Laying Bare The Cedar Work | Pastor Paul McGee

Just being here again, Amen. Thank the Lord.

I hope that's your sentiment today.

It feels good to be in the House of the Lord again.

Amen. Songs like that revert me back

to a child on a Pew when I ever things like that.

I grew up here in that in the House of the Lord.

It also reverts back to feeling my ear being twisted by my

mother. You just behaved back there,

Sister Cox. We was talking this morning

about Brethren Malone's birthday being today.

And Sister Cox was talking about how he's probably not even, you

know, over 30. And she looked at me and she

says, I know you're over 30. And I said, well, let's talk

about your age for a little bit. I said not a day over 16.

She says, don't you realize you're you're standing in the

House of God? I said, yeah.

I said not a day over 16. Plurality, Amen.

Good to be in the House of the Lord today.

Amen. Feel the presence of God here.

I'm going to turn to a minor prophet book.

So that's going to mean your fingers are probably going to

turn left, right, left, right, left, right, right.

Try. I want to turn to the book of

Zephaniah. All right, Zephaniah, you might

be best to start at the very last book of the old test that

Malachi worked backwards to Zechariah, Haggaiah, then go to

Zephaniah if that helps you out any.

Amen. Minor prophet here.

You know, it's my experience that when you consistently read

through the Bible all the time, you come to these these these

these books of the Bible. And I know that we don't hear

them preached out of that often, but, and I'm not casting stones

anywhere, but I wonder sometimes if even our pastors are reading

through Scripture. Amen.

Because all Scripture is God breathed according to New

Testament. It is all it is all there for

reproof or rebuke or instruction and righteousness, all of it.

So we're going to go to the word of the Lord today.

Zephaniah chapter #2 and I think another reason and and police

you spare for me today. All of the prophets are

prophesying warning. Prophets are prophesying

warning, and maybe maybe we don't like to embrace that maybe

as as much as we do some of the other aspects of Scripture.

But I understand when I was reading Ezekiel here lately, and

I preached from Ezekiel just last week.

As a matter of fact, in that same chapter I preached from

last week, the beginning verses are talking about a watchman on

the wall and alluding to that he's there and that if he looks

out over the horizon of the city that he's a watchman of and he

sees, he sees danger, something that's coming that's

approaching, it's his obligation to sound a warning to the city

about what's coming. He said if he doesn't sound a

warning, Sister Margaret, and something happens to the people

and they die, so that blood's on his hands.

But if he sounds a warning and they don't heed to it and they

die, that's on their hands. So I have an obligation today.

Amen. The apostle Paul said that he

didn't want to shun to declare the whole counsel of God.

And I know you're standing. I apologize.

Zephaniah chapter #2 and verse #13 I want to begin reading

today. The Bible says, and he's

Speaking of God will stretch out his hand against the north, and

destroy Assyria, and will make Nineveh a desolation, and a dry

and dry like a wilderness, and flock shall lie down in the

midst of her. And all the beast of the

nation's, both the cormorant and the bittron, bittron shall lodge

in the upper lentils of it. Their voice shall sing in the

windows. Desolation shall be in the

thresholds, for he shall uncover the cedar work.

This is the rejoicing city that dewelt carelessly that said in

her heart, I am there I am, and there is none beside me.

How is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down

in? Everyone that passeth by her

shall hiss and wag his hand. Amen.

Verse #14 really the phrase from which this message comes from

that pricked me in my heart several weeks ago.

That last phrase says for he shall uncover the cedar work.

What does that mean? I want to minister just a little

while this morning on this laying bare the cedar work.

Laying bare the cedar work. Nobody has no idea about what

pastors about ready to minister. Let's talk to the Lord right

now. Father, I love you today.

I'm thankful Lord for this opportunity.

I'm thankful Lord Jesus that we can God center our lives around

your word God. They are the words of life.

They are the words that speak of you.

I pray O Lord, help me God to internalize that word today.

God help us the Lord in the next few moments God that our lives

will be challenged. God perhaps even changed God by

this word and what we hear in the lovely name of Jesus Christ

that I pray Amen and Amen the church say Amen.

