NATION CHANGING FAITH #5PM 
4 The Lord gave me this message:
5 “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.” 6 “O Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I can’t speak for you! I’m too young!” 7 The Lord replied, “Don’t say, ‘I’m too young,’ for you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you. 8 And don’t be afraid of the people, for I will be with you and will protect you. I, the Lord, have spoken!” 9 Then the Lord reached out and touched my mouth and said, “Look, I have put my words in your mouth! 10 Today I appoint you to stand up against nations and kingdoms. Some you must uproot and tear down, destroy and overthrow. Others you must build up and plant.”
Jeremiah was about 17 when he was called by God. Imagine if you were Jeremiah.
You believe in God, so who is He to you? Only by revelation does a person come to faith and have a true and clear knowledge of the God who steps out of the pages of the bible and comes to life in your own experience. My experience of God began when I was 20 and invited to witness a church service where supernatural things were spoken of and seen. I experienced the drawing power of God’s spirit leading me to yield my life to Him. Perhaps at that very moment others around me may have decided that God was not real and the call to follow merely a human device of religion. But for me it was irresistible and a revelation of who God is and what He wants for me. If you have only experience, you are an existentialist and you have only a weak and shifting foundation on which to build your life. But if your experience matches the explanation given in the Christian scriptures then your subjective experience is supported and corroborated by the divinely inspired and infallible word of God.
Who is God to you?
- Is He the God of your parents and you’re here because it’s been part of your practice since you were a child?
- Is He the stained glass window subject that gives you a certain joy as you look at the beauty of a religious experience?
- Is He the convenor of the meeting place of people you care to hang out with so that you can find friendship and entertainment?
- Is He the idea that challenges you to prove He doesn’t exist as you pick holes in the preacher’s rhetoric?
- Is He the semi-essential back stop prayer answering God who you turn to when things go bad?
- Is He the wisdom and advice so needed to help you make your own way through life without making too many critical errors?
- Is He the unfathomable God who calls you out of your own life plan and into His great purpose and your scared spitless about what He is possibly going to ask of you?
If it’s the last one – then you may be called of God. That is, you know you are called by God, while others are yet to receive such a revelation. I believe every Christian is called by God. There is the primary calling to be with Jesus. But there is also the specific calling to serve Him in a unique and purposeful way that’s only for you. Jeremiah was called to obey God and change nations. His only tools were words.
NATIONS CHANGE WHEN PEOPLE OBEY HIS CALL
ASK YOUR NEIGHBOUR – WHO IS GOD TO YOU?
Life sucked for Jeremiah, because some people didn’t like his prophecies, they tied to kill him; he was beaten and placed in stocks; later he was thrown down a well and left to starve until a foreigner rescued him, only to be thrown in prison. Couldn’t he just walk away? Did he have to obey God and suffer so much for it? He tried to walk away.
Jer 1:6 “O Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I can’t speak for you! I’m too young!”
But God says: The Lord replied, “Don’t say, ‘I’m too young,’ for you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you.
Jeremiah 20:7-9 7 O Lord, you misled me, and I allowed myself to be misled.
You are stronger than I am, and you overpowered me. Now I am mocked every day; everyone laughs at me. 8 When I speak, the words burst out. “Violence and destruction!” I shout. So these messages from the Lord have made me a household joke. But if I say I’ll never mention the Lord or speak in his name,
his word burns in my heart like a fire. It’s like a fire in my bones! I am worn out trying to hold it in! I can’t do it!
But then Jeremiah admits: Jer 20:11 But the Lord stands beside me like a great warrior. Before him my persecutors will stumble. They cannot defeat me. They will fail and be thoroughly humiliated. Their dishonour will never be forgotten.
It’s hard to resist God. He will have His way eventually, look at Jonah! But remember the Lord is good and gracious and kind and His rewards are great. He will never overlook the faithful person who serves Him and suffers for it.
What does God want for your life? Are you content to be a spectator, or do you feel the fire like Jeremiah?
WHAT DO CALLED PEOPLE DO? – THEY OBEY GOD!
Here’s what I see for this church. I see a large number of people who can’t get enough of God’s presence. They spend time in His presence listening to and singing along with great worship music. They devour the word of God, reading it, listening to it and memorising it. Everywhere they go they speak about Jesus because they are so thrilled about what He has done for them.
I see teens going into school and being radical for Jesus. They are respectful and honouring towards teachers and principals, but towards students they are like leaders who are afraid of no one. They pray for students and see healings and miracles. People follow them and ask for help. They pull together big numbers of students into lunch time meetings where people sing worship and praise, and gust speakers come and share the gospel. The students are better preachers though, and they carry God’s power on them. The principal and teachers are uncomfortable about all this but it’s impossible to slow down.
I see uni students preaching in the open air in auditoriums and at the refectory. They are bold and outspoken and even as they face opposition their words are filled with wisdom and touch people’s hearts. There are lots of urban connects on campus and in the residential colleges. In every UC group there are healings and miracles. Prayer is answered and people sense the call of God to serve their generation. Church is everywhere these Christians gather, but they come together on Sundays to bring others and worship with anointed worship leaders and hear life changing messages. They know their calling and many will go back to nations where they came from and start churches and experience a move of God.
Called people will serve God as business people who generate finance for Kingdom projects; teachers who train children to fear the Lord and Honour God; media people who will create video and graphics that accurately depict God’s love and His purpose for people, creating TV shows and movies for the public to find truth. I see called people who are lawyers who will become judges who will uphold godly values and defend the innocent and the poor. I see scientists who will discover cures for disease and discover amazing inventions to help people through God giving them revelation about the scientific world. I see called people being nation changing police members, nurses, doctors, politicians, artists, counsellors, finance workers, it people, engineers, and so many other professions.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- What does it feel like to be called by God?
- Do you think being called by God is just for some special Christians?
- Can a person say “No” to God?
- If God has called you to do something for Him what should you do next?
- What should you do if you don’t feel called by God?
craigmanderson 