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

Jeremiah chapter 33, the Bible reads in verse 1, Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying, Thus saith the Lord, the Maker thereof, the Lord that formed it, to establish it. The Lord is his name. Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. Now, Jeremiah 33 is a really famous verse. It's a really popular verse that you'll hear quoted quite a bit. Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. There's so much that we can learn just from this one verse. Let me just point out a few things right away. First of all, if you don't call unto him, he can't answer you, and show you great and mighty things thou knowest not. The Bible says in James, you have not because you ask not. You ask and receive not because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lust. So the Bible is saying that there are all kinds of blessings and things that God would give us if we would ask for them, and we have not because we ask not. And then other times people pray and say, well, you know, why is God not answering my prayer? But they're praying for a new Ferrari. You know, they're praying for a house with a giant swimming pool with a water slide in it or whatever. They're praying for things that they just want to consume on their lust. They're not praying according to the will of God. But he said, Call unto me, and I will answer thee. Jesus said, Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. So when the Bible says call unto me, and I will answer thee, it doesn't say I might answer thee. It says I will answer thee. God will answer your prayers if you're saved, and you pray unto the Lord, and ask him. He will show you great and mighty things that you don't know. Not only that, but he said, I will show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. See, the Bible says in Romans chapter 8 that we know not how we should pray as we ought, and that the Holy Spirit maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. We don't even know how to pray as we ought. A lot of times we don't even know what to ask for. We might ask for the wrong things, or we think too small. God wants to show us great and mighty things, and we're asking for tiny little things. So he'll show us great and mighty things that we know not. And then the last thing I want to point out is that he's in prison when this promise is made to him. Sometimes when we're going through the hardest times, we're going through persecution, we're suffering for the Lord, is when God is going to show us the greatest and the mightiest thing. So these pastors who go out of their way to avoid any kind of persecution, any kind of a controversial issue, they just don't touch it with a 10-foot pole. They just want to stay away from it, kind of keep everybody happy, try to navigate the minefield of public opinion. They might miss out on seeing some great and mighty things that they don't even know. They don't even know what God would do because they're not even putting God to the test. And in our personal everyday lives also, if we just seek to have a life that is free of hardship, even if you're not a preacher, even if you're just a soul-winning Christian, even if you're just a godly church member, a lot of people just want to have a life with no problems. They just want to have comfort, money in the bank. Their whole family likes them. Everybody at work likes them. Everybody at school likes them. No conflict, no struggle, no battle. But the Bible says, Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Not just preachers. All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. If you serve the Lord, you are going to go through hard times. You're going to go through trials and tribulations and testing, but when you go through those hard times, that's when God is going to answer you and show you the greatest and mightiest things that you don't even know. But if you just want to go through life just lukewarm, living a mediocre Christian life, you're not going to see. Why would you see great and mighty things? Does every Christian see great and mighty things? No. Sometimes you might have to go to jail or go to other bad places and suffer in order to pay the price to see the great things that God has for your life. That's what we see here in the life of Jeremiah. But the Bible says, Call unto me, and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. Go to Ephesians chapter 3, I'm going to show you sort of a companion verse for Jeremiah 33. And I'm spending time on this verse because it's a powerful verse and it's one that most people have heard before. And so we want this verse to become a part of who we are. We want to apply this promise to our own lives because God's not a respecter of persons. If He'll do it for Jeremiah, He'll do it for us. If He did it for a preacher of the past, He'll do it for a preacher of the present. If He did it for our parents, He can do it in our lives. We don't need to just have this attitude of seeing great and mighty things from God. It's a roll of the dice. That's not true. God is seeking people in whose lives He can do great and mighty things and who will take Him at His word and see the promises of God fulfilled. Look at this wonderful verse in Ephesians 3.20. Now unto Him that is able to do, exceeding abundantly, above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. All ages at all times, world without end, God is able to do, exceeding abundantly, above all that we ask or think. That's a pretty strong verse right there. When you stop and think about the things that we could ask for or things that we could think about, God can do more than we could ever ask or think. Now I know this is true in my life. In my short life to this point, I'm 35 years old. I have seen God do great and mighty things that I never would have even dreamed of or even asked for or even hoped for, even in my wildest imagination. Why? Because God can do more than we can ask or think. That's why when you live the Christian life, you have to keep adjusting your vision and adjusting your goals because God often just exceeds your expectations and then you have to reevaluate. I remember as a kid struggling to preach the Gospel. I would try to give the Gospel to my friends at school and I failed every single time. When I was a teenager, I tried to give the Gospel to my friends at Christian school that weren't saved, some of them, and I tried to give the Gospel to my friends at public school that weren't saved. I'm telling you, I just kept failing. I used to pray every single night as a teenager. I prayed, Lord, please help me to win one person to the Lord before I die. I just want to get one person saved before I die so that I can feel that my presence on this earth meant something of eternal value for the Kingdom of God. I meant that sincerely. I wasn't just going through the motions. I prayed every night when I went to bed that I would be able to win one person to the Lord. I prayed that for years. I failed many times when I tried to give the Gospel. There's a reason why I failed. The curse causeless shall not come. There's always a reason why things aren't working. I'll tell you why I failed to win anybody to the Lord. I was doing it wrong. Here's what I was doing wrong. Number one, I wasn't using the Bible. That might be, what an idiot, Pastor Anderson, but okay, I was an idiot. I wasn't using the Bible. I would just explain the Gospel to my friends in my own words, but I wasn't turning to Bible verses to show them from the Scripture how to be saved. I wasn't taking them down the Romans road and showing them Romans 3-10, Romans 3-23, Romans 5-8, Romans 9-12. I wasn't taking them to Revelation and showing them the lake of fire. I was just doing it