In the Balance

[Music] [Music] my life is built on your faithfulness [Music] my hope is in your promises [Music] i take each step with your comforters cause i am yours i am you never fail you never will i trust your name for greater things you will come through you always do i trust your name for greater things [Music] you brought me back from my brokenness you took my shame and you buried what you've done [Music] [Music] i [Music] [Music] i trust [Music] [Music] i'll trust [Music] i trust you're [Music] i've seen this fight from the victory no power of hell can stand against me cause i've seen this fight from the victory [Music] with me [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] things [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] let praise be a weapon that silence is the enemy let praise be a weapon that conquers all anxiety let it rise [Music] let praise her [Music] your name in eyes dark and it changes everything we sing with all we are and we claim your victory let it rise [Music] fear cannot survive [Music] [Music] we praise you we praise you faith be the song that overcomes the raging sea [Music] and let faith be the song that calms the storm inside me let it rise [Music] you cannot survive [Music] [Applause] we praise you [Music] this [Music] this is what heaven sounds like we praise you we praise you this is what living looks like this is what freedom feels like this is what heaven sounds like this is what freedom feels like this is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] when we praise you [Music] [Music] [Music] you we praise you [Music] we worship the god who is we worship the god whoever more will be he opened the prison door he parted the legends my god he holds the victory there's joy in the house of the lord today and we won't be quiet [Music] we sing to the god who saves we sing to the god who always makes away cause he holds up on that cross then he rolls up from that grave my god [Music] and we won't be quiet [Music] now we're running free we are forgiving accepting receive his grace let the house of the lord sing pray cause we were the [Music] we were the president [Applause] [Music] uh [Music] yeah you guys are out there that's awesome and i know that you are out there online as well for those of you who are joining us online we welcome you to church this morning you know we're gonna i i need to ask you a question real quick are you guys ready to connect with god this morning awesome and i think i can hear some claps from some of the houses around our neighborhoods as well who are joining us online yeah let's connect with god and we do that in a few different ways right we connect through worship we connect through fellowship yes even online people are typing in their responses they're they're cueing in i know i would and so they're connecting through fellowship that way and then we all connect we connect through the study of god's word as well so i just want you to be prepared so this morning as you walked in if you guys are here in the house you were given a connect card i want you to go ahead and fill that out at home you'll have a digital connect card we'd love for you to go ahead and fill that out as well let our pastors and our church leaders know how they can be praying for you let them know how they can be praying for you so let me ask you another question where are you where are you we have a powerful god a god who can change the direction of anything i know that it's been a hard time and that we've been going through a lot of stuff as people but i want to empower you i want to encourage you that through the power of christ we can take our focus off of those things this morning and just be in the presence of god are we ready to be in the presence of god this morning amen listen we're going to be singing some songs this morning here's some of the things that we're going to be that are going to be coming off of your lips as we worship he has done great things he has freed the captive he's broken chains he has overcome death he is a firm foundation he heals the sick finds the lost mints the broken and his name is above every other name amen amen this first song we're going to sing to him this morning this very first song the very first words that are kind of gonna come out of your mouth as we sing the song this morning is take my life so let's go ahead and sing jose is gonna invite us and we're gonna sing this song i encourage you to stand up if you'd like to stand but let's give this time to god take my life and let it be [Music] consecrated lord to thee take my moments and let them flow in season [Music] take my voice and let me sing always only for my king take my lips [Music] messages for thee filled with messages [Music] take my silver [Applause] [Music] thou shall choose every power [Music] it shall be no longer [Music] is [Music] shall be thyroid [Music] take myself and i will be [Music] [Music] [Applause] all right church let's put our hands together we're gonna worship god this morning god we come to you we are live streaming to you jesus [Music] see what our savior has done [Music] see how this love overcomes he has done great things [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] you've been faithful [Music] you have done great things and i know you do it again [Music] [Music] and break every chain [Music] oh [Music] [Music] hallelujah [Music] you have done great things see got your hallelujah's church come on let him hear [Music] [Applause] [Applause] break every chain things [Music] you have [Music] to play [Music] yes he has done great things we celebrate you god there are so many things god that we can look at so many great things we're thankful for you god we lift our voices to you we lift our hearts god worthy of every song we could ever see worthy of all the praise we could ever bring worthy of every breath we could ever [Music] jesus the only one who could ever [Music] worthy of every breath we could ever is [Music] worthy of every song we could ever see [Music] we [Music] jesus [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] there is [Music] me [Music] you are so worthy [Music] unshakable [Music] i will build my life upon your love it is a fur foundation i will put my trust in you [Music] it is [Music] there is [Music] who you are [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] amen church do you believe that how many in the