Ephesus Family Conference, 4

Good morning. If you have your Bibles with you this morning, open them to the Book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah, chapter twenty nine, Jeremiah twenty nine. And as I say those words Jeremiah twenty nine, your mind, if you have spent any time in the church and anytime in the Bible, your mind immediately goes to verse number eleven, Jeremiah twenty nine. Eleven, one of the most beloved verses in all of the Bible. Not only is it one of the most beloved verses in all the Bible, I would argue that it is one of the most misunderstood, misquoted, misused, and misinterpreted verses in the entire Bible. We know it well, and we love it well. But unfortunately our knowledge of it is inaccurate, and our love of it is based on our inaccurate knowledge. Now it is good news. It's not good news in the way that most of us think it's good news, but it is good news. Let's look first at the verse itself, Jeremiah twenty nine, Verse eleven. I'll be reading from the ESV. You may know it in other versions, but I'll read the ESV version, for I know the plans. I have for you, declares the Lord plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. And we read that and we say, amen, Hallelujah, praise the Lord. Right. And as we read this verse, especially if we just sort of grab it kicking and screaming out of its context, it seems to indicate that for God's people and where God's people are concerned, that God's plan for his people, God's desire for his people is just good stuff and always and only good stuff. And you can hold onto that, but only until life happens. Amen. And so if we hold onto this, and especially if we claim this, and a lot of people will say, you know, this is my life verse. You know, we hold onto this as our life verse, then when life happens and life is filled with difficulty, life is filled with obstacles, life is filled with harm like life is filled with sin and disappointment. And so when those things happen, you have a choice to make. And there's a couple of different ways that we can go. One way that we can go is we can go the route of God does have these plans, and his plans are always and only for our good. But there's a devil, and the devil has other plans. So God has these good plans, and when something happens to me that is not good, that is not pleasant, that is not prosperous, well then that that's from the devil. There is a problem here. There is a huge theological problem with doing that. And that huge theological problem is this that it puts Satan on equal par with God himself. You destroy your God with that kind of theology, because ultimately the God that you worship, you've just said that, this is the God that you worship. He's in heaven, and he's got all these good plans and all these good hopes and all these good desires, and he's really trying to get good stuff to you. But oh, the devil just won't let him do it. You can have that God all day, every day and twice on Sunday. He's not worthy of worship. I agree with Martin Luther who said, even the devil is God's devil. My God is sovereign. The Psalma says he sits enthroned in the heavens, and he does whatever pleases him. There is no equal battle between God and Satan going on in the universe. If there were, we could not have the Book of Revelation, for example, because in the Book of Revelation, God tells us exactly how his victory is going to come about, not what he hopes, not what he desires, not what his best wishes are, but what will most assuredly, absolutely unequivocally take place at the end of the age. Because God is not running for God. He was the only one around when the votes were cast, and there's never going to be a recount. He's God, So that theology just doesn't fly. God wants really good stuff for you, and only good stuff for you, But the devil. No. There's another option that people use, and this option is almost the same as the first option, but it's actually worse. This option says God does desire and intend always and only good things for you. However, if you don't have enough faith. You heard that one. You don't have enough faith, then I mean, it's just it's there, it's right there. But if you don't have enough faith, well, the theological answer to this one is precisely the same as the last one. It is simply this, God is sovereign, Amen. God is not dependent upon you to accomplish his will. Again, God tells you what is going to happen at the end of the age and how he is going to be glorified. Be the Psalmist says, it's listen Psalm forty sixteen. Be still and know that I am God. Huh, I will be exalted among the nations. Now I might not I hope to. I will be still. Cease from striving. Shut your mouth and know that I am God, period, full stop. He's God. He's God. He's not dependent upon you having enough faith for him to exercise his sovereignty. Because here's I'll let you know a little secret. You've never had enough faith for God to exercise his sovereignty. Amen. But here's the thing. If God at the beginning of time can simply speak and say, let there be and the universe leafs into existence, then you think he can't speak into your life whatever it is that needs to be spoken into your life. Do you think your lack of faith is more significant than nothingness? God can make everything out of nothingness with the power of his word. Oh, but blessing you, he needs help from your faith. Paul tells us An Ephesians chapter two that even the faith that saves us. That's greater faith than any other faith. Amen. Even that faith is not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one can boast. So if God gives you the faith required for you to be saved, and your salvation is the greatest miracle of all miracles, Amen, from a death to life, from an enemy to a son. You're saying to me that God's