You may be seated lame bear the cedar work Zephaniah is is among

a course in our Bibles as one of the minor prophets as they're

they're spoken of a minor doesn't necessarily mean they're

less important than the major, but nonetheless he is a he's a

prophet. He is prophesying during a very

peculiar time. If you would read it, it's just

three chapters. Zephaniah is he is prophesying

during the time of the days that come before the Babylonian

captivity, before a part of God's people are carried away as

exiles into a lamb that is foreign to them, and his lips

are constantly speaking about a day of disaster.

He speaks about a day of disaster for the outside world

and not just other nations outside of Israel, but even for

Israel itself, a day that would come.

It's termed in Scripture as the day of the Lord.

Like other prophets that had prophesied, his prophecies were

dual nature and we see this a lot in the Old Testament

prophecies. Many times they prophesied about

things that had a near fulfillment, something that

would be a near fulfillment to their own time.

But that same prophecy then has a a distant fulfillment that

could even take place in our day, in our time.

And so while Zephaniah is Speaking of a day of a Lord no

doubt that that fulfills in his hour, that takes place in his

generation in time, it is also quite likely that he was

Speaking of a future day distant from him that perhaps even even

takes place in our generation and in our time.

And so he's spouting some prophecies.

The Bible says when you read the first chapter that Zephaniah is

prophesying during the reign of King Josiah, that very youthful

king who assumed the kingship, I believe it was at 8 years old.

He was a king that was known for reform.

He was a king known for revival concerning Israel.

He was a repairer. Josiah was a repairer of the

House of God that had failed in ill repair and was dilapidated.

And he he took some movements and, and control and seeing that

thing to be built back. And as a matter of fact, we read

in Scripture that Josiah's care and his attention that that he

gave to God's house really gave him back and the people back

that put them back in touch with the word of God.

We read in the Scripture was during that time he sent them to

repair the house. And Hilkiah, the, the, the high

priest is going throughout the House of God and the Bible says

he comes up on the book of the law and he gives it to the, the

scribe Chiffon and he takes it back to the king.

And he begins to read that in the presence of the king.

And it's then that the king realized there's so many things

here in the book of the law that, that, that, that, that

we've lost touch with. There's so many things here in

the book of the law that that our forefathers had done that

we're no longer doing. We're, we're no longer keeping

the same standard that they did because we've been separated in

many regards with God's house and God's law.

And so as he got back acquainted with the repairing of the House

of God, that put him in touch with the word of God.

And so he realized this, that the people had been complacent

in just a couple of areas. And that is God's house and

God's word. He he understood that they

seemingly had no concern for either.

And yet here is a man, a king who had sought God.

The Bible says he sought the God of his father, David.

He sought God if we could. He prayed to God and as a result

of just having a prayer life, Bishop, just as as a result of

having a prayer life, this king then received some spiritual

instruction and fought to recover both God's house and

God's word. And so Zephaniah is prophesying

during that context. He's prophesying when those

things are taking place as Josiah is doing all this

reformation and revival in chapter 1, Zephaniah prophecies

and pronounces judgment upon Judah.

I know, I know, listen to me. I know it.

We don't like to embrace these type of things.

We don't like to talk about judgment.

We, we, we want to talk about grace and mercy.

And I love preaching about those things.

I love preaching about all those.

But please understand that after mercy comes judgment.

That's God's word. He always gives opportunity.

He always gives chance. He always gives a season, if you

will, for turning. But after that, these things

come. And so Zephaniah is saying it's

coming, Judah judgment is coming.

And then in chapter 2, he extends that not just to Judah,

but he extends it to all the nations that around about he he

extends it to the the Philistine cities, the five Philistine

cities that that lined up at the Mediterranean Sea.

He said it to Moab. He said it to AM and Ethiopia,

he said it to Assyria, he said to the IT to the capital of

Assyria. None of it.

He's speaking to them. All that judgement is coming

again. He's not just speaking in his

day, but his words supersede that and even speak to our day.

If I can be a Zephaniah this morning and I want to tell you

this, not just the church house, but the White House.

Judgement is coming. Judgment is coming.

And so when he says this and speaks this in our text in

particular, he's talking about how God's hand is going to be

stretched out upon the Syria and upon Nineveh.

This is the same Nineveh that Nimrod was attributed to

building in the book of Genesis along with some other cities

like Babel. This is the same Nineveh that

the prophet Jonah in his book about 100 or 100 and 5050 years

earlier than this. It's the same city that he went

to that was very prominent then and still yet noble.

