Jeremiah 29:10-14 Hi God, It’s Me

Do you like talking with your dads? How about hanging out with them. One of my favourite memories with my dad is fishing with him. He told us stories of his family and what it was like growing up.

Today’s Cadet Sunday. We get to see what Cadets is about and what you’re doing and learning this year. I love that you’re learning about talking to God. What a great theme verse this year that tells us that God wants us to talk to him; to say, “Hi God, it’s me, I’m here.” Jeremiah says it this way, “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.” We talked about praying here in Bethel a few weeks ago, and now we get to talk about it again. Thanks, because prayer’s really important.

One of the cool things I’ve discovered over the years is that God wants us to come to him to talk and trust that he listens when we talk. Jesus even tells us that we can call God “father” when we talk to him. Jesus uses the word “Abba” which can be father, but it’s more like calling God “dad” or “daddy.” The apostle Paul says the same thing in Romans 8, “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” Whenever I called my dad “Father” he knew I wanted something from him, because usually I just called him “dad.” Jesus tells us we can call God, “Daddy,” too to show him that our hearts love him like a daddy.

Your dads love you a lot, I know that because I’m a dad too, and a grand-dad. Even though we love you, sometimes we get tired, busy, distracted, or even grumpy and then when you come to us to talk, we might tell you to come back later. My dad’s pretty great, but when I was growing up, he was always busy. For a while he even worked 3 jobs at the same time so that we could go to the Christian school and camp for a couple of weeks in the summer. He loves us, that’s why he worked so hard, but he was usually too busy or tired to play with us, or even hang out with us very often. That’s the difference with God; he’s never too busy or tired to hang out with us. Fathers, heads-up, I’ve learned, mostly through messing up, that our sons, and our daughters, really just want us and need us to be available to them, they need and want you, not just the stuff you give them.

Jesus shows us God’s heart for children when he takes time to take children on his lap and bless them. The disciples saw them as just a nuisance and tried to shoo them away. Jesus tells his disciples, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” This would have been shocking to the adults hanging around Jesus because children were to be seen and not heard, and if they are seen, they’re supposed to be in the background so the adults could have the best spots. Jesus says, “No, the children are just as important as the adults and I’m taking time for them and blessing them.” Jesus also tells everybody in Matthew 18, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” You’re important to God, he even tells adults to be more like you because of how you just trust God and Jesus and how you freely love with all your hearts, something we sometimes forget as adults.

But sometimes it still feels like God’s far away and not listening, but that doesn’t mean it’s true. That’s how the people are feeling though in our Bible passage this morning. The people of Israel are far away from home. They’ve been beat up and defeated by their enemies and taken to a foreign land where they’re now slaves. All this had happened because God has allowed it because Israel had stopped listening to God, praying to God and obeying God. God had told them to take care of each other, to help each other out, especially the poor, the widows, and the orphans; all people who couldn’t take care of themselves. But the people of Israel had become greedy and selfish, only taking care of themselves and sometimes even taking away what little the poor, widow or orphans had, making them even worse off. So, God allowed the king of Babylon to defeat his people and take them far away from home.

Sometimes when our dads punish us, we feel like they don’t love us and that’s not true, same thing with God. Just because God allows his people to be punished, he still loves them because they’re his children. So God gets the prophet Jeremiah to send them a letter that tells them that God hasn’t forgotten them and that he’s going to bring them back home again. God has plans for his people, plans to save them, but also plans to save the whole world from their sins.  This happens when Jesus comes and invites people to trust and love God as their father. Jesus also goes to the cross to save us from our sins and he rises from the grave to show us that we’ll have eternal life through him and with him. Jesus now calls us to love other people like he does and to tell others how much God loves them and wants them to be his children too.

“Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.” God wants us to know that he’s paying attention to what’s going on in your life at school, at cadets, at church, at home and wherever you are. No matter where you are, God’s listening, all he wants from you and all of us is for us to stop during our day to talk with him about what’s going on. He’s interested in your math test, your recess time, your chores and play time at home. He’s listening for when you ask for help and when you stop to say, “Hey God, what a wonderful day today, thanks!” Just like your dad asks you, “How did school go today,” God asks you the same kinds of questions because he wants to know from you how things are going.

If there’s something you feel you really need, Jesus tells us to ask him. What can you ask for? God told King Solomon in a dream, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.” You know what Solomon asked for; he asked for wisdom. Jesus makes the same promise to us in Mark 11, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” Just a heads-up though, God wants us to ask him for things that will help us be the people God wants us to be. God is not a store keeper who will give you all the toys and stuff you want, he’s all about the kind of man you’re becoming. Your counsellors have the same heart for you, that’s why they’re here, because they want to help you become a young man who loves and follows Jesus.  

What I love about praying is that it makes me feel like God is close by. My dad’s far away and when I used to talk to him on the phone, we felt close again. Praying does the same thing for me when I pray. But praying does take work and practice, it doesn’t just happen. Nancy Caparulo reminds us of this, “To know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. Be filled with all the fullness of God. These are - or should be - very humbling prospects. We humans don't get there by accident. We must persevere. Practice does make perfect. Ovid observed centuries ago that "nothing is stronger than habit." … It doesn't just mysteriously happen.”

Ask your mom and dad to help you pray, maybe by doing the prayer at supper, or praying with you at bedtime, or maybe in the car while going to school or practice. Try finding a time every day where you can talk to God your father. I usually pray while I’m walking my dog Bellah early in the mornings, I pray with Real at bedtime so that he’s learning about talking to God. In the morning I ask God what he’s got for me for the day and I talk to him about the things going on in my family and in the church family because God likes hearing from us what’s happening. The more I pray, the better I’m getting at staying focused on God and talking to him and the more connected I feel to my heavenly father. That’s my prayer for you today.