Frankie Mazzapica - God Is Carefully Watching You
Thank you for tuning in today. My name is Frankie Mazzapica. The title of the message is "God Is Carefully Watching You". He's carefully watching you. In Psalms chapter 139, verse 1, 2, and 3, it says this, "O God, you have searched my heart. You know every thing about me. You see me when I sit down. You see me when I stand up. You know my thoughts, when they are afar off. You see me when I travel. You see me when I stay home and rest. You know every word I'm going to say, even before I say it". He knows every word that you are going to say before you say it.
Rewinding back to the 2nd verse, where the psalmist says this, he says, "Whether I sit down or whether I stand up, you know my thoughts when I'm afar off". You know, there's times where the chaos, the stress, the worries, the concerns are so overwhelming. It's like you're spinning a plate on this stick and then it start spinning this stick, and then this plate starts wobbling, this plate starts, and so your mind is going everywhere, trying to solve problems, and you lay down at night and you just stare at the fan and it's just spinning. God sees your thoughts when they are afar off, and he is paying careful attention to you.
In Jeremiah... we're gonna study the book of Jeremiah today, actually, Jeremiah chapter 1, and I've got three major points for you. The first one is about an almond branch, the second one is about a boiling pot, and then the third one is about the strength that God has already put inside you.
So let's dive into the first point. This is Jeremiah chapter 1, verse 11, where it reads like this. Jeremiah says this: "And then the Lord spoke to me and he said, 'Look, Jeremiah, what do you see?' Jeremiah replied, 'I see the branch of an almond tree.' And the Lord says, 'That's right, and this is what it means. I am watching, and I will carry out all of my plans. I'll carry them out. The plans that I have for you, I'm watching everything that's going on, and I'm going to make sure that the purpose of your life, the reason why I formed you in your mother's womb, the reason why I saw you before I pulled the first mountain out of the ground, I'm going to make sure that your assignment is completed.'"
Now, sometimes we feel like that our entire life is being put on hold because we're stuck. We're stuck because of circumstances, or we think a decision that we made has derailed us. I want you to know that the circumstances that make you feel as though you have delayed yourself or derailed your life, these circumstances are of incredible importance. Like a conductor over an orchestra when he's seeing everything and there's brass over here and there's drums over here and there's trumpets over there and there's flutes over here, he's conducting everything, and then all of a sudden, he'll put his hand up towards the brass section. Means stop. And he'll look at the drums, and he'll say, "Come on, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me".
And then he'll look at the drums and he'll say, "Stop". And he'll look at the brass section and go, "Okay, give it to me". He's directing the orchestra. And in your life, he's doing the exact same thing. He's saying, "Hold on, hold on, hold on, rough season, you're not allowed to come yet", because in, let me think, in Daniel, Daniel chapter 2, verse 21, it says this: that he controls the times and the seasons. So he says, "This good season that I have coming to you, we're just gonna hold on just a little bit. I need this rough season to come in and kind of strengthen you a little bit. You're not gonna like it, but I'm gonna strengthen you". It's like trimming a bush. You gotta clip it every once in a while. It's not that the bush or the rose bush is doing something bad. It's actually being trimmed because it's doing something good.
Sometimes he's looking at you and go, "You're doing good, but I gotta hold off this next good season, let this storm come in a little bit because you're gonna get stronger. You're not gonna like it". And then at just the right time, he says, "Okay, okay, okay, tough season, you hold off now. It's time for this breather to come in. It's time for the cool weather to come in a little bit". Are you with me? Have you ever experienced that? And so Jeremiah, he's talking with the Lord. The Lord is speaking with him and he's saying, "I'm making sure that these seasons are all coming together".
My wife got into gardening a few years back, and she built this box, and she had all this special dirt put inside of the box, not just any dirt, special dirt. Had to go buy the dirt because the dirt in the ground wasn't good dirt, so she had to go buy the dirt, and I'm like, "We are buying dirt. I cannot believe we're buying dirt". Anyway, she buys dirt. She gets all these seeds. Sprinkles it in there. I'm like, "What are you doing"? She's like, "I'm gonna grow tomatoes". I'm like, "Oh, so the grocery store doesn't have anymore tomatoes".
So anyway, she's gonna raise her own tomatoes and potatoes and all that kind of stuff, but she got about halfway into the planting process, and as soon as things started to grow, let me just say this. A lot of you live in the city. I live in the country, okay? We have a street gang of raccoons, okay? This street gang, they fight each other at night. It's, like, on one side of the tracks versus the other side of the tracks, and when they get hungry, guess where they go? Straight to our garden... By the time they get home, they got tomato on their cheek. So Allie's, like, I'm watching this thing, and so she puts up this fence around the garden because... you're already ahead of me. Just let me get there. She's carefully watching to make sure that her plants are gonna come, and whatever needs to happen, whatever wall of fire he has to put around you, whatever smooth place, whatever angel he has to send, come on, encourage me, come on.