In our day then Nineveh was a power that was great.

It had a lot of influence. It was filled, though, with

wickedness. And we understand that the

warning that came from the prophet Jonah, although he was

reluctant, although he did not go the first time, he was told

to go when he showed up in Nineveh with his voice of

warning for that, that city. The Bible tells us that that

whole empire went to fasting. The people, the beast, the king

put on sackcloth and ashes. They repented of their air

before the Lord. They had been doomed for

destruction, but they were spared because they repented.

And then somewhere, though, in a century of time of 100 years or

so, 100 or years or so, if I could say it like this, of

mercy, 100 years or so of reprieve.

We understand at this point in Scripture that they are

returning to their old ways, they're returning to their

violence and they are returning to their pride and their

idolatry of serving other gods. As a matter of fact, Nineveh has

become at this point in architects, a very vast empire.

Historians say it was a city that was 60 miles in its

circumference. It had walls that were 100 feet

high, that there could the, they were so thick that three

Chariots could ride abreast on top of their walls.

They had 1500 towers all around about them.

Nineveh was considered a impenetrable city, an invincible

city. It boasted of its security.

It boasted of its greatness, it all of its architecture and, and

its wealth. Just just it's, it's lavished

with these things. It's it has grand palaces and

grand temples and it has fortifications.

It was adorned with precious metals and intricate carvings

and even cedar wood. Someone say, man, cedar trees

just got walk with me just for a little bit today.

Cedar trees were seen as the most superior in scripture of

all the trees. Cedar wood was highly prized in

ancient Near East. It was durable.

It was fragrant. You remember having those cedar

blocks in your your dresser drawers Ever.

No. OK.

That's the house I lived in. All right, The cedar, you know,

the resistant to decay. People like to use them even in

outside construction because it's resistant to decay.

Used to construct in biblical times palaces and temples and a

lot of significant structures had cedar that was involved in

them. It was a symbol of wealth, a

symbol of luxury, a symbol of grandeur.

It had to be imported from Lebanon even for people to use

it. And so that kind of tongue and

grooves with the wealth because it had to float on rivers and

canals in order to get to where it was going.

So the the the whole shipping and handling was quite

expensive. You understand what I'm saying?

So you had to be a person of means even to be able to have a

man Cedar. And so cedar wood was was used

in places meant to be protected. It was like the the interior of

a palace or the interior of a temple.

It was used in buildings meant to last structures intended to

stand the test of time. Cedar wood was used in in

everyday ways like like, and this is something that we can

relate to. It's almost like paneling or

wainscoting. You know, I'm talking about when

I say wainscoting might be in a hallway only comes up so high on

your wall and you got that, that wainscoting in the house.

It was used in those type of ways.

They could use cedar wood. Please just follow me real real

closely right here. They could use cedar wood to

kind of put over where walls were uneven.

Take cedar with that, that deck to a very luxurious piece of

cedar wood and just kind of mask maybe where a wall was uneven or

where it was rough or, or or where the material maybe was a

little less valuable. They would just cover that up

with cedar wood. A poor quality of material that

they'd use cedar wood as a, as a facade or a face upon that a man

just to cover maybe some brick or some old rough stone that was

there. It had a purpose not just for

beings, but for the purpose of being able to cover some

imperfections. Syria made use of it, so much

so, and embodied its character of superiority to such a degree

that the prophet Ezekiel said it compared the whole nation of

Assyria itself to a towering cedar of Lebanon.

We learn in Scripture, though, that when Zephaniah gives the

warning and tells Nineveh, hey, God's hands going to stretch out

against you. God's hand is going to destroy.

There's going to be destruction. There's, there's going to come a

fall. We understand historically that

Nineveh this time did not heed the warning.

They did not heed the voice of God.

The city fell. According to history, it was

looted. It was burned and as a matter of

fact, even people that's done archaeological studies of it,

Amen. Not too long removed from the

time that it was destroyed had a challenge in discovering even

where it was, this place that once had grand structures and

cedar beams and now it's just charred and it's destroyed and

they can't almost even recognize what it once was, Amen.

It's just buried under time now, Amen, because it did not heed

the warning and God through and I he denounces this place.

He says he says Nineveh. He said you've been self reliant

you you've been complacent you you've gotten in trouble, Amen.

