Scripture: Jeremiah 1:4-19

October 12, 2003

As I have been sharing with you about the spiritual disciplines: spiritual discipline is simply a means of grace. It’s not an end in itself. It helps you to grow spiritually, whether it’s praying, or reading the scripture, or even fasting. As you have heard those messages, you may still feel, I don’t pray as I wish I did. I still don’t know my Bible like I wish I did, and I still don’t know about fasting, but when you come to service, a lot of people brighten up because, for a long time, that has been their primary way of knowing the Lord. They understand what it means to truly put your faith into practice, and they can certainly see that it is like exercise: when you put your faith into practice and serve others, especially with a Christ-like attitude, you know that you are growing spiritually; you know that you are touching other people’s lives.

His name was Jeremiah. He lived in a small town. He was a country boy, and God called him for a very difficult task to call the whole nation of Israel back to him. I want to share with you from Chapter 1, beginning with verse 4 about the call of Jeremiah, and I want you today to think about your call to serving the Lord, and your call to service, for I truly believe that is the abundant life that Christ was speaking of. It says:

1:4 The word of the Lord said to me saying,
1:5 "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."

Chapter 1 tells us of the call of Jeremiah to be a prophet to the nation.

Her name was Agnes and she was born August 27, 1910. As a teenager God gave her a great desire to serve Him in India. She was born in Albania to affluent parents. Finally they agreed for her to follow this call and she joined the Sisters of Laredo. She took on St. Teresa’s name and we know her better today as Mother Teresa . For years she taught in the convent school—wealthy, affluent Bengali girls—a good mission, but it was in 1946 that she was on a train ride to another part of Calcutta. She saw the poorest of the poor. And she heard another call — to go and live among them. And that is what she did, even thought there wasn’t an order. She created her own order to go among them. And she found out quickly what it was like to be looking for food, to be looking for shelter, to not have medicine. So she was ambitious and persistent and she rented a little place; she began her school; she began to teach; she began to do a lot of taking care of children. One day she went to the pharmacist and had this list of medicines that she wanted. He said, “There is absolutely no way I can just give you these.” So, she went outside and just prayed all day long. Well, by the end of the day the pharmacist gave her everything she wanted. She was a persistent lady. She did things like that. In 1964 when the Pope wanted to recognize her and her Sisters’ work, he gave her a white Cadillac, which she proceeded to raffle off and raise $100,000 for the poor. When she won the Nobel Peace Prize, she didn't want to have the customary banquet to recognize her; she took that money for the banquet and gave it to the poor in Oslo who were having an especially hard winter. Did she live it? Well, we think so. Even when she became a world-wide celebrity she still had a room that was small; it was hot; it was noisy. But sometimes when we hear about someone like a Mother Teresa we are more intimidated than we are inspired. But I simply share that with you because it began as a teenage girl hearing the call to put her faith into action in very simple ways. The work that she did was very simple; it was caring for people; it was making sure people died with dignity; it was feeding people, clothing people, giving them medicine, putting her Christian love into action.

Your service may never make you famous, a celebrity, as a Mother Teresa. That’s not why we seek to serve. But He created you for a purpose, just as He did Jeremiah, to serve Him and to touch other people’s lives.

And there are four truths that I saw in verse 5 that I want to share with you this morning. I believe they help us to discover God’s call to service, for I truly believe that when we put our faith into action, it is truly abundant life that Christ talked about.

First of all, God told Jeremiah, especially, that, “I formed you.” I want you to think for a few moments that God is your Creator. He knew exactly what He was doing when He created you. Your parents may have told you that, “Well, when the Lord created you He threw away the mold.” It may not have been a compliment when they were saying that; it might have been a frustration. For anyone who has more than one child, you know definitely that they are not all alike, and that God loves variety, and God has a sense of humor, doesn’t He? But when He created you, He knew exactly what He was doing. And He knew what He was calling you to do.

In Ephesians, Chapter 2, it says,

And then it says in verse 10: For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand and we should walk in them. Think about that. When you were created God knew exactly what He wanted you to be and what He wanted you to do. That’s definitely going back to the beginning. That is important to do so.

When Jeremiah went down to the potter’s house as the Lord directed him, the potter was dealing with the clay and he said, “Now, Jeremiah, as I am going to deal with the nation of Israel, so I can do with my people.”

