Finding Purpose in Our Communities as Exiles

"Why part of this church? Why this community? Why the street you live on? Why the neighbours you have? Why that house? What's your purpose here? So that's the question we're going to ask this morning. What am I supposed to do here, in the place God has put me? And from Jeremiah 29, we're going to see four things that God is calling us to do, all revolving around the city." [00:22:05]

"and the first one is this inhabit the city so let's set the context from jeremiah 29 we're in roughly 595 bc and things have not gone well for the israelites in the preceding years their nation's been on a downward spiral decade after decade century after century they've been turning away from god in increasingly dramatic ways just read a quick summary from 2 chronicles 36 you don't need to turn there it says that they kept mocking the messengers of god despising his words and scoffing at his prophets so what does god do that chapter goes on therefore god brought up against them the king of the chaldeans he gave them all into his hand and so they go into exile although some are left behind such as jeremiah who's writing this letter from jerusalem and that that brings us up to jeremiah 29 and you will find it helpful to have that open in front of you as i preach and that the first thing to notice from this chapter is that it gives us really two different answers as to why they are in babylon two different causes so let me read this one first and as i read it note who took them into exile so these are the words of the letter that jeremiah the prophet sent from jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiles and to the priests the prophets and all the people whom nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from jerusalem to babylon but compare that to verse 4 who carried them into exile verse 4 thus says the lord of hosts the god of israel's to all the exiles to all the exiles whom i have sent into exile from jerusalem to babylon or the same in verse 7 seek the welfare of the city where i have sent you into exile so verse 1 nebuchadnezzar brought them there verses 4 and 7 attribute it to god and there's an important theological point here why do you live where you live why are you in the in the place you are all sorts of reasons are possible you grew up near here you have family near here" [00:23:02]

"you moved here for a job there may be other reasons people moved to this I was driving up here this morning I can see yeah I can see why you might want to live in a place like this and and whatever reason you're here those reasons are all true but at the same time also true you are here because God has placed you here behind it all is the sovereign hand of God who may have used other people may have used other events but he has brought you to this place in the same way he has brought them to Babylon and what's his instruction to them while they're there well this is verses four to six thus says the Lord of hosts the God of Israel to all the exiles whom I've sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon build houses and live in them plant gardens and eat their produce take wives and have sons and daughters take wives for your son and give your daughters in marriage that they may bear sons and daughters multiply that do not decrease so settle down inhabit the city they hadn't been doing that so remember they've been carried off to exile and what's been happening is that some false prophets one of them called Hananiah have been saying to them you're only going to be here a short time two years tops the full story of that is in Jeremiah 28 and so they've been hanging back living on the outskirts of the city but God sends a really clear message here and in verse 9 he says very bluntly it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name I did not send them declares the Lord and in this passage God tells them the unvarnished truth they're going to be in Babylon for 70 years so many of them will die before God comes to bring them back to Jerusalem so in the meantime God's telling them what to do how to act how to how to live as exiles how do you do that you build houses you live in them you plant gardens you eat their produce you inhabit the city now what does that mean for us in the UK in 2025 well we're in a similar situation to the Israelites really at this point in their history they were exiles and the New Testament you you" [00:27:48]

"tells us that we, Christians, we also are exiles. 1 Peter chapter 1 says we are exiles, scattered. 1 Peter chapter 2, you are sojourners and exiles. So just like the Israelites in Babylon who knew that wasn't their true home, we as Christians, we know that this world isn't our true home either. We're like pilgrims. We're passing through. Yet, just like the Israelites, God calls us to inhabit the place that he's put us in. So he's saying to us, this is not your home, but for now, in the knowledge that you have another home awaiting you, I want you to make this your home." [00:27:52]

"Sometimes Christians have looked around the world and seen its brokenness, its sinfulness, and they've responded by isolating themselves, cutting themselves off from the world, separate into their own little silo, withdrawing from society. That approach misunderstands what it means to be an exile. Being an exile means you make a home where it is not your home. You inhabit the city where God has placed you. You become a part of the social and economic life of the city. You get stuck in to your community." [00:28:28]

"Now, we maintain our distinctiveness. That command to marry is about marrying within the faith so that their identity doesn't get diluted from one generation to the next. And we'll see at the end, he still wants them to keep one eye, if not two, fixed on their true home. But nevertheless, he doesn't want them to act as if they've got one foot out of the door. So there's instruction number one from Jeremiah. Inhabit the city. And then building on that, instruction number two, seek the welfare of the city. So go next slide. There we go." [00:29:19]

