Invested

Contemporary Service

Special - Praise You Anywhere

Welcome

Worship - Today Is The Day

Build My Life

Word Of God Speak

Teaching - Invested - Jeremiah 29:1-9

Closing Song - Waymaker

Traditional Service

Prelude

Call To Worship - Choir - I Love You Lord - 78

Blessing Of Tithes And Offerings, Doxology

Hymn - Alleluia - 189

Welcome And Announcements - David Cash - Worship Leader

Joys And Concerns

Hymn - My Country Tis Of Thee - 807

Sermon - Invested - Jeremiah 29:1-9

Closing Hymn - I Have Decided To Follow Jesus - 602

Carrying The Light To The World

Benediction

Sermon Outline

Invested

Jeremiah 29:1-9

I. The Context - Taken

a. Judah has fallen

b. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has swept through Jerusalem.

c. The best and the brightest were taken.

d. They are now living in Babylon - the most powerful, pagan city in the world.

e. There were false prophets telling them what they wanted to hear.

f. God’s word through Jeremiah is harder and better than that. Jer. 29:5-7

g. You’re going to be here for seventy years.

h. This is not a waiting room.

i. This is your life.

j. And while you’re here — invest.

k. The question God is asking us is the same one He asked them:

l. What are you going to do with where I put you?

II. The Command: Seek the Peace of the City

a. "Seek the peace and prosperity of the city”

b. God tells these exiles to seek that — for Babylon.

c. He didn’t say endure it. He didn’t say protest it.

d. He said seek its shalom. Work for it. Invest in it.

e. God’s people have been called to something wider.

f. Jesus put it plainly in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:14-16)

g. Seeking the peace of our city -

h. Neighbors who actually know their neighbors

i. Church members who volunteer, serve, and show up in the community

j. Christians who bring integrity, generosity, and care to their workplaces

k. People of faith who engage the hard civic questions rather than opting out

l. This is not about politics. This is about presence. It’s about whether the community around us is better because we’re in it.

III. The Practice: Pray for It

a. God doesn’t just tell the exiles to work for the city’s welfare.

b. Nebuchadnezzar was the oppressor. And God says: pray for it.

c. God who would later inspire Paul to write in 1 Tim 2:1-2

d. Paul wrote that during the reign of Nero

e. The instruction stands: pray for those in authority. Pray for your nation. Pray for your city.

f. When did you last pray for America?

g. Prayer changes the person praying.

h. Prayer softens us toward the very people and places we are most frustrated with.

i. Prayer is an act of trust.

IV. The Paradox: Our Flourishing Is Tied to Theirs

a. "Because if it prospers, you will too”

b. The welfare of the exile is bound up in the welfare of the city.

c. It cuts against the temptation toward isolationism

d. It cuts against idolatry — treating the nation as the ultimate thing

e. God doesn’t say worship the city. He says seek its shalom.

f. An invested servant is someone who:

g. Loves the place they’ve been put without losing sight

h. Works for the good of their community

i. Grieves what is broken without becoming hopeless

j. Engages the hard, imperfect work of civic life

k. This is the hard, daily, faithful work of people who believe that God cares about this city

l. Daniel was an invested servant in Babylon.

m. That is the model. Not withdrawal. Not worship. Invested servanthood.

V. A Different Kind of Patriotism

a. The most patriotic thing a follower of Jesus can do today is to seek the shalom of the place you’ve been put

b. Pray for it

c. Tie your own flourishing to the flourishing of your neighbors

d. And God said: Seek the peace of this city.

e. God put you here at this moment in history. Not by accident.

f. He has things He wants to do through us.

Children’s church - first service - K thru 4th grade
Youth class - first service 5th grade and up
Nursery - both services for children 4 years and under

Learning Opportunities

Midweek Bible Study - Wednesday 6pm
Adult Sunday School: The Promise Of Heaven - David Jeremiah

Attendance and Offering

Regular offering: $ 2,231.28

Mortgage offering $ 40.00

Total: $2,271.28

First service: 74

Second service: 48

People Who Tithe Tend To Thrive!