to be separated

from the Lord? It is dangerous to walk a lukewarm

lifestyle. It is dangerous when you've got one foot in the world and

one foot in the Lord. It's a dangerous thing because you taint the gospel

when somebody's looking at you and say, do you really model what you're saying, what

you preach, what you're wearing on your shirt where you say, I love the Lord?

Jeremiah was rendering actual truth because who he was

listening to was the mouth of God.

The God you've created can't save you from the hell you ignore.

See, we like to believe because. And we do, we serve this

glorious God who is a promised, abundant life, and we lean into that so

much. But, guys, I just have to tell you as your pastor,

there's coming a day where those who have not acknowledged the

Lord Jesus Christ are going to be separated from Him. Now,

will there be a lake of fire and all those things? That's what the scripture

says. But let me tell you what hell is. Hell is separation from God. Hell

is separation from God if God is

love, joy, patience, peace, if God is all. I mean, none of that.

And we create many gods all the time,

and he can't. They cannot save you from the hell you

ignore. And so I would suggest to us this

morning that we not mistake God's patience for God's approval.

Because if you're wallowing in sin and you're living a lifestyle and you're doing

this thing over and over and over again, and you've just decided God is so

patient with me, I'm just going to continue to lean into it. Do not mistake

in God's patience for his approval. His patience is there

because He's. I believe that he so is. Is pursuing

you and wanting you to come home. But there's going to come a point where

he says, that's enough. And the reason

we have the story of Israel and Judah and the

exile is because there comes a time when God, when he says, enough

is enough. It's going to be enough. When he splits the sky. It's really

going to happen. It's not a myth. It's not a fairytale. It's the truth.

And so there is an urgency. Why is there an Urgency because

people are dying. Why are people dying? Because we live in a sinful world.

The urgency also comes because we don't know the hour or day. We could decide

to go to open tables today. And glory to glory. The trumpets are sounding.

Will everybody at your lunch table be going with you?

Lord, would you break our hearts for what breaks yours?

God, would you put something in us that gets our

mirror out of our face? Where every decision, everything we do has to

start with how this makes me feel, how this makes me look.

Tears for the lost. It's a matter of life

and death. Look at your neighbor and say, it's a matter of life and death.

Went shopping yesterday, and I got this fish.

He matches my blue here. It's a blue

fish. I didn't know that God created fish that look like this.

And it's pretty cool. Do y' all see them back there? You see them over

there? Let me help you.

I'll just kind of pull him out here.

Let's see here. Come here, little buddy. This is Max, by the way.

Max, let's see here.

He's got a little leaf in here. Come here.

All right, now I got him. All right, who wants to see him? Oh, stop

wiggling. All right, anybody want to see him?

Want to see him now? If he flies out in your dress, don't be mad.

See a blue. Look how this blue. I didn't know he made blue fish. This.

This blue. Look how blue that is.

Max landed in somebody's dress last service. Yeah.

Oh, look at him. Oh, he's kind of convulsing like something's wrong. Okay,

let's see here. Oh, he's shaking. Come here.

He must be nervous to show Charlotte. Come here. Oh,

Melanie, look at this blue fish. Oh, come

on now. Yeah. Oh, he's

kind of moving slower now. Wonder what's going on with that. See,

it's a blue fish. You see? See the blue fish?

Huh?

What? Oh, you want me to put him

back? Oh. Oh.

Now, Tina, why did you come and take that fish out of my hand?

Because the fish was dying. There was an urgency in you because the fish was

outside of the environment that it's supposed to live. Guys, we care so much more

about fish than we do the people around us.

And you have got to have the boldness and confidence to do

whatever it takes to introduce the dying

people to the world and the kingdom to which they should belong to.

Are you bold enough to actually even say the name

Jesus at the supermarket to your

waitress or waiter? Are you? I

mean, while you're cutting that person off the road,

right? Or why they're cutting you off

when you get overcharged?

Because here's the thing, I don't know why it is. Barbie, have you ever expected

a non Christian to act like a Christian?

I mean, so here it is. We get offended

as Christians who are supposed to be bringing the truth, expecting

non Christians to act like we're supposed to act. But then we return the favor

without acting like a Christian. Now where's that going to lead us? Let me tell

you. To exile. That's where it's going to lead us.

