WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:01.760 Alright, y'all please grab a seat. 00:00:05.280 --> 00:00:10.720 So we are going to be looking at a passage from the book of Jeremiah this morning. 00:00:12.480 --> 00:00:18.879 I dare say that most of us aren't really up on ancient history, so let me tell you what's going on when this happens. 00:00:18.960 --> 00:00:23.519 We're looking at a letter, actually, that a prophet named Jeremiah wrote. 00:00:23.839 --> 00:00:29.280 Now, this is the history, if you back up of Israel, about the time of a chap named Solomon who was the king. 00:00:29.440 --> 00:00:31.679 Most people have heard at least of his name. 00:00:32.479 --> 00:00:34.159 Solomon was king. 00:00:35.119 --> 00:00:36.640 Not a great king. 00:00:36.960 --> 00:00:43.759 In fact, so bad of a king in the end that right after he died, God's people, the country of Israel, split in half. 00:00:43.920 --> 00:00:46.479 Up in the north, the Yankees were called Israel. 00:00:46.719 --> 00:00:49.119 Down in the south, they were called Judah. 00:00:49.359 --> 00:00:51.200 And they got along famously. 00:00:51.280 --> 00:00:57.200 They fought wars with each other, trashed each other's temples, did all sorts of nice things for each other as neighbors do. 00:00:57.439 --> 00:01:05.599 And about 200 years later, an empire in the ancient world called the Assyrian Empire wiped the northern kingdom Israel off the map. 00:01:05.760 --> 00:01:09.200 Never to be heard from again as far as world affairs go. 00:01:09.680 --> 00:01:16.560 Now, about 200 years after that, a different empire has arisen called the Babylonian Empire. 00:01:16.719 --> 00:01:23.359 And the Babylonians are in the process of doing almost the same thing to the southern kingdom, the kingdom called Judah. 00:01:23.599 --> 00:01:27.920 Now, the way the Babylonians did it is three times they invaded. 00:01:28.079 --> 00:01:45.040 And each time they invaded, they sort of sliced off a set of the elite, the cultural leaders, the political leaders, the religious leaders, and marched them 900 miles back to Babylon to undergo what really can only be described as a forced re-education campaign. 00:01:45.519 --> 00:01:56.719 Now, sometime in the midst of these three deportations of the elite, the prophet Jeremiah, who's still in Jerusalem, writes a letter to some of these people in exile in Babylon. 00:01:56.879 --> 00:01:58.879 And that letter is actually what we're going to look at today. 00:01:58.959 --> 00:02:05.200 So if you'll read it with me from the book of Jeremiah, chapter 29, I'm going to read verses 1 to 14. 00:02:06.719 --> 00:02:22.319 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 that Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. 00:02:22.639 --> 00:02:34.479 This was after King Jehoiakim and the Queen Mother, the court officials, the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the skilled workers and the artisans, it's a pretty big list, had gone into exile from Jerusalem. 00:02:34.719 --> 00:02:44.000 He entrusted the letter to El Shash, son of Tephon, and to Gemariah, son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah, King of Judah, had sent to Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. 00:02:44.400 --> 00:02:53.120 It said, This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. 00:02:53.680 --> 00:02:58.240 Build houses and settle down, plant gardens and eat what they produce. 00:02:58.719 --> 00:03:01.199 Marry and have sons and daughters. 00:03:01.439 --> 00:03:07.039 Find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. 00:03:07.199 --> 00:03:10.000 Increase in number there, do not decrease. 00:03:10.479 --> 00:03:15.680 Also seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. 00:03:16.240 --> 00:03:20.400 Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper. 00:03:21.199 --> 00:03:28.400 Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. 00:03:28.639 --> 00:03:31.840 Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. 00:03:32.080 --> 00:03:34.719 They are prophesying lies to you in my name. 00:03:34.879 --> 00:03:37.280 I have not sent them, declares the Lord. 00:03:37.599 --> 00:03:39.599 This is what the Lord says. 00:03:39.919 --> 00:03:47.439 When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come back to you and fulfil my good promise to bring you back to this place. 00:03:48.560 --> 00:03:51.520 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. 00:03:51.759 --> 00:03:56.800 Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. 00:03:57.120 --> 00:04:01.039 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 00:04:01.280 --> 00:04:04.400 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 00:04:04.560 --> 00:04:09.199 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back from captivity. 