Jeremiah 29:1, 4-14 on November 23rd, 2025
Above is audio of the sermon pulled from the video and amplified.
Below is transcript pulled from the video and formatted by artificial intelligence. There may be inconsistencies or errors.
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A good turkey takes time. In fact, I've already started preparations for this coming Thursday. I have moved the frozen turkey to the fridge so that it can start its thought in a safe, consistent manner. Tomorrow, I will start the brining process, which takes several days, but allows that turkey to maintain its juiciness and pulls seasonings and deep flavor into the meat. I have verified that I have enough charcoal and hardwood to maintain the three to four hour cooking process on the smoker. I still need to get some sage leaves, but that should be plentiful at this time of year. All in all, making a turkey for Thanksgiving takes a lot of thought and preparation.
There's planning. A good turkey takes time. But boy is it worth it. However, I could just go by a turkey breast, pop it in the microwave for a bit and boom, Thanksgiving in less time than a commercial break on the Macy's Parade. Or if I want even less work, I could see if any that turkey deli meat is on sale. Turkey's turkey, right? No. Life these days has conditioned us to expect that everything can or should come with the ease of a push of a button or with least within a very short amount of time. And while TV dinners may be that way, most things in life are not.
And that's kind of what happens when we rush the good verse in this passage. For surely I know the plans I have for you says the Lord. Plans for your welfare and not for harm to give you a future with hope. No offense to scripture, but if we jump right to that verse, it's like a microwave version of the Bible. Instead, we need to take time before we get to this verse because it's in taking time that we get a good juicy filling plate that is way better.
Chapter 29 begins by sharing a letter that Jeremiah sends to the exiles in Babylon. The Israelites have been taken away from their homeland and are forced to live elsewhere. Life is heavy and heartbreaking. If there are some among the exiles proclaiming a swift reversal of the circumstances, this will all be over soon. But Jeremiah shares an unpopular word, not so fast. Not only is this exile going to take a while, but the same Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, whom those other people will say will bring an end to this exile is actually the same God who sent these exiles into Babylon.
As Jeremiah's letter continues, the news doesn't get much better. Still, speaking on behalf of God, Jeremiah lays out imperatives, commands to the exiles. Build houses, live in them, plant gardens, eat their produce, take wives, have sun, give daughters in marriage, multiply, seek the welfare of the city, and pray for it. Those aren't the types of actions one takes if you're planning on leaving soon. In fact, in verse 10, Jeremiah tells them that God is planning on them being there for at least 70 years. It's not a quick fix. This is a low and a slow approach. So the exiles should get comfortable. Live life, live life in every sense of living. And don't just settle in but seek the welfare of Babylon. Pray for it. And that is not what any of those exiles wanted to hear. It is what they needed to hear.
Self-interested DeSudo prophets told the people over and over what they wanted to hear. It is sunshine and rainbows, ignored the smoke coming from the oven. All is well. All is well except very little was well. And that was a major reason why the people were an exile in the first place. An additional smooth but ultimately empty words would not be helpful in the slightest. But by announcing a word from God that may sound harsh and hopeless, something that will take time and waiting, Jeremiah is actually preparing something that will create a lasting hope for a restoration that is real.
Jeremiah reminds them that God has not left them. God has not forgotten them. God has not abandoned the story or the promise. God has plans. And these words were not spoken to people who were comfortable. They were spoken to a people who had lost everything. They were spoken to broken hearts, broken structures, broken dreams. They were spoken to a people standing at the beginning of a decade's long exile. Many of us know what that kind of exile feels like. It might not be geographic but emotional or spiritual, relational. Exile looks like a diagnosis that changes everything. A relationship that is fractured, a job that disappears, a world that feels overwhelming and unfamiliar. For sure we want answers and quick. Without them we're lost, we're hopeless, we're hungry for something. Jeremiah speaks into all of that. And he says, this is not the end of your story. God has plans. And that's the good news for us.
Because for us, as with the Israelites who were in exile, God is with God's people for the long haul, even when that extended length is largely due to us searing off the path. God will be with us through it all. So we shouldn't assume that God has forsaken us when circumstances aren't too are liking. As we have seen throughout the story of the Bible, sometimes God's promises take some time. God's promise of descendants took years to unfold for Abram and Sarah, yet it came. The Hebrews waited far longer than they ever wanted to in Egypt, but God brought them out. They wandered for a generation in the wilderness and yet their children reached the promised land. And yes, the people who endured exile and loss of the temple, but God brought them home and rebuilt what was broken. Again, and again, God works on a timeline that feels slow to us, but always leads to something wonderful.
When it seems like all is lost or at the very least far, far away, it may just be a time when God is most powerfully at work, letting things thaw and absorb all the flavor, remarkable things are in store. And on this Christ the King Sunday, we know that our King, our ruler, our Lord is with us for the long haul. So we wish that God would just push a button and fix things. We know that God in Jesus Christ prepares good things for us and good things take time. Time with us and among us, time serving and healing, time in a sealed up tomb, time of resurrection, time to give us that promise life for eternity. God has plans for you, for us for the world. God is steadfast, patient and faithful, staying with God's people through every long season of waiting, wondering and worry. And in Jesus, God shows us that good things take time. And the best things come from our Lord and Savior, our Christ and our King. And for us in the season where we're so much feels unfinished and is still unfolding this promise holds true. God is working, something good and lasting even right now.
So now that we've taken our time, now that we have prepared and thought it through, here again, these promise filled words that we so desperately need to hear. For surely I know the plans I have for you says the Lord. Plans for your welfare and not for harm to give you a future with hope. And in the reign of Christ our King, the one who feeds us with his very life, that promised future with hope is already being set out before us.
Amen.