Plans of a Future and a Hope

Well, in our series in the book of Jeremiah, we come to probably some of the best-loved and best-known verses in all of the book. I realize that Jeremiah is not the best-known book in the Bible, but arguably the verses that we're going to look at, particularly this morning, are well-known to us. Some of you have these verses framed in your house.

You may have them on the refrigerator. Some of you have memorized these verses, but I'd like us to stand and read them. I'm referring to Jeremiah chapter 29 verses 10 through 14. So let's stand this morning and read the Word of God together.

Read with me please. For thus says the Lord, when 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear 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, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. Amen.

Please be seated. Here are words of hope. Here are words for a future. All of us need hope. It's often said, without hope we die. According to Dante, over the gates of hell is the statement, abandon all hope, you who enter here.

To live without hope is to be plunged into darkness and depression. Today we're going to learn that God has plans for us, a future and a hope. I don't know the future, but I do know the God who holds the future, and I do know that that God holds my hand. I've called this message, Plans of a Future and a Hope.

I want us first of all to say the obvious, which needs to be said, that the plans are God's, not ours. Now we've got to think of the context here of the words that we have just read in Jeremiah chapter 29. Scripture is not a group of unrelated texts run together. While an isolated verse on the calendar, a verse text to you can be helpful, the key to interpreting Scripture and understanding Scripture, the key principle of interpretation is context. You may recall when the devil was tempting Jesus in the wilderness, he quoted Scripture out of context, of course.

And as often said, a text without a context is a pretext. That is, in understanding Scripture, as you read the Word of God, it is essential we interpret Scripture in the context. And therefore, in interpreting the verses that we have read here from Jeremiah chapter 29, we must understand the historical context. If you've been following these messages in Jeremiah, I trust you have some understanding of the context. Who is Jeremiah? Jeremiah is a prophet called by God. He's given a very tough assignment. He's told to go to the house of Judah and also to Israel and to preach a message, a message of judgment, a message of warning, a message of repentance.

Why is that necessary? Simply put, Israel has abandoned God. Israel has forgotten God. Not only has Israel turned their face away from God, they have pursued worthless things. They have fallen into pagan idolatry.

Their idols, he said, are like scarecrows in a cucumber field. Utter folly. How stupid to turn from the living, the true God, and to worship an idol that can't speak, that can't move, that doesn't have a brain. And so Jeremiah's message to the nation is a tough one. It is repent, or the Babylonians are going to destroy the temple in Jerusalem. If you don't repent, you're going to go into captivity.

Now, I trust you've got your Bible there. Jeremiah, turn to Jeremiah chapter 25, Jeremiah 25 verse 6 to give an example of Jeremiah's message. As we look at the context, Jeremiah chapter 25 verse 6, do not go after other gods to serve and worship them, a breach of the 10, of the first of the 10 commandments. Or provoke me to anger with the work of your hands.

Then I will do to you no harm. Yet you have not listened to me, declares the Lord, that you might provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm. Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, because you have not obeyed my words, behold, I will send for all of the tribes of the north, declares the Lord, and for Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction and make them a horror, a hissing, and a never-lasting desolation. Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstones and the light of the lamp.

This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years." This is Jeremiah's message, a tough message, but a message from God. Time and time again we read, the Lord declares, this is the voice of God. The message of God comes to the nation through His servant Jeremiah. It's clear. It's repeated over and over again.

It's unambiguous. If you don't repent, if you don't return to the Lord, judgment is coming, but the nation do not listen. So in 597 B.C., around 3,000 Jews are taken captive to Babylon. So we, as we come into chapter 29, which is our chapter this morning, we read in verse 1.

Do you get the context? Jeremiah 29 verse 1, 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. One of the challenges in reading in Jeremiah, it's not always chronological, but there were different captivities, and here in one of the captivities, people, including some priests, including some so-called prophets, are taken exile into Babylon.

And so Jeremiah is writing this letter to them so that the words that we read are part of this letter. Others are going to be taken into captivity later as Nebuchadnezzar continues to put that grip hold around Jerusalem, and the final captivity and the destruction of the temple is going to occur in 586 B.C. So here in chapter 29, the prophet Jeremiah is writing a letter to about 3,000 exiles in Babylon.

