Transcription
Sun Valley Community Church. It's good to be with you on this Labor Day weekend. I hope you're coming to church expectant. That is always what I hope our heart posture is, because the Lord makes promises, and He is a promise keeper. And so, if we can approach church in the right way, with the right, healthy expectations, we can count on His promises, even all the famous ones, right? Like, you know, Jeremiah 29:13. If you said 11, we'll get there—13. God's promise where He speaks—29:11 is great. Talks about God's plans. God's like, "I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." We know that. Yeah, yeah. Verse 12, He speaks and says, "Then you will call upon Me, come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you." Verse 13: Here's the promise, "You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart." Welcome to church!
If you count on this promise, you will not be disappointed when you leave church today. But if you seek something else, you might walk away disappointed. If you seek good feelings or good vibes, depending on your language, if you seek that, it's very possible you could walk out disappointed, because that's not the promise. That's not the promise in scripture that if you seek good feelings, I'll give them to you. No, the promise is this: If you seek to find Me, you will. And that is a promise we can hold on to. So church, I hope you're showing up to church today expectant to seek God, because He promises to be found by you. And the truth is, it's what we all have in common: this need for Him, to truly hear from Him. And that's why we're continuing this series, "Hearing from God."
The more I think about this idea of hearing from God, I wonder if we really want to. Maybe we want the good feelings, but I wonder if we really want to hear from Him about what He's really up to in the world. I wonder if we really want to hear from Him about what time He really would have us wake up. I wonder if we want to hear from Him who He would have us talk to. See, I know a lot of us want God on demand. That's the title of today's message: On Demand. We want Him when we want Him to speak into the circumstances that we want Him to speak into, in a specific way. But when it comes to His overall plan, I wonder if we really want to hear from God. But the good news is, if you come seeking to find Him, we get to open up His Word, hear directly from Him, find Him, and not walk away disappointed, because we will have found who we've been searching for.
I want to pray for our hearts before we even open up God's Word together. Oh, I'm excited! I'm like, already ready to go, but I have to pause and wait, because the truth is, we need to hear from Him. We need to share our hearts with Him. A lot of us got out of the car, walked up to church today excited, and some of us walked up really discouraged. Some of us are in a season of complete joy, and some of us are in a season of grief. And I love that we can approach God exactly where we're at, see, because God's not planning to meet us where we're not. So we might as well show up where we're at. And let's begin with prayer, and I'm even going to create some space in the prayer that we might even hear a word from the Lord directly to us. So will you pray with me?
Father God, oh Lord, how we need You. And church, right where you're at, would You just open up Your heart to Him and talk to Him about right where you're at? I know we go around and we want people to care about us. We want to live this life of—first, we have all these desires, all these feelings, all these thoughts. Yeah, we have a God right now who—He says in His Word that He's listening. So let's share our heart with Him, church. And Lord, we want more of You, more of what You want to say to us. Would You teach us how to listen and obey, even now? If right now You're just wanting to calm our hearts, would we listen and obey? Surrender our anxieties to You, because You care. God, I'm thankful that we don't have to pretend in this place, that we can be right where we're at, trusting that You're here too, wanting to speak a word of truth and hope into our lives. Holy Spirit, help us receive those truths in deep places today. We pray. And all God's children said, "Amen."
Turn with me, if you're not already there, to Jeremiah chapter 29. Not only do we have that promise found in verse 13, we have timeless truths found in words that God delivers to a specific people in a specific place. Now, all the circumstances aren't exactly the same, and again, I'm assuming right now you're turning with me to Jeremiah chapter 29. Don't forget, and as you guys are turning there, which is to remember that this word was spoken to a specific people in a season of captivity, and they're there because of their own disobedience. Now, a lot of us are hearing this word in a completely different context, yet there are timeless truths that we can pull, that we can hear about God's overarching plan. See, while we may want to know or hear from God in our specific circumstances, here's what we can know from this—from this truth today—that there's timeless truth that's for all people at all times, and it begins in Jeremiah 29. We'll read verses 11 through 14, and it says this: God speaking—"If you've been waiting to hear from the Lord, this is it." He says this: "For I know the plans I have for you." How do we know it's the Lord? Good. Declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Then you will call upon Me, come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. Verse 14: "I will be found by you," declares the Lord. There it is again. "And I will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the Lord. There it is again. "And I will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."
