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And now if you will, turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Jeremiah.

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I'm going to be reading Jeremiah 29, verse 1 through verse 14.

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This morning in Sunday school, you're dealing with the Ten Commandments.

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And one of the problems that a lot of people have when they look at God, they think that

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it's all about obedience, it's never about grace.

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But before you get to the Ten Commandments, God tells us, people, I'm the one who brought

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you out of Egypt.

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I'm the one who saved you.

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The Ten Commandments are in response.

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Another problem we have in looking at God is the prophets, because we think, well, it's

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all about judgment, it's all about the bad things that people have done, God's people,

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the nations, and they deserve to be punished.

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You read Jeremiah, there is no doubt that is there.

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But there is also prophecies of grace.

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And that's what I want to look at this morning.

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Yes, God's people sin.

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They sin greatly.

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Yes, God's people were taken into Babylon as punishment for their sins.

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But Jeremiah does not leave God's people hopeless.

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Let's listen to what he says to them.

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This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving

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elders among the exiles into the priests, the prophets, and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar

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had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

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This was after King Jehoekjin and the Queen Mother, the court officials, and the leaders

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of Judah and Jerusalem, the skilled workers and the artisans had gone into exile from

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Jerusalem.

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They entrusted the letter to Lasha, son of Shepin, and to Gamaria, son of Hilikai, whom

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Zedekai, a king of Judah, sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon.

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It said, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says to all those I carried

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into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

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Build houses and settle down.

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Plant gardens and eat what they produce.

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Marry and have sons and daughters find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage

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so that they too may have sons and daughters.

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Increase in number there.

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Do not decrease.

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Also seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.

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Pray to the Lord for it because if it prospers, you too will prosper.

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Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says.

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Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you.

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Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have.

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They are prophesying lies to you in my names.

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I have not sent them, declares the Lord.

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This is what the Lord says.

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When 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise

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to bring you back to this place.

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For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.

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Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.

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Plans to give you hope and to future.

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Then you will call on me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you.

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You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

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I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back from captivity.

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I will gather you from all the nations and places where I banished you, declares the

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Lord, and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.

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Let's pray and ask God to bless this reading of his word.

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Our Lord and our Savior, we need to hear the good news of the gospel, especially in a sinful

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world where your people have to live.

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This morning we need wisdom on how to live and not to be overly disappointed by what

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we see around us.

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Help us to trust in your promises which always come true.

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So bless your people this morning.

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Amen.

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Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in a foreign country?

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Some of you may have had that experience.

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No, I'm not talking about going to a foreign country for a few weeks as a tourist because

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when you are in those foreign countries they have the tourist places and it's just like

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being in America.

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They have their McDonald's, they have their Starbucks, they have their Burger King.

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I'm pretty sure there's a Chick-fil-A somewhere in Europe.

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So you can go there.

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And by the way, most of the people can speak English in those tourist spots.

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So you may feel like you're at home.

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But that's not what I'm talking about this morning.

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I am talking about being forced to leave your home and live in a foreign nation.

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I want you to think about the challenges you would face.

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You would not know the language.

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Can you imagine going to the store and not knowing the language or you could not read

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the labels or the prices?

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You'd be struggling and you'd try to communicate and people would know what you're saying.

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You would have the problems with currency.

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How much is this?

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And there are many people who go to foreign countries, they don't understand the currency.

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Here's the money if I got any change, okay.

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And there are the local customs.

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How do you greet one another?

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What about tips?

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What about standing in line for hours?

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The closest a lot of us get to that experience is probably going off to college or going

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into the military where it is a whole new environment.

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Well, in history, people have been taken from their homeland by force and placed in a foreign

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country that was not their own.

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It happened all the time and it happened to God's people.

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Their home was supposed to be Palestine, Israel, but God's people sinned and sinned greatly.

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And the northern kingdom of Israel was invaded by Assyria and people were carried off.

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Later the southern kingdom would be invaded by Babylon and the people were carried off

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to a foreign country to a land that is not their own, to a language they probably did

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not understand.

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They seem to be abandoned.

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They did not know the laws, they did not know the language, they did not know the customs.

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And yet as we think about our own situation today, we're a lot like them.

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We are exiles.

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We were meant to be in heaven, in the new heavens, the new earth, we were meant to be in Eden,

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but where are we?

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We've been kicked out, we're wandering around.

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It is no wonder that the Bible says we're pilgrims and exiles in this world.

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We are not at home.

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This is not our home country.

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We are destined for some place else.

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And so we need to listen to the message that Jeremiah has for us this morning because it

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answers the question, how then should we live in a land that is not our own?

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Because this land is not ours.

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We are simply passing through exiles on our way back to our heavenly home with Jesus.

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So how do we live?

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How do we live?

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What kind of wisdom are we looking for here?

