Engaged for Good: Seeking Peace in a Broken World

Introduction

We are on week 3 in our dive through the major themes in the book of Jeremiah. On week 1 we talked about his calling. The Word formed him and created him with purpose. God assured him that his ministry would be difficult and perhaps unfruitful in his own eyes. However, in the eyes of the Lord there is purpose beyond what Jeremiah would ever be able to see and the Lord promised him His own presence in the face of opposition.

Last week, we saw Jeremiah in full prophetic mode standing at the temple warning Judah that their empty rituals and false confidence in the temple was not true acceptable worship and that they must repent and return to God.

They ignored Jeremiah’s pleas for change. Jeremiah preached year after year, sermon after sermon, call after call, while God waited patiently for His people to return to Him. People often confuse mercy with slowness or that God is a bluffing God. Well, Judah’s clock after decades ran out. Now the time of warnings had passed, and the time consequences was imminent. Babylon’s armies were not longer just a threat, now they were a sure instrument of God’s discipline.

By the time we reach Jeremiah 29, many of God’s people had already been carried into exile. To make matters worse there was another prophet in the land by the name of Hananiah who had prophesied the exact opposite of what Jeremiah was saying.

Whereas Jeremiah has been prophesying the future exile of Judah and their capture by the Babylonians (27:5–22), in chapter 28, Hananiah says that God is instead telling Israel, “I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon” (v. 2).

While a false prophet tries to reassure the people with claims that God will not deal harshly with them or follow through on his promises of judgment, Jeremiah makes God’s instructions clear of how they are to act in the midst of His judgement. He gives them instructions concerning what faithful living looks like even when you do not like where in life you have been placed.

Jeremiah’s message to them was shocking, well all of Jeremiah’s messages are shocking, this is why the people did not like him. He would not tell them what they wanted to hear. His message was, “accept, don’t resist, don’t rebel, don’t try to pretend you can go back to the way things were.” If they would not submit to God’s hand in this judgement, things would only get worse.

This is where we pick up the story today. Jeremiah sends word to the exiles in Babylon who desperately want to escape, yet God calls them to engage. They long for Jerusalem, but God commanded them to settle down, plant roots, and live redemptively right where they were.

This will be a hard message for those of us that long for the “good old days”. But our calling, just like theirs, is to live in a culture far from God without retreating and without compromising.

That’s what we’ll learn today as we explore Jeremiah’s words, framed around three realities for the follower of Christ:

I. Directed by Divine Placement (v. 4)

II. Determined to Thrive (vv. 5-6)

III. Dedicated to Peace and Good (v. 7)

Directed by Divine Placement (v. 4)

Jeremiah 29:4 LSB

4 “Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon,

That they found themselves now in Babylon was not a product political events or Babylon’s military power, and it certainly wasn’t where they wanted to be. Yes, their sin was the vehicle that led them there—but God Himself makes it clear:,

I have sent [you] into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

Notice how specific He is: from one particular place (Jerusalem) to another particular place (Babylon). This was the Lord’s doing. And this is not the first time He had uprooted His people. It was God who brought them out of Egypt and planted them in the land of promise. The placement of people has always been the work of the Lord.

“He made from one man every nation of mankind to inhabit all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation…for in Him we live and move and exist…” (Acts 17:26,28)

We must not give the devil credit for what Scripture attributes to God. Romans 8:28 reminds us

Romans 8:28–29 LSB

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.

And verse 29 tells us what that good is

Romans 8:28–29 LSB

29 Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers;

Just as God intentionally placed Israel in Babylon, He intentionally sent Christ into our broken world,

“when the fulness of time came, God sent forth His Son” (Galatians 4:4)

“But Yahweh was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief…” (Isa 53:10)

If even the Holy One of Israel, the sinless one was placed in the most inhospitable place in the universe to accomplish God’s purpose, who are you to say, “why Lord would you place me here?

Many of you were born into this land, that was by divine placement. Others of you were uprooted from different places in Europe, Africa, Asia, Central and South America, and the Caribbeans, and planted here. For better or worse in your own eyes, you are exactly where God has assigned you, at this time, for His purposes.