And so, now, just a few verses later, two verses later, in Jeremiah chapter 1, verse 13, Jeremiah says this: "And then the Lord spoke to me again, and he said, 'Now what do you see?' And he says back, he replies back, 'I see a boiling pot that's being poured out from the north.' And the Lord said back, 'Yes.'" What is happening here is that terror from the north is being poured out on the people of the land that you're standing in right now. Now, this has two meanings. One of them is prophetic for the last days, and if you're interested in completing this study on the last days, make a note to yourself or in your app or on the phone, you wanna not only read Jeremiah 1, but you wanna read Jeremiah 38, Daniel 11, Matthew 24, Luke 21, Mark 13, and obviously the Book of Revelation.
And so that verse of a pot being poured out on top of a people being judged, this from the north, it's speaking prophetically about the last days, but it also has a double meaning. He's also saying this. "The people who have turned their back on me, the people who are flagrantly, flagrantly". I'm not talking about, "Oh, I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have did that". Flagrantly sinning without any remorse. Their heart has been seared as with a hot iron. Terror is coming on that person. There was in the 1990s, some of you were born in the '90s, but anyway, just work with me. In the 1990s, there was this, it was like the first reality show ever. It was so cool. It was three men and three women, and they were like body builders. They were fast, they were strong, and what they did is they would compete against normal people like me.
And so it was so cool because like, for example, one of the events was I, as a competitor, would run in a zigzag and hide behind things, and these people would have, like, a gun full of tennis balls. Do you know what I'm talking about? Have you ever seen the show? And they would shoot 'em... and I would have to hide like I'd have... you know, have to hide... and that was just one event. Another event, you'd have to, like, wrestle these guys. And obviously, if a Frankie Mazzapica were to wrestle an Arnold Schwarzenegger, there's absolutely... I couldn't beat him, and the winner of the show is when they took another common man, and we would, whoever did better against these people, and the women would compete against these superwomen, and whoever did better, won.
And the guy who thought of this event, this show, he actually proposed it to producers in Hollywood for seven years. Nobody would take it. He was in his bed one night, and he started watching this movie. It just came on, and it was a movie about a guy who was struggling, and he could not be successful in any way, shape, or form, and he had a conversation with the devil in the movie, and the devil said, "If you sell me your soul, I will make you successful". And he was sitting there, watching the movie, and he said, "If I had that opportunity, I would do it". Just a few weeks later, his show was accepted, and as he was sitting there, signing the contract, he looks up and he goes, "I think I sold my soul to the devil". He signed the contract.
As I watched the interview, I could clearly see that he's... I couldn't clearly see. I just thought, if I could sit down and have coffee with him, I would say, "Do you know how powerful those words are? Do you know that those words have the power to really open up a door, that you may very well have given your soul to the devil, and you didn't even realize it? This isn't something you play with. This is a flagrant step, a flagrant thought. This isn't something you play around with".
See, if the enemy can't convince you that he doesn't exist, he will try to get you to think that he's not involved. He is very much involved. He's pulling you to the left. He's pulling you to the right. What he is so determined to do is to keep your mind drifting, to begin to believe that you can have any standard you want in life. Holiness doesn't matter. Righteousness doesn't matter. At the end of the day, as long as I'm standing behind somebody worse than me, walking into heaven, I'll be okay. That's not how it works. The Lord says, "Judgment's coming. I'm gonna pour it upon you".
The third point, where it says, "I will make you strong". He's saying, "Look, you see the almond branch? This is my promise to you that I'm watching. I'm gonna carry out my plans. You see the burning pot? This is my warning that if anyone doesn't honor me, there's gonna be consequences that are gonna be fierce". The Bible says... let me add something to that point. In Revelation chapter 3, verse 16, it says, "Because your heart is not hot nor is it cold but it's lukewarm, I'm gonna spit you out of my mouth".
You know, there's no such thing as a cool Christian. Like, a cool Christian. Like, there's no such thing as a person that's just... you believe it, but you're not into it. There's no such thing as that. There's no such thing. It doesn't exist. But there's no... how much time do I got? I got time for this illustration. I'm still in the second point. Just work with me. I haven't gotten lost yet. The there was this illustration of, this guy was having a vision, and he saw this burning field as far as he could see, and there was a devil standing in the field, and he said, "Come on with me. Follow me. I promise you, you're gonna have a good life. You're gonna have fun. All the desires, all the passion you have, you don't have to hold them back. Just live".
