Latest / Journey Elgin / Sunday Message 7/26/2026- Do God's Plans for You Always Lead to Prospering?
Transcript
- Phillip Thomas: All right. Well we are gonna continue on in our ⁓ series that I ⁓ titled and and I I will say I ⁓ I I I used AI to create this image. And ⁓ I so so we'll we'll we'll see. But ⁓ I I I I like the the ⁓ the title. We're in the end game now. ⁓ it it just got kinda gets you thinking probably a lot of people immediately go to, ⁓ man, we're just gonna be talking about revelation and stuff like that. Well, no, the moment that Christ came out of that tomb, we were in the end game, right? It was n the cause now we are in that time where the next time he comes back, it's going to be the end. Right? Now so we don't we don't know timing, ⁓ but we are called to pay attention to the signs of the times. ⁓ we are also ⁓ it it's i it's important for us to to recognize the things that are changing around us. ⁓ a lot of pe I had a long conversation on Friday with ⁓ with a guy he's he's a ⁓ hospice nurse and and he just came you know, he knows I'm a pastor, he's kind of marginally religious, if you will, lean Christian, ⁓ right. And he just he he came out and said, Man, do you think like it's getting close to To Christ coming back. And and so we just started having a conversation. People are feeling this, right? ⁓ and and so I think we need to to to pay attention because we need to recognize what's going on in the world around us so that we can help and be a light to people who are struggling. Now you're gonna have moments that you struggle with everything that's going on. It's it's overwhelming. But We need to make sure that we are being that light into the dark world. That ⁓ that yeah, maybe it is getting close to the end, which is makes it all that more important that people accept the forgiveness and new life that comes in Jesus Christ. Because that is how that is why we don't have to fear the end. That's why we don't have to fear what's going to come, right? Because we know that he has already secured our victory. And ⁓ and but Many people are are not living in that reality. And we need to make sure that we can be a light and point them to the one who who does bring victory. So we we kind of have been ⁓ starting off looking at a few passages in the Old Testament. We're gonna be in ⁓ Jeremiah today, ⁓ actually ⁓ preaching from a a passage that I've I've ⁓ preached a couple of times ⁓ before. But ⁓ you know, we started out a couple of weeks ago ⁓ looking at that passage in Ezekiel of being a a watchman on the wall, right? Of wait, we're we're responsible to to speak up to to what's going on in culture, right? That that we need to make sure that that we are sharing with other people, hey, th these are the things that are right and these are the things that are wrong. Right. And and standing up for ⁓ for the truth and and making sure that we are speaking that ⁓ in the and living that out in the world around us. ⁓ You know, we've we've talked about last week, talked about what happened with the people, the people that God called out, right? That ⁓ and and created this special group of people that were gonna be his representatives to the world. And ⁓ and they did. ⁓ but yet what happened? They began to fall away and they began to follow other gods. ⁓ last week we talked specifically about ⁓ three of the the pagan gods that were very influential. ⁓ within that Canaanite culture ⁓ and how the spirit of those gods is the same thing that we're experiencing now. ⁓ and and so the the more the more you give into that, the further away from the one true God you get. Right? And ⁓ and so what was happening with the people is ⁓ they they had moved so far away from God that and the prophets were telling them, if you keep doing this, God's going to to ⁓ allow you to be conquered. Right. That is going to be the the result ⁓ of of how you're living. And sure enough, the Ba Babylonians come in and they take take ⁓ the people back. They actually kinda do it in two separate things. One they come in, they ⁓ they take all of the the best and the brightest and they bring them back to Babylon ⁓ and then a few and they plunder and steal everything and then a few years later they actually destroy the temple. ⁓ and so so that's where we are at this point. So we're gonna be in Jeremiah ⁓ chapter twenty nine. ⁓ and it's a it's an interesting situation. The the ⁓ the majority of the peop people, the leaders and everything like that, have been taken to into exile, but then there's still a lot of people that are left, right? And and there's there's lots of confusion going on. There's lots of different messages, people claiming to be speaking for God. And some are saying, Hey, don't don't worry. God's going to get you out of this really quickly. Says, you know, don't don't worry. You know, everything's going to be fine. Right? And Jeremiah is kind of like, ⁓ no, that's that's not what God said. No, you're gonna have to go through this punishment. This is the consequence of your idolatry. And ⁓ and so this is a a Wonderful passage I love this passage. It's