What does true greatness really look like?
In this episode, Kimberly Faith and John McLarty explore Jeremiah 32–33, where God tells Jeremiah to buy a field while Jerusalem is under siege. The city is starving. Destruction is imminent. From a human perspective, the command makes no sense.
Yet Jeremiah obeys.
Through this powerful moment, we see that greatness isn’t about status, success, or recognition. It’s about trusting God beyond logic, standing firm in truth when compromise is popular, and investing in what has eternal value—even when we don’t see immediate results.
God’s promise still stands: “Call to Me, and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know.”
True greatness begins with surrender.
Jacob Paul: Welcome to the Truth in Love podcast with your hosts Kimberly Faith and John Mac. The Truth in Love podcast seeks to present God’s timeless truth through the lens of his remarkable love.
Kimberly Faith: Well, dad I, confession. Today’s podcast about how our life can become truly great has been a long time coming for me. And it kind of started with, I had made a commitment to read my paper bible more.
John McLarty: Good.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: I love reading the paper bible. So I’m interested to hear about this journey.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. It was after we did that podcast and a devotional on distraction and how the Internet is robbing our mind. Right? And so I, for some reason, was drawn to this verse. Jeremiah 33:3, 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’s just insane to me that we can call to God and he’s going to show us great and mighty things. That’s the God who knows everything, who has you know, nothing is outside of his bailiwick of knowledge.
John McLarty: And, you know, just to jump in here, I’m seeing this, which you do not know.
Kimberly Faith: Which is most everything.
John McLarty: Right. But we think our brain does know a lot.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: And, you know, we just had this earlier discussion, and it goes back to previous podcast. The brain of our flesh, 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: But God has this infinite wisdom, and we need to be so willing to adjust the logic of our own brain.
Kimberly Faith: Absolutely.
John McLarty: 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.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: He knows that if you have done this…
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: 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 so, I’ve heard this verse quoted many times, but 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’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 going to talk about in this podcast today was the context in which this promise was given.
John McLarty: Well, share that with us.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: I haven’t read that recently myself, so I would be interested to hear your deep dive into it.
Kimberly Faith: I want to pair this first with the command that God gave Jeremiah in Chapter 32 right before Chapter 33. 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 seem like an innocuous word from the Lord, but when you look at the context of where and when what was going on in the history of Judah at this time, we’re going to talk about the history just a little bit because I think it merits discussion. But just in a nutshell, the city was encircled by siege ramps. Famine was rampant. The city was on the brink of falling. Okay? So from a human perspective, this conversation that Jeremiah has with God where God says
John McLarty: So they were under siege.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right.That’s right. By Nebuchadnezzar 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.
Kimberly Fatih: Yes.
John McLarty: 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 again, the topic of this podcast is how our life becomes truly great. And so in order to kind of understand, though, kind of the background on this, I thought it would be worthwhile to kind of highlight the history to how did Judah ended 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 all know King David reigned for forty years, and 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 are seeds of division, false worship. And right after he dies, the divided kingdom era enters the stage. So we know that the Northern Kingdom, which was called Israel, fell to Assyria in 722 BC. where the time frame of David’s reign was around 1010 BC. But now we’re up to 722 BC. where Israel falls to Assyria just due to rampant worship of false gods.
John McLarty: Baal worship.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And so we’ve got the Kingdom Of Judah, which is a Southern kingdom, which includes Jerusalem. And so 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 follow God for a while
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: And under the judges. Right? And then they go worship the idols of 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 627 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,
John McLarty: That is amazing. Forty years of warning.
Kimberly Faith: Right. Right. And he starts out in Josiah’s reign when Josiah was a good king. Matter of fact, Josiah was killed in battle while fighting the forces of Egypt. Josiah was trying to 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 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 three friends.
John McLarty: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
Kimberly Faith: Right. Right.
John McLarty: Three in the fiery furnace and then the fourth
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Fourth man.
Kimberly Faith: Right. And so the first kind of okay, you know, God’s using Babylon really to judge Judah.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: But they come in 605 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 you fast forward another eleven years. And at this point, you know, Israel continues just to spiral down or Judah continues to spiral downward. And by that time, Nebuchadnezzar has appointed King Zedekiah, who is kind of a vassal, he’s kind of a joke, really king. And he, you know, stages this revolt, which ultimately leads to Nebuchadnezzar sending his elite Chaldean army in and saying we’re going to level the city. And that’s where we are when Jeremiah 32 and 33 is happening.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: Now keep in mind
John McLarty: That’s an interesting context.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: Seize the worst of the worst.
Kimberly Faith: The worst of the worst.
John McLarty: I mean, idolatry is still rampant.
