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Amen. Jeremiah chapter number 45 begins a new phase in the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapters 1 through 44 tell a story. There's a narrative. It starts out with Jeremiah being called to preach and he's told that the mission is to go to the land of Judah and preach to the rebellious house of Israel, to the Jews that have turned away from the Lord. It's a very negative book where he's constantly preaching about their sins and their unwillingness to change and they're not listening to the Word of God and therefore God's going to destroy them. Well, that culminates toward the the 30s chapters in there where he starts to pour out his wrath where Nebuchadnezzar and Nebazar-e-Dan come. They surround the city. Jerusalem's besieged for a long time. Finally the enemy breaks through. They take King Zedekiah captive. They poke out his eyes. They take bowls and there's a remnant that's left behind. But throughout the book of Jeremiah, God had promised there's gonna be no remnant. Everybody's gonna be removed. Everybody's going into captivity. This whole nation is gonna be wiped out for 70 years and then 70 years are gonna go by and they're gonna be brought back which of course happened in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. And up through chapter 45 we saw God's just final judgments and final pronouncements of just doom and destruction for the nation of Judah and that really culminated in chapter 44 because in chapter 44 they went down to Egypt and they had disobeyed the Lord by even going there and so God preaches one, you know, God has Jeremiah preach one last sermon against them down there that says you're all gonna suffer. You're all gonna be cursed. You're all gonna be doomed because you disobeyed me and went to Egypt. Okay, that's pretty much the story of Jeremiah and it's very coherent. It's easy to follow, easy to understand as that story progresses. Well when we get to chapter 45 though that all changes because look at verse number one of chapter 45. It says the word that Jeremiah the prophet spake unto Barak the son of Neriah when he had written these words in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah. Now we're going way back in time here. Now one of the best ways to read the Bible is to just realize that the Bible is usually in chronological order which makes sense obviously that chapter 2 follows chapter 1 and there's a story being told but whenever the Bible deviates from chronological order usually the Bible makes that really clear and obvious so that we can understand that. For example when you're reading the book of Revelation you're reading a narrative that tells a story from chapters 1 through 11 and everything makes perfect sense it's all telling a story but then all of a sudden at the beginning of chapter 12 you're back at the birth of Christ. Well that kind of jumps out at you and tells you right away okay we've gone back in time we've we've gotten out of the chronological order. Well this indication here in verse number one tells us the same thing because the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah I mean that already happened we just finished with Zedekiah which is a king that came after Jehoiakim we saw him getting his eyes poked out and going into Babylon then we saw Gedaliah getting assassinated and then they have no king and they're down in Egypt so this signals us right here that we've left the narrative we're not telling the story anymore and we're out of chronological order. So a lot of books in the Old Testament are like this where they tell a story in chronological order but then the story ends and then at the end there's a lot of just additional chapters tagged on at the end that don't fit in with the story so they're just kind of put in a separate section. The way I like to think of it is that sometimes if you buy a DVD of a documentary or something like for example our films you know After the Tribulation or whichever sometimes there will be DVD extras you know where you have the the feature you have the movie but then at the end there are just some extra features tagged on maybe something about the making of the film or something about you know that goes deeper a full interview or something like that so that's kind of I kind of think of this as the DVD extras you know kind of the extras at the end of the book for example when you read second Samuel it's in chronological order but then the last several chapters completely deviate from that order and it's very obvious because you have David's last words he's dying and then all of a sudden there's just all these other stories that David performed you know that wasn't just a really busy last day of his life you know it's just that that stuff is just tagged on to the end of the book same thing with the book of Judges when you read the book of Judges it tells you this judge reigned and then the next judge reigned and then the next judge reigned and it tells you a story in order but then at the very end of the book there are just two stories tagged on that are not part of that chronology that are just stories of things that happen in the days of the judges okay so when we get to this part of Jeremiah we're entering a new phase in the book of just extra chapters that are tagged on and I don't mean extra in a sense that they're not necessary because obviously all scriptures