Tonight we're turning to the book of Jeremiah and it's a chapter 29. Jeremiah chapter 29. I'm only reading a number of verses here, just a couple of verses from the verse number 10. And as you turn there, we welcome you. Thank you for joining with us. We're into the summer months, but we're glad that you've made that effort. And so faithfully here at the house of God, we're glad to see you. And so we're reading from chapter 29 of Jeremiah's prophecy, and we're beginning our reading just at the verse number 10. And so let's hear God's word. For thus saith the Lord, that after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word towards you in causing you to return to this place. But I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you, and ye shall seek me and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart, and I will be found of you, saith the Lord, and I will turn away your captivity, I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord, and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive. Amen. We'll end our reading at the end of the verse number 14. Now I do intend to keep my word this evening. Keeping the message short, some people are smiling, and maybe you're full of unbelief. Well, get that unbelief out of you. Okay, I'll try and be faithful to my word. You'll be aware that Jeremiah, as God's servant, was tasked with the job of prophesying to a people who would soon be carried captive by the armed forces of the Babylonian Empire to the land of Babylon. While it was Jeremiah's task to warn the people, of coming judgment because of their sin and their backsliding. He was also tasked with the responsibility of encouraging the future captives that their captivity would not be permanent in its duration. And this he comes to do in chapter 29 of his prophecy. He promises that deliverance for the people of God would come in answer to their prayers. Now tonight as God's family we gather for prayer and Jeremiah here in this little portion that we read he comes to speak about prayer in this portion of God's word. If you look at verse 12 we read then shall ye call upon me and he shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken on to you and I believe this portion of God's Word it has instruction for us when it comes to this matter of prayer and I have three simple thoughts to draw to your attention this evening before we go to the Lord in prayer. I want you to see firstly with me incentives for prayer, incentives for prayer. What incentives did Jeremiah set before these people that convinced them that prayer was what they should be engaging in, even when they find themselves in captivity? Now, he tells these people this before they're taken into captivity, and so they're going to remember these things. They're going to remember Jeremiah's words. And they're going to, at this point, a juncture of their captivity, they're going to start to pray. And they're going to pray for deliverance. But what were the incentives that Jeremiah sets before these people? Can I say in the first place, the first was their present state. Their present state. Now I'm thinking about their state when they find themselves in the time of The circumstances in the nation, whenever this prophetic word was going to be fulfilled, those circumstances were not going to be favorable for the people of God. They were going to be thousands of miles far away from their homeland, held captives by the Babylonian oppressors. It's hardly what God intended. His covenant people and yet their backsliding had brought them into such a sad state of affairs where their enemies for a brief period of time would rule over them. A realization of their present circumstances and the need for God to intervene and to turn all those circumstances right around was one incentive that would have encouraged these captives to pray. You can imagine Lyre in the land of captivity. You can imagine how discouraged they must have felt, how downtrodden they must have felt. And as a result of that, and as they looked at their present circumstances, They could only but cry to God. They understood that their own forces were not coming to rescue them, for they had also been carried into captivity. They found themselves in a weakened state. They found themselves in an almost hopeless, helpless state. But these people still believed in the living God. These people still believed in the God of Abraham and Isaac and of Jacob. These people believed in the God who had intervened in the past within the nation and had turned the whole situation around. I'm sure they thought about their time whenever their ancestors in the days of Moses, how they cry to God as they find themselves making brick beside the brick kilns off Egypt and how they cry to God and God They could look back at the times of the judges. Many times when they found themselves under the oppressor's hands. None do they heal of their enemies. And yet how God would so quicken them and bring them to that realization that they needed him. And so they began to call upon the Lord and how God heard their cries and would send them deliverers, raising up judges among them to deliver them from their enemies. One such example is found there in Judges 3 and the verse number 9. It says, And when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer to the children of Israel, who delivered them, even Othniel the son of Kinez, Caleb's younger brother. We think about that time in Jehoshaphat's day when he was faced with that confederation of hostile nations who came against him and Judah, and how he spread the matter before the Lord in prayer, and how God heard and answered prayer. Judah's king made that honest assessment of the situation in 2 Chronicles 20, verse 12. For we have no might against this great company that cometh against us, neither know what we to do, but our eyes are upon thee. He took the matter to God in prayer, and now we find these captives. They find themselves under the heel of a different oppressor. Now they begin to cry, they begin to seek the Lord. This prophetic word