Introduction:
Gone Forever: 5 Things That Will Soon Be Behind Us (Zephaniah 3:9-20):
- Our Shame: gone forever. (Zeph 3:9-11)
- Our Sin: gone forever. (Zeph 3:12-13)
- Our Want: gone forever. (Zeph 3:13)
- Our Fear: gone forever. (Zeph 3:14-16)
- Our Doubt: gone forever. (Zeph 3:17)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:49-00:55
Open up your Bibles with me please to the book of Zephaniah, chapter 3.
00:58-01:00
Alright, Zephaniah chapter 3, are you there?
01:01-01:15
Zephaniah has one message, and that is this, "The day of the Lord is near." Zephaniah was preaching before Judah was conquered by Babylon.
01:16-01:24
And I'd just like to remind you that, like a lot of the Old Testament prophets, there's a near fulfillment and there's a far fulfillment.
01:24-01:29
The near fulfillment for Zephaniah was what was about to happen to Judah with Babylon.
01:29-01:38
Like hey, we're about to suffer God's chastisement upon us for our sin, but the prophecy had a long fulfillment.
01:39-01:45
A far fulfillment, which is the day of the Lord, which is coming very soon.
01:47-01:49
End of the world type stuff.
01:49-01:51
Revelation type stuff.
01:51-01:53
The day of the Lord is near.
01:53-02:25
So just as Zephaniah stood before Judah and said, "Hey, God is bringing His judgment." In the same sense, I can stand before you today declaring the Word of God from Zephaniah and echo the exact same message to say, "Hey, the day of the Lord is near." Now, when we talk about the day of the Lord, as we have the last three weeks, we need to note that the day of the Lord is not the end.
02:27-02:29
The day of the Lord needs to be seen as a beginning.
02:31-02:37
Did you ever see someone just completely lose their temper and just smash something?
02:38-02:40
Have you ever seen somebody, how many people have seen somebody do that?
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Okay, how many people here have actually done, done, done, done, done, don't raise your hand.
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Some of you have, honest, honest, contrite people.
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So, okay, some of us have done that, right?
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Where we just completely lose our temper, and we just smash something.
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Well, when we talk about the day of the Lord and we go through passages like we did the last couple of weeks, I think some people can look at God like that.
03:06-03:14
But some people look at the Lord, like the Lord's watching this sin and He's up in heaven just like, and then He's like, "That's it!
03:16-03:24
I'm smashing it all!" And He's just like, but that's what some people think that the day of the Lord is about, and it's not.
03:24-03:30
You see, judgment is not just simply for the sake of judgment.
03:33-03:37
It's for the sake of, You gotta catch this because this is the sermon today.
03:37-03:40
It's for the sake of renovation.
03:42-03:43
Renovation.
03:47-03:59
The house in which my family lives in beautiful, bustling economy borough, we bought it off of Ryan Stroop's brother, Matt, who is also a contractor.
04:00-04:07
And we understand that when he bought the house, it was pretty dilapidated.
04:08-04:11
It was in horrible, horrible shape.
04:13-04:22
So what Matt did was he went through and completely gutted the entire house in order to rebuild the entire house from the inside out.
04:24-04:31
And I suppose that if you would have went to that house while Matt was gutting it, watching him completely tear out the walls.
04:32-04:36
You might have watched him do that and thought, "Wow, look at this guy losing his temper.
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Look at this guy destroying.
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Why is he doing this?
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Why is he destroying this house?" But if you went now, you would see why he did that.
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He destroyed so that he could rebuild.
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And church, that's how you need to see the day of the Lord.
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Yes, God's judgment is coming.
04:56-05:01
But all renovation projects start with destruction projects.
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And the destruction on the global house, so to speak, is seven years of God's wrath on the earth.
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We call it the tribulation.
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Zephaniah calls it the day of the Lord.
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And we went through Revelation.
05:19-05:21
You can go back and re-listen to those messages sometime.
