Buy the Field

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah,

which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.

At that time, the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem,

and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah.

Verse 6, Jeremiah said,

The word of the Lord came to me. Behold, Hanamo, the son of Shalom, your uncle, will come to you and say,

By my field that is in Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase is yours.

Then Hanamo, my cousin, came to me in the court of the guard in accordance with the word of the Lord and said to me,

Buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours.

Buy it for yourself.

Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.

And I bought the field at Anathoth from Hanamo, my cousin, and weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver.

I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the money on scales.

Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and conditions and the open copy.

And I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch, the son of Neriah, son of Masaiah, in the presence of Hanamo, my cousin,

in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase,

and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard.

I charged Baruch in their presence, saying,

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,

Take these deeds, both the sealed deed of purchase and this open deed,

and put them in an earthenware vessel, that they may last long for a long time.

For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,

Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.

After I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch, the son of Neriah,

I prayed to the Lord, saying,

Ah, Lord God, it is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm.

Nothing is too hard for you.

You show steadfast love to thousands,

but you repay the guilt of fathers to their children after them.

O great and mighty God, whose name is the Lord of hosts,

great in counsel and mighty in deed,

whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of man,

rewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds.

You have shown signs and wonders in the land of Egypt,

and to this day in Israel and among all mankind,

and have made a name for yourself as at this day.

You brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders,

with a strong hand and outstretched arm,

and with great terror.

And you gave them this land,

which you swore to their fathers to give them,

a land flowing with milk and honey.

And they entered and took possession.

But they did not obey your voice or walk in your law.

They did nothing of all you commanded them to do.

Therefore you have made all this disaster come upon them.

Behold, the siege mounds have come up to the city to take it.

And because of sword and famine and pestilence,

the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it.

What you spoke has come to pass,

and behold, you see it.

Yet you, O Lord God, have said to me,

Buy the field for money and get witnesses,

though the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans.

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.

Behold, I am the Lord,

the God of all flesh,

is anything too hard for me?

Now therefore, thus says the Lord,

the God of Israel,

concerning this city of which you say,

It is given into the land of the king of Babylon

by sword, by famine, and by pestilence.

Behold, I will gather them from all the countries

to which I drove them in my anger

and my wrath and in great indignation.

I will bring them back to this place

and I will make them dwell in safety.

And they shall be my people

and I will be their God.

I will give them one heart

and one way

that they may fear me forever

for their own good

and the good of their children after me,

after them.

I will make with them

an everlasting covenant

that I will not turn away

from doing good to them.

And I will put the fear of me

in their hearts

that they may not turn from me.

I will rejoice in doing them good.

I will plant them in this land

in faithfulness

with all my heart

and all my soul.

For thus says the Lord,

Just as I have brought all this great disaster

upon this people,

so I will bring upon them

all the good that I promised them.

Fields shall be bought in this land

of which you are saying,

It is desolation.

Without man or beast,

it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.

Fields shall be bought for money

and deeds shall be signed

and sealed and witnessed.

In the land of Benjamin,

in the places about Jerusalem,

and in the cities of Judah,

in the cities of the hill country,

in the cities of Shefella,

and in the cities of the Negev.

And I will restore their fortunes,

declares the Lord.

This is the word of God.

Amen.

Great. Thanks, Jeremy.

So, we're going to take a little bit of a break

this morning from what we've been looking at

over the last few weeks

with the Missional Justice series,

so that we can kind of come back together

and do that really well

when we're gathering together.

So, just over these next couple of weeks,

we're going to have a little look

at a couple of passages

to really kind of refocus our minds

and our hearts at this time.

And so, today,

we're going to look at this passage

from Jeremiah 32,

which actually we were just looking at

in our staff retreat

just a few days ago.

And so, I want to give us

a little breakdown

of what is going on in this passage,

how then Jeremiah prays

in the context of what's going on

in the situation,

and then think about a few implications

for us as a church.

