Rev. Benjamin kandt: Hello everyone.
Rev. Benjamin kandt: This is Pastor Benjamin.
Rev. Benjamin kandt: You're listening to a sermon audio from New City, orlando.
Rev. Benjamin kandt: At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's prayer For more resources.
Rev. Benjamin kandt: Visit our website at newcityorlandocom.
Rev. Benjamin kandt: Join me in praying aloud this prayer of illumination.
Rev. Benjamin kandt: Join me in praying aloud this prayer of elimination.
Rev. Benjamin kandt: Eternal God, the grass withers and the flower fades, but your word will stand forever.
Rev. Benjamin kandt: Holy Spirit, help us to love and trust your word.
Rev. Benjamin kandt: Through Jesus Christ, we pray Amen.
Rev. Benjamin kandt: Our scripture reading this morning comes from Jeremiah, chapter 1, verses 11 through 19.
Rev. Benjamin kandt: Hear now the word of the Lord.
Rev. Benjamin kandt: And the word of the Lord came to me saying Jeremiah, what do you see?
Rev. Benjamin kandt: And I said I see an almond branch.
Rev. Benjamin kandt: Then the Lord said to me you have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.
Rev. Benjamin kandt: The word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying what do you see?
Rev. Benjamin kandt: And I said I see a boiling pot facing away from the north.
Rev. Benjamin kandt: Then the Lord said to me out of the north, disaster shall be let loose upon all the inhabitants of the land.
Rev. Benjamin kandt: For behold, I am calling all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north, declares the Lord, and they shall come and everyone shall set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, against all its walls all around and against all the cities of Judah, and I will declare my judgments against them for all their evil in forsaking me.
Rev. Benjamin kandt: They have made offerings to other gods and worship the works of their own hands.
Rev. Benjamin kandt: But you dress yourself for work, arise and say to them everything that I command you Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them.
Rev. Benjamin kandt: And I behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar and bronze walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people of the land.
Rev. Benjamin kandt: They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the Lord to deliver you.
Rev. Benjamin kandt: This is God's word.
Rev. Benjamin kandt: Thanks be to God.
Rev. Benjamin kandt: You may be seated.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Well, good morning, new City.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: It's good to be back here with you again for what we are now calling the Erwin Inns Invitational at New City, orlando.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: I want to speak to you this morning on this subject.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: It is a simple subject from our passage, but a profound one that we have to embrace day in and day out, and it is simply this God is in control.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: God is in control.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: I graduated high school in 1986, and graduation years will stick out in our memory, and very often those memories are tied to music, and one of the music projects that we were all listening to that year of my graduation was Janet Jackson's breakout album Control.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Prior to the release of that album in 1986, janet was just still perceived by most people as the baby sister of the Jackson family.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Her career to that point had been closely guided by her father, joe Control.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: The album was her declaration to the world of her independence as an artist and as a woman.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Critics they praised it, calling the album a personal testament of self-actualization.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: We were singing right along with Janet when she sang.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: When I was 17,.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: I did what people told me.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: I did what my father said and let my mother mold me.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: That was long ago.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: I'm in control, never going to stop Control to get what I want.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Control, I like to have a lot Control.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Now I'm all grown up, got my own mind, she's saying.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: I'm going to make my own decisions when it has to do with my life, my life, I want to be the one who's in control At some point in life.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: You all that is the anthem of every human heart.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: I want to be the one in control.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: For some of us, we just want to be in control of our personal lives.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Others of us want to be in control of our households.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: There are folks who want to be in control of a corporation, of a community, of a city, of a state, of a nation, even.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Let me say two things.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: One first the desire or idea of control is not, at its heart, evil or selfish or wrong.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: The first thing that the Bible says about human beings is that we are image bearers of God and God, after blessing the man and the woman in Genesis, chapter 1 and verse 28, gave this command be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth, the Bible.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: The Bible talks a lot about becoming wise.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: The ability to make wise decisions about your life and its direction is a part of maturing into adulthood, and you don't actually get to mature unless you have some freedom to make decisions and to make mistakes and learn from them.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: If your parents are giving you the same kind of oversight when you're 25 as they did when you are five, there is something wrong.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: And at the same time here's the second thing Life demonstrates to us that we don't actually have ultimate control.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Children can't wait to grow up so that they can be free.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: And then you grow up and you get a job and you got bills, whether it's related to our wealth or our health.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Life reveals to us that we are not actually in controluring of our life and the lives of others.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: As autonomous creatures, we want to be in control apart from the authority, purposes and plan of God, and so the deal is that you and I need to live with the assurance, every moment of every day, that God is in control, and that is where we find the prophet Jeremiah this morning.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Jeremiah is a priest.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: He is dedicated to the Lord.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: He is from the city of Anatoth, which is about two to four miles away from Jerusalem, and so he grew up in the shadow of Israel's capital city and its temple.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Jeremiah had a wonderful plan for his life.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: It was laid out for him as a priest.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: He knew his responsibilities and he was fine with it.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: He would live out his days serving the Lord.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: But God interrupted Jeremiah's plan with a different one.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Have you ever had your life and your world turned upside down?
