Introduction:
1 Peter 4:17 - For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
2 Timothy 3:16 - All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness...
How Do You Respond to Correction? (Zephaniah 2:4-3:8)
- I throw a Pity party.
- I get Defensive .
- I kill the Messenger .
- I Flee .
- I Examine myself.
How to Receive Correction: 3 Questions of Self-Examination.
- Could this be True ?
Proverbs 15:32 - Whoever ignores instruction despises himself, but he who listens to reproof gains intelligence.
- Why is this person telling me this?
Proverbs 27:6 - Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
- Am I hurting my Testimony ?
Proverbs 12:1 - Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:49-01:19
Grab your Bibles, we are going to be continuing our series in the book of Zephaniah in your Old Testaments. And let's be honest, when's the last time you heard a sermon series from Zephaniah? Let's be honest, let's be honest, how many of you didn't know Zephaniah was a book in the Bible before this series started. He's got a lot to say so we're gonna get at it.
01:22-01:24
Zephaniah chapter 2, are you there?
01:27-01:35
So Zephaniah, Zephaniah has one message really. We're spending three weeks talking about one thing and it is the day of the Lord.
01:38-01:43
Seth and I was preaching before Judah was conquered by Babylon.
01:44-01:53
And like a lot of the Old Testament prophets, there's a near fulfillment of his prophecy and there's a far fulfillment of his prophecy.
01:54-01:56
The near fulfillment was Babylon conquering Judah.
01:57-02:00
The far fulfillment is the upcoming day of the Lord.
02:00-02:01
It's going to be global.
02:01-02:02
We're talking the tribulation.
02:03-02:06
talking the events that we went through in the book of Revelation.
02:08-02:09
It's coming soon.
02:12-02:19
Last week we saw Judah wrecked with sin, idolatry, violence, fraud, etc. etc.
02:20-02:27
But the underlying problem we saw from God's people last week, verse 12, was complacency.
02:27-02:31
The Lord will not do good, nor will He do ill.
02:32-02:35
God doesn't care, so why should I?
02:36-02:37
Complacency.
02:38-02:47
Well, this week, chapter 2, we're going to pick up in verse 4, and a judgment is promised to the nations that surround Israel.
02:47-02:49
And you can check your history books.
02:49-02:51
These things have been fulfilled.
02:52-03:00
So we're going to go through this section very quickly and understand in the text, we're going around Israel, and first we start to the west.
03:00-03:02
That's this way, right? To the west.
03:03-03:03
All right?
03:04-03:10
And to the west we have Philistia, Canaan, see some other names for this place.
03:10-03:10
Verse 4.
03:11-03:17
It says, "For Gaza shall be deserted, and Ashkelon shall become a desolation.
03:20-03:24
Ashdod's people shall be driven out at noon, and Ekron will be uprooted.
03:25-03:28
Woe to you, inhabitants of the sea coast!
03:28-03:35
"You nation of the Charithites, the word of the Lord is against you." Boy, you don't want to hear that.
03:37-03:42
"O Canaan, land of the Philistines, and I will destroy you until no inhabitant is left.
03:43-03:49
And you, O seacoast, shall be pastures with meadows for shepherds and folds for flocks.
03:49-04:01
The seacoast shall become the possession of the remnant of the house of Judah, on which they shall graze, "and in the houses of Ashkelon they shall lie down at evening.
04:01-04:21
For the Lord their God will be mindful of them and restore their fortunes." Okay, so here we're just talking about Israel's oldest enemies, and the conflict goes back all the way to the days of Abraham, through the days of Moses, and God says, "We're wrapping this up." Right, so we go from the West, now we go to the East.
04:22-04:24
We're talking about Moab and Ammon.
04:24-04:25
Look at verse 8.
04:26-04:36
He says, "I have heard the taunts of Moab and the revilings of the Ammonites, how they have taunted my people and made boasts against their territory.
04:36-04:48
Therefore, as I live, declares the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Moab shall become like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah." You remember the story of Sodom and Gomorrah?
04:48-04:49
You remember that story?
