Synopsis of Sermon 12.15.24

Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III

Jeremiah 20:7-9 NKJV
7 O Lord, You induced me, and I was persuaded; You are stronger than I, and have prevailed. I am in derision daily; Everyone mocks me. 8 For when I spoke, I cried out; I shouted, “Violence and plunder!”
Because the word of the Lord was made to me A reproach and a derision daily. 9 Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him, Nor speak anymore in His name.” But His word was in my heart like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, And I could not.

I.         INTRODUCTION

1. Most of us share this testimony. In our minds, we have resigned hundreds of times. In our mind, we have contemplated walking away.
2. Many of us have had these contemplations in our mind and in our spirit, and though our mind and spirit have walked away, our body has been present. People don’t know how tired we really are.
3. Many of us have been like Elijah under the tree where we have said, “God this is enough”. We have wondered if it even matters anymore.
4. Today we look at the life of Jermiah. He is young when the Lord calls him. God calls him to cry out against Judah. Judah had rebelled against God and had broken the covenant that God had established with them. Jeremiah is sent to warn them to come back to God or the bottom is going to fall out.
5. His assignment is progressive. When God calls him in chapter 1, God doesn’t give the details of the assignment. When he starts to tell Jermiah what He really wants Jermiah to do, Jeremiah tells God that he doesn’t have the credentials or the experience to do what God wants him to do. God explains to him that He knew him before he was even formed in the womb.
6. God reminds Jeremiah that He knows that he is young. He told him to go and not to worry about the people’s faces. He tells him not to worry about the words either, because He would give him the words he should say.
7. Jeremiah tries to tell the people that God wasn’t playing with them, but along the way, he gets arrested. Everybody likes prosperity prophecies, but nobody likes prophesy that tells them what God is going to do to them.
8. In Chapter 20, Jeremiah has become a prisoner. He had prophesied for 40 yrs. He is crying out in the street and the people mock and laugh at him. This is how Jermiah got the name of the Weeping Prophet. He was doing what God called him to do, while weeping. How many of you have this same testimony, where you are doing what God told you to do, while weeping?
9. Jermiah finally tells God he felt like he was setup.

II.         FELT LIKE I WAS SET-UP

• Jermiah feels like God didn’t tell him all that came with the assignment. God doesn’t tell us everything up front, because He knows we would opt out. You can’t get out of what God ordains for your life.
• Jeramiah is concerned that everyone things he is crazy. He feels like he is experiencing rejection. How does it feel to be doing what you think God wants you to do and yet feel that you are being rejected because of it.
• Along the route there are things that can mess you up.
  • Unexpected Hardships – These are attacks, lack of support, and the way people perceive you.
  • Feeling ill-equipped – I’m out here doing this and I feel unqualified.
  • Perceived Silence from God – God isn’t talking why we are dealing with this.
  • Relentless Opposition – Everyone seems to hate me. I didn’t choose this. It chose me.

A.   I Didn’t Choose This, It Chose Me

1. We don’t chose our assignment. It chooses us. God gives us our assignment.
   1. Ex- Bishop explains how he never wanted to preach. He even tried to run from his calling. Please note that running is an indication that your call is a legitimate call. Remember that the flesh often doesn’t want to do what God wants you to do.

B.   God Saw Something In Me, I Didn’t’ See In Myself

1. God sees potential inside you that has yet to be unearthed. You are carrying something that has been growing in you all the while.
2. This is why you didn’t feel comfortable and couldn’t fit in. Even the devil knows that you are carrying something. When you tried to be down, people would say you don’t look like you belong in the setting that you are in.
3. Every attack on your life was because of what you are carrying.

C.   God created you for the Assignment

1. Your talents, your gifting, and your discernment was all created for your assignment.
2. God crafted you for your assignment. God has made your fearfully and wonderfully for your assignment.
3. You were born for this! You were bult for trouble!

D.   God knows your capacity to accomplish it.

1. Our mind causes us to implode. We never explode, we implode. This is why the devil attacks your mind. He wants you to think you can’t achieve it.
2. Some of you have endured so much, you have surprised yourself. God gave you the capacity to endure like a good soldier.

E.   God confirms you by his anointing

1. We see people gifted and skilled all the time, but it means nothing without the anointing, because the anointing destroys yokes.
2. Whenever the devil tries to steer me the wrong way as the yoke would, the anointing breaks it. God has put his super on our natural.
3. When you are anointed, they may not like you, but they can’t deny God has his hand on your life.
4. Nothing is accomplished without the anointing. Luke 4:18 KJV says 18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
5. God tells Jeremiah that God has anointed him for this, and He assures Him that he can accomplish this.
6. In our call, we have a problem. It’s not so much the assignment, it’s the folk.

III.         FOLK GOT ME STRUGGLING

• It isn’t the purpose, it’s the people.
• Many have walked away from the assignment, because of people. You have to work through people sometimes.
• Have you ever meet the Tator Family?
  • Dictator – This is Papa Dictator who always knows everything.
  • Commentator – This is the Auntie that always has something to say.
  • Spectators – This is Grandma always looking and not saying anything.
  • Agitator – This is the nephew who is always stirring up something.
  • Imitators – This is the cousin that doesn’t like me but is always trying to be like me.
  • Procrastinators – This is their child that is always waiting, never on time for anything.

