JEREMIAH 382010 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Jeremiah 38

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2010. Jeremiah chapter 38. Let's look at the first three verses together. It says this. Now Shephetiah, the son of Metan, Gedaliah, the son of Pasher, Jucal, the son of Shalamiah, Pasher, the son of...

Malachi heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken to all the people saying, Thus says the Lord...

He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. But he who goes over to the Chaldeans shall live. His life shall be as a prize to him, and he shall live. Verse 3. Thus says the Lord, this city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon's army, which shall take it.

As we begin chapter 38, we're continuing on really from chapter 37. Right now, Jeremiah is in prison. He has been in prison for just a little bit. In chapter 37, they imprisoned him. And he will remain in prison for the remainder of the nation of Judah's existence.

The nation of Judah, God has been pronouncing judgment against them for many years now, using the prophet Jeremiah, as well as many other prophets around the same time and before Jeremiah, letting the nation know that they needed to repent. They had turned from God. They were in rebellion against God. They were worshipping all kinds of false gods, even though they were very religious and still went to the temple. They still went to church.

Uh, they, they did the things that, that, you know, they were required to do, like the sacrifices and the feasts, but they were not devoted to God. And so, they were worshiping all these other gods and involving themselves in all kinds of sinful practices. And so, God's been warning them, listen guys, you can't continue like that and not escape judgment. Uh,

You are going to be judged. You're going to experience the consequences for those actions. And so God's been calling them to repentance so that he could pour out his blessing upon them and protect them. But they've refused. And here is Jeremiah is writing these things in chapter 38, this account that we're reading. It's near the end of Judah's existence. Babylon has come against the nation and

And this is going to be the final conquering of Jerusalem by Babylon. Babylon is going to conquer them completely, carry them away captive. There's going to be no inhabitants left. The city of Jerusalem, the region of Judah, it's all going to be desolate and empty after this final attack.

And so it's really coming down to the wire. It's coming to the end. King Zedekiah is in power. He is the last king during this reign or during this part of Israel's history. And he is going to be taken captive along with the rest of the people when Babylon conquers Jerusalem.

But the people and the princes and the king refused to believe what God has said. They are holding to this hope that God is going to save them because the temple is there. And because we have the temple, we can live however we want, and we're not going to really experience the judgment that Jeremiah is talking about. They're refusing to believe God's message.

And so as we pick it up here in chapter 38, it mentions here in verse 1, some of the princes, those who had authority within the nation of Judah, and really that was just the city of Jerusalem at this point. Everybody that was in the nation that was left is here in the city of Jerusalem.

And they heard about what Jeremiah has been saying. Jeremiah's message was, hey, if you remain in the city, you are going to die. If you remain here in Jerusalem, Jeremiah has been saying, your death is assured. You are going to experience death as a result of this judgment. You are going to experience Babylon conquering this city. But he goes on to say, if you go over to the Chaldeans, if you...

or surrender to the Chaldeans. The Chaldeans are the Babylonians. If you go outside of the city, hold up the white flag and surrender to them, they'll spare your life. They're not going to put you to death and you will live. And so he's setting before them really two choices. Stay here in the city and die or surrender to the Babylonians and live. That's the only two options.

You can't stay here and live. If you stay here, you're going to die. If you leave to surrender to the Babylonians, you'll live. If you leave to try to escape, you'll be put to death. And so he encourages the people to surrender in order to save their life. He says in verse 3, This city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon's army.

which shall take it. This is something that's assured. Jeremiah is saying, look, this is going to happen. The people refused to believe it. They refused to receive it. But Jeremiah says, it is going to happen. Stay here and die or surrender and live because this city is going to be conquered.

God says it's going to happen. Now, this happens often when God speaks. We as people try to fight against what God has said and try to run away from what God has said. We fight against it and we hurt ourselves in doing so. And so that's what Jeremiah is saying. You can fight against what God has said.

And try to stay in the city and try to win this battle, but you're going to hurt yourself. You are going to die. Or you could submit to what God has said and surrender to the Babylonians and you will live. You know, the same thing happens so many times in our own lives.

