DO NOT BE AFRAID TO SPEAK (CAPTIONED)

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Duration: 17 minutes and 36 seconds

Country: United States

Language: English

License: CC - Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives

Genre: Instructional

Producer: R & M

Director: Jesus

Views: 59 (2 embedded)

Posted by: hischild on Feb 4, 2010

Just as God told Jeremiah in the Old Testament, it's the same with us today. We do not need to be afraid of sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ because the Holy Spirit will be with us and He will give us the words to say. Contact Pastor Dave @ www.ziontorrance.info

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Sermon text, JEREMIAH 1:4-10,
taken from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION
Let us rise for this morning's sermon text recorded for us
by the prophet Jeremiah,
where we read from Chapter 1, beginning with Verse 4:
THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME TO ME, SAYING,
"BEFORE I FORMED YOU IN THE WOMB I KNEW YOU,
BEFORE YOU WERE BORN I SET YOU APART;
I APPOINTED YOU AS A PROPHET TO THE NATIONS."
"AH, SOVEREIGN LORD," I SAID,
"I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO SPEAK; I AM ONLY A CHILD."
BUT THE LORD SAID TO ME, "DO NOT SAY, 'I AM ONLY A CHILD.'
YOU MUST GO TO EVERYONE I SEND YOU TO
AND SAY WHATEVER I COMMAND YOU.
DO NOT BE AFRAID OF THEM, FOR I AM WITH YOU
AND WILL RESCUE YOU," DECLARES THE LORD.
THEN THE LORD REACHED OUT HIS HAND AND TOUCHED MY MOUTH
AND SAID TO ME, "NOW I HAVE PUT MY WORDS
IN YOUR MOUTH. SEE, TODAY I APPOINT YOU
OVER NATIONS AND KINGDOMS TO UPROOT
AND TEAR DOWN, TO DESTROY AND OVERTHROW,
TO BUILD AND TO PLANT."
This is the Word of our Lord. Let us pray:
Glorious and gracious God,
may the words of my mouth and the meditation of each of
our hearts be acceptable in Your sight
our only source of hope and comfort.
Amen.
Pastor Dave motions for the congregation
to be seated.
Dear Followers of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ:
The time
in which Jeremiah lived,
was certainly a time of turmoil
for God's people. For God's children
at that time, were suffering tremendously.
We realize that throughout
the Old Testament, God had called a people
to be His own. Brought them
up out of Egypt and placed them in a land
that was filled with
tremendous blessings, so that He could show them
and lead them and also through them
send His Messiah.
God's people, when they got into that land
filled with all of the blessings
began to forget about God.
When they came into that land,
they didn't drive out all of those people
who had vile worship practices.
The heathen nations that were there... they let some of
those remain. They even
married with some of those. And year after year,
their worship of the true God deteriorated.
It became mixed with that of idols.
We have the tribe in
the northern part of Israel setting up a new worship
center. Building golden calves to represent
God and having the people come there
to worship them.
God came to them yet repeatedly with His prophets
with His Word,
to forsake the idols and
to return to Him.
The northern tribes didn't heed that warning.
And God brought in the Assyrians
and hauled them off ...
never to be heard from again.
Dispersed them away.
Because they had turned from their true God
and their worship of Him. And now we have
a small group of God's people living in and around
Jerusalem, who are falling
into the same patterns
of neglecting God. Putting their trust in the worldly
kings and the worldly treasures for
protection and for help.
And Jeremiah, one day,
receives the call from God.
God comes to Jeremiah at this time
of tremendous turmoil with
the southern kingdom...all that was left
of God's people. And God comes to the
prophet Jeremiah and He says: Before you
were created, I knew you.
Before you were knit together in your
mother's womb, I had set you apart.
You are going to be the one to go
to My people. To share with them
the message that I have to send to you.
Jeremiah should have taken great
comfort in that fact. Should have been
reassured that God was on his side and that God
was with him. God who had created him. Set him apart
for this very purpose had now
called him to action ...
to be the one to go to God's people.
But maybe Jeremiah himself realized
the people that he was to go to
were not going to be receptive
to all of God's will.
They were just getting further and further away from God.
Maybe he realized that his age was
going to be a problem because that's what he brings up.
He brings it up to God and he says:
You know I'm only a child. I don't know how
to speak well. And God
said to him: Don't say, I am
only a child.
Realize, I
have selected you.
I will put My words into your mouth.
I will be with you and I will
rescue you.
And maybe that should have been a warning for Jeremiah.
That in his ministry he was going to need to be rescued.
To date Jeremiah's ministry was not a pleasant one.
His fellow brothers
in the faith wanted him put to
death for the messages that he proclaimed.
He had a horrible time
when he watched God's children
being dragged off into the Babylonian captivity.
And he lamented in anguish.
The destruction of Jerusalem.
The Holy City of God,
destroyed to rubble.
Maybe Jeremiah knew that his work
was going to be difficult and hard and he said:
I don't know how to speak. But God said to him:
DON'T BE AFRAID!
Don't be afraid because YOU ARE going to go.
You're going to go to the places and the people
that I send you to. And you are going to
tell them the words that I have placed in your mouth.
You need to realize this. That
is why I created you.
That is why I formed you to be the one
to accomplish this work for me.
And God reaches out and touches the mouth of Jeremiah
and said: See, I put My words
in your mouth. Now you are
to go and share that message.
And Jeremiah did.
Jeremiah did what the LORD had asked
of him. He had gone to God's people. He went
to them repeatedly, with the threat
of punishment for their unbelief. With the reminder
