SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: He will hold me fast.
SPEAKER_01: When things are good, he will hold us fast.
SPEAKER_01: When things are bad, he will hold us fast.
SPEAKER_01: When we're not certain of what lies ahead, he will hold us fast.
SPEAKER_01: I love that because it's not dependent on our grasp on him, it's completely dependent on his grasp on us.
SPEAKER_01: And nothing gives me more assurance of what Christ said he did for his people than that promise.
SPEAKER_01: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: My name is Jeremy Gizalis.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the student family pastor here at Faith.
SPEAKER_01: Please turn in your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: Verses 4 through 10.
SPEAKER_01: And just a housekeeping note, just because I reached over here and found one.
SPEAKER_01: If you find any of these little foam balls, please just return those to me.
SPEAKER_01: Those are mine.
SPEAKER_01: I love student ministry.
SPEAKER_01: It's fun.
SPEAKER_01: Jeremiah chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to be in verses 4 through 10.
SPEAKER_01: Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.
SPEAKER_01: And before you were born, I consecrated you.
SPEAKER_01: I appointed you a prophet to the nations.
SPEAKER_01: Then I said, Ah, Lord God, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.
SPEAKER_01: But the Lord said to me, Do not say, I am only a youth.
SPEAKER_01: For to all whom I send you, you shall go.
SPEAKER_01: And whatever I command you, you shall speak.
SPEAKER_01: Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Then the Lord put his hand and touched my mouth.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Father God, this is your word inspired by the Holy Spirit to tell us of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: My hope and prayer here this morning, and I pray it would be our collective hope in prayer this morning, is that we would not merely make a mental ascent of knowledge here today, but rather that our hearts would be set aflame with passion and conviction so that what we learn of your word would change us, that we would be conformed to the image of your Son, Jesus Christ, and live lives worthy of the gospel to which you have called us to.
SPEAKER_01: We pray this in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I want to start our time off together by going deep.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to just jump into the deep end by asking, what is your purpose in life?
SPEAKER_01: That's a loaded question.
SPEAKER_01: That's a loaded question that gets our thoughts going.
SPEAKER_01: What is my purpose in life?
SPEAKER_01: What am I here for?
SPEAKER_01: What is the meaning to my existence?
SPEAKER_01: A lot of times we connect what I call circumstances to our purpose and we create circumstantial purpose.
SPEAKER_01: So, for example, you might look at your vocation and think that your vocation is your purpose in life.
SPEAKER_01: I used to have this perspective of my own purpose in life.
SPEAKER_01: Many of you heard last time I preached on Mother's Day, I was talking about war because that's just really suiting for Mother's Day.
SPEAKER_01: And I told you about my time in the Marine Corps.
SPEAKER_01: And as a Marine, I wasn't going to stay a Marine for forever.
SPEAKER_01: So getting out, what translates from Marine Corps infantry into civilian life?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I loved uh shooting guns, I loved throwing grenades, and I loved chasing down bad guys.
SPEAKER_01: I did just, I was an adrenaline junkie, if you will, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I don't care.
SPEAKER_01: I'm unashamed of it.
SPEAKER_01: Um but I didn't have anything to transfer over to that except for law enforcement.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's what law enforcement does, right?
SPEAKER_01: They chase after bad guys, and that that seemed to be what God was doing in my life, or at least so I thought.
SPEAKER_01: But then when I became a Christian, God brought that dream, that hope, that purpose I had set up for myself.
SPEAKER_01: He brought that crumbling down.
SPEAKER_01: And I was left trying to figure out, God, what is my purpose in life?
SPEAKER_01: Now, long story short, that's how God facilitated my call into the ministry.
SPEAKER_01: And that's not where I'm going with you because not everyone is called to the ministry, but I hope that paints a picture of how we can associate our vocation or what we enjoy doing with our purpose in life.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's based off of our relationships.
SPEAKER_01: You might be an excellent wife and mother, and you think that your purpose in life is to be an excellent wife and mother in your family?
SPEAKER_01: Or a father, right?
SPEAKER_01: If you're a husband and father, maybe that's your purpose.
SPEAKER_01: But the question is just nagging on my mind as I'm saying that is what happens when those relationships are gone?
SPEAKER_01: What happens when your vocation is not there anymore?
SPEAKER_01: What happens when you are no longer able to do what you believe you're supposed to do?
SPEAKER_01: Because everything in this life is temporal.
SPEAKER_01: And when we assign our purpose to that which is temporal, that makes our purpose in life very flimsy, very vain.
