Scripture: Jeremiah 1:4-10
I’ve told you before that one of the highlights of my pastoral career was teaching Wesleyan theology and doctrine and church history to indigenous Methodist pastors in Kenya—in East Africa. I made two trips to Kenya—in 2012 and 2013. On one of these trips, one of the Kenyan pastors shared with the class a real-life story that involved standing in a long line at a shop. After he got in line, he said that an “old man”—his words—an old man came into the shop and got in line behind him. “And he was old,” this pastor said. “I mean, he was o-o-o-old!” He kept emphasizing how old this man was!
And I was teaching these classes with a fellow pastor from America—and we exchanged glances as if to say, “This would not go over well in the States! It is not politically correct to refer to anyone as ‘old’—much less to keep emphasizing a person’s senior status.”
Anyway, then this pastor said, “So of course we let this man go to the front of the line”… Wait… What? Can you imagine something like that happening in America?
And then I remembered: Kenya is a traditional culture. As hard as it is for us to believe in our modern Western culture, to call someone “old” in Kenya was to give them the highest possible compliment! For most of my Kenyan students who heard this story, this “old man” was the equivalent of a rock star. And he was treated as such.
Isn’t that amazing?
Well, the culture in which the prophet Jeremiah lives is also a traditional culture: the older you are, the better… especially if you’re a prophet, especially if you presume to speak for God, or preach God’s Word. And this is at least part of Jeremiah’s concern in verse 6: “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” What he means, in part, is, “I don’t know how to speak in such a way that anyone will listen to me. I’m too young to be a prophet! I won’t have the credibility!”
Jeremiah knows that people will hold his youth against him.
And by the way, he was probably about twenty years old—give or take.
So Jeremiah is a reluctant prophet, but God reassures, comforts, and encourages him with words that I hope can also reassure, comfort, and encourage us today. I want to focus on two of these reassuring words, both of which begin with God’s saying, “I…”: “I knew you” and “I appointed you.” These are the two “I”s of the sermon title.
And I want to make three points about them: Point Number One: God has a plan for your life. Point Number Two: God’s plan includes or accounts for or “factors in” even the bad stuff. And Point Number Three: We are all appointed to fulfill the Great Commission.
But Point Number One… God has a plan for your life.
Let’s look at the first “I” in verse 5: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…”
And that’s an understatement: it’s not merely “before God formed Jeremiah in the womb”: it’s before Jeremiah was even a “twinkle in his parents’ eyes”… it’s before his parents were even born… it’s before God even created the universe, God knew him… And God knew for all eternity exactly how he was going to call Jeremiah to this task of being a prophet during the last forty years of Judah’s history.
God had a plan for Jeremiah’s life! God knew every moment of his life before he ever lived it. And it’s not only true for “important people” like Jeremiah, it’s true for all of us! Which is precisely the point that David makes in Psalm 139:16, “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” Every moment was laid out…
This is true for you and me…
So let’s think for a moment about how comforting, encouraging, and reassuring that should be for us… I’m thinking, for instance, of the apostle Paul in Acts chapter 23. Paul is under arrest and in Roman custody in Jerusalem. He’s been put on trial and has just appeared before a couple of Roman governors. His life literally hangs in the balance. His opponents have accused him of treason against Rome—because of his allegiance to Jesus. Verse 11 says this:
The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.”
Now, in the very next verses, Acts 23:12 and 13, it says this:
When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. There were more than forty who made this conspiracy.
And then Luke goes on to describe their plan… and the unlikely way that their plan was thwarted.
I want you to get the picture. The Lord Jesus comes to Paul in a vision: “You don’t have to be afraid of anything. Your life is not in danger. I’m going to send you to Rome, and you’re going to continue your mission to spread the gospel there.” And then the very next morning some of Paul’s fiercest enemies—more than 40 of them, in fact—form a conspiracy to murder Paul while he’s still in Jerusalem, before he leaves for Rome.
Paul doesn’t even know about this plot to kill him. Perhaps if he did he would worry about it. Who knows? After all, I’m sure these 40-plus men are ruthless and clever, right?
Here’s the thing: It doesn’t matter what these men do… not one iota. Because unbeknownst to these 40 clever and ruthless and strong and highly motivated enemies of Paul, who have put into place a plan to kill him… unbeknownst to all of them… God has put into place… a different plan.
So you tell me… Whose plan do you think will succeed?
See, these 40 men can try their hardest, they can do their very worst… As pastor John Piper points out, Paul is immortal until he fulfills God’s purpose for him and goes to Rome, and accomplishes all the things that God has planned for him there!
