For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says Yahweh, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith Jehovah, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope in your latter end.
32 sermons cite this verse
… Give him a little bit of worship. all things new all things new all things new for i know the plans i have for you they are good and not evil plans to prosper you and not to harm you to give you a future and a hope before i dismiss you if you're here and you say i need to get in this ark i've been coming to this church long enough i've been evaluating it but every time i'm here god speaks to me. It doesn't matter who's preaching. God speaks to me and I need to make this place home. I want you, I have pastors to my left, to your right, my left. There's a QR code. Get connected. Get plugged in. There's so much more to us than Sundays. I love you very much and I'll see you soon. May the Lord bless and keep you. May he make his face to shine upon you and be gracious towards you. May he lift up his countenance over you and grant you shalom, shalom in Jesus name. God bless you love you very much see you Wednesday for walking out Wednesday before you go family at the
… we want it our way our will be done we can miss out on god's will for us can i just tell you that his his will his plan over our lives is perfect yeah jeremiah 29 11 it says it the best for these are the plans i have for you declares the lord plans to prosper you not to harm you plans to bring you hope in a future. And this is, guys, this is not the Lord being like, I got something good for you in the pipeline. Like, just wait and see. The Lord is declaring this over you, and I need you to believe it. I don't care if you've heard this scripture a hundred times or the first time today. The Lord is declaring this. I have plans for you, but we can miss it when we want to make it our way, our will be done. Oh my gosh, you can't be serious. You think making the pick is the hard part? No, it's not. …
… Turn, please. Jeremiah 29, verse 11. The subject is the Jews going into captivity, yet future. The subject is the life beyond the captivity, yet future. And the Lord, speaking to his prophet, who then speaks to the people, tells them, I know the plans that I have for you. declares the Lord. Observe it does not read. I will tell you all about them ahead of time so you can be ready. He simply says, I know the plans. My sovereign will is such that it is all put together. Isaiah 55 tells us that his ways are high above our ways and beyond our thoughts. They are different. They are in another world, a different perspective. But the Lord knows his plans that he has for us, and there's good news at the end. They are plans for welfare and not for calamity to give us a future and a hope. the ultimate plan our Lord has for us is not a calamitous fatalistic heartbreaking life-ending plan designed to disturb or corrupt our faith it is a plan that is profound and it's different than you and I would have ever expected or planned in response to this first lesson I have some pretty simple advice. Be ready for anything. And I mean anything. I heard from a friend in our church just a few moments ago of a friend of his who works at EDS, making a great deal of money, enjoying a prosperity that was unusual for him and for his family, got …
… Jeremiah 29, 11, the Lord says, I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. I gave my son Christopher a watch on his 21st birthday. It was my watch. I gave it to him. And I had that verse inscribed on the back of the watch. But as you know, he died in a tragic automobile accident. I was given a plastic bag after he died with his belongings, including his wallet and that watch. And I took that watch out of the bag and I looked at it. And I looked at that inscription. and I thought where's the future and hope now and it would take some time for me to process that and realize that Christopher had run his race he had finished his course and he had been faithful and I'm running my race as you are running yours and here's the ultimate future and a hope it doesn't mean everything is always going to turn out the way we want it to turn out but what it does mean is one day we will be in the presence of God. That's the ultimate future and hope for every Christian. It's a win-win situation. …
… All of those things. That's the promise that god has for you Remember before you were born he said in jeremiah 29 11 I have plans for you plans to prosper you plan to give you a hope and a future I got good things planned for you. I got a promise for you But the promise we are at the starting line asking god. What's the promise? I'll go when you tell me the promise I'll obey when you tell me the promise I ain't saying nothing the first step I told you to make obey that one y'all ever seen the Wizard of Oz follow the yellow brick road that's what the Christian life is like you don't see where it leads until you step and there's another brick that comes when you step and the quicker the thing you gotta realize if you start stepping quicker the steps Keep coming quicker. But what we're doing is we're waiting for God to show us everything. And we won't step until we feel like we know what's going to happen. …