given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine but these chapters don't really directly relate to the story that God was trying to tell us in chapters 1 through 44 so I'm just going to give you just a quick overview of what these chapters are about in chapter 45 we have a message that is spoken directly to one man Baruch the son of Noriah who is Jeremiah's servant and then look at verse number one of chapter 46 the word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the Prophet against the Gentiles against Egypt etc now you can understand why these are tagged on at the end because the whole book of Jeremiah up through chapter 44 was all about God's wrath and God's anger and judgment on what nation Judah right Israel Judah whatever you want to call it but is the southern kingdom that would technically be known as the kingdom of Judah it's his wrath on the Jews and how he's begging them to repent and get right with him and he's gonna destroy them and Jeremiah's preaching to them and Jeremiah's getting thrown in jail and he keeps warning him and they don't listen and he warns them and they don't listen and then they're all destroyed so this is a judgment that's being proclaimed by a different group of people because this is God's word that he's preaching against the Gentiles so this doesn't really fit in so that's why it's tagged on at the end not in the chronology when Jeremiah actually preached this sermon okay look at chapter 47 you'll see the same thing in verse 1 the word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the Prophet against the Philistines before that Pharaoh smote Gaza again an unrelated group of people look at chapter 48 verse 1 against Moab thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel woe unto Nebo look at chapter 49 verse 1 concerning the Ammonites so what have we seen so far chapter 45 is directed at one guy chapter 46 is directed at the Gentiles and against Egypt chapter 47 is directed against the Philistines chapter 48 and chapter 49 are against Moab and Ammon which are related to the children of Israel through Lot and then chapters 50 and 51 are about Babylon chapter 50 verse 1 the word that the Lord spake against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the Prophet and chapters 50 and 51 talk about Babylon and then the final chapter chapter 52 is just an ending to kind of give closure to the book it tells the same story again that we already heard earlier in chapter 39 about Zedekiah being captured his eyes being poked out and about Jerusalem being destroyed because God wanted to end the book on that note so that it would flow into Lamentations and then it would flow into Ezekiel which Ezekiel deals with them once they're already in captivity okay so Jeremiah gets them into captivity not Jeremiah the person but the book of Jeremiah tells us the story of them getting into captivity and then Ezekiel picks right up at that point and talks about them being in captivity and the prophecies that came to Ezekiel that he preached to the children of Judah that were in captivity so I hope that just helps you go back to chapter 45 but I just hope that helps you to understand the book of Jeremiah a little bit chapters 1 through 44 is the is the meat of the book that's the main story and then 45 through 52 is just everything that's tagged on I know the first time I read Jeremiah I was a little confused when I got to chapter 52 and Jerusalem's getting sacked again I'm thinking like I already read this you know what's going on why are we repeating this but it's just because it's from a different angle just states things a little bit differently and we can compare Scripture with Scripture on that so let's look at chapter 45 itself it says the word that Jeremiah the prophet spake unto Barak the son of Neriah when he had written these words in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah so who is Barak Barak is the servant of Jeremiah or you could call him the scribe of Jeremiah or his secretary where he preaches and Barak writes it all down so instead of Jeremiah picking up a pen and writing the book of Jeremiah he gave it verbally to Barak who was the one who actually penned it down of course the Bible says in the New Testament that the prophecy came not an old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost notice it doesn't say that they wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost they spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost the Word of God always started out as a spoken word and then it was written down even the book of Romans in the New Testament was spoken by Paul but it says at the end in chapter 16 I Tertius who wrote this epistle salutes you in the Lord so the guy who physically penned it down was a guy named Tertius but that doesn't really matter does it because the what matters is who the author is okay this is Jeremiah's preaching this is Jeremiah the Prophet it's what he preached does it really matter who had the pen in their hand and wrote it down no but in the same way we can look at the whole Bible as God's Word because the Bible says all scriptures given by inspiration of God the Bible says that the Holy Ghost spake by the mouth of David the Prophet the Holy Ghost spake by the mouth of Isaiah the Prophet so holy men of God this is how we got the Bible it's important doctrine understand holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost meaning that they spake the