Jeremiah 1, You Are Appointed By God
1. God Created You For A Purpose (v1-5)
2. God Knows Your Weaknesses And Fears (v6-8)
3. God Will Provide The Resources You Need (v9-16)
4. God Promises To Be With You (v17-19)
5. God Knows Your Failures And Rebellions (Luke 22)
Well, as we look at Jeremiah Chapter 1 this morning, we're starting a new book, new prophets, and focusing on this man, Jeremiah.
As we look at chapter 1 of Jeremiah this morning, I've titled the Message You are appointed by God, you are appointed by God.
Now as we look at this.
Chapter we see Jeremiah's appointment. We see his commissioning, how God meets with him and calls him to the specific role that is given.
To him, and that word appointed really refers to that it speaks about that specific purpose.
And God says Jeremiah, I have a specific purpose in mind for you.
I decided on it ahead of time and now is the time for you to engage in this calling that I have set apart.
For you and set you apart for.
And so as we look at this interaction between the Lord and Jeremiah, it is Jeremiah's appointment. It is his calling and commissioning.
But we also look at this this morning and I want to encourage you that it's a pattern for us that in many ways there are parallels between you and the prophet Jeremiah.
And that God has appointed you.
To a specific purpose that he has a specific role for you in his work and in his Kingdom.
He decided it well in advance ahead of time before you were ever born, just like he did for Jeremiah, that God has a plan for you and a call upon your life, just as he did upon.
The prophet Jeremiah.
And what's interesting to note about Jeremiah as we work our way through the chapter.
We'll see he is a young man.
We don't have a specific age, but based on the context and things that are going on, we would understand that Jeremiah is probably a teenager at this time.
And here is Jeremiah, the teenager.
Given the most important role in the nation.
Because all of the other leaders of the people of Judah have really failed and turned away from God.
God was looking for someone who would listen to him and then be obedient and respond as God spoke, and so he found the man, the young man, the young teenager Jeremiah.
And said, OK, Jeremiah, nobody else, everybody else has forfeited their the role that they should have fulfilled, but but here you are, Jeremiah, you are going to be my spokesperson to the whole nation.
You are going to be the one who brings forth my word.
To my people when nobody else is and nobody else is willing to listen to what I have to say.
And so we find Jeremiah a great example for us again.
Similarly, we are appointed by God.
You are appointed by God.
God has a plan and a purpose and a reason.
For you to fulfill the role that he has given to you in his Kingdom and in this world.
And so we're going to walk through five points this morning.
Considering this appointment by God for Jeremiah, and how that also relates to us point number one is found in verses one through 5.
But number one is God created you for a purpose.
God created you for a purpose.
This appointment began.
Really, from the very beginning before you were born, check out verse four and five here of Jeremiah chapter 1 that says the Lord gave me this message.
I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb before you were born. I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.
Here we get to understand as the Lord speaks to Jeremiah, that this was not a last minute decision.
As he I even described it right now, as you know, there was nobody else.
All the leaders had kind of forfeited their responsibility and so God used Jeremiah, but but it wasn't that it was a scramble and it was in the spur of the moment.
And you know, there's there's moments left in the events that are happening in God.
Says, well, I gotta find someone.
And so he just grabs Jeremiah at random.
Now, that's not how it went down. The Lord tells Jeremiah before I formed you in your mother's womb. So this appointment for Jeremiah. This plan and purpose for Jeremiah began.
In the very very beginning, before Jeremiah was ever born while he was.
Even in the process of being conceived before I formed you in your mother's womb before you were born, I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet.
But to the nations.
And so God well in advance, well.
Before Jeremiah would ever.
Understand the situation he was going to be living in.
And the ministry that he would be called to God knew the things that would develop and the situation that would unfold the state of the nation.
And said I need to prepare someone to speak forth my word.
Weird in that context.
Now, the context in which Jeremiah was called to Minister was really challenging. I think it's as hard as the hardest ministry that anyone has ever been called to what Jeremiah was called to Jeremiah came on the scene a little over 100 years or right around 100 years after.
The Ministry of the Prophet Isaiah.
And so Isaiah, we spent a lot of time looking at him.
He was speaking to the nation as they were declining and turning away from God.
And Jeremiah comes on later on the scene where they have further rebelled and been entrenched in their rebellion against God for even longer, and the things that they were practicing.
We're getting worse and worse and worse verses one through three.
Give us a little bit of the context as far as the time frame it tells us in verse one.
These are the words.
Of Jeremiah, son of Hilkia, one of the priests from the town of Anna Thath, in the land of Benjamin.
