Zephaniah

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.

Zephaniah 3:5

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.