Renewal - Jeremiah 29:4-14

INTRO

Mission: To live on mission for Christ's Kingdom.

Vision: To see Morganton, Burke County, and beyond transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Core Values of the church are the intentional, culture-shaping distinctives.

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What happens often is our strategy goes all over the place without values, without a sense of why do we do what we do.

Today we are looking at our values, specifically Renewal.

Here is how we define Renewal

Renewal: Rooted in the Gospel, we champion continuous spiritual growth and transformation.

When we hear words like transformation, renewal, or growth, we usually think of those benefits as being primarily personal and internal—my transformation, my growth, the gospel’s renewal of my heart.

And look the gospel is personal and internal.

But it’s also much more than that.

When God’s grace is working on us and in us, it will also work itself out through us.

The internal renewal of our minds and hearts creates an external propulsion that moves us out in love and service to others.

That’s what we want to talk about this Morning.

We want to talk about how as the church gathered we want to foster the internal renewal of the gospel in the hearts of our people so that we can then scatter with an outward movement of love for God and others.

Each of our values focus on the church gathered and scattered. How it works as we gather together as his people and as we scatter out to love our city.

So let’s jump in first and see this Morning:

1. Renewal Gathered

God’s past faithfulness points to His future faithfulness.

John D. Barry; Rebecca Kruyswijk

Jeremiah 29:8–14 (ESV)

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, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord.

“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. 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. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

The scene that is painted is that many had been deceiving the nation of Israel who had once again because of their sin and rebellion fallen into captivity.

Israel is now in captivity to Babylon

The false prophet Hananiah, who could not imagine Israel’s life in Babylon long-term, dishonestly prophesied that God would bring Israel back to Jerusalem within two years.

However that is not to be the case.

In stead they will remain there for 70 years.

I love this text because. It gives us a picture of a vibrant church in the midst of a challenging city.

As we’re gonna explore in a moment the challenge given by Jeremiah was to be an engaged people in the life of Babylon.

In the midst of there exile they were to yes love the city, but they were also to be renewed as they waited upon the Lord.

For us as a church as we consider this renewal it is so important that we are renewed in our hearts and minds so that as we leave this place, as we leave from Sunday, we are fueled to take the gospel on mission to love our neighborhoods, our workplaces, our loved ones.

So I want to look specifically at how we as a church do this.

In our definition of this value we see Renewal working out as a church gathered we’ve said:

Gathered: Fostering growth in the body by transformative teaching, intentional leadership development, submitting our hearts to the reign of Jesus.

So let’s break that down.

Transformative Teaching

We believe firmly in Expositional Preaching.

Expository preaching grounds the message in the text so that all the sermon’s points are the points in the text, and it majors in the texts’s major ideas.

It aligns the interpretation of the text with the doctrinal truths of the rest of the Bible.

And it always situates the passage within the Bible’s narrative, showing how Christ is the final fulfillment of the text’s theme.

In other words, we want to look to scripture as the final arbiter.

So we are committed to preaching the truth of Scripture, seeing and rehearsing the gospel story so we can see real transformation happening in the life of Mission Church.

Far too often sermons become soapbox where the pastor grinds an ax or a personal subject they love.

We seek instead to let God’s word shape us.

So we start here saying that we will commit to faithfully teaching scripture, that we would be transformed and renewed to take the gospel to our hurting world.

Leadership Development

The greatest challenge every organization faces is the continual need for more leaders.

Any organization that doesn’t have a multiplying leadership culture has no future.

Jesus’ church is no different.

His church needs leaders who are mature, not prone to gossip or slander, reliable, and who promote unity, not division (2 Timothy 2:2).

Because of this, Mission Church Church makes leadership development a massive priority.

The church was never intended to be a group of individuals who paid someone else to do ministry but rather to be a family of disciples making disciples.

Within that there are certainly leaders, but not only pastors, but lay-leaders as well.

We desire to keep our focus not on just the here and now, but on the kingdom and on the future.

In every realm of Mission Church, we seek to consider questions such as these:

Who is behind that person being trained?

What potential leaders are in our midst?

How can this person realize his or her potential as a Christian in the workforce?

How can we expand and take risks, and what other leaders are necessitated by that?

Our goal is to give people grand visions of how God could use them, things they can’t quite imagine, and thoughts they even resist at first.

Submitting Our Hearts To Christ Rule & Reign

As we talk about teaching and leadership development, one thing we want to push is individual renewal.

This is why we put an emphasis on Spiritual Disciplines.

Coming soon we are going to be pushing Discipleship Groups where we will explore how to practice these disciplines well.

But frankly examining your life

Are you reading God’s word?

What does your prayer life look like?

Are you worshipping not just corporately with us here, but with your family and individually?

Are you actively sharing your faith?

Are you serving actively in our body?

How do you steward the things God has given you?

Do you take moments to fast and to practice silence and solitude?

Are you continuing to grow in learning more and more about Jesus?

These are the things we want to emphasize as we talk about submitting our hearts to the rule and reign of Jesus.

It’s here that I want to emphasize the importance of gathering as God’s people.

