Our mission at the church at Argyle is to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.
That's why we're here. That's what we're all about.
Our calling as a church is to be a church for people who don't like church,
for people who've been hurt by church and say that they're never coming back,
for people who have a negative stereotype about what church is all about.
That's our calling. We believe that we should all connect with others
and we think the best place to do that is in a life group.
We believe that we should all use our time and our talents to serve others here in the church
and also in our community.
We believe that we should all give generously
and that we should invest in the lives of others and invite them to get involved in a good church like the church at Argyle.
We're continuing in our series today, a study in Jeremiah, Standing Tall
and today is part five.
Some of our life groups are doing this study of Jeremiah and Holmes during the week
and so each week I make some discussion questions for you to use.
You can download those from our website at argile.church
or you can pick up a copy out in our welcome center.
If you're not currently in a life group, you can find out more about life group also in our welcome center.
As a Christian, as a Christ follower, how are we to live in a culture that has such different beliefs than we do?
And this question is nothing new.
Christians and Jews have dealt with this all through history.
We have seen in our study of Jeremiah that he had been warning the people of Judah for years
that the nation to the north, Babylon, was going to invade their country and conquer their land and take them captive
and they would live in a culture with very different beliefs.
This would be their judgment for their idolatry and their disobedience to God
and they would be taken as exiles to Babylon.
This is Jeremiah's letter to those Jewish exiles in Babylon that we'll be reading from today in Jeremiah chapter 29.
We'll begin with verse 1.
This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining exiled elders, the priests, the prophets
and all the people Nebuchadnezzar had deported from Jerusalem to Babylon.
This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel says to all the exiles, I deported from Jerusalem to Babylon.
So according to these verses, who is responsible for the Israelites being in exile in Babylon?
And actually there are two answers.
We see in verse 1 that it was King Nebuchadnezzar.
All the people Nebuchadnezzar had deported from Jerusalem to Babylon, but then we see in verse 4 that it was God.
The God of Israel says to all the exiles I deported from Jerusalem to Babylon, so who did it?
Nebuchadnezzar or God, and actually they both did.
From the human eye, the army of Nebuchadnezzar was carrying out his orders and the violence and the destruction
as they attacked was committed by his troops.
But from the eye of the prophet, what Jeremiah had warned them for years was that God was going to use Nebuchadnezzar
to bring his judgment on his people for their disobedience.
So Nebuchadnezzar did it as an unknowing servant of God.
And that was something that the Israelites could not accept no matter how many times Jeremiah told them that that was the way it was going to happen.
They chose instead to believe that God had deserted them and that actually God himself had been defeated by the Babylonians even though that was not true.
So for the people of Judah who are in exile in Babylon, do they have any hope?
How are they now to live?
Where is God after they have been defeated and disgraced?
And so Jeremiah writes a letter of encouragement to the exiles in Babylon as God gives him a message for his people.
And it's here that we begin to see in Jeremiah the heart of a true shepherd as he tries to encourage them during this difficult time
even though they brought this on themselves because of their pride and their disobedience.
You see with God, his grace is always greater.
Listen to Jeremiah's instruction when God first called him to be a prophet in Jeremiah chapter 1 and verse 10.
See, I have appointed you today over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and demolish, to build and plant.
Here we are seeing Jeremiah's ministry change from uprooting and tearing down, from destroying and demolishing to building and planting.
The exiles had lost everything except for a few things that they were able to carry with them to Babylon.
They had lost their freedom and they were now prisoners.
They had been taken from their homes and they had lost their jobs.
They were separated from family and friends.
Some of them did not survive the long trip from Jerusalem to Babylon.
Their situation seemed hopeless.
In fact, for many of them they had lost all hope.
Psalm 137 verse 1.
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion.
There we hung up our liars on popular trees.
For our captors there asked us for songs and our tormentors for rejoicing.
Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
But how can we sing the Lord's song on foreign soil?
You see, we all have a choice.
We can sit around and we can sing sad songs and cry.
Or we can get up and we can make the best of what we have.
And so how does Jeremiah encourage them to respond?
And this is how he encourages them to realize that God is in control
and then to carry on with your life.
In verse 5,
build houses and live in them.
Plant gardens and eat their produce.
Find wives for yourself and have sons and daughters.
Find wives for your sons and give your daughters to men in marriage
so they may bear sons and daughters.
Multiply there and do not decrease.
The exiles are being told to accept where they are.
That Babylon is not your home forever, but it is your home for now.
So deal with it.
That God is sovereign.
That God is in control.
That you're going to be here for a while.
So settle down, grow your family because life goes on.
One of the first steps in turning our mess into something beautiful
is realizing that God never makes a mistake.
Verse 7,
Pursue the well-being of the city I have deported you to.
Pray to the Lord on its behalf for when it thrives,
you will thrive.
