[0:00] Take your Bibles, if you would, and turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 33 and verse 3. Jeremiah chapter 33 and verse 3. I hope you enjoyed the Lord's Supper tonight. I very much did.
[0:12] I thought Greg did a great job. I worshiped. I hope you worshiped. Amen? Go to Jeremiah 33 with me, if you would. I hope you got your Bible open.
[0:22] I hope you have an ink pen. I want to show you some wonderful things. If you write this down somewhere, God wants you to pray. God wants you to pray.
[0:36] In Jeremiah 33, 3, y'all repeat it with me because everybody knows this verse. It's one of those, it's a Facebook verse. Amen? So everybody ready together? Let's read it. Ready?
[0:46] Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. Father, I pray now that you would work and move in our midst, and I pray that your name would be glorified.
[1:01] And I pray, God, that tonight you'd help us see what a wonderful, powerful, amazing, almighty God you are.
[1:12] I praise you, and I magnify you, and I pray tonight that your people will feel that too when they're through. In Jesus' name, amen. Go with me, if you would, to Jeremiah 33, 1.
[1:22] We're going to work our way through these verses first in context. Then I'll show you that it does still work for you. But let's get some context. The context is Jeremiah has been pretty much the bad guy most of this book.
[1:38] I mean, it's been like his job was, from verse chapter 1, tear down and build up. And finally, we're doing some building. Can we say an amen there?
[1:48] And so he is in prison, or the court of the prison, in 33, 1. And God wants to communicate with Jeremiah, which I find astounding.
[2:01] I find astounding that the almighty God says, Jeremiah, I'd like to talk. And I want you to talk to me. Look at verse 1. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah the second time, while he was shut up in the court of the prison.
[2:17] Now, I don't know about you, but if God wanted to talk to me when I was in prison, I'd be pretty happy about it. I'd be excited that God would take the time to do that.
[2:29] And so God speaks to Jeremiah. But when he speaks to him, he wants it clear who he is. So I wish you'd take your Bible in 33, 2 and underline, thus saith, underline this, the Lord, the maker.
[2:43] How about underline that? The Lord, the maker. If you question Genesis 1 and 2, you'll have to question Genesis 33, 2. Not only does he say he's the maker thereof, he says he formed it and he established it.
[2:59] And then he said, and the Lord is his name. God, Jehovah, he is the God of Israel. And that's who's going to talk to you, Jeremiah. Now, here's another verse that you had when Trent preached just a week or so ago.
[3:13] Jeremiah 32, 17. You should unline that. Got your Bible open.
[3:23] You have made the oven and the earth. By thy great power and stretched out arm, there is nothing too hard for thee. Thou show us loving kindness.
[3:35] And a thousand recompenses the iniquity of fathers, the bosom of their children after them. The great, the mighty God, the Lord of hosts is his name. Now, what excites me is this.
[3:48] God says, Jeremiah, here's a word for you. You need to know who's talking to you, Jeremiah. It's me. And I'm big. And I'm powerful. And I'm mighty.
[3:58] And the great creator God who made you, and you look like a little speck on the windshield, he wants to talk to you. And he says to him in Jeremiah 33, 3, if you just look at this verse, it's astounding.
[4:13] He says, hey, Jeremiah, I'm the big God. I'm the creator God. So why don't you call on me? Why don't you talk to me? Why don't you ask me?
[4:23] Why don't you come to me? And I will answer you. You just call, and I will answer you. And I'll show you great and mighty things that you don't know.
[4:34] This is Hebrews 11, 6, if I've ever seen it. It's an Old Testament version of Hebrews 11, 6 in the New Testament. If you have your Bible open, you might want to write that right beside Jeremiah 33, 3.
[4:47] Look at what it says in Hebrews 11, 6. Without faith, it is impossible to please him. You see, if you don't believe who he is, if you don't believe he can do what he says he can do, if you don't believe him, you can't please him.
[5:05] And then he says, you've got to, this is impossible to please him. For he that comes to God, if you want to come talk to God, you must believe that he is.
[5:16] You must believe that he really exists. This isn't sending some thoughts out into the honest fear. This isn't sending you some good thoughts your way. I'm talking to a God who really exists.
