All right, Jeremiah 33, we're gonna read the first nine verses. Jeremiah chapter 33, beginning at verse one. Moreover, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still shut up in the court of the prison, saying, thus says the Lord who made it, the Lord who formed it to establish it, meaning the earth, by the way, the Lord is his name. Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know. For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city and the houses of the kings of Judah. which have been pulled down to fortify against the siege mounds and the sword. They come to fight with the Chaldeans, but only to fill their places with the dead bodies of men whom I will slay in my anger and my fury, all for whose wickedness I have hidden my face from this city. Behold, I will bring health and healing. I will heal them and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth. And I will cause the captives of Judah and the captives of Israel to return and will rebuild those places as at the first. I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against me. And I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned and by which they have transgressed against me. Then it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honor before all the nations of the earth who shall hear all the good that I do to them. And they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and all the prosperity that I provide for it. We'll end the reading there at verse 9. And we need now the help of the Spirit of God to speak to each of us. So let's all seek His face. Let's all pray. Oh, Father, we come now in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to ask what he promised, to ask, Father, what we know you are so willing to give, and that is the help of your Spirit. Father, I can speak out into the air, but only the Spirit of God can take the Word of God and powerfully write it on the heart so as to shape and alter the life and the mind and the will and the emotions. And Father, that's what we're asking for today. Especially on the brink of a new year, we are asking, Father, for a word from heaven to be our guide. We are asking, Father, for an intervention of the Spirit of God to lead us, that we might enter this year in the victory that is ours in Jesus Christ, that we might enter it in the power of your Spirit to guide us, to lead us, that our lives, O Father, would indeed be righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. So we ask you now, Lord, that you will pour out your spirit upon us, that you will defeat every device of the wicked one against us, that you will marshal all our thoughts and our hearts, Lord, to hear your word in power, to know today that we are hearing from heaven. So Father, do for us what only you can do. Send your spirit now, do quicken us, do teach us, we pray. And do let us see the Lord Jesus Christ in his glory, for we ask it in his name. Amen. Amen. The passage of scripture that we have just read is the record of an amazing promise. And it comes to the prophet Jeremiah at a really low point in the existence, not only of Jeremiah, but the nation. Most of the people of Israel are at this point in captivity under the dominion of other nations. What is left of the nation in Judah is under the threat of utter annihilation. And then Jeremiah himself is imprisoned. at this particular point, which you can tell from verse one. Yet God says to Jeremiah, with all that blackness as it were around him, in verse three he says, call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know. And then God goes on to spell out what he means. In other words, after he finishes his judgment on those who have rejected him and have caused that captivity, as it were, then he will do the most astounding things. That's his promise. Now, let's stop for just a minute and think about those words that he ends verse three with, which you do not know. See, this is Jeremiah. Jeremiah is a prophet. Jeremiah is one who hears and who speaks the word of the Lord. If at any, anyone in the nation at this point whom you might think is in the know, it's this man. It's Jeremiah. And yet God, having already spoken through Jeremiah, that he would restore the people after 70 years, there would be 70 years of captivity, then he would restore the people. And on that occasion, this is what he said, for I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. So there's a sense in which Jeremiah knows the big picture already. Okay, God is going to do some great things. He's going to restore his people. He knows all that. But what is going on here is now God says to Jeremiah essentially this, you think that's something? You have no idea what I'm capable of and what I plan to do for my people. If you look at verses six and nine, he just outlines it. He sketches it in a sense. But even here, there's so much more. Verse six, behold, I will bring it health and healing. Whatever you could encompass in that word, God says, that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna bring it health and healing. I will heal them and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth. and I will cause the captives of Judah and the captives of Israel. Now, that's saying something, by the way. To talk about the captives of Judah, there were various realms where the inhabitants of Judah were taken into captivity. But the captives of Israel had been in captivity well over 100 years by this point. So God says, I'm gonna cause the captives of Judah and the captives of Israel to return and we'll rebuild those places as at the first. I will cleanse them from all their iniquity. Grace is the crown jewel here. I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against me. And I will pardon all