So Jeremiah chapter 33, and we'll start off with a word of prayer, and then we'll get into the word of God. Lord, thank you for the night you've given us. Thank you for these young people and the badges they've earned and the hard work that they displayed. Lord, I do pray that you would bless us tonight, excuse me, around your word. Help me, Lord, with my voice to help me, Lord, to say the things you would have me to say. And Lord, I pray that if there's anything you do not want me to say, Lord, you just block it from my mind. I'm just thankful for your word, thankful for the opportunity to preach it, Lord. We do pray for our pastor while he's away, he and his family. We pray that you give him a time of restoration there, a relaxation, and Lord, recharge him, Lord, with your word. We ask all these things in your name I pray, amen. In Jeremiah chapter 33, this here is actually a prophetic passage about what's gonna happen in the millennial kingdom, but also where God talks about how he's going to end the captivity. Excuse me, but in the book of Jeremiah, there's a reason why Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet. Jeremiah is a very discouraging and very down book. Because God says he's going to do this, he's going to do this, because the children didn't do this. And even Jeremiah at one point said, I'm done. I'm not going to talk about his name anymore. But then you have that verse that says, but his word is a fire in my bones. But we get to Jeremiah chapter 33. And we begin reading verse 1. It says, moreover, the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying, let us say the Lord, the maker thereof, the Lord that formed it. To establish it, the Lord is his name. Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. For thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are thrown down by the mounds and by the sword. They come to fight with the Chaldeans, but it is to fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I have slain in mine anger and in my fury, and for all whose wickedness I have hid my face from this city. Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth. And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them as the first. And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me. I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me. And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise, and an honor before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them, and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it." I've read this passage several times, just the first nine verses, and just asked the Lord to give me something because I could not get away from it. It's a reminder to us, principles in God's Word are true. And what He's laid out even in the Old Testament is true today. And one of those is, why do we sow in? We have Across the Street, Across the Sea as our theme this year. Why do we sow in? Why do we go out and tell others? Because it's what the Lord wants. Because if we don't, people are doomed. People are doomed to an everlasting separation from God in a place called hell. And we don't want that. And so I want to show you, first of all, number one, there is a reminder. God gives a reminder in verses one through three. He says this. He says, moreover, the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah the second time while he was yet shut up in the court of the prison. Jeremiah had every, if you want to put it this way, had every right, had every reason to be down and be discouraged and to say, I'm not going to do it anymore. He was in prison. But the word of the Lord still came to him. And the point I want to show is this. No matter what state we're in, if we allow it, God's word will speak to us. He was in prison for speaking about God, for proclaiming what God had said. And probably no doubt down, discouraged, but God yet still came to him and spoke with him. And God can do the same with you, no matter what state you're in. He says in verse two, let us say the Lord, the maker thereof, the Lord that formed it to establish it, the Lord is his name. He reminds us that secondly, God is who he is. I am the Lord. He says, I am the maker. We can't forget that God created us and that God made us and that God placed us where he wants us. and where He needs us to serve. If we keep those things in mind, that God will speak to us if we allow Him, no matter what state we're in, and God will use us because He made us, it'll make a difference. It's a reminder. And the third reminder is verse three, and I love this verse. Call unto me, and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. A reminder that we can always call upon the Lord. Always, no matter what. We can call upon Him. God was telling Jeremiah, listen, I know you're in prison. I'm coming to speak to you. I made you. I made this happen. Call unto me. And today in 2024, we need to call upon the Lord to help us to reach a lost world. So we see a reminder. Secondly, we see a resolution, verses four through six. The resolution is this, God's judgment. He said, for thus saith the Lord God of Israel concerning the house of the city and concerning the house of the kings of Judah, which are thrown down by the mounts and by the sword. At this time, in Jeremiah's writing, Babylon was coming in and attacking and taking over and taking people captive. That was God's judgment. We have a world that's living in captivity. We have a world that's living in bondage. It's called sin. And God has to judge sin. And if we don't tell them, they're going to perish. They're going to perish. The resolution is this. There is a time of judgment coming and we need to warn them. There's going to be a time where cities will be overthrown, where those who will try to help will die. That's what it says in verse 5. They come to fight with the Chaldeans, but it's to fill them with dead bodies, whom I have slain in my anger. There's going to come a time, we're not going to be here, praise the Lord, where God's wrath is going to be put out on this earth. We need to reach those people and tell them about it and warn them about it because there is a time of coming. But number three, this is where I want to spend time on, is I want to show you a restoration. Verses 6 through 8. I'm thankful for the Lord Jesus Christ and what He's done for me. When we sit down with the residents of the nursing home and Bible study or after service, we sit down and talk with them, I'm often reminded when I speak with them that I am nothing. They say they're nothing. And I look at them and say, well, I'm nobody. Because I'm not. I'm just a sinner saved by grace. I'm thankful for the Lord. Look at verse 6. He says there, Behold, I will bring in health and cure and I will cure them and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth. And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return and will build them as the first. The first thing with restoration comes this. God's gonna restore us. He's gonna reconcile, He reconciles us. He says this, I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return and will build them as the first. Before sin came, before sin entered into the world, think of what was perfect. Perfect health. Perfect peace. Sin entered into the world, what happened? The relationship with God was broken. There was no more peace. There was no more health because of sin. But God says here, I will restore that because I will put them as the first. And