SPEAKER_01: Additionally, I would argue that purpose does not exist without God.
SPEAKER_01: If you're going to claim that your life has purpose and has meaning, you must acknowledge the existence of God.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because you cannot create purpose just by yourself.
SPEAKER_01: You did not put yourself here on this earth.
SPEAKER_01: You did not assign yourself to your family.
SPEAKER_01: You did not facilitate all the circumstances in your life to get you where you are here today.
SPEAKER_01: And so, therefore, you cannot be the one to assign purpose to your life.
SPEAKER_01: That belongs to someone who is higher, far more powerful, far more intelligent than you are.
SPEAKER_01: It demands that God exists if you're going to assert that you have purpose in life.
SPEAKER_01: Ironically, because God is being pushed further and further out of our culture, it's no wonder that a new survey of 18 to 24-year-olds report that having a clear purpose in life is a part of being a, quote, real adult.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Having a purpose in life is part of being a real adult.
SPEAKER_01: The problem, though, is that most young people don't feel like they found that sense of purpose.
SPEAKER_01: More than 86% of young adults say that making decisions in line with their purpose in life is what makes them an actual adult.
SPEAKER_01: But according to that survey, only 43% say they have a clear picture of what they want in life.
SPEAKER_01: Not necessarily a purpose, but just kind of what they desire out of their life.
SPEAKER_01: 36% say their career path aligns with a life purpose.
SPEAKER_01: That's one-third, and only 30% know why they are here.
SPEAKER_01: To make matters more complicated, there is this blurring of the line when it comes to purpose and happiness, and oftentimes we think that what makes us happy must therefore be our purpose in life.
SPEAKER_01: And for the last two decades, there's been a happiness craze in our culture.
SPEAKER_01: Thousands of books have been published on the topic of happiness.
SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, many Christian authors publishing books on happiness, not biblical happiness, but worldly happiness, including happy money, happiness for beginners, and the happiness advantage.
SPEAKER_01: Happy, happy, happy.
SPEAKER_01: A study done back in 2016 argues that pursuing happiness doesn't lead to what we would call joy, because joy is derived from a sense of meaning or also purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Happiness is shallow.
SPEAKER_01: Things go well, needs and desires are easily satisfied, but when difficult or taxing entanglements come, they're avoided altogether.
SPEAKER_01: It's very fickle.
SPEAKER_01: And so we blur this line and think that what makes us happy must be our purpose, but then your purpose is incredibly shallow and therefore your purpose doesn't have much meaning to it.
SPEAKER_01: Again, I ask you all here this morning, what is your purpose in life?
SPEAKER_01: What is your purpose in life?
SPEAKER_01: And I want to examine our purpose and mission in life, not just as individuals, but as a collective people, as the church of Christ, through the call of Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_01: Jeremiah was the son of Hilkiah, and he belonged to a Levitical family.
SPEAKER_01: He actually was on track for a nice career in the pastorate.
SPEAKER_01: He was going to serve in the temple, he was going to collect his dues.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's really all he had to do was just go slaughter some animals and he'd collect his paycheck and he'd live a long, happy life.
SPEAKER_01: But that's not God's purpose for Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: We see the source of the call.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a note-taking type, that's my first point this morning is the source of the call.
SPEAKER_01: Notice who is calling to Jeremiah here.
SPEAKER_01: It says, the word of the Lord came to me.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to repeat that again.
SPEAKER_01: The word of the Lord came to me.
SPEAKER_01: And that that is a sentence, like that's a very short verse there that's often overlooked so that we can get to what God is saying, but we need to stop and examine who is the one saying it.
SPEAKER_01: The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, and that's significant because what Jeremiah is about to experience in terms of his calling and purpose does not just come from his subjective feelings.
SPEAKER_01: It's not an idea that Jeremiah simply came up with and said, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure I'm into this whole Levitical thing.
SPEAKER_01: I love animals.
SPEAKER_01: I don't really want to slaughter them for my whole life.
SPEAKER_01: I think instead I'll go try being a prophet.
SPEAKER_01: It's not an idea he has, it's not an opinion he has.
SPEAKER_01: This is the word of God objectively coming to Jeremiah and saying, This is what I'm telling you.
SPEAKER_01: Regardless of your thoughts and your opinions.
SPEAKER_01: And the source of what Jeremiah says from there on is determined is what determines its authoritative reach.
SPEAKER_01: If Jeremiah is called as a prophet and goes, thus says Jeremiah, nobody's going to listen to him.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because Jeremiah is speaking from his own opinion and his own authority, not the objective authority of the truth of God.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you an example of this.