The Lord first gave messages to Jeremiah during the 13th year of the reign of Josiah, Son of Ammon, King of Judah.
The Lord's messages continued throughout the reign of King Jehoiakim, Josiah Son, until the 11th year of the reign of King Zedekiah, another of Josiah's sons.
In August of that.
11th year the people of Jerusalem were taken away as captives.
And so here we get the understanding of the time frame and a little sense of the situation that the the people of God, the nation of God was continuing to rebel against God to the point of their complete destruction by Babylon, by the nation and the world empire that had grown.
Babylon, and so Isaiah ministered during a time where the Assyrian Empire was the dominating empire of the world.
But after them came, Babylon Babylon conquered Assyria and set its eyes on Judah and Jerusalem.
And God raised up King Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon, to come against Judah, as a result of their rebellions, which were significant.
In Jeremiah's day, the kind of things that were taking place were horrendous. The idolatry that was prevalent was disgusting and horrifying. There were child sacrifices going on, and all kinds of atrocities.
The nation had been diminished greatly as God continued to ramp up the judgment and the calls to repentance to them.
Jeremiah is that final prophet. He was there on the scene watching those final days calling God people to repentance during the time that Babylon is attacking and conquering Jerusalem up until the ultimate time in 587 when Jerusalem is conquered for the third time.
The final time and all of the inhabitants are LED away captive.
There's only a few people left behind, and they're just kind of left out in the field with a little governor appointed by Babylon and even they don't stick around very long.
They flee to Egypt and and so he he gets to see those final days the hardest.
Probably for any prophet, any servant of God he.
Worked to administer it on behalf of the Lord through these incredibly difficult circumstances, but he had been appointed by God for this time for this purpose.
And the Lord gave him messages all throughout, and so for 40 years he prophesied.
He spoke on behalf of the Lord, and fulfilled his role, his purpose that God had given to him.
And as God shows up in verse four and five and begins this process, he.
Prepares Jeremiah for the things to come by letting him know I have been preparing you this for this from the very beginning.
In this commissioning of Jeremiah, God lets him know there's been plans from eternity that are now unfolding in your life, and that you are the fulfillment.
And Jeremiah, you also need to know.
That you have been custom made for this purpose for this time, for this need that is apparent in the nation of.
This is something to understand about Jeremiah's calling and commissioning. It's something to understand about your calling and commissioning as well. God created you for a purpose.
And it's not just God seeing the events that are happening around your life right now and trying to figure out a solution.
But from the very beginning.
God could take verse 5 and read it to you and mean it exactly the same way I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb.
Notice God taking direct responsibility for that creation process that happens in the womb. I formed you in your mother's womb.
God saying, I'm the creator and I'm not just the creator generally in that a long time ago I spoke everything into existence.
But I created each and every one of you. I formed you in your mother's womb.
I put those genes together and put those all of the strands of DNA together.
I I decided which chromosomes you would have and I I I fashioned, informed the.
Every detail about you there in your mother's womb.
And from then you have been set apart.
And appointed now for Jeremiah, that meant as God's prophet to the nations.
Not everybody is appointed to that role specifically.
God prophet to the nations.
That was Jeremiah role and he was custom made for that from the beginning.
But every one of us have our own role.
Our own place in God's plan and our own purpose in God's Kingdom.
And God has from the beginning known what that would be.
And then custom made tailor made.
Our body, our personality our.
Capacity or emotion, you know, capacity for emotions our our intellect.
He's fashioned every part of us.
For the role that he has given.
To us
Paul the Apostle shared something similar in Galatians chapter 1.
He reminds the Galatians.
He says, you know what it was like when I followed the Jewish religion, how I violently persecuted God church.
I did my best to destroy it.
I was far ahead of my fellow Jews in my zeal for the traditions of my ancestors.
But even before I was born, God chose me.
And called me by his marvelous grace.
Then it pleased him to reveal his son to me.
So that I would proclaim the good news about Jesus.
Paul recognized this same thing, even though.
It wouldn't be very evident about Paul's life earlier on.
He says God chose me.
Called me to proclaim the good news about Jesus.
Now earlier on.
In Paul's life, he wasn't known as Paul. He was known as Saul. He was the persecutor of the church.
He chased down people, did his best to torture them and cause them to renounce the name of Jesus.
He committed great crimes against the church and against Christians.
And yet before he was born, God had chosen him.
And so he had that encounter with the Lord on the road to Damascus.
Because God knew from the beginning how Paul would be transformed and changed.