it it has a verse that is probably taken out of context more than any other verse in scripture, or at least not not put into the full context of what it what it means. I actually think it's even more powerful when you understand the whole picture. And so Jeremiah ⁓ twenty-nine starting in verse one. These are the words. the the These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiled, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. This was after King ⁓ Johaniah and the Queen Mother, the eunuchs, the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, the metal workers had departed from Jerusalem. The letter was sent by the hand of Elisai. Elassa. I don't know why that one just really caught me. ⁓ the son of ⁓ because you're supposed to just pretend that you know how to pronounce these things and not slow down. The son of Shaphan and ⁓ Gereziah, the son of Hilkiah, Zedekiah, king of Judah, sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. It said, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. Build houses. Live in them, plant gardens, eat their produce, take wives and have sons and daughters, take wives for your son, give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters, multiply there, and do not decrease, but seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you. Do not listen to their dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name. I did not send them, declares the Lord. For thus says the Lord, when seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 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. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all nations in 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. All right. So Jeremiah twenty nine eleven is one of the more popular and well known verses in in all of scripture. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you, or plans for welfare, not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. but the context of this is fascinating and is important to understand. See, 'cause a lot of times we can take that that verse and we think, ⁓ well that What God wants and what he wants for us is is good. He wants us to succeed. He wants us to be financially stable. He wants us to have a good future. He wants to to take care of all of these things. And he does, right? But that's in the context of we are living in a fallen world. Right? And the people he's g he's giving them that promise, and they are literally have been ripped out of their homes. The temple has been completely destroyed, and they they ha they don't see any future. They're like, How do we how are we gonna go on? How are we are now in a foreign land? We are a conquered people. And that's the context that that powerful verse that Jeremiah writes, that God still He knows the plans he has for you. And you know what? He's not abandoning you even in the midst of being in exile. Right? And so I I want us to to To look at little bit of what God is desiring the people to do now that they're in exile. So they are they are now going through the con having to live the consequences of their sinfulness. Right? And and so they're gonna have to go through it. And what's and you continue to read there in Jeremiah, and he mentions it in this little part. He says, Don't listen to those prophesying. that everything's going to be be okay. That's not coming from the Lord. That that's what we want to hear, right? That kind of gets to that health and wealth gospel that that it sometimes gets gets preached. Right? That, hey, if you just do what you're supposed to do, be faithful to God, God's gonna reward you with this. Well, we substitute what that this is, and we usually it's always something positive, right? It's always something that's going to benefit us personally. ⁓ well, that may not be what God has in store for you, right? Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet, right? Because his life was basically miserable because no one listened to him. Everyone hated him, right? Constantly. But yet that's the plan that God had for him. And he it was a plan with a with a future and a hope. And and Jeremiah prospered in his own way, in the way that God wanted him to. Because he was being faithful to God, it didn't translate into riches. It didn't translate into fame, which is what we want things to usually do. No, but it translated into a fulfilled life in God. And it is it's important that we understand that we're not always going to get good worldly things ⁓ whenever we are faithful to God. Now many times we do. God does want to bless us and he's going to take care of ⁓ of us, but so often we put our own understanding of what being blessed ⁓ means ⁓ rather than allowing God to define that for us. And and he is warning the people don't listen to these people that are just telling you, hey, everything's gonna be fine. In fact, the things that they were telling them, they were saying, hey, don't Don't even unpack. God's gonna get you back here immediately. Some this was already starting to turn into kind of revolution type stuff, stirring the