their iniquities by which they've sinned and by which they have transgressed against me. Then it, this city, this is the point of the promise. Then it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise, and an honor before all the nations of the earth, who shall hear all the good that I do for them. They shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and all the prosperity that I provide for it. So in bold lines here, he's just saying, I am gonna do the most glorious things. But this promise here in verse three, call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know, is a promise for us as well. This is God's word to every generation. It sits on the foundation of all the Bible says about prayer. And in many ways, the substance of this promise is far greater for us in the new covenant times than it was for Jeremiah. God bids us call to him, promises to answer, and the most significant answers will be the glorious mysteries and privileges of spiritual life in Jesus Christ. great, mighty things which you do not know that are glorious and beyond, beyond anything we can imagine. But you know, we can be just like Jeremiah here and think we know all that. We got that. Yeah, we, yeah, okay. We know all that. When we have no idea. I mean, that's the point. Jeremiah, you're the prophet. I'm gonna show you things you do not know. You got the best seat in the house and I'm gonna still, I'm gonna wow you. I'm gonna show you things you do not know. And just like Jeremiah thinking we know all that and yet having no idea what he's capable of and what he has stored up for us in Jesus. Tomorrow begins a new year. As the expression goes, it's the first day of the rest of your life. I like that expression. It puts things in perspective. It's the first day of the rest of your life. And God says to you, call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know. You know, God could have just revealed all this to Jeremiah without having him ask for it. He's a prophet, God could have just said, okay, here's the next revelation. But instead, he wants Jeremiah to interact with him, to interact with the living God. He says, I want you to try me and prove me. That's what I want you to do. You see, God likes to be tried and proven. In Malachi 3, listen to what it says. God says, bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house and try me now in this or prove me now in this. If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour you out such a blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. God says, I'd like to be tried. I'd like to be proven. So God says to us on the brink of a new year, on the brink of the rest of our lives, you call to me and you watch what happens. You see what I can do. Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know. So I want us this morning to take a good hard look at this verse that every one of us may prove God and his promise in this coming year. So let's look together at something to prove in 2018. Now there are three things in this verse. There is an amazing invitation. And then an even more amazing promise. And then a promise to amaze us. So let's look at each of these. Now, first of all, an amazing invitation. Call to me. Pretty simple words. They're not hard to understand. But they mean this. The almighty God, creator and sustainer of the universe. And that's why you have verse two. Thus says the Lord who made it, the Lord who formed it to establish it. The Lord is his name. So the almighty God, creator and sustainer of the universe says to you, just one of seven and a half billion people on the earth says to you, Call to me. I invite you. I say to you, God says, call to me. Try me. I give you the warrant. I want to hear from you. And it is as significant in verse two that, and in my version here, it's a parenthetical where he says, the Lord is his name because that L-O-R-D in all caps is the covenant name. It's the name of Jehovah, the name of Yahweh as the Redeemer, as the covenant God, most specifically as the personal savior for his people. That is the name. So in other words, here he is giving us a particular encouragement to say, this is how you get to come. Yes, I am God Almighty, but you get to come because I am Lord, because I've taken it upon myself to make a way to redeem my people and to give them access to me and to my throne. And so, you trust Jesus, and that's how you come. You come in Jesus' name, you come on his merits, you come on his righteousness, you come on his deserving, which God says, I am happy to make your deserving. I'm happy to see you as united to him, in him. You know, Jesus speaks of those who don't know him as thinking they shall be heard for their much speaking. See, they think they're gonna get an audience and they think they're gonna get an answer because they're gonna say it a lot, all right? They're gonna make a big deal out of prayer. And Christ says, it's those who don't know him that think that way. He says, they have to try to earn their way into a hearing. But God says, I do not work that way. You will never earn your way in. But because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ in which you trust, I invite you. I call you to me. That is his word. But the great question is, are we doing it? Are we calling? Are we really believing that he wants to hear from us? Folks, let me ask you something. What are you calling to? Where are you going for help? especially first of all, especially instinctively. Is God the source of last resort? Do we only call to him when it's bad enough or big enough or we're desperate enough in some sense? Which raises another question. What are we living for? What is it we really want? What is it that we are after? In other words, what are you viewing