When he allowed the Lord Jesus to forgive him of his sin, and when he responded to the message of the Lord that there would be this great transformation, and so he went from the persecutor of the church to the proclaimer of the good news of Jesus.
And that was something God knew, saw, and advance and prepared.
Paul 4.
Even before he was born, and we could look at this of course and say, well, of course, that's the apostle Paul.
We could look at Jeremiah and say, of course, that's the prophet Jeremiah.
But is this only for the prophet Jeremiah and the apostle Paul?
Well, I would ask you to consider Ephesians chapter 1.
Verse four and five, where Paul writes to the Ephesians just normal Christians like you and I writing to the church.
He says even before he meet the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.
God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.
This is what he wanted to do and it gave him great pleasure.
In a similar way, Paul speaks to all of us as believers and says before he made the world God knew about you and it was pleasing to him to choose you.
In advance.
To prepare for you the gospel message that would transform you that you would be united with him in Christ.
In Romans chapter 8, Paul talks about being chosen beforehand in advance before the foundation of the world to be conformed into the image of Christ.
And that's how we can know that all things work together for good to those who love God because he is planned and prepared.
The sovereignty of God is on display here as we consider God created.
You for.
A purpose from the very beginning he planned.
For you.
From the very beginning, he.
Specific things, specific roles, specific opportunities, specific tasks and callings.
And he said this person is going to be perfect.
For this exact time at this exact place.
To fulfill this role that is needed in the Kingdom of God.
And so from the very beginning he's been planning for you and preparing for you.
Ephesians Chapter 2 talks about the fact that we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for Good Works, which God prepared in advance.
That we should walk in them.
He prepared it in events he knows.
One of the interesting things about life is we have the choice.
We can go through life trying to figure out with our best wisdom and our best intellect and our best guesses.
What to do?
What we should do?
What direction we should go?
We can.
Seek God.
And find out from him God what's your plan for my life?
Now, that doesn't mean that we always have all of the details and every decision you know is made for us in such a way that we have no choice.
We can only do what God wants us to do right.
God gives us the freedom of choice but.
But we need to give him that opportunity to lead and guide and direct us because God has a plan for us that he has set in place from the beginning.
He has a plan for you and I think the intriguing thing about this for me is that because he has the plan for you, he knows what you will face and what the world around you needs and the the role and the purpose and and an awesome opportunity that you can have in the Kingdom of God then.
He, on top of the foreknowledge put that foreknowledge to work, and said, OK, I'm going to custom make you.
For that role for that purpose, for those things that are going to be needed.
God is personally involved in each person.
Formation and development.
Before you in the womb, I formed you.
I formed you in your mother's.
Room he tells Jeremiah.
We also saw this a.
Little while back in Psalm 139.
Where the psalmist reflects on this same kind of thing.
The psalmist says you made all the delicate inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb.
That God is not just creator in the general sense, but for each one of us personally.
He he did the knitting.
He took the needles.
He got the thread.
He did the appropriate motions for whatever knitting looks like and he said all right now I have custom made this perfect design.
You know you can go to the store and buy an article of clothing off the shelf.
It's not a custom size, it's small, medium, large, extra large, double X, triple X.
You know whatever is appropriate for you, right?
It's those that's different than going.
Two, I'm trying to think of the word a tailor, seamstress, something along those lines, and having something made that is the exact fit for you, right?
There's a.
There's a difference there in a similar way.
God not just the general creator.
He made some people small, medium large, extra large double X, whatever right?
But no, he custom made.
Each and every part.
Fashioned by God.
I can, as a website developer, throw together a website for you in mere minutes.
If you're willing to have useless content and a template that is already pre-made and fashioned.
Or we can spend months.
And lots of money and you can pay me lots of money and lots and lots of resources involved in planning and and work involved in making a custom website fashioned for the specific functions that you need for the specific product that you have.
There's a big difference between the templates and the off the shelf and the.
Custom solutions and and here's where I find it.
Interesting God custom made you every.
Of you was a deliberate decision.
On God's part.
I formed you.
In your mother's womb.
Your abilities and talents, your tendencies and.
The way that you think and the personality that.
You have.
The family that you grew up with around you, the friends that you had, like all of these things that have been in your life, God, God is works all of these things to prepare you to custom tailor you for the role and the opportunity that he is presenting before you.
The apostle Peter and first Peter Chapter 4 says God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts.
Use them well to serve one another.
This is just one example of that custom made design that we have.
Each one of us.
Have a spiritual gift.
And spiritual gifts are different.
Great variety between them.
We make the mistake sometimes of thinking they're all the same or just looking at one particular.
But no no.
