Spiritual
Springtime #2
Bloom
where you are planted
Jeremiah
29:1, 4-7
 |
It is a fact of Christian experience that life is a series of troughs and peaks. In his efforts to get permanent possession of a soul, God relies on the troughs more than the peaks. And some of his special favorites have gone through longer and deeper troughs than anyone else.
-Peter Marshall
Introduction
At
the beginning of this year, I challenged you to build your life upon the
rock. By sharing with you my own
personal challenge from the Lord, I attempted to convey to you the importance
of living a life pleasing to God, founded on the rock, and that Rock is Jesus
Christ.
Today
I am reminded of a special verse of scripture we explored at that time. It is my verse for this year and
comes from the passage of scripture in Psalm 40. It is actually a portion of beautiful section
of scripture, the last phrase of verse 2 of Psalm 40: “[He] set my feet on a
rock, making my steps secure.” (HCSB)
We know that
following Christ will bring peace, happiness, hope, life, joy, and the list
could go on and on. We know that
scripture tells us that we are to “Trust
in the Lord with all [our] heart;
and lean not unto [our] own understanding. In all [your] ways acknowledge him,
and he shall direct [your] paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6 KJV) Yes, we know that, right?
But
what happens when the going gets tough?
What happens when everything seems to be falling in on our heads? Have you ever felt like life was an out of
control18 wheeler which has run over you, back up and run over you again? Sure you do, because everyone of us in this
room this morning has experienced the struggles and heartaches of life.
I find in God’s precious Word, this
word of affirmation, this word of promise:
But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and
I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that
I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.
Jeremiah 7:23 (KJV)
Oh, heavenly days! Does this not sound like something Paul wrote
about many years later? (Romans 8:28)
Jeremiah found this to be the truth
and you and I can find this to be the truth we need today.
Doing the right thing,
doing what God has called you to do is usually not very easy. The prophet Jeremiah
knew all about that. The Book of
Jeremiah is God’s message of hope from the prophet Jeremiah. As an example, Jeremiah 29 comes during a
particularly rough period in their history.
Jeremiah had been sent
by God at a very young age to prophecy to the people of Judah, the southern two
tribes after Israel was split into two kingdoms after the reign of King
Solomon.
He went to live in the
capital, Jerusalem, in the thirteenth year of the reign of the good king
Josiah. That was 628 B. C. Josiah was
bringing about reform among the people of Judah until his untimely death in 609
B. C. After Josiah’s death, Judah went
downhill very quickly.
Jeremiah’s job was to
warn the people of Judah that God was going to punish them for their
disobedience of His commands, especially for their turning away from Him and
worshipping other gods. This did not
gain him any friends. He was not well
liked for telling the people bad news.
The king and the religious leaders thought that he was spreading dissent
among the people.
You see, Jeremiah was asked by God to be most vocal when
the Babylonians were right outside the gates of Jerusalem. These enemies were about to take over their
nation. Therefore, when the future
seemed to be just about as bleak as it could be, Jeremiah was asked to prophecy
doom and gloom, that they would lose the war.
This is never popular, not at all.
Finally in 597 B. C.
God allowed the Babylonians to conquer the Israelites and cart the best and the
brightest off to Babylon. In 587 B. C.
God brought the Babylonians back to destroy Jerusalem and take all of Judah back
to Babylon.
And that is when the
message changed. You see, God’s message
through the prophets were archaic. They
were out of step with time.
Now, when the
Israelites were at their lowest, God’s message to them was at its heights of
hope.
With this in
mind, turn with me to the text today and read with me the words of Jeremiah:
(29:1)
Here is the
lesson for us: Bloom Where You are Planted!
·
When troubles come, and they will between this side of the cross
and this side of heaven, we are more often willing to pout and sulk, than to do
what is necessary to overcome and prevail.
We would rather give up and give in than move beyond the situation or
circumstance we find ourselves entangled with.
·
It is so very easy to become bitter, than to be better.
