Ask God to Turn it Around

[Music] well praise the lord everybody i'm pastor jeffrey a johnson senior here at eastern star church in indianapolis and fishers indiana and even as you're streaming with us and worshiping with us on today this is going to be a part of a special series that we're doing our church we're celebrating 100 years as a ministry so for 100 years we've been blessing uh locally and nationally and internationally god has just used us as a ministry for a long time to be a blessing and to help advance the kingdom of god and so even as we are worshiping today and the next few sundays is going to be some throwback sermons some vintage sermons from when i was a much younger minister with a little more energy uh but we're going to celebrate god and and i've chosen some messages that i know are going to be a blessing to you and your family and community so you want to make sure uh that you're telling your family and friends about these messages and making sure that they're streaming and getting connected and still open your hearts and your minds and your souls to be receptive to uh what god would have you to hear even with these messages from the past but still the principles of god steal the power of god and still have the ability to help you to deal with the realities of light so i hope these are going to be a blessing to you and i hope you get a little smile out of them uh as well so go ahead and worship god in spirit and in truth and again i thank god for your worshiping with us god so much thank god [Music] [Applause] so so many wonderful blessings [Music] and many open doors [Applause] [Music] along the way new day that's why i praise you and for this i give you [Music] praise [Music] so much [Music] so so many wonderful blessings and so so many open doors [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] no mercy [Applause] [Music] that's why i praise you that's why i've got to praise you and for this [Music] for waking [Music] [Applause] the sunshine a new day [Music] and for this [Music] [Applause] [Music] my [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] me [Music] you give to me each day [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] me [Music] i praise you can't help but give you praise [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] uh [Music] [Applause] [Music] huh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] uh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] lord let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts let them be acceptable in thy sight lord your strength and our redeemer in jesus name we pray amen there's a word from the lord in the book of zephaniah zephaniah chapter two i know in your own private time with god you have already read all three chapters that make up the context of what we're going to share with you on today as we continue our series of sermons from the minor prophets with these major principles next time we preach will be in haggai but today we're in zephaniah chapter 2 and i'm going to begin reading with verse 3 and i'm reading from the new living translation beg the lord to save you all you who are humble all you who uphold justice walk humbly and do what is right perhaps even yet the lord will protect you from his anger on that day of destruction verse seven the close of verse seven that sea portion says for the lord their god will visit his people in kindness and restore their prosperity again the king james version says and turn their captivity today i want to preach about ask god to turn it around look at somebody and tell them ask god to turn it around now look at somebody else you don't know what they're facing tell them ask god to turn it around 2003 western conference finals in the nba playoffs the san antonio spurs were playing against the dallas mavericks it is the fifth game of that reference western conference championship by this time san antonio spurs were already winning three games to one in a seven game series the fourth game would literally wipe the dallas mavericks out of the playoffs altogether and it did not look good for the dallas mavericks in that fifth game of the western conference finals because the game was being held on the home court of the san antonio spurs not only were they playing in san antonio but they were playing against the mvp for the league tim duncan and if that were not bad enough for the dallas mavericks they were playing without dirk nowinski arguably the best player on the dallas mavericks team something had happened with dirk norwinski some part of him was hurt and since things were not right he could not participate in the game because something wasn't right with him and now it's the second half and if that were not bad enough home court advantage dirk nowinski is not playing they're already down three games to one playing against the mvp now they are losing by 17 points in the third quarter by this time magic johnson and kenny the jet smith and charles barkley has already said at halftime there is no way that dallas can come back to win this game even my wife has already laid down to rest for the night she's given up on dallas knowing there's no way they could come back but i'm a great nba fan so i want to see this thing out and i watched the whole game even after the experts say it couldn't happen even facing overwhelming odds down 17 points in the third quarter the dallas mavericks come back in the fourth quarter and turn that thing around so bad that not only did they win the game but they won the game by nine points that next morning when my wife woke up i told her there was a turnaround last night because while you were resting dallas was working now i bring this up because very likely i'm preaching to somebody today who is facing overwhelming odds in your own private life in your relationships in your marriage your family your children some sickness your career your job your money something is not right you are facing overwhelming odds and everybody around you believes that you are not going to make it things are looking pretty hopeless it looks like everything is finished and to make matters worse there's somebody who's supposed to be with you and they ain't with you something wrong with them that's why they're not with you but even in the midst of that i serve a god that even if you decide to go to sleep while you are resting god is going to be working how many you know god can turn that thing around weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning zephaniah is trying to get the people of judah to understand this zephaniah of course is the prophet that writes this book one of the minor prophets and he ministers somewhere between 640 bc and 612 bc zephaniah is the prophet josiah is the king of judah at this time at this time you might remember king josiah was eight years old when he became king but then he matured into one of the greatest kings in the history of judah josiah followed two evil kings manasseh and amnon he succeeded them and when those kings were evil they led the whole nation