WEBVTT 00:00:00.100 --> 00:00:02.320 Children are very special in God's eyes. 00:00:05.060 --> 00:00:07.420 This is the Lifespring One Year Bible Rewind, 00:00:07.540 --> 00:00:09.380 and coming to you from Riverside, California, 00:00:09.800 --> 00:00:13.980 podcasting since 2004, I'm Steve Webb, your OG Godcaster. 00:00:14.420 --> 00:00:17.000 This is the podcast that comes to you every single day, 00:00:17.320 --> 00:00:18.580 right there in your podcast app. 00:00:18.650 --> 00:00:20.060 Take a look, there it is every day, 00:00:20.380 --> 00:00:21.560 and we're reading through the Bible. 00:00:21.880 --> 00:00:23.420 I'm really glad you're here today, welcome. 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:26.380 The website is LifespringMedia.com. 00:00:26.430 --> 00:00:29.660 You'll find over 4,000 episodes of different podcasts. 00:00:29.940 --> 00:00:35.080 there. Amazing. You know, I just love the way you tapped on that play button a moment ago. 00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:41.740 You did it with such panache. And that outfit, is it new? Looks great on you. Oh, and today is 00:00:42.040 --> 00:00:49.080 pay a compliment day. And it's Prophecy Friday. We'll read Jeremiah 17 through 21, and I'll have 00:00:49.160 --> 00:00:53.640 some comments and an on this date in church history and some other little things. Let's begin. 00:00:54.200 --> 00:00:57.660 Our Heavenly Father, we love you so very much, and we thank you so much for your word. 00:00:58.220 --> 00:01:04.580 We pray, God, that as we read today, that you would really take, really put your message into our heart. 00:01:04.860 --> 00:01:07.000 We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. 00:01:09.540 --> 00:01:10.940 Jeremiah chapter 17. 00:01:12.160 --> 00:01:15.760 The sin of Judah is written down with pen of iron and with a sharp diamond. 00:01:16.300 --> 00:01:19.000 It is written on their hearts and on the horns of their altars. 00:01:19.660 --> 00:01:26.160 Even their children remember their altars and their wooden female goddesses of Asherah by green trees and on the high hills. 00:01:27.180 --> 00:01:31.740 O my mountain in the country, I will give your money and all your riches to those who fight 00:01:31.920 --> 00:01:36.800 against you. I will give your high places as the price of your sin through all your land, 00:01:37.260 --> 00:01:42.960 and you yourself will let your land go that I gave you. I will make you serve those who hate you in 00:01:42.960 --> 00:01:48.640 a land which you do not know, for you have made my anger start a fire which will burn forever. 00:01:49.560 --> 00:01:55.040 The Lord says, Cursed is the man who trusts in man, who trusts in the flesh for his strength, 00:01:55.480 --> 00:01:57.280 and whose heart turns away from the Lord. 00:01:57.920 --> 00:01:59.740 For he will be like a bush in the desert, 00:02:00.160 --> 00:02:01.860 and will not see when good comes. 00:02:02.540 --> 00:02:04.460 He will live in dry wastes in the desert, 00:02:04.900 --> 00:02:07.400 in a land of salt where no other people live. 00:02:08.140 --> 00:02:10.399 Good will come to the man who trusts in the Lord, 00:02:10.880 --> 00:02:12.280 and whose hope is in the Lord. 00:02:13.060 --> 00:02:15.260 He will be like a tree planted by the water 00:02:15.600 --> 00:02:17.200 that sends out its roots by the river. 00:02:17.920 --> 00:02:19.860 It will not be afraid when the heat comes, 00:02:20.100 --> 00:02:21.200 but its leaves will be green. 00:02:21.840 --> 00:02:23.820 It will not be troubled in a dry year, 00:02:24.200 --> 00:02:29.580 nor stop giving fruit. The heart is fooled more than anything else. It is very sinful. 00:02:30.200 --> 00:02:37.420 Who can know how bad it is? I, the Lord, look into the heart, and test the mind. I give to each man 00:02:37.430 --> 00:02:41.660 what he should have because of his ways and because of the fruit that comes from his works. 00:02:42.520 --> 00:02:47.620 As a bird that sits on eggs which it has not laid, so is he who gets rich by doing wrong. 00:02:48.290 --> 00:02:52.540 When his life is half over, they will leave him, and in the end he will be a fool. 00:02:53.500 --> 00:02:56.960 A beautiful throne on high from the beginning is our holy place. 00:02:57.600 --> 00:03:01.520 O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who leave you will be put to shame. 00:03:02.240 --> 00:03:04.520 Those who turn away from you will be written in the earth, 00:03:05.020 --> 00:03:07.640 because they have left the Lord, the well of living water. 