SPEAKER_01: I don't mean to ruffle feathers.
SPEAKER_01: Please save your emails on this illustration.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: If I tell you that LeBron James is hands down the greatest basketball player of all time and easily eclipses Michael Jordan, you're probably going to disagree with me, right?
SPEAKER_01: I know you are.
SPEAKER_01: It's okay.
SPEAKER_01: I feel the heat right now.
SPEAKER_01: I feel the stares, okay?
SPEAKER_01: You might have a good reason to disagree with me.
SPEAKER_01: But based on my information, particularly that LeBron has more NBA final appearances, more MVP awards, more uh he leads the MJ in every statistical category available, almost.
SPEAKER_01: I believe I'm right.
SPEAKER_01: But do I have any basis by saying I am definitively right?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because that's my opinion.
SPEAKER_01: And for those of you who don't care, my opinion carries with it no weight.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because you're hockey people.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: You don't care about basketball?
SPEAKER_01: What's a basketball?
SPEAKER_01: Tell me something about a hockey puck.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01: That's not my life.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't grow up that way.
SPEAKER_01: But I might try and authoritatively declare this truth to you, what I believe to be true, but it doesn't matter to you because you don't care.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the difference between our opinions and God's objective truth.
SPEAKER_01: Our opinions don't go everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: God's truth expands to everyone.
SPEAKER_01: No one is excluded from the truth of God's word.
SPEAKER_01: And what we say and declare only goes as far as it is grounded in the objective truth of God's word.
SPEAKER_01: And when we talk about calling and purpose in life, you might feel or even think one way about your calling and purpose, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what you feel or what you think.
SPEAKER_01: What matters most of all is what God has declared in his word.
SPEAKER_01: I want to show you just how vital God's words are, not just to the call of Jeremiah, but to the ministry of Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_01: Not only does this give Jeremiah like a definitive purpose for us his life, but it grounds everything else he does.
SPEAKER_01: Look at chapter 1, verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, we're going to start there.
SPEAKER_01: The word of the Lord came to me.
SPEAKER_01: Jump down to verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: Or I'm sorry, verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: The end of verse 8 declares the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 11, and the word of the Lord came to me.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: The word of the Lord came to me.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 2, verse 1, the word of the Lord came to me.
SPEAKER_01: The end of verse 3 and chapter 2 declares the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 2, verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob.
SPEAKER_01: Go to verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: Thus says the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 2, the end of verse 9 declares the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: The end of verse 12 declares the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: The end of verse 19 declares the Lord of hosts.
SPEAKER_01: The end of verse 22 declares the Lord God.
SPEAKER_01: Keep going.
SPEAKER_01: Would you like me to keep going?
SPEAKER_01: I can stop there.
SPEAKER_01: I think you get the picture.
SPEAKER_01: My plan was to go all the way through chapter 3, but hearing it out loud, it's like this is this is repetitive, right?
SPEAKER_01: But are you getting the picture that Jeremiah's life, his ministry, his purpose, and his calling was grounded in God's word, not his own opinions, not man's philosophies, not his thoughts and emotions.
SPEAKER_01: It was grounded in what God was objectively telling him.
SPEAKER_01: He had nothing else to offer the people of Israel except that which God was declaring to Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_01: Jeremiah had no authority to express anything else except what God was telling him.
SPEAKER_01: My friends, the world doesn't need our opinions about culture, about politics, about Christianity, faith.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't need opinions about this church.
SPEAKER_01: What we need is the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: The authoritative, objective truth of God's word.
SPEAKER_01: Consider 1 Peter 1, 24 through 25.
SPEAKER_01: The Apostle Peter says, For all flesh is like grass and all its glory is like the flower of the grass.
SPEAKER_01: The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.
SPEAKER_01: If you can imagine the grass, it's not hard for you to imagine, because we don't live in a place like Florida where it's green all year round, right?
SPEAKER_01: Curse on them.
SPEAKER_01: We live in a place where things die, right?
SPEAKER_01: All the living plants and things, they they die around like what, October, August?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: Um I've only been here two years, but it dies, right?
SPEAKER_01: That green grass, it starts sprouting up late May, the frost might come and kill it, but then it springs back up, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And it's there for a time.
SPEAKER_01: It's there for a season, a short while, and all the blossoms of the flowers, they look beautiful, but once that season is gone, the blossoms fall, the grass turns brown, and it's all dead.
SPEAKER_01: And you and I, and our lives, our opinions, our thoughts, anything we could have to offer in and of ourselves is like the grass.
