Scott Brown's sermon titled 'Ten Things to Do in Uncertain Times' draws from Jeremiah 29 to provide practical guidance for Christians living in modern times that feel uncertain or challenging. Brown emphasizes the importance of building stable lives, represented by building homes and planting gardens, as a way to settle and take dominion over one's environment. He encourages young men to marry and have children, and for parents to be involved in their children's choice of spouses, promoting a multi-generational faithfulness. The sermon also stresses seeking the peace of the city and praying for its well-being, as well as being wary of false teachings that offer easy solutions. Brown highlights the importance of confidence in God's plan, regardless of current tribulations, and being thankful for God's presence and the good plans He has for believers. The sermon reminds Christians that these instructions, while given to captives in Babylon, serve as timeless principles applicable to modern believers living in a world that often feels like an exile.

Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 29, Jeremiah 29. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, holy, sweeter than honey than the honeycomb, word of truth falling down from heaven into our hearts. I'm here to encourage us in the simple ways of God in our way forward in the midst of all that is upon us. Now this chapter will give me opportunity to draw applications across a broad range of people, from single men to single women, parents, business owners, people who are in the trades, families, workers, daughters at home, daughters outside the home, everybody. It's a wonderful, wonderful passage and I want to give 10 really, I think they're practical things that you should do and that we should learn from this chapter as a church.

So let's read the text verse 4 Jeremiah 29 for Thus says the Lord of hosts the God of Israel To all who are carried away captive whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon, build houses and dwell in them, plant gardens and eat their fruit, take wives and beget sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters that you may be increased there and not diminished and seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive and pray to the Lord for it for in its peace you will have peace for thus says the Lord of hosts the God of Israel do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams which cause you to be dreamed, for they prophesy falsely to you in my name. I have not sent them says the Lord let's pray father We pray that you would make us a very deployable people to do the things that matter to you Lord we pray that you give us such hearts, such energies to really go for it in the things that we're instructed of here in this passage.

Lord, we're just so thankful that you've given us instruction. Amen. Okay, so this is a passage of scripture that is really helpful for us, particularly for you who want to live godly in Christ Jesus as strangers in a strange land. Have you felt recently like you might be a stranger in a strange land? Well, I know you have.

The Apostle Paul instructed the Thessalonian Church in a way that's similar to this passage here in 1 Thessalonians 4, 11, that you aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, and to behave properly toward those who are outside, that you may lack nothing. So first of all, about this passage, just some coordinates, this is a letter to captives. There were three deportations that took place into Babylon from Jerusalem at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar when he invaded Jerusalem. 597, 586, and at 582, there were three deportations. Their cities were destroyed, their properties were confiscated, their best men were confiscated and deported to Babylon.

Family members were killed. There was no temple. They were about 900 miles from home. Daniel and his friends were probably castrated so they could focus totally on the king's business. Their king's eyes were gouged out.

It was a pretty rough time. They settled in what's called the edge of the Chabar River. They actually lived in proximity to one another. Some of them actually became wealthy. And like Daniel, some of them were raised up in positions of high authority.

But they were under the thumb of Nebuchadnezzar. You know that famous story, Nebuchadnezzar wanted them to eat his food. They said no on pain of death and And and God gave them gave them favor, but they were in a time of discouragement You know in Psalm 137 There those remarkable words by the waters of Babylon we we lay down and wept because they'd lost their homes, they'd lost their loved ones. Many of them were broke, And so it was a difficult time. They were captives.

That's really the point that I want to make. Now, in terms of interpreting this, this is written to captives who were living in Babylon. Here's a little bit of hermeneutics, how to interpret this chapter 29. Jeremiah has just delivered 28 chapters describing the judgment that they were under and he itemizes their specific sins. They didn't keep the Sabbath for 490 years and God was bringing judgment upon them they were they were embracing worldly philosophy Eastern ways they had adopted Eastern ways and they were they were acting like the pagans and they were adopting the theologies and the ideologies of the pagan nations around them.

Now, this was written to them, this was not written to us. I would say these were not written to us specifically but these things are written for us. They are examples for us and that's what the Apostle Paul communicated to the Corinthian Church in 1st Corinthians 10 verse 6. Now these things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted and do not become idolaters as were some of them. So this wasn't written to us, but it was written for us.

This season was given to us for an example. An example of times of uncertainty, of times of tyranny, times where things are being deprived of you. And what Jeremiah is saying is, hey, Don't waste your exile pining away. Live differently. Don't get caught up in distractions.

Do the powerful things. Don't get paralyzed. Don't get frustrated. And don't let the bad guys get you down. That's really a lot of what Jeremiah's saying in this passage.

Again, we're brought back to something that is so wonderful for the Christian. Christians know what to do. We don't have to be confused about things. We are given marching orders. We know what to do every day.

