(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

So, Jeremiah 20 verse number 7, have a look at that, it says, O LORD, Thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived, Thou art stronger than I. These are the words of Jeremiah, speaking to the Lord, Thou art stronger than I. That's the title for the sermon this morning, Thou art stronger than I. So let's start there in verse number 1, Jeremiah 20 verse number 1. Don't forget, we're just continuing where we left off in Jeremiah 19. You may remember how Jeremiah was preaching very boldly and very strongly against the city of Jerusalem, against the sacrifices of the children, the innocent blood that was being shed, and then the Lord asked him to go to the Lord's house and preach against them over there. Like to preach the same things in the house of the Lord, and so we just basically continue off where he was at, where he was at the temple. He was at the house of the Lord, verse number 1, it says, Now Pasha, the son of Imah, the priest. Now Pasha, you can see he's the son of a priest, so he himself is a priest. He's in the temple, and he seems to have quite a prominent position with the way he handles Jeremiah. Let's keep going there. He says, Who was also chief governor in the house of the Lord, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things. What things? Again, preaching against the sacrifice of the children, how they had done so wickedly. And so the first thing I want you to think about here, if the title for the sermon is, Thou art stronger than I, what I want to look at here today, brethren, is within this chapter, we see a time where Jeremiah is at a very weak state, very weak, okay? Weak physically, weak emotionally, and even weak spiritually. We'll see all these elements play out in this chapter, and so if Jeremiah is at a point where he's so weak, you can see that he needs the strength of the Lord, okay? And so we can either focus on his weakness, which we will a little bit, or we can focus on how God can strengthen us. And so if Jeremiah is going around preaching a very unpopular message, a message that makes people hate him, a message that is causing people to even desire to kill him, and then we see him going to the house of the Lord, to the temple, and preaching some things, such things, sorry. I should, you know, the first point that I have for you is that, you know, the strength that comes from the Lord is a strength that allows us to proclaim God's word. Remember, Jeremiah is preaching a very difficult sermon. You know, me preaching on Thursday about abortion, about, you know, killing children, about the eating of children that was taking place during this time, I found it hard to preach. Well, what about actually being the prophet, being Jeremiah himself, walking those streets, and actually preaching against such a wicked nation? I mean, how much harder would it have been for Jeremiah? And so, you know, he needed the strength of the Lord to proclaim God's word. And you know what, in order to proclaim God's word, you do need God's strength. You cannot do it in the strength of man. You know, if you try to get behind the pulpit and preach over your own strength, it's going to fail. You need the spirit of God, you need the power of God to proclaim God's word. Yes, even when you go door to door soul winning, you know what, you need God's strength in order for yourself to be able to do an efficient job in proclaiming God's word. You cannot do it in your own strength. You must have the strength of the Lord, just like Jeremiah here, had the strength to go to the house of the Lord and prophesy these things. Now, if you can please keep your finger there and turn to Acts chapter one. Turn to Acts chapter one and verse number eight. Acts chapter one and verse number eight. If you're looking for a book of the Bible that's going to encourage you in getting the strength of the Lord or power of God to preach the best book by fire is the book of Acts. It covers this topic the most out of all the other books of the Bible. Acts chapter one, verse number eight. And we've seen some of these verses before, but Acts chapter one, verse number eight. Just before Jesus Christ went up and ascended to heaven to be at the right hand side of the Father, he says in verse number eight, that ye shall receive power. Listen, does Jesus Christ want us to have power? Absolutely. You say, what is that power for? Is it to overthrow governments? Is it power to make myself rich? What is this power for? Jesus Christ says, but ye shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you. Look at this. And ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And so the power that Jesus Christ speaks of is a power that comes from the Holy Ghost and it's the power to preach God's word. It's a power to proclaim, especially the gospel, be a witness for Jesus Christ. Now, let's go to the next chapter, Acts chapter two, because Jesus Christ did promise them that they would receive power. Well, this power that Christ was speaking of was received on the day of Pentecost. Pentecost means 50, 50 days after the Passover or 50 days after the death of Jesus Christ just took place in Acts chapter two and verse number four. Acts chapter two and verse number four reads, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. So I want you to notice there, they were filled with the Holy Ghost, meaning that they had received the power that Jesus Christ spoke about. And what was that power for? It was to be a witness unto Him, right? And so when you see them utter in other tongues, we're not talking about Pentecostalism, we're not talking about the charismatic gibberish that they claim to speak. It's got to be a language that allows you to preach God's Word in the nations. And so we don't have time to look at this, but they were speaking other real tongues. So if you could just automatically speak Japanese, does anyone speak Japanese here? I don't know. But if you could just automatically speak Japanese without having learned to, that means you receive the gift of the tongues to be able to speak that tongue. And we don't see this develop anymore. We have the fulfillment of the scriptures now, we have the canon of scriptures, but hey, we can still look at this principle. And if you know two languages or you may know three languages, hey, that's you know in other tongues and God wants you to use the tongues that you have to proclaim and be a witness of Jesus Christ. But let's go back to, let's go to Acts chapter four now, Acts chapter four and verse number 12, Acts chapter four and verse number 12, because this power that gets received to proclaim God's Word is not a one-time power. It is something that we need to receive on a continual basis. This is why every time before I get up to preach, I'm asking God, give me your power, give me the ability to preach your Word. This is why every time you go thoughts or soul when you should be saying to the Lord, Lord, give me the strength, give me the power from the Holy