[0:00] All right, take your Bibles, if you would, and turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 42. Jeremiah chapter 42. I want to spend some time with you in a very, well, we're going to cover five chapters.
[0:18] You better get your Bible ready if you want to mark any of the verses, I can promise you that. But this is kind of one of the most discouraging passages that you could ever imagine.
[0:32] They, oh, Zedekiah has had his eyes put out. The city has been burned. Things have been destroyed. God has.
[0:48] And so chaos ensued. Wild and crazy things take place in these chapters. It's because God did it.
[1:00] And that shocks the people of Judah. They can't believe that God did it. And Jeremiah decides to stay with Gedali, who will be the assigned governor of the country.
[1:18] And when he stays, that angers a lot of people. Because Jeremiah's with Gedali, and Gedali's doing what Babylon wants him to do.
[1:29] And so some of the people are like, who are you? We want you dead. The patriots wanted him dead. And so there's this freedom-fighting man named Ishmael. And he's like, bless God, I'm a real Jew.
[1:43] I don't kowdow down to Babylon. I'm going to kill him. And Johanan is a lying, hypocrite, fake believer.
[1:54] And he's kind of like working with Gedali. And he says, they're going to kill you, buddy. Let me kill him before he kills you. He acts real brave and real powerful. But Gedali said, no, no, I believe him.
[2:09] I'll try to show you these verses. And he said, I believe him. I trust him. He wouldn't hurt me. And old Johanan's like, oh, yes, he will. And it won't be long until Johanan is right.
[2:20] And old Ishmael has killed him. And the chaos is centered around the fact that the people are upset. How do you deal with your world falling apart? How do you deal with your world falling apart?
[2:32] How do you deal with your city burned with fire? How do you deal with your king and all the nobles gone? And the only people left are the poor people.
[2:43] How do you deal with that? Had to be pretty rough. So Johanan goes to Jeremiah. And he says, hey, we want you to call on the Lord for us.
[2:53] We need to know what God wants to do here. Boy, it's a sincere side of thing. He says to Jeremiah, he says, if you'll call on. So would you please call on God for us?
[3:04] And Jeremiah says, I'd be glad to talk to God for you. He goes, talks to God. He comes back after 10 days. And he said, I've got an answer from God. I'm going to read you a little bit of that in just a second. I've got an answer from God.
[3:16] Now, you said you was going to do what God said do. And they decide not to do that. And Jeremiah says, you know, I knew you was lying basically from the time you started moving your lips.
[3:30] And so it's not going to work. And so we went from that to some great confusion. What happens is these people can't understand.
[3:42] They didn't like Jeremiah's message. I mean, if your country falls apart and God was trying to help you and didn't help you, that'd feel better than God just let your country fall apart.
[3:54] No, he didn't. He destroyed your country. God destroyed your country. Jeremiah's over there saying, y'all bunch stinking wicked sinners. God's mad.
[4:04] And so God has destroyed your country. And they don't like that message at all. The fact is, they blame Baruch. They say he's Jeremiah's secretary, Jeremiah's assistant.
[4:16] And they say, well, it's his fault. He's been telling you bad stuff about us. And that's why all this has happened. That's why you and God got it out for us. But as it comes to find out, you realize that they love a false God.
[4:30] Her name is the queen of heaven. They worship the moon. And they worship false gods.
[4:42] And that hurts your God. I'll show you those verses if I can get to that tonight. And so God condemns them. That's it. He said, I told you not to go to Egypt.
[4:56] I told you I'd take care of you. You go to Egypt. I'll kill you there. I'll destroy that country too. You're not running from me. You don't like me.
[5:07] You disobeyed me. You chose to worship other gods. And you're running because you're afraid of the Chaldeans. You're afraid of the Babylonians. You're afraid of Nebuchadnezzar. I'll send him to Egypt to get you.
[5:19] Well, they don't like that at all. So the whole story concludes with this. God says, you will be punished. I don't like your disobedience.
[5:29] I don't like your false gods. I don't like your queen of heaven. You can no longer call my name. And old Baruch is brokenhearted.