00:04:09.439 --> 00:04:18.240 I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile. 00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:19.759 That's God's word to us. 00:04:19.839 --> 00:04:20.879 Let's pray. 00:04:23.519 --> 00:04:30.480 Lord, we come together as those who need you to speak to us. 00:04:30.800 --> 00:04:40.639 We submit and believe that what goes on here is not simply natural, it's not one person talking, it's not people listening. 00:04:40.800 --> 00:04:49.519 We submit that because you have told us so, what goes on here is that you come as the Spirit to enlighten our minds and to open our hearts. 00:04:49.839 --> 00:04:55.199 We pray above all, Lord, that you would deliver us from coming out this morning as just smarter sinners. 00:04:55.600 --> 00:05:03.279 But instead that you would bring us to coming out this morning as people who have met you in your word and been the better for it. 00:05:03.519 --> 00:05:07.920 We promise you that if you would do that for us, we'll claim no glory for that ourselves. 00:05:08.079 --> 00:05:09.759 We'll claim all the glory for you. 00:05:11.199 --> 00:05:16.480 Lord, none needs this word more than the idiot who's about to stand up and preach from it. 00:05:16.560 --> 00:05:18.800 So we pray you would touch our hearts with it. 00:05:19.040 --> 00:05:19.920 In Jesus' name. 00:05:20.160 --> 00:05:20.800 Amen. 00:05:22.480 --> 00:05:28.399 So as Russ was mentioning breaks, Jill and I just got back from a week away. 00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:31.839 Um it was glorious. 00:05:32.240 --> 00:05:33.759 No, this is how glorious it was. 00:05:33.920 --> 00:05:40.160 My parents kept our younger daughter, Jill's parents kept our older daughter, and we literally had a week away. 00:05:40.399 --> 00:05:46.560 No job, no kids, and we haven't had that since before we started having kids. 00:05:46.879 --> 00:05:50.160 And so we went to an island and we sat. 00:05:51.199 --> 00:05:53.920 And then we walked around and looked around a little bit and then we sat. 00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:56.959 And then we napped. 00:05:57.120 --> 00:05:58.240 And then we sat. 00:05:58.480 --> 00:06:00.160 And then I went hiking a little bit. 00:06:00.240 --> 00:06:03.120 Um, Jill sat and then came back and then we sat. 00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:05.279 And it was wonderful. 00:06:05.600 --> 00:06:11.439 And as you're sitting, in fact, on a beach with your feet in the Pacific, you're thinking, this is life. 00:06:12.079 --> 00:06:12.720 Right? 00:06:13.439 --> 00:06:14.879 Except it's not. 00:06:15.120 --> 00:06:16.639 I mean, really, it's not, right? 00:06:16.720 --> 00:06:17.839 It's vacation. 00:06:18.319 --> 00:06:19.839 And vacation's great. 00:06:20.079 --> 00:06:22.399 I mean, if you can have one, take it and enjoy it. 00:06:22.480 --> 00:06:23.920 There's nothing wrong with that. 00:06:24.639 --> 00:06:27.040 But you can't really live for vacation. 00:06:27.120 --> 00:06:29.040 Now, I recognize many of you do. 00:06:30.160 --> 00:06:34.240 But at the base level, we sort of know there's something wrong with that, right? 00:06:34.879 --> 00:06:50.399 That there really ought to be some way to locate purpose in real life, in getting up and taking care of the kids, in fighting your way to your job, in getting to school. 00:06:51.680 --> 00:06:56.959 Now, in 1974, a guy, very eminent oral historian of the U.S. 00:06:57.040 --> 00:06:59.439 and a radio personality, you remember when we had those? 00:06:59.680 --> 00:07:01.759 Well, his name was Studs Turkle. 00:07:01.920 --> 00:07:08.319 And he did an inner series of interviews called Working, where he interviewed normal people about their jobs and what they thought of their jobs. 00:07:08.399 --> 00:07:11.759 And one lady, her name is Nora Watson, says this. 00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:14.639 Jobs are not big enough for people. 00:07:15.360 --> 00:07:19.920 It's not just the assembly line worker whose job is too small for his spirit, you know. 00:07:20.240 --> 00:07:25.759 A job like mine, if you really put your spirit into it, you'd sabotage immediately. 00:07:25.920 --> 00:07:27.279 You don't dare. 00:07:27.839 --> 00:07:29.920 So you absent your spirit from it. 00:07:30.160 --> 00:07:35.279 My mind has been so divorced from my job, except as a source of income, it's really absurd. 00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:38.480 You know, she said that in 1974. 00:07:38.639 --> 00:07:41.839 I dare say it's not any different for most people today, is it? 00:07:42.879 --> 00:07:45.600 How do you find meaning in the mundane? 