Let the Shepherd Lead

Originally Proclaimed: 06/02/19

Intro:

• On most social media websites, there is a sections somewhere on the profile page that gives users a field of suggested connections.
  • Some call these friends that we might also know.
  • Others suggest profiles that we should follow based on those we already know.
  • But all of them utilize our current connections to identify others by which we might connect.
• Before we begin to think this odd, these sorts of suggested connections have been at work in Christianity for generations.
  • Take for example the connection between the Wesley brothers and George Whitefield in the 18th Century.
  • Their connection began in the Holy Club at Oxford these men became friends.
    • Whitefield during this time experience a profound conversion becoming passionate to preach about his new found faith.
    • It was largely due to the encouragement of the Holy Club that Whitefield accepted the most important suggested connection, namely a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.
    • Whitefield’s passion may in part have prompted the Wesley’s to undertake a missionary journey to the colony of Georgia.
    • The friendship of these men through the Holy Club suggested a new connection.
  • Now separated by an ocean Whitefield continued to preach fervently wherever he could find a  pulpit to fill.
    • Then the Wesley’s invited him to Whitefield to come to the colonies and minister with them there.
    • It was there that Whitefield found his calling to come to the colonies and establish a church and a orphanage in Savannah.
    • Whitefield accepted the invitation and again the friendship suggested a new connection.
  • All of the men returned to Great Britain by the late 1730s, Whitefield to raise fund to return; and the Wesleys’ to found a denomination.
    • However, they found  fewer opportunities to preach passionately about their faith. Their new methods and passion was a barrier to most established preachers.
    • Whitefield encouraged by his many friends in Britain, decided to open-air preach to the miners in the area of Bristol as they left their work in the mine.
    • Soon after, before he left for Georgia Whitefield decided to invite John Wesley to come to Bristol and also take up the open-air preaching with which Whitefield had become so enamored.
    • Again this friendship suggested a new connection.

      

  • So passionate were both George Whitefield and John Wesley about the new connections that they were given that in 1739 within a six weeks of each other on two different continents both would declare “the whole world is now my parish”.

Hook:

• Connections have the potential to enrich our lives, filling our days with purpose and passion.
  • While there may certainly be some fear of linking ourselves to others, and what that might mean,  it is through those connections that we can most surely be challenged to grow in our faith.
  • If God calls us to connect, why do we treat those connections as suggestions rather than mandates?
• So today, as we explore Jeremiah, we will see the first benefit of connecting.

Message Points:

