These last few months, I have been sharing on this matter of sonship: the time at which a Christian realizes that they have to be about the Father’s business. Actually, it should happen when we come to the Lord Jesus Christ and accept Him as our Lord and Savior.
We should soon come into that place of sonship in our lives, because the Lord Jesus holds us accountable. He wants us to grow up. We cannot remain children very long. The Lord wants us to grow into sons who can take up the Father’s business with Him.
This morning, we are going to continue sharing on sonship. Recently, I have shared from a number of Old Testament saints—those who were called at a very early age.
From the life of Joshua, I shared concerning consecration and our challenge before the Lord. From the life of Samuel, I shared that he was a young man brought to the temple at the age of four, and it says that he ministered to the Lord.
On the matter of communion, we shared about David and his life. At about sixteen years of age, David was brought forth and slew the giant Goliath. So much of David’s life and all of his accomplishments were based on his communion with the Lord.
Next, I shared concerning our conscience and following the anointing within. I shared from the life of Daniel, another young man who, probably still a teenager, was taken captive to Babylon.
Though he was taken away from his family and homeland, instead of being discouraged and falling beneath his circumstances, the Lord lifted Daniel above his circumstances. He became a testimony that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth.
A couple of weeks ago, I came to this matter of calling in the Lord Jesus Christ—our calling in Christ. I have been sharing from the life of Jeremiah.
Lord, as we come to Thee this morning, we are thankful that Thou didst so love the world that Thou gavest Thine only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
But Lord, Thou hast far greater things in view than merely redeeming us and saving us. Thou hast done these things with a purpose, Lord, and that is what we want to see. We want to see Thy heart. We want to see what Thou art after.
Lord, we want to be lifted out of this earth, out of this world, and out of ourselves, and see things from Thy perspective. We pray that the Holy Spirit would quicken us and open our eyes and ears today, that we could see Thee, Lord, and hear from Thee.
I ask that Thou wouldst particularly give clarity in this matter of our calling in Christ Jesus. Lord, anoint our time, both to speak and to hear. I ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Last week, as I shared from the life of Jeremiah, I read several Scriptures. Let us begin with Ephesians 1:18, and then turn to Jeremiah 1.
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling.
Now let us turn to Jeremiah 1.
The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:
To whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.
Now the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee;
And before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee;
I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations.Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak; for I am a child.
But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child:
For to whomsoever I shall send thee thou shalt go,
And whatsoever I shall command thee thou shalt speak.
Be not afraid because of them:
For I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord.
Then the Lord put forth His hand, and touched my mouth; and the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth:
See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms,
To pluck up and to break down and to destroy and to overthrow,
To build and to plant.
From Jeremiah 3:12:
Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord; I will not look in anger upon you; for I am merciful, saith the Lord, I will not keep anger for ever.
From Jeremiah 5:1:
Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that doeth justly, that seeketh truth; and I will pardon her.
From Jeremiah 20:2 and 20:7:
Then Pashhur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper gate of Benjamin, which was in the house of the Lord.
I am become a laughing-stock all the day, every one mocketh me.
From Jeremiah 25:12:
And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it desolate for ever.
From Jeremiah 31:31:
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.
The following passage describes the new covenant that the Lord would make with His people.
In this matter of calling, as I read from Ephesians 1:18 this morning, brothers and sisters, often when we come to the Lord—particularly younger folks in the Lord—the thought is, “Well, what is my calling? What is the Lord calling me to? What is my assignment?”
I think one of the most critical matters in this issue of sonship is that, when the Lord awakens you and you want to know where your place is in the Father’s business, you ask, “What is my calling? What is my assignment?”
The important thing to see is that it is His calling that is important, not your calling. It is what He has called us to, not what we think He might be calling us to. The emphasis is often from the perspective of ourselves: we want to know what our calling is.
We need to see, brothers and sisters, that it is His calling. He is sovereign over that calling. Ephesians says that we might know “the hope of His calling.” There is a calling in the Lord Jesus Christ that we need to know.
Last time, I spoke of four basic callings in the Lord Jesus and His relationship with us in life. Really, I see them as parts of the same calling, because they build upon one another.
