I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore you from captivity and gather you from all the nations and places to which I have banished you, declares the LORD. I will restore you to the place from which I sent you into exile.”I will be found by you,” says Yahweh, “and I will turn again your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places where I have driven you,” says Yahweh. “I will bring you again to the place from where I caused you to be carried away captive.”And I will be found of you, saith the Lord: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.And I will be found of you, saith Jehovah, and I will turn again your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith Jehovah; and I will bring you again unto the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.
4 sermons cite this verse
… 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. Oh, shame on us educated folks who get too smart for our own good. Well, of course, there's an immediate context, but you don't think that you're an exile here, a stranger in a strange land? You don't think that God calls the worldly system Babylon for a reason? Yes, you can claim Jeremiah 29, 11 for yourself if you're walking with Christ, if you'll call upon His name, that He has plans for you as His people, and they're plans for good. …
… and notice how God is the one doing the action here I will be found by you declares the Lord and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I've driven you declares the Lord I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. In other words, God's promise wasn't, it's in your hands now, hopefully you can make it out. God actually says the opposite. God says, you're still in my hands and I am going to bring you out. I will restore your fortunes. I will gather you. I will bring you back. God says, I will take responsibility for bringing you through this. That leads to the second promise where God says, I will hear your prayers to me. I will hear your prayers to me. This is verse 12. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you. Now the then at the beginning of that verse is somewhat misleading because the picture is not that at the end of the exile, 70 years from now, they would call upon God. …
… 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, …
… 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. …