Podcasts about like jeremiah

Full Text of ReadingsMemorial of Saint Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church Lectionary: 427The Saint of the day is Saint Augustine of HippoSaint Augustine’s Story A Christian at 33, a priest at 36, a bishop at 41: Many people are familiar with the biographical sketch of Augustine of Hippo, sinner turned saint. But to get to really know the man is a rewarding experience. There quickly surfaces the intensity with which he lived his life, whether his path led away from or toward God. The tears of his mother, the instructions of Ambrose and, most of all, God himself speaking to him in the Scriptures, redirected Augustine's love of life to a life of love. Having been so deeply immersed in creature-pride of life in his early days and having drunk deeply of its bitter dregs, it is not surprising that Augustine should have turned, with a holy fierceness, against the many demon-thrusts rampant in his day. His times were truly decadent: politically, socially, morally. He was both feared and loved, like the Master. The perennial criticism leveled against him: a fundamental rigorism. In his day, Augustine providentially fulfilled the office of prophet. Like Jeremiah and other greats, he was hard-pressed but could not keep quiet. “I say to myself, I will not mention him/I will speak in his name no more/But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart/imprisoned in my bones/I grow weary holding it in/I cannot endure it” (Jeremiah 20:9). Reflection Augustine is still acclaimed and condemned in our day. He is a prophet for today, trumpeting the need to scrap escapisms and stand face-to-face with personal responsibility and dignity. Saint Augustine is a Patron Saint of: Converts to ChristianityPrintersTheologians Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media

We begin a new Series on the Old Testament Book of Jeremiah. He spoke around 622BC to 580BC. God called him to speak for Him in a very unstable world. The People of Judah were soon to go into exile due to their turning their backs on God.Like Jeremiah, God wants all of us to work with and for Him. Irrespective of our age, health or social standing, God wants to show you His abundant sufficiency in our lives. There will certainly be difficulties ahead, just like a ship in an open sea being tossed about occasionally, but we are in safe hands as we work for and with God. Let's be available for God's use and then see the world around us change. You can read the Script for the whole Service here.

The Browns defense was one of the top units in the NFL in 2023, buoyed by defensive player of the year Myles Garrett and a handful of other high-priced veterans like Denzel Ward, Dalvin Tomlinson and Juan Thornhill. The thing that really completed the defense, however, were the youths, recent Andrew Berry draft picks who are playing on rookie deals and playing well. Mary Kay Cabot, Ashley Bastock and Dan Labbe picked out two in particular as they discuss a few topics from their 15 keys to winning the Super Bowl series -- linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and cornerback Martin Emerson Jr. They spend Wednesday's Orange and Brown Talk podcast discussing the impact each player makes and how they've managed to fit in and thrive in defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz's scheme. We were Voted best podcast by Cleveland Magazine readers! Want to become a Football Insider subscriber? Get more info here. Music credits: Ice Flow by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3898-ice-flow License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Browns defense was one of the top units in the NFL in 2023, buoyed by defensive player of the year Myles Garrett and a handful of other high-priced veterans like Denzel Ward, Dalvin Tomlinson and Juan Thornhill. The thing that really completed the defense, however, were the youths, recent Andrew Berry draft picks who are playing on rookie deals and playing well. Mary Kay Cabot, Ashley Bastock and Dan Labbe picked out two in particular as they discuss a few topics from their 15 keys to winning the Super Bowl series -- linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and cornerback Martin Emerson Jr. They spend Wednesday's Orange and Brown Talk podcast discussing the impact each player makes and how they've managed to fit in and thrive in defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz's scheme. We were Voted best podcast by Cleveland Magazine readers! Want to become a Football Insider subscriber? Get more info here. Music credits: Ice Flow by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3898-ice-flow License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Finally, we come to the last words of the first verse of the first chapter of Genesis. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”With these words comes an inversion that tips over ye olde pagan worldview and also the modern secular worldview. The order here is important. Ordering often has great importance in the Bible, especially once we get to the days of creation and the Commandments. Creation is an act of ordering, and we have a bad habit of disordering that creation. But I won't get ahead of my inversions - let's first look to the heavens. Notice that heavens is first. Earth is mentioned second. Consider how strange it sounds to reverse the order. Read this aloud:“In the beginning God created the earth and the heavens.” Just saying it that way feels strange. I have a bad taste in my mouth now. Yuck. The other creation stories are like drinking orange juice after brushing your teeth. Genesis asserts the reverse. The bible drinks the orange juice at breakfast before brushing with toothpaste. This is the proper order. This may appear inconsequential, but like all the inversions, it matters far beyond mere words in a book, because the right posture of humility before God requires it. In many creation stories, earth comes first. Genesis shoots that idea down like a clay pigeon in this opening line. In the Greek myths, Chaos and the Abyss are the first things, but then the Greeks go even farther in their wager. Earth (Gaia) pops into existence before the Sky God (Uranus). In other words, earth creates itself. Only after earth is born do the heavens arrive. This is incorrect. Heaven is God's first and essential act of creation, as opposed to the second creation of the visible world. God is first. Heaven is created first. Another way of saying this is: heaven is over and above and before earth. In some translations the word heaven is singular, but in most it is plural. (We'll get to this plural/singular question in the next inversion.) But plural or singular, one thing is always true: heaven comes before earth. Heaven was created before earth, by God, who existed before both. This is intentional. Just as there are no accidents in Hollywood, there are no accidents in Genesis. Genesis, in one single opening sentence, has set the entire Bible in opposition to every religious system that surrounds the people of Moses. A great deal of order can be derived from this first sentence of the Bible. This single line may pick a fight across the entire world, but that is not the intention. To argue with the ancient world is not the point. To refute our modern ideas is also not the aim. The aim of these words is to speak the truth aloud, despite the consequences. Once again, the purpose of scripture is not to set the world right-side-up, but to set our eyes right-side-up so that we can see reality properly. Everything is as God made it, only we are upside down or sideways most of the time. The ancient myths and the secular world today are trying to sell you a bad pair of glasses while holding you upside-down. They are offering orange juice after you have already brushed. Before Genesis was written, all the differing ideas about our origin story had already been told. Widely different origin stories existed then and today because we can arrive at different conclusions. Nothing is new under the sun. The sacred writer of Genesis was not the first person to think of “God created the heavens and the earth,” but the writer was the first one inspired by God to record it for the purpose of setting the truth in a form that could be passed on by scribbling, not solely by voice. All ideas that we think are new are old. No idea is original at this point. Ideas are just reintroduced, shined up like a dusty apple for the current generation to eat. Usually, in the reintroduction, the ideas are only made more confusing. Truly, before humans began writing, every idea of modern philosophy had already been told and tried. Every upside-down worldview has had its day, and the reason they never stick and stay is because it's hard to pretend the upside-down is the right way to be. The upside-down doesn't work in practice because it refutes reality. You may pretend that rocks are not real, only projections of the mind, but stub your toe on the rock and you will know that the only thing that wasn't real was your imagination. What's different about Genesis is that it is a book that lasts because it is the written word of God, which is to say, it is the truth. This is why people who have followed the wrong path return to the path of sacred scripture. This is the same reason why mathematical formulas stick around. The reason why Pythagoras' theorem lasts is because it is correct. The theorem cannot be modified to suit imagination. It is simple, beautiful, and true, and it can be applied to the real world. Basic math is a terrific illustration of spiritual truths because it cannot lie. Let's consider the Pythagorean theorem, which describes a triangle's sides. This upsets no one, because it is so easily shown as true, even with a simple diagram using squares on the sides of the triangle. a2 + b2 = c2You cannot write the theorem in another order, or it breaks. The order is critical, where c is the longest side of the triangle. In the image, side c must be at the end of the equation. The following re-arrangement would not produce a correct result. Anyone building a house or measuring distances would make a mess using this incorrect theorem, given the three sides shown in the image:a2 + c2 = b2 You cannot disorder the sides and get the correct triangle. For instance, if the shorter sides of the triangle are 3 and 4 inches long, the longest side of the triangle is 5 inches long. Correct: 32 + 42 = 52 Incorrect: 32 + 52 = 42 The incorrect equation is an absurdity. It fails in the mind and in the real world. When I was learning to program C++ in college, my favorite error message was the dramatic-sounding segmentation fault (core dumped). This would happen when a program I had written (poorly) attempted to access a memory address that didn't exist. The code I had written in the text editor was a representation of what I thought would work in practice. In other words, it was an idea in a text editor, not a physical reality in live memory. But once executed, the code came to life and quickly died, because what I had concocted on the screen was incorrect. A flaw in the design caused a devastating error that dumped the process. There were other errors that came from impossible attempts made in my code, like dividing by zero, but a segmentation fault broke the program in an abrupt fashion, like when mechanics say that an engine has “thrown a rod.” To “throw a rod” or hit a “segmentation fault” is to have violated certain truths of math and physics. The incorrect equation for a triangle is a violation of the truth of mathematics, and if used in the real world, it would “throw a rod” or hit a “segmentation fault (core dumped)” error. In essence, the opening line of Genesis, like the Pythagorean theorem, declares spiritual truth in the same way. Pythagoras is declaring a mathematical objective truth with his formula, and Genesis declares a spiritual truth.If you change the order of “God created the heavens and the earth” you end up with a segmentation fault or a thrown rod as well. At the very least, you move toward a misshapen worldview, just as an error in the theorem creates a misshaped triangle. It does not match reality. Likewise, you cannot square a circle, nor circle a square. This is even impossible for God. You may protest, “But all things are possible with God!” Yes, except for untruth. God is the Sheer Act of Being Itself and God is Truth. Like the Pythagorean theorem, God is also simple, good, and beautiful. A circle cannot be squared. Invalid memory addresses cannot be accessed. A brittle piston rod cannot withstand engine pressures. A triangle cannot have a shape that misfits the proper formula. And earth cannot come before heaven. Pythagoras found one of God's great tricks of geometry, and surely he was not the first, but he was the first to be famous for it, despite it actually being a truth from God, not Pythagoras. He was the first to be widely read, like the sacred author of Genesis, but the truth of “heavens over earth” was known before the age of writing arrived. Numbers (not the book of Numbers, but the numbers used in arithmetic) provide a wonderful method of thinking about God and immaterial things, like heaven. Numbers are not things I can pick up and move from my kitchen to my bedroom. I can pick up two cats, but I can't pick up the number two. We can contemplate the idea of “heavens” by using numbers because they are invisible, unseen things, but we know they are very real. These odd things called numbers have no bodies but have real applications and effects in our material world, where we do have bodies. We cannot use the wrong equation in immaterial numbers and then apply it to the real world because a material triangle will not comply with an incorrect representation of the triangle. In other words, objectively wrong ideas are not a thing - they are nothing. Let me try to explain. If an architect of the Flatiron building in New York City had drawn a blueprint but put the wrong dimensions on each side of his triangle building, the construction company could not have poured the footings to match the dimensions on the drawing. The physical world cannot fit with imagined falsehoods. This is why objective truth matters both in math and in spiritual physics. As long as people have lived, however, we have resisted ideas of objective truth. This is why Socrates and Jesus were both put to death - for not playing along with the imaginary truths of the Sophists, for not playing along with the subjective truth of Pilate and Caiaphas. To speak of objective truths in a world that resists them is to invite anger. If you fully adhere to objective truth, you will be hated. One thing is for sure: it is not the British who first had a stiff upper lip, it was surely Abraham and his descendants, particularly Moses and his court for writing these truths down, because to record and speak these things invited anger, just as it does today. This inversion may not seem relevant today, but like Pythagoras theorem, the order of “the heavens and the earth” is as relevant now as it was in Canaan or Greece. Moreover, if you scratch the fresh paint of modern sacred things with your fingernail, you can find that the old paint job of Gaia's primacy is just beneath the surface. But it is the wrong formula and does not work. “Earth First” has returned for many people. During the Renaissance through the Enlightenment, the chattering classes got high on an old philosophy that tossed out God, and many held that the heavens do not exist at all. Classical antiquity became all the rage for some, and Gaia, or Earth, made a comeback. This was most obvious in what we built in our cities, because when the West believed in “Heaven First,” the biggest building projects were cathedrals glorifying God. When we switched to the “Earth First” disorder, we began building skyscrapers, government buildings (that looked like cathedrals), and stadiums for sports. St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York was the last big project for God, which now sits under the shadow of so many towers, like the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center, the UN building, Madison Square Garden, and Yankee Stadium. However, it wasn't just the builders who shifted to “Earth First.” Truly, the intellectual class has relentlessly tried to invert Genesis and either cancel the idea of heaven altogether or tell us that we need not worry about this unseen realm. We are five hundred years into this process now. We have mostly forgotten about heaven, because we live as if it does not exist, yet at funerals we declare that every deceased person's soul is there. We are godless in how we live, acting as if heaven is not a concern, then suddenly universalists at funerals, where God is just a version of Oprah Winfrey (everyone gets a new car just for showing up). Yet, the upheaval of modernity's blessing of all sins is revealing to people which side of the chasm they want to be on when the collapse comes. As the chasm widens between right and wrong, truth and untruth, Jesus and Pilate, people are reacting and changing sides while they still can. To be on the side of the Pythagorean theorem is to be on the side of “Heaven First.” Some feel that a “Heaven First” view is finally coming back. If that's true, it's happening slowly, but then there are wonderful, wild conversion events like with “Our Lady of Guadalupe” where the efforts of missionaries and evangelists hardly move the needle, while God re-enters our lives with a lovely picture presented by a peasant like St. Juan Diego, and suddenly millions once again recognize that the “Heaven First” viewpoint is the truth. We are seeing the result today of a world that has rejected the spiritual mathematical formula of “God created the heavens and the earth.” Like the example of the architect drawing the Flatiron building triangle with invalid dimensions, a world built on bad math and untruth becomes visible. To use biblical terms, it bears “bad fruit.” We all know what bad fruit looks and tastes like. The error of “Earth First” is becoming more plain by the day. Look no further than the transgender craze to see modern Sophistry at work, yet even this craze is not new but has a history in the ancient cult of Cybele. If someone cries out, “The cult of Cybele was absurd,” that will not bring a mob to his house today. But for those who speak out against the mutilation fad of middle-schoolers invites active, living hatred. But as an advocate of both “Heavens First” and the Pythagorean theorem, it's impossible for me not to speak or write about both, because I think Cybele's followers were wrong just as I disagree with the living, modern version of Cybele's cult that mutilates children. Like Jeremiah, the prophet, I would like to stay silent to avoid the burning hatred of the world, but I cannot do that because to speak untruth feels dirty. It's like drinking orange juice after toothpaste every day, instead of the other way around. It's gross. Most of all, to speak untruth means I have abandoned God. I would rather abandon the Pythagorean theorem than God, but I can't abandon the theorem either, because it came from God. This causes a problem for believers in both the integers and God. Jeremiah, under persecution, wanted to stop talking about the truth of God to save himself some pain, but the burden of objective truth was too much and he had to speak or he would explode. He declares that he would like to stop talking about the truth of God to avoid the ridicule of others and save himself the headaches, but the fire burns within him to speak:“I will not mention him,    or speak any more in his name,”then within me there is something like a burning fire    shut up in my bones;I am weary with holding it in,    and I cannot.” (Jer 20:9)I can relate, although I am more cowardly than Jeremiah. Today, to argue against the media and professors, both of whom insist on a materialistic worldview, is to be a modern prophet. To be a prophet is not to predict the future, it is just to declare truth, like the Pythagorean theorem and God creating heaven before earth. Oddly enough, many atheists now sound like Jeremiah because they understand the implications of mathematics and objective truth. This has been a fascinating turn of events. I marvel as it unfolds, as atheists like James Lindsay and Jordan Peterson sound like devout Catholics. This is why I do appreciate atheists. God bless them. They cut away all the fluff that stands between the two options of 1.) God Most High or 2.) nothing. I feel that if most atheists properly understood the formula called “creation ex nihilo,” they would be suddenly re-attached to the tree of life and chugging God's grace like a bong at a college party. I pray they are all at the next Easter Vigil service where they can join their terrific sense of reason to a newfound faith that makes them whole. The prophets are not that strange after all, because they speak truth. The prophets arise at times of disorder because, like Jeremiah, it's impossible not to speak of the order of God's creation. These prophets are not the crazy ones, but the last remaining sane ones. Jonah, the reluctant prophet, must speak, despite wanting to hide like Jeremiah. He doesn't want to, but he does. Why is that? Because he can't avoid the truth. The prophets are like Socrates and Jesus, who are the most sane people in all of history, and both Socrates and Jesus were very much “Heavens First” in their theology. Plato's Timaeus has a Socrates that sounds an awful lot like Genesis 1:1. This is sanity. Reading the tales of mythology is wonderful entertainment, but nothing to take seriously - they are like Marvel movies: fun to watch, but unbelievable, and not aligned with reality. The reason Jeremiah may seem crazy is that he is speaking objective spiritual truth to a world of Sophists, to a world that worships the wrong “order,” like in the book of Judges that repeats the ominous line throughout: “In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.” In an age of unbelief, however, it seems natural that people would be more concerned about the material world than the immaterial heaven. But this is only due to people not thinking deeply about their first principles, of which way is up (Hint: Heaven is up). They are flipped over because the advertisements spin them around. They are merely thinking about what they desire and calling it good. In other words, they have rejected God to do “what is right in their own eyes,” as the book of Judges repeats over and over. The naturalistic worldview, where God is not alive nor involved seeks all its answers in the chemical and biological, not in the spiritual. Yet not only the materialists do this - so do lukewarm spiritual people, where the desires of the flesh are projected onto God. Merely declaring “Heaven First” does not cure the error, but it is the first step on the path to wellness and sanity. Many people today complain about the politics of “America First” while in the next breath, they preach sermons of “Earth First.” But I am a keeper of the old code, of “Heaven First.” This is probably why my social life is limited. I reject both “America First” and “Earth First.” I definitely reject “Self First,” which is the most sacred belief of our age. The “Heaven First” view isn't a popular worldview today, but I grew up in the late 80's and early 90's. Listening to hundreds of hours of Nirvana's Nevermind album ingrained in me an ironclad belief that popularity is for sell-outs. The ancient religions are never far away. They don't actually die. In fact, ancient people didn't even know what the word “religion” meant, because the word was invented only a few hundred years ago. Religion is not where you go on Sunday for one hour, it's how you live every day. It's not just an add-on product or opinion or something done in private. We don't really know what religion is today because we've tried to cordon it off like a coat room, and while we point at religion in the coat room, we are actually living our true religion and calling it something else. Thus, with the myriad lifestyles and behaviors today, rest assured that everything from the Bronze Age is still here, but those ways and views have just taken on new names. While we may chuckle at stories about “Gaia” from the ancients, we do not chuckle about the chilling tales and dogmatic belief systems of climate change as handed down from those in lab coats and preached by the scribes of the laptop class. To challenge any assumptions about carbon credits (which are a parallel of what Protestants think Indulgences are in the Catholic faith) or sustainable planning is to invite a mob upon you. Attack the sacred things and you will be attacked. Why? Because the sacred things go back to the order of creation: who created what, when, and why. Thus if you subscribe to “Earth First” then you have a shield against spiritual things. Worse, you have an elevated sense of importance, also known as pride (as opposed to humility), and we will get to that nefarious inversion later. “Earth First” is alive and well. Books about Gaia have been all over the place in the past decade. Mother Earth is worshipped by millions, and while our earth is very good, it was not first. Genesis in its boldness says, “Heaven First.” However, this does not mean, “Earth is not important.” All of creation is important, as the whole is greater than the parts. This is true in geometry, bodies, families, marriages, communities, and God's whole creation. But there is an order of precedence, of how God created everything. If you error in this inversion, more errors will follow. This is why I'm writing this series on inversions, because the errors accumulate, where one wrong turn leads to another. The Catholic cosmology is not arbitrary or strange, it is just not understood or discussed because of the many layers of distractions that clutter our minds, due to centuries of misinformation about what the Church actually teaches, and what the truth really is. Moving on, let's look at the second inversion that comes with the words “the heavens and the earth.” Why is “heavens” plural? Further reading:On Earth as It Is in HeavenHeaven - Catholic EncyclopediaWhat is heaven?Catechism 1029-1029 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit whydidpetersink.substack.com

