Minister Jonathan Smith Sr. (Baruch)

that way amen God is a good god and we truly oh he is worthy to be praised let's go to God in prayer tonight Amber grab our CH all right let us pray God we love you we thank you Father for being in the midst I thank you Lord for being that way maker father dear Lord we thank you for that River Lord in the middle of the desert oh God we thank you for making that path Lord in the middle of the Wilderness oh god father we thank you Lord when we think there's no way out father you show up and you show out oh God and you provide that way for each and every one of us every single time oh God I thank you for being that promisee keeping God I thank you so much father Lord for just being true to your word oh God I thank you Father for causing people lord to bless us Lord I thank you Father right now father for sticking to your word where you told us to give and it shall be given unto us oh God de Lord I thank you Father Hallelujah for just being such a good good father to each and every one of us oh God thank you Lord for hearing each and every one of our prayers oh God thank you Father for answering Lord even if it doesn't seem like the answer we wanted or when we wanted it we thank you for being just truthful Lord and giving us the answer every single time God de Lord we ask Lord that tonight Lord you open our hearts Lord we open our hearts Lord so that we can receive those answers from you tonight oh God that Lord L we ask Lord that you allow your word Lord to just penetrate each and every one of us oh God lord we give you permission to have your way in this place tonight oh God we thank you for speaking to each and every one of us we appreciate you in Jesus name we pray amen God is a good god truly worthy to be praised everybody doing all right tonight amen good good sounds a little bit loud I don't know what it sounds like out there but it's loud up here to me all right U hopefully that everybody May got a chance to read their lesson um if not you'll still get some good words some good nuggets um out of it tonight uh the point for tonight is God will reward you for faithful service so don't give up don't give in God is going to reward you for being faithful now tonight's uh topic of study is Baro Baro um the the author opened up um opened up the lesson talking about when he first became pastor of his church it was they were just remodeling the church after a church fire and one of the things that he had to consider was like who gets keys to this church you know we got a remodel church we getting brand new doors on here you know who gets the key to the church and and he goes on to talking about you know that it's not only the people that you think might be on the list of the pastor and the co-pastor and the deacons but he goes on to say that you know it was a lady in his church that was just faithful she was just faithful of showing up every single Sunday and being on time and being actually ahead of time so guess who name went on that list for the church key that faithful person who was there every single time to make sure the doors of the church would be open for everybody else um so that just you know of course reemphasizes the point that God will reward faithful Service uh the first question of the night open up the floor with questions tonight so if there's a mic around you you can talk in the mic so we can pick it up for those online uh if not I'll just repeat any answers that you give um the first question is who do you see as an unsung hero in our church or our community unsung hero somebody who may not get all of the credit or praise anybody's got any unsung heroes they want to mention tonight Amber what you say dayare teachers all right all right well we're singing to the daycare teachers tonight Analise unsung hero all right we'll take it we'll take it all right good good answer all right any other unsung heroes know in our church I think I recognize our okay our church deacons all right the deacons unsung heroes Heroes good good good response you got another unsung hero Analise and Luke go ahead anise yeah all right good good good Mama and Daddy all right in Jesus yep okay I don't know I don't know all right unsung heroes yeah well I would I would say like Daddy said too as I would say my my dad which is the pastor I don't know if he you know gets enough credit or not but um he's been faithful for a long time you know I mean just very faithful faithful and patient um you know that's just God that's got to be god-given stuff you know I mean I mean just faithful you know year after year Sunday after Sunday Wednesday after Wednesday service after service meeting after meeting um you know he's been faithful and they have a lot of people here I mean that's been here a lot of people that's been faithful here to the church a lot of people has um been faithful since the early years since I remember since I was a kid you know some of you sitting right in here just been faithful from the days of moving around I guess you can call it nomadic Church from loading up the van every morning with speakers and the amplifier you know and moving chairs and doing stuff every single Sunday I mean and you're still around you're still here you know to to all our unsung heroes thank you thank you thank you all right uh let first let's get into the word the first part of the scripture that we're reading tonight is Jeremiah 36 verse 4-8 Jeremiah 36: 4-8 says so Jeremiah summon baruk son of Nera at Jeremiah's dictation baruk wrote on a scroll all the words the Lord has spoken to Jeremiah then Jeremiah commanded baroo I am restricted I cannot enter the Temple of the Lord so you must go and read from the scroll which you wrote at my dictation the words of the Lord in the hearing of the people at the Temple of the Lord on a day