00:03:08.900 --> 00:03:10.800 Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed. 00:03:11.580 --> 00:03:14.900 Save me, and I will be saved, for you are my praise. 00:03:15.540 --> 00:03:19.100 They say to me, Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come now. 00:03:19.600 --> 00:03:25.180 But as for me, I have not run away from being a shepherd who follows you, and I have not been 00:03:25.460 --> 00:03:30.660 hoping for the day of trouble. You know what I said was spoken in front of you. Do not make me 00:03:30.830 --> 00:03:36.360 afraid of you. You are my safe place in the day of trouble. Let those who make it hard for me be 00:03:36.520 --> 00:03:43.220 put to shame, but do not let me be put to shame. Let them be afraid, but do not let me be afraid. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:47.380 Bring on them a day of trouble and destroy them with twice as much. 00:03:48.200 --> 00:03:56.800 The Lord said to me, Go and stand in the people's gate, through which the kings of Judah come in and go out, and also in all the gates of Jerusalem. 00:03:57.300 --> 00:04:04.780 And say to them, Listen to the word of the Lord, kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all people of Jerusalem who come in through these gates. 00:04:05.640 --> 00:04:13.720 The Lord says, Be careful for your lives. Do not carry any load on the day of rest, or bring anything in through the gates of Jerusalem. 00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:18.280 Do not bring a load out of your houses on the day of rest or do any work. 00:04:18.880 --> 00:04:22.380 But keep the day of rest holy, as I told your fathers before you. 00:04:23.020 --> 00:04:27.600 Yet they did not listen or hear, but made their necks hard and would not change their ways. 00:04:28.460 --> 00:04:33.020 Listen to me, says the Lord, and bring no load through the city gates on the day of rest. 00:04:33.700 --> 00:04:36.420 Keep the day of rest holy by doing no work on it. 00:04:37.240 --> 00:04:41.960 Then kings and their sons will come through the city gates who will sit on the throne of David. 00:04:42.760 --> 00:04:47.440 They will come in war wagons and on horses with the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem. 00:04:48.120 --> 00:04:50.280 And people will live in this city forever. 00:04:51.200 --> 00:04:55.040 People will come in from the cities of Judah and from the places around Jerusalem. 00:04:55.760 --> 00:05:01.000 They will come from the land of Benjamin, from the valleys, from the hill country, and from the Negev. 00:05:01.640 --> 00:05:10.140 They will bring burnt gifts, animals to kill on the altar in worship, grain gifts, special perfume, and gifts of thanks to the house of the Lord. 00:05:10.940 --> 00:05:15.940 But if you do not listen to me, to keep the day of rest holy by not carrying a load when coming 00:05:16.020 --> 00:05:20.600 through the gates of Jerusalem on the day of rest, then I will start a fire in its gates, 00:05:21.180 --> 00:05:25.720 and it will burn up the beautiful houses of the kings of Jerusalem, and will not be stopped. 00:05:26.820 --> 00:05:32.260 Jeremiah chapter 18. The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 00:05:32.860 --> 00:05:38.499 Go down to the potmaker's house, and there I will let you hear my words. So I went down to the 00:05:38.520 --> 00:05:43.780 potmaker's house and saw him making one on the wheel. But the pot he was making of clay did not 00:05:43.800 --> 00:05:49.020 come out like he wanted it. So the potmaker used the clay to make another pot that pleased him. 00:05:49.960 --> 00:05:55.440 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, O people of Israel, can I not do with you as this 00:05:55.620 --> 00:06:01.900 potmaker is done, says the Lord? Like the clay in the potmaker's hand, so are you in my hand, 00:06:01.980 --> 00:06:08.480 O people of Israel. If at any time I speak about a nation to pull up and to break down and to 00:06:08.940 --> 00:06:14.420 And if that nation I spoke against turns from its sin, then I will change my mind about the 00:06:14.580 --> 00:06:19.160 trouble I planned to bring upon it. If at another time I speak about a nation, 00:06:19.300 --> 00:06:24.740 that I will build and plant it. And if it does what is sinful in my eyes by not obeying my voice, 00:06:25.120 --> 00:06:28.660 then I will change my mind about the good I had promised to bring to it. 00:06:29.480 --> 00:06:33.440 So now speak to the men of Judah and to the people of Jerusalem. Tell them, 00:06:33.800 --> 00:06:38.900 the Lord says, See, I am making trouble for you and making a plan against you. 00:06:39.540 --> 00:06:43.800 So each of you turn from your sinful way, change your ways and your works. 