Jeff Miller

April 20, 2025

What is Finished?

Glorification: The Hope is Real

Jeff Miller

April 20, 2025

What is Finished?

Introduction:

John 19:28-30 - After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Revelation 16:17 - The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!”

The Hope is Real: The Truth About Heaven (Revelation 21:1-8)

Everything is New. (Rev 21:1-2)
Every day is in God’s Presence. (Rev 21:3)
Everything that Hurts is Gone. (Rev 21:4-5)
Everything is Yours. (Rev 21:6-7)
Romans 8:16-17 – The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Everyone is Not Going. (Rev 21:8)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:00-00:17
After this, "Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said to fulfill the scripture, 'I thirst.' A jar full of sour wine stood there.
00:17-00:22
So they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.
00:22-00:34
When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, 'It is finished.' And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
00:36-00:46
Over this past month, we've been examining God's word to see that the Son of God came to finish some things.
00:47-00:50
And we've been trying to just answer one question.
00:52-00:53
What is finished?
00:54-00:57
Jesus made the declaration, it is finished.
00:57-01:05
So what is, well, I guess to put it all in one word, salvation?
01:08-01:16
The way of salvation, it's done, the work is done, and we've been spending time looking at different facets of salvation.
01:18-01:21
First we saw justification, the guilt is gone.
01:21-01:25
You realize Jesus has taken your sin away.
01:27-01:31
There are no grounds for punishment when you're in Christ.
01:32-01:33
The guilt is gone.
01:33-01:34
He's made you righteous.
01:36-01:40
And then we saw reconciliation, the relationship is restored.
01:42-01:43
By nature, you are not God's friend.
01:44-01:47
The Bible says by nature, we are enemies of God.
01:47-01:51
Jesus Christ came to restore the relationship with God.
01:53-01:55
Pastor Taylor, a couple of days ago, talked about redemption.
01:57-01:58
The price was paid.
01:58-02:01
There was a literal price that was paid.
02:02-02:09
You see, you have sinned against God, and it wasn't as if God was like, oh, that's okay, don't worry about it, I'm just gonna forget about it.
02:09-02:09
No, no, no.
02:10-02:13
As Pastor Taylor pointed out, you owe God an infinite debt.
02:16-02:19
And God paid that himself through the death of his son.
02:21-02:24
It is finished.
02:27-02:33
You know, you think of those words on the cross, it is finished.
02:33-02:44
You know, that's not the only time that Jesus declares that something is finished.
02:46-02:48
It's only the first time.
02:50-03:00
Do you know the next time Jesus says it is finished is when God pours out judgment?
03:02-03:06
Revelation 16, 17, it's the last bold judgment.
03:06-03:12
The book of Revelation talks about there's seal trumpets and trumpet judgments and bold judgments.
03:12-03:15
The last judgment of God is poured out.
03:16-03:17
Look at this.
03:18-03:28
Revelation 16, 17, the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne saying, it is done.
03:32-03:34
That's the next time Jesus says it is finished.
03:36-03:39
Today I wanna talk about the last time he says it.
03:40-03:49
You know the last time Jesus declares Something is finished as after He creates a new heaven and a new earth.
03:52-03:55
Revelation chapter 21, I want you to turn there.
03:59-04:00
Revelation chapter 21.
04:06-04:10
Revelation chapter 21, look at verses five and six.
04:10-04:17
It says, "And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new.
04:18-04:40
"Also," he said, "Write this down, "for these words are trustworthy and true." And he said to me, "It is done." Like, wait, wait, what is he talking about here?
04:42-04:48
What is finished, the promise of glorification?
04:50-04:54
That is, the hope is real.
04:56-04:58
The hope is real.
05:00-05:01
We're gonna talk about hope today.
05:03-05:10
Because when we talk about hope, We use it in a different way than the Bible uses the word hope, right?
05:10-05:15
When we say hope, what we mean is wish, right?
05:15-05:16
You know what I mean?
05:16-05:19
Like we say, I hope it doesn't rain today.
05:19-05:20
What are we saying?
05:21-05:22
I wish that it doesn't rain.
