Good morning church. We are going to be in the book
of Zephaniah today. If you're using the Bible under
your seat, you can go to page 748, but you might have a
different version and that other page is on the screen.
OK, so we're going to start in chapter 1, verses one through 6.
The word of the Lord came to Zephaniah the son of Kushai, son
of Gedeliah, son of Amoriah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of
Josiah the son of Ammon, king of Judah.
I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the
earth, declares the Lord. I will sweep away man and beast.
I will sweep away the birds of the heavens and the fish of the
sea in the rubble with the wicked.
I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth, declares the
Lord. I will stretch out my hand
against Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal in the name
of the idolatrous, idolatrous priest, along with the priests,
those who bow down on the roofs to the hosts of the heavens.
Those who bow down and swear to the Lord, and yet swear by
Milkham. Those who have turned back from
the following of the Lord, who do not seek the Lord or inquire
of Him. And we're going to jump down to
12 through 13 in the same chapter.
At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will
punish the men who are complacent, those who say in
their hearts the Lord will not do good, nor will He do I'll.
Their goods shall be plundered and their houses laid waste.
Though they build houses, they shall not inhabit them.
Though they plant vineyards, they shall not drink wine from
them. We're going to move to chapter
2, verses one through 3. Gather together.
Yes, gather, O shameless nation, before the decree takes effect,
before the day passes away like chafe, before there comes,
before there comes upon you the burning anger of the Lord,
before there comes upon you the day of the anger of the Lord.
Seek the Lord and all you humble of the land, who does his just
commands. Seek righteousness, seek
humility. Perhaps you may be hidden on the
day of the anger of the Lord. And then we're going to go to
chapter 3, verses one through 3. Woe to her who is rebellious and
defiled the oppressing city. She listens to no voice.
She accepts no correction. She does not trust in the Lord.
She does not draw near to her God.
Her officials within her are roaring lions.
Her judges are evening wolves. That nothing to that leave
nothing till the morning. Then we're going to go lastly to
verses 14 through 17 in the same chapter.
Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion, shout.
O Israel, rejoice and exalt with your heart.
O daughter of Jerusalem, the Lord has taken away the
judgments against you. He has cleared away your
enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord is
in your midst. You shall never again fear evil.
On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear not, O Zion, let
not your hands grow weak. The Lord your God is in your
midst, a mighty one who will save.
He will rejoice over you with gladness.
He will quiet you by His love. He will exalt you over you.
He will exalt over you with loud singing.
This is the word of the Lord. What's going on Port City family
and friends, how we doing? Good.
My name is Tanner. It's a privilege to be with you.
Continuing our Minor Prophet series.
Y'all this week. One of my favorite artists,
indie worship, never thought I'd be into that.
Is that the right way to describe our friend our our Jess
Ray is that way to describe her indie worship?
I don't even know what it means, but sometimes I'm talking to you
about hip hop. This is not hip hop, but she
came out with a song called I Am Not God.
That's the name of the song and it's amazing.
You need to look it up. That's some of your homework and
y'all, this is a church. Like if you're if you're coming
around, you're getting around more and more like this starting
block of like what we want to be about is that phrase like I am
not God. Like there just is a certain
humility. There was a time in my life I
hated that phrase. I didn't know that phrase, but I
thought it was God in my sin. I just thought I was the coolest
person in the world. But y'all, that phrase now to
believers is just so comforting in a week like this.
We need that phrase. Just I'm not God, man.
I don't have all the answers. I know who does.
I don't have it figured out, but I'm not God.
And there's something she says in the song.
She says, what a sweet relief. I am not God.
It's just a vibe. You need to go listen to it.
And yeah, if you're looking for a local church family and just
wondering what we're about, we are about I'm not God.
We are a collection of ragtag misfits just stumbling along,
clinging to Jesus together, saying I'm not God.
We've got we're trying to be multicultural, multi
generational. There are immigrants and
military personnel, all kinds of people, ODU faculty and students
like we want to be a hodgepodge that is our city just.
But the one refrain behind all that is I am not God.
That's what all those people are saying.
Amen. Somebody OK, let me pray.
And then we're going to dive into this amazing book of
Zephaniah. Let's let's pray one more time.
Our Father, we gladly proclaim we are not God.
You are not just a smarter, slightly bigger version of us.
God, you are holy. You are unique, you reign God.
You are the God who can be over the nations and reign and in
some kind of way you see the moving pieces and, and, and you
are over it all. And you are also the God who is
near to the broken hearted. You are a refuge and you are
down in the weeds and the details and you see every tear.
You put our tears in a bottle. You count the hairs on our head.
So we pray right now to the God who reigns over the nations and
knows the number of hairs on each of our heads as we speak
and God, we just ask you God who is both over it and in it.
You're more powerful than than all the dynamics we ask you just
to comfort in the season. We ask you to convict God.
Your word says you will convict the world concerning sin and
righteousness and judgement. I pray you just wake us up that
life is not a game. This is not ours.
It's not just randomness after there is capital T truth God.
So just help us to be humble enough to believe you and trust
you. So help us now as we open your
word. We love you.
We pray this to Christ's name, Amen.
Y'all March Madness is upon us. If you are not familiar with
that term, let me explain it to you, OK?
March Madness refers to college basketball's end of year playoff
system, OK? If you lose a game, you out and
they keep playing each other from 64 down to one, OK?
And they call it March Madness because a lot of the games in
crazy, all right? They just get crazy.
But the craziness tends to go up as the game goes on, right?
Because there's a basic principle in sports.
The clock determines the play. How much time is left dictates
the type of things you're going to see.
