Hello, This is God, Are you listening?
Building a Firm Foundation • Sermon • Submitted
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This week our character is the Prophet Jeremiah
This week our character is the Prophet Jeremiah
Our passage this week is from the book of Jeremiah 1.4-10
Jeremiah is located after the book of Isaiah. So after Psalms & Proverbs then the Book of Isaiah and Jeremiah.
The Prophet is called the “weeping prophet.”
Jeremiah warned the Jews in 586BC before Jerusalem was destroyed and then through three captivities that God sent the Jews to endure.
Why, Why would God do that to the people that he loved
God’s object in that was to mend and mold the Jews into something that pleased him.
Instead the Jews failed to learn the lessons of the captivities and continued to move opposite to what God wanted.
Jesus would not come for another 580 + years to rescue those who obeyed!
Jeremiah is a complicated book with many voices coming from the scripture.
Which set do we listen to?
We listen to the voice of God as he describes and interacts with HIS people Israel.
Where is the lesson for us. What do we need to know after this and other messages.
I’m putting the final consequences of disobedience right up front.
Yes, this was written 2700 years ago but listen in Chapter 12.
14 Thus says the Lord concerning all my evil neighbors who touch the heritage that I have given my people Israel to inherit: “Behold, I will pluck them up from their land, and I will pluck up the house of Judah from among them.
15 And after I have plucked them up, I will again have compassion on them, and I will bring them again each to his heritage and each to his land.
16 And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, ‘As the Lord lives,’ even as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they shall be built up in the midst of my people.
17 But if any nation will not listen, then I will utterly pluck it up and destroy it, declares the Lord.”
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That last verse is the close and is the final warning that we will work with this morning.
Here are the BIG QUESTIONS for the morning...
1. What does it mean to be called by God?
2. What does God generally call people to do?
3. Do only Pastors have responsibility to heed the warnings of Jeremiah?
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“…To be called by God?” ---
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; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
6 Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.”
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Now that this point Jeremiah was looking around and over his shoulder saying me, really God you want me?
V.6
I am only a “youth”and I cannot speak!
BIG QUESTION #1
What does it mean to be called by God?
Jeremiah hesitated as he looked at the work before him and the wickedness around him,
When he looked at the weakness within himself, Jeremiah was certain that he wasn’t the man for the job.
When it comes to serving the Lord, there’s a sense in which nobody is adequate.
Paul was challenged by something very similar or maybe after reading the Jeremiah scroll it became obvious
“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God”
5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God,
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When God calls us, however, He isn’t making a mistake; and for us to hesitate or refuse to obey is to act on the basis of unbelief and not faith.
It’s one thing for us to know our own weaknesses, but it’s quite something else for us to say that our weaknesses prevent God from getting anything done.
Instead of being an evidence of humility, this attitude reeks of
P-R-I-D-E
Pride… that is a reoccurring theme from last week and the week before
Pride refers to an unwarranted attitude of confidence. It is often used in Scripture to refer to an unhealthy elevated view of one’s self, abilities, or possessions.
I do want to return to our Jeremiah passage...
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
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In this case God singled out Jeremiah from before birth that he was going to be a prophet.
Note that it never says that Jeremiah was perfect, sinless, or could speak well but God had him picked before birth.
The closet New Testament example of this is Paul’s calling
15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,
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Chosen and called… Jeremiah, Paul and YOU!!!
6 Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.”
7 But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.
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The Lord rejected Jeremiah’s excuses.
When God calls, he equips us with what is needed to carry out the assigned task.
For Jeremiah it was the promise of God’s presence and deliverance from any threatening situation that the reluctant prophet needed to hear.
F-E-A-R OF THE UNKNOWN
The command “Do not be afraid” is found frequently in the Scriptures, suggesting how common is the human experience of fear.
The basis for overcoming fear is the assurance of God’s presence.
So that’s it… We should no longer be afraid when we know that God is on our side, that He is present
8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord.”
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Our BIG QUESTION
2. What does God generally call people to do?
IF you are a believer sitting here today you have been called from something and to something.
We have talked many times about our first call in our relationship with God.
37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
38 This is the great and first commandment.
39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
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Love the Lord God will all of your heart, soul mind and strength.” [Jeff’s Paraphrase]
AND...
Love your neighbor as yourself!!
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That’s the place where we come together with all of human history and all of God’s history with us.
Our love for God, deep and intense as it should be AND a command to “Love our neighbors”
These two things must compel us… must motivate us, must drive us to be in God’s will.
8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord.”
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Tell me your journey… tell me the path toward reaching others with Christ that you have.
I definitely do not want to criticize but definitely want to celebrate… celebrate what
That someone, maybe your friend or a stranger accepted the Lord. --- AND you had an ever small part in helping it happen.
That you talked with your friend, neighbor or relative about your faith in Christ
That you have started a personal or group bible study.
That you committed to reading the bible daily
That you found your bible on the top shelf of the closet in the spare bedroom. — It’s ALL good and it’s all steps in the right direction.
Our BIG QUESTION
3. Do only Pastors have responsibility to heed the warnings of Jeremiah?
There really is a bigger question there… If pastors are the only ones, then we have a long way to go...
The responsibilities are shared and learned and taught when we spend time together with others
Break out of your “christian” shell and earn a friend that you don’t know yet.
Make an effort, any kind of effort to increase the community that you have.
Who… neighbors, co-workers, friends, long lost relatives. — Any size and type
Make talking about your Christian faith easy, smooth. Well now how do you do that..? Practice, practice, practice.
DON’T BE AFRAID TO TELL SOMEONE, ANYONE, EVERYONE that you are a follower of Jesus.
8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord.”
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Replace any fear that you have with the knowledge that you have of the scripture.
GOD is with you… he will make away, he will make our paths straight
God will always protect the sheep, his sheep, us to be able to carry out the job of the Gospel!
The final two verse in this passage
9 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.”
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WOW, WOW,WOW!!!
You mean that he calls us
He says no harm will come to us
He gives us the directions
AND FINALLY...
HE GIVES US THE TOOLS
Jeremiah did not believe he could talk correctly (by the way not the only person sent by God that said that… Moses and Aaron)
But now he touches Jeremiah’s mouth and filled it with words. I’m not sure what kind of words but these gave Jeremiah the tools necessary to follow God’s will in his life.
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.”
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There you have it… God’s reason for coming to Jeremiah, his mission is laid out!!!
The work of that mission is still going on...
Here is the “Build A Firm Foundation” connection...
No matter who you are, what you are, where you have come from, God has a calling in your life.
YOU ARE OF GREAT VALUE TO GOD AND HE KNOWS YOU!
Here are our questions for today. These are the three things that I want you to remember
Here are the BIG QUESTIONS for the morning...
1. What does it mean to be called by God?
2. What does God generally call people to do?
3. Do only Pastors have responsibility to heed the warnings of Jeremiah?
I hope that I have given you enough clues, examples and information to be able to answer these for yourself.
If you can’t and you want to… come see me or call me and we can go through it again and really personalize it for you.
And Finally
8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord.”