Trusting When the Future’s Frightening

Hey, before we get started this morning, I made a promise to the church two years ago, and I need to set the record straight. Watch this clip here. You know, as the ushers come forward right now, we're going to invite you to sing along with the kids and Dan Baker as he leads us. Dan, it's going to be so sad in a way to see you going away for three months on sabbatical. Dan, what do you plan to do for those three months? I'm going to paint my house. Yeah! That's exactly what I plan to do on mine. Just kidding. A lot of rest as well.

Okay. True confession time. I did a lot of resting on my sabbatical. I did no painting. But, guess what? I was on vacation for the last two weeks, and I painted my house! It's done! Yay! While I was painting, however, there was something that I discovered that kind of unnerved me a little bit. I noticed a little termite damage in one of the rafters. And I thought to myself, "What will happen if I don't do anything about this?" Now I lay awake at night in bed, and I go, "Honey, honey, I think I hear the termites." What's going to happen to our house? Our house has a frightening future ahead of it. That's just the way it is in this world. Things are going downhill.

I can imagine the worst for our house, but at the same time, there are a lot of other things to worry about in this life. There are plenty of things. If you listen to talk radio, if you watch television, you know that there are a lot of things to worry about. It's a scary world that we live in. I Googled the words "frightening future" this week. It came up with something interesting. This little pop-up came up on a website and said, "Stop looking for a frightening future. Find it here." All right! That sounds good! That's just what I'm looking for.

But seriously, we have a lot of concerns about our future, and there are all kinds of things to be worried about, about the future. We worry about financial issues. Obviously, that's a big, huge topic. This week, news came out that the housing market took another dip. The question is, "When will it hit the bottom?" The government budget issues are a huge concern. It's mind-blowing, the numbers that they talk about. They're talking about spending a trillion dollars on a new project. I just heard that on the radio this morning.

We're concerned about our planet. That's why we're riding our bikes and taking the bus this week. Only one week a year, huh? But we're concerned about our planet, and we found out that the Moon and Mars are not good relocation options. So we're working on our planet. We've got to turn some things around. We're concerned about political unrest, which is happening all over the world. Where is it heading? What's going to happen? We're worried about the population explosion. I remember in the 60s and 70s being worried about that. And it's gotten a lot bigger since then. How are we going to feed all these people?

Technology is something that is also a worry. It's a great thing. It's awesome. I mean, that's why we're able to have things up on the screens like this. But people know a lot more about us than they used to. Facebook, Twitter, those things. What are people doing with all this information? Is this going to affect me in the future? Parents are worried about the future for their kids. Kids are worried about the future for their parents. We're worried about deadly viruses, terrorist attacks, chemical warfare, biological warfare, nuclear meltdowns, stock market meltdowns, earthquakes. And what if the Giants don't win the pennant this year? What will we do?

Okay, so you feel better now? Did you get a little comfort here in church this morning? Okay, we have things to worry about. Let's face it. I want you to take out your notes, your sermon notes this morning. At the top of those sermon notes there's a little box that we're going to do a little self-assessment time. But before we do that, I want you to turn to the person next to you. And first of all, admit the worst sin you've ever committed. And then tell them what you're afraid of. What? About the future. No, just kidding. Let's just do a little personal self-assessment this morning.

Look at that box and check things that worry you about the future. What is frightening about the future to you? So take a minute to do that. Just kind of see where you're at right now. What's on your heart? I'll give you a second to do that. I might actually stop talking for a second. If that's possible. Okay? Stop talking. Now, okay. What are you worried about? Job loss? Hair loss? Check a box or two there. Okay, have you admitted that you have some fears? We all have them. The question is, how do we deal with them?

And here's the thing. Many of us are experiencing that frightening future right now. It's happening in our lives right now. And we're afraid it's even going to get worse, and it very well could. How do you handle this frightening world that you're living in? Well, let's look at it this way today. Yes, there is a frightening future. Maybe you've been through frightening things in the past, or maybe you're in it now, or maybe it's going to happen to you later. But there are frightening things out there. But there is also an exciting future. That exciting future is what the Bible calls heaven.

When God will restore all things to the way they should be. Jesus talked about it. He talked about the age to come, or the world to come. He talked about eternal life, or the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. There is something better coming. Amen? Yeah. And long before Jesus was on this earth, the Old Testament prophets were convinced that God had not abandoned them either. They talked about this new day, this new age, or new era. Listen to some of the words from the prophet Isaiah. They're just really encouraging to hear what he says it's going to be like someday.