You know it and I know it. God speaks to us. He really does. We sit through services. We spend time in the Word. Week in and week out, we have these encounters with God and God speaks to us. Much like the nation of Judah had encounters with God and God was speaking to them, but they refused to listen. And sometimes God will be speaking to us and He'll be sharing with us, hey, listen.

I really want to deal with this issue in your life. I want to work in this area. There's this aspect of your life that needs some correction or there's some direction that I want to give you. And very often, we fight against that which God said. You can imagine the nation of Judah. They didn't want to surrender to Babylon. How terrible that was in their mind. And so rather than listen to God, they decide we're going to do our own thing.

thing. We're going to do it our way. What we think is right, what we think is best. We've not really changed very much since Jeremiah is writing these things. God speaks to us and says, I want you to forgive that person. And then we run. We flee. Oh no, I can't do that. I can't release them of, that was just so terrible what they did to me. I can't. We try to fight against

God's Word. We try to fight against what God has said. God speaks to us and says, Hey, I want you to go in this new direction here. Oh, no, no, no, no. Are you crazy? We can't do that. That's too hard. It's too difficult. A few chapters earlier, as Jeremiah was calling the people to worship God and to turn aside from their idols, the people cried out and said, That's too hard. We're going to just continue to do it the way we've been doing it. It's too hard to serve God, the people cried out.

It's often our own sentiment as well. But we see here in the nation of Judah a good reminder for us to not be that way, to change, to not continue on resisting against God's Word in our life. Instead, let's learn our lesson and surrender. Let's learn our lesson and submit to the will of God. Instead of fighting against God, trying to escape what God has said He wants to do and desires to do in our life,

Let's surrender to Him and choose willingly to obey His will. And we'll find that what He desires for us is indeed God.

What is best for us? Surrender to God and submit to his will. Going on in verse 4, it says, Therefore the princes said to the king, Please let this man be put to death. For thus he weakens the hands of the men of war who remain in this city and the hands of all the people by speaking such words to them. For this man does not seek the welfare of this people, but their harm.

Then Zedekiah the king said, look, he is in your hand for the king can do nothing against you. So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the dungeon of Melchiah, the king's son, which was in the court of the prison. And they let Jeremiah down with ropes. And in the dungeon there was no water but mire. So Jeremiah sank in the mire. And so the princes, those in authority within the city of Jerusalem, heard Jeremiah's message.

Either stay here and die or surrender to Babylon and live.

And they come to the king and they say, hey, listen up, king, because this guy Jeremiah, he's really bad for morale. I mean, the soldiers, they're having a hard time because he's throwing out these ideas and they're thinking, man, if we stay here, we're going to die. And that's not good. They're not going to be able to fight. They're not going to be able to overcome Babylon if they're preaching this message.

They say, well, he doesn't seek the welfare of this people. He's not seeking what's best for this people, but he's trying to harm this people. And of course, the exact opposite is what is actually true. But from their perspective, they're saying, no, we're not surrendering. They're saying, forget it. Don't even consider it. That's not even an option. We're not going to do that. And so Jeremiah stands in opposition to

to what they're seeking to accomplish. And so they go to the king and say, King, this guy, it's not good to have him. We need to put him to death. You know, there's the saying that the truth hurts, or even better, the truth hurts those who are living a lie. And that's what's happening here. The princes, they're trying to live the lie, to refuse to believe what God has said. And the truth hurts. It's bad for morale.

And so they say, we need to put him to death. Instead of turning and repenting, instead of recognizing this is what God has said, let's do what God has said. They say, no, let's put to death the messenger. Let's put to death the one who's proclaiming this word. And so Zedekiah, man, in this chapter, it just really shows how weak of a person he is. He was a weak king. You could say weakling, but it's...

He's wishy-washy. He's not firm about anything. We'll see him go back and forth a couple of times. We saw it already, but we see it again in this chapter. He's weak. He's not willing to stand up and to do what God has said.