If there's 18 minutes to go, you're not jacking up a half
court shot, are you with me? But if there are three seconds
left and you down by three, you do what you got to do.
You know what I mean? And so as you watch these games,
you're going to watch chaos unfold the closer you get to
time ending. We are in a minor prophet
series. We're coming to the book of
Zephaniah. And the best way to put what the
prophets are is they are the realist telling you how much
time is left on the clock. Are you with me, y'all?
This is some of us. What we need today is a
recalibration. All of us need recalibration.
Some of us need recalibration how much time we think is on
that clock. And some of us need
recalibration of what game we think we plan.
Some of us don't know how to play basketball.
Are you with me? And like, let me explain to you
what I mean by game. Just to be real clear, this is
God's world and he made us to dwell with him in it.
He wants to sing over you in delight as the book of Zephaniah
will end. He wants you to be his
possession. He wants to dwell with you and
you to live out his law and bring him glory as you do it
together, Co reigning together. The problem is that is not the
game we default into, OK? What we default into is this is
my world. This is my game.
I'm in charge, I run the show or we just kind of drift into just
comfort seeking. Like who really knows if there's
any truth And we can, you know, we're not directly opposed to
God. I don't, I don't hate him or
nothing. I just I'm just doing my thing
and I want an easier life, you know, And to all of that, the
prophets just RIP open reality as God sees it and he just
speaks in OK, so that's what we're going to see today is the
the next installment of what God has to say.
We're talking wrath. We're talking hard things.
And the book ends beautifully, which is so counter to how a lot
of this sermon is going to go. It just ends with amazing, just
God singing over you with delight.
And it's like, how does that fit with all the stuff we're going
to talk about to get there? And once you see the cross of
Jesus, it fits perfectly. OK.
The idea is we all go through the fire.
For some of us, it will purify. For some of us, it will not.
And my prayer for us is that we walk out of here excited to play
the game with God. Are you with me?
I know that phrase has its limits, but I stretch phrases to
their limit in this church. OK?
That is one of the other things you have to be committed to.
So if that all makes sense, we got three points.
The first one is when God is ignored.
The second one is when a city becomes corrupt.
And the third one is when God restores his people.
If you are ready, let me hear you say I'm ready.
All right, point #1 when God is ignored.
Zephaniah one one through 6 said this, the word of the Lord that
came to Zephaniah the son of Kushai, son of Gedaliah, son of
Amoriah, son of Hezekiah in the days of Josiah the son of Amon
king of Judah. One of y'all kids just needs to
memorize that and walk around saying it around your house
because it's awesome and those are real people.
Amen. Somebody that puts it in about
the 640 kind of range post fall of Assyria, pre fall Babylon.
He's preaching to Judah. I will utterly sweep away
everything from the face of the earth, declares the Lord.
I will sweep away man and beast. I will sweep away the birds of
the heavens, of the fish of the sea, and the rumble with the
wicked. I will cut off mankind from the
face of the earth, declares the Lord.
I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all
the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And I will cut off from this
place the remnant of Baal, which is how I refer to it, even
though it's not the Hebrew pronunciation.
Amen. In the name of the idolatrous
priests, along with the priests, those who bow down on the roofs
to the hosts of the heavens, Those who bow down and swear to
the Lord, and yet swear by Milkham.
Those who have turned back from following the Lord, who do not
seek the Lord or inquire of him. Y'all, there are three reality
checks particularly for the people of God that we just read
because Judah is God's place. Jerusalem was God's city.
He's talking priest. This mainly applies to the
people of God, though it will apply to everybody.
I got three things we just need to pay attention to that are
dangerous. Number one, there is danger and
idolatry which is replacing God. There is danger and idolatry
which is replacing God. If you read the text there, you
notice it said the, the judgment's going to fall on
everybody and everything. And it, it talks fish, it talks
bird and then it, it, it talks humanity.
It's kind of reverse order of what creation was like.
Like if you think bird and fish, then I don't remember the exact
order there, but you're with me like it's it's almost like
creation is unraveling. The reason for that Y'all, the
reason that judgment will unravel creation.
It kind of fits with the biblical view of sin, which is
that sin is AD creator. Sin unravels reality.
Sin is not aligning with who God is and what he says and we
corrupt things when we sin. Every time we sin, we are D
creating a little bit. So the judgment fits the crime.
Are you with me? The punishment fits the crime
like the the the way judgement will go down will fit with what
sin was doing all along. Are you with me?
It's not arbitrary pain infliction.
It is almost like expediting the unraveling.
Are you with me So in particularly the sin in mind
here is idolatry. Somebody say idolatry.
Idolatry is a fancy word for God replacement.
OK, every human heart worships. It does not matter if you have a
religion. It doesn't matter if you select
none on your next census that you are not religious.
Your heart worships. That's what the Bible teaches.
Your heart is a trusting factory.
You look to things to keep you safe and satisfy you.
We all do that. We all want to be happy.
We all want to be safe. And idolatry refers to the
propensity of your heart to seek anything other than God to do
that. And what's unique about the
people of God is we still do that, but we can act like we
love the Lord while we're doing it.
We know how to play the game, right?
That's a lot of what this prophet series is, is actually
calling out the people of God because God sees y'all don't
love me. Y'all trust in that.
And in Judah, I just want y'all to know how bad it was.
Y'all. So can I hear how bad was it?
T Thank you for asking me that. Let me tell you how bad it was.
Listen, this is how bad it was, OK, When King Josiah comes into
power, you can go read about this in Second Chronicles 34.
