SERMON TITLE: God’s Plans…
Series: Verses in Context part 2
TEXT: Jeremiah 29:1-23 NLT
SPEAKER: Cody Ohnmeiss
DATE: 05/08/2022
Watch the sermon here.
Take notes with the Sermon Discussion Guide here.
Good morning, Gateway! It’s always a pleasure to be here worshiping with all of you each weekend - no matter if you’re joining us here at County Road 9, or if you’re joining us at our North Main Campus - it’s a joy to be worshiping with you all.
This weekend is an extra special weekend. I’d like to once again give a shoutout to all of the mothers joining us today - Happy Mother’s Day to you all! Now, in addition to celebrating Mother’s Day, this weekend has also been one of celebrating for my family. I actually had a family member graduate yesterday from the University of Findlay with her Doctorate of Physical Therapy! Super exciting stuff! And since I’m preaching today, I asked this person if I could give them a shoutout from the stage. And this person said, “Absolutely not! I don’t want to be the center of attention. Do NOT say my name!” And I know, you’re probably wondering who it is, but I’m going to listen to what my wife told me and not say her name.
But in all seriousness, it’s been great to celebrate that accomplishment with family and friends this weekend, and I want to congratulate all of the University of Findlay graduates joining us this weekend - and share this encouragement with you all. No matter what you go off to next - whether it’s a job, more school, or something else - I pray that you’ll go serve the Lord faithfully, wherever He takes you. Best wishes to all of you!
Today we are in week two of our three-week series where we are looking at well-known verses in the Bible, and how they are commonly used out of context. And, as I mentioned last week, we are doing this series for three reasons:
So with that, our time this morning will be spent trying to better understand a verse that’s perhaps just as common as the verse we looked at last week - Jeremiah 29:11. Go ahead and turn in your Bible’s there now, to Jeremiah chapter 29. Like last week, we aren’t just going to look at the single verse itself, but at the verses around it - so that we can truly understand what it means when God says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 NLT
This is a verse that we, as Christians LOVE to quote and encourage with - why? Because everyone wants these things! We want prosperity, we want good plans, we want HOPE. But just as we learned with Philippians 4:13 last week, we need to be careful in quoting verses without understanding what the verse truly means - because if we aren’t careful, we could be misusing God’s Word.
Allow me to share some ways that I see this verse frequently used today. Graduation cards - Thinking back to my high school graduation, I had probably a dozen cards with this verse quoted on it. People were trying to encourage me by telling me that God has great and prosperous plans for me in the future. For people who can’t figure out what they’re going to do - whether in a specific season of life, or when faced with a big decision - often times people will quote this verse, declaring that, no matter what, God’s future plan for them is great. Perhaps the most frequent way I see this verse used is by Christians who use it proactively in an effort to claim favor from God over their own life. You’ve maybe heard this be called a “name it & claim it teaching” or “prosperity teaching.” It’s the idea that if you’re serving the Lord faithfully, then the result is physical, financial, and spiritual blessing as long as you live here on earth. That no matter what’s happening, if you’re living right - if you’re being a good spouse, working hard, giving to the poor, if you’re bringing your family to church - doing all of these good deeds - then you will prosper in this life. And we’re going to dig into this example more as the sermon goes on.
But as we dive into the text here, we’re quickly going to see that none of these examples are in line with what God is saying to his people here. We have a lot of ground to cover here at the beginning in Jeremiah, so hang with me, but let’s go ahead and read Jeremiah chapter 29 verses 1-23 to see what Jeremiah is saying to his audience.
