1. Your Calling has been handcrafted by God
Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:4-5
Do you hear the depth of intimate knowledge that God has for each of his children? Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. There is an eternal knowledge of the name and the soul and the role of each person. God knew you from eternity past. And in this passage, God is not just expressing a knowledge of Jeremiah’s life, but also a consecration of his role. It says that Jeremiah was appointed as a prophet to the nations before he was even born. The word prophet here is a looser term that means “speaker,” or I like the literal translation “gushing at the mouth.” Some of you could adopt that as your own calling! God has called me to be a gusher of the mouth. I’m not annoying, I’m just living my calling. I can see the merch now.
Before you came into existence, you were in God’s imagination. He has made you exactly who you are to be, in order to do everything he has called you to do. There is no one on the planet like you. He formed you in the womb. He knows you. And he has destined you for specific work in the world. A huge part of understanding what God has called you to do, is understanding first who he made you to be. Looking at your passions and gifts and skills. Examining your life experiences and the things he has allowed you to walk through and learn along the way. Dave Rhoades said one time say that when we stand before God at the end of our life, most people think God is going to ask, “why weren’t you more like Jesus?” He said, what if God asks a different question, “why weren’t you more like you?”
Every part of you was designed by God with detailed precision. In Eph 2:10, Paul reminds us of this when he says, “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” The word for workmanship is actually the word poeima from which we get our word poem. We are His work of art. We are God’s masterpiece. But notice, it’s not so we can sit back and just admire our beauty or admire the skills he’s given us, it’s not so we can use those things for our own benefit, for our own lifestyle, for our own retirement account, he says you were designed and created by God to do the good works that God has prepared for each of you to walk in. It sounds super spiritual to say, I just need to get as much of myself out of the way so God can work. And that’s true when it comes to your old self, your sinful self. There is a death to the old self that Jesus commands and he’s very clear about that. But there’s also a redeemed self, a created self that God made a certain way so he can co-create with you. It’s not just God, but God and you walking through the world together.
God works with us, and he has always used imperfect people like us. That’s the beauty of this co-creating arrangement that he’s set up. So, we have to get curious. Not just about what does God want us to do out there, we have to get curious about what God has given us in here. Who are you, what gifts do you have, what personality do you have, what perspective do you have, what life experiences do you have, what are you skilled at, what are you passionate about, what are you frustrated by, all these things are part of your makeup, all these are part of how God has handcrafted you and God will use all of them to accomplish the good works he’s prepared in advance for you to do.
Saint Augustine once said, “Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.” God said to Jeremiah before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you to speak for me because I created you to speak. That’s the first unique truth, your calling has been handcrafted by God. Here’s the second,
2. Your Calling will be accompanied by doubts (:6-8)
Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord.” Jeremiah 1:6-8
This is such a great word for young people. First, what better time to wrestle through God’s calling over your life than when you’re young? So many young people just use the world’s playbook. Go to high school, succeed or just get by. Then go to college, succeed or just have a lot of fun. Get a job, enjoy it or really resent it. Buy a house, start a family, you know the drill. And you can go through that whole cycle never asking the question. What does God want for my life? What has God given me? Where has God placed me? Who has God called me to influence? And guys if you can be asking those questions at 15 instead of 55, the impact God could have with your life!
We read the bible and think of all these amazing saints as grizzled old white haired wrinkled up men and women. Do you know how many people in your bible God used when they were teenagers! Let’s start with all 12 of the disciples – for heaven’s sake Jesus was running a youth group. Think about David, a teenager, and Joseph a teenager, think about Miriam, Moses’ sister a teenager, think about Esther a very young woman, or what about Mary the mother of Jesus, the angel appeared to her when she was a teen? So many of Paul’s traveling companions, Paul had to write to Timothy the young pastor of a brand-new church and say, “don’t let those people look down on you just because you’re a kid. Lead them, set an example for them.”
Young people, please be talking to God right now about your calling. You’re not the church of the future, you’re the church of right now. Jeremiah is in this same boat. He’s really young and he tries to use his age as an excuse, but God’s not having it. You see, with a calling comes all kinds of doubts. Like Jeremiah, we can convince ourselves that there is nothing truly special about who we are. We are too young or too old. Our abilities aren’t that significant. Our passions aren’t that extraordinary. The environment we’re in would never allow us to pursue that calling. Excuses upon excuses, and in the end, we settle for an ordinary life with modest expectations of what God could ever do through us. Here are
Four Excuses when it Comes to Our Calling. (from Rob Wegner: Find Your Place)
- The “Jungles of Africa” excuse.
