Assignment Series

No Filter

Pt. 4 - Assignment

In an age where things that are not real are promoted as reality it would serve to reason that in church, we would tell you to live with no filter since we are taught by our Savior to live authentic and genuine lives. However, I want to tell you that filters are an important and essential part of life.

So, filters when used incorrectly can cause issues. The only think worse than using filters incorrectly is not having a filter at all! We have lost some essential filters in our life that were designed to catch impurities, to help us look and act more like Jesus and to protect us. We need to check our filters!

One of filters we need most is the Filter of Assignment!

This doesn't sound like that big of deal, but it is actually deadly! If you don't have the filter of assignment firmly in place in your life, then you will constantly be distracted and detoured and you will never fulfill the call of God on your life (and we all have one)!

So, the filter of assignment forces me to constantly ask myself some questions!

What is good for my goal?

What is a distraction and what is a destiny moment?

What furthers me and what fails me?

Without the filter of assignment in place you will become stopped by time eaters. You will be distracted by what others say is an emergency or essential. Some of you may be thinking "I don't know what my assignment is!" Let me help you with a couple of nuggets. Sometimes our deficiencies are our directions. Sometimes we miss our assignment because we’re so caught up on what we can’t do. Our "can't dos" help us steer away from things that are not our assignment. Deficiencies can become a distinctive. Don’t spend time there. Look at your strengths and you can follow them to your station! Let’s look at someone from Scripture that dropped the filter of assignment and it almost cost him.

Text: Jeremiah 1:4-10 (TLB)

The Lord said to me, “I knew you before you were formed within your mother’s womb; before you were born I sanctified you and appointed you as my spokesman to the world.” “O Lord God,” I said, “I can’t do that! I’m far too young! I’m only a youth!” “Don’t say that,” he replied, “for you will go wherever I send you and speak whatever I tell you to. And don’t be afraid of the people, for I, the Lord, will be with you and see you through.” Then he touched my mouth and said, “See, I have put my words in your mouth! Today your work begins, to warn the nations and the kingdoms of the world. In accord with my words spoken through your mouth I will tear down some and destroy them, and plant others, nurture them, and make them strong and great.”

So, this is one of the most quoted and adopted passages out of Jeremiah. Before you were born, I knew you. Sanctified and appointed! Chosen and anointed. We quote this as an assurance to ourselves that we are known. We are called. We are selected. Assigned! We want to be Jeremiah in Chapter 1!

Here is the issue. We are like Jeremiah! We are like him in Chapter 1 and then because we have dislodged or discard the filter, we end up just like Jeremiah in Chapter 20. Jeremiah . . . the called, the anointed, the appointed, the assigned one sounds much more like us.

Jeremiah 20:7-10 (TLB)

O Lord, you deceived me when you promised me your help. I have to give them your messages because you are stronger than I am, but now I am the laughingstock of the city, mocked by all. You have never once let me speak a word of kindness to them; always it is disaster and horror and destruction. No wonder they scoff and mock and make my name a household joke. And I can’t quit! For if I say I’ll never again mention the Lord—never more speak in his name—then his word in my heart is like fire that burns in my bones, and I can’t hold it in any longer. Yet on every side I hear their whispered threats and am afraid. “We will report,” they say. Even those who were my friends are watching me, waiting for a fatal slip. “He will trap himself,” they say, “and then we will get our revenge on him.”

God, you have deceived me! You lied to me. Because I am operating with no filter I have forgotten that I am assigned. With no filter of assignment, I now view my life and all I see is pain, hurt, trouble, difficulty. This isn't what I signed up for. This isn't easy. This is costing me. This is difficult. With his filer of assignment cast aside Jeremiah screams, "You lied to me God!"