SPEAKER_01: The other reason that you might be in Babylon is that it's not an act of anyone's disobedience.
SPEAKER_01: It's nobody's fault.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes the Lord just takes you through things because it's what's best for you.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, go back and look at the Israelites when they were led out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that he took them the long way.
SPEAKER_01: Because if he took them the short way, they would have turned around and went back.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes the Lord just knows you.
SPEAKER_01: And he just says, gotta go long way.
SPEAKER_01: This is an important, necessary lesson.
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna go the long way.
SPEAKER_00: At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on the road, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you are encouraged by today's message.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I was going to teach this morning actually on missions following that video, and on Thursday, I was reading the word.
SPEAKER_01: I was actually doing some preparation for youth ministry, and I was reading the word, and I just felt like the Lord said, the church needs to hear this.
SPEAKER_01: And so we kind of did an about face here.
SPEAKER_01: If you'll go to Jeremiah chapter 29, Jeremiah chapter 29.
SPEAKER_01: While you're going to Jeremiah 29, I'm going to jump in and pray.
SPEAKER_01: So, Father God, we invite you here.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I pray that you clear our minds and clear our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, help me to not get in the way.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, help me to be focused.
SPEAKER_01: Help me to be engaged.
SPEAKER_01: Father, I believe that this message is for someone here today.
SPEAKER_01: So, Lord, help me to not get off track, but to stay focused and engaged in your word.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: So Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 11 says, For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope in a future.
SPEAKER_01: Years ago, as I used to be a rapper, and I used to have this shirt that said USMC, and it stood for Unified Standard MCs.
SPEAKER_01: But it looked like a marine shirt.
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't think much of it until I went into a convenience store one day and a guy thanked me for my service.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm telling you, I was mortified.
SPEAKER_01: I just wanted to get out of there.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't have the nerve to tell him I know this is not real.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a poser.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't have the nerve to do that.
SPEAKER_01: So I was just like, thank you, sir.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm putting my head down.
SPEAKER_01: I'm mortified and I'm trying to get out of there.
SPEAKER_01: And I realized you should never wear the t-shirt if you haven't worn the boots.
SPEAKER_01: And uh I that was a hard lesson for me that day.
SPEAKER_01: Jeremiah 29, 11.
SPEAKER_01: You should not wear this t-shirt if you've not worn the boots.
SPEAKER_01: This is not what you think it is.
SPEAKER_01: This is not a sweet little refrigerator verse.
SPEAKER_01: This is not a bumper sticker verse, and this is not a Facebook verse.
SPEAKER_01: This is a I am going through it, and I'm going to lose my mind if I don't get some help here verse.
SPEAKER_01: This is for people who have walked the road.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I've heard pastors say this is not for us.
SPEAKER_01: This is for this was for the Israelites.
SPEAKER_01: This was a promise made to the Israelites.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody take real quick, and well, you don't have to, but go if you want to, go to Luke chapter 22, verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: In Luke chapter 22, verse 20, this is where we get the Lord's Supper, communion from.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, right after service, after we get done, Carly will come up, she'll lead worship, and then you're just gonna take communion.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a believer, if you're a follower of Christ, you're gonna take communion with your family and with your friends.
SPEAKER_01: You just come up and we're just, she's just gonna play worship, and then you, when you feel led, you're gonna go and you're gonna take communion.
SPEAKER_01: This is where this comes from.
SPEAKER_01: He says, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which I poured out for you.
SPEAKER_01: When Christ died for you, you became a part of that covenant.
SPEAKER_01: When Christ died for you, his promises are now promises that you can claim.
SPEAKER_01: 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 20 says, all promises of God are yes in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So it's not that you can't claim Jeremiah 29, 11.
SPEAKER_01: It's just know what you're claiming.
SPEAKER_01: This is not an easy verse.
SPEAKER_01: This is not a simple Sunday school verse.
SPEAKER_01: This is this verse was birthed out of encouragement to a group of people who had greatly rebelled.
SPEAKER_01: I mean greatly rebelled.
SPEAKER_01: Judah had rebelled so much that they were now, God took his hand and he allowed the Babylonians to completely plunder them, and they went into exile.
SPEAKER_01: And they went into exile for a lifetime.
SPEAKER_01: 70 years.
SPEAKER_01: They're in exile.
SPEAKER_01: And in the middle of that exile, Jeremiah, who wrote this book, said, For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.
SPEAKER_01: But now they were still going to be there for 70 years after he gave them this verse.
SPEAKER_01: So this was no simple verse.
