The Jeremiah | Pr Jack Ling

Done for being here this morning, and thank eq for

those now visiting us, those who are maybe some of

you are new here to church, welcome, welcome to ex church.

Uh. And maybe for.

Those of you who are new, you're wondering why these

people standing when this guy came up here.

Uh.

It is a culture we all practice, all right. We

we we learned to do it. We teach our people.

We teach all of us to honor one another, all right,

to honor our leaders, honor our pastors. We learned this

from Pastor Kenneth rather we know him well officially his

name rather his title is Reverend Kenneth Chin uh and uh.

He taught us, you know, to honor uh, you know.

The speaker by standing for them even before they did anything.

Okay. So that's that's you know, and that's how we're gone. Right.

He gave us grace.

He died for us even when we did nothing right,

when we did not know him. He already he died

for us. And so that's why we do the same thing.

We give grace and we say, okay, all right, he

hasn't preached yet, but he will he will do Okay,

he will do well by God's grace, amen. Okay, So

just to let you know why that happens. And I

want to send greetings from our founding senior pastor and

also our you know, and his wife, senior minister. So

his name is, as I said, Kenneth, all right, Reverend

Kenneth Chin. He founded ex church with two others, all right.

And it wasn't even his wife, right, It was two

other guys. And then his wife later came along. Sandra

is a name pass Sandra. And they are our spiritual parents.

They really disciple us and they teach us and so

but of course to love Jesus, amen, right. So just

greetings from them, and so I will bring you a

word this morning. And I want to bring us into

the Book of Jeremiah.

Look of Jeremiah, you know.

So I've been seeking God and praying and then you know,

we try to we see God and ask God, you know,

for what we should be saying and preaching, you know,

because we take it seriously. It's not just my own

opinions and my own ideas. I really I want to

seek the Lord for what he wants to say to

how his house this morning, all right. And so I've

been reading the book of Jeremiah, and I, you know,

I feel the Holy Spirit leading to say, hey, bring

the church through Jeremiah.

All right.

So I was thinking I was planning like maybe twenty

twenty five we start, but spit too long to wait

for twenty twenty five years, and I had nothing else

on my mind.

So I believe, you know, let's let's start.

Let's let's start and Jeremiah and what better way to do.

But you know, then at the end of the year,

all right, to just bring through get us into this

book is very interesting. You know, also some very very

serious sometimes when I read it book, but I just

wanted to What we'll do today is we'll read most

of one chapter and I believe it's going to challenge us.

It's also going to encourage us. Okay, the Book of Jeremiah,

rather the person Jeremiah himself. He's a prophet and he's

and he's very real. He you know, he gets real.

Anybody he'll like to be real. Yeah, yeah, But when

you face the reality of life, that's where you go like, oh,

I didn't realize. I didn't realize. That's what I asked for,

right when things get real? Okay, everything is okay, until

it gets real, and then now you've got to pay

the bills. And then now you're gonna love your wife.

Right when you dated her looked all nice. When you

suddenly live with her and she's not in makeup, it's real, right, okay,

and then you go like, oh, okay, now I know,

now I see yeah, Okay, So I'm just what I'm

saying is Jeremiah is real, man, because God is real,

he man, so God is real with him, and so

he's he's real with the people that he's speaking to.

So anyway, let's get into it.

It all right, and the Lord lead us to listen

to his word and to receive it and.

To apply it. Okay, be doers of the word, not

just hear us man. Okay.

So I have I thought I wanted to start with

Jeremiah one, but I realized I've actually spoke about that

before sometime, you know, some months back, maybe weeks back, so.

I didn't want to repeat myself. And so you can.

I think it's on the recording somewhere, you know, if

you go to the Message to Go website, you can

search for it somewhere. I think it's called Priests. The

title is called priests. So I talked about, you know,

what it means to be a priest, and that we

are known as royal priesthood, right, a chosen generation, a

royal priesthood. That's what we are. That's what God calls us,

you know, in a New Testament. But how I got

into that is that I was talking about Jeremiah being

from a line of priests, and so in a way,

you know, many of us here we're blessed. We come

from a line of believers, right, some of us, your parents,

your family, their pastors in there, all right, and so

we were born in that family and we grew up

and like it or not, I will tell you there

is a blessing in there, okay, because someone decided to

make the right choice, you know, just like Abraham, right,

God called him. He had no idea, and then he said, yes,

he goes to He moves right from his original place

to another place where God called him, and so he

commands a blessing. He receives a blessing, and so his

descendants also inherit that blessing. Right, and so Jeremiah the

same right. He came from a line of priests. His

father's name is I think he'll he'll kia hill KaiA right.

And so.

What I'm saying is that was Jeremiah one. Okay, so

look for that message, all right, Jeremiah one. What else

did I say there? And so just a quick quick summary,

all right, Jeremiah one, he was set apart called by

God to be a prophet to the nations, and then

he gave an excuse, right, but God, I'm too young.

I'm too young. I can't do this, right.

But God told him not to give that excuse, and

God encouraged him and said, you know, I'm with you.

I'm with you, and so I will take care of you.

I will protect you from any danger, and so you

can speak forth that.

Word that I have.

And I think in the scriptures you will also read

that God said I put my words in your mouth,

and so you will have my word to be able

to speak to these people. So don't be afraid. And

so that's the Book of Jeremiah chapter one. Now we're

gonna get to chapter two. Okay, you ready?

All right?

So chapter two. Wow, just realize, as I flipped here,

is quite long. Okay, don't worry. We'll read as much

as we can, okay, And I'll also keep the time

because you know, I'm sure you all will get hungry.

There's lunch and things like that. Okay, all right, So

Jeremiah two, verse one to three. Let's read that first.

And I am aware that children are with us. Okay,

they try to take notes as well. I hope I

can keep it as simple as possible. But the Lord

Holy Spirit help you all children as well, to learn

something here today.