05:23-05:26
But in Revelation, God's deconstruction project looks like this.
05:28-05:49
War, famine, disease, earthquakes, stars falling from the sky, hail, waters becoming blood, waters becoming poisonous, the sun darkened, demons unleashed on the earth, sewers, the sun scorching people, darkness, ultimately leading to Armageddon when God assembles all the nations of the earth for the last battle.
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which is exactly what Zephaniah talked about, by the way, in chapter 3 and verse 8.
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Those days are so near, church.
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You're seeing the preview of these things on TV right now.
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You're watching.
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The birth pains are happening.
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Are you ready for this?
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Because it's coming.
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It's coming.
06:16-07:13
of the Lord is near. You're like, "Well then what?" Then what? Okay, so God's going to do his deconstruction, then what? Well, when we think about life and death and heaven and all of these things, I think people in general just want to boil it down to it being this Here's what happens. Okay, when I receive Jesus Christ, when I believe in Him, I'm going to die someday, and then I'm going to go to heaven, and that's it. That's it, right? I think a lot of people think that. That's how it goes. I just die and go to heaven. Done! But we often forget, church, that the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is going to reign on the earth for a thousand years in Jerusalem.
07:14-07:30
I just think we sort of take that chunk of history out of our minds, but the Bible says, 1,000 years, Jesus Christ, after the tribulation, is going to reign in Jerusalem, and we will reign with Him.
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Revelation chapter 20 talks about this.
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Revelation 20, six times in that passage, six times it talks about the thousand year reign of Christ.
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But you know what's interesting?
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In the book of Revelation, he never gives any detail about the millennial reign of Christ.
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A thousand years, a thousand years, Jesus is reigning for a thousand years, we're reigning on the earth for a thousand years, and John doesn't give us one detail about it, not one thing, not a, why doesn't John give us any detail?
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Why doesn't he tell us what the thousand year reign of Christ is like?
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Do you know why?
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Because it's all through the Old Testament prophets.
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That's why. It's all through Zephaniah and Isaiah and these prophets.
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That's why John doesn't re-cover that ground.
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He's like, "You guys know the Scriptures." That's exactly what we're going to be talking about today.
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Okay? Quick word of theology, then we're going to get to the text.
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These Old Testament prophets, like Zephaniah, were giving promises directed at Israel about their ultimate restoration in the millennial kingdom of Messiah, who we know is Jesus Christ.
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And during the tribulation which is coming, the seven years of God's judgment, His deconstruction project, the day of the Lord.
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During the tribulation, there's going to be a mass revival in Israel.
08:56-09:04
The Bible tells us countless Jews are going to become believers in Jesus Christ, are going to come to believe in Jesus as their Messiah.
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You're like, "Well, what about us Gentiles?" Well, these promises that we're looking at in Zephaniah are for us too.
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The Bible tells us, Romans 11.17, that Gentiles are grafted into God's redemptive plan for Israel.
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All of it is thanks to the salvation that's been purchased for us by Jesus Christ, which making us one.
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Alright?
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That was a whole lot of theology in like a minute.
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But it's important for us to understand what he's talking about here because the next few minutes aren't going to make any sense unless you understand.
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He's talking about the millennial reign of Messiah, Jesus Christ.
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What is it like?
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Why is God deconstructing the earth with His judgment?
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It's so that He can rebuild it.
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This is why we take time in the Old Testament prophets.
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These promises are for us too because we are going to be living in the millennial reign of Jesus Christ.
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Everyone who follows Jesus Christ will.
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So glorious restoration, renovation project that God's going to use to bring in the kingdom.
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So on your outline, in order to make the millennium glorious, like getting a house, there's a lot of old things that need done away with, right?
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I'm very thankful, the house we live in, that Matt Stroop didn't just put new walls over top of the old walls, right?
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Or put a coat of paint over something dilapidated.
