When Being Obedient Is Tough

Got your Bible? If you do, turn with me to the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah is my favorite prophet. Now, there’s a lot of prophets in the Bible. You know, Moses was said to be a prophet, Samuel, Isaiah, all the guys’ names you can’t pronounce in the Old Testament. You know, Zephaniah and Zechariah and Haggai and Malachi, all those were prophets. John the Baptist was a prophet. But my favorite is Jeremiah. He put up with more junk, and he just kind of… And what I want to talk about him because, you know, all of us go through tough times.

You know, if you’ve ever read the book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, it’s written by a guy named Stephen Covey, incredible manager, wrote some great things about how to organize your business, your life, all those kind of things. And he talked about it. Even in our own lives, we need a mission statement. You know, this church has a mission statement. It’s right there at the top of the bulletin, in fact. It says, grounded in the past, serving in the present, building towards the future, and striving to fulfill the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. That’s the mission statement of this church, okay? Let me ask you this, what’s your mission statement? I mean, if you had one, what would it be? They want them to be short. It’s not quite so short, but it’s close.

He knew a guy, Stephen Covey knew a guy named Ralph Kerr, and this is what he included in his. Number one, he had some different things. Succeed at home first. Never compromise with honesty. Hear both sides before judging. Obtain the counsel of others. Defend those who are absent. Boy. Develop our new proficiency, one new proficiency a year. Plan tomorrow’s work today. Maintain a positive attitude. Keep a sense of humor. Be orderly in person and in work. Listen twice as much as you speak. And concentrate all abilities and efforts on the task at hand. Not worrying about the next job or the next promotion. That’s pretty good. That’s some pretty things. Pretty good things.

A guy named Steve Ferrara wrote a book, and it’s called Finishing Strong. It’s one of my favorite books. I’ve handed that book out to more folks than probably any other book I’ve got. And he just said he didn’t have all those lists. He just kind of had one thing, and it was like, don’t quit. He said one day he’s going to pass away. One day they’re going to have a funeral probably at the Baptist church, and then they’re going to go into Fellowship Hall and eat chicken and remember him a little bit. And then they’re going to go to a place outside and put a little box in a hole. And then a couple weeks later they’re going to come and they’re going to put a tombstone on it. And he wants on his tombstone: Don’t ever quit.

You know, think about it. I don’t want to quit on my marriage. I don’t want to quit on my relationship with my kids. I don’t want to quit on my integrity. You can just keep adding. How hard is that, though? I want to tell you, life’s tough. Jeremiah, we’re going to look at one of his prayers today. He’s about to quit on the Lord. I love Jeremiah. Just probably the loneliest guy in the Bible, how he hangs in there. In this passage, we’re going to learn some inward emotions about Jeremiah, and we’re going to also be reminded about some wonderful qualities about God. And here’s what we’re going to look at. God’s going to be able to handle certain things in our lives, and we’re going to look at them today in Jeremiah’s life. Okay?

Well, let’s start with the first one. God is big enough to handle our anger. What do you think if I said, you know, it’s okay to get mad at God? Because Jeremiah gets mad at God. In verse 7 of Jeremiah chapter 20, look what he says. He looks right at God. This is a prayer, okay? He’s by himself. It’s just him and God, and he is just pouring it out there. He says these words. Oh, Lord, You have deceived me, and I was deceived. You have overcome me and prevailed. Let me tell you what he’s pretty much saying. Lord, You lied to me. I don’t know if I’d use those words, but that’s Jeremiah talking. I mean, he is that open with God. God, You lied to me. You deceived me. Well, what did He deceive him about? Well, if we go all the way back to Jeremiah chapter 1, we see how he’s called out. Listen to verse 5. Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, Jeremiah. Before you were born, I consecrated you, and I have appointed you a prophet to the nations. Before Jeremiah even came together, when mom and dad even came together, the Lord says, I know who you are, and I’ve got a plan for your life. I’m going to make you a prophet to the nations.