The first calling is found in Matthew: a calling to come unto Him.
Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Brothers and sisters, that is a calling to come to Him because you are outside of the family, outside of His will, outside of His calling in life, and outside of His plan. Your life is not right with Him, your Creator.
There is only one way to be made right—to become part of the family—and that is that you must be born again. You must come to Him. Salvation is only by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Many people think that because they are good people, they are part of the family. That is simply not true. The Word is very clear: you must be born spiritually. You must come into a new birth, and that relationship and birth is something that God gives. It is not something you obtain through goodness and good acts in your life.
It is a spiritually real thing that happens in our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the problems we struggle with today, particularly in the United States, is that people do not sense the heaviness of the burden—that their soul is lost and under the weight of sin.
They do not sense that heaviness; therefore, they do not come to Him. They do not see a need for the Lord Jesus Christ in their life.
The reason is that we have been poisoned and made drunk with the wine of this world. The pleasures of this life, particularly in the United States of America, have blinded us and made us numb to the true condition of our heart and soul.
If the soul is without Christ, it is lost. It is under a tremendously heavy burden of sin, which can only be released because Jesus paid the price for those sins on Calvary’s cross. Until we are willing to accept Him as Savior and Lord, that burden cannot be lifted.
I hope that if there is anyone here who may have attended many meetings and heard many gospel messages, but it has never seemed to make a difference, they will consider this: perhaps the numbness brought on by the pleasures and life of this world has taken away that natural sense that we are without God in this world and that our soul is under the heavy burden of sin.
So, if you are without Christ, may the Lord touch you today. The burden and weight are still there, and they cannot be lifted without the Lord Jesus Christ. But that is our first calling in the Lord: He calls us to Himself.
The second calling is also in Matthew. He says, “Take My yoke upon you; for My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”
The yoke is the will of God for your life. In other words, after you come to Him, He asks you to follow Him. He does not make you follow Him. He sets you free. Your soul has been set free, and your spirit has been renewed so that there can be communion with Him.
But He also says, “If you will not take up your cross and follow Me, you are not My disciple.” This second calling is a calling to discipleship—to follow Him, to follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.
The third calling is not only to follow Him as His disciple, but to fulfill His purpose. We are called to fulfill His purpose.
What is that purpose? It is that the Body of Christ might be built into the Bride and one day become the mature Bride. We are called to be the Body of Jesus Christ. We are called to His purpose.
The fourth calling is the calling to overcome. The reason for this calling, brothers and sisters, is that God has a great purpose, and there is great opposition to that purpose.
In fact, it says that the gates of hell stand against God and His purpose. Because of that, we must know, as His children, how to overcome.
The only way we can overcome is to give our life to the Overcomer—the One who overcame death, rose from the dead, and ascended to the throne of God. He is the Overcomer. We must maintain Him as the Victor in our lives. We must know Him as the Victor and the victory.
Brothers and sisters, we are called to overcome. These are the fundamental callings within our calling: to know Him and to serve His purpose. We are all called to serve His purpose.
My concern is that many in this world have never responded to the first call—to come to Him. Many who have responded to come to Him have never responded to the call to follow Him in discipleship.
Many who are His disciples end up serving their own spiritual purposes, what they see of themselves and their own self-life. They say, “I need to serve the Lord this way or that way,” and they miss God’s purpose.
For those who have entered into God’s purpose and followed Him in that purpose, many are overcome instead of overcoming. That is the danger.
May the Lord give us grace. That is why we need one another. We need to stand with one another, that we might carry out our calling in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We might say, “Look, this calling is almost impossible. It is an amazing calling.” If the Lord opens our eyes to what He is really doing, it is absolutely astonishing. It is wonderful.
But if we really look at it, we may say, “Golly, how can I ever respond to this calling in the Lord?” Well, the Lord has given us provisions, brothers and sisters, and He has given them to every saint—not just to a few, but to every saint.
In the parable of the ten virgins, five were wise and five were foolish. What did all the virgins have? They all had oil. They all had oil for their lamps, and the oil is the work of the Holy Spirit.