[5:42] He actually says to God, I just can't take much more of this. And God says, I'm sorry, I'll take care of you and you won't die. But the bad news sticks. It's going to happen. Look, if you would, with me at Jeremiah 42.10.
[5:56] Jeremiah 42.10. The Bible says, Jeremiah's preaching to him. Now, if you will abide in this land. Now, if you got your Bible open there, circle the word if.
[6:08] You see, they're given the option. You can obey if you want to obey. But if you don't obey, and he's going to tell them both ifs. If you will abide in this land, then will I build you.
[6:21] Would you want to learn that? But at least circle the word I. God is going to say I several times right here in this little passage. I'm going to read you. He said, if you'll abide, I will build you.
[6:33] I won't pull you down. I will plant you. I will not pluck you up. I repent me of the evil. I feel bad about how you've suffered. I feel bad about how the king died.
[6:46] Or God, he's lost his eyes. And the king's boys died. And I feel bad about the city burning down. And if you'll just do right. And he says in verse 11.
[6:57] Be not afraid of the king of Babylon. You need to underline that. Look at this. He says, y'all are worried about the wrong thing. Don't fear a man who can only kill your body.
[7:08] Fear a God who can put your soul in hell. But he said, y'all are afraid of Babylon. You're afraid of the king of Babylon. Look at verse 11. Be not afraid of the king of Babylon.
[7:19] I know you're afraid of him. Be not afraid of him. Look at that. It's redundant. Be not afraid of him. I know you're afraid of him. Be not afraid of him. Because he says, I'm with you.
[7:31] Circle that. I'm with you. To save you. And deliver you from his hand. I love verse 12. I will show mercies unto you.
[7:45] You did wrong. The city's burned. The king's eyes are gone. Things are bad. The sons have been killed. The nobles have been taken away.
[7:56] You're just poor people left here. But I want to have mercy. If you'll let me. I'm going to skip down with you to Jeremiah 44 17. Real quickly.
[8:06] I just want you to kind of hear the hurt. And see what the Lord's saying. Verse 17. We will certainly do whatsoever thing. Goeth forth out of our own mouth.
[8:19] Now this is their response back to Jeremiah. Jeremiah came to him and said, you said you'd do whatever God said do. So I'm calling on you to do what God said do.
[8:32] And by the, when you get to chapter 44, their answer is, we'll do what we say. Not what he says. Look at this. To burn incense. To worship the queen of heaven.
[8:47] To worship the queen of heaven. To pour out drink offerings unto her as we have done. We and our fathers and our kings and our princes in the cities of Judah.
[8:58] And in the streets of Jerusalem. Because you know what God? When we worshiped the queen of heaven, things were good. Look at it. For then had we plenty of vittles.
[9:12] We had plenty of food. And it was well. Everything's going good. And we saw no evil. That's kind of insulting to the God that made you.
[9:27] Amen. It's kind of insulting to the God that saved you. It's kind of insulting to the God that's done all for them. Verse 18. But you know what God? Since we stopped worshiping the queen of heaven.
[9:40] Burning incense to the queen of heaven. Since we stopped pouring out our drink offerings. We've been missing everything we needed. Look at it. We have wanted all things.
[9:50] We've been lacking all things. We've been needing stuff. And we don't have it. We have been consumed by the sword. And by the flame. You know what happened God?
[10:01] When we stopped worshiping the queen of heaven. People started hurting us. And we started doing without. I just want you to get the feelings that go in these chapters right here.
[10:13] The city has been destroyed. The only people left now are the really poor people. The leaders are gone. The princes and the nobles and the big shots are all gone.
[10:25] Their world has fallen apart. And if you look at Jeremiah chapter 40 and verse 2. The captain of the guard said. Let me tell you what happened here. He pronounced this evil.
[10:36] And he said. God has done according as he said. You sinned against God. And you have not obeyed him. And now look what he did. And oh.
[10:48] Jedediah. In chapter 40 and verse 6 is there. And he says to the people. Now let's just do what God said. You don't need to be afraid of the Chaldeans. Just don't be afraid of the Chaldeans.
[11:00] We've been told we don't have to be afraid of the Chaldeans. In fact as in verse 9. The last words are. If you'll just do what I'm telling you to do. It shall be well with you. But there are people in the country.
