JEREMIAH 29:4-14 A FUTURE AND A HOPE2016 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Jeremiah 29:4-14 A Future And A Hope

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2016. Well, this morning as we look at Jeremiah chapter 29, we are looking at a passage that's familiar to us, at least a verse that's familiar to us. Verse 11 here in chapter 29 of Jeremiah is an absolutely famous verse.

Many people, you know, hold on to this verse and would label it as their life verse. And so I want to be careful with that today and not destroy, you know, your life verse. But as we look at this passage, there's a lot of good things that the Lord has for us. And verse 11, the highlight kind of of the chapter says, "'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.'"

And so I've titled the message this morning, A Future and a Hope. This is what God has for his people. He has a future for his people. He has plans for his people. He has good things in store and things that we can hope in and not hope with an uncertainty, but hope the way the Bible uses it is an absolute guarantee. And so there's good things guaranteed to God's people. And

And that's something awesome that we can hold on to. And so many people have and hold on to this verse and know it and quote it. And it's, you know, posted on things and written on things and inscribed on things because it is a great promise for all believers. And yet...

I think many times as we quote that verse and repeat that verse and hold on to that verse, we let go a little bit of the context of where this verse is and what the Lord is saying all around this verse and not just this one particular point, but this

We often neglect to consider the rest of this passage, and that's what I'd like to do this morning, to walk through and talk about the reality. There is a future and a hope that God has for his people, but we also need to understand the reality that goes along with that of the things that God wants to do in us to bring us that future and that hope. Amen.

Now, as we begin to talk about the context and understand this verse, verses one through three really give us the background for this passage. And we're not going to get into the details there, but there it tells us in verse one that these are the words of a letter that Jeremiah wrote. He's in Jerusalem and he's writing to the captives in Babylon.

And so this is not a message that Jeremiah preached verbally, but he wrote down, he sent it to Babylon where people from Judah, Jews had been taken captive by Babylon and had been led to Babylon to establish new lives there. And so this is a message delivered by letter from Jeremiah to the captives who were in Babylon. Now,

When we talk about Babylon conquering Jerusalem, conquering the nation of Judah, it actually happened three times. And so the timing of this letter is also indicated in the first few verses. The first time that Babylon conquered Jerusalem was in 605 BC, and Jehoiakim was king at the time. And so he's conquered by Babylon, and Babylon does something interesting. They don't just wipe out the city, wipe out the nation, and then that's it. What they do is they take

some people captive back to Babylon, and then they set up a new king and say, okay, new king, Jehoiachin, you be faithful, you pay your taxes, you know, pay your rent, submit to us, be a good servant of Babylon, and we'll allow you guys to continue on. And so they demonstrated a little bit of mercy in that way and allowed them to continue on and, you know, just subjected them to huge taxes or fees and fines that they had to continue to pay. Okay.

Well, Jehoiachin decided, you know, I don't want to follow Babylon as he was also rebelling against the Lord. And so he rebels against Babylon and Babylon has to come back and conquer Judah a second time. And as they conquer Judah a second time, again, they don't just wipe out the entire city. They take a bunch of people away captive, back to Babylon, and then they establish a new king, Zedekiah.

And Zedekiah lasts for a little bit, but he rebels against Babylon as well, as he was continuing to rebel against the Lord. And so it's that third time that Babylon comes and just completely conquers Jerusalem altogether. The nation of Judah is just completely wiped out, and the survivors are carried back captive to Babylon. So this letter is written actually after the second time that Jerusalem and Judah had been conquered by Babylon.

And so there are people who have been in Babylon for many years already as Jeremiah is writing to them. And there's also a fresh group of people who have just arrived. They've been conquered. They've been taken away captive. Now they're in Babylon.

And Jeremiah is writing to address some of the issues and some of the bad ideas, the false ideas that are going on in their day and in their context. This letter was sent to those captives who were in Babylon. And on one hand, God wants to say, hey, I've got good plans for you. It's a comforting letter in some regards. I've got good plans. I want to do a great work in you. I'm not through with you yet, but

There's still plans and good things that I have in store for your life. And so in that, it's a great encouragement for those who are going through difficulty. And so we can relate to this passage. We can relate and understand when there's disappointment in our life. As you can imagine, the people were disappointed having just been taken captive and led away into the nation of Babylon hundreds of miles away.