He says, "The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. There will be a feast of rich foods for all people. God will destroy the shroud that unfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations. He will swallow up death forever. He will wipe away the tears from all faces. He will remove his people's disgrace from all the earth. And in the last book of the Bible we read, "Never again will they hunger. Never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them nor any scorching heat, for the lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd. There will be no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

There's a new day coming. But how does that affect our lives today? Sure it's in the future, but what help is that to us today? How does this exciting future that God has in store for us affect the frightening future that we're going through right now? Well, it's always been God's intent that we drag some of that future into the present. That the reality of heaven somehow affect our lives right now. You know, Jesus taught his disciples to pray, you know, in the prayer, the Lord's Prayer, or our Father, He said, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Well, right now there are a lot of wills being done all over this earth. There's my will, there's your will, there's many wills, but a lot of times we don't see the will of God being done. Our prayer is that his will be done now, just like it is in heaven. So how do we live in light of God's will? How do we live in light of God's exciting future? How does our hope in heaven affect our lives right now? Well, today we're going to take a look at the book of Jeremiah 29. Great, great passage. If you have your Bible, I encourage you to turn to that right now. Jeremiah 29, if you're using the Bible in the pews, you can find that on page 558.

Now, verse 11, Jeremiah 29 is a verse many of us know. We've heard it preached from this pulpit many times. It's been an encouragement to people for like 2,600 years. It's a great verse, it's awesome. And let's just read it together this morning, because we know it, let's read it together. "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." Those are awesome words. They've always been awesome words. They give us a hint that God has a future in mind for us. They also show us that God has our present in mind, because he gives us a hope.

Now most of us, when we read this verse, we don't think about the context in which this verse was written. It was written to a particular group of people. What was going on in these people's lives? What was happening? Well, we're going to look at that this morning, and see how we can apply that to our own lives. Look back a few verses to verse 4. Here's what was happening. It says, "This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says, 'To all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.'" These words were written to the Israelites who had been deported. 587 BC, deported to another land, another country. They had lost everything. They had lost their land, their homes.

The monarchy was over. The great kings like David and Saul and Solomon and all the others, it was over. They lost it all. They were picked up and moved to another country, deported with nothing to call their own. Talk about a frightening future. How would you like to have that to look forward to? You know, there are a lot of people in this world that are experiencing that right now. So what did God have to say to these people in that context where they had nothing? He doesn't say, "Give up." He doesn't say, "Just hang in there for a while. Things will get better. You don't need to really worry about much." Look what he does say in verses 5 and 6. This is interesting.

"Here you are, away from your land, away from your home, build houses, settle down, plant gardens and eat what they produce. Get married and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage. So they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there. Don't decrease." In other words, don't give up on living. Live life fully. As best you can, like you did back in Jerusalem, live life fully. Don't hide away in a bomb shelter. Don't hop in your RV and try to escape from everything. Live where you are. Keep on living the lives God has given you.

I understand there's a small town in southern France where people are beginning to congregate for that 2012 prediction. The world's going to end next year. You knew that. People are setting up spiritual centers and they're getting ready for the big event. There's all kinds of funny things people do when they listen to these predictions. A man in New York just read yesterday spent his entire life savings, $140,000, on advertising about the May 21st doomsday that people are saying is coming. You know, if this guy is right and Harold Camping is right, we might as well give up. It's coming down on Saturday. May 21st, we're out of here. It's a crazy prediction. And God doesn't call us to give up on living.

He does not call us to give it all up. He wants us to continue to live the life He gave us. You know, every year I have a frightening future experience. I call it the Christmas program. That's right. It's always there in the back of my mind. It's there right now. I'm thinking about it. September comes along. In October and November 30th, Tim Beverly and I look at each other and go, "The Christmas program! We've got a plan for the Christmas program!" We go crazy and believe it. And it's a wild time every year and it happens every year. Now, normally during the year I try to take care of myself. I exercise. I go to the gym pretty regularly. I tell you when December comes, it all goes out the window.

There's no more exercise because I'm just too busy. And then I start up again in January and then Easter comes. You know, you get the picture. But I'm here to say this morning that I always continue to brush my teeth during these visit times. And I do take a shower on Saturday nights. Anyway, God is saying to the Capneys in Babylon and to us today during times of testing, "Keep on living the life that I have for you. Take care of yourself. Love your wife. Have kids. Paint your house. Live like you have a future. You have a future because you do." God has said it. It will happen.

