Jeremiah 29 verse 11

LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 31 JANUARY 2021

PSALM 147

MOTTO VERSE: JEREMIAH 29 VERSE 11 "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you saith the LORD thoughts of peace not of evil, to give you an expected end."

The people in Jeremiah's day were on God's heart.  They thought they were cast aside in Babylon, abandoned, had little hope.  They were not able to sing any longer.  They had rejected God's way and now were living under God's wrath in a foreign land.  God's grace was being demonstrated.  He wanted them to lift their eyes away from the situation they were in and on to the God of heaven.  We have come through a time of great uncertainty and it is easy to get our eyes on the situation and circumstances we find ourselves in but we need to lift our eyes onto God.  Psalm 147 reminds us of the deliverance that would come.  We will not come through it in our own ability or strength but through God's might and power alone.  I want to look at 3 men God would use in this situation, be instrumental in the plan of God to bring the captives back to Israel again.  Many are trapped by sin today.  God is calling you today.  There are those in your neighbourhood and family circles who are ensnared in the fetters of sin and the devil, they are depending on you  God is asking you to surrender that life of yours, to be instrumental in winning souls even in these days.

Jeremiah - the communicator.  He knew there were a people in Babylon who needed to hear this message God had for them.  A message of hope for them  There are those today who feel there is no hope, nowhere they could go to.  You and I have a message for that very person.  There is hope in the Lord.  Jeremiah had been faithful in speaking to the people he lived amongst.  He gave them a message they did not want to hear - he told them to surrender to the king of Babylon.  The people didn't want to hear that.  They listened instead to false prophets who said that God would not allow them to be taken into captivity.  God is looking to us today, to teach others the real truth.  Jeremiah was hated for his communications.  The people wanted to close their ears to the message he gave.  In Jeremiah 29 verse 1 he sends a letter to the people living in Babylon.  It was a message coming from the heart of God.  We have a message from God today.  People need to here the message of hope in Christ alone.  What a hope you have today.  They needed to hear that God would step in, that they were still on God's heart and mind.  They listened to another message in Babylon, a false message that told them their captivity would not last long but Jeremiah told them it would last for 70 years.  They were told to settle down, to build houses and raise families, to seek the peace of the city, not to rebel.  The church needs commmunicators today.  There are multitudes living in their sin without Christ.  We need to be those who can reach them.  We have the word of God before us.  The psalmist could say "I hope in thy word." (Psalm 119 verse 114)  Jesus can save to the uttermost all that come to him.  God wants us to tell people of that very hope today.  Paul writing to the Thessalonians said "even as others which have no hope." (1 Thessalonians 4 verse 13) It lasts beyond eternity.  "Comfort ye one another with these words." (1 Thessalonians 4 verse 18) Psalm 119 verse 130 "the entrance of thy words giveth life."  

Daniel - the man who was greatly concerned for others.  Daniel was one of the first carried captive into Babylon.  He took his concerns to the Lord.  Is there something on you mind but you haven't taken it to the Lord yet?  Daniel is reading from the book of Jeremiah when he discovers that the captivity would last for 70 years.  He then begins to count the years and realises those 70 years are coming to an end.  Daniel gets on his knees before God and begins to seek God's face, pleading the promises of God - Daniel 9 verse 2.  He used prayer, supplications and fastings before God just to know whether God would bring to pass what he had promised.  The church still needs Daniel's today.  We need to seek God at this time.  Daniel studied the word of God and he took what he read to God in prayer.  Remember Nehemiah when the captives had returned to Jerusalem and found the walls were knocked down and the people scattered.  Nehemiah was grieved in his heart because he was so concerned about the people and the work of God.  He began to plead with God.  As he prayed and pleaded God laid his hand on his life and asked him to go down and build the walls again.  God would use him mightily in the rebuilding of the walls of the city.  Are you prepared to say "here am I use me?"  Daniel prayed for the captives in Babylon.  Are we praying for men and women today, are we taking time to fast and come before God in repentance?  Habbakuk waited to see what the Lord would say - "revive thy work in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy." (Habakkuk 3 verse 2)  He was so concerned about the whole situation.  The church needs praying men and women in the background.  

