Thank you, Pastor Randy. Well, good evening. I hope everyone is doing well here in the middle of the week. And I want to turn your attention to the book of Jeremiah, chapter one. We've been doing a series on developing a Christian worldview, and I want to sort of shift gears and do some messages out of this book. It's not really a verse by verse study. but I do want to examine some of the things in this work, in this book, because I think it's so applicable to the times in which we live. And so I'm gonna be in Jeremiah chapter one, and I'm gonna start reading here in verse four, Jeremiah one and verse four. And I wanna talk tonight about developing a God-centered life. developing a God-centered life. The Bible says in Jeremiah 1 and verse 4, be not afraid of their faces. Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord the sun. And they thought that they had proof, because from their perspective, the sun rose in the east and set in the west. And it looks so small compared to our planet. Scientists balked when Nicolaus Copernicus suggested that the earth revolved around the sun. It was just the other way around. It never occurred to them that they might be seeing, though, with the wrong perspective. Well, we know the story, we know history, and that is that truth eventually prevailed. People corrected their perspectives to line up with the facts, to correspond with reality. But you know, in the same way, we act as though the world revolves around us. That's just human nature. We see ourselves at the center of the universe and it bothers us when God's word tells us otherwise. Because we think that we're right from our own perspective. So there are some people today who believe that the world revolves around them. They see themselves at the center of the universe. They bristle at God's word when it points out to them that they're wrong. But how do we know when we're seeing what the right perceives us? It happens when we realize that God, and not we ourselves, God is at the center of all things. In Romans 11 and verse 36, the Bible says, for of him and through him and to him are all things, to whom be glory forever, amen. Hebrews 12 and verse two, looking unto Jesus, the author and what? finisher of our faith, who for the... endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. We have to correct our perspective to line up with what God's Word says. And what you'll find in many of these prophetic callings is that very fact. that God lines up the perspective of these men with his word. The word of the Lord comes to them and it changes their lives. It changes their perspective because they are met with divine, absolute truth. And so the lesson for us and what we'll see in the life of Jeremiah is to place your life willingly in the hands of the God who makes no mistakes. Aren't you glad that he doesn't? He's always perfect in his ways, in his words, and in his deeds. I want you to notice, number one, God gives us our starting point. This is in chapter one, verses four through five. And the key word here is sovereignty. Sovereignty. God gives us our starting point. People talk about knowing themselves and finding themselves. Well, for us as Christians, we know that begins with God. He is the starting point of all things. And if you can't understand that, then your view of reality is going to be skewed. There are many things that you might be able to figure out, but The great truths of life will escape you. The Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And so note God's comprehensive knowledge here on display. He says, I knew you to Jeremiah. I sanctified you. I ordained you. And I did all of this before you were born. You had nothing to do with it. It was not your works. It was not your deeds. It was completely by my grace. And I want you to compare that with Psalm 139, where the psalmist says, oh Lord, thou has searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down setting and mine uprising. Thou understandest my thought afar off. God knows what we're thinking. Every one of us right now at this moment, And there are about seven billion people on the earth. God knows what each one is thinking. Isn't that incredible? And it doesn't get mixed up or jumbled in his mind. He can take care of it all at once. No problem. No sweat for God. He knows everything, even the thoughts that we think. And the psalmist goes on to describe how the Lord formed him in the womb. and knit him together intricately with wisdom and skill. On May 7th, 2003, David Horton decided to attend with his girlfriend, decided to attend a Cincinnati Reds baseball game. And so he took his girlfriend to this game at the Great American Ballpark. And they have there between innings various activities that are going on. And each one of them is designed to keep the crowd's attention and to keep the crowd going with the game. And one such activity on that day was the Kiss Cam. And what it was, was during the segment that day, Horton and his girlfriend saw themselves featured in the heart-shaped frame on the giant video scoreboard in the park. And so, as he was then expected to do, Horton leaned in to kiss his girlfriend, much to the delight of the 30,000 fans in the park that day. There was just one small problem. And that is Horton also had a warrant for his arrest. And his parole officer just happened to be at the ballpark that day. So there he was in all his glory. You know, we would be uncomfortable with the thought that there's a camera trained on us every moment of the day. But the fact is, is that the Lord sees everything we do. He knows our every thought. Proverbs 15 and verse three says, the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. Now that's a warning, especially to unsaved people, because God is the judge, they can't hide from him. To us as his children, it's also a warning in the sense that we can't hide our sin from God. But isn't it also a great comfort to know how invested God is in our lives, how much he knows about us. And that's why we can put ourselves in his hands, because he knows all about us. He knows our thoughts, he knows our destiny, he knows how he made us and how he designed us. Notice letter A, he knew us before we existed, verses four and five. He says, before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. The word formed in verse five means to shape or to form as a potter does his vessel. As if a craftsman were making something with his hands, very, very carefully and skillfully. The