We Gon' Be Alright

There is a joy in seeing children do well. The joy of that child’s birth was just as overflowing as the other three. And just as with all other children this new life, this major miracle in miniature model is full of possibilities. I think the words that the children sing really fit the situation well, “I am a promise. I am a possibility. I am a Promise with a capital P. I am a great big bundle of potentiality.” And I could not agree more. There is however a darker reality that is just as true as the hope that I have. That the same joy I had and the same potential he has was the same potential given to: Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Breonna Taylor, Julius Jones, and countless others who have recently suffered the injustices of our country.

These people where the victims of systemic racism and misplaced anger. Truth is that the world that our children are born into does not love him the way we do. The world that they are raised in does not love them the way God does. That he has entered a place that will stop it nothing to take him out. I will have to one day have the talk with him. Not the talk about the birds and the bees, but the talk about how to not get killed by a cop. He has been born into a place where because his skin has been kissed by the sun and he is Black that he will have to work twice as hard to get half as much. I just like you will have teach the children that we love that this world is passing away and rightfully so. But the Spirit in me won’t allow me to conclude the lesson with bad news. Because even though this world is passing way there is hope for those who believe. And not just in eternity but hope this this time right here right now. That God, by virtue of the fact that He has yet to return still has plans for His people. So, I also will tell that boy, its all going to work out son. You can still make it, you can still thrive and not just survive. We gon’ be alright.

(Context)

1. God will Execute His Plan

The Plan that God has for his people was and is connected to the promise He made. In v. 10 God is reminding the people that there is a promise that he intends to keep, that he was going to restore them when the time was right.

His plan for Israel had been interrupted by this captivity. But the fact that he still has plans lets us know that he did not forsake them in their darkest hour. In other words, the text says it best, “I know the plans...” or as King James puts it “I know the thoughts I think for you.” That’s good stuff right there.

First of all, that God is thinking about you. Oh the joy of getting a phone call in the middle of a hard day’s work from someone whom you love and who loves you just to have then say, “I didn’t want anything, I was just thinking about you.” Well if that warms your heard and makes your day you should be celebrating right now that God has sent you a text message saying, “I was just thinking about you.”

Also consider this; you don’t always know what to do or what’s best for you. Let’s be real, you have made some plans before only for those plans to be ruined or changed because the plans you made were not the plans God made. And, more times than not God has to be like a GPS and reconfigure your route to your destiny because his plans are better. Because it does not matter how smart you think you are, how many degrees you have accumulated, how much money you have, how old you are, and how much grey is on your head, there will come a time when you don’t know what to do or where to turn. I stopped by to tell you that that’s ok just let God do the thinking for you because “his thoughts are not our thoughts, and his ways are not our ways.” God deliver us from people who think they know better than God. All this stuff going on, all this racial tension and oppression has not escaped God’s attention. He still has a plan, and his plan and he will execute his plan.

But....You cannot rush the process. (Preach)

2. God will Excuse our Sin

Now we must not forget that as far as Israel is concerned they do not deserve God’s plan. They are in captivity not only because of an oppressive nation of Babylon, but also because of their own rejection of the Law of Moses. But, God is so good and so kind, and merciful, and gracious, that pardons their sin and blesses them anyway. Look at what the text says, “plans of welfare and not calamity.” Evil is what they deserve, put peace is what they get(Run).

God does not hold their past against them as a reason to destroy them. (Elaborate)

3. God will Extend our Future

The bible tells us that God created the heavens and the earth and on the 7th day he rested from his work, and again “He who began a good work in you will complete it until the Day of Christ Jesus” and again when Jesus was hanging of the cross he said the words, “it is finished”. God had begun something with the people if Israel and he was not about to allow them to ruin it. God will bless you in spite of you. His whole intention for them was to inhabit a land flowing with milk and honey and to posses it. And even though they were in an exile experience God was telling them that this is not the end of the line for you. Or as the song writer said “this too shall pass” somebody else said “trouble don't last always” and “His anger is for a moment, His favor is for life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the mourning”

teach on Teqvah-hope=rope

God gives an extension.

We talked about context in our Milk to Meat class. If isolate v.11 you will be left without knowing what the plan and hope is. But if you read it in its context.