GOOD PLANS

Hey everyone, this is Charlie from Encounter

Church Henley and thanks so much for tuning into

our podcast. Our prayer is that through this

podcast, you can have an encounter with Jesus

that will change your life. And now get ready

for an inspiring message from our preaching team.

Welcome to Encounter Henley. If it's your 100th

time here or your first time here, it's great

to have you with us. My name is Angus. I'm part

of the team here. I'm very privileged and honoured

to be bringing the word this afternoon. So if

you are new, if you are visiting and a special

warm welcome for you, stick around afterwards

for free coffee and chats. We'd love to get to

know you better. Before I start, I'd like to

pray. God, we declare you as king. We declare

you sovereign over this place and sovereign over

this world. Father, I pray that as I speak, it

would be your truth. It would be your words.

It would be your power. Father, let me just be

a vessel for what you want to say and how you

want to move in this place this afternoon. We

thank you for your great love. We thank you that

your spirit is here. We thank you that you're

a God that comes alongside us. You're not absent.

Father, you are here right now. You want to speak.

You want to move. You are speaking and you are

moving. Help us to be open to what you want to

say to us today. In your name. Amen. And more

beautiful. Today we are kicking off a brand new

series. The series is called Quotable. This side

feels better. The Bible is a big book and within

that big book are lots of verses and some of

them are more memorable than others. There's

plenty of great ones and they hold a lot of meaning

for us. If you've ever been to Kurung before

you would have seen a whole bunch of different

knickknacks with various Bible verses on them.

You know like tea towels, coffee mugs. wall pieces

that you can hang up. If your grandparents are

Christian you've probably seen some in the toilet.

My grandma's got quite a few. But there's a reason

that these verses have become so famous, memorable

and cliché. They're often encouraging, they can

be warm and they can be a comfort to us when

we're stressed or perhaps going through the wringer

a little bit. And while none of this is bad and

it's great that these verses can remind us of

some awesome parts of God's Word. It's also pretty

common for some of these to be taken out of context

and given new meanings to us in 2026 that perhaps

could be quite different to what God and the

original authors meant when it was first written.

On some cases it can be pretty harmless if you

don't think about it too much. On occasion it

can actually be pretty damaging because when

we take Bible verses out of context and we start

applying them to our lives we can start to believe

things that might not necessarily be true. We

can start to hold God to promises that He actually

never made to us, which when we're faced with

hardship can lead to crisis and a dismemberment

of our faith. Now don't misunderstand me. Kuroong

is great. I love Kuroong. Tim loves Kuroong.

And no object is inherently evil just because

it has an out -of -context Bible verse on it.

All I'm saying is that context is important and

it's important for us to understand the world

behind the Bible verses so that we can gain a

fuller, more complete understanding of it and

apply it to our lives properly. When we look

at some of these famous Bible verses, it's important

for us to actually understand what they actually

mean. Are you with me? Three people are with

me. Are you with me? Yes, there we go, that's

better. So to start us off, I'm going to be pulling

apart a very famous verse, Jeremiah chapter 29

Jeremiah 29:11

verse 11. Now I actually saw an NBA player post

this on his story the other day when he got traded

and so I'm like oh man he should come to church

this Sunday if he's posting it he probably you

might be I don't know anyway this is where the

verse says 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 hope and a future

I have the great joy of working as a school chaplain

at Blake's Crossing Christian College I absolutely

love my job and I love coming alongside young

people and working with them through the challenges

they face in life. I spend a lot of time with

teenagers as a result of this and the thing about

teenagers is that they're always looking for

purpose and they're always looking for meaning.

They're always trying to ask and understand what

was happening in my life. Why is this happening?

What am I aiming for? What am I striving for?

And this isn't just reserved for teenagers, you

know, we all have these questions at times. as

young adults and going into older parts of life

that I haven't reached yet. Texas Earth. Sorry,

man. Just catching strays. Yeah, that was pretty

targeted. Sorry, mate. But as a result of the

nature of my job, back on track now, working

with teenagers, asking these questions... This

verse from Jeremiah comes up quite a lot and

I've been guilty of using it out of context as

well You know a lot of the staff speak this over

the students at assemblies and grab gatherings,

you know And we're all guilty of taking it out

of context It is hammered into the kids at the

school that God has a purpose and a plan for

their life and it's true He does he has a plan

and a purpose for their life But what we often

gloss over or ignore completely is the context

into which this verse was written, which is actually

pretty different. Without the context, it can

be super easy for us to read this verse and think

that it means that God has guaranteed us personal

success. God has a plan for our lives and we'll

prosper. That means good things are gonna happen,

right? We'll be successful. Yeah, we might fail

at times, but at the end of the day, we'll succeed.

