Week 32: Stick to God's Plan

Scripture: Jeremiah 29:4-14

Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon; Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed. For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith the Lord. For thus saith the Lord, that after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the Lord: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.

Stick to God’s Plan

There has been a recent spike in popularity in the slogan God’s plan. This spike in popularity is based on a recent composition by the Canadian televangelist known as Drake. Have you heard of him? Drake has been releasing compositions that have spoken to the hearts of many people in the millennial generation. In this specific composition, Drake let us know that there are people all around him who were wishing for his downfall but it had not worked. He exclaims their thirst for his downfall by saying, and I quote “they wishing, they wishing, they wishing on me". I like this composition because Drake comes to the realization that the only reason why his haters were not successful, is because God had another plan. God's plan has the ability to overtake the plan of the enemy. That even we find ourselves in a place that doesn’t seem to be in accordance with God’s plan, God still has a plan. Unfortunately for us, that is not often enough. We begin to think ourselves into a completely different plan, which reveals to me that the real issue is us.

We think we’re smart and not just regular smart but the smartest person who has ever existed. My grandfather would tell us that we’re so smart were dumb. Though we may be too shy to say it, we often put precedence over our own logic over God’s logic. God’s ways don’t always make sense to us and as a result we try to alter or remix God’s plans for our lives. When God’s plan doesn’t make sense, we try to make sense out of what seems senseless. We acknowledge what God said and replace the actions for what we think God meant. We think our way into new situations that are often different from what God has called us to and find ourselves in a worse off situation than the one in which we began.

·         It was Adam who remixed God’s plan, when he ate the fruit of the tree.

·         It was Sarah who remixed God’s plan, when she told Abraham to have a child with Hagar.

·         It was Lot’s wife who remixed god’s plan, when she looked back.

·         It was Joseph’s brothers who remixed God’s plan, when they sold Joseph into slavery.

·         It was Moses who remixed God’s plan, when he struck the rock instead of speaking to it.

·         It was Jonah who remixed God’s plan, when he took a boat away from Nineveh.

·         It was Saul who remixed God’s plan, when he let King Agar live to offer him up as a sacrifice.

·         It was Samson who remixed God’s plan, when he told Delilah where his strength came from.

No matter what these people experienced due to their remixed or revised plan, God worked everything out on their behalf. That should be good news to many of us because we know that all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord and are the called according to his purpose. Let me be honest in this part of the message, as I tell you from personal experience that though God’s plan doesn’t always feel good, it will indeed work out for the good.  Even when we can’t see the good, we have to trust God in the process and Stick to his plan. And if there were ever a people who experienced a plan that would have been hard to stick to, they are right here in this text. The featured people in this text are the Children of Israel, who find themselves in a place that they have no desire to be in. they were in Babylonian Captivity and were forced to live under the rule of a nation that didn’t believe in their God. They no longer had the ability to dictate their own future and found themselves frustrated in this new space.

To make matters worse, Jeremiah decides to begin his letter to God’s people with the reality that God put them in the very space where they are. These people were faced with one of the hardest struggles of their lives. They were in Captivity under the rule of an emperor who didn’t have any regard for either their God or their culture. But, it is also important to remember that they ended up in this place because they were serving idol gods. Nevertheless, they wanted out of this place and they have hope that God will deliver them back in to their home. But every time they turned around, there was another wave of people coming from their homeland. Finally, Nebuchadnezzar decided to tear down the walls and burn down the city, so that the people would have nowhere to return to. These people have found themselves in a trap that only God could’ve gotten them out of, only to find out that it was God who put them in. this suggests from the very onset of this text that they are going to be here for a while.

Captivity is seemingly compared to a wilderness-like environment, as it is a place which is full of the exposition of limitations. The conditions of which they would normally abide, have to shift as they are in a new terrain. There is no temple to worship in and there is no well of sustenance that they can depend on to continually give them strength. They find themselves in a place where they are seemingly set up to fail. There is no hope of prosperity in this place because nothing is supposed to prosper while in the wilderness. The Israelites were in a place where they were stuck and had no hope for productivity. These individuals had to face the reality that no matter how much they pleaded with God, they were going to have remain in this unproductive place. Please Don’t spend so much time looking at Israel that you forget to see yourself in the text. Question: Where are you being held captive? The place where people don’t survive in but you find yourself flourishing in. The place where you are supposed to be the other or the outcast but God is raising you up in the midst of it all. We have to be careful to remember that our obligation, no matter where God calls for us to be productive.

The complexities of this text are found in the idea that God caused this captivity to happen and that there is some ambiguity in the message that is being proclaimed from God’s supposed messengers. The issue of conflict is found because of the lack of consistency in the midst of adverse time. This letter is written by someone who is not in captivity, to give encouragement to those who are in captivity. God set up the Israelites (and us) to let us know that if we went to succeed and to prosper, we must be in it #4TheLongHaul. God teaches of a lesson in the midst of this, by showing us that even in the midst of a Barren place or being in captivity, we still have the opportunity to be productive. God shows of this through verse 4 & 5 where God gives them an order to continue living.