word new here means more than just intellectual knowledge. Now that's a given. Yes, God knows about us. God knows all things, but it's more than just knowing who we were and what our name would be and where we would live and what our favorite color would be and so forth. It's more than that. The word actually speaks to personal commitment, personal involvement. It is a relationship that God had with his people from eternity past based on what Christ has done for us. And so we see also here that he set us apart for his own use. Verse five, before thou came as forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee. In other words, I set you apart for a special purpose. J.A. Thompson reminds us that the word sanctified means setting something apart for a special, specific use. In the Old Testament, there were certain people that were set apart. There were objects that were set apart. We know this with the tabernacle, with the temple furnishings. There were events that were sanctified. There were certain days of the week. There were certain months, certain times of the year consecrated for the sole use of Jehovah. And it was an act of blasphemy to remove them from Jehovah's sovereign right to them. And friends, there's an application for us today. Now, obviously God has not set us apart as Old Testament prophets in the sense that any of us are direct mouthpieces for God. But God has sanctified us because he justified us, he called us, he has a purpose and a plan for our lives, each one of us. We belong to him. 1 Corinthians 6 verse 19. What? Know ye not that your body is the what? The temple of the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit, which is in you. What do you know about God's temple? It's a special place, wasn't it? It was a consecrated place. They weren't allowed to just do anything. in the temple. Now, folks, I know that we're talking about formal worship here, but there's a sense in which everything we do in life is worship in the sense that we are dedicated to God. And we have to understand that we belong to Him. He says, you are the temple of God. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which ye have of God. Ye are not your own. And if we as Christians could get ahold of that one fact, it would clear up a lot of problems in our lives. The fact that we belong to God, God has the right to tell me what to do. I don't have the right of sovereignty over my own life. I don't make the decisions, I'm not the captain. And there's that well-meaning bumper sticker, God is my co-pilot. think they've got the right idea, but still, well, I think not the right idea, the right intention, okay? God is the pilot. He's the one who is in control, not us. And so he goes on to say, therefore glorify God, honor God in your body and in your spirit, which are what? Gods, they belong to him. You know, first of all, everybody belongs to God by right of creation. He says in the book of Ezekiel, all souls are mine. But for those of us who were saved, we are doubly his. We are not only created, but we are redeemed by him. And when a person is saved, he becomes his child. He becomes his treasured possession. One pastor makes this statement then about God's choice of Jeremiah, and it applies to us as well. My identity does not begin when I begin to understand myself. Did you get that? My identity does not begin when I begin to understand myself. There is something previous to what I think about myself, and that is what God thinks of me. That means that everything I think and feel is by nature a response. And the one to whom I respond is God. I never speak the first word. I never make the first move. Jeremiah's life didn't start with Jeremiah. Jeremiah's salvation didn't start with Jeremiah. Jeremiah's truth didn't start with Jeremiah. He entered the world in which the essential parts of his existence were already ancient history. And so do we. To think that God already had it planned before I knew you. And then he goes on to say this last part, he determined our destinies as I ordained thee a prophet. I set forth the boundaries of your life. He has a purpose and a plan for us. And he knew this before we existed. John 15 and verse 16, Jesus told his disciples, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. That whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. Number one, God gives us our starting point. Number two, God gives us his protection. This is verses six through eight. And here we see deliverance, deliverance. God gives us his protection. Letter A, our inadequacies make us afraid, verse six. What were Jeremiah's inadequacies? Well, he said, Lord, I'm a young man. And you go to the first few verses of Jeremiah chapter 1, you'll find that he began to minister in the days of Josiah, which meant that he was probably alive. during the time when King Manasseh was still ruling, a very, very wicked man. But then Josiah comes to the throne and there are several kings from that point on, Jehoiakim and Jehoiakim and then finally Zedekiah. The Bible says that none of these men were godly men except for, of course, Josiah. But he ministers during the reigns of all of these kings. It's a very, very long ministry. So Jeremiah was probably in his teens, probably in his late teens, when God called him. And to start in the time of Josiah, would have been a favorable time, but God warned him from the very beginning that those favorable times would not last and that many people that he ministered to would not listen to him. But from the very beginning, Jeremiah says, Lord, I'm too young. I can't speak because I'm a child. Nobody's going to listen to someone so young is what he's saying here. So I don't know if there was anything wrong with his speech. I don't think that's what Jeremiah was saying. He's saying, who's gonna listen to a young man? Somebody as young as I am. Well, compare Jeremiah with other men of God who were called. What did Moses say? Okay, Exodus four and verse 10, Moses said unto the Lord, oh my Lord, I am not eloquent. In Hebrew, literally that means I am not a man of words. I'm not good with words. He says, I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue. He says, I get tongue tied. My words get tangled. Did Moses have a speech impediment? Well, I don't know about that. You know, most people actually say that. They're better speakers than they think, but public speaking is hard. You know, Moses was going to represent God before the most powerful ruler on earth. Now, let