Jeremiah chapter 29, verses 1-23. Jeremiah wrote a letter from Jerusalem to the elders, priests, prophets, and all the people who had been exiled to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. 2 This was after King Jehoiachin, the queen mother, the court officials, the other officials of Judah, and all the craftsmen and artisans had been deported from Jerusalem. 3 He sent the letter with Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah when they went to Babylon as King Zedekiah’s ambassadors to Nebuchadnezzar. This is what Jeremiah’s letter said:4 This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem: 5 “Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce. 6 Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away! 7 And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.”8 This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let your prophets and fortune-tellers who are with you in the land of Babylon trick you. Do not listen to their dreams, 9 because they are telling you lies in my name. I have not sent them,” says the Lord.10 This is what the Lord says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 In those days when you pray, I will listen. 13 If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. 14 I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.”15 You claim that the Lord has raised up prophets for you in Babylon. 16 But this is what the Lord says about the king who sits on David’s throne and all those still living here in Jerusalem—your relatives who were not exiled to Babylon. 17 This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: “I will send war, famine, and disease upon them and make them like bad figs, too rotten to eat. 18 Yes, I will pursue them with war, famine, and disease, and I will scatter them around the world. In every nation where I send them, I will make them an object of damnation, horror, contempt, and mockery. 19 For they refuse to listen to me, though I have spoken to them repeatedly through the prophets I sent. And you who are in exile have not listened either,” says the Lord.20 Therefore, listen to this message from the Lord, all you captives there in Babylon. 21 This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says about your prophets—Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah—who are telling you lies in my name: “I will turn them over to Nebuchadnezzar for execution before your eyes. 22 Their terrible fate will become proverbial, so that the Judean exiles will curse someone by saying, ‘May the Lord make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon burned alive!’ 23 For these men have done terrible things among my people. They have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives and have lied in my name, saying things I did not command. I am a witness to this. I, the Lord, have spoken.” Jeremiah 29:1-23 NLT
I know - the goal today is to try to better understand one verse, verse 11, but the first thing we need to realize is that verse 11 is part of a letter written to God’s people. And, if we assume that we have never read this before and know nothing about the prophecy - these 23 verses should bring up several questions that we must know the answers to in order to understand our verse:
I’m going to do my best to help us answer these questions - setting us up to then understand what the key verse means in context, and also - what it means for us today.
But let’s start by answering, why is he writing this in the first place? Jeremiah was called by God to warn the Israelites about the severe consequences of breaking their covenant with the Lord. God’s people had given themselves over to pagan idols with frequency due to their kings (of Israel & Judah) listening to kings and rulers of other empires, rather than listening to the Lord. He prophesied that God’s judgment was coming many times throughout the book, including in chapter 7 where he says:
“7 The Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, 2 “Go to the entrance of the Lord’s Temple, and give this message to the people: ‘O Judah, listen to this message from the Lord! Listen to it, all of you who worship here! 3 This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says:“‘Even now, if you quit your evil ways, I will let you stay in your own land. 4 But don’t be fooled by those who promise you safety simply because the Lord’s Temple is here. They chant, “The Lord’s Temple is here! The Lord’s Temple is here!” 5 But I will be merciful only if you stop your evil thoughts and deeds and start treating each other with justice; 6 only if you stop exploiting foreigners, orphans, and widows; only if you stop your murdering; and only if you stop harming yourselves by worshiping idols. 7 Then I will let you stay in this land that I gave to your ancestors to keep forever.8 “‘Don’t be fooled into thinking that you will never suffer because the Temple is here. It’s a lie! 9 Do you really think you can steal, murder, commit adultery, lie, and burn incense to Baal and all those other new gods of yours, 10 and then come here and stand before me in my Temple and chant, “We are safe!”—only to go right back to all those evils again? 11 Don’t you yourselves admit that this Temple, which bears my name, has become a den of thieves? Surely I see all the evil going on there. I, the Lord, have spoken! Jeremiah 7:1-11 NLT
This was a huge, explicit warning to the people in Judah (remember, the nations were split, & Jeremiah was writing to the southern kingdom of Judah). If you turn from your ways, and worship me - the one, true God - then I’ll let you stay in the promised land.But if you don’t, suffering will be coming. And Jeremiah does this for the first 24 chapters, he’s presenting the accusation against Judah and warning them time and again to turn from their sinful ways. And unfortunately for the people of Judah, they didn’t listen. So in chapter 25, Jeremiah shifts from warning the people of the if, and now informing them of the when and how.