So, before we do that,

let me just pray for us

that God would really speak to us

through His Word.

Father, we just thank You

that everything else may collapse

everything else may fail,

but You don't.

Because You are the sovereign Lord.

You're the one who has been in control

from the beginning of history

to the end of history.

You're the one who holds our lives

in Your hands.

You're the one who enters into history

to bring us and rescue us

out of darkness

and bring us into light.

You're the one who knows us.

You're the one who cares for us.

You're the one who wants to bring

Your Word to us even today.

And Lord, we just pray

that You would be with us

as Your church.

We pray that we would be

the people that You've called us

to be at this time.

We pray where there is fear

in our hearts, Lord.

We pray You would be

the Prince of Peace to us.

We pray, Lord,

where there is doubt and anxiety.

We pray that You would come

and reassure and rest our hearts in You.

We pray where we're tempted

to turn in on ourselves, Lord,

that You would lift our eyes up to You

and lift our eyes out

to other people around us, Lord.

Show us what it means

to be a light at this time

because of the great hope

we have in You.

And Father, we just pray

for our city

and for the world

with everything that's going on

at the moment.

There's many people, Lord,

who are going to be struggling,

whether it's with jobs,

with finances,

with health.

Lord, we pray for the medics, Lord.

We pray for Graham,

who's going to be going

into the coronavirus wards.

We pray, Lord,

Your protection over him.

We pray, Lord,

for him and all the believers

who are going into the city

from our church

and the churches around this city

that we would be

just an incredible hope

for this city.

We would bring Your light.

We would bring Your joy.

We would have this confidence

which would cause others to ask

what the hope that we have is.

Lord, please work in this situation,

we pray,

because You want to get glory

even when we have no idea

what You're up to.

So show us Your play.

Show us Your plans.

Speak to us this morning, I pray.

In Jesus' mighty name.

Amen.

So the situation in Jeremiah 32 is this.

It's desperate.

The Babylonian army,

the most powerful,

the most fearsome army

in the entire world,

is besieging the city of Jerusalem.

And they have been there for a while.

And it's only a matter of time

before the defenses come down

and they rampage through

and they destroy everything.

Inside the city,

if you can imagine a siege time,

famine has hit.

There's no food on the shelves any longer.

And when famine hits,

malnutrition starts to rise

and disease starts to spread.

And everyone inside the city

will see the bodies lying on the streets

of people who,

one by one,

are dying in the midst

of this terrible situation.

And in this,

Jeremiah,

who God has used to speak to the people,

telling them again and again

to turn back to God,

who has prophesied

the arrival of the Babylonians

and the destruction of Jerusalem,

he's been put in prison

because he's been speaking God's word.

And he cannot escape at all.

So the situation is dire.

It's terrible.

But then in the midst of this,

God gives Jeremiah

this crazy command.

He says to Jeremiah,

buy a field.

And his cousin then comes to him.

And basically in the Old Testament,

people wanted to keep property

within the family

for the inheritance.

So he was either next in line

or he was one of the people

down the line

who,

this guy,

cousin,

who presumably

is finding it difficult

to make ends meet.

He needs the money.

So he comes to Jeremiah,

buy this field.

But this is the craziest investment ever

because at that moment,

property is worthless

because the Babylonians

are just about to overrun everything

and take everything

from themselves.

And Jeremiah,

at this time,

even though this investment

is worthless,

he cannot even go out

and see these fields

because he's in prison.

So he doesn't know

anything about

what this field is like

and yet the word of God

comes to him

and he's just got to obey

and got to trust God

in what he says.

Because you know,

sometimes God will speak things

which to our own minds

don't seem to make sense

in our human wisdom.

but he wants us

to learn how to trust him

because he's up to something.

And for Jeremiah,

this is the time of famine

and when you're in famine,

you want to keep

all the money you can

because prices inflate

and yet,

he's paying

all this money

for what seems to be

a worthless piece of paper

and yet God says,

buy this field

as a sign

that out of death

life will come.

