OPEN: I once read the true story of a woman who told about how frustrated she’d gotten with her husband during the early years of their marriage. Apparently they both worked, but she took pride in the idea that she could still prepare good meals for them to eat. She’d prepare meals in advance and put them in freezer bags, carefully labeling the bags in large clear letters: “Meatloaf” or “Pot Roast” or “Steak and Vegetables or “Chicken and Dumplings” or “Beef Pot Pie.”
But when she’d ask her husband what he wanted for dinner – he’d never make a decision. He’d just say something like: “ah, whatever.”
So, she decided to stock the freezer with what food that he actually asked for. NOW, if you looked in her freezer you’d see a whole new set of labels.
You’d find dinners with neat, legible tags that say: “Something Good,”
“Whatever,”
“I Don’t Know,”
“I Don’t Care,”
“Anything,”
or simply: “Food.”
APPLY: This woman had planned “good things” for her husband. She had spent a great deal of time preparing good food for her husband to eat. But he just didn’t seem to care…
I. God tells us – here in Jeremiah 29 – that He had prepared good things for Israel
He said: “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.” Jeremiah 29:11
In fact, God had ALWAYS planned things like this for Israel…
· good things
· things that would give them hope
· things that would give them a future
But they had become like the husband who didn’t care what his wife cooked for him. They took their relationship with God for granted. And now they were having to settle for table scraps.
Jeremiah 29:1-2 tells us that this was “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. (This was after King Jehoiachin and the queen mother, the court officials and the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen and the artisans had gone into exile from Jerusalem.)”
For years, Jeremiah had been warning the Israelites that God’s patience was wearing thin.
For years, he’d warned them that they needed to repent or God would punish them for their evil deeds.
Finally, time had run out and God allowed Nebuchadnezzar to sweep down from the north and Jerusalem was overrun. Their armies were annihilated. And a vast number of Jews were carried away into captivity, most of them to never return to Jerusalem again.
NOW, Jeremiah is writing to these people - to the surviving Elders and priests and prophets and all the other people who were in Exile in the land of Babylon. And Jeremiah was telling them: God still has a plan for you
God still loves you
God hasn’t abandoned you
God still wants to do something in your life that will give you…
o Optimism
o Hope
o A future
o GOD STILL HAS A PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE
II. Now - there’s a reason why God has chosen this point in Judah’s history to have Jeremiah send this message to the exiles in Babylon.
You see, the people of Judah hadn’t been in Babylon for very long, and they were still experiencing the shock.
QUESTION: Have you ever suffered through some tragedy in your life? The loss of your home, of the death of loved one? Then, you can understand the shock that these people must have been experiencing… for they had just lost their homes, they had lost many of their loved ones, they had lost the life that they had once knew… and now they had nothing.
In the midst of their misery and their heart ache there was the danger that they will slip right over the edge into despair. That they’ll become so overwhelmed by their helplessness that they’ll just shut God out all together. Or that they’ll start looking for their answers somewhere else.
When Christians are faced with hardships and difficulties in their lives there is the temptation to strike out at God.
ILLUS: I spoke once with a preacher who had had a difficult time in his ministry.
He told me that at one point, things got so bad, that he walked out into the middle of field, looked up into the sky and screamed: GOD!!!!!
He was mad… he was angry… and he so frustrated that the only thing he could think to do was turn it loose on God.
And, you know that’s ok. There’s nothing wrong with that. If you ever read the Psalms, you’ll find that David often felt depressed and sad, or angry and frustrated. And David would write things that I’m not sure we’d feel comfortable writing ourselves.
God’s a big God… you can’t hurt Him. It’s ok to tell him exactly how you feel and not be afraid He’ll get angry.
But that’s as close to the edge as you want to get.
ILLUS: In a sermon shortly after the sudden death of his wife, a preacher once wrote: “I don’t understand this life of ours. But still less can I comprehend how people in trouble and loss and bereavement can fling away peevishly from the Christian faith. In God’s name, fling to what? Have we NOT lost enough without losing that too? You people in the sunshine may believe in the faith, but we in the shadow must believe it. We have nothing else.”
In short, what this man was saying was - what could you possibly replace God with? When you’ve lost everything that you once considered important in your life… God is the only thing you can still cling to for your comfort and your hope.
Now… there are people who will try to find a replacement for God.
I mean, God’s will in our lives isn’t always easy to live with, and so there is a temptation to look elsewhere for our comfort and our hope.
Turn with me to Jeremiah 29:8-9 "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,’ declares the LORD."
Now… I can kind of understand the Jews being misled by false prophets. We have false prophets (or actually false preachers and teachers) even today.
And the only way to protect yourself against their falsehoods is to know your Bible.
But now… diviners??? What’s a diviner?
Diviners were people who practiced the art of divination. They engaged in things like:
· astrology
· horoscopes
· tarot cards
· Ouija boards
· channeling / séances – talking to the dead
God has always condemned this type of thing
In Deuteronomy 18 God warns: “Let no one be found among you who… practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens… or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you.” Deuteronomy 18:10-12
ILLUS: When people turn away from the God of Scripture, they often seek out these false sources of hope. One historian (Eric Hoffer) noted that during the Renaissance - when Christianity lost its hold on the educated people in society - there was a dramatic increase in the number of people who sought their answers and direction in life from astrology. (Reader’s Digest 2/70 p. 34)
False teachers and preachers…
Liars who practice divination…
They can all tell you things you want to hear.
They may even be able to predict things that will actually happen the way they say it will happen.
But know and understand this – God does not send people like that to us.
No matter what those people might tell you,
· you won’t find satisfaction in their prophecies
· you won’t find lasting hope in their words
· and your future will not improve because of their lying words.