God's got us. Things will be fine. We can think

it means that life will work out the way it's

supposed to. Or maybe the way that we want it

to. We don't need to worry because God's got

us in His hands. He has our best interests at

heart. Everything will work out just fine. God

has good plans for me. Sometimes we can take

it to mean that by trusting God we'll be protected

from suffering. God's got our backs. He wants

to prosper me. He has plans for me and my future.

Plans not to harm me. That's what the verse says,

plans not to harm me. There's no way things will

go badly. There's no way that I'll be hurt. There's

no way I'll experience suffering because I've

got God on my side. These thoughts are very comforting

for us, right? But they're also not true. This

verse is not a love letter from God promising

us a life free from suffering. It's not a promise

that everything will be okay all the time. We

need to remember that this passage was not written

to us today in 2026. We can read it and we can

understand it and we can apply the meaning to

our lives, but we aren't the original audience

that it was written for. It wasn't written to

a 16 -year -old high school student trying to

figure out what they want to do in life. It wasn't

written to us as a comfort when we feel like

we're stagnant or unsure of ourselves. It was

written for Israelites who have been exiled out

of their home. A people who had their homeland

invaded were removed from their houses and forced

to live in a foreign land under an oppressive

regime government, away from the promised land

that God had given to them. Have you guys experienced

that? I haven't. It's pretty different to what

we have to go through, right? When we look at

the verse with this context in mind, suddenly

the meaning shifts. It can mean something slightly

different. The book of Jeremiah was written by

Jeremiah. He was a prophet in the Old Testament.

And this verse is just a small snippet taken

out of a letter that Jeremiah wrote to the exiled

Israelite people. Exile is an ongoing theme in

the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament.

We don't really hear much about people going

into exile today, but it happened all the time

back in the day. Going into exile is more than

just being kicked out of your home, though. The

Israelite people had a deep connection to the

land that they lived in. It was promised to them

by God and it's central to who they are as a

people and it was central to their identity.

We read about in the book of Exodus when God

uses Moses to lead the Israelites out of exile

in Egypt and into the promised land. A promise

God made to his people was fulfilled. The story

This story is about God showing his faithfulness

to his people. It's symbolic of new life and

creation and restoration. Fast forward a few

generations to where we are now in Jeremiah and

the Israelites are back in exile, torn from their

inheritance and the promise that was made to

them due to falling into sinful patterns of behaviour.

This is symbolic of death, destruction, and separation

from God. The Israelite story of being saved

from oppression in Egypt has been reversed, and

they find themselves back in exile in Babylon.

And when we look at the verses before verse 11,

we also read that God tells the Israelites they're

going to be exiled for 70 years. That's an entire

lifetime. For almost all of the people that would

have heard this, they wouldn't live. to return

back to their homes. This is a passage that was

written to a people in great suffering and experiencing

incredible hardship. And God doesn't even promise

them an immediate escape. He promises them 70

years. In verses five to six, God says to the

Israelites, build houses and settle down. Plant

gardens, marry, have children. Find wives for

your sons give your daughters in marriage so

that they can have kids Get comfy guys, you're

gonna be here a while Imagine how it would have

felt for the Israelites Imagine how they would

have felt feeling like you know God's allowing

them back into exile and then rather than offering

to save them He tells them to start pitching

their tents and create a new life for yourself.

It would have been pretty disheartening. They

probably would have felt forsaken. They would

have felt like God has abandoned them, going

back on the promises that he's made. I'm sure

we've all felt like that before as well. I'd

venture to say that for most of us in the room,

we've had times in our lives when we've found

ourselves questioning. You might not be a Christian,

but maybe you've been looking for something.

If you are a Christian, maybe you've been seeking

for God, asking Him, where are you? We've all

had hardships. We've all had difficult times.

Maybe you've read this verse, Jeremiah 29, 11.

You've read this verse talking about God having

a great promise for us, a hope and a future,

plans for our life. And you're looking around

thinking, well, hello, where are these plans?