Like Jeremiah who was called and assigned to an already predestined profetic office, the nature of God's call is so divine that it requires to be elevated to where God is in order to see and to have the capacity to do His will. No wonder the Lord said through Jeremiah 29:11, that He alone knows the plans He has for us. With these words, it necessitates that we first seek Him then His Plan for us will unfold. When we cultivate a relationship with Jesus then we experience the fullness of who Jesus is as we get to experience the beauty of His Plan for us; which is His perfect will...

Jeremiah 31:15-19 Send Kurt a postcard! c/o Faith Baptist Church
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Greetings, fellow warriors! I'm Matthew Adams, your guide through the intricate journey of truly hearing and understanding God's voice. Have you ever felt that God was guiding you, but the path seemed more tumultuous than you anticipated? Dive in with me as we reflect on this concept.Scripture:"O LORD, you misled me, and I allowed myself to be misled. You are stronger than I am, and you overpowered me." - JEREMIAH 20:7Jeremiah's feelings of betrayal, frustration, and pain reflect many of our own experiences when we feel life doesn't match our expectations. While we know God's nature is pure and truthful, we sometimes feel the disconnect between our emotions and our faith.The Power Of God's Whisper is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Driving Points:* Emotions Reflect Divine Feelings:Jeremiah's feelings mirrored the emotions God felt towards His people. When we feel intense emotions, it's possible we are feeling a hint of God's own emotions. Our joys, sorrows, frustrations, and delights might be reflections of God's heart.* God's Voice Through Life's Experiences:Our life events aren't just random happenings. They can be ways in which God communicates with us. Jeremiah's struggles were directly linked to his prophetic call. Similarly, our personal challenges might be God's way of molding us and revealing His voice.* Finding God in Our Feelings:Every emotion, be it joy or pain, can potentially be a medium through which God speaks to us. Instead of dismissing our feelings, we should delve deeper and search for the divine message hidden within.Conclusion:Our journey with God isn't always straightforward. Like Jeremiah, we might encounter phases of doubt and feelings of betrayal. Yet, within these emotions lies the potential to hear and understand God's voice more deeply.Call to Action:Embrace your emotions. Reflect on them. Seek God in every high and low of life, for He might be speaking to you through those very feelings, guiding you closer to His heart.Prayer:Lord, in the midst of our emotions, help us discern Your voice. Let us not be swayed only by the storms of our feelings but use them as a compass to Your heart. Guide us, O Lord, so that even in our deepest feelings of betrayal or joy, we always find You. Amen.Thank you for joining me, Matthew Adams, on this introspective journey of God's voice in our emotions. Remember, life's rollercoaster of feelings is not just a personal experience; it could be God whispering to your soul. Stay connected and keep seeking His voice in every emotion! Get full access to My Reasons To Believe at myr2b.substack.com/subscribe

Greetings, fellow warriors! I'm Matthew Adams, your guide through the intricate journey of truly hearing and understanding God's voice. Have you ever felt that God was guiding you, but the path seemed more tumultuous than you anticipated? Dive in with me as we reflect on this concept.Scripture:"O LORD, you misled me, and I allowed myself to be misled. You are stronger than I am, and you overpowered me." - JEREMIAH 20:7Jeremiah's feelings of betrayal, frustration, and pain reflect many of our own experiences when we feel life doesn't match our expectations. While we know God's nature is pure and truthful, we sometimes feel the disconnect between our emotions and our faith.The Power Of God's Whisper is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Driving Points:* Emotions Reflect Divine Feelings:Jeremiah's feelings mirrored the emotions God felt towards His people. When we feel intense emotions, it's possible we are feeling a hint of God's own emotions. Our joys, sorrows, frustrations, and delights might be reflections of God's heart.* God's Voice Through Life's Experiences:Our life events aren't just random happenings. They can be ways in which God communicates with us. Jeremiah's struggles were directly linked to his prophetic call. Similarly, our personal challenges might be God's way of molding us and revealing His voice.* Finding God in Our Feelings:Every emotion, be it joy or pain, can potentially be a medium through which God speaks to us. Instead of dismissing our feelings, we should delve deeper and search for the divine message hidden within.Conclusion:Our journey with God isn't always straightforward. Like Jeremiah, we might encounter phases of doubt and feelings of betrayal. Yet, within these emotions lies the potential to hear and understand God's voice more deeply.Call to Action:Embrace your emotions. Reflect on them. Seek God in every high and low of life, for He might be speaking to you through those very feelings, guiding you closer to His heart.Prayer:Lord, in the midst of our emotions, help us discern Your voice. Let us not be swayed only by the storms of our feelings but use them as a compass to Your heart. Guide us, O Lord, so that even in our deepest feelings of betrayal or joy, we always find You. Amen.Thank you for joining me, Matthew Adams, on this introspective journey of God's voice in our emotions. Remember, life's rollercoaster of feelings is not just a personal experience; it could be God whispering to your soul. Stay connected and keep seeking His voice in every emotion! Get full access to My Reasons To Believe at myr2b.substack.com/subscribe

God will transform us to make us complete in Christ. Rejoice in the growing, as it gives you perseverance! Like Jeremiah, we will have hard times. Today, Pastor JD’s message reminds us that in our present trials, God is preparing us for greater challenges and opportunities to serve Him. Let us glorify God with our new strength!