in my own words. That's number one reason why I was failing. Number two, I would try to do it as a dialogue. Because I lacked boldness, because I lacked confidence, I would keep seeking their affirmation. So I was kind of doing it as a dialogue instead of actually controlling the conversation and preaching the Gospel and telling them, hey, point one, point two, point three, point four. And communicating my message effectively by making it more of a dialogue, I opened the door for them to take me down all kinds of rabbit trails. And that's exactly what they did. They took me down all kinds of rabbit trails. So I would get myself all psyched up and I was nervous and I was trembling. You know, when you're not a soul winner, you're nervous. And I'd get all psyched up, I'm going to give the Gospel to my cousin or I'm going to give the Gospel to this friend at school. And I'd be nervous and I'm praying and I'd get all psyched up. And I'd sort of just get in a conversation with them. And then they'd just, well, what about this? What about this? And I wouldn't even get the points across clearly because we'd go off on so many rabbit trails, it just brought so much confusion. See the key with soul winning is to keep people on point. You know, we're sinners, we deserve hell, Jesus died for us, he was buried, he rose again because he loves us. The way of salvation is by faith, not of works. And then once we're saved, it's an eternal life, he'll never take it away from us, he'll never leave us or forsake us, we won't lose our salvation. That's real logical, that's a step by step. I would let people just take me all over the place, you know, and all these points that really had nothing to do with the price of tea in China and had nothing to do with getting that person saved. And then I'd just end up spending an hour and a half talking to that person and just going in circles, wandering in the wilderness. I had a zeal for God, but it was not according to knowledge. Then when I was 17 years old, I got into a soul winning church, Regency Baptist Church in Orangevale, California, and I went soul winning with someone who knew what they were doing. He used the Bible. He explained the gospel in a way that was clear. He used illustrations that were simple and easy to understand, and it clicked with people, it made sense to people. And I spent two and a half hours with this guy, he was the pastor's brother-in-law, and I spent two and a half hours just watching him, observing him, and I saw him do it effectively. Then the next time I went out soul winning, I went with the pastor himself, and I watched him, I observed him, I went with various people in that church, and then I started seeing people saved. Once I started using the Bible, and once I started having the boldness to take control of the conversation, and not just go all over the place with people, and constantly seek affirmation. I already knew that what I was saying was right. I didn't need to keep getting there, because that's just giving them an opportunity to derail the train. We want to keep the soul winning train on the right track, and just get it all the way to the station. Then I took what I learned out door-to-door soul winning, then I took that back to my co-workers, and I was able to win co-workers to the Lord. I took it to cousins, and was able to win cousins to the Lord, or friends, or brother-in-law, or whoever, because I learned, because I got that knowledge. And then, having one person saved was no longer the goal, because I had one saved, and then I had two saved, and then three saved, and then fourths, and as I was getting more people saved, I looked back at that goal of just getting one person saved, and I thought, you know what? That's a small goal. God has answered that prayer way more than, and I often wonder if He answered it for every single time I said it. One more, probably. No joke, because I prayed it several hundred times. I don't know how many times. I know I prayed it every night for years, so I don't know how many years. I don't know exactly, but He probably has answered it for every single time I prayed it. That's probably His sense of humor, perhaps, that, okay, I'll give you another one. I just meant one total. Why? Because I'm stinking small. Why? Because I was ignorant of the Bible. I should have known, if I would have got my head out of the video games, and my head out of the TV and the movies long enough to actually read my Bible more, I would have actually figured out that faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, and that the sower sows the Word, and that the seed is the Word of God. I would have read verses like Acts 11 14, who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved. I would have known that the Word of God is what's quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even the biting asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. I would have known that, and then I also would have read the book of Acts, and seen a whole bunch of people getting saved, and then wondered, how come nobody gets saved when I do it? Because I'm doing something wrong. That's why. Everybody understand? So obviously it takes hard work. Obviously winning one person to Christ is a great goal, and it takes a lot of work, and many times it will take you hours and hours and hours of people rejecting you at the door, or people not understanding. But eventually, he that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Not maybe, doubtless. You will eventually reap in due season if you faint not. And so, we have to adjust our goals. You know, when I started Faith Forward Baptist Church, I had all the wrong goals and all the wrong understanding of how it was going to go. I mean, if you would have asked me, when I started this church in December of 2005, what do you predict? If you would have said, Pastor Anderson, what do you predict that this church is going to be doing one year from now, five years from now, ten years from now? I mean, my answer would have been about as accurate as like a 70s sci-fi movie that's set in like 1998. That's about how accurate my answer would be. It would be nothing like reality. When I started the church, this is what I envisioned happening. I envisioned that we'd be running a hundred people after one year. That's what I envisioned. And my goal, I was hoping that we would gain like a hundred people every year. And that ten years in, we'd be running a thousand. That's what I envisioned. That was what I thought. I thought it was going to really take off. I mean, I was ready to charge hell with a squirt gun. That's what I expected. But here's what I didn't expect. I never even thought or dreamed of having any influence outside of Phoenix or Arizona. My thought was, this is my mission field, this is where I'm going, and I'm going to go to Phoenix, Arizona, and I'm going to get the gospel to everybody I can in Phoenix, and I'm going to build a soul-winning army in Phoenix, and we're going to shake Phoenix, and we can't get the gospel to the whole world, but we can get it to Phoenix. This is my part of the vineyard here. Other people worry about their part. This is my part of the vineyard here, and I'm going to just give my life to reaching Phoenix, Arizona with the gospel. I wasn't thinking about, I never even thought for five seconds that anyone would download my preaching on the internet and listen to it. That thought never even entered my mind. I wasn't even recording the sermons. Two months into the church, I started recording the sermons and uploading them, not so that some guy in Timbuktu could listen to them or somebody in California or Utah. I uploaded the sermons for one reason and one reason alone, because I thought to myself, when I knock on a door and I