[5:28] That's what the verse says. He really exists. Not only does he really exist, but he likes answering prayer. He likes it. He rewards those that diligently seek him.
[5:42] Now, for the sake of time, just let me show you real quickly a few things. See, what he says is, hey, Jeremiah, hey, Jeremiah, I got some exciting news for you. Call me. Call on me and I'll answer you.
[5:53] Let's have a conversation. Let me tell you what I want to do. I want to take care of Judah and Israel and Jerusalem. Look at verse 4, underline, the Lord, the God of Israel.
[6:08] And he talks to him about this city and he talks to him about Judah. And here's what he promises him. He said, Jeremiah, I'm going to destroy your enemies in verse 5. I'm going to restore your city and I'm going to bring the blessings on you again.
[6:22] I wish you'd go to verse 6 and look at what he says. I will bring health and cure. I will cure them. Go down to verse 7. I'll bring you back from the captivity.
[6:34] I will rebuild your city. I destroyed it, but I will rebuild your city. You might not do this, but there are so many I wills between verse 6 and down to verse 11, but you ought to catch them.
[6:48] Between verse 6 and verse 8, it says, I will. Then it says, will, but the I is understood. Then it says, I will. Then the I is understood. Will build. Then it says, I will. I will.
[7:00] Right there, over and over. God said, you know, I am the God who does things. You got to stop and understand. You got to, let's go back into their mentality. Every country has its own gods.
[7:14] Every country has a God that represents him. You know, kind of like we got an eagle, not our God, but it's our symbol. And so all around everywhere, there's the God of Israel.
[7:25] But then there's also the gods of the Philistines or the gods of the Philistines. And there's the gods of, and there's the gods of, and there's the gods of. And our God likes to say to Jeremiah, I am really here.
[7:36] Now, you know, and I know those other gods don't really exist. But you can call on me. You can call on me because I will hear, and I will answer, and I will do big things.
[7:48] Verse 80 says, I will cleanse them from all their iniquity. He says, I will pardon all their iniquities. I will cleanse them, and I will pardon them.
[8:00] Verse 9. He is going to make, this is a mystery verse. They're everywhere in the Bible. Verse 9 says, It shall be to me a name of joy, of praise and honor before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them.
[8:25] They shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and all the prosperity that I procure unto it. So God says to Jeremiah, I'm fixing to do something so big and so awesome and so wonderful.
[8:41] I'm going to take a destroyed city. I'm going to take a country that's been laid waste. I'm going to take a country that's been destroyed, and I'm going to build you back.
[8:51] And the whole world is going to be like, what in the world? That is the greatest God of all the gods. He's the only God like him, and they're all going to know that I'm God.
[9:03] He said, I want the nations to know it. I want everybody else got all the little gods. I want them to look up here and say, boy, that's the God. Every other God steals from their people. Every other God hurts their people.
[9:15] Every other God destroys their people. But he said, I want them to know I'm the God that does good stuff. I'm the God that blesses people. I'm the God that takes care of people.
[9:26] Y'all make sure people know about that. I wish you'd not align before all the nations of the earth. How can you not see that submission to verse? You know who nations are? They're Gentiles.
[9:36] You know who nations are? They're pagans. You know who nations are? They're people that don't serve the God of heaven. He wants the entire world to know. Now, what's he going to do? We don't really have time to get, because I want to talk to you about praying.
[9:51] But notice this. Verse 10. There shall be heard in this place. Skip down. In the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem. Look what they're going to hear in verse 11.
[10:03] The voice of joy and the voice of gladness. The voice of the bridegroom. The voice of the bride. The voice of them that shall say, praise the Lord of hosts.
[10:17] For the Lord is good. For his mercy endures forever. I just want you to notice a few things. Not long ago, something like 70 years of time are passing, and they're passing quickly.
[10:29] And the city has been destroyed. And the country has been messed up. And all the joy is gone. If you could go to Jerusalem during the days of captivity, you'd have gone to a dark and dingy land.