I believe somebody said, turn the other cheek. Now, he

wasn't just talking about when you get punched in the face, turn the other

cheek. When somebody wrongs you, turn the other cheek. Guys,

do our lives look like him? Do our lives look like him?

The part of having tears for loss isn't just about streams of water

coming down your face. It's about doing something about it. Listening to the

Holy Spirit, being willing to be a Jeremiah in

a world that needs to hear the truth of God's word.

We are a people who have hope. In Jeremiah

31, I have a chick fil a story I'll tell you sometime. It's not going

to happen today. Jeremiah 31, it says this.

The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a

new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of

Judah. Now I want you to pay attention to this. Remember

we talked about Israel at the top of the message? This

tells me that God doesn't forget about anybody.

Israel was destroyed. It was captive, it was taken by

the Assyrians. Guess what? God has not forgotten about Israel. And God has

not forgotten about you. He's not forgotten about that person who did

X, Y and Z. He's not forgotten. He says, I'm going to make a new

covenant, a new promise. We lament, we cry

because judgment is real. But we hope because salvation

is still available. Salvation is still

available. It's available right now. It's available today.

And so Jeremiah 29:11 says. For

Jeremiah 29:11

I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans for you to

prosper you, not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a

future. Let me tell you something. Driving down the street, this was the

chick fil a story. Driving down the street and I'm in a car with another

guy. He sees a billboard. And the thing that was on the billboard led to

his salvation. If God can use a

billboard, he can use any scripture in his word

to speak to people. I Understand that we talk about how the word of

God is written for us and not to us in some instances.

But don't tell me God can't take a verse and minister to you with it.

His word is alive and active. He has plans for you people.

He has a hope and a future for you. I can lean right into that

scripture and claim it all day long, but guess what? It makes

me want to learn more so I know the entire context because there's much more

to be learned. I don't just take that as a

fragmented verse and stand my whole life on it and say, well, there's nothing else

for me to do. It encourages me to grow more.

Jeremiah 29:13. You will seek me

Jeremiah 29:13

and find me when you seek me with all of your heart.

Guys, we just come with that half. Little piece of my heart.

Little piece of it. No, all. All of our

heart. But this

I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. The steadfast love of the Lord

never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every

morning. Great is your faithfulness.

Worship team. You can come back.

I cried so much in the first gathering

because I'm asking the Lord to break my heart for what breaks his.

I want to be a church who sees the lost

that we're not. Guys, we have. We have a beautiful

facility. We have great

programs here. We have wonderful things you can

participate in and be a part of. Somebody told me today that the Kate

is doing an amazing job in the cafe as they ate that gooey cinnamon roll

this morning. Got some hot coffee out there. We got all of these

wonderful things. But, guys, none of that is the purpose. Purpose. All

of it has to do with this essential truth that there are people dying

and there's life available to them.

And so our lives must model Christ.

And if you don't get anything right. Listen, if you don't get all that religious

stuff right, you don't do everything. Let's do that. How about we love, right?

Let's just start there. Let's just. Let's just lean in. If you can't think, oh,

man, I'm not supposed to do this. I'm caught up in this. Okay, forget about

all that for just a moment. Let's just lean into love. Let's just examine

and learn. What does God say about how to love?

Lean there. And I think that rest of that stuff will start to just creep

in there because guess why. Guess. Here's the thing. This is cool how this works.

You start to learn about how to Love others. You're going to start learning you're

actually loved by the creator of the universe as well. And then

your identity is no longer in question. Right? He

begins to move. Guys, we are at war,

and we win the battle in the end. There's some

casualties on the way, and you might literally

be sitting next to one of the casualties just because you were

not obedient to introduce them to the God of the

universe.

And so today, this is what I want to do to close the service. I

have some chalkboards. Would you roll those out for me, Pastor Barbie?

I have some chalkboards here, and we're going to turn them around because there are

already some things written on them from the early gathering.

I chose chalkboards this morning for a reason.

We're going to put names up here of people

that we're believing for salvation for. And

I put them on chalkboards because we're going to believe that the names are going

to be erased off these boards and written in the Lamb's Book of life.