words that God wanted them to speak that it was God's will for them to speak that God had planned to be the words of the Bible God used these men to speak those words the Holy Ghost came upon them and caused them to speak that word and then some other person who's really not relevant at all a lot of times we don't even know the name of that person we have no idea who that even was actually physically pinned it down and wrote it down you say well you know how do we know that it's accurate you know if some no-name guy wrote it down and and then of course we have a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy and then we've translated that copy into into English how do we know well here's the way that we know it we believe it it's by faith it's by faith you say well why you expect me to just take that on faith well here's the thing show me a book like this book there is no book like this book this book is the evidence for itself oh that's a circular argument well here's the thing we don't care what you call it it's the truth the Bible is the evidence for itself why do I believe the Bible because a history book because a fossil no the reason I believe the Bible is because the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even the dividing asunder of soul and spirit of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents are there's no other book like that there's no other scripture there's no other poetry there's no other literature they can hold a candle to 1st Corinthians 13 Psalm 23 Hebrews chapter 11 you know name your favorite chapter name your favorite passage of Scripture John 3 16 the power there is something that could only come from the mouth of God and believe me many people have tried to imitate the Bible right Muhammad with the Quran you know we have all kinds of Hindu scriptures we have the Book of Mormon and all other cheap imitations of God's Word they not they don't even come close they can't even hold a candle even just from an objective standpoint even the world will tell you this is the most influential book ever written only people who hate this book would deny the fact that it's powerful and here's the thing if God is the creator of the universe if God knows everything if God has all wisdom all knowledge all understanding then any book that he wrote should be perfect and amazing and far deeper than anything that mortal man could write and that's exactly what we find in the Bible that's why I believe the Bible tonight is God's Word I don't have to know who physically pinned it down all I need to know is that this is what it says and the spirit itself beareth witness with my spirit that I'm a child of God through the words that are in this book so I believe the Bible tonight by faith I have my faith is in God my faith is in the Word of God my faith is not in man or man's wisdom or man's learning because the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God now people out there they think they're really smart and they look down upon a Bible believing Christian but you know what honestly I hate to say this but we look down on them we think they're dumb when they tell us about the Big Bang and and all the the stupid things that they believe in so it's foolishness it's foolishness with God but the Bible says the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness but that's what you're saved it is the power of God so it's interesting we get a little sneak peek here into how the Word of God was given Jeremiah spoke and Baruch wrote those words in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah now he's keeping a running a running account of what Jeremiah preaches because Jeremiah is obviously not done preaching at this time because this is something that God gave to Baruch back in the fourth year of Jehoiakim so this is an earlier part of Jeremiah's ministry when this came and of course there was a time when Baruch brought all the scripture that he'd written down so far at the mouth of Jeremiah if you remember this story and he delivers it to the king and they read it before the king and the king gets so mad when he hears the Bible that he takes the book of Jeremiah and he throws it in the fireplace and then what does he do Jeremiah speaks all those same words again Baruch writes them all down again and then he adds more and he keeps adding more adding more adding more so this little scripture is given specifically to the guy who God's using to pin this stuff down at the mouth of Jeremiah Jeremiah's servant his right-hand man now throughout the Bible men of God often had assistance or helpers or proteges or apprentices or whatever you want to call it you think of Moses he had a young man that followed him right Joshua that eventually carried the torch in the next generation you think of Elijah who had Elisha Elisha had Ghezei you know who didn't really pan out as a great follower but he had that follower you know Paul had Timothy you know David had Jonathan you know just different men in the Bible that had someone who served them and learned from them and and looked up to them and became a great man of God themselves you know this is a biblical model and if you want to be a great preacher if you want to be a great man of God you must first learn how to follow you need to be humble enough to be like an Elisha who poured water on the hands of Elijah but then he ended up being twice the prophet that Elijah was so it's not that serving