Sermon at Grace Episcopal on 1-31-10 by Lynette

Jeremiah 1:4-10
Tuesday night Scotty and I went to visit Masi and his family to celebrate Lehiwa's first birthday. Yes, she turned one year old on Friday! When we arrived a TV show, "Repo," was on. This team goes in, with cameras rolling, to repossess cars, boats, and motorcycles from folks who haven't been paying their bills. They've been living large and they truly believe these things belong to them. So there's lots of screaming, lots of fighting and swearing, lots of "But it's mine!" It's incredible. People were fighting madly to keep their treasures.

Treasures that were expensive. Treasures that were cool.

But no matter how beautiful or powerful those treasures were, they all had two things in common. One is simple. They hadn't been paid for and so they were taken away. But the second is a bit more subtle.

Every one of those repossessed treasures could never give them fulfillment.

What do you treasure? Has it been paid for? Could anyone ever take it away from you?

Two weeks ago I asked four questions: Are we making God famous? Are we fruitful? Are we faithful? Are we fulfilled? Today, with Kahuala`i's baptism I think it's important to ask ourselves are we fulfilled?

The Merriam Webster Dictionary has many definitions for the word fulfilled. Here are a few: "To make full," "to convert into reality," or "to develop the full potentialities of."

If we look to our treasures for fulfillment, they indeed need to be real, to fill us, and to help us develop our full potential. And if our treasures can be taken away from us, then we risk letting someone or something steal the most valuable things in our lives. That's why Jesus said these words recorded in Matthew 6:19 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

As I look around this room and as I reflect on all of us who have been a part of Grace Church, I see men and women and children who have impacted my life solely because of their relationship with Jesus. They know where their true treasure lies.

Together, we have connected with the Lord and with one another. And we have discovered how God has always had a plan for each of us that can bring His love, forgiveness and fulfillment into our lives.

And that's the promise we want to hold out to Kahuala`i and his family today. We declare that we can find life and fulfillment if we put our trust in the original Promise Keeper, El Shaddai, God Almighty, who is faithful Himself. And no one, no one and no thing - can ever repossess that.

Jeremiah knew fulfillment. He was a prophet in Israel, one who would foretell future events. Jeremiah would receive a specific message from God to speak to people

Now a person doesn't just decide one day that they're going to be a prophet. You had to have a calling from God to do this. And it's in the midst of Jeremiah's call to be a prophet that Jeremiah discovered something amazing about God. He discovered that God knew who he was. Now folks, we live in an impersonal world. You can shop, do your banking, go to school and do your work in front of a computer screen without ever having to speak to another person. Living in such an isolated environment makes it hard to imagine that there's a God who truly knows who we are; who knows us on an intimate level. How intimate? In our lesson from the book of Jeremiah we learn 3 things about our relationship with God.

First, before you were born: GOD KNEW YOU (Jeremiah 1:5)

Now I can't imagine getting any more intimate than that! Think about that for a second. Before you were ever born, God knew you! Not even your parents can say that! I remember how excited we all were before Kahuala`i was born. We couldn't wait to see what he looked like. We waited with Sherron and Mary to see what he was going to be like. We couldn't wait to meet him. But the Bible says that before he was born that God KNEW Kahuala'i and before we were born God KNEW each of us!

God had His stamp of love and approval on Jeremiah's life and on our lives too. It means that God specifically knew you.
You might be saying that obviously God was speaking t

o Jeremiah here since this is the Book of Jeremiah and not the Book of Russell or the Book of Sonia. So you may be tempted to think God knew Jeremiah but He doesn't know you.

Not so! A recurring theme in the Bible is that we are not accidents but the handiwork of God. God made us. In my favorite psalm, 139:12-15 it says, "For You Yourself created my inmost parts; You knit me together in my mother's womb. I will thank You because I am marvelously made; Your works are wonderful, and I know it well. My body was not hidden from You, while I was being made in secret and woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my limbs, yet unfinished in the womb; all of them were written in Your book; they were fashioned day by day, when as yet there was none of them." (BCP)

Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." There is no doubt that the Bible teaches God knew us before we were born. You might be wondering what the big deal is that God knows us.

The big deal is: if God knows you then it means you are not an accident. It means He created you for a purpose. It means you're not all alone. It means you haven't been forgotten. It's easy to think He's already got too much on His mind and that He'll forget about us.
But God doesn't forget!

Jeremiah was commissioned by God to spread a message of judgment to the people of Israel. Not exactly what you'd call a real fun message to preach. But it was as though God was telling Jeremiah, "I know you've got a tough message to deliver, but let me tell you something. I know you! I'm not going to leave you alone. I'm going to be by your side as you deliver this message."

This same message is for us as well. Hebrews 13: 5-6 "God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.' So we say with confidence, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" Folks, if God knows you, He's going to take care of you.

