Episode 78: How Life Can Be Truly Great

Jacob Paul: Welcome to the truth and love podcast with your hosts Kimberly Faith and John Mack. The truth and love podcast seeks to present God’s timeless truth through the lens of his remarkable love.

Kimberly Faith: Confession. Today’s podcast about how our life can become truly great has, has been a long time coming for me. And it it kinda started with, I was I had made a commitment to read my paper bible more.

John McLarty: Good. Yeah. I love reading the paper bible. So I’m interested to hear this this journey.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. It was and it was it’s after we did that that podcast and a devotional on distraction and how the Internet is robbing our mind. Right? And so I I I, for some reason, was drawn to this verse. Jeremiah thirty three three, it says, where God says, call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know.

And I thought, well, that is that is insanely that that’s just insane to me that we can call to God and he’s gonna show us great and mighty things. That’s the God who who knows everything, who has you know, he is nothing is outside of his bailiwick of knowledge.

John McLarty: And, you know, just to jump in here, I’m I’m seeing this, which you do not know. And Which is most interesting. But our brain we think our brain does know a lot.

Kimberly Faith: Yes.

John McLarty: And, you know, we we just had this earlier discussion, and it goes back to previous podcast. The brain of our flesh

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm.

John McLarty: It does have logic and intellect, and God’s given it to us.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And we can figure out, oh, I need to tap the lid of the jar before it’ll open.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: So but God has this infinite wisdom, and we need to be so willing to adjust the logic of our own brain.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm.

John McLarty: Absolutely. And call to me, and I’ll answer you and show you mighty things which you do not know, things we couldn’t figure out.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: He knows what’s around that next corner. Yes. He knows that if you had done this, this Right. This terrible thing might have happened. So he’s continual in ways we don’t even know.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: He’s guiding us.

Kimberly Faith: And and so and I’ve heard this verse quoted many times, but I I was curious, what was the context of this verse? And I kept going back further and further into the book of Jeremiah and you know, because I I I’ll admit I haven’t really studied the, life of Jeremiah, the context. I’ve read the book several times, but I hadn’t really studied the context. And so what was amazing and we’re gonna talk about in this podcast today was the context in which this promise was given. And

John McLarty: Well, share that with us.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Just

John McLarty: I’m not I haven’t read that recently myself, so it’d

Kimberly Faith: be interesting to Well So I

John McLarty: wanna your deep dive into it.

Kimberly Faith: I wanna pair this first with the with the the command that God gave Jeremiah in chapter 32 right before chapter 33. Mhmm. And he said, Jeremiah said, the word of the lord came to me saying, behold, Hanamel, the son of Shalom, your uncle will come to you saying, buy my field, which is in Anathoth, and for the right of redemption is yours to buy it. Now that may that may seem like an innocuous word from the lord, but when you look at the context of where and when what was going on in in the history of Judah at this time, And we’re gonna talk about the history just a little bit because I think it merits discussion. Mhmm.

But just in a nutshell, the city was encircled by siege ramps. Famine was rampant. The the city was on the brink of falling. Okay? So from a human perspective, this conversation that Jeremiah has with God where God

John McLarty: says So they were under siege.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. Mhmm. That’s right. By Nebuchadnezzar and and his Chaldean army. And so from a human perspective, God is giving Jeremiah this nonsensical command.

Hey. Go buy a field in the middle of the war, the war zone. Right? And so I want

John McLarty: And just for context, the siege was I mean, it was effective. They were defeated. Yes. This is like just before the exile.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. They were starving to death.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: Right? And so but that kind of sets the context for for again, this the top the top of this podcast is how our life becomes truly great. And so in order to kinda understand, though, kind of the background on this, I I thought it would be, worthwhile to kind of highlight Mhmm. The history to how did Judah end up being surrounded by one of its worst enemies and under siege and about to be destroyed.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: And so, you know, we have of course, we we all know king David reigned for forty years, and he he established this Davidic dynasty with God’s covenant promise of his enduring throne. Right? Then Solomon comes along, and Solomon starts out great, reigns for forty years. But by the time he’s finished, he’s got pagan foreign wives, pagan altars. He’s got there’s plant there’s seeds of division, false worship.

And right after he dies, the divided kingdom era enter Mhmm. Enters its its the enters the stage. So we know that the Northern Kingdom, which was called Israel, falls to Assyria in 07/22 where time frame David’s David’s reign was around October. Mhmm. But now we’re up to 07/22 where Israel falls to Assyria just due to rampant worship of false gods.