Until Paul fulfills God’s purpose for him, he is invincible… he is literally unkillable!
Just think: no matter what situation or circumstance or difficult trial you face in your life right now, God is working his custom-tailored plan… for your individual life…
Of course our lives may not be going according to our plans… that will often bethe case… but we can be sure they’re going perfectly according to God’s plans!
So you tell me: whose plan is better… ours… or God’s?
You know who completely understands this truth? Golfer Scottie Scheffler… The Masters tournament took place last weekend at Augusta National. And for the second time in three years, Scheffler won the coveted green jacket. At his press conference following his victory, Scheffler said, “I believe that today’s plans were already laid out many years ago, and I could do nothing to mess them up.”
And you might think, “That’s easy to say—it’s easy to talk about God’s good plans when you’ve just won the golfing world’s most prestigious major tournament… But Scheffler—who like any pro golfer still loses many more tournaments than he wins—would surely agree that God does some of his best work in our lives when we lose, rather than win! This time, however, God happened to give him victory.
There was an article about Scheffler and his Masters win in the British newspaper The Guardian. The writer made reference to this statement by Scheffler and said—with some sarcasm—“Well, you scoff if you want to. But there’s no doubt that it gives a man a certain edge around the fairways to know he’s got the Almighty at his back, even if [the Almighty’s] not actually carrying his bag.” He writes, “Scheffler has another passionate Christian, Ted Scott, to do that for him. Like Scott said: ‘Having the God of the universe, the creator, on your side just makes things a lot easier to deal with.’” 1
And I couldn’t have said it better myself: “Having the God of the universe, the creator, on your side just makes things a lot easier to deal with.” Amen! All of us Christians do have the God of the universe on our side! “What then shall we say to these things,” Paul asks in Romans 8:31, “if God is for us, who can be against us?”
This God is always working his plan for us.
And that’s Point Number One…
Point Number Two: God’s plan includes even the bad stuff.
So, as today’s scripture implies, God has known us forever… But isn’t that a little scary? We know ourselves, after all. We know that we are sinners. In fact, I would estimate that about 95 percent of my own unhappiness in life results from failing to follow the Lord’s way, failing to trust in him, and instead, selfishly insisting on my own way.
But here’s my point: God’s plan for our lives takes into account the fact that we sin. Jeremiah sinned. We see that in this book: he accused God of deceiving him at one point! 2 He cursed the day he was born! 3 He was often filled with self-pity. And God knew all about those sins long before God created and called Jeremiah.
In the New Testament, the apostle Paul actually makes the same point I’m making in 1 Timothy chapter 1…
I’ve said a thousand times already that our vision statement for 2024 is what? “But God… dot, dot, dot.” Verses 12 through 16 is one of the great “But God…” passages. The New Living Translation makes this abundantly clear:
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength to do his work. He considered me trustworthy and appointed me to serve him, even though I used to blaspheme the name of Christ. In my insolence, I persecuted his people… [Here comes the best part:] But God had mercy on me because I did it in ignorance and unbelief. Oh, how generous and gracious our Lord was! He filled me with the faith and love that come from Christ Jesus.
[Paul continues with verse 15:] This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all. 4
So Paul was not only a “sinner”; he calls himself the “worst of them all.” Do you think Paul is being falsely modest? No… He sincerely believes it. We know that Paul violently persecuted the church. It’s likely that his actions promoted or encouraged the deaths of Christians through capital punishment. Paul caused great harm to many people!
Finally, let’s pay attention to 1 Timothy 1:16: “But God had mercy on me so that…” Here’s the reason: “So that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life.”
In other words, Paul perceives that because of his checkered past as the worst of all sinners, the sinners with whom he shares the gospel today will think, “If God can have mercy on and forgive even ‘the worst of all sinners’—if God can save even the ‘worst of all sinners’ like Paul—then there’s hope for me! Then he can save even me!”
So Paul had every reason to feel ashamed of his past, but he doesn’t anymore… He doesn’t feel guilty about it anymore. To be sure, when the resurrected Lord Jesus first appeared to him on that road to Damascus and said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me,” he felt ashamed and guilty. Be he doesn’t have to feel that way anymore. God doesn’t want him to feel that way anymore. Instead, God wants Paul to praise God when Paul sees how God has used Paul’s past to equip him in the present. In other words, Paul praises God because he sees at least one of the many ways that God has redeemed Paul’s wicked past… and used it to shape Paul into the man he is today… when he wrote 1 Timothy.