Cyrus - the man who challenged.  In Ezra chapter 1 we read of Cyrus "he charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem."  Is there anything too hard for God?  Is there anyone you know who has gone astray in your family.  You think that they will never come to know the Lord again - is anything too hard for the Lord?  God used Cyrus.

Daniel who is behind the scenes concerned about the situation the people were living in.

Cyrus who challenged the situation.  Maybe God is asking you to be a Daniel or maybe a Cyrus today.  Nehemiah said "let us rise up and build." (Nehemiah 2 veres 18) Remember Joshua as an old man asking the Israelites to choose whom they will serve.  He said "as for me and my house we will serve the Lord." (Joshua 24 verse 15) What about you?  Are you living that life in front of your family, a life that is telling for God in your family, in your community?  Remember the Shunamite women in Elisha's day - she commented "this is an holy man of God which passeth by us continually." (2 Kings 4 verse 9)  God has a work for you today - will you take the challenge up today?

Jeremiah 29 verse 11 Part 4

LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 24 JANUARY 2021

PSALM 145

We are continuing to look at the motto verse from Jeremiah 29 verse 11.  It is important that we look and see that the God of heaven has given us his word.  This is a verse spoken to a people in captivity in Babylon but it is so real to us this morning as we face the trials and troubles and difficulties in this coming year - to know God is thinking of you and I.  Isaiah wrote this letter to a people scattered in Babylon.  It came from the very heart of God. God was thinking of their end - an expected end and future he had planned for them.  God knows everything about us, nows how you are feeling.  Isn't it good that we know God knows all about us and it is so relevant to us.  We need to get our eyes off the situation we find ourselves in.  The problems we face day by day, get them freshly on God today.  That burden you have been carrying for so long a time God knows all about that situation, get our eyes heavenward and see that God knows all about you, your problems.  3 young Hebrew men when the order came from the Babylon King to bow down to an image created they could not do it.  They defied the laws of the land and a a result were cast into the fiery furnace.  They got their eyes off the idol and the furnace and on to the Lord.  Our God can deliver us in this situation.  They knew God was able to deliver them.  We have his word today.  "Heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away." (Matthew 24 verses 35) Isaiah 55 speaks of the effects of the rain and snow that would fall and water the ground and brings forth its fruit in its season. Then he likens it to God's word - "so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth, it shall not return unto me void but it shall accomplish that which O please and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."

The patience God exercises.  God is in no rush.  The people were told that the captivity would last for a short time, that God would step in and deliver them but it was a false hope.  Verse 10 the captivity would be for 70 years.  God knew what he would do with his people.  God is patient and exercises that for 70 years.  Thinking of their time to be spent there, they were to build houses, to plant gardens, eat the fruit of them, marry and have children.  God is in no rush today.  Remember Job and his sufferings.  He lost everything.  Job might have been in that situation for some years before God moved in.  1 Peter 1 verse 6 "Wherein ye greatly rejoice though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations."  James when describing trials said "count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations."  These trials are for your benefit, to make you stronger Christian.  Romans 8 verse 28 "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."  It is easy to pray that for someone else when they are going through a difficult time yet hard to do when we ourselves are going through those times, the difficult times of testings, but both testings and blessings are all working for good for you and I.  Remember how patient God was when he was convicting us of our sin - we were rebellious but God was patient with us.  