04:50-04:51
You remember that?
04:54-04:55
I think a lot of people forgot that.
04:57-05:01
"A land possessed by nettles and salt pits, and a waste forever.
05:02-05:07
The remnant of my people shall plunder them, and the survivors of my nation shall possess them.
05:07-05:16
This shall be their lot in return for their pride, because they taunted and boasted against the people of the Lord of hosts.
05:16-05:33
The Lord will be awesome against them, for he will famish all the gods of the earth, and to him shall bow down each in its place all the lands of the nations." So you see the big taunt, or the big sin rather, of Moab and Ammon is taunting.
05:34-05:35
Taunting God's people.
05:35-05:36
"Hey, God can't save you.
05:37-05:47
Listen, God has abandoned you." And the Lord says, "No, untrue.
05:47-05:49
And I'm about to show you.
05:51-05:54
So now we go south.
05:55-06:05
Verse 12, "You also, O Cushites, shall be slain by my sword." Not much explanation here.
06:05-06:07
Your Bible says the same thing that my Bible says.
06:09-06:15
You're like, "What is the deal with the Cushites?" Well, some scholars think it was due to their alignment with Egypt.
06:16-06:25
Again, I don't really know what your Bible says, what mine says, but I do believe that Israel knew exactly what was going on here.
06:27-06:28
And the Lord certainly knew.
06:30-06:35
He says, "Cushites, I haven't forgotten about you either." And finally we're heading north to Assyria.
06:39-06:44
"And He will stretch out His hand against the north and destroy Assyria.
06:45-06:49
and He will make Nineveh a desolation, a dry waste like the desert.
06:49-06:58
Herds shall lie down in her midst, all kinds of beasts, even the owl and the hedgehog shall lodge in her capitals.
06:58-07:01
A voice shall hoot in the window.
07:02-07:06
Devastation will be on a threshold, for her cedar work will be laid bare.
07:07-07:16
This is the exultant city," that's Nineveh, "that lives securely, that said in her heart, 'I am,' and there is no one else.
07:16-07:17
What a desolation!
07:17-07:20
She has become a lair for wild beasts.
07:20-07:33
Everyone who passes by her hisses and shakes his fist." Now verse 15, part of Assyria and Nineveh's exaltation.
07:35-07:35
See this statement?
07:37-07:39
I am and there is no one else.
07:39-07:40
Does that sound familiar?
07:42-07:45
Can you think of somebody who said similar things to that?
07:46-07:46
I am.
07:48-07:50
There is no one besides me.
07:51-07:53
There is no one like me.
07:53-07:55
Can you think of anybody else that said something like that?
07:58-07:59
God.
08:02-08:03
This is self-exaltation.
08:04-08:05
God says you're going down.
08:07-08:08
Who do you think you are?
08:09-08:17
Now Nineveh was this huge metropolis, bustling city, and God says, "You know what your city's gonna become?
08:17-08:22
It's gonna become a place for wild animals just live in the abandoned buildings.
08:22-08:26
That's how desolate it's gonna become." Judgment.
08:30-08:32
It certainly came for Judah.
08:33-08:37
And we're going to see again here, as we saw last week, Zephaniah's prophesying.
08:42-08:42
Judgment's coming.
08:45-08:49
It's coming on the whole earth.
08:52-08:58
And when we talk about judgment, it's going to result in one of two responses from God's people.
08:59-09:03
I'm sure as we talk about judgment, there are people here that are like, "Get 'em.
09:04-09:04
Get 'em.
09:04-09:06
Get 'em, God." You get all imprecatory.
09:07-09:14
"Get 'em God! Rip their teeth out! Mash them into paste God! Do it God!" There's those people.
09:14-09:25
And then there are people that say, "You know, I get a little queasy when I think about judgment, man.
09:25-09:36
We're talking eternity. It's horrific to think about." You're like, "Well, which is appropriate? I mean, as God's people, Which is the appropriate response?
09:37-09:40
I mean, God's judgment is righteous and justified.