00:07:46.560 --> 00:07:52.240 Especially when the mundane seems to have so little relationship to your faith? 00:07:52.560 --> 00:07:57.120 To put it differently, how do you find meaning in Monday morning? 00:07:57.600 --> 00:08:07.040 How does what we're doing today in worship make any difference tomorrow morning when you're fighting your way down Cobb Parkway, or even worse, 75 to get to work? 00:08:07.759 --> 00:08:15.199 How does what we're doing on Sunday today make any difference at 5.45 tomorrow morning when you're wiping a baby's bottom? 00:08:16.160 --> 00:08:23.360 How does what we're doing today make any difference tomorrow morning when you're dragging yourself to school, even though your body is programmed not to wake up until 10 a.m. 00:08:23.519 --> 00:08:24.720 at the age you are? 00:08:25.439 --> 00:08:29.040 How do we find meaning in the everyday? 00:08:29.360 --> 00:08:31.040 Well, here's the contention. 00:08:31.439 --> 00:08:35.759 Jeremiah 29 says there's meaning in the mundane because it's God's idea. 00:08:36.080 --> 00:08:36.799 Let me say that again. 00:08:36.960 --> 00:08:41.919 Jeremiah 29 says there's meaning in the mundane because it's God's idea. 00:08:42.639 --> 00:08:44.799 And we'll try to develop that under three things. 00:08:45.039 --> 00:08:47.200 First, that God has put us here. 00:08:47.919 --> 00:08:51.279 Second, that someday God will take us home. 00:08:51.679 --> 00:08:54.320 And third, he has plans for us right now. 00:08:54.639 --> 00:08:57.279 He's put us here, someday he'll take us home. 00:08:57.440 --> 00:08:59.919 And third, that he has plans for us right now. 00:09:00.240 --> 00:09:04.639 So to begin developing that first, God has put us here. 00:09:05.440 --> 00:09:09.039 This was true for the Jews in exile in Babylon. 00:09:09.279 --> 00:09:12.799 And that's actually quite a thing to say if you think about it. 00:09:13.120 --> 00:09:14.559 God had put them there. 00:09:14.720 --> 00:09:15.919 Look at our passage. 00:09:16.960 --> 00:09:20.480 Now, by the way, it sure seems like this was the Babylonians' idea, right? 00:09:20.639 --> 00:09:28.240 They're the ones who had come and taken over the country, they're the ones who had conquered the city, they're the ones who had marched everybody back 900 miles to Babylon. 00:09:29.360 --> 00:09:40.559 In fact, even verse 1 says this is the letter that was sent to all the people that Nebuchadnezzar, that's the king of the Babylonians, had carried into Exil and Babylon. 00:09:40.639 --> 00:09:43.120 So it sure seems like it's the Babylonians' idea. 00:09:43.440 --> 00:09:45.200 But look at verse 4. 00:09:45.759 --> 00:09:52.399 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. 00:09:52.639 --> 00:09:54.799 He says it again in verse 7. 00:09:55.120 --> 00:09:59.360 He says, the city to which I have carried you into exile. 00:09:59.759 --> 00:10:01.039 So who did this? 00:10:01.360 --> 00:10:03.840 Was this the Babylonians or was this God? 00:10:04.799 --> 00:10:05.440 Yes. 00:10:06.639 --> 00:10:17.600 God is making the point that whatever happens by whatever ruler, it doesn't matter if it's a president, a dictator, or anybody else, only happens by his permission and his authority. 00:10:17.759 --> 00:10:19.360 That none of this is by accident. 00:10:19.519 --> 00:10:21.440 Now, Nebuchadnezzar didn't believe that, right? 00:10:21.519 --> 00:10:23.759 He was pretty sure this was his handiwork. 00:10:24.159 --> 00:10:27.840 But God is saying that he is truly in control. 00:10:28.480 --> 00:10:31.600 And so if they are there, this is no accident. 00:10:32.799 --> 00:10:39.120 Now that's actually an earth-shattering thing to say if you were the Jews in exile. 00:10:39.919 --> 00:10:42.639 Because life in Babylon was hard. 00:10:43.600 --> 00:10:44.399 Well, how hard? 00:10:44.559 --> 00:10:45.600 Think about this with me. 00:10:45.759 --> 00:10:48.639 How had they gotten into exile in Babylon? 00:10:48.720 --> 00:10:51.360 They'd gotten there by losing on the battlefield. 00:10:53.440 --> 00:10:59.840 They had watched their sons and their fathers and their brothers get run through with a sword. 00:11:00.639 --> 00:11:05.120 Even worse, they had watched what happens when an ancient army conquers a city. 00:11:05.360 --> 00:11:12.240 They had seen, and sorry to be direct about it, but they had seen men impaled on wooden stakes and left to die for three days in the Middle Eastern sun. 00:11:13.039 --> 00:11:15.919 They had seen women of all ages mistreated. 00:11:16.080 --> 00:11:17.440 Let's just put it that way. 00:11:17.679 --> 00:11:23.600 They had seen babies jerked out of their mother's arms and slammed into the ground to eliminate the next generation. 00:11:24.879 --> 00:11:28.159 They had lived the horrors of ancient warfare. 