Turn with me, if you will, to Jeremiah chapter 29. Jeremiah chapter 29. I had indicated that we would read the first 14 verses of this chapter, but let's read the first 23 verses of this particular chapter of Scripture. Our text being verse 11 of Jeremiah 29, which says, For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. Now, I need to tell you, I want to tell you that this passage, this verse as well, has special meaning for me and I think for my wife as well. Almost seven years ago when I was diagnosed with cancer, the day after the diagnosis, our minister, a friend of mine, and now the URC in Walker, Michigan, came to visit us with this particular verse. That verse was of much comfort. And it wasn't my plan to preach on this passage tonight, but I was planning to continue with 1 John, but plans could change somehow. As a week ago tonight, a dear friend of ours in Bellflower suffered a massive brain bleed and died. And I was asked to participate in the funeral service on Friday. And what was interesting was that on Friday morning in the press telegram, the newspaper there, there was an article about this gentleman. The article was entitled, Finding Success. And it talked about all that he had accomplished. And he had accomplished much. He was a well-known man. He was a pillar in the community. But it didn't say a word about his faith. And I said at the service, I don't think he would like this article. Because he was indeed a pillar in the church by the grace of God as well. And I believe, too, that he would say that this was his success. That he didn't find that it was given to him by the grace of God. Let's read together the first 23 verses. Our focus tonight being verse 11. This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets, and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. This was after King Jehoiachin and the Queen Mother, the court officials, and the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen and the artisans had gone into exile from Jerusalem. He entrusted the letter to Elasa, son of Shaphan, and to Gamariah, son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah, king of Judah, sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. It said, this is the letter, This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there. Do not decrease. Also seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper. Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says. Do not let the prophets, the diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies to you in My name. I have not sent them, declares the Lord. This is what the Lord says. When 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to 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 will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you, declares the Lord. And will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile. You may say, the Lord has raised up prophets for us in Babylon. But this is what the Lord says about the king who sits on David's throne. And all the people who remain in this city. Your countrymen who did not go with you into exile. Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty says. I will send the sword, famine, and plague against them, and I will make them like poor figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten. I will pursue them with the sword, famine, and plague, and will make them abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth and an object of cursing and horror of scorn and reproach among all the nations where I drive them. For they have not listened to my words, declares the Lord, words that I sent to them again and again by my servants, the prophets, and you exiles have not listened either, declares the Lord. Therefore, hear the word of the Lord, all you exiles whom I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says about Ahab, son of Koliath, and Zedekiah, son of Messiah, who are prophesying lies to you in my name. I will hand them over to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he will put them to death before your very eyes. Because of them, all the exiles from Judah who are in Babylon will use this curse. The Lord treat you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon burned in the fire. For they have done outrageous things in Israel. They have committed adultery with their neighbor's wives, and in my name have spoken lies which I did not tell them to do. I know it, and I am witness to it, declares the Lord. A beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Plans. We all have them. We all make them. Of course, our plans may very well be short-sighted, only thinking about today or tomorrow, the events of tomorrow or this week, or our plans may be long-term, whether it be this year's vacation that we hope to take or something a little longer-term, retirement one day, college, any number of things. The thing about our plans is that we can never really have the assurance that things will turn out as we planned. Now some people live according to the pan principle. The pan principle which says everything will pan out in the end anyway. And therefore they don't get very anxious about the future. Others are often worried about the future, worried about health, worried about investment portfolio, or worried about being able to replace their old car with a more reliable one. A couple of years ago, there were so many who were anxious about what was called Y2K, the year 2000. What would happen at the dawn of the new millennium? What would happen when the clock struck 12 or 12.01 on that particular day? Many made plans just in case there was a nationwide, a worldwide computer crash. I remember seeing an advertisement, I think, for a movie. Hollywood even made money on this. A movie dealing with Y2K with airplanes falling out of the sky and buildings blowing up and all kinds of disaster taking place. There were certain Christians who for a couple of years were stockpiling food and supplies, offering to sell a one-year supply of food for two people for a mere $3,000. But there were others who tried to offer comfort and assurance that their companies, the companies that we rely on, that they were Y2K compatible. The power companies, the banks, the FAA, hospitals, police, firefighters, and many others that provide our necessities of life, the things that we depend upon. Well, congregation, we know what happened, don't we? It's nothing. At least, not out of the ordinary. But as many wonder, as many anxiously wonder on any given day what the future will bring and worry