They all had the Holy Spirit in their life because He was given to us when we accepted Christ. That oil is given to us.
But when the call came forth that the Bridegroom was ready, the five wise virgins trimmed their lamps. The unwise ones, when they went to trim their lamps, found that there was no oil left.
They said, “Can you give us some of your oil?” But the answer was that this was not possible. The only way to get the extra oil needed when the Bridegroom comes is to purchase it.
The initial oil is given to us by God; it is the Holy Spirit in our life. But the issue in being ready for the Bridegroom is not whether you had oil initially, but whether you have that extra oil.
How is that extra oil increased in our lives? How do we purchase that extra oil? It is very simple: through obeying the Holy Spirit in your life.
If we obey the Holy Spirit in our life, we are filled more and more with the Holy Spirit. Then, when the Bridegroom returns and makes the call, we will have the energy of the Holy Spirit within to respond to Him.
I want us to know this morning that provision of oil has been made for all those who are His own. But it is extremely important that those who are His own buy more oil, and that is through obeying the Holy Spirit.
Often we think only of the joy and power we might have in the Holy Spirit. But if you are really obeying the Holy Spirit, brothers and sisters, He is going to take you to the cross.
It is only at the cross, and through the work of the cross in your life, that the oil you have is released to be productive and to serve the purpose for which the Holy Spirit was given in the first place.
In other words, the vessel that contains the oil must be cracked. That is the work of Calvary. That is the work of the cross. This is why many saints turn back and do not complete their calling in Christ: they are unwilling to go the way of the cross.
The second provision is found in the parable of the talents. The Lord gave one servant five talents, another two talents, and a third servant one talent.
When it comes to serving the Lord, He gives talents. In the matter of oil, He gives His life to you; that is provision in life. But we need not only provision to live His life—we need provision to serve Him in the way He has called us. He gives us talents.
He has given at least one talent to everyone. Today, our misunderstanding of this Scripture is that the one given five talents is the most spiritual, or that the one given two talents is more spiritual than the one-talent person. But that is not it.
The man with five talents used his talents, and they increased to ten. The one with two talents used his talents, and they increased to four. Unfortunately, the person with one talent did not think much of it and felt that it was better to bury it. There was no increase.
The point is that the Lord is saying, “It is not how many talents you have that counts. What counts is that you double the talents you have.” In other words, you need to use that talent.
Brothers and sisters, the greatest failure in the assemblies of God is that we do not exercise the talent God has given us. Most of us only have one, but that does not mean that you are lesser.
If your talent happens to be one of the more hidden ones, that does not make it lesser. Often, the hidden things are the most important. You cannot see my heart because it is hidden, but it is a far more important organ than my hand that is seen, or my mouth that speaks. Without my heart, I am dead.
The Lord is calling us. He says, “I have given everyone a talent.” I want everybody to hear this: there is no saint who does not have a talent to serve the Lord.
We must exercise our talent. If you do not know what it is, that is okay. Keep looking to the Lord. Keep serving the Lord, and the talent He has given you will become evident.
As a son of God, when you begin to take responsibility before the Lord and see something that needs to be taken care of, begin to take care of it. The Lord will begin to make evident what that talent really is, and He will want you to exercise and use it.
Brothers and sisters, the reason the Bride has not been built today, and the Lord cannot come back, is because most of the one talents are buried. I want people to see how important this is.
If the Bride is ever to be made ready, we all—each one of us—have to serve the Lord with what He has given to us.
I suppose it is the self-consciousness we have that makes us think there is nothing in our life that we can serve the Lord with, and that is sad. We need to know that the Lord has promised that everyone has a talent.
When we come to the judgment seat of Christ, He is going to ask what we have done with our talent. He is going to evaluate us as His children, as His sons, according to what we have done with our talent. We will be dealt with and rewarded—or not rewarded—based on our use of that talent.
The way we use our talent is by the grace of God. I want you to know the Lord has made every provision so that, when we stand before Him, we will not be able to say, “I just could not do it.”
The Lord will say, “I have made every provision that you can.” So we should be awakened, particularly in this last hour. If the assembly, if the church, is going to become a strong testimony and mature into the Bride, the sons will have to serve Him with the talent He has given them.