into doing evil things but now josiah is the king he finds the word of god the law that had been lost in the temple all those years and he takes that word applies it to his own life and now attempts to apply it to the nation of judah he literally blesses judah there is a spiritual revival a spiritual renewal that takes place because of the word of god and godly leadership and the prophecy of zephaniah but that spiritual renewal that spiritual revival was short-lived because when they gave their life to god and recommitted their life to god god began to bless them physically materially and and financially and so now they have these new homes they have their new transportation their new jobs their new businesses and things are looking well in judah so well until judah now begins to forget about god let me pause right here because that's how some of us are when we're struggling and trying to get ends to meet and trying to get things to happen we're always seeking god and turning to the lord and fasting and praying and then when things start working out for us we get a little house here get a little car here got a nice little job here got two dollars in the bank and now we're ready to turn our back on god because we think we got it going on that's what was happening with judah and they began to sin they turned away from god got caught up in iniquity disobedience walking outside of god's will in god's way and that's why all in chapter one of the book of zephaniah is so much suffering so much pain so much punishment because wherever there is sin there is going to be some suffering now let me tell you all suffering is not a result of sin just because somebody's suffering it doesn't mean they have sin you can mind your own business and still suffer you can mind your own business and still go through some problems you can be the holiest person in the world and still go through pains and problems you don't believe me ask jesus he was the holiest person in the world and they still nailed his hand still spiked his feet all suffering is not because of sin but i do want to tell you all sin leads to suffering and that's why all in chapter one is so much suffering going on in there because god is warning you and i that that whenever we sin we got to take that sin serious you cannot take sin lightly if you don't remember anything else i tell you today remember do not take sin lightly we run around saying well i'm only human everybody makes mistakes everybody else is doing it and we take sin lightly and then don't realize why we're going through so much suffering because when we sin god doesn't have to come and do anything for us to suffer sin brings his own retribution sin brings its own punishment god doesn't have to intervene to come and do something to you when you're outside of his will there are going to be consequences to that disobedience it was the apostle james in the book that he wrote the letter he wrote and he says say not when you are tempted that you are tempted of god because god is holy there is no evil in god thus he cannot tempt anyone with evil but when you are tempted it is when you are led away by your own lust and when lust is finished there is sin and when sin is finished there is death then watch how it flows james says when you are tempted don't say is god doing it to you because god can't tempt you with evil when you're tempted it's because your own lust your own desires outside the will of god and when you have desires outside the will of god it leads to sin and when sin is finished there is death god doesn't have to intervene the wages of sin is what every time the wages of sin is death it has its own natural consequences and retribution we have to take sin seriously it is the iniquity of the people of judah that was bringing the destruction that they were facing in chapter one let me show you some of it i already know you read it at home uh before you got here but let me show you some of it in chapter one verse one it opens up with an introduction of zephaniah then in verse two it is talking about god saying i'm going to sweep everything in the land i'ma sweep away both people and animals even the birds in the air and the fish in the sea are going to die he is talking about the seriousness of sin and how anyone who sins is going to have to face the consequences because some of us feel like we've gotten so high in life that that don't bother us that won't get to me because i'm too high in life he says you can be as high as the birds are in the sky you're going to be affected some of us feel like we're so far away from god that sin won't affect us because god doesn't care about us but god loves you so much that even if you are as low down as a fish in the sea it is still going to affect you from as high as the birds to as low as the fish from top to bottom we're all going to be affected from the ceo on the 25th floor to the janitor in the basement from the phd to the ged from those in prosperity to those in poverty sin affects everybody let me show you in verse 14 chapter one that terrible day of the lord is near that's the judgment day is near swiftly it comes a day when strong men will cry bitterly it's a day when the lord's anger will be poured out it's a day of terrible distress and anguish a day of ruin and desolation a day of darkness and gloom and of clouds and blackness he is trying to let us know that when we we're outside of god's will we're going to be punished and the punishment purges us the punishment purifies us it cleanses us when our children are moving in the wrong direction what we do is punish them to get them back in the right direction we do not have to teach our children how to disobey we teach them how to obey we come here doing wrong you ain't gotta teach us how to do wrong we're born in sin shaping in iniquity we come going away from god so when our children disobey because we love them we discipline them we chastise them we don't we don't abuse them but we do hurt them because you've got to have painful consequences to disobedience in order to learn obedience now if we being evil know how to do that with our children how much more shall our heavenly father whip us when we get out of line it shows how much he loves us if i'm doing wicked and i'm doing wrong and god doesn't do anything to me that means that god doesn't love me but god says jeffrey johnson i love you so much that when you are disobedient i'm going to discipline you i'm going to hurt you i'm going to bring painful consequences to line you back up with my will so it is there i need that brought the pain they were in not only iniquity but their idolatry that's when they're worshiping somebody other than god let me show that to you in chapter one verse four their idolatry i will crush judah and jerusalem with my fist and destroy every last trace of their baal worship this is god talking i will put an end to all of the idolatrous priests so that even the memory of them would disappear for they go up to their roots and bow to the sun and the moon and the stars they claim to