That this won't last,

that there will be

property investments again.

There will be restoration

in my people.

And so that's kind of

the background

to there where I want to focus

on the prayer of Jeremiah

from verse 16.

And normally

when your back's against a wall,

in this kind of terrible situation,

you see no way out.

We normally kind of pray,

God, get me out of here.

We give him the laundry list

of all the things

that we want him to do for us.

But Jeremiah doesn't start there.

Jeremiah starts

with great theology,

with a perspective

of who God is

in this situation.

So let's just kind of

run through this

and here's what he says.

He says,

Our Lord God,

it is you

who have made the heavens

and the earth

by your great power

and your outstretched arm.

Nothing is too hard

for you.

What he's doing,

he's saying,

God, you are the creator

of the universe.

From the asteroid belt

beyond Pluto

to the gecko

in my prison cell

and all the bacteria

and all the atoms

and molecules

in between,

everything of existence

has come to be there

because of you.

That's power.

That means,

I know that

if you can do that,

then there's nothing

that's too difficult for you.

That's great theology.

That's what every Christian

should believe

because that's who our God is.

God can do anything.

And then he goes on.

He says,

You show steadfast love

to thousands

but repay the guilt of fathers

to their children after them.

So what is he saying?

He's saying,

You're a great lover

and you're a great judge.

God shows hesed.

That's the word

Kevin talked about

the other week.

That means unflinching,

unshakable,

unmovable love.

He is utterly devoted

to his people.

You know,

many people these days

have commitment phobia.

We're always looking

for a better option.

God doesn't look

for a better option.

His love is a relentless

pursuit of his people

and nothing throws him off.

But,

what he's also saying here

is he's a great lover

but he's also a great judge.

His love isn't soft.

He takes sin seriously

which is why the Israelites

are in the situation

they are right now.

It's the judgment of God

is upon them.

And then finally he says,

verse 19,

he says,

Your eyes are open

to all the ways

of the children of man,

rewarding each one

according to his ways

and according to the fruit

of his deeds.

What he's saying is

God sees everyone right now.

So,

he knows what Donald Trump,

Xi Jinping,

Carrie Lam

are thinking,

feeling,

desiring,

and doing

right at this moment.

He also knows

how the beggar

in the slum in Mumbai

is thinking,

feeling,

desiring,

doing right at this moment.

He also knows

what you are thinking,

fearing,

desiring,

feeling

right at this moment.

No one escapes

his eyesight.

And your future reward

and my future reward

rest with him.

Not with your investments,

not with your MPF,

not with your career,

not with your health policy.

Our entire future

rests in him.

That's a biblical view of God.

That's great theology

that Jeremiah starts with

in this situation.

He wants us to start

with perspective.

But then he goes on

and he says,

it's not just theology.

He's also,

this is a God of history

who works in reality.

So he goes through

the story of the Exodus.

And he says,

Israel's great moment

of redemption

shows that God's power

is not just in creation.

God's power is in history.

We've seen his love

and his judgment

and his justice

in delivering us

from slavery.

He's taken us

from the worst circumstances

before.

And it says,

even to this day,

even right up till now,

this is the kind of God

we know he has provided for us.

He has done everything for us

again and again and again.

And as Christians,

we might say,

we'll look back to the death

and resurrection of Jesus

and say,

we have seen God's power

in our lives

through forgiveness,

through his provision,

through his power,

through his love

and through his justice.

And if you are a Christian

and you've been walking with him

and seeking to put your faith in him,

then you will have stories

of seeing how God

has been continually faithful to you.

You've seen his provision.

You've seen his grace.

You've seen his love

in your life.

And so Jeremiah

starts with theology

and then God in history

to show that actually

this God is not just theoretical.

But then he brings it down

to the reality.

The reality of the people

here.

Because there's a problem.

The people of Israel,

why are they in this mess?

