The Undivided Podcast

A Future and A Hope | Episode 8

• Johnny & Heather Underwood • Season 1 • Episode 8

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Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode! Today, Pastor Johnny leans into Jeremiah 29:11–14 with honest reflection on why Israel went into exile and how those patterns echo now. Hope is real, but so is discipline; He names modern idols, challenges us to embrace repentance, to step back into prayer, church, and restored purpose, and to seek the Lord with all of our heart.

• reading Jeremiah 29:11–14 and its context
• five patterns that led Israel into exile
• modern idols that compete for our hearts
• the cost of choices and misusing grace
• rejecting or receiving wise counsel
• God’s discipline as a path to restoration
• practical steps for returning to God in 2026
• invitation to seek God with a whole heart
• encouragement to rejoin a local church

Visit www.christiangrantmusic.com and experience his music as he readies a new album in early 2026.

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SPEAKER_00:

Hey, Johnny Underwood here with the Undivided Podcast. Thank you for tuning in today, and I really hope you're blessed by this episode. Well, good afternoon, Undivided Podcast listeners. Really excited to talk to you today about a scripture that has been a part of my life for the majority of my life, all the way back through my high school years. But before we get to that, I want to just uh acknowledge that we just celebrated another Christmas here in 2025, and what a glorious celebration holiday that is. I hope that the previous message or previous podcast episode, the reason for the season, was a real blessing to you. I know it blessed me to be able to put it out there and to really reminisce on who Christ is and what He has come, He came to do, and how we're living from that gift of the gift of Christ, all the way back to that manger scene, to what we were walking in today and this dispensation of grace. We live a very blessed life because of the gift of Christ. So that said, let's jump into one of my favorite scriptures today. It is Jeremiah 29, 11 through 14. And I'm just going to read it out here. It says, For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and you will come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and you will find me when you seek me with all of your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord. And I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord. And I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. So it's a great scripture. It's a very hope-filled scripture, uh, which is what was on my heart as we adventure into the 2026. And so uh but that being said, I do want to break it down because as much as this is promising and it's uh and it does speak of better things to come in the future, I want to also lean into not just the the hope and the promise of a future, but also want to lean into how Israel got to where they where he is referencing here in verse 14 when he he references the different places that he has put he has exiled them. So as I've looked over this over the you know 25 years, 30 years of my life, since this scripture has really been a part of my life, I have made note of different things. And so we're gonna we're just gonna look at five kind of key points that refer or kind of point to what got Israel into exile. And why is that important? Because what I found is over the when I look back over my life, there have been times in my life that I can see that I've been exiled, that I've been walking through challenges and hurdles, um, consequences of sin, of choices in my own life, where I didn't take the counsel of God. I didn't take the counsel of others, I didn't lean into what I knew to be true in scripture, uh, what I had studied, and and it cost me. It cost me uh whether it was from money to uh tickets to setting a weekend in jail, um, it cost me relationships, uh it's cost me jobs, uh just a myriad of things that my choices, my sin cost me. So they're just it's just a a list of consequences of from choices that we that we've that we I'll say specifically here, me, as I've looked back over this scripture. And what we see is if I we can reference back, I want to reference back to uh different chapters in Jeremiah. In chapters uh one and two, we see that Israel had started to serve and surrender and worship uh uh foreign gods, and we're in in the worship of foreign gods uh is a mirroring or an example of unfaithfulness or um adultery, really, of serving and bowing to and and giving to something that God has not called them to. If you will, they were cheating on uh on God in their service to, and they're making sacrifices to foreign gods. So we have that. And you go, hey, how does that work? We really don't have foreign gods in our in our land. But here the reality is that we do. It's anything that we bow to, anything that we put up and we raise higher than our relationship with God. So that can be just various things in culture, where that can be uh pleasure, that can be money, it can be comfort. Uh it could just anything that takes us away that we say we run to that and we medicate with that rather than run to and medicate with God, or run to and find comfort, surrender and run to God in relationship, that we say, hey, I want this or I prefer this, whether we say that in action or in words, that we are we are prioritizing that over him. So I know as I've looked over my own life, and even as I look back over 2025, I can see that I've done this in different times and need to come back and have come back to his place of repentance and saying, God, I don't, I don't want that to be true of me, and I don't want that to be named among me. Uh I want you to be first and foremost, to be the continue to be the Lord of my life. And so I have to come back and repent of that and say, God, I want to put you and I am putting you back upon that high place, that throne of my heart, and that throne of my life, that I run decisions and the affections of my heart through the filter of relationship with you. So that's one thing that got Israel uh uh exiled. Uh, the second thing that I see here that got Israel exiled is that broken covenant, that God made a covenant with Israel, and then Israel begins to do different things. Again, I use the word like we have in marriage, we have a