Sermon Tone Analysis

Marks of the Church --- Living Letters

Jeremiah 29:4-14 & 2 Corinthians 2:14-3:3

“You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody.”

2 Corinthians 3:2

Today we celebrate the EIGHTH anniversary of The Seed Christian Fellowship!

Eight years ago, on 10/10/10, we held our first worship service right here in his hall.

The Seed began as a weekly Bible Study in the home of Don and &Yvonne Eddy in August of 2010.

After a few weeks, we outgrew their home and moved here and began our ministry!

Happy Birthday, Seed Family.

This morning we continue our series on the “Marks of the Church!”

We have two letters to read this morning.

Let us go before the throne of grace with a moment of prayer.

“God of all grace and mercy, we give thanks to YOU for the labors of love and works of faith throughout the Seed’s past 8 years.

We give thanks for Your Holy Spirit who has guided us and comforted us as we’ve learned to walk closer to Your heart of love.

Open the eyes of our heart this morning and let us see the wonders of Your grace, mercy and love.

Amen”

Jeremiah 29:4-14

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.

6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters.

Increase in number there; do not decrease.

7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.

Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

8 Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you.

Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have.

9 They are prophesying lies to you in my name.

I have not sent them,” declares the Lord. 10 This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.

11 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.

12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.

I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

[i]

2 Corinthians 2:14-3:3

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.

15 For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

16 To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.

And who is equal to such a task?

17 Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit.

On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God. Are we beginning to commend ourselves again?

Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody.

3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.[ii]

I would like to take a few minutes to set the context for our Scripture readings this morning.

Both of our readings are letters sent forth to the people of God to encourage them and warn them to live for God.

The first reading is from the Old Testament book of Jeremiah and was written sometime around 586-585 BC.

Jerusalem had fallen to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.

For two years, the city of Jerusalem had been surrounded and it finally fell.

King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the city, knocking down all the walls, burning most of the buildings and completely wiping out the temple; He ordered the taking all the treasures and killing most of the people.

The king captured 4,600 of the brightest and best people and brought them into Babylonian captivity.

According to Jewish history, this is called the time of the exile.

Their Jewish homeland, along with their temple, had been destroyed and they were forced to live in a foreign land under the harsh rule of a tyrannical taskmaster.

Times are desperate for the Jewish people!

The writer of our Old Testament lesson is God’s prophet, Jeremiah.

Jeremiah was not taken into captivity; instead he was living among the ruins of Jerusalem.

His job was to encourage the people that remained behind and lived amongst the ruins.

Jeremiah sat down with pen and parchment paper and wrote a letter to the captives, the exiles in Babylon.

This letter is considered one of the most important documents of the entire Old Testament.

Undaunted by the eight hundred miles of desert that separated Jeremiah from his mission field, Jeremiah wrote the letter.

It was delivered by Elasah and Gemariah.

Listen to the first three verses of chapter 29: “These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. 2 This was after King Jeconiah, and the queen mother, the court officials, the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the artisans, and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem.

3 The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom King Zedekiah of Judah sent to Babylon to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.”

Principle 1: God-Fearing Families

Before we get into the text of the letter, I would like for us to note the first principle in our reading.

How easy it is for us to read these names and not recognize the importance of them.

We are told that Elasah was the son of Shaphan, but does that have any real meaning for us today?

Are these just names written in some book a long time ago?

Shaphan was a faithful priest who was not taken into captivity.

Shaphan remained in Jerusalem and tried to clean up and restore the temple.

Shaphan could have given up.

Shaphan could have quit.

Instead he begins the undaunting task by cleaning the temple.

What joy!

He finds the scroll of the Law among the ashes in the temple.

Our first important principle is that we must never forget the power that one God-fearing family can have on history.

Shaphan remained after Jerusalem was destroyed.

After all of the destruction in the city, it is really quite miraculous for Shaphan to find the Scroll of the Law!

Shaphan’s son, Elasah, is now chosen to carry Jeremiah’s letter of hope to the exiles--800 miles away.

What a powerful principle.

We must never forget the power that one family can have—impacting all of history; all because of the family’s faithfulness and hope in God.

As I thought about Elasah and his father, Shaphan, I reflected on the names of those first fourteen or so people who had the vison to plant The Seed.

Some of them are still here!

Could you stand?

The Eddys.

The Hughes, The Nechiporenkos, The Whites, the Smiths…

As we celebrate and remember our past eight years, it is important that we never forget the power that one God-fearing family can have on history.

Thank you to all of the founding members who gave their time, their talents, their treasures--their blood, sweat and tears so this church could be here today.

What we see here today as we celebrate the 8th anniversary of The Seed --- we also see in our Old Testament lesson in Jeremiah: the power of God-fearing families!

Principle 2: Settle, Seek and Pray

How many of you are natives of Rancho Cucamonga?

According to Rancho Cucamonga history, in 1950 there were only 1,255 residents living here.

v In 1970 there were 5,796 residents.

v In 1980 there were 55,280 residents.

v In 1990 there were 101,409 residents.

v In 2000 there were 127,743 residents.

v In 2010 there were 165,269 residents

v In 2017 there are 177,452 residents

In Jeremiah’s letter of hope he calls the exiles to settle down, build houses, plant gardens, give their sons and daughters in marriage and increase in number.

He also exhorts them to seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which they’ve been carried into exile and… pray.

Settle.

Seek.

Pray.