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."