He's still in Jerusalem. But in among the exiles are some false prophets, and they're saying that Babylon will soon fall. They're saying that the exiles will shortly return, and Jeremiah writes this letter warning the exiles not to listen to the false prophets. We'll read that in a minute in verses 8 and 9.

The exiles rather should claim the promise of God that restoration will come. God has His plans. God has His future for Israel, and they need to seek the Lord to understand God's plans. God has His plans.

How is Israel going to respond? How do you respond to God's plan? To live a God-centered life, we, as Israel had to do, have to acknowledge that the plans are God's, not ours. I realize we have our plans, we have our ambitions, we have our dreams, but as followers of Jesus Christ, we have to understand that our future, this hope that we want, this peace, this welfare must be according to the will and the purposes of God. Notice verse 11 of Jeremiah 29 that we read, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord." Notice who has the plans? The plans are God's. God is saying to the people, I have plans for you. What were the plans? What was the future for the exiles of Babylon? Live a God-centered life with humble repentance.

What's going to give them hope? After 70 years of captivity, God in His grace will bring them back to the promised land. Incidentally, if you've studied the book of Daniel, you know in Daniel chapter 9, Daniel refers to the 70 years referred to by Jeremiah.

Daniel is one of the captives, taken from Israel and put captive in Babylon. And as he's there, he recalls this prophecy given by Jeremiah. We say, well this is ancient history, John.

Yes, it is ancient history, but it's more than that. It's the living Word of God. And if we're going to live a God-centered life, if you're going to live a God-centered life, let me say the obvious, you must follow God's plans for you. So often we make our plans, we have our time schedule, we lay it out, and then we ask God to bless them. No, God knows the plans He has for you. Last week, we visited the potter's house, and we learned that God is the potter and we are the clay. We have to remember you're not God, to say the obvious. You are clay, and God has purposes. God is molding you. God brings you through experiences in His plan. He has a plan for you.

He has a purpose for you. So don't oppose God. Why do you continue to go against the will of God? Why do you continue in that sin? You know it's wrong, and yet you continue to do it.

That's what Israel is doing. Don't resist God. We who are saved by the grace of God, we've been singing about this grace which is greater than our sin, and I think we know, I trust we know that salvation is a gift, is an act of grace from God. That we're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

And in that wonderful passage in Ephesians 2, as we saw last time, that Paul says that while we are saved entirely by grace, not of your works, that we are God's workmanship. That we are God's work of art, and that God has purposes for us, prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So my goal in life is not to work out my own ideas and to ask God to bless them so that life will be comfortable for me. No, our goal in life rather is as we're going to learn to seek the Lord so that God's plans become our plans. Follow God's plans for your life. Live for the Lord in the present we're going to learn.

These exiles in Babylon, how are they going to live? They're to live for God in the present. They are to seek the Lord daily. Notice verse 12, let me read again verse 11, Jeremiah 29, I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

And you're sitting there and saying, how wonderful, but keep reading. Then, you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me.

When you seek me with all of your heart, I will be found by you, declares the Lord. What are the exiles to do? They are to call upon the Lord. What are they to do? They are to pray to the Lord. What are they to do? They are to seek the Lord with all of their heart that He will be found by them.

They are to do this, not part time. They are to do it with all of their heart. They are to live a God-centered life, not with God at the periphery, not some kind of cultural religion, but rather this is to be the most important thing.

This is the passion of their heart, that they are going to seek the Lord with all of their heart. Do you believe that God has plans and purposes for your life? I'm asking you personally.

Do you? Do you believe that these plans and purposes that God has are better than your own ideas? To ask the question is to give the answer, isn't it? Well, are you calling upon the Lord? The Lord has plans and purposes for you. We are to call upon the Lord. This is how we begin the Christian life, isn't it?