He has given you the life. Allow the cross to work in your life. It must also work in the area of talent and in the ministry the Lord has given to each one of us. The cross has to work.
Brothers and sisters, these matters are all extremely important. We have all been given talents, and we have all been called into the ministry.
I used to think that only a few were called into the ministry, and that they were called pastors. But in reality, we are all called into the ministry—every one of us.
Remember Aaron. The priesthood of Aaron was called to minister to the Lord, and the Levites were called to minister to the house. There were two kinds of ministry: one to the Lord and one to the house.
We all know that today we have been made priests. In that priesthood, we have to carry out both these ministries: ministry to the Lord and ministry to the house.
This is not a duty, but rather a privilege. We underestimate the privilege we have as priests to come and serve the Lord, minister to Him in worship, and minister to Him in communion.
We can all do that. This was not true of the millions in the nation of Israel. Only a few were selected to minister directly to the Lord, and that was the family of Aaron.
If you were outside that family, you could not do it. If you were not of the tribe of the Levites, you could not minister to the house. You could not take care of the altar or care for the sacrifices. You simply sat there and hoped they did their job well, or you were in trouble.
God has called all His sons into the priesthood. We need to learn to minister to the Lord in worship, in communion with Him, and in our prayer life.
We also need to learn to minister to one another and to the house, to the building up of the Body of Christ, which is our purpose.
There are many ways in which He has called us. He has called some prophets, some teachers, some evangelists, some to government, some to helps, and some to hospitality. In so doing, He has given us the life and the talent to carry these things out.
I want you to know that everything He does in your life—all the circumstances, whether good or bad—is working not only to bring you to Him but to work out something unique in your life.
That unique work will reflect His life and enable you to serve Him and His people in the special place He has for you. All your life, He is training you for this.
Some brothers and sisters go through trials and tribulations and begin to wonder, “What is wrong with me?” There may be something the Lord is trying to get at, but often the Lord puts us through trials and tribulations to bring us to a place where we learn His life in a particular way.
Another brother or sister may have touched that in their life as well, but for you He may put you through especially unique trials, that the glory of God might be manifested in that area specifically. He does not leave anybody out.
I hope that we can get on with His calling and not spend the rest of our lives dealing only with ourselves—what our needs are, what we need, and all our problems and issues.
Brothers and sisters, we have problems. We are a problem people, but we will always have them. You need to know that. God has not called us to a lily garden where we sniff the lilies and walk among the lilies.
Praise God, there are times of refreshment. But we are called to His purpose, and it is a tough work at times. Often, it is the matter of the cross in our lives that releases the special oil that will truly build His house and serve His purpose.
If you have heard His calling, it constitutes your vocation for your life.
My profession was engineering; it is no longer engineering, but administration. The Lord changed it. But my vocation—hear this—my vocation is the Lord and His purpose.
If the Lord opens your eyes today, you will see that it is your vocation as well. Your vocation in life is the Lord and His purpose.
He is getting you ready for that. It is not merely for this life, for we have the kingdom age to look forward to—another thousand years when He will come and reign and rule on this earth. He is getting us all ready for that.
Brothers and sisters, we need to be ready. We need to be like the five wise ones. We need to be ready, full of oil. May God truly bless His people.
This calling is your vocation. If you are a Christian and have heard the calling, it is your vocation in life. You may be a doctor, a lawyer, a housewife, or whatever profession the Lord has called you to.
But all that you are doing in the more secular sense is related to His vocation for you, which is to serve His purpose.
If I happen to be a doctor, I need to be the best doctor I can be, because the Lord will show me something of Himself in that work and professional life. He will work in all my ways to bring me to what I need to be in order to serve His purpose.
The same is true for housewives and for whatever you may be. Computers are the big thing today. But often, especially as young people, we ask, “Lord, what have You called me to? What is going to be my profession?”
The Lord is saying, “Wait a minute. That is second. First, it is My calling that you need to see. I have a vocation for you.”
Let us look for a moment at the life of Jeremiah. Turn back to Jeremiah 1. In my brief introduction, we may have forgotten what I read in the beginning.