of fasting read read his words in the hearing of all the judeans who are coming from their cities perhaps the petition will come before the Lord and each one will turn from his evil way for the anger and fury that the Lord has pronounced against his people are intense so baroo son of Nera did everything the Prophet Jeremiah had commanded him at the Lord's Temple he read the W Lord's words from the scroll amen so the Baro was in a tough spot here so Jeremiah had been banned from the temple on at least two occasions in the past you know so baroo had to step up to the plate so Jeremiah I don't know how many times or how many of you have read through Jeremiah but it seems very doomish and Gloom you know but Jeremiah's part of his assignment was to bring the message from the Lord that you know if you don't get yourself together you know destruction is coming you know I mean so then um that's why he was you know kicked out of the temple or you know people didn't receive that message well people did not receive that message of hey you about to be destroyed by your enemy you know or jeho Kim andm is coming and get just obliterate you from the earth they didn't receive that well you know so they you know his life got um je in Jeopardy several times from this and so bar I'm just trying to paint that picture of how Dad they didn't like that you know they didn't they didn't want to receive that so him asking Baro to step up in his place and now you go get possibly ridiculed by these people or you know your life in jeopardy by these people maroo was like you know I don't know exactly what he was feeling at the time but it's a tough spot that Jeremiah and the Lord was putting him in or any other person in but as tonight's lesson goes he was faithful you know R he was faithful he went and he did it um so the spot that they were in the author tells us that they were only months away from getting annihilated by Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon but the people didn't know it or they didn't realize it you know um he went to give this message but we don't read here about whether or not the people how the people responded if they wind up turning away uh I mean turning back to God and repented for their sins and I would say they obviously did not the king certainly didn't um replaying that that scenario that I just gave you about Baro and how hard of a task that would have been for him to maybe step in that place and say and be possibly the the center of that ridicule could you put yourself in that position and know whether or not you would step up okay let me get your mic thank you sir we're living in this in a culture that could change at the at the drop of a hat if if you if you can imagine you know the the the law the people people with power turning on the Christian world and they would have come in this church and arrest a pastor and anybody that's got a title to just arrest them knowing that they ain't coming back out who would step up here on Sunday WHo that's the question we have to ask ourselves would I step up and Lead would I step up and share you know knowing that hey they just took all those folks away to jail and it's good chance they going to kill them would I go up and stand behind the podium that's something to think about that's where Barack was amen keante are you GNA step up on Sunday they come arrest us today okay you can answer that later okay I mean but that's that's the situation I mean will you be faithful to still continue to spread the gospel you know like baroo was will you be faithful to keep pressing on in the midst of hard circum es uh the question number two for us tonight is who have you known that completed a difficult task for somebody else have you known anybody that that completed a difficult task for somebody else or somebody else who possibly couldn't it's okay this a tough when you take a time to think about it we know somebody who completed something tough strange huh strange okay you know here again I can I can think of uh sister Eva you know just stepping in the place of of of uh so many teachers within our child care system that are remember I said that Hallelujah so many of our child care teachers you know either sick or whatever they just couldn't do it but she's stepped up there and and and the task have been difficult but she just she has been just toying the line and sometime you got to do that you know you don't know if you can do it till you have to do it amen amen thank you for stepping up there all right anybody else know anybody who you know completed a difficult task for somebody who couldn't was that a hand keing no okay yes ma'am Jesus amen amen he definitely stepped in and stepped up and the military okay good deal yes ma'am thank you to all our veterans out there thank you okay J Jesse look stop acting up man I'm Sorry Miss cooler yes ma'am caregiving caregivers do complete Jesse lote boy Jess come here come on sit down he was trying to get back to his mama I think but too late come on sit down yep that's mine for those you don't know that's mine I can up here I'm want to sit down all right let's go to our next passage of scripture here verse 16 through 18 the same chapter it says when they had heard all the words they turned to each other in fear and said to baroo we must surely tell the king all these things then they asked baroo tell us how did you write all these words at his dictation baroo said to them at his dictation he recited all these words to me while I was writing on the scroll in ink all right so for well it skipped a uh portion of scripture in the lesson unless I'm missing the page um versus you know 8 through 15 but in those in those verses you know they talk about how Baro went to deliver that message that Jeremiah had asked him to deliver and I mean he was faithful and