“The LORD Has Promised Good to Me!”

A Sermon Based Upon Jeremiah 29: 1-14; John 10: 22-30

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

November ,  13^th, 2016  (Series: 6/7, Amazing Grace)

We have come to our next to last message based upon John’s Newton’s song, “Amazing Grace”.   In these messages, we’ve covered many of the more familiar lines,  “How Sweet the Sound”;  “Was Lost, but Now I’m Found”, “Twas Blind, but Now I see”,  and in the most recent messages we spoke of “how” “Grace” teaches us and also ‘brings us’ safely home, through faith---a faith that trusts God’s grace in the particular details of our lives.

But today we come to more unfamiliar line, we often skip over, or stumble through when we  sing this in church.  Baptists are especially impatient people, not wanting the Methodist to beat us to the Restaurants after worship, so we want to quickly get to the the ‘final’ verse, so we skip this one.   Next week, WE WILL COME TO the final verse, but before we do, today we must consider this good word coming from verse 4.  It is a very we dare not overlook.

For emphasis, let’s begin by reading this verse, verse 4, together and slowly: “THE LORD HAS PROMISED GOOD to me, HIS WORD MY HOPE SECURES;  He will my shield and portion be, As long as life endures.”    There’s a lot of grace in this line, but it is, just like in the Bible, a ‘grace’ that depends upon us having ‘faith’ in that grace.   This ‘good’ that the LORD has promised to us comes to us as we ‘secure’ our hope in God’s promises by establishing God’s Word in our hearts.  This means the promise is given to those who have a faith in God’s word in a way that is vital, growing and healthy.   To understand what a ‘living’ faith means, we need to discern how God’s grace is ‘promised’ to us, so that we surely can depend on it.

WHAT SECURES YOUR HOPE?

So, before we talk about the ‘word’ that secures ‘our hope’, let me ask you, right up front, “What secures your hope for the future?”  

In our text, we find the Lord speaking through Jeremiah, a prophet who was preaching to Judah, God’s remaining remnant of Israel, after that they had gone through a terrible catastrophe, they never believed would actually happen.    Some of you know that feeling personally.   You’ve listened to a doctor give your or your loved one a diagnosis, you never thought you’d hear.   You’ve watched the world you had planned for yourself, being ripped out from under you through a failing business, an ailing economy, or through no ‘fault’ of your own.   Or perhaps you been in war, lived through a catastrophe, or just simply had something tragic happen, you never dreamed of having happen to you.   Like my mother kept saying to herself, after she lost my father, who had been perfectly well, while she had ‘sick’ with a chronic disease most of her life.   She said,  “I thought I was going to go first.”

In the same way, Judah, did not believe that anything could happen to their nation, nor to the ‘the temple of the Lord’ (Jer. 7:4).   It was in this ‘land’ and it used to be in this ‘temple’ that they established their own lives, but now it was gone.  “What will we do, now?”   In a tentative world like ours, most of us have to answer this question, in one form or other, and from time to time.   Someday we too will wonder: Do I, or do we, really have a future?

Just the other day, I was realizing again,  just how less and less of a ‘future’ I have in this land, and on this earth.    I’m 59 years old, and by averages I have less than 20 years left.   Although I’m adopted, both of my parents did not live past 78 years.   Who knows how much of an impact they had on my own longevity?  Also, who really knows, in this unpredictable world, what ‘longevity’ really means?  When ‘accidents’ happen, all predictions and averages are ‘out the window’.  But for most you you, like me, our days left are ‘less’ likely.

We also live in a changing, increasingly more ‘dangerous’ and ‘confused’ world too.   Most of us would have never in our lifetime, have ‘dreamed’ or ’imagined’ the rapid, drastic, and dramatic ‘changes’ happening in our world and to our own nation.   I was listening to the Television News, just the other day, and hearing another prediction, or trend, of how China would soon have a “Hollywood” that topped our own “Hollywood”.   You may say,  “Well, they can have it!”  Yes, but this report is also a reminder that China is rising, while we are in decline.  They already has a civilian population growing in wealth that has the potential to be greater than ours.  The U.S. may still, for now, have the dominance in military technology, but one day, and in the not-to-distant future, China will supersede that too.  It may not mean the ‘end of the world’, but it will definitely mean the ‘end of the world’ as we have known it.    

But this is where life is always headed, isn’t it?  Isn’t life always going, as Star Trek’s series used to announce:  “To discover new and unknown worlds--- to go where no one has gone before.”   We’re are all headed toward a ‘future’ that will be unlike what we have known in the past.   Actually, it has been this way all our lives, though it has happened slowly, more positively, that most of us didn’t notice it.   Then one day we suddenly look at ourselves in the mirror, or we look at how our children have grown, or we see how everything around has changed, looking and feeling so very different, that we wake up to the fact that everything is, indeed, different.  And there is no way back.

