Beyond Sunday
Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the Podcast that takes you deeper into the Word of God throughout your week, with your Host Pastor Lee Day.
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Beyond Sunday
When God Speaks: Finding Purpose in Jeremiah 1
The call of God on our lives rarely aligns with our own expectations or perceived abilities. In this powerful exploration of Jeremiah chapter 1, Pastor Lee and Erica unpack the profound truth that God designs us for specific purposes before we even exist.
What happens when God disrupts your carefully planned life with an unexpected calling? Jeremiah faced this exact situation as a young man from a priestly family. Instead of following the predictable priestly path, God called him to the challenging, unpredictable role of a prophet. His immediate response? Excuses about his youth and inability to speak well – something many of us can relate to when facing divine disruption.
The heart of this episode centers on a transformative truth: "When God speaks to you about something, what you do next shows what you believe about God." Are you making excuses that reveal a lack of faith, or stepping out in obedience despite your fears? Pastor Lee and Erica examine how God responds to our hesitation with gentle reassurance and firm direction, promising His presence through every challenge.
Perhaps most encouraging is God's promise that He "watches over His word to perform it." When God speaks something over your life, He takes responsibility for bringing it to fulfillment. Your struggles haven't caught Him by surprise – He knew them before they arrived and has already prepared the way through them.
Whether you're questioning your purpose, resisting God's call, or seeking confirmation about a direction in your life, this episode offers biblical wisdom and practical encouragement to embrace God's divine appointment. Remember, if He called you to it, He will see you through it.
What's going on, everybody? How are you doing? Welcome back to another episode of Beyond Sunday. I am Pastor Lee, I pastor Christ Family Outreach Church located in Amelia, Virginia. And as always, I want to welcome you on out. Our service begins Thursday night at 7 p.m. and Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. Today at the table with me, I've got my bride yet again, Erica Boo. How are you doing today?
SPEAKER_00:I'm doing great. Thank you. Such a privilege to be on here.
SPEAKER_01:Amen. Yes. And I'm thankful that you're here. Today we're going to be talking to the listeners about Jeremiah chapter one. And I can remember kind of what sparked this whole thing was. You were sitting in your chair in the living room. I was sitting in the chair in the living room. And you were just kind of reading through Jeremiah chapter one and maybe some of chapter two. But it was just, it was just such a blessing. And I think we both knew right away that, okay, we've got to share this with the people on the next episode. So why don't you kind of lay the groundwork of what's going on right here? A little history piece of what's taking place with Jeremiah and his call.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, so good, so good. So here, Jeremiah um is estimated to be between the ages of 17 and 22.
SPEAKER_01:So he's a young man.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. And um, when God called him during the 13th year of Josiah's reign in around 626 BC, and his father was a priest, and you can see that in verse one, and even his grandfather. So Jeremiah was expected to follow suit. Priests' duties were predictable, right? They had to follow instructions. Day after day they did the sacrifices, they had lepers to examine, a sanctuary to care for, and the list goes on.
SPEAKER_01:Busy job to do.
SPEAKER_00:Not necessarily easy, but predictable, right? But the ministry of a prophet was unpredictable. Priest at that time dealt with the external uncleanliness of people and offering various sacrifices, but a prophet dealt with the reaching and changing of hearts of the people. And actually in Jeremiah, the word heart is found 66 times. Jeremiah would have had a much easier time serving as a priest. So you can see, and we're going to read about it, he actually questions God's call when God calls him. So I don't know if you want to read the first.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we're going to jump right into it. Jeremiah chapter one. We're going to begin with the fourth verse, my friends. Jeremiah 1, 4. Jeremiah says, Now the word of the Lord came to me. And I just want to apply that right there, right off the bat, to our personal lives right now. Ask yourself, my friends, this one question before we go any further in Jeremiah chapter one. What is God saying to you? What has God Almighty been trying to get across to you in your life? What is God saying? If you're taking notes, I want to write, I want you to write that down. What is God saying to me right now? Erica, I'd like to bring up a few scenarios and just have the listeners kind of figure out where they are in life right now when it comes to God speaking to them, just based off of what we just touched on in Jeremiah 1:4. So here's a few scenarios. Just go throw three out there. Someone out there may say, Pastor, I don't hear God or feel God speaking to me or leading me at all. And my thought to that, Erica, is well, get into God's word, go deeper in your Bible, praying to Him, as well as getting involved in a good, God-honoring, God-fearing, Bible teaching growing church. That's that's scenario number one I want to think about. Scenario number two, others know what God is telling them to do. They know what God is calling them to do, but they just won't commit to it because why? It's it's a life change. And what is everybody gonna think? Are people gonna think that that they've gone crazy or holy rollers or they've jumped off the deep end, right? Or how are they gonna be accepted? Maybe, maybe they just don't want to change like that. And then the third scenario is there are people who hear what God is saying, they understand loud and clear what he wants them to do, and they do it. So let me just say this what a blessing it is that the creator of heaven and earth loves us so much that he has relationship with us. But the piece that I want to really pull away here is as we as we take off, as we kind of push away from the shore and we we journey in Jeremiah chapter one, the word of God comes to him.