John McLarty: Baal worship.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: Mhmm.

Kimberly Faith: And so we’ve got the Kingdom Of Judah, which is a Southern kingdom, which includes Jerusalem. And so for for about a hundred years, you’ve got reform and decline in Hezekiah and Josiah, and you’ve got this back and forth. It’s kind of the same thing that happened in the wilderness when they’re wandering. They’d they’d follow God for a while

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: And and under the judges. Right? And then they go worship the idols of the foreign the foreign people, and they would you know, God would judge them, and they would come back in the cyclical, form.

John McLarty: They kept going back to idolatry.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. That’s right. So around 06/27 is when BC is when Jeremiah’s ministry begins, and he actually prophesied for forty years through a number of kings of Judah. And some of them were were

John McLarty: That is amazing. It is Forty forty years of

Kimberly Faith: warning. Right. Right. And and he starts out in Josiah’s reign when Josiah was a good king. Matter of fact, Josiah was was killed in battle while fighting the forces of Egypt.

Josiah was trying to clean up the clean up the land. He was trying to get rid of the idols. He was a good king. And then you’ve got his sons and his grandsons that come after him. And the just the decline as the people revert to idolatry and rebellion.

And what’s interesting is that well, of course, we’ve talked about Daniel and his his three friends.

John McLarty: Shaggy, Meshach, and Abednego.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Right.

John McLarty: Three in the fiery furnace and then the fourth Right. Fourth man.

Kimberly Faith: Right. And so the first kind of okay. You know, God’s using Babylon really to judge Judah. Right. But they come in six zero five BC and take the best of the best of the people that included Daniel and his three friends.

And that was the first kind of attack. You know? And then then you fast forward another eleven years. And at this point, you know, Israel continues just to spiral down or or Judah continues to spiral downward. And by that time, Nebuchadnezzar has appointed king Zedekiah, who’s kind of a vassal he’s kind of a joke, really Mhmm.

King. And he, you know, stages this revolt, which ultimately leads to Nebuchadnezzar sending his elite Chaldean army in and saying we’re take we’re gonna level the city. And that’s that’s where we are when Jeremiah thirty two and thirty three is happening. Right. Now keep in mind

John McLarty: That’s an interesting context. So Yes. Seize the worst of the worst.

Kimberly Faith: The worst of the worst.

John McLarty: I mean, the idolatry is still rampant.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. Yes. And what’s what’s, if you really study the bible the bible is such a fascinating book because it uses you you pick up details of what’s going on in Jeremiah from books like Lamentations, second Kings. You know, it there’s these these snippets of things that are happening that have been, also written in other books. So for example, we know that the at this time, the Babylonian armies were had encircled the city.

They built the big siege ramps up against the walls, kinda like they did at Masada, And, they cut off the supplies, cut off the escape. The famine was ravaging Jerusalem. People that in fact, in Lamentations in second Kings, we hear that there even was cannibalism, disease. I mean, everything

John McLarty: False prophets. False prophets. Offering easy fix.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And we’re gonna talk

John McLarty: cake and eat it too.

Kimberly Faith: That’s what we’re gonna talk about. We’re gonna talk about, false prophets in the context of this how do we become truly great. So here’s Jeremiah. And, of course, he they every one of these crazy kings were, like, constantly imprisoning him. They were constantly threatening his life, imprisoning him because he was saying, repent.

Repent.

John McLarty: He was telling it straight.

Kimberly Faith: He was telling it straight. And he is and in the meantime and we’re gonna I really wanna talk about this, and and we’ll talk about that just in just a minute. How that the false religious leaders, the religious leaders of the time who were more like they were kind of in the in with the king, so to speak, were completely allowing apostasy. They were, oh, yeah. It’s okay if you wanna be sexually immoral.

It’s okay if you wanna spend some time burning a sacrifice to Baal or whoever these false gods are.

John McLarty: And still claim

Kimberly Faith: And still be a claim child of God.

John McLarty: Of God.

Kimberly Faith: Because it was a matter of Jewish pride. Right. We are God’s chosen people. Right? And so this kind of sets the stage for God’s command, Jeremiah, to buy a field in the midst of devastation.

John McLarty: Which would make no sense to the human logic.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And I and I believe, and I I could be wrong about this, but I think the field was actually outside the city walls. And so it makes even less sense. Right? Mhmm.

