Foretold / Prophets of the Bible | Part 2

Well, hey there. How's it going? Alright.

You guys must have had brunch or something. You're awake. That is good. I like to end the weekend with this crowd. I love being here. You guys are a great crowd. Love it. If you're new to this church, think you found a new home. I I love this place. And you know what else I love? I love watching my daughter be a mom.

Now I know I promised you guys last week, I've been a grandpa for two weeks now. And now this is two weeks in a row. You're you're getting a grandpa story. But I realized if you don't like it, get off my lawn, you know, or or whatever. No. This is more of a dad story. It's not the the the grandchild's

just in, you know, off to the side of the story. But but it was interesting. I've been watching them, you know, be new parents. And and my son-in-law, and then they live with us right now. And so they're they're you know, kinda watching has been kinda funny. Like, just the other day,

they decided they're gonna go somewhere together, go to the store. And so they're like loading up everything. And I heard my daughter go, I gotta go move one of our other cars. It was blocking their car. So I I hear go out there. I hear the cars try to hear move. Then I go out a few minutes later and I hear the car running. And and and then I coincide. I go back out in the garage. I still hear their car running,

and I start to get frustrated. I guess I am a grandpa now. I'm like, man, why are they letting the car run forever? I mean, what's going on? And then I think to myself, why do I care? It's not my gas,

and it's their car. And then I realized even more grace, it's always been so long, I forgot. Babies may be this big, but you need a U Haul for all the accessories you have to take with them. Right? So it takes a while. That's why most of you, when you have new kids, you don't wanna go anywhere because it's not worth it anymore. By the time you get them loaded, you're too exhausted to leave. So I just said, I'll drop it. So I did some other things, walked back in. Then I walked back in the garage, like, ten minutes later, and I still hear the car running. I'm like, man,

it's taken them that long? How clueless are they? So I walk back around to the front of my house. I look out my front door, and out my front door, I can see half of my driveway. It's the half that their car was in. So I go to look to see, are they even ready to leave yet? And when I look, their car's not there.

I'm like,

Man, maybe I am an old grandpa because I still hear a car running. What is going on? So I walk outside, and before I can see my whole driveway, and off to the other side of my driveway, there was a car sitting there running. The car my daughter had moved over twenty minutes before.

It was my gas that they were wasting. It was my car she had moved. And apparently, she moved it,

got out, shut the door, went inside, just left it running, and then went and grabbed her kids. They went and loaded it up. And the part I can't figure out is they literally walked back out because it was right next to took all that time because it takes forever to load a kid. Right? So they stood literally inches

from a running car that she had moved just moments ago and took all that time to load a kid. And both of them then got in the car and no one, none none of them even noticed that this car was just sitting there running. And then they drove away. And at that point, I'm like, what?

That's my gas they're wasting. This is terrible for the environment. Isn't this what that girl was yelling at everybody at the UN about? I mean, this is it. This is why we can't have nice things, you know. And I was like, I can't believe they they forgot. And then I sat there and thought I go, you know why? Because they're they have a two week old baby.

They're not getting much sleep. But even more than the lack of sleep is they just stare at this kid. Their heart has been captured by this child. So that's all that matters. And because their heart is so captured by this child, they ignored the running car. They ignored it. Oh, it's still running.

It's sitting there, but they moved it to the side of the driveway. But it's definitely not the vehicle they're using to go anywhere. Well, that explains the audience of all of the prophets who they were writing to. In the Old Testament, the book of the prophets, they had to write a message to an audience

that that that they still had their faith in God. The Jews, they saw the temple. They still did the ceremonies. They still showed up at church. But the truth is they had pulled their faith off to the side. And it was still running, but it wasn't taking them anywhere. It wasn't the vehicle of life.

They had fallen in love with something else. They had new babies in their life. They were embracing that. And so the prophets had the right to warn them to say, listen, you've fallen into these new loves, this idolatry. You're chasing after things that make you feel happy, that you think is good for you, but it's not.

And you you you have your faith running, you're leaving it idling, but it's not doing anything. Just sitting there.

And that is why this series, Foretold, where we're looking at the story of the prophets, still speaks to us today. Because we still wrestle with the same things. We still wrestle with falling in love with other things and running after things that we think are good, but we're missing out on what God has for us. We're missing out. So today, what we're gonna look at is simply this big idea out of the book of Jeremiah.

And it's this, if my good doesn't lead to God, it's not good. If my good doesn't lead to God, it's not good. And now that'll make sense by the time we're done.

Or if it doesn't, then then my preaching is not good. So there we go. So that's where we're gonna go. But we're gonna look at this out of a a book, this prophet Jeremiah.

Now he wasn't a bullfrog and he wasn't a friend of mine. But he was a prophet of God. And what he did was he, he was actually born out of the line of Aaron. That was his ancestry, was the prophetic

family. You know? So he was born in a family to be to to not a priestly family. He's born in a family to be a priest, but God called him to be a prophet. Now, I just wanna I wanna give you a little background before we dive in. So, you know, if you're not the type of person who likes background, then get over it because we're doing it anyway. But but but let me give you that idea. Let me give you I'm gonna give you an entire semester

of of of Old Testament one zero one from Bible College right now in two minutes. Okay?