05:22-05:26
Or we say like, I hope that the pirates win today.
05:28-05:28
What are we saying?
05:29-05:32
We're saying that our theology allows for miracles.
05:35-05:38
But you see, that's not how the Bible uses the word hope.
05:40-05:46
Biblically, church, listen, hope is the confident anticipation of receiving Jesus' promises.
05:47-05:51
Biblically, hope, it's in the bag, it's happening.
05:52-05:55
I'm just waiting for it to take place, but it's gonna happen.
05:56-05:58
I'm not wondering if it's gonna happen.
05:58-06:03
I can't wait, I know it's going to, and I'm just waiting for that to happen.
06:03-06:04
That's biblical hope.
06:05-06:10
That's the receipt that we hold onto that says it's coming.
06:10-06:15
I know that it's coming, and I can't wait for that day.
06:15-06:17
That is biblical hope.
06:19-06:21
See, that's what we're here to celebrate today.
06:24-06:26
Actually, every Sunday, we celebrate this.
06:26-06:35
And actually, for the Christian, You celebrate this every day of your life, that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
06:37-06:40
We've been spending so much time talking about the fact that he died for our sins.
06:40-06:46
Yes, that's true, but three days later, he rose from the dead to give us the promise of eternal life.
06:47-06:49
And the Bible says that he went back to heaven.
06:49-06:50
And you're like, well, what's he doing now?
06:50-06:52
Do you know what Jesus is doing right now?
06:53-06:54
Like right now, do you know what he's doing?
06:55-06:58
He told us in John chapter 14 what he would be doing.
06:59-07:12
He says, "I go to prepare a place for you." Right now, Jesus Christ is building a place for his people in heaven.
07:14-07:18
We're gonna talk about heaven today, the place of our hope.
07:20-07:22
Do you know what heaven's like?
07:27-07:36
Sadly, there's so much confusion about heaven because people embrace ideas about heaven that just aren't in the Bible.
07:37-07:45
I think for a lot of people, their ideas of heaven come more from a Bugs Bunny cartoon than from what God actually said.
07:47-07:53
There's just so much nonsense about the people believe about heaven that's just not true biblically.
07:53-07:55
You know what number one is, by the way?
07:55-08:07
The most nonsensical, wrong, false thing that people believe about heaven that's just absolutely not true is that good people go to heaven.
08:08-08:10
You have to be a good person to go to heaven.
08:10-08:15
That's just bombarded onto us from society.
08:15-08:20
Good people go to heaven, good people get, well, that's not true.
08:20-08:24
If that was true, heaven would be empty.
08:26-08:29
We're going to talk more about that in a bit.
08:31-08:33
But no, you do not get to heaven by being a good person.
08:35-08:41
But you know, even Christians, honestly, even Christians are clueless about heaven.
08:43-09:03
Just grab your Christian, your average churchgoer, and say, "Well, what's heaven like?" you're gonna get answers like, "Um, well, I thinkin' Grandma's there." They're like, "Well, what do you do in heaven?" "Well, I guess you, um, I guess you play a harp, right?
09:04-09:12
"And then you sit on clouds." And, um, yeah, that's all I got.
09:14-09:21
Like, well, maybe, um, maybe you've been getting your theology about heaven from Bugs Bunny from a far side cartoon.
09:24-09:32
But I think many Christians aren't really excited about heaven because they don't know what the Bible actually says about it.
09:34-09:37
We had a funeral last week for the oldest member of our church.
09:37-09:38
He was two weeks shy of 99.
09:39-09:40
And she's having a good day.
09:41-09:45
What a great celebration of her life and a celebration of the fulfillment of her faith.
09:47-10:00
But I think a lot of people, even that we're sitting in that funeral, might not have been excited because they don't really know what she's experiencing in heaven, what is coming in the future in heaven.
10:04-10:05
We need to educate ourselves, church.
10:07-10:08
I mean, think about it this way.
10:09-10:11
Imagine if I booked you a three-month vacation.
10:14-10:14
Imagine that.
10:14-10:15
If I booked you, I'm like, you know what?
10:15-10:16
You've been working hard.