… Put your hope in Christ and trust the word of God. I can't talk about hope without quoting Jeremiah 29 11, where the Lord says, I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace, not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Okay, so I want to talk about a guy in the book of Acts that was known for encouraging others. Actually, his given name was Joseph, but he was given a nickname. And his nickname was Barnabas, which means the son of encouragement, or another way to translate it, he was known basically as Mr. Encouragement. Mr. Encouragement, I love that. I mean, is there someone you know that you could literally describe as Mr. or Miss Encouragement? That's who Barnabas was. He always had a word of encouragement for someone else. Now, if you were to be summed up in one word, what would we call you? Mr. Happiness. Miss Critical. Mr. Cranky. Miss Bible. I don't know. …
… your mind. And we know the thoughts that you think toward us are, well, they're good thoughts. You tell us in Jeremiah 29, 11, I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. We're thankful for that. Now, bless this time as we open your word, as we talk about a serious subject, falling away spiritually and how you can restore people who have fallen away. And I pray for anyone hearing or this message today, if they are falling away or have fallen away, may this be a day of homecoming for them. And for some who have never come to know you at all, may this be a day of transformation for them. We commit this time of Bible study to you now. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You can all be seated. Well, we're in the gospel of Luke. So why don't you grab your Bible and turn to Luke chapter 22. We're now in the final section of Luke's gospel. And we're going to follow Jesus from the upper room to the cross of Calvary, to the empty tomb and the ascension. We put our cross up here to remind us of what we're talking about. And this is a very important section. And the title of my message is Fallen But Forgiven. So imagine for a moment if you got a call from your Christian friend. Hello. Hey dude. Instead of going to church today, why don't we go and …
… You know this one. For I know the thoughts that I thank toward you. Make this your own, says the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not of evil. To give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and go and pray to me. And I will listen to you. This is the word of God. And you will seek me and find me. When you search for me with all of your heart. If you make these few verses your life's marching orders, you'll do just fine. Pursue him. Seek after him. This is all the binding. And this is all the writing of the neck and of the heart of the word of God upon us. Is that it will transform your life. And if your life is seen by others as a life that is touched by God. Graced by God. What a wonderful witness that is. And people will have to ask. Which I think is the best question of all for us to be asked. …
… is far better than your plan for yourself? I love that verse that I quote often, Jeremiah 29 11. It says, I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope. Reminds me of a story I heard about a guy who was being pursued by an attorney. And this man was certain that that attorney wanted to serve him with a subpoena. So this guy made it his mission in life to evade the attorney. This went on for 13 years and that attorney was never able to make contact with this man. Well the man got very sick and he was actually dying and he was in the hospital. And lo and behold, they wheeled that attorney in right next to him. He was sharing the room with the attorney. The man turned to the attorney and said, go ahead, serve me the subpoena. I don't even care now. I'm gonna die. …
… acknowledge him and he will direct your path for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for his good works for I know the plans that I have for you declares the Lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you a hope and a future you gotta challenge yourself to make better choices every day to watch the people that you hang around to not let someone else write your story because listen to Corey and Kendall and Zion and blaze you got to believe in dream like Martin all of my serenities and Luke and Eric you got to fly high and soar to the stars like May to my Camerons and Kendrick and Jonathan and Paisley and joy you got to speak up like Malcolm to Maddie and Drew and Caden and Delilah you got to write like Maya to Sarah and Savannah and Dakota and Skylar and Braden and Miles you gotta invent like George to all my Sydneys and Camden and Milani and Jordan and Thailand and Kingston you gotta inspire like Lewis to Zoe and true and Lanaya can I call out my kids Paige and Layla you gotta challenge like Rosa to Carter and to Taylor and to Suave and to Peyton and to Genesis you gotta stand like Nelson Malia and and Kaysen, and Kai, and Morgan, and Kennedy. …