It was so bad that he's looking around.
He comes to be king at 8 years old.
By the way he looks around, he's like, we don't love God.
Like what are all these altars? Who is Baal?
And he just starts ripping stuff down everywhere.
Go clean up the temple. He gets the crew to go clean the
temple. They go look at the temple,
dusting off stuff, cleaning it up.
It's not been worship Worshipful of the one true God in a long
time. They've just been doing all
kinds of weird stuff and they stumble across a book and they
literally they pick it up. It's the Bible by the way.
They can't recognize it. They bring it to him.
They go, we found the book. Y'all this is in the temple.
The priests come and say, we found a book and King Josiah
reads it and rips his clothes. He's like, have y'all read this?
He gets all the leaders together, all the elders, all
the officials, all the priests, and he just reads it over them.
And there's a little bit of a reform that goes down, but
obviously not all the way to the heart level or they wouldn't
have fallen to the Babylonians about about 80 years later.
Y'all with me? It was so bad.
It was so bad they didn't even recognize God's word.
But here's what's crazy about it is they still thought we're the
people of God. They go to temple, they don't,
they can't recognize God's law in it.
They love bail. They trust bail is keeping them
safe and satisfied. They were becoming like the
nations. They wanted military prosperity.
They wanted to be safe. They wanted comfort and that's
what drove them. But they could say we're God's
people. Are you with me?
I'll show you how bad it gets in verses 12 and 13.
Go there at that time. So at the time of judgement, I
will search Jerusalem with lamps.
The idea is there will be no dark place that I don't find
out. And I will punish the men who
are complacent, those who say in their hearts the Lord will not
do good nor will he do I'll the second danger that this text
just pointed out to us, there is danger in treating God as real
but not relevant, which is ignoring God.
So idolatry replaces God. Ignoring God is you're real,
you're just not relevant. These are the people that the
the image here. You might even see a note above
the word complacent in your Bible and it says something
about wine down in your note. The imagery here in Hebrew is of
wine that has been untouched for so long.
It's like stagnant and getting like gross.
You know what I'm talking about, Like getting a little fuzz on
it. You know what I mean?
The idea is these people are unmoved by God.
Yawn, right? If rejection is know God or
forget you God or whatever. This reaction is just one of my
kids does this sometimes when I tell them something, he's trying
to be funny that they don't want to listen to.
They are trying to be funny. They don't listen to me.
They go just a just a little yawn, OK?
This is years and years and years of yawn at the Lord, OK,
Stagnant complacency in our vernacular, the the literal
thing they say, look at the text there.
The Lord will not do good, nor will he do.
I'll let me translate that for you.
He ain't gonna do nothing. This heart says God won't do
anything. This is the real world.
They mask it. We, we run our business how we
need to run it. God's not involved in this.
Does that make sense? Like all that Bible stuff is
good in theory, but this is the real world.
We got to make money. I could be rooted in extreme
practical. I got to get stuff done.
This person is not saying I hate God.
God's not real. God's real.
He's just not relevant to my life.
I know God's word says this, but this is the real world.
I've been waiting long enough for whatever it is, whatever
justification we come up for doing things our way and what
many have deemed this kind of He's real but not relevant.
It's functional atheism. You might say with your brain, I
believe in the concept of God, but your life doesn't live like
he matters. So how are you any different
than the person who says there is no God?
Are you with me? On the street level?
They're the same because God's word means nothing to me.
It's as if he is not real. Does that make sense?
That's what we're like when we look at the Lord's Word and we
just say he ain't going to do good or I'll complacent.
There's a lot of danger in that. The day of the Lord will reveal
the danger in treating God as real but not relevant.
The third danger that Zephaniah hammers, we can see the summary
of it in chapter 2, verse 15. It's what the the text says.
It says this is the exultant city that lived securely.
Lived securely. That said, in her heart I am,
and there is no one else. What a desolation she has become
a lair for wild beasts. Everyone who passes by her
hisses and shakes his fists. Here's the third danger in the
book of Zephaniah. There is danger and arrogance,
which is denying God. So the first one is let's
replace him. The second one is let's ignore
him. The third one is let's deny him.
The shift in chapter 2 is away from Judah in Jerusalem.
I've told you throughout the series, judgement starts with
the household of God, but then it extends to everybody else.
So if you go pull up the ancient Near East map at the time in
chapter 2, he's calling out the Ammonites, the Moabites, and
like directionally it's north-south, east, West of
Judah. So the basic idea is everybody
will come under the judgement of the Lord, not just my people.
And at the heart of the reason for that judgement, this
universal judgement that will fall on everybody, is this heart
that says I am and there is no one else.
It's the heart that says I'm running this show, I'm God.
And the evidence is look at how secure our city is.
Clearly my view of reality is right because look at how well
it's going, right? It's I, I'm running the show.
And if if God wanted to intervene, he would if there was
one. It's an arrogant heart.
It's this heart that denies. The Bible would say that every
human being is born knowing that there is God, His eternal power,
divine nature is evident to all of us.
Like we just kind of know. This is why kids just start
asking them questions at four and five years old of like, how
did I get here? And they're asking one side of
that conversation, but then they're asking like, but what is
like the purpose of all this? You know what I mean?
And they're they're just intuitively smart.
And then we just suppress that truth.
That's what the Bible says is our sin makes us suppressors of
what we all know to be true, which is the phrase I am.
And there is no one else is insane.
You know, you don't run nothing. You don't.
But in our sin, we think we do. It's been said that the essence
of sin is to replace God with self.