follow the lord but then they worship molech too so now i will destroy them here's what this is talking about that that zephaniah was preaching to them because they had started to put other gods small g before god jehovah that's what idolatry is and they begin to worship baal baal was the canaanite god he was supposed to be small g now some great sky god that expressed himself through nature whether it was the sun the moon the stars the trees the grass the rivers the water that's how bale was supposed to express himself and that's why people who worshipped him with bowel to the trees and the grass the rivers the suns and the moon and then there was also moleck molech was not the canaanite god he was the amorite god and the amorites would worship molech and one of the ways they worshipped him was by sacrificing their own children they would sacrifice their child in order to worship molag and now here comes the children of israel doing the same things whatever else that teaches us it teaches us that if we don't get our worship right we're literally hurting our children we killing some of our children because we don't know how to worship y'all remember our parents and grandparents how they talked they would always run around talking about god is able and we ask them are you coming tomorrow if the lord says the same are you going to be there next week if the lord wills you notice how our parents and grandparents gave all the honor to glory to praise and everything to god and then listen to how we talk we always talk about how great we are and what we're doing and how we picked ourselves up our own bootstraps and it is our distorted worship that's messing up our kids our kids are going to be jacked up and messed up because we don't know how to worship god now i know why y'all not getting with me because y'all think i'm preaching to people who are not here because pastor we are at church i mean we are worshiping wait a minute these people came to church too in zephaniah they would go to the temple they would worship jehovah at the temple then they would go home get up on their rooftops and bow to the sun the moon and the stars and start worshiping baal and other god as long as they were at church they worshiped jehovah but when they got home they worshiped some other god y'all gonna get this in a minute no pastor you you don't mean us because we don't need nobel anyway and who is molag we don't we're not worshiping them i'm not just talking about them i'm talking about anyone or anything you put before god anything that becomes more important to you than jehovah is your god if it's baal if that's more important to you than jehovah that's your god if it's molech then that's your god well pastor we don't even know them okay we don't have baal gods and mullet gods but we got house gods and job gods and car gods and suv gods and jury gods and platinum gods and closed gods and friend gods and family member gods because anything you put before god becomes your god but the bible says that god is a jealous god and he will have no other god before him whatever it takes for him to be number one in your life is what god is going to do you got to seek first the kingdom of god seek first the king you got to seek god's kingdom first god expects to be number one but it's not just idolatry but it is also apostasy that messed them up verse 6 of chapter 1 zephaniah and i will destroy those who used to worship me but now they no longer do they no longer ask for the lord's guidance or seek my blessings that's called apostasy of falling away where people who used to be close to god are not close to god anymore people who used to walk with god don't walk with god anymore and you can always tell whether or not we worship god like we used to by whether or not we seek him and ask god's counsel and advice that's what he said he said i can tell they're not worshiping me because i don't hear from them when they're not at church they don't seek me they don't seek my blessings they they don't ask my counsel and advice and that's called apostasy because i'm preaching to somebody you used to be close to god and you're not close to him anymore you used to walk with him but you don't walk with him you used to really love god but you left your first love and because that's a sin that's why some of us are going through the suffering that we're going through so when i'm going through a bunch of pain and problems and issues and all that kind of stuff i have to ask myself is it my own wickedness is it the fact i haven't been worshiping god in a pure way is it the fact i don't walk with god like i'm supposed to because much of the issues that i face in my life are self-inflicted pain we like to blame our pain on somebody else that i wouldn't even be in this situation if it wasn't for them if he had done that she had done that no most of what we go through is self-inflicted pain sometimes i want i want to say god you need to get sharon straight cause god sharon did this my wife god you gotta and god said if you had never even met sharon you would still be in the mess you in because these are your decisions this is your behavior and y'all you gotta look at me all holiest sanctimony even if you didn't meet the one you're in relationship with you would still be going through the stuff you're going through because it's self-inflicted pain we don't worship him right when we don't want white when we are wicked in the sight of god god says it's the suffering you're going to go through and some of us act like we're getting away with our sin man whatever zephaniah chapter one teaches us it teaches us you're not getting away with it well pastor you know it was a long time ago when i did that ain't nothing happened yet so i must have got away no you didn't get away with it you just ain't suffered the consequences yet because the consequence they're always going to be a consequence to sin just because it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it's not going to happen the bible says your sin will find you out okay y'all don't believe me um oh in columbus ohio 14 year old girl she had just turned 14 just turned and her father takes her to a national hockey league game because he goes to a hockey game in columbus checking the game out celebrating her birthday with her father having a good time now they have this this glass protection around the the rink uh where the hockey players are playing and somehow that hockey puck when they got hit by a player got over the protective glass gets over that glass hits the girl in her head i mean it it messed her up but she shook it off got herself together stayed there and watched the rest of the game enjoying the game and enjoying her birthday with her father then the next day she's still celebrating her birthday with family and friends and everything seems to be fine though she got hit in her head on yesterday the day after that this is two days later the girl dies she didn't die because of what happened to her today she died because of her experience from two days ago y'all