house have connected with god already that's what i'm talking about now i want you to go ahead and connect with one another let them know that you're glad that you're here and you're glad that they're here and that we have god right here with us [Applause] [Applause] [Music] most of us remember that day it's etched in our minds a permanent reminder of tragedy we all watched helplessly as lives were lost heroes were born and a nation was forever changed the loss was unimaginable the sorrow unbearable but through that pain we witnessed the resolve of a nation we saw chaos give birth to courage fear transform into fortitude and destruction give way to determination in the midst of the brokenness freedom stood and movable today we remember those we lost we honor the heroes who saved so many and grieve with the families who've suffered so much [Music] it's been 20 years but we still remember and we will never forget [Music] on september 11th i remember i was going into the second grade and so for my second grade class i know that's still i know it's so silly to imagine me in second grade but to take a moment of seriousness we wanted to remember the people that served and that gave their lives to protect others to save others to encourage the firefighters and the policemen that there was a moment of tragedy that we all experienced and once again remember getting ready for second grade and the seriousness that was on my parents face on my grandparents face and i remember going to class and my my teacher mr proent had it on the entire morning and i didn't understand the gravity of what was going on i it seemed like cgi it seemed like a movie to me but i remember i'll never forget the look of my teacher's face as we just sat there and watched it the look of just how distraught he was and we all experienced that pain and that suffering and that loss and so once again we just wanted to take a moment of silent prayer and just be able to lift up the people that serve the firefighters and the policemen and the people that lost their lives so bow your head in silent prayer as we continue the rest of our morning god we thank you that you are a great comforter and then because of your son's sacrifice on our behalf death no longer has the victory we remember those who lost their lives and those who are still grieving thank you for your example on the cross greater love has no has none no one than this that one laid down his life for his friends in jesus name amen my name is jacob allen nielsen i am the student ministries pastor here at bethany church and we are excited that you guys are all joining us today is a new day that today is a start of a lot of new ministries coming up this week start of schools for a lot of you students or starting schools or have started schools over this past month and so for a lot of parents that are in this room it's a new rhythm it's getting your kids to school every day picking them up figuring out rides and with that we're going to do a lot with a connect car today so if you could do me a favor and pull out the connect card in front of your seat and i'm going to go over a lot of ministries that are once again starting up this week and if you have any more questions and are interested in any of those make sure you're writing your name filling out your information so that we can contact you this week about the information for those ministries coming up so tuesday we have a men's bible study at 6 30 p.m tuesday 6 30 men's bible study wednesday we have a women's bible a bible study at 7 00 pm at 7 pm women's bible study thursday we have mom's ministry starting at 9 30 a.m it's going to be a small gathering of of moms and homes on sunday we have a membership class coming up if you are interested in membership and joining that class please let us know in the connect card once again a lot of information on the connect card make sure if you want to become a new member to write that information on the card so that we can then contact you make sure we have a number for people that were serving lunch for that day and then also there's more information available on the bulletin so if you have any questions about any of those ministries look at the bulletin you can go online or once again fill out the connect card and we will reach out to you this week so let me pray for pastor dave's message so we can get on with the new series um god i thank you so much for an opportunity for us to reflect god that you are are good despite difficult and hard things that we experience and god that you don't want us to experience those things alone god that you are a great comforter that if we have put our faith in christ that we have the holy spirit working in us now and so god i pray that we feel that and not only do we have your holy spirit that we have a room full of people that are here to support one another that we have a community of believers that want to follow you and so god let us continue to remember that as we gather here on sundays um god i thank you so much for pastor dave and the words that he's about to speak to us that i know that your spirit is going to work through him for our new series in zephaniah so god is we we take on the difficult things that are in our faith that we can continue to remember how good you are and how much you love us in jesus name we pray amen amen thank you jacob well good morning bethany church my name is he said is dave darjani i'm the worship pastor here and just uh so thankful and and honored to be able to speak god's word to you guys this morning i just want to say welcome again real quick welcome to anyone who's new this morning we we know that every week there are people here joining us for the first time we're just so glad that you're with us and we just hope that you'll find bethany to be a place that is welcoming and that can help you along your spiritual journey and i just encourage you to get connected in some of those ways welcome also to those of you joining us online we see you we we remember you guys we love you we're glad you're with us and and still with us in that way and i also i love saying this but welcome to our students who are here middle school junior high high school students we're glad you guys are here thank you for being here and um i just hope that today we will all hear god's word his message to our hearts and as he said we're kicking off a new series in the book of