"I Will"
Overview
Our Plans, His Promise
We are people of plans—weddings, vacations, careers, retirements—and we tend to live as though the future belongs to us. Yet life has a way of dismantling our calendars. The Israelites in Jeremiah 29 had their own plans too. They expected a quick return from Babylon, and false prophets fed that expectation. But God's word through Jeremiah was startling: build houses, plant gardens, marry, raise children, and seek the welfare of the very city that held them captive Jeremiah 29:4-9. Bloom where you are planted, because exile itself is part of my plan.
The promise didn't end there. After seventy years, God said, "I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise" Jeremiah 29:10. Notice the repeated "I will." Israel could not free itself from Babylon any more than it had freed itself from Egypt. Restoration was God's work, on God's timing, according to God's plan—"plans for your welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope" Jeremiah 29:11. God does not actively will evil, though in His permissive will He allows it; and as Paul reminds us, He works all things for the good of those who love Him.
That hope reaches its fullness in the new covenant Jeremiah foretold: "I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts… I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more" Jeremiah 31:31-34. This covenant was sealed in the blood of Christ. "When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son… so that we might receive adoption as sons" Galatians 4:4-6. By nature we are all in exile—captive to sin, unable to free ourselves. But by the Spirit, God draws us to Himself, and we cry, "Abba, Father."
So when your plans collapse and the road forward looks nothing like what you imagined, take heart. Live faithfully where God has placed you. Pray for your neighbors and your city. Trust the God who says, "When you call upon me… I will hear you. When you seek me with all your heart, I will let you be found by you" Jeremiah 29:12-14. "We love because he first loved us" 1 John 4:19—and the plan to forgive you, restore you, and gather you home was settled in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Transcript
If you would please open your Bibles to the Prophet Jeremiah, that is Jeremiah chapter 29. 2s
Did any of you begin 2020 with any plans made? 12s
Whether it was a plan for a vacation or a plan for a surgery or a plan for graduation 18s
or a wedding or a plan to save money a plan for a new job. 27s
There are lots of plans we make every single year and there's no question that 2020 started 32s
the same way with a lot of plans made. 40s
And we like when our plans play out exactly how we want them to. 46s
But as you know, surprise, surprise, 2020 did not 54s
white play out as we had planned or expected. 59s
Interestingly, this survey was done in April. 66s
So just a couple of months or a month into the COVID pandemic. 70s
And there were 59 million Americans who had to change or cancel their plans. 76s
31% of weddings or graduation parties were canceled. 87s
27% of hotel stays were cancelled. 23% of flights. 93s
18% of concerts, 16% of sporting events, 14% of live theater, and 12% of something else. 101s
One month into the pandemic and 59 million people had to change their plans. 115s
And out of those 59 million people who canceled their plans, 124s
30% of them would receive a full refund. 131s
24% got to get some of their money back. 11% got about half of it back. 136s
7% got less than half of it. 13% got none back. 144s
And 15% of those interviewed in April a month into the COVID pandemic. 149s
15% didn't know if they would see any of their money returned. 157s
59 million Americans canceled and or changed their plans. 166s
We make plans. We have plans. We set our lives according to the plans that we make. 178s
But things don't always go according to our plans. 186s
And yet there is always a plan that is in motion and is happening in our lives and for our lives. 193s
When we look at our text for today, we see the Israelites. 204s
They had their own plans. They had plans that included their own wants, their own desires. 209s
And God sent to them prophet after prophet to speak to them of his word and of his plan and to 217s
turn them to himself. And yet they continued to refute God to steer clear of Yahweh's plan for their 225s
lives. His plan of holiness for their lives. And so he sent his prophet Jeremiah to say, 234s
God has other plans. And part of his plan now is that you are going to go into exile. 243s
You are going to be exiled into Babylon, Babylonia. And God has some different plans there. 249s
There are consequences to your actions in turning away from Yahweh. And so the Israelites were 257s
making new plans. Plans of return plans of coming back into their promised land. 266s
And Jeremiah in the 29th chapter verse 4, he shared with them, thus says the Lord of hosts, 275s
the God of Israel, to all the exiles who might have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. 282s
Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have 291s
sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage that they may bear 299s
sons and daughters. Multiply there and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I 305s
have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf. For in its welfare, you will find your 313s
