Sermon: God Has Great Plans For You

Sermon: God Has Great Plans For You

Scripture Lesson - Jeremiah 29:8-14 “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.”

Introduction: What is God's plan for you? The Bible tells us that God desires us to have an abundant life filled with joy and peace. He also wants us to lead lives of faithfulness, obedience, and integrity. In other words, He desires us to live according to His will and purpose. He wants us to seek Him daily and trust in Him completely. When our plans are upended, dreams are derailed, life can be scary and uncertain. How good it is to hear the Lord's still got a plan - a good plan to prosper us, provide hope and point us to the future he has prepared for us.

Today, It may feel like all our plans are constantly changing. Many things seem so confusing. I thought by now the pandemic would be over, church attendance would have improved, the economy would be more stable, and the wars would have ended, but not so. Many people are challenged by mental and emotional stress, physical illness, persistent grief and pain with no relief in sight. Sometimes, we all wonder, Does God have a plan? Does God plan include me? What will happen during the election? I can only imagine how those with school-aged children are navigating these times. How often have their plans changed with the soaring cost of childcare? Suddenly many find themselves searching for childcare providers when you thought you had it all figured out. Some are now working from home, hours at work have been reduced and maybe you’re wondering if you’ll have a job in the coming months. Vacations and doctor’s appointments have been rescheduled or cancelled. Maybe you find yourself facing a crisis and you can’t help but wonder, “What’s next?” and maybe even, “Where is the Lord in all of this? Lord, what’s your plan?”

If you find yourself with those thoughts and feelings, you are certainly not alone. The words of our text were written to people who may have felt that way. In Jeremiah 29:11, “’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’”

While those words might be familiar to you, do you know when and to whom they were written? This is part of a letter that the Lord had the prophet Jeremiah write around the year 600 BC to a group of Jews who were now living in Babylon, hundreds of miles to the east of Jerusalem. These Jews living in Babylon were not living there by choice. They were exiles. The Babylonian Captivity was a period of time when the Jewish people were exiled in Babylon from their home in Israel. The King of Judah had refused to pay taxes to Babylon for three years. As a result, Jerusalem was captured by the Babylonians, who declared war on Judah. The Babylonians had come and ripped them away from their families and friends, forced them to leave their jobs and their homes, and to live in a strange culture, carry them into world that was completely new and foreign to them. This was certainly not anything that any one of those Jews living in Babylon had planned or wanted! You can imagine how often these exiles must have wondered, “What’s next? Has the Lord forgotten about us? Lord, do you even have a plan for us any longer?”

Well, in the previous verses the Lord told these exiles in Babylon to get comfortable in their new surroundings, because they were going to be there for the next 70 years. Yet the Lord also assured them that what they were going to make it through because this was a part of his plan for them. This plan is not designed to hurt or harm them, it is a plan with a purpose. What was that purpose? The Lord planned to prosper them, to give them hope and leave them to a bright future.

Do you feel like those exiles? I certainly have at times in my life. My world today is vastly different than the world I lived in when I was 40 and in great health. Maybe your world has changed too. A loved one is sick or maybe even passed away; raising children has become more difficult or peer pressure has changed. How many of our plans have been overturned? How many people’s dreams have been derailed? How many people are feeling scared and lonely, suddenly separated from loved ones and family members? The Lord comes to you this day and says, “I want you to know that I have a plan for you…plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”