SPEAKER_01: It carries no weight with it beyond your life.
SPEAKER_01: But the word of the Lord remains forever.
SPEAKER_01: And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
SPEAKER_01: Colossians chapter 3, verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
SPEAKER_01: The word of Christ, not the word of man, not the ideas of man, not the philosophies of man, but let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
SPEAKER_01: Be filled with the word of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And in being filled with the word of Christ, you will be teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: Deuteronomy 8.3, a verse that Jesus quoted to Satan when he was tempted in the desert is man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I hope we're getting the picture this morning, church.
SPEAKER_01: We need to push out the opinions that are derived in man-made philosophies, man-made ideas, and we need to ground ourselves in the objective truth of God's word.
SPEAKER_01: And it is in the objective truth of God's word that you will find meaning and purpose to your life.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what came to Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_01: God's word came to Jeremiah to give meaning and purpose to his life.
SPEAKER_01: We learn in verse 5 how God called Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the timing of the call.
SPEAKER_01: That's the second point.
SPEAKER_01: Timing of the call.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: The word of the Lord comes to Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_01: Notice what he says.
SPEAKER_01: Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.
SPEAKER_01: And before you were born, I consecrated you, I appointed you a prophet to the nations.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, before Jeremiah was formed in the womb, he knew him.
SPEAKER_01: And I hope you understand the difference between knowing and knowing, okay?
SPEAKER_01: What I mean by that is if you read Genesis 4, it says Adam knew his wife Eve, and out comes a baby, okay?
SPEAKER_01: It's that kind of knowledge, the kind of knowing that leads to a baby.
SPEAKER_01: That's an intimate, detailed knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you are just like, you're not catching it.
SPEAKER_01: You didn't have your coffee this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I understand.
SPEAKER_01: Back to my friend LeBron James, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I'll illustrate it for you.
SPEAKER_01: I would say I know a little bit about LeBron James.
SPEAKER_01: You could just do an amateur research on him.
SPEAKER_01: You can find out that he is uh 36-year-old, 36 years old, uh 6'9, and 250 pounds.
SPEAKER_01: And though he's 36 years old, he can still dunk it like he was 19.
SPEAKER_01: In his 18-year career in the NBA, he has made 10 NBA Finals appearances, eight of them consecutively, with two separate teams.
SPEAKER_01: He's a two-time Olympic gold medalist, a four-time NBA Finals MVP, four-time MVP award winner.
SPEAKER_01: He holds the record for all-time playoff points, is third all-time for overall points, and eighth all-time in career assists.
SPEAKER_01: I could keep going on and on about LeBron James, and I could even tell you information about his family, where he's from, how he got drafted into the NBA, the school he played for in high school.
SPEAKER_01: But if I ever ran into LeBron James and I said, hey, LeBron, what's going on?
SPEAKER_01: He would call security.
SPEAKER_01: Because LeBron doesn't know me.
SPEAKER_01: I may have all these details and abstract knowledge of who LeBron James is, but I don't really know LeBron James.
SPEAKER_01: And when God says that he knew Jeremiah, he didn't just have statistical details about Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't have this abstract knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: Of who Jeremiah was.
SPEAKER_01: He knew him intimately.
SPEAKER_01: He knew his personality.
SPEAKER_01: He knew how he processed information.
SPEAKER_01: He knew what would bring Jeremiah happiness.
SPEAKER_01: He knew what would bring him sorrow.
SPEAKER_01: He knew what really got under Jeremiah's skin before Jeremiah ever developed a temper.
SPEAKER_01: He knew every hair on Jeremiah's head, the detail that God knew of Jeremiah, God knew things about Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_01: Jeremiah didn't know about himself.
SPEAKER_01: And that's how much God knew Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_01: And before God formed Jeremiah in the womb, he knew everything about him in a familiar and unique way.
SPEAKER_01: And it's in God's knowledge of Jeremiah, he called him to be a prophet to the nations.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Before you were born, I consecrated you, which is a word meaning set apart.
SPEAKER_01: I set you apart for the role of being a prophet.
SPEAKER_01: A prophet was not a fortune teller.
SPEAKER_01: That's often what they get conflated with, is someone who predicts the future.
SPEAKER_01: And in the office of prophet, in scripture, sometimes there are forth telling where there is things happening in the future that God declares through his prophets, but a lot of times his prophets are declaring things that are happening right then and there.
SPEAKER_01: When God sends a prophet to his people, oftentimes it's bringing a message of judgment because of present sin.
