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1-15-2012                                                      Jeremiah 29: 11 - 14a

"Making Plans"

Pray

Two weeks ago, on the first day of January, I talked about our spiritual fitness and I challenged you to set some goals for your personal growth in faith this year.  I said among other things that God has a plan for the salvation of the world and that the fulfillment of God’s plan depends upon us.  That is what the Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians.  He said it is through the church that the wisdom of God (or the plan of God) will be made known.  We are the church and God is counting on us.  The divine plan for the salvation of the world depends on you and me.  I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately and I’ve been thinking about a passage of Scripture in Jeremiah.  In the twenty-ninth chapter God sets forth a promise and an expectation.  That’s where I want to focus this morning, but first let’s pause for prayer.

PRAY

Listen to these words from the prophet Jeremiah.  I’m reading from chapter 29, verses 11-14a.  You may want to follow along in your own Bible or as the words are projected on the screens.  Jeremiah 29, beginning with verse 11:

READ IT.

It has been 26 centuries, more than 2600 years, since the prophet spoke these words.  The situation he faced was far different from anything we have experienced, but his message is still relevant.  Six hundred years before the birth of Christ, the Babylonian army swept across the Jewish homeland and laid siege to Jerusalem.  After a desperate struggle, the Jewish king surrendered.  In order to maintain control over the populace, the Babylonians set up a puppet government in the Holy City and deported the most prominent Jewish families.  The brightest and best of Jewish society were taken captive and led away to Babylon.  With their leaders in exile, their future seemed hopeless.

Some tried to encourage the people by saying God would soon overthrow their captors and lead them back home.  Jeremiah said, “Don’t believe those false prophets.  Your exile will last seventy years.”  Jeremiah encouraged the people to make the most of their present situation, to build homes, to plant gardens, and to care for their families.  He even encouraged them to pray for their enemies.  In verse seven he wrote: “Seek the welfare of the city where [God has] sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”

Then in verse eleven we find this great promise from God: “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”  Even in the midst of defeat, far from their homeland and alive only by the mercy of their captors, the Jewish people could live with hope, because God had not abandoned them.  God had a plan – a plan to care for his people, to protect them and even prosper them in the most difficult of times. 

However, there is a great paradox within these words.  God’s plan for their future contained an explicit expectation.  Listen to the verses that follow: “Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you.  When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord.”  God has a plan, but somehow in the great mystery of God, the plan is inextricably connected to our faithfulness in prayer. 

God had a plan for his chosen people 26 centuries ago.  God’s plan included their defeat at the hand of the Babylonians.  It was punishment for their rebellion against God.  And God had a plan to deliver them from captivity, but they would have to wait seventy years.  It would be a time for them to rekindle their faith and renew their commitment.  God promised them a future with hope, but God expected them to fervently pray for that to come about.

That is part of the great mystery of God.  God has a plan for our future, but in order for that future to come to pass, we must earnestly pray about it and faithfully work toward it.  Somehow in the divine wisdom what God intends to do is significantly affected by what we do.  God wants our active participation.

So what does all that have to do with us?  I believe it has everything to do with who we are as the church and what we do as the church.  We are not living in exile like the captives in Babylon.  We have not been driven from our homes or separated from our sacred place of worship.  However, as followers of Jesus Christ, we stand on the brink of being exiles in our own culture.  The basic Christian principles that were bedrock in the creation of our nation are more and more frequently called into question.  The morals and values of American society continue to erode.  Many within our society consider the Christian message to be outdated and irrelevant.  Still we are called to stand in the gap, to shine the light of hope, to share the message of salvation so all people might experience the love and forgiveness that is freely available through faith in Jesus Christ.  And we are called to pray – not for our captors, but for our nation and for our world.

God has a plan for us, a plan for our welfare and not for our harm.  God wants to give us a future with hope.  However, God will not act without our full cooperation and participation.  God expects us to be fervent in prayer, to seek Him with all our hearts.  Are you willing to join with me toward that end?

God has blessed us richly and God is doing great things through our ministry together at First United Methodist Church.  We have just completed a truly wonderful year.  We are striving to faithfully serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  We are helping people to grow in their faith through our Sunday school program, our mid-week Bible studies, and a variety of children and youth activities.  We have sixteen active Sunday school classes and a dozen classes that meet throughout the week.  If you want to grow in your faith there should be a group for you.  If not we’ll try to start one.  We are in the process of starting four new growth groups this week and we have other short-term studies throughout the year.  Our children are learning the stories of Jesus through Sunday school, children’s church, our Wednesday night Bible Zone, children’s choir, Vacation Bible School, our pre-school, Mother’s Day Out, and our summer Hands On program.  Our youth connect to Jesus through Sunday school, Youth Fellowship and Bible study, summer camp, and Chrysalis. 

We serve as the Hands of Jesus Christ as we reach out to care for others in a variety of ministry opportunities.  In the past year we have worked together to support the ministry of our sister congregation Nueva Evangelica.  We have also supported the work of Mexican American Ministries, Youthville, Emmaus House, and many other agencies across the state and nation.  Each week we carry the message of God’s love to the children at East Garden Village through our Bible Club out there. 

This summer we filled more than one hundred backpacks with school supplies for the children of our community.  At Christmas we filled 196 shoeboxes for Mexican American ministries, and prepared an additional 85 gift bags for the children of East Garden Village and Nueva Evangelica.  During the year we helped nearly 500 families with emergency assistance.  Through the emergency fund we dispersed nearly $24,000 to help folks with rent, utilities, and groceries.  We have people who regularly send cards of encouragement and support to our shut-ins or those who have been in the hospital or experienced loss.  We have people who regularly call on some of our elderly members.  I could go on and on.  These are just a few of the ways we are reaching out to others with the love of Jesus Christ.

As I said before God has blessed us richly.  You have been faithful in your stewardship and we completed 2011 with a positive cash balance and thanks to your generosity 2012 is off to a very good start.  We have many reasons to be proud of the work we are doing in the name of Jesus Christ.  However, we dare not become complacent.  In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins says the greatest obstacle to becoming great is being good.  In fact he begins his book by saying, “Good is the enemy of great.”  That’s because when you begin to think you are doing well, you become complacent and you lose the passion that is essential for greatness. 

I believe God has a plan for us and I believe God’s plan is for this to be a great church.  However, in God’s kingdom we don’t achieve greatness by striving for greatness.  We achieve greatness in God’s kingdom by striving to serve – by reaching out to care for others, by trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit, by being faithful in prayer, and by striving to be more like Jesus.  A great church is Christ led and Holy Spirit filled and that’s what I want for this church!  That’s what I am praying about.  I hope you will pray about it, too.

Jeremiah was speaking for God when he wrote: “For surely I know the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.  Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you.  When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me.”  That’s what the Lord says.

I invite you to enter into a season of prayer for our church.  Will you pray with me about our future?  Will you pray with me about the direction God wants to lead us?  Will you pray with me about what more God has in store for us as a congregation?  I believe God has a great future in store for us at First United Methodist Church of Garden City.  And I believe if we are faithful in prayer, God will listen and God will begin to reveal his plan to us.

I hope you will pray with me about that and that you will let me know what you are hearing and what you are sensing through your experience with God.  We are in this together.  That’s what it means to be the church.  And God is counting on us.

Amen