I would like to begin our message with a short account concerning a great evangelist in recent church history. “Dwight L. Moody was once asked, ‘How many converts did you have last night?’ Moody answered, ‘Two and one half.’ The other person said, ‘Two adults and a child?’ ‘No,’ Moody replied. ‘Two children and one adult.’ A child converted is an entire life converted.”(1) Moody had a deep respect for youth. He realized that they are the future, and that they will carry throughout their entire lives what they learn while they are still young.
In his book Generation Next, George Barna says, “About three-quarters of all people who have consciously, intentionally and personally chosen to embrace Jesus Christ as their Savior did so before their eighteenth birthday.”(2) People are best reached for Jesus in their younger years, and they are best taught Christian morals and values while young, as youth are not yet completely set in their ways, and as they are still moldable and shapeable.
If we try to talk about Christ to an adult who is already set in his or her ways, that person is more likely to reject what we have to say. If the adult individual does accept the message of salvation in Christ, he or she is still likely to regress to their former habits. But if we reach a young person with the gospel they will more readily accept it, and be more apt to hang on to their beliefs throughout the rest of their life.
Ecclesiastes 12:1 expresses this viewpoint when it says, “Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come, and the years draw near when you say, ‘I have no pleasure in them’.” It is very important that we come to know the Lord in our youth, before we encounter the difficulties of life. If you are a young person, you might have already endured some hard things; but the truth is that life only gets harder, not easier; but if you will take the Lord with you, then you can endure what lies ahead. If you don’t then you will likely say, “I have no pleasure in life.”
“A man came rushing up to a ferry [boat], breathless after running at an [extremely fast] pace, but he got there just as the gateman shut the door in his face. A bystander remarked, ‘You didn’t run fast enough.’ The disappointed man answered, ‘I ran fast enough, but I didn’t start on time.’ [The point is this]: To try to accomplish the most for God in a lifetime, you must start early – ‘in the days of your youth’.”(3)
We must not only come to know the Lord in our youth, but we must begin to serve Him in our young age as well. This morning we are going to look at a “youth” who was called to serve the Lord. This youth was named Jeremiah. As we look at Jeremiah, let’s keep our eyes open to how he responded to God’s call in his life. I believe we will come to realize that he was like any other youth, and that he was no different than young people today; but the Lord was able to use him in an amazing way!
Ah, Lord God! (vv. 4-8)
4 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 5“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” 6 Then said I: “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.” 7 But the Lord said to me: “Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. 8Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you,” says the Lord.
Look at verse 5. Commentator Warren Wiersbe says, “Each of the phrases in Jeremiah 1:5 is important. To begin with, God knew Jeremiah, which refers to His sovereign election of His servant. God chose Jeremiah even before he was conceived or formed in his mother’s womb. Then God formed Jeremiah and gave him the genetic structure He wanted him to possess . . . God [also] sanctified Jeremiah even before he was born. This means Jeremiah was set apart by the Lord and for the Lord even before he knew the Lord in a personal way . . . The Lord then ordained Jeremiah to be His prophet to the nations. God’s concern from the beginning is that all nations of the earth know His salvation . . . As God’s children; we are chosen and set apart by Him and for Him. This truth ought to give us great courage as we confront an evil world and seek to serve the Lord.”(4)
I want us to notice here, that after the Lord told Jeremiah that He had already made him a prophet before he was even born, that Jeremiah replied, “Ah, Lord God!” So, was Jeremiah exited to go for the Lord? Was his reply of “ah” a sigh of relief? Believe it or not, I actually looked up the word “ah” in a Hebrew dictionary. Do you want to hear how this word was really said by Jeremiah? Jeremiah didn’t say, “Ah,” he said, “Awww” or “Arghh.” It was a sigh of pain, agony and frustration.(5)
So, how old was Jeremiah when God called him? John Tullock says that Jeremiah’s reply of “I am a youth,” probably means that he was still in his teens.(6) What do you think about that? Jeremiah was only a teenager! So, now you can probably understand his response. How many teenagers, when asked by their parents to do something difficult, or when asked to do something that requires them to get off their devices, respond with “awww mom,” or “awww dad?” Jeremiah was saying “awww” to his heavenly Father.
Look at what the Lord told Jeremiah in verse 7. He said, “Do not say, ‘I am a youth’.” In verse 8, He said, “Do not be afraid.” The apostle Paul said in 1 Timothy 4:12, “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” If you are a youth here today, do not let the fact that you’re young hinder you from following and serving the Lord.
In Jeremiah’s case he was using his young age as an excuse not to go where God was calling him. But the Lord told Jeremiah that he was going to go where He commanded, and that he was not going to be afraid. Now, keep in mind that, at this point, God had not yet told Jeremiah what his mission was.
Now, if the Lord came to you and told you to go speak in His name to people that He hadn’t even named yet, and that you were not going to be afraid, how would you react? You might say, “There’s no way I’m going to do that!” Well, the Lord knew Jeremiah needed some assurance, so let’s look at what He said to him.