00:11:28.399 --> 00:11:30.399 The horrors of losing in ancient warfare. 00:11:30.480 --> 00:11:34.080 It reminds me of when, you remember the movie Saving Private Ryan came out? 00:11:34.399 --> 00:11:38.799 Well, Jill was asking her uncle, who flew in Vietnam, she said, Are you going to see the movie? 00:11:38.960 --> 00:11:43.360 And he said, just very quietly, looked up and said, I know what war's like. 00:11:43.440 --> 00:11:45.279 I don't need anybody to show me. 00:11:45.759 --> 00:11:49.440 Well, they know what war's like because they'd lived it and they'd lost it. 00:11:50.320 --> 00:11:52.159 Even then, look at verse 1. 00:11:52.399 --> 00:11:57.840 Why is this letter written to the surviving elders among the exiles? 00:11:58.080 --> 00:11:59.679 Well, remember how they got there? 00:11:59.919 --> 00:12:02.960 They had been marched all the way around the Fertile Crescent. 00:12:03.120 --> 00:12:04.879 Remember that from junior high school? 00:12:05.200 --> 00:12:11.440 From one end to the other in the sun by soldiers who really didn't care very much whether they lived or died. 00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:15.519 In fact, whose job would be a whole lot easier if they would just die on the march. 00:12:16.639 --> 00:12:20.720 And so it's written to the surviving elders because the rest of them died in transit. 00:12:21.039 --> 00:12:22.320 And now they're in Babylon. 00:12:22.480 --> 00:12:23.679 What's life like in Babylon? 00:12:23.840 --> 00:12:28.799 Well, they are a conquered, persecuted, hated religious minority. 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:33.440 By the way, it was a hyper-sexualized society. 00:12:34.240 --> 00:12:36.399 It was the center of the known world. 00:12:36.639 --> 00:12:40.639 So if you were ambitious, you moved there so you could move up. 00:12:40.720 --> 00:12:44.559 So it wasn't, if you can put it anachronistically, entirely career-driven place. 00:12:45.840 --> 00:12:51.360 It was polytheistic to the level that any other God was welcome. 00:12:51.679 --> 00:12:56.559 So long as you didn't make the crazy claim they did that their God was the one true God. 00:12:57.120 --> 00:13:04.799 They lived a life of hardship and rejection, of mockery under the Babylonians who were doing everything they could to break their spirits. 00:13:05.200 --> 00:13:10.639 If you want a sense of how bad it was, go read Psalm 30 some Psalm 137 when you go home. 00:13:13.440 --> 00:13:15.679 Does that society start to sound a little familiar? 00:13:15.759 --> 00:13:26.320 A hypersexualized, career-driven society that is becomes so tolerant of almost any faith that any faith is acceptable, except one that would claim that your faith is the only way. 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:33.120 Truth is, that starts to sound a whole lot like what American society has started to become, doesn't it? 00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:38.240 You're welcome to embrace any faith out there except your exclusive faith in Jesus Christ. 00:13:39.200 --> 00:13:41.600 You are welcome to climb the ladder. 00:13:41.840 --> 00:13:44.480 You're welcome to be whatever you want to be. 00:13:44.799 --> 00:13:51.759 And the point I'm trying to make is that our life, in fact, is very much like the life that these exiles were living in Babylon. 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:55.519 And here's the point God has placed us here. 00:13:55.840 --> 00:14:05.360 1 Peter 1, chapter 1, verse 1, in fact, says that Christians, those God has called, are exiles and strangers living in the world. 00:14:05.600 --> 00:14:12.960 In other words, this letter that Jeremiah writes is not just relevant to these Jewish exiles in 590 BC. 00:14:13.279 --> 00:14:17.279 It's actually relevant to God's people today living in the world we live in. 00:14:17.519 --> 00:14:20.159 And the point is that God has placed us here. 00:14:21.679 --> 00:14:23.279 And that can be hard. 00:14:23.600 --> 00:14:26.159 Because living in this world can be really difficult. 00:14:27.279 --> 00:14:32.000 Tragedies happen both by accident and by purpose. 00:14:32.879 --> 00:14:40.480 You live in the midst of a society that on TV, in the town hall, and the courts mocks much of what you stand for if you believe in Jesus. 00:14:40.879 --> 00:14:42.799 It can be a very hard place to live. 00:14:42.879 --> 00:14:45.440 But the first point is God is the one who's put us here. 00:14:45.519 --> 00:14:47.919 You are not here, like Russ said, by accident. 00:14:48.399 --> 00:14:50.960 You're here by God's power and God's control. 