Called
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
1 These are the words of Jeremiah, Hilkiah’s son, who was one of the priests from Anathoth in the land of Benjamin.
2 The Lord’s word came to Jeremiah in the thirteenth year of Judah’s King Josiah, Amon’s son,
3 and throughout the rule of Judah’s King Jehoiakim, Josiah’s son, until the fifth month of the eleventh year of King Zedekiah, Josiah’s son, when the people of Jerusalem were taken into exile.
4 The Lord’s word came to me:
5 “Before I created you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I set you apart; I made you a prophet to the nations.”
6 “Ah, Lord God,” I said, “I don’t know how to speak because I’m only a child.”
7 The Lord responded, “Don’t say, ‘I’m only a child.’ Where I send you, you must go; what I tell you, you must say.
8 Don’t be afraid of them, because I’m with you to rescue you,” declares the Lord.
9 Then the Lord stretched out his hand, touched my mouth, and said to me, “I’m putting my words in your mouth.
10 This very day I appoint you over nations and empires, to dig up and pull down, to destroy and demolish, to build and plant.”
Called
Called
Our scripture text opens with the call of Jeremiah to be a prophet of God. He was called during an interesting time in the life of Judah.
Verse 2 of out text tells us
2 The Lord’s word came to Jeremiah in the thirteenth year of Judah’s King Josiah, Amon’s son,
Ok, so I’m a bit of a nerd and I like to know why. In the training for my job as a counselor my supervisor has repeatedly told me not to ask why when someone says something that needs to be followed up on. That is hard for a kid who “why” was one of the first words he learned!
It is important to ask why when reading God’s word. There are a lot of questions to ask yourself when reading the Bible. We don’t read the Bible like we would read a regular book. This is God’s word, it is His story. We read it so that we can hear from God.
I learned as a teenager to ask questions when I’m reading the Bible. Those questions were:
1. Is There a Command to Obey?
2. Is There an Example to Follow?
3. Is There a Promise to Claim?
4. Is There a Sin to Avoid?
5. Is There a Principle to Follow?
I would add to that list, why. Why is it happening? I would encourage you to put those questions into use when you are reading the Bible. Don’t become legalistic in their use. Spend time just listening for God to speak through the words you are reading.
Ok, that is my introduction to reading God’s word.
Let’s apply the why to these verses. As I read there in verse 2
2 The Lord’s word came to Jeremiah in the thirteenth year of Judah’s King Josiah, Amon’s son,
Why is that important to know? Josiah was the last good king of Judah. Israel had already been conquered by Assyria. There had been a line of bad or evil kings over Judah. The people were doing whatever they wanted. They were living in disobedience to God.
God’s word comes to Jeremiah in the thirteenth year of Josiah’s reign as king of Judah. It is important to know why.
Josiah’s father was King Amon, he lasted a little over 1 year before he was assassinated by his own people. Josiah his son was eight when he became king.
God called Jeremiah in the thirteenth year of Josiah’s reign as king. Josiah would have been 21 at this point. Josiah launches a project to repair the Temple in Jerusalem. The people had been worshipping idols and the Temple had been neglected.
Picture this, the king and the high priest call for a Temple work day. They are in the process of cleaning out the Temple. There are workmen there doing repairs. The High Priest is sorting through the stuff in the junk room because every church or temple has a junk room. Sadly, the junk room was the Holy of Holies.
While the high priest is going through the junk room he finds a scroll in a box of junk hidden behind some other things. He unrolls it to see what it is and is stunned by what he finds.
He rolls the scroll back up and takes it to the King’s secretary and gives it to him. The secretary reads the scroll and realizes he needs to take it to the king. Notice that the high priest didn’t read it all, but the secretary did.
The secretary goes to King Josiah and gives the king an update on the work at the Temple. He then tells Josiah that the High Priest had given him a book and then he starts to read it. He must have read through the entire scroll. This would have been the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament.
11 As soon as the king heard what the Instruction scroll said, he ripped his clothes.
Josiah was convicted by what he heard from the Law of God. Josiah sends the men that were closest to him on an urgent mission.
13 “Go and ask the Lord on my behalf, and on behalf of the people, and on behalf of all Judah concerning the contents of this scroll that has been found. The Lord must be furious with us because our ancestors failed to obey the words of this scroll and do everything written in it about us.”
One quick note of how they asked of God. They went to Huldah, she was a prophetess. The Talmud, or the teachings of the Priests tells us that she ran a school for women prophets. They go to her to inquire of God.