zephaniah but before i get into that i just wanted to share some other fun news our pastors jeff and tip and tim excuse me are in minnesota this weekend with pastor scott foster scott was a long-term pastor here yeah youth pastor missions pastor executive pastor and then interim lead pastor until god called him to minnesota with his family and actually um he was he moved to an executive pastor role there as well but just recently god put it on his heart and moved in the direction to have him become the lead pastor of their church so this weekend scott was being installed as lead pastor and jeff went to to preach at that installation i have a picture of these guys here um yeah um if you knew scott just larger than life and an amazing man of god and encouragement to me a mentor and just i encourage you to be praying for him as he and his family step into this new role lead pastor there in maple grove minnesota well as i said we're kicking off a new series in the book of zephaniah it's an old testament book a prophet that speaks of judgment and wrath and destruction and i think jeff left on that very sunday on purpose so he could lead me to preach it no i'm just kidding i'm excited about this it's something we don't talk a lot about in 21st century christianity right we like to talk about god's mercy and his love and his forgiveness but i think it's it's important that we kind of spend some time and just wrestle with this okay what what is this about and when we read these in the scripture how are we to understand these we're gonna dive into that and so today we're gonna um just open up the book together get into the first six verses and and look and see just how um wickedness ultimately leads to a destruction a destructive end and god's judgment and and we're gonna talk about god's judgment and and is that um righteous and justified and and we're going to talk about just how he he just seek searches our hearts and and cuts to the core with his judgment and just ask ourselves god god what do you see and how do i how do i offer my life more fully and holy to you so that i can know that i'm walking in god's ways so that's where we're going and just you know you might have thought did i hear him right are we talking about judgment and wrath today yes okay that's where we're going just hang with me and and listen and let's read this scripture together and just hear what god's word for us today is because i think it will speak to us all as we ultimately open up our hearts and surrender our hearts to it and um we titled this series in the balance and i just want to make one thing clear from the beginning what's not in the balance is our sin versus our goodness thank the lord right we don't have to make sure we do enough goodness to outweigh our badness so that you know on judgment day we we skate through the pearly gates just barely no that's that's not what we're talking about when we say in the balance the next couple weeks as we go through this book we're talking about god's wrath and justice being held perfectly in balance with his grace and mercy and that you can't have one without the other you can't just talk about his grace and mercy and love and and be all excited about that without fully understanding and appreciating his wrath and his justice and his his you know hatred towards sin so that's that's kind of what we're going to dig into and talk about today and through the rest of this series so go ahead and open up your bibles or your bible apps to zephaniah zephaniah is the fourth to last book of the old testament so if you know where the new testament is go back four books it's right before the gospels i'm going to be reading from the nasb today and i'll let you get there flip your bibles there for a sec we'll be reading zephaniah 1 1-6 it says this the word of the lord which came to zephaniah son of kushai son of gedelia son of amariah son of hezekiah in the days of josiah son of amon king of judah i will completely remove all things from the face of the earth declares the lord i will remove human and animal life i will remove the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea and the ruins along with the wicked and i will eliminate mankind from the face of the earth declares the lord so i will stretch out my hand against judah and against all the inhabitants of jerusalem and i will eliminate the remnant of baal from this place and the names of the idolatrous priests along with the priests and those who bow down on the housetops to the heavenly lights and those who bow down and swear to the lord but also swear by milkham and those who have turned back from following the lord and those who have not sought the lord nor inquired of him so as you can hear from these words this prophecy this this word of the lord that came through zephaniah it's an intense oracle of judgment from the lord himself to all of creation but but specifically to his people judah and jerusalem against their sin against their rejection of him against their worship of false gods and i'm going to break this down for us today in three parts first we're going to just talk about that first verse it talks about all those names and kind of just a historical background to help us frame this for the next several weeks and then we're going to kind of as i talked about talk about that balance and and just in general what what is god's judgment and how are we to understand that and is that something that um we can be you know just believing in and okay with from our god when he says things like this and then third we're going to talk just more personally how does this apply to us and and when it talked about all those idols and milk comments what is that and and what does that mean for us today so that's where we're going if you want to sort of make an outline in your head just starting with the historical background but then a theology of god's wrath and justice in a sense and then lastly how that judgment cuts to our hearts and and cuts to the heart of all humankind so let me again start with verse 1 and then we'll talk about the historical setting just for a couple minutes the word of the lord which came to zephaniah son of kushai son of gedelia son of amariah son of hezekiah in the days of josiah son of amon king of judah that almost has like a wrap rhyme and beat to it i didn't notice that until right now and i just read it out loud so we're told that zephaniah