Where is this great future? But church, God never

promises a life without pain. We're never promised

a life without suffering and hardship. We are

never promised individual personal success in

the things that we do. Quite the opposite, in

fact. This is why taking verses out of context

can be damaging. And this is why this series

is so important. By reading the Bible in context

and understanding the world and the intended

audience at the time, we start to understand

what the verse actually means. And it takes on

a much richer, deeper meaning. So we know that

this verse isn't a promise of success, it's not

a promise of protection. But if that's the case,

what does it actually mean? In short, this passage

is a message of hope. Not an immediate hope that

everything will work out. Not a promise that

everything will... work out necessarily the way

we want it to. But it's a deeper hope that endures

beyond our circumstances, beyond the circumstances

and the situations we find ourselves in. Even

though this wasn't written to us, God still speaks

to us through it. And in this verse today, we

can uncover at least two promises that God does

make to us. And so that's what I'm gonna be unpacking

a little bit over the next couple of minutes.

There's probably much more that you can dig into

but I've only got 30 minutes so The first promise

is a promise of faithfulness The verse says I

know the plans I have for you God isn't denying

the reality of the situation The Israelites are

in exile they're suffering the consequences of

their own disobedience their own misbehaviour

and unfaithfulness to God is part of the reason

why they've been sent out into exile. They've

lost their land, they've lost their security,

and a huge part of their identity. But God still

says, I know the plans I have for you. He has

not forsaken them. And He doesn't forsake us

either. In the book of Lamentations, which is

also written by Jeremiah, It says in chapter

three, verse 22, 23, because of the Lord's great

love, we are not consumed for his compassion's

never fail. They are new every morning. Great

is your faithfulness. If we stick to looking

at context, this passage from Lamentations was

written in the aftermath of Jerusalem being completely

destroyed. This verse isn't about blind optimism.

It's a powerful declaration of who God is. He's

full of compassion. Great is his faithfulness.

And looking at the Bible as a whole, we see evidence

of God's faithfulness to the Israelites and his

people all the time. He saves his people. He

journeys with his people. He provides. He sustains.

He demonstrates his love. Everything. is an evidence

to his faithfulness. For the Israelites, exile

might have felt like silence from God. But God's

promise that he has plans for his people demonstrates

that even in the times of crisis, God is still

working to see his good plan for his people come

to pass. Not in their timing, not in our timing,

but in his. He's preserving and preparing them

for what is to come. God plays the long game.

God is doing more for the Israelites in the waiting

than he is if he rescues them immediately. He

is teaching them to have confidence in his faithfulness.

And this is something that we need to learn as

well. I know I do. For us in 2026, it's important

for us to remember that we cannot equate God's

faithfulness to comfort. We cannot equate God's

faithfulness to our own comfort. Just because

things are bad doesn't mean God isn't here Just

because things are good doesn't mean that God

is there He is But it's not the only time I Know

for me that there have been times where I felt

stranded and I felt abandoned by God There have

been times I felt like my life is falling apart

That I'm just filled with suffering And like

the Israelites in exile, I've been left asking

God to turn up only to have nothing happen. Have

you been there before? Church, when we find ourselves

in this space, it's not an absence of God, and

it's not an absence of His faithfulness. God

promises us that He will be with us. He will

not forsake us. His goodness and His faithfulness

is not measured by our circumstance. It is measured

by Him being with us in our circumstance. There

are times we feel far from God and there are

times when we can stop and we can ask, what the

heck are your plans God? Because I have no idea

and everything sucks right now. What is going

on? But God is faithful through it all. In our

hardship. And even like the Israelites, when

our actions and decisions have made us feel distant

from God, He is still faithful. He is still with

us. Jeremiah 29 and 11 is not a guarantee that

God will reveal His plans to us immediately,

but it is a promise that He will be faithful.

In the same way He was faithful to Abraham, Jacob,

Joseph, David, everyone else in the Bible. He

is faithful. to us, to you today. Are you still

with me? Very good. The second promise that the

Jeremiah gives us in this verse is a promise

of restoration. The verse says that he has plans

to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to

give you hope and a future. Now, like I've said,

this is not a promise to immediately take the

Israelites out of their suffering. It's not a

promise to give them success. But what it is,

it's a promise that exile is not the end of the

story. There is a promise and there is a hope

for something more. There's a key Hebrew phrase

in there that's kind of translated a bit awkwardly

because, yeah, the Hebrew phrase is, I hope I

say this right, Makkashavot Shalom. Makkashavot

Shalom. Is anyone going to correct me? No? Great.

Amazing. I've got the microphone, which means

I'm right. Amazing. This roughly translates to

plans to prosper. If you've been around church

for a while, you have a shalom. But it's not

the prosperity we might often think, where you

know, it refers to being rich or life being great

and being successful and all the rest. This is

what we often think prosperity might mean. When

it talks about plans to prosper you, this is

what it means. Holiness, peace, flourishing,

restoration. It's about being in right relationship

with God. It's not about achievement. Shalom

doesn't mean getting everything you want. It

means being whole. Being in right relationship

with God with others yourself Even when life

is still hard God instructs the Israelites to

like married have kids But through this promise

of faithfulness that we just spoke about God

also promises restoration Exile is not the end

of the story and he uses it as a vessel for his

plans In verse 10, God says, when 70 years are

completed for Babylon, I will come to you and

I will fulfill my good promise to bring you back

to this place. Now again, for most of the people

hearing this, they would not live to see it happen.