For Israel, the problem was that their nation had been absolutely destroyed in war by the Babylonians.  The elite were now being exiled and taken off to “Babylon”.  But here in this text, Jeremiah surprisingly interrupts their depressing journey with a promise from God.   God says that even as they are being carried away, and even though everything has changed, and will continue to change around them; and even after they themselves living in this very ‘strange land’, ‘strange time’ or ‘strange reality’, where it will be difficult, very difficult, to ‘sing the Lord’s song”.   In spite of all this,  Jeremiah wants them to know that that the LORD they have known in the past,  they need to keep trusting for the future, because this God still has ‘plans’ for them and he will still ‘renew’ and ‘fulfill’ his ‘promise.’  Even as they are being marched like cattle toward Babylon, and even as they are walking through some of the ‘darkest’ moments of their lives,  he declares that their God, this God of glory and grace, is still working for their ‘welfare’ and not for ‘their harm’.  God still has a promise for a ‘future’ and he wants to secure their ‘future’ ‘with hope’.

When you are right the middle of feeling the loss of having your life ‘taken’ from you, it does not seem like the right time to be hearing about ‘who’ you can trust, or how you can find hope.   But this is exactly what Jeremiah is asking God’s people to do.   He wants them to look beyond their circumstances, beyond their current situation, their current experiences, their pain and their loses, and he wants them to put their ‘trust’ in this ‘invisible’, sometimes ‘indistinguishable’ and often, almost impossible to see ‘promise,’ and to find in it hope.   In a world filled with so much wealth and privilege, like ours, people will naturally have difficulty putting themselves into the shoes of this exiled, pilgrim people,  but we still must try.   We must try because one day, some way,  and somehow, we will be in similar ‘shoes’ too.   We will ‘carried away’ to places and situations we did not want nor did we ever anticipate.  

IS GOD YOUR ‘SHIELD’ AND ‘PORTION’ IN LIFE?

Some of us,  especially those of us who have been ‘builder’ and ‘stakeholders’ in the America that used to be, may already feel somewhat exiled, feeling like strangers, sojourners, or pilgrims who are just passing what is ‘no more’.   Have you ever felt like this? 

I was in a class in Raleigh recently, where “Millennials” were telling us older “Builders” and “Boomers” that they did not feel the same about the ‘established’ church as we have, but she added,  “We still love Jesus?”  One older ‘builder’ answered back,  “How do we know that you love Jesus, if you don’t love his church, which is body?”  Her answer:  “We are building his body in a new and more compassionate way.”    Yea, right?   You could just hear the skeptical ‘moans’ and sighs.  I thought to myself:  ‘Welcome to the Christian life, today?’  

I say ‘welcome’ because this experience of ‘exile’ is something we should already be used to, if we are truly ‘bearing a cross’ or ‘following the one who was crucified on a cross.’   At least some amount of exile and ‘strangeness’, even ‘hurt’ and ‘pain’ in this life,  is something we should all learn to anticipate, isn’t it?  Whether it is with wealth, health, or living the life of faith,  the world we know can and often is ‘pulled’ out form us, like a rug, from under our feet.  How can we stand?  How can we find ‘firm’ ground?   How can we continue to live in hope and faith, when it becomes hard for us to believe in people, in nations, in politics, or in religion? 

When you or I experience the ‘strangeness’ and ‘insecurity’ of life, which is always there, though we don’t always see, who are gonna call?   ….Ghost Busters?”  

Well, ‘who are you gonna call, when you become ‘exiled’ or ‘removed’ from your own life?   What John Newton experienced, and wrote about in this song,  is that the God who is our ‘portion’ can really be our ‘shield’ when the spiritual, emotional or physical ‘exiles’ happen to us in life.   And only because we have given our lives to God in the past, and each and every day in the present, are we able give our lives to God when ‘that day’ really does happen.   In order for the Lord to be our ‘shield’ in the difficulties, in the dangers, and in the disappointments of life, he must also be our ‘portion’ in the successes, in the joys‘, and God must be the true ‘delight’ of our life.   Is this Lord your ‘portion’?  Is he the ‘hunger’ of your heart?   How can you become confident in a hope you don’t actually live?

Here, I can’t help but think of an interesting experience we had during one of our ‘preaching’ services, when a couple came into sing in front of our church, and both of them, were also ‘packing’ fire arms, 357 magnums.  When we asked them, why they had them on, their only answer: “We’re Citizens of Yadkin County?”  “Are you deputized?”  “We’re citizens of Yadkin County?  No matter what we asked, this was the only explanation they gave.