Because Jeremiah says,

we've just disobeyed.

We've been like a stubborn,

rebellious,

spoilt teenager.

We did not obey your voice.

We did nothing of all

that you commanded us to do.

Jeremiah's been preaching

for 40 years

the same message,

calling people back to God.

And for 40 years,

they have not listened to a single word

that he said.

I mean,

just imagine

preaching a sermon

for 40 years

and never having anyone

listen to you.

In fact,

it's not just they don't listen to him.

They've thrown him in prison

and have tried to kill him

multiple times.

He's not on Israel's

top 10 preacher list.

And the reality is

because of their hearts,

the shelves are empty.

The equivalent of ISIS

is about to enter

into the city.

The devastation is total.

There's a virus going around.

And Jeremiah says,

God,

I know that you're in this.

I know you've promised judgment.

But then you've told me

to go and buy a field.

That is insane,

God.

Like,

I don't know if you

have ever

done something

that God calls you to do

and then had second thoughts

about it.

You start getting doubts.

But Jeremiah,

he's got all this great theology.

He's got this history

that he knows of God

in his life

and God in

the people of God.

And yet,

right now,

he's facing a situation

where he's going,

is that really real?

Right now,

it's the test for him

whether what he knows

in his head,

what he's known

in his experience

is actually

whether he's going to

bank his life on it

right now

in the reality

in the present circumstances

that he's facing.

You see,

faith in God

often remains in your head

until it's tested,

until it costs you something.

Until you have to rely on it.

I don't know if you ever saw,

a few years ago,

Jean-Claude Van Damme,

the Belgian actor,

did an advert

for Volvo trucks.

I don't know if you ever saw that.

Volvo's claim

was that they had

the most incredible

precision steering

on their trucks.

So to prove it,

what they had were

two trucks

were going to reverse

backwards side by side,

and Van Damme

was going to

have his feet

on the wing mirrors

of either truck

and then the trucks

were going to move apart

until finally

Van Damme was going to

do the splits

in the middle of them

as they moved backwards.

And you see

the kind of

the making of this

and you see

the Volvo mechanic

explaining how amazing

the Volvo system is.

The precision is incredible.

And at one point,

Van Damme goes,

but, you know,

if you move slightly aside,

I'm going to fall, right?

And the guy says,

listen, you've got to trust us

because our drivers

are the best.

And for Van Damme

at that moment,

Faith wasn't going,

oh, okay, yeah,

I believe you,

but I don't think

I'm going to go

on the truck.

Faith was actually saying,

okay, I will basically

bank my life

on you guys

because I can trust

that you are reliable.

That's what faith does.

And, you know,

afterwards,

when he gets off the truck

and he's still in one piece,

his faith in those drivers

would have gone from

just being a theoretical faith

to now he knows.

Now he knows.

And Jeremiah,

he's bought this field,

he's wondering,

am I stupid

for trusting God?

This makes no sense.

And God comes to him

and says,

I am Yahweh,

that God

that you've just been

praying about,

God of all flesh,

the God of the Babylonians,

the God of the Israelites

you've been trying

to preach to.

Your God

is anything

too hard for me.

Like,

is even

this situation,

is your theology

enough for this situation

to know that

me,

God,

right now,

I am that same

God of creation,

that same God

of history.

And God's just

got real with Jeremiah.

And he says,

it's going to get worse

before it gets better.

That's not the news

you always want to hear.

But he says,

no,

the Babylonians,

like I've been promising,

are going to come in.

But I want you to know

that I'm doing

something bigger

than you realize

right through this.

In 70 years,

I'm going to bring

the people back

to the land.

But in 600 years,

through Jesus,

I'm going to bring

in an everlasting covenant.

And I'm going to

change people's hearts.

I'm going to do

miracles

in your life.

This moment

right now

is a little moment

in the whole history

of what I'm up to.

Will you trust me?

So that's kind of

the story

of what's going on.

