So with it being graduation Sunday, I decided to start off this morning, I had a little bit of fun with uh Chat G BT this week. If you've played with that, the A I tool. And I was curious, I asked Chad G BT, what is the most common or what are the most common metaphors used in graduation speeches? And in half a second, it came back with the top 10 analogies used in graduation speeches. So if you need to give a speech in the next week or you just gave one, this might help you out. If you have to sit through a really long graduation service, maybe you can play metaphor bingo and see if anyone uses these analogies. And if you have used one and I poke fun at it of it right now. Uh Don't feel too bad because I've actually used all of these illustrations as well. So this is according to internet research here at CG BT. These are the most common graduation analogies and maybe you can take note there and just see if you've heard any or all of these given in a speech. The first one here is someone will get up and say life is a journey and go through and describe it that way. But the journey is just beginning or that your story doesn't end here. The closing of one chapter just leads to the beginning of another or maybe today on graduation, we're standing on a bridge in between yesterday and tomorrow. That graduation serves as a launch pad, uh sending our kids out into the future. I like this one. It says that in high school, you plant the seeds that will eventually bear fruit in the world and compared people to trees, which being that our name is called Mission Grove Church. I like that one. You came into school a caterpillar, but now you've transformed into a butterfly. Uh Other ones there, they described graduates as beacons of light there into the storms. Uh that we are all puzzle pieces that fit together into a bigger picture. There's another one there that we finally reached the mountain peak, but it wasn't the peak that we were after that. The joy is in the climb. And then the most common one there was that some reference or analogy to a sailboat and being on the ocean to explore the vast sea. And so maybe you've heard those, maybe you've experienced those. But the reason people give those metaphors, those stories in graduation speeches is because graduations really represent a season of transition. And people experience attention, a tension between where they were and where they were going. And for many of us, we're walking through tension right now. Today's message is entitled The Fight for Purpose. Because understanding your purpose in this life impacts how you interact with people and what you do on an everyday basis. And so being in a transition time or tension, we also have tensions in a weekly basis when it comes to religion, specifically Christianity. The tension comes when you hear about the goodness of God and we even sing of the promises of God and we close our eyes and we lift our hands and everything is great. God is good all the time, all the time. God is good. Amen and amen. And then we hit Monday, right? And so the tension is between the goodness of God and the reality of your week and the conversations you have. And we don't like to tell our graduates this. But one thing we know is that the new season that you're walking into the next chapter, right? Whatever whatever adventure you go on the next mountain you climb is guaranteed to include disappointment, difficulties, divisions and distractions. You're not going to see that in a graduation card. Congrats, the new season is going to be much, tougher, good luck, right? We're so proud of you. Ps Life's gonna be a disappointment like we don't, we don't put those in cards, but it's true and it's challenging. And so how do we prepare people for those difficulties. Well, today we want to take a look at one of the most famous verses in all the Bible. In fact, Bible studies, tools.com ranked the searches online and the number one most searched verse online was John 316. It's commonly seen in sports and signs and phrases for God to love the world that he, he was only begotten son. And it's a great verse. But do you know the number two verse on most searched or most Googled or most uh looked up verse in the entire Bible was Jeremiah 2911. Now Jeremiah 2911 is a great verse and we're not gonna put it on the screen yet. But, but it says basically for, I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord this these plans to really for your welfare and not for evil to offer you a future and a hope. And so we love to put Jeremiah 2911 on mugs and, and plaques and Instagram quotes and crocheted blankets and all these things. But what does the verse actually mean? And so we're gonna take a look today at the, at the context and meaning behind one of the most famous verses in all the Bible. And, and here's the reality is that we mi attribute its meaning a little bit in churches. We just do. But I want you to know that that's OK because when we study the deeper meaning, I think you're gonna actually cling to the promise more than ever before. So it doesn't negate how people use it. But its meaning is so much bigger and so much more powerful than we realize when you