So, starting in one of the most famous verses in the entire Bible, Jeremiah 29:11, what timeless truth can we pull? While it may not be a promise for us that our life will be without harm, we can still pull out timeless truths, and the first one is this: God speaks—"For I know the plans I have for you." So what's the timeless truth? God knows the plans. And do you know what it doesn't say next? It doesn't say, "and I'm planning on telling them to you." Yet I think a lot of us expect that from the Lord. When we hear from the Lord, we want to know exactly what He wants in this specific moment, what is His specific desire. And does God reveal that? Yes, absolutely, at times. But it's not the promise. He says, "I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord. And while He may not plan on telling them to us, He is inviting us into a heart posture toward Him, which is this: to trust the One who knows the plans. And that is hard to do, especially when you look at our past, you look at the things that we've gone through. God says, "I—I know the plans I have for you," and it's important for us to hear this. It's important for us to hear this word because it's tempting to listen to lots of other voices, or want to listen to voices that tell us different plans, or give us different promises, or different hopes. And yet God is speaking very clearly. He's like, "I know the plans." But the truth is, we hear this in a context in which we're not used to not knowing things. That's why Siri was invented. Very rarely do you go to coffee with someone, and then you find yourselves wondering about a certain thing, and then you just walk away and go, "I guess we'll never know." No, you asked Siri in that moment. In fact, I used to work with students for about 10 years, and we did a survey with all these youth ministries, and we said, okay, so we asked all these students, we said, "Why don't you talk to your parents about spiritual matters?" Do you want to know one of their—what one of their top answers to that question—"Why don't you talk to your parents about spiritual things?" One of their top answers was, "Oh, because I Google search my questions." Because we're not used to not knowing things. Yet what we hear right here is God inviting us—and this is what He's inviting us to do—to go, "I know the plans. Will you trust Me?" Or will you, like Adam and Eve, listen to another voice?
My husband used to work for the emergency room, and he and I were having a conversation about listening to the right voices, and specifically how listening to the wrong voices gets us in trouble, specifically in the area of anxiety. And I said, "What do you do in the ER when people come in with anxiety attacks, for instance?" He goes, "Oh, I do the exact same thing every time, because it works." I said, "Wow, can you tell me?" So I tell the people about what really works. He goes, "Oh, yeah, I do the exact same thing. I have them look me in the eyes," he goes, "Right here, right here, I need you to look me in the eyes. I need you to breathe with me. I need you to—oh, don't look over there. I need you to look right here, right here. My end, right here, church, right here. Look me in the eyes. And here's what we're gonna do: We're gonna focus on what we can do, not on what we can't. What we can do is breathe. So would you breathe with me? Breathe in right now. Yes, church, right now, breathe in and breathe out. Now breathe in, and you go, 'My name is Randy Marshman. I'm an ER staff nurse at this hospital, and I'm really good at my job.' Okay, now breathe out, and breathe in, and breathe out." And I believe this is precisely what God is doing through the prophet Jeremiah. He's inviting people to say, "Listen to the right voice. Breathe with Me." You see, and Jeremiah was paying attention, see, because 170 times in the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah writes, "Declares the Lord." See, he was listening to the right voice. The people he was speaking to, at times, weren't. In fact, in Jeremiah chapter 28, we have a false prophet, and they were proclaiming—his name was Hananiah—and he was proclaiming, "Things are going to get better and easier with God. Trust in the Lord. In the next two years, we'll be out of captivity. I know we deserve to be here, but in two years, He's trusting God, and we'll be out." And God sends Jeremiah to send him a really tough word, because the truth is, we still see Hananiahs all over the place today, prophesying similar messages—"Everything will get easier and simpler and more comfortable with God." And I believe we've been listening to those voices. And so, when things aren't easy or comfortable or simple, we get angry with God, because our disappointments don't align with what He's speaking to us in those moments. You see, the word Hananiah preached was what the people wanted to hear, but it wasn't what God was trying to communicate. And we all want a hope-filled future, but you know what? We don't want exile. Hence why the people were ready for that false word. We want to follow Jesus, but we don't want to carry a cross, right? We want all the good that can come, but we don't want the sacrifice that's required. So God, not only says, "Hananiah, you're wrong," sends the prophet Jeremiah, actually predicts his death one chapter before we get to Jeremiah 29:11, which we paste on graduation cakes and we're like, "Hoorah!"
