160214 God Knows the Plans

Jeremiah 29:10-14 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. ¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. ¹² Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. ¹⁴ I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

Obviously, this passage of Scripture speaks from God, through Jeremiah, to the people of Israel held in exile. There are people who would say that we have no right to claim this for ourselves because it is for exiled Israel. I beg to differ! Paul wrote to the Romans “Christ became a servant to the circumcised (Jews) to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. (Romans 15:8-9) Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.” (2 Corinthians 1:20)

When God says he has plans for Israel, through Jeremiah, they should not be surprised. In the same way we should not be surprised that God has plans for us and for this church. God’s plans are always focused on bringing glory to himself and not to people. God’s plan for exiled Israel would lead them to the place in their history where they would call upon him, seek him and find him. Everything was designed to cause them to seek him with all their heart. God wanted them to understand what this was all about and how much he desired to heal their land and their nation. There was a significance in the time that would pass…

Seventy years — their significance. God had warned Israel that they would turn away from him in rebellion. When this would happen God had warned them very specifically. We find the warning in Leviticus 26:33-35. I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste. ³⁴ “Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths. ³⁵ As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, the rest that it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it.

When God set up the nation Israel one of the rules they were to follow was good farming techniques. Part of that plan was to allow their fields, every seven years, to rest, or lie fallow, just as God had rested on the seventh day. For more than 400 years Israel had not been faithful to God in allowing for the Sabbath year. Therefore, God sent them into exile for 70 years because of their rebellion thus allowing the land to enjoy its Sabbaths. We need to remember that…

God knows what’s going on. None of what Israel was going through was a surprise to God. Let’s look at Isaiah 46:8-10. “Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, ⁹ remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, ¹⁰ declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’”

Isaiah lived and ministered about 100 years before Jeremiah. God had clearly pointed out the danger facing Israel. He knew what would happen. He knew they would be carried away. He also knew that this was his purpose and plan. After Isaiah’s warnings, Jeremiah could pick up the theme and show that God’s plan involved more than their captivity. Even in the midst of their exile Israel could rest in the fact that God had plans for them. The plans he had were not to do more harm but instead were…

Isaiah 46

Plans for welfare. Just as God had a plan for Israel he has a plan for us today. Paul wrote about it in Ephesians 3:20-21. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

We need to remember that God is capable of doing everything that we ask. Even all that we can think is known by God and is empowered by him. He has a plan for us that will bring glory and honor to him.

We think that our plans are really wonderful but they are not anywhere near the plans that God has for us. The power of the Holy Spirit has come to rest upon the church and the individual members of it. That power is sufficient to bring glory to God throughout all of history and beyond. God had, for them and for us, a plan…

To give a future. The apostle Paul brings forward a quote from Isaiah found in       1 Corinthians 2:9. But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—

Nothing we have seen or heard can come close to what God has prepared for those who love him. In fact, not just what we have seen or heard but what we can imagine doesn’t even come close to what God has prepared. We must never, ever, doubt that God intends everything to work together for our good. In a way God’s plan for captive Israel applies to the 21^st century church. The church today is often in captivity to the social pressures around us. We need to be like King Jehoshaphat when he was faced with overwhelming enemies. He saw that he was not powerful enough to face his enemies, he was faced by three powerful armies, and so he turned to God in prayer. His prayer was simple, “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” (2 Chronicles 20:10) When we face our enemies we need not spend too much time looking at them. We need to fix our eyes on God! Our God wants to give us a future and…

To give a hope. Again we will turn to one of the writings of Paul for a New Testament example. Colossians 1:27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Paul was physically suffering and carrying the emotional burden of the churches. God had revealed to him that there was a mystery that had been hidden for generations and was now ready to be revealed. Christ gives us a hope for the future that he has promised us.

Biblical hope is not like our usual use of the word. I could say, “I hope it doesn’t rain.” Meaning I don’t know whether it will or not but I do have a desire that it not rain. If Christ in us is our hope of glory then it is a secured promise. We must simply be patient, waiting on God to deliver, what he has promised us. We are able to rejoice in hope while being patient in tribulation. God himself will fill us with joy while we hope for the future. We are not defensless because…

God’s people may call upon him. Let’s go back to the Old Testament and read the promise found in Deuteronomy 4:7. For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?

Moses is recounting for the people of Israel their progress to date. He reminds them of the many things they have seen so far. Then he asked them the question we see before us. Whenever we get discouraged or depressed we need to ask some questions.

Let’s see if I can give one of them a modern paraphrase. What great group of people has a god as near to them as our God is to us so that we can call upon him? Or, perhaps we can draw some encouragement from the experience of Cicilla Martin who was, along with her husband, in Elmira, New York, more than 100 years ago. She observed a couple, a Mr. and Mrs. Doolittle, who were both crippled and yet at the same time lived a very happy Christian life.

Dr. Martin, Civilla’s husband, asked the Doolittle’s one day what the secret of their bright hopefulness was. Mrs. Doolittle replied, “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me.”

From that encounter came the powerful song that begins this way.

Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heaven and home,
When Jesus is my portion? My constant friend is He:
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

I sing because I’m happy,
I sing because I’m free,
For His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.

Who has a God that is like our God found in the Christian faith? None, none at all! All the gods of the world are blind and deaf and immobile. We have a God we can call upon with confidence that he will hear from heaven and heal our problem. God will do for us just as he promised to do for exiled Israel. We find in Scripture that…

God will restore and gather. A prophet told King Asa that God is looking for people to support. We find it recorded in 2 Chronicles 16:9a.  For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.

Please don’t draw from this the idea that God has to search about for people to help. What this says to me is God is always looking over the whole earth at same time. This is not something we can do however it is easily done by God. Whenever a person’s heart is truly wholeheartedly God’s then he will always provide for them. The proverb tells us, (Proverbs 15:3) “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.” Not only is God watching he is prepared to restore as well.

We don’t know exactly when Joel wrote but he gave a very powerful promise to those who would return to him with all their heart. Joel 2:25 I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.

During times of rebellion God sends upon his people all kinds of disasters. He does this to get their attention! Since Israel was primarily an agricultural country in the days of Joel, when their heart was not truly turned to him, God destroyed their crops.

The promise is that when the people of Israel would turn their hearts to him he would not just clean up the mess that had been left from their rebellion. He would do far better than that! God promised that he would restore what was destroyed by the locusts.

We can also be confident that God will restore to us what has fallen away if we will come to him with our whole heart. Over the past two years the Stamford Baptist Church has not flourished! We have seen families move away from the area and some, still in the area, drop out of church. In the best case scenario those who have dropped out are attending somewhere else. In the worst-case they’re not going anywhere.

We serve a God who is capable of meeting all of our needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. In fact, we learn from the Bible that God is constantly seeking people whose hearts are his so that he can show himself strong for them. God has plans for this church that go beyond where we are at today. We will see the baptistery being used as people come to faith in Christ and we will see others move into the area and into this church to give it the strength that only comes from God. The important thing is that we never forget that God will meet our needs.

All scriptures quotes are from: The Holy Bible: English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.