PRESENT REALITY
OT JEREMIAH 29:1, 4-7
OCTOBER 26, 2003 PM SERVICE
INTRODUCTION: The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.
Richard L. Evans, Bits & Pieces, March 4, 1993, p. 2.
The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills, wills.
Richard J. Needham, The Wit and Wisdom of Richard Needham.
TRANSTION THOUGHT: Tonight I want us to think about what it means to live for the Lord. I think that we as Christians don’t really understand our present realities in the light of who we are as Children of the living God. I believe that we have some unrealistic thoughts about what it means to be a child of God and what it should looks like to live for the Lord. The underlying current here is that God blesses us where we are, but we often don’t see it. Our text speaks to the issue of dealing with present realities, but not within our frame of reference, but from that of the Lord. What I mean by this is God calls us to be His people regardless of our present realities. Jeremiah speaks through a letter, encouraging those far a way from himself to be faithful and trust God. God knows where we are and calls us to be His representatives in that Place. Jeremiah explains how it is we can live in our present reality.
THESIS SENTENCE: OUR GOD BLESSES OUR PRESENT REALITY!
SO HOW DOES GOD BLESS OUR PRESENT REALITY?
I. THIS PRESENT REALITY IS GOD’S REALITY FOR US (VV. 1, 4-5)
A. GOD’S REALITY FOR US IS NOT WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN!
This is a call to focus on the here and now versus what might have been or could be.
1. Chapter 28 is a chapter of false hope, what could be would not be -- the people were not to buy into a lie.
2. Jeremiah urges those in exile -- through a letter -- to embrace the present as the arena in which God would work and abandon false hopes they placed in military rebellion and trying to recreate what was already lost.
3. Note verse 4: It was not Nebuchadnezzar who had carried the Israelites into captivity. This is key: God said, “I carried you into exile!”
4. Jeremiah had graphically understood the future lay with the exiles, because they were the only ones who were ready and open for a future since they really had no present in which to trust. The future reality would only be realized as those in exile learned and perceived that they must live in the present as God’s reality for them.
5. The present reality of exile was not going to be quick and painless: Verse 10: This is what the Lord says: “When the seventy years are completed...” The THOUGHT HERE IS THAT THIS IS REALITY AND IT IS GOING TO BE THIS WAY FOR A WHILE!!
B. GOD’S REALITY FOR US IS WHAT IT IS: HIS TRUTH
The reality is that God is going to do what He said he would do.
1. Jeremiah 1:10, the call of Jeremiah, the Lord speaking, “See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow...”
2. Again the Lord speaks through Jeremiah in Chapter 18 verses 5-10 “Then the word of the Lord came to me: ‘O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?’ declares the Lord.”
3. The Lord will punish sin!!! The Lord will honor His word!!
4. This is God’s reality for His people!!
C. GOD’S REALITY FOR US DEMANDS A RESPONSE
How are you at living in this present reality in which you find yourself?
1. Are you resolved that this is God’s reality for your life.
2. Are you living in the “What might have been” reality or “What could be” reality?
3. Let me tell you where I am: I can see the future! I can see so many wonderful things happening here. I see us moving forward with power. I CAN SEE!
4. Let me tell you where God is now. He says to me, all that you dream is well and good! Absolutely Well and Good! But that is not reality yet. The reality I call you to is what I am doing here and now. EVERY JOURNEY STARTS WITH THE FIRST STEP!!! God is calling me to faithfulness where I am in the reality that is, the reality he has placed me in!
5. Guess what? I must live in this present reality. I cannot live where I am not. I must live where I am now!! I cannot bank on my future INCOME, NEITHER CAN YOU. We can only spend what we make today. We cannot focus on what we will make tomorrow. We must live in the here and now.