The command of 1 Peter 3-15 is to -always be ready to give a defense- of the faith. In this message we review 1 Peter 3-15 and look to Jeremiah's life and ministry for encouragement and insight into how we can indeed -always be ready- to declare and defend our faith with love, fear, and courage.

The command of 1 Peter 3:15 is to "always be ready to give a defense" of the faith. In this message we review 1 Peter 3:15 and look to Jeremiah's life and ministry for encouragement and insight into how we can indeed "always be ready" to declare and defend our faith with love, fear, and courage.

We certainly will encounter struggles in this life. Like Jeremiah, we must remind ourselves of the Lord's goodness and faithfulness.

We certainly will encounter struggles in this life. Like Jeremiah, we must remind ourselves of the Lord's goodness and faithfulness.

Full Text of ReadingsMemorial of Saint Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church Lectionary: 425The Saint of the day is Saint Augustine of HippoSaint Augustine’s Story A Christian at 33, a priest at 36, a bishop at 41: Many people are familiar with the biographical sketch of Augustine of Hippo, sinner turned saint. But to get to really know the man is a rewarding experience. There quickly surfaces the intensity with which he lived his life, whether his path led away from or toward God. The tears of his mother, the instructions of Ambrose and, most of all, God himself speaking to him in the Scriptures, redirected Augustine's love of life to a life of love. Having been so deeply immersed in creature-pride of life in his early days and having drunk deeply of its bitter dregs, it is not surprising that Augustine should have turned, with a holy fierceness, against the many demon-thrusts rampant in his day. His times were truly decadent: politically, socially, morally. He was both feared and loved, like the Master. The perennial criticism leveled against him: a fundamental rigorism. In his day, Augustine providentially fulfilled the office of prophet. Like Jeremiah and other greats, he was hard-pressed but could not keep quiet. “I say to myself, I will not mention him/I will speak in his name no more/But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart/imprisoned in my bones/I grow weary holding it in/I cannot endure it” (Jeremiah 20:9). Reflection Augustine is still acclaimed and condemned in our day. He is a prophet for today, trumpeting the need to scrap escapisms and stand face-to-face with personal responsibility and dignity. Saint Augustine is a Patron Saint of: Converts to ChristianityPrintersTheologians Enjoy this lineup of patron saints! Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media

The Asaph who wrote Psalm 79 most likely lived in the time of Jeremiah the prophet when the Babylonians captured the city of Jerusalem and destroyed it. His Psalm is a cry of anguish and despair as he surveys the terrible destruction of the temple and massacre of thousands of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Prophetically, of course, the Psalm anticipates the coming of the Antichrist and his desecration of the temple.   Personally, I just finish reading the Old Testament books of Jeremiah and Lamentations in the New Living Translation. If you want to get a full and complete picture of the history behind this Psalm, I would encourage you to also read these books and you will feel the anguish of both the prophet and Asaph in this Psalm. You can also read the historical accounts of this judgment of God on the nation of Israel in 2 Kings 22-25 and 2 Chronicles 34-36.   In the first four verses of this Psalm, we hear Asaph mourn as he views and experiences the judgment of God upon Jerusalem and the nation of Israel for their disobedience. The land was God's inheritance (Ex. 15:17), and He shared it with the people of Israel who were His inheritance (28:9; 33:12; Deut. 4:20). They could live in the land and enjoy its blessings as long as they obeyed the covenant (Lev. 26; Deut. 28-30), but repeated rebellion would only bring painful discipline to them, including expulsion from the land (Lev. 26:33-39; Deut. 28:64-68).   Babylon was the leading nation in the conquest of Judah, but the neighboring nations (Ammon, Moab, Edom) were delighted to see the Jews defeated (vv. 4, 12; see Psalm 44:13, 80:6; 137:7; Ezek. 25). God had said they would be defeated before their enemies (v. 1; Deut. 28:25) and the dead bodies left unburied, a terrible disgrace for a Jew (v. 2; Deut. 28:26; Lev. 26:30; and see Jer. 7:33; 8:2; 9:22). Her cities would be destroyed (v. 1; Deut. 28:52) and Israel would be reproached by her neighbors (vv. 4, 12; Deut. 28:37). Note how Asaph identified the Lord with the situation: "your inheritance... your holy temple... your servants... your name."   My friend, it appears that America and many nations of the world have gone down this same path of forgetting God and living in disobedience and rebellion to His Word and His principles. First, we watched as the Lord began to withhold His blessings because of our sins. But now He has begun to pour out His judgments on us as we see the corruption, chaos, confusion, violence, hatred, and wars all around us.   I believe this is all setting up for the rapture of the church and the seven-year tribulation period of God's wrath being released on the earth. How should we respond to all this? Like Jeremiah and Asaph, our hearts should be broken, and we should still set our hope in the Lord and His promises of redemption! We should live faithful lives in obedience to the Lord and His Word like Noah did before the judgment of the Flood. We should be sharing the Good News of God's mercy and grace for those who will repent and believe.   These are desperate days of crisis that call us to weep and mourn and turn to the Lord for his mercy like Jeremiah did in Lamentations 3:21-26: “This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. Through the LORD'S mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore I hope in Him!" The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly For the salvation of the LORD.”   God bless!

God's Word is like…Jeremiah 23:29

10/04/2022 (Pastor Fred Moore)

Jeremiah was a man against the world. From an early age, the LORD called him to be a prophet to the nations, -to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow- -1-5, 10-. His ministry not only pronounced doom for the nations in rebellion to God but also to Judah, whose brazen wickedness would get them expelled from the land. Jeremiah was not a popular person. Speaking the truth came at great personal cost -e.g., 11-18-23- 16-1-13- chs. 36-38, et. al.-. But the few who did receive his message were given hope. God would make a new covenant and write his law on their hearts -Jer. 31-33-. These words came true in the ministry of Jesus, and speak to his Jew-Gentile church, the Israel of God -Heb. 8-8-12- Eph. 2-11-22- Gal. 6-16-. Like Jeremiah before him, Jesus was as a man against the world -e.g., Matt. 10-34-36-. But for those who receive him, he has given the right to be called children of God -John 1-12-. These gospel promises are the wonderful plans for which Jeremiah ultimately speaks -29-11-.

Jeremiah was a man against the world. From an early age, the LORD called him to be a prophet to the nations, "to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow" (1:5, 10). His ministry not only pronounced doom for the nations in rebellion to God but also to Judah, whose brazen wickedness would get them expelled from the land. Jeremiah was not a popular person. Speaking the truth came at great personal cost (e.g., 11:18-23; 16:1-13; chs. 36-38, et. al.). But the few who did receive his message were given hope. God would make a new covenant and write his law on their hearts (Jer. 31:33). These words came true in the ministry of Jesus, and speak to his Jew-Gentile church, the Israel of God (Heb. 8:8-12; Eph. 2:11-22; Gal. 6:16). Like Jeremiah before him, Jesus was as a man against the world (e.g., Matt. 10:34-36). But for those who receive him, he has given the right to be called children of God (John 1:12). These gospel promises are the wonderful plans for which Jeremiah ultimately speaks (29:11).

Jeremiah was a man against the world. From an early age, the LORD called him to be a prophet to the nations, -to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow- -1-5, 10-. His ministry not only pronounced doom for the nations in rebellion to God but also to Judah, whose brazen wickedness would get them expelled from the land. Jeremiah was not a popular person. Speaking the truth came at great personal cost -e.g., 11-18-23- 16-1-13- chs. 36-38, et. al.-. But the few who did receive his message were given hope. God would make a new covenant and write his law on their hearts -Jer. 31-33-. These words came true in the ministry of Jesus, and speak to his Jew-Gentile church, the Israel of God -Heb. 8-8-12- Eph. 2-11-22- Gal. 6-16-. Like Jeremiah before him, Jesus was as a man against the world -e.g., Matt. 10-34-36-. But for those who receive him, he has given the right to be called children of God -John 1-12-. These gospel promises are the wonderful plans for which Jeremiah ultimately speaks -29-11-.

Full Text of ReadingsTwenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 126All podcast readings are produced by the USCCB and are from the Catholic Lectionary, based on the New American Bible and approved for use in the United States _______________________________________The Saint of the day is Saint Augustine of HippoA Christian at 33, a priest at 36, a bishop at 41: Many people are familiar with the biographical sketch of Augustine of Hippo, sinner turned saint. But to get to really know the man is a rewarding experience. There quickly surfaces the intensity with which he lived his life, whether his path led away from or toward God. The tears of his mother, the instructions of Ambrose and, most of all, God himself speaking to him in the Scriptures, redirected Augustine's love of life to a life of love. Having been so deeply immersed in creature-pride of life in his early days and having drunk deeply of its bitter dregs, it is not surprising that Augustine should have turned, with a holy fierceness, against the many demon-thrusts rampant in his day. His times were truly decadent: politically, socially, morally. He was both feared and loved, like the Master. The perennial criticism leveled against him: a fundamental rigorism. In his day, Augustine providentially fulfilled the office of prophet. Like Jeremiah and other greats, he was hard-pressed but could not keep quiet. “I say to myself, I will not mention him/I will speak in his name no more/But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart/imprisoned in my bones/I grow weary holding it in/I cannot endure it” (Jeremiah 20:9). Reflection Augustine is still acclaimed and condemned in our day. He is a prophet for today, trumpeting the need to scrap escapisms and stand face-to-face with personal responsibility and dignity. Saint Augustine is a Patron Saint of: Converts to Christianity Printers Theologians Enjoy this lineup of patron saints! Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media

Enjoy this re-released episode of The Antithesis.Order “Christianity and Wokeness” here.Follow Dr. Strachan and The Antithesis on Twitter.If you like what you hear on The Antithesis, be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform!Check out the B.A.R. Network for more amazing, theologically-sound content.

  Zechariah 9: 2 Doom is certain for Hamath, near Damascus, and for the cities of Tyre and Sidon, though they are so clever. 11 “ As for you also, Because of the blood of your covenant,  I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.  12 Return to the stronghold, You prisoners of hope. Even today I declare That I will restore double to you.  Everyone is a prisoner, So you may as well be a Prisoner of Hope. In a world were many are defined by hopelessness, we are people defined by our hope. Prisoners of hope never stop seeing the best. Prisoners of hope cannot be bound by prisons of this world or captive circumstances created by people. Acts 16:24-26  Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. 25 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were loosed. Prisoners of hope are believers in Jesus who recognize the limitation in their circumstances, but refuse to be limited in their expectations and actions. We have faith in a God who can do anything. Too many people look at their circumstances and make the decision that they can do no more, or become no more than what they see. Like Jeremiah, those persons have to learn to “See well.” Hebrews 6:19  This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, 20 where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Jesus is our “forerunner,” going first where He expects us to follow. Hebrews 6:19  This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, 20 where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. People of hope... Focus on the promises of God more than focusing on the conditions and circumstances around us Understand that the world is full of darkness, but know that they are full of light Keep their love warm even in a cold world Are not distracted from serving God by the pressures and activities of this world Have high expectations of good things to come Follow the example of our father of faith, Abraham, who hoped against hope and fulfilled God's purpose in his life. Like Paul and Silas Have hope as a refuge and anchor for our souls. We are steady and steadfast in all conditions because Jesus has already entered the presence of God for us.

Like Jeremiah, we are all given God's words to comfort, challenge and console. A reflection for back-to-school Sunday, in a region where Covid is raging and teaching will be face to face.