understand the context in which it was written. Why is it so important to know that God has a plan for your life? And what does it mean? What does it mean then? What does it mean now? Well, to consider the context in which this verse was written, we have to first look at the prophet. There's a guy named Jeremiah. He was born sixth century BC. It was a tough time. He was born in an AO a town about a couple of miles northeast of Jerusalem. And he was given a calling to be a prophet. Pretty cool calling I would say, except a majority of his life was calling judgment out on the world and really shouting out what has happened in the world and how, and, and how they're gonna be in troubling circumstances. And so he writes the second lo longest book in the Old Testament, Jeremiah. He's got 52 chapters and it's so depressing his message for the most part, he's actually described as the weeping prophet, the weeping prophet. And so where in, in other places too, some scholars attribute the book of lamentations to him because he's crying out so much God, will you hear me? God? Will you hear me? Why have the people turned from you Israel, Jerusalem. This is gonna happen to you. And so now you have this writer who has just got this writer's angst if you will. But here in 29 there's this little glimmer of hope. And so he doesn't give up hope in the middle of his angst. And that's the person. Now the people themselves. Well, the people of Jerusalem in Israel, they were. And in Judah here, the people of God, they were taken into captivity by the Babylonians. And Babylon was seen as an urban pluralistic meaning multiple gods, pagan society where the people of God, the context of this audience was in a society that not only didn't promote the things of God was actively seeking to tear down the people of God and for sure his audience was experiencing disappointment, difficulties, division and distractions. So if you think about the Babylon culture, a culture that is actively seeking to tear down the values of God in an urban setting in an oppressive setting there, that's pluralistic and pagan sounds kind of similar to our culture that we live in today, except we're not actually being persecuted. And so here is the context. And so when you put the verse in context, here, you have people that are waiting and waiting and waiting for God to do something. In fact, false prophets were making money by prophesying that hey God's coming back, don't stress it that I promise you God gave me a word that in two years, he's gonna rescue you and we're gonna go back. And in fact, in chapter 28 so literally just the one chapter before Jeremiah 29 there's a guy named Hannah who was a false prophet who declared that God was gonna rescue his people early. But he was doing that for his own popularity, power and gain. And God responds to the false prophet by taking him out. Actually says to Jeremy says, hey, you're not gonna, you, you, you won't make it prophesying against God. And sure enough that year he dies. So not exactly the happy context that we think of God has a plan for you because a lot of times this verse gets preached in a prosperity gospel fashion that, that God wants you to be happy, healthy, wealthy and blessed that if you just give this amount, God will, I'll give you this magic hanky and God will bless you and you'll get all these things and, and that sounds good. But that's called the Prosperity Gospel. That it's a transaction that if you give God A, he will give you B and if you don't have B, you probably are sinning and against God, they just don't have enough faith. But when you look at scripture, the Bible is filled with characters who walked through suffering and hardship and challenges. And so to follow God actually doesn't remove you from suffering. But actually God says, hey, if you follow me, the world's not gonna like that and he doesn't remove you from trials, but rather walks with you through them. And so Jeremiah is the weeping prophet. He's angsty, but yet he hangs on to this promise of God and he's writing to a people that are in exile and, and it's almost like if you've ever driven somewhere and you're going on a long trip and you pull out of the driveway and the kids in the back are like, are we there yet? Like you can see our house, you can literally see our house right here. How do you and we're driving for 10 hours? Do you really think we're there? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? That's the people of Israel. Ok. We are in the backseat asking God are we there yet? And this is the context for which we find our passage. So now let's read what God actually had to say to his people. Jeremiah 2910 and then 11 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. So he's saying, look, it's gonna be 70 years, it's gonna be a while. Ok? Now the verse many, no verse 11 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. I wish that verse read a little differently. I wish the verse read for you will know the plans that I have for you. He doesn't say that. I wonder how many of us here have ended up in a situation and you look back and you're like, man, I have no idea that was coming. Let's just say, hypothetically you are going to start a church in the northern Phoenix area a couple of years ago. And did I have any idea that we were gonna be hit with like flooding on grand opening or a pandemic or all the things that came from this and, and the moves this and that. No idea. I think sometimes God doesn't tell us the plan because if we knew the plan, I don't know if we take the step of faith in the first place, you know what I mean? And so we don't know the plan but God does. And so we know that this plan has good intentions and promises a healthy end. But in the context in which it's written, we see that the people were waiting and they were longing and God says in their hate, I've got you. And so here's what I think the meaning of this verse really is if you take notes, you can write this down is that patient trust will produce powerful triumph, patient trust will produce powerful triumph. Yes, victory and triumph. Is coming, but it's probably not gonna look like what you think it is. But what you can do right now is to patiently trust in the God who has a plan for you. What this allows us to do is to walk through our challenges with taking a deep breath. Ok? We don't like waiting. No one likes waiting. I got, I remember getting so frustrated. I call the customer service line and, and I was up and you know, they say you are caller four in line. Like, all right, cool. And then like a couple of minutes go by and then music. Da da da, da da. I was like, all right, cool. All right. He's like you are caller three. I was like, all right, we're getting there. This girl was listening and then it was like a few minutes later he goes, you are caller seven. I was like, what? I got so angry just like sitting there like what's going on? Like we hate waiting. We hate waiting in waiting rooms. I mean, it's the name of the room and we get frustrated at doing the thing that the room is named after, right? When you're waiting, you're like, come on, like if you get stuck in traffic, no one's excited. Yes, I love getting stuck on the 101. Like what if instead of road rage, it was like road joy. You know, everyone's on the road, like smiling and waving at people. Hi. Hi, how are you? You know, I think I, someone waved at me with a finger the other day and it was like, wow, you are number one. Ok. It's probably not appropriate on stage. My apologies. Um. Right. We don't like waiting. But, yeah, God is there in the waiting, every major biblical character experience, trial and suffering and hardship. But that should be encouraging to us because if you view God as like sitting on a cloud in a harp, oh God is good. Like that's not reality right now though, right? So what happens when the divorce finalizes? What happens when someone betrays you? You have to go to bankruptcy? Or the doctor says it's cancer. Someone gossips or lies about you. We fall into addiction or issues. See, it's in those tough moments that this verse was written for that while you wouldn't choose it. God is right there with you and that his plan is still moving forward and to understand that God's plan and God's purpose is with you. That means you don't have to go searching for purpose. It's not hide and seek for purpose. Like where's looking from a purpose over there? Like no, we don't have to be purpose searching. We can be purpose driven because we are, we have been created on purpose with purpose to go into the world and that every conversation, every interaction now is with patient trust that God has a plan for your life. And that in your hardest, most difficult moment to know in your soul that God is there and that He promises better. That reminds us of the truth that if it's not good. Romans 828 God works all things for good. Those who call upon him. If it's not good, then God's not done. If you're not dead, God's not done. The situation might seem hopeless like it did for the people of God in exile in Babylon had no authority, no power in a culture that was against them. All things stripped away. And yet it's in that says, trust me, I have a plan and it's coming and it is good. How do we know that? It's good. We're just two chapters later in Jeremiah 31 he writes these words. He says for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days and declares the Lord. I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts. This is not the 10 commandments written on stone. It's written in every believer's heart and I will be their God and they shall be my people and no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother saint to know the Lord says, for they shall all know me everyone and from the least of them to the greatest declares the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. What he's doing right here is predicting Jesus. The Bible is made up the way it's put together is Old Testament, New Testament. The other way to think of it is the old covenant. And in the new covenant, the new covenant was predicted hundreds of years before it would come. And the reason God could through the prophet Jeremiah could say I have a plan for you, it will get better is because Jesus is coming and I will offer you forgiveness and meaning and purpose and