• As we open to book of Jeremiah, it claims to be the words of the prophet by that same name.
  • Jeremiah was the son of a priest from the town of Anathoth in Benjamin, so naturally he was on the path to become a priest as well.
  • At this time priest lived for the majority of the year in towns outside of Jerusalem until it was their season for service.
  • Jeremiah lived at the end of the time that Judah existed as an independent nation.
  • We often hear of Jeremiah as the weeping prophet, primarily because his prophecy has such a dark and ominous tone to it.
  • That said, I believe Jeremiah was the weeping prophet because throughout the span of his long ministry, his people ignored his clear and faithful call to repent and turn to the Lord.
• As we begin looking at these verses we see that the Lord speaks directly to Jeremiah as he did with the prophets and apostles. (1:4-5)
  • Far more than a vision or dream, these words were spoken directly and audibly.
  • Perhaps it is to this event that Jeremiah reflects in 20:9 when he says that when he says he will not mention the Lord, “there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.”
  • This encounter with the Lord God forever changed Jeremiah.
  • God’s words here constitute a poetic triad, intricate in its relationship.
    • Here we see in three lines God’s work to choose, sanctify, and assign Jeremiah to a specific work.
      • We must confess that this call is specifically for Jeremiah, but it is not too far a leap to see that this is the normal activity of God.
      • And certainly we know that the Lord has called each person to love God and others with all his being.
        • We also know that God has called every believer to make disciples of those we meet.
        • Thus we can with certainty say that these words to Jeremiah for a paradigm that applies to us as well.
• Notice our first point this morning friends, while the social media websites suggest connections, the Lord God actually provides the connections for us through His sovereign grace and call.
  • The first line focuses on God’s choice of Jeremiah.
    • The Hebrew word we translate as “formed”, Jeremiah later uses in Jeremiah 18:2-4 to describe how the potter “forms” the clay.
    • Further, the Hebrew word we translate as “knew” refers to intimate knowledge from a relationship
      • Such is the knowledge a husband has for his wife; but also such is the knowledge that an omniscient God has for his creature.
      • God’s intimate knowledge of us does not come after He creates us, rather God forms us like a potter.
        • His intimate knowledge of the relationship He desires with us influences how he forms us.
        • His call for our lives, and the relationship He desires that we will have with others influences the ways that he shapes us.
      • Parents, this matters immensely to us.
        • We have the blessing and responsibility of nurturing our children.
        • Through our training, we draw out and promote those qualities God formed in our children.
        • We do God a disservice when we try to form in our children new attributes rather than honing and point the ones formed by God towards pleasing and honoring Him.
  • The second line focuses on God’s sanctification of Jeremiah.
    • The phrase “set you apart” could also be translated consecrated or sanctified.
    • While those words remind us of the spiritual nature of God’s work, the phrase in the NIV helps us to see what consecration or sanctification actually entails.
    • For each of us God has set us apart in a myriad of ways.
      • We have been set apart from the rest of the unbelieving world. We know that we are sinners in need of a Savior.
      • We have been set apart by God’s amazing and sovereign grace. It is God’s activity that saves us, not our work or goodness.
      • We have been set apart to please and glorify God. Our good works do not save us but testify to God’s goodness.
      • We have been set apart for a task or labor of God’s choosing. This is called a vocation by theologians.
        • This is not just the religious labors of preaching or serving in church. It is any labor that we engage due to God’s call upon our lives.
        • The important thing for us to remember is that we should  ensure that our labor is devoted to God’s glory and to the good of others.
  • This leads us to consider the third line of God’s call.
    • The phrase “appointed as a prophet” includes several ideas that we should consider. (Handbook on Jeremiah)
      • The word appointed involves an authority figure assigning someone to a position or post.
      • Further the word prophet, while indicating the specific ministry of Old Testament preachers, has the basic idea of speaking God’s message. Thus in any profession one could be God’s spokesperson.
    • Finally there is the people to whom Jeremiah was assigned. He was assigned “to the nations”
      • The nations includes his own nation Judah.
      • Jeremiah’s message will have a value to all the nations in the same way that God’s power and authority has a bearing upon every nation.
  • As believers in Jesus Christ, called to make disciples of all nations, then we too have an appointment like that of Jeremiah.
    • God has connected us to others by forming us to have a particular passion, personality, family, and community.
    • God has connected us to others by setting us apart to have a specific profession.
    • God has connected us to others by appointing us to be His spokesperson to those people in our circles of influence.
• Even so, God’s powerful call of Jeremiah does not immediately convince Him.
  • Notice his objection in verse six .
    • He says he is not qualified for two specific reasons: he does not know how to speak and he is too young.
    • These excuses about qualifications indicate Jeremiah’s insecurities and fears about God’s connections.
      • Jeremiah like all of us was made by God with a need for relationships.
        • God created Adam and Eve with a need to connect.
        • All of our earthly relationships should drive us towards a closer relationship with Christ.
      • That said, it is our fear of man that drives us to try to fill that need with our own connections – people and objects of our choosing.
      • Ed Welch says the essence of sin is anytime that we fill our God-given need for connections with connections of our choosing rather than those chosen by God (Welch, When People are Big and God is Small, 144).
      • For whatever reason Jeremiah’s fear of speaking before others and fear of his youth and inexperience drove him to try to make his own connections rather than those God desired for him.
    • Friend what excuses are we offering to God so that we will not have to connect with those to whom He has called us?
      • Perhaps we say that we are too close to our relatives.
      • Or maybe we say that we do not know enough for people to listen to us.
      • We might say that if we speak up for the Lord we will lose our job.
      • Or we might say that we do not know anyone with whom we should connect.
      • Our excuses reveal more about us than they reveal about God.
        • They show us to be a people that do not believe God is as powerful enough to overcome our shortcomings to achieve His purposes.
        • In the NAC it tells us that “[Jeremiah’s] effectiveness would be dependent on God’s word, not on the prophet’s ability or cleverness. God is never limited by a person’s natural ability or experience.” (52)
• This friends is our second major point. God provides us with a “living word” to help us connect. (1:6-10).
  • Hebrews 4:12 tells us that “the Word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
  • God answers Jeremiah’s excuses with two specific reasons that His “living word” would help Jeremiah to connect.
    • First God tells Jeremiah that He will be able to connect THROUGH God’s personal directions.
      • God does not let Jeremiah off the hook, he tells him that he should not say that he is too young.
      • Even a child follow directions.
        • Thus God tells Jeremiah that he must go to everyone and anyone HE directs.
        • Further God tells Jeremiah that he must say to those people whatever God directs.
      • Friends, God is not asking us to do something that is too hard for us to do.
        • He asks us to go to those in our circles. To the people around us. That is what the Great Commission means when it says “Go” in Matt. 28:19. Some have translated that phrase “as you are going” and it makes sense.
        • So as we are going along and encounter someone we can be sure that this is someone who needs God’s message. When we sense the prompting of God we best not ignore it, but follow His directions.
        • Further God has given us the message to share. It is as simple as five sentences.
          • God made us and gave us a plan for living.
          • We chose to ignore his plan and go our own way.
          • Our way has resulted in consequences, that Jesus promises to take for us and give us a new life.
          • We must choose if we will allow Jesus to take our consequences and give us new life.
          • We do not have forever to make this choice.
    • God now tells Jeremiah that he will be able to connect THROUGH gospel conversations.
      • In the most vivid language of the passage,  we see God reach down in verse 9 and touch Jeremiah’s mouth.
      • Before Jeremiah ever goes to a person, God does a miraculous work that forever changes Jeremiah.
      • The directions about where to go and what to say were placed on Jeremiah. God’s words were now in his mouth.
      • In that same way friends, if you are genuinely a believer God has touched you through the person and work of Jesus Christ.
      • You can have a gospel conversation because Jesus has changed you. You have a testimony.
      • But notice what God says that these gospel conversations will do in verse 10.
        • They will uproot and tear down.
          • Uprooting is an agricultural term that would be used when a field would be first plowed.
          • Tearing Down is a construction terms that would be used when a former structure was leveled to allow for new construction.
          • For every person the old ways of life must be uprooted and torn down.
        • Then we see the terms destroy and overthrow.
          • These terms were primarily terms of warfare. For one force to win over another, they had to destroy the resolve of the other and overthrow the current authority.
          • Friends we are in charge of our lives right now and that resolve and authority must be destroyed and overthrown.
        • It is only then that the Lord through His Word can build a new life in us and plant his Holy Spirit in our lives.
      • A gospel conversation has to tell people to remove the former way of life and give Jesus Control .

Conclusion:

• So friends realize that God has done far more than just suggest connections in our lives.
• Like with Whitefield and with the Wesleys, if he saves us He connect us to the whole wolrd. He calls us to share with others His gospel, in our everyday conversations and patterns of life.
• The question this morning is how faithful are we to that call