You must trust that where you are right now is not accident, it is an assignment and you will not leave that place until His purposes for you there are done.

So what do you do? You stop your whining, and your complaining and be determined to thrive right were God placed you.

II. Determined to Thrive (vv. 5-6)

Jeremiah 29:5–6 LSB

5 ‘Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their fruit. 6 ‘Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease.

Jeremiah instructs the exiles to do the things that communicate the permanence of a society. They are to build houses, rather than live in tents; they are to plant gardens and eat from them, rather than scavenging what happens to grow; they are to arrange marriages for their children, which points to stability and a future, long-term financial commitments. These are not the actions of refugees–they were the actions of a community choosing to thrive.

God called them not to wait for better conditions but to invest right there where they were to make the most out of these circumstances. They were not called to merely survive Babylon but to thrive in Babylon.

Joseph is our example here. He was uprooted from his father’s house. He was stripped from his culture and from where serving the One and Only true God was the norm, carried away against his will into Egypt as a slave—yet what did he do? He thrived. He rose to serve faithfully he even names his son as a reminder of this reality,

Genesis 41:52 LSB

52 And he named the second Ephraim, “For,” he said, “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”

Jeremiah himself says,

Jeremiah 17:7–8 LSB

7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh And whose trust is Yahweh. 8 “And he will be like a tree planted by the water, That sends forth its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought Nor refrain from yielding fruit.

This is what thriving looks like–faithfulness regardless of where the Lord plants you.

Daniel and his friends (Dan. 1–6) lived this out in Babylon itself. Unlike Hananiah, who promised a quick escape from Babylon, Daniel never pretended the exile wasn’t real. Instead, he accepted where God had placed him, excelled in Babylon’s schools, served in the king’s court, and rose to positions of influence. But he never compromised his devotion to God. He refused the king’s food (Dan. 1), refused to bow to idols (Dan. 3), and refused to stop praying (Dan. 6). And the result? God made them shine as lights in Babylon’s darkness. They thrived—not by blending in, but by standing out in faithfulness.

Jesus came into a broken and hostile world but he did not recoiled or laid down in a fetal position in a corner waiting for the worst to pass he was up and active. He built communities of love, teaching disciples to live kingdom values in the middle of Rome’s oppression. He thrived in His mission not by comfort, but by obedience to the Father

So what does this mean for us? It means engaging fully where God has placed us. Go to school, Work hard. Build a family. Serve your community. Invest spiritually, intellectually, financially. As the apostle John prayed:

3 John 2 LSB

2 Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.

This is not prosperity-gospel fluff—it’s a call to holistic flourishing as God’s people, even in exile. True thriving is not escape from hardship—it is faithfulness in hardship. When you thrive in Babylon, you show the world that Christ is your hope.

But not only is personal and community growth the expectation here. God tells the be,

III. Dedicated to Peace and Good (Jeremiah 29:7)

I want to remind you what we learned last weak about the dangers of compartmentalized faith. What you learn here, what we gleam from Scripture in meant to be lived out in real time our daily lives. Look what the Lord says,

Jeremiah 29:7 LSB

7 ‘Seek the peace of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to Yahweh on its behalf; for in its peace you will have peace.’

Notice the tie here: seek peace and pray for peace. These are not two separate actions—they are two sides of the same coin.

Seeking peace means actively working for the good of the city. Praying for peace means interceding with God to bring about that good.

You can’t claim to seek the peace of your community if you never pray for it. And you can’t say you’re praying for peace if you’re unwilling to put your hands to the work of seeking it.

Israel as well as us are to do both. They are to seek for peace, and pray for peace, so that they could have peace. The seeking denotes actively doing something to pursue it.

But let’s be clear: the peace God calls us to seek is not just better jobs, lower taxes, or safer streets. True peace can’t be separated from God.

Isaiah 48:22 LSB

22 “There is no peace for the wicked,” says Yahweh.

If our society increases in its wickedness our ability to experience peace decreases. Wickedness and peace cannot coexist.

