The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
Matthew 5:43-45Jesus quoted in the Sermon on the Mount: love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, God sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
44 But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you,
45 that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.
Stand at the crossroads, ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is and walk in it and you will find rest for your souls
16 Yahweh says, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, ‘Where is the good way?’ and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
The letter Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the elders, priests, prophets and all people taken into exile in Babylon
1 Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the residue of the elders of the captivity, and to the priests, to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon,
2 (after Jeconiah the king, the queen mother, the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the smiths, had departed from Jerusalem),
God commands the exiles to build houses, plant gardens, take wives, have children and increase in number
4 Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the captives whom I have caused to be carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon:
5 “Build houses and dwell in them. Plant gardens and eat their fruit.
6 Take wives and father sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there, and don’t be diminished.
After 70 years God will fulfill his good word, bring them back, for he knows his plans for a future and a hope
10 For Yahweh says, “After seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says Yahweh, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.
12 You shall call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
13 You shall seek me, and find me, when you search for me with all your heart.
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Ray preached from Jeremiah 29 on the Sunday Van Jones arrived as associate pastor, using that moment of new arrival to revisit a passage that landed in his own lap on his very first Sunday at First B. The sermon follows Jeremiah's letter to the exiles in Babylon, asking what it means to seek the good of a city you did not choose and may not even like. It is a message about faithfulness in the place where God has planted you, whether that feels like home or not.
What was said
Ray opened by explaining the personal weight behind the passage. He was in a U Haul moving Van and Lauren's family to Jackson when the memories of his own arrival in 2012 came flooding back. On his first Sunday as lead pastor, a missionary he had never met preached from Jeremiah 29, and it stuck with him for fourteen years. With a new family arriving and fresh nostalgia running through him, he decided it was finally time to preach it himself.
He ran through a handful of well-known Jeremiah verses to establish who Jeremiah was: a prophet who spent forty years speaking to people who would not listen. That backstory matters, because the letter in Jeremiah 29 is written from that same weeping prophet to people who were now in Babylon against their will. He was not writing to people who were comfortable.
The historical situation is that Nebuchadnezzar had taken the best and brightest of Judah into exile around 597 BC, leaving behind a puppet king named Zedekiah who did evil in the sight of the Lord. Jeremiah stayed in Jerusalem but sent this letter overland to the surviving elders, the priests, the prophets, and all the people who had been marched away. Ray noted that God's own voice comes through in the letter, saying "I sent you into exile," holding together the responsibility of Nebuchadnezzar and the sovereignty of God at the same time.
The commands God gives through Jeremiah are striking precisely because they run against every instinct the exiles had. Build houses. Plant gardens. Marry, have children, and let your children marry. Plan on being there a long time. Then the hardest line of all: seek the prosperity of the city where I have sent you, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, because its prosperity will be your prosperity. Ray set that against Psalm 137, which records the raw and honest rage of the exiles by the rivers of Babylon, wishing retribution on their captors. That psalm, he said, is what the heart naturally produces. The letter is what God asks for instead.
Ray was careful to say this is not prosperity gospel. Seeking the good of the city is a command, not a transaction. He connected it directly to Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount: love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, so that you may prove yourselves sons of your Father in heaven. The point is not that God will reward you materially for civic-mindedness. The point is that God's people are supposed to act like God, who sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous alike.
Jeremiah 29:11, the most quoted line in the passage and the second most googled verse in the Bible, only lands correctly when you read it inside the letter. God knows the plans He has for the exiles, plans for good and not for disaster. But those plans include seventy years in Babylon first, and false prophets were already telling the people it would be over quickly. Ray said God loves them enough to tell the truth: you are going to be here a while, so bloom where you are planted.
He closed by widening the circle, addressing the passage to "the rest of the elders and pastors and all the people attending First B," naming Wilson, Victor, Driggs, Teton Valley, Pinedale, Moran, and visitors from Texas. Wherever God has sent you, whether it feels like a blessing or an exile, the command is the same. Seek the prosperity of that place. Pray for it. The congregation then moved into the Lord's Supper.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Ray talked about Jeremiah having forty years of ministry where people simply would not listen to him, and still his words are preached today. Has there been a time in your own life when you felt like you were faithfully doing what God asked and seeing no fruit from it? What kept you going?
God told the exiles through Jeremiah to build houses, plant gardens, and take wives, meaning to put down roots and plan on being in Babylon for a long time. Is there a situation in your life right now where you have been resisting putting down roots because you are hoping things will change soon? What would it look like to commit to where you are?
Good morning. How are you? All is well. Yeah. Thank you for come for inviting us to the party.
So sweet. Sure. Yeah. It's great. We're both in.
Okay. Usually usually the week, but later in the week. Wednesday through Friday is probably best. Yeah. Yep.
That's great.
Thank you. Yeah. But I don't have, like, a cell phone number.
