Reforming Family -Multigenerational Vision

Isaiah chapter twenty nine. We're gonna look at a passage of scripture that contains a verse of scripture that is one of the best known and most well loved and misused, misapplied and misinterpreted versus in the entire Bible, and that is Jeremiah twenty nine eleven. In fact, you say Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven, and people just know it. You know, a lot of people will have it as their sort of life verse. I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a hope and a future. And this is a verse that we like to lay a hold of. And it's rather interesting in that it's also oftentimes the source of much discouragement for people because of a misunderstanding of this verse and its context, the idea being that if bad things happened to you, then then then then that's not that's not God. Bad things happened to you, That's that's not God. That was that was That was that was Satan that did the bad things to you. God doesn't. God doesn't do the bad things to you. Satan who does the bad things to you thinking that they've rescued God. People, you know, try to serve as God's pr agent, you know, and it really wouldn't really wouldn't wouldn't wouldn't be very good of God to have done that, and therefore we're going to give God an out. Unfortunately, in giving God an out, they rob God of his sovereignty. So now all of a sudden, you know, they serve a God who sits there and says, man, I really really really wanted to do some good stuff for you, but would have let me, and so I just I couldn't do anything about it. That's not God, God of the Bible, sits enthroned in the heavens, and he does whatever pleases him. His plans can not be thwarted. All things that come to pass come to pass because of his sovereign decree all things, and he works all things together according to the counsel of his will. And so he doesn't need a pr agent because God is not running for God. A lot of people are running for stuff. God's not one of them. He was the only one around when the votes were cast, and there's never going to be a recount. God is God all by himself, amen, He does not need to explain himself to us. Paul puts it in Roumans. What if God? What so? What if God just said his sovereignty decided out of one love of clay, he was going to make something of glorious use and something of ignoble or inglorious use. Who are you, oh man? I love that passage of scripture? Who are you, oh man? In other words, who do you think you are to even have the audacity to question God? What do you think you deserve other than death, hell and the grave? What do you think God owes you? What do you have that you did not receive? The answer is absolutely nothing. And so we run into this problem when we look at this verse and we grab this first kicking and screaming out of its context, and we take this verse to mean that, all right, it didn't come. I thought I was gonna sneeze. I was gonna hit the mute button. Okay. Another thing that this does is it causes us to question ourselves, which is bad on a number of levels. First of all, it's bad because all of a sudden, now things being good for us, we get the volume down, please, things being good for us all of a sudden is a direct result of what we deserved, and if things don't go well for us is because we didn't do whatever it was that was necessary for us to deserve the good things. The horrible thing about that is not so much what it does when you're in the midst of your low moments, but what it says about you in your high moments. In other words, when something you know, God's plans for me are to prosper me and not to harm me, right, and so I'm not prospering all of a sudden, there's a downturn in the economy, and God's plans that to prosper me and not to harm me. I don't know about you guys here in Arizona, but right now in Texas, we're not too happy about these gas prices. People in our church are worried about being laid off. People all over our city are being laid off by the hundreds, by the hundreds, and pretty soon it's going to be by the thousands. While everybody's going, whoa chick gas, I'm in the energy capital of the United States. We need them to bump up just a little bit. And so when that happens, you know, you look at yourself and you say, well, what must I have done for this terrible thing to happen to me. What worries me about that is that means that on yesterday, when everything was well, you believed you deserved it. That's even more terrible than you being down in the dumps today about things going badly, because that means that you think God owes you something and he just doesn't plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope in the future, and all of a sudden you go and you get bad news from the doctor, and just am I really a Christian? Because if I was really a Christian, then I wouldn't be able to This is where the Word of Faith movement comes in and Word Faith teachers. I remember one of the famous Word faith teachers saying that he believed that he didn't have to die until he was ready. Why Because the Bible says the power of life and death is in the tongue. And I speak life and not death when something startles. You don't say that scared me to death. You're actually speaking death and not life, teaching people that you know when death comes, that's because you who do we think we are? And so we misuse this first drag it kicking and screaming