Certainly that’s important on Sunday’s yes, but it is incredibly significant in what we call Community groups.

The church is not a building. The church is people.

While the Church does need to gather for worship, people don’t cease to be the church just because it’s a Tuesday, or because they’re not in the right place.

Community Groups give us the opportunity to get together in each others’ homes as the Church Scattered.

They are an essential part of our ministry and mission in Burke County.

In Community Groups the people of Mission Church Church can build authentic community.

Community Groups are where the discipleship happens.

We read the Bible together, pray for each other, and help each other get closer to Jesus.

That’s the case whether you’ve had no connection to Jesus before in your life or you’re a committed follower of Jesus.

As we grow in our understanding of the gospel together, in community, we can challenge each other to allow God’s Word to penetrate our hearts more deeply and work itself out in our lives.

Community Groups are the place where the Body of Christ can really be His body as we live life together.

That means we laugh together, celebrate together, shed tears together, and build real, loving relationships with each other as we try to live our the gospel.

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In all of this as a church gathered we seek Renewal.

We want to see our hearts being renewed by the good news of Jesus every moment.

But let’s look back in our passage and see how this works out in the church scattered.

2. Renewal Scattered

Jeremiah 29:4–7 (ESV)

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. 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. 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.

Again we have defined each of our values as the church gathered and scattered.

So how does Renewal work in the church scattered?

Well here is how we defined that:

Scattered: Participating in God’s will, through mission, to do justice, show compassion and make peace here as it is in heaven.

So to understand this value let’s look at the context of our passage.

Israel was to be God’s nation.

They were in fact his chosen people.

The importance of Jerusalem, their capitol city, had been obvious.

The Psalms say it was to be the joy of the whole earth.

Jerusalem was the model urban society demonstrating to the world what human life under God’s lordship could be.

So what happens when Israel goes to live in the wicked, pagan, bloodthirsty city of Babylon?

How do the people of God relate to great human cities of the earth now?

Let me paint a picture of Babylon for you.

You see a major part of their empire strategy was to eradicate the spiritual identity of its conquered peoples.

When a nation was defeated their professional and elites classes were taken to Babylon to live before being allowed to return home.

So the tribe of Judah is deported, moved to Babylon, the hope being that the the children and grandchildren of the Israelites would assimilate and lose their identity as distinct people.

So here they are in Babylon, and the false prophet Hananiah, dishonestly prophesied that God is going to bring them back to Jerusalem within two years.

Had the exiles listed and followed Hananiah’s advice, they would have remained disengaged in Babylon, waiting indefinitely for God’s imminent deliverance.

Instead God, through the prophet Jeremiah, contradicts both the Babylonian’s strategy and the false prophet’s counsel.

You see on one hand, God tells his people to increase in number there; do not decrease (v. 6), He wanted them to retain their distinct community identity and to grow.

But God also tells the to settled down and engage in the life of the great city.

They are to build homes and plant gardens.

Not only that, perhaps most striking, is that God calls them to serve the city. - to seek the peace and prosperity of the city and to pray to the Lord for it.

While living in Babylon they are not to simply increase their tribe in a ghetto within the city; they are to use their resources to benefit the common good.

This is mind boggling.

From Genesis to Revelation, Babylon is represented as the epitome of a civilization built on selfishness, pride, and violence.

It is the ultimate city of men.

The values of this city absolutely contrast with those of the city of God.

…Yet here the citizens of God’s city are called to be the very best residents of this particular city of man.

God commands the Jewish exiles not to attack, despise, or flee the city…but to seek its peace, to love the city as they grow in numbers.

Now listen God is still primarily concerned with his plan of salvation.

He must establish his people; the gospel most be proclaimed; human beings must be reconciled to him.

Yet he assures his people that serving the good of this pagan city is part of this very plan.

vs. 7 - in its welfare you will find your welfare…if it prospers, you too will prosper.

Loving and seeing the city not only shows love and compassion, doing so also strengthens the hands of the people of God, who bear the message of the gospel to the world.

Mission Church…we seek Renewal in Morganton.

We take the gospel on mission to our city.

We want to be for Morganton.

A lot of churches are just IN the city = we gather and do programs for the city, but we’re not really impacting the city

Some churches are AGAINST the city = we’re good...the city is bad. God’s people are good, the city people are bad...don’t be with them, don’t go with them, don’t hang out with them. It’s us against them

Some churches are WITH the city = being culturally relevant without being salt and light...so bent toward culture that you’re not making an impact or a difference at all

We want to be FOR the city = If we closed our doors, would the city care? Jesus is the center of our church, and for the sake of the gospel and Jesus, we care for our city.

(JESUS IS INCARNATIONAL - HE IS FOR US - GOSPEL PRESENTATION)

Morganton should be a better place because we are here.

God’s grace is the driving force of all renewal.

God’s grace has both an inward and an out- ward movement that mirror each other.

Internally, the grace of God moves me to see my sin, respond in repentance and faith, and then experience the joy of transformation.

That’s why we talk about making certain we are effectively preaching, raising up leaders, and making disciples to see renewal happen in the church gathered.