So it's kind of the idea that the ultimate idol, if you will,
is you like you become the ultimate head honcho through
whom all things run. And it's we've all sort of got a
little God complex in us. We all do that.
And y'all part of the goal of the minor prophet is the book of
Zephaniah is to say the day of the Lord is coming on all three
of these replacing God, ignoring him, denying him.
They will all be judged. They will all be shown to be
silly. You were sitting down when there
were 5 seconds left and you were down by three.
That was silly. You know, or maybe you never
even learn how to play basketball.
That was silly. Some of us are going to
recognize how silly it was when the when the clock runs out and
the the profits are trying to be that thing that says I'm telling
you how much time is left. Does that make sense?
I was reading this morning Luke 13, like some people are asking
Jesus some questions and he just says, yo, you need to repent or
you're going to perish. And he references a local
tragedy that had just happened. He was like, you heard about
that tower that fell and killed those people, right?
He's like, you think those people are worse than anybody
else. So sometimes he's basically
saying tragedy happens. The lesson is repent.
Like the lesson is life is short.
The lesson is the clock is running.
Are you with me? And so I just want you to hear
y'all, the clock is ticking on life.
Like we will not live forever. You live 7080.
It's funny when the life expectancy goes up to like 76,
we're like, man, we're going to be here forever.
It's like, no, you're not. It's like 5 more years.
Just the point is we're not going to live forever.
You know? Yo, that should just wake us up.
It should sober us and it should make us ask why are we here?
Not to get some insurance for the next life, but what is the
point of the life here and now? So I think at times in in the
history of the church, we've made the mistake of being like,
and here's what you need to know for when you're about to die.
That is not what I'm saying. What I'm trying to say is your
life was meant to be lived a certain way with the Lord and
all three of these responses ignoring him, replacing him,
denying him are insane. Are you with me?
And God is saying I see them all real but not relevant, replacing
me, denying me. I see all of that and that's not
what I want for you and that's not what I want for y'all
church. That's not what I want for our
city. The second turn in the book of
Zephaniah that is pretty unique is that a lot of his
conversation about the clock ticking and day of the Lord and
judgement, it focuses in on the city of Jerusalem in particular.
So point #2 is when a city becomes corrupt.
And this is the connection we got to make as I as I read these
verses. The way the Bible sees it, your
worship is tied to your lifestyle.
The way the Bible sees it is your the the modern mind.
This happened about 300 years ago and has been happening ever
since. Is that worship is almost like a
hobby like you just kind of pick your pick your religion and it
doesn't really matter how you live, just be a good person no
matter what. That is not how world history
has thought about it, not how the Bible thinks about it.
The way the Bible thinks about it is how in what you worship
and why you worship it. Whether that is a God you
actually read the book and can intelligibly talk around or it's
just concepts like you, you know, you worship money or, or
your comfort or whatever it is that worship lifestyle will
impact your impact, your living lifestyle.
Are you with me? How you live is downstream from
how you worship. That's sort of facts from the
way the way the Bible sees it is you become what you worship is
what the Bible would say. So the city and the oppression
and the issues we're about to read about in Jerusalem are
happening as a result of everything we just talked about.
They're not separate topics. They're linked, you're with me.
And we've been talking about oppression and injustice a lot
in this series, but we can't disconnect that from the worship
we just talked about. Are y'all with me?
It's almost like this is sort of the inevitable output of a
people that ignores, replaces, denies God.
Are you with me? So now let's read chapter 3
verses one through 5. Woe to her who is rebellious and
defiled the oppressing city. She listens to no voice.
She accepts no correction. She does not trust in the Lord.
She does not draw near to her God.
Her officials within her are roaring lions.
Her judges are evening wolves that leave nothing till the
morning. Her prophets are fickle,
treacherous men. Her priests profane what is
holy. They do violence to the law.
Verse 5. The Lord within her, her being
the city is righteous. He does no injustice every
morning. He shows forth his justice each
dawn He does not fail. But the unjust knows no shame.
Y'all particularly here we're talking city of Jerusalem.
And as we've talked about throughout the city this series,
Jerusalem was supposed to be the one place on earth that most was
aligned right where the worship is most central and white hot,
so to speak, is where the the activity on the street should be
showcasing God's love. But as I've already told you,
they found the Bible and said, I found a book.
So there was a there was a gap. Are you with me?
And it was showing itself on the street level.
So the first thing I just want you to see from this is that
there there is such a link y'all between worship and living.
It is so huge. You can't disconnect them.
The way the Bible thinks of it, Zephaniah has been called the
prophet of the city. Some of the other prophetic
books focus on oppression, a lot of these other things.
But in a lot of ways, Zephaniah is focused on how the wrong
worship leads to wrong leadership, which leads to wrong
living. Are you with me?
It's like he's focused on helping us understand when you
worship that way, you're going to be LED a certain way and then
you're going to live a certain way.
Does that make sense? And so that's why he highlights
the the leadership, he pointed out the prophets, he pointed out
the priests, he pointed out the city officials.
He's trying to point out that the the private complacency
leads to public corruption. Are y'all with me?
Like the complacency we just talked about?
And God won't do anything good or bad.
It leads to a street level living where who cares what you
do? It's a dog eat dog world.
Do what you got to do. God ain't going to do nothing
good or bad. Are y'all with me?
God ain't here today you with me.
So let's do what we want to do and he's trying to help us.
See this link, which is an important word to the church
y'all because Jesus calls us a city on a hill.
You know that right? Like disciples, we are the salt
of the earth, the light of the world.
We're not a geopolitical location.
