Formed Before the Facts | Jeremiah 1:5 ESV

There is an exegetical invitation I want to extend to you. Pray that you accept. You've been invited fellowship with me this morning, the Old Testament major prophecy of Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter number 1. For some reason, I had to remember to say chapter 1 because I almost said chapter 26, verse 8. Something sounds very familiar about 26 and 8. Some of y'all will get that later on. I think there was a game Friday where the score was 26-8, and so I had to remind myself, boy, I'm a sly rascal, boy, I'm a sly rascal.

Jeremiah chapter number 1.

Y'all thought I was gonna forget Jeremiah. Chapter number 1, we'll read beginning at verse number 5. I'm reading from the English Standard Version this morning. Very familiar pericope. I'm gonna do my best to lift this this morning if you pray with me. Jeremiah chapter number 1, verse number 5.

Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.

Before you were born, I consecrated you. I appointed you a prophet to the nations. You may be seated. Thank God for his word and for the perpetual nature that lies there within. Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I consecrated you, appointed you Jeremiah, big prophet to the nation. For just a few moments this morning, I want to talk from the subject Formed Before the Facts. Formed before the facts. 1990s, man by the name of Reed Hastings rented a movie called Apollo 13, which is one of my favorite movies, from Blockbuster. Hastings the 1990s, after renting the movie from Blockbuster, returned the movie late to Blockbuster, and to his surprise, he was hit with a $40 late fee.

How irritating!

That because he simply forgot to return the movie on time, that he ended up paying more in the late fee than he did to rent the movie.

That was an irritation.

However, strangely enough, due to Hastings irritation—

the irritation actually became an invitation. Because Hastings, from his frustration of having to pay a late fee because he submitted the movie back late, he developed an idea called subscription-based renting, whereas opposed to having to get a physical movie, you simply go into a platform, subscribe to it, watch it how you want to, and there is no such thing as a late fee. This idea became what we now know as the multi-billion dollar 56 $50 billion investment company called Netflix. Did y'all catch that? Netflix now, which is valued at approximately $50 billion and have over 300 million subscribers, it was initiated because a man let his irritation served as an invitation. Can we sneak here in Jeremiah chapter 1 this morning? We see Jeremiah, this young prophet, in an irritating environment in Judah, and God, before the irritation even started, came to Jeremiah and told Jeremiah, I am ordaining and calling you to go speak to the children of Israel about the irritation. Translated, if there was not any problem, there would not be a need for the call. And children, we see so many irritations in society now. Don't you see it on the news? Political officers corrupt. Don't you see the economic turmoil? Don't you see the racism? Don't you see sexism? Don't you see injustice in the criminal justice system? Don't you see problems in in the educational system? Don't you see the violence that is happening on our streets every day? And not only is it happening in big cities, but violence is now happening in our smaller communities. Don't you see that there is lack of attendance in church on Sunday, but there's attendance in every other thing that we want to have? Don't you see that people don't have enough money to buy their groceries? Don't you see that elders, or some elders, are struggling to buy their medicine?

Don't you see that housing is not affordable as it once was?

Don't you see that there is nepotism in the workplace where the most qualified is not always the one who gets the job? Don't you see the irritation in your household where when you pay this bill, two more come from over here? Children of God, there is irritation all around us. But just like God called Jeremiah in order to combat the confusion and chaos in Judah, I want to let someone know today that the chaos and irritation that we see in society now is not for the sake of our complaining, but it's actually promoting God to come. And I did all of that litany to let us know all of the various problems that we face. And even though I named a lot of problems I was just scratching the surface. But based upon this text, if before Judah went into exile, God called a prophet, that lets us know that we serve a God who is already preparing and calling people now to handle today's and tomorrow's problems. And child of God, you think that it just has to be a preacher, you think that it just has to be a deacon, but anybody who has breath in her or his body, God has the idea to call them. So what if I told you today that God plans on choosing you? To be a solution to a problem that has not even happened yet. Did you hear what I said? You think that you're living a life just to receive money and food and that, but before you close your eyes, God has a divine purpose for you, and he's using some chaos and confusion and frustration as the avenue in which he wants to give you purpose. And what if I told you today that while you're sitting here this Sunday morning thinking that this is just going to be a regular church service, that you came to just tell God, and I came and showed up, but God came to ordain you today to let you know that there are too many problems in the world going on today for you to just live here and let it happen like this. But God is calling you now with the plan of allowing you to be the solution to somebody's problem. And somebody right now needs to lift their hand and say, God, I got my flaws. God, I got my issues. But I thank you that you are calling me to be a solution. You are calling me to be an answer even as I am right now.

