Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.You shall call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you.Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.And ye shall call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
9 sermons cite this verse
… Jeremiah 29, 12. Then you will call upon me and go and pray to me and I will listen to you. Isaiah 55, 6. Seek the Lord while he may be found. upon him while he is near. By the way, that Hebrew word implies he may not always be near to you. So call now urgently. Your time may run out. Matthew 6, 33, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, not your own, his. And all these things shall be added to you. That verse 13 in Proverbs chapter 3 goes on is the man, look at this, who gains. Gains understanding. The word understanding is a powerful word and we need it so much today. By the way, the word understanding is almost inseparable from that great word discernment, but it means having the knowledge of discernment, to have the skill to see what is not readily seen, skillful insight, supernatural. God says, I'm going to give you, listen, you want to be happy? Here's how you're happy. It's not going It's not going to be this moment or that moment. …
… 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 who's your God anyway? Why is your life like this? All these things are happening to all of us, but you are not succumbing. …
… yeah, write those down. Jeremiah 33.3, Psalm 91.15, Jeremiah 29.12. Jot them down, then I'm going to come back, and I'm going to read these verses right quick. Amen. 33.3. If you just remember 33.3, you'd be doing good. That's one of those verses that should be a cornerstone verse in your life. Psalm 91.15 and Jeremiah 29.12. Here's what Jeremiah 33.3 says. Call to me, God talking, and I will answer you. I like this. and show you great and mighty things which you do not know. Y'all missed a great shout right there. Here's what I'm praising God for. I'm saying that I know that when we call to the God that we love, the God that we serve, when we call on his name, and I believe that there's some people who know that this is true. When you call on him, he will answer you. And I like this. He says, I'm going to show you great and mighty things which you don't know, which you haven't experienced. …
… so we can get the hint. In Jeremiah 29, verse 12, God says, Then you will call upon me and go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity. I love that. Now, yes, that original promise, and it still stands true today, is regarding the nation of Israel and the Jewish people. But God's truth is immutable. That means it never changes. That means it's good for us too. Grab it. God says, call to me, pray, seek me. I'll be found by you. I'll leave the handle out. and then finally it's this in verse 5 completion the way of wisdom will save your life and my life when we wise up by being complete you know God wants you to be complete you know this is one of the big problems in our world today is mankind wants to be made complete they don't even know how to articulate that though and no one's ever told them, you can be complete. …
… 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 so, whoa, whoa, whoa, just hold off here on Jeremiah 29 11. …
… 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. …
… 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, 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, and I will bring you back to the place. So he does want to bring you to the place. God's got a good and spacious place for you, and he wants to bring you into that place. But he wants you to understand that it's not about the place. It's about the person who is bringing you into the place. The hope isn't a destination. The hope God has for your life is a relationship with him. And that's the promise. The promise isn't just, I'll get you somewhere. The promise is me. And we see this in the larger title of this collection, Though One thing. There are five places in scripture where we see the one thing or one thing. And one of those I want us to look at today because it helps us get into the place where we understand that it's about a relationship with God that's so substantial and real that it gives us hope, unshakable hope, …
… And the last and fifth thing is that the hope in a future, the promise, is a person, not a place. Jeremiah 29.11 is incredible, but so is Jeremiah 29.12 and 29.13. And 29, 14. I want to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call on me and 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 found by you, declares the Lord. So what is the promise? What is the hope? And what is the future? The promise and the hope in the future is God. It's not a place. It's a person. It's not a destination. It's a relationship. And this is what he's saying to everyone in exile. You can find me. You can get me. You can come to me. You can pray to me. You can be found in me. I am the hope and I am the future. Yes, yes, I will bring you back from captivity. Yes, I'll gather you from all the nations and places where I banish you. And I will bring you back to the place. Anybody had God bring you back to the place? Anybody testify today at Trillith or Cumberland or 515? God brought me back to the place. …
… plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. Have you ever heard these words? This isn't the place for you. You don't have the training for this position. You are not equipped to handle the job. If you have heard those words, how did you respond? Did you let insecurities direct your response? Or do you believe that God will equip you for what is purposed for you? Do you believe that you are equally valued in God's kingdom? The challenge then of modern Christianity today is to find God's presence in the insignificant. Jesus was born to us to proclaim that there are no outsiders in God's kingdom. The insignificant are indeed significant. Judith Wong, a Harvard professor wrote, We are of every race and nation, every socioeconomic class. We may not look significant. We may look silly. or our outlook too otherworldly to hope for such a grand and infinite thing as salvation in the world. …