Now, wait a minute, Jeremiah, isn't this the city and the people
who have just raided our country and taken us captive
and you want us to pray for them?
And Jeremiah would answer, yes, pray for them.
And we're reminded of the words of Jesus.
I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
You know, this is what Christians are supposed to do.
It's ironic that the prophet who was told not to pray for his own people
in their own land tells these same people to pray for their enemies
in a foreign land.
God moves in mysterious ways.
Prayer is a powerful, amazing thing.
And we've learned some things about prayer here in Jeremiah 29.7.
God can hear and answer prayer anywhere on earth.
God can hear prayer on behalf of those who are not his own.
God could and would act for the blessing of the Babylonians
if the Israelites would pray for them.
Even in captivity, God's people can pray effectively.
Prayer changes things.
Prayer changes people.
It's hard to keep hating someone when you pray for them every day.
Now, our world is filled with a lot of hate.
I have a six-year-old black grandson who is seeing some grown-ups full of hate
who need to grow up.
They're acting like idiots.
He's wondering why anyone would hate someone because of the color of their skin
and he's confused.
It's hard to keep hating someone when you pray for them every day.
And so will the circle of hate just continue or will someone break the circle?
It's hard to keep hating someone when you pray for them every day.
Verse 8,
For this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, says.
Don't let your prophets who are among you or your diviners deceive you
and don't listen to the dreams you elicit from them.
For they are prophesying falsely to you in my name.
I have not sent them.
This is the Lord's declaration.
There were false prophets in these days telling the people
that they would only be in Babylon a short period of time and that was a lie.
Jesus warned us that false prophets will come and deceive us.
If you show up at Argyle one Sunday and I'm lining you up to drink the Kool-Aid
with cyanide,
you need to ask some questions.
The best way to protect yourself is to know the truth.
You can know the truth by asking some questions.
To spot a fake, you need to study the real thing.
2 Timothy 2.15
Be diligent to present yourself to God as one approved,
a worker who doesn't need to be ashamed,
correctly teaching the Word of truth.
All teaching must agree with what the Scripture says.
Jesus said in Matthew 12,
a tree is recognized by its fruit.
So here are three questions to ask to determine if a teacher is false.
First, what does the teacher say about Jesus?
Second, does the teacher share the Gospel?
And third, does the teacher have the attitude of Christ?
So what does the teacher say about Jesus?
Matthew 16 and verse 15,
but you, he asked them,
who do you say that I am?
And Simon Peter answered,
you are the Messiah,
the Son of the living God.
Watch out for anyone who denies that Jesus is God,
or that Jesus' death on the cross is not important,
or that Jesus' humanity is not a big deal.
1 John 2, verse 22,
who is the liar if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ?
This one is the Antichrist,
the one who denies the Father and the Son.
Does the teacher share the Gospel?
The Gospel is the good news that Jesus died for our sin,
that he was buried,
and that he rose again from the dead.
As nice as it sounds to say stuff like,
God loves you, God wants us to feed the hungry,
God wants you to be wealthy,
God wants you to be happy.
This is not the complete message of the Gospel.
No one, not even a great preacher,
has the right to change the message of the Gospel.
Galatians chapter 1, verse 9,
if anyone is preaching to you a Gospel contrary to what you received,
a curse beyond him.
And then third,
does the teacher have the attitude of Christ?
Speaking of false teachers,
Jude 11 says,
Woe to them,
for they have gone the way of Cain,
have plunged into Balaam's error for profit,
and have perished in Cora's rebellion.
You see, Cain rejected God's plan because of his pride.
Balaam prophesied for money because of his greed.
Cora's rebellion was promoting himself above Moses.
In other words,
a false teacher can be known because of their pride,
because of their greed,
and because of their self-promotion.
Jesus said,
you will know a false prophet by their fruit.
Verse 10,
for this is what the Lord says,
when 70 years for Babylon are complete,
I will attend to you and will confirm my promise
concerning you to restore you to this place.
God has given the Israelites a sacred promise of grace
that they will be in Babylon in exile for 70 years,
and then he will return them to their homeland.
And God always keeps his promise,
and God always makes good plans for his people.
His plans will bring hope and peace,
and so you don't have to be afraid,
and you don't have to be discouraged.
And then in verse 11,
he tells us just how special this promise is from God.
This verse is one of the most quoted
and one of the most claimed promises in all the Bible.
For I know the plans I have for you.
This is the Lord's declaration.
Plans for your well-being, not for disaster.
Plans to give you a future and a hope.
It's amazing that right in the middle of judgment,
you can still find hope in the grace of God.
That God's ultimate plan and purpose for you
is to have a relationship with you and with me.
And then what should be the response
of God's people to this newfound amazing grace?
To throw a party?
