 So we're there in Lamentations, Chapter 3. Of course, the Book of Lamentations was, we actually just talked about Jeremiah this morning, but the Book of Lamentations is written by the Prophet Jeremiah. Of course, again, like we learned this morning, Jeremiah, he preached to other people other than the children of Judah, and he preached to other Messengers, but his main mission of his life and the main goal in his ministry today was preaching to the children of Judah, the nation of Judah, towards the end, and the message he was mainly bringing, the main message that he spends the majority of his life trying to get across to the nation of Judah is of the coming captivity. Jeremiah dedicated his life to this, he spent his whole life trying to warn the people, narrowly escaping death many times to do this, narrowly giving his life for the cause of warning them of this coming captivity, and it's almost sad when you read the Book of Jeremiah or Lamentations because then, of course, they never listen to him. The captivity happens because people didn't listen, and there's even a point where Jeremiah is told by people saying, yeah, we never listen to anything you've told us to do, and they literally just tell him that. And what I like about the Book of Lamentations is I really think God put it in the Bible for a reason, the way it follows Jeremiah because I think with us, how a lot of people would be is if we were Jeremiah and the captivity happened, we would be celebrating, but we would be saying maybe things like, I told you so. They got theirs, or I warned them, and now they're finally getting what they want. We would almost be gloating in the fact that God's vengeance has finally come upon them, but what's really amazing to me about the Book of Lamentations and how it shows Jeremiah's heart is even after dealing with these whores for his entire life, we see him in the Book of Lamentations, and he's mourning with them, and he's mourning with them, and he's sad for them, and even more so, we read here we're in Lamentations chapter 3, and here it switches a little bit, where in chapters 1 and 2 he was talking more in almost where he's mourning with them, but here in Lamentations chapter 3, I want to point out that he's talking about the relationship between him and God, and we'll look at that in a bit, but I want to look at tonight, how did Jeremiah do it? Because that's a very hard thing to do, I mean, going through what he went through and still having that heart, how did he do that? How did he maintain that? Jeremiah wasn't a superhuman, Jeremiah was a sinful human being just like you and I, so how did he do it? How did he maintain that? I want to point out this evening that this evening I want to look at what Jeremiah did to stay encouraged and how I believe he had this heart, even to the very end of his life where he never really succeeded in the main goal he was trying to accomplish after serving God with his entire life, how he maintained his character and how he maintained the heart that he had. The title of the sermon this evening is called Recall. Recall, what does recall mean? There's of course a few definitions to the word recall. One definition is a public call by a manufacturer for the return of a product that may be defective or contaminated. So of course an example of this is like your car, when you get a letter in the mail saying that a safety issue has been found or whatever it is and you have the opportunity to take it in and get it fixed, that's one definition of recall but that's not what we're talking about this evening. Another definition is the writer procedure by which an official may be removed by vote of the people. So an example of this is in California a couple months ago we discovered only 38% of people have their head screwed on straight. That's one example of recall right but that's not what we're talking about this evening. This evening the definition we're talking about is that which says remembrance of what has been learned or experienced, recalling something. It's remembering something. If you recall something you're reminding yourself of something, you're remembering something that you know and you may believe but you're just you're bringing it back to your memory. You're bringing it back to the front of your mind. Let's just start reading in Lamentations chapter three. We're not going to read obviously the whole thing. We'll just read a few verses but I do want you to understand the tone in which Jeremiah is speaking here. Let's start in verse one. Here he says, I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. So as we read the next two verses notice that here he's talking about him and God. He's talking about a situation and he's talking to God in this chapter. Verse two, he have led me and brought me into darkness but not into light. Surely against me as he turned, he turned his hand against me the day. So here he's in this chapter, he's acknowledging, he's talking about himself and he's acknowledging that the current troubles in his life are from God. He's not cursing God like just like Job. He's not cursing God. He's just acknowledging in this chapter that what is happening in his life is things that God has allowed to happen and it may not be because of what he did of course but just there are things that God has allowed these things to happen. He continued in verse 14, Lamentations 3, 14. It says, I was a derision to all my people on their song all the day. He hath filled me with bitterness. He hath made me drunken with warm wood. He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones. He hath covered with ashes and now hath removed my soul far off from peace. I forgot prosperity. He says, I forgot what prosperity was like. Verse 18, he said, and I said, my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord remembering my affliction and misery and warm wood in the gall. My soul still hath them in remembrance and is humbled in me. So again, in his current state he's in this terrible state very depressing. You read this and it's almost like reading the book of Ecclesiastes. It's almost depressing reading this but what does he do about it? What did Jeremiah do about this? Verse 21, this I recall to my mind therefore for that reason have I hope. He says the following and we're going to read that in a minute here but he says, you know, in the midst of all this I remember the following and it gives me hope. It gives me hope in the end. So what we're going to look at this evening is we're going to look at five areas to recall in our lives, all of which I believe are found here in Lamentations chapter three. And just to know what these, this is for any season of life. That's the beauty of something like this is it doesn't matter who you, what you're going through or how old you are, it's always good to remember the following things we're going to talk about. I think one part of our sinful flawed human nature is to let certain things slip. We may believe certain things and know certain things to be true but we can forget certain things, certain things that are necessary for us to continue and necessary for us to live the Christian life. I think we can just forget some of those things sometimes and I think it's important to remember and recall these things to our mind. First tonight is this, recall what you were given. Recall what you were given. Let's start reading here in Lamentations 321. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassion's fail not. They are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore, he says it again, therefore for this reason will I hope in him. Jeremiah, he's reminding himself of the fact that the only reason that he's not consumed, even though he's someone who spent his whole life serving God, the only reason he's not consumed is because of the mercy of God. Turn to Romans 319. One thing I think we can do is people, and I'll explain what I mean by this, but we tend to judge things compared to the standard of our environment. Here's an example. You look at salvation. Most people out there believe some sorts of workspace salvation and the only reason that someone actually is able to convince themselves of that is because they're judging how good they are and they're judging their righteousness to the standard of their environment. They're judging how good they are compared to the people around them in their environment. They're saying, well, I think I'm pretty good compared to my neighbor and my friends and the people tree or the people around me, the people I see in the news. And for that reason, people are able to lie to themselves and walk out of the situation saying, I think I'm pretty good, but the problem with judging that by the environment, there's more outside of that. If people would judge themselves compared to God, like he sees them, they would know that there's no way you can get to heaven by your own words. Another example, this is success. So you think of phrases like keeping up with the Joneses or the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. It's based on this idea where people base success, what they see with the standard that's set in the environment they're in. Whereas if people would step outside their environment and look at people in other countries, they would realize that if you have a refrigerator in your house, you're rich compared to the rest of the world. But again, this is based on people judging things by just the small bubble that's around them. And how does this apply to what we're talking about here? Well, here's the thing. Most of our lives, our lives should be, the most important things we do here in our lives are in this church. The most important things we do, let's just start from the top. What about soul winning? Because that's the most important thing anyone can do is to go out and tell someone about Jesus Christ, that's done in this church. Our friends, again, should be in this church. The friends you'll find here, you will never find friends like this out in the world. And we're around people constantly serving God with us that are also saved, that are also going soul winning with us. And what becomes the standard of our environment is just a bunch of saved people serving God. And I think we can tend to forget the reality that the vast majority of the world out there is still lost down the way to hell. And what we have is extremely special. Here they're in Romans 19. Here's the reality we forget. Sometimes every once in a while, I'll read this, if someone's not really getting the concept of hell, this is a verse I'll read to them. It says, now we know what's, what's a thing, so ever the law sayeth, it sayeth to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. According to this verse, we all, if you are a human, we were all found guilty on all accounts for crimes we committed against God. Crimes that in fact were so bad, the sentence that the judge gave us was an infinite year sentence of torture and hell. And on top of that, Jesus Christ came in when he did not have to. He took our penalty and he granted us a full pardon. He granted us a full pardon and on top of that, just to get across how special it is, 99% of people out there do not have this pardon. They don't even know about it. They're sitting, they're waiting on death row, awaiting this sentence to begin, and there's no getting out. And they are completely unaware of this. That's, that, we need to remind ourselves of that. One of my favorite hymns is the old accounts, and you'll notice with hymns, if you listen to hymns on hymns, change over time, the verses will change, or people will add a verse, or take away a verse, or, you know, change the wording a little bit. One version I found of the old account, I'll read you a couple verses. The first verse says this, there was a time I know when in the Book of Heaven, an old account was standing, for sins yet unforgiven. So picture this, picture an actual paper or something that is being described here, for sins yet unforgiven. My name was at the top in many things below. I went unto the keeper and settled long ago. The third verse says this, I don't believe this verse is inter-hymnal, but I'd have to double check. When at the judgment bar I stand before my king, and he the book will open, he cannot find a thing, then will my heart be glad, while tears of joy will flow, because I had it settled and settled long ago. That's the reason that remembering this gave Jeremiah hope right here, is it's an amazing thing, but how easily we can forget it, right? Turn to Isaiah chapter 28. I turned there myself. Isaiah chapter 28. I mean think about this, I mean ask yourselves this, this is an interesting way to look at it, but do you, do you value your salvation that you have? You're saved and you always will be saved, but do you value that salvation more than people who are screaming in hell? I mean think about that, people and we know from Luke chapter 16 that you know the rich man in hell could see Abraham, and I'm sure those people in hell value the salvation that they will never receive way more than we value it right now. Think about that. If we're sitting here, we don't know what hell's like, we never will thank