Bloom Where You're Planted [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. If you never get started on something, right, then it will never happen. And there's no way that all the forces of hell can keep you from God's plan for your life and the destiny God has for your life.

But if we opt out of living it, that's what can prevent it. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Brint, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series, Remade, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program today, I sure want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. So as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer.

Don't miss it. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org.

Or call 877-544-4860. We're going to be more on all this later in the program. But right now, let's dig in and get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. Are you ready for some good news? You don't have to ever postpone living. Even if it feels like you're not in your ultimate destination. Even if you know there's some greater destiny for you.

You don't have to put off living until such time. In fact, we're going to see from Jeremiah, the old adage is true, you might as well bloom where you're planted. My wife and I were traveling last week and we stopped at a cracker barrel. More accurately, multiple cracker barrels. It's our stopping place. And, you know, usually a cracker barrel is a fairly cheery place. You know, they bring out the cornbread and biscuits and people are nice in a cracker barrel. But it seemed like we went in a cracker barrel that everybody was a little bit depressed. I don't know. Maybe it's just pandemic.

It's hard to find help these days. And our server came around, though, and she was just, well, she was just happy. And not overboard happy. A young woman, maybe in her 30s, blonde haired lady that was very pleasant and she was just engaging. And she was more, she was just moving a little step faster than everybody else.

I mean, not in a hurry, but just, you know, she was working hard and she was energetic and she was just nice. And I was very interested because she had, she spoke very clear English, but with some sort of European accent that I wasn't sure where she's from. So eventually I just asked her, I said, what's that lovely accent? And she said, I'm German. And she hadn't been in the United States that long. I don't know her story. I mean, I didn't go into her story, but as we walked out and my wife just turned to me and said, our server was a bright sunshine beam in the middle of that cracker barrel, wasn't she?

And I said, she sure was. And I got to thinking, I wonder what her story is. I wonder how long she'd been here. I wonder what family she left behind. I wonder what obstacles she's had to face.

And it kind of makes me wonder what would I be like if you suddenly transplanted me into a foreign culture where I didn't know the language and had to learn it, didn't understand the customs and had to adapt, didn't have all of the people that I rely on for my sense of fitting in. And maybe I wonder, did she leave behind some other career? And this is where she's needed to start out in certain tables. What's her education? What other opportunities has she had to forego?

Because for whatever reason, she's been transplant. I wondered about all those things. What would it be like? And that made me think, of course, about this very sad time that we're in where there are over two million Ukrainians that have fled the Russian invasion. And what's interesting is that 100,000 of them have gone into Russia. But what's that like when the people who have invaded you, taken away your homeland and everything precious to you, destroyed structures and threatened your life, and now you go into that very country that's invaded.

What does that feel like? Well, the reason I bring all this up is because if you can begin to think a little bit about what it is like to be transplanted suddenly into a culture that is completely different, where suddenly not only are you the minority, but you are the one who was taken captive and you are the one who has had to give up everything comfortable and familiar. If you can begin to think like that, then you're going to be able to enter the world of this text in Jeremiah chapter 29. Because this is the time where after many prophecies that have forecast how there would be a fall of the southern kingdom and Jerusalem would be sacked. Now, after 597, the first wave of people have been deported to Babylon. And it's probably during that period of time in the 590s where we get this prophecy.

And there's going to be a whole big change that happens in 587 when there's going to be an invasion of Jerusalem, the tearing down of the temple and destruction of their houses and all. And what is it like for those people? And what would God say to them? And you might think if you can envision yourself as one of these that's been deported, if you can envision yourself suddenly in a pagan land, in a place where people are worshipping idols, a place where you have been robbed of the life that you know, what would God say to these people knowing He's going to bring them back one day?

And you might think He would say, well, just hold on, hang in there. You're not going to be there that long. Whatever you do, don't get too involved in things because I will bring you back. Just endure this temporary discipline. Or, on the other hand, you might think that He would say you're going to be there for a while, but whatever you do, do not start involving yourself in this pagan culture and do not become too familiar with their ways and don't start practicing your businesses there.

Just clump together and separate. You might think that'd be, but neither is what God has to say. We're in Jeremiah chapter 29 and there's much to learn that is relevant for our time and there is deep insight into the power of the gospel here, Jeremiah 29 verse one. These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exile and to the priests, the prophets and the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. It said, verse four, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles who have been sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, build houses and live in them, plant gardens, eat their produce, take wives and have sons and daughters, take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters.