think about that for a moment. Before you accepted Christ, where were you? What state were you in? You were in a lost state. You were enmity with God. But Jesus Christ came and He brought you and He reconciled you to God. He gives now because you're as a child of God. He gives peace. He gives health. But I like verse number eight. He says, I will cleanse them from all their iniquity. Think of what cleansing does. Cleansing washes away contaminants. It washes the things that are dirty. He says, I will cleanse them from all their iniquities. Are you thankful tonight for what the Lord's done for you? I'm thankful for 1 John 1, 9, where he says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I'm thankful for the cleansing of God, the cleansing of Jesus Christ, the blood of Jesus Christ. I'm thankful for that because when I confess my sin, he's going to forgive me and he cleanses it. But look again at verse 8, what he does. He doesn't just cleanse it. He says, and I will pardon all their iniquities excuse me, all their iniquities whereby they have sinned and whereby they have transgressed against me." He's cleansed your sin and He's pardoned you. The New Testament would be justified. Justified, never sin. I'm thankful that the God of heaven, when He looks down and He looks down on me, He doesn't see me, He sees the blood of His Son. Because that's all it is. It's nothing that I do. It's nothing that you've done. It's Jesus. That's who we need to return to ourselves as children of God. We need to return to Christ and look to Him and remember what He's done. Because when we do that, we will have a passion to go and tell others. Because you know there's a world out there that is in sin. There's a world out there that's not pardoned. There's a world out there that's not cleansed. They have contaminants. They're getting eroded. It's called sin. There's a world out there that doesn't have health. They're not cured. They have no cure because they don't know Jesus, the Savior. There's a world out there who doesn't have peace. Verse number six, and I will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth. Praise the Lord when you get saved, it's revealed unto you truth. It's revealed unto you an abundance of peace. One of the residents today at a nursing home when we were doing Bible study said, you know, there was a time where I couldn't lay my head down. She didn't go into detail, but she goes, I couldn't lay my head down. But then one day, I just said, Jesus, I need you. And she goes, then I had peace. That's what he does. The slogan a few years back, Know Jesus, K-N-O-W, Know Peace, and then Know Jesus, N-O, Know Peace. Peace only comes through Jesus Christ. He gives an abundance of peace and truth. So that's the restoration. Why tell a world about Jesus Christ? We need to be reminded where we came from. We need to remember our restoration so that we can lead others to be restored, to be reconciled to God. And lastly, let's look at the reaction, verse number nine. The reaction tonight. When we go out and we tell others and someone gets saved, what happens? And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honor before all the nations of the earth. Salvation brings joy, okay? Not only does it bring joy, It brings joy to others. When we see a soul get saved, isn't it wonderful? Okay, isn't it? Last, it was during Mrs. Conference, last September, a gentleman at the nursing home named Phillip, please pray for Phillip if you would. He's in and out of the nursing home. His wife's there at Loveland Healthcare and he comes in and visits her periodically and today he stayed in Bible study. He even told me, he goes, I need to get in church. Yes, you do. But I remember when Phillip sat there and he said, I don't know if I'd go to heaven. Opened up the Word of God and showed him the Gospel, showed him what Jesus Christ did for him. And he said, I need that. And I remember when he prayed and he bowed his head and he prayed and when he got done he looked at me and he goes, I feel better. First person I told, other than my wife, because she was there, the next day I told pastor at school and I was so happy. Pastor rejoiced, and then told other people, and then other people rejoiced, and soon the whole church was rejoicing. That's all it had to be. We need to go to a world out there and share the same joy that we have in Christ so they can experience it, because they don't have joy without Christ. He says, it shall be a name of joy, of praise. We need to praise the Lord for what He has done, so that others can see it. praising the Lord for saving you, praising the Lord for bringing you through a trial, praising the Lord for you'd fill in the blank. When we praise the Lord and we declare it, others will see it. And that'll make a difference when we knock on someone's door or the person you work with when you witness to them. When they see the joy that you've experienced and when they hear the praise that you give, it'll be a pressure on them. Now in that, it says, an honor before all the nations. There's going to come a time where every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. There's no if, ands, or buts about it. It's going to happen. God will be glorified. He will be honored. Why can't we do that now? Why can't we bring souls to do that now and show them who gets the honor and who gets the glory? You know, I'm not anybody. It's not me that leads the person of the Lord. It's the Holy Spirit that draws and uses me, uses you to show from the Word of God salvation. And we need to remember that. What's the reaction? There's joy when you see others get saved. There's a praise when others get saved. When you see someone get saved. And there's honor. God gets the honor and glory. So to wrap it all up, what does this mean? Someday, at the end of that verse, verse 9, we shall hear all the good that I do unto them. Isn't God good? God is good. All the time. And all the time what? God is good. The gospel is good news. Why aren't we spending more time sharing it? We need to do that. But Brother Price, you don't understand what kind of state I'm in. I'm depressed, I'm discouraged. Get in the Word of God, allow Him to speak to you. Call unto Him, verse 3. Allow Him to show something to you that you don't know about. Be reminded of those things. Remember, there's a resolution coming. God's gonna judge the world. Do you wanna see your neighbor perish in it? Do you wanna see your neighbor stand before God, name not found in the book of life, and be cast into the lake of fire? I don't. Another reason we should go out is not just because God speaks to us, tells us to do it, not because there is a judgment coming, but what he's done for us. The best testimony that you can give to others is what God has done for you. And I firmly believe that because I've done it. You tell others what God has done for you, people can't argue. That's the best testimony. So tonight, what are we going to do with the lost world? We need to get into the Word of God. We need to call upon the Lord. We need to realize there's judgment coming and spend every moment we get an opportunity to witness and to tell others about Him because of what He's done for us. He's restored us. We're reconciled. Let's do that tonight. Let's go and let's tell others. And then on Wednesday evening, starting in June there, when we go out, let's have a fervor to go out and reach the community for Christ. Let's bow for the word of prayer.