Louie Giglio - Zoom Out, Hope Is Bigger Than You Think
This collection is called «The One Thing,» and its subtitle is «Heading into an Uncertain Year with an Unshakable Hope.» The message Pastor Grant gave last week was brilliant and so inspiring, kicking off this collection. That subtitle has already come true for us. This year started off uncertain on New Year’s Eve morning in New Orleans, Louisiana, and it has been uncertain all the way through January. The year is unknown for us collectively and for you individually. Yet underneath all of that is an unshakable hope, and that’s what we want to focus on during this journey together.
Today’s message takes us to what I believe could be the epicenter of encouragement around hope. If there has ever been a word of hope for our lives, it’s found in the prophet Jeremiah from 600 BC. The verse in Jeremiah is likely well-known to everyone here today; it might be your life verse: Jeremiah 29:11. Amen? Does anyone have it crocheted on a pillow or as a screensaver on their phone? It says, «For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope"—there’s our word—and «a future.» This word in the original language carries a big idea regarding hope and a future. What it conveys needs these two words—hope and future—all expressing one thing: a hopeful ending. God’s plan is to bring your life, ultimately, no matter what you go through, to a hopeful conclusion.
What I love, and I hope you’ll stay with me on this, is that most of us take this text and think, «Wow, I must be the 'you' in this verse.» So we make this our life verse. We park here and believe this for our lives. But today, I want us to zoom out from this verse. Like many things in faith, we come to God’s Word, find that one thing we really love, and circle the one thing that speaks to us, saying, «That’s for me right there!» But we don’t take the time to understand what God is talking about here. What is the context of what God is saying? If you don’t understand the context, you won’t grasp the fullness of the text. So with this verse, like many verses, we grab it and say, «This is me. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.»
Today, I want us to zoom out a little bit because when you zoom out from verse 11 and understand the context it sits in, the meaning becomes even more powerful than it is by itself. You might think, «This couldn’t be more powerful than it is by itself; I’ve been holding on to this through this hard season I’ve been going through, in this dark journey I’m in right now.» But it can be more powerful when we widen our lens and see what is going on in Jeremiah 29, with verse 11 nestled in the midst of it.
The first thing to notice when you zoom out is that the «you» here is not singular; it’s plural. Please, don’t leave me here. Stay with me; it’s going to be good all the way to the very end. When you zoom out, you realize this verse isn’t spoken directly and individually to you; it’s spoken to the people of God at a particular moment in time. What we would love to do is just say, «Now that’s my verse!» But it’s not just your verse; it’s a verse for the people of God who were in a considerable predicament at that moment and needed this promise of hope from God.
Now, we can apply it to our lives, but it helps to look wider at the context. That’s why the title of this talk is «Zoom Out: The Hope is Bigger Than You Think.» We see the context when we look at Jeremiah 29, a letter to the exiles. This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets, and all the other people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
What’s happening here is that the «you» in this promise refers to God’s people from Judah, who had been disobedient and disinterested in the things of God. They didn’t have time for God, for His house, or for His ways. But He still loved them; He still had purpose and plans for their lives. Yet now, they ended up being carried away by a foreign ruler to a foreign land and city. They were disobedient and disinterested, but they were now displaced, captive, embarrassed, disheartened, and in exile, so that they could reflect on who they are and the condition of their hearts. Has anyone ever been in that place before, where you weren’t interested in God’s way, so you ended up in another place, only to reflect on your life and the condition of your heart? That’s where they were—they were in exile because they insisted on doing things their way.
Not all of them were like this, though. Daniel was in exile in Babylon; so were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They weren’t there because they were disinterested in God; they were there as a consequence of their people being disinterested in Him. God ultimately gave them their own way. We began the year with this online collection, and I talked about Psalm 81:10: «I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of Egypt.» In this case, the Sovereign God was bringing them out of a ruler. In Jeremiah, the Sovereign God sends them to another ruler. We see already, the footnote today is that there’s a Sovereign God in our story. He says, «Open wide your mouth, and I will fill it.» What a promise for this year in our lives!
But look how fast things change. Verse 11: «But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.» Wow, there can’t be more intense words than these. «I gave them over.» It reminds me of what we often say: one of the scariest realities in life is that if you insist, God will let you do it your own way. That’s where they were.
I don’t know who this message is for today; you might already be dialed in, realizing you have made some bad decisions. You have been disinterested in God’s ways and have insisted on doing things your way. Now you’re in a place that feels like exile. Or perhaps you’re in exile because of someone else’s choices; someone else’s decisions have put you in that place. Maybe for you, exile looks like a fractured relationship or fractured relationships due to your actions. Perhaps exile for you means someone made a decision that turned you into an ex. Maybe exile for you is estrangement from your family. Maybe you’re in the midst of a devastating harvest because of the terrible seeds you’ve planted, and the fruit is coming to bear.