Productivity in Limited Spaces   

God literally says although you don’t want to be here, and this place is not your home; while you are in this foreign space, I need you to be productive. These Israelites were found in the most unproductive point in their lives, where they felt like there was nothing that they could do; and it is at that moment that God is calling on them to be productive. They were in a place of constant lament and the reality of the matter is that there was no sense of deliverance in sight. In verses 5-7, God gave some specific instruction that let us know that our productivity is tied to our participation. Unless we do what God has said for us to do in this season, we will find ourselves in a purposeless captivity. God tells them to build some house and live in them; plant gardens and eat from them; get married, have children and marry off your children, to ensure you are increasing in number; but most importantly, seek the peace of the city.

What is God saying here? In short, God is telling us that we are going to be productive in this space we have: Build, Plant, Marry, Reproduce, Multiply and Seek Peace. Though this for some may be a literal plan but there is another concept that needs to be released from this text. God is saying that his plan has multiple layers. His plan is Structural (Build), Sustainable (Plant), Relational (Marry), Multi-Generational (Children). The plan that God has for you is going to help you build a structure that will sustain you, and give you relationships that are multi-generational but, the only way you can attain it is if you are willing to pray for the peace of the space that you are in right now. The peace that we are praying will also benefit us, because as people in the space, we are recipients of whatever it has to offer. Whether it's your job, your school, or even your home; this place that is not conducive for growth and productivity of others is the very space in which God has called them to be in.

Clarity in Your Mission

God had placed them in a spot that was projected for barrenness and hadn’t given them any instructions prior to this. Amid all of what was going on around them, God raised up a prophet who would tell the truth of the word to God’s people. Jeremiah tells them exactly what God has said regarding their situation. God realizes that there will be some people who will rise to the occasion of your misfortune and despair to speak a word over your life. They would be hearing from Faux-Televangelists, PropheLiers, and a host of Prosperity Pimps; who would be telling them that God was getting ready to bring them out of their situation. Although, they will have good intentions, they will not be hearing from God. This is why it is important that you know the voice of God, for yourself. God said that along your journey there will be Prophets and Diviners who will come to you and claim to be delivering the word to you, but they will not be hearing from Him.

God tells us that though these other people may be trying to encourage, He’s got a plan. It’s not just any plan, but it is a plan to prosper you, not to harm you and to give you an expected end. It is no accident that this letter came in this specific order, but let me remind you, my siblings in Christ, you will never acquire what God has for you until you abide by the plan that God Gave to you. God gives us a course of action, that we have to follow, in order to receive his deliverance. Jeremiah offers us Insight in the midst of our adversity. Jeremiah shows us that our Deliverance will come from the place in which we are trying to get to. Jeremiah is writing this letter from Jerusalem, not from Babylon. Jeremiah was not in captivity but rather was in the place that they desire to be in. So he knew that God was able to bring them back to the place that he was in, because he had already arrived at that place. In order for us to have Clarity in our mission, we have to be focused on getting to the place God has for us.

Accessibility in Diverse Places

In verse 12, Jeremiah tells us about the accessibility we have to God.  Jeremiah says that we will call upon him, and we will pray unto him and we will search for him and find him. But he doesn’t stop the sentence at the purpose of finding God, but rather suggest to us that we will only find him when we search with our whole heart. In Jeremiah 17:9, we learned that our hearts are deceitful and beyond Cure; but in this letter Jeremiah prove that the only remedy for The Malady of our heart is searching for God. For so long, Israel had been spending their time loving on all of these different idols. And please don't remove yourself from this idea, as we have modern-day Idols that take our attention away from God as well. You know these gods we serve:

·         Job

·         Paycheck

·         Celebrities

·         Facebook

·         Instagram

·         Snapchat

·         Time

·         Position

·         Shopping

God is telling us that after witnessing a consistency of our hearts being turned toward Him, that he will deliver us. In short, God is calling for our undivided Love and Attention. It is that love you exude in the early stages of a relationship. It’s the love you in your Facebook and Instagram post. It is the love found in 1^st Corinthians chapter 13. The kind of love that you talk on the phone all night with until the sun comes up. The kind of love that endures the test of times. When we love God like that, we will look for him and find him. We will always have access to him, and will be able to stick to God’s plan.

·         When we stick to God’s Plan: We will build that city on a Hill

·         When we stick to God’s Plan:  Fiery Furnaces won't burn you,

·         When we stick to God’s Plan: The Lions won't devour you

·         When we stick to God’s Plan: A table will be prepared in the presence of your enemies

·         When we stick to God’s Plan: A Scarlet Rope will save us

·         When we stick to God’s Plan: You will seek Him and Find Him

·         When we stick to God’s Plan: Greater signs will you do, in the earth

·         When we stick to God’s Plan: No one will be able to stand against you

·         When we stick to God’s Plan: Whatever you ask in his name, it will be done.

·         When we stick to God’s Plan: We can Do Kingdom Worship, Kingdom Witness, Kingdom Work, in Kingdom Ways

·         When we stick to God’s Plan: We’ll hear him say Well Done!

If when you give

the best of your service

 telling the world

that the Saviour has come

Be not dismayed

when man don't believe you

he'll understand

 and say well done

If when you've tried

and failed in your trying,

 hands sore and scarred

from the work you've begun

Take up your cross

and come quickly to Jesus,

 He'll understand

 and say well done