sovereignty can break through and shatter that. But when it comes to blessing you, do you see the problem. There is a third way. I allude to this theology on yesterday, Princess Bride theology. You keep on using that verse. I do not think it means what you think it means, and in this case, it doesn't. It doesn't mean what you think it means. It doesn't mean that God's plans and desires are always and only good things for his people. It doesn't mean that. In fact, I'm going to show you that it can't mean that. It's not possible for this verse to mean that. Now in order for me to show you that, there are a few rules that you have to understand. And I know you think, oh, I thought we were talking about a family conference. Here we are, we are, and if you were here yesterday and we talked about marriage. We started with digging a foundation. Because we're building a skyscraper. Amen, we have to dig a theological foundation, a significant theological foundation. And you'll understand as we move forward why this is where we need to start if we're going to talk about family. But there's a few rules that you need to know, a few rules of hermeneutics, hermautics, the art and science of interpretation. Five rules in particular that you need to know. Rule number one, context, rule number two context, and rule number three context. Heymen, First three rules in real estate location, location, location, First three rules of Biblical hermoneutics Context, context, context, all right. Rule number four. A text can't mean what it never meant. A text can't mean what it never meant if it was not the intention of the human author or the intention of the author. You don't get to now go back into the text, read it, determine how you feel about the text, and then invent a new meaning based upon you're indigestion or whatever else you brought to the text to try to make it mean whatever it is you want to do. You can't do that. You cannot do that. Text can't mean what it never meant. You can't contradict what it was meant to communicate. Last rule, Narrative is not normative. Narrative is not normative. Just because something happened in the Bible doesn't mean that that's the normative way that we are to understand things. For example, Annius and Sapphire, did it happen? Yes, God killed him in church. He didn't allow them to die. God killed Annius and Sapphire in church. That absolutely happened. Now is that the normative way that church discipline is handled? Praise God? No, it's not. Amen. Jonah, Jonah, did it happen? Did it happen? Did it happen? Did it happen? Of course it happened. Of course it happened, right God, Like the guy the story of the guy on the witness stand, you know, trying to be tripped up by the lawyer. You know, do you actually believe did Jonah swallowed a wall? Yeah? I said by the witness stand says well, no, sir, that's not what the Bible says. But if the Bible did say it, that's what I believe. Jonah was swallowed, carried spit out on dry land. Did it happen? Absolutely? But is that the normative way that God deals with reluctant missionaries? Praise God? The answer is no, Amen, So narrative is not normative. Okay. First rule, context, second rule, context, third rule context. Rule number four, text can't mean what it never meant. Rule number five. Narrative is not normative. Let's take these five rules and look again at Jeremiah chapter twenty nine and verse eleven, which means that we have to look at it in its context, which means that we have to back up, and we'll start at Jeremiah twenty nine one. In order to understand this text, Jeremiah chapter twenty nine, Verse one. Remember the rules context, context, context. Let's look at the context of the statement in verse eleven. And when you do this, when we put this together, let me let you in a secret here as to how this relates to what we're talking about today. When you put this together, you understand that this passage is really about multi generational faithfulness and ultimately, if we want to understand the way we're supposed to approach our family life, family discipleship, and everything else, we begin with the idea of multi generational faithfulness. That that is not the cultural norm. The cultural norm is you know, as a parent to two phrases that explain the philosophy of parenting, right. Phrase number one, I want to do more for my kids than my parents did for me. That's that's simple, nutshell, that's it. I want to do more for my kids than my parents did for me. Phrase number two. That encapsulates the idea of modern parenting. Get them grown, get them gone. You know, those are ideas. And so we want to survive our children, right, and we talk about countdown. We have nine children, come from twenty eight to five, and every time, you know, there's another child that's been added to our family. People who have you know, somebody has talked about the countdown. Right. Our youngest is now five, and you know I'm now forty nine, and so you know, thirteen more years the freedom. Right, Oh you'll be and you do the math, you know, however old you'll be when the last one is eighteen? Right, the countdown to freedom, surviving your children until you get them out of the nest. It's not a biblical idea, folks. The biblical idea is multi generational faithfulness and the biblical idea. The Bible repeatedly talks about your children and your children's children. Your parenting ought to encompass your intentions for your children's children. Amen, not just a dean. Let's go spend their inheritance. So with that in mind, let's look at this again, let's put it in our contact. Beginning verse one, these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the Prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom nebicon Azer had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. This