And so these guys come to the king and they say, look, it's bad for morale. You know, people are getting shaken up by this message and they're wondering if maybe they should just surrender and not fight. And so Zedekiah says, look, I can't do anything to stop you. He's a weak king. He says, okay, well, whatever you want to do, go ahead and do it. I can't stop you. I have no authority over you.

although he is the king. And so what do they do? They take Jeremiah. Instead of putting him to death, executing him, they put him in the dungeon. Now, this dungeon would not be a good place to be. They lower him into a pit. And it's not just, you know, a nice, you know, hollowed out hole. It's

It's filled with mire, which is like mud, like sticky mud. Sloshy, sticky, you know...

Stuff you don't want to be in. Muck and mire. And they lower him down. And Josephus, the historian, says that when they lower him down into the muck, that it's actually like up to his neck. It's not just, you know, he's got a little bit, you know, oh man, I got on the cuff of my pants. Doggone it. I hate it when that happens. Not like that. No, it's covered him. He's fully within...

He's just completely sink into the mire and that's the dungeon that they lowered him into. So not a good spot for Jeremiah. And we go on now in verse 7. Now Ebed-Melech, the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs who was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon when the king was sitting at the gate of Benjamin,

So,

These group of guys come and talk to the king. Keep in mind that in the previous chapter, the king said, okay, Jeremiah, I'm going to take care of you. You're not going to have to go back into prison where you were. You'll get to stay in the court of this house. But now these princes come on the scene and say, no, he's got to die. Okay, well, go ahead, do whatever you want. I can't stop you. So the princes take Jeremiah. They put him in this dungeon. They put him in this pit. Now, this other guy, Ebed-Melech, stands up and says, now, wait a minute. This guy is

honorable. He's sharing with us the word of God. You can't do that to him. He's going to die there. And so he goes and talks to the king and explains this to the king. And so now the king flip-flops back. Okay, well fine. Go get some guys and pull him out. You know, he's weak. He's just not really committed to the Lord. He's going back and forth, being pushed to and fro by every opinion, by every wind of doctrine, by every thought that passes by.

He's not grounded. He has no relationship with God. He's not desiring to walk with God, to hear from God, and to be obedient to Him. And so, verse 11, it happens. So Ebed-Melech took the men with him and went into the house of the king under the treasury and took from there old clothes and old rags and let them down by ropes into the dungeon to Jeremiah. Then Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah, ìPlease put these old clothes and rags under your armpits, under the ropes.î

And Jeremiah did so. So they pulled Jeremiah up with ropes and lifted him out of the dungeon. And Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison. So Eben-Melech now takes these guys and he says, Okay, king's orders, we're going to pull Jeremiah out of there. Now, Jeremiah was probably in a weakened condition because at this time, the city is under siege by Babylon. And so they're waiting for the city to,

to starve itself. They're waiting for the city to run out of resources so that they have nowhere else to turn but to surrender or die there of starvation in the city. And so, as we saw earlier in just a few verses earlier, Abed-Melech says, look, the bread of the city is gone. They're running out of resources. Their nutrition is down. Not only that, but Jeremiah's been in this pit for who knows how long. And so,

He's in this weakened condition, and so they throw down some clothes along with the ropes so that he could wrap it around, tie himself up, make a harness for himself, and not get tore up by the ropes as they pull him out of this mire that he has sank into. And so they pull him out.

And he remains now in the court of the prison. So Jeremiah is brought out of this pit. And I'm sure he was very excited about that and grateful for God doing that for him. He's still in prison, but he's not in the dungeon any longer. Well now, as we go on in the account, Zedekiah the king, who keeps flip-flopping back and forth, calls for Jeremiah and wants to hear from the Lord. Look at verse 14.

Then Zedekiah the king sent and had Jeremiah the prophet brought to him at the third entrance of the house of the Lord. And the king said to Jeremiah, I will ask you something, hide nothing from me. Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, if I declare it to you, will you not surely put me to death? And if I give you advice, you will not listen to me.

