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Irvington Presbyterian Church
PO Box 1336 4181 Irvington Avenue, Fremont, CA 94538
www.irvingtonpres.org
510-657-3133
July 17, 2016
“Plans to Prosper”
Larry Thorson
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Jeremiah 29:11
“11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you
and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
New International Version
Jeremiah 29:11 says, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord,
'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.'"
So how might this verse be twisted and abused as all the verses we’re
studying this month have been? "God has plans to prosper you." That sounds
pretty good to me. I like to prosper, don’t you? But who was Jeremiah and how
did he know my life is going to prosper? And what about the Syrian Christian
refugee reading that verse and her lack of prosperity?
Who was Jeremiah – the twisted verse in context
The first thing we look for in understanding a Bible verse is the context.
Jeremiah was a prophet. Prophets were spokespeople for God. In the Old
Testament days when God wanted to send a message to His people he would
speak through specifically chosen people, men and women. God would usually
speak when the people were living in rebellion to God.
A Specific Time and Circumstance
In this case Jeremiah wrote a letter on behalf of God to the elders, priests
and prophets of Israel living in exile in Babylon because of their rebellion. Right
before our verse in Jeremiah 29:11, he said in verse 10,
“ This is what the Lord says. When 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will
come back to you and fulfill my good promise and bring you back to this place.".
He was explaining that because of their rebellious behavior and worship of
idols they would spend the next 70 years in exile under the control of the
Babylonians. The message from God was get used to it. Build houses there.
Plant gardens. Have babies. Don’t sit around with your suitcases packed because
you’re not getting out in less than 70 years. You are in exile because of your
rebellion."
Think about who Jeremiah was specifically writing to. It says he was writing
to the elders. How old do you think the elders were? Old. He was writing to
elderly people. Imagine writing to a 70-year-old,"In 70 years, I’ll come back. I
know the plans I have for you, plans to bless you, prosper you, not to harm you,
to give you hope and a future. They're going, "We're not going to see that in our
lifetime. We’re going to be dead in 70 years." Yes, but what they and we need to
remember is that our heritage, our legacy won’t be dead. That was important to
them. God knew that they would see it happen in the supernatural because He
had plans to bless them and prosper them, to give them the hope and a future
that wasn't just based on this life. Why? Because as I Corinthians 2:9 says no eye
has seen and no ear has heard all the good things that God has planned for those
who love Him.
What we have to realize with this is that there will be specific promises in
the Bible and there will be general promises. Specific promises are always made
to a specific group of people, and there are general promises made to everybody.
We always need to identify the difference. That verse 10 was specifically for a
group of people in a specific situation and time.
Jeremiah 29:11 is also a specific promise made to the Jewish exiles. The
problem is, for us, when we read that phrase, "God has plans to prosper you," we
think the pronoun “you” means "me." Why? Because I want to be the main
character of everything that happens in the Bible. I want it all to be about me.
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The reason why this can be dangerous and we want to try to avoid doing itis that if we start to believe Jeremiah 29:11 as a specific promise to us whenever
one of those things mentioned like blessing and prospering doesn’t happen we’ll
say , "Well, I prayed and now I'm not blessed. I'm faithful and now I lost my job.
I'm serving God and my kid is sick."
Americans aren’t the only ones reading Jeremiah. When we’re talking
about God prospering people what does that say to the Christian mom in Syria
who just lost a kid to kidnapping and now lives in a refugee tent? Tell that verse to
the Christian parents who just lost a child to malaria and it could have been
prevented by a very inexpensive mosquito net that they didn’t have access
to. No, this verse was a specific prophecy to a specific group of people in a
specific situation, 70 years of exile.
A Showdown Between Prophets: Jeremiah & Hananiah – Good News vs False
News
The main reason God sent this prophecy to Israel through Jeremiah was
because they had received a counterfeit prophecy sent by another prophet. In
Jeremiah 28 we learn about a prophet named Hananiah. What Hananiah said
was; "Guess what? This exile is only going to last for two years. You thought you
were going to be in exile for all this time, but God's going to break the
Babylonians and in two years, you're out of here. Which prophet would you
rather listen to?