And so so in the middle of this, you know, God says to Jeremiah, buy this field. And and it’s so interesting to hear that we read Jeremiah 32, verse six that says, the word of the Lord came into me

John McLarty: Mhmm.

Kimberly Faith: Saying, buy behold, you know, Hananimal will come and and say buy this field. Well, that’s exactly what happened. And what’s interesting is that now Jeremiah actually is housed in the King’s Prison at the time of this conversation with God. Okay? He’s, you know, the

John McLarty: Interesting.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. So the, Zedekiah has thrown him in prison because he won’t shut up. And, so it it if you look down in in chapter 32, it’s and it says that I knew this is Jeremiah. Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord. So I bought the field and weighed out him the money, 17 shekels of silver.

Then I signed the deed. I I, took witnesses and weighed the money in the scales. So so I took the purchase deed, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and gave the purchase deed to Barak, the son of Narayah, son of, you know, these different people. And in the presence of the witnesses before all the Jews who sat in the court of the prison this was a very public thing that he did. Mhmm.

He wasn’t just buying surreptitiously this field and thinking everybody’s gonna think I’m crazy, so I’m gonna do this in secret. No. No. There was a whole bunch of people witnessing him doing this.

John McLarty: Interesting.

Kimberly Faith: And then right after that, the lord talks to him again and says, take these deeds and put them in earthen vessels that they may last many days. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land. See, the the

John McLarty: That is amazing.

Kimberly Faith: That is so amazing. And and Jeremiah the the thing about the reason Jeremiah was so great for the glory of God is because he didn’t just preach restoration. He was living Mhmm. As if it was guaranteed. I mean, that to

John McLarty: me And he and put his money

Kimberly Faith: Where his mouth was.

John McLarty: Where his mouth was. Yeah. And what what God had told him to do, which human reasoning could have come into play. Right. Talked about this battle of the mind.

Right. One side of his his logic, his brain of his flesh should be going, Jeremiah, talking to himself. Right. That is the silliest thing. You could buy something else with 17 shickles of of

Kimberly Faith: silver. Right.

John McLarty: Makes no sense. Maybe some food. Right? We’re surrounded by the enemy. Right.

We’re starving.

Kimberly Faith: Well, what’s what’s even

John McLarty: That is so amazing. And then to bury it.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And then he’s you know, it it well, again, the public nature of this purchase is is pretty is pretty incredible. But then I love this about Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s prayer right after this happened, he first starts by praising God and worshiping. Like we talked about in the last broadcast, he says, oh, Lord God, behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power.

There is nothing too hard for you.

John McLarty: Great verse.

Kimberly Faith: It’s such a

John McLarty: great Such

Kimberly Faith: a great verse. And it kinda goes on and talks about, you know, yeah, these children of Israel, you know, you promised this thing, but they’re doing nothing

John McLarty: to

Kimberly Faith: help themselves. And it’s it’s so it’s so relieving and comforting to he to read Jeremiah’s prayer in Jeremiah 32. I would encourage you to read it. Because because he doesn’t he doesn’t hold back. He’s not like, you know, trying to, you know he’s okay with lamenting to god.

Like, you know what? I don’t know what’s going on. I’m okay now what’s going on. But he’s like, look at the siege mounds, god. This calamity is coming, but you’re telling me that you’re gonna restore you’re gonna you’re gonna restore these these fields and these vineyards.

John McLarty: And he’s preaching this message to the people. I’m just looking at the end of this verse in in Jeremiah thirty two twenty three to 25.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm.

John McLarty: It says, oh, lord god, buy the field for money and take witnesses, yet the city has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Right.

John McLarty: But it’s it’s going to be restored. That would and that has was his message.

Kimberly Faith: And that and that’s, again, that’s another part of being truly great. Mhmm. You know, Jeremiah didn’t see the promises of God, but he knew they were true. And he wasn’t afraid to tell people this is going to happen. And then he kinda you know, as he’s praying, I love how God responds in verse thirty two twenty seven.

He says, behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me? That’s I think God talking to him and and reassuring him. And then he God kinda goes on to to talk in more detail about how he’s going to bring them back, and he’s gonna cause them to dwell safely. And they will be my people.

I will be their god. I’ll give them one heart, one way.

John McLarty: I’ll I’ll just read this. It’s just this is just giving me chills because it it’s related to what happened back then, and it’s related to today.