makes you inferior in fact the Bible says whosoever is greatest among you shall be your servant if any man among you will be great let him be your servant so serving is godly serving makes you a great person in the eyes of God and serving is a great way to learn and grow and and basically be an apprentice to someone who's further down the road of serving God than you are you need to be humble enough to learn from other people some people have this attitude that says well I'm just gonna follow Christ I don't follow man but that's not biblical Paul said follow me as I follow Christ he said be followers together of me and mark them which walk so as you have us for an ensemble for many walk of whom I told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ whose end is destruction whose God is their belly and his glory is in their shame he's saying there are a lot of bad teachers out there bad people out there he's saying be followers of me follow us all throughout the epistles Paul and Timothy and Sylvanus and others are saying follow us we want you to have us for an example so this attitude of not following anyone is a false doctrine it's not something you find in Scripture all throughout Scripture there are men of God there are leaders and you follow them you learn from them you grow and then eventually you're ready to go be the leader and to have other people following you and to train others you know Paul said to his protege Timothy the things that thou has heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also so pride and arrogance gets you nowhere with God God wants to see you being humble ready to learn ready to hear ready to listen ready to serve and if you're not going to be faithful with that which is another man's God's not going to give you that which is your own you have to show yourself faithful first in the pew before you'll ever be ready to be in the pulpit first you have to be a faithful church member and there are a lot of guys today that that literally don't go to church at all they'll just listen to preaching online or just read their Bible and then they think they're ready to pastor I can't find a good church because you know nobody's as smart as I am so I'm just going to start my own church wrong you need before honor comes humility the Bible says and the Bible says the elders that rule well are counted worthy of double honor well guess what before honor comes humility first you got to be a church member first you need to be a follower first you need to learn and get involved in your local church before you're ready to lead the church you got to be ready to follow in the church I mean can you imagine just walking into a job that you've never done and just expected to be the boss on the first day I mean what if you're an electrician first you're gonna have to be the the grunt first you're gonna start out digging ditches first you're gonna start out being the gopher then you're gonna learn you're gonna grow then you'll become the journeyman you know then you'll become the foreman then you'll become the supervisor you can't just expect to just go from not going to church at all to pastoring a church there are people out there who do try to pull that and God doesn't bless it God blesses people who are a church member and are in their place serving God and then they're raised up to be a preacher to be a man of God and you know I I would love to see a great generation of preachers come out of our church come out of a forward Baptist Church you know that our church would send out great preachers and Jeremiah's and Elijah's and Elisha's out of this church but but great preachers are gonna come out of either our church or another Bible believing church they're not gonna come out of thin air or out of a living room or a basement you know what I mean they're gonna come out of the church begets the church everything brings forth after its own kind and preachers beget preachers that's where the laying on of hands which is supposed to be a basic doctrine the Bible called that the first principles of the oracles of God the the first principles of Christ in Hebrews chapter 5 at the end there and into the beginning of chapter 6 one of those basic doctrines besides just repentance from dead works and faith toward God baptism wasn't the doctrine of the laying on of hands and of resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment that's supposed to be a basic doctrine the laying on of hands what does that mean that means you start out by being a church member following right and then you learn from the man of God and then you grow and then you go and and preach yourself that's the biblical model and those who follow that biblical model will be blessed those who try to bypass that are not going to be blessed and they're not prepared for the job anyway so Barak is that humble assistant that humble servant but Barak is a human being so he has his moments of doubt and weakness and low point so here this is the message to him verse 2 thus saith the Lord the God of Israel unto thee O Barak doubted say woe is me now so what's Barak do he's feeling sorry for himself well who is me now for the Lord have added grief to my sorrow I fainted in my sighing and I find no rest thus shalt thou say unto him so God's telling Jeremiah this is what you need to tell Barak the Lord saith thus behold that which I have built will I break down and that which I have planted I will pluck up