Okay. Yep. Yeah. I don't have my phone on me right now. Take it off so I don't pay attention to the jiggles and wiggles, but Maria does have it and I'll and I'll get it to you.
I'll get it to you for sure. But that's she just we all we're on the same band text all the time asking, so I'm pretty sure she has it. Would you pass along my number to your folks? Yeah. But that'd be great.
Thank you
very much.
You know, that the Korean place she loves and Abuelido's, which is like that's our standard kind of thing, but any any Mexican we were Mexican missionaries for seven years. So anything Mexican is good. But any anything's fine. She can always find something and the work the work we do from time to time. So, yeah, it's all good.
Thank you very much. That's awesome. Looking forward to it. Excellent. And this week, she may not even show up for service today because we just found out a friend that has ALS is degrading so fast that we're gonna go see him today.
Okay. Yeah. I think towards the end of this week makes sense or either this week or next week. And and I'd say those are rough guidelines for the Wednesday through Friday is just what things I think would be best, but we're we're pretty flexible. We have.
It's great, but it's rare. We've only been there one time. So, yeah, that'd be great. Oh, that's wonderful. That's wonderful.
That sounds really good. I've been there because I do so many weddings that if the reception ends up being there, usually I say, no, nobody wants to dance around the pastor and I get out of the reception if it's just for somebody I don't know. But hey, if it's at The Pines but if it's at The Pines, I'll go. I've only been like seriously once, maybe twice. Yep.
But that sounds great. Hey, buddy. Hey. Hey. Good morning.
I'm well. How are y'all? Hey. Good to see you. I've got a buddy that is coming up coming back to Jackson.
Father Louis. When he was here, he had Louis. Yeah. When and he had two little dachshunds that he walked around town barefooted or with flip flops. You know?
Yeah.
And so he'd he'd walk around the neighborhood, and Tanya and I got to be friends with him. And he's been Grable, Riverton, all over. They've sent him everywhere. But he's supposed to be back. Father Edwin is leaving, and he's gonna be the administrator just for a short period of time.
And he might end up here again, but for a short period of time. I gotta get up here. Yeah. But I want y'all to meet him. He's a
good guy. I mean, he's amazing. Hey. Yes.
Thank you. Perfect.
Good morning, church family. Will you please stand up, and let's worship the Lord? So glad you're here this morning. Let's make it special. Amen?
Amen. It requires our attention and most importantly, as far as I'm concerned, emotions. Okay? Let's let's worship and let's feel God's presence in this place. Amen?
We worship with heart and the mind because Jesus is our savior. Amen? Amen.
Amen. Amen. Y'all can have a seat. I've got a few announcements and here they are. We've got Awana is happening tomorrow night.
That is from pre k through fifth grade like it says up there. 06:00 till 07:30PM. You get here early and register and start out in this room and then they spread out all over the church, getting scripture into the minds of the kids to reach the hearts of the kids, which is fun. Men's lunch thirty is on. It's on Thursdays.
I missed I missed it on Christmas. I missed it on New Year's just because that's the only two times we haven't had it since it started. And it's really, really nice. If you can be here guys, twelve to one, 11:55, get here a little early, and we sit around, you can come and go as needed. There will be no lunch.
Alright. Just if you needed to know that. It's just happening during the lunch hour. There is an Easter youth choir. Christmas choir was beautiful.
Thank you, kids. It was wonderful. Yeah. That was great. And so, rehearsals are gonna start up in February.
It's ages seven through 18. There's a lot more information than this. If you wanna scan the QR code to know more or find one of us afterwards, we'll get you to the place where you know more about it. This is gonna be good. Easter youth choir rehearsal starting in February.
Oh, here we are. It's time again to do a new church directory. And if you don't know, looking back on old church directories is so great. It's a lot of fun just to see what we used to look like, but it's nice to be able to stay in touch with one another. If you're a regular attender, you come here, if you would, we'd really appreciate it.
If you would send a high quality vertical family photo with name, address, email, phone number, all that stuff to assistant@firstbjackson.org. Or you can meet with Nick after the service and he'll take a picture of you and take your information too. But it's really nice for helping to stay connected if you want to. Give us that information, f c FBC church directory, please. Congregational meeting is happening between services today.
Tim? Is that pictures for everybody or new people? So that's a good question, Tim. Do you look like you did last year? I look better.
Was that a high quality? Then I would say update your picture. If you're looking better than you did last year, then I'd say update that picture. Good question. I think that, you know, we'll work with what you send us.
Alright? How about that? Yeah. And it's supposed to be horizontal, not vertical. Yeah.
I thought that what might have been a dyslexic thing up there. It's horizontal, not vertical, not to be confusing. We'll change that on the next slide. Horizontal, not vertical. That's this way.
Okay. This way. Alright. Yeah. I'm gonna get rid of that before somebody takes a picture of it.