10:16-10:16
You know what?
10:18-10:19
I'm gonna get you the plane tickets.
10:20-10:27
You know, you just bring your wife, jump at the airport and get on the plane, three month vacation on me.
10:30-10:31
Would you wanna know where you're going?
10:34-10:35
Would you wanna know what you'd be doing?
10:36-10:39
What if you said, "Oh, thanks Pastor Jeff, that was really nice of you.
10:40-10:40
Where am I going?
10:40-10:52
What am I doing?" What if I said, "Don't worry about it, you'll like it." No, I want to know where I'm going to be spending three months of my life.
10:52-10:54
And I'm like, oh, it'll be nice.
10:56-10:58
What am I gonna be doing there?
10:58-10:59
Fun stuff.
11:01-11:05
Wouldn't you want more information of where you're going to be spending three months of your life?
11:05-11:10
Okay, reminder, heaven is eternal.
11:12-11:18
Wouldn't you like to know what it's going to be like for eternity?
11:20-11:25
If you do, you're in the right place this morning because that is exactly what we're gonna be seeing from God's word.
11:26-11:27
So on your outline, take some notes.
11:29-11:30
The hope is real.
11:31-11:32
The hope is real.
11:33-11:34
The truth about heaven.
11:36-11:38
The truth about heaven.
11:40-11:43
Number one, write this down, everything is new.
11:44-11:45
Everything is new.
11:49-11:51
Verses one and two in Revelation 21.
11:51-11:58
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more.
11:59-12:09
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
12:11-12:11
Stop there.
12:12-12:13
New heaven and new earth, why?
12:13-12:14
Why do we need a new heaven and new earth?
12:15-12:34
Well, because this is talking about what's happening future, and at this point, the heaven and earth now, the one that you're like sitting on right now, will be vaporized by God's glory, according to 2 Peter chapter three, according to Revelation 20 11.
12:36-12:38
He talks about this new Jerusalem.
12:40-12:41
Like, what is New Jerusalem?
12:42-12:46
What's the capital city of the new heaven and the new earth?
12:46-12:54
And John describes it as coming down from heaven onto this new earth.
12:56-12:58
It's a fascinating study.
12:58-13:00
You can really dig into it on your own.
13:02-13:07
Just to give you a little overview, verses 15 and 17 give us the dimensions.
13:07-13:09
And by the way, these are literal measurements.
13:09-13:10
The Bible's clear about that.
13:11-13:16
But New Jerusalem is a massive city and it's shaped like a cube.
13:17-13:22
And each wall is 1,380 miles long.
13:25-13:29
And each wall is 216 feet thick.
13:29-13:31
You're like, can you give me a frame of reference?
13:31-13:32
Yeah, absolutely, I can.
13:34-13:40
If you were to take this New Jerusalem and put it on our current earth, just drop it onto North America.
13:42-13:51
If you were to drop it onto North America, it would go from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America.
13:52-13:56
It would go from the Atlantic Ocean.
13:57-13:59
I'm still trying to adjust to that, I'm sorry.
14:00-14:04
It would go from the Atlantic Ocean to Colorado.
14:06-14:09
That is the size of New Jerusalem.
14:10-14:12
You're like, why do I need to know this?
14:12-14:20
Look, that is the place that Jesus is preparing for you right now.
14:23-14:34
And this passage describes the final and eternal heaven, and over and over he uses the greatest word possible that he could use to describe.
14:35-14:39
anything, and it's the word new.
14:42-14:43
New, look at verse five.
14:43-14:45
This is the best verse in the Bible.
14:46-14:50
And I know somebody would say, well, actually, Pastor Jeff, it's all God's word.
14:50-14:51
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know.
14:52-14:53
But this is the best verse in the Bible.
14:56-15:06
It says, "And he who was seated on the throne "said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.'" No.
15:09-15:12
Look, that is... that is awesome!
15:15-15:21
And we can relate to that, can't we? Because there's nothing like getting new stuff, right?
15:23-15:24
Don't we love new things?
15:25-15:26
New shoes.
15:28-15:29
A new car.
15:30-15:31
New jeans.
15:33-15:34
A new phone.
