So today's teaching scripture is from Zephaniah chapter 3, verses
9 to 18. At that time I will change the
speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of them may
call on the name of the Lord and serve him with 1 accord from
beyond the rivers of Cush. My supplicants, my scattered
ones, shall bring my offering. On that day you shall not be put
to shame because of all the deeds by which you have rebelled
against me. For then I will remove from your
midst your proudly exultant ones, and you shall no longer be
haughty in My holy mountain. For I will leave you in the
midst. I will leave in the midst of you
a people humble and lowly. They shall seek refuge in the
name of the Lord, the remnant of Israel.
They shall do no wrong and utter no lies, nor shall a deceitful
tongue be found in their mouths. Then they will pasture and lie
down, and no one shall make them afraid.
Sing aloud, O daughter Zion, shout.
O Israel, rejoice and exalt with all your heart.
O daughter Jerusalem, the Lord has taken away the judgments
against you. He has turned away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord is in your midst.
You shall fear disaster no more. On that day it shall be said to
Jerusalem. Do not fear, O Zion.
Do not let your hands grow weak. The Lord your God is in your
midst, a warrior who gives victory.
He will rejoice over you with gladness.
He will renew you and His love. He will exalt over you with loud
singing as on a day of festival. I will remove disaster from you
so that you will not bear reproach for it.
This is the word of the Lord. Hi friends.
Zephaniah today. You know the thing I love?
About this series that. We're in on the the minor.
Prophets is like. How often do you come into
church? And Zephaniah is the first thing
that. You hear?
So that's. We're doing that.
A strange thing has happened. To the way that we.
Experience the. World over the last few decades
for. Most of human history events.
That shape the world. And shape.
The way that we see our. Place in it have.
Arrived to us slowly. News for most of human history
travelled by. Letter by messenger, by rumors
that were carried. Along trade routes and if
something catastrophic happened on the.
Other side of the world. It might take weeks or months or
even. Years before you learned.
About it. Most people lived.
Inside of a relatively. Small circle.
Of information until relatively recently their their family.
Their village. The rhythms of the seasons, the
politics in their region, were the things that most.
People were aware of. Conscious of on a daily.
Basis. But today the world arrives to
us. Instantly and constantly.
Sociologists sometimes. Describe this as the.
Collapse of information distance.
So we. Used to be distant from a lot of
information in our world, and that distance is more or less
completely gone. A study from the Reuters
Institute found that the average person now encounters dozens
more or more than 20 news updates.
Per day across multiple platforms.
And when you add to that the constant flow of social media
and information about. Other people's lives.
Commentary analysis Reaction counter reaction to everything
that's going on in the. World you wake.
Up in the morning and before you have even left your bed, you can
see everything that has gone wrong in the.
World overnight war political. Conflict, violence, Economic
anxiety. I I am as present in this as
anyone. I found out about the United
States entering a conflict in Iran from my bed.
This is not normal. This is not the way that things
ought to be. Psychologists have.
Coined terms for the. Ways that this is?
Beginning to affect us, doom scrolling has moved from
Internet slang to becoming a recognized.
Behavioral Pattern. It started as a joke, like as we
looked at ourselves. And said this is how we consume
information and it's actually becoming ingrained in the way
that we think about how humans are.
Formed researchers refer to. Headline stress.
Disorder, it's a real thing that like we're talking about the
low. Grade anxiety that develops when
our nervous system has been exposed to a constant stream of
global. Crises that we have.
No power to resolve and the. Result is that.
The modern person carries the emotional weight of the entire.
World in their pocket, as I was. Reading Zephaniah.
This week. Last week.
I found myself thinking about Bo Burnham.
A few years ago, the. Writer and comedian Bo Burnham
released a Netflix special called Inside.
Has anyone seen Inside? I'll just give you a little.
Disclaimer, don't watch it. With your kids, OK, I just like
don't. You know, as a.
General rule. Most of the things that.
I talk about or. Recommend OK, so just can I
just. Serve as.