as your real needs, your real desires? Do they have to do with financial things and relationship things and earthly things and houses and lands and jobs and just temporal affairs? Or are they bigger? Are they higher than that? That's a real question. What do you view as your real needs? What are your real desires? What do you believe and what does your life demonstrate that you think is gonna satisfy you or that will fix your current or your most pressing problems? Another question, to what or to whom do you go to recharge? To feel good? To find meaning? Where do you go? What does the use of your time say in answer to that question? And when something is canceled and suddenly you have open time, where do you go? Where do you gravitate? How does that get filled in your life, in your existence? Folks, if your answer to any of these questions is anything less than him and his answers, you're missing out. And according to scripture, and I could trace this from start to finish, you know what you'll get when you seek those things? You'll get those things. And they won't satisfy. They won't satisfy. They just never will be enough. They never satisfy. Psalm 81 is almost a course in this kind of thing where God says, you know, I say to my people, open your mouth wide and I will fill it. There's my invitation. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it. And he says, but Israel didn't take me up on it. They just didn't want it. And they went to their own ways and their own devices, and I gave them what they wanted. And then he said, oh, that they had listened to me. Oh, that they had sought me. I would have fed them with the finest of the wheat and with honey out of the rock. I would have satisfied them. I would have given them the very best things. But they wanted something else. And the judgment on that was they got it. They got what they wanted, what they pursued. So God says to you and to me, call to me. Call to me and no lesser source. So let us hear this amazing invitation and let us take full advantage of it. But that brings us secondly then to an even more amazing promise because God says and bids us to call to him, but then says, and I will answer you. So he bids us to call and he promises that he will actually answer. The God who cannot lie says, I will not fail to fulfill. When you ask, I will answer. Numbers has this powerful statement out of the mouth of the prophet in the context of the story in and of itself is fascinating, but it's for another time. But here's the word that comes out of the mouth of the prophet, God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should repent. Has he said and will he not do it? Or has he spoken and will he not make it good? And the form of the original language there admits only one answer, no way, no way. If he said it, he will do it. That's who he is. And the Lord Jesus is just as direct about the promise. He says, ask and it will be given you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be open to you. And we stand there and say, wow, boy, that's a mouthful. Jesus Christ has said it and he's not finished. Then as if to double the promise, as well as to make sure that you know you are included in it, He says, for everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be open. And then in John's gospel, the Lord Jesus adds this in chapter 16. He says, until now you've asked nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full. In other words, he says, let me tell you what's going on. You know, let me strip that this isn't just a situation of asking and receiving, but I've got an ulterior motive behind it. I want your joy to be full. I want you to ask and I want to answer and I promise to answer because I want your joy to be full. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ is. And you think about this, what does this say about your worthiness for his blessing? If he takes the time to stress to you that your joy matters to him, certainly that is saying you are worthy to be answered. that He does it and He makes such promises because He wants to and because He delights to fulfill these things. And if you still doubt your worthiness, then go straight to the cross and take a long, long look. Stay there until His suffering at the hand of both God and man, the hand of God on our sins, the hand of man against Him, convinces you of how much he loves you, because he did that willingly. He went in with his eyes wide open, knowing exactly what he was facing. And if he loves you that much, he will be thrilled to answer your prayers. In fact, the Bible says as much. He who did not spare his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? There's the reasoning of God. If I gave you the Lord Jesus Christ, I won't quibble about anything you can conceive to ask for in prayer. That'll be a small thing. Because I gave you him and with him I gave you everything. That's the reality. So here it is. God says, you ask me, I will answer you. Specifically you. Call to me, I will answer you. You and your need, you and your circumstances, your situation, your life. It's an amazing promise if we'll only believe it. Call to me, I will answer you. But that brings us then to the third And he could have been finished here, you know. The Lord could have stopped here, called to me, and I will answer you. And it is amazing, both the invitation and the promise that goes with it. And he could have stopped, and in a sense said, enough said. But he goes on, and what he adds is astounding. There are three parts to it, so follow this. Call to me and I will answer you and show you great things, mighty things, things which you do not know. Now, the words that are here, they're familiar to us. We, in a general way, know what they mean, but