You could imagine there was discouragement, like we might face discouragement. This was a tragedy, as we might experience tragedy. There was hurt and hardships, and you could understand the things that they might be going through in a similar way to things that we go through, although it's not the exact same circumstances.

And so it's appropriate for us to look at this and understand that God has good plans for his people. There's comfort there, but there's also some other things that the Lord wants to instruct us in as we look at this passage. So we're going to work our way verses 4 through 14, talking about a future and a hope. There's four points that we'll look at beginning in verses 4 through 7.

And here's point number one. Here's what the Lord says to his people who are in a difficult spot. He says, settle in where the Lord has you. Here's what I want you to do. You're in this spot. You're in a place you don't want to be. It's difficult. It's painful. It's discouraging. It's depressing. Settle in. You're going to be there for a long time. Check out verse four.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon. So here's the beginning of the letter to this people that are in Babylon, God's people taken captive. And the first thing that God does is make sure that it's clear. I want you guys to know, God says, this is my doing.

You're upset with Babylon. You're frustrated with Babylon. You don't like Babylon. You don't like those people who are now over you. You don't like the authorities there. You don't like that you're forced to be here. But don't blame them. God says, I want you to know this is my doing. I have caused you to be carried from Jerusalem to Babylon. God wants them to know this is his work that is going on.

And God brought this work. God was doing this work because of their rebellion against God. This was an act of discipline by God upon his people. And that's important to note because, well, as we consider the context of what was happening there and can compare that to where we are today, you need to understand that in a similar way, God will discipline us as his people.

There is a reality of discipline. The author of Hebrews talks about that in Hebrews chapter 12. And he talks about chastening, discipline, and how God disciplines us because he loves us. And we can take comfort in discipline because, well, it shows God's love for us. And if he never disciplined us, well, it would show that God didn't care for us. And so there's a comfort that comes from discipline, but at the same time, it's difficult. And in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 11 says,

The author of Hebrews says, no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. Nevertheless, afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. There in Hebrews chapter 12, as he talks about discipline on the children of God, he tells us we can know it's an act of love by God, and it's for our good. It doesn't, it's not pleasant to

It's not enjoyable. And that's the place where the people of Judah were at that time. They weren't experiencing, you know, a lot of joy at that moment because they were experiencing this captivity. It's not joyful at the present, but afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. When God brings discipline into our lives,

It is to produce good fruit in our lives. Always. It's not about, you know, just beating for the enjoyment of it. God just likes to see us suffer. No, but he allows us to go through things. He brings discipline into our lives. He chastens to bring forth good fruit from our lives, to bring forth good fruit in us. And that's what he was doing with the nation of Judah.

And so there is discipline. At that time, that's what was happening. In our day, it still continues. There is discipline that God brings upon his children. However...

I would also point out, as I often do, not every difficulty in our life is a matter of discipline. Not every difficulty in our life is a matter of God trying to deal with, you know, some specific sin in our lives or in our hearts. We also have difficulties in life that just come from, well, living in a fallen world that's affected by sin. And to that end, Paul the Apostle deals with that in Romans chapter 5, and he says, he

Not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance, character and character, hope. So we have tribulations. Sometimes it's discipline. Sometimes it's just tribulations. But even when it's just tribulations, Paul says we can glory in that.

Because, well, here's what we know. Tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character, and character produces hope. We have a similar verse in James chapter 1. Count it all joy, right? Because you know there's a work that's going on. In other words, God is at work in your life in every difficulty, whether it's a matter of discipline or whether it's just a difficulty of life.

Now, if it's a matter of discipline, then obviously we need to listen to the Lord as soon as possible, repent and get right with the Lord. That's for sure. But regardless, whether our difficulty that we face, the hardship and the hurt that we are experiencing, whether that is self-inflicted because of our rebellion against God, or whether it's just a difficulty that happens because we live in a fallen world, we can trust, we can know, we can rest assured that

God is working in the midst of these things to bring forth good in us, to work in us and bring forth the fruit that is needed. And so whether it's discipline or difficulty, as believers, we can rest and know either way God is at work. But since that's the case, and since we accept that to be true, then here God goes on to make the point in verse 5 that,

So settle in. He says, look, this is my doing. I've put you in this place. So get comfortable there because you're going to be there for a while. Check out verse five. He says, build houses and dwell in them. Plant gardens and eat their fruit. He says, hey guys, I put you there. I took you to Babylon. This is my discipline. So build houses.