Now, we would sit there and go, well, that sounds pretty good. That sounds okay. That sounds great. Well, not to Jeremiah. Now, who was Jeremiah? Well, Jeremiah was born in a little town called Anathoth. Now, that happens to be about three miles northeast of Jerusalem. It was a place where a lot of the priests would live. Jeremiah’s daddy was a priest. And so, Jeremiah grew up around the temple. His daddy worked in the temple. Jeremiah loved the temple. I want to tell you, if you were a priest, that was an incredible, special calling. And so, Jeremiah, I mean, that’s where he grows up.

But then God puts on his heart to go to the people, especially the folks in charge, the priests of the nation of Israel, and pretty much tell them, you guys are messing up. God’s not happy with you. God’s ticked. Let me tell you what’s coming down the pike. What’s coming down the pike is basically God’s going to let a pagan nation called Babylon come in under a butcher by the name of Nebuchadnezzar. They’re going to come, and they’re going to not only destroy you, they’re going to level the city, and they’re going to take you into captivity. Let me tell you how long they’re going to take you into captivity. They’re going to take you into captivity for 70 years.

Well, who wants to hear that? In the beginning of the chapter, the head priest is a guy named Pasher. Now, Pasher today would be what I call a guy who would preach what I call the prosperity gospel. Basically, it’s okay. Your best days are ahead of you. God’s happy with you. Things are going great. God’s going to take care of everything. And that’s what Pasher spoke. People would pack the temple to hear him. People wanted, if they could get a picture with Pasher, they’d get a picture with him. They would record his sermons. I mean, it was awesome. And then old Jeremiah comes in and says, that’s not how it’s going to be.

In fact, when Pasher the priest, the son of Emmer, was chief officer in the house of the Lord, he heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. He had Jeremiah the prophet. Listen to this now, because he didn’t want things to be upset. He had him beaten and put in stocks that were at the upper gate, the Benjamin gate, which was by the house of the Lord. Jeremiah loved being in the temple. He couldn’t even go in the temple anymore. They come up. They physically beat him. Pasher actually hits him. Imagine getting smacked in the face by the head guy, probably in front of everybody. They then pick him up, and they put him in stocks. And it’s not like these stocks weren’t like the stocks that you see kind of on TV where they kind of stick your head in and have your hands coming up through the other holes. They would kind of twist and contort your body to where you were in constant pain. Then they put you right there in front of the temple. So everybody going to church got a good look at you.

How do you think Jeremiah felt? Lord, I just did what you told me to do. Lord, I’m just trying to be obedient. He was angry. Not only was angry, he was embarrassed. Look at, again, verse 7. I have become a laughingstock all day long. How do you think those folks, what they did to him? They laughed at him. They maybe spit on him. They threw things at him. They said, parents looking to get their kids, said, don’t be like that guy. Don’t ever listen to what that guy says. Look what happens when you go against guys like Pasher and leadership. He was embarrassed. He was not only embarrassed, he was, handled our loneliness. Look what it says. Everyone mocks me. Not half of them mock me. Not a few mock me. Everyone mocks me. He’s angry. He’s embarrassed. He’s lonely.

Do you realize in the entire book of Jeremiah, it never once talks about him converting even one person. It never talks about one person saying, Bubba, I’m with you. The only… possible friend he had was a guy named Baruch. Baruch was his personal secretary. Baruch’s the guy that actually wrote all this down so that we would have it today. I’m thinking, I mean, that’s like Adonair Judson. Adonair Judson didn’t have a convert for seven years. He went, you know, he went to the Southeast Asia, and he’s one of our greatest missionaries. I’m thinking, man, if I couldn’t get a convert for seven years, or like Jeremiah, never, I’d re-baptize my wife. I’d baptize my daughter again. I mean, I’d baptize somebody. Jeremiah never had anybody. I mean, he not only writes this book, he writes a book called Lamentations, where he just pours out his grief before God, but he hangs in there. He’s not only angry, embarrassed, lonely, there’s fear in his life. Look at verse 10. For I have heard the whispering of many, terror on every side. You know, they’ve kind of turned around what he had said, now they’re now attributing it to him.