God, but people who are there, I can guarantee you that we do not remind ourselves of our salvation every moment, but I can guarantee you that every single second they will be thinking about for the rest of eternity how badly they wish they were saved. Is it, is it that special to you? You're there in Isaiah chapter 28. I love this verse. I believe it's talking about salvation. It says, and you're covenant with death. Did you know that everybody at one point, you at one point had a contract with death, with hell. You had a contract, you had an agreement that because of your sins and because of what you had done, you will be going to hell. And your covenant with death shall be disannoled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you'll be trodden down by it. I believe that's referring to the chastisement of God in our lives. But the point being, we had a contract, we had an agreement with hell that we were obligated to abide by, we would have abided by, but Jesus Christ came in and he ripped it up into pieces. So do you recall this to your mind? Do you recall this to your mind? Because Jeremiah, it sounds pretty terrible what he was going through, but apparently just remembering that gave him hope to get through it and helped him. You don't have to turn there, but Psalm 10 verse 10 says, He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy towards them that fear him. Verse 12, as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. You hear the phrase, there's the phrase out there when hell freezes over, right, like oh when someone's describing something that will never happen or that they'll never do, they say oh when hell freezes over, I will do this or that. One thing, you could say that same, you could say the same thing in this, you could say when the east and the west meet, then I'll go to hell. That's the point of this verse. It's saying your sins were removed so far from you, as far as the east is from the west, which will never meet each other. It's impossible. That's our salvation. Turn to 1 Thessalonians 5-9. Hebrews 8-12 says, for I will be merciful to their unrighteous and their sins and their iniquities while I remember no more. That's why it really boggles my mind when you meet people who think that your salvation can be lost because, so it's like what part of I will remember no more do you not understand? Or what part of that do you not understand? What part of everlasting do you not understand? Again, we'll go to hell when the east meets the west. That's our salvation. If they're in 1 Thessalonians 5-9, it gives us this idea again of being of our salvation, how it should motivate us. Verse 9, For God has not appointed us to wrath, but here's what he did to you, but to obtain salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Verse 11, so he says, knowing this, on this note, on this note that on the note that we were saved and Jesus Christ has removed us from his ministry. Verse 11, we should do with that, Christian, wherefore, comfort yourselves together and edify one another, even as also you do. So we must recall this to mind. We must remember this. I mean, it's such an amazing thing that I think we all take for granted. We all forget about it. We all, it becomes the standard of us being saved, everyone around us being saved. It just kind of becomes the norm to us, but we need to remind ourselves of this. Turn to Psalms 40 verse 8, because there is enormous comfort in just remembering this alone. So first tonight I said, we're talking about things to remember, things to remember at any point in your life. The first thing is recall what you have, or recall what you were given. Sorry, you were given salvation. Remember that. Remind yourself of that. Second this evening is this, recall what you have. You're given salvation. Remember that, but there's also some things that now you're saved. There's some exclusive things you have as a believer that the unsaved do not have. Let's talk about those things. Here's a few things to remember. What about true joy? What about the opportunity to have an actual joyful life? Where does true joy come from? Because there's a lot of unsaved people out there who I'm sure are very happy. If you ask them if they're joyful, if they're living a happy life, they would say yes, but there's only one way to have a true, fulfilling, lasting joy. Even the world will tell you that riches are just temporary and that does not give you a fulfilling, lasting joy. What is it that gives a lasting joy? Psalm 48 says this, I delight to do thy will, oh my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. True joy comes from fulfilling God's will in our lives. Think about, this is a couple of examples, think about soul winning. Think about is there any greater joy? And again, I think we get used to this, but is there any greater joy than think about the first person you got saved. Think about the first person you got saved and when they prayed and when they accepted Jesus Christ to save them. Think about how happy that made you. And even still, think about just the joy. Even sometimes when I get someone saved, I'll read to them the verse in Luke, Luke is talking about how there is rejoicing among the angels of God in heaven over one sinner that repents. Over one sinner that gets saved. There's a song about that, I think the quiet verity sang it at one point, called the value of one. And part of the first verse says this, could it be that up in heaven God is sitting on his throne, anticipating another sinner will soon become his own. Years of wasted living and years of toil and strife are just about to be over as he receives the gift of life. Go sound the horn, a sinner strike up the choir, a sinner is saved, saved from the fire. No more in darkness he's received my son. That's the joy that's in heaven over one sinner, over one, one eternal destination that has changed. Think about the joy that gives you. Think about how amazing that is. What about not just soul wanting, but what about just living your life according to God's wisdom, trusting him in faith, and seeing that workout in your life? Seeing things change for the better, seeing that that God meant what he said, that's a joy that cannot be matched by anything else. And it's funny, even the world, when you look at it, the world has discovered certain things to be a source of lasting joy. Like you'll read articles and studies that show, say that people who help others are happier. People who, well you know where that's from? That's from the Bible. Proverbs says, he that help with the poor happy. So anyone following God's word can