Okay.

I've underlined some words, so you don't have to copy

the whole thing. Right, you can write down the words

that are underline, and the notes that I put up, okay,

and the points that I put up. I put numbers there,

so it's easy for the children. Adults, you go ahead

and write how you need to write.

Okay.

We take notes because it helps us remember. So Jeremiah two,

verse one to three.

Here we go.

The word of the Lord came to me, saying, go

and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord,

I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as

a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in

a land not sown.

Israel was holy to the Lord.

The first fruits of his harvest all who ate of it,

incurred guilt, disaster came upon them, declare as the Lord.

Wow.

So a little bit of poetry there, but there's a

lot of meaning in this, Okay. So the first thing

I want to say is this, from reading the first

three verses, is as we come towards the end right

of twenty twenty four, come moving into twenty twenty five,

what should we do? I mean, to be honest with you, right,

as we move towards the end of the year. I

believe you know, everyone feels has that similar feeling.

Like, wow, it's the end of the year.

I need to breathe. I've done so much, I've gone

through so much. Wow.

You know.

It's either you go like ah, you know, you know,

like like a sigh, like finally, or we cannot even

go like if we can go with how Olivia did

it this morning? Or she chose songs off what Thanksgiving?

Thank you Jesus, you brought me through this whole year. Right,

it's great, It's wonderful to do this at the end

of the year, to reflect right about what has happened

and so and then also of course prepare to step

into the new year. Right, and I hope, and I

pray that all of us will do it in positivity.

You can choose. It's a choice. You want to do

it negatively or you want to do it positively. It

is a choice no matter what you've gone through. You,

I'm sure all of us have gone through some difficult times,

but we can always still choose to say, yeah, thank

you Jesus. Even though I went through so much, you

were with me. You have blessed me. Count the blessings.

Look at all the miracles that He has done. Many

times we forget right what God has done?

Can you?

Can we all just take a moment right now, just

think about at least one or two things God has

done for you this year?

Right? Can you remember?

It's hard to remember sometimes, all right, That's why we

need to write it down sometimes. Yeah, and that's why

we need to share it. When we share it, we

actually tell ourselves, remind ourselves what God has done. Right,

So remember you remember the blessings, You remember the miracles

that He has done for me. I would just tell

you one this year, I think it was this year,

I had a growth on my hand, this lump there.

It got me very worried. I don't know what it was.

Maybe it was just nothing right, but it got me worried. Right,

anyone here, right, we experienced growth in your body, some

part of your body. You're wondering what it is, right.

I didn't get it checked yet. I just I was

just worried. And I started thinking about my life. I

started thinking about like, how how do I, you know,

take care of them? Just this one more year? I

have things like that, right, how long do I have?

And all that all comes to your mind and you worry.

But then I prayed and we prayed, and I shared it,

you know, with my family. I shared, you know, with

the church. I chat with whoever I could say, let's pray,

let's pray and lo and behold. Just a few weeks later,

it disappeared. Praise God, Praise God. Come on, let's praise God. Yeah,

Halley Loujah. He is a god of miracles, all right,

and he is a god who heals. I don't know

what in wasla, but it was there and people saw

it and people felt it, and it was and it

got me worried. But it's now gone. It's now gone.

It's now gone. There's no lump, there's no lum long

time ago already no lamb okay, hallelujah. And and the

best part is I stopped worrying. Stop worrying. I don't

have to think about you know. Of course, once in

a while still feel this and that. Right, of course,

I've been I've been hearing of people around fourteen nowadays,

the forties getting all these hard problems and right to

get your checkups, okay, right, and then people dropping dead

at forty ishm.

It's sad.

And so I'm around forty and I start to worry

as well. But I say, Lord, help me, Lord. And

that's good, you know, in a sense. The challenges that

we have that God allows us to go through, the

worries and the trouble that we that you know, God

allows us go through, helps us to remind us that

we are weak, that we need to turn to him,

all right. If you're all good and all powerful, we

most of us won't turn to God, ok everything, okay, right?

Why do you need to pray? So there's a reason

why we go through stuff. Because God knows that we

need to be kept humble. We need to keep ourselves humble,

all right, And so that's why, and it helps us

to turn to him. Better still, you have no issues,

Just to turn to Himla, that's the best. But many

of us we need a reminder. Tell your neighbor that

we need a reminder. And God is gracious, right. It's

the stuff that we can still go through and return

to Him and we can see things happening. Amen, we

can see healing take place. Now, Okay, let's go back

to this. So what was I trying to say here?

The point is, as we read in the verse, there

there's one part here that says, I remember the devotion

of your youth. I remember the devotion of your youth.

God remembers the devotion of your youth. What does that mean?

He's talking about Israel right when they first got to

know God and got more connected to him. And I

believe it was the time of the Exodus, right, because

they were in a way going through a hard time, right,

difficult time in Egypt, and then came Moses. Moses Uh

brought them out of Egypt, right, And so there was

a time the relationship started to grow with God. And

so God is reminding them, I remember the devotion of youth.

Uh.

They depended on him right for manna in the wilderness,

they depended on him. When they were they were faced

with the sea and the army at the back, right,

and so Moses lifted up his hand right and parted

the Red Sea.

And they saw the miracle of God.

And I believe at that time they were so excited

about God. Wow, he did this right, He split the

Red Sea for us, and and and it destroyed the

army of Pharaoh for us. And so he remembers the excitement,

just like you know, how we first met the person

you know that.

We fall in love with.

Right where or maybe how many of us just's just

think about when you first started your course in school,

excited or not excited. Oh I'm getting out of school, man,

I'm going to college right now.

So exciting freedom.

Right when you first started, when you first started your

first job, excited or not, many of us would have

been there, Wow, I'm gonna work right now, I'm gonna

earn my first you know, salary.

What am I going to do with it? So exciting?