is that there was going to come a time, then, then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. I wonder, brethren, sisters, are we conscious of our need today? Do we not find ourselves under the heel of the oppressor? Do we not find ourselves bemoaning? Are we not in any way concerned? With regard of the lack of people who are coming to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, our present state, as we find ourselves tonight, should set us seeking after God in prayer. Brethren and sisters, when we find ourselves in a place that God never intended us to occupy in our spiritual lives, whether that's on an individual basis or whether that's corporately as the Church of Jesus Christ, the way to recovery is always through prayer. Always through prayer, well may God set us a plane and so the incentive, your present state, surely you need God to intervene, well then why not cry to God? This is what Jeremiah is presenting. A second incentive for prayer was a God-given promise that was yet to be fulfilled. That promise Jeremiah gives here initially in the verse 10 that we read. For we read there, Now if you hold your hand there and turn now to the book of Daniel and the chapter number nine, you'll know that Daniel The Hebrew children have been taken captive and now we find them in their captivity. And we read in Daniel chapter 9 in the verses 2 and 3. It says, in the first year of his reign, speaking of Darius' reign, I, Daniel, understood by books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. And I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with thanksgiving, with thanksgiving, with, sorry, with supplications, with fastings and sackcloth and with thanksgiving. ashes you see daniel becomes aware of this promise here in jeremiah chapter 29 and jer and daniel now takes the promise in jeremiah 29 and the verse number 10 that after 70 years deliverance would come And on the basis of a promise given to Jeremiah, Daniel now comes to pray. And he now comes to ask God to fulfill his good word. The word that he had promised in Jeremiah's day, Daniel now realizes that this is a time for its fulfillment. And so Daniel, he begins to pray on the basis of the promise of God. Brethren and sisters, God's promises. are great incentives when we come to pray. What God has pledged to do, that He will do. A. W. Pink said the Word of God should be our directory in prayer. He went on to say, We must weave into our praying the promises of God. God has given to us exceeding great and precious promises. And those promises are not to sit on the pages of scripture, but rather they are to be employed by the people of God for them to take back to God and for them to ask God to fulfill His good word onto them. Whatever that promise would be, may God help us not only to know the promises, but let us plead the promises. And here was an incentive. There was a promise that was yet to be fulfilled. And this was an incentive for them now to pray, to ask God that God would make good on His good word, which He had promised to these people. A third incentive for prayer was the one to whom they prayed, the one to whom they prayed. God reminded these people who were going to go into captivity, In Jeremiah chapter 29 and the verse number 11, he reminded them, You know, it wasn't to some kind of hard tyrant. Some kind of sadistic despot that these people were going to go to and make their request to in prayer. This was the one whose thoughts were of peace towards these people. Now don't forget their state. These people were a backslidden people. These people who disobeyed God. These people who brought the judgment of God upon them for their sin, and yet this is how God speaks of them. He speaks of them that His thoughts towards them, even in the midst of the captivity, His thoughts would be of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end, or the word is a hopeful end. A hopeful end. Isn't our God a gracious God? A merciful God? Remember when you come to pray, You remember that when you come to pray, child of God. Remember that the God to whom you come to is the one who does not seek the demise or the destruction of his people, but rather he seeks the deliverance of his people. Let us seek his face tonight then with this awareness that he wants to bless his people, that he wants to do exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or think for the people of God. And so here's an incentive. Who are you going to go to to pray? But I'm going to go to the God whose thoughts towards me are of peace and not of evil, to give me an expected or a hopeful end. This is who we go to tonight, brethren and sisters. What a privilege to go to this, our God, this evening. And so we find here incentives to prayer or off prayer. Consider secondly then engagement in prayer. Verse 12. they call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me." The word then obviously points us back to what has come before. Whenever the petitioners came to understand their present plight, and whenever they were encouraged by the promise of God, and whenever they had a right view of the one to whom they prayed, then they could do nothing else but pray. It was just enough. It was the stimulus that they needed in order to pray. And so they come to seek God in prayer. They come to call upon Him. And so they come and they come to pray to Him. Matthew Henry wrote, when God is about to give His people the expected good, He pours out a spirit of prayer. It is a good sign that He is coming towards them in mercy. Then, when you see the expected end approaching, then you shall call upon me. Note, promises are given not to supersede, but to quicken and encourage prayer. And when deliverance is coming, we must, by prayer, go forth to meet it. You know, brethren and sisters, we can talk about prayer. Brethren and sisters, we can preach about prayer. We can reminisce about prayer. We can romanticize about prayer. We can write books about prayer. But we need to pray. We need to pray. Prayer was the first and only thing that these people