Future and a Hope
Notes
Transcript
So today is a little of a 2-fer
We are talking about these awesome men and women of God and the future that God has for them
and we are also going to talk about the hope and the future that God has for us as a body of believers. We are going to talk through vision
If you were here this morning for Sunday School you would know the direction we are going to head as a Church, but if not… you will know
If you have your bible near you open to the book of Jeremiah 29:4-13
“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. 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.
Pray
Jeremiah 29:11 is used as a throwaway verse sometmes
People use it without thinking about the context
Jeremiah is talking to a people about to go into exhile
The book of Jeremiah is a lament where he is telling the people of God that because of their disobedience God is about to send them into exile and it’s going to be tough… but there is hope
That’s right the context of this verse is not all puppies and rainbows… it is in the context of heading into exile
What is exile
It’s a time when all that you know and find comfort in is stripped from you. Its a time when the way that you do life has to be altered because of where you find yourself
It’s a time where your comfort is challenged, where your faithfulness is challenged
Its a time where your heart and devotion are challenged
Its a time where your control and self sufficiency is challenged
Its a time where you feel like an outsider. Like everything you leaned on is gone and will now make you stand out like a sore thumb
This is what is in store for the people of God
God tells them through Jeremiah that they will go into exile into a land that is not their own, to serve people that don’t serve the Lord
The people of God will be humiliated and all that they have will be taken and trampled on
Great message for our graduates right?
But here’s the truth and the hope
Christians for too long have been rooted in a fast - lane faith that shortcuts all obsticles
We have been formed an discipled or I should say deformed to believe in an easy believism that excludes hardships
Then what happens is when we experience those hardships we are not equipped to deal with them and we fall away
When our faith is challenged, when our beliefs are questioned, when things just don’t go our way, when people are mean, when times go from bad to worse.... we don’t expect it and we get caught with our pants down
Jesus even tells his disciples… of which you are one if you are a Christian… that in this world there will be trouble
No one gets out alive and no one gets out without scars
Jesus didn’t and neither will you
V.8-9 don’t let people lie to you about how quick and easy things will be
What we see is that in the midst of babylon… int he midst of exile… we have hope
Even though the people of God will be an oppressed people they won’t be a defeated people if they trust themselves into the hands of the Lord their God
We see that even, and especially in the midst of calamity, there is a hope found in the Lord
This is why he says that He knows the plans he has for you … plans to prosper you for your good and not for evil. To give you a future and a hope.
For those of you who are moving from one season to the next…
The best thing we can do is to tell you that there will be hard times
There will be times when you are lonely, when you are heartbroken, and you struggle to piece things together
But you have to know that in the midst of all of that, The Lord is with you and he is still in control
he will lead you, he will lift you up, and every storm that you go through will make you more like Jesus. You will be refined and not destroyed
The Lord wants you to continue to press in … continue to have faith.
For that is why we believe… not because its easy, but because it’s true
Not because we will be unscaved but because we have the living God in our midst who is working all things together for our Good and his Glory
I can’t wait to see where God leads you, what valleys he proves himself to you in. What character you develop as you learn to lean on him in the darkest of times as well as in those days of pure joy
Now to the Church
I told you we were going to talk vision a bit
I know I don’t have a ton of time… that’s why we had our all church sunday school to really get questions answered and get into it
If after today you have questions or concerns, please bring them to me and lets discuss
It is my responsibility as your pastor to take you where the Lord is leading us
For the last year or so I’ve been asking God to give me vision. Send me along a path. Show me a pasture that we as a flock are supposed to dwell in
What he showed me is reflected in our passage here....
Jeremiah 29:12-14
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.
God is calling us into the glorious future to the hope he has for us
In this place, this wide pasture I see God calling Plainville Nazarene Church as an inviting Church. A church where people don’t just share a pew on Sunday morning but where we share our lives.
God has shown me that those 100 souls that we’ve been praying for, they will only come if we are an inviting church.
The church that invites, brings people along on the journey not just asking them to meet us there
We will become a church that meets people in the highways and biways… out in the marketplace and we invite them to eat with us, to break bread, to learn along side us, to grow in grace with us.
So how do we get there?
WE seek and find the lord with all our heart
We are going to begin a 6 week series on seeking the Kingdom of God.
We are going to be focusing on prayer as the primary motivator
We want to seek God in prayer… for the lost in the community
For those in our lives
for those in our families
for those who are far from Christ
We are seeking the kingdom experientally. We are going to do some stuff that helps us to seek the Kingdom daily. We are going to experience prayer and devotions and journaling
And through it all, we are going to experience the presence of God in this church and in our lives like never before.... if you’re willing
Now to be honest it’s going to cost us something
You don’t get anything if you’re not willing to invest
Personally I’m going to sacrifice some things for this cause… To see God move in our midst
I will be leading this sermon series
I will be fasting one day a week for this specific purpose
I will be giving the first part of all gathering time to this cause
I will be sacrificing the first part of my devotional time to bringing our church and this cause to the throne of Grace
What’s it going to cost us?
Comfort
you will be asked to dive deep into the Lord
You will be asked to give your time to come before the Lord
Response/responsibility
This is not just Pastor Nick is gonna be praying for us
The victories that we see will be contengent on your participation
Will you respond to what the Lord is doing?
Will you be open to where he is leading you?
Will you take ownership of those that God has put in your life? Their souls, their salvation, this church?
Cynicism/snarkyness
I know the culture… there is no room for cynicism and snarkyness as we are seeking the kingdom
Are you willing to put that aside for 6 weeks to see what God is doing in your life?
Are you willing to opereate in Hope for 6 weeks as we awake the Holy Spirit to move in mighty ways?
Celebration
At the end of 6 weeks… Lord willing… we will have another celebration service where we will share the awesome things that the Lord has done in the lives of us and those around us through prayer
This is the path that God is called us to
Remember that every great revival and change in culture started when the people of God humbled themselves and prayed
Dream with me… what could it look like if we as a body submitted to the leading of the spirit and we didn’t have grand plans or programs but we just commited to seek the Kingdom of God now
What could it look like if we refused to get caught up in the non-sense that the world is feeding us and we focused our energy and attention on just seeking him?
What could it look like for your marriage? For your parenting? for your job? for your siblings? if you committed to praying for them and seeking the Lord in their welfare and how you can bless them?
I’m not going to keep you. I’m going to pray with you and then if you want to sit and spend time responding to the Word of God I’ll make sure there’s some music playing.