A.   I’m Catching Hell From The People I’m Trying To Help

1. Jermiah says he is in misery daily. Daily he is being disrespected and mocked and it is taking a toll.
2. Jermiah is telling God that it is tough.
   1. Ex – Bishop shares that when he first become Pastor of Mt Zion there was at most 150 people on the roll. On a given Sunday, maybe 75 people would show up, but during a business meeting, about 200 people would show up.
   1. He explains that he was a young Pastor 6 and 7 months in and he noticed that people that had been too sick to show up for church, came to the Business Meeting. Those people almost ran him away from being pastor of Mt Zion.
   1. He had just finished Divinity School at Vanderbilt. He had studied many courses, but not the course of folk-ology. He was young, naive, and a little bit crazy. He felt the best way for him to clap back was from his safe place, which was the pulpit.
   1. When working on his Doctrine degree, he was studying the Psychosis of Change. During this study, he realized that the people weren’t resisting him, but instead the loss of the churches they once knew. They grieved the things the way things used to be.
3. Like this, the people in the scripture thought they were fine, but here comes Jermiah saying they had to change.
4. With change there is:
   1. Resistance to Transformation – Jeremiah is calling them to repentance, requiring them to change their ways. When people are called to change, people initially want to reject it.
      1. If you turn off the lights, you would eventually get used to the darkness. When somebody comes from the light outside, they will not be able to see in the darkness. Although we have gotten used to it, they won’t be able to see in the dark. When they try to get us to turn on the lights so that we can see better, we would have the tendency to reject what they are seeing, because we have gotten used to seeing and maneuvering in the dark.
      1. People have a hard time accepting anything outside where they are. Jeremiah had the truth, but they kept rejecting it.
   1. Rejection of truth – The Truth demands accountability and exposes your flaws.
      1. You like the truth, until it hits you. You like the truth that benefits you, but don’t want the whole truth.
      1. The truth is not an judger, it is an exposer.
      1. If I tell you that your behavior could cause you to go to hell with gasoline drawers on, you should thank God that somebody loves you enough to tell you the truth.
   1. Reluctance to Trust – Now we are skeptical of the messenger.

B.   You Are Not Called To Pacify The Status Quo

1. You are not called to fit in. Everyone is not going to like you.
2. It’s not that they don’t like you. The demons are agitated by your presence. They can’t tolerate you being around, because they know that their days are limited. 2 Timothy 4:2 NKJV says 2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.

IV.         FRUSTRATION CAN LEAD TO SURRENDER

• Frustration is real. We were frustrated to the point that we wanted to walk away.

A.   Some Days It’s Heavier Than Others

1. There are some days that you can deal with it and there are other days where you say, “You got one more thing to say to me!”

B.   Resignation Seems Like The Easiest Way Out

1. Sometimes this is the best way out of it. You don’t want to fight, you’re just done!
2. You have to know that resignation is not an option! You can’t quit! We can’t let you quit! Be not weary in well doing, because you will reap if you faint not!

V.         FAITH GAVE ME A SECOND WIND

• God is about to give you a second wind. God said he was going to give him a word that would reignite him. It would be like fire shut up in his bones.

A.   His Word Reminded Me Of The Purpose

1. When God gives me a revelation, it changes my situation.
2. When my situation changes, I refuse to walk in resignation. When I refuse to walk in resignation it shifts to determination. When I have determination, I am in position for elevation, and then this starts my celebration.
3. The word of God reminds me of my why. God wanted Bishop to remind us of our why.  It’s your why that makes you cry. It’s your why that gets you out of your bed.
4. Your why gave you your motivation to keep going.
   1. When Jesus was in Garden of Gethsemane, Satan was taunting him. Jesus went to Calvary, because we were his why. If I am His why, then the purpose He has for my life. It is because of my why, that I go back to what I was called to do!
5. In fact, you are here today listening to this sermon, because somebody didn’t give up on their why. We do what we do, because we want to hear God say, “Well done thou good and faithful servant”.

B.   His Word Gave Me Back My Passion

1. God is about to give you your passion back. The word reignites our purpose!
2. Jermiah was better. Fire shut up on my bones means God reignited his passion back.
3. In that day, there was no electricity. If fire came it either came by friction or by oil. The fire in your life is the oil of God in your life. You’re too anointed to let people drive you crazy or let the enemy cause you walk away!
4. When you get your passion back, it shows up in every area of your life. God is giving you your passion back!!

Receive this:

Fire is also a purifier. Bitterness can come into your heart and the fire can remove that bitterness.

We declare today that every bitterness has been refined by God. We declare that your heart will be pure, that your service will be pleasing to God, and that you will draw near to God.

The fire of God is upon you and may the purpose of God come with divine clarity and strength. The worst is over and the best is yet to come. What you were getting way from is about to come back to you!