Happy New Year!  I hope that 2014 has been good to you thus far and that you’re still going strong on those new year’s resolutions (only 364 more days to go!).

We started a New Year’s tradition at STSA last year and it has quickly become one of my favorites.  What started as “it might be a cool thing to try this year” has quickly turned into “it just wouldn’t be New Year’s without it.”

What is “it”?  RECEIVING OUR NEW YEAR’S PROMISES!

We started last year by going through the Scriptures and pulling out as many promises as we could find (such as Psalm 138:7, Isaiah 41:10, Proverbs 1:33, Psalm 91:15, etc).  We print them on little pieces of paper, put them into a bucket and then spend some time in prayer – asking God to choose for each person the promise that He wants to deliver to them.  Then we each receive our promise for the new year – not something random but something that we really feel is from God Himself.

This year, in addition to doing individual promises, we also came up with a CHURCH PROMISE – a promise that I felt God wanted to deliver to us as a church family.

What is this year’s church promise?  It comes from Jeremiah 29 (but it’s not verse 11 as you might think).  The context of this chapter is that Jeremiah is speaking to what’s left of the children of Israel after they have been attacked and defeated by the Babylonians, led by the evil king Nebuchadnezzar.  Those who weren’t killed in the attack were taken captive into Babylon where they now live as slaves.

The outlook wasn’t very bright for God’s people.  They were in a foreign land – living amongst a wicked and evil nation who disdained the God of Israel and blasphemed Him openly.

What should they do next?  How should they approach this tough period in their history?  Listen carefully to God’s instruction:

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were 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.”

I beg your pardon…what’s that again…can you please repeat that… Build houses?  Plant gardens?  Get married and have kids???  Not exactly what we were expecting.

I thought God would say something more along the lines of “Stay away from all the Babylonians!  Watch out for yourselves and don’t let them influence you in any way.  Protect yourselves!”  But He says the exact opposite.  He tells them not to be afraid of the world around them.  He instructs them to invest in the land in which they dwelt and even to help build it up.  He wants them not just to be looking out for themselves, but rather to “seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive…”

And that’s where we get our promise for 2014.

“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.”  (Jeremiah 29:7)

My favorite part is the last part – “for in its peace you will have peace.”  Another word for “peace” here is “prosperity” or “well-being.”  God is saying “I want to give you prosperity and well-being.  I want to bless you with peace and lower your level of anxiety/fear/worry in 2014.  I want to heal your sicknesses and mend your broken hearts.  I want to open your eyes to see all of the wonderful things I am doing in you and through you.  That is my plan for 2014…

…but you must seek to do the same for the world around you.  Why?  Because “in its peace, you will have peace.”

What God has done in this verse is tell each of us (especially those in the STSA family) that our individual promise for 2014 is tied directly to His larger-scale promise for our church.  The two cannot be separated.  God does not give us His promise in a vacuum but rather in the context of His Body, aka the Church.

His promise is that He wants to do a great work in the city in which we live.  As He said to St. Paul in a vision in Acts 18 (which was the runner up for the church promise for the year):

“Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city.” (Acts 18:9-10)

That is the Lord’s message/promise to us as well.  He has “many people in this city” and it is our job to SPEAK!  We mustn’t be afraid.  We must share the good things that God has given to us and invite others to be part of it as well.

There’s a parable somewhere in the gospels where Jesus says something about a light that shines brightly.  And He says that when you have a light that shines brightly, the last thing you want to do is hide that light underneath a large cover.  That would be downright IDIOTIC (my words, not His).

So how about what we have in the church?  Do you believe we have something good here?  I certainly do and because of that, I don’t think we have a choice.  We must share that good news with others around us.  How?  By inviting people to church.  By welcoming those who others are inviting to church.  By inserting God’s Word into others’ lives through sharing sermons, messages and books.

God wants to do a great work in 2014 – a work of healing in our city – and it wouldn’t be right for us to keep this good news to ourselves.  And beyond that, God has gone one step further this year and said "your individual promise in 2014 is directly tied to my promise to the church."

If you seek the peace/prosperity/well-being of your city, then you will find peace as well.  But if you turn your back on them – your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers, etc. – then both they and you will lack peace/prosperity/well-being.

“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.”  (Jeremiah 29:7)

Welcome to 2014.