Right, But after many years, after a few years in

your course, are you still excited? Can you remember the

time you were excited?

Yeah?

That actually sometimes that's the thing you.

Need to do.

Remember how you started, you know, even your relationship marriage

still excited or not.

Or any of verse three coming up? Right?

Oh yeah, they look excited. They're going for some staycation

right somewhere.

I won't tell you where. They won't disturb them.

Huh. Right, that's good. Celebrate, keep celebrating. And I remember

the first time you met. Remember the first time you

fell in love. Remember the first time you started the course.

Remember the first time, all right, And remember the first

time you met Jesus. Remember the first time you met

with God. You remember that the time, and you were excited,

and you were in a rally. Maybe you were committing

yourself to Jesus. You're saying, Jesus, I will serve you forever.

Lord.

I want to I want to love you. Want to

read your word? Are you still reading his word?

Yeah?

So I want to challenge us here. Remember the devotion.

So that's the first point here. Keep the devotion of

your youth to the Lord, and be holy. Tell your

neighbor holy. I discovered this as I read this, right, Okay,

I gotta find that word here.

I saw that actually earlier about holy.

Oh yeah, okay, verse three Israel was holy to the Lord.

Let's look at that.

Right, Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits

of his harvest. All who ate of it and curt

guilt disaster. All right, So Israel was holy to the Lord.

Here I underlined it. You realize this, How was Israel holy?

I don't think they did everything right. They were like

you know, beginners, just you know, kind of like coming

closer to God. They were walking in the wilderness. They

were complaining, right, they were doing some mistakes here and there.

But yet God says Israel was holy to the Lord

at this time when they were devoted to him, when

they were excited about him.

So listen, all of us here, we'll use that word holy. Holy.

We sing holy. We say we want to be holy,

but maybe we don't. Maybe this is a simple way

of understanding it. Be excited for the Lord. You want

to be holy, Be excited for him, Be excited for

the devotion of our youth. Continue to be excited about

his word. Continue to be excited about serving him. Continue

to be excited to worship him, to be at in

his house in church, right, to continue to go to

prayer services, to continue to go to homes. Right, we

call it homes. It's our small groups here. Some people

call it cell group, but we call it homes. So

you want to be holy, tell your neighbor or ask

your neighbor you want to be holy, You want to

be holy. Keep your devotion, the devotion of your youth,

your excitement with Jesus. Right, don't grow old on Jesus.

When I you know, we've been married, Me and my

wife been married for.

Fourteen fourteen.

I wanted to say more than ten is safe answer,

But okay, mantena fourteen years right? And uh, I tell

you maybe many people around the world by this time

the love has faded, right or something like that.

Can you can't fade? Right?

But uh, we need to remember.

Our relationship.

And there's kids around, and sometimes you know, so occupied

with the kids as well. But I need to remember

this is my wife, right. I remind my kids. I

need to sleep on the same bit my wife. You

all don't sleep on my bit, right, still working on

it because they're all young. It's okay, we have grace,

but we continue to remember that. But you know, sometimes

I'll just take my wife away from there and just

go and spend some time with her without them.

Yeah, And I mean I haven't.

I haven't brought her out much for dates recently, but

I've been talking about it at least. Say, hey, this

nice place to come for data, Like we come for

tea time. All right, Okay, we'll do before before the

year ends or two, right, but we do talk. We

do talk. We do spend some time just with each

other without the kids, because that's very important because to remember,

that was the first thing we were excited for each other. Yeah,

So okay, everyone, same thing applies for everything, right, so

do the same thing for your relationship with Jesus.

Keep the devotion of your youth. Amen.

All right, let's move on. I want to say one

was saying, just remind us. Ah, you know, this was

eight hundred years after they got out of Egypt, Okay,

around there, according to studies, and so it's understandable. We say,

it's understandable. After eight hundred years, some people might forget

what happened, right, but guys, most of us here, it

hasn't been eight hundred years, all right since we met Jesus.

So let's not use that excuse. Okay, they are eight

hundred years of killer understandable. They need a reminder, Okay,

So let's remind each other here right now, Stay excited

for Jesus, continue.

To serve him.

When you praise, praise out loud, you know with your heart,

serve you know, with passion. Okay, even if you don't

feel it, you gotta sometimes you gotta stir the feeling. Right,

lead the feeling. Don't let the feeling lead you. Amen, hallelujah.

All right, come, let's go Chapter two, verse four to five.

Right now, hear the word of the Lord, old house

of Jacob and all the clans of the House of Israel.

Thus says the Lord, What wrong did your fathers find

in me? It's very precious, are you here? She's God speaking?

What wrong did your fathers have finding me? That they

went far from me and went after worthlessness and became worthless?

Wow? All right?

My next point here is keep near to the Lord

and be worthy. Keep near to the Lord and be worthy.

So the question God asked here, if you can go

back to the verse, is what wrong do we find

in the Lord?

Right? Some of us here, I don't know.

Maybe you feel far away from the Lord, or maybe

you are far away from God. But the question God

asks us is this, what wrong have you found in him.

Let's think about that a little bit. What wrong have

we found in him that we are far away from him?

Right?

Some verse we make it sound like this, I've done

so much wrong. Oh I'm worthless. Oh I'm not worthy

to come near God. But actually God asked us the

other question, what wrong have I done that you are

far from me?

Yeah?

Of course you feel worthless, you feel you know, lousy, whatever,

But do you have to go far from me? Because

what wrong have I done? So let's not make that

the reason we're far from God? Because he has done

nothing wrong. He is good, he has blessed us.

Right.

Of course, he wants us to do the right thing.

And maybe that's the reason we don't want to be

near him, We don't want to do the right thing, right,

I mean, that's more of the truth, right, It's more

more like the truth.

It's not like, oh, I'm lousy.