Your your blanket disclaimer, but it was filmed during the
pandemic and at one point he sings a little line.
That I think captures. The feeling that many people
have about the information ecosystem that we live in.
A little. Bit of everything, all of the
time. The whole special is funny, but
it's also pretty unsettling. It's one of those things that
you kind of like. Watch and you laugh.
At in the moment, but then you find yourself thinking about
later and you're like, that actually isn't funny.
And it was presented in a really funny way, but it's like a very
unfunny thing that we're dealing with in our.
Everyday life, the human. Mind was never made to carry
this much of the world all at the same time and so.
For the past several weeks. We've been listening to.
These prophets. From ancient Israel speaking.
About the larger world. Wars.
Nations Injustice. The great forces that shape
history. They're speaking to whole.
People, groups, they're. Speaking to rulers of nations,
kings, the. Prophets speak.
Directly into these things. They're not naive.
About how power. Works in the world or about how
violence works in the world. Or about how societies.
Become distorted or unjust and Zephaniah.
Is part of that. Same prophetic tradition that we
see in what we call the. Book of the 12 he also speaks
about. Nations and Judgement and the.
Upheaval of the world. But one thing that sort of stood
out to me reading Zephaniah. Zephaniah turns his attention.
Toward the. People of God themselves in a
way that. Some of the.
Other prophets don't do quite as much instead of only pointing.
At the chaos. Of the world and the mistakes
that the Kingdom of Judah has made.
He. Talks a little bit.
More about what has. Gone wrong inside.
The life of God. 'S own people.
What has slowly shifted? In the.
Ways that they. Understand themselves and in
the. Ways that they live with God.
And so from the. Prophet's perspective the
deepest. Problem is not only what's
happening between the nations. But also.
What's quietly happening inside of the?
People of God. That's supposed to belong to
God. And reflect the love and the
care of God for the world. Around them.
So Zephaniah is describing something that really doesn't.
It doesn't happen to us all at once.
It's not, it's not a dramatic. Sort of.
Resistance against. A spiritual life or a life?
With God, it's not people loudly declaring one day.
That they reject God or reject faith.
What He? Sees is this kind of?
Spiritual drift that takes place over the course of a long.
Period of time when a community gradually learns to live.
Their life as if their life with God.
Doesn't really matter. As if it doesn't.
Really have much bearing. On their daily life.
On their relationships with people, on their work, on the
ways that they think about money.
Their religious life, the religious activity of the
people, has slowly moved. Into the background of their
life. It's part of the.
Setting, but it's not really a driving.
Force in the plot. That they're living into God
becomes less like the center of their life and more like a
background assumption that would never really interrupt anything.
About daily life. Would never really reframe the
way that they think about their relationship to other people or
their relationship to their government.
The life of God. Has simply become a set piece.
Zephaniah captures that tradition that that that
condition in one in one sentence.
Really, really powerfully. In Zephaniah chapter 1, the
12th. Verse God says he's.
Searching the city, looking. Closely at the lives of his
people. And describes what he finds.
He finds people who say to themselves, the Lord will not do
good, nor will he do harm, in other words.
God searches the city. He He's.
Looking at the people, he's looking at their attitudes and
what God finds is. Is a broad attitude of of apathy
toward God? Toward what?
God might do in their day. He sees people who say the Lord.
Won't do anything good, the Lord won't do harm.
There's no real substance to this thing that we.
Would call religious faith. You know.
We go to. The temple we sing the songs we.
Offer the sacrifices. But at the end of the day, God's
not going to do anything. And we think to ourselves, that
sounds pretty sad. But what I.
Find is that when I look at my own life.
This. Assumption this attitude is kind
of a a sinister thing. They can sort of creep in,
really. Easily because.
Listen, I don't know about you, but for me, most.
Days there are a. Lot of things that feel a lot
more real to me than the presence of God.
You know the fact that my. Kids are.
Freaking out and driving. Me crazy, that feels a lot more.
Real to me than the presence of God.