During Nebuchadnezzar’s first year of reign in Babylon, Jeremiah writes this:
3 “For the past twenty-three years—from the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah, until now—the Lord has been giving me his messages. I have faithfully passed them on to you, but you have not listened.4 “Again and again the Lord has sent you his servants, the prophets, but you have not listened or even paid attention. 5 Each time the message was this: ‘Turn from the evil road you are traveling and from the evil things you are doing. Only then will I let you live in this land that the Lord gave to you and your ancestors forever. 6 Do not provoke my anger by worshiping idols you made with your own hands. Then I will not harm you.’7 “But you would not listen to me,” says the Lord. “You made me furious by worshiping idols you made with your own hands, bringing on yourselves all the disasters you now suffer. 8 And now the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Because you have not listened to me, 9 I will gather together all the armies of the north under King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, whom I have appointed as my deputy. I will bring them all against this land and its people and against the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy you and make you an object of horror and contempt and a ruin forever. 10 I will take away your happy singing and laughter. The joyful voices of bridegrooms and brides will no longer be heard. Your millstones will fall silent, and the lights in your homes will go out. 11 This entire land will become a desolate wasteland. Israel and her neighboring lands will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years. Jeremiah 25:3-11 NLT
Well, there’s the answer to our second question. Why are these people being exiled? God had been patient with them for 23 years - warning them over and over again - and now the time had come. And we see here that God tells his people through Jeremiah that he will use Babylon to conquer them. That they will be living as exiles in Babylon for 70 years.
Now something you may or may not have noticed about Jeremiah’s prophecies is that he frequently affirms that God is the one speaking to his people. In the NLT, you frequently read, “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s armies says,” and you’ll also see him say, “I, the Lord, have spoken!”
And as I mentioned earlier, many false prophets were rising up in this day. They were claiming to be speaking on behalf of God, just as Jeremiah did, and used the same appeal to divine authority. In chapter 28, we see one of these false prophets, Hananiah, claiming that the Lord had a different plan than the one Jeremiah indicated. He said that after only two years, God would bring back the king of Judah, along with the temple treasures, and rescue his people from the Babylonians. And all of that info brings us back to our passage, chapter 29. Let’s jump back to verse 4:
4 This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem: 5 “Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce. 6 Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away! 7 And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.” Jeremiah 29:4-7 NLT
Does anything stick out to you in these verses? Does anything sound out of place or seem odd? Just looking at the verses themselves, your answer is probably, “No.” Everything seems pretty normal. Build homes, plant gardens, marry, have children, find work… But since we know the background, that makes this passage a little different. It’s actually a little more like this:
‘Now that you’ve been ripped from your homeland and sent off to a foreign place in exile, start to get comfortable.’
All of the sudden, it doesn’t sound as pleasant anymore… But that’s what we know to be happening here, the people receiving this letter have just been through horrible things, the walls of their city were broken, their Temple was destroyed, and they were taken captive to a foreign land. And this is all coming after hearing the false prophecy from Hananiah who told them they’d be rescued after two years. They had heard that from Hananiah, and 70 years from Jeremiah - which one do you think most of them were leaning toward. Obviously, the two years. How uncomfortable it must have been to be thinking that you will only be here a short time, but now God is telling you to start living as if you’re home…
What would be examples in life today that might be relatable?
That probably sounds super extreme, but that’s what’s happening here! Think about it! The people reading this letter from Jeremiah are being told 70 years until they will once again live in their home. Most won’t be alive at that point!
So what does that mean? It means that the hopeful future being promised in verse 11 - is something that many of the people were never going to get to experience during their lifetime. In fact, their kids would be lucky to experience it. But that doesn’t change the fact that the promised hope & future WERE COMING! (We’ll get to that in a few minutes). It just meant that it was going to happen in God’s timing, by His provision, and according to His will, not their own.
That’s what the people who Jeremiah is writing to are having a hard time understanding. Because of the false hope being spread, they weren’t hearing what God was telling them.