Jeremiah has already been on the scene for 4 years prophesying against Judah. His is a message of Judgement. If you go on and read the rest of that chapter from 2 Kings 22 you learn that her message is essentially the same as that of Jeremiah. God’s judgement is coming.
I am thankful that God calls not only men, but God calls women and teens and children to serve Him. In the Old and New Testaments God has used women and men to bring the message of God. I’m glad I serve in a Church that recognizes the call of God on everyone and the ministry of a pastor is not limited to men.
Before all this happened with Josiah God called someone to bring the message of impending judgement. Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet. That begs for any answer to why.
He was called the weeping prophet because he wept over the sin of Judah. He wept over the fact that the people had left God and where living in disobedience to God. His message was repeatedly rejected by the people and he was persecuted.
A. W. Tozer wrote, “Always remember: you cannot carry a cross in company. Though a man were surrounded by a vast crowd, his cross is his alone and his carrying of it marks him as a man apart” (Man—The Dwelling Place of God).
That was Jeremiah.
Jeremiah was a 17 or 18 year old young man and he wrote:
4 The Lord’s word came to me:
5 “Before I created you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I set you apart; I made you a prophet to the nations.”
God tells Jeremiah that even before that embryo began forming God knew him. That is why abortion is so repugnant. It is the taking of a life that God created.
The abortion rate in the United States is over 800,000 abortions each year. What is interesting to note is that the largest state, California, does not provide data to the CDC. It is one of the most liberal states in our nation in regards to abortion so you can only imagine the number that are performed there.
It is important for the Church to stand-up for the unborn. We should support pro-life politicians and judges. I do believe we as a nation will be judged for this scourge in our society.
God tells Jeremiah that even before that tiny embryo began to form that God knew him. He was set apart even while he was still growing in his mothers womb. God said that He had made him a prophet to the nations even from birth.
What a powerful point of God’s calling on our lives. We are all called to serve God in some way. He has gifted each of us for our calling.
The sad thing with many people is that as soon as they sense God calling them, they start making excuses. I came across this quote “Excuses are well planned lies.”
Why do we do that? Do we not believe that if God calls us to do something that He will abandon us?
Jeremiah started with excuses.
6 “Ah, Lord God,” I said, “I don’t know how to speak because I’m only a child.”
He’s about 18 years old, he’s from a little town about 2 miles from Jerusalem. He was a nobody from nowhere and God comes to him and tells him that even before he was created in the womb that God knew Him and set him apart.
Isn’t that just like God? He takes the most unlikely person from the most unlikely of places and uses them.
He used Huldah, a woman prophetess to bring the message to Josiah that started a revival.
He says to Jeremiah I am going to use you.
Jeremiah says, “But God.” But God, really, me? Are you sure you got the right person? I’m only a child, I don’t know how to speak. You want me to speak for you? But God, can’t you pick someone else?
I know I did that when God called me to the full time ministry. I had my life all planned out. I was going to finish Bible college and was going to go to Seminary to get a graduate degree and then teach the Bible at a college. I had thought of even getting a doctoral degree.
Life was all planned out, but God. I began making excuses and finally ran as fast away from God as I could and He let me go.
That speaks of the freewill that we have. God calls us but He is looking for obedience. I was disobedient to God. In sin I walked away. But God wasn’t done. The Holy Spirit pursued me and it was at an altar at the Wichita Falls Church of the Nazarene that I repented and came back to God. A year latter at the Biloxi Church of the Nazarene I accepted that call from God. I stopped making excuses.
I stopped saying I can’t and said I can through the power of the Holy Spirit.
I remember as if it were yesterday when the Holy Spirit came and sanctified me and filled me with His fullness.
But God Jeremiah said. I can’t he says, but God and God says Don’t say, ‘I’m only a child.’ No excuses Jeremiah. You are about to enter a journey that will break your heart, but I am going to be with you.
Jeremiah 1:7 (CEB)
7 Where I send you, you must go; what I tell you, you must say.
He really had no idea what he was in for by being obedient to God.
He was rejected by his own family/relatives.
People made false accusations against him.
He was threatened with death because of speaking for God.
He lived a lonely solitary life, he was commanded to not marry and have children
His message was rejected by the Israelites.
He went through spiritual struggle as he saw the evil prosper while the righteous suffered.
He was physically assaulted/ beaten.
The enemies attempted to kill him, He was put in a muddy cistern and left for dead
He was humiliated in public/mocked.