The in the Old Testament, the nation of Israel, God called them to be a people and he was gonna bring the Messiah. In the Old Testament, these prophets always point to the Messiah, the Messiah. We know now in the New Testament, it's Jesus.

And all there was three offices in Israel that people held that were all a picture. They're an illustration of who this Messiah is gonna be. The ultimate one. And that is the priest, the prophet, and the king. And what they are is they all were a imperfect illustration

of who Jesus is. And the first one is the priest. The priest was the one that made the sacrifices and and talked to God on the behalf of the people. He was their intercessor and the the one that gives the sacrifice. Jesus is called the lamb of God. He is the sacrifice for our sins.

The prophet was the one that was shared the words of God. He was the one that would speak the word of God to people. In the New Testament, in the book of John, it says, Jesus is the word of God. He's living. He is God himself, the word. So Jesus is the word of God.

And that's what the prophet would do, speak the word of God. And then the king was the one that would rule the people.

And and in the New Testament, we know that Jesus is the king of kings and lord of lords. Make sense? So all three of those together are supposed to give you a picture of who this Messiah. And the Messiah, the word Messiah in the Old Testament, in the New Testament, Christ. You ever that wasn't his last name, by the way. He he wasn't Christ slash Jesus. You know, he didn't line up in the c's when they lined up alphabetical. Okay? Christ was a title. The Christ means in the in the in the the Latin

word, it means the, the Messiah, the chosen anointed one, the one of God. And what it means to be the Christ is is is the lamb, the word sacrificial lamb, king of kings.

That's the whole. There there you go. I just saved you a semester of bible college right there. Ain't that impressive? That's what I learned. What you know, maybe I only saved you by teaching what I remember from that first semester of Bible college, but that's another story. But but anyway, so so the prophets were called to bring the word of God, and it was usually the parental word, warning. And like we've said, they warn, hey, if this doesn't happen, then there's gonna be discipline.

Discipline's different than punishment. If you punish your kids, it's about you. If you discipline your kids, it's about them.

Punishment is I'm letting out my anger, my frustration. I'm getting back. You made my life horrible. I'm gonna make your life horrible. You it's kind of that quid pro quo, which a lot of you probably googled in the last week if you pay attention to the news. You go, what does that mean? It's like kinda you did this, you're gonna get that. Here we go.

But discipline is about bending direction back to something good. The prophets were bringing a disciplined word from the Lord. If you keep going this way, a good parent is gonna discipline to try to get you the other way. Because to God, good means it leads you back to God. But what if our good doesn't take us to God?

If what you chase after is good doesn't lead you to God, it's not good. Period. So what's happening in Jeremiah? He's called to to to to bring the word of God to the Southern Kingdom Of Of Judah. We saw last week in Isaiah that Israel had been split into two kingdoms.

And so you had the Kingdom Of Israel up north, Kingdom Of Judah. The Assyrians had already taken out the Northern Kingdom because they wouldn't listen to God.

So they got a time out. Now the Southern Kingdom was was threatened, and that's what Isaiah was talking about the week when we looked at last week. He was called to go warn the people and say, hey, this is what's gonna happen if you don't turn. And Isaiah is like, how long do I have to share that message? I go till it happens, till they're cleared out. Even has this really blind one line that seems depressing where it says, and even if there's a remnant left in the land, they will be reinvaded

and they will be wiped out. And it sounds weird. Well, Jeremiah is now the prophet during the period of time when that actually happens.

Babylon now comes in, but it wasn't the Assyrians. This new empire, the Babylonians had taken over, and they started to attack. And they actually struck three times, kinda like three strikes you're out, over a period of twenty years. And in the first time they kind of attacked, all they did was take the king of some of his officials away in chains. So they took the king of Israel away. The second

strike was the big one, where he took almost everybody. And they let them out. They wrecked their lives. They burned their houses. They put them in chains. They dragged them off into Babylonian captivity, and they get dragged away. But there was still a little remnant that was left behind.

The the remnant that was left behind. And and and Jeremiah, like a captain, good captain on a ship, he was with them. And and and and here's the problem. The whole time the whole time these things are happening,

Jeremiah's message was not turn back to God or else this is gonna happen. It's more like when you're a parent and the kids finally crossed the line. Now there has to be some discipline to happen. His message was

Babylon is coming, and you need to submit to them. And in fact, he had a kind of a flare for dramatic. In one of the passages, he puts a yoke on from an ox and and walks into a meeting to declare, We are called by God to submit. He says he'll take care of us, but this is happening. That was not a popular message.

That's why all these strikes ended up coming. They they they as it happened, they they never listened. In the forty years he was a prophet, it doesn't record that one person converted and said, okay, I believe you. Matter of fact, they almost they tried to kill him at one point because they didn't like his message.

Because here he is, God's people. He's bringing a message from God that says, our land that God gave us, we have the temple, we have Jerusalem, we have all this stuff. We are the children of God. And you're saying we're supposed to surrender? We're supposed to submit? How many times in our past have we been overwhelmed and an enemy that was way more powerful showed up and God showed up and wiped them out? Why would he tell us to do this? And so they didn't want to listen.

I can understand that. Let me give you an illustration of of why this would make sense. It would be the same for them to say submit to Babylon. Would be the same as if a prophet came in here today and said, hey, China is gonna overrun us. And we need to submit to that.