Kimberly Faith: Yes. Yes. And if you really study the Bible, the Bible is such a fascinating book because you pick up details of what’s going on in Jeremiah from books like Lamentations, Second Kings. You know, there’s these snippets of things that are happening that have been, also written in other books. So for example, we know that at this time, the Babylonian armies had encircled the city. They built the big siege ramps up against the walls, kind of like they did at Masada, and they cut off the supplies, cut off the escape. The famine was ravaging Jerusalem. In fact, in Lamentations in Second Kings, we hear that there even was cannibalism, disease. I mean, everything
John McLarty: False prophets.
Kimberly Faith: False prophets.
John McLarty: Offering an easy fix.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And we’re going to talk
John McLarty: Have your cake and eat it too.
Kimberly Faith: That’s what we’re going to talk about. We’re going to talk about false prophets in the context of this how do we become truly great. So here’s Jeremiah. And, of course, 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 going to, I really want to talk about this, and we’ll talk about it 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 with the king, so to speak, were completely allowing apostasy. They were, oh, yeah. It’s okay if you want to be sexually immoral. It’s okay if you want to spend some time burning a sacrifice to Baal or whoever these false gods are.
John McLarty: And still claim
Kimberly Faith: And still be claimed to be a child of God.
John McLarty: Of God.
Kimberly Faith: Because it was a matter of Jewish pride.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: 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 believe, and 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? And so in the middle of this, you know, God says to Jeremiah, buy this field. And it’s so interesting to hear that we read Jeremiah 32:6 that says, the word of the Lord came into me saying, behold, you know, Hanameel will come 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 Zedekiah has thrown him in prison because he won’t shut up. And, so if you look down in Chapter 32, 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 took witnesses and weighed the money in the scales. 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. He wasn’t just surreptitiously buying this field and thinking everybody’s going to think I’m crazy, so I’m going to do this in secret. No. No. There were 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.
John McLarty: That is amazing.
Kimberly Faith: That is so amazing. And Jeremiah, the reason Jeremiah was so great for the glory of God is because he didn’t just preach restoration. He was living as if it was guaranteed. I mean, that to me
John McLarty: And put his money
Kimberly Faith: Where his mouth was.
John McLarty: Where his mouth was. And what God had told him to do, which human reasoning could have come into play.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: We talked about this battle of the mind.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: One side of his logic, his brain of his flesh would be going, Jeremiah, talking to himself.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: That is the silliest thing. You could buy something else with 17 shekels of silver.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Makes no sense.
Kimberly Fatih: Maybe some food.
John McLarty: We’re surrounded by the enemy.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: We’re starving.
Kimberly Faith: Well, what’s even
John McLarty: That is so amazing. And then to bury it.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And then he’s, you know, well again, the public nature of this purchase 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 great verse. And it kind of 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: Right.
Kimberly Faith: To help themselves. And it’s so relieving and comforting to read Jeremiah’s prayer in Jeremiah 32. I would encourage you to read it. Because 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 but 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 going to restore 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 Jeremiah 32:23-25. 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 going to be restored. That was his message.
Kimberly Faith: And that’s, again, that’s another part of being truly great. 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 kind of you know, as he’s praying, I love how God responds in verse 32:27. He says, behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me? God talking to him and reassuring him. And then God kind of goes on to talk in more detail about how he’s going to bring them back, and he’s going to 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 just read this. It’s just, this is just giving me chills because 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.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: You know? And this is referring to the exile and then the return.
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.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: Wow.
Kimberly Faith: That’s such a
John McLarty: So, yeah, that happened historically.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: But then it’s also an end time.
Kimberly Faith: It’s an end time.
John McLarty: It’s very fascinating.
Kimberly Faith: His word is so brilliant. You know, you can never be bored reading God’s word. And it’s you know, this whole idea in Jeremiah’s prayer that 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?
And this is kind of what ties us to Chapter 33. But before we go to Chapter 33, I really want to zero in 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 happening today as well. And because you might ask the question, if this was all happening, if their enemies were surrounding them, if all these things were happening, it is so evident to anyone with any common sense that they needed to repent.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: What was it that was keeping them so diluted? And I’ll tell you what the Lord was just showing me out of these verses. It was the religious leaders who were endorsing apostasy. And we talked about this just a little bit earlier, but these were the priests, the prophets, the people that were trusted by the Judean 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, 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 to have it so. But what will you do in the end? I mean, 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 works based, but it’s churches that even deny the deity of Christ and the gospel, and even that, you know, that there’s really no 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.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah.
John McLarty: And that’s becoming more and more common.
Kimberly Faith: Absolutely.
John McLarty: Just in this nation.
Kimberly Faith: Well, and it happened in Europe.
John McLarty: And you think about it in Europe. It’s just almost destroyed biblical Christianity.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. It’s a social thing. It’s a cultural
John McLarty: And then even that dissipates.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. Well, 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.
