Jeremiah's Struggles : Jeremiah 1:1-10
"I am but a child, God says “don’t say you’re a child".
• Youth and inexperience do not disqualify when God calls (see 1Ti 4:12); he equips and sustains those he commissions.
• Is Your God Big enough to equip and sustain the commissioned ones?
• 12Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. 13Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. 14Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you. 15Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. 16Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.
1. "I do not know how to speak", God says, “I have put my words in your mouth."
• Is your God Big enough to put words that express streams of living waters? John 7: 38Whoever believes in me, asC the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."
• Is God big enough to give us what is Promised Luke 24:49I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."
2. "I am afraid", God says, “Don’t be afraid" I will rescue you."
• Is Your God Big enough to cause fear to be removed? Psalm 78:53He guided them safely, so they were unafraid; but the sea engulfed their enemies. 54Thus he brought them to the border of his holy land, to the hill country his right hand had taken. 55He drove out nations before them and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance; he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes
• Is God Big enough to cause us to live Holy? (1Th 4:7), 7For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.
• Is God Big enough to cause us to strive for the Prize? (Php 3:14),
14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
• Is God Big enough to give us eternal life? (1Ti 6:12).12Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
• Is God Big Enough to give us liberty? (Gal 5:13), 13You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful natureA; rather, serve one another in love.
3. Jeremiah claims this is to demanding
• When you were a child I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
• 6"Ah, Sovereign LORD," I said, "I do not know how to speak; I am only a child."
4. Jeremiah claims He is inadequate to do such a daunting Task. Hear what God has for him to do. Jeremiah probably says, “WHAT”
• 10See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."
5. Jeremiah believed the Time is not right, God believes the time is right 17"Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them
6. Jeremiah felt the teaching was to Strong and dangerous hear what says will happen
• "From the north disaster will be poured out on all who live in the land. 15I am about to summon all the peoples of the northern kingdoms," declares the LORD. "Their kings will come and set up their thrones in the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem; they will come against all her surrounding walls and against all the towns of Judah.
• 16I will pronounce my judgments on my people because of their wickedness in forsaking me, in burning incense to other gods and in worshiping what their hands have made.
7. In conclusion, Jeremiah had struggles, but He did what God wanted him to do
• He felt the bitterness of the judgment he announced. "Since my people are crushed, I am crushed; I mourn, and horror grips me" (8:21).
• In the end, Jeremiah swallowed the bitter medicine of exile like the others.
• Jeremiah was a "man of sorrows." Like Jesus, Jeremiah wept over Jerusalem.
• Like Jesus, he was rejected by his own hometown (11:18-23).
• Jeremiah even compared himself to a lamb led to the slaughter (11:19), language that would later be applied to Jesus' sacrifice for our sins.
• Jeremiahs heart is faint he claims the harvest is past and summer is gone and we are still not saved He asks
• 22Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?
• Despite all these hardship he was obedient