Ghost to do your work. And so we notice this in Acts chapter four, verse 12, Acts chapter four, verse 12, it says, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Now look at verse number 13, now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. So as Peter and John are going preaching the gospel, they notice they do it with boldness. So where does this boldness come from? Well, it comes from the Holy Ghost, it comes from the power that Jesus Christ told them that they would have. Drop down to verse number 31 in the same chapter, Acts chapter four, verse 31, Acts chapter four, verse 31. So just before, you know, just a few verses ago, we saw that they had the boldness, right? But look at verse number 31, it says, and when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the word of God with boldness, okay? So boldness comes when you're filled with the Holy Ghost and what do they do to receive that? Just like I told you, before you get up to preach, whatever capacity that is, ask God to give you the power, ask Him to give you the boldness, ask Him to fill you with the Holy Ghost so you can do a work for the Lord. But notice that they were filled with the Holy Ghost to speak the word of God with boldness in verse 43, but notice in verse number 13, they had the boldness there as well. Why would they need the boldness again? Because it's a continual process of asking the Lord to give you the power, okay, to proclaim His word. You know, I might one Sunday preach a great sermon, next Sunday I might preach a very flat, you know, sermon with no power, say, why could that, because maybe I just did not seek the Lord during that time, you know? And you're trying to preach out of your own strength. No, remind yourself, just because you've been effective in the past doesn't mean you just think, oh, well, the Holy Ghost is always gonna fill me with power. No, you've got to go just like they did and pray for this. You know, if you're lacking boldness, you're lacking the power to proclaim God's word, what you have to do, just like in verse number 31, and when they had prayed, you need to start praying for boldness, you need to start praying for the power, you need to pray for the strength to proclaim God's word. And look, this is anytime you share the gospel, anytime you share the Bible with someone, even if it's just your friend, even if it's just someone in your family you sit next to, ask God to give you knowledge, the power, and the strength to teach His word in the right way, okay? Even mothers, when you teach your children the word of God, ask God to give you the strength to be able to do that. All right, let's go back to Jeremiah chapter 20, verse number two. Jeremiah chapter 20, and verse number two. It says here, then Pasha smote Jeremiah the prophet. So he hits him, right? Jeremiah's preaching this unpopular sermon, and he strikes, you know, this priest, this governor, strikes Jeremiah, and it says, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin that was by the house of the Lord. So notice there that this guy gets taken, you know, and basically arrested and put into these stocks. You know, if you don't know the stock side, it's kind of like that wooden device, maybe you've seen it on maybe TV or movies or something, and they stick your hands in there, they stick your neck, your head in there, and you're basically stuck like that, right? You're fixing that position, you know, out in the open, like a public disgrace, and people can come and laugh at you and mock at you, and it's just to basically embarrass the prisoner. And so this is what Jeremiah goes through. I mean, does Jeremiah face persecution? Yeah, absolutely, right? But notice the persecution comes from doing what God asked him to do. Remember, you know, just because you might, you know, you can act foolishly. You know, you can do stupid things, you know, and you might get persecuted to some extent by just being an idiot, okay? But that's not the kind of persecution that God's people are supposed to go through. God's people go through the persecution when they're just preaching God's word, all right? And if you're preaching God's word, you're doing what God has asked you to do, and you face persecution, so be it. But don't you think you're gonna need God's strength to go through that kind of persecution? I mean, if someone strikes you, aren't you gonna just in the flesh wanna strike back? There's nothing wrong with defending yourself. Go and defend yourself, right? But didn't Jesus Christ teach turn the other cheek? I mean, that's pretty hard. Turn the other cheek, right? And knowing that, he gets taken and put into these stocks. It would not have been comfortable at all. You know, maybe the sun is beating down on him, maybe getting sunburned, people mocking at him. And so this was a real public shaming that Jeremiah went through. Look at verse number three. And it came to pass on the morrow. Hey, that's tomorrow, okay? So overnight, Jeremiah's stuck in this thing, okay? This is not just a couple of hours. This is all night long, at least, all right? It says that Pasha brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks, then said Jeremiah unto him, the Lord hath not called thy name Pasha, but Magor-Misabib. Say, what is that, Magor-Misabib? Well, we'll have a look at that soon. But notice that once Jeremiah goes through this type of persecution that none of us would wanna go through, what's the next thing he does when he gets freed? He starts preaching against him again, right? He starts preaching God's word again. And he says, look, this is what God has to say to you. And so point number two, brethren, is that when we talk about God being stronger than us, we need God's strength to endure persecution. You can see that Jeremiah needed God's strength to go through this to the point where, you know, if I was let free, I'd probably just run home. I'd just be like, look Jeremiah, as soon as he's free, he's out there preaching God's word straight again, okay? So you can see that he did not rely on the strength of his flesh, but he was relying on the strength of the Lord. So point number two is that we need God's strength to endure persecution, endure persecution. Now can you please turn to, keep your finger there, and turn to Romans chapter eight. Turn to Romans chapter eight for me. Romans chapter eight. And while you're turning to Romans chapter eight, I'm going to read to you from Matthew 11, sorry, Matthew 13, verse 20. Matthew 13, verse 20. And we're just fast forwarding to the time when Jesus Christ preached on the parable of the sower. Remember how you have the parable of the sower and he sowed the seeds and they fall on different places? Well, there's one place where the seed fell, and this is important for us to remember. You know, in the case that we do face persecution in this world, you know, for standing up for God's word, but in Matthew 13, verse 20, it says, But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth. So look, this guy gets saved. He