You're going to meet your demise if you don't repent like you did

years ago. God's going to stretch out his

hand. Look at the words in our text.

He's going to destroy. He's going to make desolate.

He said beasts of all sort are going to inhabit the buildings.

He said, I know how it is right now, but it's going to be laid

bare. There's just going to be beasts

there traveling, Amen, through the, the edifices and the

buildings, these once glorious structures.

And the last words that he said, which is my sermon today is he

said that God shall uncover or God's going to expose or God's

going to lay bare the cedar work.

Someone say, Amen. Laying bare the cedar work is

nothing but a metaphor for God's judgement because God has the

ability to reach to the most deepest and most protected areas

of our life. And he can uncover, he can ruin

what we thought maybe was once untouchable.

Hey, man, He can bring light to the hidden aspects of our lives.

Sometimes we build up, if you will, cedar works in our lives.

That's just that's just facades. That's that's just material

covering the other deeper matters and deeper things that

we don't want to engage with, that we don't want to identify

that we don't want to push in the light that we don't want to

emit. And so we just bring our cedar

paneling, our wainscotted and we put that up and we just kind of

covered up. But God says, listen.

Well, he says, I know net of a he said, I'm going to lay bare

the cedar work. He says, I'm going to pull that

thing, if you will, off the wall.

I'm I'm going to I'm going to lay it bare.

Oh God, you, you wouldn't do that.

You're loving God. He is a loving God.

I'm trying to tell you today that is a major of his love.

That is a attribute that is a consequence of his love that

whenever he lays the cedar work bare so he can expose some

things in our life that need to be exposed.

That's not really an anger God as much as it is a loving God.

He's trying to expose some areas in his presence and his sight.

Maybe that will come in own, maybe that will come to terms

with. Maybe that will identify.

Maybe that will correct. Someone came in.

He can do it. He'll pull the cover off those

things that are hidden and uneven and replaces.

He'll, he'll lay them bare. Because sometimes we walk to

walk and sometimes we talk to talk and we live our lives and

it looks good. And it has, if you will, all the

appearances of everything as well.

And we sing the songs and we lift a half mast hand and we'll

go to prayer for 5 minutes before service.

And we do all the little indicators and indices just to

make sure there's enough cedar work there.

There's just enough cedar work there.

Amen to hide my vulnerabilities. Amen to hide my misplaced trust.

You know what Jesus called it in the New Testament Scripture with

the Pharisees? He says you all got whitewashed

sepulchers. You're out there trying to wash

and purify that sepulcher to give the appearance that it's

not impure. He's a bit inside.

It's full of dead man's bones. You know what he's saying?

He said I'm a addressing the cedar work.

I know what's behind the panel. I know what's behind that cedar

work. I'm going to lay it bare.

Listen, if God does that in our life, either through reading His

word or the preached word or conviction, you need to thank

the Lord that He laid your cedar work bare so that you could

adjust the uneven places of our lives.

Amen. So those, these are the things

we sometimes put forth a a cast of relationship with God.

But if we allow this unevenness to, to consistent to do well,

it's, it's going to impact our relationship with God left

unchecked. Hey, brother McGee, you're

talking about Assyria. Brother McGee, you're talking

about Nineveh. That doesn't apply to us.

He wasn't talking to Judah. He was talking to a nation that

was surrounding Israel. Someone say man.

Please understand though that Zephaniah in chapter 1 speaks

judgment on Israel and what he found in Israel.

Listen to me. Well, he found in the nations

around about Israel. That's that's not because Israel

infected the other nations. That's because these other

nations that surrounded Israel impacted Israel.

Hey man, something had seeped in, something had seeped in to

God's people, Amen. So he speaks judgment over them

in chapter 1 and the other nations in chapter #2 it's only

there that we see this self-reliance, this this

complacency. Then that's also found evidently

in Judah. You know what the apostle Peter

said? And now listen, folks, I

understand no one wants to hear this type of preaching today,

but the apostle Peter said this. He said, for the time has come

that judgment must begin at the House of God.

We'll point judgment at the world.

We'll point judgment at the politics.

We'll point judgment at all all these sterling things, Amen, of

transgenderism. We'll point the finger, but we

need to point the finger at the House of God and say, Lord, is

there any seed to work around here that I need you to lay

bare? Is there any?

