Sermon – Jeremiah 1:4-10 – Go Tell Everyone

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

Sermon – Jeremiah 1:4-10 – Go Tell Everyone

Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

February 3, 2013

Over the last few weeks we have heard the extraordinary claim that God, the creator of the universe is in love with us and wants our love in return. And we have heard the even more remarkable claim that God was to marry us, to enter into a covenant whereby God blesses us so that we can bless others. So what happens when we believe all of this? What is our response to this offer of love and relationship from our creator God? We will get to this, but first let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Jeremiah 1:4-10 ⁴ The word of the LORD came to me, saying, 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." ⁶ "Ah, Sovereign LORD," I said, "I do not know how to speak; I am only a child." ⁷ 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. ⁸ Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD. ⁹ Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth. ¹⁰ See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."

According to God the only acceptable response to his offer to love and marry us is to go everywhere God sends and tell everyone we meet what God commands us to say. That seems easy enough. All you have to do is live your lives in the presence of God, share you faith with others and invite them to come to church to enter into this extraordinary relationship God is offering. But I know that sharing faith with others and inviting them to church is a hard thing to do. And, of course you have objections to this command from God.

The first objection is that we are really not able to share our faith and invite people to church the way God wants. We are too young or too old. We are too busy and have too many responsibilities. We don't feel comfortable sharing our faith, and so we never invite people to church. You are not alone feeling this way. Jeremiah had the same objection. He said, “I am only a child.” Even Moses didn't want to share his faith and said, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it." (Ex. 4:13) So we have good reasons for ignoring God and not sharing our faith and not inviting people to church.

But God doesn't accept this. God knows that the reason we fail to share our faith and invite people to church is because we are afraid. We think people will look down upon us because of our faith. They will criticize our beliefs. They will make fun of us because we are Christians. So we avoid the subject of faith when talking to unchurched people and never get around to inviting them to church. Our solution to this is that we hire a professional. Since we can't talk about our faith we hire a pastor who has attended seminary and presumably can. And we want the pastor to go out and invite people to church. That way we don't have to do this important work ourselves that we would rather avoid.

But God won't let us off the hook that easy. God wants you to tell everyone you meet about your faith and invite them to church. God know that talking about faith is a risky thing to do. His own son was nearly stoned to death after his first experience of sharing his faith. But God wants you to know that whenever you talk about your faith and invite people to church he will be with you to protect you. You have nothing to fear. So be courageous. Be bold. Talk to you friends about your faith and invite them to come to church.

But of course you have another objection. You don't know what to say. The pastor has studied scripture enough to know how to speak about faith. But you don't. How would you ever defend your faith against all the lies and half truths about Christianity in popular culture? If someone wanted to have a conversation about faith with you what would you say? Jeremiah knew this feeling and said to God, “I do not know how to speak”. If Jeremiah didn't know what to say how would we know? This is a strong objection and very good reason to not share our faith with others and not invite people to church.

But God will have none of this. God promises to put the words we need right on our lips. God touched Jeremiah's mouth. He had Ezekiel eat a scroll. And God put words in Moses' brother's mouth. God will do whatever is necessary to make evangelism work. This is not your concern. All you have to do is share your faith with others, confident that God is with you and will tell you what to say, and empower you to invite people to church.

Of course there is another objection you all have to this. A very good reason why you shouldn't talk to people about your faith and invite them to church. And this reason is that everyone I have been talking about this morning are prophets. Jeremiah, Isaiah, Exekiel and Jesus were all prophets. It is the prophet's job to talk about faith and invite people to church. What we need is to find some prophets to do all for us so that we don't have to share our faith with others and invite people to church. This is a good objection and I am tempted to just end the sermon right here and say that each of us has a different vocation, and those with the gifts of prophecy and evangelism should meet me after church. But there would be a problem with this approach because God has called all believers to the ministry of sharing our faith with others and inviting them to church. Peter puts it this way,

1 Peter 2:9 ⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

So by the doctrine of the “Priesthood of all Believers” we know that we are all called to share our faith and invite people to church. We can't wait around for someone else to do this for us. It is our job.

But we have one final objection, and this one is very strong. The reason we don't share our faith with others and invite people to church is that we just don't want to. We don't like sharing our faith. We don't want to invite people to church. If we don't want to do these things then we don't have to. You can't make me. But God's doesn't care if you want to share your faith and invite people to come to church or not. God created you as a prophet. Before you were even born, God implanted the seed of faith within you and designed you as one who would share your faith with others and invite them to church. This is what you were created to do.

Your calling to share your faith and invite people to church is your vocation. John Calvin said, “no task will be so sordid and base, provided you obey your calling in it, that it will not shine and be reckoned very precious in God's sight.”(Institutes 3.6.10) Luther said that even changing dirty diapers is your vocation if done for the glory of God. So even if sharing your faith with others and inviting people to church is uncomfortable for you, do it anyway because it brings glory to God.

Standing up here and proclaiming my faith was the last thing I ever wanted to do. I wanted to grow my business and sit anonymously in the back of church. Sharing my faith with others and inviting people to church were the farthest things from my mind. I wanted to make more money and live in the DC suburbs. But God grabbed me. He pulled me into small group Bible studies. He got me interested in teaching. And he closed every door I tried to pass though until I found the one open door that led to seminary and ordination. God had created me to do what I now do. I have never had the ability to write, I was a computer software salesman, but now God puts words in my mouth and through my fingertips on a computer keyboard and I am able to do what I do every Sunday. What you hear on Sundays usually comes as a surprise to me earlier in the week. I believe that God is speaking though what I do. There is no other explanation.

You will experience this too. God will put you in situations where you can share your faith with the unchurched. God will tell you what to say. God will calm your fears and empower you to invite people to church. God will do this because God created you in this way before you even born. So fear not, talk to you friends and neighbors and families about your faith and invite people to come to church.

Lord Jesus we ask this day for your Holy Spirit to empower us to share our faith and invite people to our church. Calm our fears. Give of the words to say. Be with us in this endeavor we do for your glory. Amen.