Finding Your Peace
Notes
Transcript
1 Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remainder of the elders who were carried away captive—to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon.
4 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:
5 Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit.
6 Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished.
7 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.
11 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.
Uncertainty of Life
Uncertainty of Life
A young couple desiring to go into missionary work had invited a missionary couple to their home. The host couple kept mentioning that life was so “uncertain” for them because the husband had multiple sclerosis. He could either be eventually immobilized in a hospital bed, or live normally until death, or die unexpectedly.
After hearing the term uncertain so many times, the missionary turned to the couple and said,
“All of our lives are uncertain. You just happen to know it, and most of us don’t.”
“All of our lives are uncertain. You just happen to know it, and most of us don’t.”
(Green, M.P..ed 1989)
Green, M. P., ed. (1989). Illustrations for Biblical Preaching: Over 1500 sermon illustrations arranged by topic and indexed exhaustively (Revised edition of: The expositor’s illustration file). Baker Book House.
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”;
14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
The Measurement of Life
The Measurement of Life
13 “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness And his chambers by injustice, Who uses his neighbor’s service without wages And gives him nothing for his work,
14 Who says, ‘I will build myself a wide house with spacious chambers, And cut out windows for it, Paneling it with cedar And painting it with vermilion.’
15 “Shall you reign because you enclose yourself in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink, And do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him.
16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy; Then it was well. Was not this knowing Me?” says the Lord.
The Measure of your life
++Is not in what you build
++Is not in what you possess
++Is not in where you live
What you have is not the key to your potential.
What you have is not the key to your potential.
How you use it is the Key
How you use it is the Key
His Father
++Was Just and Righteous
++Judged the cause of the poor and needy
++Knew the Lord
It was well with him
It was well with him
26 For God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in His sight; but to the sinner He gives the work of gathering and collecting, that he may give to him who is good before God. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind.
Jeremiah and Lamentations—From Sorrow to Hope Luxury by Tyranny
The core value of American society is summed up by the bumper sticker that reads,
“He Who Dies with the Most Toys Wins.”
“He Who Dies with the Most Toys Wins.”
Ryken, P. G. (2001). Jeremiah and Lamentations: from sorrow to hope (p. 329). Crossway Books.
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;
20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
We measure value
++By abundance
++By influence
++By material things
3 If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness,
5 useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself.
6 Now godliness with contentment is great gain.
When Life Isn’t Fair
When Life Isn’t Fair
In times of uncertainty
++We look for comfort
++We look for encouragement
++We look for peace
The Test
The Test
Life will be filled with
Competing Messages
Competing Messages
11 For I am with you,’ says the Lord, ‘to save you; Though I make a full end of all nations where I have scattered you, Yet I will not make a complete end of you. But I will correct you in justice, And will not let you go altogether unpunished.’
12 “For thus says the Lord: ‘Your affliction is incurable, Your wound is severe.
13 There is no one to plead your cause, That you may be bound up; You have no healing medicines.
God’s Message
God’s Message
Israel was in Captivity
++Being disciplined by God
++God was with them
++There captivity was the plan of God
4 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:
Conflicting Message
Conflicting Message
1 And it happened in the same year, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, who was from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of the Lord in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying,
2 “Thus speaks the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying: ‘I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.
This message
++Was a message of deliverance
++A message of victory
7 Nevertheless hear now this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people:
8 The prophets who have been before me and before you of old prophesied against many countries and great kingdoms—of war and disaster and pestilence.
This message
Was a message of deliverance
A message of victory
++Was in direct conflict
There are two-types of messages
++Those you like
++Those you don’t like
Everyone likes a good message
Everyone likes a good message
A good message
++Inspires us
++Encourages us
++Gives us hope
The messages of life are not always good
The messages of life are not always good
These messages
++Perpetuates Pain
++Facilitates Fear
++Hinders Hope
Jeremiah Preached the Word
Jeremiah Preached the Word
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;
15 Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, “Hear now, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you, but you make this people trust in a lie.
16 Therefore thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will cast you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die, because you have taught rebellion against the Lord.’ ”
This Conflicting Word
++Sounded good
++Was Encouraging
++Taught rebellion against God
The Timing
The Timing
7 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.
1 To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
They would not find peace
++By changing the location
++Returning to the familiar
There peace would be a process
There peace would be a process
5 Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit.
6 Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished.
They would have to find peace where they were.
They would have to find peace where they were.
In the middle of hurt, pain and dysfunction
God Promises Us His Peace
God Promises Us His Peace
27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
The Choice is Yours
The Choice is Yours
Jesus said
++In Me you have Peace
++In the World you Have Tribulation
14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation,
15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace,
The Thinking
The Thinking
11 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.
This is our peace
This is our peace
God is not waiting for you
God is not waiting for you
God is thinking about you
God is thinking about you
God has a plan for you
God has a plan for you
Our Peace in in Him
Our Future is in Him
Our Hope is in Him
28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’