about the plans that they have made, we as God's people are called to remember what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 7 that believers walk by faith and not by sight and are therefore to have peace. And we can have peace because of the One who governs our lives, our God who says, For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. We consider this Word of God tonight. The believer enjoys God's promise for future hope. It's a promise with a foundation. It's a promise for good. And it's a promise that the best is yet to come. Now it's clear from verse 1, I trust that the context of Jeremiah's letter was captivity. He was writing to those in exile in Babylon and he was writing them to encourage them with the truth, in the truth, that they too must walk by faith and not by sight. You see, these exiles had been lied to. False prophets had been building up vain hopes in them. In chapter 28, verse 1, we read about Hananiah, the false prophet, who said in verses 2-4 of chapter 28, This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says, I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two years I will bring back to this place all the articles of the Lord's house that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, removed from here and took to Babylon. I will also bring back to this place Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the other exiles from Judah who went to Babylon, declares the Lord, for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. You see, God's people who had really been discontent with God's law and therefore they had rebelled against Him, they were also discontent in captivity. They really didn't understand yet that their captivity was a punishment for their obedience to God. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. Verse 5 says, But therefore, in their captivity, the false prophets then stirred up their arrogance by telling them that this problem would only last for a short time, temporarily, two years. And for that reason, the people were discontent. They rebelled against their captors and they would not submit to them patiently. But then Jeremiah comes with the true word of the Lord to correct their thinking. Again, they had been sent into captivity by God Himself. And the reason as we know it, as we study Scripture, was to refine them and to cleanse them. Through this experience, they were to be brought to a knowledge of their sin and misery and once again understand the truth that the Lord, He is God. And they are called to be patient in this adversity and they are not to be deceived by the false prophets in their midst. because even as we read, it wasn't going to be as they said. God made that very clear. In fact, those who were still in Jerusalem, it was going to be so bad that the exiles wouldn't even want to go there. Instead, in Babylon, as Jeremiah says in verses 5-7, build houses and settle down, plant gardens and eat what they produce, marry and have sons and daughters, find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there. Do not decrease. Also seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it. Because if it prospers, you too will prosper. The exiles are commanded to settle down in this new land, to carry on the business of life quietly, to act as if this was their very own land because life goes on even in captivity. as well they are to pray for. This may have been the hardest thing to understand for them. They are to pray for and seek the welfare of Babylon, of the city they live in. Why? Because the prosperity of Babylon would be to their benefit. Babylon was the tool in the hand of Almighty God at this time. And it was their protection. Their incubator, if you will. Just as Egypt was for Israel as she grew. And they must realize that to fight against their captivity was to fight against God Himself. And they were to find contentment in captivity because it would not be for a short time. It would not be for two years. But for 70 years. That's one whole generation. It would not be less than 70 years, but also they were to have hope because it would not be more than 70 years. After this judgment of 70 years, the captive people of God were given the promise of restoration and this was a promise with a foundation. A foundation they could trust. And that foundation was the gracious promise of the Lord, as verse 10 says, or as another translation says, the good Word of the Lord. That foundation is the very plan of God, as the text says again, for I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. You see, this text is a beautiful confirmation of the good word, of the gracious promise of the Lord toward His people. Another Bible version translates this text this way, for I know the thoughts that I have for you, toward you, says the Lord. thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope. You see, the thoughts or the plans of God for His people are one and the same. And this is talking about the counsel of God's will which is unchangeable and how wonderful this is. God has thoughts toward His people. He makes plans for His people. James says, He is the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. His thoughts, his plans are secure. Jeremiah's message to the captives was that just as their captivity for 70 years was a sure thing they could bank on it, so was God's promise of restoration. That was just as certain. And even though God's people had fallen away from Him, all that they had to do was to look at their history and they would be reminded that God does what He pleases. That God sticks to His Word. that His Word is truth. He proved that over and over throughout their history. We could take a lot of time and go through Old Testament history and see how God carried out His very Word. He had always been faithful through His covenant, even with regard to punishment for unmet obligations as they were finding out in captivity. Now that's not so pleasant. That God keeps His promises when it's for what we believe to be our good. That's a good thing. We like that. But the fact that God also keeps His promises with regard to not fulfilling our obligations before Him, that's not so pleasant. But they were to have confidence in the Word of God who had prophesied through His prophets many years earlier this very captivity. We find this recorded in Deuteronomy chapter 4 and Deuteronomy chapter 30. Chapter 4, beginning at verse 24 through 31. for the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time, if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and provoking Him to anger, I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long, but will certainly be destroyed. The Lord will scatter you among the peoples and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the Lord will drive you. There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone which cannot see or hear or eat or smell. But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find Him if you look for Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey Him. For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers which He confirmed to them by oath. Then also Deuteronomy chapter 30. The first three verses of that chapter. When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come upon you and you take them to heart wherever the Lord your God disperses you among the nations and when you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where He scattered you. Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back. He will bring you to the land that belonged to your fathers and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. You see, they were to have confidence in this one and only Almighty God of whom it is said in Proverbs 21, verse 1, the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord like the rivers of water. He turns it wherever he wishes. This is the God of whom Isaiah said, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Congregation, this is the God in whom we take comfort with the confidence of the psalmist David who said, how precious also are your thoughts to me, O God. How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with you. As we look to and consider the future, even if it's tomorrow, we may be confident in God's plan. Because He who cares for the sparrow knows the very number of the hairs on your head so that not even one hair falls to the ground. or in the sink in the morning, apart from His knowledge, or apart from His will. God's plan has always been carried out perfectly from the beginning. Even in times of sickness, even in times of death, even in times of unemployment, even in times of every disaster you and I have been called to face, God's plan has always been carried out perfectly from the beginning. And He calls us to live confidently and obediently working with the knowledge and the abilities that He has given. And along with the captives, Jeremiah was addressing, we are called to cease striving or be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, He says. I will be exalted in the earth. Beloved, the sure foundation of the Word of God makes this promise the more glorious then as it is in the second place, a promise for good. The text says, plans to prosper you, or as other translations use the words welfare or peace, and not to harm you or calamity, evil. Plans to give you hope in the future. You see, what wonderful news for those in captivity, especially the future talk because captivity was symbolic for death For the end, it was symbolic for extinction. And indeed, throughout the 70 years, many would die even as we read from Deuteronomy. But the focus here is on God's people as a whole. For them, captivity did not mean the end. It did not mean extinction. But it was only chastisement by God's hand. And we know what the result of discipline is supposed to be, don't we? Even the boys and girls here know what the result of discipline is supposed to be. It is meant for correction. To correct something that has been done wrong. It is meant to straighten out one's thinking and therefore also straighten out one's acting. Now the book of Proverbs has many things to say about discipline and the correction of the child. Chapter 23, verses 13 and 14 says, Do not withhold correction from a child, for if you beat him with a rod, he will not die. you shall beat him with a rod and deliver his soul from hell did you hear that proper discipline works by the grace of God to rescue one from the broad road that leads to hell and put that one back on the right road the narrow road leading to life those in captivity in Jeremiah's day needed to understand as as the writer of Hebrews says in chapter 12, quoting from Proverbs 3, My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him for whom the Lord loves He chastens and scourges every son whom He receives. And then the writer of Hebrews continues in chapter 12, verse 11, Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. Nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. God's promise for these captives was a promise for good. Plans to prosper. Plans for their welfare. Plans for peace. And not for harm or calamity or evil. Plans to give them hope and a future. Yes, of course, they were called to walk by faith and not by sight because what they could see around them, you see, was far from welfare. It was far from peace. It was far from prosperity. But indeed, it was calamity. It was evil. It was harm. Their current state of affairs at that time didn't seem very hopeful at all. And as far as the future, they could see no future. Sometimes I know that's the way it seems for us too when we are facing the difficulties of life. But you see, people of God, this is ultimately pointing to the prosperity and the welfare and the peace that comes only through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. He has shed His blood as both a sin offering and a peace offering, removing both the sin and guilt of His people as well removing the wrath of God from His people through the blood of Jesus. We have peace with God. Yet while we walk this earth, we are still in the process of sanctification. The Holy Spirit is still in the process of purifying us for glory. And therefore, as the Lord says through Isaiah in chapter 43, we will pass through the waters, but the Lord is with us and the rivers will not overflow us. We will walk through the fire, but we will not be burned and the flame will not scorch us. Why? Because we have been redeemed. We have been purchased. We have a new owner, our Lord Jesus Christ. We don't know what we will face in the future, not even tomorrow. Our friend of last week, he went to church in the morning. Later in the day, he was eating a bowl of cereal and his arm went kind of limp. And his lip, he said, I think I'm having a stroke. The last words he said was, I'm going for a ride in the ambulance. I hope it's not a bumpy one. And he went unconscious in the ambulance. And that was it. We don't know what we will face. Maybe good and prosperous times. Maybe bad times. Maybe health. Maybe sickness unto death. But our