KEEP MOVING FORWARD
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Keep Moving Forward
Jeremiah 32:6-12
We are on the battlefield. The victory has been won - but the clashes continue - the enemy seems to be winning, but it is only because it is the last days. We still have to finish our fight.
Pauls said in:
I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
We must keep moving forward.
One thing that we learned as a basic meaneuvering doctrine in the Marines was that we had to keep moving forward. Always have a plan. Even in the midst of the battle do not turn your back to enemy - when you do - you know what happens, you get shot in the back.
If we were attacked by the enemy in an ambush position, the only hope is to move forward and fight through. Don’t lye down, don’t runaway, fight through.
This Christian life, no matter how great the odds, powerful the foe, or dim the hope may seem, we are going to trust God and KEEP MOVING FORWARD! Let’s pray!
The context of our scripture is during one of the worst times of Israel’s history up to this point. They had been occupied before, they had been slaves before, but now they were going to be forcibly removed from their homeland. They were going to be taken away from their God given place.
Jeremiah was called the weeping prophet. He had a very hard job. It would not be a job that I would want; nor would you likely. It is not a job most of our television preachers would be able to have because they refuse to preach about sin or judgment. Those were the things that Jeremiah preached and prophesied.
It was at this very time that God Babylon’s army was besieging Jerusalem, with all the inhabitants fearing for their lives.
Jeremiah tells King Zedekiah that judgment is coming, Babylon will lead Judah away captive including Zedekiah who will be alive still, he would be captured. Meanwhile, all along Jeremiah is shut in a prison for seemingly treasonous prophecies.
Along the path of even the judgment of God, there is still ray of mercy in this life. As long as a man has breath in him there is still time to repent. The Bible here even gives us a glimpse of God’s mercies that were to come after the judgment. The fact that at the end of the exile and captivity of Judah and Israel, there would be a restoration of God’s people to their land.
But in this scripture, God told Jeremiah to go and buy the field.
Now we are living in times of financial hardship. People all over the world have lost their jobs especially in the United States and here in Japan as well. The military community is somewhat unaffected pursé, but it certainly has affected our family and friends here in Japan and back in the states. I know that some of our Japanese families have been affected in this church.
I. When is a good time to buy?
I. When is a good time to buy?
Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
When God says to buy something.
Therefore, when is a good time to give, when God says to give.
When should we give:
When we have an increase.
On the first day of the week.
When a brother is need.
When the Gospel needs to be sent.
When the ministry requires it to minister effectively.
II. When is a good time to get moving?
II. When is a good time to get moving?
When God says to move.
Moving can have a lot of applications, but the one we are referring to is in making life changing or directional changes.
God tells us in His Word to keep moving in several important ways:
A. Keep moving with the Gospel
A. Keep moving with the Gospel
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
We must keep taking the Gospel out to this lost and dying world.
B. Keep moving with our Faith
B. Keep moving with our Faith
What happens when we step out on faith? What happens when people like Jeremiah do what God said to do?
We encourage others in their faith.
We see God work miracles.
III. When is a good time to get things back on track?
III. When is a good time to get things back on track?
Some of you have been astray for a long, long time. You know what is right, you have trusted the Lord as your Saviour, be you have continued in some sinful pattern that has had a hold on you for years. You don’t know where or how to stop in yourself. You need to get things back on track.
Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
It was David who was the greatest king of Israel, but also, he was a man who truly new how to repent.
Look at Psalm 51:1-13 later, but it is an encouragement about gettin things back on track.
IV. When is a good time to believe?
IV. When is a good time to believe?
When God says to believe.
(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)
Let me say this, it is time to get the Gospel out again. It is time to start telling others what Christ has done for them. It is time to quit shirking our repsonsibility before God and to be accountable to God about giving it out. People need to hear the Gospel. Not everyone will believe, but some will and God can use you.
Be bold and humble at the same time. Humble in that this Gospel message we share is something that first changed our life, and we trust will change the lives of those we share it with.
Let’s Keep Moving Forward. God can do great things:
Moving forward when it comes to buy of the Lord.
Moving forward when it comes to getting the Gospel to the world.
Moving forward in our personal faith.
Moving forward in our getting things back on track.
Moving forward in our personal witness and testimony.
If we move forward in faith - we are trusting God to supply the need.
When we we were in Japan, we had arrived there and the church was in a building of about 1800 square feet, that was the total, that included the auditorium, the platform, the one bathroom in the middle of the auditorium, and upstairs there was a nursery that was decent sized, and closet room for a teen room.
We also had another room we rented on Sundays that was in another building just adjacent to the church building for the Junior church/Sunday school classes that was maybe 300 square feet, that was it.
We had no parking, everyone illegally parked on the street. People got tickets some times for coming church and yeah got towed.
Our third month there, someone knocked on our doors right before invitation on Sunday morning - they said the police were ticketing the cars, that night one of our members got towed away. I told the church that night by faith in God, we were going to move the church and have a new and better church building within 3 months.
Problem was, our rent was $5,000 a month, and we had less than that coming in already. We had really no savings other than two months operating costs. We committed it to God, trusted in God went forward in a difficult time.
About six weeks later. I signed a lease on a new building took all the money we had in savings, needed about $15,000 down. The new rent was about $5,500. So, little money coming in, not enough to pay one rent, now we had two rents for a few months - while we remodeled the new building. No remodel money, savings gone. 3 months from that time, when all was said and done and we were out of the old building, we had paid for $60,000 of remodel costs, had a bigger better church walking distance to the base with parking, all of this and $20,000 in the bank.
Listen times may be tough, life may not be easy, but we must keep moving forward. We must trust God to do something with us and through us.
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