Congregational meeting is between services today. This is our regularly scheduled normal. We do this in January every year. We hope to approve the church budget and we have few other items of business that'll be happening between services today, so as soon after the service as we can. Our missionary family this week, that's the Quintero family and they are they have been stationed in Spain and they are in flux most all of the time as missionaries tend to be.
And so we've been praying for them for a long time. They were here. He's part of the band for a while. Paco was from Mexico and Didi is Haitian French. So she's born in France, but she's Haitian culturally.
They have Elijah was born here in The US, and now have they a baby that's born in Spain. So this is a very international family. And would you be praying for them? I'm gonna pray for them right now. But Lord, for Paco and Didi and for their family, we pray that you would allow them, Lord, the grace of blooming where it is that you have planted them.
I pray that there'd be a voice, a voice for you that they would be living a life that is winsome and draws people into the kingdom of marvelous light. In Jesus name, we pray for your emissaries, for Paco and Didi, and for their kids. In Jesus name, I ask your blessing on them, that we might be a blessing to them. Would you show them the way forward? Amen.
Amen. And if there's anything else, does anybody have anything else that I've forgotten? Skipped over. Alright. Yes.
There's one more. I knew there's one more. So that is starting January 28 over in Driggs, Idaho at the Driggs Fairgrounds. We are gonna start doing a meal music and a message service, somewhat similar to what we used to do on Monday nights here. Meal music and a message every other.
So second and fourth Wednesdays, Wednesdays. We're planning on doing this from six to eight in the evening. And so there'll be music and a message, at least two Wednesdays a month over there. But we're starting on the twenty eighth. Would y'all be praying for this too?
This is something where we would love to We've got a lot of folks that come over the hill every Sunday. A lot like 40 something people come over the hill every Sunday. And so we really feel like God is calling us into that van having just arrived. It's gonna be a big part of that service. We'll talk about that more later.
But meal music and a message on Wednesday nights over in Driggs to start off with. So in that area on the other side of the hill. And actually, I'm gonna pray for that now too, Lord. Thank you. Just pray.
That's what I told I told Blake. The last announcement slide, can you just say just pray? We've got a lot to be praying for. With our church family right here, Jeff Brown and Sheila. Sheila's mom is Delia, and she is has pancreatic cancer, and she is actively passing.
She's been in hospice care since at least June. And so she is passing, and Sheila left this morning to go. Jeff is probably gonna go this week. So Lord God, for Delia, for her for her passing. She is a believer and she's all trusted in you for many years before.
I pray Lord for her husband, for Sheila's dad, that he would be able to adjust to this new absence in his life. I pray lord that you would be his comfort and his strength. I pray that you would comfort all of the family as we have been anticipating this for some time. For friends and family, lord, and for the strength and the peace that only you can give. In Jesus name, for Carolyn Warzniak, one of our number who is quite ill right now too, Lord.
We pray for healing, and we pray for comfort, and we pray for peace, and we pray for her every day. In Jesus name, Lord, I ask you for that. I also ask for this new ministry over in Idaho, Lord, that you would bless it, that you would allow it to be a healing balm and a comfortable place for people to land that are seeking after you. And for those Lord who have been pray praying and waiting. I pray Lord that this would be helpful.
In Jesus name, we thank you for our brothers and sisters on this side, on that side, that we would be a a big part of the church triumphant in this area that we'd help out with all of the existing ministries and churches over there in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Would you stand with us? And we are gonna sing a few more.
Yeah.
Let's sing of his love. Amen? Heavenly father, we are thankful that we have the privilege to be here, Lord, in your house, worshiping you, Lord, because your love is amazing, and your love will always be with us through the end, Lord. That's we can stand for because we have hope in you, Lord Jesus, because what you have done for us on the cross, because you paid for our sins. And not only that, but you said you said this is in your own words, Jesus.
You left us in the word, in the Bible for us to be a comfort to our hearts and mind, that you are going to the father to prepare a place so we can be with you there, Lord. Oh, because of that, Jesus, we can keep going and keep fighting and keep serving you in this world because we have hope in you. And our words are so limited to say thank you for your love. Oh, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen. I love this song, but it has a weird rhythm, so please stay with me. Praise the Lord. Amen. Oh, this song.
This is the this is the state one. I have my brother back there, and he understands what I'm saying. The lyrics are so good. Go straight to the heart. Let's worship the Lord.
Amen? No matter where you are this morning, this song will tell you to come and praise God because Jesus provided salvation through his blood. Amen?
Amen.
Amen. Would y'all, yeah, would y'all have a seat? I'm going invite Van to come forward though instead of me praying today. I just asked Van Jones, a new associate pastor if he'll lead us in the operatory prayer.
Yeah. What's about our guest? Lord, thank you so much for the snow coming this week. The good weather this outside. For us to be able to breathe in fresh air and just be alive.