… Turn, please. Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 11. The subject is the Jews going into captivity, yet future. The subject is the life beyond the captivity, yet future. And the Lord, speaking to his prophet, who then speaks to the people, tells them, I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord. observe it does not read I will tell you all about them ahead of time so you can be ready he simply says I know the plans my sovereign will is such that it is all put together Isaiah 55 tells us that his ways are high above our ways and beyond our thoughts they are different they are in another world a different perspective Let's get started. but the Lord knows his plans that he has for us, and there's good news at the end. They are plans for welfare and not for calamity to give us a future and a hope. The ultimate plan our Lord has for us is not a calamitous, fatalistic, heartbreaking, life-ending plan designed to disturb or corrupt our faith. …
If you're here, and it's time to say yes to God, God says, for I know the plans I have for you. They are good and not evil. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope. everybody had a moment like this and some of us had about 15 or 20 moments like this and you might be here and you might be thinking man you know i did this before and i just don't want to play with god i just don't want to you know and i actually respect that you you you have character you have integrity i respect that but you're not playing with god god is drawing you the bible says that a just man falls seven times and rises back up again so to that person who's like you know what i've done it before i just don't want to let god down let me let you in on something right now you cannot let god down god already knew the mistake you were going to make before you made it come on god bless you i see you come on daughters i see you if you're watching via live stream just say i open up my heart to the lord just say i receive jesus put it right there in the chat if you're here and maybe you've said yes but it's time to rededicate your life to God. You want to rededicate your life to God. …
… So the enemy wants to cut you off from the voice of God. Jeremiah 29 11 God for I know the thoughts I think towards you thoughts of peace and not evil, which means that when I have an evil thought about me, it didn't come from God. It didn't come from God. So now I'm dealing with a war of words. I think that's where we're going next week. We're dealing with a war of words. So the Holy Spirit reassures you on Father's Day that your ultimate Father loves you. knows every strand of hair on your head and would never put you in a fight that he didn't see you finish. He would never put you in a fight and not finish for the sake of finishing, but finishing coming out of it with something that you never could have gotten. Had you not gotten that ring.
… I love this, this verse. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future. Jeremiah 29, 11. He has a future for you. You're not just sitting here supposed to coast through life. Your life can be a blessing to other people. quit telling yourself lies that you're too far gone quit telling yourself that you're not worth it god skip over me and go to the next oh i know that spoke to somebody you're easily dismissing and counting yourself out when god says no you matter i love you i'm coming after you the lies of the enemy are just not true it's in God's nature to love us deeply and passionately every single one of us God loves his people and he created us to be in community because he loves his people and he wants to share them all together and so this is where his relentless love is going to get you because it's harsh and unforgiving we're a church here we're a church that loves what God loves. So we love people. And that's why we have connect groups. That's why we have connect groups because God loves people. And we want you to be around people that will hold you accountable, that will keep you planted, will keep you rooted, keep reminding you of who God is. But how many of you are so easy to dismiss what God values, are so easy to dismiss, I don't need to go to that …
… in fact let me just say one thing i know i'm going to annoy a lot of people but i don't care i'm leaving tomorrow you should never say jeremiah 29 11 is a promise to you what's jeremiah 29 11 oh the plans i have for you plans to give you hope plans to give you a future prosper you and all this is this a promise made to 21st century christians living in albuquerque new mexico No, in context, who is that written to? It was written to the Jews in captivity in 586 BC. They were taken out of Judah by the Babylonian dictator Nebuchadnezzar. He took them all the way to Babylon, modern day Iraq. And God, through the prophet Jeremiah, was telling those people that 70 years later, he would bring them back into the land and prosper them. And it happened in 516 BC. They went back there and they began to prosper. But this is not a promise to us. When people say I'm claiming Jeremiah 29, 11 as a promise to me, I say, why don't you claim Jeremiah 44, 11 as a promise to you? What does Jeremiah 44, 11 say? Jeremiah 44, 11 was the promise God made to the exiles that went to Egypt in 586 BC. He didn't want them to go to Egypt. So you know what Jeremiah 44, 11 says? It says, I will destroy you and all Judah. …