If you are a child of God through faith in Christ, you can be sure that God is doing the same with your past. There’s nothing about your past—no sin, no failure, no tragic mistake, no evil that you did to others or that others did to you—that God won’t redeem.
I’m serious… A dear Christian friend of mine understands this truth very well. She told me one time—when I was first getting to know her—that she had had an abortion many years earlier when she was young. I was surprised because, like… She’s the last person who would choose to have an abortion today! But she’s not someone weighed down with guilt and shame. Why? Because God redeemed even that awful sin! And she said that God has used it to open doors for her… as she often talks to desperate young women who are facing the same crisis she once faced. She has the credibility to speak from her own experience about the crisis they’re facing. God has redeemed and is using even that sinful event in her past for God’s good purposes!
My point is, God has the power to do that with our sin… to redeem our sin… And he does it all the time… So if you’ve confessed your sins to God and repented… Stop feeling guilty! Stop feeling ashamed! Stop feeling as if God is still mad at you. Stop feeling as if God is holding a grudge against you! Stop feeling as if God is holding this thing over your head!
We humans like to do that! God doesn’t!
The Bible says as far as the east is from the west, so far has God removed your sins from you. The Bible says that God “no longer remembers” the sins which you’ve confessed and repented of. The Bible says forgiven sin is forgotten sin.
And today’s scripture tells us that forgiven sin is also sin that God will redeem and use and transform for his good purposes… as he works his good plan for your life! So praise God!
And… while you’re at it… get to work!
Because this brings us to Point Number Three: We have work to do… because, like Jeremiah, we are under appointment. See verse 5 again: “I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
None of us in this room has been appointed to do what a prophet like Jeremiah does, but there is a sense in which every single one of us who names Jesus as our Savior and Lord has been “appointed” by God to share an urgent message from God to people… and God gave every single one of us Christians his Holy Spirit to keep this appointment.
And this appointment is called the Great Commission.
Jesus is talking to all of us disciples in Matthew 28:19-20:“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
And it’s a promise that all of us Methodists have made to God and to one another when we joined this church… the promise to witness. Jesus tells us in Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
You and I are among those who’ve received this power because we’ve each received the Spirit… who is given to us, in part, so that we can be witnesses. We do that when we work with Kayla Griffith to volunteer at one of our many children’s events—including our upcoming Vacation Bible School… We do that when we volunteer to help Rich Griffith in our youth group… as so many of our seniors have done and are doing through the “Senior Saints” initiative… We do that when we join Dave Schreiber to share the love of Christ by building handicapped ramps for needy people… We do that when we join Cavonna to share the love of Christ with faculty, staff, and students at our local schools… We do that when we give generously and sacrificially to support our church’s mission… We do that when we pray for friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, and classmates who haven’t yet received God’s gift of eternal life… We do that when we invite them to church… We do that when we show others that we treasure Christ above all—including the worldly treasure of “respectability” that comes from never breathing a word about Jesus outside of the walls of our church!
God gives all of us ways in which we can fulfill the Great Commission… and witness… to do the work of, yes, evangelism.
And listen, do you know one thing that Christians and non-Christians all agree on? They all hate evangelism. I know that some of you would rather go see Beth and Vasco Lowery and open your mouth and have a root canal than have to open your mouth and speak a word about Christ… or your relationship with Christ… And when I preach about witnessing, you feel guilty… because you just know that there have been many opportunities that the Lord has given you over the years to witness—many times the Holy Spirit has prompted you to say something, to do something, to share the love of Christ and the Good News of Christ with someone who isn’t yet a believer. And you’ve said no.
Do you think, based on what I’ve said in this sermon, that I want you to feel guilty about it?
No, I do not. But I do want you to confess and repent. And I want you to do what Jesus tells us to do in these remarkable words from Matthew 9:37 and 38: Jesus is telling his disciples about the remarkable need for evangelism and witnessing in his world and ours: “Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore…” Let’s pause for a moment: What do you think follows that therefore? “Therefore, what are you waiting for? Roll up your sleeps, get out in those fields and get to work! There are so many souls to be saved! So many lost people to be found! Time’s a-wasting!”
Is that what Jesus says? No. He says, “therefore pray…” “Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
Even if you’re not the one to go… are you praying that our Lord would send others? Are you praying that the Lord would send people to rescue lost family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and classmates? Are you praying that—in spite of your fears—the Lord might even send you? Are you praying for your church, praying for upcoming church events, praying for your pastors, praying that our labors will bring a harvest?
“Therefore pray…”