Jeremiah 1:4–5, 17–19 Psalm 71:1–6, 15–17 1 Corinthians 12:31–13:13 Luke 4:21–30 God's words in today's First Reading point us beyond Jeremiah to Jesus. Like Jeremiah, Jesus was consecrated in the womb and sent as a “prophet to the nations” (see Luke 1:31–33). Like the prophets before Him, Jesus too faces hostility. In today's Gospel, the crowd in His hometown synagogue quickly turns on Him, apparently demanding a sign, some proof of divine origins—that He's more than just “the son of Joseph.” The sign He gives them is that of the prophets Elijah and Elisha. From their colorful careers Jesus draws two stories. In each, the prophets bypass “many . . . in Israel” to bestow God's blessings on non-Israelites who had faith that the prophets were men of God (see 1 Kings 17:1–16; 2 Kings 5:1–14). “None . . . not one” in Israel was found deserving, Jesus emphasizes. His point isn't lost on His audience. They know He's likening them to the “many . . . in Israel” in the days of the prophets. That's why they try to shove Him off the cliff. As He promised to protect Jeremiah, the Lord delivers Jesus from those who would crush Him. And as were Elijah and Elisha, Jesus is sent to proclaim God's gift of salvation—not exclusively to one nation or people, but to all who realize in faith that from the womb God alone is their hope, their rescuer, their “rock of refuge,” as we sing in today's Psalm. Prophecies, Paul tells us in today's Epistle, are partial and pass away “when the perfect comes.” In Jesus, the word of the prophets has been brought to perfection, fulfilled in those who have ears to hear, as He declares in today's Gospel. Greater than the gifts of faith and hope, Jesus shows us how to love as He loved—to love God as our Father, as the one who formed us in the womb and destined us to hear His saving Word. This is the salvation, the “mighty works of the Lord,” that we, like the psalmist, are thankful to proclaim daily in the Eucharist.

Like Jeremiah, "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" is minor key liberation. Freedom with weight. Rejoicing without ignoring the pain.

Advent is a season of anticipation, of expectation. On this first Sunday of Advent, we focus on the hymn "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," a text from the prophet Jeremiah. The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Jeremiah 33:14 Prophets rose up only when the Israelites were in trouble, not in the days where everything was going their way. Their role was corrective - to address the present darkness with hope in God's covenants. Even in our darkest days, when we wait with hope, we move from despair to patience. Like Jeremiah, a prophetic heart is filled with unending hope.

Jesus has been in the northern region of Galilee since chapter four. He was born in Bethlehem of Judea, but under threat of murder, His parents fled to Egypt and stayed there until Herod's death, fulfilling word of the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called My Son”. Matthew shows us that Jesus is the new Israel. He is baptized, sojourns in the wilderness, and ministers in Galilee away from the violence of Herod. Peter Leithart points out that Jesus has been like Elijah and Elisha in the northern part of the divided kingdom, and now like Joshua begins His conquest of the promised land with multitudes around Him. Like Jeremiah who announced God's divorce of Israel, Jesus will warn His people about the coming judgment. The question that kicks it off is whether you can divorce your wife for any reason. Despite the adulterers asking the question and the confused disciples, Jesus gives us a vision for marriage that overcomes the world.

Their worst nightmare came true. Now they are living, if you want to call it that, among the ruins, it's a post apocalyptic nightmare. their worst fears have shown up on their front door. And yet here in the midst of this horrendous tragedy, Jeremiah, whose name means appointed, raised up by God remains. Somehow Jeremiah is still there, taken out of the well where he had been left for dead, he resurfaces to find that all has been lost, just as he predicted, the Temple, the palace, the walls, Jerusalem, all in ruins. And yet, Jeremiah, the one who was appointed, the one who was raised up by God is still there. Like Jeremiah, God's called us to such a time as this, to be faithful witnesses and to remain, as Jeremiah did. To be faithful, to be loving lights, and proclaim God's kingdom, even among the ruins. We live in a world at war and where the walls have fallen down. Ours is not to charge into the fray and try to seize as much power as we can, like Ishmael son of Nethaniah did, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to pull down strongholds. The warfare of the world tears down others in order to be lifted up. But God's way is to lift up those who have been torn down. Let's join Jeremiah, like Jeremiah, you have been appointed, raised up for God for a time like this. to faithfully, lovingly lift up those who are left among the ruins. That's the prayer that I have for my own soul. That's the prayer that I have for my family for my wife, and my daughters and my son. And that's a prayer that I have for you may be so

Full Text of ReadingsMemorial of Saint Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church Lectionary: 430All podcast readings are produced by the USCCB and are from the Catholic Lectionary, based on the New American Bible and approved for use in the United States _______________________________________The Saint of the day is Saint Augustine of HippoA Christian at 33, a priest at 36, a bishop at 41: Many people are familiar with the biographical sketch of Augustine of Hippo, sinner turned saint. But to get to really know the man is a rewarding experience. There quickly surfaces the intensity with which he lived his life, whether his path led away from or toward God. The tears of his mother, the instructions of Ambrose and, most of all, God himself speaking to him in the Scriptures, redirected Augustine's love of life to a life of love. Having been so deeply immersed in creature-pride of life in his early days and having drunk deeply of its bitter dregs, it is not surprising that Augustine should have turned, with a holy fierceness, against the many demon-thrusts rampant in his day. His times were truly decadent: politically, socially, morally. He was both feared and loved, like the Master. The perennial criticism leveled against him: a fundamental rigorism. In his day, Augustine providentially fulfilled the office of prophet. Like Jeremiah and other greats, he was hard-pressed but could not keep quiet. “I say to myself, I will not mention him/I will speak in his name no more/But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart/imprisoned in my bones/I grow weary holding it in/I cannot endure it” (Jeremiah 20:9). Reflection Augustine is still acclaimed and condemned in our day. He is a prophet for today, trumpeting the need to scrap escapisms and stand face-to-face with personal responsibility and dignity. Saint Augustine is a Patron Saint of: Converts to Christianity Printers Theologians Saint of the Day Copyright Franciscan Media

In Jeremiah, we see pages of God's Word set on fire by an evil king. But the Word of God cannot be extinguished. Instead, the word was rewritten, with much more than was written before. The Prophet wrote down word for word what he was told. He then proclaimed it before the people and the king. The Evil King dissects each passage from the scroll and consigns it to the fire. The King thought he could stand in judgment over God's word, he thought his little fire would put an end to what God was doing. But the word comes back, it cannot be extinguished. It was burned in the ashes, but out of the ashes, it emerges, once again, proclaimed again, what God would do in this time, it's with much more, we're told. Our reading in John these last two days tells a very similar story. The evil kings Satan, the enemy of our souls, also wants to put an end to what God's living word Jesus is doing, by sentencing Him to the fiery judgment of the cross. But the cross can't stop God from doing what he intends to do. In fact, it is on the cross where he accomplishes what he must do, to free us from the kingdom of death and darkness. On the cross Jesus was consigned to the flames of judgment, to death, darkness and despair. But as great as that fire was, it could not extinguish the living word of God. Like Jeremiah's scroll that was rewritten, Jesus would be resurrected, he would be the first fruits of all those who would be resurrected into God's much more life. He consigned himself to the cross for us. And he was resurrected into new life for us. So that we can have much more life, abundant life in him. And that's the prayer that I have for my own soul today. That I'll move beyond the ashes and move into the much more of life in Christ. That's a prayer that I have for my family for my wife, my daughters, my son. And that's a prayer that I have for you. May be so

In this episode, Drew continues his series on the prophets who "weathered the storm." After examining the example of Isaiah in the last episode, he now discusses the "weeping" prophet, Jeremiah. Visit our website: www.scatteredabroad.org and remember to subscribe to our email list "Like" and "share" our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/sapodcastnetwork Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_scattered_abroad_network/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: The Scattered Abroad Network Contact us through email at: thescatteredabroadnetwork@gmail.com. If you would like to consider supporting us in any way, please reach out to us through this email.

In this episode, Drew continues his series on the prophets who "weathered the storm." After examining the example of Isaiah in the last episode, he now discusses the "weeping" prophet, Jeremiah. Visit our website: www.scatteredabroad.org and remember to subscribe to our email list "Like" and "share" our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/sapodcastnetwork Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_scattered_abroad_network/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: The Scattered Abroad Network Contact us through email at: thescatteredabroadnetwork@gmail.com. If you would like to consider supporting us in any way, please reach out to us through this email.

How does defining ourselves by professional standards that were never meant for us, affect our mental and emotional wellness? Why is it that we often have to justify our work and -- to a deeper extent -- our presence when we are in the pursuit of our dreams? In this episode, with special guest, Jeremiah Timmons we discuss being Young, Gifted, and Black, and how to redefine success in the Black Community. Jeremiah Timmons is a screenwriter and productivity coach based out of Los Angeles. After getting his start writing for comedians in Atlanta, Jeremiah moved on to work at Tyler Perry Studios and HBO. In addition to writing for television, Jeremiah coaches writers in all fields on how to increase their output using wellness tools. You can find out more about him and his craft at thethrivingscribe.com. Follow him on Instagram: @jeremiahptimmonsTune in to the Coping Season Podcast with Dr. Tina Webb every Wednesday for your weekly dose of funny, entertaining, thought-provoking content as we explore topics from dating, to pop culture, to current events, to everyday stressors that Black men and women face. We're talking about mental health, personal development, and everything in between! Join Black America’s Therapist, with her distinct style, expertise, and humor, as we discuss mental and emotional wellness and life changing insights to help us, Black men and women to begin to heal and cope with the effects of emotional distress. It’s Coping Season ya’ll and it might even be cuffing season too! Either way, we are going to talk about it all! Check out the latest episodes of Coping Season with Dr. Tina Webb on iHeartRadio- available on Android, IOS, and on iHeartRadio.com. Also available on: Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Podchaser, Listen Notes, Podcast Addict, Deezer and more!You can also listen on my website at: Https://drtinawebb.com.. It's Coping Season Ya'll!For additional updates, conversation and more ways to interact, please connect with me on social media and share your thoughts from the show using the hashtag #copingseasonpodcastInstagram: @drtinawebbTwitter: @DrTinaWebbFacebook: @DrTina WebbFor more information and resources, please visit my website at: https://drtinawebb.comIf you have any questions or you are interested in podcast sponsorship opportunities, email us at podcast@drtinawebb.comSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/drtinawebb)

 Turning Point-Not Me, Lord! by Dr. TJ Jenney.  Like Jeremiah we often do not feel adequate to step into some new call or face some new challenge in life.  But like Jeremiah we can... Inspire Sunday Messages by Dr TJ Jenney--bringing faith and life together!

Ezekiel: Prophet Profile · Prophets are given by God the ability to see through things: such as time, space, and…pretense. These words are certainly true for Zeke. · The name Ezekiel (Yehezke’l) means “STRENGTHENED by God.” · Like Jeremiah, Ezekiel was a priest who became a prophet during some of Judah’s darkest days. He was privileged to receive visions of the power and plan of God and he was careful and artistic in his written presentation. His wife died as a sign to Judah when the final siege on Jerusalem began (24:16-24). · Ezekiel was taken to Babylon in the second deportation from Jerusalem in 597 B.C. He received his first vision five years later. Ezekiel’s prophetic ministry spanned about 25 years, from approximately 592-570 B.C. He died in 560 B.C. · Ezekiel preached and wrote to the exiles in Babylon, compared with Jeremiah who remained in Jerusalem. Ezekiel’s Babylonian home was Tel Abib, the colony/refugee settlement of the Jewish people in Babylon along the Chebar River, also known as the “Grand Canal.” · Like most of the prophets, Ezekiel’s two-fold message was condemnation (ch. 1-32) and consolation (ch. 33-48), horror and hope. Ezekiel reveals the sins which were the cause of God’s judgment and exposed the foolishness of false hopes. Ezekiel places a strong emphasis on the sovereignty, glory and faithfulness of God. EZEKIEL · Ezekiel is primarily prophecy combined with elements of poetry and apocalyptic writing. · “Ezekiel is a book of methodical style, careful dating, and diligent organization. But this exciting framework houses an unsurpassed depth of mystery and richness and vibrant imagery, symbolism, parables, allegories, and apocalyptic visions.” - Wilkinson and Boa · God has a message for the exiles in Babylon: Israel deserved judgment because God is just. But God does not abandon his people so there is hope for the future, because God is loving. The key vision of Ezekiel is found in the “Valley of Dry Bones” story in ch. 37 and the key verse is found in 6:10: “They shall know that I am the LORD.”