access this joy, but especially as Christians who know where to find the source of true joy, that's something that's a special thing that we have. We should remind ourselves of. But not just true joy, what about this? Here's another thing we have. What about answers to our problems? What about answers? Look, there's a lot of people out there with a lot of problems and they don't have any answer to them. They don't have any solution. Turn to Isaiah 48. Isaiah chapter 48. I mean everybody knows that, you know, there's problems out there and people have problems with their families or with their kids their work life. People just have, but no one really, if you're not saved and you don't have the Bible and you don't know where to find those answers, you're kind of just stuck. You're kind of just lost. They're in Isaiah 48. Look at verse 17. Isaiah 48 17 says, Thus saith the Lord thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. I am the Lord thy God, which teaches thee to profit, which needeth thee, by the way, that should us go. It's God in His Word that answers life's questions, that leads us down the way we should go, that leads us in the right direction, whereas if you're not saved, you're completely in. I've mentioned it before, but how I think about it is if you're in a pitch black room and you're being unsaved and having nothing but your conscience that God has given you is like having the light on your cell phone. It's a tiny little LED chip and you can barely see things and you can barely make objects out. That's someone with their conscience, whereas you with the Holy Spirit, it's like the whole. You have God's Word. It's like a spot like that that shines light everywhere. There's nothing left in darkness. And that's something that we have as Christians, we should appreciate. Turn to Psalm 49. Psalm 49. So we're talking about things to remember and we're talking about recall what you have. We talked about joy. We talked about answers to our problems. Here's one more for you. What about a chance to live a worthwhile life? Psalm 49, I won't go into the whole thing, but basically for familiar with it, it's basically the whole theme of the chapter is about the unsaved. And it's about kind of the pointlessness of not being saved. We'll start reading verse 6 and keep mind that this is what we're talking about. We're talking about the unsaved. It says they that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches, none of them can by any means redeem his brother nor give to God a ransom for him for the redemption of their precious that it ceases forever, that he should still live forever and not see corruption. There's no purgatory. And here what it's saying is you can trust in health and you can trust riches, but you still can't redeem someone, including yourself, when you've died. Why? Well, the redemption of your soul is precious and it ceases forever. There's nothing you can do to redeem your own soul once you've died and not see corruption. We'll keep reading verse 10. For ye see it though wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish and leave their wealth to others. Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue forever and their dwelling places to all generations. They call their lands after their own names. Nevertheless, man being an honor abideth not, he's like the beast that perish. Point is making in this chapter is in, you can see this out in the world, but people who are not saved and don't have eternal things to work towards and don't have the Bible, all they have to work towards in their life is temporary things. Wealth, riches, and it's sad because you see in this chapter that, you know, the desperation that people have to be remembered. They're calling their lands after their own names so people will remember them after they're gone. All they have left is to leave to people is their wealth because they haven't done anything with eternal value and that's sad. And obviously there's, you know, a lot of unsafe people out there who have done great things and done great accomplishments, but the point it's making here is turn to Jeremiah 33. The point it's making here is what's the, if there's no real purpose to life, it's pointless. The verse, I don't know if we have one here, but those Bible ways out here we have one. So these Bible way to heaven pamphlets, I was just thinking about this, but the very first verse that's here at the very top, I think that if any, if you know, if the unsafe could be shown one verse, I think this is what they all should read and that's why it's at the top, but it's Mark 836, Jesus said this. He said, for what shall a prophet a man, if shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? He's saying, what's the point to your life? If you get everything you ever wanted, if you're successful, if you get, if you had everything you could ever dream of, but you're not, you don't have salvation, what was the point? And that's, that's disappointing to think about, but it's the point is it's the opposite with you. As a believer, you have eternal things to work towards. You can go out and tell someone about Jesus Christ and eternally change their destination. That is, that's not temporary, that's not like riches, that's not like wealth, that's something that money could never buy and just recognize that. And they're in Jeremiah 33.3, the Bible says this, calling to me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. This is the opportunity we have, we need to go into the throne room of God whenever we want and talk to God and ask him things and he'll show us things that we've never even seen before, that we don't even know, that's the promise to us. And I've often thought, you don't have to turn there, but Habakkuk 1.5, I've often thought this verse applies to just the action-packed Christian life, the things you see happen that you can't even believe sometimes, but Habakkuk 1.5 says, Behold ye among the heathen, and regard and wonder marvelously, for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you. Out there we have those, those biographies, I found it online, biographies of Curtis Hudson. This verse, if I could sum it all up, if I could sum his life up in one verse, this is what I, what comes to my mind is, you read these stories and if the phrase that comes to my mind is, you will not believe, though it be told you. The things in there are so amazing. Here's one story, I want to read you a story from that biography. It says this, I believe it's on the third page or so. It says, quote, many are the stories telling of Curtis Hudson's soul-winning