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Intersectministries |
JEREMIAH |
TITLE:
A Word of Preparation For A Time To Come
TEXT:
Jeremiah 29:11
Perhaps
you would like to tell me exactly where you will be one year from now at this
moment of July 17th? Will
there be another terrorist attack like the one we experienced on 9-11? Is the Antichrist poised to take over the
world in our lifetime? Will
Will I
lose my job and have to start over? What
will happen if our economy crashes? Will
Point Assembly make it through the current cultural and social crisis our
country is facing? What will I do if
they shut the wood mill down? What if
this pain in my stomach is cancer?
Not knowing
the answers to these and other questions can cause a lot of anxiety.
Jesus told
his disciples, “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
Paul the
apostle commanded, “Be anxious for nothing.”
Corrie Ten
Boom said, “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”
POINT: We do not know what the future holds, but we do know the One who holds the future.
BACKGROUND
Our text is
part of a letter written to the Judean Community in Babylonian exile. It was a time of chaos and confusion produced
by conflicting prophetic messages.
Instead of
being honored for the integrity of his prophetic ministry, Jeremiah was
threatened with death (26:7-8, 11). The
priests portrayed him as a non-patriot and a traitor—“This
man deserves to die! For he has
prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your ears” (26:11),
they said. Although Jeremiah escapes death, instead of seeking a place of
safety, he continues his ministry by acting out
Jer. 27:12 - “Bring your necks
under the yoke of the king of
Jer. 27:22 - “They [the vessels of
the House of the Lord] shall be carried to
Such a
word was viewed as faithless and fatalistic.
To give in without resistance was, at the very least, viewed as unpatriotic.
Hananiah
bears all the marks of a prophet of the Lord.
·
He
was the son of Azur the prophet.
·
His
name meant “The Lord is or has been
gracious.”
·
His
message is identified as the Word of the Lord. (See Jeremiah 28:1-2.)
In his
prophetic statement he declares that God has broken the yoke of
How does
one wrestle with words that contradict what you’ve heard from the Lord?
Jeremiah’s
response was simple and short. “May the Lord perform your words and do exactly as you have
said. One thing is sure, the word that
comes to pass will confirm which of us has been sent by the Lord.” (Paraphrase
of 28:5-9.)
Jeremiah’s
message to
It is here
that Jeremiah writes his letter to those living in captivity in
“I know the thoughts I
think toward you, says the Lord, plans of peace and not of evil, to give you a
future and a hope” (29:11)
GOD KNOWS HIS PLAN – “I know the thoughts I
think.”
In a day
of captivity, Hananiah, Ahab, Zedekiah, and Shemaiah create confusion and false
hope by speaking a word that opposed the word spoken by Jeremiah.
There are
many voices in our day that claim to speak for God and one can get confused by
trying to blend them together. Someone
says, “It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you believe something.” I beg to differ.
The builders of the
Titanic said it was unsinkable. This was something the crew and potential passengers
of the Titanic wanted to hear. Who
wouldn’t want to be a passenger on an unsinkable luxury liner? In retrospect we know that the builders were
wrong and that more than 1,500 people lost their lives because they believed a
lie.
The writer
of Proverbs surmised, “We can make our plans, but the
final outcome is in God’s hands. We can
always prove that we are right, but is the Lord convinced” (Pro.
16:1-2). He went on to give this advice,
“Commit your work to the Lord, then it will succeed”
(Prov. 16:3).
We may be
confused, but God isn’t! He says to
Jeremiah and the nation of
All too
often, what we want to hear makes us vulnerable to
a false word. In our desperate need for
a word from the Lord we must take every precaution to insure that the word we
give place to is from God.
Paul
warned his readers and us:
“…the time will come when
they [professing Christians] will not endure sound doctrine, but according to
their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for
themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be
turned aside to fables [false teachings]. 5 But you be watchful in all things…” (2Tim. 4:3-5a).
There is a
frightening text in 2Thessalonians 2, which indicates that those who do not
love and hold to the truth are vulnerable to THE LIE. (See 2Thess. 2:9-12.) The seriousness of this text increases when
we realize that “...evil men and impostors will grow
worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2Tim. 3:13).
Peter
warns us: “there will be false teachers among you, who
will secretly bring in destructive
heresies, even denying the Lord, who bought them, and bring on themselves swift
destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of
truth will be blasphemed. By
covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words…” (2Peter
2:1-3).
What they
say will be acceptable because like Hananiah, they have all the right
credentials, but what they say will bring destruction to themselves and their
hearers. These nominal Christians will
claim Christ as Savior, but deny Him as Lord.
They will claim the blessings of salvation, but reject any notion that
they must obey the Lord.
·
They
will serve God on their own terms.
·
They
will accept the positive side of Christianity, but deny anything that they view
as negative.
·
They
will promote tolerance in the name of love and thereby blur the line between
right and wrong.
·
They
will find acceptability for their message by appealing to the excessive greed
of their hearers. Their underlying
motive is not love for the truth, but love of money. Peter says, “They
have a heart trained in covetous practices” (2Pe. 2:14).