A programme that God expresses.  "For thus saith the Lord that after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place."  This is the programme God is now expressing.  There is that patience God exercises.  Notice the programme that is running.  Jeremiah 29 verse 14.  It wouldn't happen for 70 years.  God's word is sure.  They would be brought back into their land after 70 years.  They were to hold onto the promises of God in the difficult days.  Joseph was only a young man.  His life was falling apart, he couldn't understand what was happening.  Why was he to go through difficult times?  God would take Joseph down to Egypt to be the Saviour of Israel.  Remember Genesis 15 verse 13 God came to Abraham "know of a surety that they seed shall be  a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them and they shall serve them and they shall afflict them 400 years."  Joseph was sold into Egypt at 17, he was sold to Potiphar who bought him as a slave,  Things went well in that situation.  God was using Joseph there.  Then Potiphar's wife acccused him wrongly and he was cast into the prison.  As a result things turned out well for him.  Now in prison God was not through with Joseph,  God had Joseph on his mind.  He met 2 servants of Pharoah's in that prison house.  There were 2 dreams - the butler would be reinstated.  Joseph said 'when you are released please remember me'.  Don't forget about me.  But a full 2 years went past and he was not remembered. God's not answering me.  God has failed.  It was not God's time.  God's programme was running for the Israelites and Joseph.  God's programme is running for you and me.  It will not be shortened.  A patient God.  It took 400 years to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt.  There is a great programme running today.  These are the last of the last days.  One of these days the Lord will leave his Father's side, heaven, once again.  Not to die for the sin of the world.  He is coming this time as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  Those who are saved and know God personally they will be reunited with him in the air.  The dead in Christ will rise first and then we that remain will rise too  God's programme is running today.  A patient God.  Peter tells us that God is not willing for any to perish but that all should come to repentence.

The power that God engages here.  The great ruling power at this time was Babylon.  Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom was mighty.  Now God was thinking of raising up another new king in place of Nebuchadnezzar.  It was no surprise to God.  The situation you are in is no surprise to God.  He knows all about it.  God has promoted it.  In Ezra 1 we read that God stirred up Cyrus King of Persia.  He would be the one to provide deliverance from the Israelites.  He was the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar.  He opened up the banqueting house and invited 1000 lords.  He thought no-one could overtake him.  The enemy was even at his gates.  At that party they brought out the holy vessels taken from the temple in Israel.  Everything was going well until they saw the writing on the wall.  "Thou art weighed in the balances and are found wanting."  Cyrus was the one God was to use.  God knows every situation today.  He is working it out for you and your benefit.

How precious also are thy thoughts unto me O God how great is the sum of them!

LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 17 JANUARY 2021

PSALM 139 VERSES 11 - 18

In Psalm 139 we get a wonderful and beautiful picture of God.  We see that God is revealing his mind, his very thoughts to the people of Israel.  In this revelation we see God's heart towards you and I.  God is here and he is speaking to us.  The people in Jeremiah 29 have rebelled and rejected God's word and have been taken captive to Babylon.  Maybe they feel abandoned, that no-one understands the situation they are in.  God tells them they are not far from his thoughts.  He is thinking of them all the time.  God's thoughts to his people was to give them a promised future.  We see through the scriptures something of the arm of God when he brought his people out of Egypt.  Then we seen the finger of God in giving the commandments to Moses.  We are reminded that no man could look on God's face.  Now we see God's mind.  Psalm 139 verses 17 and 18.  The Psalmist gives this note of praise for God's thinking towards him.  Psalm 8 "what is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou shouldest think of him."  David realised that the Lord knew all about him, despite all the flaws in his life when he let God down and failed him.  Remember God visited you right where you were in your fallen rebellion and he saved you.  That is how he is coming to his own people in Babylon.

Does this not bring to us a sense of praise today?  To know God is thinking of us even at this time.  The Children of Israel were delivered by God's mighty hand.  God brought them through the wilderness, not by the way of the Philistines even though that was shorter lest they would see the battle and want to turn back.  God was thinking of them and their future.  God is thinking of you today.  Psalm 139 verse 17.  How precious are you to God that he would think of you.  John 14 as Jesus looked at his followers, he knew how their hearts would respond when he went to Calvary.  He knew he had to leave it all behind, that he would die to save them from their sins.  He told them "let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you ... that where I am there you might also be."  Jesus knew there would be sadness in the days ahead.  Remember when Jesus looked out over Jerusalem, he knew what would happen in the coming days - that Jerusalem would be invaded, the people would be slaughtered, buildings crushed and Jesus wept for that coming time.

