Jeremiah, the 32nd chapter is where we're at this evening. And as you're turning there, I was hoping Steve Dawson would be here tonight, but he's working or late at work, getting awful late or whatever. But I had a real estate question. Maybe somebody in here can answer it. When is it a bad time to buy property? Well, I'm sure somebody loaned it to you, some bank or some credit card. No, it ain't. At a 20% interest. That's one bad time to buy property or land. Anybody else ever thought about that? Well, we find in Jeremiah 32, Jeremiah is given a proposition to buy some land. Now, in our day and time, you know, there is something called eminent domain, which the government can take over and seize your land. If they're planning, say, like a eight-lane highway right through the middle of your house, you know what? That's pretty bad. And if you're about to buy that house, you ain't going to buy it. I saw something on the news the other day where there was a sinkhole in the front yard where there was a pond in that It's a home out in the country and the thing just sunk and the pond disappeared and everything. So the value of the property just bottomed out and the homeowners were just devastated and everything. Can you imagine going to buy something like that? That wouldn't be too good of an idea. If the economy is tanking, probably not a good time to buy a home. You think about it, if we were on the brink of war, Might not be a good time to go to war. Or buy a piece of land. If you were in jail, which is what Jeremiah's condition was, wouldn't be a good time to buy a piece of land because you couldn't tend to the land. Back in 587 B.C. is when Jeremiah 32 is taking place. And what's happened, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, who has been reigning for about 18 years, going and conquering lands left and right, he's come back for the second time to Jerusalem. And as he's come back this time, he has besieged it. In other words, nobody's coming in, nobody's going out. The place is surrounded, there's no way as far as food getting in, food, you know, there's nothing transported in and out. So, Jeremiah is in a prison, but he is very sensitive to God's Word. I want you to notice the first five verses in chapter 32. The Word of God says, The Word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. For then the king of Babylon's army besieged Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison. which was in the king of Judah's house. Now here is the reason why Jeremiah got locked up. I want you to notice. It says in verse 3, For Zedekiah, king of Judah, had shut him up, saying, Wherefore dost thou prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord? Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it. And Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall behold his eyes. And he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall he be until I visit him, saith the Lord. Though you fight with the Chaldeans, you shall not prosper. Now, if you had somebody that was inside the city and you're being besieged, that would be a very discouraging message. In other words, you're all going captive. It ain't no use to fight. It ain't going to work and it ain't going to help. So, at the worst, it would be treason. So, here are the kings at Achaia. He locks Jeremiah up to get him to shut up so he don't discourage everybody. Now, I want you to look over in chapter 33. In chapter 33, look down in verse 4. In verse 4, "...for thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the king of Judah, which are thrown down by the mounts and by the sword." When they besieged Jerusalem and they finally entered in, the houses were destroyed. They were just leveled to the ground. Great destruction. Can you imagine trying to get a loan on a piece of property in there? Probably wouldn't happen. Who would want to buy a piece of property around Jerusalem at that time? Well, Jeremiah's got a cousin, and his cousin's got a sweet deal. It's kind of like, I remember I was told somebody, they moved London Bridge out in the middle of the desert, out somewhere in Nevada, and you can buy a piece of it. Now, you know what, that's not too sweet a deal. It's kind of a dumb deal if you think about it. But here, Jeremiah, I want you to notice what his cousin does. He comes a sweet-talking. And he says, in the middle of this siege, Jeremiah, well, first off, the Word of God comes to Jeremiah in verse 6. And the Lord told him, Behold Hananiel, the son of Shalem, thine uncle, shall come unto thee saying, by thee my field, that is in Anathoth, for the right of the redemption is thine, to buy it. So Hannah Meal, mine uncle's son, came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the Lord, and said unto me, By my field I pray thee, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin, for the right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine, buy it for yourself. Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord." Now, if you think about this situation, If you had a cousin like this, you wouldn't think you'd want to be around a cousin like this. Anybody got any cousins that's always selling something, always trying to pitch you a deal, trying to get you to do something? Yeah, some got some like that in every family, just about it seems like. Well, here, if you can imagine the situation, this cousin's property in Anathoth, it is being occupied by the Babylonians because they're besieging Jerusalem. And if you have an army and you're coming in, you've conquered this land, you know what, pretty much Babylon owns the land, don't it? So if Babylon owns the land, that's like somebody saying, you know, I've got a, that's a nice Chevy SUV right there. I think I'll sell it to you. Anybody want to buy it for $20? You know, it ain't going to happen, is it? It just won't happen. Here, this property that the cousins got, if