hears God's word, he loves it, he receives it with joy, all right? This guy gets saved. But then it says in verse 21, Yet have he not root in himself. So he's not well rooted, because this fell in stony places, okay? He's not well rooted, right? We know that the deeper the roots go for a plant or a tree, the harder it is to remove it. Okay, I mean, if you wanna, I remember we had a tree that we were trying to get rid of, and that was to build the granny flat in our backyard, but the roots dug in deep, and it was a lot of work to get that tree to pull it down. And so it says there in verse 21, Yet have he not rooted himself, but dureth for a while. So when you're not deeply rooted, you will last for a while, you will be faithful for a while, you know, you will do what God wants for a while, but then it says, For when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. By and by means soon, you know, he'll be offended. So when the tribulation, the difficulties, the persecution comes, the person that drops away quickly means that he never had root in himself, okay? Oh, sorry, he did not have deep roots, right? He wasn't drawing his strength from the Lord. And we need to remember this brethren, you know, we're not really facing any major measure of persecution in these days, but in order for us to go through persecution, you need to make sure now your roots go deep. You need to make sure that you're rooted in God's word. You need to make sure that you're rooted in God's love. You need to make sure that you're rooted in the strength of God, okay? Because we don't know when persecution comes. You know, we don't wanna be like this kind of Christian that when the persecution comes, we get offended by it and we, you know, we don't live for the Lord. No, we need to keep living for the Lord no matter what the situation is, okay? Jeremiah was able to do that, but we'll soon see that he went for a time of weakness as well, okay? Now you're in Romans chapter eight, verse 35. Romans chapter eight, verse number 35. One thing that is going to get you through persecution and tribulation is remembering the love of Jesus Christ. It says in verse number 35, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? Now Brevin, the reason these things are listed is because Christians have gone through these things. Christians have gone through tribulation, distress, persecution, right? Famine, nakedness, peril, sword. Christians have gone through this. You may go through this. We may go through this. This is written in the Bible so we can pay attention and learn and not think, oh, that's just some far away time, you know, in the early church when they were being persecuted. Persecution may very well come in our lives. We need to get ready for it. This is why it's in the word of God, right? But look at verse number 36. Are we to rise up against that persecution? Are we to create a militia and fight for our freedoms and liberties? Verse number 36, it's amazing. It's sort of almost unbelievable, but it says, as it is written, for thy sake, that's for God's sake, we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Do you think about that? Do you think of your life in that sense? I am supposed to be a sheep for the slaughter. So, you know, what it's teaching us here, it's not that we flee persecution. It's not that we flee tribulations and difficulties. God wants us to go through this. It's for his sake. Say, well, I don't know if I can do that. Well, God's gonna reward you, okay? God's gonna bless you. Hey, God may even come in and defend you and protect you. We don't know exactly what God's will is for us when we go through difficulties. Look, when we look at the end times, aren't there believers that lose their life for Christ? Aren't there believers that get their heads cut off, beheaded by the Antichrist? Absolutely, there are some like that, but then aren't there some believers that make it all the way through for the rapture? Of course, okay? So it might be God's will for you to lose your life early for his sake. It might be God's will for you to be protected until he's coming. Listen, we don't really know, but the point is we need to be able to be willing to offer ourselves as a lamb to the slaughter, okay? So it's not all about how do I protect myself? It's like, well, here am I, Lord. What do you want from me? What's your will for me? And you need to absorb this and understand this. Otherwise, when difficulties do come and tribulations do come and you find yourself in a difficult place, you're gonna get offended. By and by, you're gonna get offended. By and by, you're going to lose your walk that you have for the Lord. Keep this in mind, all right? If we get slaughtered, we get slaughtered. What are you gonna do about it? I promise you, you get slaughtered for the Lord in heaven, you're gonna be rewarded handsomely. You're gonna be in heaven, you're gonna be mad. It was worth getting slaughtered for the Lord. That's how it's gonna be. That's the attitude that we're gonna have if this takes place in our lives. Verse number 37 says, "'Nay, in all these things.'" Look at this, "'We are more than conquerors through him that loved us.'" Say what? But if I were to die, yeah, even if you were to lose your life, the Bible tells us we're more than conquerors. Means we win. We get to be with the Lord. Hey, we get to be in heaven earlier than what we maybe planned. So what, okay? We get to be with the Lord. And listen, this life is short. This life ought to be a life that we live for Christ. Okay, whatever opportunity we have, you get 10 years, you get 50 years, you get 100 years in life. I don't know how long you have, but live it for Christ and live it as a conqueror. Verse number 38, "'For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.'" So no matter what we face, no matter what hardship, we can be sure, we can be true, we can know that God loves us and we can make sure that we're deeply rooted into that love of God. That's gonna get us through the persecution, through the difficulties, all right? Now, a lot of churches love to quote Romans 8, 38 and 39. Because it's such a comforting passage, like Jesus Christ, that God will always love us. But what led up to that love? The persecutions, the tribulations, the death, the sword. Hey, we need to preach that as well. There could come a time when we face these things, okay? So let's not just ignore the things that we don't like. Hey, we gotta take the Bible as a whole, what it's teaching us, right? Now back to Jeremiah chapter 20, verse number four. Jeremiah chapter 20, verse number four. So the first two points that I have for you so far is that the Lord's strength gives us the ability to proclaim his word and also the strength, number two, to endure persecution, okay? Verse number four, verse number four. Now it sounds like Jeremiah's just this Superman. Man, you get striked, you get put in stocks all night and you can still just stand for God's word. Yeah, he does. But again, this chapter, you'll soon see