SPEAKER_00:And you know, when God calls us, he isn't making a mistake. And so many times I think we think, is he making a mistake when he's calling me? Or I thought my life was planned this way, it's more predictable, it's still a good life, but it's A, B, C, and D. And um he he couldn't be asking me to do this. But Second Corinthians 3 5 says, not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. And listeners, if the Lord's calling you to do something, he does not make mistakes, he will make you competent in whatever he is calling you to do.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so you touched on the fact that he he's young, they think between the age of 17 to 22. Yeah. Okay, so 1 Timothy 4 12 says, Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity. The good news is for Jeremiah is that the word of God does come to him, and God has a message for him to give to the people. So God is gonna speak through Jeremiah to warn the nation. God addresses Jeremiah with a personal message before God speaks to him about the message. And I see great beauty in that. But before God's gonna lay out this message about the nation, God is conversing, he's got this message for the man, for the man, Jeremiah. So Jeremiah 1:5, God tells Jeremiah this here's the message from God to the heart of man, Jeremiah. 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. To me, that's Erica, that's like such an icebreaker. You know, it's such a beautiful moment before God just gives this message that Jeremiah is gonna go out there and and warn the people. It's as if God is saying, Jeremiah, I want to calm you. I want you to know that I'm in control, that that, yeah, you you may not be qualified for this position, but I am because I'm God. And since I'm calling you, that that call alone makes you now qualified. This is not a mistake. I haven't accidentally chosen the wrong man here. He says, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. So so there's no doubt God's got the right man. He says, and before you were born, I consecrated you. So in other words, I've set you apart for such a time as this. There's no accident that I'm even calling you now. Because I'm sure there's some people out there that are like, well, I feel God's calling me, but is this the right time? I don't feel ready. I don't feel prepared. If God said go, then it is the right time. You know, if God says go, it's the right time. And then God says, I appointed you a prophet to the nations. So what I'm gonna tell you, I expect you to go speak.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. You can't out outrun God's calling in your life. No, you can't outrun it.
SPEAKER_01:No, you can you can try, but you're not gonna be successful at it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Most of the listeners have probably heard this, but I I want to read it because it goes with that. Psalm 139, 13 through 16. For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in a secret place.
SPEAKER_01:Amen.
SPEAKER_00:When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unfirmed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. That is a scripture for every single one of us.
SPEAKER_01:Amen.
SPEAKER_00:The Lord created us and and just knit us together in our mother's womb. And so, just like Jeremiah, he has a plan for your life. What is it? And are you gonna follow the plan and the calling he has for you?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, again, it's like I said, the question to write down is what is God speaking to me? What is God trying to get through to my heart for my life? Consecrated, because this is what God says to Jeremiah. He says, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you. The word consecrate means to be set apart. He is saying, Jeremiah, I set you apart. Before you, Jeremiah, even knew who you were, before you, Jeremiah, even knew who I am, I set you apart. So, so God is reassuring Jeremiah here that God is the one in control and that God wants to use Jeremiah for such a time as this right now. So this this moment may be maybe new for Jeremiah. Think about this. This moment may be new for Jeremiah, but but this is no surprise on God.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:God has He has ordained this moment, He has planned this moment, God is telling Jeremiah, hey, this doesn't surprise me at all. God knew the entire time that it's gonna come down to this. And Jeremiah was the man that God was gonna work through. And so could I just encourage the listeners out there that no matter where you are, no matter what you're going through in life right now and what you're experiencing, no, no, no matter where you're listening from or what you're going through, your struggle, your battle, it's not caught God by surprise. Again, I'm telling you, what you're going through in life, it has not caught God by surprise. So, so how do you know that you just so haven't been placed right where you are, going exactly through what you're going through for such a time as this to be a representative of God, a representative of his power, a representative of his strength, his mercy, his grace, his forgiveness, and all that God wants to do.