So Zedekiah the king swore secretly to Jeremiah saying, As the Lord lives, who made our very souls, I will not put you to death, nor will I give you into the hand of these men who seek your life. So once again we find Zedekiah wanting to hear from God through the prophet Jeremiah. We saw the same thing last week. Zedekiah is a weak king. He's a weak person. He has no strength.

He continues to go back and forth. Every idea that passes his way, he's convinced. He turns that direction. He's lost. He's desperate. And so now again, he calls for Jeremiah. He goes to the house of the Lord. He says, hey, bring Jeremiah over here and I want to ask him a question. He tells Jeremiah, I want to ask you something. Hide nothing from me. I want to hear the truth, Jeremiah. I want you to tell me the truth about what God is saying. But Jeremiah,

Jeremiah has some wisdom. He understands King Zedekiah. He's seen him in action enough already to know. So he tells King Zedekiah, if I tell you the truth, you'll put me to death because you don't like what I have to say. You don't like what God is speaking to you. And so you'll put me to death. Or if I give you advice and share with you counsel on what you should do, you're not going to listen to me. He understands King Zedekiah.

He recognizes who he's talking to. Even though he comes to Jeremiah saying, tell me what God's saying, Jeremiah understands, you're not going to like what I have to say. You're not really seeking to hear from God so that you can turn and be obedient to what he said. You're just seeking God so that you can decide whether or not you want to obey.

It's kind of like last week as we saw in chapter 37 that Zedekiah was asking what the message of God was, hoping that it had changed, hoping that something was different, hoping that God would change his mind. When Zedekiah was unwilling to change and do what God had called him to do,

He was hoping that God would change his mind and just not judge him after all, not bring upon the city the judgment that it deserved after all. He was just hoping that it would take place. He was hoping that it would change. I think we can relate to Zedekiah in this way because I know in my life...

There's been many times that I want to hear from God and I want to hear what God is speaking to me and I want to hear what He has planned and what His direction is for my life so that I can think about that and consider that and decide whether or not that's what I want to do or not. I want to know, God, what do you want me to do? Not so I can say, okay, that's what I'm going to do, but so I can say, hmm, do I really want to do that? I want God to tell me

so I can choose whether or not I want to follow Him. I don't know if I want to follow Him. It depends on what He says. It depends on what He wants from me. Well, if He wants this, God says, I want you to go this direction. Oh, no, no, no, no. That's not what I want to do. God says, I want you to go that direction. Oh, that's what I want. Yeah, great. Let's go that direction. As if it's up to us, right? That's contrary to the whole concept of God and Lord and

But that's what Zedekiah is doing and that's how we often find ourselves. Wanting to hear from God so that we can decide whether or not we want to obey Him. Instead of being convinced and purposing in our hearts ahead of time with an attitude of surrender and submission. God, whatever you say, that's what I'm going to do. And that's the heart that we need to have.

It's the decision that we need to make ahead of time. God, I'm going to follow you. Now tell me what you want me to do. Tell me where you want me to go. Give me the words that you want me to speak. Lord, you be God. Here's Zedekiah asking Jeremiah, what's God's message? What does he want from me? What does he want to do? And Jeremiah recognizes, you're not asking so that you can obey. You're asking, hoping that something has changed. Already convinced.

If it's not what you want to hear, you're not going to do it. Verse 17, Jeremiah gives the message that says, Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, If you surely surrender to the king of Babylon's princes, then your soul shall live. The city shall not be burned with fire, and you and your house shall live.

But if you do not surrender to the king of Babylon's princes, then the city shall be given into the hand of the Chaldeans. They shall burn it with fire, and you shall not escape from their hand. So here is the message. Surrender and live, or don't surrender and lose everything. He says, Zedekiah, you can save yourself, and you can save your family, and you can save the city by surrendering.

This is God's message to you. This is God's will for you. This is God's plan for you. At this point, here's your option. Surrender and live or insist on your own way and suffer the consequences. How many times do we want God to bless our fight while God is desiring to bless our surrender? They're fighting and saying, God bless our fight. And God says, I want you to surrender.

