Last week I shared with you the challenge that I sometimes face in sermon preparation when there is an abundance of material and you begin by asking the Lord to help you focus in the direction He would have you go so as to speak what He would have you speak. But there are also times of preparation like this past week, when a starting point was hard to come by and you pray even more for the Lord to focus your thoughts in the direction of His message to us.
(I also want to let you know that we will be concluding this portion of worship with a special prayer time that I will tell you more about at the conclusion of this sermon.)
(Slide 1) This is the third sermon in our initial 2007 sermon series ‘The People’s Choice Sermon Series.’ In our first sermon we walked through the book of Revelation and focused on the opening word to the churches and the final word of God’s new world order in which evil is finally defeated, the final judgment takes place, and a new heaven and earth are established free of pain and sorrow.
Last week we took a look at the always challenging topic of money and looked at what the Bible had to say about it. We briefly looked at what the Bible had to say about debt and the very important issue of our attitude toward money.
Today we address a request (as we have in the past two weeks) for a sermon on how to live for God in the world.
One of the challenges in addressing this very practical and timely topic is that the Bible has much to say about how to live for God in the world… and how not to live for God in the world. This is especially true in the middle of the New Testament where Paul says a great deal to various churches scattered across the central and eastern portions of the Mediterranean Sea about living for God in the world.
(Slide 2) Here are a few examples: In
Ephesians 4 beginning with verse 17:
“With the Lord’s authority let me say this: Live no longer as the ungodly do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their closed minds are full of darkness; they are far away from the life of God because they have shut their minds and hardened their hearts against him. They don’t care anymore about right and wrong, and they have given themselves over to immoral ways. Their lives are filled with all kinds of impurity and greed.”
(Slide 3) Over in Galatians 5 we read:
When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, your lives will produce these evil results: sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry, participation in demonic activities, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other kinds of sin.
(Slide 4) Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law.
(Slide 5) Finally we read in Colossians 3:8–10 and then 12-15
But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old evil nature and all its wicked deeds. In its place you have clothed yourselves with a brand-new nature that is continually being renewed as you learn more and more about Christ, who created this new nature within you.
(Slide 6) Since God chose you to be the holy people whom he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. You must make allowance for each other’s faults and forgive the person who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.
(Slide 7) And the most important piece of clothing you must wear is love. Love is what binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are all called to live in peace. And always be thankful.
Paul’s contrasts are worth noting. (Slide 8) On the one side we have the ‘Dark Side.’ (8a)
It is the world and it is shameful, degrading, and demeaning. This side is all about ‘me: what I want and when I want it. It is self-worship and self-service.
(8b) On the other side, we have the ‘Godly Side.’ It is empowering, liberating, respectful (and, I would add, fulfilling.) This side is about loving and being loved. It is about serving and caring. It is living the way we were created to live. (8c) How do then do we live this way?
Well,… aside from make the continuous choice to live this way… and aside from the importance to ask for the Holy Spirit to help us to live this way… the prophet Jeremiah tells his audience, the exiled Jews living in the great city of Babylon (which was, interestingly enough, within the boundaries of Iraq) some very basic and key ways to live for God in a setting that was foreign and alien to their faith and life. I call these suggestions, (Slide 9) ‘Bloom Where You Are Planted!’ How do we do that?
(Slide 10) Stay put… On of the ways that we bloom is we sometimes stay put! A beautiful rose grows not by constant transplanting but by staying put in the ground and being nurtured and sustained by the soil it finds itself in!
The Lord says, “Build homes, and plan to stay.” Those are pretty plain words to me. Now we need to know that prior to the exile, an event in which the defeated Israelites have a portion of their population sent to Babylon, there were false prophets who said that any exile would be of a short duration.
It would turn out to be about 70 years which is not a short time. It is often equated with a person’s lifetime.
I wonder how they felt at hearing these words. May be they hoped it would be only five or so. May be the rumor mill said, ‘I heard the other day that we might get to go home soon!’
But the Lord says to the people, ‘plan to stay.’ Plan to stay? Plan to stay in a place in which I have been forced to come to against my will? Stay in a place in that is foreign to the way I think and believe?
Sometimes God requires us to stay put… in our jobs, in our relationships, and in our current geographical location.
Now to simply stay put is one thing but God goes onto say some other things that should move the exiles out of any possible discouragement or grumbling.
(Slide 11) For the Lord says to them, plant your roots. We read in verse 5 and following, ‘Plant gardens, and eat the food you produce. Marry, and have children. Then find spouses for them, and have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away!’
In planting our roots, we live for the Lord in our society (which I believe is what is truly meant by the phrase ‘the world’) by taking care of ourselves and our families as we provide for their basic human needs. We also live for the Lord by planting our roots relationally through the commitment of marriage and parenting and even grand parenting.
