New King Sermon

Introduction & Context-Ben and Michael (Ben to open with explanation of how this service is different)

Story of how God used this passage in Michael’s calling

Identify the problem / raise the tension: Our insecurities and fears hold us back from stepping out in faith.

Context of passage (vs 1-3) - (Jeremiah came 80 years after the fall of Israel (Northern Kingdom) to Babylon which was often at war with Egypt. Judah stuck between two warring nations.)

God Calls and Jeremiah’s response (vs 4-6)- Ben and Michael

The calling of God is specific to the individual (vs 5 - before you were born I consecrated you)- Ben

The individual is shaped specifically for the calling (before I formed you in the womb… ref. Eph 2:10)- Ben

Jeremiah’s fears and insecurities are exposed (vs 6)- Michael

When God calls, our fears and insecurities are exposed. Moses, Joshua, Gideon etc.

God Answers Jeremiah’s Objections-Ben and Michael

The commissioning comes with the power to obey (vs 5 & 7) “I appointed you a prophet to the nations… I send you, you shall go”- Ben

Our excuses are invalid (do not say...you shall go… whatever I command… you shall speak)

Our fears are irrational (Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you…)

The commissioning comes with the words to say (vs 7 & 9) “whatever I command you, you shall say… I have put my words in your mouth”- Michael

The gospel is the power of God to save (present the gospel!!)

Not with persuasive speech… not with lofty words of wisdom

The commissioning comes with a guarantee (vs 12) “I am watching over my word to perform it”-Michael

God is sovereign over the advancement of his kingdom

God is sovereign to save

Conclude / Exhortation-Ben

How should you respond?

Prayer

Opening-How God Used Jeremiah for Redeemer

My nerdy personality- love reading books of almost all genres- one main reason is the love of narrative, an overarching story that has a purpose, seeing these grand narratives unfold is fascinating to me.

Fascinating to all human being. Simply look at our culture and you see the power of stories with the fascination of books, movies and tv shows. We crave stories.

Stories wouldn’t be much with characters and their character arcs. Favorite genres is fantasy (cause I am a nerd). But in many fantasy novels, the arc of the hero always captivates me because I can almost always identify with the character at the beginning of story, before he or she has really become the hero. I can identify with the anxieties, doubt, insecurities they feel as they are faced with the task that is put before them.

Connect with them**

Now the Bible is the grandest narrative of them all! In it, God is laying out His story from beginning to end.

Bible acts as a mirror

Just as we can see ourselves in the characters of other books, we can see ourselves in the in the stories and accounts found throughout Scripture.

When we look at these opening passages of the account of Jeremiah, I can easily relate to the anxiety and insecurities that Jeremiah felt when confronted by God’s calling, and the anguish, discouragement and doubt he felt living out his calling as a prophet. I believe the emotions and insecurities Jeremiah felt speaks to all of us in some way.

It is because of that, and even more so the response to Jeremiah’s anxieties from God, that this passage played a huge part in my personal story of church planting.

Opening Context

Our vision of prophets not quiet the picture of Jeremiah “Weeping Prophet”

Israels decline after David -Two Kingdom Split- Great spiritual decline and punishment

Jeremiah came 40 years before fall of Babylon, was hated

Weeping prophet name came from deep compassion and love- warned them with tears

Didn’t start off as a brave prophet of God

I think when we often think of prophets, we often have this idea in our minds that they are straight laced, stern, individuals who came simply to lecture the kings of Israel about their bad behavior. And to a degree there is some truth to that. (Angelica Kauffman 1700’s painter Nathan and David) But Jeremiah was a little different. Jeremiah is often referred to as the “weeping prophet”.

The reason Jeremiah is referred to as the weeping prophet was not because he was a prophet during on of the most tumultuous times in the history of ancient Israel. You see, Israel declined rapidly after the death of King David, and split in two separate nations after the death of Solomon, Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Idolatry, a proliferation of false prophets, far more corrupt kings than good and a national turning away from God became the hallmark of both nations.