I feel bad, I'm insecure whatever, Sorry, God, let me

let me have some time away from you, let me

get you, let me take a break. No, don't take

a break from the Lord. Because he's good? Right, Yeah,

And that's what we do sometimes right to other people

as well? Right, Oh, I don't want to hang out

with people because I feel, you know, not not nice whatever,

But what what what wrong have they done? Okay, so

let's get over that, right, don't blame other people, right,

let them, let them minister to you, let them encourage you.

I love this. What wrong do we find in the

Lord that we go far from.

Him and go after worthlessness and become worthless?

So this is the thing.

When we go far from God, we make ourselves worthless.

This is interesting.

When we are near him, we become worthy because he's worthy,

he's worthy. Then we need to come nearer to those

who are worthy. Yeah, okay, it's just like you know,

social life and sola. You know when you when you

want to be popular, you come nearer to the popular people, right, okay,

unless you're the popular persona.

Right.

You want to be smart, you go near to the

smart people, right, those who call of a's You must

hang out with the A people, right unless you influence them.

But I'm just kidding. Most times it doesn't happen. Most

times they influence you.

Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.

But if you want to be bad, then you hang

out with the bad boys. Okay, then you will go down, right,

same thing here. You want to be good, you want

to be holy, You want to be worthy, you want

to feel worthy, you want to be confident. Hang up

with Jesus. Come near to him, don't go far from him.

Come into his house, read his word. Then you will

understand your worth. You're worth Okay, So don't be don't

go after worthlessness. Don't become worthless by going far from God.

Come near to him. How do you come near to him?

Be in his house, be among his people, read his word,

be in prayer, keep praying every day.

You know, talk to talk to Jesus. Talk to him.

That's how you are near him. How you know you're

far from him? You're not praying, you're not reading his word.

You don't want to come to church, you don't want

to go to homes, all right, you want you don't

want to hang out with the Christian people. That's being

that's trying to be far from him. Okay, I understand.

And some you want to reach out to people, right,

reach out to people who are who are far from Jesus.

All right, But but you know you know what you're doing. Okay,

move on, ah, here we go Jeremiah two six to eight.

They did not say are we okay? All managed to

take notes? The kids need to go back to any slides. Yeah,

which one point two point two?

Is it? Okay? Point two? Shore for a while? Yeah, mhm,

keep near to the lawd and be worthy right, all right?

While this is still there, Now, mind, I'll read the

rest of us, will well, just listen to Jeremiah two

six to eight.

They did not say where is the law?

Lord who brought us up from the land of Egypt,

who led us in the wilderness, in the land of

deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness,

in a land that none passes through, where no man dwells.

And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy

its fruits and it's good things. But when you came in,

you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination.

The priests did not say sorry. The priest did not

say where is the lord? Those who handled the law

did not know me. The shepherds transgressed against me. Some

of just say the pastors transgressed against me. The prophets

prophesied by bail and went after things that do not profit, okay,

underlying that those who handled the law did not know me.

Okay, it means you know, for example, I think I'll talk.

To leaders first of all, while here it's leaders and

those who are serving. Right, those who handle the law

did not know me, meaning those who lead, those who preached,

those who shared the word of God, those who were

maybe leading in worship, those who were ministering did not

know him.

So we were doing all.

The stuff we were working as if we were, you know, ministers,

But we actually personally don't know God. We don't spend

time with him, We don't pray, we don't seek him.

Someone to encourage all of us. Leaders.

Leaders, you want to lead well, you want to do well,

you want to and those who are in the marketplace right,

you want to serve well, you want to preach the word, well,

you need to know God. You need to be in

his prayer essence. You need to spend time with him.

Otherwise you are not. You don't really know him, and

you will lead well if if you know him, When

you know him, you will speak naturally of him.

All right.

We had some students in our house yesterday, all right,

and asked a lot of questions.

I love it, we love it, me and Jill. We

love the questions.

We haven't had it for a while now, but it's good,

you know, kept our brains working, uh and.

Our hearts as OK. Yeah, So we were answering.

Questions and then one of the questions was, uh, faster,

what's your workflow?

Like, how do you prepare for message?

Oh?

Scamed me for a while. It's like, do I have

a workflow? Then I started to think, do I have

a workflow? Was my workflow? And started to try and

answer that. I think I read you know beforehand, I

tried to prepare early. I do try to think about it,

and I said, I said, most of the time, it's

all having it's all going on here, all right. I

I don't really have much time to sit down and

type a lot of things. But when I do get

and I'll starting to type it all out. But it's

all going on in there, right and you know, in prayer.

But then finally I remembered, yeah, actually, actually the messages

come by the daily reading of the Word. It's by

daily seeking God and daily reading of the Word. That

is how actually my messages come. It is not just

a sit down, of course, that is needed to sit

down and prepare and put it all together to you

know as a you know, masterpiece in a sense. But

if I did not seek God every day and pray

to him and listen to his and read his word

and listen to his word, I would not have any messages.

It is daily.

So that's why I thank God. You know that daily.

I said, that is how actually I prepare true. Actually

God prepares me.

That is how. That is what Pascal will also say.

God prepares us to preach the message, to speak the message.

It's and I said, you know, one of the things

that we do here in next church is we we

always talk about how it's applied in our lives because testimonies,

because God is alive.

Amen.

Because sometimes we give academic you know, uh interpretation of

the world or whatever. But does it show in your

own life? Does it? Does it? You know, it is

is demonstrated in your own life? Uh, and do we

even experience it by ourselves? So then there's more power

in that. And so that's that's how we answered.

That. The students.

So uh know him, know Him more importantly than just

you know, serving and doing things and preaching.

Right.

Some of us here, I know, leaders we struggle with

like let's say you know homes notes, how to teach

at homes or whatever.

Right, how to pray for people? Praying for people?

Right, we should pray from our knowledge of God, knowing him,

a man, spending time with him. So we know how

to pray because we've always been praying. I want to

encourage us to do that, leaders and all the other

rest here as well.