These were challenging times for the Israelites. They could have easily given up on marriage and parenting and allowed their community to die off. But (and this is instructive to us today) they did not even in a place and culture that was very different and challenging to their values and beliefs.
Much is written about culture wars today. Many people, and understandably so, argue that the values that we hold in high regard, the sanctity of human life, the sanctity of marriage, and the importance of parenting, are under attack.
They are under attack and we must respond not just with political action and talk but with personal action. By this I mean that we must not just say that we are in favor of these things, we must demonstrate by our actions and priorities that we are in favor of them!
I believe that it is very important for us to grasp how strategic the inclusion of this command from the Lord to the Israelites is. Marriage and parenting, challenging and difficult and frustrating as it is at times, are essential to the growth of human beings as God has planned from the beginning. So a key way to live for the Lord these days is by our continuous commitments to our families.
The next thing that the Lord mentions is a two-pronged commitment in which we can easily skip over the first commitment and only focus on the second commitment. (Slide 12)
It is work and pray! We read in verse 7, “And work for the peace and prosperity of Babylon. Pray to the Lord for that city where you are held captive, for if Babylon has peace, so will you.”
It is easy to focus on the second thing. Prayer can be an easy thing to do. Sometimes, sometimes prayer can be an escape from our responsibilities instead of our empowerment for our responsibilities.
I believe what the Lord is saying to the Israelites in this verse simply is… ‘Be responsible people by being good workers. Be responsible people by working!
Be responsible people by being responsible. Again, a difficult task at times when every where you look you feel that being responsible is not getting you any where, especially at work, right?
Have you ever considered that your work contributes to the peace and prosperity of our community? Now I know that we need more jobs. And I know that some seem to get more from our work than we do!
But, as followers of the Christ, does that mean we give up and withdraw from doing our best because we have experiences that are not fair? Some how this does not seem spiritual, does it? But it is right here in the Bible! But one of the ways that we live for the Lord in our world is by being good and committed workers and responsible and contributing citizens.
But we do this along side prayer. Prayer is a vital tool and practice for helping us live in our society for the Lord.
The Lord says here to pray to Him for Babylon, ‘the city where you are held captive, for if Babylon has peace, so will you.’ What does the Lord mean here?
We need to remember that the Israelites were one, probably of many, ethnic minorities in Babylon. These minorities were most likely representative groups of the other nations that had been conquered as well.
Now, what sometimes happens when an organization or nation or community that has been stable experiences an influx of new people? There are problems, right? And who gets blamed for those problems? The new people?
The Israelites were ‘new people.’ And God knew this and this is why he tells them through Jeremiah, “work and pray for the peace and prosperity of Babylon because if it has peace, you will, too.”
Christians are blamed for a great deal. Jesus made that clear in Matthew 5 through 7 when He tells the disciples that persecution is to be expected. In other parts of the world, Christians are still being jailed and killed because they are blamed for the problems in a particular area.
But, the Lord makes clear that withdrawing from the situation will not make it better only worse.
(Slide 13) What is the Lord saying to you through all of this?
It is not escapism. It requires involvement and commitment.
It is not fatalism. Because, as we will see in a moment, it is underscored by a promise.
To live for the Lord in our society, our community, our time and place requires a passionate commitment to and an on going reliance on the Lord and others to help us live for Him.
Now, we cannot know for sure how the Israelites felt when they heard these words. But how would you feel if you had been taken from America and put Iran and told to bloom where you are planted?
But we are not in Iran we are here in northeast Indiana! Here is where we have been planted to bloom for the Lord, perhaps for the rest of our lives or for a set period of time.
What is the Lord saying to you today on this matter? Where is God at in your life at this point?
The Lord underscored His words to the Israelites with a promise and it is also, because it is in the Bible, a promise to us. It is a promise that gives us a leg to stand on because it gives us the larger perspective that we all need to have.
(Slide 14) We read in verse 11, ‘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.’
This verse was told me nearly 20 years ago now when I was at a point in life that was very bleak and dark. It was a period in which I had to unpack and let go of some very dysfunctional baggage and, quite frankly, deal with the sinful effects and results of that baggage.
It was not an easy time but a very wise ministerial colleague told me this verse (and I could take you now 20 years later to the spot where he told me). It gave me hope because it gave me God’s perspective on my life that has proven to be true.
To conclude this morning I first want to say to each of you, ‘God still has plans for you. Good plans for your future. Good plans to prosper you.’ I believe that for you. I also believe it for this church! Amen.
Move into special prayer time!
Power Points for this sermon are available by e-mailing me at pastorjim46755@yahoo.com and asking for ‘012107slides’ Please note that all slides for a particular presentation may not be available.