SPEAKER_01: So I felt today like it was, I felt like the Lord was leading me to speak to those of you who are stuck in Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: How do you live fully in a place where you don't want to live?
SPEAKER_01: How many of you are in a place where I just don't want to stay here?
SPEAKER_01: I hope my whole life is not here in this season, here in this Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: That's what this is about.
SPEAKER_01: People that had rebelled, and the Lord took it to the greatest extremes to allow that greatest extreme to change their hearts and raise them up to be who they are supposed to be, and to stop their idolatry and to turn back to the Lord as the one true God.
SPEAKER_01: That's what this is about.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's three reasons you might find yourself in Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: One is because of your own disobedience.
SPEAKER_01: You've been disobedient, you know you've been disobedient, and it's put you in a season that you don't want to be in, but it's necessary for you.
SPEAKER_01: Number two is someone that you are closely connected to has been disobedient, and you are in that season with them.
SPEAKER_01: I think about those that, those children that got exiled into Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: I think about those unborn that were born in captivity.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't do anything wrong.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't rebel, but they were just as much in captivity as those who had rebelled.
SPEAKER_01: So when I think about that, I think about sometimes husbands.
SPEAKER_01: I think wives have to deal with their husbands' rebellion.
SPEAKER_01: Stubborn husbands really affect the whole house.
SPEAKER_01: I think about obviously also wives.
SPEAKER_01: When your wife is, mama ain't happy, nobody's happy.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's really bad when mama ain't never happy, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's a hard season for the home.
SPEAKER_01: It's really, really hard.
SPEAKER_01: I think about some of you who have been faithful to raise your children well, and they're just in a season, and you're not allowed, you're not willing, you don't feel called to, you don't feel like it's right, you're not willing to just let them go out and suffer on their own.
SPEAKER_01: You suffer when your kids suffer, right?
SPEAKER_01: Especially when your kids get a little older and they're they're just going through it.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's not like you're void of going through it.
SPEAKER_01: You go through it with them.
SPEAKER_01: So I even think about our country.
SPEAKER_01: Man, you can serve the Lord with all your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Man, when your country is way out there in right field, way out there in left field, it's still your country, right?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, even our country is we're just going through it right now.
SPEAKER_01: And it's a hard time to be in this season of America, but you're here.
SPEAKER_01: You're here.
SPEAKER_01: The other reason that you might be in Babylon is that it's not an act of anyone's disobedience.
SPEAKER_01: It's nobody's fault.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes the Lord just takes you through things because it's what's best for you.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, go back and look at the Israelites when they were led out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that he took them the long way, because if he took them the short way, they would have turned around and went back.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes the Lord just knows you.
SPEAKER_01: And he just says, gotta go a long way.
SPEAKER_01: This is an important and necessary lesson, and so we're gonna go the long way.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to look at what do you do when you're in a season, whether by your own doing, by someone else's doing, or you don't even know why, but you're here.
SPEAKER_01: What do you do in that season?
SPEAKER_01: Because I think that Jeremiah 29, 11 is the one of the most misquoted verses in all the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And we completely miss the power of this verse because we misquote it.
SPEAKER_01: So let's go to Jeremiah 29 and start in verse 1 so that we can understand 11.
SPEAKER_01: This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets, and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: This was after King Jeheokum, whatever his name is, and the I wish, man, I just wish they would ease up on those names.
SPEAKER_01: Just hard for me.
SPEAKER_01: And the Queen Mother, the court officials, and the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the skilled workers and the artesians had gone into exile from Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: He entered, he entrusted the letter of Elisha, son of Shaphan, and to Gemariah, son of Helica, whom Zedekiah, king of Judah, sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, it said, This is what the Lord Almighty says, the God of Israel, says to those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: Build houses, settle down, plant gardens and eat what they produce.
SPEAKER_01: Marry and have sons and daughters, find wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters.
SPEAKER_01: Increase in number and do not decrease.
SPEAKER_01: Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.
SPEAKER_01: Pray for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what you need to know.
SPEAKER_01: If you're stuck in Babylon, settle down.
SPEAKER_01: Wanting to not be in Babylon doesn't make you not in Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: What he's saying here is settle in.
SPEAKER_01: This is not going to be easy.
SPEAKER_01: Fully grasp the fact that you are in Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: Have children.
SPEAKER_01: Your children will have grandchildren.
SPEAKER_01: Plant crops.
SPEAKER_01: Make the best of it because you're here.
SPEAKER_01: And then he said, pray for the prosperity of Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: Don't rebel against it.
SPEAKER_01: Don't fight against it.
SPEAKER_01: Pray for the prosperity of it.