You know, you might have heard this story before about camp in Nazi Germany, 1944, horrible living conditions. Corey Tinboom was a Christian prisoner there with her sister Betsy. Corey, a great woman of God, actually heard her speak in the 70s at Biola College. She was awesome. She was imprisoned for hiding Jews. And she and her sister and all the others, they were tortured and humiliated in that camp. It was just an awful experience. And on top of everything else, the place where they spent the most time, where they laid their head at night, their barracks were swarming with fleas.

One day, Corey said to her sister, "That's it! This is just too much. I know I should give thanks in all things, but I cannot thank God for a flea. I can't do it. God is not in control of this situation anymore. He's gone. He's out of here." But they continued to read their Bibles. Praise the Lord they had a Bible to read. Every night, they would read. The more they read, the more others gathered around and listened, wanted to hear what was going on, wanted to hear words of encouragement from the Bible. And it turned into a worship service. And each night, the meetings grew larger and larger. They had to start a second service.

They couldn't figure out why didn't the guards come in and break it up? Why didn't the guards stop this church service? Well, Corey actually overheard the guards one day say, "I would never set foot in that barrack. It is full of fleas." The fleas gave the prisoners a way to worship their God. In that terrible, frightening situation, it was those awful fleas that enabled them to live the life. God wanted them to live. He wanted them to be encouraged by His words. And a lot of times in our own lives, it's the difficult situations that encourage us to live, or that enable us to live the life God has called us to do. We need to continue to live our lives no matter how frightening our future gets.

Well, next, let's take a look at what the prophet said in verses 8 and 23. He says, "Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says. 'Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you, for they have done outrageous things in Israel. They have committed adultery with their neighbor's wives, and in my name they have uttered lies which I did not authorize.'" Now God is starting to get a little tough with him, starting to tell him what it's really like. He's giving them a hint of why they are there in the first place. The country needed an overhaul. It needed a camp hammer makeover. They needed to get back to where they were.

They needed to get back to what they knew was right. They needed to stay anchored in the truth. Stay anchored in the truth, God's truth. It will always prevail. It will always remain. It will always stand the test of time. In the end of time, it will set things right. Talking about heaven, heaven comforts for sure, but heaven also confronts. One day when God brings things to a head, he will say, "Enough! No more lies, no more injustice, no more oppression, anything that threatens the peace and safety of heaven is gone." And that's a great hope, to know that one day all corruption and justice will be gone, and it's a judgment that needs to happen.

But as I think about the judgment of God, it brings up haunting thoughts within my own heart. What evil lurks in my heart that has contributed to the way this world is today? I tell you, I'm thankful today for the mercy of God. He's a God of judgment, but he's also a God of mercy, and I need it. The prophet Isaiah, in the middle of his pronouncement of God's judgment, says these incredible words about God's mercy. Look at this. "Come, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow." It's God of judgment. He's also a God of mercy.

I think what we need to do when we are relating to the evil around us, when we look at this world and the atrocities that we see, the first thing we need to do is come clean before our God, accept his mercy and forgiveness in our life, and then by his power, we need to stand up for what is right. There is definitely a place for this in the Christian's life. Like René said last week, we're not to be cynical, always be negative about everything, but we're also not to be gullible. We need to test all things, and in a spirit of humility, approve what is good and what is true.

We do this as children of God, though, forgiven for our own transgressions through the work of Christ, and humbly pointing the world to what is right. Our actions must always be motivated by the love of Christ and the thanksgiving for his amazing grace. Well, what does this look like? What does this look like in our lives? For some of us, this may mean doing some serious confronting. It may mean getting in the face of social injustice. Now, God's will be done on earth now as it is in heaven. Thank God for organizations like iSanctuary, who work with victims of human trafficking.

You know, there are 800,000 estimated victims of human trafficking in this world every year. We need to stand against things like this. Hunger is another huge social issue in our world and our community. Our own people's pantry gives out food and the love of Jesus to dozens every week. Our partnership with Second Harvest Food Bank has blessed thousands of people in this community. These are really, really good things that are close to the heart of God, and they should be an important part of our ministry.

You know, it's so easy to get off base. It's really easy to start spending your time and your money on things that don't really matter that much to God. And we as a church should always stay focused on what's important to Jesus. And I think that's what was happening in Israel. The leadership got off base. They strayed from the truth and the consequences were deadly. But as in Israel, here it happens real slowly. It happens slowly. It's like the frog in the cradle. In the kettle. You've heard of that experiment, nasty experiment.

Anyway, you take a frog, nice little frog, you throw it into hot water, what happens? It jumps right out, doesn't it? Change is way too quick. Not interested in that. But you take that frog and put him in cool water and pat him a little bit and say, "Nice froggy, enjoy your little bath. Everything's gonna be fine." And then slowly you turn the temperature up. And the water gets a little warmer, a little warmer, a little warmer. And pretty soon he's going, "Hey, it's kind of nice, kind of like a jacuzzi here. Kind of enjoying this little experience." And then the scientists tell us, "If you turn it up hot enough, he'll stay right there and he'll die." He'll burn.