[10:44] You'd have gone to a place where the streetlights didn't work. Where the sewer was in the street. Where the buildings were broken down. Where the house of God was torn down. Where the walls were torn down.
[10:55] There would have been rats on the street. There would have been wild animals in the city. It was not a place of joy. There would have been people living there, but they were hurting. It used to be a place where everybody had fun.
[11:06] It used to be a place where Solomon was king. And silver was like a rock to those people. But now it's a horrible place. God said, I'm fixed to turn that around.
[11:18] I'm fixed to turn that around. I'm going to put it to be a place of joy. And you know what they're going to sing? Look at the last part of verse 11. The Lord is good.
[11:29] The Lord is good. His mercy endures forever. And they're going to bring a sacrifice offering once again.
[11:40] Look at what it'll be. The sacrifice of praise. I think you just stop just a second. You know, a sacrifice to us, we don't even know what that means.
[11:53] It's a nasty thing for them. In our minds. Because it's costly. It means you go in amongst your sheep. You whistle among your animals and you pick the best one you got.
[12:08] The one that would be the future of your line. The best little sheep you got. Not one spot on him. Not one blemish. Not one broken bone.
[12:19] Not one tear in his ear. Not one blemish in his eye. The sweetest one. When he was born, your kids oohed and aahed. And you take that sheep and you walk him down to the altar.
[12:31] And you take a knife and you cut his throat. Drain his blood. Gut him. And put him on an altar.
[12:43] I mean, I don't know if you realize what that meant. You had to love God a lot to do that. And God says, you know what I want y'all to bring me? A sacrifice of praise.
[12:55] I don't know if we work at that. I don't know if we work at that. But we ought to. So Jeremiah 33.3 is a hinge in all of this.
[13:07] It is God in heaven saying, Jeremiah, I'm about to do the wildest and craziest and the sweetest and the best stuff you can imagine. And I'll tell you about it if you'll just ask me.
[13:17] I got a lot of stuff planned. Just ask me. And I will show thee great and mighty things which you don't understand. I'm going to show you how I can turn Jerusalem around.
[13:27] I'm going to tell you how I can change Judah. I'm going to tell you how I can bring Israel all the way back. Call on me. And I will show thee great and mighty things. Go back to Jeremiah 33.3.
[13:40] God is a God that commands and challenges his man and his people to call on him. Focus on this. Call unto me. He wanted Jeremiah to call on him.
[13:53] In Hebrews 11.6. He wanted his people to come to him and diligently seek him. He wanted people to come saying, hey God, I know you're real.
[14:04] You know, we can go through our prayer life and it's dull and dry and boring. And we can read our Bibles and it's dull and dry and boring because we don't know he's real.
[14:17] Because we really don't expect him to work miracles. Because we don't really expect him to be who he says he is. But you know that in the New Testament, God wants you to call on him.
[14:29] In 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 17, maybe you make a note somewhere. Pray without ceasing. God's like, you need me and you need me all the time.
[14:41] So just keep the radio line open. You know, today we communicate pretty much without ceasing.
[14:52] I mean, it's a constant thing. I mean, you know where your wife is. Sometimes you're following her on Fine Friends or I got another one. I get a Life 360.
[15:03] I mean, they got some way to stalk anybody you want to stalk. Say amen. When I was a young kid and my wife would go off in our car that we didn't know could make it in the driveway.
[15:15] And she'd say, I'm going to go to the grocery store. And she'd say, I'll be back in about an hour, hour and a half. I'll be back about an hour and 32 minutes. I'm like, okay, I'm not worried about where she is.
[15:28] I'm just worried about if she's walking or if she's riding. I'm just worried about is she pushing? Does she have a flat tire? Did the car tear up? Or what happened? And I'm worried.
[15:40] But you know what? Nowadays, I really don't worry. The fact is I'll just look and see where she is. Ah, she's all right. Or I'll just call and say, you all right? Because what's pretty, you know what God says? Won't you just talk to me all the time?
[15:51] Y'all don't know how to get around this world, but I do. Y'all know how to manage your life, but I do. Pray without ceasing. In Luke chapter 18 and verse 1, he said, Men ought always to pray and not to faint.
