Chosen Before Birth

Jeremiah 1:4-19

            God’s call of Jeremiah as a prophet contained a message designed to motivate him for his task.  His selection of Jeremiah occurred before he was born.  For the prophet, his heavenly election was as certain as the fact of his father’s name.  I feel certain that Jeremiah’s call was more the rule than the exception.  For most of us the most difficult lesson to learn is that we are called to obscurity; that our name may never be widely known among our fellow believers.  Still, our calling is as divine as that of a Billy Graham, a Charles Stanley, or a Paul.   To recognize our calling – to accept and honor it – is to begin a truly noble and godly life.  To be exactly where God wants us to be and do what He wants us to do is to be at the center of Divine Will!

            Every servant of record has offered some excuse for avoiding service:  Moses offered that he was unable to speak eloquently; Jeremiah felt his youth an obstacle; and we, well, each of us has also made some feeble excuse.  We may plead illness, or weakness, or inability, or incapacity, to avoid the work, but our excuses will likewise be ineffective.  How we would resent someone else saying these things about us, and yet, we hold them up as a plea for excuse from duty.  Modesty has its place, but may be imitated by hypocrisy.

            See how God sets aside our excuses with His statements of knowledge, His assurance of power, and His calling to service.

I.                    Look First At God’s Knowledge and Keeping of Us

A.    “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.”

1.      He shaped events that our lives might be of use

2.      He has brought us together with opportunity and imparts knowledge to make the best use of it

B.     As an infant He knew our limitations

1.      Why stand before Him and make excuses

2.      Our inability may become our greatest asset

3.      A Christian is at his best when he understands his own inability

C.    There is definitely a direction for your life

1.      Christianity does not stall out at middle or old age

2.      There is no room for fear – God has your back!

3.      We have a Divine mandate for reaching the lost.  To do less is to commit treason in the face of the enemy

II.                 What May Be Accomplished In God’s Strength

A.    “I have appointed you over the nations”

1.      The victory is already won

2.      In Christ we transcend the world – we have power with God

B.     “To destroy and to overthrow….”

1.      The evil influences pervading our society

2.      We have relied too heavily upon government to better both itself and society.  The world is evil and will not heal itself – we are evangelists not vigilantes!

3.      The barriers to perfection in our own lives

C.    “To build and to plant”

1.      Not enough to clear the land – hard work must continue in the form of building

2.      We must erect in the place of sin the glory of God, His Son’s Church!

For the work to be accomplished it is required that a beginning be made.  Where does the spirit of evangelism reside but in our hearts?  We must repair broken feelings and restore wandering sheep.