As punishment of this covenant breaking, of this turning to idolatry, the Northern Kingdom Israel fell to Assyria (who would later be defeated by Babylon) and Southern Kingdom Judah eventually fell to Babylon.

Jeremiah comes 40 years before the fall of Judah to Babylon. And during this time, Jeremiah would warn Judah to turn away from their idolatry, to tear down institutions that were riddled with idols and go back to God, but he would be brutally rejected and hated by his own people who did not want to hear his words of warning. But it wasn’t only because of this hatred and ostracizing from his people that gave him the name “weeping prophet”.

It was also because of his deep godly compassion and love for his people. He knew of the punishment that was coming from God through being conquered. He longed for them to avoid it, and more than that, Jeremiah desperately wanted them to have a renewed relationship with their Creator! The immense hatred and suffering he experienced never turned his heart toward bitterness. And it was this compassionate pleading with tears in his eyes that gave him the name “the weeping prophet”.

But before he was the weeping prophet, he was just Jeremiah the priest, a young man from the tribe of Benjamin. (Last sentence before Ben)

Notes

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you and consecrated you.”

Romans 8:29-30 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters;30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

gnosko

The Fearful Response

I identify with Jeremiah’s emotionally packed response (read passage)

Consistently consistent- God’s sovereignty and doubting sovereign God can use him

Cannot Speak- Job description of a prophet

Too Young - Lack of experience

Focusing on the task of the call and not the Caller

As I said, here is where I identify with Jeremiah. The response to this call from God is found in verse 6- short but packed with the complexities of human emotion: “Then I said, ‘Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth’”.

Great Bible teacher R.C. Sproul pointed out that Jeremiah’s response is, very much like all of us, consistently inconsistent! Look closely at the first small portion of Jeremiah’s response to the call to prophet. “Ah, Lord God!”

This first half of his response can be translated “Master Yahweh”. Here, Jeremiah is acknowledging that he is speaking to the Great I Am! The God who spoke to Moses, who created the world and every living thing in it! And Jeremiah is acknowledging that Yahweh is his master! That God is sovereign over him and all creation and everything is subject to His rule!

But in the very same breathe begins to argue with his Sovereign Lord. “I cannot speak, for I am just a child!” Maybe you have the wrong Jeremiah, maybe you meant to go to the Jeremiah that lives next door, you couldn’t possibly mean me! So in one fluid motion, Jeremiah acknowledges the sovereignty of God and makes fear induced excuses why he couldn’t possibly be used by the sovereign God! Which was the same thing Moses did!

As we read, Jeremiah expressed this fear in two ways/ with two excuses so let’s dive into them a little bit:

Cannot speak well- lack of gifting-unworthy:

Jeremiah claimed he could not speak well. Therefore he didn’t have the natural giftings to accomplish what God was calling him too.

He was called to be a prophet. In the job description, at the very top, was public speaking. Prophets were to speak to kings and nations! I am sure in Jeremiahs mind he was envisioning God having him go before crowds of people and give grand speeches.

So having the knowledge of his inadequacy at the very skill required for the work God was calling him to, fear gripped him. And I am sure that because he lacked this gifting, he also simply felt unworthy to take on such a task. to be the mouthpiece of God to the nations. That wasn’t him, that wasn’t in his personality. His spiritual gift assessment came back with a -5 on public speaking!

So Jeremiah attempted to use his lack of gifting as a crutch to not get out of the Sovereign God’s call.

my own fear of public speaking

Young:

Jeremiah rooted his lack of speaking ability in his youthfulness, being anywhere between the age of 13-18.

He was inexperienced with speaking and teaching. He was just a young man so surely God would want to use someone who is more accomplished, who had more years under their belt. He was simply too young to be of any use.