And we pray that you would help us to to know your way, to know what you have for each of us to do. Sometimes you call us to do hard things, to have hard conversations. Sometimes you convict us in certain ways and and we don't always hear or or do those things. And we we ask you to forgive us and that you help us to have our eyes open open and our ears open to what you would call us to. Amen.
In the way that we and give, not just of our our finances, but the way we spend our time and the way that we give our whole life as an offering to you like we just said. Lord, we love you so much, and we're praying for Ray that you your word would be spoken through him today as you would help us to receive your word and that we would take action from what we hear in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Thank you. And it's time for children's church downstairs. Paper notes. That's a problem. It'll be alright.
I know this part. Raising nostalgic prologue. This kind of is the beginning of every service. But this one in particular, last week, I was not here. Thank you, Brad, to Brad where he's probably serving down.
There he is. He was up here last week and I really appreciate what you had to say and thank you for that. Good job. Wonderful. I was thinking back a lot on the road because I was on the road.
I literally watched last week's service from between Rawlins and Rock Springs to the first service and in Pinedale for the second service in a U Haul truck, moving the stuff for Van and his family. And so Van and Lauren have arrived and their kids are here and it's pretty pretty neat. But all of that has reminded me of our arrival here when Pascal was six years old. You know, she was out here every summer anyway, when we were working out here, when I was working as a carpenter, from the time she was 0.5 old. So I've got a lot of memories flooding back because they've got kids from about eight, six, five, you know, one.
And so I've got a lot going on in my tear ducts. And I was thinking about the arrival here. I officially started June 1, but part of that time was getting here. And then the first Sunday that I was here was June the ninth of thousand twelve as the lead pastor. I've been here for a couple of summers as an intern, but I sat right here and there was missionaries speaking.
And the missionaries spoke on a passage and he was planning on speaking that passage. He didn't know anything about this church getting a new pastor. He didn't know anything about it, but for me, it landed so well in my lap. It was something that I don't think I'd ever considered before, though I'd read it, I'm sure many times. But it was helpful.
And so with Van arriving this time, this has been on my heart, on my mind. And as I traveled the miles, I thought, you know what? I'm gonna do this. So from Mexican missionary, we were in Mexico for Latin America for seven and a half years. Part of that time in Mexico, part in Costa Rica, we served there.
But when we're in seminary, we started coming out here four months in the summer, like I said, from the time Pascal was 0.5 old. And moved here when she was six, and now she's a sophomore at Auburn for crying out loud. Yeah. Oh, boy. We've had this amazing time here and this is not like the ending of that time.
People worry about that every time I get nostalgic. They're like, oh, this isn't the close of that. No. We don't plan on going anywhere else, doing anything else. But it's it's this, I think, is the New Testament parallel to the passage and it might seem like a weird one, but I'm gonna read this first and then we'll get into the passage.
I am amazed at what God has done in the last fourteen years. Just amazed, overwhelmed, and I love it. And I hope this message lands and sticks with y'all as long as it's stuck with me. This part might seem off the cuff, but I I don't ever wanna do an old testament message without bringing it forward. So here it is.
You've heard that it was said. Jesus is saying this, sermon on the mount. Jesus is saying this, you've heard that it was said. They heard the oral tradition and they heard the whole old testament. Right?
You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you, So that you may prove yourselves to be sons of your father who's in heaven for he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and he sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. He's saying, if you just act like the rest of the world, what good is that to you? Right?
If you just act like the rest of the world, he's saying, I want you to act like me. That's God the Father saying that through his son right here. So how about a major prophet for a change? We've been in the minor prophets for weeks now, and the weeping prophet, the weeping preacher is gonna call us to Jeremiah. How about that?
Jeremiah, and if you don't know much about the book of Jeremiah, I know there's some of you who read the book of Jeremiah on a loop, and I appreciate that. That it's a good book. It's worth the read. Jeremiah though had forty years of virtually fruitless ministry. He was saying the same thing over and over and over and over again, and the people around him would not listen to him.
So you get the weeping prophet. Right? So his these are his greatest hits. We'll get up to where we're going by just sharing some of his. You might know these.
Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I consecrated you, and I have appointed you as a prophet, a preacher to the nations. That's Jeremiah. And his preaching still happens every day. It's gonna happen today right here.
It still happens all the time. Jeremiah one eight, do not be afraid of them. Public speaking is the worst, by the way. Right? It's terrible.
Most people are more afraid of that than they are deaf. In the funeral, people would rather be in the box than be the guy up front. Do not be afraid of them. I like the King James on this one. Don't be afraid of their faces.
When you look out at them, you see all these faces. Don't be afraid of their faces for I'm with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. For a guy coming from a construction background, which fits both of us, to get up and start looking out at people's faces, it can be pretty overwhelming. But Jeremiah had that same issue. Don't be afraid of their faces.