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There was deconstruction, so there could be construction.
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Gone forever.
10:59-11:00
Here's what God's project looks like.
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Here's five things that will soon be behind us eternally.
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Number one, jot this down, our shame.
11:09-11:10
Gone forever.
11:11-11:14
Our shame will be gone forever.
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Look at verse nine.
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For at that time, I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord and serve him with one accord "Beyond the rivers of Cush, my worshippers, the daughter of my dispersed ones, shall bring my offering.
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On that day you shall not be put to shame because of the deeds by which you have rebelled against me.
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For then I will remove from your midst your proudly exultant ones.
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You shall no longer be haughty in my holy mountain." Did you catch that?
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The first thing is going to be deconstructed God's renovation project.
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He says, "I'm going to change the speech of the people." He's talking about transformation.
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Some scholars think this is like the reversal of Babel.
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And maybe there is an element of that, but it's pointing more towards the transformation of people.
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That God's saying, "You're going to be new people." Because our character is often reflected in our speech.
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Look at verse 11.
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He says, "You shall not be put to shame." I just want you to think about that for a second.
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In the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, your shame is gone.
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There will be no painful memories.
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And people often ask me about feeling regret and glory.
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People often ask me, "You know what Jeff, I've made so many mistakes in my life.
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I just feel like someday I'm gonna be like in heaven, and I'm gonna look back at my life on the earth, and I'm just gonna feel horrible because I've done so many mistakes.
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Have you ever thought that?
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How can it be that I don't experience shame from regret?
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How can it be that I'm walking around heaven or here, the millennial kingdom of Christ, with Jesus right there?
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How can I be right there, and knowing the stuff that I did, but the one I knew better?
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How can I not be embarrassed?
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How can I not feel shame?
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I'm going to tell you how.
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Because shame comes from guilt.
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And when there's no guilt, there's no shame.
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You see, look at verse 15 real quick.
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The first part, he says, "The Lord has taken away the judgments against you." God says that your guilt is going to be gone.
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And therefore your shame is going to be gone too.
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That for all of eternity, starting in the millennium, you're not going to feel shame.
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Because you're not going to have guilt.
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You're like, "Dude, you seem pretty serious about this.
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Why is this such a big deal?" Because shame is debilitating.
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That's why.
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Shame is debilitating.
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For unbelievers, shame can consume you to the point of legit crippling mental illness.
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You might know somebody like that.
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They feel so much shame and personal embarrassment, they have a hard time functioning.
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Shame can keep you from coming to God.
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Right?
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Do you remember the story of Adam and Eve, sin in the Garden of Eden?
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Do you remember what they did after God was walking through the garden?
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Remember what Adam and Eve did?
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The Bible says they went and hid themselves.
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Why did they do that?
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Because they were ashamed.
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And shame should make you run to God.
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But so often we run from God.
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I know I should be praying about this, but I'm so embarrassed I don't even feel like praying.
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Have you ever been there?
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There's no shame in His kingdom because guilt is done away with.
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Run to God. He has a remedy for shame, you know.
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We just celebrated at the Lord's table.
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His remedy is Jesus Christ took your sin and shame on Himself on that cross.
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Even for believers, even for those of us who know the gospel, even for those of us who right now know that before God we stand not guilty, we still struggle with shame.
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But here He's pointing out, in this kingdom, there's going to be this ultimate realization on that day that our shame is gone.
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Can you imagine what worship is going to be like without any element, twinge, hint, shadow of shame?
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Do you know what worship is going to be like?
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Completely uninhibited!
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Do you know what fellowship is going to be like?
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Completely uninhibited!
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Our shame is going to be gone forever.
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Number two, our sin is going to be gone forever.
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Look at verse 12.
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It says, "But I will leave in your midst a people, humble and lowly; they shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord.
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Those who are left in Israel, they shall do no injustice and speak no lies, nor shall there be found in their mouth a deceitful tongue." The Bible says with sinners removed, the only people that are going to remain are the humble.
