“God Is Up to Something Great” (Part 1)

The God We Can Trust Sermon Series

“God Is Up to Something Great” (Part 1)

KEY PASSAGE: Jeremiah 29:11–14 (NASB)

Gracious and Sovereign God, as we continue with worship, I pray that You anchor our hearts in Your promises. Let Your Word shape our perspective, renew our hope, and stir our faith. May Your presence fill this place, and may Your purpose be revealed in us. We offer this moment to You, with confidence in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. Amen. Please be seated.

TITHE and OFFERING

As we continue in worship, the ushers will receive our tithes and offerings. Let this be a moment of joyful praise and faithful giving to the work of Christ’s church.

PRAYER FOR TITHE and OFFERING

Faithful God, I pray that You use every tithe and offering to advance Your kingdom, meet the needs of Your people, and magnify Your holy name. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.

Welcome to our Sunday Worship Service

We are glad you are here today. Take a moment to stand and greet those around you. If you are visiting for the first time, we would love to recognize and welcome you.

ANNOUNCEMENT

📖 Wednesday Night Bible Study Connect Join us every Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. for a time of learning, fellowship, and spiritual growth as we study the Word of God. We are currently in the Book of First Samuel, and this week we will focus on Chapter 23. Come ready to grow, connect, and be encouraged in your walk with Christ Jesus.  📅 Corporate Prayer Meeting: We gather on Sundays at 9:00 a.m. in the fellowship hall for corporate prayer. All are welcome as we seek the Lord together.

DECLARATION of FAITH in GOD

Let us stand and say the Declaration of Faith in God together. Please remain standing as we pray.

PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

Let us pray. God of glory and grace, as we open Your Word, we come with expectant hearts, believing that You are up to something great. Please speak to us through the pages of Scripture with clarity and conviction. Let Your promises pierce through our uncertainty, and Your plan anchor us in hope. By Your Spirit, illuminate our understanding, renew our trust, and stir our faith to respond with obedience. May Your Word not only inform us but transform us, shaping our lives according to Your purpose. We ask this in the name of Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen. You may be seated.

SERMON INTRODUCTION WITH ILLUSTRATION 

Imagine for a moment that you are standing in front of a massive tapestry. From where you stand, all you can see are tangled threads, some dark, some bright, and some frayed. It looks chaotic, confusing, and even meaningless. But then the Master Weaver turns the tapestry around, and suddenly you see a masterpiece. Every thread had a place. Every knot had a purpose. And every color was intentional.

That is what trusting God feels like. For us Christians, from our side, life can look tangled and uncertain. But from God’s side, it is a masterpiece in progress. Today, we begin a new sermon series titled “The God We Can Trust: His Plan, His Presence, His Purpose, and His Power.” Over the next four weeks, we will walk through four distinct biblical portraits that reveal not only who God is, but also why He is worthy of our trust in every season. In the Book of Jeremiah, we will see that God has a plan, even when we feel displaced. In Habakkuk, we will learn to trust God in the darkness. In Romans, we will be reminded that our lives are part of God’s glorious purpose. And in the Gospel of Matthew, we will discover how to trust God in the midst of a storm.

Each passage will anchor us in the truth that God is not only present, but He is purposeful, powerful, and personal. So today, we begin with Part 1: “God Is Up to Something Great” from Jeremiah 29:11–14. This is not just a motivational slogan; it is a doctrinal declaration. Even in exile, even in waiting, even in uncertainty, God is working. God’s plan is not postponed. God’s promise is not broken. And God’s presence is not absent. Let’s open our hearts and our Bibles as we explore what it means to trust the God who is always up to something great.

SERMON EXPOSITION 1

In our passage for today, we meet God’s people in a season of profound hopelessness. They are not just discouraged, but we are told that they are disoriented. One reason the people of Israel were hopeless was that they were under divine discipline because of sin. And divine discipline, though rooted in love, can feel like abandonment when you are living through it. This wasn’t a short delay. It was seventy years of uncertainty and unanswered prayers. You see, waiting is hard enough when you know the timeline, but when the end is unclear, waiting becomes wearisome. Hope begins to erode. Faith begins to unravel. And the soul begins to sag under the weight of what feels like divine silence from God.