That's not what I mean by city, but we the people of God are a
city on a hill. We are the people that are to
live out Our Calling and make Jesus look good, but it is only
as we are aligned with His heart and His Word.
In the second, our worship goes out the back door.
And I don't just in Sunday worship, I mean the worship of
your heart. What's going to happen is it's
not going to show itself on the street.
Are you with me? So what I want to do is just
draw out a few things that were just broken in the flow.
Yes, at the worship level, but what was going wrong leadership
wise that Zephaniah is calling out?
OK, First, these leaders were seeking the comfort of self, not
the flourishing of others. They were seeking the comfort of
self, not the flourishing of others.
Chapter 1, verse 7 and 8 says this, Be silent before the Lord
God, for the day of the Lord is near.
The Lord has prepared to sacrifice and consecrated his
guests and on the day of the Lord's sacrifice, I will punish
the officials and the King's sons and all who array
themselves in foreign attire. It's this idea that God actually
for the the leadership in Israel and Judah wanted them even down
to their clothing to represent. We're set apart for the Lord our
God and part of their flippancy of what God has to say was
showing up in they would wear the treasures of other nations
out in public. Are you with me?
So instead of being set apart like I'm the Lord's person, when
they were growing in wealth, they were like, oh, let me wear
the fur from that place or whatever it was.
Are you with me? So what leadership meant was I
got the fur. That makes sense.
Leadership no longer meant I'm seeking your good.
It is look at what I've got. So leadership becomes about how
it serves your comfort, not the good of others.
But y'all, the point of leadership is to bring out the
flourishing in others. And for us here in our great
city, y'all just remember that as you go up in the org chart,
it's not for you. You're going up to help those
down. So we talk about this a lot.
Go chase the degree. That's good.
God has given you all some gifts.
He has given you the propensity to make some dollars and do some
things. God is not anti that, but the
American ethos is. It just gives you more time off.
It gives you more ease, it gives you more comfort.
It's about what it does for you, right?
And I'm not anti growing up in the org chart.
I'm trying to say help those beneath you.
That's the goal. But the second we are arrayed in
foreign attire, we're missing why we were given the position.
Are you with me? So get get get with what you can
in the in the sense of growth. But the growth should serve more
people. You should be pumped for what it
does for others. And there's some of y'all that
are doing that so well in our city.
In your positions of leadership you are thinking about those who
you are entrusted to care for, not just the next standard of
living thing you can increase in.
Second thing we see with these leaders is in a lot of ways
y'all they just trust status and wealth.
They don't trust God they trust what these things give them in
safety and security. In chapter 1, verse 11, it says,
well, O inhabitants of the mortar, for all the traders are
no more, and all who weigh out silver are cut off.
Verse 13, Their goods shall be plundered and their houses laid
waste. So they build houses, they shall
not inhabit them, though they plant vineyards, they shall not
drink wine from them. And then verse 18, neither their
silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day
of the wrath of the Lord. It seemed like they had some
materialism going on you with me, like there was a high trust
in their, their possessions, making them safe.
It makes you valuable, it makes you important.
It means that you can withstand hardship when you have these
things and on the day of the Lord, that's going to look real
silly. So leaders should be the ones
both in the the public sphere and in the church sphere that we
don't represent. Leaders should not represent you
and your leadership capacity. We're not safe because we got
stuff. Does that make sense, parents?
Hopefully what we're not repping for our kids is we're safe here
because we got this, you know, like the source of our safety,
the source of our comfort for the next season is the Lord's
nearness to this house, not our well, at least we got this, you
know, and it's good to thank God for blessings and all that.
Don't, don't mishear me on that. But it is clear that some of
their arrogance that we're good with the Lord is the stuff we
have. They were not taking seriously
God's call for them to repent because they had abundance.
Are you with me? Abundance can deceive you that
you're living well. Does that make sense?
It Oh, of course I'm doing well. I must be a good person.
I must. And it can make us more
self-righteous and arrogant and actually deaf from what God
wants. And we use the, the, the the
materials, so to speak, to point to we must be in the right with
God. And I just want to say, Nah,
it's not that that material is bad.
It's just we 1 to 1 correlate them.
Are you with me? And that's not the way the Bible
sees it. Third, leaders should be the
first to submit. That was not what they were
doing. Leaders are not creators as much
as they are submitters. Are you with me?
So like, think about the story I shared with you of Josiah.
Josiah was a leader by getting God's Word and reading it and
then saying we're going to do that.
He didn't create God's Word. He found it, read it, submitted
to it. In chapter 3 that we read, it
says that these leaders were not listening.
They listened to no voice. She accepts no correction.
She does not trust in the Lord. She does not draw near to God.
Her officials within her are roaring lions.
Her judges are evening wolves that leave nothing till the
morning. Her prophets are fickle,
treacherous men. Her priests profane what is
holy. They do violence to the law.
I'm not saying that even in every job, your job is to get
out the Bible and just read it at your employees.
Don't hear me saying that. OK, but the concept of
leadership actually starts with what you're submitting to, not
with what you're generating. Are you with me like to lead a
company Well, to lead an organization well to say this is
what we're chasing after that we're all submitted to.
It's not follow me and I'm a generator and y'all are all my
peasants. It's we are about this thing
together and we are going to submit, we're going to listen.
I take accountability like it says, they take no
accountability. They don't listen to anybody.
They accept no correction. So I would argue the way the
Bible sees it is the best leaders are the first to submit.
We see this in Jesus. He was not, he was the Son of
God, but he didn't operate like God, like y'all need to listen
to me. He was submitted.
The start of his mission was submission.