Notice also how precious are those thoughts.  The Psalmist realised that God was thinking of him personally.  This was God the creator who spoke the word and everything came into being.  The great creator.  The great sustainer.  How precious to think that the God of creation would think of me and you.  That God would send his son into this world just to die for us.  Imagine this people in Babylon who had drifted from God, turned their backs on him yet God said "you are still on my mind".  Maybe that is an encouragement to you today.  You are on God's mind today.  God hasn't given up on us.  Imagine the prodigal son - he made a choice when he asked for his inheritance early.  He took that inheritance and went out to a far country and spent it all.  He had a really good time but ended up feeding pigs.  He had no food, no money in his pocket, no friends.  Somehow in his heart he thought of his father.  He decided to go back to his fathers house.  When he came home he found a father standing waiting for him.  He loved him so much.  He was never far away from his father's thoughts, not for one second.  Remember how the Lord told John in Revelation about the seven churches - in Laodicea they were neither hot nor cold but if only they would repent because he was standing at the door waiting for them to open it again and let him back in.  They were still on his mind.

The thoughts were also personal - verse 17 "how precious are thy thoughts unto me."  I don't know how you stand spiritually speaking, the difficulties you are going through but God knows your personal thoughts.  The Psalmist realised the preciousness of his thoughts because they were so personal.  In Jeremiah 29 we read that God wanted to give his people an expected end.  In Psalm 137 we read "by the rivers of Babylon there we sat down when we remembered Zion.  We hanged our harps in the willows in the midst thereof."  God promised them a future.  Israel has a future one day in the end days - we seen that when in 1948 Israel was established as a nation.  Remember he is thinking of you and your future.  That is why God's word is precious.  "Cast your care upon the Lord for he cares for you."  "Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you."  Isaac was a young man who ran into a difficult time - Genesis 26.  There was a famine in the land and Isaac planned to go down to Egypt but God told him to remain where he was and he would see him through.  Years later Jacob was faced with the same situation and he was reluctant to go to Eygpt.  He knew there was food available in Egypt, his sons had already been there and received some.  In Genesis 46 God came to him and said "fear not to go down to Egypt for I will there make of thee a great nation"  God worked in those circumstances for Jacob.  Remember Elimelech in the book of Ruth.  He had a decision to make - to stay in Bethlehem or get out to Moab because of the famine in the land.  He received no instruction from God and went down with his family to Moab.  His whole family were wiped out as a result.  Job in the Old Testament lost his family, his herds and flocks and his health.  His wife came in and tells him to "curse God and die".  His 3 friends gathered to encourage him.  Job said "but he knoweth the way that I take."  God has it all worked out for us.  He knows the way we take today.  God will not forsake and abandon us today.

The thoughts God has towards us are plentiful.

Jeremiah 29 verse 11

LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHUCH

Sermon Notes from Sunday 10 January 2021

Jeremiah 29 verses 9 - 14

"For I know the thoughts that I think towad you saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end." verse 11

Last week we set this passage in context.  We saw the conditions in which this promise was given.  This promise was given to a people who felt abandoned, that God had turned his back on them.  Jeremiah sends a letter to the people verse 1 but it was from God himself verse 4.  We have the words of God today that come from the heart of God himself.  An explanation from God was given as to why this people were in this situation.  God gives us understanding of the situation we are in.  If we have never realised we have come short of the glory of God then we can never be saved.  Without Christ we are nothing.  We need to realise we have sinned and need a Saviour.  We need to come to Calvary to that place where Jesus suffered and bled and died that we might be saved.  There had also to be an education that they would be in this land for 70 years.  There was also a great encouragement to them.  Even though they had backslidden God was still thinking of them.  He had given them to the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar to chasten them.  God hadn't forgotten about them.