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Have you ever been moved from a place of certainty into the unknown?
Pastor Irwyn Ince: It is not usually fun.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Part of wanting to be in control, part of my wanting to be in control is that I want to control the outcome also.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: And when the Lord breaks in here in this text to declare to Jeremiah and to us I am in control, we find out that that is the best and most reassuring news we can hear.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: God is in control four ways we see in this text he's in control of his word, he's in control of the wicked, he's in control of his worship and he's in control of his warrior.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: He's in control of his word.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: He's in control of the wicked.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: He's in control of his worship.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: He is in control of his warrior.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: This first chapter of Jeremiah serves as the introduction and table of contents for the entire book and it also recounts for us what Jeremiah's experience was when God called him to be a prophet.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: And as we read through the text, as you heard this text read, notice that this can scarcely be called a conversation.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: The Lord asked Jeremiah a couple of questions and Jeremiah gets to respond, but the dominant voice in the passage is the Lord, god.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: He is in control and most of Jeremiah's time is spent listening to him.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: The first point that God is in control of his word comes out of verses 11 to 12.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: God asked Jeremiah a question in verse 11, what do you see?
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Jeremiah responds.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: In verse 12, I see an almond branch and the Lord says to me Jeremiah says you have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: There is a wonderful word play going on in the Hebrew text that's not apparent in our English translations.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: And when the Lord asked Jeremiah what do you see?
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Jeremiah says I see the branch of a shakade.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: And the Lord says you have seen well, because I am chocade over my word to perform it.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: The Hebrew word for almond tree literally means watching one.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: This was so because in that land.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: When the almond tree was ready to bloom, it meant that spring was coming.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: It announced the change in seasons Winter was over and spring was on the horizon, and this was extremely important in a culture and a society depending on the land to yield its harvest.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: And so they watched the almond tree and when it budded, it told them that spring was imminent.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: And I love God's metaphor.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: God is letting Jeremiah know that, just like the bursting into leaf and bloom of the almond tree heralded the springtime, the spoken word of the Lord pointed to its own fulfillment.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: You've seen well, jeremiah, because I am watching over my word to perform it.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: And why does that matter?
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Why does that matter?