put the invite on their door, or if I talk to that person and leave that invite with them, that they can visit this website and find out more about the church, and maybe they could listen to a sermon, and if they listen to a sermon, they'll get more of an understanding of what our church is like, and they'll be more likely to come visit. But the only goal was to reach people in Phoenix. People outside of Phoenix didn't even enter my mind, didn't even care. It was just like Phoenix. Then I started uploading the sermons. After a couple months, I get email from a guy in Washington. Hey, I'm listening. An old man. This was my first internet listener. This very old man in Washington state emails me. Hey, I'm listening to your sermon every single week. And I'm like, how did this guy find this? What's he doing listening to my sermons from Washington? I couldn't even believe it. Okay. Then I started figuring out how to kind of market things online and get the preaching out there to a wide audience. But you know what? I literally did the math of what percentage of people live in Phoenix in America. So I thought, okay, well, if I can get a thousand people to come to my website, this many will be from Phoenix. That's all that mattered. Okay. So now let's fast forward to the reality of what actually took place. Were we running 100 at the end of year one? No, we were running 10. That was a little different than I expected. Okay. Were we running 200 at the end of year two? No, we were running 20. At the end of year three, we were running 30. End of year four, we're running 40. End of year five, we're running 50. And I just kept waiting for it to take off. It never took off. We just kept taxiing around the airport. Just kept, we kept just waiting for the tower to give us clearance. It just wasn't happening. Six years, we're at 60. Seven years, we're at 70. So the physical growth here in Phoenix was a slow, steady growth. That's not what I expected. And then eventually our church finally now in the last few years has really taken off. Now we're above 300. And whereas literally what, three years ago we were running like 100. Now like three years later, we've tripled in the last three years. So that's, that's pretty good growth. Now it's taken off. So maybe we'll hit a thousand just a little late, you know, we'll get there. But the point is, but here's the thing. What about the fact though that the preaching from this church has gone to literally millions and millions and millions of people all over the world to where now the emails come in just every single day of, hey, I'm in Timbuktu. I'm in Eastern Europe. I'm in Africa. I'm in Alaska. I'm in Florida. I'm in Maine. Every single day, emails pouring in, 100,000 MP3s downloaded from the church website every month, most of whom don't live here because why would you download it when you were here, right? And then, you know, you know, 100,000 downloads, 30 some million viewers on YouTube, you know, just crazy numbers and sending out guys. I wasn't even thinking about sending out guys to start church. Now we're sending out guys to start churches. Like now I'm adjusting my vision of like, okay, yeah, we're going to get the gospel to everybody in Phoenix and every town in Arizona, you know, besides say Tucson because we'll send somebody to start a church there and some of the bigger places like Yuma and so forth. But, you know, we want to get the gospel to every small town, every Indian tribe, every, and then not only that, we want to send people to Africa, the Philippines, South America, Mexico. I mean, now I'm looking at the world and saying, okay, God, what can we do? How much can you use us? You know, what can we accomplish here? Why? Because God has done exceeding abundantly above all that I could have asked or thought. I never thought that I'd be able to preach to millions of people and have millions of people listening at that thought never would have entered my mind. But I had some other goal of just a big church in Phoenix, a big church with a thousand people in it or something, you know, which to me doesn't even, that doesn't even matter to me anymore. I don't even care about that anymore. I don't care if we never hit a thousand, that's not even the goal anymore. I mean, if we had a thousand, great, because that'll just be like, what, 700 people out soul-winning because honestly, 70 to 80% of our church goes soul-winning. Okay. Let's just test it right now. You know, who has been out soul-winning with our church before put up your hand. If you've been soul-winning at some point at our church, look around. I mean, put it down. We don't want to embarrass anyone. Who's got, who's like, you know, the point is I didn't even see anybody with other. It's it's maybe it's 90%. You know, on the Wednesday night crowd, it's probably 95% on Sunday morning. It's probably 80%. What other church has 80% of the people out soul-winning and, and look, okay. How many go virtually every week? Now slip your hand out. It's almost the same number as the people who've done it at least once. So, you know, see how you get hooked, but the point is though, that God has different plans than what we have. We know not how to pray as we are, but let me tell you something. If you show up for service for the Lord and you say, here are my Lord, send me and you call unto him and you ask him, he will answer you and he will do great and mighty things. And he will show you things that you never thought that you would see, that you never could have imagined. What does that mean? The sky's the limit. What does that mean? That if we're not asking God, if we're not serving God, we're missing out on who knows what that we can't even think of. Not only have we not thought of it, we can't even think of it because he's able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think even that we could imagine. Go back and do it to Jeremiah chapter 33. And look, it's not because our church is anything special. I mean, what's special about our church? Nothing. Okay. It's just a church where people are just getting involved and want to do the work and outsole winning and just preaching hard and not compromising. Anybody could do it. Anybody could duplicate what we're doing here. Anybody, anybody could duplicate. No, you're special. No, anybody could duplicate it. I believe that. I remember sitting in my pew at, or not pew, they didn't have pews. I remember sitting in my chair at Regency Baptist Church on a Sunday night as a young married man. I remember sitting back in my pew and thinking to myself, you know what? I want to preach. I want to be a pastor, but no matter how long I preach, I will never be able to preach as good a sermon as Pastor Nichols. I'm never going to be, I mean, he's just such a good preacher. I remember just thinking like, I'm never going to be able to preach well. I'm never going to be able to preach like Pastor Nichols. And then I wonder like, am I going to be able to achieve the success that he's achieved? You know, let alone try to go beyond that. And I remember just kind of, you know, doubting in myself. And even, you know, when I started the church, my preaching ability was pretty poor. You're like, well, it's still poor. But anyway, when I started the church, you know, my preaching ability left something to be desired, you know, and you can ask people who heard me preach of my family. Well, don't ask them. They don't want to have to tell you the truth about how bad my preaching was, you know, in my early days when I was trying to learn how to preach and everything. But you know what? I just, I just said, here am I sent me. You say, well, are you sure that you were called of the Lord? Did you have a supernatural experience? You know what? I volunteered. I called