Kimberly Faith: Yes.

John McLarty: I mean, here, Israel is back in their land. Right. You know? And this is referring to the the exile and then the return. Mhmm.

But

Kimberly Faith: But it’s also end times.

John McLarty: Yes. It says, behold, I will gather them out of all countries where I have driven them in my anger, in my fury, and in great wrath, I will bring them back to this place and will cause them to dwell safely. Yes. Wow.

Kimberly Faith: That’s such a

John McLarty: So, yeah, that happened historically. Right. But then it’s also an end time.

Kimberly Faith: It’s an end time.

John McLarty: It’s very fascinating.

Kimberly Faith: His his word is so brilliant. Mhmm. You know, if you ever you you can never be bored reading god’s word. And and it’s you know, he kinda this this whole idea in Jeremiah’s prayer that I the kind of the takeaway the key takeaway for me is here, Jeremiah is obeying in the face of basically this command that makes zero sense to the human logic. And then God’s saying, is there anything too hard for me?

It’s and this is kind of what ties us to chapter 33. But before before we go to chapter 33, I really wanna zero in in for for a minute because this is something that I think anybody listening to this podcast has probably seen, and we need to be warned. We need to be alert for some significant danger that was in place in Judah at this time in Jerusalem and is is happening today as well. And because you might ask the question, if if this was all happening, if their enemies were surrounding them, if all these things were happening, it so evident to anyone with any common sense that they needed to repent. Right.

What was it that was keeping them so diluted? And it I’ll tell you what I what I the Lord was just showing me out of these verses. It was the religious leaders who were endorsing apostasy. And we we talked about this just a little bit earlier, but these were the priests, the prophets, the people that that that were trusted by the Judea population to give them the truth, but they were leading them astray with false assurances and idolatrous practices. And, you know, if you read, like, for as early as Jeremiah chapter five, Jeremiah writes, an astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land.

The prophets prophesied falsely, and the priests rule by their own power, and my people love Mhmm. To have it so. But what will you do in the end? I mean, I I just think about all the religions in the world that are teaching that you have to work to be saved when the bible clearly says you do not. All the religions in the world that use fear and control and power in a hierarchical sense to control people into paying money, doing all these things that have nothing to do with glorifying God.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: And that’s what was going on then.

John McLarty: And I’m thinking also, it’s kind of workspace, but it’s churches that even deny the deity of Christ and the gospel, and even that, you know, that there’s really a need for salvation, and just have turned I refer to it as the social gospel. Well, Christianity is really just about feeding the poor and having soup kitchens. And don’t tell anybody, you know, there’s a, you know, heaven or hell.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: We’re just here to do good. Yeah. Yeah. And that’s becoming more and more common.

Kimberly Faith: Absolutely.

John McLarty: Just in in this nation.

Kimberly Faith: Well, and it was you

John McLarty: know?

Kimberly Faith: It happened in Europe.

John McLarty: Think about it in Europe. It’s just almost destroyed biblical Christianity.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. It’s a it’s a social thing. It’s a cultural

John McLarty: And then even that dissipates.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. Well, it’s it’s

John McLarty: And now churches in Europe are just turning into

Kimberly Faith: It’s not even it’s not sustaining.

John McLarty: Storefronts. Right?

Kimberly Faith: It’s not sustaining. I mean, you cannot sustain good works without a deeper motivation than self. You know?

John McLarty: So I think the key here is that was coming from the religious leaders back in Jeremiah’s day.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. Yes.

John McLarty: It wasn’t coming from the the obvious Right. You know, bail worshippers.

Kimberly Faith: The honky tonks. Right. You’re and by Jeremiah 23, verses sixteen and seventeen, that God is saying, thus saith the lord of hosts, do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesied to you. They make you worthless. They speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of the Lord.

They continually say to those who despise me, the Lord has said, you shall have peace. And to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say, no evil shall come upon you. That’s what we’re hearing today.

John McLarty: That is so true.

Kimberly Faith: I mean, that is if if there is a minister or a church a group leader or anybody that you respect that is teaching anything that contrary to God’s word, a huge red flag should come up. Mhmm. And and and morning, I remember being in a church where I I greatly respect the leadership in this church, and I I truly do. But I remember hearing from the pulpit, you can lose your salvation. And I was in the parking lot texting, like, we’ve got to talk about this.