SPEAKER_01: And so the office of a prophet is someone who's merely speaking the words of God.
SPEAKER_01: But who is he to go to?
SPEAKER_01: He's to be a prophet to the nations, including his own people, the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: More on that in a moment, but I want us to I want to make a note here.
SPEAKER_01: When did God assign Jeremiah purpose?
SPEAKER_01: When did God assign Jeremiah meaning?
SPEAKER_01: When did this happen?
SPEAKER_01: Did it happen when he was born?
SPEAKER_01: Nine months?
SPEAKER_01: Six months gestation?
SPEAKER_01: Eight weeks?
SPEAKER_01: How about when his heartbeat was detectable on an ultrasound?
SPEAKER_01: Jeremiah was given purpose before he ever had any physical substance to his body.
SPEAKER_01: This is why, as people of God's word, need to value every single human life.
SPEAKER_01: Because every single human life is formed by God.
SPEAKER_01: Not in a reactionary way.
SPEAKER_01: God doesn't come along and say, well, I guess you did the deed.
SPEAKER_01: I guess I better form a baby.
SPEAKER_01: God knows every single person before they ever have a detectable substance in their mother's womb.
SPEAKER_01: Every single person is known by God.
SPEAKER_01: He goes on to say that your eyes saw my unformed substance.
SPEAKER_01: In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
SPEAKER_01: God knew your days before you were ever conceived.
SPEAKER_01: Every human life is valued.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to press this point especially, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I want to make the sanctity of human life point, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Every human life has value, but I want to press it in a little bit different of a direction here because God knew you before you were known by anyone else.
SPEAKER_01: And this kind of knowledge is particularly extended to God's people.
SPEAKER_01: And Romans 8, 28 through 30 kind of helps explain this.
SPEAKER_01: Look there with me.
SPEAKER_01: And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Slap that on the coffee mug, okay?
SPEAKER_01: He keeps going though.
SPEAKER_01: For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined.
SPEAKER_01: So God had a foreknowledge and predestined those who he had foreknowledge of to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
SPEAKER_01: And those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified.
SPEAKER_01: God has knowledge of every person he creates, but he has even deeper, more particular knowledge of his people.
SPEAKER_01: Going all the way back to eternity past.
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians 1, 4 through 6 says, God chose us in him before the foundations of the world, before the world ever existed.
SPEAKER_01: He chose us in him, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
SPEAKER_01: In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved.
SPEAKER_01: And where I'm going with all this is this ought to give you confidence in your calling and purpose as God has given it to you.
SPEAKER_01: God knew all of your sin.
SPEAKER_01: God knew all of your failings.
SPEAKER_01: He knew your inadequacies.
SPEAKER_01: He knew the situations you would be in.
SPEAKER_01: My friends, this ought to inspire and give us confidence in who we are in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Because though I stumble and fall, though I sin, though I feel inadequate, I know God is not disappointed in me because he knew all of it.
SPEAKER_01: He knew it all before he chose.
SPEAKER_01: And he did it anyway.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe that's the point God is making to Jeremiah in this conversation.
SPEAKER_01: And you'll see that by Jeremiah's response to God's calling.
SPEAKER_01: God is saying, I knew you before you were formed.
SPEAKER_01: I gave you purpose before you ever had physical substance.
SPEAKER_01: I set you apart before you took your first breath and appointed you as a prophet to the nations.
SPEAKER_01: So ought to give you and I confidence because God did not call us by mistake.
SPEAKER_01: And yet we still make excuses for not being obedient to the purpose and mission that God has called us to.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to just pause right there just to say, I keep saying mission and purpose, and I don't mean to leave that ambiguous.
SPEAKER_01: I'm hoping to kind of flesh that out as we keep going, okay?
SPEAKER_01: So hold on there.
SPEAKER_01: But first let's let's look at the objection to God's calling here.
SPEAKER_01: There's an objection to God's purpose from Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: Then I said, Ah, Lord God, behold, I don't know how to speak, for I am only a youth.
SPEAKER_01: It's a very easy sentence to understand.
SPEAKER_01: Jeremiah is probably in his late teens, and he's saying, one, I'm a young buck.
SPEAKER_01: They're not going to listen to me.
SPEAKER_01: Two, I'm not experienced in public speaking.
SPEAKER_01: Who on earth would want to do that?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that the number one fear?
SPEAKER_01: People fear public speaking more than they fear death.
SPEAKER_01: It's hard, trust me.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how to speak.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just a young guy.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not well equipped.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not seasoned enough.