This is a letter that confirmed God's great love for them.  God demonstrated his love towards you and I when we were lost in sin and couldn't find our way home, God sent his only son - John 3 verse 16.  God took the very best he had to offer - his son.  It is not that God condoned the sin.  He loved you and I that he gave his only son for us.  He was confirming his love For them even in Babylon.  It was not thoughts of evil but peace that he had towards them.  Can you imagine what it was like for God in Genesis 3.  Everything he had made was very good in Genesis chapter 1.  Then when Adam sinned he realised that he had to destroy the world.  Later in Exodus God brought his own people out of Egypt through the Red Sea to the Promised Land.  Now in Jeremiah's day God was watching the families.  He seen the children going out into the streets and gather up sticks for their fathers to burn.  He saw the woman baking cakes to put on the fire to be burned in sacrifice to the queen of heaven.  It must have broken God's heart that they had turned their backs on him.  God allowed Nebuchadnezzar to invade the land and carry them away into captivity.  When I was thinking of that great love 2 little words in the New Testament confirmed that great love of God.  On the morning of the resurrection when the women gathered together to go and anoint the body of Jesus, they noticed when they went to the tomb that the great stone was rolled back.  They discovered that Jesus was no longer in the tomb but had risen and was alive for evermore.  Imagine how Peter was feeling in his heart.  He was there in the garden with Jesus when he was arrested.  Peter followed afar off.  Then we find him warming himself by the fire in the Judgment Hall.  Someone said to him "you are one of his followers" which he denied.  How must Peter felt.  Is it possible that you are feeling that way today?  Some things have slipped in your life and you are not walking as close to the Lord.  How could God ever love me you are thinking.  There are 2 little words I want you to notice  The angel came to the women and told them to go and tell the disciples that Christ had risen.  Then these 2 words are added "and Peter".  In other words don't forget about him.  I know how he rejected me, denied me, walked afar off.  What tremendous love he had.  The Lord is saying 'I know all about you, I know where you are, I am biding you to come back to me again."  Maybe the women doubted the message they had received.  Maybe they thought it wasn't worthwhile going to Peter but God had singled him out.

This letter confounded their beliefs.  These people had listened to the false prophets of their day.  They told the people everything would be OK, no-one would take them away captive.  The true message was hard to believe.  God told Jeremiah to go and tell the people to surrender to the king of Babylon.  It was a hard message to give to the people and the people rejected it.  The people were still listening to the false prophets even in Babylon.  They told them they wouldn't be in captivity for long when in fact God's message was that they would be there for 70 years.  2 Peter 1 verses 1 and 2.  Today people say God is loving and he will not turn you out of heaven.  Sure you have lived a good life, you have gone to church, you have sat at the communion table, helped people in life, do you think for one moment that God will turn you out of heaven?"  Peter reminds us that as there were false prophets in the bible so there will be today and many will follow them.  If it only was a matter of doing the best you could then why did God send his son to die for your sins?  God wants these people to acknowledge the truth.  Why not trust Christ today, confess your sin to him, invite him as Saviour and Lord into your life.  God wants you to understand the truth, to turn away from the lies you have been listening to, that church and good works will take you to heaven.  "For there is no other name given under heaven whereby we must be saved."  "Except a man be born again he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven."  God wants you to trust his unchanging word today.

The challenge to their work.  God is looking out for them "and ye shall seek me and find me when ye seek me with all your heart." (verse 13)  "Then shall ye call upon me." (verse 12)  There is a time for action - it is today.  Daniel 9 verse 3 "he understood the prophecy of Jeremiah that the people would be in Babylon for 70 years" and that was coming to an end.  "I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes."  (Daniel 9 verse 3)  Chapter 9 verse 4 "I prayed unto the Lord my God and made my confession."  Daniel was serious about seeking God.  Many have theories about this world.  Surely if ever there was a time for the antichrist to come it is now.  A man who has al the answers politically and medically.  The world would flock to him today.  We need to be a people of prayer.  Daniel did not gather the people he knew together to talk about what he had found.  No he prayed and sought God.  He was serious about his praying.  This was not a prayer asking for blessing on one person but rather seeking after God.  Acts 3 Peter and John were on their way to the temple at the time of prayer when they were arrested.  In Acts 9 before Peter went to Cornelius he went up to the roof top and began to pray.  We need to be praying in these days.  We need to mean business with God.

The confidence they received - verse 12 "I will hearken unto you once again."

Jeremiah 29 verse 11

LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 3 JANUARY 2021

JEREMIAH 29 VERSES 1 - 10

Our motto verse for 2021 is Jeremiah 29 verse 11 "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you saith the LORD thoughts of peace not of evil, to give you an expected end."

I want to think of the context of the verse - why was it written - to a people in captivity who felt all hope was gone.  God was reassuring them he had everything in control.  He knows everything at the outset of this new year, whatever difficulties will come your way.  Isn't it wonderful to realise that God has all in his control.  This pandemic did not take God by surprise.  These people were in captivity, their future was bleak.  God had the remedy and cure.  In verse 1 we see the background to this chapter.  A letter sent by Jeremiah.

