Delightfully Displaced

Delightfully Displaced

Jeremiah 29:1-7

Introduction

Hello, everyone! My name is . I just completed my first year on staff here at Calvary Chapel Worship Center as the Director of High School
and Young Adult Ministries. I love the ages of people with which I get to participate in ministry with. It’s a fascinating age where an incredible
amount of development takes place! I remember getting serious about my faith while in middle school and I know a large number of believers can look
back at their teenage years and 20s as being an important time in finding and growing in their faith. So, I consider myself blessed to be on staff
at Calvary participating in the Kingdom work that is taking place here.

Opening Illustration – Highway 217 on the Birth Certificate

oIt was a terrible and helpless feeling of not being in control…of not being where I thought we should have been.

We want to be in one ideal spot in life, but there are times when it feels like we have been barred from it or are being kept from reaching a destination
that will make us happy or feel secure.

We All Live in Exile

oBeing in exile is painful. It’s emotionally painful to realize that you don’t have a place to live or to call your own. A person is shuttled from one
place to the next without a home or a place to settle down. It can be lonely. Exile can be demoralizing. . It can feel hopeless – and this is especially
true for the Jewish people if we consider that the identity of the Israelites was so tightly tied to the land, which was the promise of God – the Promised
Land. We see God make a promise of land to Abraham (Gen. 15:18-21), Isaac (Gen. 26:3) and Jacob (Gen. 28:13).Without this promised land, and without
the temple in which to worship, who were the Israelites? Who was their God? The Israelites longed for Jerusalem just has much as I longed for a hospital
when Isabel decided to show up. How are they to go about living now in exile?

Context

At the time of this message from Jeremiah, Jerusalem had already been invaded by the Babylonians once and some Jews were deported in 597 B.C.E. Jeremiah
had been prophesying that Judah would be fall under Babylonian rule for the next 70 years. Another person claiming to be a prophet, Hananiah, proclaimed
that Babylon would crumble within two years in Jeremiah 28. He stated that all those who lived in exile would return and the plunder taken from the
temple by Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion would also be returned. Hananiah influenced those in exile to camp outside of the Babylonian cities and not to
participate in life with them.

Hananiah’s message was one that would have “tickled the ears” of nationalistic Jews who wished for a continued sovereign kingdom of Israel. This would
have been the kind of news that those in power would have wanted to hear.

Jeremiah’s message was quite different. He spoke more to it being in the best interest for Judah to peaceably submit to the Babylonian army, that God’s
judgement was coming in the form of foreign occupation.

What we have here is something of a “dueling prophets” taking place, with two different people claiming to be hearing from God and delivering two very
different messages. How to discern which is delivering the true message of God?

Jeremiah points out that, ultimately, time will tell as to which prophet was truly hearing from God. Turns out, Jeremiah was correct in his prophesy, thus
also proving that God was using him as his mouthpiece.

Not only that, but Jeremiah let Hananiah know that God was going to remove him from the face of the earth from preaching rebellion from the Lord. Hananiah
died seven months later.

Jeremiah 29:1-7

God Will Use Whomever God Will Use However God Wills

Being a Blessing Will Cost Something

Bring About the Joy of Prosperity, Even While Enduring the Pain of Exile

• vs. 7 – peace & prosperity – אֶת־שְׁלוֹם – shalom – This is a deeply meaningful word. It means to reach completeness, safety, wholeness, contentment,
  satisfaction. It is a state of overall contentment with life.
  
  • Self-seeking is to the benefit of one person – me. Seeking the prosperity of others, that is of benefit to the community.
    
  • Acts 16:16-40 – Paul and Silas are in a miserable condition. They have been beaten. They are in prison. Yet, rather than being so bitter at
    the situation and circumstances that they are completely unable to see outside of themselves, they demonstrate a desire to “will the good”
    for the prison guard. We could say that Paul and Silas are “delightfully displaced.” And the jailer and his entire household are blessed
    from that experience. He invites Paul and Silas into his home and shares a meal with them and the text says he was filled with joy because
    he and his household had come to know the Lord.
    
  • Genesis 45:5 – Joseph was thrown into a cistern and sold into slavery by his brothers, yet instead of remaining bitter at them and desiring
    revenge, Joseph was able to see God’s greater purpose and forgive them when he rose to great power in the Egyptian government.He could
    have had them put to death, but instead provided for them.
    
  • Acts 8 – After Stephen was stoned to death in Jerusalem in Acts 7, the early believers of Christ scatter for safety. Yet we are told that even
    while running for their lives, they “preached the word wherever they went.”And the apostle Philip is aware enough, despite the tragedy
    of Stephen’s death, that he is open to the Spirit’s guiding him to preach in Samaria.

• Even while exiled and on the run…how were all these people, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, able to see outside of themselves
  and to “will the good” for others despite their own circumstances? How are they able to be “delightfully displaced?”
  
  • True shalom, true peace, true wholeness and contentment can only come to us from the Father above.
    
  • Jesus Christ offers peace and prosperity to a broken world by offering up forgiveness for our sins, even while he was enduring the pain
    of a heavenly exile. It is because of Christ’s power of resurrection that we no longer need to be afraid of death of this life, for
    there is another that is to come.
    
  • Because of his exile, Jesus gives us the great opportunity to be bearers of his peace even to those whom we disagree with.

• God’s intention was that the Jews would be blessed by being a blessing. We are now called to be the bearers of shalom in our world…to will the
  good for others…to be “delightfully displaced.” If we want there to be shalom in our homes, then we are the ones that are called to first
  carry that shalom. If we want there to be shalom in our schools, then we are the ones who are called to bring shalom. My friends, you and I are
  the bearers of shalom.
• Talking to a teacher at a local high school earlier this week, I learned that 35 students admitted to having some type of suicide ideation with some
  attempts taking place last year. 75% of those students suffer from severe anxiety and depression. This is a prime opportunity to be bearers of
  God’s shalom. We may not agree with everything that is taking place at our public schools or with everything that students are being taught, but
  that does not change the fact that students need us to show up and be present.
  
  • Care for that tyrannical boss at your place of employment. Work hard as a demonstration of your “willing the good.”
    
  • Volunteer at a local soup kitchen or convalescent home. Seek the peace and prosperity for those who are otherwise forgotten or outcasted by
    society. You don’t have to agree with someone’s drug addiction to serve him a meal.
    
• Be wise in whom you are listening to. There are many voices speaking to us in our world today. Many of those voices say that we should rage against
  the people, political parties or anything that oppose our values or our desires. Hananiah delivered that type of message. Sit outside the walls.
  Do not enter in to the city. God will destroy those heathen Babylonians. Jeremiah is not saying that the Israelites should willingly take up the
  Babylonian culture or to forget the God to whom they belong, but instead to seek peace and prosperity for all. Two different voices with two different
  messages. Jesus Christ allows us to follow one that offers peace no matter the circumstances.

• Seek the peace and prosperity for all. God is calling his people to bring about the joy of prosperity, even while enduring the pain of exile. Let
  us be a people who are “delightfully displaced.”