covenant marriage, but then in relationship, there can be a breaking of that covenant. So in this relationship with Israel and God, Israel breaks the covenant, right? He had they begin to to do things, take action, begin to put other gods and other things in front of God. And in doing so, they break covenant with God. So we see that in chapters 10 and in 31. A third thing that they do is in chapters 5 and also in uh chapter 9, we see that, and this is a scary place, but their leaders, their kings, their priests, and their prophets begin to lead the people into corrupt practices. And that is approving what God doesn't approve of. That's saying that it's okay. And many times we don't do this with our words, but we do this with our actions. I can approve of things in my home that aren't honoring to God just by what I watch, what I listen to, what I put in front of my kids, what I find myself consuming, and my behavior speaks volumes, it speaks of approval. So, or I even encourage my kids to compromise in areas that God says that's not okay. Well, the fact that it's compromised says it's not okay. So, where God lays out a clear line that we honor that clear line and we don't misuse the word grace and say, Oh, I can do that because this is the disposition of grace that we live in, and so God understands. And I would just offer as we see here in Jeremiah, God doesn't understand, and consequences come for actions, as we see here in the book of Jeremiah. So we see that that's point number three, that uh Israel's doing this and God has he feels a certain way about it. So we see also in Jeremiah 2 and chapter 7 that they reject God's message and his messengers. How many times have we have people stepped into our life, people that care about us, right? And said, hey, what you're doing is not good for you. It goes against God's law, it goes against the relationship and the good things that God has for you. And we find ourselves in these doing these, these, taking these actions, having this behavior, and God sends family, friends, pastors, uh, leaders, righteous people that care about us into our lives to to speak the truth in love to us, but we reject it. Right? I've mentioned in a previous episode some of the work that I get to do out at Teen Challenge, Adult Teen Challenge here in Stillwater. And as I listen to these men's stories, their stories, I hear over and over again that there's a mother, there's a father, there's a neighbor, there's a pastor, there's somebody that God has sent into their life that is beckoning them to make different choices. Because when we're out of our, when we when we've caught that sin has gotten a hold of us, our sinful desires, we've given into them, we can't always see. We just see that that's what we want. And someone that's outside of our environment and outside of our sin warns us of the consequences of sin. And how often, as I interact with these men, that they're literally living out whether that's um legal problems, whether that's the loss of family, it's loss of relationship, broken trust. There's these places that they've they're living out the consequences of their choices. So, and I mean when I use that word choice, I mean it with intentionality. It's easy to say, in my sin, but the reality is that's it's in our choice to sin. We're not victims of sin if we're in Christ because we're new creations, we're choosing sin. It's willful. Those actions are willful. And God sends people into our life to warn us and say, hey, this isn't gonna go well for you. But in that space, what we see in Israel in this time, in the in the book of Jeremiah, and what we can also reflect on in our own lives, how many times has God sent good messengers, good friends, warnings to our lives and saying, Hey, step away from this. This isn't gonna go well for you. So I don't want this just to be about Israel and go, hey, that's a really great history lesson, but it's a it's a lesson that we see in the book of Jeremiah that is ref that we need to reflect upon and say, God, what do you want to say to me here? Right. So God's response to this is, and we see this in uh chapters 11 and in chapters 25. God begins to, he makes some judgments, right? Like a like a good judge says, I've heard, I've heard enough, I've seen enough, I'm here's the ruling, right? And God makes a ruling, and he says, Babylon, right, the this these hedonists, these foreign people who serve foreign gods, God's going to use as an instrument to discipline God's people. Right. So that's what goes on here. That's what we see in chapter 11 and chapter 25, that God's saying, Hey, here's another uh another sect of people that I'm going to use to discipline, and I just to discipline Israel. And how many times God uses circumstance and situation to discipline us? So as you reflect back over your life, and maybe even just specifically 2025, as we're coming to an end of this uh of this year, that you look over your life, and if you see places that you go, wow, God, you've I see that you've been disciplining me, or I'm living out the consequences of unhealthy, unholy choices, that we you take the time to reflect on that and say, hey, I want to do something different. Or I see that my life is turning a corner because I am doing things different. That we look at that, we reflect on that and say, Hey, God, uh, where are you in my story? Where are you in this adventure called my life, right? Which I've given to you, which is really your life. So God living through us in this adventure called life. And how we are we living out and impacting uh those around us, whether that's uh as a husband, that might be uh your family, or that might be that place of employment. If you're a wife, it's maybe your primary is engaging with your family, but how is your relationship with God or the absence of a relationship with God or in the consequences that we're living in, how are they impacting even those around us? So the aim is to reflect on that and to be able to say, God, even as I go back and we're gonna read this again, the first part of Jeremiah uh 29, 11 through 13, so that when so as we look at it, we can see that, hey, that what Jeremiah is saying here about the future and the hope, it's that, hey, maybe we're not experiencing that that now because it's in the future, but we can get excited and we can celebrate that, we can look forward to that if we're willing to learn from our