he did it and apparently there was not everybody wasn't there at the temple so one of the scribes which the scribes uh his name was AA believe that's how he pronounced it he was like oh man this is a serious message God is about to bring some wrath on us you know and everybody wasn't there so Micaiah went down to the Scribe area wherever all the scribes were and the political leaders were hanging out apparently they didn't even come up to the temple to hear this message but Micaiah went down there and repeated that message because he saw you know Jeremiah Was faithful to you know give to dictate the words that God had given him and Baro was faithful to come to the temple and give those words and then all the you know important people per se or people who had connections to the king weren't even at that message so Micaiah went down to the Scribe area and he told them you know say hey this is a serious message here here it goes he read the whole message you know to them and so what happened after that was they were kind of intrigued and was like hey we want to hear this message you know I mean we want to hear this ourself so they went and got baroo and grou came to them and delivered the message the second time you know he the message he open up the scroll and delivered the message to them even a second time so he was faithful and scared you know and faithful to come and do it the first time but now I'm going to get into somebody who other people deem as important people in closer to the king but he was still faithful to get that word of God out again anyway you know regardless of what the consequences may have been um let's see we got here although we cannot control others responses to the word of God we can still be like baroo and accurately share the message so whether or not people are going to receive that from you or how they're going to receive it we can't control that portion I mean we just we we we can't the the king didn't didn't receive it so those uh scribes and some other political leaders you know brought that message to the king they thought that message was very important and say Hey you know we got Sur surely death you know coming to us if we don't you know get our life together and turn around and repent and turn back to God but you know what the king did he cut up the scroll King cut up the scroll and threw it in the fire you know he cut up the scroll threw it in the fire and he wanted that uh he wanted Jeremiah and and Baro he wanted both of them arrested but luckily he couldn't find them you know God had hid them and the people had gave him the advice you know the political leaders and the scribes had already told baroo give us that scroll you go and hide but we still need to think the king need to know this and the reason they told him to go high because that King jeho Kim had already killed another prophet he had already killed another Prophet who came with some Doom and Gloom stuff and it already killed them so I mean they know what they was getting into jeremi and Baro but they were still faithful to let this message go out I'm sure they were probably hoping that the people turned around you know that God wouldn't you know allow judgment to come on the whole all the people people of Judah you know but that didn't happen either way no matter what it looked like even in the fear of death they were faithful like Pastor was saying if they come get us and come arrest us from here who's going to step up on Sunday and give the message who's going to be faithful to getting that word out will it be you yes it should be now what are it's all the benefit okay the benefit of giving credit to others now before we answer that I want to read this last paragraph here it says although we can't control other responses to the word of God we can definitely you know share the message the Bible is God's word given by the Holy Spirit written by men so that others may know and respond to God but just as baroo stated that he was only the messenger he was only the messenger inscribed and that Jeremiah was the author we as Believers must make it clear that we're just Messengers speaking God's word God is the author and he deserves all the credit what are the benefits of giving credit to others one of the benefits what are the benefits what do you see the benefits of giving people the credit they deserve app okay there people will feel appreciated all right what are other benefits to giving credit where it's due it encourages absolutely it encourages them and maybe they'll be able to do that thing again and do something even better next time good good all right what other benefits we see of giving credit to others right well those are some good those are some good responses right Jeremiah the next passage of scripture is Jeremiah 45 verse 1-5 it says this is the word that the Prophet Jeremiah spoke to Baro son of neria when he wrote these words on the scroll at Jeremiah's dictation in the fourth year of jeim son of J fourth year jehoram son of Josiah king of Judah this is what the Lord the god of Israel says to you baroo you have said woe is me because the Lord has added misery to my my pain I am worn out with groaning and have found no rest this is what you are to say to him this is what the Lord says what I have built I am about to demolish and what I have planted I am about to uproot the whole land but as for you do you pursue great things for yourself stop pursuing for I am about to bring disaster on all Humanity this is the Lord's declaration but I will grant you your life like The Spoils of War wherever you go Barack he just couldn't believe it I mean he just couldn't I mean he's trying to do the word of God and now he's getting U he's getting even more worse news from Jeremiah you know I mean the good part of that news is that okay his life