welfare. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, do not let the prophets and the 319s
diviners who are among you deceive you. And do not listen to the dreams that they dream for it is 326s
lie that they are prophesying to you in my name. I did not send them, says the Lord. 332s
So in those verses, Jeremiah 29th through 9, Jeremiah is giving them the word from the Lord. They have 341s
plans to get themselves out of exile. They have plans to return to the promised land. And the Lord 348s
through Jeremiah says, no, that's not the plan that's going to be carried out here. 355s
Instead, you need to be where you are, live your life where you are in this moment. It's not 362s
according to your plans, Israel. It's according to my plan. Build your homes. Plant your gardens. 370s
Pray for this foreign land in which you find yourselves because this lands welfare will be to your 379s
own benefit. Stay where you are. You're not going anywhere. Live your lives. Flourish here. 388s
Have sons. Have daughters. Get married. See the generations come to pass. 399s
Be where you are, where I have put you in exile. That is the plan right now. 408s
How many of us during 2020 have wanted to make our own plans? And figure out, well, 418s
we're going to have to get things back to normal. Whatever normal may look like for each of us. 427s
We're going to have to do things how we want to have them exactly when we have them. 432s
And yet, perhaps God wants us to live where we are planted right now. 439s
In the time of COVID, building our homes, getting married, allowing life to continue. 450s
Babies are being born, weddings are happening. And that is the plan right now. 458s
Not according to our wants, not according to our will, but we can't force our plan upon our current 469s
situations in this world. We need to turn to God. We're getting to that in just a moment. 479s
So God says to the Israelites, don't listen to these false prophets who are telling you to go back. 489s
Don't listen to these false prophets who are telling you to rise up against those who have you in captivity. 496s
Listen to me, listen to my prophet Jeremiah, and live where you are right now. And this is where we come 504s
to our text for this morning. This is verse 10. For thus says the Lord, only when Babylon's 512s
70 years are completed will I visit you. And I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back 520s
to this place. In here in this verse, we get a very specific time. 70 years. God is saying, 528s
I have an appointed time and a pointed plan for you. Stay where you are. Get married, have babies, 537s
build your homes, work the gardens, work the land, pray for the place in which you live, work in 547s
the place in which you live, because there is a plan for a time of rescue. There is a plan for a time 554s
of deliverance. The Lord will absolutely fulfill His promise of grace, His promise that was made 563s
in the covenant to Abraham, His promise that was renewed in the covenant with Moses, the covenant 572s
that the Lord continued to uphold. But the Israelites continued to turn from Yahweh. And part of 581s
the covenant that Yahweh made with the Israelites is embedded in His own name, that He will bless 592s
the generations who are faithful to Him, who are turned to Him. And those who turn from Him 603s
will experience the judgment and the consequences when they reject Him. So the Israelites 614s
have to live where they are planted, even though it's in exile. And that wasn't their plan, 622s
but Israel turning from God was not part of His plan, either, not part of His active will in their 629s
lives. Remember when we talk about God's active will and His permissive will, that God does not 641s
actively will evil or actively will harm, but He does permit evil. And He does permit harm. 649s
But we're also given a promise in Paul's letter to the Romans that everything, everything will be 661s
to the good and glory of His name for those who love the Lord. So that wasn't His plan that they 670s
would reject Him, but He knew they would indeed reject Him. And He said, when the time is up, 679s
I will visit you. I will fulfill my promise to you, the promise I made to Abraham, the promise I made to 688s
fulfill this. So how does God do this? Well, it's part of His plan, continuing in verse 11. 700s
For surely I know the plans I have for you says the Lord plans for your welfare and not for harm 709s
to give you a future with hope. The Lord never plans for evil to befall you. It's against the very 717s
goodness of His nature. The Lord knew exactly the plans He had for Israel. And God's plans are 725s
very different than the plans that the false prophets spoke. And God's plans are not short, 734s
cited, and they don't rely on time, and they don't rely on the constraints of the natural world. 744s
God was absolutely resolved to provide for Israel's future and not only for a future, but a future 752s
with hope. God promised that part of His plan that He knew from the beginning of time 761s
was to plan a future for Israel, a future that was filled with hope. And He was resolved to provide 771s
for all of creation's future. If you turn over just a couple of chapters to Jeremiah 31, 780s
starting in verse 31, Jeremiah under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote, 789s
the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel 795s
and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors, 801s