15:35-15:42
I'm pleased to announce that Pastor Taylor finally upgraded from his iPhone 8.
15:45-15:54
Yeah, a little bonus celebration today. But wasn't it so exciting getting that new phone, Pastor Taylor?
16:05-16:08
You know what, I thought it was bad until Jay Nower showed me.
16:08-16:09
He has, what do you have, an SE?
16:17-16:18
Yeah, take good care of that, Jay.
16:18-16:19
We're gonna put that in a museum.
16:20-16:21
(laughing)
16:23-16:27
So, we love getting new stuff, right?
16:27-16:28
Getting a new computer.
16:29-16:31
Men, get that new fishing rod.
16:31-16:32
Ladies, get the new purse.
16:34-16:36
How about a new puppy?
16:37-16:38
Oh, that's the best.
16:40-16:44
But there's nothing like getting new stuff.
16:45-16:51
And you know, the Bible says in heaven, Everything is always new.
16:54-16:55
So a little tip for you.
16:55-16:59
If you're in Christ, and if you are, you will end up in heaven.
16:59-17:18
I just want to encourage you, if you're trying to make friends, to not walk up to somebody in heaven and say, "Hey, what's new?" Because they're going to say, "You are, amigo." Because I don't know if you got the memo, but everything here is new.
17:19-17:26
I have people say to me sometimes, like, "Heavenstone's kind of boring." Like, what are you talking about?
17:27-17:29
That is a clueless statement.
17:30-17:30
Boring.
17:32-17:36
Everything is always going to be new.
17:40-17:46
And if that's not a beautiful enough description with that little word, He gives us a word picture that really drives it home.
17:47-18:00
He says, "It's prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." Like Jesus, what kind of care and attention are you putting into creating this new heaven and earth?
18:01-18:02
This new Jerusalem?
18:04-18:09
What kind of meticulous care is going into preparing this new city?
18:10-18:16
The Bible says it's like a bride preparing herself for her husband.
18:18-18:21
That's a word picture that really impacts me.
18:22-18:24
Because look, I've been to a lot of weddings.
18:25-18:26
It's part of my job.
18:26-18:27
I've been to a lot of weddings.
18:28-18:33
And you know something that I've never, ever, ever seen at a wedding is this.
18:33-18:39
Like, it's wedding day, and I come to the front of the chapel or the woods or the barn or wherever we're having it.
18:42-18:45
Oh, they have them everywhere now, but I'm up there with the guys, right?
18:46-18:50
And here comes the bridesmaids and they take their place.
18:50-18:52
Oh, it's the big moment.
18:54-18:55
The music shifts, right?
18:56-18:57
And you know what's next.
18:58-18:59
Here comes the bride, right?
19:00-19:01
You know what I've never seen?
19:02-19:16
So the doors fling open and there's the bride in a college hoodie, wearing sweatpants and Crocs.
19:19-19:21
Crocs will not be in heaven, by the way.
19:22-19:32
Well, the Bible doesn't say, I'm just thinking it's a safe assumption, but I've never seen her where she's got a near terminal case of bedhead.
19:36-19:39
I've never seen that, ever.
19:40-19:41
Do you know what I have seen though?
19:43-19:44
Every time.
19:46-19:48
A breathtakingly beautiful bride.
19:51-19:52
How did she get that way?
19:54-19:55
She prepared.
19:56-20:12
Do you know how much time and effort and energy and money and detail, and it goes in, She puts everything into making herself as beautiful and perfect as she can for her husband.
20:16-20:25
And that is the kind of attention and care that Jesus is putting into preparing this place for his people.
20:26-20:27
Wrap your brain around that.
20:29-20:35
But the Bible says in heaven, Everything is new.
20:38-20:40
Oh, it gets even better than that.
20:42-20:45
Because number two, write this down, every day is in God's presence.
20:46-20:49
Everything is new and every day is in God's presence.
20:49-20:50
Look at verse three.
20:51-21:02
Verse three, he says, "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.
21:02-21:03
"He will dwell with them.
21:04-21:14
and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God." Every day is in God's presence.
21:18-21:24
Don't you wish that you lived at the time that Jesus lived?