Then there's this showdown that goes on between Hananiah and the
prophet Jeremiah where Hananiah takes off the yoke of the prophet Jeremiah and
breaks it. All of a sudden, Jeremiah is, "Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What
you're saying, Hananiah, sounds good, but it's not true." Hananiah was a false
prophet and he was delivering what I call false good news about the exile lasting
only two years." Jeremiah the prophet says, "No, no, no, no, no. You're wrong and
you're going to die." It's pretty serious. Don't get this wrong. It'll cost you.
Then in the seventh month of that year, guess what happened? The false
prophet Hananiah died. Wow. That’s precisely why parents all over the world
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name their children Jeremiah and ain't nobody named Hananiah, because he was
a false prophet with false good news.
But it's so easy to pursue false good news. I want what feels good. I want
God to do everything I want Him to do. I want it to be all about me. Without
knowing, we can slip into the eisegesis, where the text is always about me or God
is always here to serve me and everything's going to be about me. If we're not
careful, we'll be drawn to a type of preaching that almost always says that kind of
thing. I know what kind of sermons are popular.
The Bible never says we pursue a god who gives us joy without pain,
blessings without trial, prosperity without any bumps in the road. That would be
pursuing a false good news like Hananiah did. That's dangerous, and that's why a
lot of people walk away from the faith."Well, God didn't do what I wanted done.
Well, I tithed and I didn't get rich. Well, I went to church and my kid got sick."
Whenever we believe this prophecy is just to us and it doesn't happen, it
leads us to the conclusion that either God doesn’t exist, or God isn’t really good.
That's the danger when we read ourselves into a promise. We start to wrongly
believe that God is some kind of cosmic Coke machine where we put our money
in, push the button and God must deliver on exactly what we want. Essentially,
we're reducing God to our butler who exists to serve us. ‘May I serve you? "The
bottom line is, we exist to serve and glorify God.
This was a specific promise to a specific group of people who were refugees
living in exile. They wanted to hear that the exile would only be for two years.
That was the popular sermon. Please. Get us out of here. We're in bondage. We
don't want to be in bondage."
Who is the Promise To?
If we continue in Jeremiah we read this promise in verses 12-14: Then you
will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to 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 will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you
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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.”
This is a pretty specific prophecy. God wasn’t saying that to us. We’re not
living in exile for 70 years. But just because this text wasn’t written specifically for
us, doesn't mean there isn’t truth in it for us. Does God have plans for us? Does
God have a purpose for us? All day long. Ephesians 1:11 says "God works
everything in conformity with a purpose of his will." Romans 8:28 says And we
know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have
been called according to his purpose.”
Does God have plans to bless people? All day long. Matthew 7:11 says If
you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how
much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
Does God prosper people? All the time. God actually gives wealth. Wealth is
not a bad thing. With wealth, you can do a lot of good things. God prospers a lot
of people but He doesn't financially prosper everybody. In fact, prospering
doesn't just mean financial prospering. Sometimes prospering means having good
relationships. It sometimes means health. Sometimes, it means we just know
we're right with God.
Whenever you get cancer, can you still have hope? All day long. We have
hope that God uses doctors. We have hope that the name of Jesus is bigger than
the name of cancer. We have hope in a God who says all things are possible with
Him. Whenever your life falls apart, you think, "Well, I could never overcome this.
Can God ever use me again? After what I did, can God ever use me?" Yes, you
have a future. We serve a god who works in all things to bring about good. He will
use it for your future. He will take where you messed up, do something in you,
help conform you to the image of His son, Jesus. If you're not dead, you're not
done. God still has something for you.