him. Isn't that what they say? Like, are you sure you're called brother? Well, you know what? God says, call unto me. See, a lot of people are there waiting for God to call them right on the spiritual cell phone. They're kind of like, no, I'm not sure if I'm called. I don't know. I mean, I was in the shower. I thought I heard the phone ringing. I don't know. And then they come to preach or say, well, what does it tell like when God calls you? Right. And then there's people who pick up the phone and they call God and say, here am I send me. That's me. Oh, well, you're not really called. Well, the proof is in the pudding. What did we accomplish for the Lord? That's the proof. That's the calling. The calling is that if a man desire the office of a Bishop, he desire at the good thing. If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, you know, and going on with the qualifications. Anybody who meets the qualifications and desires to serve God can can can be used by God. Even those that are not talented, even people with a with a with a bad personality or even people who are ugly or even people who are, you know, not that cool or whatever. Even people who, you know, are not super duper intellectual. You know, you do have to obviously have certain intelligence to be a leader, but you don't have to be, you know, super duper intellectual or whatever. Anyway, let's get back into the rest of the chapter. Jeremiah chapter 33 continues on after that, after that powerful prelude in verses one through three, just about God's power and how he's going to do more than we could ever imagine. Verse four says, for thus sayeth the Lord, the God of Israel concerning the houses of this city and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are thrown down by the mounts and by the sword. They come to fight with the Chaldeans, but it is to fill them with the dead bodies of men whom I've slain in mine anger and in my fury. And for all whose wickedness I have hid my face from this city. So again, he's reiterating what he's been talking about in the whole rest of the Book of Jeremiah, the sins of Israel, how he's bringing judgment. But then he begins to talk about the healing that he's going to bring 70 years later when he returns the captivity from Babylon and they rebuild in Jerusalem in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. It says in verse six, behold, I will bring it health and cure and I will cure them and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth. And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return and will build them as at the first. And I will cleanse them from all their iniquities whereby they've sinned against me. And I'll pardon all their iniquities whereby they've sinned and whereby they have transgressed against me. And it shall be to be a name of joy, a praise and an honor before all nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them. And they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it. Now, these same promises will be available on to any nation that would get right with God. The Bible says if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. And that's what he says. I'm bringing healing. I'm bringing the cure because they're going to turn from their wickedness and they're going to call out to me. They're going to seek me and find me. That's the same thing with the United States of America. The only way that America is going to prosper and be blessed is if they turn unto the Lord. It's not like, man, if we could just win this election, if we could just get the Republicans elected, it's going to fix everything. No, no, no. If we're still as a nation living in sin, we're not going to be blessed. It's just pick your poison at that point when you're voting. You can't be blessed when you're aborting all the babies and when you got the sodomy just running rampant and it's just marched up and down the street. And they declare their sin as Sodom. You can't have the blessing. And you don't hire some ungodly, non-Christian, non-believer who says, hey, I don't think I've ever asked the Lord for forgiveness because I just don't make mistakes. That guy's not going to come in and clean up the nation because the leaders in the Bible who changed the nation, they actually rent their clothes and said, you know what? We've sinned. We've spat in your face, God. We've broken all your commandments. We've done nothing of all that you commanded us to do. Lord, we don't deserve any of your mercies. Lord, we're ruining this country. You don't see them talk, I still believe in America. This is still a great country. No, it's not. Put a fork in it. It's done. Until a revolution happens, not in the White House, not in the Capitol, until a revolution happens in the Baptist churches. It's not going to be blessed. That's the revolution we need. We need to take up arms, called the King James Bible, right? And we need to overthrow the existing order in our fundamentalist Baptist churches that can't preach their way out of a wet paper bag, that have no boldness, that are not excited about soul leaders. Go through the motions. Go through the motions. There's no zeal. There's no excitement. There's no vision. It's just, well, we'll show up at 10 o'clock because we have to. We'll put in 59 minutes and 59 seconds if we're lucky, and, you know, actually, did I mention I'm busy? And so I'll just send you two out. You two that have shown up out of a church of 200 to go soul winning. That's what, you know, that's a joke. We need to turn back to the Lord in this country, and judgment must begin at the house of God. And you know what, as it goes, you know, we've got our brother visiting from South Africa. It's the same thing over there, you know. It's a spiritual problem over there. You know, all the drought and all the unemployment and all the human suffering, it all has a spiritual cause. There's a spiritual reason. Because God is not going to bless wickedness, that's why. And we need to turn back to God in our own hearts and our own families and our own churches, and then we need to go out and preach unto the lost and turn this thing around. And you know what? We are turning it around in a lot of people's lives. And we are, you know, focusing at this church on that which is spiritual, not that which is political. But you got a whole bunch of churches that sit there and say like, well, the biggest thing we need to do is change that law that stops us from endorsing political candidates. Yeah, that'll fix everything if you guys can get even more Republican than you already are and just preach even more political sermons about how great, you know, whatever Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh told you. That's really what we need. Now look, obviously I don't believe in that law, but you know what? At least that law keeps these guys from just running their stupid mouths about that even more than they already do. You know what I mean? And like I said, I don't agree with that law. It should be repealed. But I'm looking on the bright side of that law that at least we don't just have to listen to them tell us how wonderful all these scumbag politicians are all the time, because that's what they wish they could do. Oh, I wish I could talk more about the election. Why don't we talk more about why your butt wasn't out soul winning last Saturday? Why don't we talk about that, Pastor? Huh? Why don't we talk about the fact that your deacons don't go out soul winning? Why don't we talk about that? Why don't we talk about the fact that you're so scared you won't even preach against the weirdest sin in the whole world and in the whole Bible, sodomy, you won't even mention it? Why don't we talk about what a coward you are? Why don't we talk about how lazy you are? Why