is the son of a man named kushai the great great grandson of hezekiah i'm not going to get into all those names but i think the reason they give all those names is because the last one hezekiah we're supposed to kind of remember that name it's a very popular name throughout the old testament um and zeph and i were told as the great great grandson of this man hezekiah who was a king of judah so in case you're a little rusty of your ancient hebrew history i'm going to give you a brief synopsis okay so there's king david the golden age and his son king solomon they kind of helped build the nation of israel and into a nation and a power in that day and age but then after solomon the kingdom splits because of the the son of solomon who wasn't truly faithful to the lord and it's around 933 bc there's the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom the northern kingdom is israel called israel and the southern kingdom becomes to call judah because it's mostly the tribe of judah well the northern kingdom was kind of ruled by one evil king after another they didn't follow the lord and after just about 200 years they were destroyed by the assyrian empire as an act of god's judgment on them and that nation but the southern kingdom judah lasted longer in and there were kings that were good there were kings that were bad and they they tried to seek the lord they had jerusalem and the temple there and one of those kings one of those good kings was hezekiah hezekiah this guy who is the great great grandfather of zephaniah and during his reign he he encouraged the people to seek the lord they they didn't do as much idol worship as a lot of the other times during that that time and so zephaniah in a sense is putting this genealogy here just to remind people of of this positive picture of faithfulness to god and the good that that can bring god save them from the assyrians that destroyed the northern empire because of of their faithfulness it says in scripture but then unfortunately after hezekiah um his son manasseh was king and he was one of the the most evil kings of judah he i have some notes here he did what was evil in the sight of the lord he built high places which were places of worship for idols he built sharepoles which were also places of worship and even sexual immorality he worshipped the stars and the constellations he practiced burning his sons and daughters in the fire as an offering to the gods something which the lord always said he utterly detested he built altars in god's temple to other gods he got into fortune tellers and omens and dealt with mediums and and divination so just this long list of the evil and in second kings 21 there's a summary here it says because manasseh king of judah committed these abominations and has done more evil than all that the amorites did who were in who were before him and has made also judah to sin with his idols the whole nation therefore thus says the lord god of israel behold i am bringing upon jerusalem and judah such disaster that the ears of everyone who hears it will tingle so up to this point they had kind of bypassed god's wrath like i said hezekiah you know and they were faithful but now there's this declaration during manassas reign that that they're going to be facing um destruction and disaster well after manassas son there's a king named amon who's also evil and he reigns for about two years and then he's killed and then there's josiah okay josiah came up in our first verse it said when josiah was king so now we're getting to the time of this book josiah by the way josiah was eight years old when he became king all right so students young people out there don't think you can't have an influence and an impact because of your age okay listen to this josiah was a good king he was on fire he commissioned repairs for the temple and they found the book of the law like an old old testament bible almost in a sense and he had it read and studied and they they reinstated worship in the right way they they destroyed idols they went through a season of just having the passover festival which hadn't been celebrated in years and years they got rid of the divination and some of these other practices that were um so common in that day all this and more here's a little summary of josiah second kings 22. he did what was right in the eyes of the lord and walked in all the ways of david his father he did not turn aside to the right or to the left so if you can imagine zephaniah's time now it's right in the middle of this there's this history of faithfulness to god of going back and forth there's a bad king there's a good king and and then there's this 50-year reign of manasseh that was really bad and then there's now there's a new young king he's he's trying to be faithful to god he's trying to turn the people to god and zephaniah is placed right in the middle of this and god in a sense had already promised the destruction of the nation and he said it's it's almost too late but but they were trying their this king was saying no let's do this let's seek god let's be faithful let's let's just turn away from the idol worship and so this is the setting that zephaniah's writing and he's right there alongside of josiah probably he's saying look guys we've gone through this we have this devastation promise but but we just need to seek out we need to just turn and change our ways because as they had seen and learned from their history there's just um a direction and a in a sense there comes a time when it's too late and there comes a time where evil and wickedness and and not seeking god will will pay a a negative dividend and a an evil a destruction an end to to life in in some senses physically sometimes so through this first verse just kind of understanding that i think we get the the setting in the context of what he's going to be writing to and what i want to just cement into our minds is is what i think zephaniah and probably josiah were probably trying to communicate to their nation at that time and it was a simple truth that evil doesn't pay and it's not worth it to to just go along with it and to to go you know down the easy path or to just do what everyone else is doing or to just kind of live life and forsake god and you know one thing after another we end up not being faithful to god because it's not just our natural default to be faithful to god and to be righteous it takes us seeking