SPEAKER_01: Because you will benefit if it prospers.
SPEAKER_01: You will suffer if it doesn't prosper.
SPEAKER_01: Those of you, myself, if you're in Babylon, if you're in some season that you don't want to be in, not wanting to be in it is not going to get you out of it.
SPEAKER_01: You have to engage that season and be present.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're in a season where your husband is out in the left field.
SPEAKER_01: Man, he's not serving the Lord anymore.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't seem to love the Lord anymore.
SPEAKER_01: He's not leading the family well anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Well, none of us would want to be in that season, but you're there.
SPEAKER_01: So wanting to be somewhere else is not productive.
SPEAKER_01: Ask the Lord, how do I live fully where I currently am?
SPEAKER_01: This is where I am right now.
SPEAKER_01: I know where I want to be, but this is where I am right now.
SPEAKER_01: So how can who I am change the situation for the better?
SPEAKER_01: So for some of you it may just be prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Becoming a woman of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Becoming a man of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you it may be digging in and finding, finding what the Lord would say in this season.
SPEAKER_01: I remember a buddy of mine was going through some marriage problems because of his job, and him and his wife were really kind of fighting and going after it.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, brother, this is a this is a good season for you.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, how could this possibly be a good season for me?
SPEAKER_01: It's almost offensive to say that.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Well, your wife can see who you are in adversity if you allow it.
SPEAKER_01: You could show her who you can be in the toughest of situations.
SPEAKER_01: You could win even more of your wife's heart if you can do this season well.
SPEAKER_01: I've been there.
SPEAKER_01: I've been in this season.
SPEAKER_01: I've been in a season that was because of my own disobedience.
SPEAKER_01: It was a season of my own doing.
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't want to be there.
SPEAKER_01: When my wife and I first got married, I don't know what happened with us, but selfishness arises quickly.
SPEAKER_01: When you're young and married, it takes a while, man.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it takes some real, at least for us, we're both hard-headed.
SPEAKER_01: So we had to crash the car multiple times before we realized it's better if we just keep the car on the road.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember I was doing music.
SPEAKER_01: We lived in Nashville, and um, I loved my life.
SPEAKER_01: Like I liked my life.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't want anything about my life to change.
SPEAKER_01: So I don't know why I got married if I didn't want anything about my life to change.
SPEAKER_01: I just thought she was super hot and she loved the Lord, and I really wanted to be with her all the time.
SPEAKER_01: But I didn't realize it was gonna have to change who I was, that I was gonna have to grow up a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: And um and then she had some of her own selfishness, but the Lord, he wasn't the first for me, he wasn't like top priority for me at that time, even though I was what I was doing was for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I liked my life.
SPEAKER_01: And my wife didn't like our life because it was all about me.
SPEAKER_01: And so she didn't like that.
SPEAKER_01: And so she was fighting to go here, and I was fighting to stay here, and we landed somewhere in Weirdland, which was we decided to leave that life and go back to college.
SPEAKER_01: And so I wound up going to um seminary in Louisville.
SPEAKER_01: We didn't pray about it, we didn't fast about it, we didn't seek the Lord about it, we just did the next logical, godly thing, which was get smarter.
SPEAKER_01: And so we started doing that, and I just I was not flourishing in that environment, man.
SPEAKER_01: I just did not like that environment because I didn't have any money.
SPEAKER_01: I left my job.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm trying to go to school, I'm trying to pay for school, and I left who I was, and I stopped seeking the Lord, and I started working at a restaurant, which is a terrible idea if you're trying to feed your family as the main breadwinner to be a server at a restaurant.
SPEAKER_01: But that was, I had to focus on school, so I did I did that.
SPEAKER_01: And then after a couple of semesters, we were dying, man.
SPEAKER_01: We were like starving.
SPEAKER_01: There was no money, there was no provisions.
SPEAKER_01: My wife was upset because I wasn't providing well.
SPEAKER_01: I was upset because I didn't want to be here.
SPEAKER_01: I'm doing school.
SPEAKER_01: I can't, I'm now down to just a couple of classes because I can't afford any more than that.
SPEAKER_01: And I think to myself, man, I'm I'm going back home.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going home.
SPEAKER_01: And I told my wife, I said, I'm going back to Nashville.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going home.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to get my life back.
SPEAKER_01: And I felt like the Lord was like, no, it doesn't work that way.
SPEAKER_01: You can't just decide you're done with this and you're going to go get your life back.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Yes, I can.