don't we talk about what a joke you are? Oh, oh, oh, Donald Trump's going to make America great again. Oh, oh, and then just salivating over Mike Pence, telling you he's like Daniel the prophet, telling you he's like King David, telling you he's like Joseph or whatever. I mean, look, these people are missing the boat. You must turn the nation from sin or it's going to go down the toilet. That's what the Bible says in every chapter of the book of Jeremiah. He said here, look, I'll cleanse them from their iniquity whereby they've sinned against me. I'll pardon all their iniquities whereby they've sinned and whereby they've transgressed against me. That's the problem. Sin. Why did the judgment come in the first place? Verse number five. Why is it filled with dead bodies? Look halfway through the verse whom I've slain in mine anger and in my fury and for all whose wickedness I've hid my face from this city. You know why God's not going to bless America? Because of fornication, right? Because of fornication, because of people shacking up like alley cats with just whoever and being active physically, you know, sexually active at age 13, 14, 15, 16. God looks down. He calls that the filthiness of fornication. God looks down and he sees all the divorce and remarriage and he says it's adultery. God looks down and he sees all the drunkenness and all the bud dumber consumption and all the coures and all the mgd. You know what? I mean, he looks at it and that's why he's mad today. He's angry. He looks down. He sees the abortion. He looks down. He sees the covetousness, the greed, the selfishness, the laziness, the complacency of God's people. The pastor who's more interested in the 401k and he's more interested in driving the Cadillac and living in the mansion than being a prophet of God and maybe spending the night in jail. And God looks down and God is not going to bless that. He can't bless that. So why don't we preach about that for a while? You know, why don't we turn this nation, first of all, to the gospel and then why don't we take God's people and why don't we teach them to observe all things whatsoever Christ commanded us? Everything, not part of it, but everything that Christ commanded us. We need to teach them against every sin in the Bible. Every sin in the Bible, we need to preach against it. And by the way, on Sunday morning, not just on Sunday night and Wednesday night, I'm sick of this program that says, well, on Sunday morning, we keep it soft for the new people. These new people, we need to light them up. The Sunday morning glories need the hard preaching even more than the Wednesday night crowd. I mean, the Sunday morning glories are the ones who need it the most. Let's not handle them with kid gloves. Let's take the gloves off and let's get up and preach hard on Sunday morning and let's turn people away from wickedness and let's get right with God and let's set an example for others, other churches, other believers, and let's do something that actually matters with our lives instead of just putting our hope in this bruised reed, right? I mean, it's like, woe unto them that they lean on Egypt for help. They're looking to the worldly people to fix it. And look, he said that to them at this exact time in the book of Jeremiah. Nebuchadnezzar, everybody, let's get this in context. Nebuchadnezzar is coming down on them in Jeremiah chapter 33. Jeremiah is sitting in the prison court and while he's in prison, the city is surrounded by the Babylonian army. And you know what they're doing? Instead of turning to the Lord, instead of asking Jeremiah, will you make intercession for us? Will you tell us what sin to get out of our life? Will you teach us the Bible? You know what they're doing? They're sending to Egypt for help. He said, you're like, basically, leaning on Egypt for help is like leaning on the bruised reed. So it's like those plants that grow by the side of the river, the tuli. Who knows what I'm talking about? I know that word because I used to go to piano lessons on tuli court. That was the address of my piano teacher. And I asked my mom, mom, what does tuli mean? And she told me that the tuli was that, you know, this plant that, you know, it's when you go to the river and there's those stocks by the side of the river and we have them on the salt river. Okay. Now I'm not talking about bamboo that's actually firm. I'm talking about these reeds and, and, and tullis and things that grow by the side of the river. And then have you ever noticed when they get real wet and old, they'll get darker, right? The fresh one will be like a yellow. And then there's the bruised reed where it's starting to get darker brown. It's just so soft and limp. It's like a spaghetti noodle. He's saying, basically you're leaning on Egypt for help. You know, you're just kind of like, oh yeah, we got this covered. I mean, Donald Trump's going to make America great again, right? Instead of leaning on the Lord, right? I mean, instead of leaning on something, they can actually hold you up. Look, God's a rock. God's, look, if the Lord's at your right hand, you'll never be moved, right? Or you can just lean on this bruised reed of, of politics, this bruise reed of the world, of Egypt, saying like, well, here's how we're going to fix it. You know, and it's something other than the Lord. I don't even care what it is. If it's other than cleaning up our, our, our nation spiritually and morally, it's not a solution that I have any interest in. Why? Why? Because I want to stand for the rest of my life. I want to be standing and having done all to stand and I want to stand and be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. I don't want to just lean on. Well, let's see if the politician keeps his promises. You know, I mean, I mean, I think, I think this time, I think this time he's really going to do what he said he's going to do. And you say, well, why don't you just do that one time, pastor Anderson? Why do you keep doing it over and over again? Is it one time enough? Why do you keep doing it? You know, doesn't that hurt? Well, here's my question. Why do you keep doing it America? Why don't I do it once for every time you've done it? Putting all your hope and wickedness, putting all your hope in Egypt, leaning on the bruise reed. I don't want to do it that many times because I'm going to become a bruised, rude reed up here. I'm going to get bruised. I keep crashing. I'm going to be red, black and blue by the time I'm done falling. You know, it's, it's, it's that God's saying that's what you're doing. Well, you know, when you don't realize that the problem's a spiritual problem and when you don't look to the Lord for your solution in all areas of life, we need to look to the Lord for our solution. If you have a financial problem, look to the Lord for the solution. And you know what he's going to say 99% of the time if you live in America? Go to work. That's what he's going to look to the Lord here. Let me introduce you to the Lord here. The word of God that was in the beginning with God and was God. You want to hear the voice of the Lord today. You don't have to go climb into a cavern and listen to a still small voice. You can open this book and read the written word of God. And it's going to tell you that if a man won't work, neither should he eat. It's going to tell you six days. Shout out labor. That's what it's going to tell you. It's not going to say part time. Shout out labor. And then you wonder why you have a financial problem. Now look, I understand there. There are other people in other countries, and I was explaining this to Pastor Bogart too, because he was talking about some of the extreme poverty where, and there is real extreme poverty. Where he lives in the part of, in the townships