09:43-09:47
But honestly, who can be comfortable thinking about judgment even on your worst enemy?
09:53-10:03
I mean, even looking at people that have caused so much damage, whether it's in the political sphere or the medical sphere or whatever.
10:07-10:13
Can you really be comfortable with the thought of somebody heading to a godless eternity?
10:18-10:19
What's the response of God's people?
10:20-10:21
Quick call back to Revelation.
10:22-10:25
Revelation 10.10, John was told to eat the scroll.
10:26-10:30
And it was to symbolize the reaction of God's people to judgment.
10:30-10:36
John was watching judgment take place that he recorded for us in Revelation.
10:36-10:42
He was watching the day of the Lord and God says, "I want you to eat this scroll." And do you remember the response?
10:43-10:46
John said it was really sweet in his mouth but it was really bitter in his stomach.
10:49-10:54
And I think necessarily that has to be the response of God's people when we talk about judgment.
10:56-10:59
Because there is a sweetness and there's a bitterness at the same time.
11:02-11:05
The sweetness is Jesus promised that he'll make all things new.
11:09-11:14
The day is coming that Jesus Christ is going to eliminate everything that's wrong.
11:15-11:24
You're not going to be able to point to anywhere in infinite time and space on that day and say that's wrong, that's out of place, that's not right.
11:24-11:25
You're not going to be able to do that.
11:25-11:26
It's just going to be perfect.
11:27-11:31
Jesus said, "I'm making all things new." That is awesome.
11:32-11:33
But do you know what that means?
11:33-11:44
At the same time, that means countless people who have rejected God's grace are heading to what the Bible refers to as the lake of fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.
11:47-11:51
So do you understand it's sweet and it's bitter at the same time as we talk about judgment?
11:51-12:02
So let's just check ourselves, church, we react to the day of the Lord. That's not discernible.
12:03-12:08
Look at chapter 3, the first eight verses, it circles back to where it began, Jerusalem.
12:09-12:53
And it circles us back to where we ended last week. Why back to Jerusalem? Why did God put judgment on the nations but then go back to talking about Jerusalem? We'll read this in a second, but why did he do this? Again, this is where we ended last week. 1 Peter 4.17 says, "For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God." He says, "And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?" Listen, church, the world, the world is going to act like the world.
12:55-12:57
You know what's funny about us Christians?
12:57-12:58
You know what's funny about the church?
12:59-13:01
Is we're so shocked by this, aren't we?
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We're so shocked.
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Dead people act like what?
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Dead people, right?
13:13-13:18
And people who don't love God act like...
13:18-13:19
People who don't love God!
13:20-13:22
Can we please stop being surprised by this?
13:22-13:27
Oh my gosh, a guy that has no regard for Jesus Christ just said or did a horrible thing.
13:31-13:41
And you know, church, a mistake that I've made often as a younger Christian and as a a younger pastor, was trying to hold worldly people to biblical standards.
13:44-13:47
And it didn't take me too long before I realized that's impossible.
13:50-13:59
And you see, I bring up this 1 Peter 4 verse again, because in this context, Zephaniah reminds us, God's going to take care of them.
14:00-14:01
He'll take care of them.
14:01-14:02
Like, what's gonna happen to them?
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God's gonna take care of them.
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But our job is to exhort God's people to act like people who know God.
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Right?
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And here's the message for God's people.
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Chapter 3.
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He says, "Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled, the oppressing city." That's Jerusalem.
14:27-14:29
You're going to see that clearly in a second.
14:30-14:32
She listens to no voice.
14:32-14:34
She accepts no correction.
14:34-14:36
She does not trust in the Lord.
14:36-14:38
She does not draw near to her God.
14:41-14:44
Her officials within her are roaring lions.
14:45-14:49
Her judges are evening wolves that leave nothing till the morning.
14:50-14:51
See that?
14:51-14:56
The political leaders, the people that are supposed to be making decisions to care for the nation.
14:56-14:58
He says they're a pack of wild animals.
15:01-15:01
Can you imagine?
15:04-15:10
He says in verse 4, "Her prophets are fickle, treacherous men.