00:06:44.780 --> 00:06:49.280 But they will say, There is no hope, for we are going to follow our own plans. 00:06:49.960 --> 00:06:52.720 Each of us will act in the strong will of his sinful heart. 00:06:53.820 --> 00:06:58.360 So the Lord says, Ask now among the nations who has heard such things. 00:06:59.200 --> 00:07:01.580 Pure Israel has done a very sinful thing. 00:07:02.040 --> 00:07:05.020 Does the snow of Lebanon ever leave its rocky mountains? 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:08.940 Does the cold flowing water of other lands ever dry up? 00:07:09.520 --> 00:07:11.200 But my people have forgotten me. 00:07:11.880 --> 00:07:14.880 They burn special perfume to false gods of no worth. 00:07:15.420 --> 00:07:17.980 They have fallen in their ways from the old paths, 00:07:18.410 --> 00:07:21.420 and have gone on side roads, not on the straight road. 00:07:21.960 --> 00:07:25.460 They make their land a waste, a thing that is spoken against forever. 00:07:26.340 --> 00:07:29.880 Everyone who passes by it will be surprised and shake his head. 00:07:30.320 --> 00:07:34.360 I will send them out everywhere like an east wind in front of those who hate them. 00:07:34.990 --> 00:07:38.280 I will show them my back and not my face in the day of their trouble. 00:07:39.280 --> 00:07:44.600 They said, Come and let us make plans against Jeremiah, for the law is not going to be lost 00:07:44.730 --> 00:07:50.520 to the religious leader, or wise words to the wise man, or the word of God to the man of God. 00:07:51.140 --> 00:07:55.140 Come and let us hurt him with our tongue, and let us not listen to any of his words. 00:07:56.400 --> 00:07:59.320 Think of me, O Lord, and listen to what those who hate me are saying. 00:08:00.140 --> 00:08:02.000 Should bad be given in return for good? 00:08:02.780 --> 00:08:04.400 Yet they have dug a deep hole for me. 00:08:05.200 --> 00:08:07.900 Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, 00:08:08.300 --> 00:08:09.980 to turn your anger away from them. 00:08:10.880 --> 00:08:12.520 So give their children over to hunger. 00:08:13.120 --> 00:08:14.940 Give them up to the power of the sword. 00:08:15.480 --> 00:08:17.700 Let their wives lose their children and husbands. 00:08:18.460 --> 00:08:19.880 Let their men be put to death. 00:08:20.400 --> 00:08:23.100 And let their young men be killed by the sword in battle. 00:08:23.960 --> 00:08:25.640 May a cry be heard from their houses 00:08:25.900 --> 00:08:27.800 when you bring an army upon them by surprise. 00:08:28.020 --> 00:08:32.880 For they have dug a deep hole to take me, and have hidden traps for my feet. 00:08:33.620 --> 00:08:36.099 Yet you, O Lord, know all their plans to kill me. 00:08:36.680 --> 00:08:40.000 Do not forgive their wrongdoing or cover their sin from your eyes. 00:08:40.539 --> 00:08:42.280 Let them be taken down before you. 00:08:42.960 --> 00:08:44.520 Punish them in the time of your anger. 00:08:45.640 --> 00:08:46.980 Jeremiah chapter 19 00:08:48.400 --> 00:08:51.740 The Lord says, Go and buy a potmaker's clay jar, 00:08:52.140 --> 00:08:55.360 and take some of the leaders of the people and some of the older religious leaders. 00:08:55.860 --> 00:09:01.360 Then go out to the valley of Ben-Hinnom by the potsherd gate, and there say the words that I will tell you. 00:09:01.920 --> 00:09:05.940 Say, Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. 00:09:06.530 --> 00:09:12.280 The Lord of all, the God of Israel says, See, I am about to bring much trouble to this place. 00:09:12.900 --> 00:09:15.000 The ears of everyone that hears of it will hurt. 00:09:15.580 --> 00:09:18.400 The people have left me and have made this a strange place. 00:09:18.790 --> 00:09:24.360 They have burned special perfume in it to other gods that they and their fathers and the kings of Judah had never known. 00:09:24.700 --> 00:09:27.780 They have filled this place with the blood of those who were not guilty. 00:09:28.560 --> 00:09:34.280 They have built the high places of the false god Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt gifts to Baal. 