… for its leadership. But know this, after 70 years, thus says the Lord, I will visit you and I will return you back to your homeland. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of good and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. That's the context of that promise. So he writes that letter to them. After 70 years, sure enough, Babylon has now been taken over by the Persians and Cyrus, the king of Persia, allows the Jewish captives to go back home and to rebuild. But a handful go back. Most stay behind in Persia. some go back it's hard to rebuild but they're up for the task they were discouraged a little bit that's the background of Ezra and Nehemiah but it seems that the captives the Jewish captives took to heart that little letter from Jeremiah and did make the most of it and did build homes and did plant vineyards and did have families and they just got so comfortable in a foreign land they didn't want to go back. So by this time, it is estimated that 20% of the population of the Persian Empire were Jewish. 20% of the population of the Persian Empire dispersed in 127 different provinces were of Jewish descent. That just sets the background for what we're about to read. …
Jeremiah 29 11. I'm going to read this out of the New International Version. and I'm going to tell you the word that God spoke to me. days ago. And those very words would be challenged on yesterday. Jeremiah 29 11 God says for 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. That's our verse for today. for I know the plans that I have for you God says for 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 and a future and the future. In other words, don't be stuck in the moment that you're in. Don't put a period where I place the comma. And the thought, the prophetic declaration that God gave to me for you for this Sunday, several days ago, is something good is about to happen. …
… God is bigger. For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They're good and not evil. plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and hope. Clarity is not about forcing your way forward. It is about getting in alignment so that you can move forward. It's about finding the flow that God has already ordained for your life. There's a flow. There's a river. There is a current. There is a currency. And when you get in the flow, things start happening. When you get in the flow, all of a sudden resources start showing up. When you get in the flow, you start meeting the right people and not the wrong people. Hello. When you get in the flow, opportunities will chase you. You won't have to chase opportunities. Opportunities will chase you. That's why I've got to get clear. That's why I've got to get aligned. That's why I've got to stop being random. That's why I've got to stop playing. …
… I'm not just talking about something that feels good. I'm talking about his word says, for I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a future and a hope. You got to go bar for bar with the enemy. oh I'm that's I'm gonna be honest with you I don't ever say this but that's better than y'all clapping I need you to know that you can talk back to the enemy I need you to understand the power of what Jesus gave you he gave you access to power and authority and the power of life and death is in your tongue let me tell you something when the enemy wages war in your mind you can change the battlefield. Oh, this God's helping me. See, this is what some people do because they don't like to be loud and reckless. They like to internalize and keep things inside. So they wage war with the enemy in them. So the enemy puts thoughts in their head and then they think back to the enemy. You know what I mean? You know what I mean? Do you know like you just be talking to yourself in yourself. There's something that happens when you speak it out loud that changes the battlefield that says you can't have my mind. I'm going to speak in the atmosphere what my mind needs to receive in its soul. I wish I could say that real good. I'm going to give you five seconds …
… through the difficulties. His plan is to grow us, mature us, and strengthen us in the process. That's God's plan. Jeremiah 29.11, God says to Jeremiah, I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you a hope in a future. This verse has gotten me through some really hard times because it helps me know that when my plans don't go my way, I hold on to the promise that he has good plans for me. The plans are his. The plans are his. He holds the plans. We hold on to him. The very first promise that was made to Mary was that the Holy Spirit will come upon you. And you know you have that promise too. Jesus told the disciples, this is John 16, 13. He said, when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. The promise that we cling to is that the Spirit will guide you. The promise is not a map with turn-by-turn directions. The promise is that you're taking a journey with the ultimate guide who you know is going to lead you through the hard parts. Belief is not knowing how God will do it. …