people up to fight back against Babylon, right? And using the the idea that, hey, God will be behind us. We will we will be victorious because God is is behind this. And God is like, no, I'm not. If you rise up against Babylon, you're just gonna get put down again. Right. And so he says, Go build houses, plant gardens, right? Start the process. Now it's really interesting. Did ⁓ did some little research of what it would have been like for the people to be in exile in Babylon. What are the things that they would have had to go go through? We actually have it, you know, of course the Bible tells us ⁓ certain things, but there's actually ancient Babylonian text. that mention there was a can't even remember what the the place was was called ⁓ but i it was called ⁓ El Judeo but it was in Aramaic. There was a little place, there was a little community where they stayed that would have been close to Babylon, right? Because they act Babylon actually wanted the benefit of the people. Right? So they were enslaved, but it wasn't like what we think of as slavery. They they actually wanted them to be part of their culture. They wanted them to benefit. So people like Daniel, remember that he was taken into captivity during this time. He actually is working with the king, right? So so they did integrate into this society. But it was it would have been such a challenge. And and things would have changed rapidly. So they would have been in this community. ⁓ there but there would have been all kinds of of challenges to stay faithful in the midst of this. Right. And remember, these are people who had failed whenever they were in the land that God had given them. And they had b had given in to the ⁓ temptation of idolatry. So now they're in this new place and they are just surrounded by things that are trying to pull them away from God. And so it it really God uses the exile. to really strengthen the people's faith if they were willing to do it. Right? No, because there would have been all kinds of all kinds of things pulling at them. There would have been dietary and ⁓ and ritual things that ⁓ that the people in Babylon would practice that the the Jews couldn't practice. Right? They could not eat meat sacrificed to idols. Well guess what? At most of the public gatherings and things like that, the meat would have been sacrificed to an idol and then served. Well, they couldn't participate in that. Right? You you have ⁓ they they would have forced a lot of them. In fact, if you ⁓ worked with the Babylonian government, essentially, your name would be changed. ⁓ they would change your name and they tried to change ⁓ as many of the people's names as they could to to ⁓ Babylonian names. What was interesting is usually those names would actually have a reference to one of the pagan gods that Babylon worshipped. Because Babylon worshipped numerous gods. There were there were quite a few of them. There was Marduk, ⁓ Ishtar, Nabu, Shamash, the all of these things. And and what's really fascinating is the spirit behind those gods were very similar to the spirits behind the gods that we talked about last week, right? ⁓ you know, so you you have you have even a more difficult time for the people to stay focused on God. Right? And ⁓ and so they're in this place, some examples of these name changes. So we Daniel, ⁓ we know him as Daniel, but he would have been called Beltasar, ⁓ Belt Shazar. And that's that's in scripture, ⁓ we see his name. That was his Babylonian name. Interestingly, Daniel means God is my judge. The Bel in Beltchazar ⁓ is that God Marduk. That's that would have been. So they actually changed his name ⁓ and it says Bell protects his life. That so so Daniel's Babylonian name is literally a pointing to a pagan god, right? And he's having to balance that. Can you imagine how difficult that would would be? You know, ⁓ you remember the story of the fiery furnace, right? Whenever ⁓ Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego get thrown into the fiery furnace because they would not bow down to the the idol that Nebuchadnezzar made, right? So they they they had learned their lesson, right? They were ⁓ and there's also a story of them and ⁓ Daniel where they only ate vegetables for ⁓ for an extremely long period of time because they wouldn't eat the ⁓ the meat sacrificed to other idols, right? And ⁓ but we know them as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. That's actually their Babylonian names. So their their Jewish names was Haniah, Meshel, and Azariah, which all three of those names actually ⁓ referenced ⁓ Yahweh or or God, that was Jewish word for God. Yahweh has been gracious Who is who is what God is, that's ⁓ shelle. ⁓ Yahweh has helped. ⁓ and then that's Abednego. And Abednego literally means servant of Nabu, which is a pagan god. So it's it's very interesting whenever you think about it. These were God's people. Now they're being put into an ungodly culture, and they're having to figure out how do we navigate this. How do we how do we stay faithful to God and at the same time engage in the community around