00:14:52.080 --> 00:14:55.759 Now, in light of that, second thing, what's our hope? 00:14:56.000 --> 00:15:01.360 Our hope in light of the fact that God has put us here is that someday He will take us home. 00:15:02.080 --> 00:15:04.720 Now that was clearly the hope of these Jews. 00:15:04.960 --> 00:15:06.320 Literally, that they would go home. 00:15:06.480 --> 00:15:07.679 Look at verse 10. 00:15:08.159 --> 00:15:17.360 This is what the Lord says When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:24.000 They wanted nothing more than to get out of Dodge and get back to Jerusalem, and God has promised them it will happen. 00:15:24.240 --> 00:15:38.240 In spite of the fact that they were in exile because of their sin, in spite of the fact of everything they'd done wrong, God loved nothing more and loves nothing more than to be kind and merciful and to restore his people and to bring them home. 00:15:38.480 --> 00:15:42.240 Reading on in verse 11, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. 00:15:42.559 --> 00:15:46.879 Plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you a hope in a future. 00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:50.799 Then you'll call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 00:15:50.960 --> 00:15:53.759 You'll seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 00:15:53.840 --> 00:15:58.720 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back from captivity. 00:15:59.759 --> 00:16:02.000 And in a sense, that is our hope too. 00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:05.600 Our hope as Christians is that He will take us home someday. 00:16:05.919 --> 00:16:12.799 That when we die, we will go to be with Jesus, and we will live with Jesus forever. 00:16:13.120 --> 00:16:15.360 That is the great Christian hope. 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:19.279 That we someday, that we have another home, that this world is not it. 00:16:19.519 --> 00:16:21.279 And the Bible gives us a picture of that hope. 00:16:21.360 --> 00:16:25.600 If you're reading in your Bible, if not, just listen, flip over to the very end almost. 00:16:25.840 --> 00:16:29.519 Revelation chapter 21, I'm going to read you the first four verses. 00:16:29.919 --> 00:16:32.559 And then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. 00:16:32.799 --> 00:16:35.440 For the first heaven and first earth had passed away. 00:16:35.600 --> 00:16:37.519 There was no longer any sea. 00:16:37.759 --> 00:16:45.120 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. 00:16:45.360 --> 00:16:51.200 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. 00:16:51.440 --> 00:16:55.440 They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 00:16:55.679 --> 00:16:57.679 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. 00:16:57.759 --> 00:17:04.480 There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. 00:17:04.720 --> 00:17:08.079 Now don't miss something about this promise, about this picture. 00:17:08.720 --> 00:17:13.119 Your hope and my hope is that we will live forever with Jesus where? 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:15.200 On earth. 00:17:15.519 --> 00:17:30.880 It is a resolutely, stubbornly physical thing that we hope that these bodies we have will be resurrected someday, and that we will live forever with him, not in more of this life, but in more of life the way that God always made it to be. 00:17:31.279 --> 00:17:35.200 God never gave up on this world that he created. 00:17:35.759 --> 00:17:42.480 God never gave up on men and women, you and me, that he created to be part of this world. 00:17:42.799 --> 00:17:48.240 He never gave up on the idea that he would make it everything he ever intended it to be before sin. 00:17:48.400 --> 00:17:51.680 Yes, we fouled up royally, and we still do that every day. 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:56.319 Which is why he came as a man to put this thing back on the rails. 00:17:56.559 --> 00:18:03.119 That's why he came in Jesus Christ to restore this world to everything it was made to be, and that is our hope. 00:18:03.359 --> 00:18:04.640 Now here's why this matters. 00:18:04.799 --> 00:18:12.000 I, like Russ said, I pastored up in Virginia for 10, 15 years, McLean, Virginia, just outside D.C. 00:18:12.160 --> 00:18:13.920 It's the home of a certain little government agency. 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:15.839 We used to call it Christians in Action. 00:18:16.079 --> 00:18:19.839 If you're not following, take the first letter of each word, Christians in Action. 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:26.240 So I was talking to one of my church members who worked at this agency, and he pointed out something really interesting. 00:18:26.400 --> 00:18:29.759 He said, the place is absolutely full of Mormons. 00:18:30.160 --> 00:18:38.240 To the point where he was so surprised that he finally asked one of his friends who was Mormon, he said, Why is it so disproportionate that Mormons work at this place? 