will be SP but you know it's bad news that everything around you is about to be destroyed and the King already wants you arrested the king is out looking for you and that's why you know I'm sure he was like whoo you know woe is me you know what in the world I'm just trying to preach the gospel why is it got to be so hard so tough and so difficult um and I'm sure he was having it as the he knew the King was looking to arrest him he was having those thoughts of about Jah being killed by the king um have you you ever felt maybe like like baroo have you ever felt unappreciated that people didn't appreciate what you did um have you felt like people didn't recognize you or reward you for your hard work sometimes we feel like we might have gone above and beyond for somebody and they don't appreciate it not one bit not even a thank you you know I mean i' I felt that way before I don't know if I felt as bad as baroo you know I mean cuz know all he doing is trying to spread the gospel that's it and now his life is threatened he's being ridiculed he's being looked at like Jeremiah and probably getting put out of places as well and he's like what in what in the world but he was still faithful to deliver continue to deliver God's message and we should be we should continue to be faithful you know no matter what the situation is if you feel unrecognized or unappreciated don't let that stop you from spreading the good news look at the reward think about the reward of what happens when you spread the good news when you spread the gospel I mean what happens people get saved people get saved I mean people get saved I mean when we say saved I mean let's just put in people get saved from Hell people get saved from a eternity of being burnt up you know I mean who wants that I don't even want that for the people I don't like you know so I mean who wants that for somebody you know nobody so continue to be faithful continue to be faithful and just Allowing God to be seen through you I'm not saying you might not be preaching everywhere you go you know or actually opening the word And discussing it with someone but you allowing Jesus to shine through you is your faithfulness you know is your faithfulness um letting people know where to come you know even though things may get tight for you and most most of us have worked a job before in our life so that's a pretty good example I can use if you feel unappreciated or you know people don't reward you for your hard work don't let the Jesus stop shining through you don't let your life change to a life of being bitter you know or doing things that you know you shouldn't or taking shortcuts you know you shouldn't because people don't appreciate or value what you do you know Let Jesus Shine through You by you continuing to be faithful so you being faithful is you doing what you know is right to do you allowing Jesus to shine through you because those same people who didn't appreciate you were near in a tough spot and they don't know where to turn they're going to turn to that person whose light never went out you know no matter how bad they talk about you you know or whatever matter how much they don't want to be around you sometimes they just other people don't want to be around people that they know stand for Jesus because their conversation and stuff doesn't look you know appealing or if they G it's people that time that cuss a lot and talk crazy jokes and stuff at work you know what I'm saying they're not coming around me and hanging out they're not you're not GNA see us hanging out 20 minutes outside of the cafe talking about something because their conversation doesn't flow with my lifestyle you know so that's that's what I'm talking about so it can get very easy to snap on somebody you know that doesn't appreciate you or you've already gone above and beyond for and they can't get a thank you but when we're talking about tonight being faith f is meaning staying true to yourself staying true to who who God is to you and by you allowing that light to shine that is just like you preaching the gospel you know all around you so stay faithful like Baro uh that leads us to question number four what can we learn about faithfulness from baroo's example what can we learn here want to answer in hard time s you should still be obedient amen amen all right what else can we learn from baroo's example of faithfulness okay got that microphone hit it one question that that that comes to my mind is okay what does it take to be obedient how do I stay obedient what's what's what's the what's the magic formula what did I do you know in hard times we should stay obedient but how do I do that that's the question how do I do that what is a suggestion for stay in obedience prayer and boldness okay yeah I mean it is it's could be difficult sometime to stay faithful to stay obedient but prayer and then you say getting in God God's word boldness yep boldness to just do what God has told you to do last and I would have to say getting spending time with God spending time with God I'm just spending time with God that's that's that's key spending time with God and spending time in God's word because times are going to get tight and so what do we do how do we stay on the path and and that's that's that's what we do we spend time with God and that's every time that's that's turned me around and got me back in the right direction every single time we get distracted we get frustrated we get off course and how do we stay obedient how do we stay faithful come on back to God he's always there waiting with open arms come on back to God like we've been talking about for the last week's praise you know give God praise you know fill that atmosphere up again and allow God to come on and feel his presence in that atmosphere and give him praise um any other suggestions