us? Because God told them to do that. Right? God wanted them to engage in the world around them. But it was going to be very difficult. And it would come at a cost. You know, at one time there was Daniel. He refused ⁓ refused to ⁓ pray ⁓ to You know, whenever he w got thrown in the lion's den, it was because he refused ⁓ to to worship the king, right? And ⁓ and they tried to get and it was illegal to pray to your own God. And ⁓ so Daniel he kept doing it and he gets thrown in a lion's den, right? So all of these kind of cool stories that we think of actually happened during this time and it shows how difficult it was for the people to navigate being in exile and now being in a godless place. And they had to remain faithful. But it was hard. But man, talk about refining your faith. Right? And that's why we have people like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego. That's why we have they they had no choice but to put all of their focus on the one true God to stay on the path. And it's interesting, you you look. The people actually did did okay ⁓ during this time of exile. It was very hard for them. ⁓ but they did start turning back to God. Right. And in in 70 years, ⁓ after Persia now comes in, takes over Babylon, ⁓ remember Ezra, Nehemiah, those guys, they leave Babylon and go back to begin rebuilding ⁓ Jerusalem, rebuilding the temple. Then Nehemiah rebuilds the the the wall. ⁓ all of those things are happening around this event. And I I think there's something that that we can definitely learn from this. And this is this is not a a comfortable truth, but I I've I fully believe it. I believe that In our current culture, we essentially are in exile now. Our our culture and our country ⁓ have strayed so far from what it was supposed to be. And we've just allowed it to slowly happen over time that we are not living in the same country that we did fifty years ago. It's completely different. The values are different. Right? The what is What is morally acceptable is totally different. And I think I think we need to to realize that we need to come to that understanding so that we do not get deceived and start following other gods. And you know, I I'm I'm not saying that our country was ever perfect, not saying that we were we were we were ever ever a a bastion of what Christianity should look like. But we were closer to God at one point. And that it's measurable. Like I mean, you can you can measure it, you can see with the number of people who profess to be Christians, the number of people who ⁓ go to church on a weekly basis. All of those numbers have been slowly going down. And now we are in a place where I mean, just down the street, we have a church that every June and it was on their Facebook page, they have a whole service celebrating pride. You know, and and you're kinda like, Well, you know, wasn't pride one of the big sins that's listed? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't think it's a coincidence that it's connected with A different worldview, right? But how many Christians, how many churches have just because we didn't realize that we're being taken into exile, just kind of follow along? Well, that's what the culture does. It's a lot easier just to go along with the culture. A whole lot easier. Even if you don't agree with it, if you just go along, don't say anything, right? Don't don't speak up. Man, it's a it is a lot easier. But we have to be really careful because I believe that we can be deceived very easily. You know, we we see it in the moral standings around us. We see it in just, you know, and churches, churches are s are struggling because it it ultimately it's our fault. We're we are one of the biggest to blame because we thought that culture that we didn't have to engage culture. You know what? We we just come together every Sunday, we worship God, we talk and talk about how much God loves us, right? We we want to make sure that people are saved. And that they give their life to Christ, which is very important. But because we we were part of a country that that its foundation had similar beliefs, right? And were rooted in the Bible, we thought, ⁓ we don't we don't have to impact the culture around us. But Satan was working hard. Right? And you can actually you can go back and you can see where this really started to ⁓ to to corrupt and started to change the culture. You go back into the sixties and and all of a sudden you you have ⁓ I think it was John Glenn or ⁓ Lovell, ⁓ whenever he's up in space and it's a live broadcast and he's reading from Genesis on a live broadcast to the to the nation. I mean it's just unbelievable, right? 