Proverbs 29:2 LSB

2 When the righteous increase, the people are glad, But when a wicked man rules, people groan.

Now, what does that look like for us? It means we pray for our leaders, even the ones we disagree with. Paul told Timothy,

1 Timothy 2:1–2 LSB

1 First of all, then, I exhort that petitions and prayers, requests and thanksgivings, be made for all men, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.

That is the same principle as Jeremiah 29: the city’s peace is tied to our peace. This is intrinsically tied to whatever little or much influence God has given us for righteousness.

Some years back, someone asked me, “Pastor, should a Christian even bother to vote?” And my answer was: Absolutely, yes. This is not about allegiance to a political party, but about the well-being of our society. If you are given the power of the ballot, even in a small way, you should examine which leaders are less likely to provoke the Lord to anger and cast your vote accordingly. Why? Because when judgment comes upon a nation, everyone feels it—the righteous and the wicked alike.

Yes, I think taxes are too high, prices are outrageous, and too many people are out of work. And if we can elect leaders who ease those burdens, we should. But before we worry about who has the best economic plan, we need to ask: Who will unleash wickedness that invites God’s judgment? Because when that judgment falls, God may spare our lives, but He may not spare our comforts or our tranquility.

That’s why we must seek the good of our city—not by blending in, but by standing out in prayer, truth, and action. We cannot afford to compartmentalize our faith. The peace of our neighborhoods, our schools, our workplaces, and even our government is tied to our own well-being.

And here is the Christ connection: Jesus prayed for those who crucified Him (Luke 23:34). He made peace through the blood of His cross (Col. 1:20). If our Lord sought the peace of His enemies and interceded for their forgiveness, how much more should we seek the peace of the place where He has planted us?

So pray for your city. Seek its good. Be salt and light in the place God has put you. For in its peace, you will find your peace.

I have said this many times before. We tend to be creatures of extreme. We bowl gutter balls. either it goes into the right gutter, or in our attempt to correct we over compensate and end up in the left gutter.

As we step back from Jeremiah’s words, we see a theme that runs all through Scripture: God’s people are never called to isolation or assimilation, which are gutter balls but to faithful presence.

You are directed by divine placement: You are where you are because God put you there. Your address, your workplace, your community–none of it is an accident, it is an assignment, and if He moves you, he moves you.

And He has not called you to sit in the corner of exile and wait it out. Be determined to thrive; for God has called us to build, plant, marry, multiply, invest, and shine as signs of His kingdome even in a hostile culture.

Dedicate yourself to peace and good as God commands His people to seek the welfare of the city, to pray for its peace, to intercede on its behald. Why? because when the city prospers, you prosper. It’s peace is tied to your peace.

And yet, the truth is, none of us can live this way in our own strength. Israel couldn’t do it perfectly in Babylon, and neither can we in our world today. We are too quick to complain about where God has placed us. We are too content to just survive instead of thrive. We are too tempted to curse the city instead of praying for it.

That’s why we need Christ. He is the true Israelite, the One who was placed by the Father into the harshest exile of all—not Babylon, but a world broken by sin. He didn’t withdraw. He didn’t compromise. He lived faithfully, He sought our peace, and He prayed even for those who nailed Him to the cross. And by His death and resurrection, He secured true peace with God

So when Jeremiah tells the exiles to build, plant, and pray, he is pointing forward to Christ, who would one day build His church, plant His people in every nation, and intercede for us at the right hand of the Father.

Conclusion:

So what does this mean for us? It means you cannot compartmentalize your faith. The gospel you hear in this room is meant to be lived out in the streets of your city.

Stop seeing where you live as accident—see it as assignment.

Don’t just survive—thrive. Build a faithful life where God has placed you.

Don’t just complain about your city—pray for it, seek its good, and be salt and light in it.

And remember, this is not about making Babylon heaven. Babylon will never be heaven. But while we are here, we live as ambassadors of the King, showing the world a glimpse of the better country to come

So pray for your city. Seek its good. Live redemptively in this broken world. And as you do, remember this: The peace of your city is tied to your peace, but the peace of your soul is tied to Christ alone.