exploits. One worth sharing here is the time when his wife was gone visiting relatives and he couldn't sleep. He called up one of the men in his church at 1 a.m. and said, let's go soul-winning, I'll pick you up in 15 minutes. They took a red gas can and drove out to Interstate 85. His friend kept asking, where are we going? After a few miles they saw a stranded motorist. Hudson approached the driver stating, I've been looking for you. The poor fellow figured that Hudson was going to take advantage of his distress to make some money. When Hudson assured him that he didn't want any money, just an opportunity to talk with him, the motorist was very responsive. Hudson led the man, his wife, and children to the Lord on the spot. That night, he and his partner kept going back, refilling the red gas can and finding additional stranded motorists. They led 18 people to Christ before the sun came up. Hearing about Hudson's patrolling of the Interstate, a man left the church a pickup truck in his will shortly thereafter. He will not believe, though it be told to you. Look back on your life and think about the things that God's done where I can guarantee you all have things in your life. Someone went up to you and told you what would happen in the future. You wouldn't even believe them. You wouldn't even believe the things and you read stories like this. Another story is towards the end, Curtis Hudson was diagnosed with cancer and he had six months left to live is what the doctor told him. In just a few days before he died, he got up and he, I mean, weak and frail and dying of cancer, he got up and he reached for 26 hours straight. And then the biography goes on to say that he died two days later and the last soul he won was that of the nurse attending to him. And you read things like that, that's only in the Bible that happens. Paul preached so long as he falls out of a window and dies. You read about, but there's stories just like that in the Bible. David and Goliath or the promise of facing a thousand that can never happen. That's impossible. It is with man. With man, this is impossible. Stories like I just read you, they are impossible with man. But what they show is God revealing the things that he will do when he, someone who steps out in faith and decides to trust him. When someone wakes up at one in the morning and says, I'm going to go soul-winning and I'm going to get people saved on the freeway, God says, yes, you will. And that's when God does work. It's like the concept of churches out there that say, we just need to pray for revival and expect God to come down to America and just cause this revival where people will just be falling down in the street. What must I do to be saved? Tell me how I can be saved. That will never happen. What revival is, is when Christians go out and Christians preach the word of God and they take the first step, they wake up at one in the morning and go soul-winning. They get up to preach straight and God honors that. And what is normally impossible becomes possible with God. That's how that works. This is what you have available to you as a Christian. Recall that to your mind. Don't forget that. Don't forget that. It doesn't matter where you are in life, whether you're in a mountain or in a valley or this, this is something that you can, if you are saved, this is something you all have available to you. The only thing limiting you, things, stories like I read you this evening are our own actions and our own faith that we have. That's all that's, is the hand of the Lord shortened that it cannot save? Is God up in heaven? Is his spirit stopped working? Is his spirit died? Is it not as effective as it was anymore? No. It's the people, it's the people, it's us that limits God. It's not God that limits. Acts chapter 26. So what are, we're talking about thanks to remember. First we talked about recall what you were given, salvation, remember that. Second we talked about recall what you have, opportunities and privileges that you have as Christian. Don't forfeit those, use those. Third of this evening is this, recall your purpose. Recall your purpose. We're in Acts chapter 26 and Paul is talking to King Agrippa and he's explaining his testimony to King Agrippa and he's explaining how he got saved and telling the story of how Jesus came to him and it's interesting because we see a lot in this version that was not initially in the first account in the book of Acts. We'll start reading in verse 13. Paul says, At midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun shining around about me and then was journeying with me. And when we are all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecute us that? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And I said, who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, who now purported us, but rise and stand on my feet. And if you ever wondered, why did God appear to Saul? Why did God do this? What was the whole point of it? Here's why. Here's why God, because here's the thing, God doesn't force anyone to believe, but you do believe God gives people chances. I do believe a thing about Cornelius to be saved, but God looked at him in his life and saw that he was praying and seeking the truth. And God gave him a chance. God put that out there for him. And I believe this is what we're seeing here. God gave someone a chance. Paul didn't get saved here. I don't believe that from just from God appearing there. Paul got saved like anyone else does, but God gave him a chance here. Here's why. What's the point? But rise and stand on thy feet, for I have appeared unto the for this purpose. There's a reason he appeared to him and gave him a chance. Here's the reason to make thee a minister and a witness, both of the things which thou has seen and of those things in the which I'll appear unto thee, delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. God appeared to Saul because he had a job for him to do. I believe that the reason God gave some of us a chance is because he had a job for us to do. Anyone who gets saved, God has a job for them to do. And it's this job. It's to preach the gospel to people. It's to go out and exponentially tell as many other people as we can possibly find who will possibly listen to us to turn them from Satan unto God. Why? So that they can receive forgiveness of sins. Same forgiveness that we received when we got saved. Verse 19, Whereupon, O King of Gryppa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision. Praise God for that. The gospel probably wouldn't have even brought to the rest of the world if it was not for Paul not being disobedient to this what Christ, Damascus and then Jerusalem and throughout all the coast of Judea and then to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance. Paul was given a chance, I believe, to bring the gospels of the Gentiles. That's the purpose. As a Christian, you have a purpose. I mean, not just so many. What about everything else? You don't have to turn there, but Ecclesiastes 12, 13 says this, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Just tons of wisdom in the book of Ecclesiastes, tons of wisdom and warnings. And as the whole thing sums up with this, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments. Why? For this is the whole duty of man. That's what we're here for. That's our purpose. Turn to 2nd Peter 3. 