Seek the Peace

Introduction

As we have explored themes that emerge every election cycle, questions about how to choose and how to live in this world, we have been reminded that we are the outsiders. Sometimes we grow too comfortable here and begin to think that this place is our home. It is not.

Thinking of ourselves as outsiders and travelers alters how we perceive, process, and respond to so many of the questions that come up…at least, it should.

At the end of the day, we are left wondering just how different our lives should be. We are different, but how different should we be?

The good news is that we are not the first of God’s people to ever be displaced. As we reflect upon the eras of Biblical history, we are reminded that there was a whole era called exile. It was a time when God’s people were living in a land that was not their own.

Why is that good news? Because God gave instructions to His displaced people through the prophet Jeremiah.

Transition

The instructions that Jeremiah gave God’s displaced people, provide insights into how we should live as outsiders in a kingdom that is not ours.

Illumination

Live, 5-6

Jeremiah 29:5–6 NKJV

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.

Eat and Live Indoors

Be Fruitful and Multiply

Why? So that you are increased (made greater) not diminished (made lesser)

Look, 7

Jeremiah 29:7 NKJV

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.

Definitions

Peace

completeness, welfare, health, harmony

Place

where you are, not where you wish you were

Look for Peace

seek, inquire, consult, ask, require…all active and require both effort and cooperation

Pray for Peace

Talk to God about it

Ask God for it

the idea here is to mediate, literally stand between the place we live and the God we serve and make peace between them, representing each to the other.

Why? We will share in the peace of this land and the lack thereof.

Listen, 8-9

Jeremiah 29:8–9 NKJV

8 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. 9 For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them, says the Lord.

Who should we listen to? That is a question we should be constantly asking ourselves. We need to listen critically and understand some people should not be listened to.

Don’t listen to false prophets

In the latter part of the Kingdom era, there were a few faithful prophets, like Jeremiah, who faithfully represented God. But there were many more who did not represent God.

Don’t listen to false hopes

We have an amazing ability to mislead ourselves with faulty thinking based on faulty assessments and assumptions.

Do listen to truth

understanding that you may have to work to find truth.

Why? As God’s people we need to hear and heed out King, not the counterfeiters who would use and abuse for their own ends.

Conclusion

Perhaps the craziest part of God’s instruction to His people living in another kingdom is how crazy it isn’t. It’s completely normal. And that is the point: be different by being normal sounds almost nonsensical, and yet it is the advice we need.

Application

Don’t get too comfortable

On the one hand, we grow complacent and altogether indistinguishable from the world around us. Without a higher perspective we become unable to help.

Don’t get too weird

On the other hand, we grow defiant and altogether alien to the world around us. Without a lower posture we become unable to help.