ain't getting this are you see that's how the devil does he hits us in the head with sin and when we get hit in the head with sin and nobody saw us we think everything is all right we just try to shake it off and go on cause did nobody see us yeah i was out clubbing last night but didn't nobody see me yeah i got high but nobody who knew me saw me yeah i was drunk i slept with the wrong person but didn't nobody see me here you are at church today it's the next day and you think everything is fine got your church clothes on your big old bible your platinum cross i think everything is cool but you better watch out because the wages of sin is is death and it's always death just because it hasn't happened yet don't mean it's not going to happen that's what all that suffering is about and then he moves on to chapter two and in chapter two verse three zephaniah says now i love the new living translation here he says he says in verse 3 beg the lord to save you everybody that's humble all you ain't talking to everybody just everybody that's humble all you who at least want to do right walk humbly at least desire to do right and now maybe the lord will protect you from his anger on the day of destruction maybe now when you call on the lord and you repent of your sins and you change your mind change your ways and humble your life before him maybe now the lord will not allow the consequences of your earlier sin to catch up with you maybe if you repent if you go to the lord and say god i'm sorry god i was outside of your will i don't want to be complacent anymore i don't want to be indifferent towards you i know you're real and i want to live my life like that maybe god will show up to protect you from the punishment you ought to be going through now that's very significant because the only reason i'm up here preaching right now is not because i haven't sinned is because i changed my mind and i repented of my sin humbled myself before god god showed up and protected me from stuff that ought to be happening to me and y'all ain't got to look at me like that the only reason you in church today is not because you have not done wrong but because you turned that thing over to jesus told god i'm sorry gave your life to christ he shows up and protects you from the punishment you ought to be receiving it's about repentance it's about the changing of your mind because when you change your mind he rescues you but he's not talking to everybody only the humble and only those who want to do right and you know that's one of the signs of being a christian everybody always want to ask me what are the signs of christianity what's the sign of being a christian well one of the signs is you at least want to do right i mean because remember before you got saved sin didn't bother you at all did it you can go cuss anybody out talk anything to anybody treat people like dirt treat them like a dog misuse this one dog that one and then go home and go to sleep at night but now after you met jesus you can say one little wrong thing to somebody and don't even know if it was really out of order dang why did i say that oh i should know you up all night tossing and turning i gotta get to them because i shouldn't have said that's the sign of being saved is when sin still bothers you some of us have become reprobate sin don't bother us anymore our hearts have become so cold and so hard our minds are so distorted we can do anything to anybody and it doesn't bother us anymore he's talking to people that at least want to do right he says if you just want to do right if you humble yourself before the lord and desire to be in his will he's going to show up and protect you from stuff that ought to be happening to you and and i love this because it's really warning us against prosperity if you read the book like i asked you to do and when you read zephaniah it talks about their new houses and their new transportation it talks about their new businesses and they were prospering talks about silver and gold and they were prospering and that's why he has to throw in humility here because if you're not careful your prosperity will make you arrogant and conceited it didn't have to but it sure does it a whole lot of times that people when we don't have anything we so humble and we so nice and we speak to everybody and we love everybody and then the moment we get 50 in the bank then we think we got too much money i don't know why they talking to me how they don't come at me like that and we become arrogant and conceited one of the things that prosperity can do it doesn't have to but prosperity can can breed complacency so when you got a lot of stuff you become very complacent and indifferent even now i'm preaching ain't nothing to you i mean cause look at who you are look at where you live i mean what is this i mean you live you got a custom home out in the suburbs you got that wonderful car out in the parking lot and then look at how you dress i mean this ain't nothing to you you are who you are because prosperity breeds complacency and so you walk around indifferent to everything because you already got your stuff and if it doesn't do that then prosperity can not only breed complacency but prosperity can bring this pseudo self sufficiency let me put it in english it can bring this this false fake self sufficiency money can make you think you don't need anybody else or god because the devil has fooled us into thinking that if you got money you got everything you need and if you don't have it then you can go out and buy it but that is a false faith pseudo self sufficiency and so what god says because you become so arrogant and conceited until you think you don't need to call on me and to seek me then what god says he's going to do is to put you in a situation that your money cannot buy you out of that if you think all of your degrees have made you self-sufficient then god puts you in a predicament you can't think your way out of that if you think that your your prosperity has done god put you in a position that you can't get out on your own you think you are such a great manipulator but god puts you in an environment that you cannot lie your way out of now you've got to seek him god says jeffrey johnson you wouldn't seek me when you had all that stuff then i'm gonna take all that stuff from you or i'll let you keep the stuff but won't let the stuff work for you do i have a witness in here sometimes you can't buy your way out you can't lie your way out and you can't think your way out you got to seek the lord it is about repentance it is about changing of the mind so here are these people in the book of zephaniah and they got it going on silver gold houses transportation prosperity everything they got it going on and then all of a sudden all that stops in chapter one god just puts it all on hold i mean they think they own their way to any and everything they want then all of a sudden god puts it on hold and god stops it because god says i'm not going to let you get to where you think you want to go until you repent till you seek me you