Okay, hallelujah.

So the point here is keep seeking and knowing the

Lord and have plenty and profit because that's what we

read just now.

Right.

He brings us into a land of plentiful and he

is the one who profits us. But when we turn

away from him, we don't profit. Okay, we don't see blessing.

You want to be blessed. Know him, Know.

Him, and our hearts will be blessed.

We will be thankful for what we have already in

the first place, we will see the blessing that He

has given us. But if we don't know him, we

don't seek him. No matter how much we have, no

matter how much we get, we may not be happy

about it. We may not be thankful about it. It

may not be meaningful at all. Even if you have millions,

you know how many of you know rich people who

are unhappy? They are unhappy, They're not satisfied. They just

want more every time. They already have so much, but

still want more.

Right.

But with the Lord, even with the little that we get,

we're happy. There's joy, Amen, because our treasures are in heaven.

Yeah. Doesn't mean you can already rich. Huh. Please continue

to be rich.

All right and be a blessing Okay, but continue to

obey the Lord.

Let's go on now.

When I talk about see King here, you know, when

we seek God, when we pray, when we see God,

I want to challenge us something here. When we seek God, right,

very normally and typically we go this way?

Lord? Can I have this job? Lord? There's this job here?

I can I have it? You know? Our Lord? There's

this thing I want? Can I can I pray? Pray?

Lord?

Please give that to me. Lord? There's this lady I like,

Please give her to me? Like? Right, That's that's one

way that people seek God.

But can we I want to encourage us here to

seek another way?

Right? Lord? Is this job for me? Lord? Which job

do you want me to have?

That's another that's another level of seeking God, of allowing

him to speak into the situation, and maybe he'll say,

this job is not for you. I want you to

do this instead, can you? And you don't trust me?

And trust God? More importantly, he gives us the better choice.

He will not give us something like had this one

so bad? Why are you giving this.

Hard?

This lady? Right? All this man, we all always think

of the worst a nightmare. That God's going to give

you a nightmare, and go through the nightmare forever in

your life. I'm gonna teach you a lesson. You think

God is like that, Come on, I assure you, all right,

knowing God, he is good, he will give you good things,

all right.

I did that, you know.

I was like searching for my own you know, future wife, like, oh,

maybe this one candidate, this one, this one, this one,

oh nice, this one good in my own standard nice

good or beautiful, nice, pretty good, good, strong, okay, my

own definitions. And I did try that. I went for

try to you know, get to know hey, all went bad.

Then I finally gave up. I gave up. I said, God,

I'm not gonna look for anyone anymore.

Stop all this it's just nonsense.

Because it took so much my time and my you know,

effort and my strength because I was doing that during

my studies and I did badly in studies. But and

in the final year at least where I gave up

all that, I did better in my studies, praised the

Lord hallelujah.

So I at least finished well. But it didn't.

It wasn't enough to give me the greatest results. It

was just okay. It was at least yeah, because uh, yeah,

I won't tell that story now about yeah, go do

God do some scholarship and things like that. So I

kind of missed the scholarship. But anyway, because of my

own mistakes. But anyway, I stopped all there. I said, God,

I'm just gonna surrender to you. I'm not gonna do this.

I'm gonna live a single life, a wonderful single life,

because someone taught me this. Hey, you only single for

that moment. We Once you get married, that's it. No

more single hood, forget about it, right, Paul, I was

talking to Paul. He's still getting used to getting married now, right,

all of a sudden, you go to that, and so

they were going like, oh, the single life is gone.

So I'm telling you guys, you're getting into marriage, right,

appreciate your single life, right, all the married people say,

but all the marriage but all the married people so

we have the best lives. Yeah, right, being married is

all so good, So appreciate your single life because when

you're married, you have married life to go through.

So anyway, I went.

Through my single life at least what I finally are

beautifully with no worries about like who's my future wife

and all that kind of stuff. And I went for

a few years like that. And I and my prayer

was this, God, whoever you want me to marry, you

give to me, actually srender to you.

Wow.

What a dangerous prayer, What a dangerous prayer? Right, Okay,

And yeah, at the back of my mind, left, don't

give you a nightmare. Don't give you a nightmare?

Right.

But uh, then you know I trusted godler and I

told something. I told you some of you this story before.

God gave me dreams, not nightmare, beautiful dreams of who.

The person is, Yeah, who the person is. And I

didn't marry that person. Yeah.

So I'm telling you it's real. God is real. Everyone

tell your neighbor there.

God is real.

I challenge you to do the same, you know, with

whatever decision you make next.

Right, Lord, you show me, tell me what I need

to do?

Right? How am I supposed to serve in church?

Show me? Wow? What if he gives you something huge

and so be it?

Because he will, He will provide, He will give you

the grace to be able to handle it. All right,

I tell you I I someone the students will ask,

how do you become a pastor?

Say?

I never dreamt or wanted to be a pastor even

never crossed my mind. But all of a sudden, right

it was, you know, offward to me and said, oh,

you'll be this now. And I was still in denial

when I was you know, the church did something called

pastoral in turn because I wasn't quite a pastor yet,

so passor Kenneth like, okay, you're being pastoral intern first,

get you know, get used to that idea and so.

But even when I was a pastoral intern, I was

always in denial.

You know.

Whenever they called pastors up to pray for people, I

sat down.

I denied.

You know, I'm in this pastoral thing. I didn't want to.

But then God rebuked me and said stop it. It's

not about you. Title is not about you, it is

for it's I want to give you this so that

you can serve me in greater measure. And so I

stopped being so you know, prideful. And when the next time,

you know, they called up past us, I went up

and I accepted it. I received it, and I walked

in the calling. So it's not like again I'm trying

to say, it's not like I desired or dreamt or

I one day I want to be a pastor. Got

called and I answered it, you know, eventually after some struggle.