even this whole land and seekest thou great things for thyself seek them not for behold I will bring evil upon all flesh saith the Lord but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest so the message to Barak who's feeling down he's got some self pity and feeling sorry for himself going on which is not a good thing the message to him is first of all I'm gonna I'm gonna break down that which I've built okay now this goes all the way back to Jeremiah chapter 1 in Jeremiah chapter 1 God sent Jeremiah to preach against the land of Judah and the wording that he used was that Jeremiah was gonna break down pull down pluck up and destroy right because he was supposed to preach hard against sin and of course the literal meaning was that Jerusalem was physically literally gonna be broken down I mean the walls are gonna be busted down the city's gonna be burned with fire and so forth so when God said here behold that which I've built while I break down and that which I've planted I will pluck up even this whole line he's saying I planted the children of Judah in the land of Judah I planted them there I'm the one who brought them into this land with a mighty hand and with a stretched out arm I brought them out of Egypt I brought them across the Red Sea I sustained them in the wilderness for 40 years I parted the Jordan River I brought them in I knocked down the walls of Jericho and gave them that victory I brought them through the battle with AI and all the other battles seven years of warfare where I fought for them it wasn't the children of Judah as power or might that got them the promised land God gave them everything that they had God sent the Hornets before them to inflict wounds on the enemy to make it an easy victory God brought down the walls of Jericho God performed all kinds of miracles so that they could defeat seven nations that the Bible says were mightier than they were in the land of Canaan the high bites the Amorites the Parisites and Jebusites and so forth he said I'm not doing this because of your goodness but because of my greatness and power so God planted them God built them up God gave them everything that they had they were his people he was their God but God's saying at this point because of their sin because of their iniquity I'm going to break down that which I've built up and I'm going to pluck up that which I've planted even this whole land he's saying I'm going to judge the whole land of Judah and seekest thou great things for thyself seek them not for behold I will bring evil upon all flesh saith the Lord but thy life will I give thee for pray in all places with that goes what he's basically saying to him is look why don't you just be happy that when everybody else gets killed you're not going to die that's what he's telling him he say like do you realize how bad this judgments going to be that I'm bringing on Judah do you realize that I'm going to pluck up what I planted I'm going to break down what I built I'm going to destroy this whole land I'm going to bring judgment upon all flesh I'm going to bring evil upon all flesh everybody's going to the sword to the famine and to the pestilence and you're seeking great things for yourself why don't you be happy that you're going to survive I'm going to give you your life for a prey in all places with about go as he says in the end and when he says but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places with our goes what is the word pray mean we would normally use that word pray P and this is not P R A Y this is P R E Y we would normally use this word in a scenario where one animal is hunting another right and the animal who's being hunted would be the prey okay so when the Bible use the word pray it's often referring to the spoils of war or whatever would be whatever would be what's the word whatever would be acquired through battle that would be you know a boon for the one who acquires it so for example you know an animal goes out and it fights some other animal right and then what does it end up with the prey you know it gets to eat that that meal of the of the beast that it just devoured so the prey would be that which you achieve in battle whatever you get to take home with you okay so basically what he's saying is I'm gonna give you your life for a prey like here's what you're gonna walk away tell them what they get Jeremiah you know what you get to be alive and nothing else he's saying you're not gonna come out of this thing rich you're not gonna end up with houses and lands and wealth and and you know I'm gonna give you your life for a prey in all places with about go is and what he's basically saying is this nation is in such hot water with me that I mean you should just be happy that you're even gonna live because nobody else is everybody else is gonna be wiped out and and go through all kinds of famine and disease and and be slain with the sword and so forth so he's saying I'm gonna give you your life for prey in all places with about go is don't see great things for thyself don't expect to have some other prey don't expect to be really successful or well-known or or have a fancy house or drive a fancy car or be be prospering and and wealthy you know don't see great things for yourself you're gonna have your life as a prey now how I would apply this to us today is that sometimes when we're going through bad times and sometimes when we're feeling sorry for ourselves we just need to keep