And I think in many ways, our leadership culture pushes you to
be the genius in every room. Does that make sense?
You've always got to be the top dog.
You got to be the one who's the genius and putting everybody in
line instead of just being like, what's this thing?
We're submitted to it. Me first, let's go.
You don't have to be a genius or a hero.
You just got to be submitted to the right person, the right
thing. And yeah, sometimes that means
sharing God's word. Amen.
Somebody. OK, the last thing I'll say is
this. I wish I could read it.
I can get real hyped up about how I'm going to preach
something. I'm going to read that whole
chapter of this other part of the Bible in the sermon.
I'm not going to do that, but we are going to read a couple of
things from Second Peter 3. So turn there.
I wanted to just read all of Second Peter to you and I was
like, you know what? I'll just read Second Peter 3
and now I'm about to read you like 2 verses because I've been
talking too much. But this is what I want us to
hear you all. One of the things that God's
leaders have to be most aligned with God on is how much time is
left in the game. Does that make sense out of
everything a leader does, Parents, you're a leader in your
household. No matter no matter what role
you have in your even students. Like you're leading something,
you are authoring something. Authority means you author
whatever you have authority over.
One of the things you bring to the table is sobriety, about how
much time is left of the game and how it shapes how you live.
Are you with me y'all? I just want you to hear how much
time is left in the game and how the Bible has always thought
about that. Maybe after a week like this or
sometimes again, the Lord's not going to do anything good or
I'll you've had thoughts like that.
You might have not said it, but like God ain't going to do
nothing. You never thought that.
Come on now, y'all know y'all thought that.
OK, so I want to show you how second Peter can be a sobering
word to us because these kind of thoughts were going on 30 years
after Jesus was gone, OK Second Peter 3, this was written AD 67.
So again, y'all 30 years ago they Jesus rose from the dead
and talked to 500 people. There were a lot of eyewitness
people who saw him. And within 30 years they're
going to say stuff like what I'm about to read to you.
It's more like 5 verses. I'm adding to them as we speak.
Stalin a little bit. Are y'all with me?
Let's start in verse. I want to read it all.
OK, verse 4. Some of y'all like just do it.
Chapter 3, verse 4 actually go back to verse I I just got to do
it. Y'all listen, just just give me
verses. Give me verses one through 11.
Can we do 11? I trimmed it from 20 down to 11.
Here we go, chapter 3, verse one.
This is now the second letter that I'm writing to you,
beloved. In both of them, I'm stirring up
your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should
remember their predictions of the holy prophets and the
commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles.
Knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last
days with scoffing. That's what scoffers do.
They be scoffing following their own sinful desires.
Here's what they will say. They will say, Where is this
promise of His coming forever? Since the fathers fell asleep,
all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of
creation. Translation.
Nothing's changing. Verse 5.
For they deliberately overlooked this fact that the heavens
existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and
through water by the word of God, and that by means of these
the world that then existed was deluged, was water, and
perished. But by the same word, the
heavens and earth that now exists are stored up for fire,
being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the
ungodly. Verse 8.
Dope. But do not overlook this one
fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as 1000 years,
and 1000 years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill
His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward
you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should
reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will
come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with the
roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved,
and the earth and the works that are done in it will be exposed.
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of
people ought you be? Ought you to be in lives of
holiness and godliness? Now, let me give you the TSV,
the Tander standard version. All right, the Tanner standard
version. Listen, what he's saying is
within 30 years after Jesus leaving, people were saying
nothing's changing. Jesus ain't doing nothing, He
ain't coming back so we can live how we want.
Does that make sense? And they were making fun of the
Christians. Like your hope is anchored in
him coming back and he ain't coming back.
Y'all see the argument? The argument is idleness based
on nothing's going to happen. The argument is, who cares?
And Peter's point is, yo, God is not slow.
He's patient. His promises will come about
just as he said they would. And in light of that, how much
should we be about what the Lord has us to be about?
How holy should our lives be? I was talking to some people
earlier. The two effects this should have
on us is #1 some of us, y'all just need to wake up.
Somebody say wake up. The time on the clock for some
of us should wake us up. And I'm just telling you there's
not a lot of time. I'm not trying to be the the the
fear throwing preach. I'm really not.
I'm just reading what the Bible says that I'm telling you that
we alive 70 or 80 on this earth and then billions after.
That's the way the the Bible thinks about it.
So you want to live the 70 or 80 in alignment with the billions
You with me. You don't need insurance for the
billions. You live in alignment with the
billions. The second group of people in
here, we need to not give up. Somebody say don't give up.
Some of us are living lives of holiness, but the Lord's delay
wants you to give up. Are you with me?
And for some of y'all just will say don't give up.
Live sober minded, continue to fight for God's good gifts and
wait for them on your timing. Some of y'all are doing an
amazing job waiting on the Lord and I'm telling you don't give
up. Some of y'all want to take
matters into your own hands and I'm saying don't give up.
Trust the Lord vengeance is his. He will avenge declares the
Lord. Some of y'all feel like your
holiness in your life doesn't matter because those around you
aren't holy and what you need is Zephaniah chapter 3 verse 5.
Don't give up in the midst of crooked Jerusalem.
That's what it says. Just verse.
I love verse 57935. The Lord within her is
righteous. He does no injustice.
Every morning He shows forth His justice.
Each dawn He does not fail. But the unjust knows no shame.
Even when the city is corrupt, the Lord is faithful.
Are you with me? The foundation of your ongoing
righteousness and justice and the things the Lord is calling
you to is the fact that He is still those things.