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Jeremiah is concerned that he won't be able to fulfill his calling.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: In chapter 1 and verse 6, when the Lord calls him, jeremiah says oh God, look, I'm just a youth, I don't know how to speak.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: And God told Jeremiah in verse 9 of chapter 1, behold, jeremiah, I have put my word in your mouth.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: The emphasis is on my word.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: God does not speak frivolously.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: He doesn't make promises that he will not keep.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Jeremiah, you don't have to worry about being a youth.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: I'm taking care of my word.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: It's my word that is in your mouth and I'm going to see that it comes to pass, even when it seems like I'm not watching, even when it seems like the promise is dead, it is not.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: It is alive.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Jeremiah, you can no more prevent my word from being fulfilled than you can prevent the almond tree from blossoming in springtime.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Every last promise of God will be fulfilled.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: We're going to see in our last point that things will get rough for Jeremiah and the Lord's promises are going to seem like they have been ground to the dust.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: But the Lord's point is that, no matter what it looks like, I am in control of my words.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: So don't you ever forget my promises.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Apostle Paul says to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians, chapter 1 and verse 20, that all the promises of God find their yes in Jesus Christ.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: That is why he says in that chapter it is through Jesus that we utter our amen to God for his glory.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: You and I can hardly get through a chapter of the Bible without hearing God make a promise.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: He promises that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: He promises never to leave us or to forsake us, even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: He promises to give us wisdom if we ask him for it.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Jesus promises that he has.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: He's going to prepare a place for us.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: He promises us eternal life.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: When the disciples said to Jesus, we left everything to follow you, jesus promises there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters, or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel, who will not at the same time receive houses and brothers and sisters, and mothers and fathers and children and land, with persecutions and, in the age to come, eternal life.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: All of these promises are true and all will be fulfilled, no matter what it looks like.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: There's a comfort because sometimes God's word, the word that God speaks, is hard to hear.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: It is often sharp and cuts to the heart.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Its truth does not always bring with it a pleasant response.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: This is why the second point is helpful to know God is in control of the wicked.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: After God reassures Jeremiah that he will fulfill his word, he asked Jeremiah a second question in verses 13 to 15.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Here's real life.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Object lesson, a metaphor for Jeremiah.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Number two the word of the Lord came to me a second time.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Jeremiah says what do you see?
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Jeremiah says I see a boiling pot facing away from the north.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: And the Lord said to me out of the north, disaster shall be let loose upon all the inhabitants of the land because I am calling all the tribes of the kingdom of the north, declares the Lord, and they will come and everyone shall set his throne.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: At the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, against all its walls, all around, against all the cities of Judah, against all the cities of Judah, there's a pot that is set aflame and the coals are being stoked and the Lord is saying I'm turning up the heat for the purpose of cleansing my land.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: He tells the people, through Jeremiah, in the first part of chapter two, verses seven and eight you have defiled my land.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: He tells them.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and good things, but when you came in, the Lord says in chapter 2, verse 7, you defiled my land and you made it an abomination.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Therefore, he says to Jeremiah, the clans of the northern kingdoms will come and lay siege on Jerusalem and Judah.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: And notice what God says, verse 15,.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: He says I'm calling, I'm calling these kingdoms this disaster even evil, we might say that is being unleashed upon the land is coming to fulfill god's purpose.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: This is hard for us to grasp, but even the works of evil in this world are ultimately serving god's purpose.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: That is a hard, hard message to hear and to believe.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: The seemingly senseless wickedness and violence we see and experience makes many people doubt that God is even real.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: We see bombs falling and children being slaughtered and we say does God even see or care?
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Listen, this is not a new question.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Here's what we need to understand.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Left to its own devices, the human heart is bent against God.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Jeremiah will even say, in chapter 17 and verse 9 of this prophecy the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Who can understand it?
Pastor Irwyn Ince: So, even as the wicked act out of their own accord, out of their own wickedness of their hearts, god is still fulfilling his purpose.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: In the context of our passage, his purpose is to bring judgment on Judah.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: When Israel was in Egypt, god used the wickedness of Pharaoh to display his power and authority over Egypt and their false gods.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: And so when Israel was delivered from slavery in Egypt, there was no doubt in the eyes of Israel or in the eyes of the Egyptians who was God indeed, of Israel, or in the eyes of the Egyptians, who was God.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Indeed, in 1 Kings, chapter 19, god uses the wickedness of Jezebel to put the prophet Elijah on the run and show him that, even though all seemed to be lost and that he was alone, god was still in control.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: He left 7,000 in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: God's being in control of the wicked is a hard pill to swallow.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: God is good, god is love, and we have a hard time connecting love and goodness with wickedness and evil.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: But we need to grasp the fact that Jesus understood and embraced God's control of the wicked for his own good purposes.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: What does Jesus pray in the garden of Gethsemane before his arrest and his crucifixion?