But maybe some of you are struggling with whatever, serving

doing whatever the Lord wants to tell you to do.

But come on, give it up, give it up, surrender

to him because you will have plenty and you will profit.

The Lord will bless you. He will give you good things.

All right.

Tell your neighbor that you haven't spoken to maybe behind

or he will give you good things. All right, surrender

to him. He will give you good things.

Amen. All right, we move on, eron doing.

Okay, okay, Verses nine to thirteen. Right now we reader,

actually most of it. We're reading the Bible today, right, Okay,

here we go. Therefore, I still contend with you, declare

the Lord, and with your children's children. I will contend

for to the coasts of Cyprus and sea, or send

to Kidar and examined with care. See if there has

been such a thing. Has a nation changed its gods?

This was very also very interesting to me, even though

there are no gods. But my people have changed their

glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, Oh

heavens at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord.

For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken

me the fountain of living waters and hewed out systems

for themselves, broken systems that can hold no water.

Did I underline something here?

Yeah, they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters.

So firstly, in the earlier verses them, I just leave

it here. It's fine of us. As you will notice

that Jeremiah asks Israel to look around. I mean, now,

if we look around us, so you know, not not here,

but maybe sometimes here so but outside you look around,

your your friends, your colleagues, or the people around you.

They worship other gods, and it's so hard to change

their beliefs. It's so hard for us to convince them

that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life,

because they are so strong with their traditions and the

gods that they are so used to, even though if

they really dig deep into it and look at the

gods that they worship, it's not really worth their time,

but they still do it, and it's so hard for

them to change. But then God is saying, but then

now people, my people, my people can just change like

that can change anytime. So can we be faithful? Faithful?

Where's where's the faithfulness?

Right?

So that is a question is quite valid, right, It's

quite interesting.

Right. We can suddenly decide.

I don't want to self God anymore, suddenly decide I

don't want to worship anymore, suddenly decide I don't read

the Bible anymore, suddenly decide I don't want to come

to church anymore.

But you look at a lot of you know, people

around us.

They worship other gods, and they so devoted every moment

they're there. They're found in that, in that whatever the

place they worship. Right, but I want but of course

there's many of us here. We're found here every Sunday.

Praise God. Right, well done for doing that, okay, I

mean the Lord continue to encourage us and help us

to be in his house. But that's what Jerrymiah is asking.

So what's the point here? The point here? Number four,

do not forsake the Lord, the fountain of living waters.

Do not forsake the Lord the fountain of living waters.

What does this mean? You know, fountains are moving water,

all right, and it's contrasted with cisterns, which is actually

still water, okay. And it goes on to say, this

system is broken, it cannot hold the water. So sometimes

we are so we are, we're we're satisfied with still water.

And when when you're talking about still water is water

that is already deteriorating this, you know, the bacteria things,

it's growing in there. But fountains or rivers or streams

keep moving and it's alive, living water all right, and

it's fresh, all right. And that's what God is who

God is. God is a fountain of living water. Jesus

is the living water. Amen, And that's why we need

to continue to come to him. Right when if you

think about civilized civilization of old, they look for rivers, right,

they look for living water to live beside to grow,

to be able to live and survive. Okay, otherwise, and

they need it every day. They need to wash every day,

They need to drink every day. They need to shower

every day. How many of you here, you shower every day? No,

they don't have to raise your hand. Okay, some of

you I don't know, but most of us do shower

every day.

We drink water every day. Take a sip of water.

Now, everyone, just just remind yourself with water. No, I

don't worry. Okay, don't have to. But but you know,

look at the water you're drinking. You need it.

You need to drink water.

And that water is clean water, right, Yeah, you made

sure it's clean.

You boiled it.

And so fountain of living water is the law is

a fountain of living water. But sometimes we rather dig

our own sisterns, find our own way to survive, you know,

forsake God far away from him. And that's what the

people of that time were doing. They were worshiping other gods.

They were sinning horribly against the Lord. The word is,

they were looking for a substitute for the Lord. But

there's no substitute, you know. Yeah, when we leave God,

we are leaving the source of life. And you know

I wrote down here it is so much more work

to try to dig out our own systems. You know,

God's living water fountain is readily available, right pumping, and

all you need to do is just go to him,

go near to him. But when we talk about digging

our own systems, do you know how much work that is?

I'm not sure anyone of you have tried doing that before, right,

you do farming, so you're like digging the story, all right,

It's so much more work to try to build our

own source of life. Yeah, and that is where the

water is like still water and it doesn't last long broken.

But I want to encourage all of us here, Let's

continue to come near to God. Come near to him

because he's the source of living water.

And we need him. Amen. Amen, only hear one, Amen, Amen. Amen.

Okay, all right, hey, stay alive, Stay alive everyone, Okay, children,

all okay, all right, we're almost done. Were almost done. Okay,

fourteen to nineteen, almost DONEA Hey you guys, Okay, I

just wanted us to go through scripture, right, I know

it's a little bit a lot of words, Okay, but

aren't you glad you at least read most of the

chapter today.

Chapter two.

Yeah, okay, okay, here we go. First fourteen. Is Israel

a slave? Is he a homeborn servant? Why then has

he become a prey? The lions have roared against him,

They have roared loudly. They have made his land a waste.

His cities are in ruins without inhabitant. Moreover, the men

of Memphis and tapanies that's I think that's Egypt have

shaved the crown of your head. I think that has

to do with they're gonna kill their king, Israel's king. Okay,

have you not brought this upon yourself by forsaking the Lord,

your God when he led you in the way? And

now what do you gain by going to Egypt to

drink the waters of the Nile?

Okay?

God is playing with the words here because he say

he's the living water. Right, But they're going to drink.

They going to Egypt. They think they can get protection

from Egypt.

Right. They fear Egypt.