21:25-21:46
Wouldn't it have just been absolutely amazing to watch Jesus, like to sit down with Him, to hear Him teach, to watch Him heal, to watch Him feed the thousands with the little kids' lunch?
21:47-21:55
Wouldn't that have just been awesome to personally be in the presence of Jesus Christ?
21:59-22:02
Well, I got good news for you.
22:03-22:08
In heaven, you're gonna get that like every single day.
22:10-22:13
Because according to verse three, we're always in God's presence.
22:15-22:27
See, that's good news, my friends, because I think if we're honest, sometimes God seems distant right now.
22:27-22:29
I mean, he's not, right?
22:30-22:31
He's not distant.
22:33-22:37
But can we just be honest in church for a second and say sometimes it feels like he is?
22:41-22:42
You know, we go through trials.
22:44-23:00
or hurting, maybe you've been betrayed, disappointed, you're just worn out, and you're like, God, where are you?
23:01-23:06
Seems like I need you the most right now, you seem absent, where are you?
23:09-23:14
Well, never again will God seem distant.
23:17-23:20
The Bible says he is going to tabernacle with his people.
23:20-23:31
He is going to pitch a tent in unprecedented perfect fellowship in the midst of his people.
23:32-23:37
Every day of heaven is being in the presence of God.
23:37-23:38
(sniffling)
23:40-23:41
It's the truth about heaven.
23:42-23:43
Everything's new.
23:44-23:45
Every day is in God's presence.
23:45-23:47
And number three, everything that hurts is gone.
23:49-23:50
(sniffling)
23:52-23:53
Everything that hurts is gone.
23:53-23:54
Look at verse four.
23:56-24:00
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more.
24:00-24:07
Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.
24:07-24:12
No crying, no mourning, no crying and no pain.
24:13-24:14
Do you know what that means?
24:17-24:23
That means no, a lot of other things.
24:24-24:26
That means no depression.
24:28-24:29
That means no cancer.
24:31-24:33
That means no diabetes.
24:36-24:37
That means no organ failure.
24:39-24:40
That means no autism.
24:42-24:44
That means no wheelchairs.
24:46-24:49
That means no mental health problems.
24:52-24:54
That means no dentist appointments.
24:58-25:01
I see somebody rejoicing in the back greatly over that.
25:02-25:07
But I can tell you in the first service, there was like a group of dentists sitting, right about where the Zenko's are right now.
25:08-25:11
And I told him, like, look, we're gonna be out of a job in heaven.
25:12-25:16
Nobody's gonna need to hear about Jesus from me, nobody's gonna need their teeth fixed by them.
25:17-25:21
So, you know, there's no more tears.
25:22-25:24
There's no more death, there's no more goodbyes.
25:26-25:29
Every bit of pain and heartache and discouragement.
25:32-25:32
Never again.
25:34-25:34
Never.
25:36-25:37
Everything that hurts is gone.
25:40-25:57
People ask, "Well, you know, will I remember "the failures of my life on earth?" Because I would think if I could remember my failures of my life on earth, that boy, there'd be some tears over that in heaven.
25:58-26:00
Will I remember the failures of this life?
26:01-26:02
I don't know.
26:03-26:11
But I do know this for a fact, that if you do remember the failures of this life, it's not gonna bother you.
26:13-26:15
Because there's no more mourning or pain.
26:18-26:18
Sure about that.
26:20-26:22
And you could get to this point, you're like, really?
26:23-26:24
Now hang on a second.
26:26-26:29
This sounds just a little too fantastic.
26:31-26:31
Really?
26:32-26:33
Well, look at verse five again.
26:35-27:01
And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also, he said, "Write this down, "for these words are trustworthy and true." Oh, everything is made new, everything stays new, and you're like, "Adam, is that really true?" Jesus says here, write this down.
27:02-27:05
You write this down, you take this to the bank.
27:06-27:08
You build your life on this, man.
27:08-27:11
This is trustworthy and true.
27:14-27:16
Listen, this isn't fantasy stuff.
27:17-27:23
This isn't like fairy tale stuff that we say to placate children when grandma passes away.