Pastor Irwyn Ince: He prays and he says my father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: God uses the wickedness of the Pharisees and Judas and the crowd to fulfill his purpose in sending Jesus Christ to the cross as the Lamb of God who will take away the sin of the world, the only all-sufficient sacrifice for sin.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: The apostle Peter, in his Pentecost sermon in Acts, chapter 2, says men of Israel, hear these words.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him, in your midst.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: As you yourselves know this, jesus delivered up.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Listen to what Peter says.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: There's never been a time when God was not in control of the wicked.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: There's never been a time when the evil of this world has not been used by God to fulfill his sovereign purposes.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: You see, this is a source of comfort for those who have come to God through faith in Jesus Christ.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: God is in control even of the wicked.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: The great reality and joy for Christians is that the ultimate disaster, the ultimate disaster, the ultimate punishment for sin was let loose upon Jesus Christ.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: You see, the kingdoms of the north are not the only evil in this text.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: God is not only in control of the wicked, he is in control of his worship.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Why are the kingdoms of the north coming for battle?
Pastor Irwyn Ince: The Lord says in verse 16 of our passage.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: I will declare my judgments against them for all their evil in forsaking me, they have made offerings to other gods and worship the works of their own hands.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: God says I am to be the object of your affections.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: God says they abandoned him to worship other gods, the works of their own hands.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: They had broken the covenant that they had made Before they entered the land.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: They renewed the covenant in Joshua, chapter 24, when Joshua says as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: And the people say we will serve the Lord also.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: And Joshua says no, no, no, you can't serve him because he's a holy God.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: And the people say no, no, no, we will serve the Lord.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: And they've broken this promise.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Why?
Pastor Irwyn Ince: What was the lure?
Pastor Irwyn Ince: What was the attraction to serve other gods?
Pastor Irwyn Ince: They're accused of bowing down to the works of their own hands.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: They wanted something that they could touch and feel with their hands.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: I can't see God, but I can see this wooden statue.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: It's tangible.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: They were not atheists.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: They believed in the supernatural.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: They just wanted a supernatural that they could control and have authority over.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: We can understand that.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: We know the pull and the temptation to put our hopes and our dreams into things that are tangible, tactile.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: We still can't see god.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Our cultural context is different, but we still worship tangible things that we think will bring peace and contentment and happiness and success.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: And the reality is that we become what we worship.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: And God says that anything other than him is ultimately nothingness.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Indeed, he says that very thing in chapter 2 of Jeremiah, in verse number 5, where the Lord says what wrong did your fathers find in me?
Pastor Irwyn Ince: That they went far from me and went after worthlessness and became worthless.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: God's intent is for his people to reflect his character and his nature to the world.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: He has set his people apart, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, as a royal priesthood.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: What did God tell Moses to tell Pharaoh, let my people go that they might worship me.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: God will not tolerate false worship.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: He's in control of his worship.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: And what did their false worship demonstrate?
Pastor Irwyn Ince: It demonstrated that they had rejected him.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: It demonstrated that they were giving lip service to God, but their hearts weren't in it and, what's more, they believed that it didn't matter.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: God will tell Jeremiah, in chapter 7 of this prophecy, to stand at the entrance of the Lord's house, the temple, and say to the people, as they come in to worship amend your ways and your deeds and I will let you dwell in this place.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: God says Jeremiah, tell these people do not trust these deceptive words.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: This is the temple of the Lord, the temple words.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Because if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice with one another, if you don't oppress the sojourner, the fatherless or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place and in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: But behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Will you steal murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say we are delivered, only to go on doing these abominations?
Pastor Irwyn Ince: See, as Pastor Ben said, you didn't come to church when you came here.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Yeah, you are the church.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: And just in a similar way, worshiping God has never only been about what we do when we come together as a body on Sunday morning.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: It is about lives that are given over to the Lord.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Completely Right, the value in tangible things jobs and money and houses and clothes and health and family, etc.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Those come only as they are realized in a life submitted to Jesus, lives that are striving, by the grace of God, to reflect the character of God to the world.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: God is in control of his worship, he's in control of his word, he's in control of the wicked, he's in control of his worship and, lastly, he's in control of his warrior.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: I just needed another W, by the way.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: At you, by the way.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: The people are not going to respond favorably to Jeremiah's message.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: So the Lord tells him in verse 17, jeremiah, dress yourself for work, get up and say to them everything I command.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: You Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: God tells Jeremiah to do three things in verse 17.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Dress himself for work, arise and speak and do not break down before the people Gird up your loins.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: I like that King James said it Gird up your loins.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Jeremiah, that long flowing priestly garment you are wearing is not appropriate for what you will have to deal with, and if God had left it at that, jeremiah would have been in trouble.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: He's speaking judgment against the inhabitants of the land and God tells him in verse 19, they will fight against you.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: They will fight against you.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: They will wage war against him.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: One man against everybody.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: One commentator put it Jeremiah was appointed over nations and kingdoms to tear them down and to build them up.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: This included standing up to God's enemies, refusing to give in to political pressure.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: How could he do it?