So what do we do? We trust the God who knows the plans. And I have to tell you, I know that that is not easy when the plans are not easy. Yet God's speaking, so hear from the Lord today. He knows the plans, and while we may not know what the plans are, we know from elsewhere in scripture something about the plans that is incredibly important. Turn with me to Romans chapter eight. Romans chapter eight. As you're turning there, I love the book of Romans. I love the book of Romans because I love who wrote the book of Romans—this guy named Paul, who basically has a really extreme past, breathing out murderous threats against those who are following the way, who are following Jesus. Yet Jesus encounters him, turns his life around, gives him this unbelievable purpose, which reminds me of this church—that God can do whatever He wants with whomever He wants, whenever He wants to do that thing. Stop counting yourself out, and stop counting other people out too. See, Paul writes the majority of the New Testament. In the book of Romans, he writes this overview of the entire story of God. And when you get to Romans chapter 8, we find that while we may not know the plans, we can know this about the plans. It even begins like this in verse 28: "And we know"—I love that it starts like that. Here's what we can know: We can know this: "We know that in all things"—I circled the word "all," because guess what's included in all things? All things. We can know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. But I need to tell you that God's definition of good—if God's going to use all things for good—we have to know that God's definition of good is different than our Americanized definition of good. See, our Americanized definition of good is comfortable, easy, successful. "How was your day?" "It was good," in other words, things were easy, or great, or I accomplished a lot, right? That's how we define good. Listen carefully. Paul goes on to describe exactly what he means when he says He'll use all things for good, when he writes this verse 29: "For those God foreknew, He also predestined"—don't get tripped up on that word; it simply means predestined—"For those God foreknew, He also predestined," here it is, "to be conformed to the image of His Son." God can use all things for good. Good meaning He can use all things to form us more into the likeness of Jesus. All things. What are your things? How might God be wanting to use your things to form you more into the likeness of Jesus? Let me remind you of truths you probably already know about Jesus, but let me ask you: Is He forming you more into this? Because He might be wanting to use the very thing you're going through to do just that. Jesus is forgiving. He can even use your hurt to make you more into the likeness of Jesus. Jesus is a prayer warrior. Are you dependent upon the Lord? Jesus is a prayer warrior. I wonder if the things that are outside your control—good—because it's actually never been in your control, and you've been convinced otherwise that it has been. In this moment where you feel like things are out of control, I almost wonder if God's whispering, "Good. You finally get that it's never been in your control." But "I know the plans. Come to Me. Call upon Me. Come and pray to Me. I'm going to listen to you. And you will seek Me, and you will find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you." And remember, the Bible doesn't have bold italics or underlines. So if it wants to get its point across, it says it twice. Not only—not only does He say, "I will be found by you," He says it twice. I wonder if the plan is less about our comfort and more about Him being found in the mess. Have you found Him lately? Let me rewind a bit. What have you been seeking? Because if you've been seeking the Americanized definition of good, it's no wonder you may feel disappointed. And when have you, in the past, been formed more into the likeness of Jesus? Has it been in the midst of all the success? Everything's going well, and you're like, "You know what? Everything's going well. Everyone's treating me really well. I'm gonna be more forgiving of who—this world is broken. This world is not as God originally intended." God knows the plans. His plans are meant for good—His definition, not ours. And if we go with His definition and want what He wants, then our prayers would begin to change. And a good sign that maybe our—our prayers haven't been changed into what He wants might be our answer to this question: If God were to say yes to all the prayers you've been praying, would your life be more comfortable, or would God be more glorified? See, our—our definition of good—what if our definition of God—good—was, "God, use this broken relationship to form me more into the likeness of Jesus," because that's part of the all things You're planning to use for Your good. And I know that's part of Your plan, that I might find You even in this broken relationship.