Exile could look like barren land, being miles away from everything you know and love. For you, it might mean outward prosperity but inward longing and waste. You could face walls of addiction that bind you, or everything you’ve worked for might be stripped away from you. If that’s you, like the recipients of Jeremiah’s letter, there is a promise and hope for you today, even in exile.
Five things emerge when we zoom out. First, God’s plans for your life are better than your plans for your life. I love how He says, «I know the plans I have for you,» declares the Lord. I know you have plans, and God knows you have plans. It’s okay that you have plans, but God also has plans. I’ll tell you this right now: you should not fear God’s plans because His plans for your life are better than yours. I mean, I’m 66 years old; if you dial back to 17 years old at Campbell High School in Smyrna, Georgia, I’d have said, «Hey, Louie, what are your plans for your life?» I had some plans, but this wasn’t in any of them. It wasn’t that they were bad; they just were way different. What I’ve learned is that God always has better plans for me.
Even if you’re in exile like they were at that moment—and now, we’ve zoomed out; we understand that when God made this phenomenal promise to them, they weren’t having their best day—they were in Babylon, in exile. They had been carried away from home, from their businesses, and in some cases, from their extended families. Now, they’re in a foreign land. But God still has plans for them, even in that foreign land. If you are in exile today, you need to know God is thinking about you right now, no matter how far away you are. He could have easily written them off, but He wanted to bring them back. To do that, He had to send them out.
You might be where you are right now because God sent you there. But He didn’t send you to leave you there; He sent you there to bring you back, restored to the fullness of your potential in Him. Interestingly, this text opens with a letter to those among the exiles, the people that Nebuchadnezzar carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. But you don’t have to go far in the text to realize that God is at work.
In verse 4, «This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.» It’s the same in verse 14 and verse 20. All throughout Jeremiah 29, after stating that Nebuchadnezzar carried them away, God continues, «I carried them.» So who carried them? Was it Nebuchadnezzar or God? Yes, both. The Sovereign God was using this powerful ruler Nebuchadnezzar to accomplish His good plans for His people. His plans are always good.
We saw this when we studied Romans 8:28, knowing that in all things, even in exile, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. His plans are good plans. The place you’re in right now might not be good, but the plans of God for your life are good.
The second thing we see when we zoom out is that God is faithful to keep His promises to you. He will keep His promise. Verse 10: «This is what the Lord says: When 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.» There is a sovereign God in your story, in charge of your destiny, even in exile. Just zoom out wider for a second.
In 669 BC, the ruler of the Assyrian Empire, Esarhaddon, died, having built the Assyrian Empire to great strength. His son, Ashurbanipal, became the ruler. When he died, his brother, given some territories to rule over, decided to start taking more territories. He ends up taking Babylon. Ashurbanipal goes to Babylon, and for four years, he besieges the city. By 648, Babylon fell to Assyrian control. But eventually, Ashurbanipal died in 631, and the Babylonians and Medes banded together, strengthened their alliance, and began to retake lands.
The leader of Babylon at that time was Nebopolassar, a very clever man. He forged alliances and arranged for his son, Nebuchadnezzar, to marry the daughter of the ruler of the Medes. Together, they began conquering cities. In 612, Nineveh fell, and by 605, at the consequential Battle of Carchemish, Nebuchadnezzar was leading the troops. He became ruler of what was now the mightiest of empires—the Babylonian Empire. They ended up taking not only land but the divided Kingdom of Israel, Judah, and Jerusalem. Right away, they began to besiege Jerusalem.
This happened in 605. In 597, another siege occurred, resulting in 7,000 to 10,000 captives being taken from Jerusalem to Babylon. In 587, they ransacked the city and destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, leading to further exiles. Nebuchadnezzar died in Babylon in 562, and in 539, Cyrus the Great, ruler of the Persian Empire, overthrew Babylon.
Cyrus came in during a big feast in Babylon, distracted the people, diverted the Euphrates River, and crossed it with his armies, sacking Babylon. The Babylonian Empire fell because of Cyrus the Great, who called himself the king of the world. But he wasn’t; there was a Sovereign God controlling the events of history.
Isaiah 46:9-10 states, «Remember this, keep it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels. Remember the former things, those of long ago: I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times what is still to come. I say, 'My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.'»