that he's also human, he's also human, okay? But look at verse number four. This is what Jeremiah says to Pasha. He says, for thus saith the Lord, behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself. So that new name that God gave this governor, some, you know, I don't know, obviously Hebrew, but it has something to do with being a terror, okay? God is saying, you're a terrorist, okay? You're a terror, okay? Not just to yourself, but to all thy friends and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies and thine eyes shall behold it and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon and he shall carry them captive into Babylon and shall slay them with a sword. So this Pasha, what's his destiny? What's the prophecy? That, you know, yes, when they get taken over by the Babylonians, he's not gonna lose his life in Jerusalem, he's gonna be taken captive, he's gonna be taken away, but when they arrive there, he's gonna be killed, okay? And so he's a terror because he's not allowing Jeremiah to preach the truth. In fact, this guy is preaching lies, okay? He's preaching lies and he's not only convinced himself, not only has he lied to himself, but he's lied to all his friends, he's lied to all the people around him that he's been preaching these lies to, right? He's supposed to be a priest, he's supposed to be someone that's serving the house of God, he's supposed to be someone preaching the truth, but he's preaching lies. And listen, when a preacher preaches lies, he's a terror to himself and to everybody else that listens to him. He's a terrorist, he's a terrorist, all right? So you gotta be careful about who you listen to. You know, is the preacher you're listening to, does he preach the truth or does he preach lies? Now, I'm not saying, does he ever make a mistake? I've made mistakes, every good preacher is gonna make a mistake, okay? But there's a big difference between unintentionally making a mistake and someone that's actually actively trying to stop the truth and preach lies to you. As soon as someone's preaching lies to you and you know this guy's doing it intentionally, brethren, you stop listening to that person because he's only terrorizing your life, okay? And his end result's gonna be destruction. Verse number five. Moreover, I will deliver all the strength of this city. Now, the title for this sermon was Thou Art Stronger Than I. So there is strength in the Lord. But notice here, there is also strength in the city. There's also strength in earthly things. You know, the reason why people, for example, just as children go to school and universities and they end up saying, well, I'm an atheist and I believe in evolution, is because there's an earthly strength amongst the masses. If the majority of scientists are pushing evolution, and you're supposed to think as a scientist as these wise people with good counsel and great knowledge, well, there's a strength to line yourself up with the masses, okay? There is a portion of strength. And so you need to decide as you go through life, do I rely on the strength on this earth that exists, the powers on this earth that exists, the wisdom on this earth that exists, or do I rely on the strength of the Lord, okay? Jeremiah's saying, look, there is strength in your city. You know, you guys think you're a great nation. You think you're a powerful nation. You think you're able to defend yourself from the Babylonians, right? You think there's strength. But he's saying, look, no, God is gonna deliver all the strength of the city. God's gonna stop that strength, right? And he says, and all the labors thereof and all the precious things thereof and all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies which shall spoil them and take them and carry them to Babylon. And so they were relying on their strength. They looked at their riches. They looked at the treasures of the kings of Judah and they said, this is our strength. No, Jeremiah was relying on the strength of the Lord. And listen, in God's strength, even the things that may seem strong on the earthly our sense can be destroyed or taken away by the Lord. So don't rely on the strength on this earth. Don't rely on the masses. Don't rely on the majority what the majority believe. Don't rely on the treasures or the riches, the strengths that you may have in a financial sense. No, you rely on the strength of the Lord, okay? Verse number six. And thou, Pasha, and all that dwell in thine house shall go into captivity and thou shall come to Babylon and there thou shalt die and shalt be buried there thou and all thy friends to whom thou has prophesied lies. So Jeremiah now is preaching to this Pasha, okay? He's preaching against a false prophet. And yes, look, there comes a time when false prophets have to be preached against, okay? And the names have to be called out. And you can see here that Jeremiah has no problem preaching against this false prophet, this false priest, Pasha. He even names him by name, okay? And so, you know, sometimes people get, you know, get worried or offended when there's a man of God who preaches against some false prophet and actually names them, okay? This is the right thing to do. We ought to name those that preach lies, all right? Call them out by name if you have to. Now, I don't know if I've ever really done this, okay? In the three or so years that I've been a pastor of this church and the church up there at New Life Baptist Church. And sometimes I have people in my congregation that say to me, you know, when are you gonna preach against this false prophet? Well, you know, there have been times that I've prepared sermons to preach against false prophets. And as I'm putting it together, I'm just thinking, this is gonna benefit no one in my church. I mean, this might work on YouTube, this might get us a lot of likes, this might get us a lot of shares, but that's not who I'm preaching to. My goal is to preach to the people, to, you know, I'm supposed to be a shepherd or the sheep, I'm supposed to be preaching to the people that are in my church. And if I'm putting a sermon together and I'm thinking, you know what? This is just not gonna benefit us. Like, there's no one in my church that even listens to this false prophet. Why am I gonna spend an hour talking about this guy? It's just not gonna benefit anyone, right? And so sometimes I get this question, when are you gonna preach against false prophets? When are you gonna call them out by name? It's not that I don't want to, it's just that right now, I don't feel like there's a need, okay? And here's the reason why. Because if I just dedicated, let's just say, look, from this service onward, I'm just gonna preach against a false prophet. Well, you know, three times a week, when I get up to preach, I'm gonna preach against another false prophet, another false prophet. Listen, we're just gonna go, we're just gonna be with the Lord, Jesus Christ. And all you're gonna be hearing from me is preaching against a false prophet. Because there are that