Now, the captivity of Babylon might not be what you might imagine as captivity to be. They weren't in chains in a prison. What Babylon would do when they would conquer a nation was they would take the people out of their homeland and relocate them to some other place that was in their empire so that they would still get the benefit of, you know, the produce that the people give and the taxes that the people pay. So they still got the people, but

But removing them from their land broke their rebellion and kept them from mounting attack and fighting against Babylon any longer. So they got all the benefits without, you know, losing the people. And so they would move the people. And so what they've done now is they've moved people out of Judah into an area in Babylon near really the city of Babylon. And so that's where the people are. And they're given some freedom there. They're not allowed to leave. Right?

but they're given some freedom. Okay, this is your territory. This is your land. You have to stay there. Now plant yourselves there and build houses there and start farming there and providing for yourself there. That's what they were instructed to do. But here's the Jewish people in captivity. They don't want to be there and they are resistant to setting down roots. They don't want to build houses there because they don't want to be there. They don't want to stay there

You know, it's different. You handle things differently depending on how long you're going to stay at a particular place. For your own home, you will arrange the furniture the way that you want it to be. You'll paint the walls the color you want it to be painted, and you'll set up things the way that you like. But when you go stay at your friend's house for a couple days or even a couple weeks, you're

You're probably not moving all the furniture around. You're probably not painting the walls. You're probably not, you know, changing everything the way that you like it because, well, it's not your home. You're just staying there for a couple of weeks. And so you handle things differently depending on how long you're going to be there, right? In a similar way, the people here have the mentality, we're not going to be here very long, right?

They're expecting, you know, in a short time, Babylon's going to be conquered. God's going to defeat them. And we're going to go back to Jerusalem. They were hoping that this would be a short stay in Babylon. And so they were not preparing for the long term. But here God is instructing them to do just the opposite. Prepare for the long term. These circumstances that you're in, you're not a fan of them. You're not excited about them. But these are the circumstances that I've given to you. Accept that.

Accept this as your new normal. This is your new normal. You're going to live like this for some time. You need to accept that. Now there's the possibility, of course, where God could speak to you and say, the circumstances you're in, I want to get you out of that. And so here's what I want you to do. And so when God tells you, here's what to do to get out of your situation, well, then you follow what God says and get out of your situation. But

If God's not giving you the out, if he's not giving you the way out, if he's not giving you the steps and the direction to take, then I would suggest to you, accept your circumstances. Accept your situation as from the Lord. This is your new normal. This is where God has you. Now, that doesn't mean that you're supposed to just give up and walk around defeated. This is my new normal. My life is terrible. Everything sucks.

No, God is telling them, accept this as your new normal and live a full life here. Do the best you can with what you have here. Live a full life, he says, to plant gardens and eat their fruit. Set yourself up a little garden. Start plowing fields. Start preparing for a harvest.

Work on things that you can enjoy. Work on things that will supply your need and will provide for you. Do the best you can in the circumstances that you have. Again, he continues to talk about having a full life in verse 6.

It says, God says, I want you to increase there. I want you to live full lives. So get married. Now you can imagine young, you know, Jewish guys, they're in captivity thinking, well,

I'm not going to get married right now because pretty soon we're going to be back in Jerusalem. And the girl that I really want to marry, she's back home in Jerusalem. So I'm not going to marry this girl that's here. I'm going to marry that girl back there. And so I'm not going to get married. I'm going to wait. And he says, no, no. Get married. You're going to be here for a while. Accept these new circumstances and make the best of them. And have kids. And get ready to have grandkids. Live a full life. Build your house. Get married. Have kids. Have grandkids.

Now, you can imagine what brides might have thought, right? This isn't how I pictured my wedding. This isn't the location I had envisioned for my wedding my whole life. I had this perfect spot in the corner of Jerusalem. It was just going to be, the photos were going to be amazing with the sunset on the rocks and everything. It was going to be beautiful. But now I'm in Babylon. I can't get married here. This isn't what I've dreamed about. This is what I've always wanted. And God's saying, your dream, that's never going to happen. Accept your new set of circumstances. I know it's difficult. I know it's hard. It's hurtful. But I know it's going to happen.