The Pain of Divine Discipline: Verse 4 opens with a divine declaration: “This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon……” The people of Israel weren’t captured by accident. They were sent from Jerusalem to Babylon by God. Why? Because of persistent rebellion. God was correcting His people, and correction never feels good. Discipline can feel like distance. It can feel like God has stepped away, as if His voice has gone quiet and His favor has faded. In seasons of correction, we often mistake God’s silence for His absence.

And then, the Discomfort of Displacement: They were not only under discipline, but they were far away from home. Babylon was no Jerusalem. It was a foreign land with foreign gods, foreign customs, and foreign oppression. Verse 4 reminds us that they were sent “from Jerusalem,” the place of divine promise, worship, and spiritual belonging. The people of Israel were stuck in a pagan place they did not choose, and confronted by a value system they did not share. Babylon was loud with idols, saturated with pride, and foreign to everything that reflected their devotion and obedience to God.

On top of that, their hopelessness was being reinforced by what God calls false prophets. The spiritual voices around them were misleading. In other words, they couldn’t even get help from the church. The church wasn’t giving them what they thought they should have been receiving. Instead of truth, they were getting performance. Instead of revelation, they were getting manipulation. The very place that should have been a refuge became a source of confusion. The same can be said of much of today’s church, where performance has replaced proclamation. Performance has taken the place of theology.

Today, people walk into churches carrying real burdens, financial strain, relational tension, and emotional exhaustion. And it is easy for a preacher to stand up and say, “Come to God and your bills will be paid. Come to God and you will get a new house. Come to God, and your marriage will be restored. Come to God, and your loneliness will end.” Those are easy sermons to preach. They sound good. They stir your emotions.

But here is the call to discernment: don’t offer guarantees God hasn’t spoken. Saying “I had a dream” or “I feel led” is not the same as declaring, “Thus saith the Lord.” Because when we promise outcomes God hasn’t confirmed, we create false hope. And false hope always leads to disappointment and makes God look unreliable. False hope is worse than no hope at all. People walk away not just disillusioned with the church, but discouraged in their faith. We must preach the promises God has made, not the outcomes we wish to see, because true hope is rooted in truth.

And that is why God says, “I have not sent them.” Because false prophecy doesn’t just mislead, it misrepresents. And today, many pulpits still echo that error: “Come to God and your bills will be paid. Come to God, and your home can be restored. Come to God, and your burdens will meet grace.” And yes, don’t get me wrong, God does provide, God does restore, and God does answer prayer. Because when people believe a promise God never made, they lose trust, not just in the preacher, but in God as well.

God says in verse 8, “Do not let your prophets who are in your midst deceive you…” These weren’t outsiders; they were insiders. Religious voices claiming divine authority, but bearing no evidence of God’s presence. They were hearing sermons, but not the truth. Receiving dreams, but not direction. They were preaching comfort without covenant, deliverance without repentance, and promises without process. And when people are desperate, they will reach for any word that sounds like relief, even if it is not from God.

The Reality of Feeling Stuck: So here they are, under discipline, displaced from home, and disillusioned by religion. Their hope is not just fading; it is fractured. And when hope fractures, faith begins to unravel. They feel stuck. Have you ever felt stuck? Trapped in a season you didn’t choose? Waiting for a breakthrough that hasn’t come? Hopelessness drains the soul. It is not just sadness; it is suffocation. It is the feeling that nothing will change, that even good days won’t last.

This is a dark chapter in a book that doesn’t flinch from divine confrontation. The book of Jeremiah doesn’t have a lot of good news. It is like having a rough year in a difficult life. Discipline, displacement, and deception, all stacked in one season. It is a chapter filled with sorrow, written into a book that doesn’t offer much relief. And yet, right in the middle of this painful chapter, God speaks a word of hope. And for the church today, this is our assurance: no matter how disoriented we feel, no matter how broken the culture around us becomes, God still speaks.

