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[inaudible] I'm glad

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I wore my talk today. This table grew from the last time I was here. I'm so glad to be with you guys today. I'm so glad to be with you all online. Some of you I haven't seen in several months, so thank you for being here. Thank you for being here. I know we have some San Francisco folks in the room, so thank you. And I know we have some Ms . San Francisco folks online too. So thank you all for being here. I'm excited to learn from God's word with you all. Um , you guys are in the middle of a Jeremiah series and I'm going to stick right with that. In fact, I was given the very best part to preach on. I think it was a very sweet thing that Larry did to give me this, except then we had some cheaters in our midst these last few weeks. So the passage I'm preaching on today's Jeremiah 29 and there's a pretty famous verse right in the middle of that Jeremiah 29 11 that says for, I know the plans I have for you. Yeah. That one you've probably seen it on Pinterest, maybe on a greeting card lately. I know that I've had this verse written in a lot of cards to me lately. I'm sure you can imagine this verse is pretty famous, but there were some cheaters. There are some cheaters. I went back and listened. At least three of the preachers you've had have said my verse and they stole it. So ignore everything they said. And we're going to learn about it today. Just kidding. It's all good. So the verse, the passage we're we're doing is Jeremiah 29, but let's go ahead and read that famous verse. I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you hope and a future. Now, this verse is it's super popular. You see it, especially around graduation time. We see that on a lot of gift cards that go to new graduates that are getting ready to step into this brand new really cool part of life. We love to share this verse with people who are really hurting and they're not sure what's coming next. And so we love to say this , Hey, good news. Don't worry. God has plans for you. It's prince the prosper, you not to harm you for a hope and a future. And what's almost as if we think this verse says, whatever is coming is going to be better than what you've got . And you just need to hold your breath because it's coming around the corner. And I wish that that was what this meant. I super wish that's what it meant right now, but it's not because here's a truth that we need to know. Scripture is for us, all of scripture is for us, but it wasn't written