confidence is that God's plan for all of His people includes hope. The living hope. And a future. An eternal future. And we must be comforted, beloved, that God not only sees the beginning, but He also sees the end. And although we can only see what takes place at any given moment in time, He knows the refined work that will be produced by the work of the Holy Spirit. And we enjoy God's promise that He is working towards an expected end that He knows full well. And therefore, as Paul says, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God. And we can be confident of this because He who gave us His only begotten Son to die for us cannot think anything but that which works together for our good. Dear people of God, those who enjoy God's promise for future hope also enjoy His prosperity and peace already today. And that means that we live in confidence that nothing happens by chance. We live in the confidence that even if everything were taken away from us and tomorrow we would lose everything we have, yet no one can take away our salvation. No one can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. No one can snatch us out of the Father's hand. Of course, this doesn't mean that we become lazy in this life. Que sera, sera, whatever will be, will be. God calls us to be responsible. He calls us to use the means He has given in the different situations of life. He calls us to work, to put bread on the table, and to provide for our families. He calls us to use the medical technology that He has given when we are sick. Yet whatever happens tomorrow, we have the confidence that it's not out of His control. In fact, it's very much a part of His plan. But ultimately, the welfare and peace God's people will enjoy is summarized by Isaiah when he says in chapter 11, verses 6-9, the wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together, and the little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. You see, God's promise is made real through the saving sacrifice of Jesus Christ, but it is also a promise that the best is yet to come. If you recognize that, I used those same words for a point in a 1 John sermon a few weeks ago when John talks about the fact that the world does not recognize that we are children of God. And it is not yet clear what we shall be, but when Jesus Christ appears and we see Him as He is, then we shall be like Him. God's people were called to be content in this judgment of captivity. And by the grace of God, they could be because of His promise to give them hope and a future. They would not go extinct. For those in Babylon, after judgment would come restoration guaranteed. And again, this is a hope for all of God's people. Jesus Christ endured the judgment of the cross in our place. And we live in the joy of that salvation even today with the promise that the best is yet to come. I'm not talking about prosperity as the world thinks of it that many of us are blessed with. Riches that spoil or fade. And we're not talking here about good health throughout our entire lives. Now we may hope for that too to be sure, but God's people enjoy today a living certain hope of that heavenly inheritance that is incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away. Believers enjoy the sure promise of that day when by the grace of God our faith becomes sight. And as Paul says, we receive the end of our faith, the salvation of our souls. Beloved, this living hope is a future of eternal paradise with our Savior. And the certainty is that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. And notice once again who all of this is for. Verses 12-14 Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to 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 will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places This is where I have banished you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile. As our theme says, God's promise is for believers, those who understand their sin and misery and that their hope is only in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and who turn to Him in repentance and faith and humble obedience. You see, those who find God are those who seek Him with all their heart by His grace. And this isn't talking about a perfect heart, but it's talking about a born-again, sincere heart. Beloved, what a plan God has for His people. It's hard for us to think past next year or next week or even tomorrow. But God's thoughts and plans extend to eternity. And for those who trust Him and obey Him, His plans are for prosperity, not harm. To give hope and a future. But He also has plans from eternity for those who reject Him. For those who are not called according to His purpose. And those plans are for harm. They are for calamity. Not for hope. But for the despair of eternal hell and destruction. His call indeed is to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And His promise is that for all who sincerely seek Him, they will find Him. Beloved, even if every evil should attack us in this life, there is comfort for the believer. That doesn't mean that we will always necessarily be comfortable. There's a big difference. God promises comfort, but He doesn't promise that we will always be comfortable. But we can enjoy comfort and contentment because all things are a part of God's plan and He will use all that we enjoy, all that we experience, even all that we suffer, He will use it all for our good, toward our salvation. So then, what kinds of plans have you made? The only way to truly be ready for the future is to be ready for Christ's second coming. Only when you are ready for that by the grace of God will you be content in all things and be able to confidently confess it is well with my soul. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, You who knows the end from the beginning, the One who knows all things and knows all things perfectly, the One who has made plans for eternity, We thank You and praise You that we may call You our Father. And may we take comfort in the plans that You have for us even when those plans in this life are not always so pleasant for us. Yet that we may have the comfort and the assurance of knowing that whatever we face in this life, whatever our lot, all these things You use to work together for our good. All things must serve our salvation in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Father, let that be comforting to us. May that give to us peace and patience in times of distress. And may we give to You all the glory and the honor and the praise in Jesus' name. Amen.