That if we, whoever calls upon the name of the Lord, will be saved. How do I begin the Christian life? Is it by joining a church? Is it by getting baptized? Is it by taking communion? Is it trying to behave Christian's way the Christian behaved?

No. It comes, begins with calling upon the name of the Lord. It is a personal relationship with the Lord that I ask the Lord, the living Lord, to save me, to forgive my sins, that my trust will be in Him, so I am to call on the name of the Lord. Have you done that?

You say, well, I know this. I'm not asking just now what you know, I'm asking what you've done. Have you called on the name of the Lord? Jesus also said, seek first my kingdom. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. The Lord is saying to the people, you are to seek the Lord with all of your heart. Are you seeking first the kingdom of God in your life?

Are you? Or, are you looking to the scarecrow idols in your life for comfort, for happiness, for success? In Jeremiah chapter 45, a question is asked. It's a man who was a very successful businessman, car dealer, and he had this verse on his desk.

It's a question in Jeremiah 45 verse 5. The question is this, do you seek great things for yourself? Do you? Is that life for you? You are seeking some great thing for yourself. If the truth be known, you have put yourself at the center of your life. It's all about you, your plans, your purposes. Question, Jeremiah 45 verse 5, do you seek great things for yourself? Answer, seek them not.

Oh, really? Does that mean I'm not to be ambitious? No, that's not what it means. It's not seeking great things for yourself. It's seeking great things for the kingdom of God, to seek the Lord. Here's how Isaiah the great prophet puts it so well in Isaiah 55 verse 6. Seek the Lord while He may be found.

Call upon Him while He is near. Do you get this, this calling and seeking? Let the wicked forsake His way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let them return to the Lord that He may have compassion on Him and to our God for He will abundantly pardon. That's the message of Isaiah. That's the message of Jeremiah.

That's the message of the apostles. Turn from your wicked ways. It's called repentance. Stop living for yourself. Stop opposing God. Stop going against the commandments of God.

Stop. Seek the Lord. You say, well I'm not sure if He'll be found.

Yes, He will. If you seek the Lord with all of your heart, He will be found of you. Scripture is telling us that.

I am to forsake my evil ways and my thoughts, and I'm to return to the Lord and He will have compassion. He will forgive. Think of the parable of the prodigal. Was there any question about forgiveness?

No. There's no question about the Father forgiving His Son. The question was, would the Son repent and would He return to the Father? If you're in that, you really sought the Lord? Or are you just sort of dabbling in the Christian faith, coming to church when you feel like it, wondering of the near of Christianity in your life, or is this central to your very existence? You know, perhaps you're not seeing God at work in your life because you have not forsaken your sinful ways. Wonderful you say to know that I'm going to heaven when I die, but have your sins been forgiven? Jesus saves us from our sins, not for us to continue in our sins. There's a turning from our sins, repentance, and a faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Seek the Lord daily.

That's what we are to do, and He will be found by us. And the exiles, what were they to do when they were in Babylon? They were to live for God. He sent them, let me read from chapter 29 verse 7, Jeremiah 29 verse 7, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles. This is what God is saying to the exiles in Babylon, whom I have sent.

God's behind it. Whom I have sent in exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. What are they to do? Verse 5, build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and 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. Verse 7, but seek, this is surprising isn't it? Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. How are they to live in Babylon?

The answer may have surprised you. They're to build houses. They're to plant gardens. They're to take wives.

They're to give their wives, their daughters in marriage. They are also to seek the welfare of Babylon. You say, John, it was a pagan city. Yes it was. A dolatrous city.

Yes it was. But as they were there, they were to seek the welfare of Babylon. Verse 7, pray to the Lord on its behalf for its welfare. In its welfare, you will find your welfare.

That's intriguing, isn't it? How are exiles to behave in exile? You know, over the centuries, this has been the practice of Jews living away from their home nation. The Jewish nation has been scattered throughout the world. What have they done?

They've done this. What are you to do, exiles? Seek the welfare of Babylon. Don't rebel against your captors. Don't be overcome by self-pity.

Don't retreat into your little isolated cocoon. No, be a responsible citizen in Babylon. Live for the Lord in the present.