There's great variety of ways that God can enable us supernaturally to do his work and to fulfill the role that he's.
Given to us.
And so Peter.
Encourages us whatever that gift is.
Whatever roll that God is given to you, boy, live that out.
Fulfill that.
Do that with all your heart.
If your role involves speaking, then speak as though God himself were speaking through you because.
When you're fulfilling your role, empowered by the Holy Spirit, God himself is speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others do it with the strength and energy that God supplies, do it with everything that you have. 'cause God-given you the resources that you need for that.
God created you for a purpose.
And he's given you.
Everything that you need.
In your genetic makeup.
In your education and your personality and your spiritual giftings is giving you everything that you need to fulfill that purpose.
He was able to do that because he knew from before you were even formed in the womb.
What that purpose would be and what needs you would have and what needs the world around you would have.
Commentator FB Meyer says God has a distinct purpose for each life.
And our one aim should be to discover and work out his plan.
God has a distinct purpose.
You are appointed by God.
He's planned you from the very beginning and custom need you.
You know sometimes you look in the mirror and you're quite frustrated, right?
Why do I have this?
Deficiency, why do I have this?
Why do I have this, whatever it might be, right?
We can be quite frustrated with.
How we are created?
But that's not.
How God looks at you.
He said it's perfect.
Not that you are perfect in the holiness sense, but that you're custom made.
You're exactly suited.
For the plans and the purpose is that he has for you which are good and perfect, and for your benefit, well moving on to verses 6 through 8 we get point #2 this morning, and that is that God knows your weaknesses and fears.
In this calling that God is.
Placed in your life there is going to be.
A little bit of hesitation many times on your part.
But God knows those weaknesses that you battle those fears that you struggle with.
Verse 6 through 8 says this.
Oh sovereign Lord, I said I can't.
Speak for you.
I'm too young.
The Lord replied, don't say I'm too young, for you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you and don't be afraid of the people for I will be with you and will protect you.
I the Lord have spoken.
Jeremiah, here's the commissioning of God, the calling of God.
God says I've planned you from the beginning.
I've fashioned you and formed you for this very purpose.
And Jeremiah.
His first response is I don't think so.
I can't speak for you.
I can't fulfill this role that you're calling me.
I can't be your spokesperson to nations.
Lord, that's crazy talk.
I'm too young and again we don't know exactly how old Jeremiah was.
We're not given a specific age, but based on the context of his life and his length of ministry, he's very likely a teenager during this time.
May be as old as early 20s, but fairly young.
And he says.
Listen God, don't you know that young people aren't listened to in my culture.
In my society, nobody is going to listen to an 18 year old, you know, say hey, I have something to say.
Nobody pays attention.
To teens, nobody pays attention to young people.
I'm too young, I can't.
There's a weakness that Jeremiah is expressing in that he is inexperienced.
He is inadequate for this role.
This task that God has called him to you, and there's some fear that is prompting him to bring this point up, and so God is going to address both the weakness and the fear in verse seven and eight.
First of all.
He says I'm young, I'm inexperienced and God says don't say I'm too young.
Don't say I'm too young, that is.
Not a genuine counter to the call of God.
That might be a limitation for.
Certain things in society we say you must be this age to drive.
You must be this age to vote you must be this age, right?
There is no age barriers.
On being part of God's work and serving in God's Kingdom and making an impact and fulfilling the role that God is given to each one of us.
There is no age limit.
There is no age requirement.
When God sends a youth, then the youth must go, and when God sends a senior citizen, then the senior citizen must go.
Age sometimes is an excuse.
Abraham and Sarah said, hey, we're too old.
We can't be used by God this way.
Jeremiah said I'm too young.
He wasn't the only one.
Remember, the apostle Paul had to encourage Timothy in first.
Timothy 4.
Don't let anyone think less of you because you are young.
Be an example to all believers in what you say and the way you live and your love and your faith and in your purity.
I think since the beginning.
Whenever God has put a sense of his plans and purposes in a clear way before us as his people.
Have felt inadequate and have had reasons for why we cannot do what it is that God is set before us.
There's some weakness or some inadequacy that we see that we face that we have to.
But we also have fear verse a God says and don't be afraid of the people.
For I will be with you, and I will protect you.
I the Lord, have spoken.
Don't be afraid of the people God says.
It's very likely we can kind of put together the pieces from this.
The reason why he said I can't speak for you, I'm too young.
Although it was true that he was young that.
Prevailing issue that really prompted him to say that was that is the scariest.
Thing I've ever even thought about.
To stand as a teenager before nations and speak before them. That terrify's me.