00:18:38.720 --> 00:18:39.680 You know what the guy said? 00:18:39.839 --> 00:18:43.680 He goes, because in Mormon theology, this is the promised land. 00:18:44.319 --> 00:18:46.000 America is the promised land. 00:18:46.160 --> 00:18:48.960 This is as good as it gets, so we want to fight for it. 00:18:50.319 --> 00:18:52.160 Now you know better than that. 00:18:52.720 --> 00:18:54.000 I mean, I love my country. 00:18:54.079 --> 00:18:57.200 This is one of the best places to live in the world, and I would fight for my country. 00:18:58.480 --> 00:19:00.400 But this is not what we live for. 00:19:00.559 --> 00:19:01.759 This is not the promised land. 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:03.440 This is not as good as it gets. 00:19:03.680 --> 00:19:10.000 The promised land is when Jesus comes back and takes away all sin, takes away all death, takes away all kind. 00:19:10.559 --> 00:19:14.079 There will be no more cancer, there'll be no more Alzheimer's. 00:19:14.720 --> 00:19:16.160 There will be no more suicide. 00:19:16.319 --> 00:19:17.680 There will be no more war. 00:19:18.079 --> 00:19:20.160 We live for a different home. 00:19:21.039 --> 00:19:22.319 Not the home of this world. 00:19:24.079 --> 00:19:25.759 And that leads to the third thing. 00:19:27.039 --> 00:19:29.839 Wanting to go home is a really powerful urge, isn't it? 00:19:30.480 --> 00:19:36.480 And I remember when I was a little type, the first time I ever went to camp in North Carolina, like three weeks or something. 00:19:36.720 --> 00:19:37.759 Homesickness. 00:19:38.400 --> 00:19:38.720 Right? 00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:42.160 You just you want to go home, and you can't even tell what's wrong. 00:19:42.240 --> 00:19:44.799 It's not there's any, but everything's just sort of gray. 00:19:45.039 --> 00:19:46.559 Nothing's kind of quite right. 00:19:46.720 --> 00:19:51.839 And there's this deep, abiding, powerful urge that just wants to go home. 00:19:53.200 --> 00:19:54.960 Well, the Jews sure felt that, right? 00:19:55.039 --> 00:19:58.640 In exile in Babylon, that all they wanted was to go home. 00:19:59.039 --> 00:20:00.079 And this is the funny thing. 00:20:00.240 --> 00:20:04.799 If you want something bad enough, you can usually find somebody who will tell you what you want to hear. 00:20:05.119 --> 00:20:07.680 That's what's happening in verses 8 and 9. 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:16.799 Verses 8 and 9, there are plenty of people who are showing up, false prophets, God calls them, who are saying, hey, it's almost over, you're going to be home soon. 00:20:16.960 --> 00:20:18.160 God's wrath's almost spent. 00:20:18.240 --> 00:20:19.519 This exile's almost done. 00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:20.640 Don't worry about it. 00:20:20.720 --> 00:20:21.519 Just chill out. 00:20:21.680 --> 00:20:23.119 We're out of here soon. 00:20:23.359 --> 00:20:26.079 And God says, Don't you dare believe them. 00:20:26.319 --> 00:20:30.240 These folks who tell you it's all almost over, that you're done. 00:20:30.720 --> 00:20:31.599 Don't buy it. 00:20:31.759 --> 00:20:34.240 Especially, I might add, if they give you a date. 00:20:35.759 --> 00:20:38.000 Instead, God says, verses 5 and 6. 00:20:38.079 --> 00:20:38.720 What does he say? 00:20:38.880 --> 00:20:45.440 He says, Build houses and settle down, plant gardens, eat what they produce. 00:20:45.759 --> 00:20:52.079 Marry and have sons and daughters, find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage so they too may have sons and daughters. 00:20:52.240 --> 00:20:53.680 In other words, settle in. 00:20:53.759 --> 00:20:55.200 You're going to be here for a while. 00:20:55.279 --> 00:21:01.680 You're going to have time to build houses, plant crops, have kids, have grandkids, have them have grandkids. 00:21:02.240 --> 00:21:03.440 Settle in. 00:21:10.480 --> 00:21:13.759 Something far more powerful than that in verses five and six. 00:21:13.839 --> 00:21:15.119 These are actually commands, right? 00:21:15.200 --> 00:21:16.160 What are the two commands? 00:21:16.400 --> 00:21:18.720 One, build and plant. 00:21:19.279 --> 00:21:22.240 Two, have kids and grandkids. 00:21:22.559 --> 00:21:24.240 Where does that come from? 00:21:24.720 --> 00:21:27.279 Well, it comes from all the way back in the beginning. 00:21:27.440 --> 00:21:31.680 Now, since we looked at the end of the Bible, look at the very beginning of your Bible, Genesis 1. 00:21:31.920 --> 00:21:34.559 Let me read you verses 26 to 28. 00:21:35.039 --> 00:21:38.559 Then God said, Let us make man in our image, in our likeness. 