was after King jack and I and the Queen Mother, the eunuchs, the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen and the metal workers, and had departed from Jerusalem. The letter was sent by the hand of Ilasa, the son of Schafan, and Gamaria, the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah, king of Judah, sent to Babylon. To Nemica nebicon Azar, king of Babylon, it said, it's up there. First three verses, here's what we learn this Jeremi twenty nine to eleven is actually a phrase lifted from a letter. It's a phrase lifted from a letter. Now, this letter was written to a specific group of people in a specific place, in a specific time, under specific circumstances. A specific group of people in a specific place at a specific time, under specific circumstances. You got that. So let's ask ourselves about this letter. Who's the specific group of people. Well, the specific group of people is Jewish exiles. Not just Jewish people, but to Jewish exiles. These are Jewish exiles whom Nebica Nezar had taken off to Babylon. This is before the fall of the Kingdom of Judah. So this is between five ninety six and five eighty five BC. Specific group of people, specific time, specific circumstance. The specific circumstance is the early exile of the pre exile before Nebuca Nezar finishes off Judah. Remember the kingdom, the Northern Kingdom of Israel is gone. It fell to the Assyrians in seven twenty two. The Southern Kingdom survived, but eventually nebucon Nezzar comes and finishes off the Southern Kingdom the Kingdom of Judah. But it's a process first, certain individuals were taken off from Jerusalem to Babylon. Daniel and his friends, for example, are part of this group of people who were taken off during this period. But Jerusalem is still intact. So Jeremiah Yah is writing this letter to those particular exiles in Babylon. So this letter is written to a specific group of people, not just Jews, but Jews in the early Babylonian exiles. Specific group of people, specific time, specific place, specific circumstance. So Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven is a promise, but it is a promise made to the Jews of the early Babylonian exile between five ninety six and five eighty five BC. What does that mean? That means that Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven is a promise that was not made to you. What? Yes, Yeah, we love Jeremih twenty nine eleven, and we Jeremi twenty eleven, twenty eleven. It's my life, vers it's my promise. Really, that promise was never made to you, brother waiting. No, no, no, no, no no no. All of the promises in the Bible are made to me. Really, you will bear a son and you will call his name Jesus, because he will save his people. Is that promise made to you? No, that promise impacts you, But it wasn't made to you. My people who will call by my name will humble themselves and pray and see their face and turning the will good ways. I mean that promise was not made to you. That promise was made specifically at the dedication of the temple. Why did Daniel pray facing the temple because of the promise that God made right there? About the prayers that are made toward the temple in Jerusalem, That promise wasn't made My people will come by my name America, really, no, absolutely, Now we are not his people called by his name. No, no, no, no, A thousand times no, that's not a promise for America. The Church of God, definitely, But the Church of God doesn't have borders, so he's not even for the Church of God in America, the Church of God, the people of God. Yes, So every promise in the Bible impacts you. I would even argue that every promise in the Bible, understood correctly, can be applied to you. But not every promise in the Bible is made to you. I hope, I hope. We've seen that that's a pretty easy one to demonstrate. And this promise, the promise of Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven, was not made to you. Does it apply to you? Yes, But in order for it to apply to you properly, you have to first acknowledge the fact that it wasn't made to you. Only then can you understand what the promise meant as you understand what it meant to the recipients of the promise. When you understand what it meant to the recipients of the promise, you can extract the timeless principle from the promise. And it's the timeless principle that applies to you, not the promise itself to follow, so context context context. Secondly, in addition to that, remember the idea that a text can't mean what it never meant. Jeremiah twenty nine eleven is taken and is read, and it's to mean that God always and only intends good for you. And we even say that if something happens to you that's not good, that wasn't from God, that was from the devil. Right, because God's plans for his people is to prosper them and not to harm them. God wouldn't harm you. You go to the doctor and he says you have cancer. That can't be from God because God wouldn't harm his people. You remember that. Look at verse four. Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. God says, the boot of the oppressor is on your neck, and I put it there. Realdle me this batman. How can verse eleven mean that God would never do such a thing to his people? In verse four says he did. Huh, how can that be possible? How can you rip verse eleven, kicking and screaming out of its context and then develop a theology that says God won't do what verse four says he did. God did that. Spent many years serving, leading, planting, pastoring church in Houston. And if you serve and lead churches in Houston, eventually you're gonna have to deal with hurricanes. Right, there's a lot of thing you guys have churches canceled because of you know, severe winter storms. By the way, in Houston we have as well. But yeah, every couple of few years we're probably gonna miss church because some lady is howling down on us, right, Rita, you know, just some you know, somebody. And the hurricane came and I remember specifically talking to a family who had just been devastated by Rita. And in order for them to sort of deal with the devastation, you know, they just kept trying to I call it serving as God's pr person, Right. God needs God needs a God needs a PR person, and so we try to be as PR person, and when something like that happens, we try to explain how, you know, God would never let that happen. And the hurricane came and you were devastated, and you know, you're a believer. Unbeliever certainly devastated by the hurricane. When a believer is devastated by the hurricane, we want to be God's PR person and say that, well, actually, you know, God just sort of permitted that to happen. And he sort of, you know, allowed that to happen. He didn't really intend for that to happen to you, but you know, I mean, and after a while, this person is trying to, you know, do all of this sort of stuff, and as a pastor, you kind of get caught in the middle between. I want to be sympathetic and not just crush people. But you can't let that theology reign even in the worst circumstances. And so I stopped this precious saint, and I said, just stop right there. You're about to make a terrible error. If you believe that God could not direct that hurricane, then you're going to have a hard problem believing he can get you from here to heaven. That storm didn't just happen to go anywhere. Nothing does. Our God sits enthroned in the heavens, and he does whatever pleases him. He does not slumber, He does not sleep, and nothing gets past him. Cancer doesn't come to a saint because God missed it untimely. Death doesn't befall your family because God somehow couldn't prevent it. Tragedy does not strike because God has to work on Plan B. There is no plan. And be with God. He is the sovereign lord of the universe. And when tragedy strikes, it's hard to hold onto that. But listen to me sayings. If you don't hold onto that when tragedy strikes, then when death comes, you'll be terrified. Because you'll ask yourself, if he couldn't handle that, how can he handle this? How he will get me home? God, his Sovereign, his precious beloved people Israel did not go into Babylonian captivity because Nebuka Nezzer slipped through his fingers. No, he sent nebukan Nezzer. He's in charge. Well, well, why would God use the ungodly to discipline the godly? Well? Because because who else is he gonna use? Huh? There is none righteous? No, not one. Who else is he gonna use? You tell me who else is he gonna use? So what do we do? Before I answer that question, We're gonna skip over a few verses. Don't worry, We're gonna come back to them. What's mine? Ten? Ten? Okay, go to verse eight. For us, as the Lord of Hosts, the God of is, do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name. I did not send them, declares the Lord. What's the lie? Well, if you go up to the previous chapter, you find that there is a prophet there in that chapterhet Hannaanayah, and Hannah and Ayah comes up to Jeremiah. He breaks the you know, the yoke bars and Jeremiah says, and hann and I basically says, in a short time, this is all going to be over. And Jeremiah, I just got of Hey, wow, that's awesome, praise. You know, this is all everybody's excited, you know, because this prophet says this is going to be over in a short time. Well, doesn't work out like that. God says to Jeremiah, Hannah and Iah is lying, and I'm going to be killing and he does. That's what happens in chapter twenty eight. That's the lie. The lie that people were telling was this is going to be over in a short while. That's a lie. Verse ten. For thus says the Lord, when seventy years are completely for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place when seventy years are finished. Whoa, whoa, when seventy years are finished. By the way, this is just this just gets us to the decree of Cyrus. They won't repopulate the land for one hundred and fifty years. What does that mean. Well, that means that everyone who was alive when the promise of Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven was given would be dead when it was fulfilled, which means it's a multi generational promise. Yes, it is not a right here, right now, for me promise. It is a way off in the future for your children's children's children promise. So we'll wrap this up and then we'll come back and we'll look at that middle section to apply this to our families and what a multi generational vision does for us as we look at our families. But for now, let me just say this, Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven was not a promise made to you. Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven was not a promise made for now. Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven is a multi generational promise. It tells us something about God and his relationship to his people. And what it tells us about God and his relationship to his people is extremely valuable for us as we try to apply this promise in the here and now, Because even though it wasn't made to you, it applies to you. It may not have the beauty that you thought it had, but I'm going to argue that it has an even greater beauty. So if you're sitting here and you're saying, great, he just took away my favorite verse, listen to me. I'm going to give it back, and I'm going to give it back better. Let's pray. Gracious God, our heavenly Father, we thank you, and we praise you for your goodness and kindness and mercy toward us. We thank you, Sovereign Lord, that we can trust you, not just in the here and the now, but in the hereafter and for evermore. Grant by your grace, that this might give us hope. We pray in Christ's name, Amen,