Pastor Irwyn Ince: How can any believer, let alone a youngster who does not know how to speak, have the courage to stand against the enemies of God in a wicked world?
Pastor Irwyn Ince: God tells Jeremiah get ready, get up and don't give in.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: And then grace comes in verses 18 and 19.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: The Lord says I behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar and bronze walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people of the land.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the Lord, to deliver you.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Courage and strength come from the Lord.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Jeremiah didn't make himself a fortified city or an iron pillar or a bronze wall.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: I have made you strong, jeremiah.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: You are not in this thing alone.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Remember this is my word.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: It will be accomplished, and I'm using you as the messenger.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Yes, you will be persecuted.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Yes, you will be beaten.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Yes, you will be mocked and scorned.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Yes, you will be thrown into prison.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Yes, they will try to kill you.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Only be strong and courageous.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Say what I command you to say.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: They cannot prevail over you, because I am with you to rescue you.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: You are not alone because one man and God is a majority, a majority.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: God promised Jeremiah that he would be strengthened and sustained in order to fulfill the Lord's purpose, and it all ties together.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: God is in control of his word.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Not only would the word be kept, but the messenger would be kept too.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: You know what is so striking about this declaration?
Pastor Irwyn Ince: That God makes you read it, and it feels like he's going a bit overboard with the metaphors.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: It seems a bit exaggerated to compare a man to a fortified city, to an iron pillar, to a bronze wall, but, as another commentator pointed out, when you take a look at Jeremiah's whole career, the metaphor turns out to be an understatement, not an exaggeration.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: As he rightly pointed out, jeremiah held out longer than the walls of his fortified city, jerusalem.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: The walls of that city were destroyed, they cracked and crumbled.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: The pillars came down when the city was overthrown and there was Jeremiah, still standing, still declaring the truth of God's word.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: In this way, jeremiah prefigures for us one who would come centuries later declaring y'all have a worship problem, so repent and believe, for the kingdom of God is at hand.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: And they would fight against him and they would plot together on how they might destroy him because they didn't know that God was in control of the wicked.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: So they hung him high and they stretched him wide and they thought that when he had bowed his head and was buried in a borrowed tomb, that that was the end of the story.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: But they did not know that God was with him to deliver him.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: So early Sunday morning he got up and he declared all authority in heaven and in earth has been given to me.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: In other words, I am in control.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: So he can say to them and to you and to me I am with you always to deliver you.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Amen.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: This is the truth for everyone who has put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: This is why we find the Bible telling us in places like Ephesians 6, be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Or like Paul to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 12, 19, that the grace of God was sufficient for him, because God's power is made perfect in weakness, so he said.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ might rest upon me.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: This is necessary for the life we live as Christians, understanding that Jesus is in control of everything.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: He's in control of his word, he's in control of the wicked, he's in control of his worship.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: He's in control of the wicked.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: He's in control of his worship.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: He's in control of his warriors.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Christians know this to be true in our heart of hearts, and it guides our lives and our decisions.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Daily we live out the lyrics of that hymn of the church that says I'm going through, I'll pay the price.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Whatever men may do, I'll take the way of the world's despised few.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: I've started in Jesus and I'm going through.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: Let's pray, thank you, and we praise you, lord, that you are the one who is in control, no matter what it looks like in our lives, in this topsy-turvy, upside-down world with wars and rumors of wars, with wickedness we see running rampant in our communities and sometimes even in our own hearts.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: We thank you that they shall not prevail because you are in control and that you are our deliverer.
Pastor Irwyn Ince: We bless you and pray that we would live into this life and reality daily, to the glory of your name, amen.