Study Notes Ed Underwood Hosea: God’s Loyal Love I will heal their waywardness and love them freely (Hosea 14:4). The seventeen Books of Prophecy record the messages of the writing prophets (those whose messages are preserved in writing) God raised up to speak for him following the ministries of the prophets Elijah and Elisha. The failings of the Divided Kingdom Era prompted God to speak to Israel in the north and Judah in the south. They continued to speak to God’s people for over 400 years, including the exile to Babylonia and the return to the Promise Land. (1 Kings 12-Esther) The prophets spoke for God to His people concerning the enforcement of terms of their covenant relationship with God. Each spoke to a specific generation of Israel or Judah to enforce the conditional covenant (Mosaic) in the context of the unconditional covenants flowing from the Abrahamic Covenant. Their message can be summed up in these sentences: You are mine! (Unconditional covenants, Romans 11:29). Walk with me and I will bless you. Walk away from me and I will call you back to myself through loving discipline (Conditional covenant, Romans 9-11). Hosea’s prophetic career began near the end of a time of great economic prosperity and military success for both Israel and Judah. His primary ministry was to the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of her greatest king, Jeroboam II. However, Assyrian influence began to strengthen under Tiglath-pileser III, who conquered Israel in 722 B.C. The reigns of Israel’s last five illegitimate kings (usurpers to the throne of the line of Jehu, 2 Kings 10:30; 15:12) were short-lived and confused. Chaos and weakness characterized these last years of the northern kingdom. Still, her people refused to heed Hosea’s warning of imminent judgment. The people were in a spiritual daze, filled with sin and idolatry. Hosea’s ministry to Israel parallels the coming ministry of Jeremiah to the southern kingdom of Judah. Like Jeremiah, Hosea relates God’s deep sorrow over the state of the people and the nation He loves. Israel is God’s silly dove (7:11) refusing to repent (4:1), and it breaks God’s heart to discipline her (chapter 11). The personal tragedy of a marital unfaithfulness becomes a powerful illustration of the greater tragedy of a nation in rebellion against her God. It’s a story of loyal love—between the prophet Hosea and his adulterous wife, Gomer, and between God and His idolatrous people, Israel. Just as Gomer breaks Hosea’s heart by playing the harlot, Israel breaks the heart of her God as she spurns His love. But unconditional love is the theme: Just as Hosea buys his wife out of slavery, God will redeem and restore His people— after a time of purifying punishment. Unconditional love keeps seeking even after it is rejected. Hosea, whose name means salvation, is a prophet from the northern kingdom of Israel, often called Ephraim because that was the dominant tribe in the north as Judah was in the south. He writes with the detail and passion of a native eyewitness to the demise of Israel. “In no prophet is the love of God more clearly demarcated and illustrated than in Hosea” (Walter C. Kaiser Jr., Toward an Old Testament Theology, p. 197). Hosea was written to encourage the adulterous northern kingdom to repent by demonstrating God’s loyal love for His people in Hosea’s marriage and his message. God passionately pursues His unfaithful people. Though His loyal love never ignores unfaithfulness (chapter 3), He never abandons nor stops pursuing the unfaithful (5:14-6:1): “The great illustration of how committed God is to His people is how He instructed Hosea to relate to his unfaithful wife. The Lord will not forsake those with whom He has joined in covenant commitment even if they become unfaithful to Him repeatedly. He will be patient with them and eventually save them (11:1-4; 14)” (Tom Constable, Hosea, p. 4). I. HOSEA’S MARRIAGE—THE GREAT ILLUSTRATION OF LOYAL LOVE: Hosea marries a woman named Gomer whose behavior is a painful, living object lesson to the prophet as God prepares him to speak words of warning and love to the northern kingdom. (1-3) Hosea: The Lord’s loyal love never stops pursuing those who are His! PROPHETIC MARRIAGE: Gomer bears Hosea three children appropriately named by God as signs to Israel. Jezreel, Lo-Ruhamah, and Lo-Ammi mean “God Scatters,” “Not Pitied,” and “Not My People.” Similarly, God will judge and scatter Israel because of her sin. (1:1-2:1) PICTURE OF ISRAEL: Gomer seeks other lovers and deserts Hosea just as Israel has sought idols and deserted God. (2:2-23) C. LOYAL LOVE: Hosea illustrates God’s love for Israel by buying or redeeming her from the slave market and restoring her. (3) II. HOSEA’S MESSAGE—THE GREAT TRUTH OF LOYAL LOVE: Because of his own painful experience, Hosea can feel some of the sorrow of God over the sinfulness of His people. Though Hosea’s love for Gomer pictures God’s love for Israel, Israel has fallen to such a depraved state that judgment is inevitable. (4-14) ISRAEL’S SPIRITUAL ADULTERY: The sins are evident. Having rejected the knowledge of God, they have spiraled into idolatry. Though judgment is imminent, God will restore His adulterous people. (4-6:3) ISRAEL’S REFUSAL TO REPENT: Even now God wants to heal and redeem them (7:1, 13), but in their arrogance and idolatry they rebel. (6:4-8:14) ISRAEL’S JUDGMENT FROM GOD: Israel will suffer dispersion, barrenness and destruction. (9-10) D. ISRAEL’S RESTORATION TO GOD God is holy (4-7) and just (8-10), but He is also loving and gracious (11-14). God must discipline, but because of His endless love, He will ultimately save and restore His wayward people. (11:18; 14:4) HOSEA AND YOU: God’s loyal love is the bedrock of a believer’s assurance that we belong to Him and his/her primary motivator to worship Him. Hosea’slifeandwritingsillustrateandteachGod’sloyalloveforthosewhobelongtoHim.God’sloyal love is the basis of our assurance as Christians. All those rightly related to God through faith in His message concerning salvation are secure in their relationship with Him. He will never revoke His promises (Romans 11:29) to Israel or to the New Testament believer (Ephesians 1:1-14; Titus 3:5). Eternal security rests in the faithfulness of God to His promise. Assurance occurs when the one who belongs to God believes he or she is secure based upon the promises and loyal love of God (1 John 5:11-13). Worship is a response to God’s loyal love from an undeserving heart (Romans 12:1-2). The Bible consistently compares worship of God to marital love, and Hosea teaches us that we’re all unfaithful “Gomers” being loved loyally by our faithful God (Ephesians 2:4-10). Messiah: Matthew 2:15 applies chapter 11, verse 1, to Christ in Egypt. Matthew quotes the second half of this verse to show that the Exodus of Israel from Egypt as a new nation was a prophetic type of Israel’s Messiah who was also called out of Egypt in His childhood. Both Israel and Christ left Palestine to take refuge in Egypt. Christ’s identification with our plight and His loving work of redemption can be seen in Hosea’s redemption of Gomer from the slave market.

Zechariah 9:11 “As for you also, Because of the blood of your covenant, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. 12  Return to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope. Even today I declare That I will restore double to you." Psalms 68:4, Sing to God, sing praises to His name; Extol Him who rides on the clouds, By His name Yah, And rejoice before Him. 5  A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God in His holy habitation. 6 God sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound into prosperity; But the rebellious dwell in a dry land We are living in a world full of sin and darkness. If you read all of Zechariah 9, you will statement after statement of God judging Israel’s enemies and His promise to protect His people.There is a certain amount of pain that comes with simply living in this world. People become distracted by the pain, noise and clutter of this world. People get caught up in carnal pursuits, which becomes their prison. There are all kinds of prisons. People who commit crimes, and some falsely accused, end up in literal prison. Some are prisoners to their own bad practices, such as lying. Some are prisoners to unforgiveness or bitterness. Everyone is a prisoner, So you may as well be a Prisoner of Hope. Paul and Silas understood that they were already prisoners of hope, even before they were put in jail. That’s why that began to sing praises. They were doing what they always did! Prisoners of hope never stop seeing the best. Prisoners of hope cannot be bound by prisons of this world or captive circumstances created by people. Acts 16:24-26 (New King James Version)24 Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. 25 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. Prisoners of hope are believers in Jesus who recognize the limitation in their circumstances, but refuse to be limited in their expectations and actions. We have faith in a God who can do anything. Too many people look at their circumstances and make the decision that they can do no more, or become no more than what they see. Like Jeremiah, those persons have to learn to “See well.”

Jeremiah is drafted by God to serve a ministry career that no one in their right mind would want. A pastor's nightmare: Jeremiah spends decades preaching and pleading for repentance among people he loves, while all of them reject his message, and ultimately tire of him and finally arrest and try to murder him. Who wants that assignment? Right. Yet as a pastor I am committed by love to share hopeful yet hard truth with my congregation. Like a parent who loves their child unconditionally, one still lives out a relationship of conditional connection. As with God, the highest and deepest relationships have both unconditional love and conditional blessing. If one refrains from telling the truth out of intention to love and avoid hurt, the good intention is actually emptied of real love, dissolving into a sad sentimentality which does not support life in relationship. At the same time, if one insists on plain truth and delivers the message from a heart that is absent genuine desire for the recipient's best interests, that truth is distorted into a kind of brutality, and does more harm than silence. Like Jeremiah, faithful disciples of Jesus are called to loving, hard message delivery, and are committed to living in pursuit of faithfulness to God and neighbor.Support the show (https://pushpay.com/pay/pontevedraumc)

Like Jeremiah, young folks, old folks, and everybody in between are called to take part in what God is doing. The One who calls is the One who knows you through and through, who has been with you all along, and who will be with you always. There is no one who is too young, too old, or too anything to take part in what God’s doing in this world. God supplies what is needed.

Like Jeremiah and Jesus, we experience times in life that are filled with tension and difficulty.  Yet following the example of St. Paul, we face these challenging moments with God's grace as we embrace and live the love of Christ each and every day. February 2, 2019 - St. Anthony Catholic Church - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com

Like Jeremiah, we have brothers and sisters throughout the world who are imprisoned because of their faith. Let's pray for them to persevere that the gospel may continue to go forth and bear fruit in all the world.

Like Jeremiah, you may feel insufficient and inadequate, but God promises that He is with you to help, deliver, strengthen, and comfort you.

Where God's grace meets your need.

Where God's grace meets your need.

Jeremiah 1:4-10The Tomb of the Present is the Womb of the Future: Learning to Lament & Imagine Like JeremiahBen Rosenbush

00:08:18 Terri Savelle Foy How to Use the Law of Attraction for Weight Loss 00:24 :20  Andrew Wommack Claims to Be a Prophet 00:59:12  Robert Morris Claims Every Christian is A Prophet 01:25:08 Good Sermon: Worth Fighting for by Gervase Charmley

We Are Church, Church Together (San Francisco, CA)

Being rejected is no fun, and yet it is one of the most universal experiences we know as humans. Jesus was no exception. Like Jeremiah and many of the other prophets before him, He, too, was rejected. But He will never reject us. Find out more in this sermon from Pastor Jedidiah Maschke, based on Jeremiah 26:8-15.

