Most of us, if not all of us, were at the earliest service this morning, and we read from Jeremiah chapter one. Let's go back to Jeremiah chapter one, shall we? Jeremiah chapter one. Verse four. Then 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, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Our Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child, for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces, 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 root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down to build and to plant. Now this particular chapter has always been special to me, because at one time in a season of real need, God brought this message to me. I was driven by a car from Birmingham to London for the send-off meetings of the pilgrim preachers way back in nineteen thirty-five. And because I had just become one of the pilgrim preachers, it was to me my program too. Before that time, because I was informed by letter that our send-off meeting would be in Eccleston Hall in London, and I knew that hall, I was to know it better. For every send-off meeting and every welcome home meeting was held in that very large hall and it was always packed. to the door, but by letter I was informed that I would be the speaker at that first send-off meeting that I experienced. I was so nervous. I asked the Lord for a message, and this is what he gave me. I was seventeen. And when I wrote to Mr. Lough and told him that I was exercised about joining the pilgrim preachers, after several days I got a letter from him saying, Come down to Princeton on Sea and stay a week with me. When I went down there, he told me, I picked up my pen no less than seven times to say you're too young. But he said, I had to put it down again. So then I compromised the eighth time and wrote that letter and invited you to come. We had a week together of prayer and exercise. And at the end of the week, he said to me, there's a place for you with the party. So I preached on say not I am a child. and be not afraid of their faces and so on and there was a sea of faces in front of me I don't know what kind of message that was I don't remember it too much but I do remember sighing with relief when it was over the feeling it hadn't been so bad after all that's why this chapter is special to me I was reading again recently about human worth. And Dr. Charles H. Mayo of the Mayo Clinic was the one who wrote the article. And he said that human worth is just about eighty-four cents. In you you have enough potassium for one shot of a toy pistol. You have enough fat for seven bars of soap. I suppose that varies from person to person. Enough iron to make an eight-penny nail. Enough sulfur to keep the fleas off a dog. Enough lime to whitewash a chicken coop. Enough magnesium. to make a single dose for a sour stomach and enough phosphorus to make twenty two hundred match heads total value eighty nine cents now it's been a long time since he said that so i suppose that inflation has made us worth a little more than that but that's kind of humbling isn't it to be diagnosed like that and dissected like that. But it really impresses upon us that it is only God in a man's life that makes him worth anything at all. Here is Jeremiah. We read from him this morning in the Lamentations. Before I formed thee, I knew thee. Before thou cameest forth, I sanctified thee. I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. God laid a hand upon Jeremiah, and he gave him this responsibility. And when God came into his life, he became capable of meeting God's demands upon him and becoming a preacher to the nations. Now we know that Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet because of the book of lamentations, but he was a man with such deep exercise. that what he wept over was the burden of others. There are a lot of lessons to be learned from this chapter, in spite of the fact that Dr. Mayo reminded us that we put more worth of food into our bodies in one meal than our value reaches. the cost of which we reach. But when God comes into a man's life, everything is changed. When God gets control of a man's existence, his worth to God becomes immeasurable. But it's not enough to know God. One has to let him control them. And that's exactly what Jeremiah did. God says to him, and the man trembles, I have set thee so. God spoke and told in no uncertain terms to Jeremiah that he had put his hand on him, and he was going to enable him, going to enable him, to do the work that he had laid before him. I want you to look at these verses here, and especially at the end of this reading. I want you to notice, first of all, three consecutive verses. Then I want you to notice three distinct tenses. And then finally, three separate phrases. They are here. Let me read it to you once again. I shall send thee. This is verse seven. And whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. Verse eight, I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. And then in verse nine, I have put my words in thy mouth. Three consecutive verses and three distinct tenses he says I shall that's the future he says I am that's the present and he says I have put my words in thy mouth and that's the past three consecutive verses three distinct tenses and then three separate phrases, and here they are, their faces, my words, thy mouth. There must be a message here. God in a man's life makes all the difference When God speaks to a man and commands a man, God will, if a man allows him, give him all the strength to carry out his commands. But he depends upon our willingness to lay still in his hand and to be obedient. I read these verses to you because It occurs to me here that