You Feel Inadequate Because You Are
(Jeremiah 1:1-10)
1. Thu Feb 26, AP
DENVER – A good Samaritan who helped push three people out of the path of a pickup truck before being struck and injured has gotten a strange reward for his good deed: A jaywalking ticket.
Family members said 58-year-old bus driver Jim Moffett and another man were helping two elderly women cross a busy Denver street in a snowstorm when he was hit Friday night.
Moffett suffered bleeding in the brain, broken bones, a dislocated shoulder and a possible ruptured spleen. He was in serious but stable condition Wednesday.
The Colorado State Patrol issued the citation. Trooper Ryan Sullivan said that despite Moffett’s intentions, jaywalking contributed to the accident.
Moffett had been driving his bus when the two women got off. In the interest of safety, he got out and, together with another passenger, helped the ladies cross.
Moffett’s stepson, Ken McDonald, said the driver of the pickup plowed into his stepfather, but not before Moffett pushed the two women out of the way.
When he awoke in intensive care, he learned of the ticket. "His reaction was dazed and confused. I was a little angry," said McDonald.
The other man also was cited for jaywalking, while the pickup driver was cited with careless driving that led to injury. Sullivan said the two elderly women haven’t been cited but the investigation is ongoing.
2. And we thought the police were rigid in Sharpsville!
3. Ticketed or not, Jim Moffett is a hero because he was concerned about others.
4. Today we are going to begin a series in the Book of Jeremiah, the weeping prophet. He wept because He cared about others, and God showed him the disasters that would come to his people.
5.Rather than give you all the details of Jeremiah’s life in one sermon, I will introduce him to you in phases. Jeremiah, like all of us, entered God’s program mid-stream. We picked up where others left off and others will pick up where we leave off.
7. Jeremiah took the baton from the prophets who went before him, including the prophet Zephaniah and the prophetess Hulda (2 Kings 22:14-20). They predicted the destruction of Jerusalem shortly after the time of Josiah, and Jeremiah began with the end of Josiah’s reign.
8. To be used of God, Jeremiah had to learn a lesson, the lesson of chapter one.
Main Idea: God’s work is primarily about God, secondarily about us.
I. God Uses Mere MORTALS (1-3)
A. Jeremiah from a PRIESTLY family (1a)
But priests were common, and the average priest served at the Temple for only 2 weeks out of the year. His branch of the priestly family had fallen into disfavor, so he did not have a lot of clout or influence.
B. From a RURAL village (1b)
Anathoth was about 3 miles north of Jerusalem, just across the border from Judah in the region of Benjamin. It was about an hour walk to the city, and the walls of Jerusalem could be seen from Anathoth.
C. During Judah’s DARK Days (2-3)
But God’s Word came to a young man who was not particularly special, as far as society goes. And the Word came during dark times, just before the destruction of Jerusalem.
In modern times, we might think of this as being God’s servant is pre-WWII Europe. Disaster was looming, no matter what side of the battle one was on.
Life goes on, even in dark times. God is active, even in dark days.
You don’t have to be top in your class, the best looking, the most athletic, the wealthiest, the coolest, the most popular, or have the best career or most prestige.
What matters to God is your heart. God uses human humans, not super men and super women.
➢ Application: You are human: GET over it!
Who we are is incidental compared to Who God is.
God’s work is primarily about God, secondarily about us.
II. God Has A Special RELATIONSHIP to His Chosen (4-8)
We see a pattern in God’s choosing of Jeremiah and God’s choosing of His elect.
A. God’s SOVEREIGNTY (4-5)
God reigns over all. He does as He pleases. Wayne Grudem writes, "God is continually involved with all created things in such a way that he (1) keeps them existing and maintaining the properties with which he created them; (2) cooperates with created things in every action, directing their distinctive properties to cause them to act as they do; and (3) directs them to fulfill his purposes." (Systematic Theology, p. 315).
In Jeremiah 10:23, we see this expanded upon: "I know, O LORD, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps."
1. He FORMED’
Notice how this applies to Grudem’s 2nd point
2. He KNEW
The idea is "to know intimately and thoroughly."
3. He Set APART
4. He APPOINTED
B. His Chosen Are INADEQUATE (6-8)
A new teacher was trying to teach her students how to have self esteem. She started her class by saying, "Anyone who thinks they are dumb stand up!"
She didn’t think anyone would stand. She just wanted to make the point that no one was dumb.
After a few seconds, Little Johnny stood up.
She didn’t know quite what to do. She said, "Now Johnny, do you really feel like you’re dumb?"
He said "No, ma’am, I just hate to see you standing there all by yourself!"
[Marc Axelrod, Sermon Central]
1. Lack of VERBAL skills (6a)
2. Lack of EXPERIENCE (6b)
3. PRESENCE of God (7-8)
➢ Application: You chose Him because He chose you: do not FORGET it.
Some Christians get too much into hero-worship. Some great Christian leader from the past or the present is what excites them. But when you realize that God is pulling the strings, the attention returns to where it belongs.
God’s work is primarily about God, secondarily about us.
III. God EMPOWERS Us for What He Calls Us to Do (9-10)
A. We become His AGENTS (9)
B. Some of what He calls us to do is not PLEASANT (10)
We don’t know what ultimately happened to Jeremiah, but we know he was taken down to Egypt against his will. Tradition says he was martyred down there. But we do not know.
Yet, when God promises to deliver us or protect us, we understand that protection to be eternal, in one sense, and for just as long as He wants to use us on earth, in another sense.
Jesus avoided situations where He would be put to death at a time too early for God’s plan. After speaking in the Nazareth synagogue, we read in Luke 4:28-30,
"All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. 30But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way."
➢ Application: When God calls, God PROVIDES
Do we take advantage of God’s provision? None of us are called to write Scripture, as was Jeremiah. But God has a plan for each of us, and that plan includes us serving Him.
Do you take advantage of the opportunities God gives you to receive training and instruction?
Mike, a pastor who went to school with me at Moody, talked to me about his mission trip to Sudan…pastors walked from miles around…bike trip 9 miles through the woods…9 flats on the way there, no more patches…made it back with a scotch tape patch.
God’s work is primarily about God, secondarily about us.
