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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Steven Conway

Is Anything Too Hard For the Lord?

Happy Sabbath everyone Good to Good to be here with you all today And I've made a Bit of a switch and what I will be presenting.

I was going to present deceived to today or this morning, but instead I'll present.

Is there anything too hard for the Lord and this afternoon I'll present Deceived.

Let's bow our heads together for a word of prayer.

Loving Father and our God, we are thankful for the privilege to be alive at such a time as this.

We are thankful for the presence of the Holy Spirit, who leads and guides us into all truth, who convicts us of sin, righteousness and of judgment, who empowers us, who empowers us every day to live lives that are pleasing in your sight.

We ask that as we open the scriptures, that he would instruct us and apply the things that we read to our own experiences.

We thank you for hearing and answering this humble prayer, for we ask it in Jesus name, amen.

For those of you all who I am not familiar with, which would probably be most of you.

I have 2 churches, the Detroit Northwest Seventh-day Adventist Church and the Cherry Hill 7th Day Adventist Church.

I am married going on 14 years and we have 4 wonderful children, Israel, Abigail, Gabriel and Angel.

And they are just about done with church, I'm sure, at this time, but if they were here, you would enjoy them and my wife more than you would enjoy me.

Open your Bibles with me to the book of Jeremiah.

And I'll just put this thought in your mind before we, or as we delve into our passage.

Have you ever questioned, have you ever questioned God?

Now I'm sure everybody is too holy today to say that they have questioned God, but I want you to think, have you ever been shocked at the nature of something God has requested of you?

And as we delve into his experience, I hope that Each 1 of us can sympathize with him.

And Jeremiah said the word of the Lord came unto me saying behold Hanumel the son of Shalom thine uncle shall come unto thee saying by thee my field that is in Anathoth for the right of redemption is thine to buy it.

So Hanumel mine uncle's son came to me in the court of the prison, according to the word of the Lord, and said unto me, By my field I pray thee, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin.

For the right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine.

Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.

Now, I come from a pretty big family and I have a lot of cousins.

A lot of these cousins were born around the same time that I was born, and so we're pretty close.

We grew up kind of like brothers and sisters.

I remember on 1 particular instance, I was living in Tennessee.

I don't even think our son was born yet, and I got a call from 1 of my cousins His name is will we call him little Willie and little Willie called me and he says Steven man I you know, I just feel the Lord moving in my life.

I feel God's movement on me and I want to come down and spend some time with you so that I can get close to the Lord.

Now we grew up together, ran the streets of Cleveland, Ohio together.

I was the boys dean at an academy at that time and I was just excited, thrilled that my cousin, he and I are the same age, that he desired to give his heart to the Lord.

So he came down and we were having worship and attending prayer meeting and attending church service and he was right there with me as I was doing everything that my responsibilities required.

On 1 particular day my wife and I had to make a trip.

We went down to Atlanta Georgia and when we came back we were there actually for the weekend, when we came back, there was a note on the table.

And the note said, it was like a Dear John letter.

It said, Steve, thank you for all that you've done.

I appreciate your help, but I just feel like it was time for me to leave.

He had procured a Greyhound bus ticket and caught the bus returning to Cleveland, Ohio.

Actually, I actually called this cousin and I said, hey, have you heard from Will?

They said, oh, he's not down there with you?

They said, oh, well, here's what happened with Little Willie.

And as a result of him skipping that date, a warrant was issued for his arrest.

And so he told us he was going to skip town just long enough to let things kind of die down.

So he came down to visit you in Tennessee because he was trying to escape.

He was trying to escape what was hanging over his head back in Cleveland, Ohio.

I share that with you to say that if I get a call from 1 of my cousins, I am sometimes suspicious.

I don't know if Jeremiah was like me, but perhaps he was because as we read in verse 8 when Hanumiel came and finally presented this to him he said then I knew that this was the word of the Lord apparently when God had first suggested it to him he said mm-hmm mm-hmm not at all but the Bible says that Hanumiel comes and he offers him this plot of land because by right it is his to redeem verse 9 and I bought the field of Hanameel my Uncle's son that was in Anathoth and weighed him the money even 17 shekels of silver and I subscribed the evidence and sealed it, and took witnesses and weighed him the money and the balances.

So I took the evidence of the purchase, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom and that which was open and I gave the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Nariah the son of Messiah and the sight of Hanumel my uncle's son and in the presence of the witnesses that subscribed the book of the purchase before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison and I charged Baruch before them saying thus said the Lord God of hosts or excuse me the Lord of hosts the God of Israel take these evidences this evidence of the purchase both which is sealed and this evidence which is open and put them in an earthen vessel that they may continue many days.

It sounds like an ordinary real estate transaction.

And that a real estate transaction between family members.

So Hanumel comes and he offers him this land and Jeremiah buys it because God has told him that he should.

Except when we look at the circumstances of Jeremiah's life, we understand that this was not just an ordinary real estate transaction.

In Jeremiah chapter 32, verse 1, are you there?

The Bible says, the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah which was the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar for then the king of Babylon's army besieged Jerusalem and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison which was in the king of Judah's house.

Verse 3, for Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up saying, wherefore dost thou prophesy and say, thus saith the Lord.

Behold I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon and he shall Take it and Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans But shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon and shall speak with him mouth-to-mouth and his eyes shall behold his eyes.

The city of Jerusalem is besieged by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar.

Now this was not the first time Nebuchadnezzar had come to Jerusalem.

In fact, this is the third time that Jerusalem has been attacked by the Babylonians.

Each of the preceding times or after each of the preceding attacks, they promised that they would be faithful only to rebel.

And so Nebuchadnezzar is here for the third time, as you can imagine, very angry.

Not only is the city of Jerusalem surrounded by the Babylonian armies, but there is a wicked king on the throne, or shall we say, wicked and vacillating king on the throne by the name of Zedekiah.

Zedekiah doesn't really know what he should do but it seems he knows that he shouldn't follow God, at least in his mind.

And so he's back and forth, back and forth, 1 minute calling forth Jeremiah from prison and asking Jeremiah to pray.

Now you're going to ask me to come pray for you?

So he's vacillating back and forth, surrounded by the Babylonians, a wicked king on the throne and Jeremiah himself incarcerated Imprisoned merely for speaking God's Word Now with all of this going on, Jeremiah is awakened 1 morning by the voice of God and God says, Jeremiah, it's a great time to buy some real estate.

God has prophesied through Jeremiah that Jerusalem will be laid waste and all of its inhabitants will be captive, not all of them, not absolutely all of them, But the captives who have been taken away to Babylon will remain there for 70 years.

For 70 years and God says it's a great time to buy land So you can imagine Jeremiah is a bit incredulous when his cousin comes and says hey man, I got some land to sell you Of course You want to sell me some land right now?

Because the Babylonian armies are getting ready to knock down the walls of Jerusalem and they're going to take control of everything here This land is going to be worthless.

The end of verse 8 again, Jeremiah says, then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.

Verse 16, now when I had delivered the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed unto the Lord saying, now here's something, God asked Jeremiah to do something that didn't quite make sense.

Considering the circumstances, Jerusalem is surrounded by the Babylonian armies.

God asked Jeremiah to do something that doesn't make sense.

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Is Anything Too Hard For the Lord?

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