when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, 807s
a covenant that they broke, though I was there husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant 812s
that I will make with the house of Israel after those days says the Lord. I will put my law 818s
within their heart. I will write it on their hearts, I will be there God, and they shall be my people. 825s
No longer shall they teach one another or say to each other, 831s
know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord, 835s
for I will forgive their equity and remember their sin, no more. In this new covenant, 842s
sins are forgiven. God's plan, not only for the Israelites, God's plan for all of creation, 853s
God's plan for the least of these to the greatest was to know Him, and we know Him 860s
through His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. The covenant was not for Israel alone, but it was for all sinners. 870s
The covenant that was made in Christ's blood. If we look at Galatians chapter 4, verse 4 through 880s
6, it says, but when the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, 888s
born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive 895s
adoption as children, and because you are children, God has sent the spirit of His Son into our hearts, 901s
crying, Abba, Father, in this new covenant that we have sins, are forgiven. We are adopted as God's 909s
own children. The covenant made in Christ's blood, and He comes into our hearts, and He gives us 920s
His spirit, and it's in His spirit that we turn to God crying Abba, Father. If you look at Jeremiah 929s
29, verse 12, when after He had told the Israelites that He had plans for them, a plan to give them 940s
future with hope. He says, then, when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you 948s
through God's own spirit. We are drawn to Him. We are called to turn to Him. 958s
In God's own plan and design from mercy our sins are blotted out by Christ sacrifice upon 970s
the cross. In God's design from mercy, God forms our hearts a new and makes us to 978s
seek Him, makes us to turn to Him. In His design from mercy, we are not destined to be exiled from God forever. 988s
Instead, we are called to live eternally in His grace, eternally in His mercy. We are adopted 1002s
into His family, His plan to bring us into Himself, His plan to give us a true future with the 1013s
sin, is for us to not spend eternity as sinners. Eternity has cast out an exiles from the Lord. 1029s
Instead, His plan is to draw us into Himself. It's His plan, and it's reliant upon 1043s
Him carrying it out, and He does this through Jesus Christ, our Lord, and Savior. 1053s
In first John, the Apostle wrote that we love God because He first loved us. 1064s
It is God's own spirit that transforms the very person we are, the very creation we are, 1072s
it is the Lord who transforms us to be drawn to Him, to seek Him out, to cry out to Him, 1081s
and to receive forgiveness. If we turn again to Jeremiah 29, verses 13 and 14, 1092s
God says, when you search for me, you will find me. If you seek me with all your heart, 1100s
I will let you find me, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the 1106s
nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the 1114s
place from which I sent you into exile. I will do this. I will. I will. Says the Lord. 1121s
It was not Israel who could restore their fortunes. It was not Israel who could bring themselves 1134s
back to the promised land or back within the covenant. Think of when Israel was in captivity in 1139s
Egypt. They couldn't free themselves. Israel is in exile in Babylon, and they can't free themselves. 1148s
You and I, like all men and women, are born in captivity, captive to sin, captive to the darkness, 1158s
but we don't stay there because that is not the plan that God has for us. 1176s
Is the plan that we want to sin? No. No, that's not the plan, but we're born into a sinful 1186s
nature. And in that sinful nature, we are in exile from God. We are separated from God, our creator 1198s
and his plan that he had resolved from the beginning of time, from before the beginning of time, 1213s
was to set you free according to his plan, according to his timing. You are called to turn to him 1221s
in his own spirit. You are called to live in the plans that God has made for you, and the plans 1234s
that God has made for you begin in Jesus Christ. And the freedom that has been one for you through 1242s
his blood, the plan to restore you in Christ, the plan to forgive you in Christ, the plan to give you 1252s
a future in Christ and Christ alone until the time comes in which we are gathered to Christ 1264s
eternally. The plans we make don't always go exactly how we hope or think they could or should, 1274s
but the plans that God has made for you are already answered through his son. 1287s
His plans to forgive you, his plans to love you, his plans to shower you in his mercy and grace. 1297s
His plan to call you to himself. Don't get frustrated when your plans don't seem to go according 1307s
to your own wants or your own desires. Turn to the Lord, cry to him, 1319s
Abba, father, he will hear you. He says, I will restore you. When you seek me, I will let you find me. 1328s
We love because He first loved us and that was His plan from the beginning now and for all time, 1339s
all in Christ Jesus for you. 1355s