Down through the years, baseball has had some exciting players. One of the most colorful, was a St. Louis Cardinal pitcher by the name of Dizzy Dean. One teammate noted that "When ole Diz was out there pitching … it was a regular three-ring circus. Everybody was wide awake and enjoying being alive.” (Pepper Martin). For example, there was a game between the Cardinals and the New York Giants (yes, New York had a baseball team named the Giants at one time). The Giants put runners on 1st & 2nd with 2 out. Then Dizzy intentionally walked the next batter so that the bases were loaded. That seemed like a bad decision because the next man at bat was a power-hitter named Bill Terry - who was one of the few players to ever have .400 batting average (he got an average of 4 hits out of every 10 times at bat). So now, Dizzy Dean has the bases loaded and is facing a dangerous man at the plate. It was at that point in the game that Dizzy left the pitching mound and walked over to home plate and said… “Bill, I'm sorry to do this to you, but I promised a girl that I'd strike you out with the bases loaded.” With that, Dizzy turned around and went back to the pitcher’s mound… and struck out Bill Terry with just 3 pitches. (Reader’s Digest 8/79 p.111)
Dizzy Dean made a promise, and he made good on it… because he was THAT good! Throughout the Bible God has made various promises to His people. And God always good on His promises… because HE is that good.
One of the most loved promises in Scripture is found right here in Jeremiah 29:11 “I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” One person noted: I once wore (that verse) on a bracelet as a teenager. It was on a poster on our children’s ministry door at church. My wife had it on our fridge for years, written on an index card. It’s one of the most memorized and cross-stiched verses of all time! (https://www.noahfilipiak.com/correcting-jeremiah-2911-god-really-plans-prosper/)
But, despite its popularity… there are people who absolutely hate how this verse is used, and will strongly deny that the promise in Jeremiah 29:11 is something we Christians can claim.
Now, some of this rejection of Jeremiah 29 is a reaction to the Health & Wealth Gospel. There are a lot of false teachers out there who say that “this verse promises earthly prosperity. Health and wealth are the lot of Christians. We are not to settle for second best, for we are children of the King. In this view, suffering and deprivation signal a lack of faith” (https://www.ligonier.org/posts/jeremiah-2911)
Now I totally agree with that. This view of God is an absolute heresy. But as a result of that heresy, many theologians have rejected the idea that this verse has anything to do with us. It’s essentially a kind of knee-jerk reaction to false teaching.
ILLUS: One person wrote – if you look at the verse before Jeremiah 29:11, you read: “This is what the Lord says: ‘When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.’ Verse 10 takes away the mushy gushy feeling I get that God wrote verse 11 just for me and my life. And that’s the point. Has God sentenced you to 70 years OF banishment in Babylon? Did God ever promise you that you and your people would live in the land of Israel, so long as you followed the commandments he laid out in Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy? If you can’t answer “Yes” to both of the above questions, then the promise of verse 11 does not apply to you. (https://www.noahfilipiak.com/correcting-jeremiah-2911-god-really-plans-prosper/)
Someone else said “Context matters —God speaks at a particular moment in time, to a particular people group, for a reason. What this means is that God has plans (not for individuals… but) for a whole group of people, namely the nation of Israel. (https://relevantmagazine.com/faith/stop-taking-jeremiah-2911-out-context/)
In other words, the promise in Jeremiah 29:11 was for Israel… NOT FOR US. That’s what many theologians tell us.
(PAUSE) Now I have great respect for theologians. They’re smart people. But there are times that they can be downright annoying because theologians tend to not be able to see the forest for the trees. They focus on the minutia and tend to miss the bigger picture.
ILLUS: For example, years ago I was talking to a smart man and I quoted Genesis 12:3 “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you.” Being a kind of “theologian” he said to me: “That is not a promise for us. That was only a promise for Abraham. That’s the context of the verse - the promise was made to Abraham, not to us.”
Now, that annoyed me because I was pretty sure he wasn’t right about that. But I didn’t have a good answer at the time. A few weeks later I found these verses:
In Mark 9:41 Jesus tells us “Whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.” If people are nice to you, God will be nice to them. What’s that sound like? “I will BLESS those WHO BLESS YOU.”
Then in 2 Thessalonians 1:6 we’re told: “God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you.” If people give you a hard time… God will give them a hard time. What’s that sound like? I will CURSE those WHO CURSE YOU
In other words – God gave us the same promise He gave to Abraham because we are a covenant people. We are children of Abraham. We belong to God, so the promise is ours. Why would God do that? Because He’s the same God NOW, that He was THEN!
There a whole passel of promises god made to Israel that we can claim for ourselves. That’s because God has the same attitude toward us that He had toward the Jews - we are HIS covenant people. We belong to God… so the promises are ours. (And yes, we ALL know that we don’t get the land in any of those promises, but we know that because the New Covenant clearly doesn’t say or imply that).
So now the question is this: Does God promise us that He HAS A PLAN for our lives? And the answer is: YES! The Bible is filled with stories of great men and women that God made plans for men like Abraham Moses and David; and women like Sarah and Esther and Ruth; and New Testament heroes like Peter, and Paul and Philip and Ananias.