2nd Peter 3. And here's the thing, and this got mentioned this morning as well, but since we're not perfect, what that means is that we have an infinite amount of room to grow. We're sinners and we always have, we'll have the flesh with us. We will always have an infinite amount of room to grow and improve. I know this was already read this morning, but we'll read it one more time. 2nd Peter 3. 18, but grow in grace. In the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to him be glory, both now and forever. Amen. So do you as a Christian, do you recognize where you fall short? We all fall short in certain areas. Do you recognize where you fall short and then work to fix it? Because again, if we're not perfect, we will always have an infinite amount of room to grow. There will always be areas we can recognize where we fall short and work to improve that. Turn to Psalm 146. So don't get complacent with where you're at. Always be trying to improve and grow. Psalm 146 2, if you're there, says, while I live, I will praise the Lord. I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. He's saying, while I'm still alive, while I have a chance, I'm going to be fulfilling my purpose of praising God. So just remember, remember your purpose as a believer. Think about the people depending on that out there. Think about the people depending on, think about this church. Think about the people, the guy that we're going to get saved in two years from now on a Wednesday or a Sunday out soul winning. He's depending on us doing this. He's depending on us on us remembering this and fulfilling our purpose. If we don't, you know, one thing I think about myself is I look forward to getting to heaven and seeing the thousands of people. I believe it will be thousands at least. I look forward to getting to heaven and seeing the crowd of thousands of people that were saved because people in this church spent years fulfilling their purpose. People that would be down in hell from death unto life just because believers here were willing to fulfill this purpose. I look forward to that. And I think that that's why how important it is. There's people literally depending. People's eternal salvation is depending on us fulfilling this purpose that was also given to Paul the apostle. Turn to Ecclesiastes 12. Ecclesiastes 12. I just read it, but we're going to read the next verse. Ecclesiastes 12. So last this evening, so we talked about, we're talking about things to remember. We talked about recall what you were given. We talked about recall what you have. We talked about recall your purpose. And lastly, this evening, recall the results. Recall the results of your life. And we're going to look at both good and bad results. We're not going to, I mean, plenty of good results, but there's plenty of bad as well. You're there in Ecclesiastes 12. We'll read verse 13 one more time. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is a whole duty of man. Verse 14. For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. God will examine, I believe it even especially in our lives, God will examine everything that we've done in our life, whether it was good or whether it was evil. I believe God will look at that. Obviously, as far as salvation, we will always be saved. But God looks at everything. God doesn't just look at the bad and God doesn't just look at the evil. I remember out so many, one time we ran into, I can remember who I was with. I think it was Brother Matt or something. But we were so winning and we ran into this guy who said, he said, the Bible's not just, and he wasn't he wasn't angry or aggressive. He was just talking with us. He said, no, the Bible's not fair because he said, my theory is that no heaven, it doesn't matter how long heaven is, no eternal heaven will make up for the evils here on earth. If that was how it ended, I would agree with him. But here's the thing, God doesn't just reward the good. He also punishes the evil. And there's also an eternal hell where evil will be punished. That's what makes God just. He doesn't just reward the good. He also punishes the evil. There are results to what we do, both good and bad, turn to Psalm 31. So let's talk about the good first. Let's talk about some of the good results that will come of serving God and fulfilling our duty. While you're turning there, we'll read in 6 that says, for without faith it is impossible to please him, for he that come with the God must believe that he is, and he is a rewarder of them, diligently seek him. He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. If you diligently see God, whether it's here on this earth, serving God in this life, how's rewards here in this life? Because it works. What God says, it works. And that's why when so even someone who's not saved was a command in the Bible, such as helping other people, they may reap some benefits from that because God, it doesn't just work for us. God's Word, it makes sense. It's logical. It will work for anybody. Like seeing God's plan of working your life there in Psalm 31. Let's start reading in verse 19. Psalm 31 19 says, Oh, how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, which thou hast wrought for them that for the sons of men, thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man, thou shalt keep them secretly into pavilion from the strife of tongues. Turn to us. Let's skip to verse 23. Oh, love the Lord, all ye ye saints, for the Lord, don't miss this. The Lord preserveth the faithful and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord. There is great, there is seeing God's plan fulfilled in our lives. Those are the results. There will be results. It's a promise from God. God promises, you see that all over the book of Psalms primarily, where God talks about how we do this Rediverse, where we talk about his mercy is great