Or the fact that I've got. This financial thing to figure
out. That.
Feels a lot more real to me than the presence.
Of God or I have to. Figure something out about my
housing or about my work or about, you know, fill in the
blank right and we can easily sort of find ourselves with
this. Attitude, the Lord.
Will not do good, nor will he do harm.
I alone can fix it, in other words.
These people haven't rejected God outright.
They haven't. Said, you know we're.
Walking away from our faith tradition, we're done with all.
This. Forget it.
They simply assume that. God is largely irrelevant.
God will not really act. God will not intervene.
God will not really demand anything of us.
God will not really challenge anything about.
Our life, life. Will continue on its normal
course and God will remain somewhere in the background,
distant and uninvolved. And what Zephaniah is naming
here is. This slow, sort of.
Settling of our souls into a life where God is acknowledged
but no longer expected. Or.
Experienced in any real. Way.
And So what Zephaniah sees in Judah isn't the collapse of
religion. In fact, on the surface things
looked fairly normal, as with most.
Of these prophetic books, the people were still.
Participating in the life of the community and Zephaniah is
speaking into a moment where King Josiah has been the king of
Israel and so. If you read about.
King Josiah in the Hebrew Bible. What you find is that.
King Josiah actually presided over what could could be called
sort of a revival. Or renewal in Israel in his day,
running around like a crazy person tearing down all these
idols from different. Hills all over the.
Kingdom of Judas, you know, bringing, bringing the reading
of the scriptures back into the temple, reinstating Jewish
religious life. And so aesthetically, at the
time that Zephaniah is writing and prophesying to the people,
they're in the middle of what some people would look around
and say. This is religious.
Renewal, this is. This is.
God, you know, sort of reasserting his presence on our
nation, on our people, and a lot of people would look and say.
This is good. Look at how many young.
People are excited about this. Look at how many.
People are. Coming back to church.
But Zephaniah is naming the realities that are underneath
what appears on the surface to be religious renewal.
Zephaniah is naming this condition that's easy to miss.
Because it develops slowly. God becoming less like the
living center of the community and more like a thin veneer that
gets placed. Over the ways that we sort.
Of conduct our lives. It's a pattern that shows up
again and again and again in the Hebrew Bible, in the life.
Of God's people. It happens slowly, where our
attention drifts. And our loyalties are a little
bit scattered and. It's not a dramatic rejection of
God. It can look.
Like the opposite. Thing, but it's the settling in
where faith is something that we might ascribe to, but it's not
really the center. Of who we are.
So from the outside, Judah. Looks like a religious society,
the temples. There the language.
Of faith is. Still in place.
People talk the talk. People show up at the meetings
and so on. People know the traditions, they
know the. Rituals that sort.
Of mark the time for them, but the.
Prophet sees that the. Heart of the community that he's
talking. To has drifted far away from the
love of God, far away. From the intent that.
That God has for. The good world and the good.
People who fill it. And so in that situation,
Zephaniah speaks of this striking image.
He talks about God. Searching the city, God's moving
through Jerusalem, he's examining the lives of the
people, looking closely at what's happening beneath the
surface and what's happening here at the beginning of the
book is he's painting a. Picture of a God who refuses to.
Remain distant or indifferent. Toward the world.
And friends, if there's one thing.
That I could. Say, if there's one thing that
you remember about the Prophet Zephaniah or any of this this
morning, it's that. The scriptures give us a picture
of a God who. Relentlessly refuses to abandon
the world and so when you look at when you look at the world
and all of its chaos, when you. Look at your personal.
Life and all of its chaos, all the things that feel confusing
and disordered, and you're tempted to think, if I could get
that one little line. Back that the Lord.
Will will not do. Will not.
Do good. Nor will he harm and you think.
I have to figure. This out on my own friends.
The prophets remind us over and over and over again, God will
not abandon the world and God will not abandon you in your
circumstances. And you know I.
Just have to say. Living in Babylon.
As we do where we have. Everything we could ever need.