15:11-15:13
Her priests profane what is holy.
15:13-15:19
They do violence to the law." Even the people that are supposed to be feeding and shepherding God's people.
15:20-15:23
He says they're far from God themselves.
15:25-15:27
You see, he says her prophets are fickle.
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You know how that happens?
15:29-15:38
It happens when you get away from preaching the Word of God and you start preaching your opinion because when you preach your opinion or preach what you think the culture wants to hear, you're going to be fickle.
15:39-15:40
"What do I think they want to hear this week?
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What was different than what you said six months ago?" That's okay.
15:43-15:44
We just want to give people what they want to hear.
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You're fickle and you're not helping anyone and you're certainly not honoring the Lord when you do that.
15:55-16:02
Speaking of the Lord, on the other hand, verse 5, "The Lord within her is righteous." He does no injustice.
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Every morning He shows forth His justice.
16:06-16:08
Each dawn He does not fail.
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But the unjust knows no shame.
16:14-16:20
See the contrast between who God is and what His people have become?
16:21-16:27
Resonate yet with anyone?" Now the Lord speaks up.
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He says, "I have cut off nations.
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Their battlements are in ruins.
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I have laid waste to their streets so that no one walks in them.
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Their cities have been made desolate, without a man, without an inhabitant." I said, "Surely you will fear me.
16:44-16:45
You will accept correction.
16:46-16:56
Then your dwelling would not be cut off according to all that I have appointed against you." But all the more they were eager to make all their deeds corrupt.
16:58-16:58
Wow.
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Wow.
17:04-17:26
God says, "I thought you would see what I do to these other nations, and it would get your attention, that I'm serious." He goes, "But instead, you just got hungrier for sin." God speaks to the remnant again, verse 8.
17:26-17:54
He says, "Therefore, wait for Me." "I declare to the Lord for the day when I rise up to seize the prey, for My decision is to gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, to pour out upon them My indignation, all my burning anger, for in the fire of my jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed." That's Revelation 19, that's Armageddon.
17:56-18:05
Bible says God's going to assemble the nations together for one last showdown with Jesus Christ.
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We know how that turns out.
18:12-18:22
Well, in verse two, we see a huge problem in Zephaniah's day and in our day.
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Look at verse two again.
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Why is God so fired up against his people?
18:28-18:28
Look at verse two.
18:29-18:30
She listens to no voice.
18:32-18:33
She accepts no correction.
18:35-18:36
She does not trust in the Lord.
18:37-18:39
She does not draw near to her God.
18:41-18:42
Do you see that?
18:44-18:46
He says, "Israel, your problem?
18:48-19:04
You're unwilling to receive correction." And I have to ask you, if you were here last week or you listened to last week's message, do you think there's a possibility, maybe, that the inability to receive correction is somehow tied into this attitude of complacency?
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Do you think?
19:06-19:07
Do you think there's a connection there?
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I think so.
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And again, in verse seven, God says, "Look, you've watched other people "face the consequences of sin, "but it just doesn't deter you.
19:18-19:23
"You don't receive correction." And you're like, "Yeah, Pastor Jeff, I understand.
19:24-19:30
"That looks like a serious problem for ancient Israel." That is a serious problem in the church today.
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Huge.
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Huge problem in the church today.
19:38-19:40
I know best.
19:41-19:42
No one tells me what to do.
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Nobody tells me I did anything wrong.
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Nobody corrects me.
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Nobody tells me that I need to change.
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And that's the ultimate problem of the human heart.
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You're just not willing to receive correction.
19:58-20:05
And when somebody brings a word of correction to you, you're offended.
20:09-20:09
Like what's the big deal?
20:10-20:11
Well, look at verse 2 again.
20:11-20:13
Do you see what the big deal is?
20:16-20:18
It says, "She listens to no voice.
20:18-20:21
She accepts no correction." Now what does that result in?
20:21-20:21
You tell me.
20:21-20:23
Look at the next two phrases.
20:23-20:30
When you don't accept correction, it says, "She does not trust in the Lord." There's a connection.