00:21:38.720 --> 00:21:46.720 Let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over the earth, over all the creatures that move along the ground. 00:21:47.200 --> 00:21:53.039 So God created man in his own image, and the image of God he created him, male and female he created them. 00:21:53.279 --> 00:21:56.799 God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and increase in number. 00:21:56.960 --> 00:21:58.400 Fill the earth and subdue it. 00:21:58.559 --> 00:21:59.680 Rule over the fish of the sea. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:04.799 And the birds of the air over every living creature that moves along the ground. 00:22:05.440 --> 00:22:07.759 Remember, this is before we had sinned. 00:22:07.920 --> 00:22:10.559 This is before there was anything wrong with the world. 00:22:10.880 --> 00:22:12.640 God had commanded people two things. 00:22:12.799 --> 00:22:13.200 What? 00:22:13.440 --> 00:22:14.640 Fill the earth. 00:22:14.880 --> 00:22:18.400 Sounds a lot like have kids and have grandkids, and subdue it. 00:22:18.640 --> 00:22:22.640 Sounds a lot like building houses and settling down and making gardens. 00:22:22.880 --> 00:22:30.000 In other words, there are purposes built into you and me from before sin was ever in the world. 00:22:31.519 --> 00:22:37.279 To multiply and to have dominion, if you can put it that way, over the earth. 00:22:37.519 --> 00:22:44.960 And those commands are re-emphasized by Jeremiah, even though you leave in exile, even though you're not home. 00:22:45.119 --> 00:22:53.039 And in fact, we live in exile because Genesis 3, the story takes this terrible dark turn where men and women decide to walk away from God. 00:22:53.599 --> 00:23:00.240 Even in this life, right now, where God has put us, we have the same purposes we've always had. 00:23:02.079 --> 00:23:04.079 Here's why that matters. 00:23:04.480 --> 00:23:13.680 That means when you're wiping that baby's bottom tomorrow morning, you are doing something that is not biding time until next Sunday where you get your faith day again. 00:23:14.160 --> 00:23:25.440 This means when you go to work on Tuesday morning or Saturday morning in this town or a lot of other things, you are not just biding time, earning income and waiting until your faith day on Sunday. 00:23:25.680 --> 00:23:32.240 In fact, what you do raising kids, what you do going to work, is what God has always made us to do. 00:23:32.400 --> 00:23:34.160 It's not accidental to your faith. 00:23:34.240 --> 00:23:35.839 This is your faith. 00:23:36.319 --> 00:23:40.559 And it's still true even in a fallen world, even though we live in exile. 00:23:40.799 --> 00:23:44.079 There is purpose to your and my life. 00:23:44.319 --> 00:23:47.759 There is purpose to the mundane, and it's God's idea. 00:23:48.240 --> 00:23:52.000 Now, here's particularly what I want to say to try to apply that. 00:23:52.240 --> 00:23:53.519 There's something you believe. 00:23:53.680 --> 00:23:57.200 You never put it this way, you never say it this baldly, but you really believe it. 00:23:57.440 --> 00:24:04.799 You believe that God loves the people who gave it all up and moved to the middle of Africa and live in a mud hut more than he loves every other Christian. 00:24:04.880 --> 00:24:06.720 Those are first-tier Christians. 00:24:08.079 --> 00:24:12.480 Now, there are some other Christians, they didn't have the guts to move overseas. 00:24:12.640 --> 00:24:14.559 But they at least went into religious work. 00:24:14.640 --> 00:24:18.319 They do what Russ does, they're pastors, they do what I do, they're seminary professors. 00:24:18.799 --> 00:24:23.119 Okay, they aren't quite ready to really set it all on the line for God overseas. 00:24:23.279 --> 00:24:26.640 But they're sort of second-tier Christians, they at least do religious work. 00:24:26.880 --> 00:24:32.240 Now, third-tier Christians, you know, these are the people who didn't go into God's work. 00:24:32.640 --> 00:24:35.200 But at least they went into sort of the not-for-profit world. 00:24:35.279 --> 00:24:37.680 They work in the arts or they're social workers or teachers. 00:24:37.759 --> 00:24:41.599 You know, they're not really earning any money, so they must be a little better than the rest of us. 00:24:42.000 --> 00:24:52.160 And then at the bottom, the last tier of Christians are all the professionals, the accountants, the lawyers, some types of doctors, everybody else. 00:24:52.240 --> 00:24:58.000 And the only reason you think these people get into the kingdom of God is because they give the money for the other three tiers to do God's work. 00:24:58.960 --> 00:25:04.319 Now you'd never say that, but you believe that because every time you talk about, did you know that he went into full-time ministry? 