27:28-27:31
Jesus says this is real, this is trustworthy and true.
27:34-27:38
Every hurt is forever behind you.
27:39-27:41
Everything that hurts is gone.
27:41-27:45
Number four, it gets even better.
27:46-27:48
I know you don't think it can, but check this out.
27:48-27:50
Number four, everything is yours.
27:52-27:53
Everything is yours.
27:56-27:56
Look at verse six.
27:57-27:59
And he said to me, "It is done.
28:01-28:06
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, "the beginning and the end.
28:06-28:16
"To the thirsty I will give "from the spring of the water of life without payments." Who are the thirsty?
28:18-28:19
Who are the thirsty?
28:21-28:22
I hope you are.
28:23-28:28
Thirsty refers to people who realize their spiritual need and genuinely thirst for God.
28:30-28:38
Heaven is for people who know they need Jesus Christ and they receive Jesus Christ and they love Jesus Christ.
28:38-28:39
That's what he's talking about here.
28:41-28:45
You see, water, biblically, is a symbol of fulfillment.
28:46-28:48
It's a symbol of satisfaction.
28:48-28:50
I was thirsty and in need.
28:51-28:54
Now, from the living water, I have been satisfied.
28:55-28:57
That's what water's talking about.
28:57-28:58
That's what the Bible's talking about.
28:59-29:00
Excuse me when it talks about water.
29:02-29:03
Satisfaction.
29:05-29:06
It's great news.
29:08-29:12
That means heaven's not going to be lacking anything that would add to your satisfaction.
29:12-29:13
You know that?
29:14-29:18
That means you're not gonna be walking around heaven and say, you know what?
29:19-29:20
This place is pretty good.
29:20-30:18
But I have a few ideas that would make it a little better. You're going to be absolutely, totally, perfectly satisfied in heaven. And this, this is your heritage. Look at verse 7. He says, "The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God, and he will be my son." We talked about this with justification, that we don't live in fear of God as judge, if you're in Christ, that You're not afraid of God as judge.
30:19-30:22
You live in the freedom of God as father.
30:25-30:26
That he adopted us as his children.
30:31-30:35
But being a child has implications for the future.
30:39-30:40
Like, what do you mean?
30:40-30:45
What I mean is, if you're a child of God, you receive an inheritance.
30:47-30:49
Like look at Romans chapter eight here.
30:53-30:59
Romans eight says, "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
30:59-31:14
And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
31:15-31:25
You see, Paul wrote this to the Romans, and Roman adoption was very interesting.
31:25-31:27
I was reading about it this past week.
31:28-31:40
Do you know, in Roman culture, adopted children actually received greater honor than naturally born children in the home.
31:43-31:50
Like if a couple has natural children, it's like, well, you just came into the world the regular way.
31:52-32:00
But if you adopted someone, it was, ah, you though on the other hand, you were chosen to be a part of this family.
32:01-32:16
But there's something else interesting about Roman children, including the adopted children, by the way, that they all received an equal share of the inheritance.
32:20-32:23
You're like, good for the Romans.
32:24-32:26
What does that have to do with me?
32:27-32:29
Here's what this has to do with you.
32:30-32:30
Look at this.
32:31-32:36
We are fellow heirs with Christ.
32:38-32:39
You know what that means?
32:43-32:45
I can tell some of you are very excited about that.
32:45-32:46
So we're gonna walk through this together.
32:47-32:49
You are fellow heirs with Christ.
32:49-32:50
You know what that means?
32:51-32:58
That means you will receive the same inheritance that Jesus receives.
33:02-33:05
So, what does Jesus own?
33:07-33:07
Everything.
33:10-33:12
So what do you stand to inherit?
33:14-33:15
Everything.
33:17-33:18
Everything.
33:19-33:20
Wait, wait, wait.
33:20-33:22
Hang on a second there, Pastor Jeff.
33:23-33:26
You was talking about the new heavens earlier.
33:28-33:31
Do you mean I'm gonna inherit the new heavens?
33:34-33:34
Everything.
33:37-33:39
And if you're like, oh, well, he's creating the new earth.