I'm telling you, these are specific, special words in this particular promise. The word great is a generic word that's supposed to convey if you will, a verbal explosion. Let me explain what I mean. It is meant to convey magnitude. This word can be used for large things, numerous things, intense things, loud things, ancient things, important things, valuable things. You see, it's not just great in the size, you know, in sense of size. This is this size. This is great. No, no, no, this is a word that just has this wide sweep here. In other words, it is conveying massive, stunning, remarkable things that only God could create or do or be. Great things, ask, and I will show you great things. But then the word mighty. And this is an odd word and so if you're reading different versions of this, when I'm studying a lot of times I'll just cycle through a whole bunch of versions of scripture because it'll alert me to the fact that there's something here. If I look at this word and think this means mighty and I see the strong arm, I'm missing it. Because the base meaning of this word means something walled off or fenced off or fortified or inaccessible in some sense. This is a word whose meaning is something hidden, unsearchable, inscrutable, incomprehensible, mysterious things that only God can understand and only God can make known. That's the nature of these things. So great things, these unsearchable, glorious, mysterious things. And then he says, which you do not know. Now again, I took the time to have us think about who this is. This is Jeremiah the prophet. So that when we come to this particular point, we see that God is really being pointed with Jeremiah. And he's saying to Jeremiah, there is more. There is more. Get this in your head. So much more that you can't begin to fathom. who I am and what I can do. God says, I won't just answer what you ask for. I'll go way beyond that. I'll show you myself. I'll show you my goodness. I'll show you my glory. So call to me. I will answer you, but I will show you far beyond what you can conceive these great, these mighty, these glorious and unsearchable things. The apostle Paul got this. that there's more. He got this. If you will, put your finger here in Jeremiah 33 and turn with me to Philippians chapter three. Philippians chapter three. And let's begin at verse three. Now what I'm getting to is actually about 10 or 11 verses away. But you need to see the buildup of this. You need to see this in the context of what Paul is saying to these people. So Philippians chapter three at verse three, he says, for we are the circumcision and he's talking about spiritual as opposed to physical. He's talking about the true heirs of salvation as opposed to just Jews in a national sense. So he says, we are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit, who rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. We are not looking in any way, shape and form to what we can do and accomplish or grasp and get. We have no confidence in the flesh. We renounce all that. So let's go on. He says, though I also might have confidence in the flesh. Now he's writing and we dealt with this a little bit in Galatians. And so you may remember this, the Judaizers. They were the ones who said, yeah, Christ is good enough, but we can't forget all of these Jewish things. especially legal requirements that we're really in good with God if we fulfill these things. The Apostle Paul says, if that's the way you're thinking, you've missed the gospel. You've lost it. It's all or nothing. It's what Jesus did or it's what you do. And those two don't go together. And so it's what Jesus did, we rejoice in Christ Jesus. So he's saying to these, he's writing and he's saying, look, if I wanted to have confidence in what you have confidence in, hey, I'm top dog, I'm better than you are. So he says, though I might have confidence in the flesh, Philippians 3, 4, if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more. Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. Concerning the law, a Pharisee. He says in another place, of the strictest kind. A Pharisee, concerning zeal, why I was so zealous, I persecuted the church. Concerning the righteousness which is in the law, I dare you to find blame. He says, blameless. But then he says, what things were gained to me, those I have counted loss for Christ. Yea, yet indeed, I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things and do count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ, that I may have him and him only and be found in him, verse nine. Not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, which is no righteousness, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know him. I may know him and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. If by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Now, so good so far. Now the Apostle Paul is going to say something more, that there is more. Paul says, not that I have already attained or am already perfected. I don't view myself, now this is Paul. You know, we've pointed out he wrote most of the teaching part of the New Testament. If anybody knew the gospel and knew the full and final version of the Christian faith, it's gotta be the Apostle Paul. Who can top him? Paul says, I do not count myself to have arrived. I do not think of myself as perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. In other words, that I might know by experience everything He wants to give me, everything He died to give me, everything. that God would pour out upon me. I wanna know that. And so verse 13, what a word. Brethren, I don't count myself to have apprehended, to have grasped it all, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind. And for another