[11:11] That don't really want to accept. That God did it. They don't want to accept. That they deserve this spanking. That they deserve this treatment. And they can trust it.
[11:22] And so in chapter 40 and verse 14. They send a man to slay Jedediah. But Jedediah doesn't believe. That the guy will really do that. Old Johanna in verse 15.
[11:34] He wants to go kill him. He wants to take him out. He said I'll kill him. And nobody will ever know it. And you won't have to be worried about things. Look at chapter 40 and verse 16. This is kind of one of those things that you think about.
[11:47] Jedediah said to Johanna. You do not do that. Because you're talking bad about Ishmael. I just believe nice things about everybody.
[11:58] Well wisdom calls us to be more discerning than that. And to figure out what's happening. In chapter 41 and verse 2. They killed Jedediah.
[12:10] And then this creep. This terrorist. This patriot. In chapter 41 and verse 3. He kills all the Jews that are hanging out with Jedediah.
[12:22] In chapter 41 and verse 5. 80 men are on their way to worship. And he goes out to them. And he's crying. And he says. Oh I too am burdened. Come and see about Jedediah.
[12:32] And he gets a. Kind of befriends them. And then he kills 80 of them. And throws them in a pit. Throws their dead bodies. Verse 6. He was weeping all along the way. And he took all those men.
[12:46] So there's this horrible chaos. Now here's the problem that's going on here. You know the only person that's really going to be in good shape. And all this story is old Jeremiah and Baruch.
[12:59] You know why? They're going to stick with the book. They're going to obey God. They're going to believe God. And there might be Chaldeans over there. And there might be. There might be Ishmael's over here.
[13:10] And there might be court. There might be fighting in my country. But I'm going to trust God. The people in Israel range from acceptance to terrorism. But the big thing going on is we're afraid.
[13:23] We're so afraid we can't believe anymore. I worry about that with us. I know this is a story of Judah. I know this is a story of men that we're reading the story about here.
[13:36] But sometimes we look in our country and we see all the divisions. And we get scared and we start reacting. And we start doing things we might not ought to do. And we push faith aside.
[13:49] You see sin had not prepared them to deal with utter chaos. They hadn't been walking with God before this story started. That's the reason the walls got burned, broken down.
[14:02] That's the reason the city got burned. That's the reason the king is dead. The idea of self-preservation by all available means causes them not to look to their God.
[14:14] There's a faction over here saying let's just do what they tell us to do. And there's a faction over here saying no we got to go to war and stop. And there's a faction in the middle saying I'm going to try to bring peace. It's been so long since they've had a genuine relationship with God.
[14:28] That they don't know what to do in a crisis. Now that's enough of a message right there for us to meditate on a second. What do you do when your world falls apart?
[14:41] What do you do when your leader's eyes get put out? But before that his sons all got killed in his eyesight. What do you do when your holiest places are burned with fire and your city is burned with fire and all your people are taken away to another country?
[14:56] What do you do? Well we ought to run to God. Can I get an amen? We ought to say what's the word of God say? We ought to do like they did. That's the very next step here. Which looks like such a wonderful step.
[15:07] Johanan goes to Jeremiah and he says please call on God. But before he ever does that they're already headed to Egypt. He's like call on God.
[15:17] We're packing. We're going to Egypt so we can get away from these Caldeans. But you call on God for us. You don't believe me. Look at your Bible. Jeremiah chapter 41 and verse 17. They departed and dwelt in habitation which is by Bethlehem to go to enter into Egypt.
[15:33] For they were afraid of them. Now Jedediah had already told them you don't have to be afraid of them. They already conquered us.
[15:44] They already destroyed our city. They brought Jeremiah. They let Jeremiah go. They put a guy in place. They're willing to do business with us. We can get through this.
[15:54] So they asked him to pray. In chapter 42 and verse 1. From the captains down to the least of the people. All the people came near to Jeremiah. And in verse 2.
[16:06] They said to Jeremiah pray for us. Jeremiah you know we are but a few of many. Boy the majority of the people have been killed.