about about how do we remain faithful in those difficult times AA said something amen amen amen asz everybody believe me as we get further and further in these last days people will need the light I mean people need the light and the light is not the person standing behind this Pulpit the light should be shining from each and every one of us you know through our lives and like Mr L said we got to be intentional it like it's not g to be peaches and Roses but we got to know who we are you know know who God says we are and come back to it every single time amen and stay in that word all right Baro was challenged with this Lord's unbelievable response in that last passage we just read said the Lord told him to stop pursuing any great things he had planned for himself because judgment was about to be poured out on Judah but for his faithfulness God would spare his life what a sober reminder that the believer will not always be appreciated we're the Believers the preacher will be talked about and not always thank even Jesus suffered in what he came to do to avoid frustration don't focus on the response of others but focus on your responsibility exactly what Dr coie was just mentioning we just can't focus on that distraction don't focus on that people's response even if they don't respond the way that you think they should you know just don't focus on it understand what's your responsibility and your responsibility is to be the light is to allow Jesus to shine through you everywhere you go now question number five it says what can we do to lift up those who quietly serve God in the background go ahead mom encourage them to keep going absolutely I'm one of those people I need to if it's getting tough I will appreciate your encouragement on any given day say keep on going jonan amen good response good response appreciate absolutely Miss charler oh you was scratching all right anybody else what can we do to lift up those who quietly serve in the background okay absolutely prayer is good prayer is good what else can we do to lift up those who serve in the background maybe sometimes we can serve with them yep maybe sometimes we can serve with them and help them you know those people I mean stuff it's just so much stuff that happens here I mean they just even at church even in this church it's a lot of stuff that needs to happen and so it's a lot of it takes all of us to make all these things happen you you know and so I mean it's I I I came in I was in came in to the sanctuary earlier today and my dad was out here you know putting out these tables and these chairs you know I mean this stuff changes and all the time the configuration here changes all kind of little stuff that needs to be done that sometimes people don't know about so there's multiple people here you know that make stuff happen in the background all the time so if you get a chance to encourage them and say thanks so I appreciate dad or you know or help him and I and I gave my dad a hand on you know I was in the middle of doing something else I was praying but I saw Dad there and I saw him with Chan pull out tables and chairs by itself you know of course we jumped on it but that that kind of stuff happens in the background so if you get an opportunity help with them and that'll be encouraging to them you know what whatever you see somebody doing especially if you see them being faithful they doing something over and over um to me I would say my uncle ear is from my perspective is always doing something in the in the background you know just like a lot of us here from the beginning um you know as I was a kid I've always seen Uncle doing something and then he's been driving a van for I don't know a long time and showing up and faithfully and you know and every time I you know pop up and here and out the church you know he's there doing something so I he was a person that I would love to go beside sometime and just help or or give an encouraging word but anybody you see you know doing stuff that happens in the background you know let's find a way to help them keep going you know help that light don't go out you know cuz I'm sure there's times where each of us including Uncle Earl has felt not appreciated you know a lot of work we've done and so you being that light or being that energy Giver or that or sharing your testimony of something I mean whatever you can do to help that person in the background continue to be faithful because that's the end go we all want to be faithful we all want to carry out the mission that God has given us responsibility that God has given us and we would just maybe our situation might not be as dire as baroo's was you know like Daddy said if they come in here and arrest us who's going to step up it may not be that detrimental you know but whatever the situation that you face whatever your weak looks like you know whenever the people you approach uh look like we want to be consistent with whatever God has told you to do be faithful in that no just be faithful in that and once again I want to Circle right back to what that being faithful looks like you know in your everyday walk it's just you doing what you know is right as a Christian Christian means Christlike so if you don't do know anything else to do in your walk do what you think Christ would do that is you being faithful to your Christlike Mission amen amen so let's look at our practical applications for this week our practical applications for this week this live it out so this live it out section that we have this practical app section is there anybody who who actually tries to do one of these things each week or purpose is to do one of these things this week each week okay I gonna ask for hands because I don't see any so let I'm playing guys let's let's let's that's what it's here for it's to try to