occasion, that's something worth thinking about. Are you holding on to a whole lot of things that are behind? Are you still, as it were, living in the past for bad or for good? We can let the good of the past do us harm as much as we can let the bad of the past do us harm. But Paul says, one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, let us, as many as are mature, have this mind. Let's live this way. In other words, the apostle Paul says, I'm telling you there's more and I want it. And I am not gonna hold back until I have experienced that more. He saw that. You know, Paul probably forgot more in a night's sleep than all of us combined know, but he knew. that in an infinite God there's always more and he wanted it and he's pursuing it and he's asking for it and you know he wasn't just asking it for himself but for all believers if you're there in Philippians turn back just a few pages to Ephesians and chapter 3 And I've pointed this out before, his amazing, phenomenal prayer at the end of chapter 3. But once again, I want to back up just a little bit so you see this. Ephesians 3 at verse 8. And Paul says this, this is what he was praying for, for the Ephesian believers and for all believers. He says, to me, who am less than the least of all the saints, he would always say that, because he persecuted the church. He says, this grace was given that I would preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. And once again, there's a great hint that he sees there's much more, the unsearchable riches of Christ. And to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ. to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by or through the church. That means you and me. Believers in Jesus Christ. The church is people. They're the body of Christ. We are the church. Might be known through the church. To the principalities and powers in heavenly places, the angels, all the heavenly host, according to the eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In other words, the Apostle Paul says the angels are wowed by what God did for you and me, by what we have in the Lord Jesus. So verse 12, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in him. Therefore I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is for your glory. Because bigger, greater things are happening. But now this. For this reason, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory. Does it sound like it taxes him to grant you these things when he uses that kind of language? That it bankrupts him? That it causes him a moment's pause? Not in the least. That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory. to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man, I want that. That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, in other words, a deeper, richer sense, I want that. That you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge. In other words, he is saying, I want you to comprehend something that's beyond comprehension. In other words, what he is saying, I want you to have a true experience of something that is infinite, that you enter into it, you get it. No, you'll never master all of it. You'll spend eternity learning more and glorying in it more. But whereas you may not have a complete knowledge of it, you may have a true knowledge of it. You may have an actual, real experience of these things, and he's still not done. to know the love of Christ, verse 19, which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now you can't get bigger than that, deeper than that, wider than that, greater than that. It just doesn't exist. And he's still not done. Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us, to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever, amen. This is the middle of the epistle, by the way. Sounds like the end, right? I just think he gets lost in it and he's just glory to God. You know, this is what he's done. This is what we may ask for. This is what we may know. This is what we may really experience. So the apostle Paul says, there's more. There is more. Folks, here's the bottom line. You were made for greater things than these. You were made for glory. Please don't be satisfied with less. You know, I heard this this past week. Good, or maybe good enough, is frequently the greatest enemy of great. You see that? In other words, you get satisfied with what you know. Your expectations are limited. Yeah, it's good. Yeah, I can't complain. How often do we answer the question, how are you with that? I can't complain. Okay? Everything's good. But that good, That good may be selling short the great, the glory, the mighty that God has prepared for his people in Jesus Christ. Oh, let us not sell that short. So I wanna take a minute as we come to the end here, I wanna take a minute and I would just want to try to whet your appetite by suggesting a few things that you could ask for. What if you had such communion with Christ and such grace working in your heart that you were never frustrated? That you just couldn't see any reason to be frustrated as long as God was God. That that was the grace in your heart. What if you, in like fashion, were never fearful? You just couldn't find anything in life that was bigger than he is and his promises. What if you never worried? Because you just didn't have a reason to give thought to something you just prayed and cast on the shoulders of him who cares for you. What if that communion with Christ, that grace were great that you just, you didn't walk around in anger? You just didn't have a reason to go there. Such grace that you weren't unkind, that you didn't spout off, you know, say things with your mouth to hurt people, to smack them, to hit them with words, that you just didn't do that. Because there was