Jeremiah 20:1-9

You were made to Take Ground

Jeremiah 20:1–9

And I want to set the table for you tonight with a question… as we end our day and prepare to enter into the bulk of our conference tomorrow:

And the question is: Do you remember… when the Lord called you to ministry?

July 25, 2005…I was 17 years old…Daniel Springs Baptist Youth Camp…Warren Jackson, the worship leader and founder of Clear Camps, opened the invitation to a room full of teenagers…and it was that night…the Lord called my name!

Jeremiah says in Chapter 1, that God called him in his youth during the reign of King Josiah...

But listen what he says in Jeremiah 1;4-5

4 Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, …

5 “Before I formed you in the womb…. I knew you,

and before you were born… I consecrated you;

and I appointed you… a prophet to the nations.”

Men… I want you to be affirmed tonight…because some of you may be trying to forget…

that it is true… that there was a moment that God of the Universe filled you in on his plan for your life…

But make no mistake about it…that, that same God, ordained you, and fashioned you, and made you for ministry!!!

….Before you took your first breath…God chose YOU!

And I remember how excited I was…I remember going outside the chapel that night and looking up at Heaven and shouting in celebration…of God’s work and call on my life!

And then I went to work for the Lord…first as a youth volunteer at my dad’s church at 17, then at Grace Baptist Church and then as the Director of the Baptist Student Ministry at Angelina College in my early 20s…

And I could see God’s hand on my life…I ended up at FBC Zavalla as the Associate of Students and Worship in my mid-20s…before moving to FBC Diboll where I was voted in as Pastor on Feb 9, 2020, I was 32 years old and excited to what the Lord had next for us… as I stepped into this new role.

You know what the Lord had for us next?

A month later Covid hit… and the church shut down for the better part of a year.

When we returned in spring of 2021… I had a group of people try to publicly crucify me during a Wednesday Night Bible Study.

In 2022, we rewrote our covenant, constitution and bylaws… which proved to be the catalyst of some of the most hateful words that I have ever been spoken to me. You learn them old women got teeth.

I was all things to all people in those days…SS teacher, Pastor, Youth Pastor, janitor, secretary, etc..I was exhausted physically…

Since 2023, I have both hired and fired a best friend…Lost several more in addition to that…broke my heart….all for standing for the truth of God’s Word…

And This year - due to stress - my left eye has just about quit me, my health has been failing me…

You say…well that’s all very interesting Ben…but why are you telling us all of this…and its because I driving to John McArthur’s point when he said that… “The greatest spiritual danger always comes from within the church.”

The Attack comes from within!

And many, if not all of you, know what I am talking about…if given the opportunity all of you could take this podium and describe for us similar stories of how….the supposed people of God… set out to destroy you…and it was no different in Jeremiah’s Day!

Men…Jeremiah wasn’t attacked by a man with PAGAN written across his chest….He was abused by a leader in the church!

Leading up to Chapter 20 we read about Jeremiah prophesying of Judah’s exile to Babylon because of its willful idolatry and sin.

In response to this… the chief officer of the temple, a priest by the name of Passhur… the alleged Man of God…has Jeremiah beaten for his efforts, and puts him in stocks at the Benjamin Gate of the Temple, to publicly disgrace God’s chosen Man.

The Attack from Within

*** The truth will always sound like hate…to those who hate the truth.

*** Carter - if they could feel what I felt…

*** If God calls you to preadh…dont stoop - spurgeon

And so we pick up the story in verse 7-8…Listen to the Words of Jeremiah:

7 O Lord, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me.

8 For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, “Violence and destruction!” For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long.

9 If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.”

The Attack from Within

The Desire To Quit

The Fire of the Called