[16:16] Or they're gone. And here we are. And we need God. And we want to know what God wants us to do. Look at verse 3. That the Lord thy God. I hate that by the way.
[16:29] If you look at your Bible. It said the Lord thy God. I would have liked them to see them say the Lord our God. But they didn't say that. At least in my Bible it says. The Lord thy God may show us the way.
[16:41] Where we may walk in the thing that we may do. Hey Jeremiah go talk to your God. You know you got one God and we got other gods. Hint. And you'll know that before this time passage is over.
[16:53] You already know it because I read to you about the queen of heaven. So you already know that in your heart of hearts. They're not in love with the God of heaven. They're in love with the queen of heaven.
[17:04] Huh? He said go ask your God. Maybe he could do something. In chapter 42 and verse 4 he says. I will declare it to you. I will keep nothing back. Verse 42.
[17:16] Chapter 42 verse 5. They said to Jeremiah. The Lord be a true and faithful witness. Let God be our witness. God as my witness. We will do whatever God says do.
[17:29] Verse 6. Whether we like it or whether we don't like it. Whether it's good or whether it's bad. We'll just obey God. Whether it goes along. What I think about. We'll just obey God.
[17:39] When we obey the voice of the Lord our God. So Jeremiah chapter 7. After 10 days comes to deliver the message. And in verse 10. I already read that to you.
[17:50] Remember what it said? All right. Choice number one. If you will obey. I'll bless. Isn't that amazing? Now God knows her heart.
[18:01] He knows her filthy heart. Loves the queen of heaven. He knows he just had to destroy their city. But maybe after so much junk went wrong. Maybe you get on your knees.
[18:12] Maybe you get on your face. Maybe you cry out to God. Maybe you decide to obey God. But God told him right up front. Verse 13. But circle around the word if again.
[18:23] He said. But if you say. You see he said. If you obey I'll bless. And then 13. He says. If you say. We will not dwell. If you say.
[18:34] You won't do what I tell you. If you say. Neither will we obey the voice of your God. You got verse 13. Jeremiah 42. 13. If you say. No. We're going to Egypt.
[18:46] We can't trust the God. Of Judah. Because if we go to Egypt. Verse 14. We won't see any more war. We won't have any more hunger. Everything will go good.
[18:57] If we go down to Egypt. You got to understand. If you're a Bible studier. Egypt's a bad place. Egypt's a world.
[19:09] Egypt's a place where you go. Unless God tells you to go. Okay. He did tell a couple of people to go there a couple of times. But the majority of the time. It's like. You go to Egypt. That's where you learn about sex sin.
[19:19] You go to Egypt. That's where you learn about false gods. You go to Egypt. That's where you do wrong stuff. Don't go to Egypt. They said. We're going to go to Egypt. If. Verse 15.
[19:32] Hear the word of the Lord. If. Verse 15. Put a circle around. If. If you make up your mind to go to Egypt. If you wholly set your faces to enter Egypt.
[19:43] Let me tell you what's going to happen. Now you listen to me. Hey. You pay attention to what I'm going to tell you. If you'll just do right. I will build you up. If you do right.
[19:54] I'll plant you. If you do right. I'll take care of you. If you do right. I'll show mercy. I'll tell you. I don't even like it. That I had to give you this bank. And I gave you. Just get right. But if you're playing with me.
[20:08] Well if you're playing with me. Verse 16. I'll tell you what's going to come to pass. In verse 16. The sword that you're afraid of. Will take over. And the famine.
[20:19] That you're afraid of. Will come close upon you. And you. Will die. Verse 17. All of you. That make up your mind. That set your faces to go to Egypt.
[20:30] Every one of you. Will die by the sword. By the famine. By the pestilence. And none of you. None of you. Shall remain. Or escape. Verse 18.
[20:42] As my anger and my fury has been poured forth. My fury has been poured on you. If you go to Egypt. You ain't never coming back. Look at the last phrase in that verse.
[20:54] Look at the last phrase in verse 18. You shall see this place. No more. If you run. When I'm here. If you decide. Not to trust me.
[21:05] If you decide to go do your own thing. Mark her down. You ain't never. Coming back. Verse 19. Jeremiah looks at him and said.