How many times do we do that same thing? Put ourselves in that same situation where we want to fight and God bless our fight. This is where we're standing. This is what we're doing. This is how it's going to happen. This is the way that I'm going to be. God many more times would say, my desire for you is to surrender, not to fight. Surrender to Him. There's many times that we fight against God.

And of course we need to surrender to Him. But there's also many times that we fight against things that are not worth fighting over. They're not worth the battle. They're not really a part of what God has called us to fight against. And we get up in arms and we devote ourselves to this fight. And God says, I just wish you would just surrender that thing. It's not that important. It's not that there's no fights worth fighting, but there's so many that are not worth fighting.

People get up in arms at each other and we get all bent out of shape about this happening and that happening. We want to fight and we say, God bless our fight. And God says, I want you to surrender. Give it up. Let it go. It's the battle between pride and humility in our lives. Many of those battles where we choose to stand our ground are fought and that decision is made based upon our pride.

not based upon humility. We want to fight. We want God to bless our fight. God wants to bless our surrender. Now he tells Zedekiah, look, if you surrender, you'll live. If you don't surrender, here's an important point, you will not escape. And so Zedekiah is faced with this decision that he must make, to surrender or not to surrender. He's convinced though,

If he does not surrender, he can escape. How do we know this? Well, the next chapter we'll find out. What is Zedekiah a Jew? He doesn't surrender, and then he tries to escape. He tries to prove God wrong. He tries to prove that his own way was right. Instead of humbling himself and surrendering, submitting himself to the will of God, he chose to do it his own way and suffers the consequences. Going on to verse 19.

So Zedekiah's response to this, I'm afraid of the Jews.

I'm scared. Now, the nation of Babylon is surrounded then, laid siege to them. The whole nation of Judah now exists in the city of Jerusalem. That's all that's left. And Zedekiah here, it's kind of humorous. He claims he's afraid of the Jews who have already surrendered to Babylon. Those who have already been taken captive. Those who have already... Well, what if Babylon turns me over to them and then they beat me up?

Jeremiah says, that's not going to happen. That's not even something you need to worry about. Don't even concern yourself with that. Here he is presented with God's word. Surrender and live or don't surrender and you're not going to escape. You're going to experience the judgment. And he's afraid of what people are going to say, what people are going to do, how people are going to react. He's fearful. Again, he's weak.

He's not determined, I'm going to follow God and I'm going to do what God said. I'm going to call Jeremiah and hear what God said and then whatever God says, that's what I'm going to do. He's hearing so that he can decide, oh, I don't like that idea because, well, what if this happens? I mean, this is going to be really scary. I mean, they might hurt me. They might laugh at me or talk bad about me. They might abuse me, Jeremiah. I mean, that's really bad.

So what if, you know, I refuse to surrender and all these people suffer, but if I surrender, I mean, they might abuse me. And he's thinking about and saying, well, do I want to obey God? Do I want to hear and receive this message? Do I want to put this in practice? I don't know. I can't figure out how that's going to work and how that's going to be good for me.

I hope you can see the folly of this line of thinking. I mean, it doesn't make any sense. Here's this guy who's put the nation in this predicament, who's continued to rebel against God, saying, I want to hear from God, but never being committed to being obedient to God. Always thinking, I know better than God. And I think none of us would really say that out loud. But that's what our behavior demonstrates.

That we believe that we know better than God. Because here's what God says and we think about it and say, I might get abused if I do that. I'm afraid. I think I know better than God and I'm going to do it my way. I'm not going to do it His way. Zedekiah is fearful. He's a weak king. He's afraid of everyone except God.

You see that? He's afraid of... The princes come to him. "Oh, Jeremiah's got to be put to death." "Okay, go ahead. I can't do anything to stop you. Go for it." Abed-Melech comes. "Hey, Jeremiah is the prophet of God. You can't let him die down there." "Okay, yeah, yeah. You're right. Go pull him out of the pit." He calls Jeremiah. "What's the word of the Lord?" Jeremiah says, "Surrender and live." "Oh, I can do that. There's people over there." He's weak.