20:34-20:36
She does not draw near to her God.
20:37-20:38
There's a connection.
20:40-20:42
Like, "Man, I'm just not feeling it in my spiritual walk lately.
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Why don't I feel like I'm drawing near to God?
20:45-20:53
Why don't I feel like I really trust the Lord like I should?" Because you're unwilling to receive correction.
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That's why.
20:59-21:01
Like, "Okay, I'm listening.
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How do I receive correction?" Well, just very simply, obviously in the context, it's when God speaks to you through His Word.
21:12-21:15
Or He speaks to you through His people sharing His Word.
21:19-21:23
the correction is always going to come from the Word of God.
21:25-21:42
Because you see 2 Timothy 3.16 says this, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness." You see those middle two words, reproof and correction.
21:44-21:49
In other words, reproof, that's this is wrong, correction, Do this instead.
21:53-22:02
God says, "Israel, you're not willing to receive that." Like, well, how does that happen today?
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Well, you see, it comes through the Word of God, right?
22:08-22:14
You're like, "Okay, well, how do I get exposed to the Word of God?" Well, obviously, one way is reading the Word.
22:16-22:20
Right? You're just home, you're in your office, you're reading God's Word.
22:20-22:21
But there's a problem with that.
22:23-22:25
Not with reading God's Word.
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The problem is, too often for us, we are not reading the Word of God with a mind of, "What am I supposed to correct?" "What am I supposed to change?" We're not reading with that mindset.
22:44-22:45
That's a problem.
22:46-22:51
Another way that we receive the Word of God is hearing the Word preached.
22:54-23:01
Whether it's by me or one of our guest preachers or whoever gets up here and says, "This is what God says," but there's a problem with that.
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The problem with that is too often when we hear the Word preached and something is pretty direct, we think that's for somebody else, right?
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That's for somebody else.
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That's not for me.
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But you know there's another way we receive the Word of God.
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And that's receiving the Word from a brother or sister in Christ directly.
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I want to talk about that for a few minutes, church, because this is where it really hits home.
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Have you ever been there?
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Confronted on something from someone in the church?
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Have you ever been there?
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Brother or sister in the Lord, somebody in the church, somebody in your small group, somebody you do ministry with here on the security team and harvest kids, whatever.
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Just kind of pulls you aside and says, "Hey, can I talk to you about something?
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I just noticed, there's just some things I see that I'm just a little concerned about." And I want to ask you church, in those moments, how do you respond to that?
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Because that's a big deal.
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I'm going to give you five ways, jot these down, these are on your outline.
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Here's five ways that people respond to correction.
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I'm going to give you a hint ahead of time, four of them ain't great, alright?
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How do we respond to correction?
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It's a big deal.
24:43-24:46
Letter A, I throw a pity party.
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Somebody pulls you aside, they're like, "Man, I just, I see some issues here that I just don't think you're honoring the Lord with this." And you walk away going, "I'm terrible.
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Everybody thinks I stink.
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I'm worthless." That's not going to get you anywhere.
25:09-25:17
Letter B, I get defensive. I get defensive. "You don't know me! You don't know my situation!
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Look, I'm justified, man! You have no idea what you're talking about!" You get defensive.
25:27-25:35
Letter C, I kill the messenger. Not literally, right? Metaphorically. I kill the messenger.
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that pulls you aside and says, "Hey, I just see some things I'm kind of concerned about." Oh, oh, oh, you think you're perfect.
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Oh, okay, I'm sorry.
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I didn't realize we had a perfect person here that was keeping the rest of us in line.
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Or we say the thing that just absolutely drives me insane.
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You know what we say?
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You're judging me.
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You're judging me.
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I'm judging your ability to not understand the Bible, your inability to understand the Bible.
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That's what I'm judging now.
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because you have no idea what it means to judge.
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But people use that because that's like the ultimate catch-all, right?
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You're judging me.
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Oh, I don't wanna do that, so I'm just gonna back off.
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Sorry to bother you, have a nice day.
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No, learn what that means.