There's going to be some disappointment, but this is your new life. Live it to the fullest. Build your houses. Get married. Have kids. I could imagine parents thinking, we don't want our kids to grow up here.

I mean, we had this nice little place back in Judah, white picket fence, everything real near the temple so we could go worship all the time. And we just always envisioned having kids there and they could join with us and just sing the songs, the Psalms, as we're on the way to the temple. And we always wanted that for our family. But here, we don't want to. And God says, no, no. This is your new normal. Have kids.

Go forward. Live your life. Live a full life. Make the most. Accept these circumstances as your new normal and go forward the best you can and live a full life. He says that you may be increased there and not diminished. You see, if they put their lives on hold until all this Babylonian captivity stuff was over, they would be diminished because they wouldn't be getting married. They wouldn't be having kids. They wouldn't be living a family. They

They would be reduced. They would be diminished if they were waiting for all the things that they wanted to happen. If they were waiting for being back in Jerusalem, God says, you're going to be diminished. And if we continue to wait for those, you know, dream moments to start living the life that God's called us to live, we're going to be diminished. Accept this as your new normal and do the best you can.

To live a full life, a good life. That means, yes, go get an education. That means, yes, work hard and provide for your family. That means, yes, have a family. That means, yes, go forward and live life and experience the fullness of it. Settle in where the Lord has you. Verse seven, and seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive and pray to the Lord for it. For in its peace, you will have peace.

Now, verse seven is kind of a nice verse, but it was really hard instruction for the Jewish people because there they are in Babylon, surrounded by the people who just turned their lives upside down. And you could imagine the animosity. You could imagine the anger. These are the people who just destroyed our lives. And God says, no, they didn't. I did. Notice again in verse seven, he says, in the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, he wants them to know I did this. This is my doing.

You're blaming them. You're fighting against them. You're rebelling against them. Stop it. Instead, seek peace there in the city where I've caused you to be carried away. The Jewish people always rebelled against other authorities being over them. If you remember, even years later when Jesus came on the scene, the Jewish people were under the authority of the Roman Empire and they hated it.

And that's why they were expecting the Messiah to throw off the Roman authority and establish a kingdom right then because that's what they wanted. Get me out of this authorities that are over me. And that's what they wanted here. But God says, you need to submit to those authorities. I've placed you there. I've placed those authorities over you.

I've stuck you in this spot. And what you need to do is stop fighting against the system. Stop fighting against the authorities and seek peace and pray for peace for this city. The city that you hate and you don't want to be there and you're just doing everything you can to get out of there and fight against everything. Stop it and pray for peace because as this city experiences peace, you will experience peace because I've placed you here.

And as God speaks that message to his people in Babylon, oh, it speaks to us who are stuck in situations and positions we don't want to be in. There's people in authority over you, give you a hard time. And you think, man, those people are giving me a hard time. And God says, I put you there. I placed you there. Pray for their peace. You pray for those people that are so frustrating to you. Pray for those people. Maybe it's in your workplace. Maybe it's in your family. Maybe it's your landlord. Who knows? But pray. Pray.

for those people, for those authorities in your life. Don't be troublemakers, fighting against, you know, doing subversive things, trying to sneakily underhand, undermine. No, no, no. You do your best to bring peace to the city and pray for peace for the city because that's when you will have peace. That's for your good. In other words, settle in where the Lord has you.

Accept your circumstances. This is the new normal. And again, I would give the caveat. Now, if God's told you, I want to get you out of there. Here's the steps. Here's what you need to do to get out of there. Well, then you follow the Lord. But if God hasn't shown you that, accept these circumstances. You now have this health condition. We didn't want it. We didn't expect it. We'd want something different. It's not what we dreamed about. Listen, unless God tells you how to get out of it, this is your new normal.

And yes, you might live this way the rest of your life. Now, settle in. This is where God has you. He has you here. He's going to do a work. He is doing a work, but you need to stop fighting it and settle in. That doesn't mean that you give up and walk around defeated, but live a full life. Learn how to thrive in these set of circumstances, in this life that you've been given. You're in this tough job and you hate it and it's difficult.