What are your things? I ask you that knowing full well that the answer to that question could be extremely vulnerable. The reason I know that is because my answer is extremely vulnerable. I got to hang out with you all—hello, my name is Megan—I got to hang out with you guys in January, in February. I faced the hardest thing I've ever gone through in my entire life when my husband went to be with Jesus—unexpected heart attack, middle of the night. And it's crazy, I can remember the message I preached on this stage three weeks prior where I was—if you don't remember, if you weren't here, come to church. If you—if you were there, and maybe you remember Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—that God will deliver us. And I even gave three points that I talked with my husband about a lot—that He'll either deliver us from trials, and it'll just—sometimes the cancer is gone; sometimes God does that, He just delivers us from trials. Sometimes He delivers us through it, and then it's through the fire that our characters were fine. And that was the truth for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And then I had to make the third point that I didn't know would come true three weeks later—that sometimes God delivers us by trials into His loving arms. How in the world could God use that for good? If God's definition of good is to form us more into the likeness of Jesus, then I know that I know that I know that He's used this in Randy's life—my husband's—He looks more like Jesus than ever before. He's using it in mine—not because of my strength, but I'll tell you some of those verses that you've heard maybe your whole life—"God's powers made perfect in weakness"—that I actually get to see God's power on display. And how do I know that? Because I'm standing in front of you, church, telling you and believing for you—if you don't believe it for yourself—that God could use your thing for good. He could use it to make you more like Jesus. And turns out the world needs Jesus, and God's plan for the world is you, and the way He's going to use you is to make you more like His Son. So let me ask you: How might God be wanting to use your things, form you more into the likeness of Jesus? That's the plan. And yes, God knows the plans. His plans are meant for good. But we have to—I think we can all agree—point three: that God's good plans are not exempt from trial. And I'm standing here before you today wishing that wasn't my third point, wishing the things could be different. Yet I don't grieve as someone without hope. That's what I got to preach on last January here. So I was really looking forward to coming back and saying, "I don't just believe it then, I believe it now," and I want it for you. So church, God knows the plans. His plans are meant for good. His plans are not exempt from trial, but they're still good because He is. So let me ask you one last time, and then we'll pray and open our hearts to the Lord to use our things to make us more like Him: How might God be wanting to use the very things you're going through to form you more into the likeness of Jesus? We're going to go into a time of response, and I love the song we're going to sing—"The Goodness of God"—that He would even—
Use the impossible for good. What a powerful song! But before we do, let's take a moment and not just listen to a message, move into worship, but take a moment to hear from the Lord, precisely where we're at.
So heavenly Father, as we pray, I ask that you would right now open up precisely where we're at. If we are nervous and fearful about the future, I pray right now that you would crack open that heart, laid bare before you. Holy Spirit, what are you doing, and how do you want to use that to form them more into your likeness? If you're grieving, how might God be wanting to even use your grief to form you more into the likeness of Jesus? If you're full of joy, thank you God for your presence, but also how might God be wanting to use your joy to form you more into the likeness of Jesus, to put His joy on display, His presence on display?
Oh heavenly Father, we don't just want to speak to you; we want to hear from you. So Lord, as we open ourselves to you in prayer, and if you're listening to this right now, would you just extend your hands, open them up as if we're opening our heart to a God who not only listens but also speaks? Holy Spirit, what do you have to say to us? Remind us who your Son is, Jesus. Lord, Lord Jesus, would you remind us who you are in this very instant? And Lord, would you make us more like Him, for your glory and for our good? We pray, and all God's children said, Amen.