Now that's an atrocity we need to stand against right now today. Who did that experiment on that frog? That's terrible. But that's what happened in Israel. Things changed slowly. They had gotten off course. But God was in the process of bringing them back. One of the ways we can come back is to stay anchored to the truth. So what else can we learn from this story? Look at verse 7. This is really amazing what God tells them to do. Here they are, captives in the strange city, and God tells them this.

"Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." It seems like this would be the last thing on their minds. Why would they want the city of Babylon to prosper? They're the enemy. They destroyed our homes. They took our land. It's interesting that 600 years later, Jesus said the same thing. He said, "Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you." God is telling us, wherever you are, be a blessing. Be a blessing. Be a blessing to those around you, whoever they are.

Your enemies, be a blessing. In Jesus' conversation with a rich young man, he exposes the real problem in that man's heart. He exposes the fact that he had a problem with greed. It's a pretty common problem then. It's a pretty common problem today. He encourages this young man to store up treasures in heaven, instead of hoarding it all for himself. He says, "Give away your goods and reach out to those that are in need." By saying this, Jesus is dragging the future into the present. Store up treasures in heaven. Yeah, heaven is a great place, but there are people in need of some of that little heaven stuff right now.

Don't just plan on being in heaven. Bring heaven to people right now. He's saying, what's done in partnership with God now will go on in the age to come. These good deeds will become treasures in heaven. And God is pointing those captives in Babylon away from themselves, away from their own desires, to the needs of the people of that city. The Babylonians needed the goodness of God, just like anyone else. God encouraged them, and He encourages us today, to bring a little heaven into our world.

I want to show you a video this morning, an amazing example of a family that has brought a lot of heaven into a young man's life. This young man at birth had little hope of much of a life at all. His name is Timmy. He was adopted by the Phipps family when he was just a baby. He was a heroin baby, blind and deaf for his first year. The family, being led by the Spirit of God, decided to adopt him. And now he has brothers and sisters and grandparents and all kinds of friends. They have really given him an amazing life.

About seven weeks ago, Timmy had a malfunction with one of his sons, and he's been in the hospital ever since. In this video, you'll see pictures that are actually taped up on the walls of his hospital room. The noise you hear in the background is actually in the machines from ICU. And this is Timmy's mom, Anne Phipps, describing the experience that they've had in the hospital. When he first came in, we were told to take him home and that they would provide hospice care, but they felt that his quality of life was not probably going through surgery and so forth. It was not a good decision.

And that was shocking to me. So then we started to talk about Timmy's day and how he swims every day at the spa, and he rides horses, and he rides his bike, and he loves the boardwalk. And all of the activities that he does constantly. And so he said, "Well, he's got a great quality of life." He said, "Get him into surgery and I will do the surgery." That night, he twisted part of the tubing and in the morning went into V-tag. And Dr. Kohut came out and said that he felt that his heart rate was dropping and there was no response. And we were looking at Timmy going. And so I was going to come in and then he stopped me and he said, "But there's one more thing that I can try."

He said, "Give me a minute." And he came in and he got on the bed and he put a hole right in the top of Timmy's head, right here on this bed in the ICU. And as he relieved the fluid, the intracranial pressure left, and Timmy opened his eyes and he blinked and he moved his arms and his legs and he was back. All of his recovery people keep coming into this room and going, "Oh my goodness, he looks so amazing. We can't believe how great he looks." And he's off the ventilator and he's off the NG tube and he has his eyes awake and he's turning and holding things. The Lord has just given him a peace that he is able to tolerate this situation where he has to be still and quiet.

He is letting the healing take place and that has to be nothing but the Holy Spirit just completely helping him through this whole ordeal. And it is amazing. It is amazing. Wow. Think about that family that has brought so much heaven in that boy's life. You see all the things that he does? They've shared a little bit of heaven with his life. And you know, in talking with Timmy's mom, Ann, she's just blown away by God's timing through all of these events. When you talk to her, you know you're talking to a woman of faith. It's obvious that God's hand is on Timmy. We need to keep praying for him. He had surgery yesterday and it was very successful so things are looking really good. But he has a lot of hurdles to get over.