And that's such a blessing to know how to live. God has shown it to us and it's just such a joy. We have commands, we have principles, we have examples, we have the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. Now this is all part of Jesus desire for his disciples. If you remember when we were in the Gospel of John, in John 17, the Lord Jesus Christ prays to God that he would not take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one.

They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. It's the will of Jesus Christ to keep you in the world. Don't act like you need to escape this world. God doesn't want you to escape this world except in his time. And he will determine that.

So with that, Jeremiah, I want to identify ten directions that Jeremiah gives for living in exile. And every single one of them contains a practical application for every person in this room. And so first of all, verse five, build houses and dwell in them. Verse five, build houses and dwell in them. Verse five, build houses and dwell in them.

In other words, get out your construction tools, get out your bobcat, get out your nail gun and build. Start building. Don't just keep running the way that you are. Build what? Houses.

Build houses and dwell in them. God has given his people and really all people tools from which to take dominion And you've all been given tools your own tools in your own industries in your own ways you know, they're they're people to do different things in this church and You know get out your building tools and build. Don't be afraid of the bad guys. Keep on building. Don't shrink back.

He says build houses and dwell in them. The whole idea has to do with abiding. The word literally means to settle, to establish, to remain, to stay, to tarry. And the word for houses is oikos. So it's, you have a stable life.

Maintain the stability of life that you've had and put down roots. Don't be afraid, don't run, put down your roots and live in your houses. You know, many years ago I read a book that was called The Millionaire Next Door, and he gives, I think, some number of characteristics of quote millionaires. Of course, that was back then too. A millionaire back then is not the same as a millionaire today.

But basically what he was saying is if you look at people who have high net worth, they live in the same house for 30 years and they don't buy fancy cars. They hunker down and they just keep doing what they were doing and they continue to do it. So I think the principle here is secure your home and hunker down in your home. Make your home the sweetest place you can make it. You know, you've seen these tiny homes.

Do you think that's a new phenomenon? The tiny home? No, no, no. The Puritans with ten kids all lived in tiny homes. They all lived in homes about that big.

So the tiny home revolution is really very, very old. But make a home, whether it's big or little. It doesn't have to be big. It doesn't have to be little. It has to be a home, though.

Build homes. You know, what God has done, he's given the family as a preservative. You know, strengthen the jurisdiction of your family. Strengthen the bars of your gates. And make your family the strongest thing in the neighborhood.

Build and dwell in your houses. Right now, today people use their houses more like flop houses, not like homes, not like places of industry. In most homes people don't really work in their homes, they just show up and they sleep there and then they leave and then they come back after they've gone to McDonald's. This is a different kind of a picture. The family government, the family practices need to be preserved.

Govern the intellectual life of your home. Govern the culture of your home. Govern the health care of your home because God has given you that responsibility not your government. So first build. Build houses and dwell in them.

Secondly, now before I get off of that, every member of the family can be involved in that. The youngest child can be involved in building and dwelling in a home. And I know the cultures of many of your homes is that you have lots of energy that's invested in your homes by your children, and that's the way it should be. Children should grow up working, and working together to build a home. And train your children, walk with your children, do exactly what Moses said to do.

Teach them when you sit in the house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up, be vigorous, be diligent to do that kind of a work. Now, of course, Moses says all of that comes out of loving God. The whole logic of Deuteronomy six is that if you love God, if you do love God, then you will teach your children. That's what you will do. And everybody in this room, whether they're single or whether they have spouses, have gotta figure out how to fulfill that command to build houses, build the sweetest house in the city.

Secondly, plant gardens and eat their fruit. That's in verse 5. Focus on provision, focus on becoming self-sustaining, take dominion over the land that God gives you. It's what Christians do. Christians improve the land that God puts them on.

Christians make things better wherever they go. Your house should look better than you did when you when you moved into it because you're taking dominion. You're beautifying everything you know around you and You know Psalm 28 128 talks about this this very simple thing of the labor of your hands, the fruit of your labor. When you eat the labor of your hands, you shall be happy and it shall be well with you. This idea of planting gardens, I think you can take it literally, I think that it has to do with a certain way of looking at your life and that is that you're bearing fruit.

Christians bear fruit. Christians expand their tents. So look for ways to expand your tents. Even if you're eight years old, work with your parents to expand the beauty of the place that you live. Or if you're 24 years old and you're living at home, keep your focus on the planting of the gardens and the enjoying of the fruit of it.

You know, the whole family should be wrapped around together in unity in order to do this thing that Jeremiah was commanding the captives to do, to plant gardens and eat their fruit. In other words, multiply your wealth. Don't worry about the future. God has it in his hand. You know, a young man in my house was quoting Zephaniah 2 3 to me just this morning.

