First Presbyterian Church
647 East Market Street
Akron, Ohio 44304-1684
330-434-5183

Food for Thought: There Is a Plan

July 9, 2006

Dr. Mark Ruppert

Jeremiah 29:11-13

One day a fortuneteller was gazing into her crystal ball and talking to a frog: “You are going to meet a beautiful young woman.  From the moment she sets her eyes on you she will have an insatiable desire to know all about you.  She will be compelled to get close to you—you’ll fascinate her.”  The frog asked: “Where am I?  At a singles club?”  The fortuneteller replied, “Biology class.” 

Do you ever wish you could see into the future?  Do you ever wish you could look 2, 5 maybe even 10 years down the road and see what life will be like for you?  Let me share with you some things people said and see if what they predicted came to pass.  Lee de Forest, the inventor of the cathode ray tube, which, by the way, is a special-purpose electron tube in which electrons are accelerated by high-voltage anodes, formed into a beam by focusing electrodes, and projected toward a phosphorescent screen that forms one face of the tube.

The beam of electrons leaves a bright spot wherever it strikes the phosphor screen.  I just wanted to make sure you knew what a cathode ray tube was.  Anyway, Lee de Forest said in 1926, “Theoretically, television may be feasible, but I consider it an impossibility- a development which we should waste little time dreaming about.”  Or, in 1943, when Chairman of the Board of IBM, Thomas J. Watson said, I think there is a world market for about five computers.”  Or when, in 1962 a recording company expert said, “We don’t think the Beatles will do anything in their market.  Guitar groups are on their way out.” 

For you young people maybe you would like to look into the crystal ball to see who the person you will marry will be, if you get married, that is.  Or what kind of job you will be doing once your education is complete.  I pray I will live long enough to see my children get married and have children, maybe that is something some of you parents have thought about.

Let’s just supposed you could see into the future.  You might wish you did not have that capability for you might then see what kind of a death you will have, you might get a glimpse of tragedies that might come your way or in the lives of those you love.  Seeing into the future might not be all that it would be cracked up to be- it might be pretty depressing and down right horrible.  Even if we don’t know what the future will bring and what it will look like, God does.  That’s right, God knows. 

In case you don’t know it, I’m a planner.  I like to have things neatly in order, even though my desk and office are not the neatest and there are piles of stuff in my office but they are my piles and I know exactly what is there and where things are located.  But even though I am a planner and like to have things neatly tied up and flow smoothly it doesn’t always come out that way.  Do you believe that things happen that are out of my control?

The list that I write out at the beginning of the day sometimes doesn’t have all the items checked off by the end of the day because things beyond my control happen.  People are placed in the hospital, people die, there are unexpected phone calls, things happen in people’s lives and things happen to me and people in my family and even when I want to be in control and try to control it, it doesn’t always work that way.  That is why I like the Gospel of Mark- someone once called it the “Gospel of the Interruptions.”  Let me show you what I mean.  Turn with me to Mark 1:21-28 and read along with me.  “They went to Capurnaum; and when the Sabbath came he entered the synagogue and taught.  They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.  Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out. “  And if you read further Jesus commanded the unclear spirit to come out of the man and he was healed.

And in chapter 5:21 and following we find Jesus going to heal Jairus’ daughter and along the way a woman who was a bleeder for 12 years touches the hem of his robe and she is healed and Jesus stops and has a great conversation with her and then goes on to heal Jairus’s daughter.  You see, Jesus is going to minister to this person and He is interrupted and He deals with the person at hand.

When I think about it life is full of interruptions; ministry is full of interruptions.  That is why I try and have a few sermons in my computer in the event something comes up like a funeral or crisis that takes a good bit of time.  I never want to be caught on Thursday night frantically writing a sermon that is to be preached on Sunday.  Why?  Cause I just don’t know what a week will bring me in ministry.

