Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world.
so that all may know Christ. Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church. Located in Kernersville, North Carolina. Once you look at Jeremiah 33, Jeremiah 33. Growing up for a while, Our home church.
was Northside Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. My dad had preached numerous revivals for Dr. Jack Hudson over the years when they were on their original small property. And then, if you ever go to Charlotte on 85, You'll see, you'll pass before you get really to the heart of Charlotte. You will see Northside Baptist Church as this big white dome church.
And trees have grown up now and stuff, but it's a big white dome. There's a little pond in front of that. And that's where we grew up. And on that, that whole facility was built. Dr.
Hudson started that church. Years and years ago, he was really my first pastor that I ever had. We became members there at Northside while dad was in full-time evangelism. Oh, by the way. I'm sorry, I didn't vote for Phillip.
I got to where we whipped Philip and then we left Philip there. after being disciplined in the back of the car. But having said that, now it's time to vote him into church, all right? And Philip has been saved and baptized and paddled. He's been all that.
And so. Do we have a motion that we accept Philip into our membership? All right. Have a second. Obviously, all in favor say amen.
You're like, he's been through enough. Can we not vote him into the church? And anyway, we're so honored to have you, Philip. But Dr. Jack Cussy, when he built that property, he had to lay out the roads for that property.
And the main road going into Northside Baptist Church, I'm sure it's still that way, is called Jeremiah 33.3. Boulevard. This was his life first. Let's look at this. Call unto me, verse 3 says, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things.
Which thou knowest not. We've all claimed this verse. We're talking about promises. I've preached on this verse before. And in our series, Promises, Promises, God gives us a promise here.
I. Will Answer. The It's not a suggestion. It's a promise. And I believe that God has some great things in this passage for us.
Let's pray. Lord, I love you. Thank you for all that you've done. Pray that you would bless us. Lord, I think of The Flincham family and the homegoing of brother Fred.
Pray you'd bless the funeral tomorrow. Lord, I think of Tanya. Lord recovering at home, Deborah recovering in... rehab and Lord, we just have some people that have been through a lot and going through a lot. I pray you'd help us.
Lord, bless them today, and Lord, I pray you would bless the preaching of your word. It never returns void. And we thank you for that. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
By the way, I you know, here I am, I guess I'm chasing squirrels today, but We you know the Bible says that the word of God never returns void It doesn't say that it never returns. God's word will return over and over and over again. That's why we're to teach it, because it'll keep coming back at you. But it's never void when it does, it's never meaningless when it does. It has a purpose.
Notice, if you would, first as we begin this today, I want you to notice, number one, I want you to see God's character. communication. In verse 1, notice what it says. Moreover, the word of the Lord came Unto Jeremiah.
Now it says here the second time, the first time was in chapter 1. And God comes to Jeremiah and he said, Jeremiah, I've chosen you from the very beginning to be a prophet. And Jeremiah says, No, I can't do this. I can't speak. I can't, you know, and God gives him, God gives him a promise, and God says, You know, Jeremiah, I'm going to use you.
Well, here we are, 33 chapters later. And now God comes to him the second time. And I want you to understand this: the promises of God always start in His Word. There is no promises without the word. If you're not in the word, You don't know the promises.
That's why it's so important for us to be in God's word every day, because that's where God initiates conversion. Communication with us. The word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah the second time. And may I say this? You and I have a completed canon of scripture.
This is how God communicates to us. And so I encourage you, and we're coming to the beginning of a year, and so many times people, you know, set some goals at the first of the year, and we normally give up by March. And I know how that goes, but I want to encourage you, instead of maybe getting a program where you have to do such and such, would you just make a commitment that you're going to be in God's Word every day? Just get in it. Get in it.
Read it. If it's a verse, read it. If it's a paragraph, read it. If it's a chapter, read it. But get in the word so the word can get in you.
This whole thing starts, the whole promise starts because Jeremiah was given a word from the Lord. And you and I have been given a word. From the Lord. Notice, secondly, I want you to see not just God's communication, but secondly, God's concern. Look at verse 2.