I don't know how I'm going to be a solution, but by your grace and by your mercy, I receive by faith today that I am not here to waste your oxygen, but I am here, God, because you have ordained me, you have called me, you have anointed me. To be able to bring salvation into this world.

And somebody today, let me tell you that what's irritating you is actually inviting you.

Say it one more time, Gavin.

What's irritating you is actually what's inviting you, and God is calling you to be the bomb to that what's irritating you. Is mighty strength. And in the backdrop of what's going on in Israel at this particular moment, you have Babylon who's gaining, who's gaining power. You got Assyria who's losing power to Babylon. You got Egypt on the other side of Judah that's a threat. But yet and still God's in control. Y'all ain't got it yet, so let me say it one more time. You got Babylon who's a threat, you got Egypt who's a threat, you got, uh, Syria that's a threat, but on the throne there's still a God. And if God is on the throne, he can take you in your feeble flesh and allow you to be able to combat every threat in society. In other words, I guess what I'm trying to say, God got the last say-so.

Devil, you are a liar. I see all of the threats, I see all of the attack, I see all of the chaos, but thanks be to God that he's still calling in the midst of the chaos.

And too many of us, child of God, You want to be called to do something cute, but God got somebody else who can do something cute. But if you want to be called and chosen by God, there are some problems that God wants you to be the solution to. So I guess that I'm saying today is that that which we're complaining about perhaps may be what God is calling us to. We do all this talk about how the young people need help, but we stay just trying to get them in church.

It's gonna take more than just getting them in church. It's gonna take us getting out there, and when we get out there, they'll come to church late.

We do all this talk about what's going on in the political climate, but we don't want to run for office. We do all this talk about who's in office, but we don't want to go vote.

We do all this talk about people who in leadership, but when the last time you prayed for a leader? We do all this talk about school policy, but we don't show up to parent-teacher conference. When are you gonna answer the call to the chaos?

Stand bold this morning, son. Here's what I came to preach. I gotta get out of here. I'm getting hot because I got a suit on today. But here's what I'm simply trying to prove.

God is calling and confirming us through the chaos in order for help us clean the chaos.

That's a cute thesis, and y'all ain't say nothing. I said that God is calling and confirming us through the chaos to use us to be a cure to the chaos.

Translated, it may be bothering us But God can use us to help us.

I've done the best I can to get you to where I'm trying to get. Let me unpack a few Herman Luther highlights. Now I'm going to get on 167, and I'm feeling off today. This text teaches us that we serve a God Here it is, Tony, of preparatory screening.

Preparatory screening.

Uh, we shout with this verse in isolation and it just makes us feel good. I'm called and he anointed you in the belly of the womb.

Child number 4. Gets to that.

This what shouts me, it's this preposition before.

That, that word before shouts me because it tells of the omniscience and the providence of God.

All I just said was that the— we have an all-knowing God who's in control of all things at all times.

He says—

now this is a major prophet, this is a prophecy, uh, in the New Testament, and this prophecy, this is Jeremiah being called by God.

Here it is.

To be an answer to a problem that ain't even showed up yet. Because God is getting ready to prepare Jeremiah to warn Judah about what's going to happen. And in this text What's going to happen ain't happened yet. And at this moment in the text, God tells Jeremiah, Jeremiah, I've already took a trip to the future, I've already took a trip to your present, and I've already been in your past. Now let me tell you what I've all ready, done.

Jeremiah, before I formed you, I knew you, and I knew you then formed you, and then I'm gonna call you because something ain't already happened.

I wish I was smart enough to explain this this morning. The problem ain't came yet, but God knows what's going to happen.