When I thought about that this week, was like, wow, I'd be on the wrong side too. I'd probably yell at Jeremiah. I don't think I would surrender. I'd be willing to be last man standing. I'd stare over at Thanos across that valley and just hope that someone says on my left and and and bails me out.

I tell old old illustrations, you don't laugh. I give you a modern one and half you don't get it. Watch more movies people. Actually, no. Don't watch this. It's a Captain America moment by the way. Awesome. But anyways, imagine that.

So that was his message. They didn't listen. So then boom, boom, boom. Well, what happens is this third strike happens. Most of the people, this remnant's left, and all of a sudden, they Babylon puts up a governor. They they they prop up this governor, and he ends up assassinated.

So the remnant keeps fighting. They won't give up.

And then they freak out because they're like, oh, no. Babylon's gonna come back in, and there's gonna be repercussions. Probably should have thought about that before you killed their governor. But then they actually go to Jeremiah, who they haven't listened to for forty years, and ask his opinion. They're like, we wanna run to Egypt. We think we're just gonna flee to Egypt. Like like the Israelites in Egypt has worked out so well in their past, you know. But anyways, they they they they they they wanna do that. What do you think? And Jeremiah tells them the same thing. He has the same message for God. God said to submit.

Submit to them when they show up. Just do what they say. And he says he'll take care of you, but you have to submit. And they're like, Jeremiah, this is why we've never listened to you. You know why? You never tell us what we wanna hear. And so they they say we're going to Egypt and they grab him. He goes with them.

And then we never hear of them again in all of history. That prophecy of Isaiah about the the remnant will be destroyed. It sounds like God's being mean. The remnant was the one that refused to submit and kept fighting and fighting.

And Babylon ended up attacking Egypt and all those Jews that were left, and Jeremiah was never heard of again. That's the end of the story. So

if your good doesn't lead to God, it's not good. Where do I wanna look at this from? Now that we've had all this background, I wanna jump into chapter 29 of Jeremiah, and I wanna destroy the one verse that you probably all know from Jeremiah.

Most of you, some of you have this written on a mug,

stenciled on a nice piece of art, maybe carved into a piece of wood over a mantle place somewhere. A lot of you have memorized it, and I just told you more about Jeremiah than you've ever known. You never knew any of this, but you still embrace this verse. I'm about to ruin this verse for you, and

I don't even apologize. The truth is this. The verse is absolutely true, what it says. The problem is how you define the terms in the verse.

That's the problem. The way we interpret what it means. You know why? Cause most of us don't even know the context it comes from. It's Jeremiah twenty nine eleven. Who who knows that verse? Who can start it off for me? For I know

the plans I have. Well, now it's on the screen. So now you can all act like you memorized a verse. For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. How many of that you've quoted that? How many of are having going through something

tough right now and you're reminding yourself that you know what? This is not gonna be bad because God promised it good for me. Right? Right. And that is true. The problem is most of us interpret that is is good meaning happy. We equate good with our happiness. So how we don't

I know the plans I have for you says the Lord. They are plans for happiness and not for disaster to give me a future and a hope. Underlined happy and successful. We kinda read our meaning of goodness into that. The problem is to God, you know what good is? What takes us to God?

That's what's good. And anything that doesn't lead us to God is not good even if it feels good. Period. And here's why I know this. Do you know what context this verse was written in? Verse 11 is halfway through a letter in Jeremiah 29 that is written to that second group of exiles, The bulk of Israel

that just had their lives wrecked. Their houses burned. All of their wealth confiscated. They've put in chains, and they're marched off to an uncertain future in a land they've never been to. That's who he's talking to. In the middle of that,

he says, I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, to give you a future and a hope. And spoiler alert, they stay in Babylon for seventy years. That doesn't sound good. By our definition of good, that sounds like I wanna punch you in the face for saying that right now, kinda not good.

But most of us don't know that's the context. So what I wanna do now is I wanna go back to verse four where this letter starts. And what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna read four through 14.

We're just gonna walk through this passage and it has three things. Three things I think it says when we take it apart that you're gonna see. There are three things I need to do to actually see God's good plan and embrace when it doesn't feel good. What do I do when it doesn't feel good?

How do how am I supposed to operate? Three things. And the first thing I'm supposed to embrace is simply this. Don't give up when it feels hopeless. See, there could be nothing more hopeless than your entire life as you know it wrecked. And you're dragged off into captivity.

But one of the first things you wanna do when it feels hopeless is to just give up. Jeremiah said, submit to Babylon. He didn't say give up on life. God did not tell them to give up just because it seems hopeless.

So what does that look like? How do I not give up when it seems hopeless? Well, let's start reading. Verse four. This is what the Lord of heaven's armies, the God of Israel says to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem.

Right there. Right there, we see two things to help us not give up. One life seems hopeless. Figure out. I didn't see anything in there. Woah. Woah. Woah. Where was the promise me happy again? What is this? Well, if you look there, that first part, this is what the Lord of heaven's armies, the God of Israel says.

The first thing we need to do to not want to give up when life doesn't feel good is to recognize who God is. The first thing you need to embrace is even if God is leading me to some plan that doesn't feel good, I need to remember who he is.