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 it was coming from the religious leaders back in Jeremiah’s day.
Kimberly Faith: Yes. Yes.
John McLarty: It wasn’t coming from the obvious
Kimberly Fatih: Right.
John McLarty: You know, baal worshippers.
Kimberly Faith: The honky tonks.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Fatih: By Jeremiah 23:16 and 17, 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 there is a minister or a church, a group leader or anybody that you respect that is teaching anything that is contrary to God’s word, a huge red flag should come up. I remember being in a church where I greatly respect the leadership in this church, and 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. You know? And we had several hour long, 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, 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 using the religious leaders saying, oh, you’re going to be fine. You’re going to have peace. No evil’s going to come upon you. Just do whatever feels good. You know?
John McLarty: Religious leaders are failing to confront obvious, you know, sinful behaviors.
Kimberly Faith: Right. Well, either God is God and his word is true, and he is right and righteous, or he’s not. You know? 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, there was a church in town who, for Christmas, had nothing about Jesus in the church.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Fatih: And the pastor was endorsing a terrible movie. It was filled with cursing and sexual content and to his congregation. I just, and I don’t go to this church, but 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 what am I supposed to do? And I said, go to God’s word. That’s your standard. It’s not this person. It’s not me. It’s God’s word. But the problem is 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 101, it says, I 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 begun the series of lessons that Israel was replaced by the church as the house of God. And that 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, you might say, practices.
Kimberly Fatih: Yes.
John McLarty: It had a cultural distinction that was supposed to be different from the existing 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 one put off anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: So this institution, as was Israel, is supposed to be distinct
Kimberly Fatih: Right.
John McLarty: Instead of just unrecognizable from the rest of the world.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And what you’re talking about is like the pastoral leadership just saying, oh, it’s okay. Just, you know, go
Kimberly Fatih: Whatever feels good.
John McLarty: That was unpopular back in the, you know, nineteen hundreds, but now we’re in the 2000’s.
Kimberly Faith: Right. Right. Well and it really kind of also reminds me of Second Timothy 4:3-4 where it says, for the time will come 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. And it must come from God’s word and to know how to discover the truth of God’s word, you have to be serious about it. You cannot casually study God’s word without God’s spirit and understand why a lot of things that happen in the Bible. And I’m not saying 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 kind of like it’s kind of like, you know, if I decide to charge my iPad and I plug it in on the end, to the iPad, but I never plug it into the power, it’s never going to 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 why we call this podcast Truth in Love. We understand that 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 have made that 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. 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 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 a spade, and it’s hard. It’s hard. I’m not going to sit here and say 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, 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 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 obviously was for Jeremiah. But when he entered into that dedication to living out what he 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 want to be that person?
John McLarty: This is a great example. Yeah. This, every time you and I have a podcast, I’m like, oh, this is challenging me. Yeah. He was calling out apostasy back in the day.
You know? And it was almost to no avail. I mean, they did not listen to him.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And Israel was taken by siege and the whole exile happened. But he was true to the word of God. And that’s really, to something you said earlier, it’s kind of that 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 going to tell somebody about Jesus
Kimberly Fatih: Or just lying.
John McLarty: Or just lying. Just cussing.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Let one rip. Right.
John McLarty: Most people in America say, no. Christians shouldn’t be doing that. But this anything goes mentality.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: And it was just, you know, boy, there’s nothing new under the sun that describes Jeremiah’s day.
Kimberly Faith: There’s not. And what’s so beautiful and I don’t want to, like, camp out on, you know, just all the sin that we’re constantly bombarded by. Because 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. And I love that. I want to read well, Jeremiah 33, it says first just verses 1 through 3.
It says, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time. This is after he told him to buy 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 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 is, 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.
Kimberly Faith: Yep.
John McLarty: The Christian life isn’t just a cakewalk.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: But we have eternal life.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: 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. Call to me, and I will answer you.
Kimberly Faith: Well, and 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 you love, the first commandment, love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind. And 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 you and I have talked about this a lot, that it’s like a multifaceted experience. 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 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 ambassadors for Christ.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And to be a part of that.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And why would we want to interfere with that.
Kimberly Faith: Well, and it’s so
John McLarty: To be used by God.
Kimberly Faith: 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 can act in faith. I remember when my son and I went bungee jumping in New Zealand. And, you know, I remember thinking, well, I really have to have faith in these people that are attaching this equipment to my ankles.
Right? And but that wasn’t a lot of faith, really, 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 Zealand.
John McLarty: I’ll leave the bungee jumping to you and Jon, Kim. But it made a good video.
Kimberly Faith: It was a great video, and it was fun. But think about that. Would I trust God less than I’m going to trust a
John McLarty: Good example.