'Cause I mean you're s you're looking at the w the earth and he's he's reading scripture about how God created the heavens and the earth. Just powerful, right? And then the famous atheist, I believe it was Madeline O'Hare or something like that. Is that right? Madeline yeah, something. She ⁓ pulls out a threatens a lawsuit, starts doing things like that, and they never showed anything religious associated with the space program really ever again. I mean Did you know that Neil Armstrong and ⁓ Buzz Aldrin shared communion on the moon? But no, we're not gonna televise that stuff now because right, we're we're we're not a Christian nation, remember, right? We're we're not gonna do that. We've gotta be sensitive to everybody. At what cost? Yeah. Everybody is welcome to worship how they want. But whenever you start getting away from what holds you together, things start to fragment. And so in the sixties you see the rise of progressivism, you see race riots, there's just things that are fueling ⁓ division all around us. And it kind of slows down, but all of that ⁓ ideology goes into our school systems. And has been growing ever since. I mean, we're talking now fifty years of progressive Marxist ideology that is pushing God out, intentionally pushing God out. Right? It was also in the 60s when the ruling said that you can no longer pray in schools. Right? And that that was just taken because you actually still could pray in schools. But every time there'd be there'd be news of this this lawsuit here, this lawsuit there. Now they usually wouldn't win because no, students could still pray. Guess what? Teachers could still pray. But we became so scared, right? Because we were threatened. And just those little things like that start to build. And all of a sudden we find ourselves, we're not in the same place anymore. And it's a challenge. Right? I I think we're very similar to the people that were in exile. And so how do we handle it? What do we do? You build houses, you build your families, you invest in your families. You get into the workforce. You be active. You you you you do things to to help the community around you. Even though the community around you may not agree with you and may hate what you stand for. You work for the good of the world around you. You don't we don't we don't go hide. No, we actually we actually get out even more. And we know that it's going to be a challenge, so we stay even more laser focused on what God is calling you to do. But He's calling you to get involved, to build houses, to grow, grow things in the garden, right? He talks about working for the good of the city that you're in exile in. What did Daniel do? He actually works in the government, right? And it it was not easy for him. But he was trying to make a difference. He was trying to engage the world for something good, even though now they were in a place far, far from perfect, far from what God desired. They were now the minority. That is where we are. But man. If we will listen to the words that Jeremiah wrote And then we read that wonderful verse that even though we're we're in this place where there's darkness all around us, where it is a challenge, and we don't have a lot of answers, we can read those words for I know the plans I have for you. God knows where you are right now. God knows where we are as a culture, where we are as a country. He knows where we are. He knows that we are in exile. But he declares I still have plans for you. Plans to prosper. Plans for your welfare. He is going to bring good to you. It may look different, it may not look the way that you think it's going to, but he is going to work for your good. God works for the good of those who love him. He is going to work for your good even as we are in exile. And he does not want us to be overcome by evil. He says he's going to give us a future and a hope. Now, remember, the vast majority of the people reading this, they would die in Babylon. They were not going to go back. They were never going to go back. But he still gave them a future and a hope because he has already secured the victory. And I love what it says here. When we get to that place where we understand where we are, we understand that God is still present, that He is still going to give us a future and a hope. Then it says, Then they will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear them. They will seek me and find me when they seek me with their whole heart. Right? It's in times like this. That we need to be intentional about seeking the Lord, about seeking him. Because it is so easy to go astray. But know that God has plans for you. Plans to prosper you, not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future, no matter what that future looks like. Let's embrace that. Embrace the fact that we live in 2026 in a country that thought we could just. Keep going and everything would be fine, but ⁓ but we have moved past God. We think we can do it on our own. We cannot. And we're suffering the consequences of that now. That's the place we're in. God knows exactly where we are, and now He is calling us to bring that message of hope to the world around us. He's calling us to remind people that there is a future and a hope. Not found in who the next president is, but found in Jesus Christ. That is something we can hold on to. That is a message that we need to take to the world around us. Know the plans that he has for you. Seek him and you will find him. Let's go to him in prayer. Yeah. Impacting his kingdom and love Sing to him be glory. Mm.