Right at our fingertips. You can order.
Groceries to your door. You can, you know you.
You can have it all, we're tempted to think, in our
spiritual. Life in our life.
With God, this thing that people have been trying to figure out
for centuries. That it ought to just be readily
available to us. And we get.
Really frustrated. When prayer feels pointless or
when our spirituality. Feels a little bit slow or we
feel like. This just isn't coming to me
very fast or I'm struggling with the.
Scriptures. I read the Bible and it's
frustrating. And confusing to me because we
live in Babylon. Because everything is.
Right at our fingertips. We are being, we are being
formed counter to the skills and the instincts that we need.
To have a healthy life. With God and so I say this to.
Encourage you if you feel frustrated.
Or confused in your spiritual? Life if there are.
Things that just are not coming to you easily and that feels
really. Difficult to you?
Like maybe you're barely. Hanging on.
I just want to say it's because you're being told by everything
around you, all of the signals. Are that?
This should be getting easier and easier.
Life should become become. Be.
Becoming more and more convenient and this whole thing
of having. A life with God.
And letting the love of Jesus transform us is just not an easy
or convenient enterprise. So.
Be encouraged. Hang in.
There, get prayer today, the prophets.
Are consistently challenging this assumption that God will
not intervene, God will not come and help you, Zephaniah.
Describes a people. Who have grown spiritually,
spiritually numb and and. Talks about a people who have
rested. Complacently and assume.
That life will always. Continue will just continue.
As it always has, he he evokes this image of people who rest.
Complacently on their dregs. So if you're going to just
imagine the person who sort of leans back on a big barrel of
wine and thinks, I don't know, it'll all work out somehow,
right? As the Old Testament scholar
Jimmy. Roberts notes the prophets
language. Here reflects a critique of what
he calls religious. Indifference and practical
atheism. That is to say.
Religion that forms people into an indifferent and unhealthy
indifferent attitude. That would sort of look.
Out in the world and say, well, it's all going to burn.
So what's what's? It matter.
What I do or? What anybody does and practical
atheism, the sense that you know.
We have a a religious aesthetic in our life.
We come to church. You might even have a cross from
Hobby Lobby on your wall, but at the end of the day, God will not
actually do anything to affect my.
Real life. But the message?
Of the prophet is that God sees clearly earlier.
In the chapter. God declares I will stretch.
Out my hand against Judah, and against all the inhabitants of
Jerusalem. And later the prophet speaks of
the great day of the Lord, he says the great.
Day of the Lord is near and hastening fast, and these words
can sound severe to our modern Western.
Ears we. Can hear things like that and
go, that sounds mean, that sounds confusing, and it does
sound mean and confusing to us, but there's something
underneath. This, that we, we.
Must ascertain that's happening in the text.
God cares. Deeply about the condition of
the world. God cares deeply.
About the condition of his. People.
And so for all the confusing language about judgement in the
prophets or in the Hebrew Bible. For all the hard work that we
have to. Do as modern people to
understand that it's not the language.
Of a God. Who has lost interest?
And I said something like this. A couple weeks ago.
And I, I just want to say it again because I believe it, you
know, I don't know what it is. For you, whether it's corrupt
leaders. Whether it's the rampant.
Abuse of people of. Children in.
Society if it's. War and violence, whatever
thing. You know, sort of provokes you
to look at the. World and go God, how long?
Why? Why are things like this?
I would just invite. You to maybe.
Sort of access that a little. Bit when you read.
These passages about. Judgement, not to wish judgement
on other people, but to understand a little bit the.
Picture that the Prophet. Is trying to paint, trying to
give people hope in a world that's just full of things that
absolutely need to? Be set right.
And have gone on for far too long and we look and say, God,
how long and and you know, maybe this is just me trying to make
myself a little bit more comfortable.
With these texts. But when I read stuff.
Like that, what I hear, what I see.
Underneath words that sound a little.
Bit harsh I'm. Hearing from a God.
Who sees? Those injustices and cares
deeply. That they be set.