The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin.
Now the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee;
And before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee;
I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations.Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak; for I am a child.
Interestingly enough, our dear brother Jeremiah, called the weeping prophet, was born into a priestly family. Therefore, he thought his vocation was set: one day he would serve as a priest.
Priests were numbered from one month old. All their lives, those born into the priestly family were trained to become priests.
In the thirteenth year of King Josiah, who was a good king, God called Jeremiah. But notice: He did not call Jeremiah to be a priest. He called him to be a prophet.
When the Scripture says, “I am but a child,” the word refers to one who had not yet been recognized into full maturity in the family—not yet fully come into sonship. It can also refer to an unmarried young man. Scholars think Jeremiah was probably between sixteen and twenty when the Lord called him to be a prophet.
Jeremiah grew up during the time of Josiah. Josiah was a good king. His father, Amon, was a very wicked king, but God in His mercy touched Josiah’s heart.
At the age of eight, Josiah did what was right in the Lord’s eyes. At age sixteen, he began to seek the God of David. At age twenty, he began to issue edicts and reforms, tearing down the idols in the land and cleansing the land of idols.
If you do the math, Jeremiah was called one year after these reforms had begun. The outward reform was taking place. People were doing it basically because they were told to do it.
But the Lord does not look on the outward; He looks on the inward. He realized that the people’s hearts were not being reformed. Though they were doing outward acts that indicated a great reformation, their hearts were still hung on the idols.
In other words, the reform was only outward; it was not inward. The Lord was looking for reality. Jeremiah was called at this point in history.
God raised up Jeremiah to show the people that He was not satisfied with outward reform. Though they were doing the right thing outwardly, their hearts were not right.
The Lord called Jeremiah to call the people to return. He told them that they were backsliding, and that if they would return, God would return to them.
But after Josiah, Jehoiakim became king, and the people turned back to idols. Their hearts never truly turned to God during this time.
Eventually, during the reign of Zedekiah, Judah itself was destroyed. Jerusalem was taken by King Nebuchadnezzar, and captives were taken to Babylon. That is when Daniel was taken to Babylon.
By this time, Jeremiah was a much older man, but Daniel was still a young man, likely around twenty years old when he was taken captive.
All of this was happening, and Jeremiah’s heart was torn apart by what he saw. Jeremiah remained in Jerusalem; he was not taken captive, though Daniel was.
I think it is marvelous how God is with His people. Regardless of our condition, He is always reaching out. He is always moving and speaking. He hopes that someone will hear.
He did not give up, because Jeremiah was left even after Jerusalem was captured.
The name Jeremiah means, “The Lord is exalted.” Though the people had turned from God and the temple had been destroyed, Jeremiah stood fast for the Lord. He exalted the Lord in the midst of a people who had drawn away from Him and were going on the wrong track.
Jeremiah was of a priestly family, and he was a tenderhearted person. He is called the weeping prophet because his heart was broken.
A priest represents the people before God. A prophet represents God to the people. That distinction has always stayed with me.
Jeremiah pleaded with God’s people. He poured out his heart to them. He warned them of coming judgment if their hearts would not turn. He loved those people so much, brothers and sisters. He had the heart of a priest.
But he was called to be a prophet. He had to represent God before the people and pronounce that judgment was on the way.
In view of all that was going on around him, I am amazed that he did not lose heart. Sometimes, when people do not listen to you, you get angry with them. You may start beating up on them, or you withdraw.
But our brother Jeremiah did neither. He stood fast. He stood for the Lord. His love for the people remained. It was not crushed because they rejected him.
He was broken and a weeping prophet. Jeremiah was a timid and gentle person who loved the people and loved the Lord. His own temperament was probably his greatest enemy.
He had such love for the people and such a priestly heart, but God asked him to be a prophet and to deliver a message he did not want to have to give. Yet he did.
Many hated him. He was called a traitor. He was put in prison and beaten because he stood for what the Lord wanted, and they did not want to hear that message. Yet he wept for them.
Looking at Jeremiah outwardly, you might think the Lord made the wrong choice. You might say, “He needed a tough man like Paul, Elijah, or John the Baptist to speak to these people and get them straight.”
