When The Preacher Don't Want To Be Bothered

When The Preacher Don’t Want To Be Bothered

Jeremiah 20:7 O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me.

8 For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily.

9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.

If you get a good piece of meat, and cook it right, it will make its own gravy.

Anniversary marks a time of rejoicing. It only comes once a year to mark 364 days of continuance in a position, relationship, establishment or …Often it marks a time of reflection on decisions made and the cost off that decision whether it was for better or worse. If for for better, you look forward with anticipation to another year. If for the worse, you tend to be apprehensive and it causes you to consider your future endeavors to pursuit, or abandon ship.

The text is not relevant per se to Anniversary, but this Anniversary is relevant to the text.

We are not able to define God except by God. He defines Himself. We cannot trace His existence in the book of Genesis, the very book of beginnings, due to His beginning the beginning before the beginning began. Not a play on words for Genesis 1:1 says; “In the beginning (of which God was already on the scene), God created…”He defines Himself as the Pre-Existent One, the I Am that I Am. Through His Son, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, Alpha and Omega, so scarcely can one grasp the magnitude, height or depth for the higher you go He is higher still and the deeper you go He is deeper still. Now unto the King Eternal, Immortal…He remains the forever till eternity as the Ancient of Days.

Man has tried to define Him by placing His being in the logical and has come up empty. His ways and methods defy the wisdom and logic of man. By experience, we come to know that He asks, requests, demands, and commands that we do that which goes against our humanity/human way of thinking, but upon submission we find it works. Dumb founded and often baffled we don’t know how and we don’t know when but the testimony remains, He will do it again. Logic comes up empty and thus we say or determine that since He can’t be locked into the logical then He must be illogical. And again we are up against a wall for He lets us know that our thoughts are not His thoughts nor his ways our ways…

In order to gain relationship with Him is not predicated upon our understanding Him, knowing Him in the sense of defining Him via revelationary scripture but the hymn writer grasped an understanding saying simply “Trust and Obey…

Jeremiah was called at a young age and his ministry continued some 40 to 50years. Sanctified and ordained a prophet to the nations. We are amazed and look with awesome wonder at the calling of Jeremiah. Many have applied and or identified with the fact of God knowing us before we were born. Isn’t that something, to know that I’m not just some piece of insignificant humanity, but the eternal knows my name. He didn’t just speak me into existence, or just throw me together, but He took time to form me. Every feature, every dynamic of my biological make-up was designed by the master. He skillfully and ever so carefully, before there was any sexual reproduction between mommy and daddy, he knew me. Yes, we say that if it hadn’t been for mom and dad, but no, if it had not been for Adam. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. You, your mother, and your father, your sister and your brother, aunts and uncles were all in Adam. God only went to the dirt once. As a matter of fact, Adam was created out of the dust of the earth. When God looked upon everything he had made and said it was very good, we were included, for God knew us.

Man was born with a capacity for eternal things and a realization that this life cannot be all there is, yet sin has cut us off from them and darkened our understanding and will.

It was perhaps upon this very calling and experience that Jeremiah reflects when he speaks the words in our text, God you deceived me. You set me up. Here I stand as a mournful spectator of the sins of my people and of the judgements coming upon them for they’re sins. Not only that but I have spoken what you told me to say and still they refuse to listen. To further my pain and derision, they have struck me, and placed me in stocks. Stocks were not meant just to restrain but to punish. The Hebrew word Mahpeket means causing distortion and the stocks forced arms neck and legs into an extremely painful position. What happened to all of those promises You made me? What about protecting me? You call this protection? What about choosing me? Choosing me for what...to abuse me?" I don’t deserve this, and you are my protector. You told me in the beginning all the wonders you would do through me and we all get happy about God using us. What we fail to recognize that often time in order for God to get the glory out of our lives we have to be placed in some fiery positions. Often placed in fiery trials for display to the world and yet not consumed. Moses had to turn aside to see why a bush was burning, but not consumed. When God places his anointing upon man, it causes others to stand in awe because if it had been them they would have given up. Gone back, got burned up with hate, envy, or jealousy. The anointing gets people attention. The anointing causes folks to stand in awe and amazement because it is not normal for a man or woman to endure such hardship and not respond to it in a negative way. Therefore, they draw closer to behold what manner of bush this is. Isn’t that what Simon did to Jesus. He wanted to find out the validity of Jesus authenticity by critiquing him. This itinerant preacher from Nazareth that has the city in an uproar and commotion so much to the point that they are saying never a man spake as this man. I want to first identify for myself what manner of man he is. but when God laid out the purpose and the plan, He didn’t tell us that we would lose our friends and loved one. He didn’t tell us that we would have cancer and die. He didn’t tell us that we would be in such dire straits as to find ourselves in heated debates with so called Christians. He didn’t tell us we would be in a car accident that would render us handicapped. He didn’t tell us that we would be caught in drive by shootings, drug infested streets, car theft, raped and sodomized children, baby deaths, and hideous heinous crimes by children, He didn’t tell us that our hearts would be made to bleed by many thoughtless words and deeds. God you set me up.