of the Gospel that Messiah was still going to come.
He did his building.
He did his planting. He also
did his uprooting and that was what was of most importance.
Not,
where he went, but
actually what he said.
And the same message is true for us today.
We are fully aware that God
has created us to be unique individuals.
We've been reading about that in First Corinthians
in our Epistle Lessons.
How we are all wonderfully special and unique
with different gifts created by God,
for different kinds of service.
Today we are reminded once again that not everyone is
going to be a prophet, not everyone is going to be a
teacher, not everyone is going to have the gift of
administration. We all have different gifts,
but yet we come together
understanding the love of God.
Because God IS love. And He has shown that love to us
in His Son, Jesus Christ.
And that is what brings us together.
That is what bonds us together as the family
of God here at Zion to go and
to do. To go and to speak and
to not be afraid. Not be afraid
because God has created us to be exactly
who we are with the gifts
needed to carry out His work.
And what a wonderful reminder that is and even though
we are sinful human beings, He sent His Son
to save us.
To show us that love, that we are not perfect.
We will NOT be perfect in this world,
but He has come to cover our sin.
He sent His Son
to suffer tremendously;
to die on the cross of Calvary
in punishment and payment
for MY sins
because of HIS love for me.
And He has called me to be His own.
He has made me holy, setting me apart from the world
and He has done the same thing for you.
Called you to be His son. Called you to be
His daughter. Called you out of the world
to be set apart, for Him
and for His purposes.
And He has said: Now go out in your life.
Yes. I have received a call
from you as a congregation
to come here and to lead you in worship.
To carry out the ministry of the Gospel,
to teach and support you in YOUR ministry of the Gospel.
That's a wonderful gift.
That is a wonderful thing that
we practice Biblically in our synod ...
the Divine Call.
That you didn't hire me.
That you didn't put out an ad saying:
This is what we need in a pastor. And if you don't meet
all of that criteria, don't even bother responding.
You gathered together as the people of God and
prayed. And the Holy Spirit
led you to a decision.
And you extended to me a call.
And the Holy Spirit
worked in my heart and in my life to come to you and to
proclaim the Gospel.
To come here with all of my
imperfections; with all of the things that I CAN do,
and all of the things that I can't do.
To know that at this time God has said we are
here working together with all of the things that
YOU can do and all of the things
that you can't do. And all too often
we get in the mindset of Jeremiah
saying: I'm too young.
I can't talk. Maybe we're like
Moses. Moses said: I have a stammering tongue.
But the prophets of the Old Testament when faced with that
great task ahead of them
focused on their own insecurities ... their
own shortcomings, instead of focusing on who it was
that would make them unafraid.
That it was the LORD who had called them.
The LORD who would be with them. The LORD who would
rescue them. And the same thing is true of us.
When we put up barriers to going and
doing God's Word, it's because usually our
own insecurities are our own things
that we think we can't do well and
we don't want to stress ourselves.
Instead of focusing on what God is going to do when He is
with us and His strength
and His power. So often we DO sit back and say: I don't know
what to say. I wouldn't know
what to do. God will TELL you
what to do. God will put the words
into your mouth. You trust in Him
and His Holy Spirit from the message that
He has taught you day after day
and year after year as you have lived
as one of His children.
In the Word ... studying what God has said.
Using all of those passages
that have brought you comfort to comfort others.
Using those passages that have reminded
you of your own sinfulness.
To go to those who are trapped in sin,
who are struggling with sin. Reminding yourself of the
passages wherein you find comfort in the forgiveness of
God and going to those who need that
same comfort of forgiveness.
To do the work of God and to do it unafraid.
That IS the high calling that we have.
That is the WONDERFUL GIFT
that God has given to us as His church.
Which He reminds us in the Psalm for this morning.
We take that so seriously;
we share that with our children. With the next
generation. We have such GREAT JOY
in the knowledge of our salvation.
We cannot help but share that with those who are living in
pain and suffering outside of the Gospel message.
It is Satan who
wants us to be afraid.
It is Satan who wants us to remain in one spot
doing nothing.
It is Satan who wants us to be silent and
we need to realize
that our God has been victorious over him.
Through His resurrection on
Easter Sunday morning, He silenced
Satan and all of the critiques he could have against God.
Jesus Himself has ascended to the right
hand of God, sitting there on God's throne
ruling over all authorities that have been placed
under His feet. That IS
OUR GOD!
He IS MY LORD and MY Savior and ...
What do I have to fear?
I have no fear in Jesus Christ
because His perfect love, drives out
all my fears.
And I trust in that. I rely on that.
So I look at the world around me and say: God you have
placed me here to go to them.
You have created me and placed me at this
exact time FOR YOUR PURPOSE.
Use me for that, LORD.
He will give each of us the words
that we are to tell; the words that we are to say,
whether they be words of Law, or words
of Gospel; words that tear down or words
that build up. It is the whole counsel of God
that He has given to us.
So I encourage you today:
Do not be afraid,
but go, and do what God has
in store for you.
Amen.
Let us rise.
Now may the peace of God which goes beyond all of our
understanding, keep your hearts and your minds and
especially your lives in the one true faith unto life
everlasting. Amen.