00:25:05.119 --> 00:25:07.200 You're validating that exact idea. 00:25:07.440 --> 00:25:10.960 Take a stick of dynamite, put it in that, and blow it up. 00:25:11.519 --> 00:25:14.000 All of this is part of God's purpose. 00:25:14.240 --> 00:25:25.119 When you go to work on Monday morning, when you raise the kids, when you go to school and get ready to do one or the other or both, you are doing part of what God made you to be. 00:25:26.319 --> 00:25:36.559 And there is great dignity and value in those vocations because they are part of who God made you to be before there was ever a thing called sin in the world to mess this thing up. 00:25:37.039 --> 00:25:40.160 Alright, one more big point to make. 00:25:40.559 --> 00:25:42.880 The Jews might have been able to get that. 00:25:43.279 --> 00:25:50.400 Even that, they would have said, wow, our purposes as God's people haven't gone away, even though we live in exile. 00:25:50.799 --> 00:25:53.200 But the real bombshell of this passage is none of that. 00:25:53.279 --> 00:25:54.000 It's verse 7. 00:25:54.079 --> 00:25:55.359 Look at verse 7. 00:25:56.799 --> 00:26:01.599 Also seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. 00:26:01.839 --> 00:26:05.680 Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper. 00:26:06.079 --> 00:26:10.240 Seek the peace and prosperity of Babylon. 00:26:10.640 --> 00:26:14.400 Peace, by the way, it's the Hebrew word shalom, it's the Arabic word salaam. 00:26:14.480 --> 00:26:17.039 It doesn't just mean the absence of conflict. 00:26:17.359 --> 00:26:24.079 This means the full flourishing in every sense, cultural, economic, physical, educational. 00:26:24.319 --> 00:26:29.359 The peace of a city in the Hebrew thought is everything as it ought to be. 00:26:29.920 --> 00:26:31.759 Seek the peace and prosperity of Babylon. 00:26:31.839 --> 00:26:34.079 Do you realize how hard that would have been for them? 00:26:34.480 --> 00:26:36.880 Remember what life in Babylon meant for them. 00:26:37.119 --> 00:26:41.519 Remember how hated and despised they were, and remember how much they hated and despised it. 00:26:42.880 --> 00:26:47.279 And yet God says, seek the good of even this city that hates you. 00:26:47.359 --> 00:26:49.440 You know, Jesus said, love your enemies. 00:26:49.920 --> 00:26:51.920 That wasn't a brand new thought. 00:26:53.839 --> 00:26:55.920 So how do you seek the good? 00:26:56.160 --> 00:26:58.400 How do you seek the peace and prosperity of Babylon? 00:26:58.640 --> 00:26:59.839 Called Atlanta. 00:27:00.160 --> 00:27:01.039 How would you do that? 00:27:01.200 --> 00:27:02.880 Three quick things all from this passage. 00:27:03.119 --> 00:27:07.759 One, get a buyer mentality, not a renter mentality. 00:27:08.319 --> 00:27:10.799 He says in verse 5, build houses. 00:27:11.039 --> 00:27:12.400 Settle down, plant gardens. 00:27:12.480 --> 00:27:14.880 You know, for our entire lives until we moved here, we rented. 00:27:15.039 --> 00:27:16.160 I lived in Washington, D.C. 00:27:16.240 --> 00:27:18.640 It made no economic sense to buy a house. 00:27:19.519 --> 00:27:21.440 Now I hope I was a good renter. 00:27:21.839 --> 00:27:25.680 I hope I took good care of the places I gave, but did you really invest? 00:27:26.720 --> 00:27:29.279 Do you really well no, because you know you're moving soon. 00:27:29.359 --> 00:27:32.720 So you don't take the same kind of care of a place if you rent. 00:27:33.039 --> 00:27:39.599 When we moved here a year ago, we slid most of our net worth across a conference table in a real estate agent's office. 00:27:39.920 --> 00:27:43.279 We are all in for the neighborhood of Princeton Mill. 00:27:43.759 --> 00:27:44.559 Literally. 00:27:44.799 --> 00:27:46.720 You think I don't care more about the schools? 00:27:46.960 --> 00:27:48.799 You think I don't care much about the HOA? 00:27:48.960 --> 00:27:50.799 You think I don't care about that lot on the corner? 00:27:50.880 --> 00:27:58.400 You think everything about me now, because I have invested, if it prospers, I prosper. 00:27:58.559 --> 00:27:59.680 It's literally true. 00:27:59.920 --> 00:28:01.200 It's also emotionally true. 00:28:01.440 --> 00:28:01.920 Invest. 00:28:02.160 --> 00:28:02.880 Lean in. 00:28:02.960 --> 00:28:10.000 It is so tempting when you feel a culture leaning away from your faith, which is the culture we now live in, to lean out, to do the Christian bubble. 00:28:10.240 --> 00:28:12.400 And God says, do the exact opposite. 00:28:12.559 --> 00:28:14.160 Lean in, seek the good. 00:28:14.240 --> 00:28:16.160 Have a buyer mentality. 00:28:16.720 --> 00:28:18.799 Second thing, multiply. 00:28:18.960 --> 00:28:19.519 Have kids. 00:28:19.680 --> 00:28:20.799 Let your kids have kids. 00:28:20.960 --> 00:28:22.400 Give them in marriage. 00:28:23.200 --> 00:28:25.200