outside of Cape town there. I mean, it's, it's pretty serious. I've read up on it, you know, and he explained it to me, you know, firsthand. But I was trying to tell him, I don't know if he believes me or not, but I was trying to tell him that doesn't exist here. It doesn't. You can't find that here. It does not exist. Now, does it exist in Africa? Yes. Does it exist in other parts of the world? That does not exist in America. Today, food banks in Phoenix, Arizona are throwing away food because they have too much to even give away to people. I mean, it's, it's sad to think that somebody else is starving on the other side of the world and people here are just throwing food away. But look, just to give you an example. Last night, there was somebody sleeping outside the door of our church in a sleeping bag, just at the front door of our church, right at that door right there. Somebody's sleeping in a sleeping bag. And I, it was real late at night. I was driving, I drove in here and I was really tired and I had a headache from all the elevation changes because we've been out soul winning in the Indian reservations. And so, you know, we got back, we're tired and I just thought, well, whatever, you know, just leave the guy alone. You know, because I just figure, you know, the landlord's not going to get here until the morning and then we'll, you know, we'll get rid of by them before we get in trouble with the landlord or something. If they think that we somehow are telling people that, hey, this is a great place for you to sleep, you know, but I just thought, so what, you know, if I was, if I was laying there, I'd want to be left alone, you know, so I'll leave that guy alone. You know, I just want to go home and whatever. So I was just thinking to myself, you know what? So, so what, right? Hey, I come here this morning, I get to the church building this morning and you know what there was where that sleeping bag had been just a pile of trash. Just a whole big pile of trash. And there's a trash can like 20 feet away. But, oh, you know, the homeless people here, they're so busy with their busy schedule, they don't even have time to pick up trash. I mean, think about that. That person's homeless for a reason, my friend. And you know what I usually, and this isn't the first time somebody slept outside that door. And you know what I always find when people are out there sleeping out there, you know, I'll find half eaten food the next day, a half eaten hot dog, half eaten this. Because he that is slothful in his work is brother to him that's a great waster. That's why. And I mean, it's like, look, that's not somebody that I'm going to give my money to when they say, hey, I need two bucks. I need five bucks. I mean, the guy is sleeping outside the church door. He doesn't even have the decency to pick up the wrappers from his food. I mean, it was a lot of trash. I think Catherine, did you see the pile? It was a lot of trash. And then here was just the last blow. I mean, just when I thought I'd seen it all, the coup de gras, a lotto ticket, a lotto ticket. So that's the pathway out of poverty for this derelict who refuses to work so lazy he can't even pick up a piece of trash. So I had to go out there this morning and go clean up all his trash and then go about my normal day work. But he's got places to go and people to see and he's too booked today to pick up his own mess. Right? But his pathway out of poverty is a lotto ticket. One of these days, he's going to win big and then he'll never have to work again. You lazy fool. Only lazy people never want to work again. I want to work for the rest of my life. I was born to work. God created me to work. I want to work six days a week for the rest of my life till I die. And you know, I'll take vacations. You know, even God gave vacations, right? He gave like three weeks in the year where they would take time off the feast days. And they took a Sabbath day. They took the feast day. Sure, you take time off, but on a typical week, you work six days. You work your butt off. You say, well, my job's only five days a week. Well, then come on Sunday and roll up your sleeves and come soul winning. You'll feel like you went to work because soul winning is hard work. There's your sixth day of work for you, buddy. Sunday or pick the day, whatever the day. And you know how many, you know, but in America we need two days off. So that we can sit on our butts and live a sedentary, slothful existence, you know, and do nothing two days a week, and then just drag ourselves to work on Monday morning. You know what? What did this have to do with the sermon? I'll tell you what it did. The answer to all your problems is the Lord. For 99% of people who are having financial problem, it's probably work more, work more, quit eating junk food and work more. You'll get more energy from a more nutritious diet and get out there and do some work. I mean, that's all in the Bible. I could do. I could spend the next hour showing you verses out of the Bible on that. Or let's say you're going to work and you're doing your best and you're still not making ends meet financially. The Lord's still your answer because then at that point you go to the Lord in prayer and you pray to the Lord to give you your daily bread and he will answer you and he will show you great and mighty things that you don't know. I don't care what your, if it's a marriage problem, go to the Bible, get some marriage advice and then go to the Lord in prayer and pray for God to work in your husband's heart or in your wife's heart, right? It's always God that God is the solution. And now what was the question? Because God is the solution to every problem. And that's what we see in this chapter. He's telling them that when they clean up their act, then God's going to bless them. That's what we see here. Look at verse 10. Thus saith the Lord. Again, there shall be heard in this place, which you say shall be desolate without man and without beast, even in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate without man and without inhabitant, without beast, the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, praise the Lord of hosts for the Lord is good for his mercy endureth forever. And of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord for our cause to return the captivity of the land as at the first say at the Lord. Look, if you're depressed, then the Lord's the answer to your problem right there. He said, Hey, I'm going to bring joy back to this city. I'm going to bring joy and gladness and the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. And notice he didn't say the voice of both grooms. He said, I'll bring the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the, of the bride. And he says, I'm going to bring joy and happiness. You know, if you're depressed, the Lord has the answer to depression today. It's not drugs that you need. The only pill you need is the gospel. And they, you know, it's not drugs that you need. Here's what you need. Go to work. That'll cure depression in men. Most men that are depressed, they don't work enough. Or if you work a very sedentary job, go get some exercise and then you won't be depressed. Your body's not designed to sit around all day. I get depressed too. If I sit around all day, that's normal. Okay. You know, Oh, I'm so depressed. Says the guy who sits in his room, barely working. If at all playing video games, watching movies, the teenage boy, who's never talking to girls. He's never going soul winning and he's never going to work and he never gets any exercise. And then he wonders why he's depressed. Well, I'd be depressed too. You know what? Cheers me up. A beautiful woman in my house named Zuja. That's what cheers me up. Right? My beautiful wife