The Exile

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Good morning. So good to be here today and welcome. We are in the midst of a message series called The Biography, that is the words of life, which we believe the scriptures are, the Bible is. But specifically, it's words about God. It's the word of God. It's his biography. It's how he interacts with people throughout time. And we see this whole narrative, how it runs all the way through from the book of Genesis all the way to Revelation. And right now, we're at the point of the exile, which sounds like a downer, if you want to say it, where things don't seem to be working right. And I think there's a great message in the midst of this. So we're in Jeremiah 29. You can look that up in your Bible. I can't remember the Bible page it was on. Chelsea, I think you said it. 555, 555. So if you've got one of those, if you need a Bible, we've got some extras we can have passed out. Anybody need a Bible? Just kind of raise your hand. OK, and we'll get them to you. OK, let's start with prayer. Lord God, we praise and thank you this day. You are so good to us. Even when we feel out of place and out of sorts, you are our center, our rock, our fortress, our guide. You are everything to us. We just pray, Lord God, that that message of hope and. A future for each of us comes through today in Jesus, your name, we pray. Amen. So we live in a society right now that is really in flux. I don't know if you realize this. Depending on your age, you might not understand it. But let me tell you a truth that's kind of really wild, OK? People who are conservative politically right now are feeling like this country is getting way too liberal and they're pulling their hair out about it. And people who are more from a liberal side of things are feeling like this country is getting way too conservative and they're pulling their hair out. And that's true for both parties. Have you noticed that everybody is feeling like it is going in the wrong direction? Hardly anybody feels like America, whatever America is supposed to be, is the way it's supposed to be. In fact, I know a lot of people who are immigrants in this country and where we are a country of immigrants who don't feel quite at home here. And others who have been here for generations who don't feel quite at home here anymore as well. It's amazing when I get together with my relatives and I know I'm having a Roth family reunion in April. And I can guarantee that some of the conversation will be where I will have to bite my tongue. Have you ever been in amongst your relatives and you just go like, oh, I better not say anything because they are not going to like what I have to say. But they will talk about the good old days in one form or another. And the only thing that we will agree on is that they're old. We are at a time in our society where everything has been in flux. We can't agree on much of anything. And we are also at a time where nothing seems to be, where we just don't cooperate well. We don't play well together anymore. And we aren't sure what's right. We aren't sure what's wrong. We aren't sure what the future should hold, etc. And so forth. And I'll tell you, this isn't the first time in history. And the Bible has got some great stories. And today, the story is of a time just like that. Jeremiah 29. You see, in Jeremiah's time, it was much like today. In fact, Israel was feeling a little puny and a little lost. In 722 B.C., and I know it's a long time ago, 2700 years ago plus, the whole northern kingdom of Israel, most of Israel, was taken off into exile by the Assyrians out of Turkey. And never to be heard from again. They were just wiped off the face of the earth. They were destroyed. And just 125 years later, the southern kingdom of Judah, where Jerusalem was the headquarters of and all of that stuff, they were taken, instead of being wiped out, they were taken into exile, which our text talks about. They were taken away from their land. Their temple was destroyed. Their king was put in prison. One of the kings had his eyes poked out after, you know. I mean, these are gross stories. Really gross stories in the Bible, but they're real things, okay? And so Zedekiah got to see all of his sons get killed, and then they poked out his eyes and took him away into exile. Wouldn't you like that, the last thing you see? And the king Jehoiachin already was in exile. In 597 B.C., a lot of Jerusalem was taken over to Babylon. And it was like moving from Arcadia, Florida. Anybody ever get into Arcadia? And going to New York City. That's how much of a displacement it was. It was a whole different culture, a whole different language, a whole different way of being. And they were all wondering what just happened and why. Why are we here? We're supposed to be back there. Why don't we have a king anymore? Why don't we have a priesthood? Where's ou...