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Well, let me tell you here what Jeremiah is saying to God's people in exile.

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He is telling them, you have to deal with the hand that you have been dealt with.

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You got to take what has been given to you and make the best out of it.

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That is in essence what he is saying in the first part of chapter 29.

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Now they are in exile.

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They're in Babylon.

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But what do you think God's people were going through at that time?

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No more temple where they could go and watch the worship services.

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No more daily sacrifices.

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No more king sitting on the throne at Jerusalem.

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No more feasts and festivities.

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That's what they are facing.

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What should they do?

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Should they forment rebellion?

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Stir things up for the local government there?

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Trash the king of Babylon saying that he's not a good king.

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He's a tyrant.

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Should they plot to escape to go back to Jerusalem and the promised land?

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Should they create riots in the streets and steal from their Babylonian neighbors because,

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well, they deserve it.

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They're ungodly.

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So what does God say?

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What does God say to his people?

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Do that.

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We would probably want to do those things.

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But here Jeremiah says something different.

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And what we have here is a letter that he wrote to the Babylonian exiles.

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And it is a letter which is carried in a diplomatic pouch, we would say today, to the people who

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were in Babylon.

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And he is telling them how then they should live.

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And I want you to look at the commands, the imperatives that he gives God's people.

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Here's what he says in verse 5.

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Build houses.

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Settle down.

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Plant gardens.

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Eat what they produce.

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Hurry and have sons and daughters find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage

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so they too may have sons and daughters.

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Increase in number there.

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Do not decrease.

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What Jeremiah has basically told them is what God told mankind in the Garden of Eden.

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Take care of your daily business.

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This is the hand that you have been given.

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You are to build a life for yourself in this place.

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Now I got to tell you here, this is very average.

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It's very mundane.

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It's very everyday.

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Get a job.

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Raise families.

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It's not glamorous.

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It's not headline grabbing.

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It is not outstanding.

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It's not going to make the covers of evangelical Christian magazines.

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It's not going to make the headline story of seminary publications.

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But this is what life is about, isn't it?

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This really is what it means to be successful.

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What is telling us people, you're going to be there for 70 years.

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You've got to make the best of it according to my word.

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And what God wants for His people is to prosper the best that they can in an alien environment.

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Want you to think of 1 Timothy 2.

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What does it say?

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Pray for all those in authority.

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Why?

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So that you can live quiet and peaceful lives, godly and dignified in every way.

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What does it say in Ecclesiastes 5 verse 18,

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Behold what I've seen that is good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all

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the labors that you labor under the sun the few days of your life that God has given you.

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What is saying to His people today, get on with the average, everyday business of life.

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No, it is not spectacular, but it is His will.

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And what we do is follow after His will.

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That's what you should want.

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Not the super spectacular.

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The average every day.

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God is pleasing to God just as much as the spectacular.

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Not all of life is going to be a super bowl.

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A lot of it is the Monday.

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And I want you to notice something else, he says in verse 7 that they are to do in exile.

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In verse 7 it says,

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Also seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile,

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pray to the Lord for it, because it is if it prospers you too will prosper.

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He is saying pray for Babylon.

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Why?

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Because if Babylon is stable, if Babylon prospers, guess what?

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You will too.

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You need to pray for the country you are in because it's good for you.

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And I want you to notice in the Bible how a lot of God's people in exile were very supportive

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of the country they were in.

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Joseph in Egypt, Daniel in Babylon, Esther in Persia, both supported and helped the nations

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they were in.

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So then how do we live?

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Looking at what we've just seen here, you make the best of your life.

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I wish I could get up here and promise you a miracle every minute.

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I wish I could say to you that miraculously something great will happen that will take

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away all your problems.

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And I want you to think for a moment what people would have thought back then.

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Oh God, do a miracle.

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Don't wait seven years.

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Do it now.

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We want Israel to prosper, but it wasn't happening.

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They were invaded.

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They wanted something different.

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And what about you?

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Don't you want something different, but yet you feel it's not going to change?

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You're in exile too.

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You're away from Eden.

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And we want things to change and we expect a miracle.

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Sometimes Christianity seems to breathe that on people in the congregation, but it may not

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work.

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And what God requires of you in exile is to just get on with the business of life as best

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as you can.

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That is one thing that we are told to do here.

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Beware of thinking that true holiness is becoming a missionary, the preacher, having

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static experiences.

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Now those things, they are fine if you want to do those.

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But let's remember what most of the people were doing back then.

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They were common ladies.

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Just getting by with life.

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And we sometimes think that isn't good enough.

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But it is.

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It certainly is.

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Keep in mind very few of you people are going to change the world.

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Only God can change the world.

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And if you can't change the world, then we have to do what we are called to do on a daily

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basis.