At that time, the nation of Israel had turned away from God. They were worshiping other gods to the point where God’s judgment was coming upon them; He was going to take them away into captivity, using Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army. But it was for a reason: He would bring them back one day. It was correction, but with the purpose of restoration.

Think about that today. God formed you; He created you for good works. And then He also said, “I knew you.” Not only is God our Creator, but He has a plan for your life. It’s not like He creates you, and like the old belief that God created and then just said, “Well, I’m going fishing now; you just do what you want to do.” It’s not like that. He has a plan for our lives. In Jeremiah, Chapter 29, He says it this way:

Think about that. God has a plan for your life and he wants you to follow that plan.

He was a young man who also came from an affluent godly family. His name was Francis and his parents had ideas about the career that he should go into, but Francis had other ideas. It came when God began to put on his heart Lepers, of all people. They were the people like ones who have AIDs today. That’s what Lepers were in that time. You just didn’t touch them. It was not only a horrible physical disease but they had to stay away from everyone. It was such an isolating experience.

But Francis loved them. Of course Francis loved everybody. Francis loved animals. He was especially known for that. But in one of his homes for the Lepers they were about ready to throw one of the people out. They just complained and whined about everything and the Friars had just about lost their patience. You know that happens when you are caring for people; even the best of people finally say, “Well, I’ve about had it with them.” But Francis took him on as a patient—bathed him, cared for him. And two miracles occurred: Not only was this man’s leprosy healed, but his complaining was healed.

St. Francis’ prayer says:

Jesus told the story of a Good Samaritan when a man asked him, “Well, who is my neighbor?”

There was a man who was going down to Jericho and he fell among thieves, and he was beaten and left for dead. Two men came by and they had the opportunity to help him, but we don’t know whether they had a busy schedule; maybe they just didn’t want to get involved. But, for whatever reason, they didn’t stop. It wasn’t really complicated what this man needed: He needed someone to help him. But finally a Samaritan came along. He got down; he helped the man. He took him to an inn.

He didn’t give him a lot of help; he just said, “Whatever he needs, here is some money for the stay and if you need some more, let me know.”

He wasn’t trying to make a big deal about it. But he put his faith into action.

God calls us to do that today. How many times have we missed an opportunity because we are too busy? Our schedules are too packed and God can’t quite get in to it. It doesn’t have to be fancy. In fact, oftentimes it’s better that it is actually secret, that we don’t tell other people. But He knows us and has a plan for our lives. He told Jeremiah, “I formed you. I knew you and also I set you apart.” For Jeremiah was not only created by God and called to be a prophet, but he had a disturbing message as a prophet. He was telling the people that they needed to not fight, just give up; King Nebuchadnezzar was coming; that it had already been decided. And a lot of people did not like that message. “What do you mean? You are a quitter? You won’t fight?”

But that is what God had decreed: The time had come when enough is enough, and what you need to do is be willing to lay down your arms, go away to Babylon. God is going to bring us back one day.

Well, a lot people didn’t like that message. They threw him into prison for that message. They actually threw him down into a cistern. He was sinking deep in the mire. They did rescue him, but it wasn’t a popular message.

Sometimes when God calls us to a specific service, it doesn’t mean that it will always be easy. I was reading a biography of William and Katherine Booth of the Salvation Army fame. The Methodists had a hard time with William’s popularity. We hate to say it, but we might as well admit it. As a young man he was quite a preacher, quite an evangelist, and that is what he wanted to do. He grew up poor; he was orphaned in London, and so it is no wonder that God was able to use him, in turn, to reach out to people who were like he was growing up. But the Methodists insisted that he have a circuit. If he was a Methodist preacher he was going to have an appointment like everyone else, and so they sent him to what most people thought was the worst appointment that he could possibly do. But, wouldn’t you know it, there he was very well known and did just very well.

Finally after four years of their continuing to get appointments, he and Katherine felt that it was time to break, and for God to help him to be an evangelist. That was his calling, and to also help the poor of the streets of London. And that is how the Salvation Army began. And Katherine was also quite a servant of God, not only in putting her faith into action, but she believed that God was calling her to preach. And finally, when she did answer the call to preach in mid-life, she was quite an articulate defender of when God calls women to preach. She would preach at an hour at a time and people loved it. What a preacher she was.