That's his prayer.

That's how God answers him.

So now,

I just want to bring

this down to us

and think,

how does this really

engage with us

in times of trial

and testing

when we go through?

And I think

there's three things

that I think

this passage

draws out for us.

One,

when we face

challenging trials

and crises,

we see it as

an opportunity

to grow

in faith

and love.

You know,

people,

these days,

they love talking

about the Chinese

word for crisis.

I think it's

ngai gei

and the ngai

from ngai him

meaning danger

and gei from gei wui

meaning opportunity.

So people say,

danger is an opportunity.

But what normally

happens in crisis

is we turn in

on ourselves

and we just get

focused on our own issues.

we try and protect

ourselves.

In Jeremiah's day,

it's no different.

We don't know

why his cousin

came to Jeremiah

to sell his field

but it could be

that other relatives

were not willing

to take their responsibility

because,

man,

it's a worthless investment.

You can understand it.

When times are hard,

you try and batten

down the hatches.

Right now,

in Hong Kong

and globally,

people are afraid.

we feel the crisis.

We feel the economy.

We feel

whether it's the virus,

whether it's the stock market,

whether it's the loss of jobs,

whether it's the frustration

with our kids

of what to do with them

for the next few months,

whether it's the loneliness

of isolation.

We can tend to turn in

on ourselves.

But I wonder whether

you see this moment

as an incredible opportunity

that this is what

scripture calls a test,

an opportunity

for our faith

to get real.

You know,

we've been talking about

being part of God's people

means being part

of his mission.

But how does that go

from being just

a head knowledge

to actually being real

right now

in the present circumstances?

Well,

let's take our love offering.

Some of you

may have planned

to give based on

your current financial position.

You've got it all planned out.

And now,

your plans are ruined.

Your investments have collapsed.

And we're still asking you

to consider giving

a love offering.

And maybe you're going,

yeah, but,

okay,

I would have done that

like a couple of weeks ago,

but it's insane now.

Not at this time.

And God will say,

will you trust me?

Buy the field.

Buy the field.

Do you believe

nothing is too hard for me?

Put your money

where your faith is,

where your doctrine is,

where your theology is,

because then you will see

whether I'm truly trustworthy.

Maybe it's not money.

Maybe it's sharing the gospel.

You've been so worried

about everything

that's going on,

you haven't even thought

about the lost people

around you.

We so often just

get wrapped up

with how we're feeling.

But God's word

comes to you today

and says,

buy the field.

And what that means is,

this week,

you're going to have

conversations about the virus.

You're going to have

conversations about the economy,

about investments,

about people's fears.

And instead of just going,

yeah,

it's really crazy

at the moment,

I want us as a church

to actually seize the moment

and say,

God,

give me grace

for this.

But,

to reply

in those moments

when they're going to

come up this week

to go,

hey, listen,

yeah,

I know it's been crazy

at the moment.

But one thing I've realized

through this time

is that my security

has never been

in my investments.

My security

has never been

in just whether

everything's working out

because this is

an insecure world.

but I've discovered

something that's more secure

than any of those things

and that's Jesus.

Can I tell you about him?

I challenge

every one of us

this week,

be praying

because there will be

opportunities

and God's saying to us,

by the field,

trust me,

the people's response

may be,

you're insane.

Your own thoughts may be,

that feels insane.

But will you trust him?

By the field,

let's see what I'll do.

It's the first thing.

See the opportunities.

Second thing,

God plays the long game.

Jeremiah would never

actually get to see

his field.

The Babylonians

retreated briefly.

He tried to go out

to see the field

while there was

a bit of a gap.

But then he got arrested

on the way

because people thought

he was going to go

and defect to the other side

and he gets put back

in prison again.

And then he gets dragged

off to Egypt,

never sees the field.

I find this really challenging

because we tend to think

the world revolves around us.

We tend to think that

if I'm trusting God,

then it should all work out

for me,

in blessings for me

and for my interests.