have sought everybody but me and until you seek me you've sought psychiatrists and psychologists and i ain't saying don't go to them because some of us need them you've sought counselors you've sought everybody you sought oprah you saw friends you sought family you sought everybody in god says but you still ain't going nowhere until you seek me until you call upon my name i'm going to leave you right where you are and i know i'm ministering to somebody today because you're wondering how come you can't get to where you're supposed to be because god says i'm still waiting on you to call upon my name now when you call upon my name imma make it so you can make it all right y'all ain't getting this thing oh last week in indianapolis last week in indy this freight train a three engine freight train 121 cars connected right something happened to the coupling and the train ends up getting stopped right in its tracks for three hours and it's not only stopped on the tracks but it's blocking street i mean the thing is 121 cars and now it's blocking streets for three hours shut down the east side of indianapolis nobody was going anywhere because this train that was supposed to go through indy and go on to cleveland ohio is now stopped in indy because something is wrong with the coupling that's that thing that connects one car to the other so they have this this three engine freight train so it's got the power to take them but because something is wrong with the connection they can't get to their destination until they fix the connection and it took three hours to get it fixed but once they got their connection then they went to their destination y'all gonna get it in just a minute that's why god put some of us on hold that's why god stopped you in the midst of all your goals in your life cause god said somewhere along the line you lost your connection with me you stop praying to me you stop seeking me you stop worshiping me you stop talking with me so i'm putting your situation on hold until we get our connection back but when you repent god rescues you he gives you a connection so you can make it to your destination do i have a witness in this place he doesn't just rescue us verse seven says he restores us the close of verse seven when we call upon the name of the lord when we repent for the lord god will visit his people he's gonna show up in kindness and restore their prosperity again now we love that language right there he's gonna restore our prosperity again and but but i like i like the king james version he's gonna turn our captivity i love that because when i repent to god zephaniah says he's going to turn my stuff around when i turn to him he turns my situation around and that's why some of us we're going to be in the same situation we've always been in because we will not turn to god but when you turn to him i don't care how messed up your stuff is he'll turn it around he can take you from rags to riches he can take you from poverty to prosperity he can take you from being the tail to be in the head he can take a miserable marriage to be in holy matrimony god is able to turn your situation around when you finally make up in your mind i'm gonna repent and go y'all don't believe me do you you think your stuff is so messed up that there's no way this can work i mean there's no way he can fix this marriage no way he's gonna change these kids no way he can get me off drugs no way he can get me off alcohol you think that that the odds are too overwhelming i mean you living in poverty living in the ghetto living in the projects have no money ain't never had no money never done anything right in your life and now i'm trying to tell you in the name of jesus it can be turned around but you're saying no not this you don't know where i come from you don't know y'all i don't care if you are down by 17 points in the second half with the mvp on the other team somebody that's supposed to be in your life ain't in your life cause something wrong with them and here you are thinking ain't no way the experts are saying you can't come out of this but i want you to know that if you rest in the lord i serve a god i serve a god that can turn your situation around no i know why you can't get with me because i didn't tell you how dallas turned it around i mean how did the dallas mavericks without their best player come back and beat san antonio in their home court how did they do that well i tell you one of the ways they did it if you go back and check out the fact that every nba team and every game at the beginning of each game they are allowed six timeouts in of those six timeouts they get two additional 20 second timeouts so they got six full timeouts then they get two 20 second timeout now the way the 20 second timeout came in the nba back in the day in the nba when they played and teams got in the jam and they had no more timeouts they would fake an injury so a player would literally just fall down act like he sprained his ankle well they got to stop the clock or somebody lay in the middle of the floor and then he takes his time and come he's not even hurt but he's he they need the time off the clock so the nba said forget that we sick all these fake injuries what we're going to do is give you a 20 second timeout so even if you fake an injury now it costs you a 20 second timeout so they just give that to you you got six full timeouts two 20 second timeouts and if you go back and check that fifth game in the western conference finals when dallas came back from 17 down turned the thing around and won they used all their timeouts they got in the jam called timeout got over on the side with the coach and they would talk to the coach get back in the game nick van nexter would hit a couple of three pointers and yet they were still down they call another timeout go into the huddle run a couple of plays for michael finley back in the game call another timeout and go back in the huddle they used all of their timeouts including their 20 seconds that's how you call a 20 second timeout you only have to say it in the game just walk up to the referee then and just do this they know you need 20 seconds now i'm bringing this up because if you're going to turn your situation around you're going to have to seek the lord every now and then your situation looks so bad that you got to call a timeout go over here talk to jesus all right jesus what you got for me now then you get back in that thing do what you can still ain't looking good i got another timeout going okay jesus what we gonna try this time jesus calls something else get back in now they acting a fool on the job no i need a timeout and you talk to jesus and you now something's going on at the house man and you call another timeout do i have a witness in this place and when you talk it over with jesus everything is going to be all right but here's what i love about it god also gives us some 20 second timeouts meaning this there are times when i'm in the predicament and i don't have time for a full timeout i don't have time to talk about me being body