In John, Chapter 13, Jesus got up from the Last Supper because no one wanted to wash dirty feet. They had been talking about who was the greatest. Sometimes even Christians have a tendency to think that the greatest is someone who is visible on television, just a celebrity. But Jesus says that serving God and humbling ourselves is really the key to greatness. They didn’t want to wash dirty feet. They weren’t concerned about whether they were the greatest, but they certainly didn’t want to be the least. They knew the pecking order and they didn’t want to be the low chicken in the field. But Jesus said, “I’ll give you an example,” and they still didn’t quite grasp it. But God calls us specifically to acts of service. It doesn’t have to be the big deal. In fact, oftentimes it’s not the big deal.

Richard Foster, in the Celebration of Discipline, makes a distinction between true Christian service and self-righteous service. Self-righteous service mostly is with ourselves in mind. We want to be sure that everybody knows it; we want to be a big deal; we want to be sure it makes results. True Christian service doesn’t really worry about credit, doesn’t worry about attention, is not overly concerned with results. It’s just concerned about being faithful.

God told Jeremiah, “I formed you, I knew you, I set you apart,” and he also said, “I appointed you.” One biography of Jeremiah is The Prophet Who Wouldn’t Quit. When God calls us to work, it is always beyond ourselves and oftentimes we are tempted to quit because we get weary in well-doing and that’s when His marvelous grace kicks in — His amazing grace — that will help us hang in there when we are tempted to quit.

Jeremiah was called to buy a field even when Nebuchadnezzar was laying seeds to Jerusalem and it just looked crazy to even buy anything at that time. But it was for a sign — a sign of hope — that we will come back here one day. And even in Lamentations, Jeremiah said,

“Great is thy faithfulness, Lord. Thy mercies are new every morning.”

Jeremiah had one message for the first twenty-five years: Repent; turn to God; doom is coming. It’s a sense of that was his message. And he changed his tune, as he was called to in captivity: Don’t despair; God still loves us; he will bring us back one day; it will be seventy years; you may not live to see it, but your children will, and their grandchildren. We need to be patient and God is going to work it out for his purposes.

I think back over the years of some missions that God has called me to be a part of. I think of an afternoon program that we started in one church, and boy, it was tempting to quit. It’s hard. It’s hard to launch a new ministry. I can still remember when the children got off the bus that first day that I got teary-eyed because it finally had come together. Months later there were other times when I got teary-eyed, but it they weren’t tears of joy; they were tears of frustration. But that’s the way it is with new missions.

For the past three years I have worked with our district and our conference for our UMAR home for the developmentally delayed, and sometimes I have gone up to West Jefferson in Wilkesboro to meetings and think, “I have other things to do today, but I can’t.”

But the times I go I can’t help but believe that God has asked me to give a portion of my time to help this home to come about. And especially when you talk to a parent and you see the look on their face and in their eyes when they realize that, actually is going to come to pass, and I don’t have to worry about — when I go home to be with the Lord — what is going to happen to my child that I have been caring for all these years. You feel like you have had a small part in that.

I think of other missions that have failed. I think of a St. Jude’s Bike-a-Thon, I believe it was, that we did. We did a great job in getting prizes and getting it all organized. But we didn’t do a great job in getting bike riders. In fact, no one came. That was quite a learning experience. We did better, though, the next year. We moved the Bike-a-Thon to the church. People will come to the church and they will ride around, or even do it in a cemetery. That was fine.

I started a center like our Yokefellow in Cashiers, the ministers did, and put a lot of time into that in the community. We felt the need was there, and for six months it went pretty well. Well, I say it went pretty well. It was open, and we paid the rent, and we had food there, but we never connected. We finally had to decide to shut it down.

So, what I am saying is, sometimes, we are like Jeremiah. Our call is not to be so much successful; it is to be faithful. When He calls us, He will take care of the results.

When we have the mind of Christ, we will have joy in what we are doing. When Paul, writing from prison, of all places, said,

It was suffering; it was agony. But think what happened by his willingness to lay down his life for you and for me.

When we come to the end of our lives, people come to your funeral; they remember what kind of life you lived. Your family remembers that.

Mother Teresa spoke on this kind of thing all over the world as she was talking about the parable of the sheep and the goats that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 25.

She said it this way:

Let us pray.