there are three things that should challenge our hearts. There is first of all a promise that not only came to Jeremiah but it comes to every child of God. It's a promise that every believer must examine. Then I read these verses to you because God reminds Jeremiah that there is a presence, but it's not only for him, it's a presence that every believer should enjoy. And then finally, God speaks to Jeremiah of a power, and he doesn't just speak to Jeremiah of a power, it is a power that every believer should experience. Now the question is, do we really examine these things? Do we enjoy these things? Do we experience these things? Verse seven is the first one. I shall send thee. God is speaking of and to the individual. You see, every believer has a mission in life. When God laid hold of him, God knew the future, saved him, and then expected him to fit into the pattern that God had chosen for him. Now it's possible for a man to take himself out of the will of God and so to lose out and for God to lose out. When God lays hold of a man, and transforms that man. And that man becomes as clay in the hand of the potter. There is absolutely no limit to what God can do with that man. Jeremiah said, God said to Jeremiah, Say not that I am a child, because that was immediately an excuse. I'm a child. I'm a child. Don't expect too much for me. I'm just a child. Don't say it, said God. Don't say it, because thou shalt go to all whom I send you, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. This is not going to be you, it's me in you. Now, that promise, Jeremiah, he took God at his word. He accepted that promise, and he went. Now it's a promise that every believer should examine. Since God has a will for my life, a plan for my life, how certain am I? How convinced am I that I'm in the center of that will? Now we are all human. And we all have our times of fluttering doubt about things. There are occasions when we are very distressed about things because we do not know to what extent we are in the will of God. And it is so wise to be concerned about that. You know, a man meets a woman and he falls in love with her. She falls in love with him and they get married. But sometimes they fall out of love. The reason being they weren't meant to marry that particular being at all. Now you and I, in our long experiences, and we're all over twenty-one, we have met people who married women who married the wrong men, and men who married the wrong women. It was not that there was anything particularly wrong about the man or the woman. It was just meant that they were not meant for each other. and somewhere along the way they got things screwed up and they landed into deep, deep trouble that would leave its mark on them. I have a daughter. She was courted by a young man in the assembly. He was a Christian. He was not a good Christian. He lied like a trooper. And when things began to get thick, Her mother and her father sat down with her and talked with her. We told her, she's not for you. He doesn't know what the truth is. He is lacking in spirituality. We don't believe that he'll make a spiritual head of a home. Please don't rush into anything. At least keep praying about it. But she didn't. Well, she made a proud, prayed about it, but she married him. She's a divorced woman today. And she carried that stigma to her grave. But she did it with her eyes open. And she still suffers because of it. Sometimes God speaks to our hearts and we don't like what we hear. But if we're wise, we'll follow directions. A promise that every believer should examine, I shall send thee. You don't go on your own. You don't make up your own mind. I am going to send you. To miss the will of God in one's life, especially in a matter like marriage and many other important things, is a tragedy that can leave its mark on your life. Now you're looking back over your life, most of it, and I'm looking back over mine. And you know that every time you miss the will of God, you suffered for it. Every time you took just a wrong step, you were grateful that God dragged you back at that point and didn't let you take another and another and another. Now looking back on our experiences, we can see how God sometimes pulled us up short. We can see how that sometimes God challenged us. We can see how that sometimes, because every believer has had this experience, God says, no, N, O, no. And then the believer either says, I don't care what you say and goes ahead, or says, Lord, I don't like that, no. I want it to be yes. God says, it's no. Well, Lord, very unwillingly, I'm going to back off. And you back off, even though you're unhappy doing it. The day comes when you look back to that point in your life and say, oh, how wonderful the gracious God was to me, and how the Spirit of God saved me from what might have been. God has made a promise. I shall send thee. Every one of us here is a missionary. I wonder how you're missioning. I think sometimes, you know, when we get to the age that some of us are, and even the age that most of us are, we get the idea that, well, I've sort of done my stint. I've carried out my job. I think now that I can take a rest and let the young people do it. Do you know what? When your work is finished, do you know what God will do? He'll take you home. Just make sure he doesn't take you home before your work is finished. That's the point here. I shall send thee. And when God sends you, it's because at the end of that journey, there is blessing for others and blessing for you and glory for him. I shall send thee. Look at God's interest, or if you will, God's knowledge of Jeremiah as she outlines it. I formed thee, this is verse five, I formed thee, I knew thee, I sanctified