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To us. So

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To really know what the passage means, we have to know why it was written. Who was it written to? What context are we talking about? What were the people that Jeremiah was saying? These things to the prophet, Jeremiah, what was he trying to tell them? Because it can't mean something to us that it didn't mean to them. And so let's take some time today and let's dig into what exactly it was that God was trying to tell his people. What were these people experiencing? And what can we learn? Because here's the good news. This is good news for us. I'm not going to ruin Jeremiah 29 11 for you. I'm not , I promise it is good news, but let's hear why it's good news. Let's learn. Let's dig. Let's know why this is truly good news. So quick review Jeremiah is found in the old Testament. If you're new to the Bible, the Bible is split into six . Well, one book 66 books split into two main parts. Old Testament is the story of God and his people. And the new Testament is a story of Jesus and the early church. So Jeremiah is here in the old Testament. Here is the story that we're in. You kind of got to know where we're coming from to know where we're going to. So the old Testament starts with the story of creation, right? I promise. I'm not gonna tell you the whole story. The Bible right here, Larry's real nervous right now. I made a slide instead. So the old Testament starts with the creation story. It takes us through God and his relationship with these people, the Israelites, his chosen people, God made a covenant with a man named Abraham who became Abraham. And the covenant was, I will be your God and you will be my people. So it was a covenant with a promise. It was a two way covenant. He said, obey me, follow me. And I will take care of you and give you everything you need. But listen, this story is not all butterflies and bubbles. For sure. God had set these people apart and he made a covenant with them and he had taken great lengths to take care of him. We read about when he rescued them from, from Pharaoh in Egypt, he pulled them out of that with a man named Moses. He takes them to the promised land. He fed them with bread from the and water from a rock. He pulled out all the stops to care for these people. And they continuously complained when the heaven bread came. They said, I want meat. In fact, they went so far as to say, why don't you just leave us in Egypt? We were better off there. Can you imagine? So they continuously complained and God continually provided through his kindness. He would bring them back. And he said, listen, guys, this isn't going to work out. This covenant is a two way thing. I will be your God. And you will be my people. So start acting like my people and these guys, they were like, listen, God, we're seeing all the other kingdoms. And they all have Kings. And we want one of those. And God says, you don't need one. You have God. That's like way better than a king. And they were like, no, no , no, no. We want a king because they have a king. And that's what we want. This sounds like a five-year-old like, I want that toy. Cause she's got it. So I want that one. And so God said a really one that you're going to like this very much, but I'll give you a king. So he gave him a king and God was right. Shocking. God was right. And it didn't go well, we see Saul. And then David King, David, the one Slingshot guy, David Solomon, his son, and after Solomon died, things got worse and worse and worse. And the country split. So now we have two sets of Kings to keep track of. And if you read through the old Testament, I actually highlight the good ones and cross out the bad ones because it's hard to keep track because it's kind of up and down, up and down, everything's all over the place. There was good Kings and there was bad Kings. It was a mess. And during this time, God used people called prophets as his mouthpiece. So God used these men and women. He would call them and say, I need you to say to these people what I want to say to them. And everybody wants to be a prophet because how cool would it be to be like, God tells you something and you say it not a great job. It isn't . Everybody wants to be a profit until you actually read the prophets . And then it's like, no, no, no, no, thank you. They had a horrible job because you see God, didn't always have nice things to say to his people. Most often the prophet's job were to say, Hey, stopping, dumdums pay attention. Turn around. God is still providing for you. Can you pull yourself together? That was the prophet's job. And they often wanted to kill the messenger. They often killed the messenger. And that's who we're talking about in Jeremiah. Jeremiah was one of these prophets was a mouthpiece of God. And Jeremiah was specifically tasked to do the dirty job to go and tell these people, pull it together. I need you to pay attention because what about to happen is what God has always said was going to happen. There will be judgment. He's going to bring you back to himself one way or the other. And so turn, turn, turn. He told him , have to turn back to God. You know, the one who's taking care of us over and over. In fact, if we don't this whole, thing's going to blow up in our faces. And that's exactly what it did. The surrounding powers came in and conquered them. But instead of responding with humility, the Israelites doubled down, they continued to disregard both the Lord's commandments and the dangers that were swirling around them, that they could actually see. So let's hop into our text , Jeremiah 29, verse one. At this point, the Babylonians have come and taken several of the Israelites off to Babylon. And this is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders, among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people. Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon verse four. This is what the Lord almighty. The God of Israel says to all those. I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. Jeremiah wrote these words to the exiles who had been deported from Jerusalem to Babylon. He specifically wrote it to their leaders, to the elders, the priests and the prophets, this message that beautiful verse. It wasn't written to one individual. It was written to all God's people. And that's something we can learn that this message, this plan, isn't just for one person it's for God's people. Overall, when God said, I know the plans I have for you, he wasn't just speaking directly to you or to me or to anybody we know personally, God didn't make this promise to just one person. He made it to God's people as a group. So God spoke these words to a nation that had been around for hundreds of years, hundreds of years, there was a lot of history he had in relationship to these people. This was the, I will be your God. And you will be my people, people that's who this was written to. And they didn't hold up their end of the covenant over and over. They failed. They chased after all kinds of other gods, they disobeyed over and over. Even though God constantly took care of them until finally God did what he repeatedly warned he would do. And he let the Babylons invade their nation and take a chunk of them off as prisoners of war. God, didn't say this. He didn't say this to a people who were on the brink of the very best moment of their life. These people were not recent high school graduates. He was saying this to a people who were in complete distress, their lives. Weren't just about to begin their lives