Get involved. Seek the welfare of Babylon. Example, perfect example in Daniel. As Daniel goes into Babylon, does he forsake the Lord?

No, not at all. Remember chapter 1, he purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself. He and his three friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they do not compromise their faith. They stand firm. They don't bow to Nebuchadnezzar. They are thrown into the fiery furnace. Daniel is thrown into the den of lions, but notice this. Notice how they prospered in Babylon. When the results came out in chapter 1 of all of the students at the University of Babylon, let's see who were the top students. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Who does Nebuchadnezzar appoint to be over the affairs of the province of Babylon? These Jewish men, young men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And Daniel himself, he remains right in the king's court, right at the center of power of pagan Babylon are these Jewish men who are standing for God and yet seeking the welfare of Babylon. They honored God in pagan Babylon, and God honored them. Remember what the Lord says in 1 Samuel 2, those who honor me I will honor. What are you saying?

I'm saying this. We certainly should think of the future, but as the people of God, we are to live for God in the present where we are. God's will for you today is that you do everything to the glory of God, whatever you do. 1 Corinthians 10, 31, whatever I do, even in my eating and drinking, even in the trivial things of life, I'm to do all to the glory of God. That's how I am to live. Wherever you are, however difficult the situation, you are to live for God. You're looking to the future. This is intriguing, isn't it?

We sometimes find people who say, well, I'm going to be a missionary in five or six years in Timbuktu, and I believe God has called me when He has wonderful. The question is what are you doing today? Oh, well, not really.

I'm just kind of, you know, just kind of getting myself together. No, that's not how we're to live. Did you see the new report? This is a very sad report in our country about the difficulty the U.S. military is experiencing in enlisting young people. 77% of young people in America are ineligible to serve in the military.

Do you hear me? 77% of our young people are disqualified according to the Department of Defense due to a lack of physical fitness, low test scores, criminal records, including drug use and so on. Over three-quarters of our young people are not eligible to serve in the military. Now, you see, I've got no intentions of serving in the military. That's not my point.

My point is this. If you're a young man, a young woman, and you are planning to serve in the military in the future, get in shape today, physically, academically, socially, and spiritually today. Be faithful to the Lord today. Live for the glory of God today where you are as followers of Jesus Christ. In the most difficult of circumstances we're not to retreat, we're to stand firm and to live for God, and we are — I think some of us are forgetting this in our society today — we're to seek the welfare of the community where we live. We're to seek the welfare of our nation where we live. You say, well, I don't like where our nation is going.

I don't like where it's going either. Jeremiah didn't like what Babylon was doing, but we are to serve the Lord where we are where you work. You work for the Bank of America. You work for Atrium. You work for Novant. You work for a particular company. You live in a particular school.

You're part of a housing association. What are you to do? Try and undermine that company? Absolutely no.

You're to seek its welfare. No, you don't always agree with its policies and its practices, neither did Daniel. And when the time came, they stood firm. They were firm in their faith in Jesus Christ.

They didn't compromise, but at the same time, they helped the community where they are. Students, you're wondering about God's will for you? You're going off to UNC or CPCC or Florida State. You're wondering God's will for you?

I'm going to tell you what God's will for you is. You're a student. Study.

It's quite amazing, isn't it? There's a thought. Whoa, I'm a student. I'm going to study?

Yes. You're to seek the welfare of that college, of that university, of that new employment situation. Don't laze around. Don't waste your time. Don't be a party animal. Don't cheat.

Don't plagiarize. Shine for Jesus Christ and study and live in that college, in that university, in that place of employment. Shine for Jesus Christ and make a difference.

Don't just blend in. Live today, wherever you are, for the glory of God. Work honestly, enthusiastically.

That's all the moms and dads who are paying for your college, so. But work honestly, enthusiastically, and faithfully, all of us, to the glory of God where we are. Don't undermine the company where you're there. If you think it's not God's will for you, resign and serve somewhere else.