And if God's leading you out, well, then go out as the Lord leads. But maybe God just wants you to settle in with this new boss that's crazy difficult. Maybe God just wants you to settle in and learn how to do well and pray for those people that frustrate you so greatly. You're stuck there with an ugly family. Hey, you just need to settle in. I threw that in because we had the youth, so I need to get a couple laughs out of them to keep them awake. But you know, parents want the best for their kids, right?

Many times parents will express things like, I want my kids to have everything that I didn't have when I was growing up and things like that. And that's great, wonderful. If the Lord shows you that and tells you to do that. But you know, sometimes we go out of our way to try to resolve things that really end up

Fighting against what God wants to do. Instead of settling in and accepting the circumstances that God has given to us, accepting the path that God has set us on, we're fighting against it to our own detriment. Listen, you got into this predicament by not listening to the Lord. That was true of the Jews in Babylon. They refused to listen to the Lord. That's why they're there. And God's saying, you're not going to get out of it by not listening to me.

Now, again, in our life, not every difficulty is a result of rebellion in our hearts. So not every difficulty is, well, we got there because we refused to listen to God. Sometimes listening to God takes us into difficulty. So that's not meant to be a statement applied to every exact situation. But many times we bring difficulty upon ourselves by not listening to the Lord. And we need to understand you're not going to get out of that difficulty alone.

By not listening to the Lord. That's what got you into that spot. And what we need to do is to start listening. As hard as that may be, to settle in where we are. To settle in and make the most of the life that we have. We need to start listening to God. Settling in where he's planted us. Now in the midst of this, again, it's a comforting letter. It's not, you know, meant to be completely discouraging. But there is some reality that needs to be faced.

Settle in because this is your new normal. This is the new life. This is how it's going to be for a time. But I'm going to be working in the midst of that. Going on into verses 8 through 10, here we have point number two. And that is the Lord's plan will take time. God has a plan for you, a future and a hope. We'll get to that, right? But here's what you need to understand. That's going to take time.

For us as believers, we can rest assured. We can count on, we can know. We have the promise. God will be faithful to complete the work that he began in us. That's a promise. We can hold on to that. We know that God will do that. He has a plan for a future and a hope for us. But many times it's, from our perspective, it seems like God's not really in a hurry. He's just taking his time with that plan. Why is he taking so long? Well, it takes time to,

For God to do what he wants to do. His plan takes time. He isn't in a hurry, really. He's right on time. Working in us, working through us, working around us, the things that need to be done for our benefit. In verse eight, for thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams, which you cause to be dreamed.

as god says hey settle in you're going to be there for a while he says a warning now don't be deceived by the false prophets the false prophets just like they were in jerusalem prophesying things in the name of the lord but it was not from the lord some of those false prophets had been taken captive and now they're in babylon still speaking forth false prophecies

The prominent one of the day was within two years, Babylon will be broken and Israel will be restored to the land. That was what the false prophets were declaring. And so as Jeremiah is writing to the people of Babylon, God is speaking through him and saying, listen, I know there's some false prophecies. You've heard this message about two years. Here's what you need to know. Those people are claiming to speak for God, but they're speaking lies.

There's always going to be lies about shortcuts. We're going to experience those things. Lies about ways to get out of things, ways to do things more quickly, ways to, you know, accomplish things quicker. And God says, those are lies. They're not from me. They're lies from these false prophets. In verse 9, he says, for they prophesy falsely to you in my name. I have not sent them, says the Lord. They're speaking in my name, but I have not sent them. Now, why would people do that?

Why would these false prophets speak forth lies to the people there in captivity? Why would they do that? We get a little bit of insight from the prophet Ezekiel about why they did that. Ezekiel was a prophet during the same time that Jeremiah was a prophet. And Ezekiel was a prophet who was in Babylon. He was one of the people who had been taken captive. And he was one of the voices who spoke for God to the captives there in Babylon.