Recently here at the church we have had some news that has caused us to have several meetings with leadership after receiving word on Wednesday, June 21st that Gene Marchand, our Director of Community Development, was stepping down after Summer’s Best Two Weeks, and that Mike Kager, our Director of Youth Ministries, was moving on to Faith Community Church in Massillion in the middle of August.  Now I know that you young people who have been actively engaged in our youth ministry program and have come to know and love Mike Kager are not feeling on top of the world.  There is no getting around it; we will miss Mike, Katie, Luke and Seth.  We will miss Mike’s ministry in our midst and the tremendous job he has done these last 5 years and how he has nurtured and lead you youth.  But just as God had a plan for the children of Israel in our passage from Jeremiah and just as God has a plan for Mike and his new church, just as God has a plan for Gene, I believe God has a plan for us.

Here in our passage we find a letter that was written by Jeremiah to those Israelites who were some 800 miles away from him.  He is in Jerusalem and those he is writing to are being held captive in Babylon.  We read in Jeremiah 29:1, “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.”  So we have those who are in captivity in Babylon who desperately want a word from God and so they begin to listen to false prophets who tell them what they want to hear, namely, that they are going to go home soon. But Jeremiah is God’s messenger who tells them to settle down and prepare for a longer haul, how about 70 years (vs. 10).  And so, beginning at vs. 5 and following, they are told to plant themselves in Babylon; to build houses and live there; to plant gardens and eat their fruit; to take wives and bear sons and daughters.  They are to stay put and be good citizens in Babylon and to seek the welfare of the city and pray for the city.  What God wants them to do is to not become detached from where they live and be passive, but rather to bring down the grace of God into that pagan city.  Just as we, today, are to be salt and light in our city and in the mist of a secular culture. 
God further tells them to not be deceived not only by the Israelite false prophets but also by the pagan gods of Babylon.  And in spit of how things might seem for these people held in a foreign land, living in exile, they are a people who have a future and hope for God says through Jeremiah in vs. 11, “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”  God was not going to leave His people desolate, He was not going to abandon them and walk away from them.  Even when things looked hopeless, God was faithful and He was telling His people, I am going to cause you to believe again, to expect again, to hope again.  God was telling His people I will cause a way out for you.

But there is something the people of God had to do.  It says in vs. 12 and 13, “Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you.  When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart.”

There is something required of us--we must call, come, pray, search and seek.  These are all action words that require us to do something, and not just sit ideally.  That is why God desires His church to be a house of prayer.  That is why God desires His people to people who earnestly yearn and desire God, who want to live a life according to His will.  Almost every time we have had a staff change God has provided someone new who came with his or her own giftedness and abilities.  God has not let us down in the past and He will not in the present nor will he in the future, if, if we are calling on Him; if we are earnestly coming before His thrown of grace; if we are praying for direction and wisdom and strength; if we are desperately searching for God and His will for us; and if we are seeking His face.

I believe God wants the best for us, we have to want the best for Him and His kingdom and His glory.  God has a plan.

We need to look at this time and what has recently happened with Mike and Gene as an opportunity because every change is an opportunity to grow.  A close friend of mine said to me when I told him what had happened that it is an opportunity to put new wine into new wineskins and it is a new season for First Presbyterian Church.  God is up to something and already I have been in contact with people who are genuinely interested in the positions.  We just have to be faithful, prayerful and working to be kingdom builders for Him.  He will not let us down, and neither should we let Him down, but give it our best.  God has a plan.  We just have to get in touch with it and follow it.  I ask you to be praying for the youth, for the leadership and for the next steps that need to be taken.  God has a plan.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

Key Points

Introduction: One day a fortuneteller was gazing into her crystal ball and talking to a frog…

Do you ever wish you could see into the future?

The Gospel of Mark--called the Gospel of the __________

Examples- Mark 1:21-28; Mark 5:21f

Ministry is full of ___________

Recent news at the church

Jeremiah 29

There is something the people of God had to do vs. 12-1

Call, Come, Pray, Search and Seek

Conclusion: I believe that God wants the best for us; God has a plan; new wine into new wineskins; a new season

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)