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To end

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Life. As they knew it, their homes, their there , everything was about to be gone. Even the temple where God had dwelled for hundreds of years, it was going to be destroyed. Rebel . They were taken from a land that had been promised to them by God that's who God was saying this to that's who this promise was for. So when God spoke through Jeremiah, his plans to give these people hope in a future, he was talking to a people who had already messed up their future. And their only hope, their only hope was that God wasn't through with them yet. And that he would come and rescue them. So if we skip down a little bit, we'll also see that Jeremiah's voice was not the only voice they were hearing from verse eight says this, yes, this is what the Lord almighty. The God of Israel says, do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies to you in my name, I have not sent them to Claire's the Lord. There were other prophets , not just Jeremiah, but there were other profits that were filling people's ears with what they wanted to hear. They were filling their heads with false hope and messages that they most certainly did not get from God. They were saying, I know this looks bad, but don't worry. God's about to come through. He'll be fine. It's fine. Just wait a second. And by Christmas, God will be here. Amy . Him . Exactly that. But basically that's what they were saying. Just hold on a minute. God's on our side. This will blow over soon. Then we can go home. Well, God sent Jeremiah to say, Nope. I never said that. Don't listen to these guys who are just telling you what you want to hear to make you feel better. That's like putting lipstick on a pig. Am I look better? But still stink side note. I think that Jeremiah addressed this to the leaders of the people on purpose. I think he addressed it to them because these leaders had been listening to these ding-dongs the whole time. That is what got them in this position in the first place. See the false prophets were just yes-men . They would just discern whatever it is that the leaders wanted to hear other gods. Sure. No problem. Just make sure you save room for God. Is it okay to get rich and overlook the widows and the orphans and the corridors ? Sure. They probably weren't doing want wanting to do anyway. Cause otherwise what would be that position profits are supposed to be the mouthpieces of God. But these guys came up with words to make the leaders feel good about whatever it is that they wanted to do. And that's kind of how God's people ended up in exile. Isn't it? One rationalization at a time, as they listened to whichever voice made them feel better, more and more, they could hear the voice of God, less and less. They stopped hearing the cries of the poor and oppressed among them. As they rationalize the way to a life that they thought they wanted. They wandered further and further from the life that God wanted for them. As they became indifferent to God, they became a different to the cries and the needs of the people that surrounded them until they became irrelevant to God's plans to heal the world. And that's when God put them in timeout, a 70 year timeout and it's to those people sitting in a timeout that will last the rest of their lives. That's who God said. I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you hope and a future. You see, even in exile, God wanted his people to know that he only tears one thing down to build up something new. He only tears something down so that he can build up something new. Now, I don't know if you remember this, but the first time that I came and preached here in Benicia, I came in and I had scratches all over my arms because I had gotten into a fight with my rosebush. It's not even like a Bush, it's an insane plant angry situation. And we had had a fight and I chopped it down basically is what happened? I was pruning it and then it had to die because it attacked me. In fact, I have a picture of what it looks like after I was finished with it. And I shared this with you last night , that was all that was left of her. That I was done. She had attacked me. And so she had to go. I was told by experts. That's never coming back. Like I thought that maybe, you know, pruning is good, Kayla, but that is not pruning. You done killed it. And I was like, good, good. Riddens can I show you what it looks like right now? [inaudible] This is like, you need to know that this is the top of my house right here. The whole , it just keeps growing and growing. And you know what? It's not my problem anymore, like four days. So somebody else can deal with that. Say tannic plant. But that actually totally ruins the story. Cause what I meant was look how beautiful it is because see God's , here's one thing down to build up something beautiful. We see it in our lives all the time. So God put his people into exile to remake them from the bottom up to remake them from the bottom up and Jeremiah, one of them to embrace what God was doing, not to fight it, not to despair forever over what they lost, not to feel defeated and paralyzed so that they couldn't move forward. Jeremiah told him to put down roots in Babylon to start rebuilding right where they were to live well in exile, which was very different than what the other prophets were saying. They were saying, don't unpack your bags. Don't put anything on the walls because we're about to get out of here. God's going to rescue us and Jeremiah God through Jeremiah said, [inaudible] plant yourself right here, plant yourself off right here. So this is what God's specifically told the exiles here. First five build houses and settle down, increase in number there. Do not decrease. Also seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you in exile. Pray to the Lord for it. Because if it prospers you too will prosper. God called for the people to make wherever they landed. A better richer, more fuller, beautiful, more like heaven place while they were there. Jeremiah calls them not to long for Jerusalem, not to long for what was, but instead to work toward the good of Babylon where they were right, then he said, don't waste this time. Invest in this time, live well in exile, which is really what God had wanted them to do all along their whole story. That's what God wanted them to do. So God promised them this. He said, I plan to prosper and not to harm you. And that included their neighbors and the poor and the oppressed among them. He said, I'm going to give you hope and a future. But that included, knowing that he wasn't done with them yet, exile was the place that God sent him. God sent them to find him again. And so God promised them in verse 13, you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart no more. Half-hearted whenever I get around to it kind of seeking, seek with all your heart, the Hebrew word that's translated. Heart is not just talking about your emotions, your feelings.