Their words are kind of like cotton candy.
Have you ever had cotton candy. You take one bite… and there’s nothing there. It just evaporates in your mouth.
In the same way, the words of these false prophets and lying diviners may taste good… but there’s nothing there.
There’s no substance.
There’s no nourishment.
There’s no ultimate satisfaction.
It may taste good for the moment… but it won’t give you what you really need.
III. Now, there’s a reason why people will look to these false teachers and spiritualists – they want a solution to their problems… and they want it RIGHT NOW! If not sooner.
They’re looking to the alternative sources - because they’re hoping for a quick fix.
They’re looking for a magic bullet that will solve the problems of their lives.
And they really don’t want to have to wait around for any length of time.
The Bible doesn’t deceive us into the false hope that all our problems will be resolved in a half hour’s time like they are on TV programs. Or even a couple of hours like on a movie show.
But God never lies to us…
He tells the Israelites – You’re not going to get a quick fix.
Turn to Jeremiah 29:10 “This is what the LORD says: ‘When 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.’”
Israel (Gods’ saying) you’re not going to get a quick solution to your problems. You’re going to be here for at least 70 years.
Now look at Jeremiah 29:4-6 “This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ‘Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and HAVE sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease.’”
In other words: Get used to Babylon, guys – cause you’re going to be here for a while. So you may as well settle in and get comfortable cause you’re not going home to Jerusalem for 70 long years.
IV. Now… why is that important?
Why is it important to know that God wasn’t going to give a quick solution to Judah’s problems?
Because – the time will come (if it hasn’t come already) when you’ll find yourself in the midst of turmoil and difficulties. And you’re going to want God to get you out of that situation… and it won’t happen when you think it ought to.
And you’ll start to have questions in your mind.
Does God still care for me?
Does God even know I’m here?
Maybe this faith in God thing isn’t for me.
CLOSE: One of my favorite stories in the Old Testament is the one about Joseph.
He was the golden child. His dad loved him more than the other 11 brothers… and his bro’s hated him for it.
Then, to make matters worse, even God liked Joseph better than the others. God gave Joseph a couple of dreams that basically said: “Joseph… I’ve got a plan for your life. You’re going to be a man of great importance. In fact you’re going to be so important that even your family are going to bow down to you.”
Joseph makes the mistake of sharing that dream with his family… and his brothers are not pleased. In fact, when they get the chance to get Joseph off by himself… they just beat the living daylights out of him. They throw him into a pit and intend to kill him. But then their older brother Reuben intercedes: “Let’s not kill him. After all he is our brother… let’s sell him.” And that’s just what they do. They encounter a group of slave traders and exchange their brother for a handful of silver.
Joseph… this man who had the promise of God that one day he would be great, ends up being sold into slavery in Egypt to a man named Potiphar.
Now, that’s not right! That shouldn’t have happened! Joseph was a good boy. He hadn’t done anything that deserved what he received. But it happened anyway.
Well, down in Egypt Joseph makes up his mind to be God’s man even in slavery. And God rewards him:
Genesis 39:2 “The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.”
Genesis 39:5 “From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the LORD was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field.”
The reason God tells us this is so that we’ll not get the mistaken impression that Joseph had been abandoned. The idea that God had somehow forgotten about Joseph and somehow stopped loving him. God still was watching over Joseph in the midst of the tragedy of his slavery.
So Joseph prosper as a slave in Egypt. He obeys God in everything that he does.
And then… Potiphar’s wife falls in love with him and tries to get him to go to bed with her.
Joseph’s a good boy. He’s a godly boy. He’s not about to commit adultery with this woman. AND what does he get for his faithfulness? Potiphar’s wife accuses him of attempted rape and her husband throws him in prison.
That’s not fair! That’s not right! This shouldn’t be happening to a good Godly boy like Joseph. But it does anyway.
BUT even in prison, Joseph determines to be God’s man and God rewards him:
Genesis 39:21 “the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.”
Genesis 39:23 “The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.”
Why does God tell us this? So that we’ll not get the impression that God had forgotten him. So that we’d not be mistaken into believing God didn’t love him. God still had a plan for this boy’s life.
For about 17 years, Joseph spends his life in slavery or in prison until eventually, God gives him the desires of his heart. After all that slavery and prison life… all that unfairness that he had lived through, Joseph is plucked out of prison by God and becomes the 2nd most influential man in all the land of Egypt. Joseph becomes a great man and subsequently changed the course of human history.
God had a plan for Joseph’s life. But it took nearly 17 years of difficulty and heart ache before that plan could be fully realized. But when that time was done, Joseph had been educated in humility and in patience, and in the knowledge of what unfairness could do to the lives of people around him. He came through that period a changed man. A man who had been molded by God for a great task.
But how could Joseph remain faithful all those many years… suffering injustice and rejection and mistreatment. How could he do that?
He was able to do that because he kept his eyes on God.
He trusted the promises God had given him and he made up his mind he would accept nothing less than God’s will in his life.
SERMONS IN THIS SERIES
· Formed For A Purpose - Jeremiah 1:4-1:10
· Accept No Substitutes - Jeremiah 2:4-2:13
· The Smell of Sin - Jeremiah 5:20-5:25
· If I’ve Got It Why Can’t I Flaunt It? - Jeremiah 9:23-9:24
· The Effect Of Judgment - Jeremiah 10:17-10:25
· Time To Decide - Jeremiah 15:15-15:21
· Planning For The Future. - Jeremiah 29:8-29:14
· A New Hope - Jeremiah 31:31-31:35
· Knowing God’s Phone Number - Jeremiah 33:1-33:3
· You Can’t Tell Some People Anything - Jeremiah 44:1-44:30