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:37.920 This is a thing which I never told them to do or spoke of. 00:09:38.290 --> 00:09:40.120 It did not even come to my mind. 00:09:40.580 --> 00:09:47.320 So see, the days are coming, says the Lord, when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-Hinnom. 00:09:48.020 --> 00:09:50.100 Instead, it will be called the Valley of Killing. 00:09:50.660 --> 00:09:54.360 I will make the plans of Judah and Jerusalem come to nothing in this place. 00:09:54.420 --> 00:10:00.200 I will cause them to fall by the sword in front of those who hate them, and by the hand of those who want to kill them. 00:10:01.020 --> 00:10:05.320 And I will feed their dead bodies to the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth. 00:10:05.730 --> 00:10:09.760 I will make this city a waste place, and people will make sounds of hate. 00:10:10.500 --> 00:10:15.420 Everyone who passes by it will be surprised and make strange noises because of all its troubles. 00:10:16.200 --> 00:10:18.460 I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters. 00:10:18.860 --> 00:10:25.320 And they will eat each other's flesh when the armies shut them in, and when those who want to kill them bring much trouble to them. 00:10:26.200 --> 00:10:29.840 Then you are to break the jar in front of the men who go with you, and say to them, 00:10:30.240 --> 00:10:38.580 The Lord of all says, In this way I will break these people and this city, even as one breaks a potmaker's jar, which cannot be put back together. 00:10:39.380 --> 00:10:43.180 Men will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no place left to bury. 00:10:43.780 --> 00:10:47.200 This is what I will do in this place and its people, says the Lord. 00:10:47.440 --> 00:10:52.940 I will make this city like Topheth. The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah 00:10:52.980 --> 00:10:58.100 will be made unclean like Topheth. This will be because of all the houses on whose roofs they 00:10:58.300 --> 00:11:03.260 burned special perfume to all the false gods of the heavens and poured out drink gifts to other 00:11:03.440 --> 00:11:08.800 gods. Then Jeremiah came from Topheth where the Lord had sent him to tell what would happen. 00:11:09.360 --> 00:11:12.720 And he stood in the open place of the Lord's house and said to all the people, 00:11:13.160 --> 00:11:18.740 the Lord of all, the God of Israel, says, See, I am about to bring to this city and to all its 00:11:18.970 --> 00:11:23.720 towns all the trouble that I have spoken about, because they have made their necks hard and would 00:11:23.820 --> 00:11:30.860 not listen to my words. Jeremiah chapter 20. Now Pasher, the religious leader, the son of Emer, 00:11:31.180 --> 00:11:35.620 was the head leader in the house of the Lord. When he heard Jeremiah saying these things, 00:11:36.100 --> 00:11:41.519 Pasher had Jeremiah, the man of God, beaten. Then he put him in chains at the upper Benjamin gate 00:11:41.540 --> 00:11:46.340 by the house of the Lord. On the next day, when Pasher set Jeremiah free from the chains, 00:11:47.000 --> 00:11:53.480 Jeremiah said to him, The Lord does not call you Pasher, but fear everywhere. For the Lord says, 00:11:54.060 --> 00:11:59.260 See, I am going to make you a fear to yourself and to all your friends. They will fall by the 00:11:59.360 --> 00:12:04.380 sword of those who hate them while you look on. I will give all Judah into the hand of the king 00:12:04.380 --> 00:12:09.340 of Babylon, and he will carry them away in chains to Babylon, and will kill them with the sword. 00:12:09.500 --> 00:12:16.220 I will give over all the riches of this city, all that its people have worked for, and all its things of much worth. 00:12:16.670 --> 00:12:20.000 Even all the riches of the kings of Judah I will give to those who hate them. 00:12:20.760 --> 00:12:24.240 They will take their things and take hold of them and carry them to Babylon. 00:12:24.960 --> 00:12:28.880 And you, Pasher, and all who live in your house will be taken away in chains. 00:12:29.540 --> 00:12:36.280 You will go to Babylon, and there you will die, and there you will be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have told lies. 00:12:37.260 --> 00:12:56.400 O Lord, You have lied to me, and I was fooled. You are stronger than I, and have had power over me. I have been laughed at all day. Everyone makes fun of me, for whenever I speak, I cry out. I tell of fighters and destroyers, for the word of the Lord has become a shame and a cause of laughing at me all day long. 00:12:57.180 --> 00:13:05.260 But if I say I will not remember him or speak any more in his name, then in my heart it is like a burning fire shut up in my bones. 