How strange They just ran away from them. I mean

first eight hundred years ago, right, they escaped them, and

now they want to return to them. They fear the

armies of Egypt more than the armies of God. Okay,

let's continue to read. First, they want to drink the

Nile River. How clean is that?

Right?

Or what do you gain by going to a Syria

that's the that's Babylon to drink the waters of the

Euphrratus or Euphrates?

Okay nineteen.

Your evil will chastise you, and your apostasy will reprove

you know and see that it is evil and bitter

for you to forsake the Lord, your God. The fear

of me is not in you, declares the Lord God

of Hosts, the Lord God of Hosts.

God.

He doesn't simply use words when he says the Lord

God of Hosts. He's trying to say, I have an army,

and my army is better and greater than any army

of the earth.

Why are you afraid of them and not me? Right?

So obvious s always afraid of things. That doesn't make sense.

We should fear God more than any other thing than

that fierce boss or what than that fierce whatever family member.

We should not fear them, because God is even more

He's you.

Know, on Tudah.

He can even be even more ferocious than that angry uncle, yeah,

or that boss.

All right, so we fear him more than men.

But we can't we we we don't remember that sometimes,

so we need a reminder. Uh now, let's look at

there's a point number five. Okay, point number five. Fear

the Lord of Heaven's armies, not the armies of the earth,

not the dangers of the earth, as fear the Lord

of Heaven's armies. Hey, divine army from Heaven. They don't

use normal guns or chariots you know, or tanks like

I mean whatever, I'd use AI. I heard you know

that China has like a jet that can fly to

America in just a few hours. Now, just all great stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

scary stuff. What are they gonna do with that?

Chat? Right? Yeah?

But hey, God's armies can do faster than that. Yeah,

he can go from A to z in in seconds

or less than that.

All right.

God is supernatural and so we should feel his army more.

He's AI. He doesn't use AI. He's better than AI.

Yeah right, I just tell you one quick story. I

got some results. I did tell this, really, I did

say something. Yeah, I got results right for my first

assignment and three assignments, one assignment. I reallyed a little

bit more on AI the two. The other two I realized,

not so AI, not so good. I did my own

work more so, more of my own words. And guess

which one's got higher? The one that I did more work, Scott,

the higher one. The one with AI did badly. Maybe

I'm not good at using AI, or maybe I was

just telling you know, some of the students I didn't

use the paid AI, use free AI. Free AI was lousy.

But anyway, Hey, God gave you a brain that is

better than AI.

Huh. I would definitely say that. That's definitely true.

Okay, I mean AI has its strengths. Ah, I'm not

I'm not putting down AI. AI still in development, artificial

artificial not real real intelligence versus artificial.

Amen.

Okay, all right, I'm not putting down AI. I has

its strengths and you can use it for some for

some benefits, but.

Your brain is better. Hallelujah. Okay, So.

Now let's focus on verse nineteen for a while. Your

evil will chastise you. That's also very interesting, right, this

is a truth the Bible. Sometimes we feel like we

want to punish someone they did something, you know, wrong.

This and then all right, and then you feel like

I need to say it, I need to address it,

I need to you know, give it to them. But actually,

you see he says here, they're evil, will chastise them.

You know, a person who is evil, their own evil

deeds will turn around and get back at them.

They will face consequences.

So actually, many times we don't really need to, you know,

take it in our own hands and punish someone and

say you deserve this, because actually the truth of the

word of God is this, things will come back to them.

So just leave it to the Lord. Right, he fights

for us. And so no matter what, how you know,

what someone has done wrong to us, we can leave

it to the Lord. We can leave it to their

own evil to us ties them. Yeah, so this is

the truth of God's word. You're evil, will chastise you.

Your apostacy will reprove you right. So again, it's so

wanting to us. If we continue to walk in the

ways of unrighteousness and in darkness, it will come back

to us.

So let's choose light and stay.

Let's choose what is right instead, because then blessing will flow.

Amen, hallelujah.

And then the one uh one more verse says Here

the Lord says, know and see that it is evil

and bitter for us to forsake the Lord. It is

evil and bitter for us to forsake the Lord. Okay,

for it shows that we do not fear him, but

we fear men. How many of us knew that that

it was evil and bitter to forsake God? This is

what the Lord says, all right, So whenever you know

we forsake him, let's be reminded it's actually evil. It's

actually a very negative thing. So let's continue to hold

on to him. Let's continue to be near him, not

forsake him, continue to serve him and love him, because

then it's good, right, And it's sweetness bitter obviously a bitters.

I don't know, sweetness, savory, whatever taste you like. So

don't be evil and bitter by forsaking the Lord. And

I think I have come towards the end. Keller The

last one, last one, last one, last one, Verse twenty

to twenty two. Only I'll stop there for long ago

I broke your yoke and burst your bonds. But you

said I will not serve yes on every high heel

and and under every green tree, you bowed down like

a whore. Wow, Yet I planted you a choice vine,

holy of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate

and become a wild vine? Though you wash yourself with

lie and use much soap, the stain of your guilt

is still before me, declares the Lord God. So this

part here, I just want to say, stay in God's vineyard, right,

because it says I planted you a choice vine, holy

of pure seed. What this means is in God's vineyard,

his fruit is juicy, is sweet, is good, It's worthy.

You know, you can sell it for good money in

the sense it is healthy, all right, and they make

good wine with it. It's a beautiful fruit in God's

vineyard where he prunes and he right, he works on it.

God is the.

Vine dresser, the person in charge, all right, And we're

connected to the vine, which is Jesus God's vineyard. Stay

in God's vineyard because if you don't, what happens is

this you become a wild vine. What's a wild vine?

A wild vine? You're still kind of like a grape

or whatever. A grape plant you're growing outside of God's

vineyard sounds cool.

I'm a wild guy.