TO LISTEN TO THIS MESSAGE AS A FREE PODCAST PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO THE AUDIO BUTTON AND CLICKA word from The Holy Spirit through Mary LindowThe English term "Pioneer" was originally derived from a French word meaning PICK AX. Later it was also used to communicate the idea of a foot soldier. The Germans use the term "trench digger" to get across the idea of a pioneer. PREPARE AND REPAIR THE ROADA pioneer during times of war was one who marched before an invading army to prepare and repair the road. They did everything from clearing away barricades to setting mines for destroying the works of the enemy. PIONEERS ARE FORERUNNERS AND SCOUTS. Like Jeremiah, a pioneer is one who goes ahead of the crowd to remove obstructions for the purpose of preparing the way for others that must soon follow. "See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, To root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant." (Jeremiah 1:10) THESE PEOPLE DO NOT SET MINES AND “BLOW UP” MOUNTAINS OF UNGODLINESS JUST FOR THE THRILL OF WATCHING THINGS BLOW UP! No, the pioneer understands that it is his job to prepare the way and make it easier for others to enter into the unmistakable presence of Jesus Christ.When there are earth shifts or earth “quakes” occurring in the plates of the soil of "Terra firma" - there are shakings, upheavals, and literally fully destroyed old pathways, roads and highways, as well as, the bringing down of structures and habitations.WE AS PEOPLE ARE REALLY GOOD AT WEARING THINGS OUT!We wear out people, policies and procedures to ad nauseum! And so, we wonder why the Father must bring those “times of refreshing” only after we repent and deal with our tendencies to want to have everything lined up, functioning like well oiled machines, and…"Controlled!" “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, That times of refreshing may come from the Lord.”  Acts 3:19THE FATHER HAS NEVER STOPPED CREATING! He has never ceased to impart brilliant creativity and mind-blowing new discoveries to mankind! He makes things new EVERY MORNING!It is what we do to God’s creative plans that sour the way it was intended to produce fruit and seed.AS THIS NEXT WAVE OF GOD’S DIVINE PLAN BEGINS TO BE “REVVED UP” IN THE EARTH, FOLKS WILL BEGIN TO ATTEMPT TO ARTICULATE AND DEFINE IT. MANY WILL TRY TO SELL IT, CAPITALIZE ON IT, AND……TRY TO CONTAIN IT.I FOREWARN YOU FROM THE SPIRIT OF GOD- Just as the manna went moldy if kept or “contained” longer than allowed, so will man’s attempts at trying to “bottle” and distribute this Fresh Wind of Glory which is beginning to manifest from the Throne of God.SPIRITUAL BALANCE AND A WARNING TO THE SENIORS AMONG USMoses arrived at the “gate” of his final destiny, the Quest for the Promised Land, but...it was not just the command of the Lord in action that He was required to model. NO! The attitude of His heart towards those coming up underneath him was what God became angered at and…which disqualified him from entering the Land of Promise. The New “Wave of Divine Glory and provision for another generation."And Moses and Aaron assembled the congregation before the rock and Moses said to them, Hear now, you rebels; must WE bring you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand and with his rod he smote the rock twice. And the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock.   Num 20:10-11                            These people having no water were frightened and rebellious toward Moses, calling out insults and being nasty. (When people are immature and desperate, this is characteristic of their behavior.)At first Moses went to the Lord about all this, instead of retaliating with name-calling. Then after the Lord told him to "tell" the rock to give forth water, Moses in his frustration and impatience yelled at those people calling them "rebels".      IMPATIENCE IS BROUGHT ABOUT BY "PRIDE"It's pride that lifts us up to the place of thinking we're better then others, therefore having the right to be impatient with them.God told Moses to speak to the rock in front of the people and from this rock water would come, giving the people the opportunity to see the power of God working on their behalf. But Moses in hitting this rock went directly against what the LORD told him to do. He not only hit it once, but he hit it twice! This being rebellion robbed God of any glory, as well as going much deeper then Moses realized.Moses had a life long struggle with anger, and he did not master it. He modeled the anointing with a crusty anger and a withering exasperation…at the people’s cries and need for provision."Fathers, don't exasperate your children by coming down hard on them. Take them by the hand and lead them in the way of the Master."Ephesians 6:4 (MSG)MAY THOSE AMONG US WHO HAVE HAD YEARS OF “PIONEERING AND DESERT WALKING” BE EVER SO CAREFUL IN THIS NEXT KINGDOM DISPENSATION to not become sour, harshly opinionated, or brash, and in so doing...strike out in anger at those now coming up asking the question of;  “Where is the water the fresh cleansing drink coming from?” REMEMBER:“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; And from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” Luke 12:48b THE BLOW TO YOUR HEART WILL BE THE DISQUALIFICATION OF FINAL FRUITFULNESS. The Lord will send in an Aaron to finish the work. One who has learned the lesson of humility and trusting only in the Voice of God. Not simply dogged and teeth grinding follow-through without mercy or patience. IF YOU ARE PREACHING THE KINGDOM, THEN YOU WILL RADIATE WHAT THE KINGDOM IS! Righteousness, Peace, and Joy in the Holy Spirit.“For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, But righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Romans 14:17 (NKJV)TO THE NEW BREED OF FATHERS AND MOTHERS AT THE GATE OF GENERATIONAL INFLUENCEThe Spirit of God would caution those of you now arriving at the “gate” of generational influence, to weigh in the balance of Heaven - your heart motives. Can you truly say that you are positioning yourself to be a mentor, one who trains fresh runners, in how to grab hold of the “passing of the baton” correctly in order that the next leg of the race is run fluidly and without stumbling? For you see! That is what you have been painstakingly prepared for over the past few years or more! If you are fixated on finally becoming a “Voice” so that others might know of your personal greatness and oozing impartations, you too will be disqualified from the weight of glory that is going to fall upon the saints in this season. There is still time to adjust the insecurities, the hidden sins of presumption and ego stroking, and to simply… surrender. GOD IS LOOKING FOR THOSE THAT WALK WITH THE HEART OF DAVID, AND BUILD ONLY FOR HIS GLORY ALONE.Solomon answered, "You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day. 1 Kings 3:6FORERUNNERS ALSO BRING UP THE REAR! Not only will forerunners be pioneering pathfinders but they will also cheer on, “shepherd” and watch over the flanks of new and eager, younger legions of emerging pathfinders and “seers.” They will parent, counsel, advise, and pick-up and motivate the stragglers, the weary, and the shattered, bringing them into restoration and a family embrace. WHEN “STARS” START TO IMPLODE“What happens is that as the star's outer envelope ex-pands rapidly while the core collapses rapidly, a vacuum is developed at the interface of the core and the envelope. The result is comparable to what happens when a building is demolished. An implosion occurs; matter begins hurtling itself inward to the intensely hot core of the star. "An imploding star is a very dangerous place to be.” It’s like pouring gasoline on a fire. ~ Bob Sheldon-Astronomer at Behlen Observatory THIS SEASON WILL BE ONE THAT SHOCKINGLY BRINGS AND END TO THE "SUPER NOVA" CONCEPTS IN MINISTRY. People will be sickened and again “worn out” by the demands, and pumping of wallets and overtaxed service to bloated egos and assumed power players. Things will be imploding on the inners core level of ministries not steeped in humility and equal sharing of goods, service, and prayer, although for awhile, they will still appear to shine brighter and brighter.When the implosion is in full blaze, many will be devastated and “burned” by idol worship and “star gazing” rather than seeking the Daystar of Heaven.THE SHIFTING OF THE “SPIRITUAL SOIL” OF THE EARTH HAS BEGUN, and what remains after shaking will be the sounds of simplicity, purity, and a magnification of the Worship of God, not the worship of God... in man. THE SPIRIT OF GOD HAS BROUGHT WORD AFTER WORD OF PREPARATION AND PROMISE TO GOD’S PEOPLE. LET THOSE THAT HAVE EARS TO HEAR, LISTEN TO WHAT THE SPIRIT IS SAYING... …AND HEED ITS VOICE.*****************************************Duplication and sharing of this writing is welcomed provided that complete source and website information for Mary Lindow is included. Thank YouCopyright © 2014 " THE MESSENGER " ~ Mary Lindowwww.marylindow.comwww.globalprayerrooms.com