eternal life. No, your life might not quote unquote, get better on this side of eternity. But there will be a day where there will be no more death, no more mourning, no more cancer, no more betrayal. And that you will experience the freedom and joy of the presence of the Lord forever and doing that in perfect community. And that this hope is something that we can cling cling to and claim in our hearts and is an anchor for our souls. And so that if you're walking through a difficult challenge right now, Jeremiah 2911 is the plan and the purpose to trust the God who made you and hold you. He's saying here good is coming. Hang on. Don't give up. Keep fighting. Your family is worth fighting for your life is worth fighting for your purpose. Your joy is worth fighting for. I know it seems dark but light is coming and light is here because we have Jesus. Jesus himself says in John 1633 that you will face trials and tribulations, but take heart, I have overcome the world. And then in first John 54, it tells us that those who are sons and daughters of God can overcome the world through their faith. So this is so much bigger than an Instagram quote or a plaque or a blanket. But Jeremiah 2911 is a promise you can cling to on your darkest day and that is real and that is something we can take into this new season. But the problem with it is that it involves waiting. So what do we do while we're waiting? What do we do while we're waiting? OK, God, you have a plan. I don't know what it is. You do. I'm gonna patiently trust you. It's gonna lead a powerful triumph. But what do I do while I'm waiting? Well, the passage actually tells us it almost forms like a promised sandwich. If you will, the top part, bottom part, we're going to start with the bottom bun and I now I'm craving a sandwich. All right. Go through right after that verse, God has a plan for your life. Boom. He's gonna tell us in the very next verse. He goes seek God so often we're asking the question why and we can't get that answer and we just don't know. I'm not going to know as a pastor. You can share why would this happen? I don't know, but I know who does. I know who cares. And I know what we're called to do while we're waiting. And he said, don't seek answers, seek God. Here's what I mean. Verse 12. He says, then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you, you will seek me and find me. And when you seek me with all your heart, this is such a powerful truth to know that in our darkest hours, we can call direct to our heavenly father. When we feel alone, we can call out to Him. And he hears us, the God who made you the God who saved you, the God who loves you says come to me any time and you will find me. The first thing we can do while we're waiting is to seek God. The second thing, the top part of the bun right before the passage that we're about to read here, he actually says to seek the welfare of blank. And I intentionally left that blank because in, in this case, it's up to you to actually fill that blank in our context. In the context of the passage, you're going to see to seek the welfare of the city. But in your case, what does it mean to seek the welfare for your family, seek the welfare for your school, for your job, for your community? For your brothers and sisters, parents or kids. What does it mean to seek the betterment of the people around you? One of the I would put him on the pastoral Mount Rushmore's if you will, of influences on my life is a guy named Tim Keller pastor for many years and influenced many pastors. I think we're gonna be quoting him like we do CS Lewis years from now. Incredible pastor written several books. One most famous one, probably reason for God. My favorite one of his is prodigal God and rec highly recommend those to you. But he recently passed away this week from, from cancer. And so I was, I was going back through old sermons of his and I actually came across one when he preached through Jeremiah 29. And he read these words and it's here in verse four through seven. And he says, and, and Jeremiah says, thus says, the Lord of hosts the God of Israel to all the exiles to whom I have sent into the exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. Notice he doesn't say the Babylonians took you. He said, I sent you to exile verse five. So build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their produce, take wives and have sons and daughters, take wives for your sons, 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 have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf. For now, notice this phrase here for in its welfare, you will find your welfare. The word exile really means like resident alien means you are living in a place that is not home, but you will make it your home. And in the New Testament. In First Peter chapter one, all believers are actually referred to as exiles that this world is not our home that we too are living in a pluralistic pagan society. Well, Pastor Tim Keller said this mandate given to Jeremiah to give to the people of God still applies to us today. And he tells us to do three things because the temptation when you're put into exile, put into a difficult