out of context. And so I want us to see this text in its context, and in doing so, I want us to see the multi generational context of this entire thing. So in order for us to do that, we have to back up, and we have to do a couple of things. One, read the broader passage, the broader context. So we're gonna go back to Jeremiah twenty nine to one so that we're gonnaunderstand Jeremiah two nine to eleven. And then when we breathe the broader context. Before we do that, we need some more hermeneutic lessons. Okay, you guys survived the one earlier, you'll survive this one, all right. You remember the one earlier. Indicatives, what it is, imperative? What do you do with it? Right? Remember that right? Indicatius and imperatives. Okay, Now we're going to add this five five five key hermoneutic rules. Okay, five key hermonutical rules for interpreting scripture. Five key. There will be a test. Five key hermonical rules. Ready number one, Context number two, Context number three, Context number four. No, that's one, two and three. Number four is a text can't mean what it never meant. A text can't mean what it never meant. You don't get to invent a new meaning for a text, all right, It can't mean what it never meant. We have to find the intended meaning in the text, the intended meaning that's always been there in the text. You can't wake up today and all of a sudden say well, I feel like I don't know no, no, in all these Bible studies, Well, what does this mean to you? Stop right there? Because number one, I don't care what it means to you. I just want to know what it means right, how it applies to you. Maybe that's helpful, But what it means to you, that's dangerous. I don't need that. I don't want that. I want to know what it means. Okay, text can't mean what it's never meant. Finally, number five, narrative is not normative. Narrative is not normative. What does that mean? Just because something happened in the Bible doesn't mean that that's the way things are always going to happen. We're analyzed and Safar killed in church by God. Yes, they were. Do I expect that that's how he's going to handle our next church discipline case? No, No, I don't because narrative is not normative. Okay, narrative is not normative. Can you say that with me. Narrative is not normative. This is very important. Can I just give you one example of why this is so important? But there's much error in churches because of a misinterpretation and misunderstanding of this hermintical rule. For example, there are people who go back to the Book of Ads and they say, we just need to get back to the church in the Book of Acts. Couple of things wrong with that. Number one, there was some very unhealthy churches in the Book of Acts. And number two. If all we needed was the Book of Acts, the apostles would not have written the epistles. You don't go to the Book of Acts to figure out how to do church. You go to the epistles to figure out how to do church. The epistles. That's where we find our rules and structures for the church. In the epistles. Acts tells us what happened. But it's not normative. Narrative is not normative. That's not the way things always happen. It's just a recording and an account of what did take place. Okay, So we're the Church of the Epistles. And by the way, if acts is all that you need, have you read Corinthians, We just need to get back a first century church. Really, you haven't read first and second Corinthians. They were messed up and guess what they were? First century church? Have you read Revelation? Have you read that? Have you read Revelation two and three? What said to those first century churches in Asia? Minor, Lord help them? There were things were awful in the first century church. Okay, So narrative is not normative. Narrative is not normative. So rule number one text, rule number two, rule number three, rule number four. Text can't mean what it never meant. Rule number five. Narrative is not normative. Now, let's just go here and we'll read these and we'll find some amazing things, and then we'll see how this actually gives us a multi generational picture. Jeremi twenty nine to 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 Nebica Nezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. This was after King Jakariah and the Queen Mother, the eunuchs, the officials Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen and the metal workers had departed from Jerusalem. The letter was sent by the hand of Ilasa, son of Saiffhan, and Gemariah, the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah, king of Judas, sent to Babylon. To Nebica Nezar, king of Babylon. It said stop there. So the words this is part of a letter. This is part of a letter. So Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven is part of a letter. Now it's a letter that was written to a specific group of people during a specific time, in a specific place, under a specific set of circumstances. Who are the people, Well, they're exiles. They're exiles. Where are they in Babylon? Where they come from Jerusalem? So these are Jewish exiles in Babylon who have come from Jerusalem during the pre exilic period. This is early This is early exile. This is before the fall of Jerusalem. This is when certain individuals like Daniel were being taken away before the whole thing fell. So we know the historic window that we're talking about here, specific group of people in a specific