What Does it Mean to Walk With God? Scripture says, "He who walks with the wise grows wise," and I think that's why Hebrews 11 is given to us, so that by faith, as we read the accounts of faith-filled men and women of the past, we can walk with the wise and grow wise ourselves. For the last four or five weeks, I've been kind of walking with Enoch, especially him, trying to understand his faith, trying to understand his example. This is the one about whom it's testified that Enoch walked with God. And friends, there is no one wiser than God. And so, when you walk with the wise, you grow wise. Enoch walked with God. Oh, the depths of the riches, the wisdom, the knowledge of God, how insatiable His judgments and His paths beyond tracing out, the infinite wisdom of God. And so, for me, I've been pondering that expression. What does it mean to walk with God? And some images come in my mind, something I read from a Puritan pastor some time ago, Thomas Goodwin. He's describing the way that God pours out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and the way that God testifies directly to us that we are His children, by faith and by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Thomas Goodwin was describing a father and a son walking together along the road and they are hand in hand. And the son knows that he is the son of his father, he knows that his father loves him, there's no doubt in his mind about it, he is absolutely secure in that love. And then suddenly, the father moved by some impulse, picks that little boy up and hugs him and kisses him and squeezes him, tells them, "I'll always love." Set him back down on the road. There's just a qualitative difference before and after, Amen? And so, that image comes in my mind. When I think of walking with God, that's what I think of. Sometimes I'll even ask him in the name of that teaching I got, "Lord, would you do that to me right now? Just pick me up and squeeze me and tell me that you love me." I don't think there's anything wrong, I think there's everything right with a prayer like that. Well, then I think about Jesus and His post-resurrection appearance walking with two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Wouldn't you love to have been one of those two disciples, to just walk with Jesus? And not just at any time in redemptive history, but specifically that day, resurrection day, and to walk with the risen Lord and to sit down at table with Jesus and to break bread with him and eat with him. Later on, we're going to have the Lord's Supper, that the... It's a symbol of the promise that we have that some day Jesus will do precisely that with us. Some day, he's going to sit at table with us. And so, walking with God, that's what's on my mind, trying to understand that. And both of the men that are in front of us today, in Hebrews 11, it's testified of both of them, Enoch and Noah, that they walked with God. Interestingly, it's an expression that's used of no one else in the Bible. Abraham says, "The Lord before whom I have walked…" And so Abraham walked in front of God or before him. I don't, in any way, doubt that Abraham walked with God. I'm just talking about the words, and it's said only of these two, Enoch and Noah. So we're going to study today. We're told that Enoch walked with God. We're told, in Genesis 6:9, that, "Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God." And so for me, I want to understand how that can be. This God, this infinite God, this mysterious God. The God who is a spirit, and has not a body like us humans. No body parts or passions. A God who is a wind, a God who is a consuming fire, a God of whom, it said, "Heaven, even the highest heavens, cannot contain Him." What does it mean to walk with God? That's what's in front of us today. Now, the first time that we have this image of God walking in the Bible, it's actually negative, it's an image of judgment. After Adam and Eve had eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it says that they heard the sound of God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they were terrified and they ran and hid from God. And what a great tragedy that is? If you think about it, what an incredible tragedy? They recognize the sound, and so they knew that fellowship of walking with God, but that fellowship had now been broken, they were terrified of walking with God because God was coming to judge them. Little by little as Genesis unfolds, it seems that God recedes from human consciousness, takes further and further steps back. It seems that Cain and Abel had communication with God and Cain was able to talk to God and God to answer Cain, etcetera. But by the end of Genesis 4, it says, "At that time, men began to call on the name of the Lord…" And people are building altars, and they settled into that pattern that we know that ultimately you can only walk with God by faith. So little by little, only by faith. And so we have this basic principle of all of human experience with this invisible God. It's given in Hebrews 11:6, we've already looked at it, can't look at it too much. And that is "Without faith, it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him." And so a life that's well-pleasing to God, that's what's in front of us, that's the centerpiece of my life. I want to say to God at every moment, "Oh God, I believe that you exist. I want to please you, I want to come to you, I want you to reward me for the things that I've done. That's the kind of life I want to earnestly diligently seek you, oh God." I believe that that's what's in front of us as we described this idea of walking with God, that at every moment of the day, every day of the year, someone who's walking with God is saying that to God. I just said a moment ago that God feels heaven, and even the highest heavens cannot contain God. I see in our society a force called secularism that forces God to take his place in a box, and tells God, "This is your place now, you stay put. Be a good boy and stay put. And don't get outside that box that we're going to put you in." But a Christian doesn't put God in any box, I want God in everything I do. I want God involved in every decision I make, every dollar I spend. Every minute of the day, I want God in the center of all of it. I don't believe in that kind of a vision. Some day, the glory of Jesus is going to radiate through the new heavens and the new earth. There'll be no part of it that doesn't radiate with Jesus Christ. So away with that way of living, I don't want to live like that. I'm not even worried about secular education or secularism or any of those things in the college. I'm worried about it in my own heart, that I would put God in a box and not bring him over into every area of my life. So Hebrews 11:6 tells me that basic principle, and I say to you that this is, in essence, the only kind of life that ends up in heaven. This is the life that ends up in heaven. Do not be deceived. At the end of Hebrews 10, we are told very plainly, look at last two verses, verses 38 and 39, "But my righteous one will live by faith, and if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him. We are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed but of those who believe to the salvation of our souls." And then Hebrews 11 tells us what that faith looks like that saves our souls. And so these aren't just super-duper Christians or extra special Christian, this is the essence of the kind of life that leads to heaven, and it's a life in which we are walking with God. Enoch: Faith’s Walk (vs. 5) So look at verse 5, let's look at Enoch, in particular, "By faith, Enoch was taken from this life so that he did not experience death. He could not be found because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as someone who pleased God." Now, we have this mysterious figure of Enoch. There's actually a very limited Biblical record of this man, we don't know much about him. We have this verse here in Hebrews 11:5. We have mention of him in the genealogical unfolding of Genesis 5, and there we find these words, "When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years." Now that has just weighed heavily on me. I said to some friends, this morning, I said, "I'd like to walk with God 300 minutes." Let's start with that, Amen? Let's start with 300 minutes and just build from there. "Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. Enoch walked with God and then he was no more because God took him away." And then you have Jude 14 and 15 that tells us this about Enoch, "Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men" these kinds of false teachers, etcetera. He prophesied about them. So Enoch was a prophet. And Enoch prophesied, "Behold, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of His holy ones, to judge everyone and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words that ungodly sinners have spoken against him." That's Jude 14 and 15. That's is it. That's all we have about this man, Enoch. What does the author tell us about Enoch and why has he brought forward in Hebrews 11? Well, Enoch, according to the author of Hebrews, is an example of faith, by faith, etcetera, etcetera, by faith, Enoch. So Enoch is an example of faith. And so we know that it is by faith that Enoch walked with God. Now, when we talk about walking with God, I think we're talking about the minutia, the details of everyday life. That's what the expression means to me. You're getting down to the nitty-gritty, the nuts and bolts, where we use the expression, "Where the rubber meets the road." Walking with God. So we use this kind of expression, taking steps, steps to, Billy Graham had a steps to peace with God kind of thing. So sometimes you break something up into steps or step-by-step instructions. It's almost Christmas time, you're going to be looking at those, step-by-step instructions. Look, in defense of the engineers that write, and first of all, they're just not really good with words, so you just have to cut them some slack. They generally aren't very good with language. Second of all, in their defense, it's really hard to break something down step-by-step, it's hard to describe it. So do your best as you assemble whatever you're told to assemble with step-by-step instructions. But the point is very plainly, what we're talking about here is just step-by-step in your life. Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot with God every moment. That's what it means to me, to walk with God. And this image, this metaphor of walking is huge in the Bible, it's not a minor theme. It's a huge theme. The Patriarchs Walked With God I've already mentioned concerning Abraham, it says, "When Abraham was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, 'I am God almighty, walk before me and be blameless.'" What he's meaning is, "I see everything you do. Be holy because I am holy." Or again, Abraham, when talking to a servant, is he's sending a serving away to go find a wife for Isaac, and he said this, "The Lord before whom I have walked will send his angel with you and make your journey a success." So he has a sense, "I have walked before the Lord, I'm walking in His sight." Jacob blessed Joseph at the end of his life and said, "May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac, walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, the angel who has delivered me from all harm, may He bless these boys." So there's a sense of that walking with God throughout the book of Genesis. And then in Deuteronomy, that's the verb connected with the commands of God, Deuteronomy 5:33, "Walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you're going in to possess." So walk in my commandments. And then very powerfully, in Deuteronomy 6, "These commandments," there the Lord says, speaking to parents, especially, "These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts." And He says, "Impress them on your children, talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road. When you lie down and when you get up." So these commandments are to be woven through every day life. You're supposed to walk in my commandments in everyday life. An many such verses, Micah 6:8 kind of summarizes the whole of a life that's pleasing to God, "He has shown you O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you, but to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Christians Are Commanded to Walk in the Ways of God Christians in the New Testament are commanded to walk with Christ. We're commanded to walk with God in Christ. 1st John chapter 1 says, "If we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from every sin." That's such a powerful verse for me because it shows that 1 John is not teaching perfectionism, that you can actually be walking in the light and still need an ongoing cleansing from sin. And that is true, that's the Christian life, that's the healthy Christian life. It's not the perfect life, but it's a life of walking in the light, as God is in the light and then receiving, from Jesus, that ongoing cleansing. And so, we are commanded to walk. And you can't walk with someone, Ecclesiastes tells us, unless we be in agreement. You can't walk with God unless the two of you are in essential agreement about who he is, about who you are, about his word. We have to be in essential agreement. And you can't walk with God as a created being and not walk humbly with your God, Amen? It will humble you, and you will know you are not equals in this walk. Because you can't walk with God unless you dearly love him. And you love righteousness, and you love everything that he's about, and you love the things that he loves and you love His people. The essence of what it means to walk with God. And this is the life that's laid out before all believers. Again, I can't say this strongly enough, this is not the special extra Christian life, advanced placement Christianity, this is the true Christian life. And so we have, in Romans 4:12, that Abraham "is the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that their father Abraham had while he was still uncircumcised." So Abraham, we'll get to him in due time, but Abraham lived a certain life, he walked a certain walk, and we have to walk in the footsteps of his faith. This is, again, not extra credit Christianity, this is what is the Christian life. And so we are in 2 Corinthians 5:7, to "walk by faith and not by sight." The Goal: Constant fellowship with Almighty God Alright, so what is the goal in all of this? Constant fellowship with Almighty God. He is your treasure, He is your pleasure, He is everything you desire. And so it says in Leviticus 26:12, God speaking to us, "I will walk among you and I will be your God and you will be my people." It's God's desire too. He wants to walk with us and we with Him. And so, the ultimate fulfillment of this, in Revelation, in Revelation 3:4, it says, "You have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes, they will walk with me dressed in white for they are worthy." And so in Revelation 21, it says the New Jerusalem "does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. And the nations will walk by its light. And the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it." So there's going to be an every day life in heaven, and the nations, the redeemed of the nations, will walk by the light of the glory of Jesus radiating from the New Jerusalem right to the end. So that's what it means to walk with God. Now who was this man, Enoch. Well, Enoch was a human being, he was just a man. What we say in James Chapter five, Elijah was a man just like us, of like passions like with us. He's not a different breed of human being, he's just a human being. He was the father of Methuselah, who I think in popular culture is probably more famous than Enoch. More people know Methuselah than they do Enoch because Methuselah happened to die at age 969, and that's the biggest number reached in Genesis 5. And so he was the oldest man who ever lived. Yes, but Enoch was his father. And of the two clearly the Scriptures celebrates Enoch more. So he was Methuselah's father, he was the great grandfather of Noah who also walked with God. And Enoch is an amazing man, a 300 years of walking with God are rewarded by an extraordinary gift, which I'll talk about in a moment. He was a father of sons and daughters. He lived an ordinary life about which we know nothing, but we know this, in walking with God, he did it all by faith. He ate by faith, he worked by faith, he interacted with his neighbors by faith. And we have a sense that he lived in a wicked generation. Increasingly wicked. I don't think the wickedness just suddenly started in Noah's day, but I think it was just ramping up, ramping up, and so he was surrounded by ungodly, people, and so that's why he speaks like this, in Jude 14, and 15 about all the ungodly people and all their ungodly things. What's so amazing about Jude 14 and 15, is that Enoch the prophet, seventh from Adam predicted, not the first coming of Jesus, but the second coming. With the eye of faith he looks even beyond the first coming to Jesus the Lord coming back with myriads of His holy ones to judge all the ungodly people. Second coming of Christ. Now, how did Enoch know about that? Well, let me ask you, dear brother and sister in Christ, how do you know about it? How do you know Jesus is coming with the angels? Simple answer, "God told me." Well God told him. God told Enoch that Jesus someday would come and that He would come back. That was Enoch. Now, what of an Enoch's commendation? It says, "Before he was taken out of this world, He was commended as one who pleased God." The commendation came before he was removed from the earth. Some kind of commendation. What is the nature of this? How did God give this commendation? Perhaps he spoke about Enoch to others. Somewhat like a God speaking to Satan, about Job. "Have you considered my servant Job?" "He is blameless, and upright. A man who fears God and shuns evil." So that's God boasting about you. You're in for some trouble. If God's boasting about you to Satan, I guess. But maybe it was like that. Maybe God boasted about Enoch to some others to the angels. Maybe he spoke to Enoch in some audible way, similar to what he did with his only begotten son, when he said, "You are My Son, whom I love. With you, I am well pleased." Maybe God did that. Maybe he just spoke into his heart, by the power of the spirit as he does now, with all true believers in Christ. How God testifies with our spirits that we are children of God. And maybe in a similar way, he testified with Enoch's spirit that he was pleasing to God. He was commended but it happened before he was taken out of the world. And that commendation only came by faith. It was by faith that he was commended because it's impossible to please God without faith. That's why verse six, comes in to explain that. And so we know it was only by faith that he received that commendation. And what was faith's extraordinary reward and Enoch's case. Well, he was translated directly into heaven. Look at the Verse, "By faith Enoch was taken from this life so that he did not experience death. He could not be found because God had taken him away, for before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God." Now in Genesis 5, you could probably get this... Come to this conclusion without Hebrews 11:5 making it very clear. Genesis five, is one of the dreariest chapters in the Bible. It traces out the lineage from Adam down to Noah. And beyond Noah to his sons. And there's just this dreary, wearisome refrain, but Adam who lives so many years and had other sons and daughters, and then he died. And then Seth who lived so many years and had other sons and daughters and then he died. And Enos and then he died, and Kenan and then he died, and all of them right on down... But then there's this one individual Enoch. He walked with God and he could not be found. He just disappears, from the scene and