Mhmm. You know? And and we had several hourly hour long con well, several hours, actually. A very civilized discussion about it. But in order to know what’s false, you have to know the truth.

If you want to become truly great for God’s glory, you have to know the truth. And part of that is understanding the history and the Bible, the Old Testament that this isn’t something new. There’s nothing new under the sun, and this has been happening. This is one of the best ways that Satan has used religion to bring people right to the gates of hell is by by using the religious leaders

John McLarty: Mhmm.

Kimberly Faith: Saying, oh, you’re gonna be fine. You’re gonna have peace. Yeah. No evil’s gonna come upon you. Just do whatever feels good.

You know? And

John McLarty: Religious leaders are failing to to confront obvious, you know, sinful behaviors.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Well, either God is God Mhmm. And his word is true, and he is right and righteous, or he’s not. Mhmm. You know?

If if the standard is something other than God’s standard, if it’s what I feel, what you feel, then God isn’t who he says he is. And that’s the bottom line. And, you know, we have in the modern day, we have just like Judah’s leaders, we have, I mean, we have leaders who endorse I there was a church in town who, for Christmas, had nothing about Jesus in the church. Right. And and the pastor was endorsing a terrible movie.

It was filled with cursing and sexual content and to his congregation. I I just I had and I don’t go to this church, but I I have friends who go to this church, and they were so confused. They’re like, I know this isn’t right. What am I you know, and and what am I supposed to do? And I said, go to God’s word.

That’s that’s your standard. It’s not this person. It’s not me. It’s God’s word. But the problem is when when we have religious leaders who endorse, you know, illicit sexual content, cursing, you know, whatever social media content that’s graphic, that is directly contrary to God’s word.

And with Psalms one zero one, it says, will set nothing wicked before my eyes. I hate the work of those who fall away. It shall not cling to me. You know, the bible talks about fornication, uncleanness, covetousness, all the works of the flesh.

John McLarty: Well, let me just throw this in. Our associate pastor Kenny Francis has just began the series of lessons that the Israel was replaced as by by the church as the house of God. And that it was it was set up as it was even referred to as a nation. It was a nation without boundaries and without a specific language, but it did have it did have, you might say, practices. Yes.

It had cultural distinction that was supposed to be different from the culture.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And those things you just mentioned, you know, let no corrupt communication proceed from your mouth. Fornication and all uncleanness and covetousness. Let no put off anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy. Right. So this this institution, as was Israel, is supposed to be distinct Right.

Instead of just unrecognizable from the rest of the world. Right. And what you’re talking about is like the pastoral leadership just saying, oh, it’s okay. Yeah. Just, you know, go.

It’s Whatever feels good. Unpopular back in the, you know, nineteen hundreds, but now we’re in the February.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Right. Well and it it really kind of also reminds me of second Timothy four three through four where it says, for the time will come Mhmm. When they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears

John McLarty: Perfect.

Kimberly Faith: They will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. You know, if we are not willing to acknowledge that there is such a thing as truth

John McLarty: Mhmm.

Kimberly Faith: And it it must come from God’s word and to know how to discover the truth of God’s word, you get it you have to be serious about it. It’s not a cat you cannot casually study God’s word without God’s spirit and understand why a lot of things that can happen in the Bible. And I’m not saying I’ve under I understand everything. But the bible is very clear that the natural man does not comprehend the things of God. We have to be born again and have the spirit of Christ residing in our soul and our spirit so that we are it’s kinda like it’s kinda like, you know, if I decide to charge my iPad and I and I plug it in on on the end, to the iPad, but I never plug it into the power, it’s never gonna be charged.

When we are born again, we are plugged into the power source, Jesus Christ, and then we decide whether to turn it on or not. And that’s when we engage in discovering the truth. That’s that’s why we call this podcast truth and love. We understand that some the truth can be hard. It’s hard to tell your children, hey.

You know what? You shouldn’t watch, sexual content when they’re teenagers. You know?

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: It’s not an easy conversation.

John McLarty: Or just go shack up with somebody.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. It’s not an easy and even, like, people that you’re trying to help who are shacked up or whatever. You know, I have a lot of friends that I that I have made that are have chosen these alternative lifestyles. I know people who have decided that they’re not a him or a her. They’re something else.