I'm just gonna be actually verse one, the finisher verse one. It says, the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah the second time. Notice this, while he was yet Shut up. In the court of the prison. This is the one time you can actually say, shut up in church.
You say, well, you shouldn't keep saying, well, it says shut up here, so I can say shut up.
Now, I'm just thinking of good reasons to keep saying it because. That's all I heard growing up from my dad. Shut up, shut up. That's all I heard.
So, here, what happened is, you know, a lot of times you and I see this promise of call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things. Wow, that's all victorious. But what you don't realize is, God asked him to pray that while he was in jail. While he was in prison, it's one thing when things are going great and saying, Listen, I encourage you to call upon the Lord to call to him and he'll answer you. And he's gonna do great things and he's gonna show you great things, mighty things.
He's gonna do all it's one thing to say that then, but when you're sitting in jail, And God says, hey, call to me. You know, our flesh wants to say, oh, I did. Look where I ended up. I responded to your word. Look where I ended up.
Where were you then? Why am I here? Why haven't you done something about this?
So, notice here that here's Jeremiah in jail because of a king that decided he was going to try to stop Jeremiah's petition. Jeremiah was saying there's doom coming, there's judgment coming. He's trying to preach to the people. And the king didn't want to hear it. By the way, this king, Zedekiah, was going to be the last king before Babylon would come in and take them captive.
He should have stopped and he should have listened to Jeremiah. But he didn't. Notice. God's concern. Jeremiah's in By the way, if you're in some kind of prison today, Some kind of something in your life that's got you bound, now's the time to call.
So many times, when we're in this kind of situation, is when we kind of quit getting in God's Word. It's when we get out of church, it's when we stop reading, it's when we distance ourselves from people. Dear friend, when you're facing something difficult like now, now's the time to call. Upon the Lord. Notice, thirdly, we want to see God's credentials.
Now, God's setting us up for this promise, but look at verse 2. Thus saith the Lord.
Now, before he even gives Jeremiah the word, God gives His credentials. In other words, before God gives Him the command, God gives Him His credentials. And God does this all through the Word of God. God always gives many times the reason. This is why you can depend on what I'm saying.
This is why you can trust what I'm getting ready to tell you to do. Look what he says: Thus saith the Lord, the. Maker thereof. You know, I'm getting ready to tell you to call on me, and I know you're sitting in jail, but guess who made you? I did.
Guess who made all the men that are keeping you in jail? I did. Guess who made the king that puts you in jail? I did. Don't forget that God is the creator.
He's the one that made, notice this. The maker thereof, the Lord, that formed it. He made it. He formed it. He established it to establish it, it says.
God reminds him, listen, I put this whole thing together. Hey, I'm here on the throne. I'm the one in charge. Don't think just because you're in prison, it doesn't mean God's in prison. And just because you're in a difficult situation doesn't mean God can't see it and God can't do something about it.
God says, listen, I'm getting ready to ask you to call on me, and let me tell you why it's worth your while. Because look at what I've done, look at who I am. Notice number four. God's challenge.
So, God's setting us all up for this. Look at verse 3. Call unto me. And I will answer thee. What's his challenge?
Call Unto Me.
Now in this verse we see four things and I want to just give them to you real quick first. We see God's proposition. He says call. Call. You know, I'll We know in the New Testament we're told that many times the reason we don't have answers to prayer is because we're not praying.
And then we're told many times we don't have answers to prayer because we're praying amiss. We're asking for things according to our flesh instead of according to God's will. But may I say something? A lot of people, we just got to start the process. Nothing happens here until you call.
God says, listen, I've done everything I can do on my end.
Now you need to respond by calling. You need to come to me. Look at me. Jesus came to you.
Now it's your job to respond to call to him. Everybody understand that? Say amen. He says, call, God's proposition. You need to make the effort and the commitment that I am going to start calling.