SPEAKER_01: I'm doing it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going back.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember packing up our car, her car, my car, and I sent her to her parents, supposed to be just for a week or two, while I went back home and looked for a job.
SPEAKER_01: And I felt like when I got in the car, the Lord was like, This is not going to end well.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I don't care.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going home.
SPEAKER_01: I hate this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going back to my life.
SPEAKER_01: And so I get in the car, I go down 65, and I'm not lying to you.
SPEAKER_01: I do not kid you.
SPEAKER_01: I crossed over on 65, there's a sign that says, Welcome to Nashville, Tennessee.
SPEAKER_01: And as soon as the bumper of my car crossed that line, my car broke down.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not lying.
SPEAKER_01: And I had to walk my rear end to a payphone and call somebody to come help me.
SPEAKER_01: And then I wound up sleeping on someone's couch.
SPEAKER_01: I wound up looking for jobs, not being able to find one.
SPEAKER_01: I wound up finally getting a job selling books at a book fair, and I slept on their couch in their warehouse because I didn't have any money.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what it felt like to kind of be on my own.
SPEAKER_01: To kind of make my own way, to kind of do my own thing, to be determined to get out of Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: When what I should have done is sat down and said, God, where did I go wrong?
SPEAKER_01: And who do you want me to be today?
SPEAKER_01: Because that's all I have any control over.
SPEAKER_01: Is who I'm supposed to be today.
SPEAKER_01: And what Jeremiah was saying is, you can rebel if you want to, but it's going to hurt you.
SPEAKER_01: You can get to Babylon and show yourself if you want to, but you're going to be here for 70 years.
SPEAKER_01: This whole season is about shaping who you are.
SPEAKER_01: So the best thing you can do is begin to turn back to God now, and Babylon will benefit, and there'll be food for everyone to eat.
SPEAKER_01: Or you can just rebel against this season and not want to be in this season, and guess what?
SPEAKER_01: You're still going to be in the season.
SPEAKER_01: And it's going to be as worse as it could possibly be because you're still in rebellion.
SPEAKER_01: God is trying to get a hold of your heart.
SPEAKER_01: One of the best stories of the right way to do this is Joseph.
SPEAKER_01: You remember in Genesis chapter 40, Joseph has now found himself sold into slavery, accused of being a rapist, thrown into prison.
SPEAKER_01: You want to talk about being in a season you don't want to be in.
SPEAKER_01: He's in prison.
SPEAKER_01: And Pharaoh has his baker and his cupbearer also thrown into prison.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph is now in charge of prison.
SPEAKER_01: He's in prison and he's running the thing.
SPEAKER_01: And the baker and the cupbearer wake up one morning.
SPEAKER_01: And they had a bad dream.
SPEAKER_01: And it was a really bad dream.
SPEAKER_01: And they wake up and their face is dejected.
SPEAKER_01: And I love what Joseph said.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Why is your face so downcast?
SPEAKER_01: Why are you sad today?
SPEAKER_01: Bro, why do you think I'm sad?
SPEAKER_01: I'm in prison.
SPEAKER_01: I had a job, then I lost my job.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm in prison.
SPEAKER_01: And I might die, and that's kind of why I'm sad.
SPEAKER_01: The question is, why are you not sad?
SPEAKER_01: You were here before we got here.
SPEAKER_01: Why are you not dejected?
SPEAKER_01: Joseph had learned to be content in whatever situation he was in.
SPEAKER_01: He also learned to be fully engaged.
SPEAKER_01: He served Potiphar the same way that he served in prison, the same way that he served when he became second-in-command.
SPEAKER_01: He never changed.
SPEAKER_01: He stayed consistent in the season he didn't want to be in and the season he did want to be in.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't become somebody else when he got in a bad season.
SPEAKER_01: And actually, that was his gateway.
SPEAKER_01: If you read that scripture, that was his gateway to leadership.
SPEAKER_01: When he asked them, why are you so downcast?
SPEAKER_01: It actually opened doors that eventually got him out of prison.
SPEAKER_01: That's how you handle a season that you don't want to be in.
SPEAKER_01: Embrace it, engage it.
SPEAKER_01: The only thing that you can affect when you're in a season that you don't want to be in is who you are.
SPEAKER_01: That's the only thing you have any control over.
SPEAKER_01: So say, God, starting today, if you're trying to get my attention, I'm here.
SPEAKER_01: I'm ready.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to be who I am supposed to be and who I can be, even though I do not want to be in this season.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you'll go to eight and nine of that chapter, say, yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says.
SPEAKER_01: Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you.
SPEAKER_01: Do not listen to the dreams.
SPEAKER_01: This is important.