you think, now why is he selling this property? Possibly because the city's besieged. What's he going to do with it? The land's no good. Babylonians are on it. He's hungry. Remember, there's hardly any food in the city if he's been besieged. He's needing some money. He's needing a transaction. Maybe he's trying to escape. We don't know exactly why he was selling it, but it sounds pretty much like a shifty deal, doesn't it? So, what does old Jeremiah do? He heard what God said. Then he knew God's Word was true. So, in verse 9 it says, I bought the field of Hannah Meal, my uncle's son. that was in Anathoth and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver. He paid him the money for it. Then he seals the deal. Notice what he does in sealing the deal. I subscribed the evidence and sealed it, took witnesses and weighed him the money and the balances. Then I took the evidence of the purchase, both that which was sealed according to the law and the custom, that which was open, and I gave the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Messiah, in the sight of Hananiel, mine uncle's son, and in the presence of the witnesses that subscribed the book of the purchase before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison." So here He's purchased it. He's sealed the deal. He signed the contract. He's got it notarized. He puts it in a safe place. Now, why does he purchase this land? One reason is because God told him to purchase the land. So he buys the land. Now, if you were Jeremiah, wouldn't you kind of have some questions about giving your cousin 17 shekels of silver for a piece of land that You really can't go out and do anything with because you're in prison. And even if you weren't in prison, you couldn't go to it anyway, or the Babylonians would probably chop your head off. Now, you know, Jeremiah's probably got some questions going through his mind. But first thing I want you to notice, Jeremiah is simply obedient. He's simply obedient unto God's Word. Oh, how that ought to preach to us. I want you to notice in verse 13 through 15, he charges his secretary, who is Baruch. And he says, before all the witnesses, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, take these evidences, this evidence of the purchase, both which is sealed and this evidence which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel that they may continue many days." Now, back in that day and time, what they would do, they would write like on a scroll, and they'd stick the scroll in an earthen vessel, a pot, a piece of pottery. Now, some of y'all probably have heard, of the Dead Sea Scrolls that were found back in the 50s, I think it was, in a bunch of earthen pots. That's the way they stored things. Now these Dead Sea Scrolls that were found in 1950-something, they're over 2,000 years old. Think about that. That's a good way to store something, ain't it? Got an empty pot, you want to store something, put it in the pot. As long as it ain't edible. It might get sour. But here, he stored it up. And he's got his secretary doing the legwork, so to speak. What Jeremiah's got, he's got faith in God's Word. He believes what God says, so he is obedient unto His Word. What he's doing, he's walking by faith. Now, he knows they're going to be in captivity for 70 years. Now, you know what? Jeremiah's not going to be around probably 70 years later. Because he's getting up years already. So here he is, he's buying this land, but back in that day and time, the Jews, if you owned land, it had to stay within the family. You couldn't trade it off to another family, you couldn't trade it off to another tribe. It had to stay in the family. That's why Jeremiah, that's why Hananiel came to Jeremiah, because he was the kinsman redeemer, the closest one in the family to purchase the land, therefore he sold it to Jeremiah. Jeremiah purchases it, he keeps it, and he keeps the title deed in a safe place. But now I want you to notice, as he walked by faith in that day and time, You know what, there's a lot of ways we can visibly look at how we walk by faith in our day and time. You know what, I think of Judd Hatcher, automatically, because we've just been talking about him, going in the middle of Sao Paulo. Now, you know what, I don't know who'd want to go in the middle of Sao Paulo unless somebody called, the Lord called them right in the middle of Sao Paulo, especially because it's a rough city. When we went in there, it's huge. It takes you at least two to four hours to drive through a city, depending upon traffic. Now, you thought Lexington traffic was bad. Let me tell you that. It's a huge city. Huge. And, you know, every so often you see prisons. Every so often in the city. There's more, many, many prisons within that city. He wants to go right in the heart of that city. Now, you know what? If God's calling him there, he's going to go there. You know what? That's walking by faith. There are ways in our lives we walk by faith. You know what? You witness to people at times. And when you witness to somebody you know, in the back of your mind, somebody might make fun of you for witnessing, for taking a stand for Jesus Christ. Somebody might call you a Jesus freak or something weird. They might make fun of you, laugh at you. Why do you do that? Because you're walking by faith. You believe God's Word and He can prosper His Word. Therefore, we walk by faith in a lot of different ways. Why do you come to church? You know, there's a lot of churches that close down on Sunday night, Wednesday night now. And the more time goes on, more churches close down. You know why people from New Life come to church? Because they want to hear the Word of God. They want to be encouraged in one another. They know we pray for one another. And you know what? There's a lot of love going on right around here in New Life Baptist Church. And you don't want to miss out on