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Past Ponderings

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

What If Your Homecoming Isn’t Like You Planned? (Jeremiah 29:4-13)

VIDEO 

What If Your Homecoming Isn’t Like You Planned? (Jeremiah 29:4-13)

GIST: God has a deliberately beautiful plan for your life, and though the path won’t always be comfortable, His grace is an eternal certainty! 


This morning we’re coming to what should have been our Homecoming service. I had already planned on addressing it as a “Homecoming Like No Other”, as we prepared to all meet together in one socially distanced outside service— spreading out under canopies or remaining in our vehicles and broadcasting using our FM transmitter. Then, our Homecoming plans took another turn as, after literally being obnoxiously cautious for six months, I contracted COVID-19 and needed to quarantine with my family. If you know my family very well, you’ll appreciate what I’m about to say. We’re crazy people. I’m the guy who has continued to sanitize his Wal-mart pick up groceries before even bringing them into our house. I take off my shoes before entering and lysol spray them before bringing them in. I put my clothes immediately in the laundry and shower before interacting with my family. We’ve been basically self-quarantining our kiddos except to come to the outside church service for the past six months. We’ve tried very hard to be responsible with all of this. Yet, it still got into our house. Why? Because God allowed it to. This is part of His plan and purpose. That’s what I planned on talking about in person today anyway, and I think, if anything, it’s even more relevant now that we’re going virtual again for this Sunday. 

Let’s look at one of the most famous passages of Scripture, Jeremiah 29:11, and then put it into context. 

 

“11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”


This truth is beautiful, but it’s sandwiched next to promises that life wouldn’t have been what the original audience was expecting… or wanting to hear. I’ll give you the gist, and we’ll dive in: God has a deliberately beautiful plan for your life, and though the path won’t always be comfortable, His grace is an eternal certainty! For 189 years now, this has been true for Providence Baptist Church… because for all time, this has been true for everybody!


I. GOD HAS A DELIBERATELY BEAUTIFUL PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE (11)

I won’t keep you long this morning, so let’s start by breaking down this super famous promise.

“11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD,” The Lord, the creator of the universe, knows what He has personally planned for you. Isn’t that amazing? Let that sink in. You, wretch though you are, have been planned for deliberately. He made you on purpose and with a purpose. And His purpose are→ 

“... plans for welfare and not for evil,”  His plans are never evil. They are always good. What verse have I been quoting nonstop from Psalm 23? Surely goodness and mercy will chase after you all the days of your life! Every good and perfect gift comes down from Jesus. We can trust that. We can trust that He really does plan→ 

“... to give you a future and a hope.” This world isn’t all there is. This pain won’t last forever. That heartbreak won’t always be there. There is a brighter day we can look forward to! God really does have a deliberately beautiful plan for our lives, but→ 


II. THE PATH WON’T ALWAYS BE COMFORTABLE (4-10)

I really do love Jeremiah 29:11. Unfortunately, it’s a passage that is largely quoted out of context and taken to mean life will always be cupcakes and roses for those who belong to Jesus. That’s not anywhere close to the original context of this passage. In fact, this passage is telling us the exact opposite. Let’s just go back to verse 4 to ground us. 

“4 "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:” It is important to note that verse 11 is part of a message being sent from God through the prophet Jeremiah to the people of Israel. The people who have rebelled and continued to sin. The people He, God, sent into exile. Did you notice that? Just before telling them He has awesome plans for their lives, He tells them He put them into the exile they’re experiencing at this moment! He then goes on to tell them...it isn’t going to end anytime soon! 

Let’s read through to verse 10, which will take us right up to that most quoted portion. Then, we’ll break down the highlights. “5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7 But 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. 8 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, 9 for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the LORD. 10 "For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.”

To give you some background, what we learn in chapter 28 is that there were false prophets telling people this captivity wouldn’t last long, and that all would be as it was soon. God tells them not to be fooled by wishful thinking and that those messengers weren’t from Him. Instead, He tells them they’ll be in captivity for 70 years! That’s literally a lifetime. Therefore, they need to establish themselves in the land and work to be a positive, Godly influence in the culture around them while they look forward to His movement. Honestly, we could camp out there for a long time because that’s exactly the kind of life we’re called to live here. Invest in family, live in the land where we’re placed, and work diligently to be a positive witness for Him— pointing this broken society to His truth and guidance. 

Nonetheless, what I want to make sure we don’t miss this morning is that this promise comes right in the middle of hardship, and a hardship many of the people first listening to this message would never see end! Guys, we didn’t plan for our year to look like this. I didn’t plan for Homecoming to not only be different, but postponed entirely. In fact, my plans were very different. My efforts to keep me and my family safe from this virus while also trying to stop from being an infector to those around me were strong. However, God allowed me to contract the virus anyway because He knows the plans He has for me! 

We don’t need to give up in the hard times or crumble under despair. Instead, we need to take heart because even in the chaos→ 


III. HIS GRACE IS AN ETERNAL CERTAINTY! (12-13) 

Oh, how I love these next two verses. “12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.Look at that promise. He will hear and we will find Him! But there are conditions to this, right? We’ll find Him if we seek Him with all our hearts. What will that look like? It tells us that too. Call upon Him. Come to Him. Pray. We need to be deliberately spending our time approaching His Word and digesting it and coming to Him in prayer. You can be distracted by this world, or you can be consumed by Him. Let me be honest, when I’m in the middle of the heartache and disappointment, that’s not always my first reaction. I let frustration get the best of me sometimes, just like you. But I know this to be true, so I can have hope in the hardship...even if Homecoming isn’t what I planned.

Ok, I promised brevity, so let’s recap with the→ 


TAKEAWAYS

  1. God has a deliberately beautiful plan for your life. 

  2. The path won’t always be comfortable.

  3. But… His grace is an eternal certainty! 


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