many out there. Where do you start? I mean, if I just made that my ministry, let's preach against some false prophet, I'll be doing that every service and we're never gonna end. And you're just never gonna learn God's word. You're just gonna learn about how wicked some other person is, all right? I'd rather preach the truth, so then when you hear the lies, you know their lies, rather than just preaching about the lies all the time. Now, the reason I say this is, yes, Jeremiah does preach against Pascha. There's a time and place for that. But if you've been with me during these first, you know, 19 chapters before this one, Jeremiah has been preaching against false prophets as well. Hasn't he? He's been preaching against the pastors, he's been preaching against the priests, he's been preaching these things, but notice he's never called them out by name. He's just preached against them in a general sense. So at what point in time did he start preaching and naming names? Well, when this guy got in his face, okay? When this guy tried to stop the ministry of Jeremiah, then Jeremiah said, well, you know what? Now's the time for me to call you out because you're stopping God's word, you're stopping my ministry. So when are you gonna preach against false prophets? Probably when a false prophet gets in my face, probably when they started coming to this church and try to influence the church with their false beliefs, that's probably the time I'm gonna preach against a false prophet. I'm not just gonna dedicate my ministry to these people. They don't deserve my time, I'd rather give you my time to preach you what God's word has to say so you can live a righteous and godly life and stand for the Lord. That's what you need, okay? Now, yeah, I'm not against preaching against false prophets, okay? Or even calling them out by name. This is a biblical thing to do. Please keep your finger there and go to Romans 16. Go to Romans 16. Romans 16, and Matthias, can you get me some water, please? I think there might be some in the fridge. Romans 16, verse 17. Romans 16, verse number 17. Because we see an Old Testament prophet calling them out by name, okay? This is important sometimes. We need to mark and avoid an individual, okay? Call them out by name. In Romans 16, verse number 17, now we're looking at the New Testament, it says, now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by good words and first speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. And so you can see even, not just the Old Testament, even the New Testament, you have a time we need to mark and avoid certain people. You call them out by name and you tell the church, listen church, you need to stop listening to this false prophet. You need to stop, sorry, you need to avoid that person because they're teaching you lies and the reason they're doing it is to satisfy their own bellies. They're doing it for themselves, okay? They don't have a love for the Lord. They don't have a love for the Lord Jesus Christ. They do it to satisfy themselves, okay? Some people come and become pastors, maybe for the money, okay? Look at the Joel Osteen's and the, what else? Who else has a lot of money? Brian Houston. Who? Brian Houston. I'm thinking about that dollar, what's his name? Jeff Rowe? Creflo. Creflo, Creflo dollar. I mean, he's even got dollar in his surname. I mean, you've got some people that do it for the money, okay? Now, you know, it should be obvious to you that I don't do this for the money, okay? But you know, there are some people that do it for the power. They do it just to have authority. And you know what? There are some people that just do it to lie, just to deceive you, just to make a mockery of God's church, just to make a mockery of God's people. And so, you know, if you have a desire to be a pastor one day, be getting into full-time ministry, I encourage you, but you better make sure your heart is right with the Lord. You make sure I'm doing this because, you know, just like Jeremiah, you know, I have a desire to preach God's truth. In fact, we'll soon see that there's a burning in his bones. He can't help but to have a desire to preach God's word, regardless of what takes place, whatever happens in his life. Now, can you please go back to Jeremiah, chapter 20, verse number seven. Jeremiah, chapter 20, verse number seven. There's a change in the chapter now. He's no longer at the house of God. He's no longer dealing with this false prophet. Jeremiah now is at a weak place, okay, at a very weak place. And I don't blame him. He's just been beaten. He's just been put under arrest and publicly shamed. I don't blame him. None of us would want that, okay, where people are just mocking him and you'll soon see that they're mocking him every day. You know, they're just treating Jeremiah in such a bad way, the people of Judah. And then, this is what Jeremiah says to the Lord in verse number seven. He says, oh Lord, thou hast deceived me. Now, do you think God deceived Jeremiah? No, okay, of course God. God wouldn't deceive you, okay. God will not lie to you or deceive you. But this is how Jeremiah's feeling right now, okay. He's preaching God's truth and all this persecution has come his way and he feels deceived. Lord, you know, even from my mother's womb, you will day me to be a prophet and look what's happening to me, Lord. They're not receiving my word, right. They hate what I'm doing, right. The people of this nation, they hate me, Lord, for preaching your truth. And so Jeremiah feels a little bit deceived. He feels like it's not fair, right. He goes, and I was deceived. But then he says, thou art stronger than I. So he's saying, I'm weak right now. Like he recognizes he's weak. You know, he cannot live at this point in time, he's not able to live up to the strength that God wants him to have. He says, and has prevailed. I am in derision daily. Everyone mocketh me. Imagine that, every day, people come to Jeremiah and mock him, making fun of his preaching, making fun of his ministry. Okay, he's at a weak spot. We know Jeremiah is a powerful preacher, but listen, he goes through a time of depression. Okay, he goes through a time of depression. And so, you know, I can't really, honestly, and I think it's just because we've not really faced the persecution, okay. Now, have I been upset sometimes? Yeah, I've gone through that, okay. I've gone, you know, in the ministry, I've gone through times where I've been upset, but I can't really say that I've gotten to this point where Jeremiah has gotten, okay. And I hope I don't. But the reality is, it could happen. It could happen to any of us. It could happen to any of God's people. It can especially happen to God's preachers. So my point here, brethren, is that we need to be praying for, you know, you need to be praying for me, as your pastor. You need to be praying for the people that get behind this pulpit and preach you God's word, okay. Because it's not an easy thing to do. It may look easy, but it's actually not that easy, okay. And