cheers me up. You know what cheers me up? Going out and winning somebody to Christ. You know what cheers me up? Going to work and getting something physical done and breaking a sweat. You know what cheers me up? Getting some exercise, getting my bones moving. You know what cheers me up? Everything the Bible said I'm supposed to do with my life. Work and enjoy my wife and eat nutritious food and whatever. Say well I did all that and I'm depressed. I've got a wife and I've got a physical activity and I work hard and I'm accomplishing something for the Lord and I'm still depressed. You're lying. No one's depressed like that. It's true. Okay, but let's say you're not lying. Okay, you know, maybe there's just one guy out there who's having a physical relationship with his wife on a regular basis. Are you listening? Let's say there's a guy who's having a physical relationship with his wife on a regular basis and he's physically active. He's out working hard at his job or at least hitting the gym a couple times a week or something. Something to get his bones moving, right? And he goes to church and goes soul-winning and wins people to Christ and sings hymns and he's still depressed. Okay, well then if is any among you afflicted let him pray. Then at that point you go to prayer. But you know what? 99% of you won't even need the prayer at that point because you'll have already fixed it just by obeying the Bible. I don't know why I'm depressed. Just eating junk food playing a video game all weekend. I don't know why I'm depressed. Haven't physically been with your spouse and this goes for men or women. Haven't been physically with your spouse in two months and then you wonder why you're depressed. Yeah, that is depressing. You know, or six months since you've been physical with your spouse and then you're not sure why you're so depressed or why they're so depressed or whatever. Look, obey the Bible. It'll solve every problem. God can bring gladness back to your life. He can bring joy back into your life if you'll seek him. That's what he said here. He'll bring joy to them when they get right with him. Verse 12. Thus saith the Lord of hosts again in this place which is desolate without man and without beasts and in all the cities thereof shall be inhabitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down in the cities of the mountains and the cities of the veil and in the seas of the south and the land of Benjamin and in the places about Jerusalem and in the cities of Judah shall the flocks pass again under the hand of him that telleth them saith the Lord behold the days come saith the Lord that I will perform the good thing which I promised under the house of Israel into the house of Judah in those days at that time will I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David that's talking about Jesus and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land in those days shall Judah be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely and this is the name wherewith she shall be called meaning the city of Jerusalem the Lord our righteousness for thus saith the Lord David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel now I'm almost out of time but I want to deal with this end section here from verses 15 through 26. Now this is a little bit redundant with what I've already talked about when I preach on other chapters especially chapter 31 but many sermons I've done on this explaining this this concept of God's not going to break his covenant with Israel and God's not going to forsake David or God's not going to forsake the Levites or God's not going to forsake the seed of Abraham Isaac and Jacob you see many people they look to this passage and they're looking for a carnal fulfillment but the problem is that we've entered the New Testament and we need to keep that in mind when we look at this okay first of all in those days and at that time what's the context it's when he brings them back from Babylon and they have joy again and things are going great again right in the days of Ezra Nehemiah when they're back in the land and back installed in the promised land that's when Jesus is going to come that's when the Messiah is going to come right did that happen yeah that happened right now what about the Jews who say well we're still waiting on the Messiah and because it said in those days and at that time he's going to come right so when they returned from Babylon and God brought them back out of captivity and brought joy that's when it was supposed to happen and it did happen and it was Jesus right and when the Bible says in verse 17 David shall never want a man want means lack shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel you want to know who that man is that's going to fulfill that is the man Christ Jesus the son of David who's going to sit upon that throne forever he came as the king of the Jews remember it was written above his head in three languages this is Jesus the king of the Jews and so Jesus Christ is that son of David that would sit on the throne that's why the Bible said that the scepter would not depart from Judah until Shiloh come referring to until the Messiah come and so that's basically stating that they would have leadership of descendant of David until the Messiah comes and then he brings in the new covenant and he's sitting on the throne for all time he is the king of kings he's already the king of kings and lord of lords I mean he is the king even though he was not accepted as such by the Jews and then the Bible says this it says neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings and to kindle meat offerings and to do sacrifice continually now we don't want to misunderstand this to mean that the burnt offerings will never end that's not what this says what this says is that they're never going to need to do burnt offerings sacrifices and say okay we need the sons of Levi to do this and people say they're gone they've been scattered they've been decimated they've been destroyed we don't know what tribe they are we don't have the genealogy to fix it no because what happened was in the days of Ezra Nehemiah when they came back to the promised land they pulled out the genealogies and they figured out who was of the tribe of Levi and they figured out who was of the the priests and that's who did the sacrifices and there were some people who were like hey my last name's Cohen too you know I'm a priest too and they said okay let's check the genealogy oh your name's not there they were put as polluted from the priesthood and by the way there's not a single Jew on this planet who has a genealogy today going back to Levi because they've all been so scattered intermingled none of them knows what tribe they are for sure they think they might know some of them most of them don't even claim to know well my last name's Cohen and Cohen's Hebrew for priest but that doesn't mean anything okay that's just a name just because your name is Smith doesn't mean that you're a blacksmith or a goldsmith or any other kind of Smith okay so the point is that Levi God's promising look Levi's not going to lack a man to offer birth sacrifice you're not going to have to turn unto others to do those sacrifices I'm still going to use David to rule over you that family and I'm still going to use the Levites to offer the burnt offerings and sacrifices now let's continue reading and the word of the Lord verse 19 came unto Jeremiah saying thus saith the Lord if you can break my covenant of the day and my covenant of the night and that there should not be day and night in their season then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne and with the Levites the priests my ministers okay so what he's saying here is that the Levites the priest's ministers will