Externally, the grace of God moves me to see opportunities for love and service, respond in repentance and faith, and experience joy as I see God work through me.

In other words, the gospel is not just the answer to your internal sins, struggles, and heart idols.

It is also the answer to your failure to love others, engage the culture, and live on misson.

If the gospel is renewing you internally, it will also be propelling you externally.

It must do so, because it is “the good news of the kingdom” (Matt. 9:35), and the kingdom of God is not personal and private!

Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10).

When we pray for the coming of God’s kingdom, we are praying both that Jesus would reign in the hearts of people (internal) and that his will would be done everywhere just as it is in heaven (external).

So how does this look in practice?

Well there is a lot we can say about how we want to affect our city but I think back to my old job.

I know I should love my co-workers. I remember working with one guy in particular I knew needed Jesus.

We had literally nothing in common. We had different tastes in everything. He was older than me and when I’d wanna talk about a band or an interesting book I read or game I’d play. He was way more interesting in reminiscing about the old days and talking about obscure 80s and 90s bands.

I remember feeling guilt about my relationship with this guys. I knew I should reach out and befriend him.

But listen y’all the whole sense of “should” has no motivational power. That’s law, not gospel.

It could show me what I ought to be doing, but it could not change my heart so that I actually wanted to do it.

I was faced with a dilemma: either force myself to love and serve my co-worker even though I didn’t want to, or ignore him and do nothing at all.

I knew that ignoring him was sin, but the first option didn’t feel much better.

Was joyless, mechanical obedience really honoring to Jesus?

Did God intend his commands to feel like drudgery?

When faced with this dilemma, most people settle for either legalism (obey even though you don’t feel like it) or license (don’t obey at all).

But neither of these is the gospel!

The gospel of God’s grace is the fuel for mission, and when we run low on that fuel, our love and service to others grinds to a halt.

The answer to my dilemma with my co-worker came through the gospel.

As God’s grace began to renew my heart, I saw that the root problem was my own selfishness and lack of love.

My love for my neighbor was conditional—if he were younger, or different, or had more in common with me, I would have appreciated him more.

I began to repent of this sin and renew my mind by the promises of the gospel—especially the fact that God loved me while I was still a sinner (Rom. 5:8).

God had graciously moved toward me when I had nothing in common with him.

Certainly, by God’s grace, I could love my co-worker in the same way!

As the gospel renewed my heart, a strange thing happened.

My attitude toward my co-worker began to change.

I began to feel a true love and appreciation for him.

And it wasn’t a feeling I had mustered up, but one that came naturally.

The internal renewal of the gospel propelled me outward in love and service toward my co-worker.

Mission became a joy, not a burden.

Perhaps that’s how you feel about loving Morganton, or your neighborhood or your co-worker.

You hear God’s call to the nation of Israel and you know it is the same to us as his people. We should love our city well.

Individually and collectively we are called to showcase this Renewal.

Grasping the external propulsion of God’s grace is crucial to our understanding of mission.

It means that mission is not a duty (something we “should do”) but a natural overflow of the gospel’s work inside us.

If you aren’t motivated to love, serve, and speak the gospel to people, the answer isn’t to “just do it.”

The answer is to examine your heart, repent of sin, and discern where your unbelief is short-circuiting the natural outward movement of the gospel.

As the gospel renews your heart, it will also renew your desire to move out in faith into the relation- ships and opportunities God places in your path.

To put it simply, the grace of God is always going somewhere—moving forward, extending his kingdom, propelling his people toward love and service to others.

As we learn to live in light of the gospel, mission should be the natural overflow.

As this works in us and we began to ooze gospel. We want that to define us.

God’s grace brings renewal internally (in us) so that it might bring renewal externally (through us).

Conclusion

We deeply value Renewal.

We are always collaborating asking How can we be renewed internally as the people of God.

How can our preaching bring glory to Jesus and showcase the gospel of Jesus?

Are we developing leaders that buy into this value, who want to help us make much of Jesus?

Are we individually spending time walking with Jesus being renewed in our hearts and minds on a daily basis practicing these disciplines?

Then is this renewal pushing us out to love our city well.

Are we a church that is for Morganton? for Burke County?

Do we actively love the city? Are we on mission? Are we seeking justice, showing compassion, making the peace of Jesus known?

This means we will do things like clothes drives yes, but we will also go to major cultural events and participate and speak the hope of Jesus into that.

We will look at the refugee and immigrant and feel a commonality as we are part of another kingdom but actively living in our city. We will seek their welfare.

We will serve our neighbors, love our co-workers, and in all of this make much of Jesus.

So do you value this?

In what ways has Renewal felt more like drudgery than delight? Where might you need to repent and experience the joy of Jesus?

Rather than leaving this sermon thinking, “Oh Man I need to read my Bible more, and I should probably work Jesus into a conversation with my co-worker.”

My prayer is that you would leave compelled to repent of selfishness and to trust in the satisfying love of Jesus. Knowing he is the greatest hope and joy.

In just the same way you will talk someone’s ear off about your hobby or a good book you read, that Jesus would be the overflow of your heart and his name would be on your tongue from a heart full of joy.