Well, I like a party, and this is happy stuff,
but that's not what he's teaching here.
To be relieved that we're off the hook?
Man, it's good to be off the hook,
but that's not what he's saying here.
Here's the correct response
to God's amazing grace in our life.
Verse 12,
You will call to me and come and pray to me,
and I will listen to you.
You will seek me and find me
when you search for me with all your heart.
You see, it's God's desire to be known and to be found.
Our complete hope is in God's willingness to be found
because our only hope is in God and it's in God alone.
We have the responsibility to seek God with all our heart
and to pray and to trust Him to keep His promises
because prayer and God's word go hand in hand.
Acts 6-4,
but we will devote ourselves to prayer
and to the ministry of the Word.
You see, the purpose of judgment
is that we will seek the Lord
and that we will confess our sin
and that we will be brought closer to Him.
Hebrews 12-5,
my son and my daughter,
do not take the Lord's discipline lightly
or lose heart when you're reproved by Him.
For the Lord disciplines the one He loves
and He punishes every son and every daughter
He receives.
Verse 14,
and I will be found by you.
This is the Lord's declaration.
And I will restore your fortunes
and gather from all the nations and places
where I banished you.
This is the Lord's declaration.
And I will restore you to the place from which I deported you.
According to verse 14,
this promise goes way beyond the captives of the Jews in Babylon
and includes all of Israel throughout all the world.
Jeremiah is looking ahead to the end of the age
when all of Israel will be gathered together
to meet their Messiah and enter their kingdom,
talking about a future and a hope.
Here was a nation
that at one time was so far gone,
so far away from God
that Jeremiah was told not to even pray for them.
They were hopeless.
But they found that they could trust that God
would be true to keep His promise
and that there was a future for the next generation
and that there would be a future and a hope
for all the nations through them.
For I know the plans I have for you.
This is the Lord's declaration.
Plans for your well-being, not for disaster,
to give you a future and a hope.
So how is your hope today?
Sometimes, do you feel like Noah surrounded by the flood?
All Noah can see is water.
His boat is surrounded by it.
He sent a raven on a scouting mission
and it never came back.
Then he sent out a dove and when it returned
it was so worn out because he couldn't find any place to land.
He tried again with a prayer.
He let the bird go.
He watched until it was no longer in sight.
All day he looked for the dove's return
but now the sun was setting
and all he could see was water.
You know the feeling.
You've stood where Noah stood.
You've known your share of floods,
flooded by sorrow at the cemetery,
flooded by the stress at work,
flooded by the pain in your body,
flooded by heartache in your family
and you've seen the flood waters rise
and you've probably seen the sunset on your hopes too.
You've been on Noah's boat
and you've needed the same thing Noah needed
just a little hope.
Sometimes that's all we need is a little hope.
This is the way the Bible described it in Genesis chapter 8 verse 11.
When the dove returned to him in the evening
there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf.
An olive leaf.
Noah would have settled for the dove but the olive leaf.
That was a promise.
A promise of hope.
Because isn't that what hope is?
Hope is an olive leaf.
Evidence that there really is dry land after the flood
and to all who are searching today
for a little bit of dry land after the flood.
Jesus says yes.
Jesus comes as a dove.
He comes with a leaf of hope
and so don't think that your ark is too big because it's not
and don't think that your flood is too deep because it's not.
Receive his hope because you need it.
Receive his hope because you need to share it
because someone else needs it.
Love always hopes.
1 Corinthians tells us that love bears all things.
That love believes all things.
That love hopes all things.
And even when it seems impossible
even when it's too far gone to even pray for
love says I have hope in you.
For I know the plans I have for you.
This is the Lord's declaration.
Plans for your well-being not for disaster
but plans to give you a future
and a hope.
You love justice.
Those who honor you will see your face.
Lift your eyes and lift my eyes to see your majesty,
your holiness.
All I have will bless you.
I hope you sing the name of the Lord.
Where my health comes from you must drink my soul.
My trust is in the name of the Lord.
I will sing all praise you are faithful.
You are righteous.
You love justice.
Those who honor you will see your face.
I will arise and lift my eyes to see your majesty,
your holiness.
All I have will bless you.
I hope you sing the name of the Lord.
Where my health comes from you must drink my soul.
My trust is in the name of the Lord.
I will sing all praise you are faithful.
Faithful.
You are faithful.
You are faithful.
Love is in the name of the Lord.
I will arise and lift my eyes to see your majesty,
your holiness.
All I have will bless you.
I hope you sing the name of the Lord.
Where my health comes from you must drink my soul.
My trust is in the name of the Lord.
I will sing all praise you are faithful.
I hope you sing the name of the Lord.
Where my health comes from you must drink my soul.
My trust is in the name of the Lord.
I will sing all praise you are faithful.
You are faithful.
You are faithful.