And what's interesting about that, this letter that he was writing on the behalf of God, is he uses two titles for God. Do you notice there's two in there? The Lord of heaven's armies and the God of Israel. These are two titles for God. And they mean something. They emphasize different things. Powerful things.

The first one, the Lord of heaven's armies, is a word that emphasizes God's power. It it it it sometimes they say the Lord Almighty. Whenever you hear Lord Almighty, it's using a term that means he is the Almighty, infinitely powerful God. It's meaning it's declaring he was the one who is,

who was, who is, and will ever more shall be. He's the Alpha, the Omega, the first and the last. He is the one that is all powerful. He's the one that was here before existence even existed. He exists. He created

by space and time itself. He spoke everything that exists. There is nothing that compares to him, nothing that could stand to him. And you know, sometimes when you read the Bible, you think that there's this epic battle of good and evil. That's what movies teach us. And that evil sometimes wins and sometimes you know what? Evil doesn't stand a chance. It has no chance in the presence of God. He is the ultimate of everything. He knows all, has all power, which means he knows more than you and me. He has more power than you and I. He knows what he's doing, and you shouldn't trifle with him. He is the Lord God Almighty.

That's that term is what it means. Pretty powerful. That's yeah. Few fans. Good. But if you just stop there, that just sounds terrifying sometimes. The second word is more of a parental term, like a daddy. That's infinitely powerful. That God of Israel is a term that kinda emphasizes that he's intimately personal.

So not only is he the the end all and be all that knows what he's doing and and is super powerful, and there's not one problem he can't deal with. He actually thinks about you.

You are on his heart.

Now think about if you just concentrate on those two aspects of God when life doesn't feel good. He cares about you, and he is all powerful.

Everything that happens to you, he either did himself or allowed it to happen. You can trust his power, but he has your best interests at his heart. You're like, wow. I would have spread right past those words. There is so much power in scripture if you just look at it close enough.

By his way he introduced himself in the letter, he was saying, you never have to lose hope if you know what true hope is. What we'll see at the end hope has a name. His name is I think they wrote a song about that.

So don't give up when it feels hopeless because first of all recognize who he is. But did you hear the the the second part of this this this verse? It says, says to all the captives, he has exiled to Babylon. This wasn't just something that happened that was bad on accident. Who did it? This was God's plan.

He wrecked their lives. So the second thing I do is not only recognize who he is, I need to respond to what he does.

See, a lot of times when when something ends up, oh, I recognize God so powerful. But then we freeze. We just we stop there, and we don't respond to his plan. We think of it as something outside of that. Oh, God wouldn't really want this to happen to me.

So then you're sitting here waiting for what you want to have happen happen, and we lock up, and we freeze, and we get very stubborn, and we get very frustrated, and we refuse to respond to God's plans. We refuse to say, okay, God. If that's what you want, that's what you wanna do. Alright. What am I supposed to do with this? Instead of saying, what am I supposed to do with this? You say, God, what are you gonna do about this?

Instead of what am I gonna do with this? And you know what's interesting is we get this. You get what what it means. We do this all the time. And you've had this happen if you have kids. You know we act like kids before God all the time?

Because how many times has has has God you have a plan for your child. You wanna grow up, be responsible, you know what is. And one of those plans is, you know what, clean your room. Just as one example.

I need you to clean your room. Little kid, that doesn't sound like a good plan. You know why? That doesn't make them happy.

So they don't wanna clean the room. They like to mess up the room. They don't like to clean the room. But you know we get mad? Who else likes to who likes to clean your room? If you do, you probably need counseling. Just kidding. But the kid doesn't want anything so that you get in a fight with them. Right?

And at first, you're like, this is not a big deal. Why are you you're going to turn this into something it doesn't need to be. Just submit.

And then they don't submit. So then sometimes they get disrespectful. Then they cross a line. Now you're like, oh, now I have to be a parent. I'm going have to do something. You have to make a choice. Am I going to discipline? Am I going to punish? Sometimes we do nothing till we're mad enough to punish. But if we want a discipline, we know the discipline is basically,

I call it the the sweep the rug out from under a moment. You gotta sweep the legs. You you you you you they need to know that you are the infinitely powerful parent who is also intimately personal. You love them.

That's what discipline is. Infinitely powerful, you could just be abusive and a jerk and scare. But you also get to your love. That's what discipline is. You gotta put those together so then you kinda have a you do something. Time out, Or if they don't clean, you take away their toy. You do something where you you do something, and then if you if you've done it right, they may dig in and fight, but then you pray for that moment where they break. You know, they they get humble? And a lot times, you're little kid, they'll start crying.

And you're like, this is so great. And you you you think it's over with, and sometimes it is.

But as they cry, and they're they're they're sorry. You're like, it's okay. I love you. You know, you're having this moment. And then you don't know if it's really changed or not. Cause then what do you ultimately have to say then? Okay. Well then, let's let's start by picking up your toys.

Sometimes they do. But what happens a lot of times? They start crying more than they were crying about being sad that you were mad at them.

You know why? They thought the crying and the hugging and the I'm so sorry was a meant like, okay, you do love me, meaning you're not gonna make me clean my room. They're still just as stubborn about I don't want your plan.