A Good Verse in a Dark Chapter: Jeremiah 29:11 is not written in victory; it is spoken into exile. “For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope.” This is not sentimental optimism. It is a sovereign declaration. God says, “I know what I am doing. I am not finished with you. Your tomorrow is not defined by your yesterday.” This verse is designed to tell you that in spite of hopelessness, God can turn your yesterdays into better tomorrows. Everything that has led up to this point no longer has to define where you are going. In fact, God is so good at what He does that He can take your yesterday and use it to shape a stronger tomorrow. In God’s economy, nothing is wasted.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION 1 – TRACK RECORD OF A MASTER BUILDER

A struggling city hired a master architect to rebuild a collapsed bridge. The structure had failed. Traffic was blocked. Lives were disrupted. The city brought in someone with a proven track record, someone who had successfully rebuilt bridges before. And even before the first beam was laid, hope returned. Why? Because the builder had a plan. And he had done it before. That is what Jeremiah 29:11 is. It is God saying, “I have done this before. I know how to rebuild lives. I know how to restore hope. I have a plan for you.” You may not see the plan yet. You may still be standing in rubble. But God says, “Look at my track record.” God has rebuilt broken families. God has restored fallen leaders. God has redeemed entire nations. God is not just consistent; He is sovereign. He is not just present, He is intentional. And He is not just watching, He is working.

SERMON EXPOSITION 2 – “God Knows the Plan”

God doesn’t just say, “I have a plan.” He says, “I know the plan.” That is not speculation. That is sovereignty. God is not reacting to your crisis; He is orchestrating your future. God says, “I know what I have in mind for you.” And so, whatever you are going through right now, whether it is breaking your heart or shaking your faith, it is already part of the plan. It may have caught you by surprise, but it hasn’t disrupted God’s design. And here is the truth and some good news for you: the plan is not anchored in your past; it is aimed at your future. You may be staring at the broken pieces of your past, the regrets, the failures, the missed opportunities, and the sins you wish you could erase. And it is tempting to believe that those shattered moments have disqualified you from what God has for you in the future. But God says, “I know the plan I have for you.”  God says, “I have a plan for you.” And it is a good plan, even if you are walking through a dark chapter of your life. A good plan, even if you are coming out of a challenging year. A good plan, even if your story has been marked by failure, loss, setback, detours, and delay. It is not a leftover plan. It is not a recycled idea. It is God’s plan. It is a living, breathing, and divine strategy with your name on it. God says, “I have a plan—and it is for you.”

SERMON ILLUSTRATION 2

Think of a potter’s wheel. When the clay collapses, the potter doesn’t throw it away. He presses it down, wets it again, and reshapes it. The collapse doesn’t cancel the creation; it becomes part of the process. And the potter never loses sight of the design. Even when the clay looks like a mess, the potter’s hands are still working. That is what God is doing with your life. God is not intimidated by your collapse. God is not confused by your past. And by the way, God is not rewriting the plan; He is reworking it for His glory. So,  stop letting yesterday’s shape define tomorrow’s purpose. Because God says, “I know the plan.” And it is not based on where you have been, it is based on where God is taking you.

God says it is a good plan, even if you are going through a difficult chapter in your life. A good plan, even if you are coming out of a bad year. A good plan, even if your life has been marked by brokenness, failure,  and delay. It is a plan with your name on it. Not mine. Not your neighbor’s. But your name. So, don’t ask the person sitting next to you to explain your assignment. Because God is not discussing your blueprint with them, He is waiting to reveal it to you. God says, “Where I am taking you is for your well-being.” Sometimes, God has to take you through a difficult time to bring you to where you need to be.

SERMON EXPOSITION 3 – WHAT TO DO WHILE YOU WAIT

So, the question becomes: What do I do while I wait for the plan to unfold? And then: How do I discover it? Let’s start with the waiting. God tells His people in exile, Jeremiah 29:5-7: “Build houses. Plant gardens. Get married. Raise families. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you. Pray for it. Because in its welfare, you will find your welfare.” In other words: don’t waste the wait. Don’t sit in the ashes of your disappointment, waiting for a better day to start living. Don’t spend all your time complaining, blaming others,  and retreating into isolation. God says, “I sent you into exile.” Yes, God may have used people, politics, or pain, but He is the One who allowed it to happen. And if God allowed it, He intends to use it for His purpose and His glory.