Notice, secondly, God's position. He says, call. Unto me. Notice God's position here. God says, listen, you're the one that needs help.
I'm the one that can give help. God's not calling you, you're calling to God. God doesn't need help from you. You need help from God. Listen, God doesn't need Daniel to advise him.
But I need God to advise me. He says, call Unto me.
Now, I want to give you some verses about this, on this thing of calling. Notice this first verse that's on the screens for you today, Jeremiah 29:11. For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then, Shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and Pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. Notice this, and ye shall seek me.
and find me when ye shall search for me. with all your heart. This isn't just about you calling to God when you're in trouble. This isn't just all of a sudden you're going to call God when you need something, and you should. But calling upon God is way more than just emergency-based request.
Are you seeking God? with all your heart. Notice this verse, Deuteronomy 4, 7. For what nation is there so great who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? For whatever reason, God loves us enough that we can call upon Him at any time.
And he's going to hear us. And God is not just going to hear us. He's going to answer.
Now you might not always like his answer. But don't think just because you haven't heard anything or seen anything, that doesn't mean God hasn't heard.
Okay? Notice Psalm 50, verse 15. Look at this verse. And call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee.
And thou shalt glorify me. Look at this. This should be the process of your life. We call upon God. God delivers, we give him the glory for it.
You know what normally happens? We call upon God, God delivers, we go on with life. God says, no, you're supposed to glorify me. Listen, if you called upon God and He helped you and He was a help to you in time of trouble, you ought to glorify Him for it. You ought to praise him for it.
Notice this verse, Psalm 55. Look at verse 17. Evening and morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud, and he shall hear my voice. This is not just a one-time a day, it's not just during your devotions. Calling upon God is something that you and I make a lifestyle about.
We should be calling upon God all day long. God says Jeremiah. Call unto me. Now you're in the courts of a prison. But you ought to be calling unto me when you're in prison, when you're out of prison, when you're in trouble, when you're not in trouble, when things are great, when things are bad, whenever, evening, morning, noon, night, call.
unto me. Notice if you would Psalm 86. For thou, Lord, art good and ready to forgive and plenteous and mercy. Unto all them that Call. Upon thee.
Psalm 91. He shall call upon me. God says, and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him.
and honor him. Psalm 148. You love this one. You know this one. The Lord is nigh, close.
The Lord is nigh unto all them that. Call upon him. Listen. to all that call upon him in truth. Interesting.
You say, preacher, these are a lot of verses. Hold on. Luke chapter 11, let's get to the New Testament here. And I say unto you, ask. and it shall be given.
Seek and ye shall find, knock, and it shall be open. For everyone that asks, Asketh. Receive it. Hold on. Well, I didn't get what I asked.
No, no, no, no. He didn't say, whatever you ask for, you're going to get. He says, if you ask, you're going to receive. And that's a promise. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.
Let's go to Hebrews 4, last 1. Let us therefore come boldly into the throne of grace. That we may obtain mercy. and find grace to help. in time of need.
Let me ask something. If calling upon God works so well, And the reason I gave you verse after verse, and this is just a fraction of them I could have given you. All through the Bible, it's proven you call upon God, this works. You call upon God, He answers. You call upon, you seek God, you find Him.
You call upon God, He hears you. You call upon Him, all through the Bible, if this works so well, why do we not do it? I want to answer that for you today real quick. There's a reason I think that you and I don't call like we should. Number one, is because we have a preoccupation with this world.
You and I many times cannot experience the power of prayer because of our preoccupation. with this world. We're too busy. We don't have enough time. We got other things going.
We don't even know how to be patient. Listen, we live in a society where we're on our phone so much, it's hard for us to find time to get on our knees. Because we're always on our phones. Spurgeon wrote this: We have ours for the world. and only moments for Christ.
We have hours for the world. but only moments for Christ. You and I many times measure our prayer time in minutes. Because of the arrangement. and the allurement of this world.