00:13:06.300 --> 00:13:08.960 I am tired of holding it in, and I cannot do that. 00:13:09.720 --> 00:13:14.560 For I have heard many speaking in secret, saying, Fear and trouble is on every side. 00:13:15.060 --> 00:13:17.880 Speak against him. Yes, let us speak against him. 00:13:18.920 --> 00:13:24.000 All my trusted friends, watching for my fall, say, It may be that he will be fooled. 00:13:24.320 --> 00:13:26.400 Then we can get power over him and punish him. 00:13:27.400 --> 00:13:30.320 But the Lord is with me like a powerful one who causes fear. 00:13:31.120 --> 00:13:34.440 So those who make it hard for me will fall and not have power over me. 00:13:34.980 --> 00:13:38.220 They will be put to much shame because their plans have not gone well. 00:13:38.960 --> 00:13:41.560 Their shame will last forever and will not be forgotten. 00:13:42.340 --> 00:13:45.400 O Lord of all, you test those who are right and good. 00:13:45.960 --> 00:13:47.560 You see the mind and the heart. 00:13:48.220 --> 00:13:51.320 Let me see you punish them, for I have given my cause to you. 00:13:51.940 --> 00:13:57.720 Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, for He has taken the soul of the one in need from the hand of the sinful. 00:13:59.240 --> 00:14:04.340 Cursed is the day when I was born. Let the day not be honored when my mother gave birth to me. 00:14:05.040 --> 00:14:07.800 Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, saying, 00:14:08.220 --> 00:14:11.060 A baby boy has been born to you, and made him very happy. 00:14:11.780 --> 00:14:15.180 Let that man be like the cities which the Lord destroyed without pity. 00:14:15.860 --> 00:14:18.800 Let him hear a cry in the morning and a call of danger at noon. 00:14:19.200 --> 00:14:24.200 For he did not kill me before I was born, so that my mother's body would have been my grave. 00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:29.580 Why was I ever born to see trouble and sorrow, and spend my days in shame? 00:14:30.480 --> 00:14:31.800 Jeremiah chapter 21 00:14:32.800 --> 00:14:38.120 This is the word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when King Zedekiah sent him to Pasher, 00:14:38.130 --> 00:14:42.940 the son of Melchijah, and Zephaniah, the religious leader, the son of Maaseah, saying, 00:14:43.220 --> 00:14:48.240 Will you speak to the Lord about us? For King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon is making war against 00:14:48.260 --> 00:14:53.860 us. It may be that the Lord will do something for us like he did in times past, and make him leave 00:14:54.000 --> 00:15:01.140 us. Then Jeremiah said to them, Say this to Zedekiah, The Lord God of Israel says, See, I will turn 00:15:01.340 --> 00:15:05.600 against you the objects of war you were using to fight with against the king of Babylon and the 00:15:05.720 --> 00:15:10.400 Babylonians who were gathered outside the wall to shut you in, and I will bring them into the center 00:15:10.500 --> 00:15:16.540 of this city. I myself will fight against you with my hand out and with a strong arm, in much anger. 00:15:16.860 --> 00:15:21.320 I will kill both man and animal in this city. They will die of a bad disease. 00:15:22.180 --> 00:15:26.880 After this, says the Lord, I will give over Zedekiah king of Judah, his servants, 00:15:27.340 --> 00:15:31.280 and the people who were not killed in this city by the disease, the sword, and hunger. 00:15:31.760 --> 00:15:36.500 I will give them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of those who 00:15:36.660 --> 00:15:41.500 hate them, and into the hand of those who want to kill them, and he will kill them with the sword. 00:15:41.980 --> 00:15:44.400 He will not let them live or have pity on them. 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:50.840 Also tell the people, The Lord says, See, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. 00:15:51.580 --> 00:15:55.280 He who lives in this city will die by the sword and by hunger and by disease. 