SPEAKER_00:It excites me because I believe that we're created in the exact time that the Lord wanted us for such this time. And so many people say, it's so hard raising children, it's such a dark time, there's so much darkness around, um, or even for themselves. But God had us here at this moment of time for a reason. And are we gonna stand up in this moment of time? And are we gonna raise our children to be warriors of the faith? We shouldn't be sorry that they were born in this time. They were here. We are to raise them as warriors for the faith. Um, and I see that happening right now with our young people. And it gets me so excited. I just believe that a great revival is about to happen.
SPEAKER_01:Amen. I know the darker something is, the lighter and the brighter the light is when it shines in and through it. The brighter that light's gonna appear, right? So it could be daytime and you could turn a flashlight on, and that flashlight is not gonna look that great. You can turn all the lights out, get it as black as dark as you can get it, turn the flashlight on, right? And that all of a sudden that flashlight just looks so, so bright, so extraordinary. And this is the time that we're living in. This is the opportunity that we've been given by God to truly be salt and light to a very dark world. And so, yes, it it is a lot of evil out there, but we serve a holy and a righteous God who gives us the opportunity to go minister to lost souls. So, so here we go. God has just told Jeremiah that he has appointed him a prophet to the nations. And Jeremiah's response is actually found in the sixth verse. He's it says, and then I said, Oh, Lord God, behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth. Jeremiah goes right into making an excuse. He goes right into the excuse business, looking at what he sees rather than what God sees. And how many times are we guilty of that? We we we look at what we see in the mirror when God looks on the inside of a person. So, so so we're too busy seeing our flaws. And of course, God sees the flaws, but he sees beyond that because he's focusing on how he's gonna be able to use us. And so, how powerful and how beautiful it would be if we could look into a mirror and actually see what God sees rather than what we see. And and in last week's sermon, I mentioned the topic of making excuses and not doing what God calls his people to do. And I said the following statement: listen closely. When God speaks to you about something, what you do next with it will show what you believe about God. All right, I'm gonna say that one more time. When God speaks to you about something, what you do next with it will show what you believe about God. In other words, you're either gonna believe God can do whatever He wants to do through your life, even though if it seems unpossible for you, and in your eyes, you're gonna step out and you're gonna do it because God said you could, or you're gonna come up with some type of excuse and not step out in faith. And some people believe that God can do miracles, right? I mean, we we we can agree with that as Christians. Of course God can do miracles, uh, but maybe just for other people. Some people so lower the bar on what God can do for their life that they believe God can heal others, but but not them. And so again, when God gives you a word, when God gives you a call, when God prompts you to do something, what you do next is gonna really, really show what you believe about God. So, Erica, kind of before I hand it over to you right here, I've got a question for the listeners. Are you making excuses? Are you making excuses which show a lack of faith that are hindering God from working something out in your life?
SPEAKER_00:I want to read Hebrews 13, 5, 6. It says, Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. So we say with confidence, the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? And so here Jeremiah is saying, I don't know how to speak. I'm only a child. So he gives two reasons of why he shouldn't do this. And one of them was his speech, and one of them was his age. And Jeremiah ends up answering the call. And it's kind of like with us, right? Are we gonna choose to be courageous or not? Are we gonna choose to trust God or not? Um, and I have a quote here from Charlie Kirk. He says, if you believe in something, you need to have the courage to fight for those ideas. Conviction without courage is just noise.
SPEAKER_01:That's good.
SPEAKER_00:And so, so how many of us have the conviction of different things, but we don't have the courage to act on those? And right here, all throughout God's word, he tells us that he's gonna be with us. He is our helper. We are to not be afraid. What can man do to us? And so when he calls you, he'll equip you and he'll he'll give you what you need. Just follow the call.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. God's response to Jeremiah's excuse, we find that in Jeremiah 1, 7 through 8. But the Lord God 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. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord. So he never leaves us nor forsakes us, right? We know that as Christians. So when we realize that his Holy Spirit is living and working on the inside of us as his children, when we realize that we are walking in step with his Holy Spirit and doing what he has asked us to do, there's absolutely no reason to fear. There's absolutely zero reason to doubt, wondering if God is gonna work all this out or not for us. Of course he is. Of course he is. If he called you to it, he's gonna see you through it. So, so God told Jeremiah, do not be afraid of them. Do not be afraid of these people. I am with you, God says, I am with you to deliver you.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so good. And you can, as you read through Jeremiah, you're gonna see where there are times that he's persecuted, there are hard trials that he goes through. Just because the Lord says right here, I am with you and will rescue you, doesn't mean that his life is easy. It actually later on in the chapter of Jeremiah, the Lord even tells him, Don't even get married and have children because it it's gonna be tough. You know, calamity is gonna be coming and it's gonna be tough. But he's saying, even though things are gonna be hard, I will be with you, I will rescue you.