TRUTH: THE TRUTH IS THAT REGARDLESS OF WHAT BROUGHT US TO THIS PLACE: SIN IN THE CASE OF THE ISRAELITES, AND MAYBE IN SOME OF OUR LIVES, OR THE SIN OF OTHERS, OR WHAT EVER: THIS IS OUR REALITY, AND THIS IS WHERE GOD PLACES US. WE MUST LIVE HERE!
QUESTION: ARE YOU WILLING TO ACCEPT THIS REALITY AS GOD’S REALITY FOR YOU?
IF GOD IS TO BLESS US…
II. WE MUST LIVE IN THIS PRESENT REALITY (VV. 5-6)
A. LIVING IN OUR PRESENT REALITY IS NOT RETALIATION!
Jeremiah explains to the people that they are no longer to seek retaliation or revolution, or an end to exile. They are to accept where God has planted them.
1. He spells this out for them in “PROMISE LANGUAGE!!”
2. This is an echo also of His call in Jeremiah 1:10 “See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms...to build and to plant.”
3. He reminds them of God’s first commands. Gen. 1:28 “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.’” NOTE VERSES 5&6
4. There are a lot of interesting things going on here. This becomes reminiscent of what happened in Egypt, the Hebrews grew and grew in number.
5. Another aspect is that God is no longer punishing them, although they are in the midst of punishment: He says to His children, “Start over!!!”
B. LIVING IN OUR PRESENT REALITY IS A FAMILY FOCUS!
1. Jeremiah instructs the people to have families. Not to abstain believing that this world or the peoples’ present conditions are so bad that children could not survive or should not be subject to this life.
2. Key to this is the understanding that only through multiplication can the people once more me a nation.
3. Another aspect to this is Jeremiah is telling the people to start focusing on life, and no longer focus on destruction. Life is about living, going to work, having kids, planting gardens. Life is about living.
4. One other thought here: Jeremiah not only instructs the people to marry and have children, He tells them to find spouses for their children. He was helping them to realize that this life is about preparing the next generation for their lives. It’s not just about us, he was saying. It is about all the generations to follow.
5. What is really powerful is Jeremiah realized that many would no nothing but exile, but there would come a day, When God would restore His people, and there must be a people to restore! This totally goes against having it all now.
6. Note Jeremiah 29: 10-11 “This is what the Lord says: ‘When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For 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.’”
C. LIVING IN OUR PRESENT REALITY IS SEEING THE FUTURE WHILE LIVING IN THE PRESENT
1. Are you living where God has placed you? Are you focusing on life and not what could have been or what might be.
2. Where are you putting you energy. Are you focusing on your family and on the next generations to come after you or are you so focused on the past or the future that you are throwing away the foundations that will build a real future for those who come after you.
TRUTH: THE TRUTH IS THAT WE MUST REALIZE THAT GOD IS WANTING TO BLESS US WHERE WE ARE. HE IS SHOWING US THAT IN THE MIDST OF PUNISHMENT, OR LIFE, YOU CHOOSE THE WORD THAT FITS, HIS DESIRE IS TO BLESS US AND TO BLESS FUTURE GENERATIONS THROUGH US REGARDLESS OF THE OUTWARD CIRCUMSTANCES!! WE MUST FOCUS OUR ENERGY ON THIS PRESENT REALITY!!
QUESTION: WHERE IS YOUR FOCUS? IS IT ON LIVING OR ON WANTING TO LIVE? WILL YOU CHOOSE TO LIVE NOW AND NOT LATER?
LIVING IN OUR PRESENT REALITY IS REALIZING
III. WE MUST BE GOD PEOPLE REGARDLESS OF WHERE WE FIND OUR SELVES (V.7 )
A. WHEREVER WE ARE WE MUST BE A BLESSING!
Jeremiah explains to the people what I believe to be the hardest thing for them to understand. They are to be a blessing in the world, this was God’s original plan from the time he called Abraham in Gen. 12:3 “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be bless through you.”