In verse 12 we read "When you call on me and come to me and pray to me,
I will," do what? God says, "I will listen to you." "You will seek me and find me
when you" do what? "When you seek me with all of your heart, I will be found by
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you." God says, "No matter what you're going through, I'm going to be there for
you. Whenever you call on me, I will hear you. When you cry out to me, I am
there. No matter what you do, I will never leave you nor forsake you. I am with
you always." God never, ever left them even in exile.
When Will God Not Listen?
Here’s the thing not to miss. There was a time when God did not listen to
them. That’s why he says that after the 70 years he’ll bring them back to the
Promised Land and listen to them. We like to think we can do anything we like
and God is a forgiving God. Life will go on as normal without consequences.
That’s a twisted use of that Scripture.
The reality is if God was listening to them in exile why did He have to say
He’d listen to them after the 70 year exile? There are consequences to our
actions. If we willfully ignore God’s ways as proclaimed in God’s Word God is
hurt. Our communication lines are broken down. We can think everything is fine
and that God is speaking to us like Hananiah and his false prophecy but we’re only
fooling ourselves.
What happened to Israel is they lived in a culture that continually opposed
the ways of God. God called them to live differently but gradually, little by little
they began to take on the pagan customs that pressed in around them. When
King David had an affair with a married Bathsheba it was seen as a great sin
against God. But when their son Solomon took 700 wives most of whom
worshipped false gods no one spoke against it. It wasn’t condoned but Israel was
on a dangerous slide downward away from God at that point.
After Solomon king after king came to power in Israel most of whom didn’t
stand up for God’s Word and God’s ways. Gradually they were doing pagan
rituals of child sacrifices and temple prostitution just like the culture around
them. But it didn’t happen overnight. It came gradually until God had enough
and allowed them to be overrun by enemy Babylon.
We live in a time now when it’s popular for those in their teens and 20’s to
say they’re atheists. We live in a time when Sunday is just another day not a day
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for church. My young neighbors plan work parties in our neighborhood on
Sundays at 9:00 am without even batting an eye that we might be doing
something else on a Sunday morning.
Whereas we might never miss worship on a weekend we’re being enticed
to do something else over and over. It’s like the frog in the kettle who doesn’t
even notice the water getting hot until it’s too late.
That’s what happened to Israel and I’m afraid that’s what’s happening to
the American church. Christians need to stand up for what we believe and make
a difference. We’re not going to win the world over by becoming like the world.
Our power comes from being connected to God.
If you want to hear from God then take a stand for what you know God is
standing for. Weekly worship. Bible study. Prayer. Justice. You’re in
conversations with people and when black people are being lumped into the
category of hostile reactionaries because of one crazed ex Marine in Dallas say
you don’t agree with that. When people say white police officers are killers stand
up for the officers because it ain’t true for the majority of them. Your words and
your actions have impact. When you get invited to do something other than
worship God on Sunday invite them to come to worship with you. Take a stand
for God and God will prosper you in ways you can’t even imagine.
The Hope of the True Good News (Gospel)
When you call on Him, He will hear your cry. When you draw near to Him,
He will draw near to you. When you seek Him with all your heart you will find
Him. That’s why he sacrificed His Son on the cross to make sure we have access
to Him. God has plans to prosper us. Do you want God? What in your decisions
this week will indicate that?
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TO LEARN MORE
Join a Small Group – call the church office for times and location
510/657-3133
To learn and encourage one another
IF YOU’D LIKE TO KNOW HOW TO
GET STARTED IN FAITH
1. Recognize that everyone has sinned and fallen short of God’s ideal
Romans 3:23-24
2. Know that the wages or payment for sinning is death
Romans 6:23
3. But God loved us so much that He sent His only Son to die for us
Romans 5:8
4. It is our responsibility to accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and allow
Him to become the master of our life
Romans 10:13
Invite Jesus into your heart by praying something like the prayer below…
“Dear Lord Jesus, in many ways I have sinned against you. I am sorry and want to turn from
my sinful ways. I invite you to come into my heart and begin to make me like yourself. I
commit my life wholeheartedly to you now. Thank you for saving me.”
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