And in Ezekiel chapter 13, verse six, he gives us some insight. He says, they, the false prophets, have envisioned futility and false divination, saying, thus says the Lord, but the Lord has not sent them. And then notice, yet they hope that the word may be confirmed. Here's why the false prophets spoke what they spoke. Whether they knew or not that this was what the Lord wanted, they were hoping, if I say it,

it will be confirmed. Thus says the Lord, within two years, Babylon will be broken and we'll all be back in Jerusalem. Now, please Lord, fulfill that word I just said. That's what the false prophets were doing. They were speaking forth their dreams, their hopes. They were hoping, speaking forth what they wanted, hoping that God would then back it up and say, okay, they had enough faith to say this, so I'm going to make it happen.

They hoped it would be confirmed, but God did not speak to them. Now, God will deal with that. That's a serious issue, to speak on behalf of God things that God has not spoken. That's something that God deals with very seriously. But it wasn't so much that they were trying to make everybody's lives miserable. It wasn't that they were trying to, you know, mess up the plan of God. They were deceived themselves. They were hoping. They were just speaking aloud what they wanted.

And God said, don't believe that. I haven't sent them. But notice he also gives them a warning in verse 8. There at the end of verse 8, he says, They didn't actually need false prophets to announce lies to them. They had their own dreams.

What they wanted, what they hoped for. They wished for the same thing. Yes, get us out of Babylon quickly. Oh, I wish. I had this dream the other night. You know, we were set free and we were able to go home. God says, don't believe your dreams. Those things that you want so greatly, those things that you're desiring so greatly. And sometimes we desire them so greatly, we convince ourselves it must be from the Lord because I have this great desire. It's so strong. It must be from the Lord. And God's saying, it's not from me. Don't be deceived.

by those false prophets. Don't be deceived by your dreams. People are often convinced that God has spoken when he hasn't. And so these are lies spoken in his name.

or dreams where we wish that this was what God was saying. But here's what God actually says to his people there in Babylon. Verse 10, for thus says the Lord, after 70 years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you and cause you to return to this place. So God says, don't believe the lies. Two years and then you'll be back. No, no, don't believe the lies. Here's what the word of the Lord says.

after 70 years are completed. Now notice he says, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you. So God has a good word. He has a promise to keep it and he's going to keep it. He's going to do good, but it's going to take time. It's not going to take two years. It's going to take 70 years.

Now the 70-year captivity can be looked at and is spoken about in different ways. Sometimes it's talking about 70 years without a temple. Sometimes it's talking about 70 years in captivity. That's the particular one that's being referred to here. So it began with Jehoiakim being defeated. So it's already been going on for some time, about 10 years, as Jeremiah is writing this letter. They're already 10 years into that 70-year captivity, but there's 60 more to go. And then in 536 B.C.,

When Persia conquers Babylon, King Cyrus declares, hey Jews, the Lord spoke to me about you. You can go home. And God's word is fulfilled. The 70 years that God declared is actually what happened because, well, it's the Lord's plan. It will be fulfilled. He will accomplish the good that he said he would accomplish. But it takes time. It takes time. And so going back to verse one or point one, settle in where God has you.

He has a plan and he's gonna do great things. He has good things in store for his people. But settle in because his plans take time. You want to be out of that set of circumstances quickly. That's how we all are. We want out of the pain. We want out of the difficulty. We wanna get out of that situation. But there's no shortcuts for the work that God wants to do in you. God is doing a work in you. And there's no shortcut to get to the end of that. There's no shortcut to just like,

be changed. It's through the process of time. He uses the process of time. He's not in a hurry. He's right on schedule. And so we need to settle into the plan of God. Settle into what God has for us, knowing that the Lord's plan will take time. But there's some comfort. There's some hope in that. Even though it's not the time frame that we wanted, God is still at work and he will fulfill his word. Well, that brings us to verse 11 and point number three.

The Lord has good plans for you. His plans take time, but they're good plans and they're worth waiting for. Verse 11 says, God says, I know the thoughts that I think towards you. I know the thoughts that

I know the thoughts, the Lord says. You don't know the thoughts of the Lord many times. But God says, I know my thoughts. And I'm thinking about you. You know, sometimes it feels like God is not thinking about us at all. You ever feel that way? God has no clue. Doesn't care. You're suffering. You're going through difficulty. You're going through hardship. You're going through all kinds of stuff. And it's possible God doesn't even know what kind of pain I'm in right now. That's how it feels. But it's not true. God never stops thinking about you.