mistakes, if we're willing to repent of our sins and have a full expectation of God being good and that he wants to do, as he says here in Jeremiah, of what he's going to do for Israel. So I want you to think about this as I read this scripture that can you take ownership of this scripture and say, hey, God, is this something that you are or you're willing to speak over me if I'm doing this life, this adventure your way? Or do I need to repent so I can walk out this scripture and have this promise as Israel did as they began to turn back to God and make him the Lord of their life, to put him back on the throne that he demands and that only he is worthy to set on in their lives and in our lives. So here's that scripture again. Jeremiah 29, 11 through 13. I'll read this time. For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord. This is God's declaration. He has a plan for them, and he has a plan for you. Plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. That's what we all need. We need to know that we have a future and a hope, and it's for our welfare, it's for our good, because God is pleased with us. He says, then, and I love that conjunction, then you will call upon me and you will come and you will pray to me and I will hear you. Right? That's the that's our response. That's what we need to do. We need to say, I will call upon you, I am calling upon you, and I am coming and I am praying to you. And I have full confidence that you will hear me. Because that's what he says, and I will hear you. And he says, and you, he says this to me, Johnny, and he says this to you. If you can hear my voice, he's saying this to you. And you will seek me and you will find me when you seek me with all of your heart. Right? We need to be able to look at that and say, All of my heart I've been to you. All of my heart I submit to you. Not these areas of my heart or these areas of my heart, but all of my heart. I'm seeking you with all of my heart, and I will be, and he says, and I will be found by you, declares the Lord. There's a finding that goes on when we bend our hearts to him and we say, I need to be found by you. I'm lost. I'm where I'm not supposed to be. And we yield to him and we say, God, I repent. I'm far off. Would you come and would you find me? Right? So that when we do that, he says, He will we will be found by him. And then this is this beautiful part in verse 14, and I will restore you from restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. These places that we've been into exile, right? We've been into addiction, or we've been into just different bondages. Maybe it's the bondage of debt because of things we've done with money. Maybe it's the, again, addiction, whether that's alcohol addiction or drug addiction or shopping or just the scrolling of just checking out and kind of numbing out in this life. And he says, No, I have more for you. I don't want you there. I want you in relationship with me. I want you in worship, in prayer, in fellowship. I have a new circle of friends and peers in local churches that I want you to engage in. So that's my my ask of you as you look into 2026. Would you look in in yourself and say, God, what do you have for me this next year? And if you're not in a local church, I just challenge you to get in a local church, to engage God there, to look into new relationships and say, hey, here are godly men and women, maybe not perfect godly men and women, but we're not perfect. We're a fallen people in need of a holy God. And we have that in Jesus Christ, that you would engage a local church and say, Hey, is do we believe in Christ crucified here, Christ risen? Right? And if they do, then maybe partner with that church or start there as you're even looking for another place. But get involved with the body of Christ and say, I want to come out of this place that I've been exiled and I want to do a relationship with God. So as you go into 2026, I hope this message blesses you. I hope it encourages you and also challenges you, right, to be able to look at where you've been and also to engage maybe where God might want to take you in 2026 to find that future, to find that hope with Him. So with that said, I'm gonna close the word here and we're gonna pray. And then I've got one last thing I want to invite you to. So, but let's just take this one here in the moment. God, we just want to come to you and just say, God, we just thank you for your word. We thank you for the book of Jeremiah. We thank you, Father, that we have this in writing, that we can read it, that we can study it, we can pull it forward and see how it's applicable to us even today. And Lord, we do, we want a future, we want a hope, and we see that you are good. We see this in your word, throughout your word, all 66 books of your word of the Bible point to the goodness of you, God. And we want to acknowledge that. And Father, we're just asking that you would come for us. Father, that you would, Father, as we see in Jeremiah here, that you would invite us to that future that we can have, Father. And that doesn't mean that all our troubles go away or all the consequences of our sin go away. But Father, that we can get back on a right footing with you and submit ourselves to you and see what you want to do with our lives. So, Lord, we just thank you for that. And Lord, as we go into 2026, Father, we want to cling to you because you are our future, you are our hope, and we know by your word that you have good for us. So I just pray that over your people, and I pray it all in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. All right. Well, I've got one other thing I want to share with you. Uh, you guys don't know the guy on the other side of the camera here, but his name is Christian Grant. And so I just want to invite you to go to Christian Grant Music.com and experience some of his music. Uh, he's got an album that he's finishing up somewhere here in 2026 or there in 2026. He's gonna launch that, and I believe that that music's gonna bless you. And at some point, this man's gonna be on our podcast, and you're gonna get to put a face with the next. And you're going to get to fall in love with his heart for Jesus too. So God bless you. Hope you have a great afternoon, and we'll see you in another episode.

Contributor

Heather Underwood

Host
Contributor

Johnny Underwood

Host
Contributor

Christian Grant

Producer