But the Lord did not choose a person like that. I submit that He purposely chose Jeremiah because he had a priestly heart and because he loved the people.
He wanted Jeremiah to give a very strong message of judgment. Why? Because when God calls us to serve Him, we must represent Him as He is.
What we are before the Lord is far more important than what we do for Him. But when we do something for the Lord, our lives have to be in union with Him. The Lord works in our lives so that we can represent Him properly.
God’s heart was broken. He could not afford to have someone represent Him whose heart was not broken, because His heart was broken.
He did not want someone to speak judgment in a vengeful or resentful manner. He wanted someone who could speak God’s judgment out of love. That is why He raised up Jeremiah.
He needed a person with Jeremiah’s temperament, though the calling seemed totally opposed to Jeremiah’s temperament.
Often, in our lives, we hold back from what we think the Lord may be doing or calling us to because it seems to oppose our temperaments.
Brothers and sisters, that is when the cross comes in. That is when you say, “Lord, this is just not me. I do not think I can take this kind of message to the people. But Lord, I am willing.”
As we said last time, we need to be willing to be willing. “Lord, it is You who does it. I submit my life to You.”
Jeremiah did. Thank God, Jeremiah did. He was resented, misunderstood, and even punished because of it. Yet through all of that, his heart did not turn away from the people.
I think that is tremendous. It shows you the Lord’s heart, and that is what is important in service.
The Lord is working in your life. He has a calling on you. Sometimes we say, “Lord, why did You not get someone else to do this?” But He did not ask somebody else. He asked you.
We may say, “Lord, I think I need to bury this talent. I will keep it to myself. You and I will enjoy it, because I am just not that kind of person.”
We cannot operate on that basis, brothers and sisters, because we have no idea what the Lord is doing in our lives or what He is preparing us for.
What do we learn, not only from the life of Jeremiah, but from the way the Lord called him? I hope we go away encouraged today, because we are all called. Many are called, but few are chosen.
“The word of the Lord came unto me.” The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. One of the first principles of our calling in the Lord is that it originates with God. Your calling originates with God.
He is sovereign. The call is sovereign. You may say, “I think I am more suited to minister the Word, but I have not been given the opportunity.” Or you may say, as Jeremiah did, “Lord, I am not suited.”
The Lord says, “I will take care of that.” The calling is sovereign. It has to come from God.
In Christianity today, many people feel called, so they go off and do things or enter a teaching or ministry because it suits them or because they think that is what they are called to.
But they may not be called at all, because it originated from them rather than from the Lord. First of all, it has to originate from the Lord. He is sovereign. He takes the initiative.
Secondly, “Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. Before thou camest forth out of the womb, I knew thee.” That is what the Lord says to each one of us.
His calling is based on the fact that He knows us. This knowledge means He knows us to the degree that He is committed to us.
In knowing you, He is committed to you. He foreknows you, even before the womb. His calling is based on the fact that He knows you.
He knows you. I do not know how else to say it. Is that not marvelous? God knows you. He knows exactly everything about you, and you are special to Him.
“Before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee. I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” God’s calling is based on divine election.
In other words, He sets you apart, even from the womb, for that special service. He knows you are going to be a living stone, and He sets you apart for a specific place in the house.
This concerns not only your relationship to Him and to the house, but also your relationship to your brothers and sisters. You cannot choose where you want to be. It is divine election.
The Lord sanctifies you. God Himself has already set you apart. He has ordained and appointed you.
The appointment has already been made, and you are not born yet. That is how committed Christ and God are to you personally. He is fully committed.
You cannot choose for yourself. He has already done this. God’s calling is based on the fact that He knew you, He set you apart, and finally, He appointed you. That is when you hear the call.
Listen to Paul the apostle in Galatians 1:15. You remember Paul: he was extremely religious, outside of God’s will, and wanted to serve God in his own way.
God did not want a religious person. He wanted a person connected with Him, in union with Him, to serve Him and His purpose.
But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me, even from my mother’s womb, and called me through His grace.