1. What Jeremiah is saying to the people is this is not personal or political, this is about God!!!
2. The people where to understand, God sent them to this place, He carried them away into exile.
3. God has even gone to the point of Calling Nebuchadnezzar His servant. God was going to accomplish what He set forth to do and if the people where to survive they had to accept what God had brought about.
4. What God was calling the people to was a larger world view. God was concerned with all people, and Because Israel failed to allow God to be God, God would use another source to bring His purposes about.
B. WHEREVER WE ARE WE MUST REFLECT OUR GOD!
The most powerful understanding of the text is Jeremiah was calling the Israelites to enter into the culture in which they find themselves as a reflection of who they still are as God’s People, whether it is a time and a place and a circumstance of their own choosing or not.
1. These people of God were to seek peace for this land of exile. This is the peace of God known as Shalom, A peace with God for all people from God.
2. They were also to be a part of the prosperity of this foreign land. They were not to harm the land, but cause it to be prosperous. This is not Caanan land either. In essence, God has called His people to bless their own enemies by doing good to them and not evil!!!
C. WHEREVER WE ARE WE MUST PRAY
But to take the cake, God calls His People to pray for their captors and their captor’s city.
1. This fulfills the idea that they are to be a blessing to all the world.
2. But, note the fact that God tells them to not spite themselves, for to pray for prosperity for this foreign land would be to pray for prosperity for themselves.
NT THOUGHT: Does this remind you of anything from the NT? What about the Gospel that Jesus preached: Matt. 5:43-45 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.”
ILLUSTRATION: Like the crashing waves of the surf, sorrow can overwhelm the soul of a grieving heart. Yet, amidst the ebbing crash of heartbreak, Horatio Spafford knew God’s peace. A lawyer and fellow worker with D.L. Moody, Spafford suffered great financial loss in the Chicago fires of 1871. Shortly afterward, he grieved the death of his son. Wanting to assist Moody in his London evangelistic campaign in 1873, Spafford planned a European trip for himself and his family. At the last minute, he was unable to accompany his wife and four daughters but sent them on as scheduled on the SS Ville Du Hauve with promises to meet them later.
Halfway across the Atlantic, late in the night of November 22, the Spaffords’ ship was struck by another ship and sank in twelve minutes. Along with 222 other passengers, all four Spafford daughters—Tanetta, Maggie, Annie and Bessie—drowned. Several days later when the survivors finally landed, Mrs. Spafford cabled her husband, "Saved alone." Horatio Spafford stood hour after hour on the deck of the ship carrying him to his grieving wife in Cardiff, Wales. Early one morning, the captain called to him, "I believe we are now passing the place where the Ville Du Hauve went down." With the sea breeze caressing his brow, Spafford felt overwhelmed with God’s inexplicable peace as they crossed the tragic site. Though reports vary as to when he did so, Spafford wrote his testimony of the "peace of God that transcends all understanding" (Philippians 4:7).
Today’s Scripture:
"And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."(Philippians 4:7)
Closing Thoughts: Peace Like a River
When peace like a river attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, "It is well, it is well with my soul."
Though Satan should buffet, tho’ trials should come, Let his blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate, And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
My sin—Oh, the bliss of this glorious thought, My sin—not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul! And, Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight, The clouds be rolled back as a scroll, The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend,"Even so"—it is well with my soul. God indeed gives a peace that passes understanding to the one who places total trust in the Father’s love. Only the one who knows this peace can say, "It is well with my soul" in the face of tragedy.
CONCLUSION: The issue is how God’s people apply God’s truth in the reality of LIFE. The Climax of this text is that God is calling us to live in our present reality and to invest all our energies where He has placed us. The point being that we are His representation in the world and He has strategically placed us in this world to bless all who we encounter, regardless of why we are there, or how we feel about the situation. God is calling us to reflect His love to all People at all times in every place. LIVE IN YOUR PRESENT REALITY AND DO IT FOR THE GLORY OF GOD. AMEN!!
BENEDICTION: 2 THESSALONIANS 2:16-17