These are not conversations that you can have in a, just in a setting without giving that to people with that with love. You’ve got to love on people. Mhmm. But if we’re born again believers already, then if we’re choosing to listen to the itchy ear professors, so to speak, or preachers, we are choosing to compromise our own ability to have greatness through the power of God because our sin is is what crucified Jesus Christ. He is not going to snuggle up to that.

He is not going to be able to empower us in a way that is, that is sustaining, without us being willing to mourn sin. And we gotta call a spade to spade, and it’s hard. It’s hard. I’m not gonna sit here and say I’ve I’ve arrived. It is hard.

But, man, when we experience the power of God, then we come to Jeremiah 33 where God says, you’re in a place, Jeremiah, where you’re obeying me even though it doesn’t make sense. You have I mean, did Jeremiah, if you look at the history of Jeremiah, when he was called to be a priest at a very young age, you know, there was a decision, and I don’t I don’t remember off the top of my head, but he never got married. He never had a family. He dedicated his life to Christ. And I’m not saying that, you know, that’s for everybody.

That’s obviously was for Jeremiah. But when he entered into that dedication to living out what he was was being taught by God and what he believed, then he got the invitation from God where he said, behold, I will show you great and mighty things. Don’t you wanna be that person?

John McLarty: I he he’s a this is a great example. Yeah. This every time you and I have a a podcast, I’m like, oh, this is challenging me. Yeah. He was and calling out apostasy back in the day.

You know? And and it was almost to no avail. Yeah. I mean, they did not listen to him.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And Israel was taken by siege. Mhmm. And the whole exile happened. Mhmm. But he was true true to the word of God.

And that’s really just something you said earlier about it’s kind of apostasy weakens the church’s witness.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: I’m just thinking about, you know, if you just live a life and let the world seep in, you know, and then you’re just you know, whatever. Whether it’s cheating at work or, you know, in an affair in your marriage, and then you’re gonna tell somebody blame Jesus or just lying. Just lying. Just cuss.

Kimberly Faith: You know? Yeah.

John McLarty: Just Let one rip. You know? Right. Most people in America say, no. Christians shouldn’t be doing that.

You’re but this this anything goes mentality.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And

John McLarty: it was just, you know, boy, there’s nothing new under the sun that’s No. Describes Jeremiah’s day.

Kimberly Faith: There’s not. And and what’s so what’s so beautiful and I don’t wanna I don’t wanna, like, camp out on, you know, just all the the sin that we need to that we’re constantly bombarded by. Because on the flip side of that on the flip side of that is something so beautiful that when we get it, when we understand that it’s better to live in loving obedience than to live in open rebellion or secret rebellion, then we get to enjoy what I mean, there’s nothing in the bible that says we can’t be in the same place Jeremiah was with the Lord. Mhmm. And I love that, I wanna read And and, well, Jeremiah 33, it it says first just verses one through three.

It says, the word of the lord came to Jeremiah a second time. This is after he told him to build the field by the field. And while he was still shut up in the court of the prison saying, thus saith the lord who made it and who formed it to establish it. 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.

Well, then later, the the lord reveals to Jeremiah this wonderful prophecy. He says, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah in those days. And at that time, I will cause to grow up to David a branch of righteousness. He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In those days, Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell safely.

And this is the name by which she will be called the Lord our righteousness.

John McLarty: That is great. I mean, that that is God and you just think of God’s promises in our life.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: We can have as we’ve talked before, life is full of trouble. Yep. The Christian life isn’t just a cakewalk.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: But we have eternal life. Yeah. You know, heaven is guaranteed not because of our righteousness.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: But because of you know, so we’re saved by grace through faith. But he is capable. That’s Call to me, and I will answer you.

Kimberly Faith: Well, and if if we really want to be in the know with God, then we it’s not rocket science. You know? We talked about in the last podcast, Jesus said, you know, if if you love the first great and great command, love the lord your god with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind. And that that just means that God is the center. And that’s a daily, hourly decision to make God the center.

But when we do, oh, man, you know, then God is like inviting us to unlock the greater mysteries, to walk and hear his voice behind us saying, here’s the way. Go, you know, walk in it. Right? And and you and I have talked about this a lot, that it’s it’s like a multifaceted experience. Mhmm.

We’re not only the here and now. It may be something as simple as go here like this, you know, like, go to this Pilates class instead of that one. It may be something like that or, you know, enter into a friendship with this particular person because not just for the here and now, but because their eternal destiny may be on the line. And we get the opportunity to to to minister to them and maybe change the course of their eternity.

