Good morning and welcome. This is pastor, lucy painter with your daily insights and we have been talking about battles for two weeks now and so I think that we can all agree that we are really in a spiritual warfare. But as that realization that we are already in a battlefield hits us. I know some of us are asking, why am I here? What is my purpose in all this? What could I possibly do in a battle with such great forces? What weapon could I weld that can even slightly match that of forces that have been in battle with mankind since the beginning of time. And these questions are important. It would be naive of us to assume that we don't really need answers for them. But the question is who do we direct them to in what direction do we direct the questions you see sometimes we do have the right questions about our part in this virus but we end up directing them the wrong way.

Sometimes we are excited about going into barrel until we are presented with the purpose of that battle and then we start feeling inadequate for that purpose. We feel inadequate to wield the weapons the Lord has given us for use in the battlefield and today we are going to look at one individual who was called to such a big task. A task. He didn't feel like he was good enough for a task. He didn't think he had the credentials for and we all know the story of prophet Jeremiah and his response when the Lord called him to be a prophet for his nation. And as I have said before because we have read this text several times in the daily insight. It's one of my favorite Jeremiah. One from verse for 5-10. The Lord tells Jeremiah before I formed you in the womb. I knew you before you were born, I sanctified you.

I ordained you a prophet to the nations. Then I said, Aha Lord God truly, I cannot speak for I am my youth. But the Lord said to me, do not say I am a youth for you shall go everywhere that I send you and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their faces. For I am with you to deliver you says the Lord. Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth and the Lord said to me, now, I have put my words in your mouth. See I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out to pull down to destroy, to draw down to build and to plant yep. And we've talked about this. That Jeremiah was quite young when he was called into Prophet Hood. And if you read the entire book of Jeremiah, you will see exactly why he was fearful about his calling Jeremiah's alley messages to the people who are condemnation of them for their false worship and social injustice.

It was during his service as a prophet that their Syrian army, the most powerful enemy of Israel and Judah was destroyed. He was the one who prophesies the destruction of Jerusalem by the armies of Babylon. He Prophesies the 70 years long captivity of Judah in Babylon. If they failed to repent before the Lord for their iniquities, when the siege of Jerusalem was temporarily lifted at the approach of an Egyptian force, Jeremiah started to leave Jerusalem to go to the land of the tribe of Benjamin. He was arrested, charged with dissertation and placed in prison. He was late oppressed in an abandoned system or well where he would have died had it not been for the prompt action of an Ethiopian Ethiopian eunuch abed Malik who rescued him. So you see the Lord was calling Jeremiah into a dangerous mission. He was putting him right in the middle of a battlefield and Jeremiah was justified to be scared, yep.

But how does the Lord respond to Jeremiah's fears? He tells him before I formed you in the womb. I knew you, you know the Lord's wording as used in the, in the, in his, in his word or in the bible has more weight than our literal understanding of the world. It is more than just for knowledge and acquaintance. It indicates choice and approval. It means that the Lord had taken notice of him that he had selected him, That his prophetic mission was in line with his destiny. He needed to believe that he was destined to be in the prophetic service, the way the same way we need to believe that when the Lord puts us at the battle front line, he knows the plans he has for us. He knows that he has put the right weapons in your in your hands. We need to come to conviction that the Lord has called us consciously.

It's not by mistake that he knows we have what it takes to run x successive campaign in the battlefield. And the Lord gives us this assurances so that despite how we may feel, despite how impossible success may seem, we can align ourselves. We can align our will with his will, yep. I know some of us might not understand how anyone would not want to have a prophetic gift. I mean, it's a beautiful and a noble calling. Right God can communicate directly to you. He can tell you about the future. You get a preview of events long before the joker. But if you ever get to interact with someone who has this gift, they will tell you It's not all bliss all the time. The pain of the button that gift brings is not as easy to bear as we sometimes think it involves depths of crashing and breaking that the average believer.

I don't want to use that word, but sometimes some believers cannot comprehend. You sign up for constant seasons of crucifix cation. You sign up to bear, the baron of everything that's going on in the hearts of everyone around you, your nation and sometimes you feel the pain of the whole world, like Jeremiah who has been called to be a prophet to the nations. You bear the pain of the righteous. You carry the weight of the faithless. This is a gift of relentless and persistent weakness of the flesh. Mhm. Do you remember Paul pleaded three times for the release from his thorn in the flesh, but was denied for his own sake and that of the Kingdom of God. You get your share of rejection by your own people. You become a scapegoat for everything wrong thing. You had prophecy and it came to pass. This is a calling into a battle that is fought in loneliness and isolation.

This is what Jeremiah's call involved. And I'm sure you can understand why he was reluctant because sometimes we point fingers when we look at Jeremiah say why was he saying? I know, I know I'm just But a youth, this is why he didn't think he had what it takes to fight the barrel. The Lord was calling him into. But the Lord tells him, do not say you are a youth. Do not say you're too young for this fight. Do not say you have not done this before you shall go to all whom I send you and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of the affairs says, for I am with you to deliver you, God was literally telling him to, I understand all this Jeremiah, I know what I'm asking you to do, but don't be afraid, I'm with you. I'm sending you into a fierce battle, but I'm putting my weapons into your hands. And the Lord doesn't rebuke him for his feelings of inadequacy.

He speaks to him with both encouragement and persuasion and he touches Jeremiah's mouth with his hands. He puts into him the words he was going to say to the people. He handed Jeremiah the sword of his word to go into battle with. You know, we said yesterday that the Lord hasn't called us to go into battle and prepared. He sends us into battle with his full armor. The animal we talked about yesterday. You know the belt of truth, The breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the Gospel of peace, the shoot of the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit and the Lord tells Jeremiah, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out to pull down to destroy, to brought down to build and to plant, remember yesterday's reading the word of God told us that we are restoring to pull down strongholds and this is the same battle that Jeremiah was being called to to root out and to pull down to destroy, to draw down kingdoms to build and to plant you see, the Lord sends us into battle with his authority that whenever we raise his sword in war, it will be like the Lord has raised it himself, that we may cast down cast out demons in his name.

That we may pull down strongholds in his name. And I pray today, may you receive the Lord's word of encouragement in jesus name, may the word of God persuade you to take your place in the spiritual battle that we are in. I'm not saying it's not, it's going to be easy. I'm not saying that your fear is not justified, but the Lord says do not fear for I shall go with you into battle. Do not fear for I have put my words in your mouth. Do not fear for I have put my weapons in your hands. Do not fear, for I have clothed you in my armor, he has chosen you, he has approved you to fight in this world because he knows he has put in you everything it takes to succeed. Do not fear. Do not be afraid for the Lord is with you in this battle, in the name of jesus christ shalom, this is pastor, lucy painter with your daily insights and this is battle's frontline day 14