encourage you to just maybe put action to this studying of the word each week you know we study something we want to put it to action and it that's just that's not that's not only with the word I mean I see that in in my life you know and probably in the work Fields you know if you get some information and you don't put it to action then you prob lose it you know you just don't have that anymore yeah that might and I'm pretty sure those of you to sit in meetings often maybe um Reverend you know you sit in meetings sometimes and y'all talk about good stuff that may be good ideas and if it doesn't ever get put in action what happens to those good ideas yeah they just disappear they go away you know so the same thing with the word of God as we study each week I you know try to do if there's a nugget that you grab out of the the lesson or if God speaks something to you directly to do um then then let's do it let's put action to it but a live it out section says God will reward your faithful Service choose one of the following applications this week ask God one ask God for help thank God for the privilege of getting to serve him ask him to help you do so with excellence in a way that brings glory to him and good to others uh let's stop and say a quick prayer right then so we all can say that we did an action item this week dear God we come to you God and we just ask for your help oh God dear Lord I thank you God for the privilege Lord to serve you oh God and we ask that you help each and every one of us to serve you with Excellence God we ask that you help our our light stay shine and bright all this week God as we go throughout Lord whatever it is that whatever the journey leads us this week oh God we ask that you continue to allow our light to just shine oh God we ask for your help to keep our light shining no matter what situation comes up we thank you for being that kind of a good father we appreciate you and we love you in Jesus name amen amen action item number two that we could possibly do this week is repeat the message like Baro start writing down the message by journaling your devotions or taking notes on your pastor's sermon then repost the message online share the link to worship on your social media if possible text your notes to your family let's digitally repeat the message of the gospel of Christ so the second thing we do is repeat the message I mean so does anybody ever go back and look at another message or go over your notes maybe from Sunday um because we have the messages are on YouTube you know and the Audio I believe is on the we website I don't go to that one what is the audio still on the website Keon every week yep the audio part is on the website but you can get audio and video right on YouTube you know so we can listen to those messages and be ready with that word you know instant in season and out of season and we can share it so even those messages for those of you that are on social media that that YouTube message you can share that link you know you can share maybe possibly like they're suggesting here share your notes or maybe even start a little small group chat with your family or friends or you know a few group chat I know they young my kids I mean they got group chats Gore you know just there's a group of friends they a group and you know but you could do that or somehow just repeat that message just like baroo and Micaiah just repeat the message that that the that the Lord brings forth and the third application um this week is become a teacher Shadow a teacher and ask to be trained maybe as a substitute Sunday school teacher or small group teacher or facilitator we can multiply by reproducing our leaders all righty well that is all the applications for this week we've all done at least one because we prayed and ask God for help you know to keep keep our light shining today um so I appreciate you guys coming out tonight and I would like to go ahead and just pray with any with anybody who has any prayer requests tonight anything you need God to do for you he's a doing God God uh any comments before I pray on the message Pastor all right what kind what everybody doing real good okay well let's pray and thank God for being real good amen CU Hallelujah let's pray father Lord we thank you so much for blessing your people oh God God you're amazing and wonderful father and there is none other like you God thank you so much God that we can just we can be blessed we can be here and be blessed oh God by you oh God de Lord I thank you God that you've provided all the resources that we need oh God dear Lord we thank you for providing this church Lord where we can come together and spend time with you god de Lord we ask Lord that you help us to remain faithful oh God de Lord we ask that you help us to remain faithful this week God Lord help us as we go throughout the week father to just let your light shine inside each and every one of us oh God help us Lord to live like you intentionally oh God lord allow that Holy Spirit to just nudge us Lord instantly Lord if we start to straight to the right or to left or before the wrong thing comes out of our mouth oh God we give you permission Lord to turn up the level of the Holy Spirit and how of each and every one of us oh God lord so that we can hear you clearly and go exactly where it is you want us to go do exactly what it is you want us to do and say exactly what it is you want us to say oh God lord we want to be more like you thank you so much for being a good father we love you and we appreciate you have your way in each and every one of us in Jesus name we pray amen amen and amen God is a good god and he's truly worthy to be praised thank you guys for coming out tonight we really appreciate you guys studying the word with us um the new Bible study books did come out last we C