I love this verse Seek the Lord all you make of the earth who have upheld his justice Seek righteousness seek humility and listen to this is my favorite part It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the Lord's anger. You know, God just may hide you like in Goshen. Didn't you feel like we were living in Goshen last year? You know, We had this little protective little bubble, you know, where everybody was happy and hugging and everything like that. So just keep on it.

Keep doing the stuff. Don't be discouraged. Don't lag behind. Build, dwell, plant. And then the third thing, well the third in verse six is actually directed to single men, are you hearing me now?

Are there any single men in this room? This is actually a command directed to you, okay? This is very interesting. Verse six, take wives and beget sons and daughters. That's a command.

Take wives and beget sons and daughters. So, well, I mean, you know what that means. You know, Go find a woman and marry her. That's basically the literal translation. And then go have children.

And when should you get married? Should you get married early or late? I don't know. Was Isaac at age 40, did he get married too late? Was like God, you know, was this such a disappointing thing?

No, God has people get married when he wants them to get married. But you have this Christian ethic about family life that young men should go and get married. But here's the problem with young men and I don't really see this so much in our church but young men are often not ready to be married because they just keep doing things that perpetuate their immaturity. And they keep spending their time playing games. And they keep spending their time, spending their energy on things that doesn't really promote them to become a provider.

And The young men that spend all kinds of time playing games, they just get sillier and sillier, because they're not thinking really about taking dominion. Playing games doesn't cause you to take dominion, by the way. And not taking life seriously, not preparing, not working, not making money, not positioning yourself to be a family, buying irrelevant toys, and spending time doing irrelevant personal idolatries, just because you like them and you have friends that like to have fun actually wasting their time. So you get to join them in it. So that's often why you have unnecessary delays of people in marriage.

It might be also pickiness in things that don't matter. I've known men who are just so picky about things that don't really matter. You know, after you've been married, you know, like for me, 40 years, we've been married 40 years, you kind of get the idea that some things that you thought mattered when you were 20, they don't matter at all. In fact, actually, They can be harmful. The things that you love at 20 don't turn out to be the very best things after you've been married for 40 years.

Fourth, parents. The next one is directed to parents. So we'll leave these single men behind now. Parents, take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that you may be increased there and not diminished. So this is directed to parents who actually have a role to play in the marriages of their children.

One of the features of our society is that parents have no role in the marriages of the children. It's a sinful departure from the Word of God. Parents should have engagement in this whole matter. And children really should be raised to have marriages in mind. Most people will get married.

We know that everybody doesn't get married, but that doesn't mean that we should somehow diminish the importance of marriage in the Church of Jesus Christ. If you have someone who's not married, It's God and his providence has done it and he's done it for his own glory and we shouldn't despise that either But the purpose of these these marriages is stated That the word it's used the word is increased and Multiply That's the same word that's used in Genesis 1.27. In other words, to increase, have more, enlarge, more numerous. This has to do with the whole idea of multi-generational faithfulness. Christians think beyond their own life.

Christians aren't just focused on their own life. They're focused on future generations. They actually spend their energies to train the next generation and passing down strength to the next generation and then dying and then letting them go on. You don't want to die having not passed on the Word of God to the next generation. It's the only true asset in the world.

It's the asset that lives in your heart and carries you through absolutely everything you'll ever experience. Plunge the word of God into the souls of your children. That's what they need. They need that more than anything. If they have that, they can get through everything.

Feast or famine. You know, we've had a lot of kids in this church stand up and say, you know, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer. Well, when you're poorer, you know, you need the word of God. When you're richer, you need the word of God. It gets you through everything.

So have children. Have a sense of optimism. You know, don't be like the people who are so unbiblical in their thinking who say, oh, I wouldn't want to bring children into this world. That is so contrary to the word of God. Don't say it's a bad time to have kids.

No it's not. It's a great time to have kids because then you have them in your house and you have 20 years to train them and you have authority over them. And it's a good time to have children, right now. So, you know, if somebody tells you it's a bad time to have children, you just should rebuke them. It's not true.

The Bible has already told you what to do. Be fruitful and multiply. So don't go do your own thing in this world. Now, I think Jeremiah is saying, look, you exiles, hey, God has a plan way beyond your life, way beyond your life. By the way, the exiles, they were going to be there for 70 years.

The people that first heard this from Jeremiah, they're going to be dead by the time the exiles return to Jerusalem. This is a long, This was a long, it was three generations they were going to be in Babylon. So go have children. Don't slow down. Fifth, be a blessing.

Seek the piece of the city. Verse seven, seek the piece of the city where I have caused you to be carried away by the way. It was God who did it It wasn't some terrible dent of random chance It wasn't because there were just bad guys in the land. God did it. He put the bad guys there and he raised them up.