Words of Assurance (vv. 9-12)
9 Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. 10 See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant.” 11 Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” And I said, “I see a branch of an almond tree.” 12 Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well, for I am ready to perform My word.”
If you were in Jeremiah’s sandals at this moment, wouldn’t you need a little assurance? You would probably need some big assurance that you could do what God was asking. The Lord knew that Jeremiah was having trouble following Him, so He gave him some words and signs of assurance that He would be with him.
Back in verse 6, one of Jeremiah’s cries was “I cannot speak!” Have any of you ever said aloud, or thought in your mind, “I’m no good at public speaking”? Verse 9 shows us what will happen if we obediently follow the Lord. God reached out and touched Jeremiah’s mouth, and gave him the gift of speech. God’s exact words were, “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.” Does this account sound like another we have heard before?
In Exodus 4:10, after God called Moses to deliver the Israelites out of Egypt, Moses said, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” The Lord replied to Moses, “I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say” (Ex. 4:12). We don’t have to worry about how our speech will sound if we will just obey the Lord; for everything will ultimately work out for His glory!
In 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 Paul said, “And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” Paul reaffirmed what has been taught and demonstrated in many previous examples in the Scripture; that speaking on behalf of the Lord is scary, but God will be with us and give us the words to say when we obey Him.
Now that the Lord had said He would give Jeremiah the words to say, He hit him with the hard news. In verse 9, we see who Jeremiah was to publicly address. He was to speak to the nations and kingdoms. Can you imagine a teenager going to kings and pronouncing God’s judgment on them? Well Jeremiah did just that! What God asks of us is nothing compared to what He asked Jeremiah to do. All that the Lord asks of us is that we tell ordinary people about our faith in Jesus Christ.
In verses 11 and 12, we see another sign of assurance given to Jeremiah; the branch of an almond tree. So, how was this a sign of assurance? Well, the word in Hebrew that meant “almond branch” was the word shaqed. In verse 12, when God said, “I am ready to perform My word,” the Hebrew word for the statement “ready to perform” is shoqed, sounding similar to shaqed, the word for “almond branch.”
God was giving Jeremiah assurance by saying that He would make His word come to pass. First of all, the vision of the almond branch in correlation with the statement, “I am ready to perform my word,” brought reassuring solidarity to Jeremiah’s mind and heart, leading him to a much deeper trust in the Lord. Secondly, whenever Jeremiah saw an almond tree in the future it would be a reminder to him of God’s promise.(7) It’s like tying a string around one’s finger to remember something.
In the NIV, the statement for shoqed is translated as “watching to see,” rather than “ready to perform.” Warren Wiersbe makes the following observation: “The Lord used this play on words to impress Jeremiah with the fact that He is ever awake to watch over His Word to fulfill it.”(8) Through either translation, we can see how the Lord was giving Jeremiah a reminder and sign of assurance that He would indeed be with him and make His word come to pass, and that Jeremiah could walk in faith and confidence.
Today we have a branch to remind us that the Lord is with us. Isaiah 11:1-2 declares, “There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots, [and] the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him.” From these verses, we learn that the Messiah is to be “a branch;” therefore, Jesus Christ is our almond branch. He is Immanuel, “God with us.” When we remember our Savior, Jesus Christ, then we will know that He is indeed with us, and that we can do all things through His power. Paul said in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” This is a good verse to remember when the odds seem stacked against us.
Time of Reflection
If you happen to be a young person here today, remember that just as the teenager Jeremiah was called to proclaim the words of the Lord, we are too. Do not be afraid to stand up for Jesus Christ because you think that you are too young. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. I want to challenge you to serve the Lord while you are still young. Right now you are developing habits that you will carry with you the rest of your life. Telling people about Jesus is a good thing to get used to doing while you’re still young; but it’s a good thing to do at any age.
I also want to extend an invitation to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Lord. I wish to share with you again Ecclesiastes 12:1, which says, “Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come, and the years draw near when you say, ‘I have no pleasure in them’” (Ecclesiastes 12:1). The way we remember our Creator, or rather know Him, is to receive the gift that He gave to all of us. Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The gift God that gave us was His Son, Jesus Christ.
John 3:16-17 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
NOTES
(1) Michael P. Green, Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids: Baker 1997), p. 45.
(2) George Barna, Generation Next (Ventura, CA: Regal, 1996), p. 77.
(3) Green, p. 415.
(4) Warren Wiersbe, “The Complete Old Testament,” The Wiersbe Bible Commentary (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2007), p. 1206.
(5) James Strong, Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Peabody: Hendrickson), page 9 in the Hebrew dictionary.
(6) John Tullock, The Old Testament Story (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000), p. 236.
(7) Ibid., p. 236.
(8) Wiersbe, p. 1207.