bound to mother earth and i'm glad that my bed was not my cooling board my sheets and my wine i ain't got time for that i just need a 20 second i mean when your supervisor is in your face you can't just go off and go home and start praying you just gotta do it when they after the food tomorrow on the job just do this you ain't got to say nothing that's the sign you got it i need a 20 second when you go home today and your spouse is acting the fool do this when your daddy comes home drunk you don't go off on your daddy just take 20 seconds spend some time with the lord just a little talk with jesus tell him all about your trouble he'll hear your fainted cry he'll answer by and by just a little talk with jesus makes everything all right do i have a witness in this place look at somebody and tell them i think you got another timeout you got to use all your timeouts you can't quit you can't throw in the towel you can't get out of the game i think you got another timeout hey let me get to this last thing here's the last thing in chapter 3 zephaniah chapter 3 verse 14. sing o daughter of zion shout aloud o israel be glad and rejoice with all your heart old daughter of jerusalem now we're talking about singing remember how we started in chapter one with suffering but when we get to the end of chapter three we're singing signing in chapter one and we are shouting at the end of chapter three in pain in chapter one but we in praise at the end of chapter three and the thing about this singing and shouting god took them from being sad to glad without changing the situation they were still suffering but though they are suffering they're shouting because i don't have to wait till my suffering is over before i get my shout on y'all every time you see me shouting doesn't mean i don't have an issue somewhere else it just means i ain't got to wait till this thing is over before i start praising god now here's the question because i know it hasn't changed because when you open chapter 3 chapter 3 verse 1 talks about how polluted the people are the people are so polluted verse 2 says they're caught up in violence and crime wait a minute the people are dirty nasty polluted perverted violence and crime it doesn't even sound like i'm reading the book of zephaniah it sounds like i'm reading an indianapolis recorder or the indianapolis star the morning newspaper because that's what our community sounds like right polluted people violence and crime so then the question remains how can i praise god when i live around polluted people all right that ain't enough for y'all verse 3 says that the leaders were lousy they got lousy leaders but they were still able to get loud for the lord because the judges and the priests and the prophet even the religious leadership was messed up the political leadership was messed up the the justice system had injustice in it they were victimized and people they were supposed to empower to be victorious the ones they were supposed to help the leaders were hurting them doesn't sound like zephaniah that sounds like the community in which we live that's why you got to be careful who you go to for help because sometimes the folk who's supposed to help you are the ones who are hurting you but even if the people are polluted i can still praise god but pastor how can i do that when the people around me are so messed up verse 5 verse five says but the lord was still there oh man if y'all shouted i could have went out right there i would have been finished here it is the people are messed up violence crime polluted perverted the leaders are messed up injustice in the justice system even the preachers are not doing right then how can i praise god because of the presence of god himself but the lord is still there see it doesn't matter what other folk are doing to me as long as i know god is with me i mean you can do to me what you want but i can still rejoice because god is with me and it doesn't matter who's in my life or not in my life as long as god is in my life because i have lived long enough to know that i can make it without anybody but jesus see somebody's in church right now and you can't rejoice you can't praise god cause somebody didn't come home last night you ain't heard from somebody in seven whole days somebody walked out of your life and because of that you in here mean and even hard to get along with i have lived long enough to know that i can make it without anybody but jesus i don't want you to go but if you go i'ma still make it i want you to stay but if you leave i'm still making it do i have a witness in here i know you didn't want your father to leave but when he left god stayed when your spouse left god stayed when that man left god st do i have a witness in this place you can praise it because of the presence of god verse 8 chapter 3 zephaniah verse 8 i can praise god because i am patient verse 8 says be patient wait on the lord because he's going to stand up and he's going to handle your haters that's what it says in verse 8 because some of us are thinking that if god is present then why won't he do anything about my situation see that's why you have convinced yourself that god ain't here because if god were here i wouldn't be like this because if god were here he would get me out of this and no god says be patient wait i'm here and i'm gonna rise up in your situation and i'm gonna handle your haters but god wait a minute why won't you do something now because jeffrey johnson i didn't just put you in that predicament to deal with the folk around you i put you in that predicament so that i could deal with you and the only way for me to deal with you effectively was to put you in the environment that you are in so i can bring the best out of you so that's why i haven't done anything yet so you got to learn how to wait on me see here's what i'm trying to tell you that just because god hasn't done what you want him to do it doesn't mean god is not there and just because he hasn't done it yet don't mean he ain't gonna do it just because he hasn't healed you yet doesn't mean he's not going to heal you just because he hasn't delivered you yet doesn't mean he's not going to deliver you just because he hasn't blessed your marriage yet doesn't mean he's not going to bless it you don't have to give up on those children just because he hasn't changed those children yet don't mean he ain't going to change them so i got to learn how to be patient and wait on the lord do i have a witness in this cause god is working on me ah god puts me in these predicaments of punishment so he can develop my person he's really working things out for my good even when i don't see it somebody somebody you remind me of that african king and the african king had a best friend and he and his best friend would do everything together but the friend still re he still honored the king as the king and something about this best friend he had such an optimistic look on life everything he saw in life was good he had just he he looked so high at life not the low side not the negative side he