But it is still a promise of hope for the future.

Because in scripture, we see that restoration

often takes generations to unfold. In the book

of Joel, God says, I will restore to you the

years the locust has eaten. Restoration does

not erase the pain of the past, but it does redeem

it. It declares that we don't have to remain

in these feelings of loss and suffering. They

do not have the final word in our lives. For

the Israelites in exile, that is not the final

word. But we can see God out working both his

promise of faithfulness and restoration ultimately

through his son Jesus And I thought you can come

up and twinkle if you like Humanity lives in

a spiritual exile you and I we live in this spiritual

exile Not like the Israelites being removed from

their home, but an exile in which we're separated

from God. Just like how Israel was separated

from the land where God's presence dwelled, sin

separates us from the life God created us for.

Our sin has created a rift between us and God.

It's a rift that could only be overcome through

Jesus. God shows he is faithful by giving us

a way out of our exile. And he offers us restoration

through the acceptance of his love into our hearts.

The apostle Paul writes in second Corinthians,

if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has

come. The old is gone, the new is here. This

is the life of restoration that is promised to

us. The old is gone. The new is here. It isn't

a life free from suffering or pain, but it is

a life alongside a loving God. Jesus came and

He showed us the way out of our exile. He came

and He was nailed on a cross bearing the weight

of our sin and our brokenness so that we could

be restored to the Father. God is so faithful

to us that he gave his one and only son to die

a criminal's death on a cross so that we didn't

have to stay apart from him. How good is that?

We can look around at our lives and we can think

it isn't fair. We can think, God, where are you?

But the reality is if life was fair, Jesus wouldn't

have had to be nailed on the cross. We would

be up there instead. Jesus lived the perfect

life. He did nothing wrong and yet he paid the

ultimate price for all of humanity, for you and

I. Jesus is well acquainted with the hardships

of life, the suffering that we go through as

people. He knows it. He knows it well. He took

on our burdens and our sin and he put them to

death on the cross so that we no longer have

to be slaves. so that we no longer have to stay

in this exile, but we can step into the light

and the life that is restored to God. Not without

pain, not without suffering, but a life that

has God with us through all of it. So yes, it's

true. God has great plans for you. He has a plan

to prosper you. And what plan could possibly

be greater than an eternal life with Him? That

is the plan that God has for us. It's a life

with Him that's no longer separated, no longer

apart, no longer in exile, but restored to Him

through His faithfulness. If I'm being honest

with you church, the last few weeks, months have

been pretty tough for me. The last few weeks

especially I've been wondering and asking what

God's plan is for my life. I've been feeling

lost and I've been feeling out of place. I've

been wrestling with the very thing that I talk

to my students about at school. I doubt and I

question what God has in store for me. So when

I saw that I was preaching on Jeremiah 29 11,

I just died a little bit inside Why But like

what usually happens when I prepare a message

God speaks to me first God showed me that his

plan for me goes beyond what I can think of for

myself God's plan for me goes beyond what my

career aspirations are, goes beyond my goals,

my marriage, my family, my friendships. His plan

for my life is for eternity. And that's true

for you too. God's plan for you is for eternity

It's not for your comfort here and now So forever

it's a long time I Don't know about you, but

I would rather believe and have faith in a God

who plans for forever Rather than a God who just

plans to make my life comfortable now Yeah, it

sucks. It really sucks sometimes But it's greater

It's so much greater So Jeremiah 29 11 is not

a promise that everything will be okay right

now I Don't know what it is. Is this happening

in your life if maybe you're going through the

ringer like me a little bit But it is a promise

that in the waiting, God is faithful. It's a

promise that God is working. It's a promise that

restoration is coming. Even when we don't see

it. God has great plans for you. And I don't

mean an easy life or a successful one by the

world standards. I mean a life anchored in Him.

restored fully in eternity through the work and

the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for us. God

is faithful, God restores, and exile is not the

end. Thanks so much for tuning into this week's

message. If you felt challenged or need prayer,

we would love to hear from you on Instagram,

at EncounterHendley. Or if you're interested

in how you can support this ministry, please

go to our website incanadelaide .com .au. Thanks

again for listening. God bless you.