He tells Pashhur, it’s interesting, Pashhur comes the next morning and takes, he lets him get out of the stocks, and he just keeps preaching. On verse 3, on the next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, Pashhur is not the name that the Lord has called you. You know, when God wanted to make an emphasis on a person’s life, He’d sometimes change their names. You know, Simon became Peter, the rock. Paul became Saul. Why? Because he was now going to be, you know, a minister and a disciple to, you know, an apostle to the Gentiles. Pashhur gets a new name, Magor Mishabib. Okay, it’s not going to be Pashhur anymore, buddy. It’s going to be Magor Mishabib, which means this, behold, I am going to make you a terror to yourself, to all your friends. And while your eyes look on, they shall fall by the sword of their enemies. Basically, when these guys come in that the Lord’s talking about, there’s going to be terror on every side of not just the nation, but your family. You’re not listening to what God’s got to say. You just want to hear, tell them what they want to hear.

But there was fearing. There was also depression, verse 14 through 18. Now, I’m going to ask you this. How depressed do you have to be for you to go, I wish I’d never been born? Depression is a common but serious mood disorder. 21 million adults in the United States have had at least one major depressive episode. It’s not a one size fits all. In 2020, I want to tell you, I think it’s even higher in the ministry. It’s tough. There’s only a family history of depression, major life changes, trauma, stress, certain medications can trigger depression. 4.1 million adolescents as teenagers in the United States have at least one major depressive episode. Anxiety and depression disorder are closely related. Nearly 50% of those diagnosed with depression are also diagnosed with anxiety disorder. Women are twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with depression. It’s not a one size fits all. In 2021, it estimated 280 million people in the world experience depression. That’s just what we know. It’s tough. He’s depressed. Listen to what it says. Let the day not be blessed when my mother bore me. Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father saying, a baby boy has been born to you. I want to tell you, if you were a Jewish family and a guy came and said, you know, she had a baby and they said, well, it’s a boy. Well, he’d just go nuts. Especially if he was the first one in the family. And he’s going, I even cursed the guy who gave my daddy the news. How depressed do you have to be? Look at verse 18. Why did I ever come forth from the womb to look on trouble and sorrow so that my days have been spent in shame? I want to tell you guys, even in the ministry, we get depressed.