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It's not that at all. It's

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About the inner self, your mind, your will, your feelings, everything in you. That's what he was calling them to seek with. Seek God with everything that you are, put your whole self into it. These beautiful words. I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not harm you plans to give you hope. And a future. These words were written to a people who were losing everything, but God spoke these words to reassure these people that he wasn't finished with them. Yet. Third Jeremiah's words, God told them the way to a future filled with hope was not instead of, or in spite of exile, but through it through exile. So now that we know what this verse meant to the people, it was regionally written to what can that mean to us? Those of us who are not in Babylon? Well, Eugene Peterson says that the essential meaning of exile is that we are aware we don't want to be. And with that definition, I'm guessing there are several of us who find ourselves in exile today. Yeah. So we can know. We can know that there is something in this verse for all of us. We hang on to the truth of God's promise to his people who were exiles before us. The way to a future filled with hope is not. Instead of, or in spite of this exile, this place where you find yourself. But through it, when we find ourselves in a place where we don't want to be, we follow the same instructions. God gave his people. Verse 12, you will call on me and come and pray to me. And I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I love these verses because there's something for everybody in them , whatever place in your journey with God that you find yourself, there is something for you here. For some of you, it's going to start with calling on Jesus, praying to him, having conversation with God. It's simple, but it's not necessarily easy when you just start. So for those of you that have never prayed for anything other than your dinner and it James it's okay, that it feels a little weird. I get it. I get it. You start with asking him to help you pray. What if you just start and say, God, will you help me pray? It's really tricky because just by doing that, you're praying, you see how we eased into that. So we start by asking God to help us pray. And then we tell him what we know to be true about him. Okay? So you can just start telling God what you know is already true about henna . If you need to borrow somebody's words because you're not so sure yet go to the Psalms and pray those to him. Just read through the Psalms and say, God, this is what I know to be true about you because it's what your word says about you. And then finally tell him what you need. What is it that feels heavy? And Burgard some right now ask God to intervene on your behalf, ask him to step in to where it is that you are feeling pain and you have called on Jesus. So maybe you start there or maybe for some of you, it's time to seek him maybe for the first time, or maybe you have been seeking him for a while , but you know, you've been holding part of yourself back. Maybe you've been seeking him just with your feelings. You're good during worship time. But then the rest is kind of iffy. Maybe it's the rest of your week. Maybe Sundays, you and God tight. But the minute you drive into work or log on to work

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Is over.

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So what does it look like to seek God with every part of us, with everything that we are well, first get into his word. It's a beautiful thing to know. God, we can get to know Jesus. So start in the gospels. The gospels are the first four books of the new Testament, which is the second half of the Bible. And it's good to know Jesus because he's not only the founder of our faith. He is the content

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Of our faith.