Come on, hear me today. Sometimes the best way to wiggle

away from your issue is to point out somebody else's issue, Peter

said. It's time for it to begin at the

House of God. You know, there was cedar work

in the temple. There was cedar work in

Solomon's temple on its walls, on its ceilings, on its

interior. You need to start at the House

of God. Whenever Ezekiel was also

prophesying during the years of exile, God directed his judgment

and you know what God told Ezekiel?

He says here's where I want you to start Ezekiel.

He says begin at my sanctuary. He says don't begin on the

outskirts, don't begin with the foreign nations.

He said begin of my begin of my sanctuary.

Here is the idea folks. What good is a compromised

church trying to help a compromised world?

He says if we're we're going to be able to help the world around

us, judgements got to begin at God's house.

Everybody say Amen. He says, you begin at my

sanctuary. That's what God told Ezekiel to

do. And when he get to chapter #11

that's verse, that's chapter #9 when he says begin at my

sanctuary, when you get Ezekiel chapter #11 he tells him, he

said, O House of Israel, for I know the things come into your

mind, every one of them. What's God doing?

He's pulling back some layers on the cedar work.

And then he says then in verse 10 of that same chapter, he

said, I will judge you in the, this is interesting.

I will judge you in the border of Israel.

He says where there's that definitive line between Israel

and then not Israel. He says I'm going to I'm going

to judge you in the border of Israel.

Amen. That thing that divides you

between being mine and not mine, I'm going to divide.

I'm going I'm going to judge you at the line.

I'm going to judge you at the border.

As a matter of fact, in Zephaniah chapter #2 we read of

the judgments that that God has given out through Zephaniah.

He has him judge some people of Cush, which is a very distant

land in Egypt to the South. But he also then has casting

judgment upon Nineveh. That's in the north.

But again, we cannot forget where he started.

He started with Judah. He started with Judah.

Now here's what I want you to realize.

Zephaniah, of course, is prophesying and giving warning

according to the decree of the Lord.

But I can't help but also consider that Zephaniah is not

just speaking God's word, but speaking from some family

experience. Ezekiel for Hezekiah Rather in

Zephaniah chapter #1 we read a little bit of the lineage of

Zephaniah and Hezekiah. I know we got all the ayahs

right here today. Oh Hallelujah.

Ayah. Hezekiah is believed to be, if

you read the little lineage, the king Hezekiah of Judah.

In other words, Hezekiah is the great, great grandson or

grandfather rather of Zephaniah, who the scripture says that

Isaiah came to and said get your house in order for you going to

die. That Judean king, that Judah

king turns his face to the wall, tears streaming down his face,

prayers made-up to heaven. Isaiah doesn't get, but just a

little ways into the court further out and God speaks to

him again and he says, you go back and you tell Hezekiah that

I've heard his prayers and that I'm going to extend his life by

15 years. Someone say Isaiah says in verse

chapter 38, verses 2 and three, this is the record of that and

there's other records of it also in the Chronicles.

But the Bible says then Hezekiah turned here, it is his face

toward the wall and prayed unto the Lord.

Look at verse 3 and said, this is what Hezekiah said.

Please follow this. Remember now, O Lord, I beseech

thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect

heart, and I've done that which is good in my sight.

And Hezekiah wept sore. Isaiah comes back, says 15

years, 15 years going to be given to your life.

Just stay with me here. I want to talk to you about the

concern of God because when we see those 15 years, we're

thinking, man, there's a man that prayed, God answered, gave

him 15 years. Man, what a good God.

God's just honoring his life. God's just honoring all this

stuff. But no set the Chronicles 32 and

verse 31. Bible says how be it in the

business of the ambassadors of the Princess of Babylon, who

sent to him to inquire the wonder that was done in the

land. What happened was whenever he

became well and everything was fine, some ambassador from

Babylon came. They want to check in on him.

They sent gifts and and Hezekiah begins to show them everything

he has all the treasures, all these things, but note what the

Scripture says. It says that God left him

Hezekiah to try him Hezekiah that he Hezekiah might know all

that was in his heart. Those 15 years that God extended

Hezekiah's life was 15 years for God to lay bare the cedar work

and Hezekiah's life and Hezekiah's estimation.

He said unto God, I have a perfect heart, but that was just

all smoke and mirrors. That was all cedar work.