Now, who am I to say who can or can’t carry ‘revealed’ or ‘concealed’ weapons?  The law of our land gives us the right to carry and to ‘bear arms.’   It is also true that we live in an increasingly ‘dangerous’ world and many are increasingly afraid.  Because ‘churches’ are public places, conducting public worship, the issue of safety can be a very important issue and churches do need to seriously consider ‘training’ and ‘changing’ in this regard.  But you know like I do, that this was a bit extreme, even for Yadkin County, wasn’t it?  It was even more astounding to watch and listen to a couple sing about God’s faithfulness, about God’s power, and about the wonderful refuge we have in God, and to be ‘topping’ off an example their own great ‘trust’ by ‘packing’ a 357 or 9 mm pistol, whichever it was. 

My point here, however, is not to criticize that couple,  because Lord knows,  in some very public places, even churches, people like them, could have stopped some terrible tragedies if they had had weapons to defend themselves and others.  Please don’t hear me ‘knocking’ guns, this couple, nor the right to bear arms.  But what you DO need to hear me saying is that you only get to have great ‘faith’ by ‘practicing’ great faith.   Of course, God does not call us to be overly vulnerable nor stupid, but sometimes, we could, at least, ‘have a little more faith’---and even more so,  remember that even in a ‘deadly world’ we are supposed to be about building communities with hearts full of faith, not communities that live in ‘constant’ fear.  

This is important, because of exactly what Jeremiah says:  “The Lord has plans for us, too.”   Life is not just about our plans, our protection, or our personal survival, but life is also about the LORD’s plans, which includes a better world and future for ALL people.  Notice how Jeremiah also told these exiles to settle down, ‘build houses’, ‘plant gardens’, get married and multiply, and most remarkably, ‘to seek the welfare’ of that pagan ‘city’, and to ‘pray on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare’ (29: 5-7).   These words could be some of the most important words of ‘grace’ reminding us to be ‘grateful’ and ‘graceful’ people even when life does not go our way, and even when we find ourselves living in ‘opposition’ to others.  Today’s political climate needs people who are ‘grateful’,  even when we find ourselves in differing from others.   Only when we too, ‘seek the welfare’ of the whole city, and pray for the whole city, including ‘our enemies’ or ‘opposition’, can we continue to enjoy the ‘welfare’ that must include all of us together.   How can we move toward that kind of inviting, inclusive world unless those of us, who have faith and trust, are ‘brave’ enough, ‘hopeful’ enough, or ‘strong’ enough, to take the first steps---maybe even taking a ‘leap’ of faith?  Isn’t this what the New Testament means, when is describes Jesus as the ‘pioneer’ and ‘perfecter’ of our faith. (Hebrews 12:2).  By standing out, Jesus also stood up for the best that humanity can become when God is our ‘portion’ and our ‘shield’.

ONLY ‘THE LORD’ CAN PROMISE

We cannot find security or hope, until we begin to live toward the ‘promise’.    Only the LORD can give us a ‘promise’ within and beyond all the insecurities of our lives.  And we can only receive this promise, when we commit ourselves to living the promise, by trusting in God’s plans for us and by acting upon that good faith, by giving our lives to God’s goodness, right where we find ourselves, no matter how good, or how difficult, the moment might be.

By now, you should already know that the ‘good’ the LORD has promised, is that we can know and receive his goodness, his grace, and his mercy in any and every situation.   It is only God’s ‘dream’ and God’s goodness, we can depend upon, and this is what we call ‘grace’.   God’s plans for us in all and in every situation, is to find, encounter, recognize and come to fully experience God’s grace.   And there is no single way to know God’s grace, but the experience of God’s grace can be as large as the eternal God himself.  This God ‘has plans’ for us too, so that we also can find his grace, ‘when we seek HIM, with all OUR heart.”   “I will let you find me,” says the LORD.  “I will restore your fortunes.”  “I will gather you from all the nations…and from…all the places... I will bring you back” (13-14).

When our ninety-one year old neighbor was suffering from broken bones and pneumonia, and was being released from the hospital into the care of hospice, the family wanted to bring her back home for her final days, but that became impossible.    As the Social Worker inquired as to whether she knew her plight, the family, knowing her difficulty breathing and resulting anxiety, were uncertain about what to say.   What I was thinking, and what I have watched unfold time and time again, is that not only does God give us ‘living grace’, but God also gives what some call ‘dying grace’.  When we continue to trust in every moment,  we will come to know, what is best to say or do.   As it worked out, God’s grace was still there, as HE always is, allowing those who seek him to find him.   This is the promise that never fails, because although God’s promises us more, He never promises any less, than God himself.  Amen.