a grace of kindness that had pushed out the unkind. What if your heart was just always kept at peace? because it was always in connection with him and his great, big, glorious presence as your shepherd, just never, you saw nothing to disturb your peace. What if your default reaction to anything that came your way was just to trust your good God and your loving shepherd, was just to say, all right, It's going to be good. See how he delivers me from this one. He told me many of the afflictions of the righteous, but then he added, the Lord delivers him out of them all. So, okay, here I am, here he is, and I'm going to see what he does. I'm going to see how he delivers me. What if you had such an anointing of the Spirit that you were again and again given grace to say just the right thing to those around you who were worried or anxious or confused or frustrated? That you were real powerful help to them because God was working in you. What if you had that kind of anointing in your ministry with your children? that you were given grace to truly be a good and eternal, temporal and eternal guide for them. What if you woke up every day with real excitement to see what Jesus was going to do in you, what Jesus was going to do for you in answer to your prayers, what Jesus was going to do through you that day? What if that's how you met your day, was that way? Folks, do you realize you could ask for and receive greater faith, much more connected, seeing God as mighty and glorious and good faith, that you could ask for and receive greater love, that you did love the Lord your God in a powerful, earnest way, and you did love your neighbor as yourself? that you could ask for and receive greater kindness, greater patience, greater wisdom, greater strength. I know the things that rob us of energy and strength have a physical component in many cases to be sure. But folks, they also have a mental, emotional, and spiritual component that can truly devastate our strength, our effort, our resolve. You know that. Too often, you just don't feel like doing anything, not because of the exhaustion as much as the overwhelm. You know that you're overwhelmed in your spirit, and you're not seeing God and His goodness. Folks, as great as these things are, They're the lesser things. Just like the Apostle Paul, more than all this, we could get to know him. We could ask for that. We could live a life where we keep learning more and more of how amazing he is. A life where you're constantly aware of his presence and as a result of that, a life where you fear nothing and no one. A life where, just as James says, even your trials make you rejoice. You count it all joy. That's there to be asked for. Folks, he says, if you seek me, I will be found to you. And right here, he says to you and me, call to me. So ask him, ask him to show you his glory. He wants to show you far more than you can want to see it. So let us hear this invitation from our gracious God. Call to me, and I will answer you, and I will show you great and mighty things which you do not know. Let us take him up on it. I'm not talking about striving. Last thing you need is to enter into 2018, all right, you know. I'm just gonna white knuckle this thing, you know, and I'm gonna beat it, and this is gonna be the best New Year's resolution I ever had in my, you know, forget it. You won't last till Wednesday. I know that because of all the repeated times I've done it just that way. I'm not talking about striving. I'm talking about trusting what God said to you and me. I'm talking about resting in His love, resting in His goodness, resting in His promise. Sir Walter Raleigh was one day asking a favor of Queen Elizabeth I. And she said to him, Raleigh, when will you leave off begging? And he paid her the greatest of compliments in his reply. He answered, when your majesty leaves off giving. He asked and he kept asking because she kept giving. And he honored her by the giving and by the reply. Folks, our God is a million times more gracious and generous than the queen. As C.T. Studd said it, ask great things of God and expect great things from God. So folks, in 2018, Jeremiah 33.3 is your warrant, straight from your God, both to ask great things of God and to expect great things from God. So may this year be full of praise for all the answers we receive and for the glory of God we get to experience. May the Lord do it. Let's all bow in prayer. Let's all pray. Father, we do bless you and praise you this day for your glory and goodness, and we thank you, Father, that it is exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think. We can't begin to conceive, but Father, I pray that you will work in such a way that it will stretch our expectations day by day, that we will ask for greater and greater and greater things. Oh God, you are sufficient. You are, well, as Paul said, according to the riches of your glory. Father, there's no bottom to that bank. There's no end to that account. And we ask you, oh God, that you will give us that confidence in your goodness and your grace Father, we think of John Newton saying, thou art coming to a king, large petitions with thee bring, for his grace and power are such that none can ever ask too much. Oh Lord, let us honor you by asking great things, expecting great things, by honoring you. And Father, we pray that most of all, we will learn more than we've ever known before how good you are, How gracious and kind and loving as our Lord Jesus Christ. How merciful and helpful is the Spirit of God, the Comforter. Father, let us know these things by experience, we pray. Let us take you at your word. Let us spend this year calling, asking, and receiving, and worshiping you for it, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.