John McLarty: Yeah. We’re part of God’s promises to us, and then we’re, as it says in, Corinthians, we’re we’re ambassadors for Christ.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And to be a part of

Kimberly Faith: that. Right.

John McLarty: And why would we wanna interfere with that?

Kimberly Faith: Well, and it’s and it’s so

John McLarty: Been used by God.

Kimberly Faith: It’s such a it it it’s so satisfying. When we learn that we don’t have to depend on our human reasoning to figure out why God is asking us. In other words, we we can act in faith. I remember the the the when my son and I went bungee jumping in New Zealand. And, you know, I remember thinking, well, I really gotta have faith in these people that are attaching this equipment to my ankles.

Right? And but that wasn’t a lot of faith, really, to just I saw Rails doing it. I was like, well, these guys must know what they’re doing, and this is the oldest bungee jumping in, you know, New

John McLarty: I’ll leave the bungee jumping to you and John, Ken. But It made a good video.

Kimberly Faith: It was a great video, but it was and it was fun. But but think about that. Would I trust God less than I’m gonna trust a

John McLarty: Good example.

Kimberly Faith: Bunch of people I don’t know?

John McLarty: Mhmm.

Kimberly Faith: And but when we allow when we allow God to build this supernatural faith in us through salvation and growth, then we have this field. When when God says buy a field, we know that this field is going to have eternal cons eternal worth, eternal value just like what he did for Jeremiah.

John McLarty: That’s interesting. He and he invested money in it. Yeah. That field.

Kimberly Faith: Oh, that’s an interesting point. Mhmm. Yeah. And and that’s you know, we should nothing that we have should be worth holding on to Right. If we can release it for God’s glory.

Mhmm. Because then it becomes less of it comes it transfers from being a temporal thing to being an eternal thing.

John McLarty: So I’m thinking of investing money or time in in others, in the ministry. Right. I’m just thinking right now. I’m I’m supposed to deliver Elsa Lee. Wants a slice of my homemade bread.

Kimberly Faith: Well, there you go.

John McLarty: I made a I was giving a devotion, and she’s listening over. I’ll just kinda give an example. She was listening online, and she’s you know, she’s she has

Kimberly Faith: She’s homebound.

John McLarty: Some health, but she’s homebound. So I said, yeah. I need to be more like Russ and go over and cut branches in that for Elsa’s yard when a tree falls over. And she she told Lynn, my wife, later on, tell John he doesn’t need to come branch cut branches up for me. He needs to bring me some sourdough toasted sourdough bread with bread and honey.

Kimberly Faith: Some of your dad’s bread.

John McLarty: I’m like, yes, ma’am, Nestle. But that’s you know?

Kimberly Faith: Well, you’re

John McLarty: thinking right now, like, oh, I need to invest that. You know? That’s time. And Right. I just haven’t made some sourdough bread.

So

Kimberly Faith: Well, you bring up a good

John McLarty: have a call. I have a mission.

Kimberly Faith: You you bring up a really good point because when we hear God’s voice, first of all, we have to be born again, but we’re living in his in his will, then we have we’re ready for those biofield moments. Right? Mhmm. We’re ready to plant seeds that will not will not ever maybe ever reap the the harvest on. But

John McLarty: Sometimes you’re doing it by faith. Yes. But not just the this empty, you know, clueless faith, but faith that God’s leading you so you do it

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: Even though you can’t see the immediate benefit.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And it may be the Elsa Lee. It may be, you know, reaching teaching a bible study. It may be, cleaning the toilets at church. Those things are all have eternal consequences when we’re done for God’s glory.

John McLarty: Mhmm. Dancing some coats and blankets down to the homeless shelter.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. That’s right. And, you know, it it starts with if we wanna live in true greatness and and be in the know with the great and mighty things that god has for us, then we really it’s it’s not rocket science. It’s we, you know, we first are born again, and then we decide to obey. And we obey because we love God.

And then he and and here’s the thing about faith either. When it’s supernatural faith from God, it never denies reality. We’re not

John McLarty: True.

Kimberly Faith: We know Mhmm. There’s a if you are if you are learning the truth, you know there’s a spiritual warfare even greater than the siege that was going on in Jerusalem in in Jeremiah’s time. We owe

John McLarty: Or the spiritual yes. The spiritual warfare

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: Of today.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And we know

John McLarty: ’26.