Wold person, I do whatever I like right outside of

the vineyard. Haha, you guys, goody two shoes in God's

vineyard in there, right, you look so round? All right,

big juicy fruits. We're outside here. The fruits are green

in color.

It's okay.

We're small because nobody waters us, nobody gives us fertilizers,

nobody ruins us.

Were wild.

We're growing right, Know, the thing grows long and anywhere

it goes. But who will ever eat that? Who can

ever eat that? And if you do take a bite

on it, it's gonna be sour. It's not gonna be nice,

It's not gonna be nutritious. Right, a wild vine outside

of God's vinya, staying God's vignyard. All right, and we

come to a close. Maybe extreme can come up. We

just get into a time of prayer. It's the finest

Sunday of the year. Come less, everyone, children, adults, Okay,

everyone in between. Let's stand to our feet, Let's give

thanks to God.

Let's worship him with our hearts.

And I hope today whatever you heard from the Word

of God from Jeremiah, go back and read for yourself,

go back and reflect and write down your own you

know thoughts, what twenty twenty four was for you? Right,

let's be thankful, let's look at it positively, Yeah, even

though we went through different challenges. And then let's get

ready for twenty twenty five. Amen, by staying near Jesus,

not forsaking him. If anything, come closer, come closer to him,

come closer to his house, come closer to his people,

and surrender yourself. Say Lord, no, I'm not going to

pray prayers like God, please give me this, please give

me that. But I'm going to say God, what do

you want to give me? Oh Lord, what do you

want me to do?

Lord?

What do you want to What is your instruction for me?

Is a humble prayer, A humble prayer to say, Lord,

I surrender this to you. I surrender this decision to you.

I allow you to speak into my life. I am

like a clay. I'm like a clay ready for you

to mold me. Do you know someone told me before

I believe it's passa Kenneth. He said, you know, if

how much clay you give to God is how much

he can mold.

But if you hold back the clay, he won't mold it.

He won't Fosse mold you, you know, but if you

want to be molded by Jesus too, into perfection, into holiness,

we need to surrender our clay to him. Surrender our

clay to him. I'm speaking to everyone here, even children.

All right, we want to we want God to mold this.

We surrender our clay to him and say, God, you

molded You. Take it and do what you want with it.

I'm not going to tell you what design I want. Lord,

make a transformer. No, Lord, you do whatever you want

with it, and then when he gives it back to you,

we receive it. This is what I want, my child.

That's what he says. So if anyone here you wanna today,

you know, before twenty twenty five begins, surrender your clay,

you as a clay, surrender to him. Surrender a little

bit more. Maybe you still struggle, you don't want to

give all to God. Okay, but give it more, give

it more and see the beauty that he gives back

to us, and be convinced that, Okay, I can give more.

I can give more to the Lord because he's so good.

He's our designer, he's our creator. Man hallelujah. Why don't

we as a symbol right now, just take a moment,

right now, and you want here, You want to surrender

your clay for God.

To mold you.

You raise both your hands wherever you are, no one

else looking around, no one looking at anyone. You raise

your hands, say, Lord, this is me, this is my clay.

You take and mold me. You take and do something

new in my life. Whether you're your leader, you're a

new Christian or not, or older Christian is fine. We

can continue to surrender to Jesus who loves us so much.

Halleloo, oh Jesus.

Amen, Father, Lord, you see these hands raised to you.

All these are hands of worship God. They acknowledge their God.

We acknowledge our God, who is our creator. You are

our creator, our God who is our designer, who knows

all things about us. The Lord is our hands of

worship and trusting you, saying Lord, I trust you, Lord,

I trust you.

I don't know what the.

Future holds, but I know you hold the future, and

I know I can trust you. You are not an

evil god trying to give us nightmares. You are a

God who wants to give us beautiful dreams. And fulfill

the dreams and the promises that you give to us.

Lord.

I believe, Lord, there are some dreams here that you

have given to different people here, and it's being just

brought up again, stirred up again and reminded again, dreams

and promises that you've given to each and every one

of us here. And maybe we feel it's not yet

you know, fulfilled or not yet.

I've not on yet seen it. Lord, I just want

to pray right now.

Look God for a divine intervention right now, Holy Spirit, Lord,

have your way. I pray, Lor God, for my brothers

and my sisters.

Here.

You are reminding them of the dream that you've given

to them, the promises you've given to them, the Lord,

I pray, and I believe. Look, God, even as they

step into twenty twenty five, God, they shall see these

dreams coming to pass.

God, that they will be able to.

Walk into the plans and the purpose, Lo, God, that

you've given to them, because they are coming nearer to you.

As they come near to you, Lord God, they walk

in the dream. Lord, Thank you Jesus. They're different ones here.

They're still wondering. Maybe they're still worried about different things.

Do not worry, the Lord says. Do not be afraid,

the Lord says, for I am with you. I am

with you. Don't go away from me. Don't go far

away from me, because what have I done? What have

I done that you go far away from me? Come nearer,

Come nearer, draw closer, because I am the fountain of

living waters, and there is life in me. Go go

building your own digging your own systems. Don't go digging

your own wells because it will not last long anyway,

and it's too much work for you. I have done

it all. It's what the Lord says. I have done

it all. It is done, says Jesus on the cross.

So just come to me. Cast your cares on me,

for I care for you. I love you. You are

my people, you are my sheep, holy Spirit. Have your way, Lord,

Thank you Lord for these hands.

You're saying. Moreby Lord, shape me, Lord, however you want. Lord.

I'm not gonna put my conditions. Lord.

It's your way, not my way. So Lord, I thank

you Lord for this surrender. Right now, we worship you

and we praise you, Lord, and we know that you

are going to take it seriously.

Lord, You're gonna take it seriously.

You're going to do something beautiful, marvelous and wonderful, Lo God,

in our lives, which you've already done. You've been doing

it Lord this year. Next year, it's got to be

even clearer, even better. Look God, let's worship him,