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AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH Making the Best of Adversity Jeremiah 29:4-7, 11 Dr. William S. Epps, Senior Pastor

Sunday, February 13, 2022

Making the Best of Adversity   4This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5“Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7Also, 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. 11"I know the plans I have for you" declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29:4-7,11 (NIV)   Introduction   We began this month focusing on the passage from the Psalm 137 which chronicled the situation of persons in captivity lamenting their condition. The passage heightened our awareness that lamenting is a part of life. Life doesn't always work like you desire. You expressed your displeasure through lamenting. The passage also heightened our awareness about how to respond to undesirable situations. You refuse to humor those who want to poke fun at what you consider sacred. You recognize that tyrants always find a pretext for their tyranny. We were made aware that we pledge our allegiance and loyalty to God.    The passage today is from the prophet of Jeremiah and is the second in this series for African American History Month. Jeremiah prophesized during the Babylonian captivity. The people wanted immediate relief. Jeremiah let them know this was going to be a protracted predicament. Prepare yourself for what you will face with commitment, perseverance and resolve. Jeremiah addresses his message to a particular group of people.    4This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.    Adversity is a part of life and living. Many are touched by adversity, they fall down and they never get back up. They give in, give up, and give out. They have a pity party complaining and whining, whereas some go through adversity and discover their true selves. And then a hero comes along With the strength to carry on / And you cast your fears aside And you know you can survive / So when you feel like hope is gone Look inside you and be strong / And you'll finally see the truth That a hero lies in you. ~Mariah Carey You can let what happens in life make you bitter or better.  Consider what it means that you have in you what you need to make the best of adversity in your life.

Monday, February 14, 2022

We Cannot Direct the Wind, But We Can Adjust the Sails of our lives to use the wind to our advantage to the best of our ability.   One ship sails East, / And another West, By the self-same winds that blow, / 'Tis the set of the sails And not the gales, / That tells the way we go. Like the winds of the sea / Are the waves of time, As we journey along through life, / 'Tis the set of the soul, That determines the goal, / And not the calm or the strife. ~Ella Wheeler Wilcox   Adversity is an undesirable / unfavorable / unpleasant condition marked by calamity, distress or misfortune. Adversity is like a strong wind that holds us back from places we might otherwise go. Remembering that, "it is the set of the sail that determines the goal and not the way the wind blows. It’s not what happens that determines your life's future. It’s what you do about what happens." All of us are metaphorically living in a little sailboat, and it’s not the blowing of the wind that determines your destination, it’s the set of the sail. This phrase is is one of the best to understand, so jot it down: "It's the set of the sails that determine the goal and not the way the wind blows."   Adversity can break you or make you; the choice is yours. Life presents us with adverse situations. What do you do when presented with adversity? Let this passage share its message with you about making the best of adversity.    Consider what it means that the wind - whether contrary or compatible - can be either negative or positive depending on whether you use it to your advantage or disadvantage.

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

We find one of these situations of adversity in Jeremiah 29. Look at verse 1: “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 Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon" (NIV). These people were pondering, what do we do until this exile is over? God gave them an answer. What do you do in a protracted predicament that you are going to be experiencing for a longer than desired or expected time?    First face the reality of the situation. (Face Reality that contrary winds blow in life / no one is exempt / we are all subject to ill winds blowing.) The same wind blows on us all, the winds of change, the winds of calamity, the winds of disaster, the winds of opportunity. The wind, when it’s favorable or unfavorable, the same wind blows on us all. The contrary winds blow, economic winds, the winds of social change, the political winds - all these same winds blow on everybody. You are where you are for a reason or as some would say, for a season.  In any event you are where you are because you have been carried there because life is filled with circumstances beyond our control / circumstances due to the lack of control / consequences of choices by you / others / and you name it. Adversity is always a part of the equation of life for all of us. Notice Jeremiah 29, verse 4: “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon”. God permitted them to be in Babylon. This is a difficult truth to accept. God may have allowed you to be where you are today. This is one of the difficult aspects of believing in the sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of God means that God allows, knows, or permits even challenging difficulty into our lives. One of the first very practical things we can do while facing adversity is to face reality; face the situation with courage and faith in almighty God.  (Our complicity creates the circumstances of the contrary winds that blow in our lives / our negligence / insensitivity / frustration / inaction / our giving in / giving out / giving up. The reality is that the unpleasant circumstance we may find ourselves facing may not change today or tomorrow or the next day. (Adversity has a shelf life of its own).  Consider what it means to face adverse situations with courage and faith in God.