But what if we trusted God

right now

and it wasn't us

who benefited from it,

but there were others

down the line

who were the recipients

of that blessing?

What if it was

generations down the line

that the fruit

of our faithfulness now

was experienced?

You know,

when we first started

Watermark,

there was this phrase

that we kept using

which was,

one plants the seed,

the next generation

enjoys the shade.

What if we planted

the seed of the gospel

through our words

or in our finances

but somebody else

reaped the harvest?

You know,

faithfulness to God

resounds into eternity.

Babylon

is a pile of dust

in the Iraqi desert

right now.

They couldn't even find it

until a few years ago.

Jerusalem still exists

with a property market

that's thriving.

Many of us,

and even today,

we're still reading Jeremiah

2,600 years later

what if in 2,000 years time

if God allows that?

Hong Kong

is a bunch of mountains.

Beijing

is a pile of dust.

But our faithfulness

to God

is still bearing fruit

because He

is making

something much

greater happen.

God plays

a much bigger game

and He calls us

to be part of it

where we trust Him.

Thirdly

and finally,

so He doesn't just

want us to see

as an opportunity.

He just doesn't want

to see us

that actually

there's a much

broader perspective.

He also is more

concerned about our hearts

than just our fields.

You know,

God makes a promise

to the people

who will be exiled

and defeated

by the Babylonians

and He says this,

I will gather them.

I will bring them back.

I will make them

dwell in safety.

I will give them

one heart

and one way

that they may fear me

forever

for their own good

and the good

of their children.

Now for Jeremiah,

what promise

do you think

is the most miraculous here?

You know,

he's gone out

to buy this field

when it seems like

the whole property market

is going to be devastated.

He knows

it's going to require

a miracle

for that ever

to mean anything again.

For there ever

to be a thriving

property market

which isn't just

controlled by the Babylonians.

He knows

that people

are going to be exiled.

But Jeremiah

also sees

that there is

a greater miracle.

Jeremiah,

as we've said,

he's been preaching

for 40 years

and not one

single sermon

has anybody

listened to.

I don't know,

have you ever

tried to warn someone

not to date a person

because you can see

their bad news

and the person

refuses to listen

and then six months later

they come to you

on the phone

crying because

disaster just happened

and you predicted

it all along.

But then

they go back again

to do it again

and again

and again

well for 40 years

and longer

that's been Israel.

And this disaster

is God's judgment

on rebellious sinners

but notice

what he says.

He says

I will give you

one heart.

I will make

with them

an everlasting covenant.

I will put

the fear of me

in their hearts.

I will rejoice

in doing them good.

I will plant

them in the land.

the greatest miracle

in this passage

is that God

doesn't abandon

rebellious

unbelieving

people

like you

and me.

He doesn't

give up

on his people.

He takes

rebels

and he draws

them to himself.

And notice

who's doing

it all.

This is not

kind of clever

Jeremiah.

It's God

who takes

the hard-hearted

and changes them.

It's God

who takes

divided people

and makes them

one.

It's God

who takes

the disinterested

in his voice

and brings them

to fear him,

to love him,

to obey him.

And he says

he does it

through making

a covenant.

A covenant

in blood.

Through Christ's

sacrificial death

on the cross

God does

what we

couldn't do.

Jesus

pursues

rebels

and he will

do anything.

Even dying

on the cross.

Even taking

them through

the most

painful

circumstances

to awaken

them to

see their

need of

him.

Because

God,

is anything

too hard

for God?

Can he

even change

the hardest

heart and

turn it

back?

We cannot

revive our

own hearts.

We cannot

change anybody

else's hearts.

We cannot

stop ourselves

from fearing.

We cannot

stop anybody

else from

fearing.

But nothing

is too hard

for God.

He can

change

even you

and me

and the

people around

us right

now.

You know,

Jesus said,

unless a grain

of wheat

falls to

the ground

and dies,

it will

not bear

fruit.