SPEAKER_01: You encourage them to have.
SPEAKER_01: They are prophesying lies to you in my name.
SPEAKER_01: I have not sent them, declares the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, I can't stress this enough.
SPEAKER_01: When you are in a season like this, don't listen to every word that someone has.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm all about having a word for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm telling you, people have come to me with a word for the Lord that was not a word from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I remember on a first date one time, this girl told me she had a word from the Lord that I was her husband.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Well, you get out of my car and you tell God to call me, and I'll call you back for a second date.
SPEAKER_01: I did not call that girl back.
SPEAKER_01: Because she freaked me out.
SPEAKER_01: Because she tried to completely control my whole life with one word.
SPEAKER_01: God said you're supposed to marry me.
SPEAKER_01: No, he didn't.
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna have to come talk to me.
SPEAKER_01: This is a big decision.
SPEAKER_01: So some people will come to you with a well-meaning word for the Lord, from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Some people will want so badly for you to get out of this season.
SPEAKER_01: I hate to say it, but they can imagine that they heard a word from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't hear that.
SPEAKER_01: Some people can have a word from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord actually gave them a word.
SPEAKER_01: And it should resonate with your soul.
SPEAKER_01: It should resonate with your heart.
SPEAKER_01: You should know, wow, that was something God was already doing in me.
SPEAKER_01: And that agrees with what the Lord has been showing me all along.
SPEAKER_01: It's more affirmation than it is new information.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: So here's where you should get your words when you're in a season that you don't want to be in.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, have a hunger for God's word and seek what God wants you to do in his word.
SPEAKER_01: I had someone come to me, a young person come to me this week and ask about God's will.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I don't know what God's will is for your life.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, who am I?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I said, but I do know what God's written will is.
SPEAKER_01: And that's a will for all of us.
SPEAKER_01: So are you doing the written will?
SPEAKER_01: Are you honoring the Lord with your body?
SPEAKER_01: Are you honoring your father and mother?
SPEAKER_01: Do you, are you a man of your word?
SPEAKER_01: Are you doing the things that the word is telling you to do?
SPEAKER_01: Do you seek the Lord?
SPEAKER_01: If not, forget the great individual will.
SPEAKER_01: Forget that thing.
SPEAKER_01: Don't even think about it, because this is the gateway to that.
SPEAKER_01: Be hungry for his word.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 55, 11 says, God's word will not return void.
SPEAKER_01: You claim what his Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, get counsel from spiritually mature, spirit-led disciples who are grounded in his word, and here's this does not have fear of man.
SPEAKER_01: That's the one.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to get someone who's mature enough.
SPEAKER_01: They're not saying anything that you want to hear.
SPEAKER_01: They're saying what you need to hear.
SPEAKER_01: At the men's conference this last weekend, someone stood up and gave a testimony about their struggle with pornography, how it was messing with their family, how it was ruining their family, and how one brother in this church grabbed a hold of him and said things to him that actually made him mad.
SPEAKER_01: He did not want to hear that.
SPEAKER_01: But he said it made me just angry that he would talk to me like that.
SPEAKER_01: But here I am two years, a year, two years later, with a restored marriage because somebody was willing to say, what you're doing is not right.
SPEAKER_01: And God is not going to let you get away with this.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to have those people in your life.
SPEAKER_01: There's plenty of people that will say, Oh, better days are coming.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you know, it was hard on you.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you had this in your life.
SPEAKER_01: No, no.
SPEAKER_01: Find someone that's mature enough, that has a track record.
SPEAKER_01: What I mean is look around this room and say, who is where I wish I were?
SPEAKER_01: Who, not just from a career perspective, not from a just stuff perspective, but spiritually, that's who I'm striving after.
SPEAKER_01: That's who I'm trying to be.
SPEAKER_01: You go find them and you say, hey, I'm in a season.
SPEAKER_01: I need someone to be really honest with me.
SPEAKER_01: And then here's the last one I want to say.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you don't need a word from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you don't need that.
SPEAKER_01: It's not that season yet.
SPEAKER_01: What you need is prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's you ever have it like trying to talk with your kids, and you ain't getting nowhere.
SPEAKER_01: And so you're like, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: Just forget it.
SPEAKER_01: You go and you do your thing, and when you're ready to listen, you'll come back.
SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_01: You've been there?
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes that's where we are.
SPEAKER_01: And it is not time to get a word from the Lord yet.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord knows you're not ready for it.
SPEAKER_01: So what it is, it's a time for prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Look at Jeremiah 29, 7.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what he says.