people will mock you. People will laugh at you. People will think you're awkward and strange. And even a great man of like Jeremiah, he can get you down. And so you ought to be praying, right, not just for this pastor, but maybe other great pastors that you're familiar with, that you've learned a lot from, pray that God will be their strength. Pray that, you know, during their time of weakness, and they will go through times of weaknesses that they can draw from the strength that comes from the Lord. So please keep God's preachers in prayer, okay. Verse number eight, Jeremiah says, for since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil. This is his, look, Jeremiah is saying, this is my ministry. All I'm doing is crying out. I'm proclaiming violence and spoil, all right. Jeremiah is saying, look, all I preach is negative. Negative sermons all the time. I'm preaching to God, but then look at this, because the word of the Lord was made a reproach unto me and in derision daily. So what do we learn there? We learn that preaching violence, preaching spoil, preaching God's judgment is unpopular. This is why pastors don't want to preach for Jeremiah. This is why pastors don't preach on the anger of God, on the judgment of God. They don't preach against sin. They don't preach that God gets angry. They don't preach that God turns people against when he's rejected them, because preaching God's judgment is just not popular. Okay, and maybe after Jeremiah chapter 20, you're kind of thinking, man, I don't know if I really want to turn up Sunday mornings because it's Jeremiah again, because it is unpopular. Okay, it is unpopular. But listen, if that's what God has laid on the heart of the prophet, that's what needs to get preached. Okay, so don't be a discouragement to the preacher if they're preaching an unpopular, depressing judgmental sermon. Be an encouragement to him, because it's even hard for the preacher to preach these things, all right? Verse number nine, then I said, I will not make mention of him. So Jeremiah is saying, look, you know what? I quit. I'm gonna stop mentioning God. Jeremiah says, I'm done, all right? I've given up, I quit. I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. That's it, God, I'm done. Okay, I've preached, I've done it for this long, and I quit. And I've seen this. I've seen pastors quit. You know, great men of God, who I looked up to, okay, who maybe I considered a mentor and encouragement, and they quit, okay? And it's, again, it's easy to just, you know, speak bad to that preacher. It's easy to be like, why'd he quit? He's supposed to be a pastor. But look, even Jeremiah quits. He goes, I'm done, I'm done, God. Okay, so pastors and preachers, I've never thought I'm gonna quit, not yet. Who knows? Maybe in 10 years, maybe within 10 years, I'll be like, there'll be a time where I'm like, I'm done, God, I don't think I can do this, all right? I don't think I can proclaim your word anymore. But then look how he responds. He quits for a little period, and then he says, but his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay. He says, I tried to quit, but just preaching God's word is like a fire in my bones, and I just can't help it, but I gotta preach God's word. See that? So Jeremiah's battling this within himself, right? His flesh wants to give up, but his spirit, the new man, okay, wants to proclaim God's word. But notice here, you know, what did I wanna say there? You might be asking the question, what if I wanna quit one day? What if I wanna quit soul winning? What if, you know, I just, you know, I'm getting up to preach on a regular basis, and I just wanna quit that as well. You know, how is it that I can be persuaded to continue and not give up? Well, notice what it said there in verse number nine, after he says, nor speak anymore in his name. He says, but his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones. You know, in order to be someone that does not quit proclaiming God's word, you need to have his word in your heart, okay, as a burning fire. What that means is if you stop reading God's word, you're not gonna have that burning in your heart, okay? If you just stop giving God's word attention, you stop reading it, you stop meditating on it, you stop thinking about it, then that burning's going to be gone, okay? It's going to dry up. So if you wanna be someone that always proclaims God's word, you always wanna be a soul winner, a pastor wants to never quit. He needs to make sure that he spends time in God's word and allows that word to be that burning fire that cannot be stopped. That's how you make sure that you don't quit for the Lord, okay? Verse number 10, for I heard that the famine of many fear on every side. So people are trying to cause Jeremiah to be afraid, okay, all around him. Reports say they, and we will report it. So there are some that are listening to Jeremiah's preaching just to report it, report it to the authorities, okay? Report it to the YouTube social media police, all right? Like, oh man, this pastor preached his sermon, let's try to strike down their channel, let's try to stop them, let's report on what the heck. Listen, Jeremiah faced the same thing. He had people just listening to find him to say something wrong, so he'll report it on by the authorities or to the authorities. He says this, all my familiars watched for my halting. All my familiars, what's that, familiar? That's something that they're people that you know well, okay, that's kinda where you get the word family, familiars, okay? People that he knows well, his close friends, his close relatives that were all watching him, when is this guy gonna stop? When is Jeremiah gonna stop preaching? Look, saying, per adventure, he will be enticed, surely we can get him to stop somehow, right? And we shall prevail against him and we shall take our revenge on him. They were angry at his preaching, they didn't like his preaching, okay? And look, these are people that he knows well. You can see why Jeremiah is down, down in the dumps. The people that he probably thinks are gonna support him, they're the ones that turned against him, okay? His familiars. Now, if you do ever desire to get into full-time ministry, you need to understand that this is gonna happen to you, okay? It's not just this wonderful thing that's always gonna be great, you know, preaching God's word and having a church and just studying God's word. You need to understand, if you have a desire to get into full-time ministry, there's a reality that you have to learn, okay? And you need to be able to say, I can face these things. What are those things? Number one, people will defame you, verse number 10, right? Defame of many. What does that mean? People will slander you. People will attempt to give you a bad reputation. Are you willing to put up with that, okay? Number two, you're gonna be reported on. People are gonna listen to what you have to say and they're gonna try to get you in trouble, okay? Are you prepared for that? Number three, your