place, under specific circumstances at a specific time. That's who this is written to. Here's a newsflash, you are not those specific people. This is not that specific place, this is not that specific time, and this is not that specific circumstance, which means Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven is a promise that was made to somebody who's not you. WHOA All the promises in the Bible are mine. No, they're not, Yes they are. Every last promise in the Bible is mine. Okay, you will give birth to a son and you will call his name Jesus. That you No, it's not. Does it impact you, yes it does, but the promise was it made to you? Okay? Another example of that. We love it. Turn turned with me real quick because we do this and it just it just wears me out. It really does. Every time there's a national Day of prayer, you know, I just I don't even know what I'm gonna do. Second Chronicles, chapter seven, beginning of verse eleven, This is another one that we rip kicking and screaming out of context. Whenever we bring this whenever we bring this verse to some national day of prayer event, I think about this verse kicking and screaming, saying no, I don't mean that verse eleven, say Chronicles seven fourteen. Right, we know that one. If my people who called by my name, well, yeah, we know that one. Right. Let's read. Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king's house. All that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the Lord and his own house he successfully accomplished. Then the Lord appeared to Solomon, then the knight, and said to him, I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. Where's this place the temple in Jerusalem. That's important. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain or command the locust to devour the land or send pestilence among my people. If my people who are called by my name humble themselves in pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ear attentive to the prayers that are made in this place. What's this place? The temple in Jerusalem, not the White House, not the state capital. Huge problem when we run to that text and try to make it ours, because ultimately what we do then is we say America is now the new Israel. America is now the new people of God. That's a huge problem when you apply that to us as a nation. Now, if you want to say that there can be an application for us as the Church, then sure there can be an application to us as the Church as it relates to God hearing the prayers of his people. By the way, now my body and your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and the place where God dwells. So we don't even have to go to a special place. Amen. So again, there's a way that you go to these texts that were written specifically to Israel and apply them. You cannot just go make a one to one correlation. He said this to Israel. Therefore we can claim this for America. No we cannot. No, we cannot, because America is not the new Jerusalem. This is not the Promised Land, and we are not the promise to people of God. The Church is Amen, and America is not the Church. So it is wrong for us to make that leap. Okay, it is wrong for us to make that leap back to our text in Jeremiah twenty nine. So this is a promise. It's a promise that was it made to us. Does it apply to us? Yes, it applies to us. But in order to understand how it applies to us, we have to understand it in its original context and how it applies to its original hearers. Only then, only then are we going to be able to understand how it applies to us. And usually what we do is we skip this step and we want to just read the verse and take the verse without its context and say, that's my verse, and it means the same thing to me that it did to the people who heard it. Know it doesn't know, it doesn't Okay, no it doesn't. Now, Remember a text can't mean what it never meant. Right, watch this in verse four, because we say, you know I have Jeremiah twenty eleven, this is my life verse right, this plan is give me a hope in the future, not to harm me, right, prospering me, not to harm me, Give me a hope in the future. So whenever bad things come to you, that doesn't come from God, because God's plan is to prosper you and not to harm you. So if anything harms you, that wasn't God. And this is what we say, This is what we say. My son in law, Philip is here with me. He and Jasmine recently experienced a miscarriage, their first pregnancy. Devastating, devastating, absolutely devastating, And because you know, it was public knowledge that they were pregnant, it was also became public knowledge that they've experienced miscarriage. And you learn a lot about people's theology at a time like that, a lot about people's theology, and the number of people who've just said, you know, I know you're trust in God, and I know you're you know this and that and the other. But that wasn't God. Maybe that wasn't God. God didn't do that, That was the devil. There is no comfort in that. Why Because if God is so impotent that Satan and can do whatever he wants and thwart God's will, then how do I know God can get me to heaven? How can I ever be assured of my salvation? If God is that weak and impotent he's not. And a lot of that is built on and misunderstanding of this truth. If something negative happens to you, then that wasn't God because God doesn't do those negative things. Or we come up with ideas about you know, it was his permissive will. Again, we're trying to be God's pr agent, you know, which is permissive will. It's not what he wanted to happen. He just allowed to happen. Come on, now, come on, now, he's God, He's God. There is not one random molecule in the entire universe, not one, but everything in its precise and exact place. Look at verse four. Remember a text can't mean what it never meant. So in order for Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven to mean that negative stuff that comes to you, God never did it, it would have to mean it here, right, Look at verse four. Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I allowed to go into exile by my permissive will. Because Satan said not what it says to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. God says to his people, the boot of the oppressor is on your neck, and I put it there. Now run and till that. So, how can Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven mean that God would never send or do anything like this teeth when it doesn't mean it here, How can it mean it now? If it doesn't mean it here. A text can't mean what it never meant, and it never meant that. It never meant that God chastens his people. Amen. God chasens his people, and his people also live in a fallen world. And God does not keep fallenness from affecting his people. There are times when he does because it best serves his purpose. But listen, Yeah, I live down I love it, live in Houston, and you know we're there in a hurricane alley. You know hurricanes come through. Here's what doesn't happen when a hurricane comes through. You can't go down on the coast and go I want to show you where all the Christians live, because the non Christians their houses were wiped out, but the Christians their stuff is still standing. Nope, you walk down there and it's believers and unbelievers alike. Why because coming to faith in Christ is not a guarantee or a promise that God will keep you from difficulty and or harm. The promise is yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you're with me, not because I'm yours. I don't go through that valley. That's not our promise. People. And this is what is so insidious about the word of faith name and enclaim it so called gospel. It's a lie. It's a lie. So we see next in verse five, Well, we'll come back to verse five. Trust me, we will come back to it. Go down with me to verse eight. For thus, as the Lord of Host to God of Israel, do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you. And 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. Now, contextually, what on earth can you be talking about? Well, if you just go back to chapter twenty eight, you find that in chapter twenty eight there's a prophet by the name of Hannaanaiah, and Jeremiah is warning the people about God's impending judgment. Hanna and Aiah. As Jeremiah has this yoke around his neck. Hey, Henna, and I breaks it and basically tells the people that very short period of time and this is all going to be over. God then comes to Jeremiah and says, here's the deal, Hennah, and I is telling y'all that I told him that this is not going to last long. You do me a favor. Tell him number one, you're a liar, and number two, you're getting ready to die. And God killed him because he was trying to encourage the people by telling them just a short while and this will all be over. And there are two this day people who try to encourage God's people by causing them to think wrongly, to think incorrectly about difficulty and hardship in their lives, either by causing them to think that somehow it came from somewhere else and that God is not in control. Still, I cannot fathom how that brings comfort to anyone, the idea that God can't control a hurricane, or God can't control the sickness, or God can't control again. How do I have any hope of my eternal life and that God can get me to heaven If God can't control a hurricane or somehow we try to convince ourselves that if we were just more godly, if we were just more godly than these bad things wouldn't happen to us, or if we were just more godly, it would all go away. If we were just more godly, if we would just serve God, then all of a sudden, you know, And this is why, by the way, believing this bad theology is why would negative things happen? And we come to God? What do we do Lord, I can't understand. I serve you, I go to church, I give money, I do this, I do that, and this happens to me? Why do we do that? Because we've got bad theology, folks, we're drinking the kool aid, and we're actually believing that we earn God's favor and we earn a life free of difficulty and pain and hardship by doing good. We believe that stuff, which is why when lying prophets come around saying I got a word from the Lord, we have itching ears and we're always willing to jump at it if it will just get us out of pain. If you can't say amen, you ought to say and this is exactly what's happening here. So this promise. Look at verse ten, they're lying. How do you know they're lying? For thus says the Lord, when seventy years are completed from Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. Now, when you look at all this and do the math, ultimately what you realize is that this gets you to the Edict of King Cyrus. There's a long time after that before they actually go back to Jerusalem, which means that it's one hundred and fifty years before the