thee, I ordained thee. First of all, I knew thee. That's divine interest. And then secondly, I formed thee. That's divine intervention. I sanctified thee. That's divine influence. And finally, I ordained you. Divine intention. I shall send you. Now there are still around us people. to whom we should be witnessing. Now I talked to you about tracts a while ago and how we should be armed with them and how that there are always people that we can give tracts to, unobtrusively, quietly and so on. Do you know what happened? Norman told me his tract rack almost emptied. That was great. He had to bring more tracts and replenish it. You took me at my word. More than that, you accepted God's challenge. And so you took the tracks, and I hope that they've all been given out by now, because that was months ago. I shall send thee. To think of the privilege of being a messenger for the Lord, one whom the Lord sends. We stand on the dock and watch a ship sail away, carrying a couple to the mission field, and we say, what a privilege that is. They're going to serve the Lord in a foreign land. Every day you're called to serve the Lord in a foreign land. And no knight should come on without you spoken to someone about the Lord. Now, you can't make a promise like that without great thought and prayer, but I think I, and I think that you, we ought to pray every day that God would enable us to speak to someone about him. I shall send thee. Jeremiah says, please, Lord, send somebody else. No, I'm going to send you. I have a job for you to do. And God has a job for us to do. I shall send thee. Now that is in the future tense. I'm going to do it, God says. And then he says, I am with you. That's the present. When I send you, you won't be by yourself. You go on my missionary journey. and I will be with you. I am with you. I'm with you now and I'll be with you every step of the way. This God who has a divine interest in us, he divinely intervenes in our lives, he influences us, because he intends that we should do the job for him that is put into our hands. It's a promise. that every believer should examine. I shall send thee. Jeremiah protests. She says, I'm not ready. Ah, Lord God, he says, and you can hear it immediately. He's drawing back. I believe that Jeremiah was frightened to death. He didn't know what God had in mind for him. He says, I'm not ready, Lord. Give me a little more time. When God says, I'm going to send you, that's the right time. He says, I'm not able. He says, I cannot speak. I'm not able. Why are you going to send me when I'm not ready? And I am not able. He goes on to say, I'm not mature. Ah, Lord God, I'm a child. No, none of us can say we are children. And yet we can. If our parents are still alive, they never think of us any other way. These are the kids. Even when you get to be fifty and sixty and so on, you know how it happens. It's no use bringing excuses to God when God says, I shall send thee. What you need to do is to say, Lord, Anytime, anywhere, for any reason. You say, well, I'm just an ordinary Christian. I'm not called to the mission. No, but you're called. And God's made you a promise. I'm going to send you to be a blessing to somebody. Now, many of us can't get very far afield, so we have to look for the somebody right at our back door here. but somewhere God has someone he wants to bless through you. I shall send thee, he says. And then he promises you, I am with you. Now, let me read these verses to you. Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord. Now obviously there are four things in these verses that have to do with the presence. I am with thee. The first is the conflict is to be anticipated. We've lived long enough to know that the Christian life is not an easy path. A Christian has many enemies and one in particular and there's going to be a battle. there's going to be more than one battle there's going to be constant interference by the devil in your life but God says get ready for it be not afraid of their faces deliberately accept the fact that conflict is to be anticipated and encourage is to be expected of us. Be not afraid. And then there is company to be available to us. I am with thee. And then there is conquest that is assured for us. I am with thee, said the Lord, to Deliver thee. You can't be in the will of God and lose out. You cannot be in the will of God and fail. You cannot be in the will of God and not succeed. The secret is being in the center of the will of God. Because there God says, I'm with you. So there's a promise that every believer should examine. and ever presence that every believer should enjoy. I am with you. And then I read here, I have put my words in thy mouth. Think about that. This is the power. You know, it was with his word that God spoke the worlds into being. By the word of his power, he brought the planets into being and put them into their orbits. By his word, the word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. And this is the power that the believer is meant to experience. My words, in your mouth, you might feel very powerless. When you go out to try to do the will of God as he's laid it on your heart, to speak to this one or to speak to that one, to do this or to do that thing, you may not know just how you're going to go about it. But God will not leave you in ignorance if you say, Lord, whatever it is, I'll do it. But if you say, well, Lord, show me what it is, and then I'll tell you whether I'll do it or not. God doesn't reveal his will like that. You come to God and say, Lord, whatever it is, wherever it is, I'll do it. Just you tell me what it is. This is the power then, the word of God. Look at what it says in our portion here. It says, Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth. The touch of God upon the lips. Do you know God hasn't changed? And you're a human being like Jeremiah. If you're going forth to speak for God, you ask for his touch upon your lips. Because it'll be his word that comes out of them. And his word is quick and powerful. When God speaks to the believer, mountains can be moved. his touch brings that power within reach. Then his word proves to be the medium of that power. It is my word. And then look at what the power can do. Verse ten, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms To root out God's power is a purging thing. To pull down God's power is an overthrowing thing. It's a destructive thing and destroy, it says. It's an undermining thing. Throw down. But it's a constructive thing. Build. and an establishing thing, plant. There's a lot of pulling down before God's building can be raised. There's a lot of destroying and doing away with before the will of God can take over. And it doesn't matter how long we've been saved, it doesn't take long for these things to begin to ploy, or rather begin to... show their ugly heads and affect our living. We need a power like this power. Now look at this last verse. I want to read it to you. Ah, I can find the verse. Go let verse nine. He touched my lips. I have put my words in thy mouth. Go down the chapter to verse seventeen. Now the interview is over. Now God and Jeremiah have come to understand one another. So verse seventeen God says to Jeremiah, And I want to use it to say to you as from him, Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee. Be not dismayed at their faces lest. Notice that little word, L-E-S-T. It doesn't pay to turn your back on the will of God. It doesn't pay to turn your ear away from the command of God. Be not dismayed at their faces lest I confound thee before them. What an important word that is, lest. If you do, here's the consequence. I have this day set thee. Do you remember the day that you were saved? I'm sure you do. There are some people who cannot remember the date, but that's not so important. But I doubt very much whether there's anybody here who doesn't remember the day and the experiences of the day that they came to know the Lord Jesus. And I don't know in what manner it happened, but God spoke to you. Perhaps it was through a preacher. Maybe it was through a sorrow. Maybe it was because of a habit. There are so many things that it could have been, that could have been. But the fact is God got through to you. I was saved in a meeting in Birmingham in England, and I went to a meeting rather reluctantly, but I had pressure brought upon me to be there because the preacher was the fiancé of one of my sisters. I said to myself, well, we're going to have a parson in the family. I ought to know how he preaches. And so I went along that night, ready to be a critic. But I'll never forget when we stood to sing the closing hymn. I tried to sing, Sinner, how thy heart is troubled. God is coming very near. Do not hide thy deep emotion. Do not stay the falling tear. All be saved. His grace is free. All be saved. He died for thee. I was standing there. I went into that meeting to sit on the back row, but all the Christians had filled it up. I had to sit at the end of the second row from the back and right at the end at that. But I stood up to sing that hymn and the preacher stood at the pulpit and challenged the congregation. Maybe tonight is the night. Do you have the courage? to come forward and trust him and confess him. I struggled, but then I stepped out of the pew and I walked up and I was led through into a little back room. I can see it now where there was a circular table with a red cloth on it and I just dropped on my knees and I wept. And while I was doing that with my eyes closed, somebody came and knelt beside me. No, it wasn't the preacher. It was another of my sisters. And she got saved that night, too. I little knew what lay ahead of me. When you got saved, you little knew what lay ahead of you. But looking back, I know that you thank God for every opportunity that God has given and that you have seized to tell somebody else about him. to have an impact upon other lives. I still get a thrill. I go sometimes to the Christian day schools in town to speak at the devotional in the morning, more than once. I've had the joy after that, kneeling. I remember a little seven-year-old. His name was Kevin. I can see him now. He came and he said, Mr. Woodhouse, I need to be saved. I talked just a few sentences and we knelt down together. He was right ready to let the Lord Jesus into his heart. And when we opened our eyes and we got up, there was his mother standing beside him with the tears running down her cheeks. I'm sure she'd prayed for him a long time. Just seven years of age. I waited till I was thirteen. Some of you were older still. But the fact is, God says, I'll restore... that that the locusts have eaten. There's still plenty of God ahead of us if we'll make use of the opportunity and make sure that the power is his and not ours. Let's pray together, shall we? Our Father, we thank you for this chapter. We thank you for the response of the heart of Jeremiah. And our Father, we pray for a heart like his, that when we are challenged, when the way is placed before us, when the command is uttered, Lord, we pray that we may seek in the Spirit of God to obey that command, to do that errand, to go that place. We love you, Lord. We want to serve you. And we do want to be made a blessing to others. And you promised I am with you. Grant, Lord, that this coming week we might all be active missionaries in this little town. In Jesus' name. Amen.