… you have probably seen, read, or heard this verse. For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not of evil. To give you a future and a hope. Amen. I want to talk about God's thoughts. An inside look at God's thoughts about you. he'd be thinking about you Father thank you for this privilege to be in the house of prayer thank you for this opportunity to cry out and call on your name pray that you speak to us challenge us convert somebody's life put a hedge of protection around this place Father please rebuke and bind every distracting spirit by your spirit I pray Father that you would allow your presence and your might to accomplish what you've ordained in Jesus name Amen you can be seated Go ahead and look at your neighbor and say, God, I've been thinking about you. Did y'all look at the person in the eyeballs and tell them that? This is a passage of scripture where the children of God are in Babylon. …
… I will visit you and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you. I will restore your fortunes. I will gather you from the nations. I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. I know many of you, all of us, I hope, love Jeremiah 29, 11. The plans I have for you, declares the Lord. I think I probably went through a season. You're a young Christian and, yes, Jeremiah 29, love that. Put it on a pillow. Put it on a bumper sticker. put it on a coffee mug. And then somewhere along the way you learn, well, this is really a promise for God's exiles in Babylon. And you're not in exile in Babylon, and you're not having Cyrus. …
… and then let's think about what they mean. So Jeremiah chapter 29, verses 11 through 13. Let's read it together out loud. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Now, I mentioned these words are well-known, often quoted. people have them in frames around their houses, on their desks, in places where they can be reminded of these words, particularly verse 11. And this is good. The problem, though, is that many of us don't know when God said this, who he was speaking to, and what it meant at that time. And if we don't know what it meant when God said these words, then we can easily make them mean things today that they were never intended by God to mean. …
… Why shouldn't the gospel produce this result, that you shape the stuff of your life into a positive story? I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord in Jeremiah 29 verse 11, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. St. Paul asks in Romans 8 verse 31, The power of God that is active in the gospel of Jesus Christ can take the stuff of your life and turn it into a great story and a real story. No spin here. Now, what good is a story if you can't tell it? My daughter Katie called me the other day on her cell phone. She was ecstatic because she had gotten a great sale price on some clothes. That's the way it is for all of us. Everyone has a story to tell. And that's the way it is with people whose lives have been turned around by God. It's like the apostles said, We cannot but help speaking about what we have seen and heard. …
… the quote most often spoken over her was from the prophet Jeremiah, from the Old Testament book of the Bible, Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 11. Maybe you've heard it quoted before. It's one of the more popular Bible verses. Through the prophet, God says, I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Hearing those words spoken over her meant a lot to Bethany at the time, with the traumatic events she had experienced. Bethany's last name is Hamilton. I don't know her personally, but I had the opportunity to visit with her because I know her pastor. Bethany Hamilton was born and raised on the island of Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands. You might recognize her name because she is probably the most famous professional surfer in the world. You might know her from when she was on Oprah, or from the reality TV show The Amazing Race, or from her number one New York Times best-selling book, or the movie that was made from it, Soul Surfer, in which Bethany explains how her plans got changed. …
… horrible ordeal, God says, you don't know, but I know what I am going to do about it. And here it is. I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you, not to harm you. Everybody say not to harm you. Say it again, not to harm you. Tell somebody God is not against you. God is not out to harm you. He got harmed on the cross. So all you have to do is receive forgiveness. Plans to give you a hope. and a future. And don't wait until everything becomes that. Now come back to me. Don't, don't, don't wait until everything's perfect because most of life is going from one thing to another. And at some point you have to say, I don't know, but God knows. God knows what he's doing. And therefore, I will glory in my tribulation. Therefore, I will just say, well, I don't know and I don't have to know because I trust God. And if I trust God, he'll take me by the hand. …
… be unshakable hope. And last week we were looking at a life verse for a lot of people, Jeremiah 29, 11, but we learned that when we zoomed out from, I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord. And we saw the bigger story that hope even got more robust than it was just in 29, 11. And we ended that message last week by saying that the hope ultimately is not a place. In other words, it's not the plan and it's not the place. A lot of us will say, I would have hope if God would show me the plan, or I would have hope if God would get me back home to the place where I'm now in exile from. But what he went on to say from verse 11 in verse 12 is that the hope is not a place. There is a place. God does have a plan for our life. He has a plan for your life. He does want to bring you into that place that he has for you or bring you back to that place wherever you drifted away from. But notice what he says in verse 12. Then you will, after you know these plans I have for you, declares the Lord, you will call on me and come and pray to me. Notice how this shifts. You will call on me and you'll 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. I will be founded by you, declares the Lord, …
