The Call to Repent | Hidden Treasures

A call to repent. This is the second sermon in

this sermon series. Again, it's a five -week

sermon series looking at Zephaniah. We're going

to dive right in, and we're going to actually

just work through the verses kind of as we go.

So, April, I'm not going to do that first slide

of the one through three, because... communion,

to me, as we come from the table into not only

the world of Zephaniah, but in the world to kind

of for us in 22 and 5, I saw such a connection

this week from the table of grace to what we

are learning in Zephaniah is it is a gift of

God. We say it all the time. The bread and the

cup that remind us of Christ's body and the blood.

We've proclaimed something. Together, as we partake,

we proclaim the Lord's death. We've tasted his

mercy. We've communed with not just each other,

but with Christ himself. But now the question

is, what do you do after the table? Is it just

something we kind of check the box? All right,

we took communion beginning of the month. Great,

now on to the next thing. I think Zephaniah would

challenge us after the table this morning. We

don't just walk away full, but we should walk

out changed every time. We experience the table

of grace. Communion is not a closing ceremony,

but a commissioning event. It's what I love about

doing that the beginning of every month, that

we're being commissioned through the body and

blood of our Lord Jesus Christ to go out. And

today, Zephaniah 2 calls us. Or it gives us a

call for a life after grace. Seek the Lord. Seek

righteousness. Seek humility. It's not just legalism,

but it's response to what God is doing. Because

one thing we can bank on, God's mercy always

leads us towards transformation. So now, nourished

by his grace, we hear the word. Not as a people

afraid of the wrath of God. but as a people invited

to a deeper faithfulness to live in a godly manner.

Have you ever thought about that? That the manner

in which you live your life should be seen as

godly. Let's just all take five seconds to feel

really bad, really convicted, because we look

back at our last week, the things that we've

said, the things that we've thought, the things

that we've posted, all of those things, they

may not come off as godly, but yet that is the

call. Because one of the reasons why Zephaniah

is really calling out the people of Judah is

they looked religiously impressive, but that

was basically it. There was not a whole lot going

on on the inside. You see, if we go back to the

context, King Josiah was implementing some reforms.

It wasn't for a couple more years until he really

starts to get it right. But he's doing a lot

of work. You see, he's cleaning the idol altars,

right? He's cleansing those. He's repairing the

temple. He's calling the people back to the law.

2 Kings, chapters 22 and 23. But the deeper disease

2 Kings 22 · chapter mention

remained. And this is where, right off the bat,

you're going to be like, oh, pastor, no. This

is just, this is uncomfortable. I don't like

it. As though there's cleansing going on, there's

repairing going on, and people are being called

back, whether they've come back or not, to the

Lord, the deeper issues remain. Pride, idolatry,

and apathy. Pride, idolatry, and apathy. They

had a temple. They had their sacrifices. But

they lacked the broken and contrite heart that

the psalmist David calls us for true worship.

Because here's the thing, some of us come to

worship every week not really thinking we have

to. Not really thinking that we get the opportunity

to worship God. And again, guys, it's not just,

you don't need to do it today for an hour. You

should be doing it all the time. Our lives should

be lives of worship, right? We should be living

out our lives of worship in all that we do. Families,

jobs, friends, communities, sports teams, all

of those things. But Zephaniah's message comes

into that tension. He's speaking directly to

then and to now, as we're going to see at the

end, as if he is saying, you have seen grace

extended, Munster Church. Now don't harden your

heart. You have seen grace extended, but don't

harden your heart. What does that mean? That

means that we can be a people who have received

grace, yet still think we're better than others.

Still harden our heart with that pride or hold

to our idols or become apathetic in our walk

with Jesus. Yeah, I've been through all the things.

I've done all the things. I even did VBS when

Munster Church had it decades ago. I'm good.

That is never the life of a believer. It never

should be. So Zephaniah, speaking into the tension,

don't harden your heart. Because pride, idols,

and apathy are three good ways to harden that

heart. Because what is a hardened heart? A hardened

heart is a stubbornness, right? Now, this is

not a time to elbow your significant other, the

person sitting next to you. But hardening your

heart means, God, I got it. If you declared,

all of our worship this morning had a theme,

didn't it? I need you. Recognizing that you need

God is recognizing that you lack something. And

so as we're going to see, what Zephy's trying

to do is bring not only these thoughts and ideas

together, but bring the people together to recognize

who they are in Christ. So gather together. Verse

1. What sums up this verse is shame. So now,

April, I'm going to go through verse 1. Gather

together. Yes, gather. O shameless nation. Let's

just gather together. Yes, gather. O shameless

nation. And we'll get to verse 2. Let's just

stop there for a second. What? It's a shameful

nation, right? What did I say? Shameless. Okay,

shameless, shameful. I think it's the same, right?