Multiply there and do not decrease, but seek the welfare of the city where I've sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on his behalf for in its welfare you will find your welfare. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, do not let your prophets, your diviners who are among you deceive you and do not listen to the dreams that they dream for it's a lie that they're prophesying to you in my name, specifically referring to those prophets that said you're not gonna go to Babylon or you're only gonna briefly be there, all those false prophecies. He said, for I did not send them, declares the Lord. For thus says the Lord, when 70 years are completed for Babylon, and 70 is actually close to the period of time they're there, but this is probably a symbolic number, seven and 10, both those numbers represent a sense of fullness, like you got 10 fingers or there's seven days to the week and the multiple of that 70, it means when this full time is completed, I will visit you and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.

So the Lord doesn't say, hang on for a little while, it's gonna be temporary and it's no big deal. Instead he rebukes the false prophets who has said that kind of thing. And he doesn't say on the other hand, hate and despise the people around you and curse them. But instead in this intriguing passage of scripture, what the Lord says is very surprising. This powerful prophetic text, he says, I want you to go into your exile and I want you to flourish while you're there.

Wow. That's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Through our special offer this month, you can learn to live under the favor of God in an alien culture the way Daniel did. When you give before the end of the month, we'll send you Pastor Alan's audio series, Daniel, a favored foreigner.

You may feel like a stranger in this world, but as God showed favor to Daniel in his foreign land, God's grace is upon you as well. Your donation will not only help you navigate through these troubling times, but it will also help someone else. Thanks for your partnership with Alan Wright Ministries. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org.

Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. Let's just make sure we're clear about what's happened here as we try to understand this text, this great prophecy. Jeremiah has been prophesying about the coming judgment.

We've got lots of judgment oracles in the book of Jeremiah, and now it's coming to pass. What has happened, if we look at this first map, is that there is a whole move that has already happened back in 722 up in this upper part where Assyria has already invaded the northern kingdom. The kingdom of Israel is divided, sometimes called the northern, the southern, sometimes called Israel and Judah. And what's happened is this whole Babylonian empire has grown under Nebuchadnezzar, and they are going to come in, destroy Jerusalem, and basically deport people to Babylon, which is just a little north of modern-day Tel Aviv. And you can see that that route of the exile leads them into this, most of them into the city of Babylon, which by most historians' estimation would have been a very beautiful place.

Here's one artist's rendering of what it might have looked like. If you can put up this next slide, this is kind of a picture by this beautiful river, and so they're going to go into this place, but it's very pagan. And what's going to happen is that in 539, everything's going to change because Cyrus of Persia has been building his kingdom, and his kingdom starts becoming massive. So it's known as the Medo-Persian Empire, and they start taking over all of this, and he has a very different philosophy about what he does with lands that he's captured, and he's going to send people back, and so they're going to actually be sent back in 539. So that's what's happening here in this period of time, this period of time between when they are deported to Babylon and then they're restored, this period of time is called the exile. So they're the exiles.

And that's what I want you to think about, because this becomes a picture, a spiritual picture. It is the place that they never imagined being, never would have even thought they could wind up there in Babylon. It is the place where you feel like you're stuck because you're not at home and you desperately want to go back to what is familiar, and yet you can't right at that moment.

So exile's this in-between place. It's the place that you know is not your dream. It is not your destiny. It is not where you're destined to stay. And exile could be, I think, figuratively when you experience a problem in this world and you're disappointed because of the obstacles and you go, I can't believe I'm in this place. I can't believe this is where I am right now.

This is not the way I had it figured in my mind. I think relationships can go through times that feel like exile is, I talk to so many couples and they say, our marriage has become so rough and we just never imagined we could be in this hard spot. And when you're in that, you have to go, it's not always going to be this way, but right now this is hard.

It's not what I signed up for. It could be that an exile is like a season of obscurity. There are lots of times in which God takes and elevates and promotes people who went through long seasons in which they were completely obscure and humbled in what they were doing.

David becomes the king of Israel, but he spent years running for his life from King Saul, spent years hiding in the caves of Adullam. It might be that exile's like you just don't have the people around you that you once had that's lonely feeling. Or exile might just be simply this, what you had once counted on for your earthly security is gone. And you're stripped away of the kind of earthly hopes that you had, so now you're having to count on God, exile, this in-between place. And when we're in exile, when the people of God were in Babylon, there are these two opposite, equal temptations. And the first is to get in mind that this exile time is just so fleeting, just a blip on the radar screen so that whatever you do, you just say, well, I'm just gonna postpone my main plans. I'm gonna postpone it all because I'm sure not gonna do that in Babylon.

In other words, start postponing and living. And the false prophets, it's very fascinating, we don't have time to look at it all, but Jeremiah, the true voice of God being spoke through Jeremiah was essentially telling the people Babylon's gonna come, and this is what really the Lord was saying. As painful as it is, you need to just submit to Babylon. And the other prophets were like, that's the worst thing to say, right? And the false prophets were saying, it's either they were saying, it's not gonna actually happen, Jerusalem's not gonna fall, you don't have to go anywhere, you don't have to submit to anything that's gonna happen when Babylon comes, or they're just saying, it's gonna be so short, it's gonna be like it's just barely happened.