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So if you don't kill the messenger directly, maybe you kill the messenger with gossip.
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Maybe you kill the messenger with gossip.
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Okay, maybe you don't say anything to the person that's speaking to you, but maybe you go to other people in the church or other friends or whatever, other people in your small group.
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Can you believe what he said to me?
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Can you believe him, of all people, said that to me?
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I mean, you see the problems he has in his life, and he said that to me?
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Ha!
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Like, yeah, crazy, right?
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You kill the messenger.
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You're so focused on the person, you're not hearing what they're saying.
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The letter D, another very popular one in our culture, is I flee.
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Somebody says, "Hey, I got some concerns, just some things I see in your life.
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I wanna talk to you about it." And you're like, "You know what?
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I don't gotta take this.
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There are lots of great churches in the North Hills of Pittsburgh.
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I'll go to one of those.
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I'll flee." The letter E, I examine myself.
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I examine myself.
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We're going to circle back to this in a second, but it's just this recognition that I have some blind spots in my life and I am not perfect and I'm a work in progress like you.
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So is it possible, is it in the realm of possibility that something in my life, my attitudes, my my actions, my words, is dishonoring to our Lord.
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Is that possible?
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And certainly it is.
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So how do you respond?
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How do you respond to correction?
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Give you a little test.
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Don't shout out answers.
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I just want you to sort of put yourself in these little scenarios, but I just want you to think how you would respond if you were in these situations, all right?
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And don't shout it out, you're not gonna write it down, just, I just want you to think, what would I say or do in this situation?
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Because right now we've been kind of generic.
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And we realize not everybody's been offended yet.
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So we're gonna get real specific to make sure we catch everyone.
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Men, your wife says to you, hey, you've been neglecting things at home, and you've done nothing lately to show that we are a priority to you.
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How do you respond to that, husbands?
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Someone in your small group says to you, hey, can I talk to you about something?
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Look, you are constantly belittling people in this group.
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Even when we're trying to get serious and dig in, you're just so condescending in the way that you talk to people here.
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And I've got to tell you, it's really bothering people.
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How would you respond to that?
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Or maybe somebody in this room notices that you haven't been here for a few weeks and they give you a call.
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And they say, "You know, you're gone a lot.
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You don't really seem to make worship a priority.
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I'm kind of concerned about that.
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We talk about that.
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How would you respond to that?" Parents, what if someone in your small group pulls you aside?
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Says, "Hey, I've got to talk to you.
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You speak very harshly towards your children, like really harshly.
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What's your response to that?
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Someone in your small group gives you a call and wants to get together with you for lunch, and you go to lunch, and you sit down and exchange your small talk.
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and you say, "Hey, I need to talk to you about something.
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Your drinking really seems to be getting out of control right now.
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It really seems excessive.
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Can we talk about that?" How do you respond?
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How do you respond to that?
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Do you throw the pity party?
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Do you get defensive?
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Do you kill the messenger?
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Do you just, "I'm going the north way, man.
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I don't gotta take this." Or do you stop and say, "Hey, hey, you know..." The Bible says we need to examine ourselves, right?
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And as Christians, we are fantastic at examining other people.
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But when it comes to examining ourselves, we stink.
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We need to examine ourselves.
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So, the Lord here in Zephaniah just lays out the rebuke.
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He's like, "You're not accepting correction.
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And I don't just want to leave you hanging." So, to close, we're going to take a really quick spin, pick up some Proverbs here.
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How to receive correction.
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Three questions of self-examination.
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Listen, giving correction must be done prayerfully, and it must be done in humility, and that is a whole other sermon for another day.
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Today I just want to talk about receiving correction, accepting correction.
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I want to give you three questions of self-examination to ask yourself, when confronted with the Word of God.
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Like I said, through reading, through a sermon, more than likely through a trusted brother in the Lord pulling you aside, sister in the Lord calling you up, whatever, how to receive correction.
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Three questions of self-examination.
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Are you ready?
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Number one, you have to ask yourself, could this be true?
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Could this be true?