familiars are gonna turn against you. Your close friends, your close family members, they're going to turn against you, okay? People that you know well. And number four, people will seek revenge, okay? It says there, and we shall take our revenge on him. People are gonna hate what you say. Like, it's not like you've done anything bad to them. It's not like you've gone into their lives and destroyed their lives and stolen from them, burned down their house. You've not done anything wrong to them like that. All you're doing is proclaiming God's word. People are gonna hate you for it and they're gonna seek to hurt you. They're gonna seek to get revenge on you. Are you willing, you know, for those that wanna get into full-time ministry, are you willing to go through these things? To be slandered, to be reported on, for your close family and friends to turn against you, for people to seek revenge on you? And if you say to me, I can't face that, well, then full-time ministry is not for you, okay? And I don't mean that in a bad way. It's just not for everybody, okay? It's just the way it is, okay? So if you do have the desire one day to be a pastor, you have to say, I am happy to take these things on board because I know it's gonna happen to me. And if I can't face these things, then I'm just gonna get behind the pastor. I'm just gonna be the kind of man that can be a pillar in the church, that can be a help and encouragement to my pastor because I know my pastor is gonna have to face these things. And I wanna make sure I'm not one of those familiars that turn against him. I wanna be one of those guys that support him, you know, in the preaching of God's truth, okay? So my point is here, brethren, think twice before you seek to go into full-time ministry and prepare yourself if you wanna do this, okay? Think twice, okay? I'm not saying don't do it. I encourage you. I wanna start churches. I wanna start other church. I wanna start other ministries. But it's very hard to find someone that's willing to lose it all, okay? It's very hard. Verse number 11. It says, but the Lord is with me as a mighty, terrible one. So you can see Jeremiah's being encouraged once again in the Lord. He says, but the Lord is with me. His mighty is terrible. Therefore, my persecutors shall stumble and they shall not prevail. They shall be greatly ashamed for they shall not prosper. Their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten, okay? So the third point that I have when we draw upon the strength of the Lord is that we have the strength of God's mighty defense. Even when we're facing these people that are trying to bring us down, God can step in as a mighty and terrible one. Hey, we looked at Pasha being a terrorist, okay? Well, you know what? I've got someone that's terrible as well. I've got someone that can strike terror in the hearts of my enemies. That's the mighty one, that's God. He's on my side, all right? And so we can rely on God's defense, okay? God is going to turn and destroy our enemies. It's possible, we don't know. It's possible that this church has had enemies already. It's possible that we've had people that desire to destroy this church and hurt us, and we just don't know about it where God has stepped in as a mighty and terrible one and caused them to have whatever lasting confusion, okay? It's possible, we don't know. You know, I just have the faith that God will protect us. But again, all right, don't forget that we are counted as sheep for the slaughter, okay? If God's desire is to go through some hardship, well, He's gonna allow that as well. But don't forget we can draw from the strength of God. We can draw from His defense, okay? That God will defend us at different times in our lives so long as we draw that strength from Him, okay? God is the one to take down our enemies. We're not the ones that take down the enemies, okay? God is the one that does that. Verse number 12, But, O Lord of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the hearts, let me see Thy vengeance upon them, for unto Thee have I opened my cause. So Jeremiah is saying, man, I even wanna see your vengeance on these enemies, Lord, okay? But notice that in order for this to happen, in order for the Lord to step in and defend, one thing we can't forget at the end of verse number 12, He says, for unto Thee have I opened my cause, okay? So we ought to go to the Lord and pray, Lord, can you defend us? Don't think it's just gonna happen automatically. You're gonna open your cause unto the Lord. You didn't say, Lord, I need the offense from these enemies. I need you to protect me. Lord, you bring your vengeance on these wicked people that are trying to stop your work. That's what Jeremiah does, okay? And so once again, we don't take revenge ourselves, we go to the God of vengeance, to be the one that protects us, that defends us from the wicked. Verse number 13, sing unto the Lord, praise ye the Lord, for He have delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers. Okay, so you can see God's defense came through here. But the fourth point that I have here, you can see that Jeremiah is able to sing and praise to the Lord, praise the Lord, okay? The fourth point that I have about God's strength is that we need God's strength to praise Him. We need God's strength to praise Him. Again, we don't wanna praise God in our flesh. You know, when we have the opportunity to sing, and when we have our song service, and if you guys wanna be part of that, at my house in the meantime, you know, we need to draw on God's strength to be able to give Him worship and give Him praise, all right? So one thing that can happen in church, and I know this can happen, because it's happened to me, you go to church, it's time to sing praises to the Lord, it's time to worship Him, and you're just, your heart's not in it. You might be singing, you might be looking at the words in the hymn book, but really, you don't even know what you're saying. You get through the song, you just, your heart wasn't in it, okay? And you say, why is that? Why is it that my heart wasn't in, not in singing unto the Lord, all right? I mean, you know you went through the motions, your mouth opened, some lyrics came out of your mouth, but your heart wasn't there. The reason that happens is because you weren't relying on the strength of God to praise Him. Because think about what we are. Aren't we just dust? Aren't we just dirt? And then we have God, who's the everlasting God, the alpha, the omega, the beginning and the end, and then you want dirt to praise Him? But don't you think we need God's strength to be able to do it in a way that pleases the Lord? Don't we need the Holy Ghost working in our hearts to give us the joy and the praise that only come, that can only come to worship God in the right way? And so the fourth point here, brethren, is that we need God's strength to praise Him. You know, if you're lacking in praise to God, you're not singing songs, you need to go, Lord, give me your strength to be