Jesus

didn't just

buy a field

he'll never

see.

He poured

out his

life for

people who

keep on

ignoring him.

And yet he

has continually

chased after

us.

And we

today are

the

beneficiaries

of that

love

2,000

years ago.

Again and

again.

He could

have said,

it's insane

to give so

much for

people who

be so

ungrateful,

who be so

centered on

themselves.

But he

didn't.

Because God's

love is so

much more

expansive,

so much

more generous

than mine

is or

yours is.

The reason

we can

worship him

today and

say that

theology is

real in our

lives is

because he

said,

not my

will but

yours be

done to

his father.

He entrusted

his entire

life, not

just a field

to his

father, so

that you

and I

could be

his, so

we could

be secure.

Right now,

the biggest

problem in

your life and

in the people

around you is

not the

coronavirus.

It's not

the economy.

it's not

what to do

with your

kids.

It's our

hearts.

And God

shakes

everything down

sometimes to

expose to us

the reality of

where our

hearts are.

You know,

one of the

best things

that is

happening in

Hong Kong

right now in

the midst of

this tragedy

is God is

shattering our

sense of

security and

our sense of

self-control

and our sense

of being able

to control

the world.

God is

because in

history,

when society

is stripped

of the

crutches that

it leans

on apart

from God,

when the

church

realizes it's

got nothing

left,

absolutely

nothing left

to lean on

other than

God himself,

that's when

revivals

break out.

That's when

you begin to

see the

awesome power

of God

coming.

Because you

see,

the way that

God works

through the

cross,

he takes

you through

death to

bring you

into life.

That's the

way the

gospel always

worked,

the cross

before the

resurrection.

God is

bringing death

in multiple

ways in

our lives,

to our

dreams,

to our

hopes,

to our

idols,

to all

kinds of

things,

because he

wants to

bring us

life.

That's where

he's taking

us.

He wants

to resurrect

us through

this with

his power.

So how do

we respond?

We get on

our knees.

We repent

where we

haven't bought

the field

that he's

been telling

us to

buy.

We haven't

listened to

him where

he's been

calling us

to risk

and step

out in

faith.

And we

ask him

to revive

us.

Give us

that fear

of you so

we can step

out in faith

this week to

say, God,

what's the

field you

want me to

buy?

I don't

just want to

have a

theoretical

knowledge of

you.

I don't

even want

to rely

on my

past history

with you.

I want

an experience

and encounter

with you

today and

I want to

trust you

to know

that you're

powerful and

your love

is unfailing.

This is an

opportunity for

us to grow

deeper into

who God

is and

our faith

to grow

and our

love for

others to

grow.

This is

where we

as a church

need to

arise and

be a light

in the

city.

So let

me pray

for us.

Father,

I'm just

so aware

that I

can say

the right

doctrines

about you.

We all

can.

We can

say the

right

experiences

and testimonies

of you

that we

have known

in our

past.

But

Father,

today is

the day

you want

to take

us deeper

into you.

Forgive us,

Lord,

where we've

been so

clinging to

other things

that we have

failed to see

you in the

midst of all

that's going

on.

Forgive us

where we've

not been

willing to

step out in

faith to

trust you

with what

you're calling

us to,

Lord.

Please open

our eyes

to see you.

Speak

to us for

where you're

calling us

to buy a

field this

week,

Lord,

that may

seem insane

in this

current

circumstances.

But because

we know

that we

know

that we

know

that you

are the

creator,

God,

nothing is

too hard

for you.

Give us

that faith

and that

confidence

to trust

you.

Please work

in our

church,

revive us,

Lord.

Let nothing

else provide

the security

in our

lives

that you

do,

Lord.

I pray

that we

would run

to you

with a

new

desperation

and that

you would

just bring

incredible

life,

incredible

fruit,

incredible

freedom

through this

situation,

we pray.

In Jesus'

name,

Amen.