·
Here we find that the hand of Nebuchadnezzar had been hard on
Judah. The elders, priests, prophets and
many others had been carried away into captivity in Babylon. In the midst of judgment, the messenger of
God relayed God’s message for hope to a downtrodden people.
·
The question for us is how do we respond to the discipline in
our lives? The same hand that
disciplines is the same hand that lifts up.
He comes to reprove and rebuke with one hand and with the other comes
into my mess and your mess to lift us up and out, establishing us on that firm,
unmovable foundation, which is Christ Jesus.
Three
things you and I need to grasp this morning…
God
continues to speak to those He disciplines (Verse 4)
Listen,
sometimes we are so prone to be wrong and enjoy being wrong and will be wrong
at the top of our lungs. True; but the
problem is when you define all problems and struggles in your life as an attack
from the evil one, you are wrong!
Not
all that comes your way is the doing of the evil one. Sometimes disappointments and displeasures
and defeat comes at the hand of God and you are wrong if you overlook the
lesson He wishes to teach you in those times.
No,
the captivity of the Children of God was not good and no it was struggle and
heartbreaking, back breaking work, but God was working out His purposes for
them through this event in their history.
He
was seeking a response from His people; He was disciplining them for their
disobedience and in so doing was willing and ready to bring them through this
situation.
O
that we would grasp this reality. O that
would accept this truth in our lives this day and every day! Our chastisement for is for our good.
If
the reason is because of a deaf ear of disobedience; the response is a hearing
ear of acceptance. If the reason is a
hand of misuse; the response is a hand submitted for use to Kingdom
service. Turn to God, friend.
Submission
to the voice and way of God is the only hope we as believers have; it is the
only hope the church has; it the only hope this world has.
God’s
instructive Word is for progress not setbacks (Verses 5-6)
Listening
to and obeying the Word of God in the barren places is the only way for you my
friend. When circumstances and
situations are such that you want to throw up and your hands and quit, then and
only then is the real way to move forward the answer and that is my accepting
and internalizing the Word of God as truth in your life.
The
false prophets continued to speak and preach an early release from exile thus
making the people lazy, idle and unproductive.
God
wanted them to continue to grow and flourish in a barren place. He wanted them to bloom where they were
planted.
Yes,
God calls us to take the situation we find ourselves in and go forward with
God. Some would say that we live in a
county where nothing much happens, where our churches cannot grow, where we are
limited because of economic constraints and low morale; but I am here to tell
you that that is all a lie from the pits of hell.
Because
of the situation where we are we need to shine like the noonday sun. We need to go forward. We do not need to be lazy and idle, twiddling
our thumbs saying “Oh whoa is me.”
Due
to the economy gifts to the local church seem to be at a standstill, while
spending is up. Due to the situations in
society, many are finding other things more important that church attendance
and service. Apathy is eating away at
the churches, in America and in Coosa County.
This erosion has caused some to wonder what are we to do? How will we survive?
Listen,
we are to be active and obedient in barren places and at barren times. We are to allow these situations to propel us
forward. We are to make progress, not
allow setbacks.
We are to bloom
where we are planted!
God’s
people are to be instruments of His blessings in disheartening circumstances
(Verse 7)
While
in this place, God wanted the people of His choosing to be instruments of
blessing. They were to pray for the
peace of the land in which they were living.
They were to allow others to see God through faithful service.
That
is what Martin Luther referred to as the doctrine of vocation. It was thought in the Middle Ages that the
only people who truly pleased God were priests, monks, nuns – those who worked
for God directly, or so they thought.
However, Martin Luther rediscovered what Christians have known but
forgot from time to time, and now seems to be one of those times, that whatever
you do using your God-given abilities as a Christian, do it as to God; make it
God-pleasing.
·
You
don’t have to be a vocational minister to please God.
·
When
you are the best father, son, husband, mother, daughter, wife that God has made
you to be – God is pleased. When you are
the best church member, best Sunday School teacher, best worker, best
anything-God is pleased.
God
calls you to bloom where you are planted
Notes:
1) Rockford
Baptist Church; April 14, 2013 AM
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