SPEAKER_01: He says, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.
SPEAKER_01: Pray to the Lord for it.
SPEAKER_01: Pray for it.
SPEAKER_01: Now that sounds like obvious.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, you should pray for it.
SPEAKER_01: But he's telling people to pray that had turned to idolatry.
SPEAKER_01: He's telling people you need to turn back to prayer.
SPEAKER_01: You need to start seeking the Lord again.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I know that you think this is a God and this is a God and this is God, but they are not gods.
SPEAKER_01: This, this is God.
SPEAKER_01: Pray to him.
SPEAKER_01: Rekindle your relationship with the Lord and be a person of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: James chapter 5, verse 16 says this.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other that you may be healed.
SPEAKER_01: The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're in a season, rather than just seeking a word from the Lord, seek someone that you know will actually pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: Seek a person that you know grasp prayer and go to them and say, look, this is what I did, man.
SPEAKER_01: This is what I did.
SPEAKER_01: Cheated on my wife, got myself in this situation, I'm broken.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to be in this situation, but this is where I am.
SPEAKER_01: Could you pray for me?
SPEAKER_01: Confess your sin to a prayer warrior and let them pray you through Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: That makes sense.
SPEAKER_01: So let's look at verse 10 through 11.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go through the happy part.
SPEAKER_01: We all like the happy part.
SPEAKER_01: This is what the Lord said.
SPEAKER_01: When 70 years are completed, are we there yet?
SPEAKER_01: Not yet, not quite.
SPEAKER_01: We'll get there 70 years from now.
SPEAKER_01: I will come to you and I will fulfill my good promise.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I will fulfill my good promise and bring you back to this place.
SPEAKER_01: For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: They're plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
SPEAKER_01: You do still have to believe that he's good.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are going through a season right now, you don't even know if God exists anymore.
SPEAKER_01: You certainly don't know if he's good anymore.
SPEAKER_01: And even if you intellectually believe that God is good, you believe that you've done something so bad that God's not going to be good to you.
SPEAKER_01: You've lost the grace for God to be good to you.
SPEAKER_01: It's not true.
SPEAKER_01: You have to hold on to God is good.
SPEAKER_01: And that requires you to just dig in the word and say, God, I see here where this person really messed up, and you blessed him.
SPEAKER_01: I see here where this person messed up.
SPEAKER_01: You turn her heart back to the Lord, I see it.
SPEAKER_01: Here you're good.
SPEAKER_01: That's where praising the Lord is medication to your soul as well.
SPEAKER_01: No, you're good here, you're good here, you're good here.
SPEAKER_01: This situation.
SPEAKER_01: God, David, he not only uh cheated with someone else's wife, he had the man killed.
SPEAKER_01: And you still have the grace to restore.
SPEAKER_01: So, God, you've got to be good in my situation.
SPEAKER_01: I refuse to believe that I'm an anomaly and that you're not gonna be good in my one situation.
SPEAKER_01: I'm claiming who you are.
SPEAKER_01: For I know the plans I have for you.
SPEAKER_01: God has plans for you.
SPEAKER_01: The plans are to prosper you, they're not to harm you.
SPEAKER_01: They are to give you hope and they are to give you a future.
SPEAKER_01: It is amazing what hope will do for the soul.
SPEAKER_01: For a person who is trapped out in the middle of nowhere, when they become convinced that no one's gonna find them and no one's coming, and they lose hope, they die quickly.
SPEAKER_01: But for a person who is convinced that hope is coming, they can outlive that situation.
SPEAKER_01: They can hang on much, much, much longer.
SPEAKER_01: You have to believe that the Lord is good.
SPEAKER_01: He's good.
SPEAKER_01: In a season you don't want to be in, but he is good.
SPEAKER_01: And you need to call that back to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: You need to call it back to no Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I've been believing that you're not good.
SPEAKER_01: I refuse to do that anymore.
SPEAKER_01: You are good.
SPEAKER_01: In Genesis chapter 3, you see that Eve has blown it.
SPEAKER_01: Adam has blown it.
SPEAKER_01: And they've totally messed up.
SPEAKER_01: In verses 8 through 11, God comes walking in the garden, right?
SPEAKER_01: And he's calling out for them, like, hey, where are you?
SPEAKER_01: Where are you?
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, oh, we're here.
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, oh, what's going on?
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, ah, we heard you come and we figured out we don't have any clothes on.
SPEAKER_01: We didn't see a Walmart anywhere, so we just kind of got behind this tree.
SPEAKER_01: And God says to them, Who told you?
SPEAKER_01: Who told you this?
