The Unaborted Jeremiah

The unaborted Jeremiah

Jeremiah 1 07/16/06

This morning I want to start a series of messages from the book of Jeremiah. I won’t be able to do a verse by verse but an over all survey of this book. In your own study, you might want to pursue in a greater length than we will in this series.

Now when Jeremiah prophesied, they were dealing with the Babylonian Empire. It was days of turmoil and tragedy and during this time God called Jeremiah to be a prophet. The odd thing about this is that he was going to be a priest. His father was a priest and he was being groomed to take the same office. A priest represented the people to God. A prophet represented God to the people. So, there is a lot of difference between a prophet and a priest. A priest would do about the same thing from day to day. A priest had a salary. A prophet never knew what he would be doing from day to day. He did not have a salary so it was feathers one day and chicken the next. A prophet had a pretty hard task.

Now when God called Jeremiah to be a prophet, people that could work and get around pretty well had been taken into captivity to Babylon. The people that were left in Jerusalem were not too mobile and cared less what was taken place in the land. Jeremiah was a young man yet he elected to stay with the remnant in Jerusalem. He did not preach in easy time. He preached in a very difficult time.

Now there are about three points I want us to dig into this morning and the first of these 3 is JEREMIAH’S CALL.

When I read about Jeremiah, I can’t help but make some comparisons between the day he was called to preach and our day. Preachers are called to preach today in days of apostasy. In Paul’s letter to Timothy Paul said the time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine but they will have itching ears and will find teachers for themselves who will tell them what they want to hear. In a day that we live, we have those kinds of preachers today. It is hard for them to tell you what they believe because they don’t know what they believe. I just believe people have the right to hear the truth and the truth is that Jesus is the only way to heaven. If you are depending on a vision, a sign or what ever, then friend you better look to the only source to heaven and that is Jesus and the way He said, faith. I want to tell you something and that is faith has to have an object and that object is the finished work of Jesus on the cross of Calvary.

Down in verse 5, God told Jeremiah before he was formed in the belly that He knew him. God is saying Jeremiah you were a person, you were life before you were born.

There are over 40 million abortions in America. That has to be the greatest social tragedy in the history of America. Have you ever thought that the next Billy Graham might have been aborted in his mother’s womb? Have you ever thought that the scientist who would find a cure for cancer was aborted in his mother’s womb?

Then the Lord says before you were born I had a plan for you. Did you know that God has a plan for you? You might be like Jeremiah and feel inadequate but God gives you what you need to fulfill His plan for your life. I have dealt with inadequacy for my entire ministry. I would have been the last person I would have called if I were God, but yet He did in spite of all my weaknesses. I am reminded many times of the Scripture, when I am at my weakest, He is at His strength.

Something else about the call of Jeremiah and his preaching, he would not have been too good with all this feel good crowd today. He would not have drawn thousands to hear the messages he was told of God to preach. He wasn’t looking at people grinning back at him during his preaching. He would have been looking at some pretty sad faces. I always like to look at those who have a smile and say amen once in a while.

Not only do we see Jeremiah’s call but also JEREMIAH’S COMFORT.

In verses 11-16, God shows Jeremiah some pictures and they teach him some lessons. Look at what He says in verse 11.

The almond tree was known as the waker tree because the almond tree was the first tree to blossom when the winter was over. It was the tree that gave the wake up call. It was the tree that was the alarm clock.