00:15:56.160 --> 00:16:01.580 But he who goes out and gives himself up to the Babylonians, whose armies shut you in, will live. 00:16:01.910 --> 00:16:03.380 He will at least have his life. 00:16:04.140 --> 00:16:08.540 For I have set my face against this city for trouble and not for good, says the Lord. 00:16:09.020 --> 00:16:12.400 It will be given to the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire. 00:16:13.180 --> 00:16:18.060 Then say to those of the house of the king of Judah, Hear the word of the Lord, O house of David. 00:16:18.420 --> 00:16:23.740 The Lord says, Do what is right every morning. Take the person who has been robbed away from 00:16:23.740 --> 00:16:28.620 the one who has made it hard for him, so my anger will not go out like fire and burn with no one 00:16:28.700 --> 00:16:34.460 to put it out, because of the sinful things you have done. See, I am against you, O you who live 00:16:34.580 --> 00:16:40.580 in the valley, O rock of the plain, says the Lord. You who say, Who will come down against us, 00:16:40.780 --> 00:16:45.880 or who will come into our houses. I will punish you for what has come of what you have done, 00:16:46.140 --> 00:16:51.580 says the Lord. I will start a fire among your trees, and it will destroy all that is around it. 00:16:53.500 --> 00:16:58.800 In chapter 18, the Lord showed Jeremiah a potter who was not happy with the pot he had made, 00:16:59.180 --> 00:17:04.980 so the potter made a new pot with the clay. God said to Jeremiah, Can't I do this with Israel? 00:17:05.490 --> 00:17:10.380 But if a nation turns from its sins, I will change my mind, and I will not tear it down. 00:17:11.240 --> 00:17:15.420 Beloved, God made a great nation here in America. And for those of you not in America, 00:17:15.660 --> 00:17:19.800 keep listening. I'll get around to the rest of the world in a minute. But as I was saying, 00:17:20.180 --> 00:17:23.900 God made a great nation here in America, but then much of America turned from him. 00:17:24.600 --> 00:17:31.500 Can't he tear America down? Of course he can. But I believe we can stay his hand if we again 00:17:31.960 --> 00:17:37.380 turn to him and turn away from our evil ways. One thing we could do is stop the abortions. 00:17:38.120 --> 00:17:46.640 There have been 62,502,904 abortions in the United States since Roe v. Wade. 00:17:47.280 --> 00:17:52.120 God hates the idea of child sacrifice, which is what abortion is. 00:17:52.780 --> 00:17:54.560 We could stop victimizing children. 00:17:55.200 --> 00:17:57.980 According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 00:17:58.300 --> 00:18:02.960 roughly 800,000 children go missing each year in the U.S. 00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:06.620 The FBI pegs that number at 460,000. 00:18:06.910 --> 00:18:08.020 Oh, that's much better, right? 00:18:08.100 --> 00:18:13.680 I don't think so. The things that are done to children in this country and around the world 00:18:14.220 --> 00:18:19.840 are unspeakable. They're terrible. They're from the very pit of hell. We have to learn to honor 00:18:20.060 --> 00:18:25.300 God as a nation, and we have to do what is right. Now let me turn my attention to the world here for 00:18:25.420 --> 00:18:31.860 just a second, since the Lifespring family members are around the world. How about this world statistic? 00:18:32.800 --> 00:18:37.620 Over 42 million abortions occurred worldwide in 2020. 00:18:38.660 --> 00:18:43.040 In just 2020, over 42 million abortions. 00:18:43.660 --> 00:18:50.280 That far surpasses the totals of people who perished as a result of the world's leading causes of death. 00:18:50.700 --> 00:18:54.600 That means the world's leading cause of death is abortion. 00:18:55.760 --> 00:18:57.000 Ah, that's horrible. 00:18:58.100 --> 00:19:00.800 And that number, by the way, comes from the World Health Organization, 00:19:01.260 --> 00:19:05.760 lest you think that this is an overinflated number by a group with a pro-life agenda. 00:19:06.080 --> 00:19:06.520 It's not. 00:19:07.040 --> 00:19:07.680 That's from the WHO. 00:19:09.480 --> 00:19:12.640 Yes, I am an American, so I care deeply what happens here, 00:19:12.640 --> 00:19:15.600 but that doesn't mean that I don't care what happens around the world. 00:19:15.880 --> 00:19:17.400 People are hurting everywhere. 00:19:17.740 --> 00:19:20.380 People are being victimized everywhere. 00:19:21.200 --> 00:19:23.400 And there will come a time when God will say, 00:19:24.080 --> 00:19:24.200 Enough! 00:19:25.440 --> 00:19:26.960 And the Great Tribulation will begin. 00:19:28.280 --> 00:19:31.780 Jesus said that only the Father knows when that's going to happen. 