sight of we're saved we're going to heaven I mean think about that we need to just remember that no matter how bad things get on this earth we're gonna go to heaven for all eternity and you know what most people aren't going I mean most people are suffering a fate that's worse than just physical death if they're actually damned to hell I mean if they're actually gonna be there for all eternity that's far worse than anything that could happen to you on this earth and so we understand that we have our soul as a pray in all places whether we go not just our life but our soul we are going to heaven it's a blessing that our sins are never gonna be mentioned to us when we get to heaven because it's all forgiven and forgotten as far as the East is from the West God has separated us from our sins and he said their sins and iniquities will I remember no more you know we ought to be happy with that we ought to be happy with the fact that all our sins are forgiven that we're saved that we're gonna live forever I mean these wealthy men who are old and dying they would give anything of their wealth if you could give them some cure where they could live forever or some technology where they could just extend their lives by 300 years they would spend all their money on that right but our lives are extended forever we have eternal we have eternal life in a perfect place and so we got to keep that in mind and not get down in the dumps and discouraged we need to put things in perspective there's always somebody else out there who has it worse than we do no matter how bad we have it so Barak is like whoa is me you're adding grief to my sorrow he's like wait a minute do you realize what I'm gonna do to everybody else you have it way better than them you're gonna be alive you're gonna survive you're not getting a disease and there are so many things that we could be thankful for as Christians today you know we live in a prosperous nation we live in a land of opportunity even if we're poor we still eat better than a lot of people in this world in other countries who are eating hand-to-mouth really struggling really suffering you know we had to keep in perspective that we have food to eat we we live in a in a warm place right we're not I mean other people are freezing right now other people are shoveling snow right now we've got palm trees and blue skies and a beautiful sunrise or sunset actually I was thinking of I just observed a beautiful sunset the weather's perfect right short sleeves windows down sunshine we're loving it we're enjoying it right other people are all holed up somewhere in a cold place you know there's a lot to be thankful for God has given us a church where we could have other like-minded believers to fellowship with and it's easy to get down in the dumps and focus on all the bad things about your life but what about all the good things about your life some people are depressed and down because they're poor and they don't have any money or they don't have a car but what about your health some people are in perfect health but they're down because their finances are wrong well you know what people who have great finances would give all their money to have your health they'd give every last penny and go into debt to have your health so are you thankful you're you say well pass her you know my health is bad yeah but I guarantee you there's other things that you have all the money though no just kidding I don't have money if I have bad health yeah but are you saved the streets are paved with gold where you're going just hang in there for a little while you'll be there soon enough especially with your health but the point is you know Barak has the wrong attitude he's focused on the things that are going bad and God's telling him well you know what there's people out there that have a lot worse than you you're actually doing pretty good in the scheme of things compared to everyone else and compared to what I'm gonna do to them and then another thing we can get from this is at the beginning of verse 5 it says and seekest thou great things for thyself what we need to understand is that when it comes to serving the Lord we should not see great things for ourselves that's being in the ministry for the wrong reason here's a guy who's in the ministry right this guy I believe is probably a full-time guy he's probably just with Jeremiah all the time serving him working with him writing things down for him being his assistant being his helper so that Jeremiah could give himself to the Word of God and prayer just like the Apostles wanted to give themselves fully to the ministry so they had to have the deacons helping them with day-to-day tasks so that they could be fully dedicated to the spiritual work and preaching that God had called them to do you know when you go into the ministry when you go into serving the Lord it's not to see great things for yourself he must increase and we must decrease it's not about personal aggrandizement personal success personal fame personal glory none of these things matter they don't matter at all you know what matters is the kingdom of God that's what matters you know one time there was this guy he preached a sermon and he and he preached a righteous sermon but he also said well but you know but Steven Anderson is X Y & Z you know and he basically said negative things about yours truly but he preached a righteous sermon his sermon I listen sir I was like this