Jeremiah 29:1-14; John 17: 14-18

Over the past centuries, cities have developed a reputation of being evil places. It is true in the cities you find the good, the bad and the ugly. You find peace and you find stress; you find advancement and you rottenness. You find all kinds of pomposities in the cities. The truth is that the world in its current state is driven by philosophies, knowledge, power and visions corrupted by sin and led by Satan and his cohorts.  

However, there is also good in the city. Cities are magnetic centers of peoples, skills, resources, etc. You Cities are places of accumulation of resources, which helps to sustain peoples’ existence. 

Thus, for Church to be in a city becomes a challenge. How do we live and associate with a place of darkness and where Satan seemingly, reigns?  The fact is that the city is the place of peoples habitation and God loves people to the end that he does not want any perish without encountering the savior.

On His Mission travels, Paul received exhortation with the city in mind 

One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.

Acts 18:9-10

One substantial way to light the city, is by loving the city; and the best way to love the city is to live in it and care for it. This is counter-intuitive thinking to what the promises of the Second coming of Jesus demands

Here are three Profiles You for one who loves the city

1. Active Aliens (Jer. 29:4; John 17:14-16)

• Babylon’s desire when it exiled Judah was to enforce them to assimilate in its culture 
• Judah knowing this threat of losing their faith and identity desired to live by the Keber river, just on the edges of the city of Babylon 
• But God used Jeremiah and sent them the famous letter of in Chapter 29: 1-14 in which he encouraged them to have a different perspective.
• They were to enter the city, never fear assimilation but be determined to stay true to their identity.
• Christ-devoted followers are people who know how to live in two worlds: having their feet in the earth with the aspiration of heaven

1Pe 2:11  Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 

Philippians 3:20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;

• Christ-devoted follower are to remain in the city (world) as active aliens. They were to engage the city and yet keep their identity because despite the length of their stay, they would eventually go to their home
• From that time onwards, Jews know how to engage society and yet retain their identity.
• Part of an active alien is to seek the peace of the city where you reside
• The Church consists of people who are aliens in the world.  

2. Astute Ambassadors (John 17:18)

• An Astute person is one who demonstrates shrewdness and an ability to notice and understand things clearly. They are mentally sharp or clever, knowledgeable and wise
• An Ambassador is an official envoy, a diplomatic agent of a highest rank accredited to a foreign government and usually resides in that foreign country 
• Christ-devoted followers represent the Kingdom of heaven in the earth (John 17:18)
• Daniel and His Friends became powerful Ambassadors of the Nation of Israel
• Christ devoted followers don’t shy away from representing the Kingdom of God in the corridors of power of the city.
• This ambassadorial function is also called the Transferred Apostolate (John 20:21). He sends us to fulfill a mission with delegated authority 

Joh 20:21  Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 

3. Insightful Investors (Jer. 29:5-7)

• History is full or accounts where people of the Spirit, being cognizant of the fact that they are not of the earth, the decide remain aloof against the city. 
• Monasteries developed to stay away from the corrupting nature of the City (World)
• God told the exile to be Perceptive and intuitive knowing that they had life after exile. They need to grow their population; therefore, they are challenged to marry and have children. 
• Israel was challenged to love the city to the point of investing in it. 
• Christ-devoted followers are good citizens who loves their city and invest in it

Prophetic Prayer

1. Lord we see a church that loves and care for the city of LilongweScriptures 
2. Lord we pray  for the burden and anointing for increased apostolic work in the City

Scriptures 

Joh 17:14-18

I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 

I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 

They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 

As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.  

Joh 20:21-23 

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 

If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” 

Heb 11:13-16 

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar,

and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 

For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 

If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 

But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. 

Jeremiah's Letter to the Exiles

Jer 29:1-14 

These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. 

This was after King Jeconiah and the queen mother, the eunuchs, the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the metal workers had departed from Jerusalem. 

The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. It said: 

“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 

Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. 

Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. 

For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, 
for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the LORD. 

“For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 

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 come and pray to me, and I will hear 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, 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.