Reaching Our City for Christ - Pastor Chris Simmons

Sermon Abstract:

The children of Israel are about to go into exile because they had failed to hear and heed the voice of God. God had promised them wonderful blessings as a nation if they had just been obedient; but instead their disobedience caused a temporary reversal of those blessings. Thus they were taken into exile by the Babylonians - taken away from their home, their families, their friends, their land, and all that they knew. It was an extremely difficult time, being under the harsh and ruthless Babylonians, and having to adjust to a new culture, language, people, government, and way of living. God told them that they would be in Babylon for 70 long years. False prophets showed up and gave the Israelites false promises that they would not suffer much, and that they would go home soon, causing the Israelites to be complacent and want to retreat and hide for a short time until their suffering was over. But God instructed the prophet Jeremiah to write a letter to the exiled Israelites to tell them the truth of their situation, which was that they were going to be there for 70 years and no shorter. We learn in Jeremiah 29 that the Israelites are there for a divine reason, and that they are to make a difference in their exiled state - in the very ungodly and pagan city and society that they are now living in.