This is what the Lord says, Jeremiah six. Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths. Ask where the good way is and walk in it and you will find rest for your souls. There's a lot of good.
There's a lot of good in the old testament. There's a lot of good in the tradition of God. Right? Jeremiah 17, I use this one a lot in marriage counseling. The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure and who can understand it?
If out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks and this is true, then sometimes we say stuff we don't even understood why we said it. And if we double down, we are going against the godly way. Humility before God is good. Heal me, oh Lord, and I shall be healed. You're the only hope I've got.
Save me and I shall be saved for you are my praise. Amen. Jeremiah 31. The Lord appeared to us in the past saying, I have loved you with an everlasting love, and I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. It is, by the way, the kindness of God that leads to repentance.
Right? And then, this one in Mexico, they call God's telephone number. There's one of my pastors that said, this is God's telephone number. Jeremiah thirty three three. Call out to me and I will answer you.
And I will tell you great and unsearchable things that you do not know. Pray. Pray. Just pray. And who can forget this classic?
Jeremiah twenty nine eleven. Jeremiah twenty nine eleven. If I ask y'all to say it, you would say it in unison. It is the second most quoted oh, no. It's the second most googled.
Second most googled verse. John three sixteen being the first, probably because of all those football players with it written on their face or the rainbow haired guy at at the game. Jeremiah twenty eleven nine eleven is the second most googled verse. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Their plans to prosper you and not to harm you.
Their plans to give you a hope and a future. That's beautiful. And that's why we hold on to it. And that's why we put it on bumper stickers. That's why it's on coffee mugs.
That's why it's memory verse for most of us. It's really, really good. But you know, all of the minor prophets that we have seen so far have been pre exile. Jeremiah served long enough that he was pre exile and exile. And so, today's message is gonna be That's the end of my nostalgic prologue by the way.
If I didn't know it, I know it now. Jeremiah twenty nine one, this was what the guy presented my very first sermon that I heard here at first b as the pastor was from a missionary to China, and this is it. Now, these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet, we know who Jeremiah is now, sent from Jerusalem. So Jeremiah had forecasted the exile, and when the exiles were taken, they took the best and the brightest. You know that from Daniel and the Hebrew children, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, all Babylonian names.
Right? They took them and gave them new names. They tried to instill their culture in them. They were trying to separate out and cause trouble. But Jeremiah stayed back in Jerusalem.
He had forecast the exile and it did happen, but he sent this letter from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exile. Actually, if you look up a lot of different verses, I mean, lot of different English translations of this, it gets at the heart of this. The rest of the elders sounds like Jeremiah is one of them, and he sent it to the rest of them. In a lot of English translations, it says to the residue of the elders. The residue is what's left.
Some translations even say, they're surviving elders because in the battle that led up to the defeat, that led up to the exile, a lot of the exile, a lot of the elders had been killed. So these are for the ones who were left. And for me, in my nostalgia, I think of the elders that we've lost since I've been here and the surviving ones we have now. And if we were separated by a long distance and I had a word for from the Lord, it says, I'm sending it to the rest of them, the residue, the surviving elders who are exiled. He's sending it from Jerusalem to Babylon and to the priests and to the prophets.
The priest away from the temple, that role is severely diminished but there's still a teaching component to priests and prophets are preachers, ones. This letter is for all of those, and it doesn't stop there. It says, and for all of the people, all of the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. If you remember your fourth grade social studies textbook, you'll remember the Fertile Crescent. Right here, the Fertile Crescent.
If it's it starts right here, Israel or Palestine, all the way up through Syria over towards what was Assyria. Nineveh is up there at the top of the curve and then down. Babylon is here. It's about 50 miles from modern day Baghdad. A lot of that zone is in Iraq.
A lot of the Fertile Crescent is. And so there are rivers, you know, the Tigris and Euphrates are there. Those are the rivers of Babylon, and this is that journey from Jerusalem walking, trudging on, being led into exile away from your homeland. And how horrible does that sound? It's rough.
Trail of tears sort of situation. Psalm one thirty seven, by the rivers of Babylon. There we sat down and we wept when we remembered Zion, you know. Now that in my head is from the seventies. It's reggae song by the melodians.
It's from the nineties by Sublime. There's a lot of that in my head all week long. Been dancing on one foot and singing by
the rivers of Babylon, which you might
think is cultural appropriation. But hey, they stole it from the Jews. Okay? Psalm one thirty seven is our book too. Okay?
Where we sat and remembered I am. That's such a beautiful thing to think. It gets worse from there. I'll come back to that. Now, this was after king Jeconiah and the queen mother, Noshti with her name.
Time frame is after 597 because that's when the exodus started, the the exodus from that's a bad way to put that. That's when they started the exile. Okay. Was 597. So this is after the start of it.