So even when you feel like you're the only one you're not,
do not give up. Keep your eyes on Jesus.
Are you with me? The dopest part of the book we
have not read yet though. So let's go to point #3 let's go
to point #3 when God restores his people.
You know, this is a harsh book. It's the day of the Lord is sure
to come on everybody. For all these reasons, City,
it's a lot of hardship. I want to read you the climax of
the hardship, the hard words in chapter 3, verse 8.
Therefore wait for me, declares the lore, for the day when I'll
rise up to seize the prey. For my decision is to gather
nations, to assemble kingdoms, to pour out upon them my
indignation, all my burning anger.
For in the fire of my jealousy all the earth shall be consumed.
Somebody say consumed. For those of y'all that have
been rocking with us, hopefully Pastor Ron's sermon is ringing
in your ears. Nahum and Zephaniah go really
well together. I hope you're listening to these
sermons together. Thought he did an amazing job of
talking about God's jealousy. Did y'all see that in the
jealousy of my wrath, all the earth shall be consumed?
He, he taught this really well. But what you need to hear is
that when we're jealous, we're insecure.
We're jealous from lack. God is jealous from fullness.
Okay, the idea biblically is that God is jealous in the way
like a spouse is the way Ron explained it.
But he is jealous for his own name.
He's not lacking. He is the one being in all the
universe for whom jealousy is good.
He is jealous for his own name, and his jealousy for his name is
actually good for you, which means he's going to be good to
you for the sake of his name, which is good for you.
Are you with me? He's the one being for whom we
actually need him to be jealous, or things will not be good.
So here's what I want y'all to feel after everything we've
talked about. If God's wrath is sure to come
in the jealousy of his name, all of the earth will be consumed.
Don't you think the book would end?
So because time's about to run out, y'all better repent, you
sinners. Don't you just think it would
end really bad? Let's read Zephaniah 314 through
17. Some of the dopest verses in
Scripture sing aloud. O daughter of Zion, shout.
O Israel, rejoice and exalt with all your heart.
O daughter of Jerusalem, the Lord has taken away the
judgments against you. He has cleared away your
enemies. The king of Israel, the Lord is
in your midst. You shall never again fear evil.
On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear not, O Zion, let
not your hands grow weak. The Lord your God is in your
midst, A mighty one who will save.
He will rejoice over you with gladness.
He will quiet you by His love. He will exalt over you with loud
singing. Just to be clear, what city is
he talking about? We've told you throughout this
series Zion is synonymous with Jerusalem.
The same city we just had all that bad stuff to say about God
is now singing over. Delight in, He's dwelling in, He
is proud of. That's His possession.
How can that be y'all? Here's the idea that I need
y'all to. If you have been checked out,
now's your time to check in, OK? This is the way the Bible thinks
about judgement and salvation. There are two sides of the same
coin, OK? Like if you think the Exodus
story, when God's wrath came, the same Red Sea saved some and
LED to the destruction of others.
Same sea. Everybody's going through that
sea. Are you with me?
It's like one side was redemption and one side was
destruction, but it's the same coin like God's the the sea was
split for one group and it fell on the other group.
The idea in the Bible is that in one of my goals for you in this
series, that we've got to get out of our heads a little bit.
You know, God's wrath is hard, but it's good.
It's hard, but it's good. Some of us are going up to
Philly this next week. My guy Mark Turner up there,
he's great pastor, great preacher.
He was talking about God's wrath the other week and I love what
he said. He was quoting somebody, but it
was dope. The idea is that eternally God's
attribute has been love, okay? Wrath is not an attribute of
God, okay. But in an era of sin, everything
we've talked about throughout this book, all the oppression,
all the leadership that all of us struggle with all of the
ignoring, replacing denying God in a world of sin, love is going
to look like wrathsome it's going to which means y'all, we
should not be ashamed of God's wrath.
It is hard and I don't want it for nobody.
And Peter just said God doesn't desire any to perish.
But the what the fire does is it destroys some and purifies
other, but it's the same fire. Are you with me is falling on
both groups. One will be purified and 1:00
will be destroyed. So y'all, I just want this to
get across that wrath. It's hard for our minds to
understand it, but in light of sin it is love expressed against
sin is wrath. Are you with me?
Which is why and I'm trying to connect something to theological
things at once. Stay with me.
I might not be doing a great job.
I'm sorry. Forgive me there.
Other people could do this better than me.
But listen, This is why it's good that God is jealous.
I want y'all to understand that it wasn't like the Father loved
you or was mad at you and Jesus loved you.
So Jesus like God, I'll do it. I'll step in for him.
Don't be mad at them. God is jealous, OK Father, Son,
Holy Spirit, for his name, for your good.
And the Father sent the Son full of the Spirit to step in and
bear the cup of wrath for us. Are you with me?
And when we look at the cross, we see God solving a problem
which is getting rid of our sin and loving us without ignoring
the sin. Are you with me?
So on the cross, the wrath of God was applied to the Son of
God in His divine jealousy and love for us and His power, He
steps in and takes upon him the the Red Sea.
Are you with me? Through Jesus?
The sea gets split. That's kind of the idea.
But it's the same sea, and the sea that is going to be split
for some of us will cover others.
Y'all, The wrath gets poured on the sun, or it gets poured on
us. Are you with me?
So the idea isn't that some get judged, some get saved, some get
saved through judgement. That's the idea of the Bible.
Are you with me? All are judged, but our
judgement was taken by another. You don't get chosen because you
avoided certain sins. We talked about in this because
you didn't ignore as much, because you didn't deny God as
much. Because the idea of the Bible is
that some people put their trust in a substitute.