the after god and pursuing righteousness and shaping our life in a way that will lead us that direction and they're just saying guys we have to do this it's not worth it to continue down the path of evil look at a couple proverbs that just speak this truth proverbs 10 2 treasures gained by wickedness do not profit but righteousness delivers from death proverbs 11 5 the righteous of the the righteousness of the blameless keeps his way straight but the wicked falls by his own wickedness or 12 13 or 12 3 no one is established by wickedness but the root of the righteous will never be moved so i think just a starting place for this whole series and today's message is that we would be careful and and just just acknowledge and take into our own lives this message that that you know evil doesn't pay and it's not a slogan to post on social media that's like about those evil people out there it's like a warning for our own hearts that we are prone to that that that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick as it says in jeremiah 17 9 and just that that we have to actively pursue righteousness and we have to pursue god in order for us to not fall down the path of evil and wickedness and for the nation of judah for those 50 long years under manasseh it was is sin and wickedness after another generation after generation decade after decade and it had come to this point where they were at the end they were literally at the end so we'll kind of get to that a little bit more just how um you know it's worth it to pursue righteousness and and and what that means in the last section but um i just hope that that context will will kind of sit in your mind for the next several weeks as we go through this book and you know just again remember um we don't like to talk about judgment and wrath but but as we're going to see in this next section it's something that we shouldn't just not think about okay so i'm going to read on now zephaniah 1 2 3 and then we're going to talk just a little bit about a theology of god's wrath and what is it and how how can we accept that and understand that as believers listen to this i will completely remove all things from the face of the earth declares the lord i will remove human and animal life i will remove the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea and the ruins along with the wicked and i will eliminate mankind from the face of the earth remove all things that word kind of means sweep away or in a sense just destroy in in devastation and so i just want to ask like how are we to understand this and and how are we to to understand god and and say you know yes our god is loving and gracious and merciful when we read verses like this i mean what's the deal like is god just a mean tyrant in the sky ready to just wipe out anyone who who doesn't obey his whimsical demands like you know that's the the picture out there in the world probably when people read this or hear this passage and maybe even for us as believers we we struggle with this we think how do i understand this and reconcile this with who god is i think if we're honest it can be a hard stumbling block for our faith and so what i want to do is just kind of talk a little bit about god's wrath and his justice today and just help us to see the bigger picture of that and and why it's it's a per a part of his perfect character and why it is okay and righteous and justified and even good so i'm gonna go through three points about god's wrath that i hope will help us see it from a more understandable perspective okay so you might want to write these down first god's wrath is righteous because he is creator this you can even see in the passage here in an interesting way if you have your bible open you might be able to see this there's an interesting connection here to the creation account because the order in which god declared he will wipe out everything is the exact opposite order of the creation account when god created it said that he created the fish of the sea and then the birds of the sky and then animals and then human life and then here it says he's gonna wipe out human life and then animal life and then the the birds of the sky and then the fish of the sea so there's just this this subtle reference here that i think is pointing to the fact that god is creator and then since i think that's pointed to help us make remember and think okay he created us he created this he created everything he has that ultimate right to destroy and to judge and so just to help you picture this i want to share just a a quick little aside the quintessential rule of life for kids okay just picture this for a sec all kids have to learn this and parents have as part of their job as written in the parenting manual which doesn't exist all parents have to spend countless hours trying to teach their kids this quintessential rule of life and this is what it is you don't knock down someone else's tower without their permission right right okay think about it towers are such a huge part of childhood legos building blocks trains forts i mean whatever it is magna tiles nowadays the coolest toys okay you can build towers with all sorts of things and there's just this pride of life and joy in a child's eyes when they build a tower and they've done this and they want to show you but then you know what can happen the quintessential sin of childhood another kid comes in and they see that tower the builder has this pride and joy in their eyes but this this kid has it's like godzilla meets t-rex in their eyes right and they just come up in one kick and it's just down in an instant completely swept away and then there's tears and screaming and fighting and the parents have to intervene and and they talk it through and it takes a little while you wind them down and then they usually they apologize and then next thing usually they say okay just remember you have to ask permission before you knock down someone else's tower so then they'll build it together and then they do the right way is one two three and then they both kick in and it's it's it's right in the world when it's if there's that permission there okay you see what i'm getting at here god literally made us we are his creation this whole world and universe belongs to him no one else has the right to tear it down but just based on the fact that he created it we have to just give that to him what can we say he literally