The high officials had already been led away, best and the brightest, like I said. And the leaders of both Judah and Jerusalem, Judah being the Southern kingdom and Jerusalem being the capital and the center point, the epicenter of the religious worship, the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, and this, the craftsmen, the builders, and the metal workers, the artists, they had departed from Jerusalem. He took people to help beautify because Jerusalem was absolutely fantastic. The first time that it says in the Old Testament, anyone was filled with the Holy Spirit. It was the guy building the tabernacle, temple, building the temple.
So he took the leaders away. He took the craftsman and the metal workers, artists typically always lead the way, took them and they departed from Jerusalem, and this was after that. So time frame is five ninety seven BC or so. Like I said, Jeremiah had been prophesying before, but he also prophesied during the exile. The letter was sent by the hand of Elisa, who had helped Jeremiah out of a tight spot earlier.
They were, it sounds like friends. So the deliverer of the letter was Elasa, the son of Shaphan and Gemariah, son of Hilkiah. We don't know who those are, but they are mentioned in second Kings. So whom Zedekiah, the king of Judah, sent to Babylon, to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. I don't think we think of this this way nowadays.
If a king takes over, he just says he's king over. All that he's conquered. Right? But this one, he left Zedekiah in charge as king of Judah, but he's the king. And Zedekiah is just a puppet king.
And we see from second king, Zedekiah was a terrible king. He was awful. He was weak and he did not care what God had to say about something because he was paying more attention to what Nebuchadnezzar said about whatever it was. Zedekiah king did evil in the sight of the Lord. He was a bad king.
There were no good kings, right? In Israel. There were couple in Judah but this one was not one of them. He sent to Babylon this letter to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon and this is what the letter said. So, you can look back second Kings 24 if you want to.
This is what the Lord of armies. The God of Israel says to all of the exiles whom
I
have sent. Now, that's not Jeremiah speaking, that's God speaking. God is speaking and saying, Nebuchadnezzar took these people. I sent you into exile. So if you're in your head always wrestling between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man, Nebuchadnezzar get is responsible.
Yeah. He was he was a king conquering king. Right? But God says, I sent you into exile. There's a duality there.
Who is the author of scripture? They're like 40 something human authors and God wrote the Bible. So whom I have sent into exile, I sent them from Jerusalem where they were comfortable in their religious practices. That Amos says, I detest those religious practices. You're not about the right things.
I hate the songs. I don't like anything that you're doing. You're not paying attention to things you should pay attention to. You should not be. He's classically, you know, comfort the afflicted, but afflict the comfortable.
Right? That's the job. So God says, I've sent you from Jerusalem to Babylon, and his imperative start right there. Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their produce.
If you go back to when they were entering the promised land, This is a real stark contrast. He said, I'm taking you into the promised land. You're going to live in houses you didn't build. You can drink from wells you didn't dig. You're going to eat from produce and vineyards that you had nothing to do with planting.
And this in exile is different thing. He's saying, when you get there, put down roots, plan on being there for a while. He's already told them before this, it was gonna be seventy years. Build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and father sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands.
Plan on being there for a while. Now, they were supposed to marry within the the tribes. Right? They were. But he's saying, plan on living life there.
It's not going to be a short thing. So that these new marriages, kids marrying and whatnot, so that they may give birth to sons and daughters, and I want for you to grow in numbers there, and I don't want for you to decrease. If you read the first few lines of the book of Exodus, it says in the Hebrew children there in Egypt, Increased in number and they became a mighty people there in Egypt in exile. Again, it was away from where they were. God brought them back in.
They're in the promised land. They grow away from him. And we've heard the minor prophet saying, talking about this for weeks now. He doesn't want for him to decrease. He doesn't want for him to languish.
He wants for him to increase. So that already is looking like he wants their good, and we already know twenty nine eleven is what we're working towards. But think about that. Seek the prosperity of the city where I have sent you into exile. How hard would that be?
You just walked the trail of tears and you're here in Babylon now. And what your heart is telling you is not to pray to the Lord on behalf of those people. No. I don't wanna pray for those people. These are our captors.
These are our oppressors. If you fast forward to the New Testament, it's the almost exactly the same attitude they had towards the Roman government. Right? It's it's honestly, it's the attitude that a lot of believers have now to any government or any place where they might feel uncomfortable. Seek the prosperity of the city where I've sent you into exile and pray to the Lord in its behalf.
Now this this thing that I've already kinda hung my way through. In the song by Sublime and then the other by the Melodians, it goes to Psalm 19 right there, and it says, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer. That's beautiful. That's wonderful. But I'm gonna show you what's the next thing they said here.
Okay? It says, upon the willows in the midst of our journey, we hung up our harps. We were carrying them, carrying everything we could carry with us. And from there, our captors demanded of us songs. I play another one of those songs.