00:19:32.620 --> 00:19:34.840 But would you be surprised if it was soon? 00:19:35.240 --> 00:19:36.080 I sure wouldn't. 00:19:36.980 --> 00:19:38.220 Well, let's turn back to Jeremiah. 00:19:38.980 --> 00:19:43.320 Jeremiah brought a message from the Lord that called Israel out for their sins, 00:19:43.430 --> 00:19:46.460 and he told them that destruction was on the way. 00:19:47.260 --> 00:19:48.340 And what was their reaction? 00:19:49.300 --> 00:19:53.580 They hated that message, and they would not turn away from their sins. 00:19:54.380 --> 00:19:57.080 And in verse 18 of chapter 18, the people said, 00:19:57.600 --> 00:19:59.720 Come and let us hurt him with our tongue. 00:20:00.100 --> 00:20:01.140 Hurt him meaning Jeremiah. 00:20:01.860 --> 00:20:04.340 And let us not listen to any of his words. 00:20:05.520 --> 00:20:09.060 So what they were literally trying to do was cancel him. 00:20:09.460 --> 00:20:11.840 They didn't want to let him speak. 00:20:12.320 --> 00:20:13.620 They wanted to silence him. 00:20:14.280 --> 00:20:15.560 Well, what did Jeremiah do? 00:20:15.660 --> 00:20:17.500 Did that make him lash out at them? 00:20:17.700 --> 00:20:19.360 Did he take things into his own hands? 00:20:19.800 --> 00:20:19.980 No. 00:20:20.500 --> 00:20:21.360 He prayed to the Lord, 00:20:21.800 --> 00:20:25.520 Do not forgive their wrongdoing or cover their sin from your eyes. 00:20:25.900 --> 00:20:27.800 Let them be taken down before you. 00:20:28.360 --> 00:20:30.160 Punish them in the time of your anger. 00:20:31.020 --> 00:20:33.520 He took it to the Lord, which is the right thing to do. 00:20:33.620 --> 00:20:35.900 Now, one thing that has to be pointed out, 00:20:36.240 --> 00:20:40.900 this is a complete 180 from the prayer that Jesus prayed on the cross, isn't it? 00:20:41.400 --> 00:20:44.520 Jesus said, Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do. 00:20:45.080 --> 00:20:50.040 But is there a time where it is right to pray the kind of prayer that Jeremiah prayed? 00:20:50.860 --> 00:20:52.580 As we heard in the rest of today's reading, 00:20:52.690 --> 00:20:54.960 the Lord's anger had been kindled toward Israel, 00:20:55.220 --> 00:21:02.480 and he did not rebuke Jeremiah for that prayer. So, what are we to do with that? I think it is 00:21:02.700 --> 00:21:10.900 right to pray against sinful behavior. I think it is right to pray against people who are victimizing 00:21:11.160 --> 00:21:17.300 innocence, people who are aborting babies, people who are engaging in sex trafficking of children, 00:21:17.940 --> 00:21:22.879 or other kinds of slavery. Slavery, I haven't talked about it recently, but slavery is not 00:21:22.900 --> 00:21:27.880 something that just happened here in the United States a hundred years ago. There's more slavery 00:21:28.200 --> 00:21:33.920 today in the world than there was when slavery was taking place here in America. I don't think 00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:39.740 it's wrong to pray against that. Children are very special in God's eyes. I don't think it's wrong to 00:21:39.750 --> 00:21:43.600 pray against people that are victimizing children. What do you think? 00:21:52.420 --> 00:21:55.300 Today's verse of the day is Jeremiah 17, 7. 00:21:55.920 --> 00:22:00.700 But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. 00:22:01.500 --> 00:22:03.060 Jeremiah 17, 7. 00:22:07.500 --> 00:22:10.140 Many of us try to live the Christian life backward. 00:22:10.880 --> 00:22:15.200 We try to behave our way into belonging and perform our way into acceptance. 00:22:16.080 --> 00:22:20.500 But in 1 John 3, 1, the Apostle John flips that upside down. 00:22:21.320 --> 00:22:23.660 Before obedience, there's identity. 00:22:24.520 --> 00:22:26.120 Before effort, there's love. 00:22:27.020 --> 00:22:28.980 In the latest episode of Verses We Missed, 00:22:28.980 --> 00:22:32.020 we pause to see the love that names us children of God 00:22:32.460 --> 00:22:34.840 and reminds us who we already are. 00:22:35.640 --> 00:22:37.500 Listen to See What Kind of Love, 00:22:37.700 --> 00:22:40.180 available now at verseswemissed.com 00:22:40.500 --> 00:22:42.020 or your favorite podcast app. 00:22:51.940 --> 00:23:00.120 Minions sent a 100-set boost-agram a couple of days ago on the S3E107 1 Samuel 26-31 episode. 00:23:01.160 --> 00:23:04.720 In the On This Date in Church History segment, where I talked about Gutenberg, 00:23:05.040 --> 00:23:06.140 Minions Boost said, 00:23:06.580 --> 00:23:09.800 It's wild to think how spoiled we've been made by technology. 