Anger. You know, he was angry at God. And I want to tell you, anger is not a sin. It’s what you do with it. You know, if you go to Ephesians 4, 26 and 27, you can look at the Bible says, when angry, do not sin. Do not ever let your wrath, your exasperation, your fury, your indignation last until the sun goes down. Leave no room or foothold for the devil to give an opportunity to him. Don’t say don’t ever get angry. It’s what you do with it. But here’s the answer. You know what? Because it takes a, he was frustrated Too. Look at verse eight. Each time I speak, I cry aloud. I proclaim violence and destruction because for me, the word of the Lord has resulted in reproach and derision all day long. He said, I’m frustrated because nobody’s listening to me. It’d be one thing if there were some folks again, but nobody’s listening. He’s frustrated. But like anger, here’s the deal. What do you do with it? You know what you do with it? You take it to God. Because we understand some things about God in this passage. We understand some things. Number one, we understand that He’s always with us. If you go back to chapter one, verse five, you understand that God’s been with him since before he was even in his mama’s womb. Folks, I want to tell you, God’s always with you. Why does God allow these kind of things happen? I mean, He’s not always with us. He’s there when we need Him. But why does God allow us to go through this mess? I listened to a guy right about a neighbor. His name was Dr. Gibbs. He was a doctor doctor. His house sat on 10 acres and his life goal was to make a forest. So he planted trees. Now, this good doctor had some interesting theories concerning plant husbandry. He came from the no pain, no gain school of horticulture. He never watered his trees, which flew in the face of conventional wisdom. Once I asked why he was watering plants, he says, I don’t want to spoil them. Wow. Once I asked him why he said watering plants, he says, and how if you water them, each successive generation, he says, will grow weaker and weaker. He says, I want to make things sometimes tough for him and weed out the weenie trees. He talked about how watering trees made for shallow roots. How trees that weren’t watered had to grow deep roots into search of moisture. I told him to, I took him to mean that deep roots were to be treasured. So he never watered his trees. He planted an oak and instead of watering every morning, he beat it, but it was rolled up newspaper. I said, what in the world? Mack slapped Powell. I asked him why he did that. He said, I want to get the trees attention. He said, Dr. Gibbs went to glory a couple of years after I left home. And every now and again, I walked by the house and looked at his trees and I watched him plant some over some that are 25 years old. They’re granite strong now. They’re big and robust. Those trees wake up in the morning and beat their chest and drink their coffee black. Sometimes God allows things to go on in our lives. So we build deep roots. So we know what what really is where the good water is, where we know where the good vitamins are and the nutrients. And we and we get deep so that when we go through other times in our life, our roots are strong. That’s what God does. But you say, but Al, this guy was a prophet. I want to tell you, folks, even pastors go through depression. You know, 90 percent of most pastors probably work most time between 55 and 75 hours a week. You don’t see it. You don’t see how many hours you’re put in the sermon. You don’t see four o’clock visits to the hospital or five thirty in the morning praying before somebody goes into surgery. You don’t see those things, but most of them do. Seventy-five percent of most pastors are just extremely stressed at any point in their walk. Ninety percent are fatigued and worn out every week. Forty percent report a serious conflict with a parishioner at least once a week. Seventy-eight were forced to resign from their church. Sixty-three at least twice, most commonly because of church conflict. I’m just telling you things, I mean, pastors, it’s no wonder that they say one in ten will retire as a pastor. Of ten pastors that go into the ministry, one, one, ten percent, retire as a pastor. And most pastors sit there and go, I really don’t have a friend. I don’t have a friend. Unless there’s maybe another pastor. And my prayer as this young man comes in here is that when he’s going through a tough time or whatever, you will wrap your arms around, especially, I’m talking especially to older men. You live up on him. You grow with him. This church needs to grow. As this church grows and he grows, you grow too with him. You walk with him. You know, most pastors don’t believe that They’ve got someone they can actually talk to if they’ve got a problem, especially in the church. Because the way most folks look at a pastor is they’ll sit there and say, “Well, wait a minute, we’re supposed to come to you. You’re not supposed to be the one with any kind of problems. You live up on this guy.” Jeremiah, unfortunately, wasn’t there. The guy he turned to was the Lord. I want to tell you the Lord’s enough. The Lord’s always with us. He’s there when we need Him. And He is our protector. In fact, in this passage, verse 11, “But the Lord is with me.” Listen to what He says, “Like a dread champion.” That’s the New American Standard. In the King James, I think it says, “What a terrible mighty one.” It means this: what goes around will come around. God will take care of you. He’s one who keeps His promises. You can count on it. God says He’ll take care of you. Now, He didn’t say it’s going to be easy, but He’ll see us through if we are obedient.

You know, what’s interesting in this is verse 9. He’s frustrated. He’s going to the one person he needs to go to. I want to tell you something. God is the one who created us. God is the one who gave us our emotions. God is big enough to handle your frustrations, your anger, your loneliness, all the things that you’re going through. God is big enough to handle those things. And if you’ll go to Him, here’s what He says: “Even if I say I will not remember Him or I speak any more His name,” he’s talking about God here, “then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire that’s shut up in my bones.” God’s still there. God’s still working. God and His love for me and what He will do for me and how He will walk me through this, it’s like a fire that’s in me. And the things He wants me to say, I know I got to say because it’s like it’s in my bones.