… Come on, use your holy imagination for a moment. What if there is something working in your life that Jeremiah 29 11 really is true, that he knows the plans he has for you, plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future? What if it's really in me, but it's just not my season yet? Blessed is the man who walks not in the path of the wicked, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. They will bear fruit in season. You will bear fruit in season. You will bear fruit in season. Do not eliminate in a season of frustration what God intends to use to bless you in the season of your favor. So then, we have a question to ask. What am I attacking that God has actually called me to embrace? That's why I looked at you the other day. …
… might be your life verse, Jeremiah 29, 11. Amen? Anybody? Hello? Got it crocheted on a pillow somewhere at the house or a screensaver on your phone. It says, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope, there's our word, and a future. That this word and the original language has got such a big idea when it comes down to hope and a future that what it's trying to convey needs these two words, hope and future, all conveying one thing, and it's a hopeful ending, that God's plan is to bring your life ultimately, no matter what you go through, to a hopeful ending. And what I love, and I hope that you'll stay with me in this, is that most of us take this text and we go, wow, I must be the you in this verse. And so I'm going to make this my life verse. I'm going to park here, believe this for my life. But what I want us to do today is I want us to zoom out from this verse. …
… believers he only takes the ones that have hope for the children he only had he takes the parents and he takes his disciples and he walks in because now I'm remembered of Jeremiah 29 11. It's Jesus that knows the hope of this little girl. He knows the plans that God has for her, hope for a future and not to bring her harm, but of plans to prosper in the future, to do great things. Jesus knows that and her parents are hoping for that and the disciples are coming alongside Jesus and believing with the parents about that. And so everybody else has to go and if you're in a situation where there's somebody around you that is trying to even oppress your thoughts then it's time for them to go Jesus walks into the room with just the ones that are able to believe he puts his hands out and he then says to let the comb meaning little girl arise and it says that after they find out that the little girl arises that the people are astonished and Jesus says feed her and he in essence then walks away and y'all I think that's where most of us would stop and shout that oh my gosh we thought she was dead oh my gosh we thought that she couldn't live again and then here was a miracle that Jesus resurrected her but was it we got to ask the question remember Jesus said that she was just sleeping what is in the miracle of …
… So, you know, I cannot wait to share with you that which hopefully God has given us so that we can offer it on to you today. So I want to look at, of course, our thematic text, which is Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 11. But I want to look at Jeremiah chapter 29, verses 8 through 11 on today. So it says, for thus, verse 8, for thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, do not let the prophets and the diviners who are among you deceive you and do not listen to the dreams that they dream. For it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name. I did not send them, says the Lord. For thus says the Lord, only when Babylon's 70 years are completed will I visit you and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. Verse 11, for surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. …
… Be fruitful and multiply. In Jeremiah chapter 29, we love Jeremiah 29 11. I know the plans that I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a hope and a future. But if you back up to verses 4 and 5 and 6, you'll see that part of that plan has to do with multiplying greatly in the land. You cannot understand God's promise in Jeremiah 29 11 apart from procreation. Amen, lights. We get real quiet on that one, don't we? Here's why. Because we live in a culture that hates kids. Our attitude toward children is, a boy for me and a girl for you, and praise the Lord, we're finally through. It is. If you don't believe that we live in a culture that despises children, follow a woman with six or seven kids into church or into the grocery store. People will look at her like she's got a third eye in the middle of her head. People who don't even know her will ask her questions like, don't you guys have a TV at your house? …