had an optimistic look and his friend whatever would go on he would always reply the same thing that this is good no matter how bad it looked the friend's response was this is good and now the king and his friend were going hunting one day and it was the friend's responsibility to pack the guns on the back of the wagon as they were going out to go hunting and so when they get out to the area they're going to hunt the king goes back to grab one of the rifles and the gun goes off accidentally the bullet hits the king and the thumb and of course it just blew his thumb right off then the king is in pain and he's screaming and he's hollering and he's he's mad at his friend evidently who loaded the gun you shouldn't load the guns when you're going out hunting and having them loaded like that so the friend he thought was at fault and he was wrong and bad but the friend told the king in his pain thumb gone everything told the king this is good and the king said how you gonna say this is good my thumb is gone it's your fault you don't mess me up this is bad but his friend so optimistic said no this is good king said no i'm gonna show you how bad it is and he put his friend in jail locked him up put him in jail cause he said you're wrong this is bad and now i'm gonna show you how bad it is and locked him up now the king of course his thumb is gone but he's healed and now he's out hunting again this time when he goes hunting he runs into some cannibals and when those camp those are people who eat other people and when the cannibals saw the king they captured him tied him up taking him back to the camp where they were going to eat him later that night but by the time later that night showed up the cannibals saw that the thumb of the king was missing and when they saw that they were so superstitious that they thought something was wrong here and these cannibals would only eat people who were wholly perfect in terms of their body they were so afraid of the king they cut him loose and sent him on they didn't know what was going on because they didn't have a thumb so they wasn't going to eat him now the king finally realizes my friend was right losing my thumb was good otherwise today i would have lost my life so he goes back to the prison and he goes and tells his friend you were right all along this was good that i lost my thumb i'm sorry i put you in jail i was wrong the friend's response was king this is good no it's not good i shouldn't have had you in jail i've wasted a year your life i shouldn't have put you down here i was wrong this is bad friend said no this is good how can this be good i lost you lost a year your life i jacked you up messed you up for the wrong reason he said this is good how can you say that king if i had not been in jail for the past year i would have been hunting with you when those cannibals found you and king i got two thumbs look at somebody and tell them it's all goods all things work together for good to them that love god and who are the called according to how many you know god is working in your life even when it doesn't look good god is working it out for your good you can praise him when you are patient wait a minute here's another thing you can praise god verse 15 for the lord zephaniah 3 and 15 for the lord will remove his hand of the judgment here's here's what it's saying that god's getting ready to remove the punishment it ought to be taking place because we sin and let god down but god says no i'm here to turn this thing around and you can go on and praise me because i'm getting ready to remove your punishment you shouldn't have gone there you shouldn't have done that you shouldn't acted that way you shouldn't have smoked that drank that whatever you did but god says because you sought me i'm getting ready to remove the punishment and now you can praise me because you don't have to go through what you thought you were getting ready to go through here's the last thing and i'm finished you can praise god verse 20 chapter 3 zephaniah verse 20. you can praise god on that day i will gather you together and bring you home again and i'll give you a good name a name of distinction among all the other nations of the earth here it is they will praise you as i restore your fortunes before their very eyes i the lord have spoken it here's why we can praise god because he's getting ready to restore our prosperity before the very eyes of your enemy i'm getting ready to prepare you a table of prosperity and god said you can trust me because i spoke it here's all i'm trying to tell you when you know you're going to prosper you can get your praise on and god even though we messed up in the past he says i'm going to make it so that you prosper but wait there is no prosperity until you start seeking the lord some of us have messed up this prosperity gospel thing you think god gonna give you a big house just to give you a big house he's gonna give you a luxury car just to give you a luxury car he's going to give you a million dollars just to give you a million no god ain't giving you all that stuff just so you can make a name for yourself just so everybody can think you a baller and a shot caller and so god is going to give you that position god said uh uh i'm only concerned with one name and it ain't yours and it ain't mine god is concerned about his own name if my people who are called y'all ain't hearing me but my name is his name so when i'm out trying to make a name for myself god says i'm not investing in that name but jeffrey johnson when you seek me first and try to spread my kingdom and spread my name now i will prosper you so you can spread my name do i have a witness wait a minute this prosperity has not taken place yet he said i will prosper you that means the prosperity is coming but i don't have to wait till it gets here to thank god for what is coming and i know it's coming because the lord spoke it hey i'm so glad it doesn't matter what my life looks like to you i already know it's gonna be all right because god spoken i shall prosper i shall go to the next level i shall make it because god has already anybody know god to do everything he said he's going to do let me close let me close uh there was this woman in chicago illinois because you know it bothers me when we don't sing and shout that really bothers me you say you save and we got to beg you to say amen you say god delivered you then we got to beg you to lift your hand every now and then that it bothers me when saints won't shout well pastor you know i don't i don't have to do that in front of everybody i would think you would want folk to know who it is that made it possible for you to be where you are okay all right here it is let me close let me close um chicago illinois woman's house catches on fire and it's a terrible house fire and so the fire department is showing up they're trying to put the fire out but she is trapped in the house in the fire and one firefighter goes beyond the call of duty and y'all this this happened in chicago he goes into the burning fire goes through the