Right. And that.
People be held to. Account for the ways that they
harm others. But that confrontation that
Zephaniah writes about isn't the final.
Word that he gives. He introduces an invitation
after exposing the complacency of the people and the divided
loyalties in the way. That they've propped up Judah's
corrupt. System the prophet calls them to
return and so in the 2nd chapter Zephaniah says.
Seek the Lord. All you humble of the land, who
do his commands, seek righteousness, seek humility,
perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the Lord.
And so. We start to see just a little
bit of a. Turn toward.
God is, God is. Looking God is looking to the.
Hearts of people who. Want to partner who are
advocating for real justice and the rhythm?
Of the prophets follows this pattern every.
Time there's. Exposure of the problem.
And then there's an invitation from the prophet.
To say. You see these things that are
wrong as well. Don't you come with me.
There is another way of being in the world.
The call to seek the Lord appears.
Again and again and again throughout the prophetic
writings. And it's a reminder that the
relationship between God and God's people is not finished,
even in moments. Of their greatest failures.
The door remains open. For people to be.
Welcomed into the mission of God again Walter Brueggemann, who I
think Karl referred to as Uncle Walt in a in.
A series late last year which I just.
Love so Uncle Walt in his in his wonderful.
Little book, The Prophetic. Imagination observes.
The that the prophets. Regularly move from critique to
hope so when you. Read the Prophets.
In the Hebrew Bible, as you've been reading, you know each of
the minor prophets along with us.
Every week I see. Everyone.
Yes.
Read your Bible. No.
You should you should read You should read the Bible.
It's a good book. They expose these.
False patterns of the community that they're writing to while
simultaneously inviting them into renewed.
Life with God biblical. Prophets move from critiquing
what Walter Brigham and calls the royal consciousness.
I know. That's like a little bit of a.
You know, lofty concept, but we're just going to camp out on
that for a second. The royal consciousness.
Which is how he describes attitudes that foster.
Injustice and denial to nurturing in the people.
What he calls a. Prophetic imagination.
That offers hope. And imagines an alternate
reality. Imagines.
A world that's ordered. Around the life and the
teachings and the way of Jesus. And so Brueggeman.
Uses this phrase royal. Consciousness to describe the
mindset of empires he talks about.
Egypt at the. Beginning of the prophetic
imagination. Kings and ruling classes who
construct a vision of the world. That protects their power.
It keeps them safe from anybody who might challenge the idea
that they run the world. That they rule the world.
It it tells a story. Where everything they do.
Is. Stabilized everything they do.
Is justified. Everything they do is
inevitable. There's no other way that things
could have turned. Out because you know what?
What Pharaoh says is, of course, the wisest judgement.
That could exist. But the.
Prophets insist that this same pattern is not just limited to
kings and empires. And So what I'm thinking about,
you know? This week is like.
We've talked about some of these big.
Forces we've talked about. You know, the ways that
injustice works in the world. But what I want to propose
alongside Walter Bruggeman is that this shows up in similar
ways in our ordinary lives as well, just the same way that
kings and kingdoms and empires protect themselves.
Each of us has. A tendency to construct our own
little Kingdom. A life, that is.
Well organized around protecting our comfort and our security and
our reputation and our control over our circumstances.
And just like an empire, we can begin to.
Tell ourselves stories that justify.
Those patterns. That that sort of protect us
that. Keep us from seeing clearly and
we insulate ourselves from critique and feedback from other
people. We become unable.
To hear sort of a corrective word.
Even from a trusted friend or someone that we've asked to have
visibility into our lives. And the prophetic voice
interrupts that illusion. On the scale of nations, but on
the. Scale of your everyday life.
And so my hope. Is that as we read?
These prophets we can see, We can see.
The big forces that are at play in our world.
In our neighborhood. But we can also see the ways.
That these things have sort of deeply taken root in our own
lives and the. Ways that that God's spirit
through the scriptures over the course of.
Thousands of. Years as sort of.
Calling us to account for the ways that.