"So now we're looking at the first half of verse seven. Read it with me. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile. So that word welfare. I generally try to avoid quoting Hebrew words in sermons, but this is one of those Hebrew words that's really full and rich, and no single English word can capture the full depth of it. And this is a Hebrew word that most of us will actually have heard of, the word that's translated welfare. Hebrew word is shalom. Seek the shalom of the city." [00:29:57]

"Think of shalom like a puzzle where every piece is in the right place. Nothing's broken, nothing's missing. Or a team where every player knows their role and they're working together and they're supporting one another, working in synergy. Or a world where everyone has what they need and there's no injustice and no brokenness and no division. It's about relationships being healthy, life being full of purpose, people living in harmony with God and with one another. It's prospering spiritually, spiritually, economically, socially, psychologically. It's shalom. And to say seek the shalom of the city at one level, we think, well, that's great. Yes, good. At another level, I want us to see that's quite a shocking thing to say, because this was the city of their enemies." [00:30:33]

"The city of those who had conquered them. The people of Israel, they'd been taught to seek the shalom of Jerusalem. They knew that. Psalm 122, pray for the shalom of Jerusalem. May there be shalom within your walls. But now, the Israelites are being told, seek the shalom of Babylon. The pagan city. The city that worshipped false gods. The city of that enemy, Babylon. The city whose name comes from Babel, the tower opposed to God. The city whose name would one day become synonymous with everything opposed to God. Seek the shalom of that city." [00:31:43]

"But then Israel's always been called to be a blessing to the nations around them. It used to be that nations would come to them and now they've been sent to the nations to be a blessing. And again, it's the same with the church. isn't it we've been scattered through the world strangers and exiles but we're called to be a blessing to the nations around us a blessing to the city a blessing to the town a blessing to the communities that god has placed us in even when that nation or that town or that community is turning away from god we're to seek its welfare we're to seek its shalom now i'm here from care so in a minute i'm going to talk about how we might seek the welfare of the city through politics and government but i want to really emphasize this first point at care we know that we do not bring ultimate shalom through political engagement we're about promoting good laws we're about encouraging good leaders and we think that matters and it makes a difference but our hope is not in parliament our hope is not in care it is in jesus who changes hearts through the gospel it is the preaching of the gospel by christians and the church that's how god's kingdom is advanced it's not advanced by us winning a vote in parliament it's so important to make that explicit because sometimes christians can act as if winning political battles is the most important thing for the fate of the gospel in a nation it is not but still as an organization like care having said that yes we can still seek the shalom of the city and we take the approach of daniel daniel one of the israelites carried off to babylon put on a fast -track civil service program seeks to live a life of integrity as he works in government as he seeks the shalom of babylon and you'll know his story but in chapter six is that moment before he goes into the lion's den where we're told his rivals in government are trying to smear him but but quote daniel six they were unable to do so they could find no corruption in him because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent so it's a godly influence at the heart of government acting wisely doing what's right using his exceptional qualities for the good of babylon so that's how daniel sought the shalom" [00:32:10]

"shalom of his city i wonder about you what's god calling you to do he's put you in this community he wants you to inhabit it to seek its welfare how can you do that how can you love your neighbor it involves having your eyes open looking around thinking well who are the weak who are the vulnerable who are the ones whose voices are not heard who are the invisible ones and then what can i do to help them maybe individually volunteer some time at a food bank or maybe think as a church what what can we do to meet that need one way or another that's why god's put you here in this place instruction number three is to pray for the city we're still in verse seven but this time we're going to get all the way to the end of the verse so seek the welfare of the city where i've sent you into exile and pray to the lord on its behalf for in its welfare you will find your welfare so this is a really specific way to seek the shalom of the city it's through prayer i wonder how you find praying for our nation i wonder how that's going for you 1 timothy 2 tells us to pray for kings and all those in authority and how often do you pray for our leaders is your story like the story of many others when it comes to praying for government we know we're supposed to pray for them so we think yes let's pray for our our leaders so we begin lord give them wisdom yes lord give them guidance help them bring peace have i prayed about wisdom yet lord give them wisdom what can happen for a lot of people and sometimes for me is we start praying for our government and then we run out of ideas we run out of steam and maybe we stop praying for government it's one of the reasons at the back we've got most of that table is prayer resources is to help you pray for government but even in his word god has given us plenty of examples to follow about how to pray for our government from 1 timothy we're praying that we would be able to live peaceful and" [00:35:02]