[21:16] Now let's get something straight. There is no question about whether or not you know what's right to do here. I am going to. I'm admonishing you. You read verse 19.
[21:27] 42 19. Know certainly that I have admonished you this day. Now you don't get to leave here and say. Well he wasn't clear. You don't get to leave here and say.
[21:37] I wasn't sure. I thought maybe it'd be good to go to Egypt. But you'd have to go to Egypt. I just couldn't figure out really what God wanted. He said. Oh no. That is not true. I have told you clearly.
[21:47] Verse 20. He said. You made a mistake. When you sent me to God for you. Look at verse 20. For you dissembled.
[21:58] You wavered. You stumbled. You made a mistake in your hearts. When you sent me to the Lord. And so pray unto the Lord our God for us. And look at the last words.
[22:08] We will do it. We will do it. It says in verse 21. But you have not obeyed.
[22:19] Underline that. It's amazing when you're reading the scripture. How big God is on obey. Obey. Obey the voice of the Lord your God.
[22:29] You have not obeyed. You haven't done anything he told you to do. You have disobeyed God. If you're a lost person. Obviously. You disobey God.
[22:41] And that will bring death. But as a Christian. As one of his people. Look if you would. Verse 22. You're going to die. You shall die by the sword.
[22:54] By the famine. And by the pestilence. When we call on God. Like they asked Jeremiah to do. We need to be humble enough. To obey.
[23:06] Even if we don't. Like it. God doesn't always. Let things go the way you want them to. I think everybody in this room knows that. Sometimes your loved one dies.
[23:17] Even when you pray. Sometimes your finances don't work out. The way you want them to. Sometimes your friends aren't as friendly. Sometimes you pray. And it don't seem to work. But you say. I will obey God.
[23:29] Regardless. Well this has caused all kind. Of confusion. In chapter 43. In verse 1. Jeremiah stopped preaching.
[23:40] Stopped giving them the words of the Lord. In verse 2. They refused. The message. Would you underline in verse 2. The proud men.
[23:51] The proud men. The men that look at God and say. I know what I ought to do. And I don't need you to tell me what I ought to do. And they said to Jeremiah. You speak falsely.
[24:04] You're not telling the truth. You're not saying what God said. God has not sent you to say that. We shouldn't go to Egypt. Fact is.
[24:14] Verse 3. It's all Baruch's fault. But Baruch the son of Neriah. Seteth thee on against us. It's him. He talked you into saying it.
[24:25] That old Baruch's a good guy. Isn't he? He's a scribe. Scribe. He writes the letters. He's not Jeremiah. But boy he's in the middle of it with Jeremiah.
[24:36] Dealing with all the junk going on. City falling apart. People trying to kill him. He's having to hide for his life just like Jeremiah. Amazing. God uses us. Whether we're the preacher or the writer.
[24:48] God's using us. Amen. All they needed was an excuse not to obey God. But in verse 4, 43, 4, they obeyed not the voice of the Lord to stay in Judah.
[25:06] God said, if you believe me and you trust me, you stay here and I'll take care of you. What they did in verse 7 was they went down to Egypt looking at God and said, I really don't care what you want here.
[25:21] I think I'll be safer. In Egypt. The real reason for their disobedience is probably found in 44, 3.
[25:32] And I want you to go there with me. I want to be careful. I want to be careful that I'm not letting false worship and false gods.
[25:46] In verse 3, he said, because of their wickedness, they have committed to provoke me to anger. It's amazing.
[25:57] God says, y'all did wrong and you've made me mad. I mean, just read it and tell me if that's not what it says. You've committed. You've provoked me to anger. You know how you did it?
[26:08] By serving other gods. By worshiping other gods. And he begs them not to. Look at verse 4. Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.
[26:23] Don't hurt me that way. Don't go after other gods. Don't worship other things. Don't trust other people. Don't trust other things.
[26:34] Don't trust other countries. Trust me. Verse 5. But they wouldn't listen. And they did not incline.
[26:45] They didn't turn their heart and ear away from wickedness. They wouldn't quit burning incense unto other gods. And the God of heaven is like, you're going to suffer the consequences of disobeying me.