able to praise you in the right way. You've created me to be a creature that praises God. Back to Jeremiah chapter 20, verse 14. Verse number 14. We now have another phase of Jeremiah, even worse. He's even struggling even more now, okay? He's really getting to a bad place in depression, you know, he's just mentally down, okay? He says, verse number 14, cursed be the day wherein I was born. Let not the day wherein my mother bear me be blessed. Now normally when we think about the day that I was born, normally we have a birthday party. Normally we have a celebration. Normally we're just like praise God for another year that God has given us. Jeremiah's saying, man, I want that day, I want my birthday to be cursed. Okay, we're gonna soon see that he wishes he was never born, okay? I mean, this is how bad it's gotten for him, okay? Preaching God's word, preaching the truth, and people turning against him. So you can see that even though it's a great man of God, he's also human. I'm glad God puts this in the Bible for us. So when we go for a point of depression, when we feel like, man, it would be better if I was never born. Then we're like, oh, Jeremiah, you felt the same way. And yet even then, God was able to use you in such a great way to serve him, okay? So, you know, God can use you, brethren, even if you're depressed, even if you're sad today, even if you feel like I wish I was never born, God can still use you in a powerful way, okay? And you can see that depression and sorrows is just part of life. It's just, you can be strong for the Lord one day, and the next day you can be in the dumps. This is just a reality of the Christian life, okay? That there are peaks, there are mountains, and there are valleys, okay? But when you're in the valley, the idea, well, let's get back on the mountaintop. Let's get back with the strength of God to be able to get back where I need to be spiritually, mentally, and physically. Verse number 15. Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, a man child is born unto thee, making him very glad. Even the guy that was a messenger to my father and said, hey, you've got a son! Your wife gave birth! Yeah, yeah, yeah, even his curse, Lord, right? He'll even let him be cursed. Jeremiah's not happy. It should not have been good news, his birth, he says. Verse number 16. And let that man be as the cities which the Lord overthrew, and repented not. And let him hear the cry in the morning and the shouting at noontide, because he slew me not from the womb. He says, I wish God just killed me in the womb. Or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me. He says, I wish I just, my mother miscarried. I wish I was never born. I wish my mother didn't go through the whole thing, and that I'd just died in my mother's womb. Verse number 18. Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame? He says, God, is this why I came out of my mother's womb? Is this why you're damning to be a prophet? Just to suffer shame every day of my life? Just to preach these judgmental, negative things and have people hate me and persecute me? And so Jeremiah's now like, I wish I was never born. And that's how the chapter ends, okay? And so it's a really bad place to be, okay? Now, I don't want to end on a negative note. I don't want to end on a negative note, because we're looking at the strength that comes from the Lord, aren't we, okay? So instead of being focused on Jeremiah right now, I think what we should do is look at the mother that brought him forth. We should look at the father that rejoiced to hear the news of his son's birth, okay? And the fifth point that I have for you, brethren, is that God gives us the strength to raise a godly seed in a wicked generation. To raise a godly seed in a wicked generation. This world is getting worse. Listen, the world was bad when I was a kid. I knew the world was bad. And now I'm worried about the kind of world my children are gonna grow up in, okay? It's even worse. And you know what? When you try to live righteously and godly in a wicked world, it's gonna be hard, okay? People will mock you. People will laugh at you. You're in church on Sunday. You give of your offering to church, to the work of, you go and knock doors and give people the, what are you doing with your life? You don't want to hang out with us at the pub and get drunk. You don't want to go around fornicating and try before you buy. Listen, people are gonna mock you for just living a godly Christian life. And my kids are gonna go through a hard time. Your kids are gonna go through a hard time, okay? And they might be like Jeremiah, who are trying to live for the Lord, trying to preach God's word and get depressed by the wicked world around them. It's gonna happen. My kids are gonna go through hard times. Your kids are gonna go through hard times. Your kids are gonna get to a point in this wicked world being so different, growing up in church, growing up in a Christian home, and they're gonna think in their minds, I wish I was never born. This would have been better if I didn't have to go through this. I wish I was never born, okay? And I want our children to pay attention here because this is something that you can face in a wicked society, okay? But you need to remember that God is your strength, okay? God is your strength. God will see you through the wicked days, you know? And I'm telling my children, don't give up. Don't give up and say it's just too hard to live like God wants me to live. It's just much easier if I just live like my work colleagues. It's just much easier if I live like my school friends that are out there, living ungodly, wicked lives, you know, committing fornication and getting drunk and taking the drugs. Just be much easier if I live that kind of like, don't give up, don't give up. Make sure that you have God's word close to you. Make sure it's like a fire that burns in your bones, that you have no greater desire but to live a righteous and godly life. But you are gonna go through times of hardships. And so what I wanna pause here, brethren, is as parents, those that are parents, God gives you the strength to raise a godly seed. They brought up Jeremiah. Don't forget, the parents still had to raise him right. The parents still had to raise him to love the Lord, to know the scriptures, to walk with the Lord even in a wicked society. And you know what, it can seem hard sometimes but this is a strength that we need to draw from the Lord. God, give me the strength to raise my children, to love you, give me the strength to raise a godless seed in a wicked generation. And so brethren, in conclusion, the five things that we can see in this chapter that God can give us strength in. Number one, the strength to proclaim God's word. Number two, the strength to endure persecution. Number three, we can experience the strength of God's defense. Number four, we need the strength of God to praise him. And number five, God gives us the strength to raise a godly seed in a wicked generation. Let's pray.