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In other words, people who recognize their need for the Lord and who trust His provision.
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But notice the sins that he mentions specifically.
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He talks about injustice, and he talks about lies, and he talks about deceit.
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See a common thread there?
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These are all sins that we commit against each other.
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And he says that's never going to happen again.
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We're no longer living in sinful flesh.
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Sin's going to be gone forever.
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And sinning is going to be gone forever.
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And gloriously there will be no animosity of any kind.
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Because on that day, we are going to be unified, thoroughly, in a way that we've never experienced on earth. Even in a church like this, that is so family oriented and fellowship oriented, and even you are going to be amazed at the level of fellowship that is coming because of sin being gone. There's no animosity whatsoever. It's gone forever.
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Number three, our want.
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Our want is gone forever.
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Look at verse 13 again.
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The last part says, "For they shall graze and lie down, and none shall make them afraid." They shall graze and lie down.
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They shall graze and lie down, Bible students.
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Does that sound familiar at all?
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Can you think of maybe a famous popular Bible passage that talks about grazing and lying down?
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Shout it out if you know it.
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Yeah, Psalm 23, right?
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And how does that one go?
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The Lord is my shepherd.
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What's the next line?
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I shall not want.
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He makes me lie down in green pastures, right?
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And here it's coming full circle.
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Just like in the 23rd Psalm, this is a picture of total satisfaction and fulfillment at the hands of the Good Shepherd Jesus Christ.
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That you're not going to want for anything in His Kingdom.
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Can you imagine?
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It's hard to imagine because our life existence now is all about getting and needing and...
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But in His Kingdom we're not going to be worrying about paying the bills.
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No one is starving.
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Nothing is lacking.
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No one is walking around going, "I need, I'm desperate for." Everything's gonna be met.
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Every need's going to be met.
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They shall graze and lie down.
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Just sheep provided for by his shepherd.
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By the way, on that day, being called a sheep won't be seen as an insult.
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Like, "You're a sheep." Like, "Yeah, I am." My shepherd provides for me.
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Gone forever.
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Five things that will soon be behind us.
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Number four, our fear.
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Gone forever.
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Look at verses 14-16.
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He says, "Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion.
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Shout, O Israel!
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Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.
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The Lord has taken away the judgments against you.
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He has cleared away your enemies.
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The King of Israel, the Lord - that's Jesus - is in your midst, "You shall never again fear evil." On that day, it shall be said to Jerusalem, "Fear not, O Zion, let not your hands grow weak." You know what else has gone forever?
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Is fear.
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Fear is gone forever.
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Fear is going to be gone forever.
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In the millennial kingdom of Jesus Christ, every single one of us will be driving a pickup and emblazoned across the top of the windshield will be a phrase. No fear! Some of you remember that right? Remember that trend?
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Remember that trend? Some of you are like, "What's he talking about?" Some of you know.
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Some of you know. Pepperidge Farm remembers. Some of you know. No fear. No fear. Google it kids. Not now. Later. No fear.
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We don't realize how much fear plays a part in our lives. We don't realize how much fear is a factor in our daily lives. We just we don't realize that now. And I know when I say that I know right away there are some people that are like, "I don't know who you're talking to preacher boy. I ain't afraid afraid of nothing. You were thinking that Jack, weren't you? You're afraid of everything.
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I was thinking of you Jack when I wrote that particular line in my message. There's going to be somebody sitting there going, "I'm tuning out of this part of the sermon because I ain't afraid of nothing. I'm not afraid of nothing. This part of the sermon is for other people because I ain't afraid of nothing.
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And I would say, "Really?
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"Really?
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"Fear is not a factor in your life at all, really?" No, not me.
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What about for your loved ones?
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Maybe you're not worried about your life, but do you have any fear for those that you care about?
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Yes, you do.
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Because if you don't, you're a monster.