Our age, whether young or old, can be a stumbling block we artificially place in the way of serving God.

my own fear of youthful inadequatact- imposter syndrome

I have several conversations with individuals who believed their age was the primary factor in why they could not possibly step out on mission for God. But believe it or not, most of these conversations occured with those from the older generations. Because they felt like they came to faith too late in life, or because they are approaching retirement, or because their families were too rooted where they are, and a variety of other reasons, they can’t follow the call of God to be on a church planting team or become a proclaimer of the gospel in their work place, or follow God with a radical abandon and be willing to give up everything they have built in their lives for the sake of the gospel. Abraham Was 86

For those in the younger generation, like Jeremiah, we can feel like because of our inexperience we may not be ready for the trials that will come our way. That no one will take you seriously because of your age or you simply don’t know how to articulate your thoughts well and you are worried about looking like an idiot while trying to share the gospel with someone you are confident is smarter than you!

And whether you are battling these thoughts as someone from the younger or older generations, this can cause great fear and anxiety as you are confronted with the clear call of Jesus in your life. It is a fear I feel every single day! And I am tempted to use that fear as a crutch to follow Jesus in a minimalist way.

When we try to use our youth and experience as a fear-filled response as to why we can’t follow Christ, I believe it is because we are hyper-focused on the specific task of the call instead of on the one who is doing the calling.

Jeremiah’s sinful anxiety caused him to only see the service, the thing itself he was called to do. And by focusing on the task only Jeremiah was quickly hit with the reality that he was woefully inadequate. For me, it is church planting. My anxiety can cause me to hyper focus in on the tasks I have to complete, the forms I need to fill out, the calls I have to make, the sermons I have to prep, the structures I have to get ready and put in place. And when this happens I become hyper aware of my shortcomings and inability to actually do this! All because I have focused on the the task of the call alone and the not on the good, sovereign God who called me.

Psalm 121:1-3I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.

And now we will hear the response of God to fears of Jeremiah.

Additional notes: Paul formed in womb Gal. 1:15

”I am with you” seminal promise to His people Ex. 3:12, Isa. 7

God Supplies the Words

English Standard Version Chapter 1

Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me,

“Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.

10  See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms,

to pluck up and to break down,

to destroy and to overthrow,

to build and to plant.”

God touches lips to purify (Isa. Ezekiel). Rest of Jeremiah, he speaks with absolute authority from God (Thus says the Lord) therefore fear is unfounded

While we do not get the clear, audible voice, we too have been given the words to speak in the Bible: “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, He died for us (Rom. 5:8)” And “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Rom. 8:1)”

Holy Spirit gives us the words- Luke 12

I want to be upfront here, a lot of what I am going to say on this part was stolen from three different theologians: R.C. Sproul,

In verse 9 we see that the fear Jeremiah has is unfounded. God comes and touches the very lips of Jeremiah, which is a symbol of his lips being purified, being made ready to speak the holy words of God (Ezekiel, Isaiah). Then God says to Jeremiah, I have put my words in your mouth!

When we go on and read the rest of Jeremiah you will see him begin his proclamations with, “Thus says the Lord” Jeremiah’s words have with them the authority of God himself. Jeremiah does not have to worry about his lack of ability to speak because his very utterances are given to him by the Lord God.

Like Jeremiah, we too are given the words to say. God has provided us with His word. And in it are the words we are to share with the world. That “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, He died for us (Rom. 5:8)” And “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Rom. 8:1)”

Jesus says in Luke 12, that when you are being questioned by those who claim to be the religious elite, or being interrogated by governmental authorities to not be anxious! Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will equip us with the words to say. This isn’t to negate our responsibility to study the word, we should know the gospel! but do not worry or be anxious in the moments where you feel like you do not have the gifting to evangelize or speak well because God, like with Jeremiah, has put His words in your mouth through the Holy Spirit!

And if Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will equip us in the most intense and risky of situations to speak the message of Christ’s atonement, how much more can we depend on Him in the ordinary situations?