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So if you can know about Jesus, you can know that is true about God as well. Jesus is the gospel. He is the good news. So you can start there, read them and seek to know the person of Jesus and then seek him in every part of your life. Hear me closely. I'm not saying put God in every part of your life. He's ready . Okay ? The trick is interact with him in every part of your life. Look for him, open

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Your eyes

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And ask Kim how you can get involved with where he is already moving. Sometimes I think that we invite God into things and he's like, where have you been been here the whole time? Thank you for noticing. He doesn't need an invitation to where you are. You just need to pay attention and interact with God wherever you are. The promise is this. It's always a successful endeavor to find him. When you seek him with all your heart, it's a promise. So if you seek him, you will find him. It's not like looking for your, you will find him when you seek him with all of your heart, but you can't seek him with all your heart. If you're consumed with something else, you just can't. When we feel displaced, like something has been taken from us. The temptation is to look around and look backwards, to live in a way, trying to reclaim what was. But when we do that, we're going to miss out on what God is doing, where we are right now, what he has for us in this moment. So we can't live looking back . We can't, we are being called to put down roots, to dig down deep, to settle in, to live fully and where God has us right now to make beautiful, more full, more like heaven, anywhere that you find yourself. Yes. Even where you are in exile. God's plan to give us hope in a future is knowing that he isn't done yet. That's his plan. And I think sometimes we need to be reminded that the church she's always living in exile in the world. In fact, Peter calls us foreigners and exiles, and first Peter two. And honestly, when we embrace our status as exiles, when we recognize that we are at a place where we don't necessarily belong, that is when we can truly hear Jeremiah 29 11, the way God meant it to be heard. So let me read it to you one more time. I know the plans I have for you plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you hope and a future. But remember just like it did for Israel. This promise comes with a responsibility and that responsibility is to seek the peace and prosperity of the place. God put you because if it prospers you too will prosper. God ties our peace and our prosperity, our wellbeing , our wholeness, our hope, our future to the peace and prosperity of the place. He puts us not quite done yet. I mean, I , I can walk like this. We can go. I'm so sorry. I was on a roll. Okay. Here's the thing I'm almost done. I promise Maya so sorry. God gives us the miracle of a hope and a future. And that's what it is. Hope is a miracle. The future, it's a miracle. God gives us the miracle of hope and a future so we can share our hope with others. God calls us to express our hope by working for the wholeness and wellbeing of the place and the people around us so that they can have this miracle of hope too . That's God's plan. That's our miracle of hope. Listen, it does not take away the sadness and disappointment of exile. This is not some cheap silver line and nonsense. I'm giving you right now. I wouldn't do that to you. Not today. It does not take away the sadness and disappointment of exile. That is true. And it is real. In fact, it's just as real as God's goodness,

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His love, his power,

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His faithfulness, the miracle and our pain.

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It's all true.

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And somehow, somehow when we seek God with all our hearts in the midst of all of that, we will find him in the mix . The middle

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Of all of it.

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That's the miracle. That is our miracle. These people, the Israelites, they were getting another chance in the middle of their exile and even better than their miraculous rescue from exile, which did come 70 years later, even better was God's ultimate plan for their future. The miracle of an empty grave, because you see, we needed a miracle too . We needed a rescuing from exile. So God sent his son down to earth to live a perfect life and then take all of the mistakes and sin and , and rejection. All of that, that we experienced and that we contribute to take it to the cross and let it die. And then three days later, he came back to life. He defeated sin and death and disappointment. He defeated exile and he gave us the miracle of hope. And now we can see the miracle in an empty grave. The one we thought was dead has come to life again. We can see a miracle and every chain that we break because the power of heaven roars in us, I've asked McKinsey to sing a song, and I want you to listen to these words. If you know it, you're welcome to sing it. And if you don't just allow yourself to be sung over, allow that miracle of hope to become something. A part of you, please respond with me and worship as we sing.