·
They
are schooled and prepared to promote and defend their covetous practices.
Peter goes
on to say that these false teachers and false prophets will entice “unstable souls” (2Pe. 2:14); those who are not
anchored in the Word.
There are
times when God allows a word of decent for the purpose of separation. Paul told the
God is not confused.
He knows what He has said and what His plans are. It is our responsibility to know what HE has
said and to hold on to it no matter what.
God is not confused, but all too often we are because we give place to
contradicting voices and doctrines and circumstances.
GOD KNOWS HIS PURPOSE – “…thoughts of peace and
not of evil…”
How could
captivity in
·
The
storm experienced by Jonah and the whale that swallowed him were sent by
God.
·
Although
God wasn’t directly responsible for Job’s afflictions, He allowed them.
·
God
wasn’t out of control with Paul was beaten and thrown into jail at
·
God
wasn’t caught by surprise when the doctor told Joyce she had lymphoma.
We all
want a testimony, but most of us want to write the script for the
experience. We shout when the three
Hebrew boys say, “Our God whom we serve is able,”
but the preacher who dares to place as much emphasis on “but if not” will lose 90% of his crowd.
·
We
want the crown without the cross.
·
We
want the growth without the groan.
·
We
want revival without repentance.
·
We
want power without prayer
·
We
want healing without sickness.
·
We
want God, but we want to run the show.
We need to
be reminded that God is sovereign, that He knows what is best and that He works
all things together for good. Please note
that Romans 8:28 doesn’t say “all things are good.” What it does say is that “good” is what
results when we have allowed all things to work together.
You can
view your incarceration at
Joseph
said, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.”
You may
not realize it now, but all things really do work together for good. The dark threads are an essential part of the
fabric’s weave. God’s plan is good even when we don’t understand what He’s up
to.
Instead of
spending our days trying to change our circumstances or God’s plan, let’s
acknowledge that God is too good to do evil, too wise to make a mistake and
loves us too much to ask us to suffer for nothing. Refuse to lean to your own understanding and
trust Him!
God’s plan
is always good and what He has promised He will perform. God is not confused about His plan or His
purpose for you, but neither is he confused about His appointed seasons.
GOD KNOWS HIS PROMISE – “to give you a future and
a hope.”
Just
before His ascension, Jesus commanded the disciples to wait in
God’s word
to His people in
1.
Build
houses and live in them.
2.
Plant
gardens and eat their fruit.
3.
Grow
where you are--marry and raise families.
4.
Promote
the peace of
5.
Don’t
listen to false prophets or the dreams influenced by them.
6.
Get
comfortable, because you’re going to be in
7.
When
seventy years have been completed…
o
I
will visit you and fulfill the promise I made to you concerning your return to
the land
o
Then
you will call and I will listen
o
I
will be found by you and I will bring you back
o
I
will gather you from all the nations and places where I have scattered you
You can
plead and beg God to shorten the 70 years, but you’re wasting your breath. God’s not going to talk with you about that
until the 70 years have been completed.
You can
spend the next 70 years chaffing and being miserable, or you can live them in
preparation for what God will do when the 70 years are complete.
·
Did
you know that you can experience increase in the midst of adversity?
·
Did
you know that you can experience growth in the midst of difficult
circumstances?
·
Did
you know that you can have peace in the midst of your greatest storm?
·
Did
you know that you don’t have to be confused even when you don’t know what’s
going on?
God has a
purpose in the delays you’ve experienced.
CONCLUSION
At his news conference
the morning after the beginning of the 2003 attacks on
We often approach God
with a question like the reporter's—why doesn't he follow the plan we expect?
As God told Judah, and countless others since then, "I don't believe you
have the plan."
You and I may
not know what’s going on, but God
does!
You and I
may not know why it’s going on, but
God does!
You and I
may not know how long the storm will last or when it’s going to be over, but God does!
There are
many things we do not know, but one thing is certain—GOD CAN BE TRUSTED.
You can be
sure that at the appointed time, God will visit you and restore you. In the meantime build, plant, pray and live
filled with the expectation that God, our Mighty God is in full control.
In 1914,
songwriter Ira Stanphill penned these words of faith:
I don’t know about
tomorrow, I just live from day to day;
I don’t borrow from
its sunshine, for its skies may turn to gray;
I don’t worry o’er
the future, for I know what Jesus said,
And today I’ll walk
beside Him, for He knows what is ahead.
Many things about
tomorrow I don’t seem to understand;
But I know who holds
tomorrow, and I know who holds my hand.
(Hymns Of Glorious
Praise, page 301)
PRAYER
Father,
some of us are confused. We wrongfully
rested our faith on what we thought should and would happen instead of on your
unchanging character and trustworthiness.
We do not understand why things have turned out they way they have, but
your words via the pen of Jeremiah have renewed our hope. Although we do not know your plan, You
do! Although others may have convinced
us that you meant our current adversity for evil, we now believe you meant it
for good. Although we do not know when,
we do know You will. We rejoice today,
not in the circumstances, but in your faithfulness to your Word!
© 2005, by