Kimberly Faith: Bunch of people I don’t know? But when we allow God to build this supernatural faith in us through salvation and growth, then we have this field. When God says buy a field, we know that this field is going to have eternal worth, eternal value just like what he did for Jeremiah.
John McLarty: That’s interesting. And he invested money in it.
Kimberly Fatih: Yeah.
John McLarty: That field.
Kimberly Faith: Oh, that’s an interesting point. Yeah. And that’s you know, nothing that we have should be worth holding on to
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: If we can release it for God’s glory. Because then it becomes less of, it transfers from being a temporal thing to being an eternal thing.
John McLarty: So I’m thinking of investing money or time in others, in the ministry.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: I’m just thinking right now. I’m supposed to deliver something to Elsa Lee, she wants a slice of my homemade bread.
Kimberly Faith: Well, there you go.
John McLarty: I was giving a devotion, and she’s listening over the internet, I’ll just kind of give an example. She was listening online, and she’s you know, she has
Kimberly Faith: She’s homebound.
John McLarty: Some health,she’s homebound. So I said, yeah. I need to be more like Russ and go over and cut branches in Elsa’s yard when a tree falls over. And she told Lynn, my wife, later on, tell John he doesn’t need to come cut branches up for me. He needs to bring me some toasted sourdough bread with bread and honey.
Kimberly Faith: Some of your dad’s seed bread.
John McLarty: I’m like, yes, ma’am, Elsa Lea. But that’s you know? I’m just thinking right now, like, oh, I need to invest that. You know? That’s time.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: I just haven’t made some sourdough bread.
Kimberly Faith: Well, you bring up a good
John McLarty: I have a mission.
Kimberly Faith: 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 will, then we’re ready for those by a field moments. Right? We’re ready to plant seeds that will not ever maybe ever reap the harvest.
John McLarty: Sometimes you’re doing it by faith.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: 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 Elsa Lea. It may be, you know, teaching a Bible study. It may be cleaning the toilets at church. Those things all have eternal consequences when we’re done for God’s glory.
John McLarty: Bringing some coats and blankets down to the homeless shelter.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. That’s right. And, you know, if we want to live in true greatness and be in the know with the great and mighty things that God has for us, then we really, it’s not rocket science. It’s, 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. When it’s supernatural faith from God, it never denies reality.
John McLarty: True.
Kimberly Faith: We know, 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 Jeremiah’s time. We know
John McLarty: We’re in a spiritual
Kimberly Fatih: Yes.
John McLarty: The spiritual warfare
Kimberly Faith: That’s right.
John McLarty: Of today.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And we know
John McLarty: 2026.
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. But redemption is forever. Right?
John McLarty: Some, buy a field, moments as God leads.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right.
John McLarty: Whether it makes sense or not.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: But, you know, being led by faith and that, you know, one of the things, part of that is being in prayer.
Kimberly Fatih: Yes.
John McLarty: Lord, I want that yieldedness.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: I don’t want to 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 do we limit ourselves? We have the omnipotent mind of God, the omniscient mind of God. And it’s just so encouraging 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. Because 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 really take this command where he says, you know, call to him
John McLarty: Yeah.
Kimberly Faith: He’ll show you mighty things.
John McLarty: Call to me, and I will answer you
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: And show you great and mighty things that you do not know. That’s a call to me, that’s pray. Call it out to me.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: And I will 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 buy.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. Show me a field to buy. And so if you’re living today and 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 corner of your life, and he will show you great and mighty things which you do not know.
John McLarty: I just want to and just wrap up. When I say buy a field, that’s not just necessarily with silver.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,
Kimberly Fatih: We think about
John McLarty: 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, kind of 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 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 like to be a part of something bigger than us. You know, sometimes it’s, you know, just, you know, a sports team
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Or all these community efforts. But these are great and mighty things that God’s a part of.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. Well, He’s in charge of.
John McLarty: You can’t get greater or mightier than God.
Kimberly Faith: That’s a valid point. That’s a valid point. You know, our greatness has limits. You know, I saw on the news where the gentleman who was supposed to win the gold medal, who they call him, he calls himself the quad god and, where he really kind of had a bad short program and ended up in eighth place and was super disappointed. Well, his greatness only can, it’s limited to what he can do on skates.
John McLarty: Yeah. Right.
Kimberly Faith: Right? But if he gives his life to Christ
John McLarty: Amen.
Kimberly Faith: His greatness 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 word from God.
John McLarty: Makes me want to 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.
That’s why everything we do at Go Faith Strong is focused on helping you live boldly for Jesus Christ. Our podcast is just one piece of the journey. There’s so much more waiting for you, resources to inspire your prayer life, deepen your understanding of the scripture, and help you share the gospel with others. So visit us at gofaithstrong.com and explore, read, listen, worship, and be encouraged. Your life matters.
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