2. ADAM LOVED WAKING UP WATCHING THE SUNRISE

3. Then he would spend his afternoons, enjoying the garden where God had placed him

4. And in the evenings he would spend time with God, enjoying the light show on display

5. Things definitely didn’t get any better than this... God, man and all creation in perfect harmony But then …….

6. IN AN INSTANT EVERYTHING CHANGES FOREVER SIN

7. God and man drift further and further apart Intimacy Honesty Love Compassion Joy Self Control Kindness Wisdom

8. From God - centred To Man - centred

9. BUT … There are those who are in, and / or want, a deeper relationship with God HOWEVER … The pressures of life} The ways of the world} The desires of our own hearts} The actions of Satan} keep us from the satisfying relationship we yearn for.

10. We pray and we ask God to …… We worship and listen to sermons to …….. We go to conferences and seek the insight of the wise to ……. We read books and devotionals to ………. We maybe go on retreats, or fast to ………. to what ?? Do our lives change?? What does God say?

11. WHAT DO WE KNOW OF JEREMIAH? His background His father’s name was Hilkiah His father was a priest He was born in Anathoth This doesn’t give us much to go on to get to know the man BUT …. what we do know is all we need to know. Before Jeremiah was born God was at work

12. JEREMIAH 1 : 5 Before I shaped you in the womb, I knew all about you. Before you saw the light of day, I had holy plans for you: A prophet to the nations— that’s what I had in mind for you. The principles of what God said to Jeremiah, also apply to each one of us. As we apply these principles we begin to restore our relationship with God

13. BEFORE I SHAPED YOU IN THE WOMB I KNEW ALL ABOUT YOU Think of the language we sometimes use “I came to God”, “I found God”, “I turned to God”; it’s almost as if God is fortunate we came to Him. The reality is … before we were even formed in the womb, God knew us. We are known BEFORE we know. So our lives are not puzzles to be figured out, instead, we come to God to have the truth of our lives revealed to us. The fundamental mistake we make is to begin with ourselves and not with God.

14. BEFORE YOU SAW THE LIGHT OF DAY I HAD HOLY PLANS FOR YOU. We are not just a cog in a wheel or “Another Brick in the Wall”, instead we are chosen for something important, and unique to us, that God is doing. What is God doing? He is at war against sin, all of it. He is For life and against death For love and against hate For hope and against despair For Heaven and against Hell. Jeremiah was enlisted on God’s side before he was born. So are we!

15. BEFORE YOU SAW THE LIGHT OF DAY I HAD HOLY PLANS FOR YOU. Before you and I were good for anything, God decided we were good for what he was doing. As He seeks to win the world, He has chosen you and me to be set apart to do it with Him. He chooses us, not on how we turn out, but before we are born.

16. A PROPHET TO THE NATIONS – THAT’S WHAT I HAD IN MIND FOR YOU “Had in mind” (The Message) or “appointed” (NIV) implies that God has given Jeremiah, as His ambassador, to others. God is generous, He gives. Long before Jeremiah “got his life together” God had given him away as a prophet to the nations. This is God’s way – He asked it also of His own Son. So it is of us. As God’s children, He has given us to the world (and for most of us, right now, that is to the town and district of Stranraer.)

17. A PROPHET TO THE NATIONS – THAT’S WHAT I HAD IN MIND FOR YOU “But hold on – I’ve got something to say about this, what about my hopes and dreams, my rights, my decisions for my life.” This is where we struggle, because we are so conditioned by the world we live in. It’s all about me, me, me. We ask, we yearn for, we hope, we desire, but we want it on our terms, not upsetting the status quo, not challenging our comfortable lives. When we say this to God, these verses tell us that He will reply “the course before you is already set, it has been since before you were born” In this we don’t have a choice and if we try to go against it, by living to get, instead of living to give, we are going against the grain. God gives himself and while it may surprise us, giving is what we do best.

18. A PROPHET TO THE NATIONS – THAT’S WHAT I HAD IN MIND FOR YOU Many critical things happen before I am conceived and as I develop. The most important are what God was at work doing in me. He knew me, therefore I am no accident He chose me, therefore I am not a zero but have immense value to Him He gave me, therefore I must not be a consumer

19. SO … HOW DO WE MOVE ON FROM HERE? There is a plan for our life It is not the plan the “world” would have us follow It does not depend on our current feelings, our possessions or desires. It is a radical change. When we pray, we stop talking to or telling God. (we are thinking about DISCERNMENT rather than supplication or petition) Instead we need to understand and remember, if God has a plan He will want us to know it. So ….

20. SHUT UP AND LISTEN We need to learn how to listen. Listen … despite the noise of the way of the world, despite the clamour of our fallen nature and desires despite the unfamiliarity of doing this with the help of others for discernment and wisdom and fine tuning And then …

21. GET UP AND ACT As God tells us how His plan works out in our lives we need to get stuck into the battle. We will all have different roles (we are living yet different shaped stones) but with one purpose. We will start to live with purpose, being prepared to change, or to keep doing the same when everyone says change. We will come to understand that we are living in the reality that we are a vital part of God’s plan.

22. A RADICAL CHRISTIAN LIFE Living like this is counter cultural It leaves us open to spiritual attack, discouragements, to upsetting people, to becoming unpopular. It forces us to give up our own desires and goals and instead to realign them to those of God. It challenges us to act, to not give up but see it through, and in so doing, to see God at work

23. Living as we do, in this broken world we will never, this side of Christ’s return, enjoy the relationship with God which Adam and Eve had for an all too fleeting period of time. But ….. as we realise how well and intimately we are known, as we realise our own unique value and worth and so give of ourselves in God’s service, we will have and know that inner peace and assurance that we are pleasing God and serving our King as He would want.

24. ROMANS 12:1,2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. THE MESSAGE