We build. Up our own little kingdoms and
we. Protect.
We protect ourselves at the cost.
Of being able to see what God is really doing in our lives.
But notice how this invitation from the prophet centers on
humility. Seek righteousness.
Seek humility. Is how?
Is how he introduces this to us humility?
Is what allows people to see their lives clearly.
Again, it's what? Allows a gathered people to see
their lives clearly. Again.
And this kind of spiritual drift often develops when we assume
that everything's fine, when we stop examining our own loyalties
and our own habits in the language of the prophets.
Humility. Creates the space where.
Spiritual renewal can come to us.
Where Jesus? In his kindness can come to us
when when we're in a humble place and just say I have
something for you. I have an encouragement.
For you I have. You know, do you remember this
time when you were very, very young and this thing happened?
Or do you can you think of you know that?
First job that. Boss that you had who was just
incredibly hard to be around. Or this church experience years
ago that. You've just sort of put on the
shelf in the back of your mind. And when we humble ourselves,
when we. Actually, stop.
Trying to protect ourselves from what what might come.
And reveal the reality of our lives.
There's this this. Posture that allows.
A community to come and to. Seek the true words.
Of God again. And so the last movement of the
book brings us to one of the most beautiful passages in the
entire Old Testament. After the warnings and the
invitations, Zephaniah reveals something about the heart of God
that's just incredibly important.
For us to hear. Near the end of the book.
We hear these words. Sing aloud, O daughter Zion.
Shout, O Israel, rejoice. And exalt.
With all your heart. And the reason for the joy comes
immediately in the next passage. The Lord has.
Taken away the judgments against you, the King of Israel, the
Lord is in your midst. You shall never again fear.
Evil. And so all.
Of the ways that. You know, as the Prophet begins
to sort of outline the problem and shine a light a little bit
on some of our apathy or some of the ways that we've grown.
Comfortable in our habits to just say.
You know. God.
God won't. Do any good?
He won't cause any harm. The Prophet says.
The Lord has taken away the judgments against you, the
judgments that you make against yourself, the ways that you
might even hear that and be tempted to condemn yourself.
There's this condemnatory voice that sort of comes sometimes.
And guys, that's not, that's not Jesus.
And so when there's when there's an opportunity, when there's an
invitation to change course, when there's an invitation to
think. Differently about the.
Ways that we've been imagining our lives.
The Lord has. Taken away the judgments against
you and then the final. Image of the prophecy.
Is 1 of God? Personally dwelling.
Among his people, which is one of the most powerful images in
the Bible. It's one that we come back to
you over and over and over again in the prophets.
Jesus. God Incarnate, dwelling among
the people, but the future promise of all things being set.
Right, that gets. Set out in the prophets Isaiah
and Daniel and in Revelation. Talks about God.
Dwelling with the people. The Lord.
Your God is in your midst, a mighty one.
Who will say if he? Will rejoice over you with
gladness He will quiet you by his love He will exalt over you.
With loud singing. So after.
Everything that's been said about judgement and warning the
prophet ends with joy. And we miss this in the prophets
because we sometimes isolate those lines that sound a little
harsh, but they all kind of work like.
This with the exception. Of maybe 1.
There's a little less, a little less hope, but when we step back
and look at the. Movement of the book as a whole.
We see the deeper logic that God.
Confronts numbness, confronts our own apathy.
Because he refuses to. Abandon us refuses to abandon us
to the forces of the world around us, Refuses to abandon us
to the traumas that have occurred in our lives, refuses
to abandon us to the difficult circumstances that we might be
dealing with. God confronts numbness.
Because he refuses to. Abandon his people and he
exposes. This sort of spiritual.
Drift in our lives. Because God desires restoration,
God desires to be close to us. And the warnings of the Prophet
are not meant to. Drive people away.
They're not meant to hold people at arm's length, they're meant
to bring them in close. And so the final image reveals
this goal that's been present underneath all along, a restored
relationship. Where?