Then on the other side of the fence, it was all green grass, and Jesus was standing there, and he says, "I died for you. I want you to live for me. I promise you, I'll lead you to green pastures. You'll live with me for eternity". The man said, "I didn't know which side to pick, because I have all these desires and passions that... I don't wanna hold them back. I only live once. I wanna have fun. And then I'm looking at Jesus. I can clearly see he loves me. I'm not sure which one I'm gonna do". And so he steps up, and he climbs up the fence, and he kind of just sits on the fence because he wasn't quite sure. The next thing he knew, all of the green grass started matching the grass that was on, that was burning around him. The whole area, devils started popping up on the right and on the left, and he said, "I haven't made my decision".
And the devil looks back at him and says, "I own the fence. I own the fence". If you wanna worship him on Sunday, please don't stop. I don't care if you're wrestling with something or not, but just know that God's always watching. You can't ride the fence on Tuesday night. You can't ride the fence on Friday night. You can't do it. He owns the fence. And so let me recap real quick. I'm gonna respect your time, I promise. And so he's saying, "I'll bless you. I'm watching you. I'm gonna bless you. I'm gonna make sure my plans are gonna be fulfilled".
The people who are riding the fence, there's gonna be a payment for that. They can't just grease themselves down and slip through the gate, the Pearly Gates. It's not gonna happen. And then this very last one, this very last point about how God has strengthened you, he looks at Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 1, verse 18, and he says this, he says, "See? I have made you as strong as a fortified city. I have made you strong".
One of the things that has always perplexed me is how easy a glass of water breaks. I have waited tables. I had a restaurant between the ages of 16 and 18. I got fired 21 times, except for the times that I quit. Twenty-one times. And you may think to yourself, "How do you get fired that many times"? And I'll say back to you that these managers these days, they're so picky about showing up on time, on time, on time, on time, on time. They don't give any weekends off. I'm like, "I'll work Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, on Fri..." They're so picky.
Anyway, I get fired, but I was a professional waiter. That was my shtick, and that's what I do. I loved every minute. And so I'm like, "Fire me, I don't really care. Do you know how many restaurants are in this town? On to the next one". My grandma was like, "But what are you gonna do when you put these places on your application"? I said, "Grandma, do you really think I'm putting all these things? I worked at a snow cone stand with my dad, and I really wanna work here, that's it". But do you know how many times I've dropped the tray, and glass goes everywhere? Do you know how many times I've dropped the glass in my kitchen? But what's crazy to me is I can take a pitcher of coffee and slam it against the wall, and there's gonna be a hole in the wall, and the pitcher is still ready for coffee.
How in the world does that glass is unbreakable? I can bang it against everything in the world, but what a drinking... clink... You see, the pitcher, the glass of the coffee pitcher, it has been tempered. It has been tempered. It has been made strong. It's been put in fire. It's been put in heat. It's been put in cold. It has been tempered, and now because it's gone through these excruciating seasons, and then these breath seasons, it has been made strong. I wanna tell you today that you have been made strong in two particular areas.
Number one, you are a survivor. God has made you a survivor. There are parts about your history, there's parts about your story, there's things that your parents went through that you witnessed, the way that your parents treated you, maybe it was great, maybe not so great. Some of us know what it feels like. I remember when my wife and I got married. We had a box of, like, a egg crate box with our TV on it. That was it. We could vacuum our whole apartment without taking the plug out of the wall. We had burritos. I kind of missed them a little bit. They were disgusting, but it's weird how I miss, but anyway, we had Lean Cuisines. That was it. We were nervous.
See, some of us have a stories like that. Some of us, the story is being written right now. You know what it feels like to be financially stressed. The thing about financially stressed, it's interesting because it's one of the only problems you never really stop thinking about it. It's always back there. And so he's looked at you, and he's saying, "You've been in the fire, you've been in the cool, but I've tempered you. Look how strong you are. You're a survivor, number one. And number two, you are an inspiration. You're an inspiration".
A weaker person would have crumbled by now. Look where you're at. You're in the house of God, worshiping him. Look where you're at. There's other people that would have given up the faith, walked and go find some ditch to lay in. Not you, not you. You're still here. You're still grappling with the faith. You're still grappling, and you're in good company because the one who wrote more than half of the New Testament. 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 7, Paul says this, "I have fought the good fight, I finished the race, and I have kept the faith". God has been watching you. He's proud of you because you're a fighter, you're a survivor, and you're an inspiration. You receive that today? Come on, you receive it?