that. And you know what? Those that are missing out on that, you know what? They don't know what they're missing out on. So there's a lot of things we do by faith. You know what, we come right in the middle of Woodhill. You know what, that man told me at the bank the other day that was out there, the older fellow, he said, when I told him where the church was, he says, oh, the ghetto, huh? I said, what? And then I had to explain to him what was beside us and who was beside us and beside beside us. And I said, but y'all to come. I said, you know what, there's plenty of people to witness to. Plenty of people need the gospel there. I thought it was very interesting. I was very upbeat about it. I think it's very encouraging. I think that's where we ought to be, is where sinners are. Because that's who needs the gospel, is people who are lost and don't know Jesus Christ. Why do we come on Sunday morning? Why do we worship the Lord? It's because of faith. Why do we try to help out an alcoholic? When half the time we know the alcoholics are probably using us. Why do we try to help out people in need? Because we believe God can change a person's heart. Why do we give? Why do we give to missions? Why do we tithe? Why do we do more than tithing? Because we believe God will prosper His Word. That's faith. And that's what Jeremiah was living by. And even so, that's how we need to live our lives. So, at the end of this transaction, Baruch takes the jar, he takes it and tucks it off in a safe place. I don't think they had safes back in that time, but he tucked it off in a safe place so it would be around long after Jeremiah's gone. What does Jeremiah do just as soon as that transaction's done? Look in verse 16. What Jeremiah does, Well, look back in, I think I skipped over a verse or two. Look back in verse 15. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land. God says they're going to be doing some transaction. There's going to be some wheeling and dealing. People are going to purchase land. People are going to possess land. They're going to plant vineyards. Everything's going to start prospering again in this land. God told him that. Now, here's Jeremiah's response in verse 16. Now, when I delivered the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Nehemiah, I prayed unto the Lord, saying, Ah, Lord God! Or, Alas! Or, Oh! Can you imagine, Jeremiah? He's kind of like, oh, what have I done? I've done spent all my money, and I don't know what I spent it on. I spent it on a field that's out in the middle of nowhere. He's kind of doubting, it seems like. This, oh, Lord God, is like a groan. Now, you know what? That's what the Spirit of God does within the child of God, doesn't He? When we don't know how to express ourselves, when we don't know how to pray sometimes, the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us. Making groanings which cannot be uttered is what the Word of God says. And you know what? There's times, sometimes when I'm praying, I just groan. And there's not words to say. You can't put things into words sometimes. And here's what Jeremiah's doing. And you know what? We can learn a lesson from Jeremiah's prayer life. There's some good stuff in how he's praying, and I want you to notice how he prays because we need to implement this kind of prayer in our life. Jeremiah, first off, he falls on his knees, I believe, and he's probably lacking a little understanding. And you know what first thing you need to do when you lack understanding in something? You need to cry out to God. And God gives wisdom, and he gives it abundantly. But we need to pray. And here is Jeremiah's soul crying out, Ah, Lord God! Our Ah, sovereign Lord! He knows God is sovereign. And what he does in this prayer, he worshiped God. He worships God, and he worships in his prayer. Notice the first thing he does in worshiping God, as he approaches God, he starts listing some of the attributes of God. Notice the things that he says about God. First off, he calls Him Creator. Thou hast made the heaven and the earth. And then He talks about His great strength. He's all-powerful. He's made the heavens and the earth by His great power and His stretched out arm. And then He talks about how He's omnipresent. His arm is stretched out all over the place. And He talks about His omniscience. Nothing is too difficult for Thee. You know what? The only person that there's nothing too difficult for is somebody who's omniscient. He knows it all. And if he knows it all, it ain't nothing too difficult. If Brother Chick wanted me to do some wiring, I'd probably catch something on fire, because that'd be too difficult for me. But you know what? That wouldn't be too difficult for him. But boy, if I put a paintbrush in your hand, uh-uh. But God is all-knowing. Therefore, because of that, nothing is too difficult for him. And then he talks about his loving-kindness. He talks about his covenant-keeping. That's who God is. And notice, this is Jeremiah approaching God, and what he's doing as he's approaching God, he's thinking of who God is by thinking of his attributes. He says, you show loving-kindness unto thousands, And then you recompense the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them. In other words, he is also a just God. He is a loving God, but he is a just God. And he says, the great, the mighty God, yes, he is almighty, he is the Lord of hosts, the Lord of armies, is his name. Well, you know what? Isn't Jeremiah just worshiping and praying? You know what? When you start thinking about Jeremiah's prayer here, he's saying a lot more about God than his problem. Now, how do we pray? You know what? When you start thinking about God and you start speaking more about who God is and reflecting upon who God is, your problem gets smaller because nothing's too difficult for Him. Nothing. Nothing is too difficult for Him. His eyes, notice it says, your eyes