It is gather together, yes together, oh shameless

nation. Oh shameless, you are being, this is

not a good thing. This is a summons to collective

repentance. Now we do this, right? We have time

of kind of confessional prayer. You have time

of individual confession. You confess your sins

to God. He forgives you if your heart is pure.

As far as the east is from the west, he remembers

your sin no more. But the visual here I find

amazing. The Hebrew word, chahesh, means to gather

like dry stubble. Exposing how spiritually brittle.

Again, because Hebrew is all about kind of visual

pictures. It's really not a verbal language.

It's more imagery. That's what I love and hated

about learning it. That's why it was so hard,

in my opinion. Exposing how spiritually brittle

the people of God had become. Have you ever felt

that way? That you're just spiritually brittle?

In your mind, what comes to mind when you think

of something brittle? One or two people. Brittle.

I don't know if you use that term a lot in your

life, but when you think of something brittle,

what comes to mind? Someone say bowels? I hope

not. Fragile, okay? What was the B? Someone had

a B word. I want to make sure I heard that right.

Bones, okay, that's way better than bowels. Yes,

sorry, Evan. But understand that bones can be

brittle, absolutely. You may have a relative,

you yourself may have more kind of brittle bones

where things just tend to break or crack very,

very easily. Brittle, it's not necessarily a

good thing, especially not here. They've become

spiritually brittle. Shameless doesn't mean that

they didn't sin. It means they weren't bothered

by it. There was no shame in them sinning. It

doesn't mean they weren't without sin. They weren't

even feeling bad. They were becoming apathetic

about sin. Well, yeah, I messed up. Well, yeah,

Yahweh's either going to forgive me or he's not.

That's kind of up to him. What kind of relationship

is that with God the Father? This apathetic understanding

of a brittle faith of just kind of a fickle relationship.

Think about a good friend or a significant other,

a spouse, a family member. What if that was the

definition of your relationship? The depth of

your intimacy? Well, take it or leave it. We'll

see. What does that show? That shows I really

don't have a connection. If I felt that way about

Carrie, she wouldn't feel that love. Like, Carrie,

this is me. Take it or leave it. Maybe you said

that to your spouse this week or a significant

other. What does that say about you? It says,

I really don't care what you think. I'm going

to be who I am. I don't think that that's the

right understanding of a healthy relationship,

but let alone our relationship with God, whether

that's our look of God or we think what God looks

at us, it's not a good thing. What is Zephaniah

saying practically? You need more than religion.

You need actual repentance. You need to be broken

for your sin. If your sin isn't breaking you,

that means you're used to it. And friend, that's

not a good thing. Zephaniah is addressing a nation

that has wandered from covenantal faithfulness,

calling them back before. This decree takes effect

of the day of the Lord. Now again, covenant contract.

I've done this many times. I'm not going to go

through it again. We don't have time. But understand

that our covenant love with God is God will be

with us whether we're faithful or not. That's

not an opportunity. Ooh, we get to be unfaithful,

but God's going to be faithful. This is going

to be great. No, that's like spiritual abuse.

That's an understanding. That's taking advantage.

That's what Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls cheap grace.

That's on a Monday saying, oh boy, I plan to

sin Friday and Saturday, but I know Sundays God's

going to forgive me. How you can tell that that's

not a good relationship with God is that's not

how you would want people to treat you. Oh man,

I plan on hurting and backstabbing that person

on Thursday, but guess what? On Sunday they're

going to forgive me. That is not a good way to

do it. And that's where Zephaniah continues in

verse 2. Before, right? Before the decree takes

effect. Oh, that's so hard, right? So he's already

called us a shameless nation. Before a decree

takes effect, before the day passes away like

chaff, before there comes upon you the burning

anger of the Lord, before there comes upon you

the day of the anger of the Lord. Anger of the

Lord, not a good thing. Not something we're like,

yeah, I want to see the anger of the Lord. Let's

see what he's got. That is never, should never

be our understanding of God. The word before.