promise of Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven is fulfilled, one hundred and fifty years after it's made. Watch this, you're with me. This means the promise of Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven was made, and not one person who was alive when the promise was made was going to be alive when the promise was fulfilled. Why because it's a multi generational promise. It's a multi generational promise. So when you read again, we'll visit it again. But for now, just try to wrap your mind around that. How do we take this verse right and say that what it means is God is promising me good and prosperity in the here and the now, when originally it referred to your great grandchildren are going to experience this. How do we today look at this same verse and say that it's about how God's going to deal with me in here in the now when it's always been multigenerational in nature. Not only is it multigenerational, but watch that look at verse twelve, it's it's also not individual. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. By the way, one hundred and fifty years from now, this can't mean the person who's hearing right. So now I'm standing there and I'm listening to the letter as it's being read. I just got this math and I'm like, okay, at one hundred and fifty years from now, and he's like, then you are going wait a minute, is God saying that I want to live one hundred fifty years? No, you singular are not going to live one hundred and fifty years, but you plural, as in the nation, the people of God are going to survive one hundred and fifty years. So not only is this a multi generational promise, but it's not even an individual promise. It's a corporate promise. Let me say that again. Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven is a corporate promise, not an individual one. It can't be an individual one. First of all, you look at the letter beginning to you know, and beginning back in verse one, and it's a letter to a group of people in the exile. Look at verse twelve, looks verse thirteen. 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 I will restore your fortunes and gather if you needed. If you needed proof that he's not talking to an individual, here here's your proof. And I will gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. Can't be one person unless the person was sent to those places in pieces. This can't be an individual promise. Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven cannot be an individual promise. It is a corporate promise that speaks to us about how God deals with his people, and it speaks to us about God's sovereignty why because of the nature of the promise. Listen, I'm a father, and when you're father, you learn early on not to say stuff like, yep, daddy's gonna do this right here. You promise absolutely it's gonna happen on this day, at this time. I promise. That's a brand new daddy right there, it's a brand new daddy. If you've been a daddy for a while, Daddy, you promise, Lord Willing, we're gonna do it. Because when you've been a daddy for a while, you know that there's stuff that happens. And sometimes when you say we're gonna go out in the backyard and we're gonna play catch, sometimes stuff happens and we need to do that tomorrow. But to a little one who heard you say that you promised that we're gonna do it today, you just messed up the whole world because in that little one's mind, you dress in a phone booth man, and you can go in there and do one of those things right there and put on your cape and make anything happen. And it didn't happen because you didn't want it to happen. Because if you wanted it to happen, it would happen. So very early on, as a dad, you learned how to say, look, Lord Willing, we're gonna do this, Amen, somebody, Okay. You learn how to say stuff like I'm gonna do my best. Okay, I'm gonna do my best. Why because you don't control circumstances. God doesn't make promises like that. God doesn't say, Lord Willing. He didn't say I'm gonna do my best. He didn't say, well, you know the devil permitting. He says, you will, I will, this will happen. He's decreeing, he's declaring why, because he's God, and he doesn't just say what's gonna happen. He says when it's gonna happen. Because God is sovereign. He is sovereign. Here's the other thing. He will have the fullness of his reward. He will have the fullness of his reward. What do you mean by that? Listen to here's the beauty of this. Listen to it again. Then you will call upon me and come and prey met. He's talking about Israel as a nation. Israel's being sent into exile because of their sinfulness, and he's saying, as a nation, you're not going to be wiped out and destroyed as a people. You're not gonna be wiped out and destroyed. I am not forsaking you. You're gonna come back. There is going to be a remnant. There are those who are going to be saved, who are going to be faithful to me. Look at this. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. These are redeemed ones. I will be found by you, declares the Lord. I'll restore your forces, gather you from all the lay. God is saying, I have a remnant, and one hundred and fifty years from now, I'm going to have a people one hundred and fifty years from now. Why Because He's sovereign and he's always gathering his remnant. This is why we can have multigenerational hope because God is sovereign and he's always gathering his remnant always. This is why we preach the gospel and we can have faith that is going to be fruitful because God is sovereign and he's always gathering his remnant. And these are the kind of promises that he makes. Well, how does this affect the way you live? Now, let's go back to those verses earlier. How do you live in light of this when you understand that this is not an individual promise but a corporate one, that it's a multigenerational promise, when you understand that this is a promise that has more to do with God and his sovereignty than it does with you and what you deserve. How do you live in the mid in the midst of exile in light of these theological realities? Or how do these theological realities impact the way you live in the midst of exile? Verse five? Build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their produce. This is awesome. Hey, you're going into exile and the Babylon you know, the blood thirsty Chaldeans. You're gone. It's awful. What are we supposed to do? Build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their produce. In other words, lay down deep roots and be ready for the long haul. Right where you are in the midst of your pagan culture. Lay down deep roots and stay right there in the midst of your pagan culture. Stay there, stay there, stay there, stay there. Dig deep and stay there for the long haul. You can't run away from this, so don't try. Stay there. Stay there because I have you there, So stay there. Believe that I'm God. Believe that I'm sovereign. Believe that I know what I'm doing. Believe that you're exactly where you're supposed to be. And as there are Pagans all around you doing pagan things, dig down, plant roots, and stay there and be faithful. You can only do this when you believe in a sovereign God. Can only do this when you believe in a sovereign God. There are a lot of people who are like, you know, what are we gonna do? What are we gonna do? Look at the people who were in office, and look at what happened into our country, and look at what And I've had people actually come to me and ask me this question. Are there other places in the world right now that you would consider going? Well, yeah, to serve, but not to try to get away from stuff. These are my peeps, Amen, Not to try to run away from stuff, you know, as though it's kind of this goldilocks of mentality, you know, And Okay, now now things are a little bit too cold now they're a little bit too hot. I need to go find somewhere where they're just right. No, no, plant roots. Trust God be fruitful right where he's planted you. If He moves you somewhere else, then you move somewhere else. But there's a difference between God moving you somewhere and you running away from difficulty. Next, take wives and have sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there and do not decrease. You know what's ironic. Here's what you hear from people who don't have a right theology. I don't know that I want to bring children into a world like this. You know, you shake your head if you've heard that, You hear it all the time. I just don't know if I want to bring children into a world like this, you mean a fallen one. What world are you waiting for? Because the fact of the matter is the only time that we're going to be in a non fallen world, You're not gonna be able to have kids anymore. Amen, And what are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? But this is the mentality that we have things are difficult, and birth rates plummet when there's an economic downturn, when there's war, when they're all these sort of things. When these things happen, birth rates plummet. Because people have no faith and they have no hope, and they don't have a multi generational vision, they stop thinking about the future. I don't want to bring kids into this situation because I can't imagine what the future is going to be like, as though if things were pleasant today, it would be a guarantee that they're going to be awesome by the time your kids grow up. Do you see how ridiculous that is? This is not a good time to have children. Why. Well, because it's a difficult world right now, and by the time my kids grow up, by the time your kids grow up, what you got some tea leaves you're looking at, you know things are going to be worse. You know that they're not gonna get better. Because the other side of that is, you know, if things were better, you'd be like, oh, I want to have children, and children's why because things are so good right now you know they're not gonna get bad in the future. Well, Well no, but I'm just man. Can you just let me feel good right now. But you see how that's a theological issue, and it has to do with our trust, our faith, and our hope and a sovereign God. Multiply there be fruitful there, multi generational vision. And then the next one, Do not decrease. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. This is so counterintuitive. This is so counterintuitive. Remember who the Babylonians are. They are pagans. This is neb Canezer folks. This is great golden statue, this is bowed down to me. These are the bloodthirsty Babylonians. And God says, pray for their prosperity, because that's your home now, and that's where I have you now. And as they prosper, you prosper. That's so counterintuitive. You're in exile, the boot of the oppressor is on your neck, and God says, pray for the oppressor. No, maybe I'll pray some of the you know, in precatory psalms. You know, maybe I'll pray some of that, you know, God, get them God, you know, crush them, smite them. That's not what he says. Look at it again. Seek the welfare of the city where I've sent you into exile. Let me ask you a question. Let me ask you a question. And this is for me too. This is something that I have to keep reminding myself of because over these last several years, I've been extremely disappointed in this Republic, Extremely disappointed in my fellow Americans and who they're willing to support with their vote. Extremely disappointed. We're eighteen trillion dollars in debt. Our debt is larger than the economy of the entire world combined. We owe more money than there is money on planet Earth, which means we'll never pay it back. We will collapse. And I'm just disgusted by that. Here's what's interesting. It could be argued that although same sex marriage and abortion as moral issues are huge moral issues, it could be argued that our number one moral issue is actually our debt. We've had abortions since seventy three, it hadn't destroyed us. Same sex marriage is here, and it's going to be more and more legalized, not necessarily going to destroy us. Our debt will destroy us. And yet here's the question. What have I done, not to just complain about what's happening, but to actually seek the welfare of this place. Here's what worries me. Here's what worries me, folks, Here's what worries me about Christians in this country. I think a lot of us have stopped loving our country. And that's not good, because this is our country. This is where God has placed us, and we're to be praying for its welfare. We learned the song as kids, didn't we just land as your land? This land is mind land right from California to New York Islands. Hey, it's us, it's us. Do we feel that way? Or have you just sort of thrown up our hands, you know? And are we ready to just go live in a compound somewhere and say they can go to Hell in the hand basket, Jesus just come back and get me. And I'm afraid that for some of us that's exactly where we are. That is not the kind of love for our fellow man that it is supposed to mark us as followers of Christ. It's not. Here's my question, and this is a question that I've been asked again. This is a question I've been asking to me if I, as an individual Christian or our church were gone from our community tomorrow, would anybody miss us? Would they say that we are poorer as a community because they're not here, because they were a blessing to us, They were a beacon to us, They were a city on a hill for us. They blessed us, and we were better for them being here. Is that what they say? Is that what they say? Or would it take them weeks months to figure out that you're gone? Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. In our church services, we pray each week for a number of things on the Lord's Day, and one of the things we pray for during our pastoral prayer times we pray for one state, one local, and one federal official. And we always do the judicial branch the first third of the year, and then we do the legislative branch the second third of the year, and then we do no we do executive, legislative and then judicial and so you know, we're in the first part of the year and first week of the year. The guy who's you know, preaching that Sunday is the one who does the pastoral prayer. And you have to pray for Barack Obama on the federal level. We have to pray for our new governor elect on the state level, John Abbott, Okay, and then a niece, Parker, the mayor of the City of Houston, on the city level. Nobody wanted to preach that Sunday. No, man, you can have it. You can have you can you can take that Sunday. You know, I feel a cold coming on. But here's the thing that's my president and that's my mayor. Am I praying for them? And on that day when their name is on the list and they go out in our program throughout the week to remind our people throughout the week that this is who we're praying for for this week. We're reminded. We're reminded that we're part of this thing. We have a vested interest in these things, and we need to be bringing for these people. This doesn't mean that we can't disagree with them, This doesn't mean that we don't call them out on their sin, doesn't mean that at all. But we pray that God will use them to bless us that we might live peaceably. And you know, one of the things that helps is thinking about it multigenerationally. If all I think about is the here and the now, I just want to dig a hole somewhere and crawl in it. But if I realize that this is a season and that God's doing things that I can't see and wouldn't understand if I could, then I dig deep for a different reason. I dig deep to lay down roots and to prepare the next generation to learn from what it is that they see and of us, and to, by God's grace, do better as a result, all the while understanding that it is the Gospel that is our only hope, and that God, in his sovereignty reminds us again and again and again that He's always saving a remnant. This tweaks our thinking. Folks. Now, all of a sudden, I'm not just trying to survive my kids. I'm actually trying to raise them with a vision toward the future. I'm trying to raise them with my grandchildren in mind. This is a multigenerational vision. This is how we think, This is how we live, and this is how we pray for it and work for Reformation Amen wh