Posted May 11th, 2008 by sound · ·

Date: May 11, 2008
Passage: Jeremiah 29:4-14
Message: Living in an Alien World
Series: Reality Bites

I was walking through shop at Marion this week.
Young Mum walking along in front of me with a wide pusher. Either she had twins in it, or two very young children.
But both of them were screaming! Very loudly!

I couldn’t see the Mum’s face but I had that distinct sense that she could’ve just let go of the pusher and kept walking!!

Then this older lady walked passed from the other direction, looked at these two little darlings in the pusher and she smiled this most compassionate and loving smile, as if to say,
‘Aren’t they just beautiful?’

I wondered how the Mum felt.
She’s probably thinking,

I just want to leave these kids in a change room somewhere and this old lady is making THEM seem like the most desirable things ever born, and ME seem like the worst mother on the earth!

I wanted to grab the old lady and say,
‘Forget the ‘aren’t they cute’ routine – go back and say to that Mum
‘I had times when I wanted to let go of the pusher too!!!’

This morning, on behalf of all of us who made life a little challenging for our mothers, I want to publicly thank you for not letting go of the pusher!!

We hear so many mushy things about a mothers love –
How they give up last piece of the pie …. all that kind of thing but I think THIS is the true mark of Motherhood!

When you had every reason to walk away – you didn’t!
More than anything else that reflects what God is like!
We see it here in Jeremiah 29

For 30 years Jeremiah has been preaching.
Not what the people wanted to hear.
God is serious about righteousness!

Jeremiah’s rebukes had become like a re-run of an old movie.
Everybody knew the lines and they could just switch off when they had had enough!

In fact at one point Jeremiah took a scroll and wrote to King Jehoiakim. As the words were being read out, the King took a knife and cut them out of the scroll and threw them into the fire ….until the whole scroll was burned in the fire [36:23]

There were so many other preachers who were much more exciting to listen to.
Prophets who told the people what they wanted to hear – that Jeremiah was just an alarmist, a fly in the ointment.

God would never allow any disasters to fall on them.
They were privileged.
They were the people of God!

Then it happened.
Beginning in 606 BC and concluding in 586 BC
Nebuchadnezzar swept across from Babylon and DISMANTLED the nation, DESTROYED their temple, MADE A MOCKERY of their supposed privileged position with God, SHATTERED their cozy little world and DRAGGED most of the people into captivity.

When they got there – the people sulked!
Read Psalm 137
They still didn’t get it!
All they could do is get mad at the Edomites and the Babylonians for what they did.

…. How can we sing songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?
Problem is, they hadn’t been singing the songs of the Lord in their own land.
It had been a farce.

The first thing you discover about farcical faith is that can’t help you when it really matters
The song dries up.
Faith is only meaningful in the temple…. When it is surrounded by all the religious paraphernalia.
It is not transferable.

What a waste!

God help us if our Christianity only thrives inside a Church building!

The PREACHERS in exile still didn’t get it!
Jeremiah 29:8-9
The prophets preached the injustice of it all.
They told of dreams they had where God revealed they would go home soon.

They managed to manipulate self pity into neurotic fantasies.
They gave the people a religious reason to be lazy, angry with the world around them.
They became parasites on society, irresponsible in their relationships and indifferent to reality in which they lived!

Worse part about all this – that’s how the world often views the Church!
They see us as neurotic, separatist, and indifferent to the reality of the world in which we live.
We are like a little enclave that doesn’t know where we fit in the big wide world!

Jeremiah, who was still living in Judah, writes to the exiles.
Says….. In short
You’re going to be there for a long time.
Learn what it’s like to live as people of God THERE and then God will bring you back
Oh, and by the way – God hasn’t forgotten you. He hasn’t taken his hands off the pusher!
He has plans for you!

Read v11
We often pluck this verse out and use it as some kind of ‘feel good wish’ for someone but it’s important we understand the context in which it was given.

This verse was recently ranked as the 29th most popular verse in all the Bible.
Something in us loves these kinds of verses.
You often see them on plaques with the most beautiful, idyllic background.

But that was not the setting in which it was given.
God says,
First thing you need to know is you are going to be there for another 70 years!

God’s plans involve NOW!
God’s plans include the ordinary, the colorless and the everyday.

Christians are perennial dreamers.
We are so prone to live in the world of what God could do, or will do, or is going to do.
We are incurable futurists and it robs us of the courage to live in the present.
We stake our hope on what we haven’t got yet and that diminishes the value of what we do have!!

Read Colossians 1:15-20, 2:9-10

God says to his people.
Sure I have plans for the future, but my plans start where you are right now!
They don’t look that exciting to you, but they do to me!

Read v4-7
There is a corporate and a personal message in this for us this morning.

a) Corporate
The Bible says we are strangers and aliens.
That will not come as a surprise to some people!
Lot of Christians are very strange!

1 Peter 2:11-12:
11Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
I wonder sometimes if we realize just how strange we are.
Test it out tomorrow at work.
While you work away I want you to sing out loud the choruses and hymns we sang this morning.
Burst out with a strong rendition of –
Great is Thy Faithfulness

Then invite everyone to lunch room while you tell them about the sermon from Jeremiah you heard yesterday.

Invite them back the next day to spend the whole lunch hour in prayer.
Invite them to follow Jesus and make sure you tell them it might cost them everything they have!

You see, we are odd!
We may feel very comfortable here this morning in our little enclave, but it’s anything but normal out there!