gave us life and everything it's his tower i have just a couple verses just to help us understand this i think acts 17 24 24-27 the god who made the world and everything in it being lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples made by man nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything and he made for from one man every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place that they should seek god and perhaps feel their way towards him or romans 1 20 for his invisible attributes namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in things that have been made so there without excuse jeremiah 23 24 can a man hide himself in secret places so that i cannot see him declares the lord do i not fill heaven and earth and lastly isaiah 64 8 but now oh lord you are our father we are the clay you are our potter we are all the work of your hand so yes this doesn't answer everything it's still a hard question to grapple with but i think it's so important that we start with the acknowledgement that god's wrath is righteous because he is creator he created us any he is the the potter we are the clay he's not served by human hands as though he needed anything he fills heaven and earth if by nothing else he has the complete right to judge and destroy us because in his infinite power and divine nature he created us all in the first place and i think it's just healthy for us to start there so that's the first point about god's wrath the second point about god's wrath is that god's wrath is just because he is perfect so taking it one step further his wrath and justice and punishment for sin is justified because he is the standard he he's literally perfect in holiness righteous in all ways pure untainted the only one that's completely true perfectly good and fully righteous so he is the perfect one to be the ultimate judge and i mean we we ultimately know this is right deep down inside even though we don't like the idea of justice um when it comes towards us we like the idea of justice and we like justice in the world we like you know there being um restitution when there's there's wrong or we like the oppressed to be rescued from the oppressor i think this is something we have in common with our culture around us and and we should you know work and find common ground with with those in our culture who who you know just really have this this deep hell belief you know and and we see this in in the world around us in our community um you know even even in tragedies like when a 16 year old boy is struck by a drunk driver and perishes we want justice or when a country that you know we've been working and serving and ministering to try to bring peace and stability when a terrorist organization takes over and we just want justice right or or maybe closer to home like when when we get belittled or or or skirted by for a promotion at work because someone else is being deceitful or or scheming or immoral or when we're at school and we get made fun of or we get bullied on because we are trying to stand up for god or when we you know we when we have our name tarnished for one reason or another when we're belittled or persecuted we want justice but the hard thing is when we wrong others that's when we want grace and mercy right um we want it swept under the rug not completely swept away um we all want that justice of reconciliation and until it comes due upon us so that's the thing with this section we have to acknowledge and be willing to say no we are all guilty we are all deserving of god's wrath you know we can't compare ourselves to to wicked people out there to the evil people out there the the problem of sin and the reality of the fallenness is that it affects us all we all stand guilty before our god and creator and we we just know that when we think about it when we slow down when we stop it's it's not a problem with god it's not a problem with god it's a problem with us that we deserve that just a couple verses on this topic isaiah 26 21 for behold the lord is coming out from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it and will no more cover its slain we can't hide romans 1 18 for the wrath of god is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth and first peter 1 14 16 as obedient children do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance but as he who called you is holy you also be holy in all your conduct since it is written you shall be holy for i am holy we are all guilty and it can't be hidden there is a standard of righteousness of morality of good and evil and as much as our society likes to promote moral relativity and the evolution of right and wrong and do what seems right in the moment we all know deep down inside there's a right and wrong that comes from god our creator and we stand guilty before him who is the standard of perfection and so we have this this example of him and it says be holy as i am holy and yes it's a joy and a privilege that we can walk in his ways and and strive after righteousness and try to be like him but we can't pretend like our sin isn't there or doesn't matter and that he doesn't have the right to judge it he his wrath is righteous because his creator his wrath is just because he is perfect he is the only one and lastly his wrath is good because he is patient and we see this in our passage and kind of the the historical context i talked about we see this in the new testament we see this in our own lives in the current world you know even beyond the fact that he is creator so he should have that right anyways even beyond the fact that he is perfect in holiness and and righteous in his judgments even further than that we can't accuse or blame god or or be embarrassed of this passage of this this idea of wrath because because all god does throughout human history is is seek after humanity and reach out to humanity for salvation and he's patient and he waits and he gives opportunity time and time and time again if you remember the historical context the nation was was going through you know 200 years of back and forth and then 50 long years of of sin and wickedness under manasseh but then josiah coming he he keeps giving chances he keeps giving opportunities eventually in that case they did they did face god's judgment in a in an inter immediate sense their nation was destroyed but it wasn't the ultimate or final execution of his justice in a sense his