And with talking with Ann in the past during these last seven weeks, it's amazing the faith that she demonstrates that she says whether he comes back home and is able to ride the giant dipper at the boardwalk or whether he goes home to heaven and rides a star with King Jesus, we're trusting God either way. Timmy is going to be a blessing wherever he is. It's wonderful to see God work in a situation like this, all because a family decided to bring a little heaven into a baby's life. The world is in desperate need for a little bit of heaven. Store up treasures in heaven by participating in the things of heaven.

Now be a blessing to those around you. Well finally, God gives the captives in Babylon a promise. And the first part of the verse we're going to read here was probably hard to swallow, but he follows it up with a very encouraging promise. Look at this verse 10. It says, "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place." They had a long road ahead of them. Seventy years, but they could handle it because God had given them hope, hope of being restored, hope of going home.

God said it, they could believe it, because God says it to us. We can hold on to hope. We can hold on to the hope that God is making things new in our lives and in this world. He is restoring all things. That's what God does. You know, when we look at the world around us, it's not hard to understand the concept of death to life. The fact that God can bring life to something, that is lifeless. It shouldn't surprise us. We see the trees that completely lose their leaves in the fall and appear to be dead. Then when spring comes, they burst to life again and they have leaves and blossoms.

You know, Cabrillo College planted a bunch of grasses over here in this new parking lot. And I love to look at those grasses because we have one of them at our house. But it's interesting, they get real big, but in the fall, they get real dry and dead. And the gardeners come around, they cut them down right to the ground, and they sit there all winter, lifeless. Then comes spring. These little green shoots start coming up and they get huge. Even now they're big and by summer they'll be way up there, these huge grasses. It's amazing.

You know, if you've ever planted flowers, you know how amazing it is, after you've taken that dead seed and you buried it in the ground, that you see these flowers come up on stalks and bushes and vines. It's amazing. How does that happen? This dead seed that you bought at Ace Hardware in that funny little envelope. That's what God does. He brings life from death. Think of what you eat on a normal day. You know, think of a salad. It's all things that were living. They're not living anymore because somebody yanked them out of their life source, took them out of the ground. Now all that dead stuff is sitting on your plate. Yeah, it's all dead, all of it. But we eat it because it gives us life.

Death brings life. What about the human body itself? You want to build up a muscle? You got to tear it down first. But you know, this also happens in the relational realm. People giving of themselves for each other. We're coming up on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Think of those firefighters that lost their lives. They died while saving the lives of others. It's very inspirational. It's the ultimate human sacrifice. That's what God does. That's what he did through his son Jesus. The ultimate sacrifice because we on our own could not beat this death thing. We needed Jesus. He died and then on the third day he was raised to life.

The Bible says that because of this, and only this, his death and resurrection give us hope. His death because he died for us. His resurrection because we too one day will rise. Look at 1 Peter 1. Amazing verses. "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you. Death gave way to life for Jesus and we too can have this hope." This is God's plan. He's in the process of restoring all things. He will make your life new.

I love the way the prophet Isaiah puts it in chapter 61. He says, "God has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified. You are his planting. Through the power of his Son, he is raising you up. He's taking that dead seed of your life and bringing his beauty. God is in the business of bringing beauty for ashes.

No matter what your frightening future looks like, no matter what you checked on that box this morning on those sermon notes, God has given you a hope, a hope of his exciting future ahead for all of us. You know this verse that we opened up with, verse 11 of Jeremiah 29. "Now that you know the context, now that you know what was going on in those people's lives, now that you know what it means to you personally." Let's read it together again this morning with some conviction. Okay, let's read it together. "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." A glorious future awaits all of us who are put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who died for our sins and then was raised again.

We have that same hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. Will you pray with me this morning? Let's pray together. God, thank you for hope. Thank you that you didn't just leave us here on this planet to somehow figure it all out, but you have given us so much to be hopeful for. Thank you that heaven awaits us. Thank you that you have enabled us to bring some of that heaven to this earth right now because we need it so badly. And we pray, Lord, that you will open our eyes to see what it is you would have us do day by day to make that a reality not only in our own lives, but in the lives of those around us.

Lord, I pray for those this morning that are going through the frightening future right now. They're in extremely difficult times. There is so much pain and sorrow out there today. And, Lord, you know the answers to all of these issues. You know what people need. And I pray this morning for those right here this morning that are experiencing that frightening future, that you would minister your peace and your comfort and your hope in a way like they've never experienced before. Give them a sense of purpose and vision for what you will do in the future. Thank you, Lord, that you are making all things new. It's what you do. And thank you, Lord, that you can bring beauty out of the ashes of our life, that you can take the dead seed of our lives, and you can make a glorious thing.

Help us, Lord, to believe it and to live by it. We pray in your name. Amen.