SPEAKER_01: And Jeremiah, thinking he can deflect the call of God, the purpose of God in his life, throws up excuses as to why God cannot possibly want to use him.
SPEAKER_01: And isn't that what we do too?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know enough.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not eloquent enough.
SPEAKER_01: I've not been a Christian long enough.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have a good enough relationship with them.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know them well enough.
SPEAKER_01: We throw up all these excuses.
SPEAKER_01: I do this.
SPEAKER_01: I see my neighbor out in the front lawn.
SPEAKER_01: I throw up an excuse.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to go talk to him about the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: You know what?
SPEAKER_01: I'm busy.
SPEAKER_01: God, I'm busy, right?
SPEAKER_01: He's busy.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody wants to interrupt.
SPEAKER_01: It's miserably hot outside, right?
SPEAKER_01: We don't want to stay outside.
SPEAKER_01: Let him finish his work and go inside, right?
SPEAKER_01: No one wants to be stuck out here in this heat.
SPEAKER_01: Over and over and over and over again, we throw up excuses to deflect what God has called us to do, the purpose God has given his people.
SPEAKER_01: But look at the correction.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord said to me, Do not say I am only a youth.
SPEAKER_01: Do not say I am only a youth.
SPEAKER_01: If you're picking up on this language here, that's a command.
SPEAKER_01: Do not say that, right?
SPEAKER_01: Do not hide behind your excuses, Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_01: Do not give any credence to the reasons of being disobedient to what I'm telling you to do.
SPEAKER_01: Do not say, I am only a youth.
SPEAKER_01: For to all whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.
SPEAKER_01: Notice that Jeremiah is not being asked, he's being told.
SPEAKER_01: Whomever I send you, you will go.
SPEAKER_01: And whatever I tell you, you will say.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, nobody ever told Jeremiah that God is a gentleman and doesn't force his way upon anyone.
SPEAKER_01: It certainly seems that way here.
SPEAKER_01: Jeremiah is not given a choice here, but notice what God is doing.
SPEAKER_01: The response to Jeremiah's objection is obedience.
SPEAKER_01: Jeremiah, just be obedient and do what I'm telling you to do.
SPEAKER_01: Go and say what I'm telling you to say.
SPEAKER_01: And it might sound like God's being a bit brutish in this, like he's being a bit of a bully, forcing his way on people, but guess what?
SPEAKER_01: If God is the one who assigns Jeremiah purpose, then doesn't Jeremiah want to align himself with that purpose?
SPEAKER_01: If Jeremiah was left with the choice, he would make a mess of his life.
SPEAKER_01: I would hope that God would get his way in my life.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what I hope for you, that you would want that also, that God would have his way in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Stop hiding behind the objections, stop hiding behind the excuses, and let God do in and through you what he wants to do.
SPEAKER_01: This correction comes with the promise.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 8, he says, Don't be afraid of them.
SPEAKER_01: Say what?
SPEAKER_01: This is the start of Jeremiah's ministry.
SPEAKER_01: He's a young guy, right?
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna be a prophet.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be afraid of them.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, God, who's them?
SPEAKER_01: Who am I supposed to be afraid of?
SPEAKER_01: Is there like trouble coming?
SPEAKER_01: Do not be afraid of them.
SPEAKER_01: For I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: If you know anything about Jeremiah's life, it goes badly for Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_01: He is regularly persecuted by his own people, God's people.
SPEAKER_01: He's beaten.
SPEAKER_01: He's thrown in stocks.
SPEAKER_01: Towards the end of the book, he's thrown in a mud pit.
SPEAKER_01: And he's sitting there wallowing in misery until he's finally lifted up.
SPEAKER_01: Not like on a nice little rope swing or anything like that.
SPEAKER_01: He's got uh ropes that are slid under his arms, and he's just kind of dragged up from this pit.
SPEAKER_01: And then he's brought before a king, and the king says, Hey, Jeremiah, tell me what the Lord says.
SPEAKER_01: And Jeremiah's like, Okay, here he goes.
SPEAKER_01: And he tells him what the Lord says, and the king says, Okay, Jeremiah, you keep your mouth shut.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you dare tell a soul.
SPEAKER_01: On top of that, Jeremiah witnesses some of the most gruesome acts recorded in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Read the book of Lamentations.
SPEAKER_01: It goes badly for Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_01: But he has this promise.
SPEAKER_01: I am with you to deliver you.
SPEAKER_01: The promise is not to deliver Jeremiah from trouble, it's to deliver Jeremiah through the trouble.