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And one other point here we need to make is certainly pray as Christians for the United

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States of America.

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Because sometimes I think we are on the precipice of disaster.

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You may feel that way too.

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From incompetence all over the place, for people who can't get along, and the divisions

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that we have, and the spending, and all of that.

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I got to tell you, if the United States goes down, there's going to be an awful lot of

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hurting amongst Christians.

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And we need to be praying that God will change this nation.

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He will protect the nation.

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He will keep it going.

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And I hope in your prayer lives you are praying.

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What does it say in 1 Timothy chapter 2?

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Pray for those in authority so that you can live peaceful lives.

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Remember that it is the churches in this land that are providing an awful lot of missionary

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support to increase the kingdom of God.

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We don't want revolution.

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We don't want an overthrow.

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What we want is this nation to act like it was founded upon a constitution.

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We need God to help us.

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So keep that in mind.

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And those are very, very average everyday things.

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That is how you deal with the hand that you have been dealt.

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It is not always thinking about another world or another land yet.

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It is simply going about your business.

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But there's something else that we've got to keep in mind here.

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Yes, he tells us we've got to keep on with our daily business of having a job, of having

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families, of praying for our nation.

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But he doesn't leave us without hope either.

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Because the second part of what I read is full of hope.

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It is looking for the hope to come.

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It is going about the task which God has called you, but it is also looking for the hope to

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come.

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And every last one of you, you've got to have hope.

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If you don't have hope, you cannot go on.

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There was a study done one time on why is it that certain prisoners during the Holocaust

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in Europe made it and others did not?

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Why?

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The ones that made it had some sense of hope.

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I don't know any other species in the entire universe that has to have hope like human

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beings have to have hope.

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And the prophet here does not leave God's people without a sense of hope.

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Yes, he tells them you're going to be there for 70 years and that's not going to change,

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but he also tells them something else as well.

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He tells them you do have a future.

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I want you to think for a moment what these people might have had going on in their heads

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while they were in Babylon.

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God doesn't care for us.

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God has forgotten us.

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God has rejected us.

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God's promises for us are not true.

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Seems hopeless.

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But let me ask you, have you ever had those thoughts as well?

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He's rejected me.

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He doesn't care for me.

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Everything is lousy.

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But then look at what verse 11 says.

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Read it.

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Memorize it.

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Get it into your thinking.

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For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord.

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Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.

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Plans to give you hope and a future.

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God has not rejected his people.

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God has a plan for his people.

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And that plan is ultimately to prosper us and it is ultimately to provide for us.

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He is saying you have a future.

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There's a lot of people in life today that don't think they have a future.

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They don't think they've had a future because the cards they have been dealt in life.

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And they did not get a great hand.

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But God says to his people, if you are with me and you are one of mine, there is hope

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and there's a future.

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And that hope and that future ultimately comes.

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And Jesus comes again.

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And we are no longer going to be the poppers of this world, no longer the second stringers,

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no longer the rejected, but it will be fully known that we are the treasured possession

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of God.

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And in a land that is not our own, what you need to focus on is yes, doing those everyday

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tasks, but also having that vision that one day Jesus is coming again.

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And look at what it says in verse 12 that we will have.

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Then you will call on me and come to me and I will listen to you.

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You will seek me and find me with all your heart.

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I will be found by you.

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Declare the Lord.

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You'll be with God.

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You'll be with Him.

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And isn't that ultimately what we really want?

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What's going to change life once and forever is to dwell with God.

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And you're saying to yourself, what am I to do now?

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I want you to think for a moment about the life of Jacob.

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And Jacob had a rough life.

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I mean conflicts with Esau, conflicts with Laban, conflicts with his wives, driven out

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of the promised land, winds up dying in Egypt.

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But what does he say at the end of his life?

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The Lord has been my shepherd.

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He realized at the end of his life that God had been keeping his promise.

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And part of the value of old age is that we can begin to see that in ways that we cannot

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see it when we are younger.

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But also keep in mind the promises of the New Testament and Titus as well, where God says,

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while we wait for this blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus

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Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify himself

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of people who are his very own.

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Ultimately that will come to fulfillment.

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Yes, God is taking care of you now.

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He has fulfilled his promises.

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But one day he is going to want to do it even more so.

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So there is a future.

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There is a future.

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After I had left home and moved all over the place in the south, I'd often wanted to go

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home back to Colonial Heights, Virginia, back to that place which I knew the most.

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But that's not my home.

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Not at all.

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My home is with Jesus in the new heavens and the new earth.

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And to get there, I've got to rely on God and I've got a hope in him.

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But I also have to get on with the daily business of life, praying for our country, doing a

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job, raising a family.

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Don't think that makes you a second class kingdom, a second past person in the kingdom

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of God.

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Let's pray.

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Our heavenly Father, we ask now that you will be