8 This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let your prophets and fortune-tellers who are with you in the land of Babylon trick you. Do not listen to their dreams, 9 because they are telling you lies in my name. I have not sent them,” says the Lord. Jeremiah 29:8-9 NLT
I know this isn’t the most fun thing to hear, but please pay close attention to this. (We’ll get to the hope soon, I promise!) The reason that God so clearly emphasizes this in his word is that these prophecies that bring false hope are dangerous. They seem appealing and they easily trick people. But they aren’t true. So many people in Jeremiah’s day were convinced that God was telling them that he would be rescuing them from their suffering in a short time - but that was not at all what God was saying. Just as God’s people in Jeremiah’s day were being swayed by false prophets, so are God’s people now being swayed by false teachings.
Before diving into the text, I mentioned the prosperity teaching that people teach stemming from this verse. Some of the fastest growing and most attended churches all across the country and even in other parts of the world are rooted in this false teaching. Because they read a verse like verse 11 completely out of its context, they tell their listeners things like God will keep you from all suffering. Or, they’ll say that if suffering comes, God will bring you through it very quickly because it’s not in his plans for Christians to be suffering. In fact, several churches that I have found have this exact quote in their statement about God’s provision:
“It is God's will for every believer to become whole, healthy, and successful in every area of life.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWyI2aHHDHk) They claim that Jesus’ work on the cross bought not only spiritual provision for us, but also physical and financial. And not provision in the sense that God provides us our needs the way Matthew 6 would indicate (Matthew 6 being where Jesus assures his followers not to worry about such small things because God will give his people what they need to be sustained), but that it’s God’s will for the Christian to have abundant health and wealth - if they have true faith.
And they affirm that God keeps the true believer from suffering if they just trust him enough. Not only that, but if you do find yourself suffering, it’s probably due to a lack of faith - so once you start fully trusting God again, your suffering will end soon. And again, they claim that this is God’s will - no suffering, only prosperity - in this life.
I want you all to hear me LOUD & CLEAR, that is just not true. It’s false hope. And what’s so unique about this passage is the uncanny resemblance between people being led astray by false teaching then and the way people are now. In Jeremiah 29, false teachers were claiming that God said suffering would be kept from them, or would only last a brief moment - just as they say today.
And God’s message to us today is the same as it was to the people in Jeremiah’s day - “Don’t believe it.” It’s not from God. God doesn’t promise that we as Christians will never experience suffering - not a single time.
No matter how strong our faith is, no matter how many good deeds we do, God does not tell us that suffering won’t come. And that’s not at all what Jeremiah 29:11 would indicate. Now on the other side, I’m also not saying that being Christian brings ONLY suffering. I’m not saying that either - of course we will have times of joy during our earthly lives! I’m just trying to make it clear that being a Christian doesn’t just make you immune to suffering!
About 2 years ago, I had a college student that wanted to meet with me because he was ready to see what the Christian faith was all about. So we sat down for lunch and I asked him, “What made you consider the Christian faith?”
He then explained to me that he had lost a family member in a tragic accident a few months prior. And he looked at me and said, I want to be a Christian so that God will bless my family and things like this won’t happen anymore.
And I remember at that moment my heart just sank - not only because I was about to have a really difficult conversation with him, but also because he had latched on to this hope, while not realizing that it was false hope.
So what we have to understand in all of this is that, although God doesn’t keep us from suffering, and although suffering may last longer than we’d like, we have to understand that God does take care of us even through our suffering. Everything, as I mentioned before, is on His timing, under His provision, and according to His will.
That’s why he tells his people to begin resettling their lives in this exiled land. So this shouldn’t discourage us! Suffering is something that shouldn’t bring us down - it’s just a reality of living in a world broken by sin. Being in this broken world, which we have contributed to via our own sin, it’s inevitable that suffering will come.
But what’s so great about God’s goodness to his people, is that even in their exile, even in their time of suffering, that was brought on by their own, chronic disobedience - God still blessed them. God spoke to his people and told them how to make it through these 70 years! Reestablish yourselves, work for the prosperity of the city, pray for its welfare. So while God’s word doesn’t promise us being free from suffering, He does promise us endurance through suffering.
