I Know the Plans I Have for You Sermon

Sermon   •Submitted two years ago

Today, we are going to wait at a text that is fairly popular and often quoted. Y'all've probably heard the eleventh verse of this passage quoted many times. You may have seen it on a decorative pillow or displayed as wall art.

Today, though, we are going to look at the beginning of , and explore how God offers encouragement through this scripture, simply how that encouragement may not come up in the form nosotros think it ought to.

We are going to primarily deal with verses 4-14, but information technology is important that we sympathise exactly what is going on equally Jeremiah is writing this letter.

As nosotros approach , we are entering into a scene where Nebuchadnezzar had deported significant amounts of people from Jerusalem to Babylon. There are people who've been left in Jerusalem and there are those who've been taken convict into Babylon.

Peradventure those who accept been left behind in Jerusalem believe that they've received some sort of favor from God, and if they believe that, it's probable that those who have been taken see themselves to be under the curse of God. When nosotros go down to it, however, this news isn't all that practiced for anyone who hears it. God is bringing sentence on the people of Israel, and everyone is going to experience it in some fashion.

And so, Jeremiah writes to those who have been deported, and as a prophet, writes from God to the people.

God is responsible for the deportation of the people.

In verse iv, The Lord is clear that he is responsible for the displacement of his people to Babylon. He planned the exile and he put it into motion.

To clarify, God didn't deport them for his own amusement, nor is God a tyrant. In this state of affairs, the people of Israel got themselves into this predicament. They opted for disobedience and God has opted to subject them.

We know that suffering comes as a issue of sin, but that all the same isn't to say that if you are experiencing suffering that information technology's a direct result of some sin. So, don't go caught up in tracking your trespasses in an effort to figure out why you are where y'all are.

Do, however, take time to reflect on what your contribution could be. Sometimes, you will find an answer and other times, you may not. Either mode, self-reflection is an important function of this life.

Regardless of what you find, though, the rest of this text still remains relevant. Y'all can bake a cake, or ane tin show upwards at your doorstep. Either way, you still have to determine what to exercise with information technology.

It doesn't matter how you landed where you landed, y'all now have to figure out how you're going to live in calorie-free of your circumstances.

God tells the exiles to brand themselves at dwelling house.

The Lord is preparing these Israelites for an extended stay in Babylon, and even tells them to set store at that place. In his instructions to them, the Lord farther reiterates the longevity of their stay. For people to marry and and then to have children who will marry points to a significant amount of fourth dimension. Nosotros know after in this text that it volition be 70 years.

We aren't to imagine that the Israeli exiles were all of a sudden pleased and excited to exist in Babylon. It isn't as if the Lord gave these instructions and everything immediately changed for them. Absolutely not.

There was work to be done.

So what do you practice when you're in a place yous didn't expect to exist in? How do you respond?

Some of united states are inclined to react by curling up and retreating. Others of u.s. are inclined to fight against the circumstance in which we've been placed. Others are compelled to try and find a fashion out of their situation.

None of those things, though, are what God commands of these Israelites. He tells them to cultivate their circumstance.

If I tin can requite you a simplistic instance: It's no secret to most people that I absolutely despise snow. It'southward overnice when information technology falls, but awful when it sticks. Where I am from, nosotros go a piffling more snow that what this area typically does, but since it'due south still Northward Carolina, even an inch tin can shut everything down. So, when information technology begins to fall, I know that it won't be long before I can't get out of the house or go to the store. I know that I am well-nigh to lose some freedom, and I don't much treat it. Even and then, when the snowfall begins to fall, I can't stop it. It'due south a reminder of my powerlessness, and I have to figure out what to do. Am I going to hunker downwards for days and mutter almost the weather? Am I going to somehow recall I can stop it by my grievances? Both of those would exist absurd. Instead, I am tasked with figuring out how I might brave the common cold and live with information technology. Afterward I come to grips with the weather, I may venture outdoors to play in the snowfall with my family. I may savor a bowl of snowfall cream. Perhaps I brainstorm to run into beauty in something that I don't really similar that much.