Often we think, “Well, I can see why He did that with Paul.” But, brothers and sisters, Galatians 1:15 applies to every saint.
God set me apart from my mother’s womb and has called me by His grace. You can put your name where Paul’s name is. It is the same. God has set us apart.
What was Jeremiah’s response? First, he said, “Lord, I cannot speak.” He was called to be a prophet, to speak to the people. He said, “I can serve them in a priestly way, but I cannot speak.”
The Lord said, “Yes, you can. I will put the words in your mouth.”
Remember Moses. Moses was eloquent and second in command over Egypt. The Lord spoke to Moses that he would be the deliverer, and Moses went out and tried to deliver Israel in his own strength. He killed an Egyptian.
Then he found himself in tremendous trouble and was expelled from Egypt. It took Moses forty years for God to strip him of all his natural talents and eloquence.
God brought Moses to the same place Jeremiah was: “Lord, I cannot speak.” When the Lord told Moses to go, he said the same thing.
The point is this: if you feel confident that you can do it, then you are not ready for God’s call. God calls the weak. God calls those who are insufficient.
The reality is that we are all insufficient. What He needs is not somebody who is well trained and knows how to do everything. What He needs to serve Him is people who realize that they cannot do it.
The only way they can serve Him is to depend totally on Him. Total dependence—that is our problem. We struggle with being dependent. We are an independent people; that is our nature, even after we become Christians.
God says, “No, I can only trust a person who understands that they cannot depend on themselves.” There could never have been a person more ready than Jeremiah, because the Lord was going to make all the provision anyway.
Secondly, Jeremiah said, “I am too young. I am but a child.” Remember: Samuel was four years old. David was around sixteen when he slew Goliath. Daniel was around twenty when he was taken captive.
God chooses sovereignly. We cannot use youth as an excuse when He calls. There is a sense in which we should say, “I am a child,” because we are going to depend totally on Him. That is legitimate.
But it cannot be used as an excuse not to serve the Lord. When He calls you, you are ready, because He will provide the grace for you to meet His calling. You are ready to receive His grace—or you should be.
The third thing I want to say, and I will end with this, is that when we are called to the Lord—whatever ministry, service, or talents may be involved—we often want to be liked and popular. That is one of my personal downfalls.
We want to be liked. We do not want to give a hard message. We want to be popular. But let me say this: God never gives His talents, nor does He call people, to be popular.
That is not His purpose. If you want to be liked, or if you want to take up ministry so that you might become more popular, then you are definitely not ready.
Often, the things He calls us to do end up making us unpopular. It may not necessarily be with brothers and sisters. It may make you unpopular with your family, fellow workers, or other saints who do not understand you.
The gifts and talents are not given to make us special in the sense of lifting us up. They are given so that we can bring forth the life of Christ.
This calling of God is from God. It is not something that you merely think of, nor something you enter into lightly. When you hear it, it will be your vocation.
Paul says in Ephesians that we are to walk worthy of our vocation. Therefore, we must continue in what God calls us to.
I do not want anyone in this room this morning to think that they can simply sit on the sidelines. This matter of our calling in Christ is something in which everyone participates.
Everybody has to participate. No one is allowed merely to observe and sit on the sidelines. If we do, we are missing God’s calling. We are not serving His purpose.
May the Lord encourage us today, because He has made all the provisions. We have to believe Him.
Sometimes we disbelieve ourselves. We believe that we cannot do it, like the rich young ruler when the Lord said, “You need to give up everything and follow Me.” He went away sorrowful because he knew he could not do it.
Where he failed was that he did not believe God could do it in him. May we believe what God can do, even with us.
Lord, we thank Thee today that Thou hast a tremendous plan. Lord, Thou hast a purpose that I do not think I can fully comprehend, though Thou hast given some understanding of the significance and glory of Thy purpose.
But Lord Jesus, it is critically important in this last hour that we hear Thy call and follow Thy call. I pray for grace, Lord, to awaken us, to hear Thy voice, and to receive grace to respond to Thy call.
Lord, for those of us who have fallen by the wayside, been sidetracked, or been overcome instead of overcoming, by Thy grace may we get up and press on.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.