And already in the past, God's already fixed the future's problem.

Here it is, uh, uh, this word in the text.

I can't preach all this, it's gonna be in one of our Wednesday lessons here in a few weeks. I might unpack some more of this.

Y'all pray with me.

Uh, uh, before I formed you I knew you.

The Hebrew word yadah, it means that I don't just know of you, but God's telling Jeremiah, I knew you intimately.

Jeremiah, I know your fears.

I know your flaws, I know your character, but even though I knew you, I still formed you.

Oh, some of y'all still ain't got it because you think I just— I'm just saying that God is saying he knew Jeremiah's personality.

That's one thing.

But the afternoon, so good to see you. When God knows intimately, and with him being omniscient, that means he knows the good and the bad. That's scary, and it shocks me at the same time, because an all-powerful God is not only all-powerful, he's all-knowing, and he could use some of his power to defeat us in the truth that he knows about us.

Can I bless you?

God tells Jeremiah— please hear me, sweet children— that Jeremiah, I'm here, but you don't know this, but I don't just know you, I knew you. Lord, I feel like shimmying this morning.

I knew you, I knew your ups, and I know your downs.

I knew your sins before you thought to commit your sins. I knew your evil ways before you had an evil way to hell.

But here is the good news—

both hands up, that means you better like it—

that even though Jeremiah was flawed, he was still formed. Somebody just missed your blessing. You worried about stuff about you that you just found out, but God knew it before he formed you. And even though he knew your future faults, he formed you in the future knowing that your faults are past tense to him. Is there anybody today who wants to forgive themselves, wants to let yourself free? Because God still formed you knowing all of your flaws. Knowing all your hangups, but he say, I'm still gonna form you. And if God knows your foolishness and still forms you, I'm gonna fight for him. Because God, it was you who forgave me. I ain't worried about what nobody else think about me. Because they couldn't form me. I don't care about what nobody know about me, they didn't form me. But the God who created me knows all about me and formed me anyway.

I don't feel this point for 7 minutes.

You put the foot on the gas. I'm out of Dotson now, I can speed up. God says, Jeremiah, I'm gonna tell you about some conversations I had about you before you even born.

I knew you.

I not only knew you're good, but I knew you're bad, but I formed you anyway. And if I could overcome your faults to form you, I want to have fellowship with you. I'm done.

It's, it's the picture.

Anybody bought a new vehicle recently? Let me ride in a new vehicle when you leave church.

I don't see if it rides smooth, but, but, but when you bought the vehicle, if you got it from a legitimate place They offered you what's called a warrant. Stay calm here.

They offer you a warranty as a guarantee with the expectation that what they have formed is subject to fault. I don't care if you bought a 2025, once you drive it off the lot, the value of it— am I right—

depreciates. And as we travel up and down, as we got to say these dangerous highways.

Anything is subject to happen to your brand new car, but with a warranty, the one who produces it says that I'm still gonna send the vehicle out, and if when the vehicle fails, just bring it back to me.

I'm not gonna hold it back and wait on it to guarantee not to fall before I send it, but I'm gonna send it off the lot. And when I send it off the lot, if you got a problem with it, I've already got it covered.

The producer sends it out and says, I know it may fail, but when it falls, bring it to me because I'm the one who got it covered.

I don't care what the value of the car is, but since the one who produced it got it covered I can bring it back to the producer and get it fixed.

You know what a warranty teaches us?

This is what I'm trying to say.

A warranty—

stay calm—

a warranty teaches us to trust the producer even when a product may fail. I'm preaching too good for y'all to sit there and look at me like that.

I brushed my hair good and I got some waves this morning.

You better preach it like I'm preaching.

When the product fails, the producer is still perfect. And the reason that the product goes out is because even though the product is subject to fail, you got a perfect producer. Is there anybody in here this morning who knows your producer is perfect? Sometimes your tires get flat. Sometimes your oil needs changing. Sometimes you need a new battery. Sometimes you need a new jumper. Sometimes you need a new carburetor. Sometimes you need a new alternator. But every now and then when it fails, just take it back to the producer and he already got it covered. How did he cover it, Gavin? On a hill called Calvary, when he paid it all. It covers your future sins and your past.