I can't do that.
But God says I can help you through it.
Don't be afraid, for I will be with you.
And I will protect you.
I the Lord have spoken.
I know it's fearful.
I know it's terrifying Jeremiah.
But Jeremiah, I'm gonna be with you.
I'm going to take care of.
You and listen I.
Have spoken this.
This is on the authority of the creator of the heavens and the Earth.
You are called to this role.
You do have meaning and purpose.
And you can trust me to walk with you through the midst of it.
This reminded me of Ananias.
In acts Chapter 9.
Not ananias.
In acts chapter 5, Ananias and Sapphira?
That's a different story.
You can read.
Through that.
But Ananias in acts, Chapter 9.
Is the person that God called to go and minister?
To solve Tarsus after he had his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus.
So the Lord spoke to Ananias and said, Ananias?
I want you to go lay hands on Saul of Tarsus and pray for him that he.
Receive his sights back again.
Ananias responded in acts Chapter 9, verse 13.
But Lord exclaimed, Ananias, I've heard many people talk about the terrible things this man has done to the believers in Jerusalem, and he's authorized by the leading priests to arrest everyone who calls upon your name.
But the Lord said.
Go for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings as well as to the people of Israel.
God had a special appointment in calling upon Saul's life.
But he also had a special.
Calling and appointment upon Ananias his life.
Analysis part at this point in his ministry was to go and pray for this guy who was a terrorist who was a threat to Ananias and his family and all of his friends who were Christians like this was a serious threat to Ananias.
But God said go pray for him.
I know you're fearful.
I know, you're scared.
But God says I've got.
A plan I'm working this out.
It's OK, you can trust me.
God knows your weaknesses and fears.
He understands them.
And he'll work with you through them.
I think there's.
No better example of that than the example.
Of Moses.
Then you spend some time in Exodus chapter three and four.
You know, many times we refer to Moses in this context.
You know he's like, yeah I can.
You send somebody else right?
But but as you read through the account at Exodus 3 and four, it wasn't.
Just like he.
Resisted a little bit.
In Exodus Chapter 3, Moses, in response to the burning Bush and the Call of God to set the people of God free from the land of Egypt.
He says, who am I to go before Pharaoh?
Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?
Weakness inexperienced not the caliber.
Not quite the right person for the job, Moses tells God.
And God says, I.
Will be with you.
Yes, you are in experience, you're not.
Up to the job.
But I will.
Be with you.
Well then in Exodus Chapter 4 verse one it tells us.
But Moses protested again, so it wasn't just one time that he protested against this.
He says, what if they?
Don't believe me?
God says OK, let me.
Show you how to work a couple miracles.
To provide the evidence that I am with you and that.
You are called of God.
Then in Exodus Chapter 4, verse 10, but Moses pleaded with the Lord.
He's not just protesting anymore, he's like.
Please God, please don't.
Send me, not me.
Anybody else but me?
He says I'm not very good with words I've never have been good with words.
God says who makes a person mouth?
I do, I can help you to speak.
If that's a real struggle if.
That's a real issue, I can help.
You overcome that.
And then in Exodus Chapter 4 verse 13 it says but.
Moses pleaded again Lord, please send anyone else.
Over and over and over.
His weakness, his fears on display as he wrestles with God in regards to his calling his appointment.
I'm young, I'm inexperienced.
I don't speak very well.
I really don't want to do this.
God knows your weaknesses and your fears.
And even when we are resistant and we're negotiating or.
Trying to get out of.
It God is so patient.
To remind us he's with us.
He's going to help us.
He's going to work through those weaknesses and fears.
To glorify himself in the ministry and the calling that he's given to us.
I don't know if there's ever been a servant of God.
Who has not?
Felt these things.
Anybody want to volunteer?
Has there ever been a servant of God who has not felt this feeling of inadequacy?
This awareness of weakness.
This facing of fears we this is normal for Christians.
This is normal for God servants.
In fact, the ones who don't feel this sense of weakness and fear as they're presented with a calling from God maybe need to be a little.
Bit concerned about.
Where they're at in their reliance upon God because one of the reasons why God calls us to do things that we are weak in and fearful of, so that we.
Rely upon him and.
That it's his resources and his supply, and that he gets the glory.
As Paul later on told, the Corinthians God uses the base things of the world to confound the wise, the simple things.
And so we're always going to feel weak and fearful.
That's the normal.
For God's servants.
Pastor David Guzik
Says, though, Jeremiah's protest was true.
It was irrelevant and God did not want to hear it, nor did he want Jeremiah to say it.