I thought we I thought your love and you gave me hugs and you told me you love me. It was awesome. So I thought that meant now I don't have to clean my room. But you always take them back to let's clean the room. And if they don't, then you end up it's second verse, same as the first, a little bit longer, a little bit worse. Then it ends up in another big argument.

And what 99% of us do is we give up. Fine. Don't clean your room. Just shut the door. God doesn't do that. He doesn't say, oh, I feel sorry for you. You've cried so much. It's been hard. Go sit in the corner. I'll get you a brownie. But guess what we do? We act that way with God.

What happens if the plan that's happening in your life doesn't feel good? But it's God that's actually allowing your life to get wrecked a little bit. Because he needs you to learn something. What if what what if it's it's it's God that's tripping you?

What if it's like he's tripping you because he needs you as you fall down

to pick something up while you're down there? But if it's about happiness, it's about if I feel good, that means I gotta get out of this scenario as quickly as possible. So what you do is you fall, oh my goodness, gotta get up. God, help me up. Help me up. And then you get up and you ignore it. He's like, there's

a sock down there. I need you to pick up that sock. Or there's a piece pair of underwear right up under the corner of the bed. And so what happens is you get up and you don't pick up what he needed you to pick up. Guess what he's gonna do? Trip you again.

God, what is going on? It's like, pick up the socks. See that? I need you to get this. No. I get I don't wanna do that. I get up and I'm gonna fight my way back to my happiness. I'm And gonna live my truth and my happiness. And then what you know what God's gonna do? Boom. Trip you again.

And he will do it over and over. He doesn't cave in. Kids don't rule the house in God's house. And and so bam, bam, bam, bam. And what I just described is some of your I just described your entire relationship with God.

And you're like, why does God hate me? Why is life so hard? Why is this? It could be that you refuse to pick up what he wants you to pick up while you're down there.

What is it that you need to pick up? What is God's plan? Respond to it. Respond to it.

So then, what else? Let me read the next two verses, and this will be the last part of how to not give up. If I could recognize who he is, respond to what he's doing, the last thing I need to do is learn to remain free fruitful and faithful. Because look what he does tell him to do.

Build homes and plan to stay. Plant gardens and eat the food they produce. Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply.

Then he says, don't dwindle away and work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, and its welfare will determine your welfare. So he says two things. I want you to be fruitful, and I also want you to be faithful. You know, he just went back to the beginning plan he always had.

Be fruitful and multiply. He goes, but in other words, he says, keep living life. How many of us, because life has not felt good to you, you've basically stopped living life.

You're stuck.

That failure or that frustration that's happened has frozen you in time. And you evaluate everything in your life by that. And now it's completely got you stuck now, and it's giving you no future. And then what we try to do is I can't handle that anymore, so I just wanna feel good.

And that's why I run after unhealthy coping mechanisms. That's why we have ministries like Celebrate Recovery. Because what I do is I go after something that temporarily makes me forget.

And so I go after these things. He says, be fruitful. Live life. But how you live life is faithfully.

To be faithful. Because what do you tell them to do? Literally, work for the peace. And that word for work for peace and prosperity city is an active term. It doesn't mean just, I hope they do well. I'm rooting for you. It means to get active, to actually go out and do stuff. Serve the city.

And then he says, pray for them. Pray for their prosperity. It basically serve them. Show them by being fruitful and finding your kids. He says, basically, stay my people. Be in this world, as it says in the New Testament, but not of the world. He's saying not to isolate yourself and act like you're better than Babylon, and sit there and go, Babylon, it's horrible. I can't believe I'm in Babylon. I wish I could go home. He's like, no. Show Babylon the love of Jesus.

Show them my love. Be the light. Which by the way, multiplying,

being fruitful, and being faithful was what God first told them to do in Genesis. And when he created Israel, their mission was to show the world, God, I'm blessing you, Israel, till you can go be a blessing to the world. But you know what they did? They circled the wagons, and they made it all about themselves, and they didn't care about the world.

And that's why they started caring about themselves, and they forgot God's mission, to share the love of God. And it all became about their own success and their own things, their own plans. And they yeah, they went to the temple and they went to church. But that's all about their own personal edification.

I need to be fed. I wanna know the Torah. I got my kids. I want them to do. It didn't care about God's mission out there. It only cared about their own little lives. You could be fruitful but not be faithful. And so he took them right back to the original plan.

Think about it. Here they're getting dragged off into captivity. And what does he take them to? Right back to the plan. Here here's an idea. Since twenty nine eleven has been ruined for you,

I'm gonna give you another thought you can scribe down. Carve this into wood. Put it over the mantle place. You're gonna wanna write this down because I thought about this really long and hard. So this is very deep. God's plans always lead us back to God's plans.

I better say it again. That's probably too complicated for some of you. God's plans. Let me make it more personal. God's plans will always lead you or me back to God's plan. He's always gonna say, now I need you to clean the room.