SPEAKER_01:The fact that God tells him, I will rescue you, just proves the point that Jeremiah is gonna go through something.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:If we as Christians don't go through anything, then we don't need rescuing. We don't need rescuing. And so this is the beauty, this is the beauty of it all, that God is there and God says, Son, I've called you, I've set you apart, I knew you before you even knew you. I knew you before you even knew who I was. Jeremiah 1, 9 through 12 says this. 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. 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. And the word of the Lord came to me saying, Jeremiah, what do you see? And I said, I see an almond branch. And then the Lord said to me, You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.
SPEAKER_00:I love that verse. So good.
SPEAKER_01:One of my favorites that God watches over his word to perform it.
SPEAKER_00:It says right here in verse nine, the Lord reached out his hand and it touched my mouth. And then the Lord, it was like He was just putting his hands over him and just praying this like this prayer over him. And when he touched Jeremiah's mouth, it at that moment it gave Jeremiah power and authority. And all of us that have accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior and have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, Jesus says he's given us that power and authority. Yes. We have that living inside of us. Yes, absolutely. And not only did God give Jeremiah the words to speak, he also promised to watch over those words until they were fulfilled. How awesome is that? The Lord's saying, I'm gonna give you the words to speak. And once you speak them, I am watching over those words until they're fulfilled. What power and authority is over that? There is power in our words. There are power in everything that you say. So, listeners, be careful what you say. Do not speak death, but speak life. Speak scripture because we know scripture to be truth.
SPEAKER_01:God watches over his people. God watches over his word. So if we walk in obedience to what God has spoken over our lives, here's the good news, friends. God is the one who's gonna see it through to completion. I don't have to figure out the formula to make this verse and this work work in my life to walk in victory. No, no, no. That's God's job. What God speaks, he's gonna see it through to happen. Okay. I've just got to have the faith to believe that God's word is truth. It is the one absolute truth. And I've got to believe that God is going to perform this word in my life. He is watching over it to make sure that it does what it says it's gonna do. Philippians 1, 6 says, and I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. So, friends, I just want to say, be encouraged. Stay strong, remain steadfast, stand strong in your faith and in God through Jesus Christ. Listen for what God is calling you to do in your life because you're never gonna go wrong. You will never ever go wrong walking in obedience to what God tells you to do.
SPEAKER_00:I I just want to talk about the word of God one last time as we're kind of ending in the power of it. The word of God created the universe, the word of God, the word of God we have access to every day. Do we utilize it? And I want to read Isaiah 55, 10 through 11. It says, as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater. So is my word that goes out from my mouth, it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
SPEAKER_01:That's good.
SPEAKER_00:That's a promise.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:That is a promise. So declare the word, declare it over your family, declare it over your life, declare the word over your business, any and everything. Declare that word, pray the word, speak the word. It says right here in his word that it will not return to him empty. It will accomplish what he desires and will achieve the purpose for which he sent it.
SPEAKER_01:That's so good. His word brings life. And my friends, that's what we hope that this episode of Beyond Sunday has done for you. That it has encouraged you, that the word of God that we've shared with you today has brought life into your heart and your mind, that you have that you have received some joy today, knowing that God's got all this in control. No matter what you're going through, God knows exactly who you are. He knew you before you were even in the womb of your mother. God's got this. And nothing, absolutely nothing that you're struggling with, absolutely no test, trial, or temptation that you're faced with right now, none of that has caught God by surprise. Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much. I thank you, God, that you love us the way that you do. That you love us so much that you sent your only begotten Son for every one of us, that whosoever shall believe it in you would not perish, but have everlasting life. Father, I pray in the name of the blood of Jesus for all those that are listening that are battling right now. Lord, that they would be encouraged, knowing that this battle, even if it may have caught them by surprise, you knew it was coming. You seen the storm brewing off in the distance. Father, you were not surprised. So, Lord, I pray that we would just stay plugged into you, that we would press into you, that we would not lean on our own understanding, and that we would trust you for all things. We ask all of this in the name of the blood of Jesus. And Father, I pray that you would refresh, recharge, and encourage your people in Jesus' name and blood. Everybody, my friend, said together. Amen.
SPEAKER_00:Amen.
SPEAKER_01:And amen. I just want to say, make sure you guys tune in to Beyond Sunday next week. We have a very special guest coming into the studio. Erica will be with me, but we will be interviewing somebody uh who is very special in our ministry. So until next time on Beyond Sunday, keep studying the word of God and keep going to the Father in prayer. God bless.