A lot of times we don't call because we don't think it's important. Number two, We don't call because we're preoccupied with the world. Number two, because we're polluted from sin. The Bible says sin separates us. from you and your God.
We cannot experience the power of prayer because of sin in our life. And may I say, when there is sin in our life, it robs us of the desire to pray. We don't feel like praying. We don't desire to pray. We feel so polluted that we believe, we can literally begin to believe that God doesn't want to hear from me.
You know, I don't feel like I can go to God right now. I've done so many wrong things, and I got so much stuff in my life that I feel like a hypocrite if I go to God right now. Look at me, dear friend. That's the time you need to go to God. That's just old Satan convincing you that God doesn't want to hear from you.
May I say something to you? Whether you've got sin in your life or whether you don't have sin in your life, God wants you to call on Him. And of all times when we're struggling, and of all times when sin has a hold on us, that's when we ought to run to God, not run away from Him. or polluted from sin. Number three.
Why do we not pray?
Well, because we're preoccupied with the world, we're polluted from sin, number three. Because of the powerlessness of unbelief. Because many times we don't think God's going to do it anyway. And worse, we don't think God Can Do it. God said, You call and I'm going to answer.
But many times you and I say, Well, I know that sounds good, preacher, but in this particular instance, I just don't think. God can can. It's pretty sad when we as Christians We think we know what's best for us. Number three. God's promise.
God's proposition call. God's position calling to me. I'm the one that can help. But notice here We finally made it. to God's promise.
Calling to me, notice what he says. I will Will answer thee. You know, it's one thing if another person says that they're going to do something for us. But it's quite another thing when God Promises he will do something for us. God always makes good on his promises.
When we obey the command to pray, The character of God gives us the confidence. that he will answer. Do you understand? When I am faithful to obey... That I know the character of God will always honor what He's promised.
And God promised that if I call, That he will answer me.
Now, some of you need an answer today.
Some of you need some answers in your life. There's only one way to do it. You can't keep calling friends. You can't keep calling the neighbor. You can't keep getting into a book or whatever.
Nothing wrong with any of those things. I have people I talk to. I have books I read, books that are encouragement. And once again, don't mishear what I am saying. I am telling you.
But all those things will do you no good if you don't start first with going to God. Going to God is the first step. Step. Don't run to a book, don't run to a teacher, don't run to a preacher, don't run to a friend. The first stop God says, call unto me.
And I will answer thee. God's promise. Now Here's the here's the to me the greatest thing. Look at Psalm 65, verse 5. By terrible things and righteousness wilt thou answer us.
O God of our salvation. Listen to this. Who art the confidence of all? There's confidence in calling upon God. Who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth and of them that are afar off upon the sea.
That matter where you are. Doesn't matter who you are. We have confidence that if we call upon God, He's going to answer. But now notice last, God's power. Here's the whole key.
God has given us a promise. And the promise is this, I will answer thee. But he also gave us another promise here. He said, I will answer thee. Notice what he says, and I will show.
V So God doesn't just hear. And he doesn't just answer. He shows God can act. Actually do something about it.
Now this is where to me it gets good. Notice God says, I can show you some things. Notice number one. God says, I'll show you. Great.
Things.
Now, God says, I'm going to show you great things, mighty things, things. What is the difference in all these things, preacher? Great. things. Things that are not something that you can do.
It might be something you've never experienced. When Pharaoh drew near to the children of Israel, Moses and the children of God watched God open up the Red Sea. God did a great thing. Gideon didn't think very highly of himself, but on that day, God did great things for Gideon. David experienced great victories in his life.
In fact, David wrote a lot of the Psalms to showcase the great demonstrations of God's power. God can do great things for the sick, He can do great things for the marginalized, He can do great things for the needy, He can do great things for the persecuted, He can do great things for those that are distressed, discouraged, and depressed in your life. I'm here to tell you: look at me, some of you need some great things to happen in your life, and God can do great things. A great God can do great things. God says, let me tell you why you need to call on me.