A lot of people won’t even look into their calling for fear that God might send them somewhere they don’t want to go. Or possibly call them do something they don’t want to do. I’ve found this fear to be largely unfounded. God, in his grace, causes us to desire the things he wants us to desire when we walk with him. That doesn’t mean things will always be safe or comfortable. But God doesn’t just call you, He also prepares you for that calling.
- The “I don’t have anything to offer” excuse.
This is pure insecurity, and it prevents people from recognizing that God is the giver of all gifts and that he has given his Spirit to every single one of his followers. His gifts are an expression of his love, his creativity, and his commitment to engage us in his work, and each and every gift and individual involved in God’s work matters to God. If you are loved by God, then you are gifted by God, and the gifts he has given you are very important to him!
- The “I’m too busy” excuse
Everyone has the same number of minutes in a day, and how we use those minutes is determined by what we find most valuable. If there is no room in our schedule to discover and develop our calling, it means you simply have not valued your calling enough to prioritize it. And by doing so, you’re missing out on the reason you are on the planet. Also, often living your calling isn’t about adding more time to your schedule, it’s about doing what you’re already doing with a brand-new perspective and maximizing your kingdom purpose.
- The “I’m already using all my gifts” excuse.
This is for people who are already serving comfortably in one ministry and by doing so they may pass up other opportunities to explore new areas of passion or giftedness. Sometimes it requires a fresh look to see if God might have gifts or opportunities, you are not currently using. Or again, maybe he’s calling you to keep doing what you’re doing, but with a renewed emphasis or mindset.
And so, Jeremiah puts forward his excuse. He says I don’t know how to speak, I’m too young. And God’s response is priceless. Notice he brings it back to the core problem, and the core problem is fear. He’s says, “don’t be afraid,” why? Because I will be with you. You’ll go where I want you to go, you’ll say what I want you to say, and I’ll be with you every step. God comes back to dependency on His presence.
When God calls you to something there is always a gap between what is required for the assignment and your skill level. God does this on purpose to develop your dependency on Him. In other words, you are never going to feel fully equipped to do what God asks you to do. It feels like what God has asked you to do is up here and your skills and abilities and experiences are way down here. Why would God do that? So, you can learn to depend on him. This is a kingdom assignment after all and you ain’t the king. God says to Moses you’re called to lead a nation. But his experience was a stutterer. God says to David, you’re called to be king. But his skill was as a shepherd. God says to Noah, I’m calling you to build an ark, but it’s not even raining, and people are making fun of me, and where will I find the materials and all the animals, and I’ve never built a huge boat before. God says to Jeremiah you’re going to be gushing at the mouth for me, but I don’t know how to do that and I’m too young to figure it out. See, there’s always a gap between what God has called you to which is up here, and your abilities which are down here. Now the temptation is to fill that gap with these excuses, or insecurity, or to fill the gap with your own ideas, or your own efforts, your own strength, but the reason the gap is there is so you can learn to fill it with dependency on God. It forces you into a posture of saying, “God I know I can’t do this on my own – you’re going to have to make up the difference.” That’s what God is doing here with Jeremiah because part of God’s training regimen for new recruits into this world of calling, is to learn dependency on Him.
3. Your calling is your reason for being alive
Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.” Jeremiah 1:9-10
Can you feel how profound this moment is between God and Jeremiah? Can you imagine being a teenager and taking this all in? First God touches his lips and then he basically lays out Jeremiah’s whole life purpose. He begins by saying, I have put my words in your mouth, he says Jeremiah will be set over nations and kingdoms, and then God calls Jeremiah a planter and a builder—not a literal planter like a farmer or a builder like a contractor but a prophet who plants and builds things with his words. But this planting and building will not happen on neutral ground. Did you notice that to plant he’s going to need to plow up some things up first. Things that have grown where they shouldn’t have. And in order to build, there will be some things that need to be torn down and removed. This calling will not be easy – and it will consume his life at times – but it will be good and lasting work. Not everyone will appreciate it, and for most of Jeremiah’s life people didn’t, but the promise remains, God says, “I will be with you.”
The same words Jesus passed onto his disciples in his Great Commission that we talked about last week –Be sure of this! He commanded. I am WITH YOU always even to the end of the age. It’s what God continues to say to all of us who have been designed by his great imagination: “I will be with you. I designed you for good works, to walk out a calling I have for you. If you let me continue to form and make you, I will help you step into your divine design.” The God who formed you is also committed to forge the future with you. But you must choose to step into it. Remember this, your calling is the reason you’re still breathing air.