wrath is always meant to turn us toward him and to help us come to him and have the true life that he wants for us and it's interesting if you look back at those verses i read in the last two sections it almost almost all of them hint at that and point at that but look at these also that kind of more explicitly show this idea ezekiel 33 1 say to them as i live declares the lord i have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turned from his way and live turn back turn from your evil ways for why will you die o house of israel that's the loving heart of our god or second peter 3 9 the lord is not slow in keeping his promise as some understand slowness instead he is patient with you not wanting for any to perish but everyone to come to repentance or acts 3 19 repent therefore and turn back that your sins may be blotted out the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the lord god's heart has always been for his people and for all people to be saved and he's patient he's waiting he's giving every opportunity so his wrath is perfect and just but it's also good and it shows his goodness and it shows that he he painstakingly does all he can to not have us to face that wrath he ultimately humbled himself and came down to earth to free us by becoming a man in jesus to take away the sin and the punishment that we deserve but all people ultimately have to choose him and come to him and have and receive his salvation he doesn't force it upon us but he's patient and he's reaching out to you he always has been so god's wrath is righteous because he is creator god's wrath is just because he is perfect and god's wrath is good because he is patient i hope that's helpful i mean i know it doesn't answer every question on this regard but i hope it can help us come over the stumbling block that it might be of of judgment and just how harsh it is but when we see that in balance with his goodness i think it shows us more of his perfect character and helps us understand him more fully so last now we're going to look at the last couple verses of our passage and just see how that judgment comes home to heart to us and cuts deep and it's not something that we can just kind of point a finger out and hold at arm's length so i'm going to go through these verses kind of section by section look at zephaniah 1 4 a so i will stretch out my hand against judah and against all the inhabitants of jerusalem so the first thing to see here is that this judgment this particular prophecy is directed just heart and center at the most faithful of the most religious people in the time and their culture the nation of judah was the one tribe that remained faithful they had the temple of god they had the priests they had the old testament the torah god was jerusalem was the place god had chosen to dwell in his presence there it was the priest who ministered before god they were his chosen people a lot of times the prophecies and judgments in the old testament are to the foreign nations or to the nation of israel the northern tribe that had been more evil but here it's kind of unique in that it comes directly to the heart of the people judah and jerusalem the most religious people and so i think it's just it's just a reminder for us that again it's not for those people out there it's not for those bad people another interesting thing about that first verse is a word picture that's used when it says he's going to stretch out his hand i remember one of the times i read all the way through the bible i just noticed time and time again how it says god stretched out his hand to save his people he led them out of egypt with a strong and mighty and outstretched hand and all through the psalms it just says god saved us with an outstretched hand and his arm just reaching out to save us and there's just this picture of god just reaching out to save his people and yet here it's that same outstretched hand that's gonna to sweep them away in judgment so it's it's it's a it's a loving hand of a father but that's also coming in discipline at this time just to again to show that that he has been there for them through this all but this is his people it's not to those evil people out there i have a quote i just wanted to share from a man named alexander solzhenitsyn and he was an early 20th century um soviet uh russian man who who lived through some of the work camps of the early 20th century and and just an interesting perspective from someone who was he was kind of writing and fighting against that regime um just an interesting perspective from someone in that context listen to this if only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and to destroy them but the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being and who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart this message from zephaniah it's the same it's that god's judgment comes right to our hearts and says who is on the throne of your heart that's what i want to know when god asks us that we can't compare ourselves to anyone else going on zephaniah 1 4b i will eliminate the remnant of ball from this place in the names of the idolatrous priests along with the priests when he says eliminate ball from this um just think again of idol worship and and false worship and and putting something or someone other than god as as the protection or or the satisfaction or the ultimate joy of your heart and your life he's calling out idol worship and again it's hard to say okay well we don't worship i don't like what is that for us i think honestly this when we think about it in that context it could hit more closely to home than we like to think it could be us being stubborn and not allowing god to direct us or give wisdom to us but holding tightly onto the control of our lives and and to try to make the outcome exactly how we want it that's us having our pride be our our idol or it could be us worshiping our public image or our success in life or doing whatever it takes to get popular or get to the top that's that's us worshiping popularity and and the praise of men as an idol or it could be us looking to our phones literally for everything holding it day and night and and you know stroking it and and there's addictions that come with that and i mean i'm not joking like bowing down to it and paying tribute to it we have to be so careful god's judgment cuts to the heart and it asks the question who is your