Then God goes on to tell Jeremiah what his call will entail:

God wants a total reformation reformation- Things must be torn down first

How when so many people oppose and preach falsely? Preaching faithfully- Jer. 23:25 “ 25 I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ 26 How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, 27 who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal? 28 Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully.”

We are to go into culture/ domain of darkness to preach Christ crucified

Just like Jeremiah, we shouldn’t fear those who mock us and we shouldn’t even fear false prophets- we are to simply faithfully preach the word- 2 Tim. 4:2 says, “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”

How can we preach so confidently without being anxious about those who stand against?

God says to Jeremiah in verse, “I have set you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build up and to plant.”

God wants a reformation in Israel.

God tells Jeremiah here that he is to go in to his culture, go to his nation of Judah, into the temples, to the prophets, into the palace and destroy the current religious structures of Israel because they are diseased and corrupt.

But how is he to do that? By preaching the word of God faithfully to a culture that has turned away from God.

Listen to what God through Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 23:25, “ 25 I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ 26 How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, 27 who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal? 28 Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully.”

And that is what we are called to do! Go into the domain of darkness, into our culture that has been ensnared by a multiplicity of false gospels and destroy idols by the power of the word of God. and there will be those against you, false prophets rising up to contradict everything you say. And there will be those who say they have had a dream, they have had a word from God that contradicts what is written in Scripture. But God here is saying we should not worry about them! Let them tell their dreams! Do not let false prophets, false truth sayers keep you from preaching the gospel faithfully because God will take care of them even if it seems like everyone wants to follow them over you. Success is not measured by how many people follow you but by speaking His word faithfully.

2 Tim. 4:2 says, “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”

But that brings up another question: How can we proclaim the gospel so confidently and not worry about false teachers or those who seek to suppress the gospel message?

The Commission Comes with a Promise

Read verse

Almond branch vision meaning (almond trees bloomed in January)- What that meant for Jeremiah/ What that means for us

Isa. 55:11 “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

Why does God word succeed?

John 10:16, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, they will listen to my voice. So there will be on flock, on shepherd.” -Providence

2 Cor. 4:2 “But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.” -Content matters not the window dressing God is sovereign over His word/ effectiveness of the gospel is not left in our hands or skill

We can be confident when we share the gospel because the power is not in us but in the sovereign God watching over

Going back to the first chapter, read what God says in verse 11 and 12, “And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” And I said, “I see an almond branch.” 12 Then the LORD said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.”

Almond trees bloomed in January, so it is said to look over the rest of the trees as they began to bloom in the spring. Just as the almond tree looks over the rest of the orchard, and like God watched over the word that Jeremiah was proclaiming to the nation of Judah, God looks over His word when we proclaim His gospel to our own culture.

He says something very similar to this through the prophet Isaiah in Isa. 55:11 “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

Does the word of God succeed because of the skill or charisma of Isaiah? Not at all. Was the apostle Paul effective in his preaching of the gospel because of his speaking ability? No, he says the opposite in 2 Cor. 11!

The word of the Lord, the gospel, the good news of Jesus, is effective because the sovereign hand of God is watching over His word to perform it. Paul says in Romans 1 that he is not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for everyone who believes.

Jesus says in John 10:16, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, they will listen to my voice. So there will be on flock, on shepherd.”

Must bring them. Will listen. Will be on flock. This is the promise of God’s unstoppable providence.

2 Cor. 4:2 “But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.” -Content matters not the window dressing

The gospel, the message of God and the power of the Holy Spirit is what makes the good news of Jesus effective, not our strategies in evangelism. Not the attractiveness of our personalities. He is watching over His word when we proclaim it! This isn’t to say we should not study apologetics or learn how we can convey the gospel well, but we cannot forget where the real power is.

Takes tremendous pressure off of us/ humbles us.

Age, ability, not important when preaching the gospel