A BREAKTHROUGH IS POSSIBLE
Introduction:
– Many people are battling with discouragement, despair, hopelessness and depression.
– Perhaps you are feeling like this today.
– You are not alone.
– Even the great people of God went through experiences like this.
– Like Moses, Abraham, Joseph and David.
– The prophet Jeremiah also faced difficulty and discouragement.
1. EVEN THE GREAT GET DOWNHEARTED
– Jeremiah was a great prophet who had been used by God.
– He was the one who brought us these great scriptures:
– Jeremiah 29:11 ‘For I know the plans I have for you says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.’
– Jeremiah 33:3 ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’
– These are some of the best-known and loved scriptures, yet there was a time when Jeremiah was discouraged.
– We find it in: Jeremiah 15:18 ‘Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will you indeed be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail and are uncertain?’
– Can you see the doubt and discouragement?
2. GOD’S RESPONSE
– God responds to Jeremiah in his discouragement.
– God gives him some advice to help him out of the hole that he had found himself in.
– Jeremiah 15:19 ‘Therefore thus says the Lord (to Jeremiah): ‘If you return (and give up this mistaken tone of distrust and despair), then I will give you again a settled place of quiet and safety, and you will be My minister; and if you separate the precious from the vile (cleansing your own heart from unworthy and unwanted suspicions concerning God’s faithfulness – you shall be My mouthpiece. (But do not yield to them). Let them return to you – not you to (the people).’
– Let’s look at God’s response:
a. RETURN TO GOD
– The first thing that God does is to offer him the option of returning.
– Oftentimes when we are discouraged we become self-focused and self-orientated.
– We begin to feel sorry for ourselves.
– This self-orientation needs to be replaced with a returning to God and becoming God-orientated.
– We need to become God-conscious and remind ourselves that God is all-powerful and limitless.
– We must stop limiting God and return to a pace of faith in God.
– Jeremiah 15:19 Therefore thus says the Lord (to Jeremiah): ‘If you return’
b. A MISTAKEN TONE
– Have you ever discovered that when we are going through a hard time we can begin to sound like we are going through a bad patch?
– Jeremiah had begun to develop this tone.
– It was a tone of distrust and despair.
– Perhaps he was saying things like: ‘God has forgotten about me’ or ‘God does not have a plan for me’, or ‘trusting God is not really helping me’.
– Moaning or distrust and despair do not move God, God is moved by faith.
– When we develop this tone we need to take decisive steps to give up and let go of this attitude so that God can begin to use us again.
– Jeremiah 15:19 Therefore thus says the Lord (to Jeremiah): ‘If you return (and give up this mistaken tone of distrust and despair)’.
c. GET RID OF THE DOUBT
– When we develop doubt, we set ourselves up for disaster.
– Doubt and suspicions about God and His faithfulness are unacceptable and vile to God.
– Jeremiah 15:19 ‘and if you separate the precious form the vile (cleansing your own heart from unworthy and unwarranted suspicions concerning God’s faithfulness)’.
– Our doubt concerning God is unworthy and unwarranted.
– Don’t let it get a foothold in your life.
3. THE REWARDS
– If we do these things and get rid of the doubt, questions or suspicions then God can begin to use us.
– While we are full of doubt and negativity, God cannot use us or bring about His plan and purpose for our lives.
– But if we can deal with these things, then the way is open for God to work in our lives and to use us.
– Jeremiah 15:19‘Therefore thus says the Lord (to Jeremiah); If you return (and give up this mistaken tone of distrust and despair), then I will give you again a settled place of quiet and safety, and you will be My minister; and if you separate the precious from the vile (cleansing your own heart from unworthy and unwarranted suspicions concerning God’s faithfulness), you shall be My mouthpiece.’
– Note the rewards:
1. A settled place of quiet and safety
2. You will be My minister
3. You will be My mouthpiece
– As we read on we see that God has even greater things in store.
– We can apply this story to our lives.
Jeremiah 15:18 – 21
18 ‘Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will you indeed be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail and are uncertain?
19 Therefore thus says the Lord [to Jeremiah]: If you return [and give up this mistaken tone of distrust and despair], then I will give you again a settled place of quiet and safety, and you will be My minister; and if you separate the precious from the vile [cleansing your own heart from unworthy and unwarranted suspicions concerning God’s faithfulness], you shall be My mouthpiece. [But do not yield to them.] Let them return to you – not you to [the people].
20 And I will make you to this people a fortified, bronze wall; they will fight against you, but they will not prevail over you, for I am with you to save and deliver you, says the Lord.
21 And I will deliver you out of the hands of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the palms of the terrible and ruthless tyrants.’
By: Andrew W Roebert
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