Kimberly Faith: There is a siege going on, but God is faithful, and we can trust him. Yes. There are consequences to our decision. If I choose to invest money in a ministry instead of maybe paying my mortgage or something, yeah, there’s a cost to that. Redemption is redemption is forever.

Right?

John McLarty: Some buy filled moments as as god leads.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: Whether it makes sense or not. Yeah. But, you know, being led by faith and that you know, one of the things part of that is of that being is that being our prayer. Yes. Is, lord, I want that yieldedness.

Kimberly Faith: Yes.

John McLarty: Yes. I don’t wanna just be limited to my own I mean, our brain can think of good things to do.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: But you know?

Kimberly Faith: But why we limit ourselves? We have the omnipotent mind of God, the omniscient mind of God. And and it just it’s so encouraging me to me to know that, you know, we all want to live in greatness. Right? We all have some desire.

Even people who say they don’t, they do. Mhmm. Because we here’s why. We know we were created in God’s image. Well, we don’t always know that, but we are created in God’s image, and he is great.

So we know we were created for greatness because we were created to live in God’s glory, for God’s glory.

John McLarty: Amen.

Kimberly Faith: And so when we when we really take this this command where he says, you know, call to him Yeah. He’ll show you mighty things.

John McLarty: Call to me, and I will answer you Yes. And show you great and mighty things that you do not know. When we That’s a call call to me. That’s that’s a pray. Call it out to me.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. Like And I will

John McLarty: answer you. That’s exciting.

Kimberly Faith: It is exciting.

John McLarty: It’s challenging.

Kimberly Faith: And it’s you know, we can wake up every morning and say, god, show me your will today. God, bring me into alignment with your word. Bring my life. Help me to put my flesh into submission to your will. He will answer those prayers.

He wants to answer those prayers. And I think we

John McLarty: Show me a field to

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. Show me a field to buy. And so if you’re living today and you you want that greatness, it’s not rocket science. I keep saying that. That’s probably an old term.

But just turn your life over to god in every every corner of your life, and he will show you great and mighty things which you do not know.

John McLarty: I just wanna and just wrap up. When I say buy a field buy a field, that’s not just necessarily with silver. Mhmm. That’s our that can be our time.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: Just investing in others.

Kimberly Faith: Well, in our love.

John McLarty: Yeah. In our love. I mean You know? Our time is, you know We think about a commodity, so to speak.

Kimberly Faith: We think about, you know, loving people and the people that are hard to love. Well, when we invest love into people who, you know, we think don’t deserve it, kinda like we don’t deserve it. Right?

John McLarty: Amen.

Kimberly Faith: We are buying a field because that love isn’t from us anyway. It’s from God. And we’re just investing what we already have. What he’s everything we have, our time, our money, our resources, our love, it’s not ours anyway if we’re if we belong to Christ.

John McLarty: And you know what? We all want to be part of great and mighty things.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: That’s really a human desire. We’d to be something bigger than us. You know, sometimes it’s, you know, just, you know, a sports team Right. And all these community efforts. But this is great and mighty things that God can get God’s a part of.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. Well, he’s in

John McLarty: charge of. You can’t get greater or mightier

Kimberly Faith: than God. Valid point. That’s a valid point. You know, we our greatness has limits. You know, I was I I saw on the news where the gentleman who was supposed to win the gold medal who I they call him the quad he calls himself the quad god and, where he he really kinda had a bad short program and ended up in eighth place and was super disappointed.

Well, his greatness only only can limp it’s limited to what he can do on skates. Yeah. Right. Right? Mhmm.

But if he gives his life to Christ Amen. His greatness is is unlimited because God is unlimited. And that’s so exciting. That is so exciting that we can have that.

John McLarty: Amen. That’s a challenge.

Kimberly Faith: Alright, dad. This was a good one. This was a good good word from God.

John McLarty: Makes me wanna go reread Jeremiah.

Kimberly Faith: If today’s episode stirred your heart, we want to invite you to go even deeper. At gofaithstrong.com, you’ll find a growing library of faith based resources designed to encourage, equip, and strengthen your walk with God every single day. Whether you’re searching for meaningful devotionals, real life testimonies, Christ centered blog posts, or soul stirring music, it’s all there, created to meet you where you are and lead you closer to where God is calling you to be. We believe that walking in faith doesn’t just happen on Sundays. It’s a daily pursuit.

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