flames finds the crying lady gets her and takes her safely out of the burning burning flames to safety out in her yard i mean this man saved this woman's life her house was destroyed but she got saved she was saved from the fire a couple of days later she takes out an ad in the chicago defender a full-page ad in the chicago defender with a picture of the firefighter his name and what he did to save her the chicago sun times here's what she did in the chicago defender newspaper and the sun times interviews her and says you lost your home you lost all your items you lost everything and then you're in a financial jam why would you take the little money you have and put it in that newspaper with the picture of the firefighter and his name and the story behind why would you spend your own money to do that she said i know the position that i'm in and the predicament i'm in but i wanted everybody in chicago to know the one who saved me i wanted them to know the name of the one that pulled me out of the fight i'm through with this message y'all but if the lord saved you if the lord pulled you out of hell's fire if the lord made a way for you every now and then you ought to make it public known that if it had not been for the lord that was on our side anybody in here saved anybody delivered did the lord make a way for you then give god's name some praise hey we ought to be a witness we ought to tell people about jesus everybody stand please so that everybody would know who it is that saved us who it is that we wouldn't even be here right now i mean you think about all the stuff you've been through think about the things that should have happened to you and didn't think about the things that could have happened to you and didn't think about the stuff that happened to you it happened to somebody else they didn't make it here you are praising god y'all this message is trying to help us to understand that if you sin you will suffer we got to get back to hearing about holiness and purity and obedience that's a part of this christian walk with god and when we sin we will suffer but the good news is when you call upon the name of the lord i don't care what you've done in the first chapter of your life if you call upon the name of the lord he shows up and protects you from punishment you ought to have we ought to be dead in our grave we ought to be dead on our way to hell but we are live and in the house of god because jesus showed up to protect us because we called upon his name whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved well praise the lord i hope that that message was a blessing to you i hope it encouraged you and inspired you but i also hope it got you in a mind to receive jesus christ as your personal savior so i want to give you a chance to do that right now to accept jesus as your personal savior the apostle paul says whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved i'm going to lead you in prayer and have you call on the name of the lord and the moment you believe it you become a christian you become a child of god so just follow me in prayer pray it out loud with me father i come right now i know that i'm saying i'm sorry for my sins i believe jesus died on the cross i believe you raised jesus from the dead i receive him by faith please fill me with your holy spirit in jesus name amen praise the lord let me be the first one to welcome you to the family of god you're a child of god now and i praise god and i celebrate with you and your family what god is doing in your life and we want you to email us here at eastern star church and let us know the commitment that you made so email us at membership eastern startchurch.org membership at eastern starchurch.org so we can help you to continue your walk with the lord and those of you who are already saved you're already a christian but you know you you strayed from the church and you strayed from the things of god and now you're ready to recommit your life go ahead and email us at membership at easternstartchurch.org so that we can get you going from faith to faith and glory to glory all right now it's time for us to receive the offering it's time for us to give you guys have been so generous in your giving and i praise god for that i want to say thank you for that and you know it's right for us to give god told us to give we give out of obedience we give out of faith because we trust god and we give because we love god you can give without loving but you can't love without giving and when we're obedient to god there's always a blessing attached to it god said bring the tithe into the storehouse and see that when i open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing you don't have room enough to receive it and so we know there are a lot of needs that are going on things are getting worse in in in terms of economic downturn and when things get worse that means the church has to do more in terms of our making contributions in in the the church for believers in the community in the country and the world so please help us to get that done now if you want to give here's how you're able to do it one way you can give is through our website easternstarchurch.org easternstartchurch.org there's a tab there forgive and you can give like that or you can text to give text 4577 and then esc in the message field 4577 esc and then your amount along with that and then of course you can mail it in at eastern star church 5750 east 30th street in indianapolis indiana 46218 5750 east 30th street indianapolis indiana four six two one so i thank you for your giving but also want to ask god's blessings on the gifts that we're giving today let us pray lord we bless you and praise you and love you thank you for protecting us and preserving us and providing for us thank you for the resources that we've received now under god we give back to you and we give god because we obey you we trust you and we love you and we pray that you'll take our resources and pull it together with other believers and use it to advance your kingdom and to come alongside the least the lonely and the left out and lord i pray for those who are giving that you'll give back to them good measures press down shaken together and running over and i pray you'll do that in jesus name amen praise the lord let me go ahead and offer the benediction for the day may god bless you and keep you may god have his face to smell upon you and be gracious unto you may god turn his countenance towards you and grant you peace and i pray that the favor of god will always be with you and i pray that'll happen today and forevermore in jesus name amen you

Channel: Eastern Star Church

Views: 4,976

Rating: 4.7913041 out of 5

Keywords: eastern star church, pastor jeffrey a johnson sr, indianapolis, indy church, indianapolis church, gospel, god, sermon, faith, hope, inspiration, motivation, jesus, love, christianity, throwback sermon, rewind worship, eastern star throwbacks

Id: GaEyzS8Kwgs

Length: 72min 48sec (4368 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 16 2020