That'south where the Israelites are, and that is what God is commanding them to do. Their complaints or worries about exile won't remove them from it. To sit down and mope won't, either.

We can get so caught up in trying to discover a way out of our circumstances that we fail to flourish in them.

How are you responding to your circumstances today? Are you fighting them? Are y'all so focused on getting out of them that you can't focus on honoring God in them?

Let it not be said that we were so intent on moving ourselves that we wasted days, months, years, or even a lifetime neglecting our relationship with our Creator God.

I don't want to await dorsum in ten years and encounter all the opportunities I missed to know God ameliorate because I was so focused on the things around me that I lost site of who he is.

I don't want to look back and take to come face to face with the fact that people didn't hear the gospel, because I was so caught upwards in my own perceived misery that their eternity took a back seat.

Cease waiting for your circumstances to subside, and showtime living for Jesus in them. Your joy isn't determined by your circumstances, anyway. Pray continuously for your situation, and for the environments that yous wish you weren't in. When those environments thrive, yous will, too.

Do not seek answers from man.

As the Israelites are dealing with this exile, there are individuals amongst them who claim that they prophesy in the proper name of the Lord, and they're telling them that it will all exist over shortly. Hold on just a little longer and all will be well.

These diviners are offering that they have the answers. Answers to the questions of how they might leave of their situation. Answers to how much longer they might be in their state of affairs. They are fake prophets and they aren't offer godly advice. This certainly nips the bud of the prosperity gospel, doesn't it? Information technology kills American folk organized religion that offers a mode out of our circumstances if nosotros merely do the correct things.

What's more is that the Israelites are seeking this kind of advice from these false prophets. We all like to hear what we similar to hear, don't we? When someone offers communication or counsel that makes us feel good, nosotros tend to return to them for more. When we don't hear what nosotros desire to hear, nosotros don't ever react kindly. The Israelites are hearing something that they similar from these prophets, but information technology isn't the truth.

If what others are telling doesn't lucifer up with what God is telling you, don't listen, even if it sounds good. Further, God volition never lead y'all in a direction that is contrary to his Discussion.

Here is where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. We've made information technology downwards to verse 11, which is 1 of the most usually misquoted verses in scripture. Unfortunately, this verse has been used for quite some time to push the idea of American folk religion and Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, which ultimately boils down to the idea that God's ultimate goal is to make you happy hither on the earth. (can elaborate if fourth dimension allows).

Also many people are ownership the lie that God exists only that we may never suffer, or that we may always be delivered from the situations we find ourselves in considering of the curse of sin. That's non information technology.

When nosotros read with that mentality, nosotros are in effect ignoring the balance of the book. Jeremiah is a book that is all near God uprooting the plans of his people. Have solace in this verse, just practise not take simulated comfort.

Yes, God had a plan for Jerusalem. Yes, God had a plan for the Israelites. Yes, God'southward programme was for their good, but God's program absolutely involved them beingness exiled for seventy years. God's plan involved discomfort. God'due south plan involved difficult circumstances. God's plan involved things that the Israelites may not have seen coming. But God's plan and purpose were truly and fully good.

Don't permit the devil tell you that something that God says is skillful isn't.

So, where's the hope then? If God is non promising deliverance from specific circumstances, if non comfort, where is the hope? If God isn't going to take me out of this hard time, then what am I to do now?

Nosotros nevertheless observe promise in the promises of God, including this 1. God'due south promises are true, and our God is incredibly faithful.

We tin can find comfort in Christ in our circumstances.

We can observe residuum in Jesus. recounts Jesus as proverb that in this world we will have trouble, but take center, he has overcome the world. Jesus has overcome it all. He is a Savior who knows our experiences and who understand where we are coming from. He's felt what we feel. He'southward hurt where we've hurt. He's wept simply as we've wept.

God tells his people that they will call to him and he will listen. Nosotros have a slap-up mediator, Jesus. We can talk to the Father whenever and wherever. Our Savior is our Wonderful Counselor. He is Emmanuel, God with usa. You don't have to endure alone. Telephone call upon the Lord.

