9.22.24 - Dr Jeff Raines

Living Well in Exile - Jeremiah 29:4-14

What does exile look like?

This was Israel’s plight in Jeremiah’s day. They were exiled thousand of miles away from Israel to Babylon. While they were there, their prophets were telling them things they wanted to hear. They told them the exile wouldn’t last long.

In many ways, we are all exiles today. There is something in our hearts that makes us yearn for “home”. We can yearn for our past and romanticize it. Scripture explains to us that the reason we have that ache in our hearts is because we were designed for Eden. We long for our heavenly home - the promised new creation, the new earth.

1 Peter tells us that we are foreigners and exiles on this earth. We are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is spiritually dangerous to lose our sense of exile. We are called not to get too comfortable in this world. We are NOT in our homeland.

How should we as exiles live?

Jeremiah tells the Israelites and US to settle down in our place of residence. He called us to live life well and live our best RIGHT in our own city.

He tells us to seek the welfare of the city where we live. How can we build it up? How can we make it better? How do we do this?

Jesus calls us to love our neighbors. We need to invest in the institutions of our city - our churches, our schools, our public spaces. Complaining about our city is the work of short term exiles. That is not who we are. We are called to be a people that builds our city up. We make it better. We pray. We hope. We work to serve our neighbors and work to make our city the best that it can be.