[27:00] In verse 6, my fury and my anger is poured on you and is kindled. And you know what? Jerusalem is now wasted and desolate. Verse 7. He says, why do you do something that causes you to get hurt so bad?
[27:16] He said, why commit? Wherefore commit ye this evil against your souls? Don't you realize if you listen to me, you'll do better? Don't you listen? If you realize if you obey me, things will go better.
[27:28] You choose to disobey me. Why in the world would you do that? Why would you do that? Why do you persist in making God mad?
[27:39] Verse 8. You provoke me to wrath with the works of your hands. You burn incense. You worship other gods in the land of Egypt.
[27:50] Verse 9. Do you not remember your mamas and daddies had this problem? And you should have gotten right about that. Verse 9. Verse 10. They didn't humble themselves.
[28:01] And you should humble yourself. But the real problem comes to this. They had chosen to worship another god. In verse 15, it says they burned incense unto other gods.
[28:16] Verse 16. They said, we will not hear you. Verse 17. They said, we will do what we think is best.
[28:27] I got my own plan. I've studied up on it. I've looked on the internet. I've Googled it. It's safer in Egypt. I've Googled it. The Chaldeans, you can't trust them.
[28:39] I've Googled it. That Nebuchadnezzar is going to come get us. I know what's going on here. And Jeremiah, you may tell me that's what God says. But we've been burning incense to the queen of heaven.
[28:50] And when we did, things were going good for us. And since we quit, things aren't going good. Go with me to chapter 44 and verse 2.
[29:03] Now God is going to just flat out condemn them and say, that's it, boys. You don't want to do my thing. You don't want to obey me. Watch this.
[29:13] He said, did you see what I did to Jerusalem in chapter 44 and verse 2? Have you seen all the bad stuff that happened to Jerusalem? Your walls are broken down. Your city's burned with fire.
[29:25] Your king's eyes have been put out. All your nobles have been conquered and taken away. And now you think you can run to Egypt because you don't think I'm God. You really think this is a bunch of nations doing stuff, but I'm God.
[29:41] He said, you run to Egypt. I'll be in Egypt. I'll be there. Watch it. You ready? He told Jeremiah, he said, let's have a children's church lesson.
[29:52] Verse 9, he said, I want you to get you some big rocks in your hand. And I want you to hide them in the brick ovens just outside of Pharaoh's house. And I'll tell you what I'm going to do.
[30:04] I'm going to set Nebuchadnezzar's throne on those very rocks. Verse 10, I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar and set his throne upon those. You see, what we got to realize and back up and say is this, this isn't what Google says.
[30:24] This isn't what the people voted on. This isn't what the patriots that were trying to defend their country said. This wasn't what Johanna and his group that are trying to calm things down are saying.
[30:36] This isn't the guy who's conforming to what God's in charge here. God's in charge. I pretty well tell you that God's in charge in 2021.
[30:49] It may look like, but you and I can't panic. We can't run to Egypt. We can't get scared. We trust God.
[31:02] 43, 11, he says, Nebuchadnezzar will come and he will smite the land of Egypt. And he will give death for death, captivity to captivity and sword to sword.
[31:14] Verse 12, he said, well, he would do that. He said, I'll burn a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt. I'm going to burn their gods. I'm going to burn their gods. You like their gods?
[31:25] Watch me. I'll burn their gods. I'll carry them away captive. Verse 13, I'll break their images. And I will burn the houses of their gods in fire.
[31:37] You can run, but you can't hide. God will bring his discipline on their disobedience. There's no place you can go and get away from where God can see you and find you.
[31:52] We are unable to take care of ourselves. We should allow God to work in our lives. The story concludes, if you would, in chapter 44 and verse 11, he says, I have set my face against you for evil.
[32:10] I've made up. You set your face to disobey me. You set your face to go to Egypt. You set your face not to do what I wanted you to. Well, watch this. I set my face to hurt you. You say, God's not like that.
[32:22] Just read the book. You don't play with God. Verse 12, he said, you set your faces to go to the land of Egypt. And you thought you'd live there.