And we know from the New Testament that, you know, we got the great commandment, great commission, love God, love others. Around here, we say the mission that when you water when you take what God says is we're supposed to point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus. He's saying the same thing for Babylon. Point those people. Instead of isolating

off and acting like they're doomed, I want what I want, we're supposed to be about reaching other people. And how do we reach other people? What are we supposed to reach them to? The same thing we're supposed to have, a fully engaged relationship with the Lord. And you

can narrow down all these commands in scripture to three things that we say around here. You need to know, grow, and go. That is God's plan for your life and my life. That's not just a mission statement on the wall. That's what the Bible says for us all. Is this what we're supposed to know, grow, go? No. I'm supposed to know Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I need to know that I can't save myself. I have a problem. I'm separated from God from sin and rebellion, but Jesus came and died on the cross and was resurrected to rescue me in a way I could never rescue myself. I need to know that. But then I need to continue to get to know him. And how do I continue to get to know him? With public worship and private practices. I come here publicly. We declare. That's why we sing. It's why it's important for you to be here all the time. If you think that worship is just about you and your family and when you have something or the topic is interesting or whatever, you're gonna be in and out and all over the place. But if you know that this is a place to come together, gap gather as the body of Christ where God does something just supernatural

when we gather and worship him together, and in worshiping him it comes back and implants something into us and helps us to know him at a deeper level, you'll make it more faithful. You'll be here all the time. And guess what? You'll make your kids come too.

It's ridiculous to say I'm not gonna make my kid go to church because I don't want them to hate God. Do you say I'm not gonna make them go to school when they're seven years old because you don't want them to hate learning? I'm not gonna make them clean their room because I don't want them to hate cleaning?

I'm not gonna make them brush their teeth because I don't wanna hate them brush teeth. It's a stupid lie. They're your kids. Guide them. But guess what? They're gonna do what you do. If church is just a hobby, guess what it's gonna be to them? A hobby. We're supposed to gather to know Jesus.

But then the Bible has over 101 anothers in the New Testament, meaning stuff we're supposed to do together. Christianity is a team sport. It's not golf.

Sorry. It's not. We're not supposed to just sit in rows all the time. We have to be in circles. We need to grow in community. And in a church, you don't have to know everybody, but you have to know somebody.

And you have to have those people in your life. That's why I always say, get in a home group. Go to one of the classes. Do something beyond just here. And then the last thing we're called to do is to go. Go make disciples. So we're called to go live intentionally. Meaning intentionally take our time,

the talents God has given us, the treasure, our money, our finances, and our own story, our testimony, and purposely plan on how we're gonna use those to point others to Jesus. And I am telling you, what I just said is not optional. That is God's plan.

And every time he trips you up, every time life doesn't seem good, every time you said, okay, I'm gonna go ahead, I'm gonna recognize, I'm gonna respond to God's plan in my life, God's plans always lead back to God's plans.

And he's gonna take you back to that every single time. And that's why you're gonna hear me preach this all the time. And some of you are like, I'm so sick of hearing this. Why can't we learn something else? Because this is what we're supposed to do. And I know that if I don't learn to know, grow, and go,

if I refuse to know and grow, I will eventually go. I'll go somewhere else. I'll go away from church. I'll bounce from church to church. I'll wander around. And every time I get pushed to do these things, I'm going to get mad. Cause I'm gonna act like the little kid that doesn't wanna clean his room.

And I'm telling you, God might be wrecking your life to tell you, I want you back on plan and mission with me. Are you gonna keep fighting them? Or are you gonna submit? Because Christianity, life, how God built it for us.

I don't care what other churches. You can go anywhere else. You can find someone to tell you what you wanna say. But God's word says this, There is no victory without surrender. Ever. It's just not gonna happen.

And so that's really what it's saying here. Don't give up when it feels hopeless. Recognize. Respond to what he does. Remain fruitful and faithful, because God's good plans always lead us back to God's good plans. Period. So if that's what I and if I don't do this, if I start becoming hopeless

and not doing these things, you know what I'll do next? Is I'll grab hold of false hope.

And that's what we need to not do next. Don't grab hold of false hope. Verses eight and nine says this. This is what the Lord of heaven's armies, the God of Israel says. Don't let your prophets and fortune tellers who are with you in the land of Babylon trick you. Do not listen to their dreams because they're telling you lies in my name. I have not sent them, says the Lord. So they had other prophets, so called prophets and teachers telling them these lies. And he says, don't listen to them. Basically, they're grabbing false hope. We know from scripture that what they were telling him is, don't settle in. Don't live life. Resist

because we're not gonna be here very long. We're gonna be here two years or less. Well think about it. Think about it. You know what verse 10 starts off with? It says, for this is what the Lord says, you'll be in Babylon for seventy years.

Well, someone said, this is not gonna be pleasant. You're gonna be someplace you don't wanna be for seventy years or two years. Who do you wanna listen to?

Who do you say, dear Lord, of love and God, I hope the two years is right. Right? We always wanna go to the easy way out. That's why I'm saying that's what most most,

unhealthy coping mechanisms are and stuff. They're like false promises. I could drink and then I'll forget the pain. I could do this. I could sleep around then I'll feel wanted. I can do this and I'll feel We run after false hopes. And these false teachers were saying,

don't get with God's plan. Don't settle in. Don't live life. Resist. Sit there. Fold up like a kid on the ground and whine and complain until you get your way. Because you know what? God's gonna give in and we're gonna be out of here. The problem with false hope is it is the fastest way to be truly hopeless.

Because what happens when that doesn't happen? What happens when it's two and a half years? There's either something wrong with God or something wrong with you. And false hope is what leads us away from the Lord. So that's a good that's definitely not good because it doesn't lead to God.