did. That's all they did. They didn't muster armies together. They didn't go out and try and fight the Babylonians. They prayed. That was their only resort. They went to God in prayer. They forgot about all other mechanisms. thought about all other organizations and they simply went to God in prayer. God will bring us there. God will bring us there. Prayer, engagement in prayer, then shall ye call upon me. That word ye there, it is the plural second person which simply means that really God envisaged all of the people, all of the captives to be calling upon Him, not just one person. This was corporate prayer. Then shall ye, it isn't you as an individual, but you collectively as a body. That's the Hebrew sense of that term, ye. It is the plural form of it, the second person. You all, you all shall pray. Isn't that a wonderful thing whenever all of God's people pray? I notice in how they were to pray, For it says there in verse 13, And ye shall seek me and find me when ye search for me with all your heart. The whole heart engaged in it. This wasn't a half-hearted praying. This was the full heart engaged. The full engaging of prayer. Now prayer isn't easy. You would do anything but pray. Maybe you find it difficult to pray. Maybe you're an individual and you would listen to other people praying, maybe publicly, and you would say, yourself well I could never pray like them I certainly couldn't pray maybe as as long as them or as eloquently as them it doesn't matter you pray whether that be audibly tonight or inaudibly you pray let there be a collective outpouring of heart on to God this evening. And so we find here in this little portion there is engagement in prayer. There's incentives to pray, the state of the land, the promises of God. They encourage us, the God to whom we come. These are all incentives to pray. But then we must pray. We must then engage in the praying. And then we find finally, thirdly and finally, answers to prayer. Answers to prayer look again at the verse number 12 then shall you call upon me and ye shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken on to you in verse 14 and I will be found if you saith the lord and I will turn away your captivity and I will gather you from the nations unto the places whether I have driven you saith the lord and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive it's very simple people were encouraged to pray, the people engaged in prayer and they saw answers to their praying. God answered prayer, God turned the captivity, God worked, God intervened. Hard to imagine, hard to imagine that the situation could be turned around but it was on the basis of a promise, promise given many years prior and yet God turned it around to Child of God, are you discouraged in prayer? Continue in prayer. Continue to plead the promises of God. God will answer prayer. God hears and God answers prayer. And what encouragement we have here for prayer tonight. The fact that God will hearken on to our prayers. Never lose sight of this, Christian. God hears and answers prayer. He does. He listens to the requests of his people. And in his time and in his way, he comes to answer their prayers. This is no small encouragement for us then to pray tonight, brethren and sisters. Brother, sister, you're not wasting your time being here tonight. You are not wasting your time being here tonight. In fact, I'm convinced that no better thing could you be doing tonight than to be in the place of prayer. I'm convinced no better thing could you be doing for your family, for this local church, and for your country tonight than by giving yourself to pray and to prayer. Well, let us be those who not only pray, but let us be those who look for the answers to our prayers. Their request was very specific, the turning again of their captivity. Whenever God answered prayer and saw the children return to Israel, the children of Israel, they were able to look back and say, God heard. God answered prayer. Oh, that God would help us to be specific in our praying tonight. God hearing and God answering the specific prayers of His people. God turned the captivity. God brought them back. And in that land, they still live, their ancestors, and will do so until Christ comes again. God is true to his word. Not one thing is he promised that he will not perform. And so may God incentivize us to pray tonight. Yes, we look around us and we see the barrenness. That's incentive to pray. Yes, there's promises. Ah, call on to me, and I will answer thee. Show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. And the God to whom we come to, He's not a God who wants to withhold, but He's a God who desires to give. giveth and giveth and giveth again but let us then engage in prayer let's then look for the answers to our prayer time is gone may god be pleased to bless just these simple thoughts even to our hearts tonight for christ's sake amen let's bow briefly in a word of prayer together let's pray seek the lord together Our gracious and loving Father, we come now to thee again in Jesus' name. We're ever thankful, Lord, for the throne of heavenly grace to which we come and to the God who is seated upon that throne. We pray, Lord, that even tonight as we come now to seek thy face, that we might know thy blessing and thy presence to be among us. We pray thou will pour upon us the spirit of prayer and supplications. Grand Lord, help to every brother, sister, as we seek the Lord together. And grant, dear Father, even this time and season to be a blessing even for our waiting souls. Come and answer prayer. Lord, deliver us, we pray. Many are our enemies, Lord, we recognize that. We pray, Lord, that thou will deliver us from our own backsliding and our own sin. Forgive us, Lord, we pray. We return again to thee, Lord. We return to our God. We pray, Lord, that thou will come and answer our prayers and hear our cries. and turn our captivity as streams in the south. Come and answer prayer and help those who now leave us on the internet now to seek thy face. We pray these our prayers in Jesus' precious name.