And when they're written in the Lamb's book of life, they ain't going anywhere, okay?

So here they can be erased. We're going to erase them off of here because

we're going to believe the Lord. If you came today and you've got somebody on

your mind, maybe it's somebody that you were supposed

to minister to. Maybe it was somebody. Maybe you missed it. Maybe it's. Maybe it's

somebody, and that's okay. There's great. Hey. The steadfast love of the Lord never

ceases. His mercies are new every morning.

But today I'm going to invite you to come and add a name to this

board, okay? If you've got somebody who you believe

needs salvation. But. But there's

more. If you're a leader here and you're planning to pray with

people today, would you come on up right now before I have everybody standing?

I believe that sometimes it's easier to believe for somebody else

rather than. Or more so than it is to believe for yourself.

And I. You know, I sometimes miss the Holy Spirit,

but I believe this morning the Holy Spirit told me there is somebody who's

eternity is going to change in this room.

And all of these people behind me have laid down their lives

not so that we can have wonderful programs and coffee and all that.

They've laid down their lives because they want to introduce people to Jesus.

And so if you're here this morning and you have never

asked Jesus to be in your life, today

is the day of Salvation. Salvation. He who calls upon

the name of the Lord will be saved. Will be saved.

And the Holy Spirit of God knew that you were coming to church this morning.

I'm talking about the one who had to rush out to the car. The kids

were screaming, you were in a bad mood. You ran the red light. He knew

you were coming this morning in your mess.

He knew it. And in

knowing that, he's saying, come,

leave the life. It's okay, come.

Doesn't matter what you come is what he's saying.

And so if that is you today, I'm going to invite you to come this

morning and pray with one of these people up here. And it will

be the greatest privilege and joy of any one of these people's lives

to lead you to the God who breathes stars.

And so we're going to come for three reasons. Number one reason is to

write names on this board of people that we need to be believing for.

Number two is if you want today to change everything, let me also say this.

I'm going to really step on a toe here. Are you ready? Some

of you say, oh, I'm saved because I've been in church all my life.

Some of you say, I'm good. I'm good because my parents have faith enough for

me to believe. Let me tell you why you can't ride on the

coattails of your parents, because your parents aren't Jesus.

So I'm saying to you this, and I'm gonna get real Baptist on you. There

needs to be a point in time where you point back and say, everything

changed. There needs to be a point. He says, whoever confesses

his sin, then he's just to forgive. Forgive his sin. So today may be

a day where you've been, you've been walking around and you've been participating in the

things of the kingdom, but you, you've never acknowledged him as Lord with someone.

You never had that moment where you said, God, I'm

a sinner and I need your blood. Would you forgive me?

I need your blood. I accept you into my life. I want to live for

you. If that's you, today's the day of salvation.

So that's number two. Number three, some of you are sitting

here, some of you are crying right now because you know somebody right now that

either needs to hear this message, it's not saved. It's probably the same person. You're

gonna put their name on this board, come to one of these

believers, and let's believe together for the people's

names. We're Writing on the boards, there's somebody you want to pray with. And,

guys, this is. If you're. If you're praying with people, let me have your eyes

for a second. Here's the prayer. We're gonna pray for salvation,

okay? But you're gonna pray that the Lord gives that

person the courage and the confidence to be the conduit of grace for that

person's life, okay?

Once all of that happens and we start moving here, the

prayer for the church that I have this morning that I need for my life

is break my heart. God, give me tears for these names. Give

me tears for Josh and Tasha and Caleb and Chris and Rich and John

and Michaela. Give me tears for these people. And so as you go

back and worship, it's not the time to suck down your. Your latte. It's time

to lean in. Lean in and carry and

ask the Lord. And maybe you don't feel anything. Maybe you're emotionless toward it. Then

just stand there and go, Lord, would you break my heart? Lord, would you break

my heart? Well, Lord, would you tender up my heart so I can see them

the way you see them? I believe Jeremiah, he wasn't coming at them like

this. He was coming at them broken with tears.

So, Lord, would you break our heart as a church to the

names that we're going to render before you today. Would you stand with me? We're

going to worship three reasons to come forward, to write names on the board,

to pray for people who need to hear salvation. And if you

today want to change your eternity forever, come and

pray. Let's worship.