SPEAKER_01: Listen.
SPEAKER_01: Do you think that when God showed up and saw Adam and Eve naked, that he was shocked?
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: I cannot believe this.
SPEAKER_01: No, when the Lord came down to walk with them in the cool of the day, he was fully aware that they had blown it.
SPEAKER_01: They thought they were hiding from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: But you can't hide from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: It can't be done.
SPEAKER_01: And God is so good that He pursues us while we were still sinners, Christ died for you.
SPEAKER_01: While we were a mess, He did it.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't do it once He saw that you are willing to turn.
SPEAKER_01: He did it now, right now.
SPEAKER_01: While you're in your mess, He's still God.
SPEAKER_01: While you have totally blown it, or while that relationship has totally got you in Babylon where you didn't want to be, He still knows the plans he has for you.
SPEAKER_01: There's still plans to prosper you.
SPEAKER_01: He does not want to harm you.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to give you a hope.
SPEAKER_01: He wants you to have a future.
SPEAKER_01: That is who he is.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph, again, as he's in prison, he talks to the cupbearer.
SPEAKER_01: He talks to the baker.
SPEAKER_01: He tells them, here's your dream.
SPEAKER_01: Here's how this works.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what's going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: He did not have the fear of man because he told this one guy, he's like, I think it was a cupbearer.
SPEAKER_01: I might have my two mixed up.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: But he says, you're going to be restored.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to get your job back.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to be restored.
SPEAKER_01: And he told the other guy, got bad news, man.
SPEAKER_01: You're not, nah, you're going to lose your head.
SPEAKER_01: And that's just who he was.
SPEAKER_01: And then the guy that was restored completely forgot about him.
SPEAKER_01: Went on about his business.
SPEAKER_01: Went on about his job.
SPEAKER_01: And it wasn't until the king had a dream that he remembered, oh no, I was told that guy told me, don't forget me when you get out of here.
SPEAKER_01: He said, when you get out of here, when you see the king, you tell him, because I'm not supposed to be in here.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't like he was just happy to be in there.
SPEAKER_01: He said, get me out of here.
SPEAKER_01: And then, if you go back to Genesis chapter 41, you'll see in verse 35, they come and they get him.
SPEAKER_01: And they say to him, We heard that you can interpret dreams.
SPEAKER_01: This is where it's at.
SPEAKER_01: This is when you have arrived.
SPEAKER_01: He said, We heard that you can interpret dreams.
SPEAKER_01: You know what he says?
SPEAKER_01: I can't.
SPEAKER_01: But God can.
SPEAKER_01: I can't do that.
SPEAKER_01: No way.
SPEAKER_01: But God can.
SPEAKER_01: When you can go through, this man, from the time he got thrown into the hole to the time this conversation happened, 13 years.
SPEAKER_01: Thirteen years from the day his brothers, his own flesh and blood, threw him in a hole.
SPEAKER_01: To the day that someone's staring at him in a prison saying, Heard you could interpret dreams.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I can't, but God can.
SPEAKER_01: Now here's the deal: that's the place you want to be in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: You go through your season and you come out of your season convinced that God still can.
SPEAKER_01: You want to be able to say, God can.
SPEAKER_01: God will.
SPEAKER_01: God's good.
SPEAKER_01: You want to be able to go through your season with that attitude.
SPEAKER_01: Because the season is about turning your heart.
SPEAKER_01: The season is about shaping who you are.
SPEAKER_01: You want to be at a place where you can say that.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, I can't, but God can.
SPEAKER_01: And again, that was the gateway to greatness for him, was his attitude.
SPEAKER_01: Well, let's go on down to 12 and 14 as we finish up this chapter or this section.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back from captivity.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes when you're stuck in a season you don't want to be in, you don't want to look for where you're trying to go.
SPEAKER_01: The thing that you're trying to find is God.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'll be found by you.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, I will gather you from all the nations in places where I have banished you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.
SPEAKER_01: You're transformed in these seasons.
SPEAKER_01: Don't waste your Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: Babylon is about transforming you.
SPEAKER_01: Babylon is about shaping you.
SPEAKER_01: Babylon is as much an act of love for you as anything else God is doing.
SPEAKER_01: You think God takes pleasure in you being stuck in your Babylon?
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't.
SPEAKER_01: But he does it because he loves you.
SPEAKER_01: Now I remember watching one of my sons play football for the first time, man.
SPEAKER_01: He took the hardest hit.
SPEAKER_01: And he got up and he was a little teary-eyed.
SPEAKER_01: I grabbed him, I said, Don't you come over here, give him, you get back out there.
