Welcome to a firm foundation presented by Princeton ministries with Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

Do you ever get tired of serving the Lord? Do you ever think to yourself, I can’t? Go on, then. I want to talk with you today. One of the great prophets of the Old Testament is Jeremiah as a matter of fact, we call him one of the major prophets, perhaps a great misnomer in contrast to so called minor prophets. I don’t think God ever called a minor prophet, but Jeremiah is one of the prophets who stands out in our mind. He is known as the weeping prophet. I think as we look at the life of Jeremiah, we will see that in his life is a quality of perseverance in the midst of insurmountable obstacles. And also in the life of Jeremiah, we’ll begin to see what God calls a successful life in contrast to what the world says is a successful life.

If you remember that Jeremiah had a ministry of preaching that lasted some 40 years, he preached longer than some of us have lived. He preached in the midst of a nation that would see five kings rise up and five kings fall down to that generation. When Jeremiah spoke, it was with great clarity, for he had been called by the Lord to speak the words of the Lord. At the close of the ministry of Jeremiah, the people of Judah would be taken into captivity by Babylon, never to be seen again. Under Jeremiah, the City of Jerusalem would be destroyed. The Temple that was that holy center of worship would be set to rubble. And in the day in which Jeremiah lived, one of the great beliefs of the Jewish people was that the Lord will do many things to us. He might even chasten us.

He may even discipline us. But one thing we know he will never, ever do, he will never destroy Jerusalem, and he will never have his Temple to be taken apart. And they had a hope in the City of Jerusalem and in the Temple. And along comes Jeremiah who is called by the Lord. In chapter one of the book of Jeremiah, he is told that he has been made for this day, and that the Lord is going to watch over Jeremiah, that he is going to give to Jeremiah a protective hedge, that Jeremiah is going to be like a fortified city with iron pillars and bronze walls. And even though the people will rail against your teaching, Jeremiah, you’ll succeed. You’ll have good success. They’ll not prevail against you. And why not? Because the Lord said, I am with you, Jeremiah

Now, wouldn’t you love to have been called in that Fashion for the lord to say to you, Joe, Mary, I call you to a special ministry, and I am going to protect you. And your ministry is going to succeed. It will prevail against every Single obstacle that comes in your way. Now, if the Lord had said that to you, what would you expect to be? Success. Well, isn’t this great? The Lord is with me. Everything I touch is going to succeed. Everywhere I go, throngs will come to hear from me, because the Lord is going to crown me with success. Well, the story goes on about Jeremiah He was called and told that his word would prevail. Well, what happened?

Well, first he comes to the people in the 18th chapter of Jeremiah, and he calls them and he says, return, every one of you. Return to the Lord. Do the things that are right. Do that which is good. Now, remember, the Lord said, you’re going to have great success, and the result of his preaching to the people in Jeremiah, 1812. We read, the people said, we will walk according to our plans. Bug off, Jeremiah We’re not interested. As a matter of fact, they carry it even one step further. And we are told that the people became so upset at the words of Jeremiah that they devised a plan against Jeremiah And what was their plan? Come, let us attack Jeremiah, they said with the tongue, let us not heed to any of his words.

So Jeremiah returns to the people and he says to them, you are a stiff necked people. The Lord is going to destroy Jerusalem and he’s going to destroy the temple. Now, we would expect great success from those words. And what happened in the 20th chapter of Jeremiah, verses one and two, we read that there was a priest by the name of Pasher. He heard the words of Jeremiah And when heard the words of the prophet of God, he struck Jeremiah and he called to have him imprisoned. He placed him in stocks. Can you imagine Jeremiah remembering his call, how he would prevail against the people? And now he has been struck by the Religious leaders. He’s now been placed in stocks.

And then we read in verse eleven of chapter 26 that the continuation of the story of Jeremiah is that the priests say, this man Jeremiah, he deserves to die. Great success so far. Would you say there was a king by the name of Jehoiakim? The Lord told Jeremiah, I want you to write on a scroll the words that I give you. And so Jeremiah begins to write. And then he is told, that scroll is to be brought to King Jehoiakim. He presents the scroll to the king. As the king reads, column by column, it’s the winter months. There is a fire in the hearth. The king is warmed, and he takes out his knife.