master verse 5 and those who bow down on the housetops to the heavenly lights and those who bow down and swear to the lord but also swear by malcolm this is looking to creation for guidance or trusting or worshiping or putting more priority in mother earth or the stars or or anything other than god it's it's also calling out the tendency to put a facade on worship and say yeah i worship god i my allegiance to the lord but it's still holding on to other gods with a small g um it's it's it's you know saying you know we come to church and we worship god on sundays but what does the rest of your week look like and who are you worshiping the rest of the week i think you know for us this can be the tendency we have as 21st century americans to claim allegiance or devotion to things like politics or sports or the mall and fashion or just whatever your highest interest in life is and just the amount of investment we can give to those things god's judgment cuts to the heart who is your master and lastly verse 6 those who have turned back from following the lord and those who have not sought the lord nor inquired of him and this is ultimately what they all come down to it's it's a sin of a mission it's not seeking god it's forgetting your maker your heavenly father your first love and and neglecting him not seeking him um when we compare all those other things i listed that may be rival gods we have to just ask ourselves the honest question what is the priority of our heart who is the master seek god he is waiting for you he is there he's longing for you to to come into relationship with him to to pray to him to reach out to him don't let your life pass by and miss what it was ultimately made for relationship with your master so kind of just wrapping up this whole passage what do we see we saw the history right and where this book is set it's it's this time in the nation of judah where they're they're back and forth they have this history of faithfulness but then they have these evil kings who lead them astray the people get led astray 50 long years of that but then josiah comes back and tries to turn them towards them and zephaniah's working with him saying seek the lord but then we see that sometimes god's judgment does come upon nations upon people and all of us it will come at one point or another but it's worth it to seek god and to seek righteousness and to not neglect that and to to to set our lives in a direction that is seeking righteousness it doesn't happen automatically and lastly we have to just remember that his judgment cuts to the heart and we have to be willing to ask those hard questions of what our hearts ultimate joy and pride and and what our heart ultimately worships god's judgment and his his love his wrath and his mercy are balanced they are hanging and they make up his perfect character it's it's not one without the other but sometimes we have to to hear this and listen to this i think to better appreciate that love and mercy and to remember that that he is calling us to that i want to close with a prayer that i adapted from a few verses from the book of joshua just it's a call and reminder to what this looks like and i just hope that that you will take this today and just spend some time even praying and asking god how can you live more fully in his his good and perfect will for your life but let's let's bow our heads and close your eyes and just let this prayer be from your heart to him today lord help us to be strong and very courageous may we be careful to obey all the law your servant moses gave us may we not turn to it from the right or to the left that we may be successful wherever we go lord help us to keep your word always on our lips may we meditate on it day and night so that we may be careful to do everything written in it that we would be prosperous and successful in your eyes lord you have commanded us to be strong and courageous so help us not to be afraid nor to be discouraged for you lord our god are with us wherever we go in jesus name amen amen amen well i'd like to invite up our worship team and the ushers to come forward we're going to take a time to close in a song of pointing our hearts to him and remembering that he is the one who who makes the way for us to be saved and that he is at work so let's just allow him to be at work in our hearts and in our lives and i want to thank you for your faithful giving to bethany church just encourage you to give as the lord has blessed you and to give as he prompts you because it's it's his that all we have all the abundance and the great things that we have are from him so we just give to him in a thanks and in worship and acknowledgment of that god bless you guys thank you again for being here today with us [Music] oh [Music] i worship you i worship you you are here working in this place i worship you i worship you [Music] you [Music] i worship you i worship you you are here working in this place i worship you i worship you you are way maker miracle worker promise keeper light in the darkness my god that is [Music] that you is here touching every heart i worship you i worship you you are here healing every heart [Music] you are here [Music] [Applause] who you are [Music] [Music] that is who you [Music] that are who you are [Music] that is who you are [Music] darkness my god that is [Music] [Music] [Music] you never stop what i'm doing [Music] [Applause] is who you are [Music] [Applause] [Music] who you are [Music] hide in the darkness my god that is who you are [Music] as pastor dave was sharing that powerful message in the book of zephaniah i was reminded of a song there's a collective group called maverick city worship that has a song entitled refiner and what god is doing right now is refining you that there is a cutting of way of sin or you walking and celebrating lowercase g gods in your life right now and god is refining you to be who he intended you to be to live without the weight of sin for you to worship him fully and that you will be fully refined at the day that we get to see and celebrate him and all that he has done for us and so for today we want you to go we'll see you next week have a good one and god bless see you guys soon [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Bethany Church Long Beach

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Length: 86min 27sec (5187 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021