And Jeremiah is not popular because he's saying, no, it's gonna be a real exile. It's eerily similar to what we've just been through this last two years, when it was just two years ago that we went into quarantine, and we thought it's gonna be about three weeks. And all my pastor friends were like, okay, we're gonna shut down church for three weeks, and then we're gonna get ready and have them, all my pastor friends, all over the nation, I got friends, and they're all like, how are you preparing for what's gonna be the biggest Easter service ever after people miss church for three weeks in a row, they're gonna be so hungry to go to church. And we're like, it's just gonna be, it's just a little momentary blip, and then it's gonna be rushing back into the, and instead, you know, two years, you know, go by. And so, yeah, there's something within us that wants to just think that it's gonna be quick and it's not gonna be a big deal, and that's what a lot of the people were feeling in Babylon. That everything within them, everything within us, in exile, wants to go, this isn't really happening, and it's not gonna be happening very long at all, and so I'm just gonna postpone everything for now. Right, I mean, again, eerily similar what happened in pandemic, where the people that said, well, I'm just gonna postpone that, I'm just gonna wait, and then after a while we go, I don't know how long this is gonna go on.

So people start saying, I'm gonna go ahead and get married, even if I can't do it in the big venue I wanted to, I'm gonna go ahead and get married. I'm gonna go ahead, I was thinking about starting this new business, I'm gonna go ahead and start it. I can't just wait forever, see. There's a temptation in exile, figuratively in our lives, to postpone living and to think that there is just such a temporariness to this that I just won't even get started.

So if you never get started on something, right, then it will never happen. And there's no way that all the forces of hell can keep you from God's plan for your life and the destiny God has for your life, but if we opt out of living it, that's what can prevent it. Not the devil, but us choosing to opt out. But there's an equal and opposite temptation in exile.

And they felt this. And it was to despair of a future at all. So some might be tempted to go, well, it's gonna be so short, I'm not even gonna start living. And God's saying, no, I want you to live, I want you to build your houses, I want you to get married, I want you to get your sons and daughters married, I want you to have grandchildren, I want you to learn your trade, I want you to interact in business, I want you to prosper. But there's this whole other great temptation to look at what's happening around you and look at Babylon and look at all of the lost and time goes by and time goes by to start feeling as though there's really no hope. And God wants to speak to those who are in exile and say, no, it's not either, it's not that it's a blip on the radar, but what I really want you to know is that this is definitely not the end of your story. This is not the end of the story of the people of God by any means. This is a period of time that is in between what you once knew and what is coming.

And there is gonna be pain in this, but there's gonna be much to learn and there are gonna be things that are gonna be better than they ever were after this period of time. So infertility was not the end of Abraham and Sarah's story. So a dungeon wasn't the end of Joseph's story. And the desert wasn't the end of the people of God's story. And David in the caves wasn't the end of the story. And Jonah's story didn't end in the belly of a whale. And Jesus' story didn't end in a tomb. Allen Wright, today's good news message, Bloom Where You're Planted, from the series Remade. Pastor Alan is back with us here in just a moment, sharing a parting good news thought for the day.

Stick with us. Maybe you're like many Christians in America today. You're stunned by how fast a nation's culture has turned away from God. The values of our country have changed. Suddenly, most people don't go to church or have a biblical worldview.

It can make you feel like an alien in your own culture. There's a lot to learn from Daniel when he was exiled to the pagan land of Babylon. Through our special offer this month, you can learn to live under the favor of God in an alien culture the way Daniel did. When you give before the end of the month, we'll send you Pastor Alan's audio series, Daniel, A Favored Foreigner.

You may feel like a stranger in this world, but as God showed favor to Daniel in his foreign land, God's grace is upon you as well. Your donation will not only help you navigate through these troubling times, but it will also help someone else. Thanks for your partnership with Allen Wright Ministries. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Back here now sharing Pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day. And on this one, Bloom, where you're planted and the series title remade, what if I don't feel all new and fresh and shiny and clean? Well, I imagine that the exiles in Babylon didn't feel like much a lot of times.

And they had to have been shocked when the Lord said, you know, when you're there in a foreign land, aliens and exiles there build houses, live in them, plant gardens, eat their produce, take wives. Don't postpone living just because you're not in your final destination. And what a word that is for all of us.

Let me say it again. Don't postpone living just because you're not in your final destination, your final vocation, or you've gotten everything settled the way you hope. Bloom, where you're planted right now, today, God's going to do good things through you and you don't have to wait for some future day.

It was a word to the exiles and it's a word to us who are also like aliens in this world. Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at pastorallen.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. If you only caught part of today's teaching, not only can you listen again online, but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching delivered right to your email inbox, free. Find out more about these and other resources at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.