00:23:10.460 --> 00:23:15.280 Most of us would balk at having to use an electric typewriter, never mind a printing press. 00:23:15.800 --> 00:23:20.160 I often get frustrated just trying to highlight and copy a string of text with my phone. 00:23:20.780 --> 00:23:22.680 Yeah, I know the feeling, Minion. 00:23:23.180 --> 00:23:23.940 Yeah, you're right. 00:23:24.420 --> 00:23:25.160 We are spoiled. 00:23:25.640 --> 00:23:28.900 I'm old enough to remember when you had to go to the library to do research. 00:23:29.460 --> 00:23:33.740 And not only that, you had to know the Dewey Decimal System to find the book you were looking for. 00:23:34.140 --> 00:23:35.380 Now it's all on our phones. 00:23:35.960 --> 00:23:38.960 Give me ten seconds and I can find pretty much any answer I need. 00:23:39.380 --> 00:23:39.720 Crazy. 00:23:40.360 --> 00:23:46.560 And speaking of typing, I took a typing class on a manual, not electric, on a manual typewriter. 00:23:47.150 --> 00:23:51.420 I don't remember whether it was junior high or high school, but my how things have changed. 00:23:51.900 --> 00:23:52.980 Thanks for the reminder, Minion. 00:23:53.380 --> 00:23:54.820 Now I feel especially old. 00:23:55.100 --> 00:23:56.880 Excuse me while I go lay down. 00:23:57.720 --> 00:24:00.020 And thanks again, Minion, for your continued boost. 00:24:00.480 --> 00:24:01.480 Very much appreciated. 00:24:01.960 --> 00:24:03.300 It's value for value, people. 00:24:03.520 --> 00:24:06.620 If you receive any value, return some back right here. 00:24:10.200 --> 00:24:11.900 Time, talent, or treasure. 00:24:12.060 --> 00:24:13.680 Even sending a comment is value. 00:24:14.120 --> 00:24:15.200 Prayers, that's value. 00:24:15.480 --> 00:24:17.660 Sharing the show with someone, that's value. 00:24:17.980 --> 00:24:20.080 Posting on your socials, that too. 00:24:25.300 --> 00:24:28.060 On this date in church history, February 6th. 00:24:28.520 --> 00:24:33.980 In 1631 on this date, a ship named The Lion dropped anchor in Boston Harbor. 00:24:34.580 --> 00:24:38.180 On board was a young radical minister named Roger Williams. 00:24:38.960 --> 00:24:45.720 He arrived in the New World seeking a pure church, but his journey would soon lead to something even more revolutionary. 00:24:46.500 --> 00:24:49.800 Williams quickly found himself at odds with the Massachusetts authorities. 00:24:50.440 --> 00:24:59.160 He argued that the civil government had no right to punish religious sins and that the land belonged to the Native Americans, not the king. 00:24:59.600 --> 00:25:04.540 Hmm. His arrival on this date set in motion the events that would lead to his exile 00:25:05.160 --> 00:25:11.200 and the founding of Rhode Island, a colony built on soul liberty, ensuring that no person would 00:25:11.230 --> 00:25:17.280 ever be forced to worship against their conscience. And then exactly 62 years later, 00:25:17.330 --> 00:25:22.820 on this same day in 1693, the British crown took a different approach to faith in the colonies. 00:25:23.740 --> 00:25:29.220 King William III and Queen Mary II issued the royal order for the College of William and Mary 00:25:29.280 --> 00:25:34.420 in Virginia. While Williams was a voice for the outsider, William and Mary was built to be the 00:25:34.640 --> 00:25:39.800 heart of the Anglican establishment, dedicated to training, quote, good ministers of the gospel, 00:25:40.160 --> 00:25:42.720 unquote, to lead the growing American colonies. 00:25:51.540 --> 00:25:57.400 Beloved, God is the potter and we are the clay. He can remake or shatter nations like America 00:25:57.420 --> 00:26:03.240 if we refuse to repent from abortion, child exploitation, and the culture's silencing of 00:26:03.480 --> 00:26:09.460 truth. We need to turn back to him now. Pray boldly as Jeremiah did when his anger is kindled 00:26:09.820 --> 00:26:16.120 and stay his hand of judgment while grace remains. Amen? Until tomorrow, may God bless you richly. 00:26:16.280 --> 00:26:19.700 I look forward to seeing you then. I'm Steve Webb. Bye. 00:26:20.920 --> 00:26:26.940 All the programs in the Lifespring Media family are made possible by your value-for-value support. 00:26:27.420 --> 00:26:28.020 Thank you. 00:26:29.940 --> 00:26:33.520 The Lifespring One Year Bible Rewind is a Lifespring Media production 00:26:33.840 --> 00:26:37.380 hosted by Steve Webb, the OG Godcaster since 2004.