We can find hope in the message of the gospel.

When God tells the Israelites that his plans are for their expert, he means information technology. God'southward purpose is to bring them closer to himself, even though information technology means a time of hardship. God'south ultimate purpose is to bring his people into closer communion with himself.

For us, this is the procedure of sanctification - God continuously working on u.s.a. to make u.s. more like his son, in preparation for eternity.

In , we find a New Testament example of scripture that speaks for our skilful, but that doesn't necessarily mean it is for our comfort. We hear from Paul that all things piece of work together for the good of those that honey God, who are called according to his purpose. In one case more than, this speaks to our becoming more like the Savior.

As God speaks to the Israelite people, he promises restoration, merely he is pointing to more than merely a return to their original land. God is promising an ultimate sacrifice that is going to completely flip the system that got the Israelites where they are now in the outset place. He'due south pointing to Jesus.

Y'all may ask yourself: Then what does that mean for us? What is God's promise to me?

God'due south hope is not that yous'll get the task. The hope is not that you'll get into that school you applied to. God's promise is not that you'll go the daughter or the guy. God's promise is not that your job will become easier. He doesn't hope health and wealth. God doesn't hope that your hopes and dreams will exist fulfilled. He doesn't promise that your plans won't be crushed. The promise is not that all of your bug volition misemploy and that life will become far easier for you than it is right now. No!

The promise is that the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead to conquer death, hell, and the grave will raise y'all up with him, and that is Enough FOR The states.

Is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ plenty for yous? Is the cantankerous your completion? Is Jesus your living hope? If he's not, then y'all volition almost certainly never find residual in these troubled times.

Deliverance comes through the cantankerous of Christ, and the hope that we will one solar day see him face up to face should be more than sufficient. The grace that only Christ can offer is the good news, and deliverance from sin and shame is far greater than whatever other deliverance we could seek or ask for.

And so when the winds blow, practice non exist discouraged. When the waves crash, practice non be overcome. When the world around yous seems to be falling apart, practice not crumble with it. This may not be where you thought you'd be. This may not be what y'all wanted, but y'all can rest knowing that no matter how difficult, how long, or how frightening things may seem, in that location is a God who has a program that is for your good, whether you see it now or not.

Even when you don't see it, he's working. Fifty-fifty when you don't feel it, he's moving. Even when it seems like you are at the terminate of the road, he has made a way. Take heart, church, our God knows the plans he has for each of us.

They may bring difficulty and discomfort. Your life may not be what you lot idea it'd be, and you lot will have to rest in knowing that God knows meliorate than you exercise.

So, serve our savior. Get to work sharing the honey of Jesus. A lost world is depending on it. Flourish where the Lord has you at present. A whole generation is depending on you to leave them with a church that is further forth than it was earlier you lot got here. Our time is brusque, and God'southward plans volition come to fruition. Don't sit on the sideline sulking. Don't give into the lie that God has abandoned yous. He'south probably closer than you imagined he could be. He is present in the ease, and he is nowadays in the difficulty.

For I know the plans I have for yous, declares the Lord. Trust him. Obey him. Seek him.

Mayhap you're here today and you're going through something that has taken you past surprise. Maybe you lot've had trouble dealing with it. Maybe you oasis't constitute hope in Christ, or yous may not even know him.

Utilize the altar, or build one where you are.

God, forgive usa for assertive that your plans are supposed to line upwards with ours. Forgive united states of america for assertive that you owe united states of america something. Forgive united states of america for our doubt, and remind united states of america that your plans are across our agreement. Remind united states of you practiced purpose - to make us more like our wonderful, merciful savior. May we not forget that everything is worth losing for a closer walk with you, our Creator and Sustainer. Thanks for Jesus, who was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died an unfair death, and whom you raised from the dead on that glorious twenty-four hour period. Information technology is in his proper name that we pray. Amen.

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Source: https://sermons.faithlife.com/sermons/492036-for-i-know-the-plans-i-have-for-you