towards anybody. No, God's mercy is great towards them that fear him. There is results to what we do, good results. But here's another good result, is seeing those we've gotten saved grow spiritually. You see that in the Bible as well. You're there. I don't think I had to turn there. I'll read to you 3rd John 1-1-4 that says, the elder unto the well beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth, be loved. I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth, for I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. And then verse 4 he says, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children, speaking about his spiritual children here, walk in truth. We heard a sermon New Year's about finding someone spiritually adopting that person and committing to getting someone in church and getting someone baptized. According to John, there's no greater joy than that. There's no greater joy. I mean, you think getting someone saved is joyful. Doing this must be more joyful than that. And this is the point he's making is there's a way in seeing someone grow spiritually that you have gotten saved. You think about Paul. This was a major thing. Pizzles start out with him just talking about how happy he is and how joyful he is of just how well people are doing that he led to Christ, or that were led to Christ by his fellow missionaries, his ministry. You see the joy that came to Paul, someone who many times was imprisoned at the time. That gave him joy. Here's another good result is rewards in heaven. Turn to Revelation 14-12. You don't have to turn there, but Revelation 2-10, Jesus Christ talking to the churches, he says, For none of those things which thou shalt suffer, behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison that he may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation in ten days, be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. Of course, we don't have time to go into it, but there's many verses on this. Paul talked about how there was a crown laid up for him as he has finished his course. Here's Revelation 14. Let's look at verse 12. The Bible says this. Here is the patience of the saints. Here are they that kept the commandments of God in the faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Right, Blessed are the dead which died in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, sayeth the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them. Their works do follow them. I believe that since we're saved, when we get to the reason that we even receive rewards is not because we're great and we've done something to earn that. I really don't believe that. It's because even the Bible talks about how we're unprofitable servants, just because we've done that, which is our duty to do. I believe the reason that there's even rewards in heaven, and that's even a thing, since we're saved, when we get to heaven, we have 99.99999% of us, that sin. God looks at that, but he doesn't see the sin, and all that's left is the good that we've done. All the bad things we've done in the book of Corinthians, all the worthless things we spend our time on, it's all going to burn up. And all that's going to be left is what we've done for Christ. So when God looks at us, he doesn't see the sin. That's been washed away by the blood of Christ. All he sees is the good that we have done. Actually, this, I'll bring it up again, but that biography of Chris Hudson that I found online, the verse that they had at the very end of the biography, it's a few pages long, we get to the very end of it, they had Revelation 14-13 there and said, yea, say it to spirit that they may rest from their labors and their works do follow them. That's what I'm doing for my life is to have works that I've done for Christ that are left. I mean, what a verse to conclude a life spent for Christ. I mean, what a verse. Turn to Hosea 13. Hosea chapter 13. So we talked about some good ways that results, good results that we can come and different versions of good results. But let's just talk about results in general. Where do they come from? Results are a product of decisions. Results come from decisions. You're there in Hosea 13, just look at verse 1. Hosea 13 verse 1 says, Ephraim is, it's used interchangeably with just Israel. He's talking about Israel here. When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel. But when he offended and bail, he died. So what we're seeing is there was a point when Ephraim was humble. When Ephraim was, he spake trembling. He was following the laws of God. Israel was doing well at a point. But when he was doing that, when he had good decisions, he had good results. He was exalted in Israel. But when he made a different decision, when he made a bad decision, when he offended and bail, he died. Good result, good decision, bad result, or bad decision, bad result. It's as simple as that. Turn to Genesis 13, 7. Genesis 13, 7. Bad results in, you know, we like to really blame our, our bad results and other circumstances and other people. But if we're honest with ourselves, bad results are almost always from our wrong decisions. Theater, if you could kick the person in the pants, responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month. We're responsible for most of our trouble if we're dishonest with ourselves. And you're there in, in, in Genesis 13, 7. What I want to show you is a decision that was made, seemingly harmless. Maybe you could look at it and, you know, say, well, it's a bad decision and it probably caused a lot of damage. But I can get, this is an example. I want to point out how one wrong decision can wreak havoc in your life, in other people's lives for generations to come. You say, that's extreme. No, it's not. I'll show you what I mean. Genesis 13, 7. And there was a strife between the herdsmen of Abrams cattle and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle. And the king of night and the parasite dwelled then in the land. And Abrams said unto Lot, Let there be no strife I pray thee, between me and thee, and thy, my herdsmen and thy herdsmen, for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself I pray thee from me. If that will take the left hand, then I will go to the right. Or if that will depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left. So basically Lot and Abraham are having to separate here at this point. And here we see the decision, verse 10, Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as it was on Tuzor. So I want, as we read this, let's bring ourselves to this moment. Let's bring ourselves. You have Abraham here and you have Lot who were standing there. They're probably standing on some sort of upper ground or ledge and they're looking at the land. And Abraham is explaining to him, if you pick what side you want, you go this way, I'll go the opposite. And Lot, that phrase, and Lot lifted up his eyes, it may have only been a couple of moments long, but Lot was making a decision. So he was beholding the plain of Jordan. And he made a decision that just that, and I'll show you, I'll show you, destroyed two whole nations one day, just from what he was looking at, the decision that he made in probably just a few seconds. Let's see what he chose. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan. And Lot journeyed east and they separated themselves one from the other. Abraham dwelled in the land of Canaan. And Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, in Pishas tent towards Sodom. Turn to Zephaniah 2.8. Zephaniah 2.8. I heard this as an illustration of this idea. I thought this was good, I'll read this to you. But if you go in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, there's a certain point along the continental divide where a small stream splits in two. There's a point there. And you would think when you were to look at the stream, look at this small stream, you saw the water slowly drifting down from the snow melting in the mountains. You probably wouldn't think it makes much of a difference whether the water goes this way or the water goes that way. But at this point here, if a single drop of water was to go to the west, if it was to go left, it would go to the west. Eventually it would flow into the Colorado River and empty into the Gulf of California. And from there it would go to the Pacific Ocean. If that drop of water was to go to the right, it would go east until it goes into the Mississippi River, to the Gulf of Mexico, to just from one little point. It's the same way with our decisions. We really sometimes, I think especially when we're making a good decision or a bad decision, we try to rationalize it. And we try to plan it out and see, do some risk mitigation. And the problem is, especially with the God factor in our lives, there's really no way to plan bad results from bad decisions completely. And just like this example, one small decision can have detrimental effects. Here's what I mean. This decision was locked. It destroyed his family's life. So you could say, oh yeah, it was a horrible decision. I mean, a decision. Think about, you know somebody who made a decision that destroyed their life. That must have been a pretty bad decision. Well, that's what happened with the lot. He went towards Sodom. He ended up in Sodom. God had to rescue with him. His wife died. It gets worse. Then, of course, there's the story with the two children that came out of that. Those two children were the father of two nations. Monk and Amon. How did they turn out? Those two nations turned to be he the nations, I believe, because of the situation. They didn't go on to be God-fearing nations. That's not how those children were raised, and that's not how they raised their children. They came to he the nations. Zephaniah 2.8 says this. Here's how this ended out probably hundreds of years later, because of probably 10 seconds of a decision that Lot made. I've heard the reproach Omoab and there were violings of the children of Amon. I notice how God compares these two, whereby they have reproached my people and magnified themselves against their border. Therefore, as I live, say, the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Omoab shall be as Sodom. I wonder if that's a coincidence. In the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, I wonder if that's a coincidence too. Even as the breeding of nettles and salt pits and a perpetual desolation, the residue of my people shall spoil them, and the remnant of my people shall possess them, this shall they have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the Lord of hosts. Verse 11, the Lord will be terrible unto them, for he will famish all the gods of the earth. You want good results to make good decisions. Here, just one decision that was made ended up causing two, I mean obviously these nations were destroyed for their own sin. We understand that, but if you were to take the chain of bad decisions, to start at where God destroyed these two entire nations, and you were to follow that chain all the way back to the first decision that caused it all, you would be standing next to Lot in Abraham. That's the impact of our decisions that they have. So just in conclusion this evening, we're talking about Jeremiah in this terrible time in his life. He set this precedent of, because again, I don't believe Jeremiah was just this superhuman prophet. Even the Bible talks about Elijah, how he was a man of like passions as we are. But what they did, what they did to maintain their heart is what Jeremiah did is he reminded himself of these things. And things that he probably already knew, but he reminded himself and encouraged himself in. He reminded himself of what he was given, of his salvation. We need to remind ourselves of what we have. We have joy. We have answers to our problems. We have the chance to actually live a life that has eternal value unlike everybody else out there. We have a purpose. We have a purpose that every week fulfilling our purpose adds more and more and more people to this crowd that we're all going to meet in heaven one day. Every single week that we're here, every single week that you continue reading your Bible, that you keep staying in the Word of God, you're just adding to that crowd. You're adding to that. And finally, remember the results. I mean, yes, being encouraged by the good results that are going to happen in our life as a result of serving God, but please don't remember. It's a very simple concept. Bad good results come from good decisions and bad results come from bad decisions and even bad decisions, they snowball. Remember that. Remember with the law. Just the simple decision he made, there were two nations that at some point in history suffered a violent destruction because of one man's decision. Think about the concept in Hebrews where it talks about Adam. Because of one man's tradition, sin came upon all men. Think about that. So let's just remember all these things. And you know, if Jeremiah was able to do it, if Jeremiah was able to keep himself encouraged and keep his heart right with the people he was serving because of remembering these things, we can't do. We can't do. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.