And in our culture, we have a very there there is one pretty prevalent in the in the kind of the church world of false hope that's really similar to what these guys were doing. It's called the prosperity gospel.

The prosperity gospel is any kind of preaching that says, if you believe hard enough, if you have enough faith, if you trust God the most, you're gonna get everything you ever desired.

Because God is good. But here's how they define. They take what it means to be good and they put in what we define as good. God wants you to be healthy, wealthy, and happy. That's not what good means. You know what good is in the Bible? God.

Just like I said, here's a theological point. And I'm running out of time here, but this is just like I said last week, these attributes of God, when he's holy, he's powerful, he's righteous, he he's not those things because there's this standard. And and and we look to him because he meets the standard when we don't.

He is the standard. God isn't good because he does all the good things. He meets up to the list of good. God is good because he defines good. Good is God.

It's not God meets up to good. If you make it God meets up to good, what you're saying is there's a standard outside of God, and then we kind of define good. So then we define and we we say we either believe God or trust God. We are now judging God based on our list of what we think is good. And that's why you'll say stuff like, well, if God would do that, I would never follow a God. Well, guess what? Then you think you're God.

Because you put the standard. You know, there's a passage in Jeremiah. It's in the study guide. You can go back. It's about the potter and the clay. Because it talks about how God is the potter. We're just the clay. And it says right there, can't a potter do whatever he wants with the clay?

Woah, woah, woah, woah. That seems kind of bold. God could do whatever he want. Well, that's not good. That's not the God I want. You know why? Because because that means you're not God.

So he is good. So so false hope.

One of the false hopes is prosperity gospel. As you start believing, if I just be good enough, do this. I should get this. God wants this for me. Well, you know what? That preaching doesn't do well in Africa. I've been there. Joel Osteen doesn't sell your best life now very well in Africa.

Mainly because the most faithful people there don't even have enough money to buy it.

Prosperity preaching doesn't work in a lot of places in the world. You know what works everywhere? Every culture, every time, every place. The real gospel. The word of God. The word of God. It says everything can fade away, but the word of the Lord will stand forever. Don't grab on to false hopes.

Because a false hope is only a one way ticket to no hope. We gotta walk away from that. Because look at look verse 10 says this. This is what the Lord says. You'll be in Babylon for seventy years,

but then I'll come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. It's funny. We love to quote verse 11. Some of you probably went out to coffee with someone going through something tough, and you probably shared verse 11, you know, and you just said, hey, listen. You know, God knows the plans. They're for good. You never share verse 10 with them, do you?

Has anyone in this room have verse 10 stenciled onto a part piece of artwork and put on your wall? You're gonna be there a long time. It's gonna be seventy years. And it's like, wait, what? This is then something that you think is good will finally happen. You know what that's saying?

There there was a military phrase. I forgot it was my dad used say, I can't believe I got this from my dad. So some of you would, in the early service, probably reacted thinking I was just being a jerk. But but there is a military statement for when you have to do a plan that's gonna bring victory, but it's not gonna be pleasant.

You need to embrace the there you go. You guys knew it. Verse 10 is embrace the suck.

That's what it's saying. Nobody wants that verse. We want verse 11. We wanna forget verse 10. We don't want to embrace the suck. We don't want to do that. And there was someone in the last verse, you know, believe this. They pulled up their sleeve, and they have Jeremiah twenty nine eleven tattooed on their arm. And they go, but no. No. No. I get it. I knew the context, but now you give me an idea. I'm gonna go get right below it. Jeremiah twenty nine ten. Embrace the suck tattooed next to it. Try putting that on your wall at home.

Put that up. Or when you're out counseling that friend that's struggling, you know, I know God has good plans for you, but let me read verse 10 to you. You need to embrace the suck. And guess what? You know what it's gonna do? It's gonna save you some time because your friend's gonna be like, you know what? I forgot. I have to be anywhere else but here right now.

Because we don't like that message. But what that means is embrace the plan because it truly is the plan to victory. And that's really what God is saying. Embrace my plan even though it feels bad. But you know what makes it good? Because it leads you to me. Because if your good doesn't lead you to God, it's not good.

No matter how good it feels. That's the whole point. That's the whole point. So what am I supposed to do? Gotta close this up. Last few verses. Don't give up when it feels hopeless. Don't grab hold of false hope. And then finally, give yourself wholeheartedly to the only true hope.

Because it goes on, says verse 11. Now we get to verse 11. For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. There are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. You just need to trust me. That verse is really him saying, I know this isn't gonna feel good, but I need you to trust me. That's what twenty nine eleven is saying.

And he says, in those days, meaning as you go through this process, when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly,

you will find me. I will be found by you, says Lord. I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you, and I will bring you home again to your own land. He's saying, wholeheartedly embrace real hope. When we try to find hope in what we think is good,

it really takes us away from God. And our only real hope, the true hope, is found in God. Wholeheartedly pursuing him is hope. Because like I said earlier, hope has a name and his name is Jesus. That's what they're all pointing us to.

And that's why we we often we we don't get that and we run the wrong way. I'm gonna ruin one more verse for you before I end here. You're like, please don't, Bill. This is my only other one I've ever memorized. Psalm thirty seven four, take delight in the Lord and he'll give you your heart's desires.

