March 26, 2023 - Chosen and Not Rejected - Pastor Paul Vallee

Sin shatters our sense of self-identity. What others do to us, what we do to others, and finally, what we do to ourselves distorts the image of God in our lives. Sin, followed by failure, loss, rejection and abandonment, causes us to wonder who we are and where God is in the equation. The exile shattered the nation of Israel. The questions that came to the surface in their minds were: Are we still God’s chosen people, or are we rejected? To this issue, God wanted to reassure His people that they were not rejected but that a transformation was about to occur in their hearts that would change everything. When God wants to reassure people of what He is about to do, He speaks again. Here we see that God is reaffirming to Jeremiah what He is about to do, so we see that God’s word came to Jeremiah again. Jeremiah 33:1-3 While Jeremiah was still confined in the courtyard of the guard, the word of the Lord came to him a second time: “This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it—the Lord is his name: ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ The hidden things God will reveal to Jeremiah are yet to come. They lie in the future. So, what is God about to do? How should we respond to the future God has planned for us? Is there any response we should have when God makes promises to us? Matthew Henry, the puritan devotional writer, says: “Promises are given, not to supersede, but to quicken and encourage prayer.”5 We need to act on God’s promises by praying they will be enacted in our lives. God makes promises for a brighter tomorrow. God begins in the nations painful present to encourage a better day ahead.  We discover what God reveals to His servant and messenger, Jeremiah, a message of hope and future blessings. So, what was God revealing?