God is present among his people and delights in His people, and
it's one of the reasons that I love preaching through.
The prophets especially. During Lent right now, as we.
Sort of approach Easter because. What are we doing?
We're we're preparing ourselves to.
Sort of receive the gravity of the cross.
And then just the overwhelming joy and hope that comes with.
The restoration of Jesus. And each of the prophets.
Sort of follows this this arc. As they go along, they tell the.
Story over. And over and over again in lots
of different ways. And so at this point, I think
it. Helps us to just.
Pause and consider how. Easily spiritual drift develops.
In our own lives, not in a. Way where we are being harsh
with ourselves. But you know, I I noticed this
in my own life more than I probably would like to admit.
There are seasons where my life with God feels vivid and alive,
and there are times where prayer comes easily and scripture is
interesting and exciting and I'm attentive to what God might want
to do in the middle of the day. And there are other seasons
where nothing, nothing dramatic has happened.
But I am fixated on my very full inbox and my responsibilities
that seem to be multiplying. And I'm doing all the right
things outwardly, so you wouldn't be able to tell.
But somewhere along the way, my attentiveness starts to thin out
a little bit, and my my my actual attentiveness to God
slowly moves from the very center of my awareness.
To like a set piece. In the play of my life and guys,
some of that. Is just reality.
Some of that is just a matter of like being human and the fact.
That we're fickle. You know, I can't think of many
commitments to myself that I've ever been able to keep.
So it's just a reality that like we're, we're sort of.
Pushing up against the very limits.
Of of our of our. Finiteness, but at the same time
we're invited. To keep pushing we're.
Invited to keep sort of fight, you know?
Where is the very. Edge of my ability.
To cooperate with what? God might want to do and how can
I? How can I live?
There how? Can that be the place where I'm
sort of approaching the majority of my life?
And so as we've wind down and come toward a little bit of
prayer, I want to just invite us to let the.
Words of the Prophet settle. In US, I'll invite the worship
team back up. Zephaniah begins with this image
of God searching the city, bringing light into places that
look dim, paying attention to the.
Lives of God's people, but he doesn't.
End there. He ends with a very.
Different picture, a hopeful picture, the Lord dwelling in
the midst of His. People quieting them with love,
rejoicing over them with singing, and I think that tells
us something. Important about the heart of
God, the God who. Searches us and.
Searches for us. Is not looking for a reason to
push you. Away.
And so friends, I know so many of.
US have had experiences. In church, in spiritual
community, where we've been, sort of.
We felt pushed away or held at arm's length by by God or by the
people of God. And I just want.
To encourage you, I really think there is.
An invitation to come. Close as we worship, so I would
invite you to to. Stand, I'm going to pray for us
and I just want to offer a few simple.
Invitations for prayer. And if some of our people.
Who know how to pray? Could make your way.
Make your way. Around.
The first is. Just for anybody who who sort of
recognizes themselves in this sort of spiritual numbness that
Zephaniah is describing. Maybe your life is.
Just full of responsibilities. It's full of noise and it's very
difficult. To imagine making the.
Space for a vibrant life with God.
I think there are some. Ways that we imagine what that
might look like that make the. Barrier even a little bit higher
than it actually is and. So I'd love to invite you to
come and receive prayer. Second thing.
It's just for. People who maybe sense some
divided loyalties in their lives and when I talk.
About the forces that shape your life, you're.
Actually thinking like. Oh, actually, there's this.
One thing, this one like news source or this one, you know,
it's like. Probably actually.
Shaping me a little bit more than anything else would invite
you to come and receive. Prayer.
And the last thing is just. For.
Those of you who find yourselves feeling tired.
Who just this talk of a life with God is a little bit.
Exhausting. We'd love to.
Pray for you. Come and receive.
Prayer. So come Holy Spirit.
Lord, thank you for. The ways that you're present to
each of us, the ways that you are.
Loving us into the image of your son and.
God, I just pray for each person here.
You know what we need. Would you meet with us as we
sing? As we.
Worship.