I'm thankful for the gospel of a warranty.

He said, I know it's messed up, but I gotta use it. I formed it for it to be used, but when it mess up, bring it back to me. And I already got it covered. Can I move on a little bit longer? I'm about done, I'm about done.

This text lastly teaches us that we have been proactively shielded, right? My aim in this message is for somebody to get started.

Doing something. It says not only did God form something that he knew was flawed, he formed it because he already had the fix for it.

Come here, come here. Come here, come here, come here, come here, come here. Before I formed you, I knew you. I consecrated you.

Some translations say I ordained you. Some translations says I sanctified you.

That's a New Testament doctrinal word placed in the Old Testament.

Y'all gotta bear with me, I ain't preached last week and I forgot how to preach. I ordained you, which means I set you apart, I sanctified you. Can I scare somebody?

Let me scare somebody. He says, I sanctified.

Y'all know another word for sanctified? Means—

somebody said it—

I made you holy. That bothers the church folks in the house.

All this happened— come here, we're gonna teach doctrine.

All of this happened before Jeremiah learned Ahim. It happened before Jeremiah got his first black suit. Let me get some water, I felt like I'm in puberty. All of this happened before Jeremiah preached his first sermon. All this happened before Jeremiah paid his tax.

Don't—

hear me, hear me well, hear me well— don't allow people who need Jesus like you make you perform first and then be called. But God called you in the womb, before the womb. So before you became a good boy and good girl, God already formed you. And can I stop right here? I know, you know, you know, this is, this is an aside. This is not even in my flow of my sermon, but you know, we, we label people, uh, especially little kids and stuff. We label little kids, say, whenever a little child— I don't mean no harm— was born and raised around older people, they can naturally do church stuff. I want a little children, right? They can naturally, you know, they 4 years old and can sing a song from 1890. And so other church people say, that boy got a calling on his life. That little boy may have a calling on his life, but I want to let you know that just because that little boy know churchism does not make him more called than a boy who's in the drug house right now.

I believe by faith that God got some drug dealer children right now, some children who are raised in homes filled with drugs. God called them and they don't know nothing about our church stuff. But God's hand is on them, God's anointing is on them, and God's calling is on them, and they are already made holy before they do anything.

Let's not make us the ones who own holiness.

It is God who makes us holy before we do anything right. And since he made us holy, that's what causes us to do right.

I just killed an arrogant spirit in the house.

You think that we have a monopoly on holy? Here it is, here it is, here it is, here it is.

I made you holy before I formed you. So that kills this lie that I gotta stop gambling, then I'll be made whole. No, God made you holy And then you start behaving right.

You know, I used to think—

I'm getting long— I used to think that God ignores red flags because God has a tendency to call people to service when he sees and knows every sign of why not to. But theologically and Christologically, I had to correct that. God does not ignore the red flags. He sees the red flags and he done already fixed it. I thought y'all was gonna like that because all of us got some red flags and you still focus on your red flags and God says, I've already fixed it, just give your life to me.

Already, and I pointed you. That word appointed And it's Hebrew. Literally means that I placed you, I've set you somewhere.

I did my best homework on this, I tried. Jeremiah is being called now. God's saying, I've already placed God, how you place somebody somewhere and they ain't even accepted it? God places before the performance, which means that God While you're waiting on God, God is waiting on you to act in a place in which you already been placed.

When did this happen? Before he was born.

Y'all know what that mean? Here it is. God calls and uses undeveloped people.

So that challenges us to not try to be developed and then accept the call, but accept what God wants to you and let him continue to develop you.

And while you are going in your purpose, while you are going in your calling, God just keeps on forming you.

He keeps on making you. You still messing up, but he still got his hands on you. And you don't mess up as much as you used to, but you're still walking in what you've been placed in.

He knows that you're gonna go into some storms when you've been called, but it says go anyway. Y'all know this picture. I checked the weather everywhere I go. I was on a flight one time, I saw a storm in what I thought was going to be the pilot's route.