Shameless, complacent. You guys have fallen.

You've missed it. You don't understand it. You're

confused. Before is God's mercy again. We see

God's mercy in the word before. Judgment is real.

But God always warns first. You can see it throughout

the scriptures. There is always a warning. Now,

in the bowels of Pastor Jim, so to speak, one

of the kind of videos I love, I love jump scare

videos. I don't know what it is. Maybe it just

pricks my anxiety or something, but I like it.

I know that's weird. I'll talk to my counselor

about it. But I just love people getting scared.

This does not mean you all get to do that. I

like to watch videos of people being scared.

Do I like to be scared? No. Because I know that

it would make an incredible video. But understand

that there's something about that, that all of

a sudden people don't think something's going

to happen. It does, and they freak out. Now,

half of it I know is staged, but I want to be

entertained anyway. But this is the warning before

the day of the Lord, the day of God's anger.

There's a window of opportunity. It's a not live

in fear, but it's a wake up before it's too late.

We heard that last week. This echoes Hebrews

3 .15. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden

your hearts. This is where it becomes apocalyptic

again. We know what apocalypse means. We went

through Revelation. This is Zephaniah pointing

toward apocalyptically to the day of the Lord

when the Lord is going to come down. This is

the day of the Lord's anger. This is the judgment

that this prophet has the obligation, the duty

to tell the people of Judah. Zephaniah is urging

preemptive repentance before the full judgment

comes. This emphasis is on the window of opportunity.

Before it is too late, the Lord is slow to anger,

but is not indifferent to sin. Think about that.

He's slow to anger, but not indifferent to sin.

This is one of the balances I love between Carrie

and I, right? Not many of you are fans probably

of the TV show Parks and Rec. It's one of my

absolute favorites. And there is an episode where

this little town of Pawnee, Indiana, it's fictitious.

You can feel free to go to sleep for three minutes.

I'll wake you back up. They have kind of their

sister city come out. And there's an interview

about, and it's, Mandy, do you remember the town?

The Eagleton, no, it's the other one, the one

down in South America. They come, anyway, it

doesn't matter. They're talking to their general,

and they're interviewing him about, they just

went to this town hall meeting, and it was absolute

chaos. Just people yelling and throwing at things,

and he kind of, coming from more of a militaristic

city, he's like, we don't have anything like

that there, because if you raise your hand, you're

going to jail. And he goes through this laundry

list of things. It's hilarious. He's like, if

you undercook fish, you go to jail. If you overcook

chicken, you go to jail. Like all of these things.

You can wake back up. Here's the point. That's

not what it is. God is slow to anger. This isn't

a one and done. This isn't really the difference

we carry an eye in the way that we discipline.

Right? I can be like that, right, when it comes

to the boys? Like, it's like, you didn't close

the garage door, go to jail. Like, you didn't

take out the dog when I asked, go to jail. You

didn't, you get the drift. And care's like, no,

there is no jail. Like, you said go to jail,

you now go to jail. I've been sent to jail by

her. Like, there's this understanding of... I

lack that, what's a good word for it? I lack

that patience, I know, big shock, where Carrie's

been given abundance. How do we know? She married

me. She was going to need it. But understand

that this window of opportunity is showing the

mercy of God in that he wants you to get it.

He wants me to get it. He wants to throw those

signs up there, those warnings, and say, repent,

turn. Meaning, I see the road you're going down.

Turn. He may bring a good friend around you and

say, hey, this is where you're headed. Turn.

Those are those little prophets in your life.

Your friends can be that for you. You can be

that for your friends. Because God is slow to

anger but is indifferent to sin. So now we've

paused, right? And you've all had this this week,

sometime in your life. You could have taken this

step into sin, but something, conviction, maybe

a person, maybe a devotion, whatever, maybe the

sermon last week, who knows, got you to stop

and got you to turn a little bit. Turning is

one thing. Walking, then, in a different direction

is repentance. Right? In easy, we always say

it's the 180 back to God. I'm going down this

sin nature. Actually, I'll use the cross. I'm

going down this sin nature. Stopping it is a

good thing. Turning is a great thing. But walking

now toward the cross is the repentance. It's

not repentance if we're just doing this. I should

say this. This actually is repentance. But walking

is the way of a believer. That is what Zephaniah

is trying to get at in verse 3. So verse 3 says,

Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land. Who

do his just commands? Seek righteousness, seek

humility. Perhaps you may be hidden on the day

of the anger of the Lord. So this is the pause,

this is the turn, and now the walking is seeking.