He never once stops thinking about you. I like this one example of it, and I've used it before, but it's a good one. Remember Jesus said that the Father knows the very number of hairs on your head? I love that. Not because there's not much to count on my head. That's something different altogether. But listen, God knows the very number of hairs upon your head. Did you know that number is always changing? Think about that.

You have hairs falling out just like I have hairs falling out. The difference is yours grow back and mine stay gone. But either way, the number's changing. The number of hairs on your head today is not the same as yesterday and it won't be the same as tomorrow. It's going up, it's going down, it's changing throughout the day. It's changing. But God knows the number of hairs on your head.

He is that closely paying attention to you. He is that closely thinking about you. He is that closely intimate with your life, with your situations, with your difficulties and hurt and pain. He knows all of that. And he says, I know the thoughts that I think towards you. I'm thinking about you. I'm filled with thoughts towards you. Sometimes it feels like God's thoughts towards us, though, are for destruction.

But God says, I have a lot of thoughts towards you. I know what they are. And I can tell you they're of peace and not of evil. My thoughts towards you are for your peace. My thoughts towards you are to give you a future and a hope. I have good thoughts, good plans for you. They're abundant. There are many. And my plan is to give you a future and a hope. Now, that's one of the difficulties for us because...

Most of the time, especially when we're in the midst of difficult circumstances, our focus is on the immediate. We want out right now because we're in pain, we're suffering, we don't like, we're uncomfortable. So get us out right now, whatever it takes, whatever it costs.

We're focused on the immediate and God is focused on our future. Pastor Chuck puts it this way. Our common mistake is that we are always looking for immediate advantage, immediate fulfillment, and we don't consider the end result or the consequences of the things that we are doing. We focus on the immediate. It's a mistake. We want out immediately, but God's more concerned about our future.

specifically our eternity. That's what he's most concerned about, our eternity. And many times that's what we're least concerned about. We get distracted by this life. We get distracted by our circumstances. And God says, you need to understand, I'm using those circumstances in your life to bring forth a future, to bring forth something that is good and solid and will last for eternity. I have good plans for you.

It's going to come with a cost. Yeah, there is some immediate discomfort. But settle in and make the best life you can in these circumstances because this is what I'm doing to produce in you a future that is dependable, that is good, that you can rely upon.

The whole chapters that we read this week and reading through the Bible in three years are really all related to this. God over and over keeps on saying, I'm gonna do a good work. I'm gonna do a good work. Meanwhile, they're experiencing captivity and destruction. And God says, I'm gonna fulfill my plans. I'm gonna do a good work. And we get to look back in history. We do get to see that good work unfold.

As you head into the book of Ezra and God's people are set free and allowed to go back and they go back and repopulate the land, they go back and build the temple. But then of course, we also recognize that there's much more than just that history that God is referring to. But through that, the life of Christ comes and through that salvation comes and through that, the promise and hope of eternity comes. The Lord has good plans for you, a future and a hope. That's what God is working for.

So we can rest in him and trust in him. Well, finally, verses 12 through 14 give us point number four. The Lord's plan is going to take some time. He has good plans for you, but here's what his plan is. His plan is for you to know him. Check out verse 12 and 13.

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. The people of Judah were in this situation because they were not seeking God with all of their hearts. Back in Jerusalem, they were not seeking God with all their heart. They were religious. They went to the temple. They did sacrifices. They practiced Judaism.

But they were not wholeheartedly devoted to God. He wasn't the passion of their life. He wasn't the priority of their life. They didn't obey him. They weren't concerned about what he wanted. They did not seek him wholeheartedly. And God says, here's the plan. You're in this difficult situation. You don't want to be there. But through the process of this, when you come out the other side of it, you will search for me and seek me with all your heart.

You see, God was working within them in the midst of this difficulty so that they would know God. And that's the best thing for you. We know that intellectually, but often we forget that. The best thing for you is to have an awesome relationship with God. The most important thing in your life is your relationship with God. Knowing God is the most important thing for all eternity for you. Make sure that your life reflects that priority. Amen.