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So see, now when you think about it that way, can I make the statement again?
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That we all live in some element of fear?
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I do.
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Again, not for me, I don't care.
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For my wife and for my children?
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Yeah, I'm afraid.
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I'm afraid.
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Did you see a week or two ago, the reports of the shooting at Ross Park Mall and there were all these stories.
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There were eight shots fired, there were three shots fired, there were no shots fired.
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You know, a thousand people dead, nobody dead.
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I mean, I have no idea what happened, even though I looked that one up.
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I don't know what happened.
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But I do know this.
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I've thought differently about going to Ross Park Mall.
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How about you?
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Have you thought about that?
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Here's a factor.
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The very fact that we have a ministry at this church called the security team tells us that fear plays some kind of a factor in our lives, right?
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You're like, "Not me." Do you have your concealed carry license?
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That means you have an element of fear.
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Otherwise, you wouldn't need to think about carrying a weapon.
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And we worry about the dangers of our kids.
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You know, Dan and Alicia were just up here with their grads.
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You don't feel any twinge of fear thinking that they're going to be launched into a demonic world?
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And do I even need to talk about the pandemic?
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You're like, "No, but I have a feeling you're going to." Yes, I am.
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We've seen fear-mongering on an unprecedented level.
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Last year, during the height of the lockdown, or whatever you want to call it, I'm not going to mention names, but there was a certain governor of our state that got on TV.
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And I'm paraphrasing here, but you can look it up.
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This isn't hyperbole, this is a paraphrase.
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But he got on TV and he said, that virus is waiting right outside your door.
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Do you remember this speech?
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That virus is waiting right outside your door.
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It's just waiting for you to let your guard down.
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It's just waiting for you to go outside because it's looking for someone to infect.
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Like fear monger much.
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Like if that becomes an Olympic event, I want him on my team.
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He's like the Simone Biles of fear-mongering.
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And then we put the deceitful, inflated death counts always in your face.
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And look, it annoys me to no end. It does.
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But my heart breaks for the innocent people that get caught up in it.
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Aaron will tell you, he and I have this conversation all the time.
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Our heart breaks for the people that get caught up in it, because we know people as you do that have been paranoid.
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You know, we talked to friends of ours on the phone in tears.
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I'm so afraid, I'm so afraid.
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Every time I turn on the news and I'm just, I don't know what to do and my heart just breaks.
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And it is so glorious to think that we will, coming soon, we will never again fear evil.
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Can you imagine?
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Can you imagine?
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Well, imagine is all we can do for now, but it's coming.
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The day is coming.
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Fear will no longer be a factor.
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Awesome.
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Number five, last and best, in my opinion, and it will soon be yours.
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Trust me on that.
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Our doubt, gone forever.
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Doubt, doubt, doubting what?
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Doubting what?
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Doubting Jesus.
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Through all of our trials and struggles on this earth, we all the times wrestle with the question, does Jesus really love me?
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Does Jesus really care about me?
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Does Jesus know?
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Can Jesus watch what's happening and be so indifferent?
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Does Jesus really care?
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We've all thought that, we've all wondered that.
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Where are you God?
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We've all been there.
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And yes, he demonstrated his love for us on the cross, but that's not the end of his demonstration of his love.
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Again, that's the beginning.
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And while our struggles for now make us feel at times that He is so distant from us, and we doubt Him, soon that doubt will be gone forever.
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Listen to me.
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Jesus loves you.
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And in His kingdom, you will never question that.
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Because He's going to be spending a thousand years reigning on this earth to show you how He feels about you.
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You're like, "Well, what's that?" I want you to look at verse 17, one of the greatest verses in your Bible.
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And you must underline it because we will have people at the door checking your Bible on your way out today to make sure that you have.
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Look at this.
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All week I've been like psyching myself up, like get through this without like getting weepy and stupid.
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And it says, "The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save." Look at this.