Some people put their trust in the Son of God who stepped in
and took the wrath, and they see the Father's love for them.
So as chapter 2 verses one through 3 say, they say this.
Gather together. Yes, gather together, O
shameless nation, before the decree takes effect, before the
day passes away like Chad, before there comes upon you the
burning anger of the Lord, before there comes upon you the
day of the anger of the Lord, seek the Lord.
All you humble of the land who do is just command.
Seek righteousness, seek humility.
Perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the Lord.
Y'all in myself. I have no hope on that day.
Are you with me? But what once was perhaps is now
definite. Are you with me?
That if you trust in the Son of God, you will be hidden.
You'll be hidden in him as Ron. So beautifully put.
It's like the the car accident where the parent gets in front
of the kid. That is the cross.
It is your God who made you in his image.
Though you sinned against him. Though you are not the leader
you should be. Though you use your power for
your own comfort. The point of this sermon is not,
here's your game plan to stop bothering the Lord.
OK, yes, I hope that all of us walk more in our identity in
Christ and we recognize the game that we're in and how much time
is left and we beautifully walk out our identity in him full of
the Spirit. But the power to do that will
come from getting the undeserved hiddenness of Christ in the
midst of the wrath that you do rightfully deserve.
Amen, somebody. And once you're in Christ, one
of the coolest verses in all the Bible is yours, chapter 3, verse
17. Let's read it again.
This is staggering. The same people of corruption,
the same people ignoring God, denying God.
This is who he's now speaking over.
The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will
save. He will rejoice over you with
gladness. He will quiet you by his love.
He will exult over you with loud singing.
You long to be a person who is sung over just because you're
you and you have God as your God.
Like you long to be loved unconditionally and what our
culture wants you to do is think that it's your job to make
yourself feel unconditionally loved.
Y'all. What the Bible teaches is it's a
fact in Christ and outside of Christ is not a fact.
That's hard, but it's the truth. And in Him you have nothing to
prove. In Him you have nothing to earn.
In Him you are just totally freely loved.
Because God loves you. Why were you chosen?
Because he chose you. Why does he love you?
Because he loves you. Christ died for you and God
quiets you by his love. He's not quiet about you with
His love. Y'all we have the theological
evidence here that we should dad joke our kids.
Y'all see that? Did you see it in the text?
Look back at it. He will quiet you by his love.
He will exalt over you aloud, singing the images of God over
his kids, proudly boasting songs over them, making them squirmish
with his love. So you have God's authority to
tell dad jokes to your kids around their friends.
And the kids are going to be like, I don't like when he
preaches. Bring up that guy with the
candy. Listen, even like things down to
like our family, that impulse to shower a kid with undeserving
love and sing over them and make them squirm.
That didn't start with you. That came from him.
There's a God who wants to delight over you, yo.
And some of y'all are doing everything but going to Him to
feel delightable. You want to feel like you're
worthy of being delighted in. And I'm telling you that
promotion is not going to do it. That next bag you're trying to
get ain't going to do it. That guy thinking you're cute,
as great as it'll feel, ain't gonna do it.
What's going to secure you, what's going to anchor you,
what's going to lock you in is God himself who made you looking
at you at your worst, weakest, dirtiest, defilest.
The saying I chose you, I bought you and I took that.
I bore that cross that you deserve in the I, in my jealousy
for you. I sent my son to take that for
you. You are mine.
The Bible does not teach there will be a day you feel worthy of
God's love. You will always be a recipient
of undeserved free grace. That's what the Bible teaches.
But there's something once you get there and you realize I'm
just saying because he's him, not because I'm me, you are set
free. And now I want to live with him
and I want to be an embodiment of everything we've talked about
in the sermon, but it's not because I feel worthy of it.
So in a weird way, let the dad jokes reign at Port City.
And this is the hard thing. Y'all is letting God love you.
That's one of the goals of your life.
It's memorizing chapter 3, verse 17.
It's letting other people in this room.
That's why yes, we're big on church membership here.
We it takes embodied ways of people loving you when you don't
deserve it to for it to get from your brain to your body.
Are you with me? Because some of us.
Praise God, That was not my first instinct to say praise
God. I think, I think that's my,
that's my cue. I'm I'm gonna pray here.
I'm gonna pray us up, man. Let me pray us up.
Let me pray, let me pray, let me pray.
God loves you, Father, we love you.
Thank you that you love us when we don't deserve it.
God wrap this hard. May we see through the series
that it's good that you hate sin that you, God, you, you want to
dwell with us. You can't when they're sin.
God, you want to purify us. You want to be in our midst.
God, this is what you want. And Lord, I just pray that some
people would wake up today that the clock would be closer to 0
than they realized God, that they would realize that life was
meant to be lived with. You got to pray you would sober
them. You would give them new life.
Got to pray for others who are in the midst of the game but
wanting to give up God that they are living with you, but they
feel that they're waiting is in vain.
Their labor is in vain or their their holiness is in vain.
God, would you show them once again that you're with them,
you're in it and God at the value seat table of our hearts.
God would we know that we're somebody not because of what we
do, not the money we make, not who likes us, not our brand, but
because you sing over us with the light.
I got to pray for the kids of this church, the teenagers, the
the college students. God, may there be healthy, hard
working, like going to live and do mighty things out there, but
God, may they all leave this church one day in Christ,
knowing that they have nothing to prove, nothing to earn, that
they're freely loved because of Christ.
Holy Spirit, help us. God, would you save some.
We love you. We pray these things in Jesus
name, Amen.