I said, you know, this—

I ain't gonna make it back, I'm gonna be driving all night.

Trying to get home from there.

I'm done, I'm hurrying up.

Somebody supposed to say, take your time, Pastor.

I saw the weather, I saw the storm, which means I thought that the pilot wasn't gonna fly because he saw the storm in the way. Next thing I know, They calling me to board the plane.

I got a little bit scared, start praying. Next thing I know, we're in there. I'm expecting turbulence.

Next thing I know, I'm landing in Monroe. Before I knew it, I started thinking, I wonder what happened to the storm. It's finally The pilot flew around the storm, which means that what was used was being controlled by somebody who knows how to navigate the storms.

Y'all know what else?

I did some more research. And before a pilot flies through a storm, they want to know if there's an alternative path so they can navigate the storm. But you know what else they do? They know all kind of facts about the plane.

So the plane—

the pilot who sees the storm not only knows about the storm He knows how to deal with the plan.

And the reason you can trust God and go with God is because God knows your storms and he knows you, and he won't send you through a storm that he can't navigate you through.

I wanted that to be my clothes. That's supposed to be my clothes. When I'm about to hoop this thing out in Gavin's own way, I want y'all to make believe that I'm hooping right now.

Just make believe, all right?

This story is about Jeremiah being a solution to a problem for the people. God preliminary prepared Jeremiah to be a solution for a problem. I messed around and looked up what the name Jeremiah means.

What did I do that for?

Because when I found out what Jeremiah means— put your hand in your pockets. Jeremiah means Yahweh throws. Stay with me.

There are two—

this is about to shout me by myself— there are two interpretations about what Yahweh throws means when you look at it in its Hebrew etymology. It means cast down, and even though it means cast down, it's also interpreted as thrown up.

So God sent Yahweh throws to be the solution to the problem.

And the same man that was thrown down is also the same man that God threw up. One Friday, God threw Jesus down. He stayed down 3 days and 3 nights, but since he was the solution to the problem, God couldn't keep him down. That third day, Sunday morning, that same God threw him back up again. And the same God is throwing you up right now. You may go down one way, but Yahweh will get you back up again. Is there anybody in the house that Yahweh has got up before? That you've been down in depression, but Yahweh got you up. You've been down in sickness, but Yahweh got you up. You've been down in gossip and lies, but Yahweh got you up again.

I don't know what you're going through.

I don't know what you're going through, but I know that Yahweh throws.

If you're down right now, just put your hand in Yahweh's hand and he'll throw you back up again. That's why you can shout when you're down, because sooner or later Yahweh gonna pick it right back up again.

We all for Jesus.

I feel like it, I feel like it today.

Who knows for themselves?

He throws.

Jeremiah went down in pits. He's called the weeping prophet because he went down in depression. He always had to give a bad gospel, but God don't stop with bad news. He gonna throw you back up too.

We all for Jesus. Bless you, God. Bless you, God. He wants to throw somebody up this morning.

Did you hear what I said? What if it's you he wants to throw up this morning? He wants to exalt you because you've been down too long. He already called.

He's just waiting on you. I ain't telling you you got to be an ordained preacher. I ain't telling you you got to be a praise dancer. You ain't got to be no usher, but you can do something about it.

Someone's prayer today—

hear me well.

Someone's prayer needs to be, what is it, God?

What is it?

I waited long enough to try to be developed enough. I waited long enough for somebody to confirm it. Waiting long enough for somebody to see it in me and tell me they need to call me out. I've been waiting on the right moment. I've been waiting on the crowd. God is calling some of us to do something in the confines of your house that will bless the entire community. Perhaps state, perhaps nation, perhaps this world. Jeremiah thought he was too young. We often use this text youth days, trying to trick young people into acting right, get off them drugs because Lord calling you. That was just Jeremiah's problem. Some of us think we too old. Yeah, we think we too woman, think we too black, think you too lazy, think you're not smart enough. I don't have enough degrees. I don't even know there's 66 books in the Bible. I don't know how many books. I ain't been to church in a while.

You can't be me.

Say yes. Watch how he fix all that for you.