[32:34] But you will be consumed and fall. You'll be consumed by the sword and by the famine. You shall die. All of you. From the least of you to the greatest. Verse 13, I will punish you all.
[32:47] What angers God is their disobedience and their worship of false gods. Verse 23, you have burned incense.
[33:00] You have sinned against the Lord. You have not obeyed his voice. And it was clearly your decision to choose the queen of heaven over me.
[33:13] You chose. You made your bed. Now lay in it. Verse 25, he said, you women said, we're going to do what we said we'd do.
[33:24] We told the queen of heaven we'd worship her and we're going to do it. And then he says in 26, this has to be one of the most horrendous things he says, because most of the time when he spanks you, he gives you mercy.
[33:39] But he says, you cannot call my name. Look at it. My name, verse 26, shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah.
[33:50] And I want you to know that I'm the one doing it, that you may, verse 29, you may know that my words shall surely stand against you for evil.
[34:08] No, Baruch, he's a good guy. And he's a lot of times he's a go-between between old Jeremiah and the people. And Baruch's heart's broken in chapter 45 and verse 2.
[34:21] Verse 3, he said, oh, woe is me. Woe is me. Boy, I've gone from grief and I've added grief to my sorrow. I have fainted because I'm so broken.
[34:33] I find no rest. The Lord said, I'm the one who builds. And I'm the one that tears down. I'm the one that plants.
[34:46] And I'm the one that plucks up. So I'll just go ahead and tell you, Baruch, don't be looking for good stuff to happen. Seek us our great things for thyself. Seek them. He's saying, don't you dare think there's some good stuff happening out of this.
[34:59] It's bad. But I'll let you live. Last part of the verse. Thy life will I give you. Baruch, I'm going to let you live. I think there's a massive lesson for us here.
[35:15] First, I mean, our country's in some chaos and maybe has you worried, but you can trust God. And they had one guy, Jeremiah.
[35:26] I got 66 books been written to me. Huh? I got two testers been written to me. I got a whole lot of prophets. I got Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Daniel and Hosea, Joel, Amazel, and Jonah.
[35:38] Micah, Nahum, Abakaz, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. I got all of them. I got Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I got the book of Acts. I got all the Pauline epistles. I got all those other letters.
[35:49] I got a Bible. I got the word of God. And no matter how bad it gets in our country, God's still God. And that's what you got to remember. Oh, Jeremiah's like, God's telling you, you'll be all right if you'll listen to him.
[36:03] And they're like, we can't trust God. I think we can. I think we can trust God. I think it's arrogance when I think I have a better plan than what God has.
[36:15] I think it's arrogance. I think sometimes we paint a picture like God's a sweet God and nothing bad ever happens. Now, if you read this chapter, five chapters, go read them.
[36:32] They chose the wrong God. So I'll end it with this. Pick your God. God or gods.
[36:43] Capital G God or little G gods. Pick the one and only, the creator, the sustainer, the maker, everything. Or pick things you think and you make.
[36:55] You know every God they had, something they made. Their gods had to have somebody move them around. Our God says, I move kings. I don't need anybody to move me.
[37:06] I move things. I'm God. Worship the God of heaven. Father in heaven, I thank you for the chance to go through this passage of scripture.
[37:19] I pray that I help the people see how vibrantly you talk. And I pray you'd make it real and applicable to our hearts.
[37:31] And I pray you'd help us to deal with the world falling apart. When we're in the middle of all this chaos that might be going on in our country. I pray you'd help us to be people of the book.
[37:42] And people of faith. And people that keep running to you. And people that keep trusting you. To make a difference in our lives. God, I need you. And I ask you to work.
[37:52] You mean I's worthy of death. We you could empower them to JOHN in our life. We you k ou poronnement. We you kобы. We you kestä Mother. You make a difference in my life. We begin to let others 7ismomy. It's because of a matter at� in the 입ENNESSE GOT5 in the doors of fear. It's because of the underlearning of fear and what I'm っ. And I ask you to work. You make a difference in 2013. You make money a difference in confidence in your house. And I ask you to work. And we're gonna hope. We want.
[38:02] And we're gonna keep meeting a difference in your heart. And I ask you to work. It's because of the day I am.