[16:05] Just a few things real quickly. I'm sure you already do all of this and it's redundant for you, but do you have a set time and a place to pray? Do you have a set way to do it?
[16:16] Do you realize that the majority of us, I have an app, and that app is like a curse. I will think I prayed.
[16:27] I have a prayer list on my Logos or my Faith Life laptop, and when I look at it, I pray through countries, and all of your names are in there too. And then I got this other app. Well, this one on my computer doesn't remind me if I prayed or not.
[16:40] It just adds you to the next day. Sometimes again, I say, boy, must not have prayed on this thing yesterday. It's a long list today because I got you divided up into seven. But I got this other app. It says 37 days you hadn't missed.
[16:52] I was on this trip and I looked up. It said zero you hadn't missed because you missed yesterday, buddy. I'm like, I don't like that. But sometimes you just get busy. Would you be honest?
[17:04] And you forget to pray. You forget to read your Bible. And when prayer time comes, it ought to start with Bible time beforehand. I'd just like to say a couple things to you. Pray yourself happy by focusing on truth.
[17:20] You know, you live in a world where everybody's scared to death. A famous preacher this week said that it is believed that a third of our godly church people, quote unquote, will not return to church.
[17:33] A third of them won't come back. And you can get scared and you can get worried. And what's going to happen Tuesday or Wednesday or next week or next month or next year when they get through counting?
[17:46] What's going to happen? We don't know what's going to happen. And we live in this doubtful world. So I need to focus on truth every day. What's really funny about Jeremiah 33 is he and Jeremiah are talking and Jeremiah's in jail.
[18:01] What's really funny is Jeremiah's in jail in a foreign country. And he's in jail. Pray yourself happy. Say thank you. Say thank you.
[18:14] And get up. Believe in God. He wants you to pray. Believe in him. Confident that he will answer.
[18:25] He will hear and answer. Read Jeremiah 33. Three. Calling to me. And you can't say this more bluntly than this. And I will answer thee.
[18:37] Jeremiah. Call on me, buddy. And I will answer you. I really do hear and answer a prayer. And, you know, sometimes the answers we get aren't what we might want.
[18:49] Sometimes God says, I'm not doing that today. That will happen some other time. Sometimes you pray, God, get me out of this situation. And like the kings are praying their baby can come home from a hospital. And God said, he will, but it's going to be a week.
[19:01] You can ask me all you want, but I got it. He's going to be there a week. We pray, though, knowing our God hears and answers prayer. And we pray big prayers.
[19:12] A favorite prayer verse is Psalm 81.10. A favorite prayer verse. I am the Lord thy God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt. I've already done massively big stuff in your life.
[19:26] I pulled you out of slavery to the strongest and most mighty nation on the land, in the world. I pulled you out of there. I destroyed their kingdom. I destroyed their army.
[19:37] I opened their sea. I drowned all their people and let you come through. Do you know how big I am? Then he says this. So open your mouth wide. Just pray big prayers.
[19:48] Ask big stuff. Because I'm a big God. My dad said one time to me, he was talking to me about some things that were worried him. And I said, well, Dad, have you taken that to the Lord in prayer?
[20:00] Have you talked to God about it? He said, this is so small. I don't want to bother him with it. And I said, now, Dad, is there anything big in your life? I mean, in God's terms?
[20:11] Do you realize there's nothing big? We could never ask for anything big. We're like little specks. We're like little flies. We're like little gnats in the air. And any prayer requests we got, when we think it's really big, God looks down and says, I can handle that.
[20:25] That's a pretty small little deal for me. Our God's big. Our God's big. You could ask God for big things. If I were a missionary, and if I were going to the field, I'd open my mouth wide.
[20:41] I'd just sit down and say, God, you call me. You're sending me. And I need some big stuff. I want to do some stuff that makes people see just how powerful you are.
[20:54] God said, pray big prayers, but you can never forget that you pray big prayers, but they can't be selfish big prayers. If you remember James 4, 3, he said, y'all ask, but you don't get it because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lust.
[21:12] Did you know our God never, he doesn't want you to have a salary. He doesn't want you to have support. He doesn't want us to have anything just so we can get what we want. Now, he's happy to see us happy.