My daughter had a situation this week where it was a miracle, I think. In her small group from her church, that’s how they do Sunday school, in her small group there is an Egyptian couple. And this Egyptian couple in their small group says, “You know, we were out this past week and we were at a restaurant. And it was crowded. Every table was taken. And all of a sudden this couple came in. And we looked at them. And they had little Habib. And this couple is from Egypt.” And so they had room at their table, and so they would have had to wait. And they said, “No, why don’t you all come sit with us?” And what they found out is this couple was from Egypt. And they’re from Egypt. And so they had a conversation. So at the small group, here’s what they said. They said, “I want you to pray for this couple that God will do some neat things.”

Well, last week, my daughter was at Panera’s. And a couple walked in. And so my daughter decided, you know, she was working on a little computer doing some things. And Adam had said he’d watch the kids and let her get out for a little bit. And so she saw them come in. And they looked Muslim. And she said, “Lord, if You want me to talk to them, I’ll talk to them.” Tell how God works. The little boy was there. And he came over and he saw April’s computer. And he says, “Is that a Mac?” She goes, “Yeah, it’s a Mac.” He said, “Do you like Mac, HP? Because my parents didn’t get me one.” She says, “I like my Mac.” And so they started. And then the couple came over. And they started talking. Find out they were from Egypt. You know who they were? They were the very same couple that had met this other Egyptian couple at the restaurant earlier, you know, the week before. And they started a conversation. And now they’re going to come to their small group meeting and just check it out. She said, “I want you to meet some people.” And that couple, that family, that Egyptian family will be there who are Christians. And I’m telling you, God just does neat stuff if we’ll come to Him. See, God can handle our emotions no matter how many times things happen. Jeremiah understood that Jeremiah was, even after this, he’s going to have tough times. In chapter 29, which is the great chapter that has the, you know, “I have Plans for you, says the Lord. Plans for welfare, not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope. In that very same chapter, He’s got to say some tough things to the nation, too. They’ve got another priest by the name of Hananiah who goes out there and says, God’s not going to put us. Don’t you listen to Jeremiah. God’s not going to put us out there for 70 years. It’s only going to be a couple years. And then He’s going to restore us back to Jerusalem. And you know what Jeremiah says? That’s a bunch of bunk. Let me tell you what God’s going to do. God’s telling you to tell your grandkids to plant vineyards, your grandkids to plant farms, your grandkids to get comfortable. That’s how long you’re going to be there. And then God will give you a hope.

It’s tough doing what God wants you to do. It’s tough being obedient. Sometimes the world treats you with anger. Sometimes you’re embarrassed. Sometimes you’re lonely. Even as Christians, we have fear in our lives and depression and frustration. I want to tell you, we’re going to have that. But God’s telling you, you come to Me and you remain obedient and you don’t quit.

I’ll close with this. Greatest speech I’ve ever heard is by a guy named an admiral named William McRaven. William McRaven is the guy who was a Navy SEAL for 36 years. Just being a Navy SEAL or something. He was a Navy SEAL for 36 years. Four-star admiral. He was the guy in charge of the Obama raid. He was the guy in charge of the Captain Phillips when they took over the tanker, sending the SEALs to that. He was in charge of that. He was in charge when they got Osama bin Laden and some others. I mean, he was in charge of all special ops worldwide. He graduated the same year I graduated from the University of Texas. I went to, you know, Army officer basic course after ROTC. He went to BUDS training, basic underwater demolition for SEALs, where they just almost tortured that place because they want to weed out the weak.

He’s talking to the graduating class at the University of Texas. And he talks about one week, the ninth week, which is called Hell Week for obvious reasons. It is six days of no sleep, constant physical and mental harassment, and one special day at a place called the Mud Flats. See, the Mud Flats are an area between San Diego and Tijuana where the water runs off and creates the Tijuana sloughs, a swampy patch of terrain where the mud will literally engulf you. It’s on Wednesday of Hell Week that you paddle down to the Mud Flats and you spend, we’ll spend the next 15 hours trying to survive the freezing cold mud, the howling wind, and the incessant pressure to quit.