And he's using it as an excuse to not be obedient to God. Verse 21, But if you refuse to surrender, this is the word that the Lord has shown me. Now behold, all the women who are left in the king of Judah's house shall be surrendered to the king of Babylon's princes. And those women shall say, Your close friends have set upon you and prevailed against you. Your feet have sunk in the mire and they have turned away again.

So they shall surrender all your wives and children to the Chaldeans. You shall not escape from their hand, but shall be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon, and you shall cause the city to be burned with fire.

Back in verse 20, Jeremiah said, please obey the voice of the Lord. He's begging Him. He's calling out, please obey God. Listen to God. He wants what's best for you. He really does. Please listen to God. Please obey Him. You can save many lives by being obedient to God. You can spare yourself from much sorrow by being obedient to God, by surrendering.

But now he goes on to explain, listen, if you don't surrender, here's what's going to happen. All the women who are left in the king's house shall be surrendered. And so really, Zedekiah has two options. To surrender or be surrendered. And that's really all that we have as options as well. We can surrender to God and choose willingly to submit to God. Or we can fight and fight and fight and refuse and refuse and refuse and end up...

Having God's will be accomplished anyways. All we've added to ourselves, what we've missed out on, what God wanted to do in us, we've heaped upon ourselves troubles and hurts and sorrows, we've hurt a bunch of the people around us, but God still will have His way. Surrender, or be surrendered. He says, look, Zedekiah, if you don't surrender, look, all the women who are left in the house, they're going to be surrendered.

And your wives and your children, they're all going to be surrendered. You're not going to escape from the Babylonians. Not only that, Zedekiah, but you're going to cause the city to be burned with fire. This is why we need to be reminded from time to time that, you know, sin does not only affect us, but it affects all of those around us. Zedekiah's choice here was going to affect the rest of his house and the entire city.

And he says, look, Zedekiah, you can save the city by surrendering. It's counterintuitive. I understand that. It's contrary to what we would think. If I surrender the city, doesn't that mean I lose the city? Jeremiah says, no. If you surrender the city, you will save the city. If I surrender my life, doesn't that mean I'm going to lose my life? No. If you surrender your life, you'll save your life. Your life will be as a prize to you. It's just like what Jesus taught.

If you seek to save your life and you fight and fight and fight and you insist on doing things your way, you're going to lose it. But if you will lose your life for my sake, Jesus said, if you'll surrender, if you'll submit to the will of God, you'll find that life that you're really looking for. And so Zedekiah has this option before him to surrender or not to surrender. God says, look, this is going to happen.

It's going to happen regardless. Babylon is going to take this city either by you surrendering to him or by him forcibly conquering the city. But it's going to happen. So which part will you play in this? Are you going to fight against God and hurt yourself and harm yourself in doing so? Or are you going to submit to him and live? Verse 24, Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah,

Let no one know of these words and you shall not die. Why? Because Zedekiah is a weakling. He's afraid of everybody but God. Don't tell anybody what you said. I don't want him to know that I'm supposed to surrender.

Verse 25, But if the princes hear that I have talked with you, and they come to you and say to you, Declare to us now what you have said to the king, and also what the king said to you. Do not hide it from us, and we will not put you to death. Verse 26, Then you shall say to them, I presented my request before the king that he would not make me return to Jonathan's house to die there. Verse 27, Then all the princes came to Jeremiah and asked him,

And he told them according to all the words that the king had commanded. So they stopped speaking with him, for the conversation had not been heard. Now Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken. And he was there when Jerusalem was taken. So Jeremiah stays in prison from this time until Babylon conquers Jerusalem. The word of God was fulfilled. Babylon took the city.

But God gave them an opportunity to save the city. All the way until the end, He's giving them opportunity to repent. He's giving them opportunity to turn back, to not experience the full judgment that is deserved for them. He's giving them an opportunity to receive mercy all the way until the end. But over and over and over again, the people refuse.