SPEAKER_01: In fulfilling your purpose that God has given you, you are going to encounter difficulty.
SPEAKER_01: You are going to encounter trials.
SPEAKER_01: You will be hated by all because of me, is what Jesus says.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, we have this promise that Jeremiah had back then, and that is the God of the universe, the God who made you, the God who gave you purpose, promises to go with you and to deliver you through it all.
SPEAKER_01: Again, confidence.
SPEAKER_01: God is giving Jeremiah confidence in what he's doing in and through him.
SPEAKER_01: He corrects him in his objections, and then he doesn't just say, go have at it, tiger.
SPEAKER_01: He equips him for the call.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
SPEAKER_01: It's interesting that the same verb for touch is also used to, it's also translated as to strike.
SPEAKER_01: I was brought to think about how often the word of God strikes against our fleshly nature, right?
SPEAKER_01: God reaches out his hand, touches Jeremiah's mouth, and said to him, I have put my words in your mouth.
SPEAKER_01: And we need to go back to the first point I made this morning, and that is the centrality of God's words in the life of God's people.
SPEAKER_01: Not to sound like a broken record, but I'm gonna go over this again.
SPEAKER_01: Your opinion carries absolutely no weight.
SPEAKER_01: God didn't say, Jeremiah, go and tell them what you think, okay?
SPEAKER_01: You're a learned fellow.
SPEAKER_01: Go and just kind of say whatever the Lord lays on your heart.
SPEAKER_01: No, he says, Look, I am putting my words in your mouth.
SPEAKER_01: Go and declare my words, not yours.
SPEAKER_01: And in that, God equips Jeremiah for the call.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know that you have everything you need for life and godliness?
SPEAKER_01: Everything you need in this life has been divinely given to you by God Himself.
SPEAKER_01: And God has given you his words to declare among the nations.
SPEAKER_01: Jeremiah needed God's words in order to be truly effective because God's words cut deep to the heart of man.
SPEAKER_01: And that was the problem.
SPEAKER_01: God's people were steeped in idolatry, steeped in sin.
SPEAKER_01: And not only that, Jeremiah was to be a prophet to the nations, and the nations around them were also steeped in idolatry and wickedness.
SPEAKER_01: And what they needed was not Jeremiah's opinion of their gross immorality.
SPEAKER_01: What he needed was the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 4 12 says, For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, joints and marrow, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
SPEAKER_01: It is a weapon that cuts deep, deeper than any human weapon ever formed.
SPEAKER_01: It can get to those places that people don't like you getting into.
SPEAKER_01: It gets to your thoughts and the intentions of your heart.
SPEAKER_01: God equip Jeremiah for this task.
SPEAKER_01: And finally we get to the mission of the call, and that's where I want to tie up this whole idea of mission and purpose.
SPEAKER_01: And I hope so far that you've kind of been picking up on the idea that the mission and purpose which Jeremiah was called to is the same mission and purpose you and I have been called to.
SPEAKER_01: It's similar.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Jeremiah was called, given the words of God, to go declare his glory among the nations.
SPEAKER_01: You and I, as followers of Christ, have been called, according to God's purpose, to go and declare God's glory among the nations.
SPEAKER_01: This is the mission that he gives.
SPEAKER_01: It's a twofold ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: He says, See, I've set you this day over nations and kingdoms to pluck up and break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.
SPEAKER_01: Jeremiah would first announce judgment over nations and kingdoms, and that's the phrase to pluck up and to break down.
SPEAKER_01: We see that in chapter 1, verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: God says, I will declare my judgments against them that is God's people, for all their evil in forsaking me.
SPEAKER_01: They have made offerings to other gods and worship the works of their own hands.
SPEAKER_01: Jeremiah 25, 15 through 16.
SPEAKER_01: Thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me, Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.
SPEAKER_01: They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among them.
SPEAKER_01: God is sending judgment for sin.
SPEAKER_01: God is going to judge sin.
SPEAKER_01: And as a righteous and just God, he cannot simply look the other way.
SPEAKER_01: Sin must be dealt with.
SPEAKER_01: But in this declaration, Jeremiah is also going to offer hope because he's going to build and plant at the end of verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: He would announce hope to God's people.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 31, verse 31 and 34.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declared the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So after all of their disobedience, after the judgment for sin, God is going to make a new covenant with them.
SPEAKER_01: I will put my law within them, I will write it on their hearts, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
SPEAKER_01: And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, No the Lord, for they shall all know me.
SPEAKER_01: It's not going to be hidden from them.