This passage tells us how to live as exiles, not like someone out of the X-files!
God’s plans are not just religious and spooky; they are very ordinary and plain.

….. build houses, 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 may have sons and daughters; increase in number, do not decrease….

This Church is taking this last part very seriously!!
God is saying to us
Live out real, authentic lives in the midst of the world in which I have put you.
Get among others who are building houses, planting gardens, marrying and producing……
That is my best plan!

Get involved on school committees, the local footy clubs, the bushwalking society or meals on wheels.
Be connected with people at what ever level God has equipped you for.
That’s why I still play tennis.
People are not afraid of me on the tennis court…..until I start serving!
They don’t mind if I’m a minister.
They find it cute!!

If I invited them to my office at the Church 9am on Monday morning, most of them would freak out!!
God says, play tennis

Playing tennis for Jesus doesn’t guarantee you’ll win, but it does put you in a place where God can live and shine and even speak through you.

All the Jews hankered for was to get back to Jerusalem.
God says, you need to learn how to live in Babylon!
It can be tough!

We find ourselves between two extremes.
1) We are so separate and different that we become the stereotype dorky Christian
Or
2) We get so happy living in Babylon that we want to take up permanent residence there.
We no longer see Babylon as a mission field but a playground! That’s challenge we face in 2008!

There is something that will keep us on track
Read v7
In addition to taking our place in society we must remember to pray for it!

Wherever God puts you, pray for it!
Whatever committee, whatever team, whatever group, whatever friends, whatever place….. Pray!

Let God work as we pray!

b) Personal
All of us, at different times, find ourselves where we don’t want to be.
Sometimes unexpectedly, sometimes inexplicably – we are in wrong place.
Crisis, death, betrayal, loss of job, sickness, breakdown,

We feel angry, hurt, sad, confused, and lonely
In a foreign place….
Exiled!

All we want is to get back to the way we were!
We want a quick fix.
Ticket back to Jerusalem!

We have choices.
We can pine for the good old days.
We can become hardened and bitter.
We can become aggressive and harbour grudges.

Or we can see that God still has plans for people just like us.
People in exile.
People who have failed.
People who should just be wheeled into a change room and left for some old lady to come and take pity on!

But God hasn’t taken his hands off the pusher.
I will help you build where you are….
Read v12

I have had some words in my head for weeks now that I shared with you a couple of months ago.

C S Lewis ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”
The great Lion Aslan is the Christ figure and in the book there is one significant point where the youngest of the children who have set out on their adventure into Narnia, Susan, meets Mr. and Mrs. Beaver. And this is what we read:

‘As Susan heard the strange name, Aslan, she began to tremble, "Oh", said Susan, "is he quite safe?" "Safe?" said Mr. Beaver. "Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the king I tell you."

Of course God is not safe.
He sent His people all the way to Babylon so they would find him.
But He is good!

All of us are given moments, days, months, and years of exile. What will we do with them? Wish we were some place else? Complain? Escape into fantasies? Drug ourselves into oblivion? Or build and plant and marry and seek the shalom of the place we inhabit and the people we are with? Exile reveals what really matters and frees us to pursue what really matters, which is to seek the Lord with all our hearts.
Eugene Peterson: Run With the Horses

Discussion Questions

1. All of us tend to tune out to things that we hear over and over again. We hear things but they no longer impact. What sort of familiar messages no longer have the sort of impact on us that they should? Can we do anything about this?

2. There was no shortage of preachers in Jeremiah’s day who were giving the people what they wanted to hear. What are some of the messages the Church is sending out today? What are the most important things we should be saying as a Church in 2008?

3. Read Jeremiah 29:11
This has been raked as the 29th most popular verse in the Bible. Why do you think it is so popular?

God’s plans involve NOW!
God’s plans include the ordinary, the colorless and the everyday.

Christians are perennial dreamers.
We are so prone to live in the world of what God could do, or will do, or is going to do.
We are incurable futurists and it robs us of the courage to live in the present.
We stake our hope on what we haven’t got yet and that diminishes the value of what we do have!!

Discuss
Read Colossians 1:15-20, 2:9-10

4. Read Jeremiah 29:4-7
1 Peter 2:11-12 talks about Christians being strangers and aliens in this world.
Why is that the case?
How does it show itself?
What is God asking His people to do in these verses?
Why is it so important?

We find ourselves between two extremes.
We are so separate and different that we become the stereotype dorky Christian
Or
We get so happy living in Babylon that we want to take up permanent residence there.
We no longer see Babylon as a mission field but a playground!

Discuss

5. Read Jeremiah 29:7
How many of us see it as all that important that we pray for all the groups, clubs, people etc. that we are involved with?
How does praying for them change us?

6. All of us, at different times, find ourselves where we don’t want to be.
Sometimes unexpectedly, sometimes inexplicably – we are in wrong place
Crisis, death, betrayal, loss of job, sickness, breakdown,
We feel angry, hurt, sad, confused, and lonely
In a foreign place….Exiled!

Describe what happens in your life at these times?
What do you find helpful?
How do you respond from a faith perspective?

Note: Be honest in this!!

7. All of us are given moments, days, months, and years of exile. What will we do with them? Wish we were some place else? Complain? Escape into fantasies? Drug ourselves into oblivion? Or build and plant and marry and seek the shalom of the place we inhabit and the people we are with? Exile reveals what really matters and frees us to pursue what really matters, which is to seek the Lord with all our hearts.
Eugene Peterson: Run With the Horses

Discuss