me ask you a question. If you're a ruler, And you're going to have a press agent, a media representative. Who are you going to choose? Well, you're going to choose someone who's highly educated, who has the best voice, the best speaking voice, someone who is very, very eloquent, because that kind of person is going to represent you well. Well, here is Moses representing the king of kings, Jehovah himself. And he's doing it before the most powerful king on earth. And he's saying, I'm inadequate for this task. What about Gideon? What about Gideon? Judges 6 and verse 15. He says, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? And God had just told him, he says, you're a mighty man of valor and you're going to overcome your enemies. And I love how this account plays out because when Gideon first encounters the angel of the Lord, he says, Lord, why have you left us to the hands of our enemies? Why haven't you raised up a deliverer? And God says, okay, I want you. And Gideon says, wait a minute here. All of a sudden he stops in his tracks. What's his excuse? Well, he says, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. So Gideon lacked social standing. He's saying, people aren't going to listen to me. I don't have stature. My tribe is not one of the more important tribes. And even within that, I'm not an important person. I don't come from an important family. Although he was more important than he was actually letting on. But anyway, that was his excuse. Then Peter and John, they lacked formal education in the eyes of the Sanhedrin. Acts 4.13, when the Sanhedrin, the religious leaders, saw the boldness of Peter and John, their confidence and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled. Now what does unlearned and ignorant mean? Well, it means they didn't have formal training. They were amazed at the way that these men spoke with such authority, and with such certainty, and with such power. How could this be? Well, they knew they had been with Jesus. That's what the last part of the verse says, and that's the whole key. But then there's God's people in general. You may want to turn to this verse. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 1. All of us come up to this, and you know, you may have talents and abilities, you may have education, but eventually you run into obstacles in life, and there are times when the world does not recognize our abilities or the gifts that we have, and yet God calls us to do a particular task, and we say, well, can I really accomplish this? 1 Corinthians 1, verse 26. Paul says, for ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. In other words, there are not too many important people from an earthly perspective who are saved because they reject the wisdom of God as demonstrated in the cross of Christ. To them, there has to be something else to it. You know, there has to be some part they play in their salvation. It can't be the simple gospel of a crucified Messiah. Look at verse 27. But God hath chosen what? The foolish things of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. Let me say this, too. It's not so much a matter of education or talent. Folks, if you're one of God's people, the world is going to call you uneducated. They're not going to respect your talents, most likely. They're not going to respect your background. And this is why Paul tells us this. Look at verse 28. These things of the world, things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught or to nothing things that are. And why, why all this? Look at verse 29, that no flesh should glory in his presence. Yes, use your talents for the Lord. Practice until you become excellent at your craft. Pick up as much education as you can from a biblical view. It's not you. You're the instrument, you're the tool. You'll be okay as long as you keep that in mind. Once you become lifted up in pride and you start boasting in yourself and how great you are, how much better you are than other people, that's when God has a hard time using you. And it's something that afflicts all of us. And I think that's why God reaches down and uses us in our weakness rather than our strength. Look at letter B. God tells us to depend upon his strength. In verse 7, the Lord, going back to Jeremiah 1 in verse 7, Jeremiah 1 in verse 7, but the Lord said unto me, say not I am a child, for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee. Whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. Then he says, don't be afraid of them. Their faces means the people themselves, but I'm sure there's a reference to the way that they look at you, the things that they say about you. He says, I am with you to deliver you. God does not allow us to surrender to our weakness. Instead, he calls us to lean upon his strength. You remember what he told Paul when Paul talked about his thorn in the flesh, which by the way, God sent to him to keep him humble. 2 Corinthians 12, 9, and he said unto me, this is Paul's personal testimony, my what is sufficient for thee? My grace. Grace here is the strength, the power to do what we cannot do ourselves. It's the same way in salvation. We can't save ourselves. God had to do it. My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in what? Weakness. Weakness. Well, our society does not like weakness. But you know, sometimes that's the time when God can do the most with us, when we realize our weakness. When we think that we're strong, when we think that we're adequate, hey, we're invincible. Well, that's the time when we're headed for a fall. But when we come to God humbly and say, Lord, use me, I need your power. I cannot do this without you. That's when God can really work in our lives. And so Paul says, most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory or boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me." Sometimes God uses our weaknesses more than he does our strengths. With his strength and his protection, we have nothing to fear. Well, that leads us to number three. Number one, God gives us our starting point. Number two, he gives us his protection. And number three, he gives us our purpose in life. And the word here is commission, commission. Letter A, he gives us the words to speak in verse nine. The Lord put forth his hand and he touched Jeremiah's mouth. And he said to Jeremiah, behold, I have put my words in your mouth. That's what we need, folks, is the word of God. That's what we rest upon, his power, his strength, his word. Letter