SPEAKER_01: From the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their sins.
SPEAKER_01: I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.
SPEAKER_01: God was, or Jeremiah was sent to declare judgment for sin, but he's also sent to declare hope.
SPEAKER_01: That there is hope for the wrong to be made right, for the breaking of the law to be transformed in obedience to the law.
SPEAKER_01: He was sent to declare this hope to not just to God's people, but look at Jeremiah 18, 7 through 8.
SPEAKER_01: It says, if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, if that nation concerning which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it.
SPEAKER_01: God promises judgment for your sin.
SPEAKER_01: He will judge it.
SPEAKER_01: But for those who are in Christ, he has already judged it.
SPEAKER_01: He took your sin, my sin, past, present, future.
SPEAKER_01: He laid them on the broad shoulders of his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, lived a perfect, sinless life, went to the cross so he could absorb the wrath of God that was intended for you and I.
SPEAKER_01: And now, because of what Christ has done, reconciling us back to God, the law of God can now be written in our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: So no longer are we looking at external rules and trying our best to keep those rules.
SPEAKER_01: Rather, obedience is ingrained into our very being.
SPEAKER_01: This is what God has done.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see the hope in this?
SPEAKER_01: God declares judgment for sin.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, He does.
SPEAKER_01: Must and he will if you have not placed your trust in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But he declares hope.
SPEAKER_01: Come to Christ, all you who are weary, and he will give you rest.
SPEAKER_01: God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: The call of this prophet reflects the mission and purpose of God's people.
SPEAKER_01: There it is.
SPEAKER_01: This is the mission and purpose for you and I.
SPEAKER_01: God knew you before the foundations of the world.
SPEAKER_01: He appointed you and called you as his people, and now he has given you and I mission and purpose in this life, not just to be a doctor, not just to be a lawyer or a construction worker or a mom or a dad.
SPEAKER_01: It's much deeper than that.
SPEAKER_01: No, your purpose in life is to glorify God by declaring his hope and his gospel among the nations, to all whom he will send you.
SPEAKER_01: This is your purpose and mission in life.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's in your family, maybe that's in your workplace, maybe that's in your neighborhood, but this is what we've been called to do.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 96.3 says, declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples.
SPEAKER_01: 2 Corinthians 5, 17 through 20.
SPEAKER_01: We know this because, again, we like to put it on our t-shirts and coffee mugs.
SPEAKER_01: But follow with me.
SPEAKER_01: If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, right?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, amen.
SPEAKER_01: We love that.
SPEAKER_01: The old has passed away.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, the new has come.
SPEAKER_01: You're not a little bit of the old person and some of a new person.
SPEAKER_01: No, you're a completely new being altogether if you are in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But look at what happens.
SPEAKER_01: This new person is given a new mission, a new purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_01: That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: God making his appeal through us.
SPEAKER_01: Just as God was making his appeal through Jeremiah, he is making his appeal through you.
SPEAKER_01: This calling and purpose was given to you before the foundations of the world, and God promises to equip you and I for the mission.
SPEAKER_01: The question is whether or not we're aligning ourselves with that purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask you again the same question I asked at the very beginning.
SPEAKER_01: What is your purpose in life?
SPEAKER_01: Are you still holding on to the things of this world in order to define your meaning?
SPEAKER_01: Or are you casting that away and saying, I'm not hiding behind any more excuses?
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to give myself wholly and completely to this mission and this purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Because this is the only way, ladies and gentlemen, that you are going to find true lasting joy in your walk with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Align yourself with God's purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Stop hiding behind excuses.
SPEAKER_01: And let God use you to declare his glory among the nations.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: God in heaven, what a merciful, merciful thing it is that you would call us.
SPEAKER_01: Knowing full well all the great ways, the fantastic failures that we would have.
SPEAKER_01: That's wondrous knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: That's humbling.
SPEAKER_01: And I I can't make complete and total sense of it, Lord, but I know it's true.
SPEAKER_01: And I pray that this would give us confidence to fulfill what you have called us to, and that is to declare the good news of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world.
SPEAKER_01: Our nation does not need the right legislation.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't need the right president.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't need the right Congress or Supreme Court.
SPEAKER_01: We need the gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed among the people.
SPEAKER_01: Our neighbors need the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Our family needs the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Our co-workers need the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: This is what you have called us to, to go and make disciples of all nations.
SPEAKER_01: And I pray, Lord, this morning that we would be emboldened to fulfill that mission, that purpose to which you have called us to.
SPEAKER_01: We pray this in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.