God insists on his right to call young people and to use them if they will listen to his call and answer it.
He insists on his right.
He can use young people.
He can use old people.
He can use whomever he chooses because he knew them from the beginning before they were even in the womb and formed and fashioned them for the very purpose that he is now set before them.
You will experience weakness you'll be aware of it. You will experience fear, but God says it's OK, I'll work with you through that and I'll be glorified even greater because of it verses 9 through 16. Give us point #3 now as we continue on, God will provide the resources.
You need God will provide the resources you need.
Verse 9 says then the Lord reached out and touched my mouth and said, look?
I have put my words in your mouth.
Today I appoint.
You to stand up against nations and kingdoms.
Some you must uproot and tear down, destroy and overthrow others.
You must build up and plant.
Here we see God provide Jeremiah with the resources.
Load I don't have the experience to be able to speak to nations and so God touches his lips and says boom, here you go my words for the nations you don't have to generate words for the nations.
You don't have to calculate words for the nations.
You don't have to research and uncover words for the nations.
You have to receive from me.
Me the words for the nations.
God says I've got the resources taken care of.
And so as a profit to the nations, what he needed most was God's word to the nations. And now he has received that from God.
Depending on our role.
And how God wants to use us as part of his work in his Kingdom?
We might have different resources that are needed.
But the fulfillment of them is the same.
That it's God who supplies the need.
It's God who supplies what is necessary.
For the calling that he's given to us.
Listen, I can't chase this down all the way and it might sound a little bit strange, but you can think about it and wrestle with it.
Sometimes what God really needs in a situation is someone.
Who is incredibly stubborn.
And some of you can sign up right away for that.
Like I got that one down, no problem, right?
Seriously, sometimes someone just needs to be hard and firm and say no.
I'm not deviating from what God has said, not stubbornness and our own flesh or desires or willfulness or anything like that, right but?
But there is a special quality, and God has formed in fashion some to be able to be really resilient against the pressures to push and move away from certain things that God says.
I want you to be stubborn and hold to what I have declared.
Sometimes the resource necessary for the work that God wants to do is a wrench.
And if that's the resource that's necessary, I am not your guy.
If the resource necessary is to write.
Some code I might be, your guy.
Sometimes what's what's needed is a wrench.
To repair a vehicle so that it can continue on the way.
To to repair a vehicle so that conversations could be had.
To work side by side.
With somebody else that needs to hear from the Lord or needs to be encouraged, and.
The Lord needs to be prayed for.
Sometimes that wrench is the exact right resource that ability to use the wrench.
God can provide it.
Athletic ability.
Might be necessary for the role and the purpose that God has for you.
Probably not for me.
I mean, I do a couple jumping jacks before service, but that's about the extent of my athletic ability.
But you know, if God called me to.
Do something in the Olympics in a couple of years.
Well, he would provide the resources and I would have.
To trust him for that.
Spiritual gifts, your abilities, your your tendencies and and and what you're capable of your, your personality and your makeup.
These are all part of the resources that God provides to help you and enable you to fulfill the role that he's given to you.
He promises he's going to provide whatever resources you need.
And if you can't write code, but God wants you to fulfill a role that involves writing code, he's going to help you figure out and learn how to write code.
Verse 10 he says, I appoint you to stand up against nations and kingdoms.
I've appointed you to this, so here's my words and now you're up to the task.
You have the resources that you need.
What's also interesting here in verse 10 is that there's variety in the work that Jeremiah is going to be involved in.
He says, son, you must uproot and tear down, destroy, and overthrow.
Others you must build up and plant.
Jeremiah as you speak.
To nations and kingdoms, some of them you're going to encourage and help and build up and move forward.
And some of them you're going to knock down and you're going to bring forth.
The destruction.
That is deserved and necessary for the situation. Different kinds of resources and different kinds of methods in God's work.
Again, this was specific to and appropriate for Jeremiah and his role.
Each one of us have our own role, but some of it is going to be very different than other people roles.
Different kinds of resources depending on different kinds of callings and then even different kinds of methods within those callings.
God is going to be working out.
Now he goes on to.
Help establish Jeremiah in real confidence that he has received the resources that he needs from the Lord in verse 11.
Then the Lord said, look, Jeremiah, what do you see?
And he replied, I see a branch from an almond tree.
And the Lord said that's right and it means that I am watching.
And I will certainly carry out all my plans.
God says Jeremiah, let's do a practice run.
What do you see?
Now we don't get any insight into where Jeremiah head and heart at is here at this time, right, but?
I could imagine being Jeremiah shoes is like I don't know.
