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?