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Sermon Text: Jeremiah 1:4-10
Pastor, God Has Put You Here
I. God Knows You
II. God Is With You
III. God Has Put His Words in Your Mouth
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 “Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”
7 But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ 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, “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.”
It’s a question which I expect you’ve already asked yourself a number of times. A question which you’ll maybe ask yourself many more times in the days and months and years ahead. The question is, “What am I doing here?” Maybe that question first hit you when you realized that you might actually take the call to Appleton. “Yikes, what am I doing here?” I’ve come to know and love the people at St. John, Sparta. And now I’m going to have to leave them?” Or maybe that question hit you when you realized that Mount Olive has like 3 times as many members as your former congregation. “Man, how am I going to get to know all those people? What am I doing here?” Or maybe when you looked at the names on the staff directory and realized, “Man, I’m going to have to help administrate this massive organization?” Or maybe that question will come again when you have to have a hard conversation with a member who is caught in a particular sin and you tell them what God’s Word says and they don’t want to hear it. They storm out of the office. And you’re thinking, “Am I the right guy for this job? What am I doing here?”
My brother, when those questions hit, and they certainly will—at least they did in my ministry—I want you to take comfort in one simple truth, a truth which will serve as our theme for today. It’s simply this:
Pastor, God Put You Here!
On the basis of what God once said to his called servant Jeremiah here in our text, you can be sure of three things:
I. God Knows You
II. God Is With You
III. God Will Put His Words in Your Mouth
Pastor Hackbarth, I think you realize that you’re not the first person whom God has called into the holy ministry. Some 2600 years before you received your call to Mount Olive, a man named Jeremiah received his call from God. Jeremiah records his call with the words, “The word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘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.” What God said to Jeremiah, he could have just as easily said to you. Before you were born, God knew you. In fact, he knows everything about you.
On the one hand, that is a little unnerving, isn’t it? To realize that God knows everything you ever thought, or said or did. He knows the shenanigans you were involved in back in high school. He knows the little idiosyncrasies that drive your wife crazy. He knows the bad habits that keep rearing their ugly head. He knows where the devil has made inroads into the crevices of your heart. He knows that battles that you have lost to your own sinful nature. God knows you, warts and all. And yet, in spite of who you are, what has God done? He’s loved you. He’s redeemed you with the blood of his Son. He made you his child through the washing of holy baptism. And then, on top of all that, he called you into the holy ministry. He’s entrusted into your hands the powerful means of grace, the gospel in word and sacrament. Through your divine call, he’s given you the authority to represent this congregation in the public ministry of the keys. Wow, you talk about an act of God’s Grace!
And yet, as St. Paul says, in 2 Cor 4, “We have this treasure in jars of clay.” In other words, by nature, you and I as ministers of the gospel, are weak, we are fragile, we are easily broken. But the God of Grace has chosen to use “cracked pots” like us, not because we are so special or because we are so competent in and of ourselves, but rather, because he has made us competent. How did St. Paul put it? Not that we are competent to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God (2 Cor. 3:5). So often God gets his work done, not because of us, but in spite of us.
And yet, just as surely as God knows your weaknesses and promises to work through them, so also God knows your strengths. He knows those qualities that make you an effective pastor, a winsome preacher, a caring counselor, a gifted leader, a loving shepherd, a faithful husband, a devoted father. God knows all those qualities because he gave them to you. And I pray that both you and this congregation will give credit where credit is due. To God be the glory for the multitude of gifts he has given to you. Pastor Hackbarth, as you consider your call to Mount Olive, as you think about your role on the pastoral team, you can be sure that God had only one person in mind for this call. And it’s you. God knows you—and he put you here.
Members of Mount Olive, that’s an important point for you to remember, too. You maybe thought you had something to do with Pastor Hackbarth coming to this congregation. Maybe you voted for him from a list of candidates at the Voters’ meeting. Or maybe you spoke to Pastor Hackbarth as he was deliberating the call. Maybe you figured he’s here because he just decided to come. And while it’s true that God used all those things as part of the call process, the fact is, Pastor Hackbarth is here not because of something you did, or he did, but because of something God did. What does Scripture say? “It was God who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers…” (Eph. 4:11). Or as St. Paul said to the pastors in Ephesus, “Guard yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.” (Acts 20:28) The point is: men don’t appoint themselves to be pastors. God puts them exactly where he wants them to be. Pastor H is your pastor because God put him here. God put him here to serve this Family Growing in Christ.