Jeremiah told us as a prophet, he said above all things he said

the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.

Who can know it if I can say it like this?

Above all things, the heart is just a bunch of cedar work.

What are you saying, brother McGee?

I'm saying I, I, I contrast, I come against and don't trust

people who tell you just listen to your heart.

Just just just listen to your mind.

Just listen to your heart. Just trust your heart, folks.

I have. I have of mandating scripture.

My own heart can't be trusted. I got mandating scripture that

it's a deceitful thing. I got mandating scripture that

this old human heart of mine is desperately wicked.

Don't don't, don't talk to me about trusting your heart or I

was just following my heart. Your heart will lead you this.

Your heart will lead you to sin. Your heart will lead you to a

devil's hell. Your heart will lead you outside

of the ark of safety. Your heart will lead you to make

bad choices and bad decisions that you think are right because

you're just following your good little heart.

No, no, no, that's just a bunch of cedar work.

Just give God some time to lay bare the real consciousness of

your own heart, the real reality of your own heart.

It took 15 years to do it, but God extend his life for 15 years

so Hezekiah might know what was in his heart.

And so I'm, I'm, I got a little, I got a little determination

here today that whenever Zephaniah is prophesying, that

perhaps there's a piece of that family history piece of that

family history that made a urgency in his voice for

Nineveh, for the nations around about him.

Look at verse 15 of our text today.

Oh, this grip my heart. I was over here finishing things

up last night that we're coming back from men's conference and I

read this phrase and I, I admit to you, I sat there with tears

in my eyes and streaming down my face when I heard Zephaniah say,

Speaking of Nineveh, Speaking of Assyria, he said this is the

rejoicing city that the Welt carelessly.

This is the rejoicing city that do well to carelessly.

What does that mean? That it means they're rejoicing

that they have all of the celebration, they have all of

the mechanics that everything is well, but in reality everything

is not well. They have all of the mechanics

that everything's OK, that life is serving its purpose and

they're living to the grandest scale that life has to offer.

But in reality, they are dwelling careless.

They're not taking the reality in mind.

They're not considering what's behind the cedar word.

They're not. Oh come on, somebody hear me.

Today we got to come to terms. I want to dance and I want to

shout, but I want there to be other times I hug an altar and I

cry and I repent and I confess. What's saying in years ago, the

old preachers got it and you're going to hear it.

Amen. Almost just every other month

they're going to about preach about hell, fire and brimstone,

and people's going to listen and people's going to embrace it in

the altar. But we don't have much preaching

about hell anymore because we don't want to offend anybody and

we don't want anybody to feel uncomfortable and we don't want

anybody maybe not to come for a week or two.

But I'm hearing today I can preach a happy all the way to

hell, or we can somehow rub you a little wrong with some

sandpaper once in a while and help ensure that your feet hit

gold somewhere. I want God to lay pair the seder

work. They were a rejoicing city, but

they dwelt carelessly, they said, even almost as Hezekiah

noticed them in their heart. I am and there is none beside.

They had some great self-reliance.

Great self-reliance because Zephaniah says you're going to

be desolate, beasts are going to lie in your dwellings.

People that pass by is just going to even wave their hand,

just even kind of blocking the view because they knew what you

once were. And if they're located in a, a

rejoicing city, it's Facade. Listen, folks, you can get real

with God. You can get real with God.

For that matter, you don't have to play games with us.

You have to put up your paneling, your Wayne scouting of

cedar with us. But you don't get real with God

putting up cedar where it's just a covert operation.

It might be masking the reality. You might be going through a

hard time. That's not a time to stay out of

church. Say, well, I'll come back when I

get it all together. You walk out.

You may never get it back together.

Just let God lay bare the cedar work.

Let him take off all the antics. All, all, all of you will be

exterior. Let him just just do it there

because to do otherwise is to dwell dangerously, is to dwell

carelessly. Folks, we have been given a most

prized gift. The apostle Paul said we have in

these earthen vessels glorious treasures.

I'm telling you today, I don't want to do well carelessly what

has been invested to me and with me.

We've been given a prized gift. We've been given a gift that

will keep us from the second death.

Do you understand what I'm talking about?

Today I can't afford. How do you deal carelessly?

Because you said in your heart I am.

There's none beside me. Everything's OK.