But it isn't very Christian, is it? For people to be working and always complaining where they work. Seek the welfare of those around you in your community. Display the Lord Jesus Christ. Be faithful where you are. What Jeremiah is saying, build houses, plant gardens, get involved. Seek the welfare of Babylon for in its welfare is your welfare.

Live for the Lord where you are today. Now you say, well, how do I know God's will? Well, we follow the will revealed in the Word of God, not a pagan contemporary society.

We don't take our drumbeat from the company where we work or from our society or from the government. We take it from the Word of God. And Jeremiah is warning the exiles not to listen to the false prophets and dreamers.

Verse 8 of Jeremiah chapter 29, we began reading at verse 10, but look at verse 8. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it's a lie that they're prophesying to you in my name.

I did not send them, declares the Lord. There were false prophets. There was this man Hananiah who was saying the Babylonian captivity would last only two years.

Wrong. There was Shemaiah, the false prophet who's contradicting Jeremiah, as you can read in chapter 29 later in the passage. Jeremiah is saying there are false prophets. We've heard that before in Jeremiah.

It was an appalling thing. It was a horrible thing that was going on in the land, Jeremiah is saying. Your prophets are prophesying falsely. Your priests are ruling at their own direction, and he says my people love to have it so.

And that's where we are today, aren't we? There's a lot of false prophets. There's a lot of false teaching. The Apostle Peter says, refers to false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies. False teaching within the Christian community.

Yes, there's all kind of error out there, but even within the Christian community there's a lot of false teaching, isn't there? We have the rise today more and more, you may have heard about it, of self-professed apostles, people who are calling themselves an apostle. It's like as if I came here and said, God woke me up at 2.30 a.m. and I am the Apostle John. He's got a certain ring to it.

Why would you laugh? I'm an apostle. I'm a, then there's these prophets.

God told me to tell you, false prophets. Do you know how you identified an apostle? Second Corinthians 12, verse 12 talks about the signs and the wonders and the mighty works that accompany the apostles. There is no question that Peter was an apostle. If you can raise the dead, if you can, if I can present you with a man of 40 who's been blind from birth and you can give him sight, you can call yourself an apostle. If we take you to Magnolia Cemetery and someone has been dead for three days and you raise that person from the dead, then you can call yourself an apostle, but don't be deceived. Why is it that we as followers of Christ, instead of reading the Scripture, we fall for the latest best seller, somebody on YouTube, somebody who produces a book, someone who comes with some crazy statement about what's going to happen to America, and many people believe it.

Don't. That's not God's will. How do we know God's will? Read the Word of God. And as you read the Word of God, and as you seek the Lord with all of your heart, God is well able to guide you in the paths that He will have for you. Live for the Lord where you are today. Do that and secondly, trust the Lord for the future. That's what Jeremiah is saying.

That's what I'm saying to you. Today, live for the Lord. Live a God-centered, Christ-centered life. What about the future? Don't worry about the future. Trust the Lord for the future. Jeremiah is the future. And it's not for evil, it's for your welfare. It's for shalom.

It's a hope. And although they were disobedient, although they were judged by God and taken captive, God had not rejected His people and never will He reject His people. The promises of the Abrahamic covenant and His prophets stood. If they repented, if they sought the Lord with all of their heart, He would be found of them. And after 70 years of exile in Babylon, they would return to the land.

And if you know your Bible, you know that is historical fact. He has plans for you for your welfare, not for evil. Do you think God has got evil plans for you?

Do you think if you seek the Lord with all of your heart, God's going to play some trick on you? God's plans are not for evil. They're for your good. They're for welfare.

They're of plans of hope. Our God is a good God. He's a gracious God.

He's patient and forgiving, and He hasn't rejected us because we've messed up. Yet, the message is this, if you continue to resist Him, if you refuse to repent, judgment is coming. It's not wonderful to know as we follow Jesus Christ that we're people of hope, that the Lord has a future and a hope for us. Today, yes, this day, in July 2023, today is a day of grace, a day of hope, a day of pardon, a day of forgiveness for you if you seek the Lord and call upon Him. You're not excluded.