10 This is what the Lord says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 In those days when you pray, I will listen. 13 If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. 14 I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.” Jeremiah 29:11-14 NLT
Finally, the good part. After 70 years, God says that he’ll bring his people back to the Promised Land. Not just that, but that when his people pray, he’ll listen. He’ll be found by them when they look for him with all their heart.
I think we can so easily take verses 12-14 for granted. This is a beautiful picture of a restored and renewed connection between God and his people. One where there is a desire to pursue each other, to be in intimate relationship with one another. While retaining the physical promised land was great, being at home in the arms of the Father was far greater.
This hopeful promise that we see in our verses was part of a larger covenant promise that God had established with his people. When God led his people out of slavery in Egypt, he established this agreement with the Israelites - where he would be their God, and they would be his people. Through Moses, God gave his people a written law to follow, and promised to be faithful to them - as his chosen people - as long as they obeyed the law God had given them. We know this as the Old Covenant.
But for years, and years - God’s people consistently failed to hold up their end of the covenant - even though God graciously warned them over and over of the judgment that would come for breaking this promise. So this passage shows the punishment that God brought upon his people for their unfaithfulness - loss of their land, destruction of the Temple, 70 years in exile, and suffering.
Yet even in Israel’s unfaithfulness, God was faithful to fulfill yet another promise to his people. After the 70 years of punishment, God promised to make a way for his people to return to their promised land AND, more importantly, enjoy the prosperity that comes with being in unity with God. Despite the long, 70-year road ahead, these words carried so much hope BECAUSE God had ALWAYS been faithful to his people.
And spoiler alert, he fulfilled his promise. After the 70 year exile, Babylon fell to the Persians and Cyrus the Great allowed the Jewish people to return to their land and rebuild the temple. This was all a part of those promised, good plans. The plans that brought forth a hope and a future.
So how does this passage apply to us? Now that we know all of the context. This passage, that’s specifically written to exiles of Judah in Babylon, that’s written to a covenant people. How can we - as Gentiles - claim that these good, and hopeful, and prosperous, future plans are for us, too?
Just like in Jeremiah’s day, exile isn’t the final place for God’s people. Whether you realize it or not, we are actually living in exile here on earth. God telling the exiled people to settle in the new land and begin to live normally is a picture of what we, as Christians, are experiencing during our earthly lives. This place is not our home - we belong with Christ in Heaven. And just like in this prophecy, exile will not be the end for us.
God always holds up his end of his promises. In the face of us all being sinners and constantly falling short of his glory, God is faithful to us with the promises he’s now made with us through the New Covenant. If you remember during the last supper, Jesus raised his cup and said, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood.” (Luke 22:20 NLT https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+22&version=NLT) And what Christ did then was he purchased all of the promises that belong to God’s covenant people. Paul later affirms this in 1 Corinthians 1:20 where he says,
“For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory.”
So for anyone who has put their trust in the blood of Christ, all of the promises in Jesus are ours. And PRAISE GOD for what this includes:
Finally, he promises that suffering isn’t the final word. Although suffering will come, and sometimes it will come and stay for much longer than we’d like, it can NEVER outlast Christ on his throne. Because when his blood poured out of his body on the cross, and he muttered his last words, saying “It is finished,” he completed then the redemptive plan that our Heavenly Father had ordained from the beginning - to declare his people righteous once & for all! Now suffering in the life of a Christian can never outweigh the hope that comes in Christ’s triumph over death by his resurrection from the grave. The plans in our future are good, and they are prosperous. The promised future we have is so, so amazing - so glorious - so beautiful! Because Jesus gave everything so that we may have hope, and more importantly, so that we may have life everlasting!
Let’s pray!
May you all leave here today knowing that because Jesus gave everything for us, we have an eternity of good and prosperous plans ahead of us - plans that give us great joy and hope. Amen. Gateway Church, You Are Sent.
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