How great is our God?
They're they're mocking them. Their captors are demanding of us songs, and our tormentors, jubilation. They were saying, oh, get all happy. What are you so upset about? Come on in.
Sing for us one of those songs of Zion. Isn't it beautiful? How can we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? I mean, they literally were thinking, how are we gonna do temple sacrifice? We don't have a temple.
How are we gonna do this? How are gonna sing songs to the Lord in a foreign land? And then, if I forget you Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill, craftsmans and metal workers saying, may my right hand just forget everything it ever knew about what it is that I do. I don't I can't take joy in the things that I took joy in because I'm in this place. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I don't remember you, Jerusalem, if I don't exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy.
This is the way they felt and what they're missing was home. They're super duper homesick. They didn't say, may if I forget you, oh Lord, it was if I forget what I know. Jerusalem, right? If I don't remember you, if I don't exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy.
Remember, Lord, this is okay, they're calling out to God. That's good. Remember, Lord, against the sons of Edom, those bad guys, the day of Jerusalem. Remember, Lord, the day of Jerusalem. Those who said, lay it bare.
Lay it bare to its foundation. Remember those bad guys. Lord, remember them. Daughter of Babylon, you devastated one. Blessed will be the one who repays you with the retribution which you have repaid us.
That's the way of the world. That is the way of the world. He brings knife, you bring a gun. He puts one of yours in the hospital, you put him in the morgue. Right?
That's the way of the world. It's the way of the mob. It's the way of every worldly institution. Daughter of Babylon, you devastated one. Blessed be the ones who repays you with the same kind of reputation that you repaid us.
Blessed will be one who seizes and dashes your children against the rocks. That's not something to sing about. It's an imprecatory psalm. It's very honest, and if we're honest, we feel like this sometimes. But what God says is to seek the prosperity of the city where I've sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf for in its prosperity will be your prosperity.
This is not prosperity gospel. Okay? I just have to say that since that's a term. Prosperity gospel is health and wealth forevermore. No.
Seeking the good for the city in which you dwell is what he has charged us with though. And in some cases, it's Babylon. Right? I don't feel that way here. I don't feel that way here.
I I did like Georgia. I did like Mexico. I did like the other places that God has allowed us to live. I don't feel like it's exile. I don't feel like that at all.
I hope you don't ever feel like that. Fan. Yeah. But when we left Mexico coming back to The States, I did feel this. I felt it for years.
I wanted to be where I thought God had put me. I wanted to be where I thought he had planted me. And the truth is, he wants us to bloom where we're planted now. Right? He wants us to be used where we are, to love the enemies and pray for those who persecute you wherever we are.
And so in different places in the world, it might be different from some of y'all who have missionary kids in Africa. It'll be primitive religion that's surrounding them and cursing them in some ways. Where I was, there was Santeria. Oh, another sublime reference, didn't mean to do that. I didn't didn't even think of that one.
But there literally was Santeria all around us. And when we got there, they left little little piles of chicken bones out in front of the house cursing us. It's hard not to have a moment of few people. You know, and Jeremiah had that moment a lot. You people, these people, lord, Moses had that a lot.
These are stiff necked people that you've given me. Be different than the world. That's what he's saying. Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you so that you may prove yourselves to be sons of your father who's in heaven because God sends the rain on the just and the unjust and he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good.
So here we go, ten eleven and twelve and we'll go to communion. For this is what the Lord says, when 70 have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill my good word to you to bring you back to this place. I'm bringing you back around. I'm not forgetting about you. This exile that you had was for your good, for I know the plans that I have for you, and I know you don't understand them.
I have plans prosperity and not for disaster. I have plans to give you a future and a hope. And then he says, you will call on me and you will come pray to me and I will listen to you. And I'll listen to you because you're calling on me from a whole heart. It's gonna take some time for the damage to be repaired, and the damage is being repaired in exile.
And that's the plan. That's going by his plan. Now, it goes on to say, listen, there are a lot of other folks who are gonna tell you that it's going to be over real quick. Don't worry about building that house. Just hang out for a little while.
God's taken us back to Jerusalem. They're but they're false prophets and they're not telling you the truth. And I love you enough to tell you the truth, you're gonna be here a while. So bloom where you're planted. There's a there's a whole book, it's called bloom where you're planted by a guy who's doing a study of Jeremiah 29 specifically.
I'm telling you because I want you to seek the good of the city in which you dwell. And I he wants that not just for the priests and the prophets. He wants that for all of the people that are here. So some of some of you are here going, I can't believe I finally got to get to this beloved wonderful place. And then others are like, I can't believe I'm still here.
Some of you might feel like, I can't believe I'm still not married. I can't believe that I'm unemployed. I can't believe that I'm and you're going through a time. And you may actually, one of the lines and I haven't I don't have it up here, But it says, you're listening to the dreams of false prophets that you're begging them to have. You wanna hear what you wanna hear.