world is to wall up to get in a little bubble, judge the world from afar and just wait, just kind of OK, God come rescue us. But he tells the people of Israel, which then tells us, he says, number one is to go live, build houses, get married, have kids live your life, live in the community. Engage. Then second, it tells us to lead a resistant or countercultural life. In other words, live in the world, but don't be of the world. So live, engage in your community before the community, as we say all the time lead then a resistant lifestyle live counter to the values of the world through the values of scripture. And then third, we do that through loving others live where you are lead a countercultural resistance. And you do that through how you love others. Seek the welfare of your family, of your class, of your job, of your sports team is your job or your team or your the group that you're a part of better because you are there because in seeking the welfare of the city, you will also find your welfare too. This is the formula for what it means to be a Christian. And in scripture in the Old Testament, we actually have a picture of someone who does this amazingly, there was a guy who lived at the same time as Jeremiah who lived out these principles and his name was Daniel. Daniel was taken into captivity. He lived a countercultural lifestyle, but did so with excellence that he rose through the ranks that he loved people well, and through prayer. Ultimately, he was thrown into a lion's den and that God saved him. It was a part of this story, same timeline, a couple of quotes to finish things up today. There's a guy named Nick Vous Vous who was born without limbs now become a, a motivational speaker. He actually offered a, a devotional on Jeremiah 2911 as well. And he says this, how crazy is it that God chose to use a man without limbs to be his hands and feet. If you were born without limbs, it would be easy to question God's plan. What most of you, most people viewed as a problem, Nick viewed as a platform. But now he's sharing positivity in the gospel with the world. Another pastor and author, a guy named Max Leo says this about Jeremiah 2911. He says, so what do we take away from Jeremiah 2011? He says, first, we put our trust in Christ that we can anticipate ultimate glorious future of one that is spent in God's presence for eternity. And then second God's plans for His people in this world rarely involve helping them escape from our trials completely that He doesn't make our suffering disappear. But instead, he helps us persevere through them that he helps us grow and mature in ways that we wouldn't otherwise grow and mature. Apart from tough times, he helps us find joy in the unlikeliest of circumstances. It's the kind of joy that affects not just our lives but the lives of others as well. The promise that God has a plan and a purpose for you. It is so much bigger than just some joyful yay. It's in your darkest, most difficult grittiest, messiest moments of life that you can hang on to and believe in that God's not done. And because of that, we know that patient trust will produce powerful triumph. Thursday night, I was processing and, and praying through how to how to finalize the message. And I was, you know, I was in her room and the window was open there and, and as I'm praying and as I'm sitting there, uh, no joke in this moment. I know because I'm, I saw posts, other people saw this happen too. All of a sudden right in the middle of the window in the view was the biggest rainbow I think I've ever seen. Do you see that rain Thurs Thursday night? And it was so cool to see that. I'm praying God. How do I know you're in control? How do we, how do we end a message that talks about your plan in tough times and right there in that exact moment, the brightest rainbow I've ever seen appears and what struck me one that was a cool moment, but two, the rainbow only comes after the storm. And it's a reminder all the way back to Noah. In early stories that even in the midst of your storm, you got a rainbow coming. That God's plan is working and God's promise and power is coming and that we can hang on. Don't give up. That God is with you. God is for you that you can go and you can live life that you can plant roots, that you can serve well because God has called you to and God is with you. That is what it means to trust this plan. Will you pray with me, dear heavenly Father? We pray for our graduates. God, we're so proud of their achievements. But we know that in seasons of life, we're gonna face difficulties of all kinds. So it's not just in our highest moments but in our lowest moments. May we be reminded that you have a plan for our lives, a plan to, for our welfare and not for evil. A plan to prosper and a plan for our future and a hope they got your plan for our lives is something that we can patiently trust. Knowing that one day we will experience powerful triumph, help us to seek you while we're waiting and to seek the goodness and welfare of the people around us because that's who you've called us to be and what you've called us to do. We lift up those in our church body right now and here says, let me pray. Amen.