And as he would read column after column of the sacred Writings of jeremiahs, he would take his knife and he would cut off a portion and cast the column of words into the fire until we are told that the entire scroll was consumed. We read that eventually Jeremiah is arrested again. He is taken to the prison. He is dropped into a cell by the use of ropes. And there, in the darkness, in the mire, no water, no food, sits Jeremiah in all of his success. Well, was Jeremiah a success or was he a failure? Well, it all depends how you define success and how you define being a failure. How could Jeremiah cope with the words of blessing of the Lord one hand and the apparent reality that he was facing on the other?

I think it’s important for us to see that what God called Jeremiah to was a life of faithfulness, a life of obedience. The Lord never defined for him what that success would be. In our own day, we define success as having to do with great success, with numbers of people or budgets or buildings or accomplishments of one type or another. And we say we are succeeding. Yet I think that Jeremiah stands to tell us that buildings, numbers of people, budgets are not at the heart of success. Micah, in the 6th chapter of that book, 8th verse, asks this question, what is it that God requires from you? What is it that God wants from you and he wants from me? We are told the answer, to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.

What does the Lord want from you and me? As we have put our faith in Jesus Christ, what does he define as success in this life? He defines it this way, that we would act justly, that we would love mercy, and that we would walk humbly with our God. By that definition, was Jeremiah a success or a failure? Do you remember when you first became a Christian? What was it that you wanted more than anything else? What was it that motivated you to action? Was it something like this? I have been saved through the blood of Jesus Christ, and now I want to give my life in obedience to Christ. I want to follow him wherever he leads me. I want to learn more about what it means to be just. I want to learn more about what it means to love mercy.

I need to understand what it means to walk humbly with my God. And so you found yourself at every Bible study that you could find prayer meeting, seeking to learn about justice and mercy and humility in the light of Jesus Christ. Do you remember, maybe it was the first time or the 10th time that you tried to actually be a just person. Maybe it happened at the office and someone asked you to do something dishonest, and you thought to yourself, but I’m a Christian. One of my desires is to love that which is just so I cannot be dishonest. And you took a stand for the first time in your life. Do you remember the great success that happened? Do you remember how everyone said, we’ve been waiting for someone just like you. You’re the first person who has been honest.

We want to promote you. Is that what happened? Do you remember the first time, or maybe it was the 10th or 20th time that you said, I love mercy, and I want to show mercy to another person. I want to tell them about the mercy that I’ve received in Jesus Christ. And so you grabbed all the confidence you could get, and for the first time you told someone where they might find mercy in Jesus Christ. And you remember the great success you had? They fell down on their knees and said, I want to become a Christian. Or do you remember that quizzical look? Or did they say to you, do you really believe that stuff? Are you one of those kinds of Christians? Great success.

What about the time that you decided, I’m going to learn about humility through Jesus Christ, and I’m going to put it into practice, and you had that opportunity to work overtime on Sunday, but you said, no. The Lord has called this to be a holy day, and I am going to walk humbly before my God and I am going to have to say no, and I’m going to do it with all of the humility that God would give me. Do you remember the great success you had on that day? The apostle Paul knew a great deal about success and failure in the light of the Lord. We read in two Corinthians, chapter eleven, that having preached, started churches, prayed with untold hundreds, thousands of people. He records for us his success. He says, five times I was whipped within one strike of my life.

Three times I was whipped with rods. One time I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. I’ve been in peril on the sea. I’ve been in peril by robbers. I’ve been in peril by my own countrymen. And in the midst of all of that, I had the burden every day of the church. Now, can you imagine Paul taking off his shirt and showing you his success? Wow, what a successful Christian. Some of you, this week or this month, certainly within this year, are going to feel as though the world is beating you up. Some of you are in the midst or will be grieving, whether it is because of a death, a divorce, separation, pain with children, and you will grieve. Some of you will be discouraged because of circumstances that you face.

Some of you will be hurt by something that someone says about you. Some of you are going to be lonely. Some of you will face being single and being lonely. Some of you will be married and lose a spouse. And you’ll be lonely. Some of you will become tired in doing well. Some of you are going to ask the question, how long can I last? How long can I keep it up? And I think that the answer to that question is directly in relation to how you define success. Jeremiah in prison, being beaten, deprived of all of the necessities. From an earthly perspective, we would say failure. But Jeremiah was a man who had learned to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before the Lord. And by that definition, he was a great success.