These are not random phrases, but a great three

-point sermon by Zephaniah. It's one unified

call to what we call covenant renewal. We see

this throughout the Old Testament. Covenant renewal.

And guess what? Who's the one renewing it? Us.

God never breaks it. We're the one that breaks

it. We're the ones that have to stop and seek

him again. Seek the Lord. Pursue a relationship

with the living God, not just a ritual. Man,

I think it was, I think it was. I think it was

him that said, just because you go into a garage

doesn't make you a car. Just because you come

into a church doesn't mean it makes you a believer.

I think it was James Dobson that said that. If

not, it doesn't matter. It was some good guy

because it was a great quote. But understand

that coming here on Sunday is fantastic. It doesn't

make you a believer. Seeking the Lord, laying

down your life, picking up your cross, acknowledging

Jesus as Lord and Savior is the relationship.

Seek righteousness. Live as God commands, shaped

by his holiness. It's not just a one and done.

It's a continual journey until the day of the

Lord. And then finally, seek humility. Acknowledge

our sin and throw ourselves onto his mercy, which

is renewed every morning. After the table, we

do not walk in pride. We walk in seeking, as

though gripped by grace. So perhaps you may be

hidden on the day of the anger of the Lord. That

perhaps isn't because God is unsure. It's an

invitation to humility. It's saying, don't presume.

Don't assume this. Seek him with urgency, with

sincerity. This word hidden, right? The same

root word of Zephaniah's actual name. Yahweh

hides and protects. Isn't that cool? That this

prophet is speaking of his own name, pointing

back to the relationship with God. So what does

it mean to be hidden? Well, now in 2025, in a

post -resurrection, ascended Christianity, what

Zephaniah hoped for, we have received. We are

not hidden in our own righteousness, but we're

hidden in Jesus. Paul writes in Colossians 3

.3, for you have died and your life is now hidden

with Christ in God. So when God appears, you

will be revealed to him in glory. We are the

people for whom God's wrath was satisfied on

the cross. At the table of communion, we remembered

that Christ took the burning anger onto himself

so that we could be covered in mercy. Because

Christ is the great hiding place, isn't it? Not

to hide our sin and our secrets and all that,

but he is the one that died for our sins and

our secrets, and he is our hiding place because

we take him on, as Colossians 3 will continue

to say. Zephaniah urges the faithful to seek

humility and hope in being hidden. The hope is

fully realized in Jesus Christ. In the two articles

of the Belgian Confession, help us understand

this. Article 20, God sent his only son to assume

the nature in which the disobedience had been

committed, to make satisfaction in that same

nature. And Article 23 affirms, we rest on the

obedience of Christ crucified alone, in which

we believe in him. So if we've been hidden with

Christ, People should see that in our life. People

should see that grace that we get from the table

in our life. So how in the world do we walk this

out? How do we go on living from the table? Well,

here's where our kind of application brings us

to the end as I land the plane. First and foremost,

if you've been given the grace, then we should

seek God daily. Not out of fear. but as one who

has tasted grace. We should practice repentance.

Communion doesn't erase our need to repent. It

awakens our need to repent. We should live humbly.

The cross humbles the proud and lifts up the

lowly and the lonely. And then finally, we should

tell others. You just partook in the visible

gospel, the visible means of grace. Now proclaim

it. with words, and with life. That's the response,

my friends. That is the response. So, much like

every prophet, major or minor, again, it's just

book size, they're telling the people then and

us now, because that is how we can read the good

book, which is awesome. Then, what is Zephy telling

them? Judah had a temple, the law, the sacrifices.

but their hearts had grown cold. God warned them

not to destroy them, but to turn them back to

him. So what does that mean for us today? We've

just shared the Lord's Supper. We've seen his

mercy. Now the question is, will we seek him?

God's word calls us after the bread and the cup

to live differently, to seek, to repent. and

to walk humbly with our God. So friends, don't

let communion this morning be the spiritual high

point that fades, but let it be the launching

point to faithful, humble obedience. Let's pray.

Lord God, thank you.