sermons right it's a good sermon and I told him I said hey even though you don't like me that was a great sermon and he said oh I'm sorry I probably shouldn't have you know criticized you but I said you know what it doesn't matter it doesn't matter is a great sermon and you like you preach the truth you preach the true story you preach what people needed to hear now the part that you're preaching against me you were wrong of course but here's the I don't even keep but it doesn't matter you know what matters that the truth be preached I don't care if you go out of here and hate my guts for the rest of your life as long as you love Jesus and serve God and serve Jesus for the rest of your life it's fine with me I love you you're my friend I'm serious it's not about me it's about Jesus it's about the truth it's about God's Word that's what it comes down to it's not about getting people to like me it's about getting people to like the Bible it's about getting people to like soul winning it's about getting people to like hard preaching against sin that's what it's about you know what there are a lot of people out there that don't like me but I feel that I've been a good influence on them and that's fine with me I think that's great you know what I'm saying because because if people can just think oh well Stephen Anderson's an idiot but man soul winnings the way to do it and even if they even if they pattern certain soul winning things after the way that we do it here great who cares it doesn't matter what people think of me or what people think of you or whether people like us or whether we have a lot of money or whether we live in the lap of luxury you know what matters is that God's work get done that's all that matters so we you know make sure they always keep that attitude in mind that what matters is the goal what matters is getting to the finish line but you know what there are too many preachers out there that are too thin-skinned they can't handle anybody criticizing them they can't handle anybody attacking them they can't handle anything saying anything anybody saying anything negative about them you know it just shows that they just have too much emphasis on themselves and what other people think about them why do they even care you know why are they so worried about just constantly look if I defended myself every time somebody attacked me it'd be a full-time job you know even even if I don't win anybody the Lord you know I I'm racking up rewards every day just for all the people to lie about me because God said if people if people falsely accuse you for his sake great is your reward in heaven I could literally just sit back and do nothing for the next few weeks and just earn a bunch of rewards just just by just purely by getting lied about for preaching the truth just having people falsely accuse me some guy wrote an article this week he said Pastor Anderson you know I just know it there's no evidence or anything but just I you know just I can tell Pastor Anderson's got some deep dark secrets in his past and they're all and it's gonna be exposed and he's he's got some dark deep see you know here's the thing I grew up in a Christian home when people want to attack me they don't usually look to my past they look to my present right and hey because the stuff that I preach so they didn't like look I thank God by the grace of God and I I have nothing to glory of because I I didn't choose what home I was born in God blessed me that I was born in a Christian home I was raised in a godly home my parents loved the Lord my parents are Baptist I was Baptist born and Baptist bread and when I die I'll be Baptist dead and you know so I didn't have some life of debauchery that God saved me out of thank God I don't have any deep dark skeleton but but people accuse me of that why just because they don't like me they don't like my preaching and they're just like well there's something wrong with him from from the past or something right but you know what who cares okay and if you're gonna be a preacher if you're gonna be a servant of the Lord if you're gonna be a deacon or a pastor or a missionary or an evangelist you have to get to the point where you just realize you know I'm not seeking great things for myself I'm not seeking popularity for myself I'm not trying to get everybody to like me I'm just doing a certain job and I and look if you preach certain things it's gonna make people mad they're gonna attack you they're gonna lie about you they're gonna hit you with everything but it doesn't really matter just so long as the work gets done so long as the job gets done so what if your name's mud so what they didn't like Jeremiah they're constantly throwing him in prison so the point is that when you get in the ministry you have to make sure that you're getting into it for the right reasons not seeking great things for yourself not seeking a gigantic paycheck for yourself not seeking gigantic fame and recognition for yourself great things for yourself no no great things for the Lord great things for the church great things for God's people not great things for yourself all right and in any level of service for God we need to make sure that we're doing it for the right reason you know when we go out soul winning we do it for the love of lost souls we do it because of our love for Jesus Christ we do it because we want to do God's work they told us to do for his honor and for his glory not for