God told Jeremiah He had set him apart. What that means is that God had a specific purpose in mind for Jeremiah before he was ever born. And let me tell you something. Each person in this room was created for a specific reason. Each and every one of us, including this 3 month old baby, was created on purpose for a purpose. Isn't that cool to think about? God had a purpose in mind for you when you came into this world. That is a message people need to hear: that God has a purpose and plan for their life! Jeremiah 29:11"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future."

And that is the bull's eye of fulfillment, placing our treasure in the Lord and living confidently in God's purpose for you.

Yet so many of us don't realize God has a plan for our lives and we're trying to fill up our lives with our own plans. And what's happening is we're left feeling empty.

I read a story about an African plant called Hoodia. It looks like cactus and it grows wild in the desert. The plant's getting a lot of attention because it seems to be a good appetite suppressant. Scientists have discovered that when you eat small amounts of the plant, it leaves you with a sense of being full, when in fact you're not.

Some of us are filling up our lives with things that we think are making us full. We're filling up our lives with work and material things that people can take away. But as time goes on what we're going to discover is that we're filling up our lives with things with things that can be repossessed, things that really can't fill us. Instead they leave us empty.

But Jesus came here to fill us up. He said in John 10:10 "I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly." The word "abundant" is in reference to being "overfilled." Now a person can't have an "abundant" life if they feel as though there's no real purpose or meaning in their life.

The second thing we learn about our relationship to God from Jeremiah, also in verse 5, God told Jeremiah He had consecrated him. Consecrated means to be set apart for a special purpose.

His calling was to perform a specific purpose. And God has a calling on your life for a specific task as well.]

And that is the million-dollar question. What does the Lord have in mind for me? Chew on this for a moment…God wants each of us to be His full time ministers…

First of all, let's get all the religious junk out of our minds. God's purpose for our lives isn't for all of us to wear a collar and robes. You don't have to love incense or Gregorian Chants to be used by God, but if you do love chants and incense He can and will use you.

God loves diversity. He made Mars red. He made Saturn with rings around it. He made Pluto whether we think it's a planet or not. He made the waves in Lake Michigan flat and the waves at Waimea 40 feet. God made dragonflies small and Komodo dragons big. And He designed each of us different specifically for His purpose. There was only 1 Jeremiah, the prophet. There was only 1 Peter, Jesus' rough fisherman friend. And there was only 1 Apostle Paul. In last week's reading from 1 Corinthians 12 Paul wrote that each of us makes up the Body of Christ. Some of us are prominent and out front. But each of us is essential to Christ's Body.

I would like to use Wayne Cordeiro's illustration here. God takes his full time ministers and gives them gifts to be great fishermen. Then those ministers go to where guys are fixing motors, building boats, and lying about the big one that got away. The Lord uses His fishing ministers to bring His love and message to the boys at the wharf or by the ocean.

And God takes His full time ministers and gives some of them the gifts to love books and school. He sends them to be teachers and librarians and counselors and principals. Then those ministers bring the Love of God to our schools and children.

God even gives gifts of artistry, and design and color and who do not have Aichmophobia or Belonephobia. And these ministers draw pictures and symbols and mix beautiful colors. And because they don't have the fear of needles, they share God's love with people as they work their artistry of tattooing.

Sometimes God takes His ministers and gives them the gifts of extra compassion and love. And he sends them to tend to their parents or spouses or others who are unable to take care of themselves. And armed with the Love and Tenderness of Jesus, they bring God's love to the weak, the elderly and the handicapped.

Have you noticed that there are 2 common elements in being consecrated and set apart for the Lord?

The first is the desire to use your gifts and talents for His glory.

The second is that you have to use it, to share it, to give it away.

So, before you were born God knew you. And before you were born God set you apart.

And thirdly, before you were born: GOD APPOINTED YOU.

The word "appointed" means "gave." So you could also read this verse about Jeremiah like this: "I gave you as a prophet to the nations." God is always giving. He's always generous with us.

That's exactly what God did with Jesus. He gave Him away. He didn't keep Jesus in a museum so we could all look at Him. He didn't put Jesus in a lock box so no one else could enjoy Him. He shared Jesus with the world. John 3: 16 tells us that God loved the world so much that He gave His Son to us.

We can never discover fulfillment unless we learn to give. In Luke 6 Jesus taught, "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
We can never receive God's gifts if our fists are clenched. It is only when we release our hands to give, that we can take a hold of the gifts He wants us to receive.

When we put our treasure in Jesus and decide to live for His glory, and then go out and give His love away, we will discover what it means to be fulfilled. And being truly fulfilled is something that is so deep in us that it can never be snatched away or repossessed, because if you look closely you can see a lonely windswept hill with 2 pieces of wood on it. And on that at that cross you can see these words… "Paid In Full." Our true fulfillment comes through Jesus Christ and it has already been paid for.

Return to Sermon page.