So, while you are waiting for your breakthrough, be a blessing. While you are waiting for your healing, help someone else heal. While you are waiting for your change, be part of someone else’s transformation. God says, “Seek the welfare of the city.” That same word—welfare—shows up again in verse 11. While you wait for your own well-being, pursue the well-being of others. Because sometimes, the key to your deliverance is hidden in your obedience to serve. Don’t go passive. Don’t pull down the shades and sit in the dark. While you are waiting for God to unfold His plan for you, let God use you to unfold His plan for someone else.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION 3

There is a story of a farmer who faced a long drought. The skies were dry, the ground was cracked, and the crops were withering. But every morning, the farmer still went out and tilled the soil. He still planted seed. He still watered the ground, even though there was no rain in sight. When asked why, he said, “Because when the rain comes, I want to be ready.” That is what faith looks like in the waiting. You don’t wait passively, you wait productively. You build. You plant. You serve, and you pray. Because when the rain of God’s plan begins to fall, you want to be standing in the right field, with your hands open and your heart ready.

So, How Do You Discover the Plan? Jeremiah 29:12–14 gives us the answer: “Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” Look at how personal this gets: Call upon Me. Pray to Me. Seek Me. Find Me. The plan is not found in a program. It is found in a Person. God says, “Make Me your focus.” Not your pain. Not your past. Not your preferences. God says, if you find Me, you will find the plan.

SERMON EXPOSITION 4

If You Know the Planner, You Will Find the Plan. God doesn’t just want you to know the plan; He wants you to know Him. He says, “Call upon Me… come and pray to Me… seek Me… and you will find Me.” The plan is not a puzzle to solve, it is a Person to pursue. If you know the Planner, you will find the plan. You may not have the map, but if you walk with the Map-Maker, you will never be lost. You may not have the details, but if you stay close to the Designer, you will never miss your destination. Let me put it this way: when you walk into a dark room, you don’t need to see the whole layout; you need to find the switch. And when you walk with God, He doesn’t always flip on the floodlights. Sometimes God gives you enough light for the next step. But if you keep walking with God, step by step, you will end up exactly where He intended you to be. So, what do you do while you wait for the plan to unfold? You seek Him. You call on Him. You pray to Him. You pursue Him with all your heart. Because when you find Him, you will find everything else you need.

SERMON CONCLUSION  – INVITATION TO FAITH, COMMISSION TO ACTION, AND CALL TO THE ALTAR

It is Not Over, God Has the Final Say. You may feel like the game is over. Like the enemy has already declared victory. Like the scoreboard is stacked against you. But hear me: God holds the final whistle. God is the One with the authority to throw the flag and reverse the outcome. And just when it looks like the enemy is celebrating, God steps in and says, “It is not over until I say it is over.” That is what God did for Joseph. He was sold into slavery. He was falsely accused. He was forgotten in prison. But in Genesis 50:20, Joseph declares, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” God didn’t rewrite the story; He redeemed it. God redeemed Joseph’s story. And if God can redeem Joseph’s story, He can redeem yours.

If you have never trusted the Planner, today is the day. You don’t need to understand the whole plan to take the first step. You just need to say, “Lord, I want to know You. I want to walk with You. I want to trust You.” If you know the Planner, then live like you trust the plan. And while you are waiting for your breakthrough, be a blessing. And while you are waiting for your healing, help someone else heal.

While you are waiting for your change, be part of someone else’s transformation. Because sometimes, your breakthrough is waiting on your obedience to bless someone else. Come to the altar. Come to the place where the Planner meets the seeker. Come and say, “Lord, I want to find You. I want to walk with You. I want to live the plan You have for me.” Because God is up to something great, and if you stay close to God, you will walk into everything He has ordained for your life. God bless you.

CLOSING WORDS OF GRACE

Let us stand together and pray. Faithful Father, we thank You, not only for the blessings we have seen, but for the sovereign hand we trust. You are the God who plans with purpose, who speaks with clarity, and who moves with power. As we leave this place, let our hearts be anchored in hope, our words shaped by gratitude, and our lives marked by trust. Teach us to give thanks not only in abundance, but in waiting. Let joy rise even in the midst of uncertainty, and let our testimony reflect the confidence that You are up to something great. We walk forward in faith, in the name of Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. And all God’s people said: Amen. You are dismissed. God bless you. We look forward to seeing you next week at 10:30 a.m.