You don't wanna hear what you don't wanna hear. And so I'm telling you what you don't wanna hear, but it's the truth. Seek the prosperity. So
this
is to the rest of the elders and pastors and all the people attending first week. Seek the prosperity of the city where I've sent you. Here, Wilson, Victor, Driggs, T. Tonya, Felt, Pinedale, Moran. I've got folks all over this place.
Texas, I got a few visitors here too today. Seek the prosperity of the city where I've sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord on its behalf. What does that look like? You ever listen to a Jewish service?
One of the first things they do in their service is pray for the and by name usually, pray for the leaders of the city in which they live and then the state in which they live and the country in which they live. And sometimes it's three gritted teeth and it would be for me too. But it's a command. We're to seek the prosperity of the city where we've been sent into exile. Pray to the Lord on its behalf and and its prosperity will be your prosperity.
I'm thankful that that was the first message that I heard. It landed in my lap well. I have a write up for first be in the Bible coming up soon and there's something in there about the the lines. I can't remember it exactly. We're going to communion.
Let me look it up. Anybody got a phone? Psalm 16. I feel a sense of extreme blessing to be able to be here. Thank you, sir.
An actual Bible.
Oh my goodness.
Thank you. You. Thank you. The lions have fallen to me in pleasant places. The lions have fallen to me in pleasant places.
The Lord is my support. He is my portion. He is my cup. You support my lot, my family. The lions have fallen to me in pleasant places indeed.
My heritage is beautiful to me, and I will bless the Lord who has counseled me. Indeed, my mind instructs me in the night, and I've set the Lord continually before me because he's at my right hand and because he's at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Doesn't matter if I'm by the rivers of Babylon. Doesn't matter where I am, what situation I find myself in. God is my refuge and my strength.
We find that in Jesus name and so I'm going invite the elders to come forward right now and we're going to go into a time of the Lord's supper and get a couple of Y'all are going to play something pretty. I'm going try to sing it. Okay. So, I'll give you a chance. The distribution here, it does say in the New Testament, let not anybody take of this unworthily.
So, I'll give you a chance because God has offered. If we agree with him about our sin, he is offered by the blood of Jesus to forgive us of that sin, to throw it as far as the East is from the West and remember it no more. So I'm gonna give you a chance during this prayer and during this distribution to think about it. Whatever sin God brings to your mind, would you agree with him? Let it go, and then thank God that he cleanses by the blood of Jesus.
Lord God Almighty, I pray your blessing on this little representation, this gluten free representation of the body of Christ that is very crunchy. In Jesus name and in his remembrance, we do this meal, Lord. This little thing is a representative of your body, the life that you lived in perfect submission to the spirit by the will of the father, you carried it out on earth. And so we celebrate the body of Christ as the body of Christ. Continue, we've we celebrate it.
In Jesus' blood, we're saved. Lord, thank you for the example that you gave. Thank you for the perfect record you achieved that you can impute to us. In Jesus name, thank you. Amen.
Try me your savior. Know my thoughts, I pray. See if me free. I praise thee, Lord, for cleansing me from sin. Fulfill thy word and make me pure within.
Fill me with fire where once I burned with shame. Grant my desire to magnify
Whom will my poor heart with make
thy great love divine. Take all my will, my passion, self, and pride. I now surrender Lord in me.
On the same night that Jesus was betrayed, he took bread after supper and after he had given thanks, he said to his disciples that were there and his voice rings out to us still today. This is my body which is given for you. Take this, eat of it and do it in remembrance of me. Lord Jesus, thank you that you walked it out perfectly. Thank you that you had running through your veins innocent blood that you could offer on behalf of all who would believe.
So thank you for the whosoever's. Thank you that it was an open question for us. In Jesus name and by his blood, by the blood of the lamb, the word of our testimony. We, Lord, are saved in Jesus blood. So I thank you Lord for this representative, this little plastic cup of grape juice.
We thank you, Lord, for the blood that was spilled precious on that wondrous cross. Amen.
My count but lost, and for content on all my that charm me most. I sacrifice them to his blood.
In the same manner that he had taken the bread, he also took the cup and he said to the disciples there what the prophets had foretold. This is the new covenant in my blood. Take this in, do it as often as you will and remember of me and what I have done. Amen. Amen.
Do we have a song that the band's gonna sing or we just let's do the doxology. How about that? I'm also reminded. Would you stand? I'm also reminded that between the bread and the cup, Van, the first time I did communion here, I got a note from the front row that said your zipper's down.
Double check.
Yeah.
Would you join me? Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above ye heavenly host. Praise father, son, and holy ghost.
Amen. There is a congregational meeting just after this service. So if you wanna be a part of it, stick around. If you don't, ski that'll.