All you have to do is read the 11th chapter of Hebrews and you’ll see how God worked in the lives of numerous people throughout Scripture. God’s people have always been part of God’s PLANS.
II Chronicles 16:9 says “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him….” What that means is – God is actively looking for someone to bless. His eyes search the entire earth looking for someone that He can work in the life of.
One of my favorite verses is Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” In other words: God has a plan for your life. God has a bunch of stuff planned JUST FOR YOU to do. And He has prepared all those good works beforehand… just for you.
The point is you have A REASON to get up in the morning; you have a purpose and goal in your life; you have a difference you can make in the lives of people around you. You matter, you have value, you are important to God… and to His church. You are part of the plan, and God has a plan for your life.
Now, that said, the theologians do have a point. We do need to understand context. If we don’t understand the context of verses like Jeremiah 29:11 we can get “taken in” by false teachers that preach a Health and Wealth doctrine.
So, what is the “context” of this verse? In the previous chapter we’re told that there was a false prophet named Hananiah. Hananiah had told the people that God would break the yoke of Babylon, and free the people to return home, within the next two years. But Hananiah was liar and a false prophet. His message appealed to these people that had lost their houses and their nation because of their sins… and they wanted to go back home. But Hananiah lied to them!!! He told them what they wanted to hear, but he wasn’t telling them what God wanted them to hear.
And we’re told “Jeremiah the prophet said to the prophet Hananiah, ‘Listen, Hananiah, the LORD has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie. Therefore thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will remove you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die, because you have uttered rebellion against the LORD.’ In that same year, in the seventh month, the prophet Hananiah died.” Jeremiah 28:15-17
So, what WAS God’s plan for Israel? Well Jeremiah told the people they should expect to live in Babylon for the next 70 years. (NOT 2 YRS… 70!!!) They were told they should PLAN to settle down, build houses, marry… and Jeremiah 29:7 told them “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”
That’s not what they wanted to hear, but that WAS God’s plan for them. They would be safe in Babylon; They would have a future; and they would have hope because they were going to go home.
You see, like the Jews, we are a covenant people. God has the same attitude toward us that He had toward the Jews in Jeremiah’s day (we just don’t get the land). He has a plan for you – a plan for your welfare – a plan to give you a future and hope. But we need to realize His plan may not be what we have in mind.
And that’s OK, because His plan will be the best for our lives; because His plan for you is for you to have a future and a hope.
But now, there is a caveat here. While God does have a plan for your life you don’t have to accept it. In fact, what’s interesting about II Chronicles 16:9 says “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him…”
In other words: God is looking to strengthen people who WANT His will in their lives. He’s looking for people whose hearts are loyal to him. God has a plan for your life… but that plan depends on you being loyal to God… FIRST.
In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the parable about a man who gave a # of talents to 3 servants. The first servant received 5 talents, the 2nd was given 2, and the third was given 1 talent… each according to his abilities. Then the man went away on a trip. The talents represented the investment God makes in each one of us. He makes plans for each one of us based upon our abilities. But what I found interesting is what happened with the 1st servant “After a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the 5 talents came forward, bringing 5 talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much…’ Matthew 25:19-21
That implies (to me) that the more faithful we are with the opportunities God gives us, the more He’ll trust us with GREATER opportunities to serve Him. The point is this: God has a plan for us, but we’ve got to want to be part of that plan, and we’ve got to be faithful in the opportunities He gives us.
ILLUS: A young man came forward during invitation time and the preacher commented to him: “Once you rise from the waters, you won’t have to fear death anymore.” And the young man replied: “You know, I don’t fear death. I don’t think I have ever been afraid to die. What I’m afraid of is that I will waste my life.”
The beauty of the promise in Jeremiah 29:11 is: if you’re committed to God you’ll never have to worry about wasting your life. God will give your life meaning.
CLOSE: One last thing. God said “I know the plans I have for you… plans for your welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Did you realize that EVEN IF you don’t belong to God, God still has a PLAN for your life? He sent His only begotten Son to die so that you could live eternally. Jesus came to give you a future and a hope! That’s God’s plan for you. And like all the other promises God has made… you can turn Him away and reject his HIS offer. You can just walk away.
But, if you want a FUTURE… and if you want a HOPE… you’ll realize what a great gift God has offered you. Every Christian here came to Christ the same way you can. They didn’t become Christians because they were nice people. They were ALL sinners in need of forgiveness. Someone once summed that truth up in these words:
“Anyone can devise a plan by which good people might go to Heaven. Only God could devise a plan whereby sinners, who were His enemies, could go to Heaven.” (Lewis Sperry Chafer)
So, what how do we accept God’s plan in our lives?
1st, we believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God who died for us on the cross. We accept that we have sinned and fallen short of God’s righteousness and we need to turn away (repent) of our sins. We confess that Jesus is to be Lord of our lives – He is our Lord and Master. We allow ourselves to be buried in the waters of baptism and rise from those waters a new creation. And we commit to live for Jesus the rest of our lives. That’s God’s plan… and that’s why we offer an invitation every week.