Hebrews 11:5 confirms that he did not die. He did not experience death and he could not be found. The word... And translated in the KJV, is that he was translated, the idea is he was moved from one place to the next, taken right up. And this is an active and incredible grace on God's part. Why do I say this? Because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Enoch wasn't a perfect man, wasn't sinless. There's no testimony of And we know from Roman 6:23 that the wages of sin is what? Well it's death. And so God, by grace spared the just punishment of Enoch's sin and did not allow him to die, but just translated him directly into heaven. Incredible gift of grace. This is a picture of that final generation, we read 1 Corinthians 15, and that generation of believers. "I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed." And he's translated he doesn't die in the ordinary way. Now, what actually happened to Enoch's mortal body? I don't know. I can only speculate. I know that scripture says that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, and that Paul yearned to be liberated from the body of death, the body of decay. It's no great blessing to be still in a body, like that. After, what, 4000, I don't know how many thousands of years now for him. So, in some mysterious way, he must have been removed from the body, which is ordinarily called death, but the verse tells us that he didn't experience death in the ordinary way. And so we're at the limits of our understanding. But Enoch did not die, as ordinary people do. And so in summary, we have Enoch who walked with God by faith, he pleased God by faith, and God amazingly rewarded him by faith. I think about the words that one pastor said, William Preston, he was dying his family was around his death bed and he said these incredible words, "Blessed be God. Though I shall change my place, I shall not change my company. What a sweet statement. Oh, that, that may be said dear brother and sister about you. The death is actually no big change when it comes to who I'm living with. I've been living with God, all this time. And Now I'm going to keep living with him, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. And Andy and I were talking recently about the kinds of things that are said at funerals. Wouldn't it be great to have this one summation on your life? He, she walked with God. Noah: Faith’s Witness (vs. 7) Now we come to Noah of whom it's also said that he walked with God. Noah as an example of the witness that faith has in an unbelieving world, look in verse seven, "By faith, Noah when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith." Now Noah's faith again is established by the rules of logic that we have from verse 6, "Without faith, it's impossible to please God." But there's clear commendation of Noah in the text, says in Genesis 6:9, as I already mentioned, This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man. Stop right there. How does a sinner get to be a righteous man? Only by faith in Jesus Christ. It's the only possible way for a sinner to be made righteous, through faith in Christ, and so that's how you know right away, that Noah had faith. But he's also commended because he was blameless, among the people of his time and he walked with God. And then after the flood, he gets off the... Off the ark and he offers to God some of the clean animals as a burnt offering, and it says there that the Lord was pleased with the aroma of the sacrifice, he is pleased with Noah. And so he is commended as one who pleased God and we know from verse six, it's impossible without faith. And so, no, Noah had faith. He was a man of faith, though the word has never mentioned in reference to him. Six Outcomes of Noah’s Faith But what the verse does do, is it gives us six outcomes of Noah's faith. 1) Noah’s Faith Heeded a Warning of an Invisible Danger First of all, Noah's faith heeded a warning of invisible danger because he had faith. Now listen, Noah had faith long before God warned him about the flood. For centuries he had been walking by faith and living by faith, he lived that kind of life. It wasn't that faith suddenly sprang up at that point. He walked with God all those years. But then, Noah's faith it says heeded a warning of invisible danger in Genesis six, 11, and 12, it says, "Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and was full of violence. And God saw how corrupt the earth had become for all the people on Earth had corrupted their ways." That's what God was seeing. "Every inclination of the heart of man was only evil all the time." And so God then warned Noah of a coming flood. The word warn in the original language, same word used twice in Matthew chapter two, in reference to the Magi. They were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod. Joseph later in Matthew two, warned in a dream not to go to Archelaus, but instead ended up in Nazareth. Same thing, the idea of a warning coming by a vision, or something, in a dream. And in this same way Noah is warned. God communicated very clearly of a coming flood, and this was the thing not seen. God said to Noah, "I am going to put an end to all people, for the Earth is filled with violence, because of them I'm going, surely going to destroy both them and the Earth. So make for yourself an ark of cypress wood..." And then Genesis 6:17, "I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens. Every creature that has the breath of life in it, everything on earth will perish." So he has been given these words by God of a coming flood, that's going to drown the earth. Now, there is no physical evidence of this coming flood, nothing. You could not prove it by science, there is no precedent for it. Nothing like this has ever happened. And you can picture in your mind's eye this man, this... By the perspective of unbelief maniac building a huge boat, in the middle of nowhere in the middle of dry land because there's a coming flood. Incredible faith no evidence whatsoever, just the word of God in his heart, and he believed it. And you took it seriously. Heeded this warning. Now remember, Hebrews 11:1, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. The conviction, the rebuke of things not seen." This is a thing not seen. The flood could not be seen, it's coming, it's a future issue. And he was rebuked by it, he realized that he was essentially a sinner too. And that if he rebelled against God's command to build an ark, he would parish like the rest of them. No difference. And so, he was convicted by this and he was warned by it. Friends, the whole Book of Hebrews is a warning epistle, it's a warning to us. It warns us not to drift away from Christ, not to turn away from Christ, not to fall away from Christ. It warns us of the hidden creeping dangers, the hardening dangers and effects of sin. It urges us to gather the brothers and sisters around us so that they pray for us and help us lest we be deceived by the power of sin, it warns us again and again of the dangers of apostasy and a final judgment on the apostates. Do you heed these warnings? Are you taking these seriously by faith? Are you convicted and warned of things not seen. Not of a coming flood of water but of a coming flood of fire and judgment from God. 2) Noah’s Faith Prompted Holy Fear Secondly, Noah's faith prompted holy fear. There was a fear reaction inside him. Created fear inside, he was moved by it. There's an emotion to it. This happens frequently with the prophets, Isaiah when he received from God the prophecy of the destruction of Babylon. In Isaiah 21, said this, "At this, my body was racked with pain. Pangs seize me like those of a woman in labor. I'm staggered by what I hear. I'm bewildered by what I see. My heart falters fear makes me tremble. The twilight I long for has become a horror to me." That's the reaction to the warning. An emotional reaction of fear. Or Daniel after he has a vision of among other things, Alexander the great and the coming judgment, the shaggy goat and all that. Daniel 8:27, at the end of all that vision, prophecy of the future, "I, Daniel, was exhausted and lay ill for several days. Then I got up and went about the king's business. I was appalled by the vision, it was beyond understanding." It's an emotional reaction to this. Back at 3:16, "I heard, and my heart pounded. My lips quivered at the sound. Decay crept in my bones, and my legs trembled" at the prophetic word. We should tremble when we consider the coming wrath, friends. We should tremble at it. It should move us to fear. There should be a fear in us. Jesus told us to, "not fear those who kill the body and after that, they can do nothing but fear the one who has power to destroy both soul and body in hell. Yes, I tell you fear him." And so there's a fear in us. The Book of Revelations describes plagues that are going to be poured out on the Earth, amounting to the slaughter of a third of all mankind. That would be several billion people dead. The sea turned to blood. Is that coming or not? And after that, something worse eternity in hell is worse than anything that could happen here on Earth. And so, Noah's faith moved him to fear. He feared the coming judgment. And we should fear too and it should move us to want to save ourselves, and our families, and our friends, and even total strangers from the wrath to come. And so it says in 2 Corinthians 5:11, "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men." We should be out there persuading people and we should flee to Christ." I can't do any better than at this moment. Plead with you to flee to Christ. He is the only refuge from the coming wrath. There is no other Ark to get on. There's no other place to go to escape the coming wrath, it's only Jesus. And Jesus stood under the wrath of God and fully satisfied as we sang earlier. He has absorbed our wrath. Stand under him and you will be saved, trust in Him. 3) Noah’s Faith Resulted in Obedience A third outcome of Noah's faith is it resulted in obedience. By faith Noah moved with holy fear. Built an ark prepared an ark, he didn't stay paralyzed with fear, he obeyed what God told him to do. And God was very specific about it. "So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks." He's got everything worked out. This is what you ought to do. Don't just go do good works. Go build an ark specifically. And so, he obeyed. Took him seems like in Scripture, 120 years to do. 120 years of obedience building, building, building that Ark. Noah's faith was genuine, it wasn't spurious faith, it wasn't fake faith. James chapter two says, "What kind asks this question? What kind of faith saves someone?" Suppose a man has faith and he has no deeds, can that kind of faith save him? Answer is no. Faith apart from deeds is dead. Noah's faith in the language of James 2, was working together with his deeds. And it was proved genuine, by his deeds. It was made complete by what he did. And so it is, Noah's obedience was essential to the salvation of himself and his family had to obey. And so at the end of Genesis six in verse 22, it says, "Noah did everything just as God commanded him." And so his faith produced obedience. So was Noah saved by his works? Was he saved by his works? Well, yes and no. Or if you prefer no and yes. I don't care what order. But had he not built the ark would he have drowned? I'm thinking so. Amen. I'm thinking he drowns. Maybe God, like Ester, God raises someone else to build the ark but he drowns. So yes, he was saved by building the Ark. But not ultimately and you know it. We're talking about a different kind of saved. Saved from God's wrath by his works, never. And so the scripture says very plainly in Genesis 6:7-8 "I will wipe mankind… from the face of the Earth… But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord." What's another word for favor, there? How about grace? Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and so it is by grace that he was saved through faith, just like everyone else. And just consider the Ark itself. It was no vehicle of human self-salvation. It had no rudder friends, as far as we know. No steering wheel, there's no command to steer the thing, there's no mass, no sails, no need for nautical training. Was there no danger that the ark would sink? Well, at the human level, there was absolute danger that the ark would sink. As the flood developed and the water rose higher and higher, would there not have been still peaks visible early on while the arc was floating? Was there no danger that they would crash into those peaks and a gash in the side and the thing would go to the bottom? There was every physical danger. And so Noah was entirely in the hands of God's grace, even while he had been obedient. God directed that Ark where he wanted it to go and in the end, brought it safely through. And so he was saved by grace through faith, but he used means didn't he? And so it is with us. You want to save yourself and your family, God has laid out some means for you. First and foremost, the gospel message you must speak it, you must believe it, you must preach it to your children. This is the means by which God has laid out salvation. We are saved by this message. Proclaim it every day, talk about it. And he's laid out means whereby you can continue to grow in your salvation. The Word of God, take it in, read it, feed on it, confess your sins, pray continually. Be involved in church, have people around you, praying for you. These are means they're means, they're means. And so that's what God has ordained for final salvation. 4) Noah’s Faith Saved His Family Outcome number four, Noah's faith saved his family. "By faith Noah when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an Ark to save his family." God made a covenant with Noah, to save, not only him, but his family and this was the key to everything. God was intending procreation wasn't he? Clearly. That's why two of every animal came on board, and so we needed not an end, an extinction to the human race. And so Noah and his wife, and Noah's sons and their wives were saved through. And so there was an umbrella effect of Noah's faith. His faith in some mysterious way, sanctified and protected his family. And so we see this in this godly man, a godly concern for the salvation of his wife, and a godly concern for a salvation of his children and certainly I don't think it's too far to go beyond that, a multi-generational vision of grandchildren and great grandchildren on from there. And so, a faith-filled man and woman, a parent is going to have a concern for the salvation of their children and a concern for the salvation of their grand children and great grand children. You're not going to be like Hezekiah saying, "Well, at least there's going to be peace in my lifetime, I don't really care what happens after that." Well, Manasseh happened after that. Thinking he wasn't a great father. Think a little about your grandkids and your great grandkids. What kind of legacy are you leaving? And yet, for all of that, every single individual him or herself must repent and believe in Jesus, you can't bring your kids to heaven. All you can do is provide for them an example of godly living, of your faith, preach the Gospel to them, surround them with people who will speak God's word into their lives, provide for them physically the other things of being a good parent, but the rest is up to God. And they themselves must repent and believe. 5) Noah’s Faith Condemned the World Outcome number five, by his faith he condemned the world. Two sentences quickly on what this means. First and foremost, his example and his preaching condemned the world. Day after day, after day, he's out there living by faith, he's a godly man blameless in this era... In that era, and he is preaching second Peter two calls him a preacher of righteousness. Dear friends, how would you like a ministry like that? 120 years of faith-filled preaching and not a single convert, not one. No one else got on the Ark with him. No one else. Yes, but look at the boldness, the consistency, the perseverance of that kind of ministry. Like Jeremiah, I'm going to send you to people and I'm telling you, right now, they will not listen but they will have no excuse because I sent a man to them. And He preached the truth and you never listened. And I know that's not our favorite outcome of evangelism. But it is a valid outcome. Be faithful and share the gospel and it could be that God was just raising you up as a witness against them on judgment day. I sent you this person, and they shared with you plainly and you did not believe you are without excuse. God didn't owe it to them, but I'm just saying by this He condemned the world by his example, and by his preaching. But secondly, by his building of the Ark, by faith. The Ark's little by little making progress, little by little. The keel is laid the ribs are late. The structural member's going up. The deck is going up. Rafters are up now. It's like an hour-glass ticking away the final moments of that the world had then then was. Every step of progress, he made by faith, condemn the world. And when finally by faith, he finished the Ark and he obeyed when God said, "Get on the Ark now," when he got on and God shut him in the world was condemned at that moment. It was done the world was going to be judged. 6) Noah’s Faith Made Him and Heir of the Righteousness that Comes by Faith And then finally, outcome number six, he became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. What does this mean to me? That he is saved by Jesus? Just like you and me. There is a righteousness that comes by faith, it comes by Jesus Christ. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. That's the righteousness that was Noah's. It was a gift of grace through Jesus Christ. And He became it says an heir of the righteousness. He didn't get it all, he still doesn't have it all. Not until we are in our resurrection bodies in a resurrected world, will we have all of the righteousness God intends to give us. But he became by faith, an heir of that righteousness. Application So friends, applications all true faith points to Christ. I was talking to a friend this morning, dear friend, and saying, "Isn't it a sweet how all these heroes of the faith did something incredible and great Jesus did it better in every case." Jesus walked with God better than Enoch did. Jesus was translated in a more glorious way than Enoch. Right through the heavens to the right hand of God. Enoch's on his face right now in front of Jesus. Jesus obeyed God better than Noah, he built a better Ark and a better salvation for His children. And so from Enoch, first of all, let's celebrate Jesus. But let's learn from these human examples from Enoch, walk with God, this week. Walk with God. Just learn what it means to walk with God, and just saturate every moment of your life with God. And then concerning Noah, save your family. Build an ark to save your family. I don't mean a literal wooden ark. God's not telling you to do that. But there is a different judgment coming and there's a different way of deliverance. Do that. Pray for them to come to faith in Christ, Saturate their hearts with the Gospel. Pray for extended family members, Noah built an Ark, to save his family. Preach the gospel to save yours. Live the gospel to save yours. And then toward the world, Noah was a preacher of righteousness. By our faith perhaps we're going to condemn the world. I don't know. God may have another 200 or 300-400 years or more of history still yet to come. But God still wants us to live godly, and upright lives in this corrupt age. Final application just concerns the Lord's supper, about which we are to turn. Some day, because of our faith in Christ, we're going to sit at table with Jesus. What I urge you to do now is prepare your hearts to receive the blessing of the Lord's supper, and to get ready to confess your sin, and to receive from him the grace that He wants to mediate to you through this. Let's pray.