our own hey look at me everybody super soul winner here soul winning MVP you know you're doing it for the wrong reason when you if you come to the preaching class and preach a sermon are you there to try to edify are you there to try to learn how to be a better preacher are you there to grow or are you there just to glorify self and just to kind of show everybody how you can preach really well and here's the thing that's why if in the preaching class when somebody preached a sermon I'll often critique it you know I'll point out hey you can fix this you can improve this just as somebody who's more experienced hey and you know when people get a weird attitude about that that kind of shows where their heart is right there oh you embarrass me you told me I made a mistake you know the millennial generation right you can't tell them that they made a mistake because they it hurts their feelings too much you have to handle them with kid gloves all the time great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them right so if people criticize you and you freak out if people try to give you some constructive criticism and you basically are just really mad and hurt and offended you know it just kind of shows where your heart's at that you that you're you're you're looking to be lauded and praised of man instead of instead of just looking to just get the work done humbly you know so Barrick I don't think barracks a bad guy because if Barrick was it were a bad guy I don't think God would even give him a whole chapter you know I mean God's giving this guy a chapter because God cares about this guy God loves this guy and he was a faithful servant for the most part but he's he's experiencing a low point here and God wanted the rest of us to benefit from it and so he says here Barrick write this down there you got your pen ready he's used to writing down all the all the curses against you know Judah and oh yeah Zedekiah oh man that guy's gonna suffer okay here Barrick write this down quit feeling sorry for yourself quit seeking great things for yourself you're lucky to be alive and he's like writing it down like so is this isn't gonna be part of the Bible is it this isn't gonna be in the permanent Scripture record is it for all time yeah maybe you should have quit whining when I told you to you wouldn't have got a chapter about it but the but the point is that you know God's just telling him look don't why now this is another great lesson to some people they love the preaching right they love the preaching until it gets on them right you know they love the preaching with a bunch of adulterers you know if you're not you're not committing adultery you've never committed adultery you're amen that's right you know but then when we get on your sin whatever it is we get on your sin and all of a sudden how dare you you know so we need to understand that sometimes the preaching is gonna hit home with us I mean barracks getting called out by name you know and I don't call people out by name in my sermons but sometimes you know it's gonna you could feel that way even though I'm not trying to do that but sometimes you know that the Holy Spirit is leading the pastor to preach something and and sometimes it's what you needed to hear how are you gonna react to that you know how did well how would Barak react to this you know I think he took it like a man and continued to serve Jeremiah because we see that he continued to serve him after this point all the way to the end of Jeremiah's ministry we see Barak there with him serving him because remember in the very last couple chapters chapter 43 and chapter 44 the last couple chapters of the story what did they say they said well Barak is pulling your strings Barak your barracks puppet that's what they told Jeremiah showing that he and Barak are still working together so be be like Barak when you get a rebuke that you take it you stay with it you be humble and don't seek great things for yourself the Bible says look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others right so we should care about the Lord first and then other people's Jesus then others then you spells joy right you you know please the Lord first Jesus then other people then yourself you don't just go seeking great things for yourself and don't be thin-skinned when people criticize you because Barak here had to take some criticism publicly to the whole universe right thousands of years later we're still we're still on his case about being gloomy and saying woe is me so let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer father we thank you so much for this little short chapter in your word it shows how you care about the individual Lord and how you you sometimes direct things just at one person but thank you that we could also learn from it Lord and help us to be like Barak in the sense that we take the rebuke and take the criticism and don't quit the church because the pastor preached on our sin Lord help us to just be humble and not to not to worry too much when people criticize us or attack us or rebuke us Lord because sometimes it can be good for us it can sharpen us and and you know sometimes you know we learn things and move on and other times we just ignore it because it's a it's it's rewards in heaven for us if it's not true and if it's true then we need to straighten up Lord just please help us all to humbly serve you and to be a barrack and in Jesus name we pray amen