And he says, I caused you to be carried away. But he says, seek the peace of the city. Now this is that remarkable Hebrew word, it's a beautiful word, shalom. Have you ever done a word study on shalom? It's just such a beautiful word.

It has to do with harmony and fullness from the top of your head to the tip of your toes it's it's it's this idea of of just comprehensive blessing Shalom seek the peace of the city don't cower don't be angry don't fret you know live the dream live the dream that God has in his heart for you and Through the just the ordinary productive life that God has given you to do. Sixth, get on your knees, get on your knees. Verse seven, pray for the city, pray for the city, pray to the Lord for it, for in its peace you will have peace. Pray for your enemies, don't get angry with your enemies, by the way your enemies are actually just being choreographed by God's will so you don't need to be angry with them That's why Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 5 blessed are the peacemakers He said you've heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy but I said you love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.

Pray for them. You know, I don't know if, you know, maybe you heard Church and Family Life, Amazon just banned all of my books on Kindle. They just took them all down. They took them all down. They said that your books are promoting misinformation.

And they said, we'll never let you have another account, and we're going to deprive you of any royalties from any of the books that you've had. See you later. So there you go. But you know, so I'm supposed to pray for Amazon, right? That's what I'm supposed to do.

I'm not upset about it. I'm actually not surprised about it. But you know, I don't want to be running around fretting about it. I'm not fretting about it at all. But he says, pray, pray for the city.

Get on your knees. You know, in 1st Timothy 2, we learn even The tyrannical kings need prayer. They need prayer. They need our prayers. So when we gather on Wednesday nights, almost every Wednesday night, somebody's gonna pray for something happening in the government.

We need to pray for our rulers, not hate them. Paul tells Timothy there, "'Pray for kings and all who are in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. Pray. Pray for the peace of the city. You know, you can spend all your time just surfing the news.

You know, Maybe just cut that in half and pray for part of that time. It might be more productive. Number seven, be wary. Be wary, don't listen to the false teachers. That's in verse eight.

For thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed. You know, your dreams, the things that you just wish would happen and the people that are telling you, everything's gonna be fine. The false teachers are saying, hey, you're going to get raptured out of this. This is only going to last just a short period of time. And Jeremiah is saying, no, you're going to be here for 70 years.

Those are false teachers. Don't listen to them. And don't listen to your own dreamy thoughts about how beautiful it's going to be so quickly. It's not going to be beautiful quickly. You're going to be in exile for 70 years for three generations.

Isaiah talks about these people in Isaiah 30, 10. He says they speak smooth things. They just want people to be happy, but not have the reality of the situation. So then ninth, be confident. Be confident, verse 10.

I will visit you and perform my good work toward you and cause you to return to this place. In other words, God is going to work. Don't lose heart. God is always working. The Lord Jesus said he's working and his Father is always working.

There's never a moment where God isn't working. You can always know that in the backdrop There's just this spinning wheel of God's work. And He didn't leave you alone. He's working. You can have absolute confidence in that.

He's going to perform His good word and then He's going to cause them to return in his own time. God will perform his word. That's why it's so critical that you have a church where everybody is focused on the word of God, where the word of God is their sustenance. The reason that they are able to get through anything is the word of God. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Fill your mouth with the finest of wheat. God, be confident. The more you fill your mind with the word of God, the more confident you get. The happier you get, the less flappable you are, the less discouraged you are if you really receive the word of God with meekness. And then 10th finally, be thankful, verse 11, Be thankful.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Now this happened in the, this promise was given while they were in the midst of their captivity. These good things that God was thinking toward them were happening while they were in captivity. This isn't a promise that the pressure will come off. This is a promise that God will be with you in the pressure.

Isaiah talks about it like this. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. I will be with you. When you walk through the flood, I'll take care of you. But you're gonna go through the fire, you're gonna be in the flood, but guess what?

I'm there. And you have nothing to worry about. So be thankful. God's thoughts toward us are good thoughts. So these are promises made to captives who believe they're living in uncertain times as we seem to be now.

And these are timeless principles. And I'll just repeat them. First, build houses and dwell in them. Second, plant gardens and eat their fruit. Third, Young men, take wives and beget sons and daughters.

Fourth, parents, take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands. Fifth, be a blessing and seek the peace of the city. Sixth, get on your knees and pray for that city. Seventh, be wary and don't listen to the false teachers. Eight, be patient, this is gonna be a long season.

Ninth, be confident, God will work among you. Tenth, be thankful, all of God's plans are good plans. Okay, you got it? Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you have given us such wonderful direction, and I pray, Lord, that you would fulfill every single one of these ten things in all of our hearts, and that we would find all of our hope in you, that we would fill our minds up with the knowledge of your will, with all spiritual wisdom and insight, that we might know what is the height and the depth and the width and the length of your love.

Amen.