The people, the princes, the king, they refused to turn and to get right with God. Jeremiah's message was not just to the king. He was sharing that with all the people. Remember, that's why the princes wanted to put him in the dungeon to begin with. But the people refused to receive that message of God. As we consider this chapter and this King Zedekiah,

The choice that was set before Him and the choice that was set before all of the people. As we begin this new year, it's a great opportunity to decide and to determine right now. What are you going to do? Surrender or be surrendered? The same choice is presented to us. Listen, I don't know what God is speaking to your heart. But I do know that God is speaking to your heart. None of us are in a place where God says...

I think you've heard enough. You're exactly the way I want you to be. So I'm going to go work on Carlos for a little bit. Sorry, Carlos. All of us, God's working in our lives. There's areas that He wants to mold us and shape us. For some of us, that means that there's some sin that He's been trying to deal with. There's been some issues of, well, our attitudes or our anger. There's been some immorality. Or there's...

will have been some deceit. There's this lifestyle that we're living and God says, "I want to deal with that. Please let me deal with that. Please surrender." And so many times, like Zedekiah, we choose to fight. "You know, I can hold on to this thing. It's not that big of a deal."

There's grace, and I just ask for forgiveness, and I'm going to try really hard this time. Oh, I felt, oh, well, I'll just pray again and ask for forgiveness. And God's saying, I want to deal with this area in your life. I want to work in this area. I want to set you free. Surrender and you'll live. Or if you want to fight, you want to try to prove me wrong, well, you're going to experience the consequences of that sin.

You see, God's trying to help us. He's not trying to hurt us. He's not trying to say, hey, you're having too much fun over there. Knock it off. Cut that out. If I have to come out here one more time, did your parents ever tell you that? God's not trying to, you know, make you have a bummer life. No, He's trying to set you free. He's trying to help you live. So many times we want to fight. We want to insist, no, it's my way.

Or maybe it's a whole different area. Maybe it's God's been speaking to you about a step of faith that He wants you to take. And man, those steps of faith that God lays in front of us, they don't feel like steps. They don't feel like, well, something that we can do. And it's because we can't. What do you have to do in order to take a step of faith? You have to surrender. So many times we want to insist. I can't figure that out, God.

And until I know how it's going to be accomplished, I'm not going that direction. Or we say, Lord, I'm afraid there's people over there and they might abuse me. Because God, you don't know that there's people over there. And you don't know what they're capable of. But I know the choices before us. Whether it's an issue of sin or an issue that God wants to change or a work that He wants to do or a discipline that He wants to build in us or a step of faith that He wants us to take, He's speaking to us.

And we have the opportunity this evening to surrender and submit to God or to continue to fight and experience the consequences of fighting against God. It's hard. It wears us down. It beats us up because you cannot fight against God. His will will be done. You can insist on living according to your pride instead of humility, but don't do that. It hurts, not just you, but the people around you.

So I want to encourage you this evening. Whatever God is speaking to you about, and however He wants to work in your life, surrender to Him. Fear God, not man. The fear of man is a snare. If you're worried about what the rest of the people around you are going to say, you're going to be like King Zedekiah. Back and forth, back and forth. But if you fear God, if you hold fast to Him, you'll stand firm. You see, our victory...

is accomplished by surrendering. You want to be victorious in your life? Surrender. Let it go. Let God have His way. Don't insist on your own way. Don't force it. Instead, submit to the will of God. Whether it be a relationship issue that you're facing or some issue of direction, some issue of correction, let God have His way. He loves you and He really does want what's best for you.

The worship team is going to come up and lead us in a song. And as they do, I want to encourage you, take this time to surrender to God. Take this time. If you don't know what God's speaking to you about, that's a good opportunity as well. Take this time to determine, Lord, whatever you want to say, that's what I'm going to do. I'm not going to...

ask you to speak to me and tell me what you want so I can decide whether or not I want to do it. No, Lord, I want to be obedient to you. I want to surrender to you. I want to submit to you. Lord, you speak and I will follow. Whatever case you happen to be in this evening, let's take this time to surrender to God, to submit to Him, to let Him be God and step down from that position in our lives. Let's worship the Lord together.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.