Number one, I'm going to answer you. But number two, because I'm going to show you some things. I'm going to show you great things. You know why you and I must call upon God? Because He has the power to do great things for us.
for you. Nothing is beyond the ability of God. Notice secondly, he says, I. Call on me. I'll answer you.
Promise. And I will show you promise. And I'll do great things. Notice this mighty thing. Thanks.
What is mighty? Call unto me, and I will show thee mighty. things. Mighty, this word literally means hidden or fenced in things. It means that these are things that are not accessible to you.
But they're accessible to God. Nothing is beyond God's power. power. One commentator wrote that the Hebrew word for mighty describes something that is fortified, that you can't get into it. But God can.
It means this: God can do great things, but sometimes you need some things that you just can't do. You're not strong enough. People in your life aren't strong enough. You can't manipulate it. You can't make it happen.
Listen, plenty of us in the building have things that we would love to make happen. We would love to change some people. We would love to change some people. I know you, every one of you ought to say amen to that. I know you.
Don't yell for me. I know you. We would love to, listen, we would love to change some circumstances. We would love to manipulate some things, change some things. But we're not strong enough.
That's beyond us. It is something that is fenced in that we can't get to. But God says, listen, I cannot, it's not just that I can do great things. I can do mighty things. This category speaks of things.
beyond your reach. Beyond your ability. Beyond your power. But God can do it. Listen, some of you say that I Preacher, I need a mighty thing done in my marriage.
God can.
Now it might be beyond your power. Your power is what's made this mess. Your ability, our ability is what's created these scenarios. But God can do things that we can't do. God can reach people that we can't reach.
Look at me. God can change hearts. that we can't change.
Some of you sitting here have some family, maybe some children, maybe some grandchildren. And you know what they're into. You know the life they're living, and you're broken about it. And you prayed and you begged God. And dear friend, may I say something?
There just come times in life, there are some things we can't change. in people. But we can call upon the one that can. May I let me let me put it this way. I would encourage some of you to quit trying to change people.
Start praying to the God who can. And leave it up to him. Notice thirdly, He says, I'm not just going to show you great things. I'm not just able to show you mighty things. But notice thirdly he says, I'm able to show you new things.
Things you've never seen. Look what he says here. I love this. I'll show you things which thou knowest not. The more we call upon God, the more he reveals himself.
Do you know there's things about God you don't know? There are parts of God's characteristics that you and I haven't experienced. We'll have an eternity to experience. But let me tell you something: the more you call upon God, the more of God you're going to see. You're going to see what God can do in your life.
Here's what I have found: God can move, or God can move me. God can change things or God can change me. That's just the way it goes. Look at this verse, 1 Corinthians 2 verse 9. But as it is written, I hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man.
The greatest news that anyone can receive is the news of the free gift of salvation found in Jesus Christ. It is our desire for you to know him personally. Would you take a moment to hear this today? Every man is born with the sin nature. Romans 3.23 says, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
No matter how hard we try, We're not good enough to obtain God's glory. or to get to heaven. Because of that, sin carries the penalty of death. Romans 6.23 says, For the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The wages of our sin, or the payment of our sin, only equals death and separation from God. But it's only through God's Gift. salvation through Jesus Christ that we can accept him as our Saviour. Jesus Christ paid for your sin debt. The Bible says in Romans 5:8, But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
All you have to do is receive Christ. by faith as your Saviour. Romans ten nine says That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Verse 13 continues, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It's as simple as admitting that you're a sinner believing that Jesus is the only way.
and calling upon his name. Bible says whosoever, that's any one. can call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. Have you accepted Christ as your personal Savior? There is no greater day than today to take care of this.
Would you accept Christ as your Savior? If you have any questions, please give us a call at 336-993-5192 or visit our website at Curlin Baptist Church. Dot com. or visits that person at one of our three service times. We hope you have a great rest of your day.
God bless you. Mm-hmm.