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Is this a blind spot?
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I mean, we all have room to grow, But church, this is absolutely the first question that we have to ask ourselves.
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And I know my natural tendency, my natural tendency is to get defensive.
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That can't be true.
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What's your problem?
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Why would you say that?
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And I'm not saying that I've arrived and I'm saying the Lord has really grown me in this area.
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I'm getting better at it.
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I'm still a work in progress.
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But I've learned through the years when somebody sends the correction, the criticism, whatever, the first thing I need to do is stop and say, "Okay, is there an element of truth in this?" Don't make it personal with the person who spoke to you.
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Just get objective.
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Because here's the glorious thing.
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God may be using this person to speak truth into your life to help you grow.
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Right?
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Proverbs 15.32 says this, "Whoever ignores instruction despises himself.
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But he who listens to reproof..." Again, that's pointing out what needs corrected.
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"He who listens to reproof gains intelligence." You see, I have to ask myself, "Could this be true?" And there's a selfish benefit there, because I could get something out of it.
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I can grow. I can become more like Jesus Christ, if I'm willing to receive reproof.
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So first thing you have to ask yourself, "Could this be true?" Secondly, "Why is this person telling me this?" "Why is this person telling me this?" In other words, "Is this motivated out of love and concern for my walk with Christ?" Look, I understand every word of correction, reproof, rebuke, whatever that's going to be thrown your way, Some of it is going to be done by mean-spirited people.
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And I don't like that.
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This is the world we live in.
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It happens in the church.
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Some people are going to say things just to upset you and be mean.
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And we'll deal with that.
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But you have to ask yourself, "This person is bringing this to me.
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Are they motivated because they care about me You know, Proverbs 27.6 says, "Faithful are the wounds of a friend, profuse are the kisses of an enemy." The first part, you know, the people that love you will wound you when you need it.
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And I have to tell you, the people that bring the correction, that want to see you get to the better place for them. Giving corrections is not easy either. It's not. And if you've ever been in this situation, you understand that. In fact, I suggest to you it could be harder to correct someone than to receive correction. Because often the person that's offering the correction, the constructive criticism, they have probably been agonizing over that for days. How should I say this? When should I say this? What's the best way?
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All right? So listen, even if it hurts to hear, we are called as the body of Christ to watch each other's backs. So ask yourself, "Why is this person telling me this?" And and finally ask yourself, "Am I hurting my testimony?" Okay, so the person brings something to you, some word of correction, whatever, and they bring it to you, and you're like, "Could this be true?
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"And I know this person cares about me, "but what if the thing that they're correcting "isn't entirely accurate, right?
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"Maybe they don't have all the facts, "or part of the story's a little mixed up, Or they're just like a hair out of line with what they're saying.
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Here's the thing.
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Even if what they're correcting is inaccurate, you are giving them reason to perceive that it is.
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And living above reproach means that my testimony matters.
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And I hear this too often even in the church.
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I don't care what people think about me.
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I don't care what people think about you.
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You should care what people think about you.
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You should have a testimony that's above reproach.
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People shouldn't have anything bad to say about you.
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That's what the Bible says.
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So if there's any word of correction that comes your way, and comes my way, we need to take a really hard look at it.
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And say, "Am I damaging my testimony in some way?" Am I hurting my testament?
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I mentioned before that we do this preaching class, right?
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And we usually start January, February, and all year.
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We work with guys from the church and they put this sermon together, and then they rehearse and get feedback and rehearse again so that when they get up here in July, they are like, ready to go.
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A couple years back, Ryan Stroop, you know, bless his heart, I consider Ryan a friend.
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He's a bum.
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But I mean that like in a good Christian love kind of way.
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And you know what?
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He pulled a horrible prank on me.
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I shared this before, I'm not gonna rehash it, but he had me convinced that I got some guy fired from his job and now the guy's kids are starving and they're living in a cardboard box behind Giant Eagle.
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And horrible prank.
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And when I found out he punked me, I promised in my heart that day I would get him back.
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Because you see, I'm patient.