are open upon all the ways of the Son of Man. There's his omniscience again. He sees all things to give everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. Then what Jeremiah does, he reflects upon the work of God. And notice how he remembers his works. mainly of redemption, of how God redeemed Israel out of Egypt. Now, that happened hundreds of years before Jeremiah's writing. And he says, "...which has set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt even unto this day, and in Israel, and among other men, and hast made thee a name as at this day. And have brought forth your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and with wonders, with a strong hand, with a stretched out arm, and with great terror." What is he talking about? He's talking about God's deliverance, God's salvation. And you've given this land which thou didst swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey. God redeemed them. What's Jeremiah doing? He's thinking upon God's redemption. Now, you know what? We as God's people living on this side of the cross ought to be more thankful for the redemption than those that were on the other side of the cross. We see the fullness of it. And you know what? When we pray, we ought to be awful thankful for what Jesus Christ has done. What great redemptive work He has accomplished! In verse 23, what He does, He acknowledges the sin of Israel. Verse 23, And they came in and possessed it, but they obeyed not your voice, neither walked in your law. They have done nothing of all that thou commandest them to do. Therefore thou hast caused all this evil to come upon them. He acknowledges the reason the evils come is because of sin. Is that not true of what's happening in the United States of America? You know, whether it's Planned Parenthood, whether it's... Boy, you think of a list of stuff. You know what? We've got problems because of sin in the United States of America. But hear what Jeremiah's doing. He's praying. And his prayer contains as more praises than his focusing upon his problems. Verse 24, Behold the mounts that are coming to the city to take it. And the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans that fight against it, because of the sword, the famine, and the pestilence. And what thou hast spoken is come to pass. Behold, thou seest it. Here's a problem. And he's saying, There's famine, there's pestilence, there's sword, the Chaldeans have got us surrounded. And you said to me, O Lord God, buy thee the field for money and take witnesses? Doesn't that sound like an odd request? In the midst of it seems like your life's about to be killed, you're about to end your life, you only go buy a piece of property. You know, when life throws you hard questions, what do you do? Verse 17, Our Lord God, behold, thou hast created the heaven and the earth by thy great power, and you've stretched out your arm, and there is nothing too difficult for you. You know, when you don't understand, you've got to go to the one who has the understanding. You see, Jeremiah was simply obedient before he even started asking questions. He was obedient and he walked by faith. Notice he goes on to say in verse 26, Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah, saying, Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me? That word hard means marvelous or wonderful. Difficult? Is there anything too awesome for me? It's what God is saying. Nothing. There is a song, and I remember they sang it at Ashton Avenue years ago. It was in a choir. Nothing is too difficult for thee. Nothing is too difficult for thee. Anybody remember that song? That's a good little song, stuck in the back of my head for all these years. Though I can't sing it, it's still stuck in the back of my head. What do we do? We approach the Lord in prayer in awe of who He is. When you approach God in prayer, think upon His attributes, of who He is, and of how He's worked. And you know what's going to happen when you pray and you think upon the Lord and who He is? how nothing is too difficult for Him, how He stretched out the heavens, and how He stretched out the earth, and how His loving kindness and His covenant has been entered into with us, and how we have the covenant blessings because of Jesus Christ, and we have redemption through His blood. And you know what? You think upon that, and you pray, and you think upon the attributes of God, what's going to happen is your faith is going to be strengthened. Your faith is going to be strengthened to trust in Him more. You know what, as you go through a trial in your life, the more you focus upon Him, the smaller that trial really looks, because nothing's too difficult for our God. May we be people of prayer with a focus upon the Lord our God. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our Father in heaven, As you worked in Jeremiah's life years ago, and how you walked by faith, may we also be a people of faith, trusting in You. Lord, You have created all things, and all things were created for Your good pleasure. And Lord, without You there is nothing that can exist. Therefore, we know nothing is too difficult for you. Lord, you consistently show mercy to us each morning. Your lovingkindness has been displayed in Jesus Christ, who suffered, bled, and died for our sins, was buried rose again, lives to make intercession for us, Lord, we want to praise You for who You are. We want to see Your mighty work within our midst. Lord, we want to see You raising people up, speaking Your Word, proclaiming Your truth, emboldened to witness, not ashamed of the Gospel, calling upon Your name, And Lord, You delivering in a mighty way as only a mighty God can. We want You exalted in all things. May we see Your glorious majesty even more clearly as we walk with You, as You guide us by Your Spirit. Lord, we pray You meet our needs. And we give you thanks for that. For Christ's sake, Amen.