It’s interesting that those who persevere in the christian life are those people who, very much like Jeremiah, are faced on the left and on the right, in front and behind, with one affliction, persecution, obstacle, unexpected turn of events after another, and yet, through Jesus Christ, are able to continue. There was a minister who I read about recently who was being sharply criticized by the members of his church. And he reached the point where he said, I can’t go any further. I’ve endured all that I can. And so he decided to go and talk to someone who could give him some counsel. So he went to a bishop, and he told the bishop about his thinking of resigning and problems that he was facing. And the bishop asked him this question. He said, has anyone in your congregation ever spit in your face?

He said, why? No one’s ever spit in my face. He says, has anyone ever come and publicly dressed you up and paraded you around, and then all the congregation came and mocked you? Has that ever happened to you? Said, nothing like that. He says, have they ever taken a crown of thorns and stuck it in your head and have it ever crucified you? No. And then the minister realized the point of the bishop’s questioning, and he said, no, they’ve never done that. And until they do, I’ll hang on. All that Jeremiah faced was great persecution, great obstacles, similar to the things that you and I face every day as we persevere as christians. But never have you and I experienced the pain that Jesus Christ experienced. And we have been called to follow Christ with that same example.

Jesus who on the cross, if you had been given on that day a sheet, and you had to mark success or failure. You say, well, who is it that we’re grading? Say it’s that fella right there, center cross. Jesus. Would you have said a success? Or would you say he was a failure? And yet, from that greatest persecution that has ever happened, the greatest spiritual success that has ever occurred in the world, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The book of lamentations was written by Jeremiah, and in that book we have a clue to the single belief that allowed Jeremiah, day by day, to face the persecution, the affliction, the obstacles that he faced. It’s in the third chapter, the 22nd verse. Remember my afflictions. And roaming through the Lord’s mercy, we are not consumed. Why? Because his compassions fail not.

They are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. How are you going to face today? The loneliness, the discouragement, the obstacles? If you look at the circumstances, you will come to the conclusion, undoubtedly, that you have failed. But if you look to Jesus Christ, and if you have learned that the principle of Christ is success in a life is in direct relation to our love, our obedience, our desire, as we would follow Christ, as we would learn to do what is just, as we would learn through the example of Jesus Christ to love mercy, as we would learn through Jesus Christ how we can walk in this world. Humbly.

I believe that the teaching of scripture is that those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ, who have received that free gift of new life that he gives to us, that he also gives to us the ability to do what is just, to learn about mercy, to learn about humility. That’s why Paul says in Philippians one six that we should know these things, that he who began a good work in you, he will bring it to completion. It is all the work of Jesus Christ. It is all by grace that you and I would learn anything about being just, that we would have any desire for mercy, that we would have any interest in being able to walk humbly with the Lord. In closing these words, pilgrim, have you weary groan he will help you persevere. God is still upon the throne.

He will hear your faithful cry. He to help is ever nigh. You shall conquer by and by. He will help you persevere. Christian, has your faith grown weak? He will help you persevere. Do the tears roll down the cheek? He will help you persevere. Soon you never more shall sigh tears, no more shall dim your eye. Pray to him who is always near, for he will help you persevere. That in the midst of the obstacles that you face. Jesus Christ is present and he will bring to completion, and he will help you. And he will make possible your perseverance in the midst of great obstacles, for he will bring to completeness that which he has begun on the day of Jesus Christ. Let us pray.

Our God and our father, we come before you as men and women who face various obstacles and circumstances, some which the world would define as failure. And yet, Lord, we ask that you would place within our minds, within our hearts, that belief, that understanding, that definition for true success. Lord, that we would learn about humility, that we would learn about your compassion, your mercy. And Father, that we would be interested in learning about justice. Be with us. Help us to remember great is your faithfulness. For we ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

Thank you for listening to a firm foundation presented by Princeton Ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listener. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org or send your donation to Princeton Ministries Post office box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. That’s Princeton Ministries Post Office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. The Lord bless you and Dr. Smith looks forward to hearing from you. We would like to thank Rone’s web development company for making this webcast possible. You can find their link at the bottom of our website, princetonministries.org