Here’s what the officers will say and the SEAL instructors. Because they’ll have a fire going. They’ll be eating their food in front of you, and you’re up to your neck in mud. And they’ll go, we just need five guys to quit. If five guys will quit, we’ll bring you all out of there. We’ll get you by the fire, and we’ll give you a warm meal. Just get these five guys to quit.

He says, the mud consumed each man there like where nothing was visible but our heads. He said, if five would quit, just five, that we would get out of the oppressive cold. And looking around the mudflat, it was apparent that some students were about to give up. It was still over eight hours till the sun came up. Eight more hours of bone-chilling cold. Chattering teeth, the shivering moans of the trainees were so loud you could hardly hear anything. And then one voice, one voice began to echo through the night. One voice raised in song. Now, the song was terrible. It was out of tune. But he sung it with enthusiasm. One voice became two. Two became three. And before long, everybody in the class was singing. We knew that if one man could rise above the misery, then others could as well.

Now, the instructors threatened us with more time in the mud if we kept singing. But the singing persisted. And somehow, the mud seemed a little warmer, the wind a little tamer, and the dawn not so far away. And then McRaven said this, if I have learned anything in my time traveling the world, it’s the power of hope. The power of one person, Washington, Lincoln, King, Mandela, even a young girl from Pakistan, Malala, one person can change the world by giving People hope. So if you want to change the world, start singing when you’re up to your neck in mud. And then he said this, finally, in SEAL training, you need to understand that there’s a bell. You can quit any time. All you got to do is ring the bell. That’s all you got to do. They’re not going to make you. They’re not going to… As soon as you ring that bell, they’ll dry you off. They’ll get you new clothes. They’ll let you take a shower. They’ll give you a meal, and they’ll send you on your way.

He said it’s a brass bell that hangs in the center of the compound for all the students to see. All you got to do to quit, ring the bell. See, ring the bell, you no longer have to wake up at 5 o’clock. Ring the bell, you no longer have to do the freezing cold swims. Ring the bell, you no longer have to do the runs, the obstacle course, the PT. You no longer have to endure the hardships of training. Just ring the bell. But he says if you want to change the world, you don’t ever, ever.

Let me tell you something about Jeremiah. Jeremiah never rang the bell. That’s why he’s my favorite. But all the junk he went through, all the frustration, the emotions he went through, he always found this. God was enough. God was always with Him. He was there when he needed Him. He was his protector. He would keep His promises. He’ll see us through it. It doesn’t say He’d take you from it. He would see you through it if we’re obedient. And He can handle our emotions, no matter what they are, as many times as it happens. He’s God.

Folks, I want to tell you, you’re going to see each other go through tough times. You come together. You always point them toward the Lord. There’ll be times in your life where you go, I feel like I could be in a room full of folks and I feel alone. I want to tell you, God’s there with you. You’re never alone. And then as a church, if we always come together and we do the things we need to do, God will be there and He’ll bless that and He’ll grow. He’ll grow you. But you just need to know God’s big enough to handle all that stuff. Don’t ever forget, ever forget that. Never ring the bell.

Let’s pray. Father, I thank You for Jeremiah. I thank You for his toughness. I thank You for his just person that he was. Lord, You didn’t even let him get married. Boy, he’s my favorite because he never rang the bell. Lord, there are folks here today, probably the things going on in their life, they’re ready to ring the bell. And You’ve got more for them. You love them. There’ll be times in our future where we’re going to be frustrated and angry and we need to know. And those feelings are okay. It’s what we do with them. And the thing we need to do is take them to You. You’re big enough. Let us never ring the bell. Help us to realize who You are, how much You love us. Give it all to You. Ask us in Your son’s precious name. Amen.