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He will rejoice over you with gladness.
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He will quiet you by His love.
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He will exalt over you with loud singing.
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Here's the thing that just should stagger you to the very depths of your soul.
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And it's this thought that we see right here.
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Salvation brings Jesus joy.
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You bring Jesus joy.
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Your redemption, your coming into the family of God, your sharing in His kingdom.
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We see here in this verse exactly how He feels about that.
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And don't miss this, because salvation to Jesus is not some emotionless transaction.
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But that's sometimes how we make it.
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Like getting our driver's license.
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That's how some people look at salvation.
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You show up and Jesus is like, "You would like to come into the kingdom?
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Okay believe this, sign here, take the picture, see you in heaven." Next!
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"Oh, you want to go to heaven?
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Okay believe this, sign here, take the picture." Next, you're holding up the line.
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Come on, okay you're annoying, go.
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Your picture's fine, go.
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Some people look at salvation that way.
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There's no emotion behind it.
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But what we see in this verse, and get this, salvation, your salvation is Jesus' passion.
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In other words, Jesus doesn't save begrudgingly, Jesus saves affectionately.
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Here's the thing, look at the verse again, it says, "He will quiet you by His love." That word love, you know in the English, we use love for everything and it lessens the impact, right?
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You know, I love pizza, I love my wife, I love my dog, I love penguins walking.
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I don't love all those things the same, but in the Greek and here in the Hebrew, there's more specific wording, okay?
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And typically in your Old Testament, the word love is the Hebrew word hesed, which is translated loving kindness a lot of times, loving kindness.
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And that's a love of the will.
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That's the commitment covenant love.
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But there's a different word for love that's translated here.
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And it's the word ahaba.
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And that's a different aspect of love.
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Ahaba.
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Ahaba is passion.
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And I know when I say that, immediately you're thinking, well, the haba haba type love?
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No, not like that as much as it's like, I've been working on this all week, trying to think how to describe this.
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So I'm gonna take a run at it here.
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Ahabba is a passionate love in the sense of, I am all about this.
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This is my thing right here.
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This is the thing that fires me up more than anything.
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And sometimes it's helpful to understand it means when you see how else it is used in the Old Testament, right?
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So I'm gonna give you a real quick, I know we're going long today and I'm sorry about that, but this is my last sermon for a while, so I'm gonna get it all out.
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(congregation laughing)
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But here's how else it is used in the Old Testament.
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Genesis 29, 20, it says, "Jacob loved Rachel, "so much so that he worked for her for seven years, "and to him it seemed like a few days." He's like, "Oh, for her, for her, for her, yeah, "I'm all about her." And then you go to Genesis 37.3, it says that Jacob loved his son Joseph more than his other sons.
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He loved all his sons, but Joe, little Joey here, that's my boy, man, I am really proud of him.
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I am so proud of him, that's my boy.
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That's my boy.
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Ahabba.
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Ahabba's used to describe the love that Jonathan had for David.
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1 Samuel 18.3 says that David was his BFF and he loved him.
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It doesn't say BFF, that's a paraphrase.
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But it does say that he loved David as his own soul.
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Ahabba, like, "I'm committed to you, David." No, no, no, he's like, "You're my dude, man.
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"You're my dude." Ahabba is used to describe how a faithful Jew loves the law.
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Psalm 119, verse 97, "I love your law." It's not just some stale book on a shelf.
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He is, oh, this is the word of God and it fires me up.
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I love this book, Ahabba, I love this book.
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Ahabba is used to describe how Uzziah liked gardening.
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2 Chronicles 26.10 says, "Uzziah loved the soil." And the Hebrew word is Ahabba.
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Uzziah loved the soil.
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He was passionate about gardening.
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It wasn't a chore to him.
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It's like, I gotta get this other stuff out of the way so I can enjoy my time in the garden because I love gardening.