How encouraging this is for each one of us. You may think you don't have much of a future. You may think you lack education. You may think you come from a difficult home. You may think that some devastating loss or disappointing situation has come into your life and you tend to give up and you look to the future and it seems very, very hopeless. Yes, perhaps it does, humanly speaking. I want you to look up.

I want you to hear what Jeremiah is saying, that God has for you plans for welfare, for peace, and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Forbes lists Madonna as the 45th richest self-made woman in the United States with an estimated wealth of $588 million, not bad for singing. On January 17, she announced her celebration tour.

It was meant to celebrate four decades of the music business. She was going to perform in 84 places around the globe, but many of you know that on June 24, Madonna developed a serious bacterial infection, which led to a stay in an ICU for several days, and she had to postpone, she said to postpone this tour indefinitely. A couple of years ago, Madonna said this in an interview with Vanity Fair, quote, "'All of my will has been to conquer some terrible feeling of inadequacy. I'm always struggling with that fear. My drive in life is from this horrible fear of being mediocre, and that's always pushing me, pushing me, because even though I've become somebody, I still have to prove that I'm somebody.

My struggle has never ended, and it probably never will.' Madonna, like so many, like the majority of us I think, sees her identity, sees her future, sees her hope in terms of her own achievements, in terms of what Madonna has done, and humanly speaking, she's accomplished a lot. She's amassed $580 million, not bad.

And yet she said, I've struggled with this all my life. She's got to prove that she's somebody." You know, the wonderful news of the gospel is this. As we sung, all of the work has been done. I wish Madonna were here and I could say to this dear woman, listen, your hope and your future is not in your achievements, and not having this wonderful tour where you're acclaimed by all the world, but your security, your future in life and beyond life is found in our magnificent Lord Jesus Christ who has done it all.

All of it is done. On the cross He says it's finished, and now in simple faith, each one of us, as we come humbly, as we turn from our sin and embrace the Savior, we realize that we are greatly, greatly loved. And that this God who in His grace saves John Monroe, has plans for John Monroe, and is a future, yes an eternal future, because the promise of the gospel is that if you believe in the Son, you will have everlasting life.

And there is no force in the universe, and there is no cancellation of any tour which can rob us from this identity that we are loved in Jesus Christ, and that we're eternally saved, and for all of eternity we will sing the praises of our Savior who loved us and gave Himself for us. Do you have that hope? Do you have that hope?

I say to you, to those of you who are despairing, don't despair, don't give up. Trust the Lord for your future. Corrie ten Boom says, never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.

I like that. In some sense, similarly speaking, all of our future is unknown, and some of you are anxious because of situations that have come into your life. A widow, someone who's received devastating news, and it's unknown and you're fearful.

Corrie ten Boom got it right. Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God. You know God? God's a good God. God's a gracious God.

God will take care of you. God is with us all of the way. He has plans for us, a future and our hope, because our Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins, rose again, and we have what the Bible calls this living hope. And if we call upon Him, He will save us. Call upon Him and He'll restore you.

Call upon Him today and He will lead you in the paths and the plans of righteousness for His name's sake. He's the Master. We are the clay. Mold us.

Make us. Trust Him. Surrender your life to Him completely.

Do it. Do it now, because our hope, our hope is in the Lord from this time and forevermore. Will you bow as we pray? You make a response to the Lord. Some of you have never called upon the name of the Lord and you're never saved. Will you do that now?

Please, please. And have the promise of eternal life. To take God at His Word, He said that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Call upon the name of the Lord and be saved and receive the gift of eternal life. For those of you who are wondering about the future, today seek the Lord. For the future, trust Him. Look for His glory and say, Lord, I'm going to trust You. I don't know about tomorrow. Tomorrow seems a very difficult day, but You're with me today and I know You'll be with me tomorrow and every day I trust You. I'm putting my unknown future into Your hands because I know You're a good God, a gracious God, a God of love, a God whose plans not for evil but for welfare, for hope and the future. Help us, Father, not only to understand these truths but to respond to them humbly and we praise You as we'll do for all of eternity for this glorious hope that we have in Jesus Christ from this time and forevermore. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.