That's what God was working in his people here. Check out what Jesus says about this in John chapter 17, verse 3. He says, this is eternal life, that they may know you, talking to the Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Jesus says, this is what eternal life is all about, knowing the Father and knowing the Son. And that's why God's plan is for you to know him, because he plans to give you eternal life.

And so he wants you to know him. He wants you to know Jesus. How is your relationship with God? I'm not talking about how religious are you, how faithful are you to check off boxes, attend church when you're supposed to, read the Bible when you're supposed to, pray when you're supposed to, but how do you know God? Do you have a relationship with God? Are you communicating with God? Is he communicating with you? That's what's important. That's what God desires.

And when you seek after God with all your heart, he says in verse 14, I will be found by you, says the Lord. 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. I will bring you to the place from which I caused you to be carried away captive. God reminds them, this was an act of discipline. I caused you to be carried away, but you'll come to the point where you'll seek me with all your heart and you're gonna find me.

And I'm going to bring you back. And I'm going to deliver you. I'm going to establish you back in the land. I'm going to answer your prayers. But the Lord answers our prayers in his timing when it's best for us. You see, the Lord knows what we need. And if he answered their prayers right now, Lord, get us out of Babylon. You know what would have happened? The Lord knows what would have happened. If he would have answered that and got them out of Babylon, they would not have sought the Lord with their whole heart.

they would not have known the Lord. And so it wouldn't have been for their good if he answered the prayer at that time. God had to wait. His plan takes time. And after the process of time, then God answers the prayer when it's good for them, when they can know the Lord, when they will seek him with all of their heart. Warren Wiersbe says, his plans are purposeful,

So let him work out his will. No matter how difficult your situation may be, do not waste your suffering by resisting God. The Lord plans for you to know him and he uses the circumstances, the situations we're in. He's doing a work in us. So Warren Wiersbe says, so don't waste your suffering by resisting God, by fighting against God and say, no, we want what we used to have. We want what we want. We want our dreams. We want, going back to the first point, settle in.

where the Lord has you. Don't waste your suffering. Settle in. This is the new normal. Unless God tells you otherwise, this is the new normal. This is your life. Make the most of it. Live a full life. Build a house. Get married. Have kids. Get an education. Establish a career. Get established. Get set up. This is your life. Make the most of it. Of course, most importantly in all of that is establish your relationship with God. Understand that the Lord's plan will take time.

He has good plans for you, but it's gonna take time. Not because the Lord's slow or sluggish. It's mostly because God's patient with us because we're stubborn and we resist and we drag our feet. Settle in. You're gonna be here for a while. God wants to do a work in you. And as you submit to him, boy, that work happens smoother and smoother, easier and easier. The Lord has good plans for you. Stop fighting against that. Stop wrestling with that.

The Lord's plan is for you to know him. Now, if you get to the end of that and you think point number four, the Lord's plan for you to know him, that's it? That's the good plans? I mean, I was thinking more than that. Where's the lottery or, you know? The Lord plans for you to know him. And if that causes you to think, is that all? Listen, that's part of the problem why you're in the spot that you're in. Because you don't recognize how important it is to know the Lord.

You don't recognize how important it is to have a relationship with the Lord, to walk with him. If you're thinking, I'm not sure that's worth it. That's why you're in captivity. That's why you're in difficulty. Because you need to come to the conclusion. You need to recognize how important it is to know the Lord. So settle in. Stop complaining and grumbling about your circumstances. Let go of the bitterness over your situation and learn to live a full life right where you're at.

as you let God teach you what it means to know him and how important that is. I want to invite the worship team to come up and close us in a song. And as they do, let's take this time to know the Lord, to present ourselves to the Lord, to settle in where we are.

And let God do the work in us that he wants to do. As they lead us in this song, I would encourage you, take this time to call out to the Lord, to cry out to the Lord. Maybe there's some repentance. Maybe there is some rebellion that needs to be repented of and changed. And you are where you are because of your resistance to God. Maybe you're just in difficulty because, well, we live in a fallen world. But either way, let's draw near to God and let God do the work in us that he wants to do. Let's settle in.

Learn to worship him amidst the pain. Let's learn to worship him amidst the difficulty and walk with him no matter what we face so that we can allow the Lord to perform the good plan that he has for us and give us a future and a hope. Let's worship the Lord together.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.