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And I'm not just gonna jump at the little low-hanging fruits.
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Like I'm going to cook something that's going to destroy him.
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So preaching class, Ryan was set to rehearse and I messaged all the other guys in the preaching class.
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And I said, "Here's the plan, boys." I said, "Ryan's preaching "And no matter how good his sermon is, "it was the worst sermon you've ever heard.
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"Who's in?" And they were all like, "In!"
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(congregation laughing)
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Well, Rich isn't here, is he?
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Rich Brunk, one of our elders, he was in the class.
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Oh, is he teaching?
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Okay, somebody fill him in.
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Anyways, well, I told the guys, you remember, Justin, I told the guys, "Look, just don't come in too hot, or he's gonna know it's a prank.
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I'm like, on ramp, right, Justin?
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On ramp, we're gonna ease into it, right?
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Ease into it.
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I was like, don't come out of the gate too hot, or he's gonna think something's up.
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Ease into it.
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So Ryan rehearses the message, which was actually pretty good.
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All right, let's get some feedback.
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And Rich was sitting there.
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Rich goes, "You know, Ryan, I rehearsed my sermon "last month and my sermon was an abomination.
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"Yours was worse."
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(audience laughing)
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And we're all looking at each other like, right, Justin?
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We're like, "Where do we go from here?"
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(audience laughing)
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Rich played the abomination card right out of the gate.
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But that didn't stop us from trying, right?
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And I'm just like, yeah, Ryan, you know, as you're giving your message, I just don't see at all how it connected to the text at all.
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I mean, I'm hearing your words and I'm looking at the text and I just don't see any kind of connection.
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And we just went around, Justin gave some helpful feedback and Mr. Wolski gave some helpful feedback.
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We just went around and gave him all kinds of delicious feedback.
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And you know, Ryan stood right here and he took every word, writing notes down.
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And yeah, eventually we told him it was a prag.
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And we gave him some real feedback.
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But you know, I learned a lot about Ryan Stroop that day.
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Because even though it was complete fabrication, he stood here and received very hard correction like a man.
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He didn't get defensive, though he could have.
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He didn't lash out at other people's messages, though he could have.
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He stood here and said, "You know, I guess I got some things to learn, so teach me." I learned a lot about Ryan Stroop that day, and I just need to ask you, church, how do you receive correction?
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What would I learn about you?
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When somebody...
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Not under those bogus pretenses for him, but what about when somebody brings real correction to you?
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What do you do when it's real?
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Proverbs 12.1 says, "Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge.
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But he who hates reproof is stupid." Now look, I am much too shy and timid to call anyone stupid.
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This is from the mouth of God.
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He says if you're a person that hates being corrected, God says you're stupid.
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Because y'all need it.
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Are you willing to allow God to speak through His Word and through others to change your And of course, are you willing to draw near to God through accepting correction?
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, none of us like this, God.
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We just don't.
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We hate somebody telling us that we're wrong.
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God, we don't like you telling us that we're wrong.
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And you're perfect.
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And your word is eternal.
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There's just something in us, God, that we hate correction.
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But God, you have called your people to a different standard, so I'm praying, Father, for this church, I'm praying for this church, God, that we would be people who are unafraid to speak into each other's lives, in love and in humility and out of care, but that we would be people who are willing to receive correction. We see very clearly the path that it took Israel here in Zephaniah.
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Father, you've called us to something different. Let us be people, Father, who examine ourselves, who test ourselves to see if we're in the faith, who take words of correction from you through the book, through people, speaking Your Word.
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Father, let us take it to heart, so that You may continue to conform us into the image of Your Son, which is Your goal and should be ours.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Zephaniah 2:4-3:8
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
What kind of thoughts / emotions do you experience when you consider God's coming judgment (the Day of the Lord)?
“We can't hold worldly people to Biblical standards.” Why is this impossible?
Be honest, how do you typically respond to correction? Why?
Explain how “accepting correction” is connected to “trusting God” and “drawing near to God” (Zeph 3:2).
Breakout
Pray for one another. Correct one another and see if the sermon landed.