I'm OK. You're OK.

The church, what it says is really just a suggestion anyway.

The Bible is just really a collection of letters that's

given some instruction that if you want to, fine.

If you don't too, fine. Though we are wrong.

He's giving us divine instruction.

All the epistles are to churches, people that are saved,

and the instruction is how you get from the moment of your new

birth to the moment of your glory.

It is instructions for life. It is Amen.

Am I OK? I love you today.

I cried over you last night, hear me?

Some people want to preach her, but they don't want to pastor.

I go in a lot of circuits. I'm just a preacher.

But at home, I'm a pastor. And the difference is, is how

you accept a no. The difference is, is how you

accept a warning. Zephaniah's not doing that

because he's on some high horse. Zephaniah's not doing that

because he's trying to prove his ministry.

Zephaniah's doing it because he's trying to, if you will, to

squelch the fatalities of the impending judgment that's

coming. And as it was coming in his day,

it's coming in our day. We are living in moments of

grace. We are living in moments of

mercy. But if we don't allow God to

bear our cedar work now, He'll bear our cedar work then.

And I want God to lay me bare now.

That's the way he pointed out to Judah in chapter 1.

He points out to Nineveh. And yes, in case you haven't

feared out yet, God is talking to us.

Well, even Hezekiah, even mirrored in Scripture.

Long before Zephaniah ever rose on the scene, He most likely

even gathered from Assyria. Look at the Scripture and Isaiah

38 and six. This is where the Lord's telling

him I'm going to head to your for your day.

You do days 15 years. I'm going to do all this and the

Bible says and I Speaking of God will deliver the Hezekiah and

the city out of the hand of the look at this, the king of

Assyria and I will defend this city.

Syria has had all along an inflated heart, and then

Hezekiah prejudges his heart as being perfect when 15 years

later God showed him the evidence of the matter.

I kept you alive to lay you bare so you could see what was in

your heart. What happened?

God exposed the cedar work. It took 15 years to do it, but

He did it. So yes, it applies to us.

How so? Please listen to me today.

Maybe we'll preach mercy and grace next.

I won't. Maybe Brother Garden Haggai

Haggai 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 and verse four. Another good old minor prophet

here. Now notice Zephaniah prophecies

before the exile. Ezekiel's prophesying during the

exile. Haggai prophecies after the

exile. Everybody's going home.

Supposed to be rebuilding the temple and Jerusalem and walls

and all this stuff. Haggai poses this question to

the children of Israel. They've received the warning

from Zephaniah. They've heard the words of

Ezekiel during exile. That's over here.

They are supposed to be building temple house Jerusalem.

And Haggai says, is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your

sealed houses? And this house, speaking to the

House of God lie, waste. This is after, this is after all

the warnings. This is after the exile.

And he's talked to him again. Is it time for you to do well in

your sealed houses? What are you?

What are you referencing? Hey, guy, I'll tell you what

he's referencing. The sealed houses are the

paneled houses, the wainscotted, if you will, houses sealed most

likely with costly wood. We have different places in

scripture, standards of example. In Scripture.

In Second Chronicles 35 they sealed them with fir trees.

In Ezekiel 4116 they sealed them with wood.

And Jeremiah 2214, look, they sealed them with cedar.

Hey, Guy says you didn't heed the warning.

You went to exile. You're outside of exile.

We're at a point where we should be rebuilding God's house.

It's foundation has already been here late for 14 years.

Some progress has been paid, but it's unfinished.

And he says here you are more concerned about putting your

cedar work work over the rough places of your home, putting the

facade up over the on areas, uneven areas of your life,

rather than paying attention to my house.

He said you're working harder to cover your imperfection than to

expose your imperfection. In my house, we have spent

countless hours hiding our insecurities in our rooms, even,

just maybe as equal, if not even sometimes less work could have

been done in pulling them into the presence of God.

God can lay a bear. You can stay with me today.

God can lay a bear. I want, you know, I want to

build up what's impressive on the outside, right?

I want to put up all my, all of my cedar work of achievement and

wealth and reputation. I want to put up all my cedar

work of, of even some of my faith practices, you know, that

can somehow get the good gold stars beside my name.