He was arrested and put on trial.
He was imprisoned/jailed.
If he had known all that was going to happen to him he would have run as far from God as he could get. But God. God spoke and said
8 Don’t be afraid of them, because I’m with you to rescue you,” declares the Lord.
Isn’t that just like God. We might come up with all of the excuses in the world, but God says he is there with us.
As Jesus was giving the Great Commission to his disciples he finished up by saying
Matthew 28:20 (CEB)
Look, I myself will be with you every day until the end of this present age.”
Paul asked the question that I feel ties with the words of Jesus
31 So what are we going to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
The obvious answer is no one. That is what God says to Jeremiah: I’m with you.
I’m with you - God
Maybe you need to hear that this morning. I’m with you says God. I’m with you in the good times and the bad. I’m with you when you walk through that valley of the shadow of death. I’m with you when Satan brings temptation that would destroy you. I’m with you when sickness comes.
I’m with you!
God said to Jeremiah:
I created you
I knew you
I set you apart
I made you a prophet
I’m with you.
To put an end to excuses God acts. He says there in verse 9
9 Then the Lord stretched out his hand, touched my mouth, and said to me, “I’m putting my words in your mouth.
God was giving him the very words to say. I think back to the first sermons I preached that I was scared to death. In those early days I thought I had to say something profound. Those first messages were my attempts. There came that time when I surrendering my preaching to God and allowed the Holy Spirit to speak through me.
I am amazed that when I set down with a blank computer screen and ask God to speak through me. He gives the message. I don’t say that to brag. If God calls you to do something He’s going to give you everything to accomplish that mission. He will be with you.
Notice what God says next. This is very important, because God is specific with what He calls us to do. He says there in verse 10.
10 This very day I appoint you over nations and empires, to dig up and pull down, to destroy and demolish, to build and plant.”
Jeremiah was not just a prophet to Judah. God appointed him a prophet over nations and empires. God was taking this young guy from a small town, from the smallest of the tribes of Israel and was going to make him a prophet over nations and empires.
What a great reminder that God loves all people and wants a relationship with them.
This verse is a reminder of the authority that is ours through Christ. God was saying to Jeremiah that I give you the authority to stand before any ruler, any leader and prophesy.
God said that Jeremiah could dig up and pull down, to destroy and demolish, to build and plant.
What is God saying there? He’s talking about the destructive and the constructive power of the words that He has put in Jeremiah’s mouth.
Jeremiah will prophesy against Judah and he will witness the destruction of Jerusalem and the people being taken into exile in Babylon.
Jeremiah will prophesy against the nations around Israel and Judah. He won’t be physically destroying nations with his hands. He will be doing it through the prophesies that he will be bringing.
Prophesying is the forth-telling, the telling of what God has said. It’s not being a fortune-teller.
We face an invisible enemy who has strongholds. A stronghold is a defensive structure. We face spiritual strongholds. Paul acknowledged that in 2 Corinthians. He wrote:
3 Although we live in the world, we don’t fight our battles with human methods.
4 Our weapons that we fight with aren’t human, but instead they are powered by God for the destruction of fortresses. They destroy arguments,
5 and every defense that is raised up to oppose the knowledge of God. They capture every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
6 Once your obedience is complete, we are ready to punish any disobedience.
There are forces of evil at work in our world. The people of Judah and Israel invited the forces of evil into their lives as they worship Baal and those others gods that the nations around them worshipped.
The fortresses, the strongholds of evil are not just out there, but they are in the Church. Churches have turned things that God has called sin and called them something that is beautiful and blessed.
Paul said that the weapons that are powered by God are meant to destroy those fortresses, to destroy the argument and every dense or stronghold that opposes the knowledge of God.
We face demonic opposition not only when we are trying to share the Gospel. We face those fortresses in our homes and in our churches. We face them in our families and our places of employment.
I see the work of evil in the lives of clients that I work with every week. He comes to seek, kill and destroy. I frequently breath a prayer to God while meeting with people.
There is much more that I could say, but will close at this point. We all have been called to be a disciple of Jesus. We are then commissioned to go and make disciples. We will face opposition. Jeremiah certainly did.
May we be like King David who wrote in Psalm 20 these words:
Psalm 20:6–8 (CEB)
6 Now this I know: The Lord gives victory to his anointed. He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary with the victorious power of his right hand.
7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
8 They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm.
When God calls, how will you answer Him? Do you trust in the name of the Lord our God?