Wednesday, February 16, 2022

Man's inhumanity to man. This phrase, which is always used with a sense of regret, was coined by Robert Burns and used in his poem:  an excerpt from Man Was Made to Mourn: A Dirge, 1785 'Many and sharp the num'rous ills / In woven with our frame! More pointed still we make ourselves / Regret, remorse, and shame! And Man, whose heav'n-erected face The smiles of love adorn, / Man's inhumanity to man Makes countless thousands mourn!   We hunt and persecute each other. Our world is full of man’s infamous inhumanity to man and woman.  Maafa commemorates the African Holocaust, Holocaust of enslavement is used to describe the history and ongoing effects of atrocities inflicted on people.  Maafa suggests that the effects of humanity's inhumanity to one another through imperialism, colonialism, racism, sexism, discrimination, and other forms of oppression such as legal disenfranchisement: the "destruction of human possibility involved redefining African humanity to the world, poisoning the past, present, and future with stereotypes that diminish, devalue and demean people.  The largest slave trade in the history of the world was created by white Christian Europeans. Before it was over as many as 60 million Africans would be killed for the profit of white Christian imperialism. Millions more died in concentration camps at both ends of the sea journey, and significant numbers would die due to the appalling conditions on the slave ships. The financial profits of this slave trade helped build the economic foundations of America.  It was not just the south. Northern business interests made huge profits too.   We lament the atrocities of yesterday as well as those that loom on the horizon today. We acknowledge the reality of the adversity that exists. Call it what it is.    Consider what it means that man’s inhumanity to humanity is prevalent in the fabric of our culture and society.

Thursday, February 17, 2022

Secondly, Don’t give up. "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce." Jeremiah 29:5 Be productive where you are.    Besides acknowledging the adversity you face, consider what the prophet says God told the people to do.    A. Build houses and settle down / build houses to protect yourself from the elements that will destroy you / disappoint you / distress you / Build what you need to protect yourself / emotionally, mentally and psychologically / build your houses and settle down / reach a decision and resolve what you are going to do once and for all / After all it was the contrary winds blowing that brought you to where you are that you have caused by your faithlessness, insensitivity and negligence. Now is the time to make the best of what has happened.  B. Plant gardens and eat what they produce (provide what you need for sustenance and strength to sustain yourself.)  C. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Maintain yourself in a context of contact with each other that is productive, increasing / multiplying / reproducing / proliferating the possibility of your preservation.  D. 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. Consider what it means to be productive in your adversity as the exiles were admonished by the Lord.

Friday, February 18, 2022

Plan for the future. Jeremiah 29:11 "I know the plans I have for you" declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  You want to see the future the Lord has for you. Don’t miss it by thwarting/upsetting the plans the Lord has for you despite the exile with its awful conditions and challenges.   When we are in our own exile, we may be tempted to get dragged down in the ugly details of life. It may be difficult to visualize what tomorrow will be like, much less plan for next year, or beyond. But that is when it is most necessary. God is not finished with us yet, and in spite of the way things may look at any given moment, it is important for us to realize that God has a plan, that God knows what that plan is, and that God is going to be faithful to keep all the promises God makes.  God has a future for us, and for us to sit down and act as though there is no future is to deny the inexplicable love of our Heavenly Father. The sun goes down today, but the eyes of faith allow us to see that the sun will rise tomorrow. While in a difficult situation, we who know the Lord should not act as though there will not be a tomorrow—because there will be! And the same Lord who brings each day will bring tomorrows also. Listen to and trust the Lord's promises. Do not listen to faithless people (with their disinformation) Look at what God told these people in Jeremiah 29:8: "Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you." These false prophets are faithless people. They did not speak for God. Listen to God’s voice (remember the Lord's promise, “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 and a future. Then you will call upon 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.” Jeremiah 29:11-13 Consider what it means to prepare for the future despite the bleak current circumstance.

Saturday, February 19, 2022

We’ve come a long way from where we started. Through slavery, reconstruction and deconstruction, through Jim Crow, segregation, persistent discrimination, through marches and non-violent protest producing civil rights legislation, voting rights legislation. We are facing the same reality again, as there as those who would diminish the present accomplishments with a white supremacy privilege to cancel the reality of the historical developments that have been made.  Ponder the future of every generation that was demeaned and maligned. Reflect on your history individually with adversity as well as the history of African American's struggle for equality in a racist and sexist culture. We will continue to trust in the same Presence that has brought us through before to take us through now to a hopeful future with faith.    Conclusion Though the storms keep on raging in my life And sometimes it's hard to tell the night from day Still that hope that lies within is reassured As I keep my eyes upon the distant shore I know He'll lead me safely to that blessed place He has prepared But if the storms don't cease And if the winds keep on blowing in my life My soul has been anchored in the Lord Oh, I realize that sometimes in this life, we gonna be tossed / By the waves and the currents that seem so fierce / But in the Word of God, I've got an anchor And it keeps me steadfast and unmovable / Despite the tides But if, if the storms don't cease /And just in case the winds, they keep on blowing in my life / My soul, my soul's been anchored in, in the Lord / My soul, my soul's been anchored in, in the Lord The pillars may roll, the breakers may dash I shall not sway because He holds me fast So dark the day, clouds in the sky / I know it's alright 'cause Jesus is mine And my soul is anchored in the Lord.   Consider what it means to prepare for the future that is yet to be with the belief that future can become reality.

My Soul's Been Anchored in the Lord Douglas Miller

Second Baptist Church Los Angeles 2412 Griffith Ave Los Angeles, CA 90011  Phone: (213) 748-0318

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