I see an almond tree.
It's a branch there with the almond.
Tree God says OK, perfect and he gives him prophetic meaning and insight to that.
Now maybe Jeremiah.
's heart was.
Much better than my heart would be in that situation, right?
And so maybe he sees the vision he's like.
Yes, there's this branch of an almond tree.
I could see it clearly.
I don't know what it means.
The Lord says, here's what it means.
I'm watching.
The region that Jeremiah came from mammoth is known for almonds.
In fact, almonds are grown throughout Israel and I thought this is one of those places.
So almond trees was something that Jeremiah was familiar with.
Almond trees.
Well, the word almonds.
Sounds like the word watch in Hebrew, so we kind of miss out on it in English.
But God says that's right and it means I am watching because they're very closely related.
Watch and almond.
He would have caught on and heard the the parallel there very quickly.
But also an interesting thing about almonds for the Jewish people that they're the first to bloom, and so at the beginning of the year.
Here they were the first ones to blossom and bloom, and so the idea here is that these things are going to be carried out quickly.
I'm watching and they're going to.
They're going to be brought forth and come to blossom, and so he gives them this vision to help.
Kind of give that confirmation.
It's there's no consequence here, right?
There's no risk.
This is a low risk prophetic.
Jeremiah, what do you see?
OK, that's what you see now.
Here's my understanding or my interpretation for that vision that you have.
He doesn't call him first to stand and speak to a nation, right?
First, he kind.
Of gets his feet wet with a simple interaction with the Lord, learning how to hear from the Lord, learning how to receive from.
The Lord and.
And gaining that confidence that the Lord is with him in that verse.
13 Then the Lord spoke to me again and asked, what do you see now?
And I replied, I see a pot of boiling water spilling from the north.
Yes, the Lord said for the terror of the North will boil out of the people.
Of this land.
Sorry, boil out on the people of this land verse 15 listen, I am calling the armies of the kingdoms of the north to come to Jerusalem.
I the Lord, have spoken, they will set their Thrones at the gates of the city.
They will attack its walls and all the other towns of Judah.
I will pronounce judgment on my people for all their evil.
For desserting me and.
Burning incense to other gods.
Yes, they worship idols made with their own hands.
Here the Lord gives him another vision a little bit deeper, a little bit more pertinent to Isaiah's calling, and that is.
The enemy is going to come from the north.
They at that time thought their greatest enemy was Egypt.
God says no.
Actually, Babylon is going to come down from the north, and Babylon is going to be the instrument of judgments upon the nation, and so he gives him that insight and vision at the beginning of his ministry as he launches him out to proclaim those very things.
And many more things that we'll read as we continue on in the Book of Jeremiah.
The point is, God will provide the resources you need.
Different kinds of resources depending on what goddess called us to what resources did Joseph need?
In his purpose in God's plan he needed dream interpretation. He needed resilience against discouragement of being rejected by his brothers and enslaved, and then put in prison.
He needed wisdom for dealing with famines.
What kind of resources did John the Baptist need?
He needed ruggedness to be able to just live outdoors and wear clothing out of camel hair and eat.
Lucas just raw this crunch off the head and he needed boldness to be able to proclaim.
Seeing the truth and call people to repentance.
What kind of resources did Daniel need?
He also needed dream interpretation.
He needed wisdom for governing and and working within a palace setting.
What kind of resources did Barry need?
To have the grace to ignore the shame brought upon her by the people around who would not believe that she.
Was giving birth without first having sex as a virgin that she would conceive and bear a son.
Oh no, no society would reject that and.
What kind of grace would she need to be able to endure that and love Jesus and protect him as he was growing up?
What kind of resources do you need?
Whatever it is, God has it for you.
He has what you need for the purpose of the plan that he has appointed you to.
Well, finally.
Point #4 God promises to be with you. Verse 17 through 19 says get up and prepare for action. Go out and tell them everything I tell you to say.
Do not be afraid of them or I will make you look foolish in front of them.
For see today.
I have made you strong like a fortified city that cannot be captured like an iron pillar or a bronze wall.
You will stand against the whole land.
The Kings, officials, priests and the people of Judah.
They will fight you.
But they will fail, for I am with you, and I will take care of you.
I the Lord, have spoken.
God promises to be with Jeremiah.
He promises to be with.
You and so he tells them, get up and prepare for action.
Get ready to get to work.
Jeremiah, I've called you.
I've appointed you.
I've given you the resources I've made the plan from the beginning.
I know exactly what is needed and I fashioned you for it.