Like, please don't tell me that doesn't mean what I thought it means.

What we think that means is is if I really take the light, I do God things God, I come to church, I'd be a good person, I don't drink, smoke, or chew, or go with the girls who do. If I do that, then God is gonna give me that thing I really wanted. I want that house. I want that job. I want that. Sometimes we do get those. God blesses us and sometimes he's not opposed to giving us presents.

There are things he'll give us. But that's He doesn't always give us what he's He What we desire, but he will always give us what he decides.

But the whole idea there, when you read that, taking the light in the Lord and getting him blessed, it's not a plan to say I'm gonna go do all these right things, then I'm gonna get what I really always wanted. What it's saying is when I wholeheartedly pursue God, that he will plant himself in us. I will grow to be more like him. I will know grow and go. I will embrace that relationship with him. I will start to see that all I really need is him. So then all I'm gonna really want is him. That's to take delight in him. It's to taste the Lord and see that he is good. And when I trust him instead of everything else, guess what happens to the desires of my hearts?

It's not about I do these things and God changes his heart towards my desires. It's about I get close to God and God changes my heart where my desire is his desire. And when I want God's will, I always get my will. When I got want God's way, I always get my way. That is what it's saying. It

means surrender to the love of God. Wholeheartedly embrace him. Quit leaving your faith as an engine running in the driveway and then trying to drive through life in another car. That's what it's saying. Because you will discover that only true hope is only found

in the Lord. Matter of fact, in chapter 31, it says this. Thirty one thirty one says,

the day is coming. This is in Jeremiah, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like the one I made with the ancestors, with your ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant,

though I love them as a husband loves the wife. But this is a new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my instructions deep within them. It's an inside out. The Holy Spirit is what he's referencing.

And I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. And they will not need to teach their neighbors nor will they need to teach their relatives saying, you should know the Lord. For everyone from the least to the greatest will know me already, says the Lord. And I will forgive

their wickedness and I will never again remember their sins. That passage is quoted verbatim by the apostle Paul in Hebrews chapter eight under the guise of saying, our high priest. Hebrews describes as Jesus as the ultimate high priest, the lamb of God,

the ultimate prophet, the declarer of the word of God, and the ultimate king, king of kings and lord of lords. And he says, Jesus came to make a new covenant. A covenant of love where he will forgive us. And what he's talking about is someday, all those who know him will be absolutely forgiven,

and there'll be a new kingdom. That's the hope. That's good. And every one of God's plan in your life is good because it's trying to take you to that. And anything that doesn't take you to that isn't good. No matter how good it feels. That's the whole point.

And in the end, like they laid they would lay ended up in seventy years in in Babylon. Guess what? They end up gonna go home seven years later. You know why? God Babylon didn't last till year '71. A new empire took over, the Medo Persians. And their king told them they can go home. You know what's crazy is?

There's probably well over a million. In that first phase of returnees. The ones who didn't wanna leave, their lives were wrecked. I can't believe God took us from this place and brought us to this place. Only 48,000 went back. You know why? God did bless them, but they got comfortable there too.

So now they were allowed to go back and now like, no. No. No. No. No. I wanna stay here. This feels more comfortable. You see, they a lot of them, their life was still about a place of comfort instead of being with the person of comfort. Is your life about where you're at or about who you're with?

Because if your good doesn't lead to God, it's not good.

You know, I think they what God was really doing by saying go have kids and grandkids and plant them over here and then these 48,000. Then more followed. They went back and then, you know, the whole story. Israel became great. They grew up in the stuff and then Jesus was born. He came. The Messiah came to them. That's what his plan was. I need you to be this nation because I'm gonna save the world through this.

But think about this. The how many went to the worst night of worship? Few of you aren't pagans. Good job. Just kidding. Kind of. There was a point if you were there that, we were singing a song about an hour in, and it got quiet. So you can we quieted down so you can kinda hear people.

And in that moment, if you were in this room and heard it, there was a voice of a child that got louder than everyone else. And it wasn't beautiful singing. It was more like that praise shouting. It was more like this kid really meant what they were singing. And remember, this was over an hour in,

and that kid convicted me. I was starting to say, how many more songs we got? And he was like, all in. And and the line was was the song that says, I just want you and nothing else. Nothing else. Nothing else. Nothing else will do.

He shouted praised that louder than anyone in this room. This child. That's what what what what God's good plans are supposed to bring us to. What he's doing is trying to get us to the point where we can actually our not just our lips, but our life shouts this and sings this. That I just want you and nothing else.

Because nothing else, nothing else, nothing else will do. And if you think about it, in that story of with Israel, if they had stayed in Jerusalem, if they had stayed and continued to just have their faith idle in the side of the garage,

would their kids be singing that? They would have followed their parents. He wrecked their good in their life in order to save an entire generation.

God wants us all to be able to sing. I want nothing else.

Nothing else. Nothing Because nothing else will do. That is what God's good plan is for your life. And anything that doesn't take you to that isn't good. No matter how good it feels. Father God, thank you Lord. And Lord my prayer is simple. I pray for myself and everyone in this room that you could bring us to a point

where we can shout out in our lives like this child did. That we just want you and nothing else, nothing else, nothing else. Because nothing else will do. I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.