A letter of explanation.  God wants the people to see clearly why they are in the situation thy are in.  Jeremiah 29 verse 4 "I have caused you to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon."  God permitted it, allowed it to happen.  God would not tolerate sin.  "He is of purer eyes that to behold iniquity" (Habakkuk 1 verse 13).  At Calvary darkness fell across the scene.  God caused his son to bear our sin.  God sent this letter that he might explain to this people if they were in any doubt about why this situation had arisen.  They had sinned and rebelled.  Some times people throw up their hands and blame God for this pandemic.  We ask 'why is there so much suffering and pain, why are all these things happening?'  The bible explains it all, right back to the Garden of Eden when Adam turned his back on God.  He rebelled and fell from the grace of God.  From that day we have taken on the nature of sin.  All the pain and suffering today goes back to the fallen nature of man in the Garden of Eden.  In Jeremiah's day the people had taken the blessings of God and turned to a false religion.  It was so bad that it affected all the families of Israel - Jeremiah 7 verse 18.  A religion of their own making.  They were worhipping the sun, moon and stars with all their hearts.  The children were sent out into the city streets to gather wood.  The father took the wood and made a fire.  The mothers were busy baking cakes to be offered to the queen of heaven.  A false religion after their own imaginations.  Verse 18 "that they might provoke the Lord to anger."  Jeremiah 7 verse 13 "but ye heard not and I called you but ye answered not."  God sent his prophets to reach out to these people but they wouldn't listen.  Jeremiah 29 verse 4 the judgment hand of God had fallen.  Have you turned to Christ yet?  Maybe you have heard this preacher time after time, have been brought up in Sunday School, have been taught the things of God, have attended missions, heard how Jesus had suffered and bled and died for your sin.  Maybe you still haven't repented and turned to God.  Hear today that the judgment hand of God will fall.

A letter of education.  God was explaining the situation to come.  Babylon would bring judgment on them.  He wants them to see the reason for their defeat - it was because of their lifestyle.  Sin cannot be overlooked.  In the days of Joshua when Israel marched on Jericho they listened carefully to what God had planned for them.  They had to walk around the city walls very day and on the seventh day they not only walked but shouted and the walls came down.  The next battle was Ai but this time they were defeated.  Joshua got on his knees before God.  God came to Joshua and told him to get up because there was sin in the camp.  We need educated today.  We cannot live in sin and live in victory.  We must be cleansed by the blood of Christ.  God was educating this people on how they should act and react.  In verse 5 they were told to settle down, build houses, plant a garden and eat the fruit of it, take wives, have sons and daughters, to seek the peace of the city.  He was telling them how to live.  These people were worshipping false idols.  What did the people say to God - Jeremiah 44 verse 17 they claimed all these blessings were as a result of worshipping this false religion.  They were not giving honour to God.  It affected every generation.  Jeremiah 14 verse 14.  Jeremiah 2 verse 8 the priests were seeking to find fault with God.  The prophets were dreaming false dreams.  The people needed to be educated.  They were listening to the wrong people.  That was their downfall.  Jeremiah 29 verses 8 and 9.  You and I need to be careful today.  Are we listening to people who should have known better?  There was no mention of God at all.  The challenge was to be right before God.  These people needed to be educated and so do we today.  Think of David - he never confessed his sin until Nathan the prophet pointed it out to him.  Peter too never cried out until he began to sink.

A letter of encouragement.  In verse 1 we see it was a letter sent by the hand of Jeremiah but in verse 4 we see it was inspired by God himself.  We read in the bible that "all scripture is given by inspiration of God."  His people were being deceived, and they went into captivity for 70 years.  God told them he had raised Nebuchadnezzar to come and carry Israel away.  In 70 years time he would also raise up the Medes and Persians with Cyrus bringing the Israelites back to Jerusalem.  God has the whole future planned out.  Jeremiah suffered much for the Lord but he reaches out to the people once more.  Is there someone you can encourage today, show them the way of God's salvation?  God was in control of the whole situation then and now.