[21:24] And he wants us to richly enjoy all he's given us. But what, you know, we're a weak being. We tend to like money so much that we never get enough.
[21:35] And we just keep soaking it in. And it doesn't take long till God becomes a prosperity God. And we're Baptists and we claim that's not what we believe, but we live like that's what we believe.
[21:49] We think God ought to make us rich. When you pray, ask God for big things, but don't ask God for selfish things. When you pray, believe God.
[22:02] Here's a wild thing. In James chapter 1 and verse 6, he said, when y'all ask me, ask nothing in faith, nothing wavering.
[22:13] And he said in verse 7, let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord. God wants to do big stuff with us.
[22:26] He revels in showing his power in and through us. He told the disciples in John 14, 12, he that believes on me, the works I do shall he do also.
[22:41] And greater works than these shall he do. God wants to show himself powerful on our behalf.
[22:52] God wants to move and do big stuff in our life. God wants to do big stuff. I believe God has bigger plans for you than you do.
[23:05] I believe God wants to do bigger stuff with you than you want done. And I believe God looks down at me and you because I'm just as bad off as you. He looks down and says, I got this much for y'all and you just keep taking that much.
[23:18] I've been wanting to show myself powerful. I've been wanting to show, I want to do big stuff. The day of the man that God uses greatly is not over. He's still alive and we're here.
[23:30] God wants to show himself. Open your mouth wide. I've got to give you one more verse about this and I will quit. You know, one of the things we ought to pray about and in James chapter 1, it talks about praying and believing.
[23:46] It was that you would have wisdom. And that you would see things out of God's word is the idea. And in Psalm 119, 18, he said, open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.
[24:01] God wants us to want him so much that we're asking him to do things in us that are crazy, wild and powerful that he can do in us.
[24:13] He wants us to open the Bible and say, God, I could understand this if you teach me. Teach me. Open my eyes and show me great and mighty things from your word.
[24:25] Open my eyes that I can behold wondrous things out of the law. How's your prayer life? How's our prayer life? How's my prayer life? You know, God doesn't answer our prayer because we don't treat our wives right.
[24:40] It said, 1 Peter 3, 7, if you don't live with them according to knowledge, your prayers will be hindered. In Psalm 66, 18, it said, if you're holding on to sin, your prayers are going to get hindered.
[24:59] I want God to hear prayer, don't you? You can't read a verse like Jeremiah 33, 3 without thinking, wow, does that mean that? And I can show you, it's in the New Testament.
[25:10] I tried to show you that tonight. Call on me and I will show thee great and mighty things. I'll answer and I will show thee what a great God.
[25:25] Father in heaven, I love you and I thank you for the chance to serve you. And I pray tonight that you would help us to come back and be sensitive and pray and believe.
[25:36] I'll give you praise. God, I pray you'd challenge us to step out and do big things, to raise our support in unbelievable amounts of time, to see churches started and ministries grow and to see you do big stuff, and to quit listening to everybody's doubts and whinings and worryings when we can trust that you hear and answer prayer.
[25:58] God, deal with us that we would grow closer to you. With every head bowed and every eye closed, I really think it'd be a good time for us to say, God, I hadn't been believing, I haven't been praying, I have been getting a little bit beat up by the world, and I haven't been thinking that you would do great things, and I haven't been opening my mouth wide, and I haven't been expecting you to hear me and answer me, but I want you to, and I come to you in prayer and I ask you to.
[26:28] Call upon me, and I will hear, and I will answer, and I will show you great and mighty things. I'll do more than you ever would have dreamed possible if you would just come to me believing.
[26:43] God, sit with your heart, you respond. If you're here tonight and you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, I want you to know that Jesus loves you, and He died for you. He shed His blood on the cross of Calvary for you.
[26:57] You heard it during the Lord's Supper time. Jesus paid your sin debt. You can be saved. You can be forgiven. You can enjoy all He has. I'm asking you tonight to trust Christ as your Savior.
[27:09] When you can finish praying, there in your seat or here at the front, you can stand and sing with Stephen. Let's pray and make some decisions.