How Long Is Our Ministry? Jeremiah 22-26

 Jeremiah 25:3 (ESV)

“For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, to this day, the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened.

You don't get to determine how long your ministry will be.  In Jeremiah 1:7 we read the following:

Jeremiah 1:7 (ESV)

But the LORD said to me,

“Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’;

for to all to whom I send you, you shall go,

and whatever I command you, you shall speak.

As we read through Jeremiah, here is what we find out about Jeremiah’s ministry:

Not only do you not get to choose the message you speak when you are the messenger, but in Jeremiah 1:18; 5:14 and Jeremiah 11:18 and Jeremiah 20:7-14 you don't get to choose how others will react to the message.   

In Jeremiah 7:2 we read you don't get to choose the place you deliver the message. 

In Jeremiah 13:1 and Jeremiah 27:1-3 we read you don't get to choose "how" you will convey the message.   

In Jeremiah 16:1 we read you don't get to choose who you deliver the message "with."  

In the above passage we read you don't get to decide how long your ministry will be (Jeremiah 25:3).  

And, you don't get to decide how your ministry will end:

Jeremiah 26:8-11 (ESV)

And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, “You shall die! Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant’?” And all the people gathered around Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.

When the officials of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king's house to the house of the LORD and took their seat in the entry of the New Gate of the house of the LORD. Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, “This man deserves the sentence of death, because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.”

Our ministries are not are own.  God decides every aspect of our ministry.