B, he also grants us the authority to do his will based upon his mighty word. You know, folks, the word of God destroys as well as creates. It can do either one. That's what we're gonna see in the ministry of Jeremiah. Jeremiah 1.10, he says, I have appointed you, I have sent thee over the nations. And that has the idea of appointing someone, putting them in the position of authority to root out, to pull down, to destroy, to throw down, to build, to plant. I want you to think about this. Over the course of his life, Jeremiah was beaten, he was imprisoned, He was slandered. And by the way, in the one-year Bible, if you do follow the one-year Bible, we're in Jeremiah at this point. And we just read in the one-year Bible about how Jeremiah was thrown into a pit with muck and mire at the bottom. And he would have died there. They would have left him there to starve if an Ethiopian man that God used had not been compassionate enough to have him released. He went through all kinds of persecution in every way. He was laughed at, he was mocked, he was the laughing stock of the people of Jerusalem at that time. He was like the Noah of his day. Judgment is coming. Very few people listened to him. And folks, if we voice forth God's demands to the world in which we live, that's what we're going to experience. Not all people are going to accept what we say. We're going to be a laughing stock to a lot of people in this world because their perspective is so different from ours. They are not rooted in God's word. They're not thinking about divine judgment. They're just going about their lives. They think very little of God. He's not in their thoughts. Their perspective is so different from ours. We're gonna find ourselves like Jeremiah. And so he was persecuted in every way, yet his prophetic word held sway over the nations of the civilized world at that time. One man, And his word held sway over every nation in the civilized world. You can go throughout the book of Jeremiah and see mighty nations which God brought down. And Jeremiah foretold all of this because God had appointed him this position of authority. It wasn't Jeremiah's power, not his word, but God's word through him. But it reminds me of the apostle Paul and all that he went through. And yet, how many men have been so influential in world history? I mean, even setting aside the spiritual aspect, how many people have been saved through the efforts of that one man that God used? But he turned the civilized world upside down, even from a secular viewpoint. It's amazing what God can do with one man. So you have to see the whole picture here. But you know, like Jeremiah, there are times when we ourselves, we fall into the doldrums and we become discouraged because we don't see the entire picture of what God is doing. It's easy for us to become discouraged and depressed. And friends, that's when we need faith, to see things from God's perspective. People may not recognize God's authority in this life, but they are still accountable to it just as we are. Your lost loved ones may not listen, but we still have the responsibility to tell them any way that we can when God opens the door. No matter what others do, we need to say this, I am going to submit myself to God and pursue his will for my life. Many years ago, there was a rich man who had a servant whose job was to carry water each day from a distant stream to his master's house. This is a parable. The servant carried the water in two large pots, each of which hung from opposite ends of a pole he carried across his neck. One pot was in perfect condition and always delivered a full portion of water. at the end of that long walk from the stream. The other pot, though, had a crack in it and always arrived at the master's house only half full. For two years, the servant delivered only one and a half pots of water to his master's house each day because, of course, one of those pots was leaking. The undamaged pot was proud of itself. It had been made to carry water without leaking, and it did the job perfectly. The cracked pot, on the other hand, felt ashamed. It was miserable knowing that it was not able to accomplish what it had been made to do. Still, it did the best it could, even if it was only half of what the perfect pot could do. Finally, the cracked pot spoke to the servant one day by the stream and said, I need to apologize to you. For two years now, I have been able to deliver only half of my load because of this crack in my side that causes water to leak out all the way back to your master's house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all this work and you don't get full value for your efforts. The servant simply said, when we return to the master's house, I want you to notice something. I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path. As they made their way back to the house, the cracked pot saw the gorgeous wildflowers there beside the path and was cheered by their beauty. When they reached the house, the servant said to the cracked pot, did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path? I've always known about your flaw and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path. Every day when we walk back from the stream, you watered them. For two years, I've been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master's table. If you weren't just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house. Friends, God knows our flaws. He knows us inside and out before we ever existed. And he is the one who formed us for his purpose, for his honor and his glory. Friends, place your life willingly in the hands of the God who makes no mistake. Let's pray. Father, we thank you tonight so that we can come here in fellowship with your people, that we can pray knowing that you love us and care for us. knowing that you know us better than we know ourselves. You knew us before we were born. And Lord, we also understand that you know us inside and out. You know our flaws, you know our sins. And Lord, you want us to be more and more formed into the image of your son. And each day you are working with us patiently. And Lord, I pray that you would give us a desire for holiness, a desire to know you, to have you at the center of our lives, to enjoy you and your fellowship as we should. And Lord, I pray that you would use us more and more each day to be conformed, Lord, to the image of your son. We thank you, Lord, for this time that you've given us to pray. In Jesus' name, amen.