always serve him they will always minister before him in some capacity now look what the Bible says in verse number 23 let's keep reading and I'll explain moreover the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah saying consider us and thou not what this people have spoken saying the two families which the Lord hath chosen he hath even cast them off notice those words cast them off thus they have despised my people that they should be no more a nation before me thus saith the Lord if my covenant be not with day and night and if I've not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth then will I cast away the seed of Jacob and David my servant so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham Isaac and Jacob for I will cause their captivity to return and have mercy on them what he's basically saying is he's not going to cast all of them off there's always going to be someone of those tribes that's still serving the Lord and that's you see what I'm saying he didn't say all of them he said in Jeremiah 31 you know if you can break my covenant with the sun the moon the star he said then I'll cast off all the seed of Israel he's saying I'm not going to cast them all off there will always be a remnant and that's what this is saying here there's always going to be some he's saying it's never going to get to the point in verse 26 it's never going to get to the point that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers okay there's always going to be somebody who's the remnant go to Romans 11 and we'll finish in Romans 11 it's the last place we'll turn Romans 11 and by the way the covenant that God made with Levi I don't have time to go there but in Malachi 2 you'll find that covenant of what the covenant actually was and that covenant was mainly not just that they would be the ones who would just offer sacrifices that wasn't their only role their covenant was that they would teach the word of God and also turn many people unto righteousness read that in Malachi 2 it's a great chapter the whole chapter really nails that down but look at Romans chapter 11 in verse 1 the bible says I say then hath God cast away his people and remember cast away is the same wording from Jeremiah 33 God forbid for I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of of Benjamin God has not cast away his people which he foreknew what ye not what the scripture saith of Elias how he maketh intercession to God against Israel saying Lord they've killed thy prophets and dig down on altars and I'm left alone and they seek my life but what saith the answer of God unto him I've reserved to myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace so the bible is saying here God didn't cast away his people Israel because some Israelites are saved like the apostle Paul and like everybody else who got saved in the days of Jesus and the apostles so God didn't cast them all away but he did cast most of them away most of them were cast away but he didn't cast away his people because they're still a remnant according to the election of grace now look if I had a cake okay and let's say someone took 10 of that cake and and took that slice right and they took and ate that cake and there's 90 of the cake left and then somebody said is there any cake left and I said you know what there is a remnant would that really make sense no but what if 90 of the cake's gone and there's just this one little sliver of 10 and I said you know what don't I know you think all the cake's gone it might even seem that way from far away because when you're standing far away you look over there you see crumbs everywhere it looks like it's all good but there is a remnant believe it or not there's a remnant over there go look at it that would make sense if 90 of the cake's still there I'm like please believe me I know you think that it's gone but there is a remnant that wouldn't even make any sense no one thinks it's gone there's 90 but see people look over at the Jews even in the days of Romans 11 and they're thinking man it looks like God cast away his people because look how they're not saved and look how these Greeks are getting saved and he said no no there is a remnant so what's that mean a remnant is a minority the very word remnant means it's a very small minority what's that mean most of the Jews are not saved okay now if you use the word Jew to talk about a religion which is what people use it for today a bunch of blonde haired blue-eyed red-haired freckled people say that they're Jews okay then 100 percent of them are unsaved they're all going to hell because Judaism is a false religion right but someone of that ethnicity or nationality so-called whatever they think they are 2,000 years later yeah if they believe in Jesus Christ great you're a part of the remnant according to the election of grace I'll give you that but I'll never say that any non-believer in Christ is one of the chosen people you're not elect buddy you say Trump is the president-elect well he is he was elected by man but unfortunately he's not elect because he doesn't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as his savior despite what your pastor and radio talk show host told you okay you can't say oh I never asked the Lord for forgiveness I heard famous preachers coming out saying he saved he's saved he's born again I have a terrific relationship with the Lord believe me I mean I don't even need to ask forgiveness believe me I got to work on my Trump impression it's gonna get better by January I promise it needs a lot it needs a lot of work all right I'm just getting started it's coming so if we were to tie this whole chapter together the bottom line is look don't look to the flesh hello don't look to the flesh don't look to Egypt don't lean on this world all of your problems call unto the Lord let him show you something go to him in the word of God and find the answers go to him in prayer don't look to the flesh don't look to a genealogy my last name's Cohen my last name's Ben Judah Ben Yehuda or whatever don't look to the flesh don't look to that stuff look to Jesus look to the Lord he is the one who can fix everything in our lives everything in our country and don't be afraid to look to him when you're in the the courtyard of the prison of your life you know don't be afraid to go through dark places because it's when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death that God's rod and staff compers you when you know he's with you don't just be like well I'm just never gonna go to the valley of the shadow of death I want to go to the valley of the shadow of death wait I'm not sure if that was a smart thing to say no I do want to go there I'm joking hey you know what I you know I want to know another one of my misguided teenage prayers besides the one I talked about earlier was this I said God make me pay the price to do something great for you whether I want to pay it or not don't ask me just put me through it that's what I prayed when I was a teenager so I dread to think what's coming I prayed that I'm just saying because I just said God I want to pay the price I want to do something big with my life and in my flesh I'm going to say no but just do it anyway let's borrow and have a word of prayer father we thank you so much for this powerful chapter in your word thank you for Jeremiah 33 3 Lord please help it to be a memory verse in our lives and and a motto for us help us not to get caught up in a bunch of physical Israel physical Jew worship help us not to get caught up in a bunch of politician worship and and cult of personality around politicians Lord help us not to look to the flesh and money and the world help us to always look to you and the Bible as the solution of all of our problems in Jesus name we pray amen