SPEAKER_01: And he was crying as he was going back out.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't want me to see him, but he was crying as he was going back out.
SPEAKER_01: And I was crying too.
SPEAKER_01: I had to turn my back too, because I don't want him to see that.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want him going back out there.
SPEAKER_01: You know what I wanted to do was go get ice cream.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I wanted to do.
SPEAKER_01: But because I loved him and because that was a necessary moment, and it would have crushed him to snatch him out of his little Babylon moment, I had to say, hey, don't, don't you, you go back out there.
SPEAKER_01: And then when he left, then I cried.
SPEAKER_01: That is how the Lord feels.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't want you in Babylon, but you you gotta be there.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta be there.
SPEAKER_01: So don't don't waste it, don't try to dodge it, try to get out of it.
SPEAKER_01: Just try to become transformed.
SPEAKER_01: Because that is the purpose of your Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: Now, for those of you that are in Babylon because of your own doing, you know it.
SPEAKER_01: You know you did it.
SPEAKER_01: You know why you're there, you can articulate it.
SPEAKER_01: I want to give you something from David, who was stuck in his own Babylon, because he slept with Bathsheba, because he had her husband killed.
SPEAKER_01: This is what David said in Psalm 51.
SPEAKER_01: Go to Psalm 51.
SPEAKER_01: This is what David said while he was in the middle, while he was just going through it.
SPEAKER_01: This was his confession and his cry to the Lord once his sin had been uncovered.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion, blot out my transgression.
SPEAKER_01: For what reason should we be allowed out of Babylon?
SPEAKER_01: God's great love.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we base our deliverance on.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing else.
SPEAKER_01: Anything else falls short.
SPEAKER_01: Just ask him, God, because of your love, forgive me.
SPEAKER_01: I messed up.
SPEAKER_01: I really, really messed up.
SPEAKER_01: No excuses.
SPEAKER_01: I messed up.
SPEAKER_01: And then in verse 4, look what he says Against you and you only have I sinned and done what was evil in your sight, so that you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.
SPEAKER_01: Don't, again, don't make excuses.
SPEAKER_01: Just say, God, you were right in your judgment.
SPEAKER_01: I really did mess up here.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not challenging that at all.
SPEAKER_01: But according to your great love, forgive me.
SPEAKER_01: But he didn't only do that.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 10, going through 12.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
SPEAKER_01: Means make me who I was before I got myself in this situation.
SPEAKER_01: Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
SPEAKER_01: Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.
SPEAKER_01: He's already asking for stuff.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this guy is already moving on to saying, This is what I need from you, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: This is what I need you to give me.
SPEAKER_01: This is how much he believed in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Is there something that you've held back from doing because of your past sin or something in your life?
SPEAKER_01: Would you ask God to restore your joy?
SPEAKER_01: Would you ask God to restore you?
SPEAKER_01: Would you have the opportunity?
SPEAKER_01: Audacity to believe that God is who he says he is, and just get back to being as if you'd never sinned.
SPEAKER_01: Get back to living as if you'd never sinned.
SPEAKER_01: So many of us are living like we deserve what we got, so we're just gonna live with it.
SPEAKER_01: We deserve more than we've gotten.
SPEAKER_01: If we all got what we deserve, none of us would be here right now, right?
SPEAKER_01: So squash that whole notion of, well, I deserve it, so I'm gonna I don't feel like I should go to the Lord and ask to be.
SPEAKER_01: If you're gonna ask to be forgiven, just ask to be completely restored.
SPEAKER_01: Because the church desperately needs you to dive in and believe that you're forgiven, and believe that God wants to walk you out of Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: And then look at verse 6 or verse 17, sorry.
SPEAKER_01: He says, My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart you will not despise.
SPEAKER_01: That's all the Lord wants.
SPEAKER_01: You ever had your kid come to you and say, I'm sorry, I messed up?
SPEAKER_01: And genuinely apologize, and you can see it, and they really messed up and they're broken by it.
SPEAKER_01: You don't drive that into the ground, do you?
SPEAKER_01: You just hug them, tell them you love them, hey, let's move on.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I'm glad you learned from that.
SPEAKER_01: Let's move on.
SPEAKER_01: God is greater than you are.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, if you know how to give good gifts, how much more would your father in heaven know how to give good gifts?
SPEAKER_01: He does not delight in your Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: It's just sometimes a necessary place.
SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to The Road.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you have been blessed by today's message.
SPEAKER_00: To connect with us further, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Go to theroad.org, click on the ministries tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer request.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road.