Now, as you think about all the responsibilities that come with caring for a flock this size, you may find yourself feeling a little overwhelmed, wondering whether you are really up for the task. But you know, you aren’t the first one who has experienced some of those emotions? Aren’t those the very sentiments that Jeremiah expressed in our text? “Ah, Sovereign Lord, I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.” The Lord’s answer to Jeremiah, “Do not say ‘I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you.”
“I am with you.” Pastor Hackbarth, there is a promise that God has also made to you. Because God is the one who put you here, you can be sure that God is the one who will be with you while you’re here. Isn’t that a huge source of comfort to you? Who could ever accept a call to a new congregation in a new community without God’s promise that he would go with you?
I can remember when I was in your shoes some 31 years ago. My wife and I were up in Houghton after I had accepted the call to Mount Olive. And we were talking about all the unknowns: exactly what would the congregation be like, what would the parsonage be like, would it meet our needs? Well, apparently our four-year-old daughter must have gotten the impression that we were fretting about where we would live. So what did she say? She said, “What’s the matter, Dad? Isn’t Jesus going to be there? If Jesus is there, it doesn’t matter what our house looks like. If Jesus is there, we could live in a tent!” I’m thinking, “Sweetheart, you just said it all. Thanks for putting things back into perspective for me.”
Pastor and Jennifer, isn’t the same thing true for you? No, you’re not going to be living in a tent. But you can be sure that Jesus is with you. Jesus is your shield and your refuge. How does the Psalmist put it in Psalm 31? “If you make the Most High your dwelling– even the LORD, who is my refuge– {10} then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. {11} For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; {12} they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”
I expect that there are going to be some rough spots in your ministry here at Mount Olive. Satan is going to do everything possible to hinder the good things that you hope to accomplish. But remember, you’re not going into battle alone. God is on your side, guiding you, encouraging you, and when all else fails, carrying you. That’s the confidence you can have, not so much because you are a pastor, but because you are a believer. As a child of God through faith in Jesus, you have God’s assurance that he will never leave you or forsake you.
So God knows you. God is with you. But that doesn’t change the fact that you still have a job to do. You are a preacher. So what are you going to say? Well, God takes care of that, too. God promises that III. He has Put His Words in Your Mouth. What does Jeremiah say? “Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, ‘Now, I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”
If you think about it, hasn’t God done the same thing for you, Pastor Hackbarth? By calling you into the public ministry, God, in effect, has put his words into your mouth. Your job is not to go around telling everyone what Jonathan Hackbarth thinks. No, your divinely appointed task is to tell people what God says. That means knowing your Scriptures, so that you can first apply them to your heart and then apply them to the hearts and lives of others. And as you do that, God’s Word will have one of two effects on the people who hear it. On the one hand, you may find that by faithfully preaching the Word of God, you are going to, in the words of our text, “uproot and tear down, destroy and overthrow.”
Now, maybe there are some members here who are thinking, “Well, I don’t want our new pastor to be saying things that will tear down and destroy people.” And yet, isn’t that what a clear proclamation of God’s law is designed to do? The law serves as a mirror to point out our selfish pride. It’s intended to convict us of sin and drive us to our knees in humble repentance. And then, after the Law has broken us down, then God allows the sweet message of his love and forgiveness to lift us up again. That precious good news that in Christ, you are I are all right in the eyes of God. Through that precious gospel, offered to us again and again in word and sacrament, God builds up his church and plants in us the desire to live our lives to his glory.
Pastor Hackbarth, that’s the message that God has put into your mouth. It’s why God has put you here. Members of Mount Olive, I ask that you judge this man not on the basis of his good looks, or his charming personality, or his lovely wife—those are all icing on the cake. Instead, judge this man on his faithfulness to God’s Word. For that’s why he’s here. God put him here so that you would benefit from the saving message that he proclaims in God’s name.
I pray that you see this man for what he is: a fragile clay pot, carrying a priceless treasure. Honor him, support him, pray for him and listen to him, as one who speaks the very words of God. For in the end, his presence here is neither his doing nor your doing. It’s God’s doing. Pastor, God Put you Here. And for that we can all say, “Thank you, Jesus!” In his name. Amen.