The Minor Prophets | Zephaniah

So today's teaching scripture is from Zephaniah chapter 3, verses

Zephaniah 3:9–18

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

Zephaniah 1 · chapter mention

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.

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.