I, I want to do all of that. I want, I want to cover up all,

all the imperfections and the little, the misgivings and stuff

with layers of self-sufficiency and complacency and

indifference. I I want to trust all these

outward displays of my cedar work, you know, to protect

myself. God will lay this eater work to

bear all those things that we quote UN quote depend upon.

He'll expose what lies underneath.

And in doing so, please understand me.

God is not trying to embarrass us.

God's trying to reach the rough areas of our life.

God is trying to touch the uneven you all this you all this

facade up here. There's some 2 by fours behind

this paneling over here. Well, honey, all I can do right

now is just I'm just touching whatever is covering it.

But if I start to peel this thing back where that seam is, I

can get my hand back in there on that 2 by 4.

God says you got cedar wort put up, He said.

But if you'll let you let me get my hands on you.

So I'll lay that bare and I'll get my hand on some things

that's behind that. I'll get my hands on some things

behind that. We'll really be able to make

some type of difference if you'll just let me in there.

Our hits today. Listen to me today.

God is in the season. I feel like we're in the season

as a church, and I'm Speaking of the collective church.

God is in the season of exposing what lies beneath the cedar work

right now. So many different things happen

in our nation and our world and I know you see them and you

you'd have to be blind not to see some of the things that are

taking place. There's coming, there's there's

coming a Clarion cry as we approach even as if and I did

his day, but yet had future prophecy as we approach the day

of the Lord. And he said I'm you know what

the New Testament scripture said and this has been up on my heart

here so lately too. So I don't know if he'll come

about somewhere along the way. He says he's going to try every

man's work by fire. I told my son this the other

day. I was just joking with him.

I don't know what he's talking about.

Let's go try every man's work by fire, whether it be wood, hay or

stubble. What a New Testament says that

burns right up right? Wood, hay, stubble you find on

the surface. No big deal.

You can go. You can go.

You can find good haste of a not much effort.

You fight, but you know where the precious stones that it

speaks of the diamonds and the gold and the things like that.

That's not on the surface, that's deep.

That requires effort to get to to mine.

That's unaffected, if you will, by the last day fire.

We're living on surface. What we can get on the surface,

we can interact on the surface, but it's all just wood, hay and

stubble that a fire will consume.

But if you want something lasting, you're going to have to

go below the surface. If you want something lasting,

you're going to have to make bear the cedar work and go

behind the facades. We going to have to go deep

Simon inviting us as the first Apostolic Church invite you this

morning as I have last night and I will again today.

I invite you to let, allow and even investigate yourself the

cedar work of your life. The parts that we dress up, the

parts that we Polish and make sure is all attempt and just

right. But my question to you is,

what's behind that? Is it hollow?

Are you a rejoicing person? But you're dwelling carelessly

as individuals this morning, as the church this morning.

It's not necessary that you continue to maybe mask weakness,

mass inconsistencies. Bring yourself into the light of

God's divine light. Let him search me, O Lord, and

know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and

see if there be any wicked way in me.

Have you grown complacent like Judah?

Have you, I love the outside influences of the world that you

live in and the spill over the boundary line into your life.

Have you become self-reliance? Are are you focused on

maintaining the appearances of something?

But are you fostering something that's true and authentic?

And do you have a deep relationship with God or is it

just smoke and mirrors, just paneling, just wainscoting, just

cedar work. Someone needs to come today and

say, God lay my heart bare. I can't trust God lay my heart

bare. It's deceptive to me.

God, strip away some things. We need to come in the presence

of God ever once in a while. We need to say, God, strip me,

strip me, strip away the cedar work of my life.

God exposed things in my life that I need to push in your

presence. Expose things in my life, God,

that are hidden, the God false securities, God that I have in

things, Lord, all spiritual pretenses, whatever it may be,

God, I want to be whole in your presence.

I don't want to just masquerade, God.

I don't want to just masquerade around, God, I want to return to

you. I want to return to you, not

just in some outward form of acceptance, but God in a

interior integrity. God of life, heart and mind, the

deepest places, the Lord of my heart.

Help me, God, remove the layers, remove the concealment, Oh Lord,

the rough edges rebuild me God, from within God to withal God.

Build me on a foundation of humility.

Build me on the foundation, Lord of grace and truth.

Lord, I know you're not looking, God, for all the sex here.

You know my heart, God. You desire my heart, God, I want

to be entirely yours, completely yours.

Bear the cedar work of my life. Oh God.