So, in 539, God says, «It’s time to bring them back.» He sent them out for 70 years because He wanted to restore the house of God and the hearts of the people. He wanted a new generation to rise up who would love His Word and Him. He wanted them to understand who they were—how they’re not supposed to be in this foreign land, as they are God’s people. Now, the work He wanted to do was complete, so He moved Cyrus the Great, who thought he was king, to overthrow Babylon. One of the very first things he did in 538 was to pronounce a decree allowing all the exiles to return home to Jerusalem.
Over time, they began the process of returning. Just a small footnote: Cyrus the Great died in 530, and the Persian Empire fell to Alexander the Great in 331. God is still on His throne. Remember, He needed to get these people into exile, and then bring them home.
When it looks like everything is lost and someone else seems to be pulling all the strings, remember that God is the one who is Sovereign in time. He raises up kings and puts them down. He raises up nations and puts them down. He raises up rulers and puts them down. He’s the God of history and the God of your story. He has plans for you, and you can believe He’s faithful to keep His promise to you. He will move empires to keep His promise to you.
The third thing we observe when we zoom out is that we must be wary of false voices while in exile. When you’re in exile, everyone has an opinion. The scariest opinion of all, when you’re in exile, is when someone says, «The Lord told me to tell you this.» In fact, that might be the scariest person period. I’m not saying you shouldn’t open your life to your close friends or people in your circle, sharing what you feel after praying. But anyone who says, «The Lord told me to tell you this…» makes me wary, not because of what they’re about to say, but because I don’t like when people speak over me in that way.
A small note, it’s perfectly okay to say, «I don’t know for sure, but I think the Lord has laid this on my heart…» and if it’s real, it will resonate, but when someone approaches you by saying, «The Lord told me to tell you this,» I immediately think about whether the Lord sent them.
In the chapter before, in Jeremiah 28, there’s a prophet named Hananiah who didn’t like the 70-year prophecy. So he proclaimed something different, saying, «This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says: I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon within two years.» Jeremiah then declared, «No, that’s not how it’s going to go down.» He even made a yoke to signify the 70 years and the hope of God. When Hananiah broke that yoke as a sign that God would break Babylon’s oppression, Jeremiah affirmed that the 70 years had a divine purpose—God’s timeline.
The 70 years was the necessary work of completion that God wanted to achieve in that situation. Ultimately, Jeremiah stood firm in his message while the people rallied around Hananiah’s two-year promise, but Jeremiah insisted, «No, this is the word of the Lord.»
When we revisit Jeremiah 29, we see he is serious about this. God tells Shemiah in the latter part of the text not to listen to false voices saying, «You can shortcut the journey.» So, don’t let anyone into your exile to shortcut the completeness that God wants to do.
The fourth insight from zooming out is this: God gives you a hope so big, even in exile, that you can bless your exile. When you hear this word of the Lord, this promise—"I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future"—it changes your perspective on exile.
You can go through it, come out of it, and you can realize, «While God has me here, I can still bless others.» This is what He said in verse 4: «This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses, settle down, plant gardens, eat what they produce, marry and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and daughters, and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number; do not decrease.»
Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile; pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper. What God is expressing is that while we’re in a barren place, He doesn’t want us only to think about escaping; He wants us to invest in our surroundings.
What do we see here? We see hints of the Gospel in Jeremiah’s time and the call to bless even in exile. You know the idea of blessing those who curse you? The Lord asks us to look beyond ourselves in our own struggles, find ways to bless those around us, and to pray for the peace and prosperity of those in our exiles.
When you wake up tomorrow, your circumstances may not change, but God can change your heart. Instead of thinking, «God, get me out of this,» you could shift your perspective and ask, «How can I bless someone in this?» When you’re stuck in exile, you can let your hope propel you into a mindset of prosperity, not just for yourself but for those around you.
In closing, the hope and future in Jeremiah 29:11 is a promise that goes beyond just a quote; it’s about a person, not a place. Jeremiah 29:12–14 further establishes this: «Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord.»
What is the promise? The promise and the hope and future is God. It’s not a place; it’s a person. It’s not a destination; it’s a relationship. Despite any exile you may face, you can seek Him, pray to Him, and be found in Him. He is your hope and future. Yes, He will bring you back from captivity. He will gather you from all the nations and places where He sent you. He’s promising today, whether you feel lost in the wilderness or have faced rejection, that He is a Sovereign God, knowing the plans He has for you. They are good plans meant to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
So, you can change today. Turn your heart to God. Say, «Your way, not mine; Your plans, not mine.» You don’t have to ask for a place or destination. You can simply say, «God, more than anything, I want You. I need You.» Call on Him today; seek Him today. You may still find yourself in exile, but you will be a different person in exile, knowing you are on the path toward fulfillment, already there because you have Jesus.