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And I would commend that to you, whether husbands or parents, whenever you're asked, Whenever somebody asks you, "Do you love me?" Your response should be, "Does Uzziah love dirt?" You can use that, and it's biblical, and you'll sound like a Hebrew scholar.
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But it's ahabba.
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It's love from the gut.
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It's love that can't be contained.
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It's love that can almost be described as joy.
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It's emotional.
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It's a delighting love.
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It's the kind of love that literally makes you want to burst into singing.
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That's the kind of love a haba is.
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It's the way my son, Cade, loves the Steelers.
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It's the way my wife, Erin, loves finding a good deal.
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It's the way my brother, Darren, loves guitars.
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Do you get it yet?
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It's the way the Thompsons love youth ministry.
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It's the way Rich Sprunk loves gardening, like Uzziah.
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He loves the dirt.
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It's the way Mark Horton loves photography.
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It's the way Steve Zellweiser loves smoking meat.
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Do you get it yet?
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It's the way Mike Wolski loves 45.
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It's the way Jillian Zinko loves volleyball.
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It's the way Brian Krauss loves shooting.
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It's the way Martha Cornell loves coffee.
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Do you need more?
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I can go around the room, but do you get it?
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Passion!
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I love this!
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"Oh, I love this!" And that's the kind of love that Jesus Christ has for you!
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It's when you treasure something, "I prefer this, I get my greatest joy from this." And Jesus says, "Yes, that's my people, "the people that I died for, oh, I love them, "and I can't wait a thousand years, "we're gonna be all together, and I'm going to, "oh, I can't wait for that day." And Jesus is like, "I'm gonna be singing over them, and I'm gonna show them how much I love them.
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What a concept to think that we come here and we sing for joy over Jesus, and on that day coming soon, He is going to sing for joy over you.
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And when He does, you will never again doubt the love that He has for you.
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That it's not some detached benevolence.
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You'll know that you mean the world to Jesus Christ.
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Zephaniah closes with a recap.
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He puts a bow on it.
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Verse 18-20, summing up everything he said, he says, "I will gather those of you who mourned for the festival Israel was scattered and couldn't have their feasts." And they're going to be excited to be doing that again.
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so that you will no longer suffer reproach.
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Behold, at that time I will deal with all your oppressors, and I will save the lame and gather the outcasts, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth.
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At that time I will bring you in.
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At the time when I gather you together, I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes before your eyes." Says the Lord.
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I don't know what else to say.
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Shame, sin, wanting, fear, doubt, gone forever.
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Taken away as we are in the presence of the Lord.
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If this is what awaits me in Jesus' kingdom, then it moves me to want to advance that kingdom now.
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How about you?
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Because if this is how Jesus Christ is going to show His love for me then, it moves me to show my love for Him now.
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Are you with me?
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Let's pray.
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Father in Heaven, there's a certain inadequacy I always feel.
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Standing up here trying to echo your word, I don't know if I can communicate this to the degree in which you have the kind of love that you have for your people, God.
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We don't deserve it, I mean, we know that.
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Because your great love for us speaks so much more to who you are, than it speaks to who we are.
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And even if we can right now barely wrap our minds around it, we believe it.
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And today God as a church, in the name of Jesus Christ, we thank you for it.
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We thank You that You have so chosen to love us.
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We thank You, Father, that yes, the day of the Lord is near.
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And that means forever saying goodbye to the things that hurt and divide us.
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Praise You, Father.
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We thank You.
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And when we read a passage like this today, Father, We say, "Come, Lord Jesus, come." We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Zephaniah 3:9-20
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Why can’t Jesus make all things new without judgment / punishing sin? Why the need for 7 years of Tribulation (The Day of the Lord)?
In the Millennial Kingdom, do you think we will remember our life on earth from before? If so, how is it we will feel no regret (Zeph 3:11, 15)?
Read Zeph 3:17. Why does the Lord love us in this way? What effect does this have on you today?
Breakout
Pray for one another.