So it's time to get to work. Pastor Warren Brisby says what we are is God's gift to us.
What we do with it is our gift to him we put to work all that God has given to us and fashioned us to be.
As our gift to him to serve him.
And so Jeremiah is now commissioned.
He's called to go and tell everything that the Lord has said and God tells him, listen, Jeremiah, it's going to be kind of a rough battle.
There's going to be some resistance and you're going to have to.
Be like a bronze wall.
And like who wants to sign up for that kind of ministry, right?
You think about like oh, from the very beginning.
God fashioned me, informed me and prepared this, and is that the ministry I'm hoping for in that it's I'm going to have to be resistant to all kinds of attacks and rejection and who who would sign up for Jeremiah's ministry?
But at the same time I would.
Ask you to consider what's the alternative.
To resist God, plan to disobey God, be miserable and still see the same things happen to the nation that Jeremiah would see even as he was ministering to them like it.
It's not a better path to resist God plan, even though what he has called us to might not be what we had hoped for and dreamed for.
The promise is God will be with you.
And he'll take care of you through the midst of it.
Well, we want to finish up our service this morning with the time of communion, and so the worship team can come up and prepare.
But I want to wrap up with point #5 and it's not directly out of Jeremiah, but it ties in if you want to open up your Bible to Luke chapter 22.
I'll give this final points briefly. Point #5 God knows your failures and rebellions.
Jeremiah was young and inexperienced.
But that wasn't a valid excuse.
Jeremiah also was imperfect like you and I.
And yet God had formed him and fashioned him.
Portioned to him a calling a purpose, a ministry.
The same is true for us.
And we might have excuses like we're young.
We might have excuses or ideas like we're not experienced, or we're fearful, or we might be really conscious and aware of.
I can't serve God because look.
How badly I fail look how much I've messed up look.
At the condition of my heart.
And I want to remind you this morning that God knows your failures and rebellions and still says I have appointed you.
I have a plan and a purpose for you in Luke Chapter 22, verse 19. It tells us that Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, this is my body.
Which is given for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.
After the supper, he took another cup of wine and said, this cup is the new covenant between God and his people, and agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.
Jesus, here instituted communion with his disciples, who were also failures, and rebellious and weak, and young and inexperienced, and yet formed and fashioned by God with a plan and purpose for them.
And Jesus said, here are these two elements, my body being broken for you.
Represented by the bread, my blood being shed for you.
Represented by the cut.
And this presents the new covenant that you have forgiveness from God and full right right relationship with God.
Reconciliation with God by faith in my work upon the cross.
No longer is it by faith in the sacrificial system, and obedience to that.
It's faith in my work.
For you upon the cross, accept my sacrifice as your own, and you get a clean slate.
Your wash your cleanse, you're forgiven.
You've failed and you've rebelled, but.
That doesn't have to be the end of the story.
And what's interesting is they're at that table, as Jesus is presenting.
This is a man named Judas.
And a man named Peter.
And Judas, the Betrayer, Jesus addresses him in verse 21 and 22.
Sitting among us is.
A friend.
Who will betray me?
And Jesus offered to him this new covenant.
Sitting amongst them was Peter.
Few verses down 31 and 32, he said Simon Simon.
I've prayed for you that your faith should not fail, and when you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren.
Tonight you're going to deny me three times before the rooster crows.
You're gonna fail.
You're going to fall short.
But here is this new covenant I'm offering to you.
And when you come back, strengthen.
Your brethren Jesus, knowing Peter and what he would do, Judas and what he would do.
Still, he says, I'll wash your feet.
Still, I'll enjoy this meal with you.
Still, I'll die on the cross for you still offer you forgiveness and reconciliation.
God knows your failures and rebellions.
And you are still appointed by God, and you still have a purpose, and God will still provide the resources that you need to fulfill his calling on your life.
And God still promises to be with you.
As you draw near to him.
By faith in Jesus Christ and what he has accomplished for you upon the cross, and so he gave us these elements to remind us.
That we could be refreshed and renewed.
And our relationship with him.
Refreshed and renewed recharged.
And our appointment for God, and so they're going to lead us in worship and the ushers are going to pass out the bread in the cup.
And during any time in the song in the worship you can partake.
You're free to partake between you and the Lord as you interact with him and receive from him the forgiveness that.
You need.
For your failures and rebellions, as you receive from him, that reminder of your purpose and his plan for your life as you receive from him all the resources you need to overcome your weaknesses and fears.
As you receive from him his presence to be with you.
No matter what.
And so let's receive this work of Jesus Christ on our behalf, and partik as we worship the Lord together.