33:39-33:42
Do you mean I'm gonna inherit that new earth too?
33:42-33:43
That's gonna belong to me?
33:48-33:48
Everything.
33:50-33:59
And you're like, well, that giant city that you was talking about, Am I gonna inherit that too?
33:59-34:00
Is that gonna belong to me?
34:00-34:04
And I'm like, look, I'll do respect.
34:04-34:06
What part of everything do you not understand?
34:08-34:10
Everything will belong to you.
34:14-34:16
But do you know the greatest thing that you're going to inherit?
34:18-34:19
Is God himself.
34:20-34:21
Do you see that in verse seven?
34:23-34:36
He says, "I will be his God." Oh no, let's not gloss over that because that's like the Levites in the Old Testament.
34:37-34:52
Remember, Israel was told, you know, that they were gonna receive an inheritance in the promised land, but you go to like Deuteronomy 18-2, the Levites did not get an inheritance like the other tribes of Israel.
34:52-34:57
They were told that God is their inheritance.
35:03-35:07
And if you get God, you get everything.
35:09-35:19
If you're a fellow heir with Christ, that means someday everything is yours.
35:22-35:25
And finally, number five, truth about heaven.
35:25-35:26
Everything's new.
35:27-35:28
Every day's in God's presence.
35:28-35:32
Everything that hurts is gone and everything is yours.
35:33-35:35
But we do have to say this because it's in the text.
35:37-35:38
Everyone is not going.
35:44-36:08
Now look, you know, it'd be real easy to come into Easter service and we're all wearing our spiffy clothes and the music is fantastic, and it would be so easy to get caught up in this passage and get excited about a heaven that some of you aren't going to see.
36:10-36:11
Look at verse eight.
36:13-36:39
John says, "But as for the cowardly, "The faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, "the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, "their portion will be in the lake "that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death." See this list?
36:40-36:43
These are people that love their sin more than they love Jesus.
36:47-36:49
But I gotta ask you, are you on that list?
36:54-36:57
Is there anything here that characterizes you?
36:59-37:04
Understanding that murderer means hateful and sexually immoral means lustful.
37:07-37:07
You there?
37:09-37:15
You know the one that always sticks out to me in this list is the first one, cowardly.
37:19-37:20
What does that mean?
37:20-37:31
It's not saying being afraid of stuff is a sin, like in the sense of I'm afraid to go camping because I'm afraid of bears and snakes.
37:32-37:34
And that's not what that's talking about at all.
37:36-37:42
It's talking about being afraid to follow Jesus Christ because there is a cost.
37:42-37:43
And what will my friends think?
37:43-37:44
And what am I going to have to give up?
37:45-37:57
and refusal to follow Christ, God says, "You're a coward." You mean he bought your way to heaven with the blood of his son?
37:59-38:10
And you're too afraid to receive him because of what your goofy friends might think, because of what sinful thing you might have to give up.
38:11-38:11
You're a coward.
38:13-38:14
And that's not my opinion.
38:14-38:15
That's God's opinion.
38:15-38:16
Well, I guess it is mine if it's God's.
38:18-38:19
But he said it.
38:22-38:24
You think following Christ is easy?
38:24-38:26
You think it's easy to trust God?
38:30-38:32
Do you think it's easy to say no to sin?
38:34-38:41
Do you think it's easy to say yes to serving Christ when it's inconvenient or difficult or harder than we thought it was gonna be?
38:44-38:46
This ain't for cowards, okay?
38:48-38:54
All of the items on this list characterize people who have never repented.
38:54-38:56
They've never received Christ.
38:56-38:57
And these are just evidences.
38:58-39:00
He's saying that this is what they lived like.
39:01-39:21
And I have to ask you, if you took an honest inward look at yourself, would you say that my life is generally characterized by a love for Jesus Christ, Or would you say, my life is generally characterized by a love of my sin, myself, my way.
39:21-39:23
Which one is it for you?
39:28-39:38
Because if it's the latter, then none of these promises about heaven, none of this hope is for you.
39:42-39:49
I can have the worship team join us back up on the platform here.
39:54-39:56
It is finished.
40:00-40:03
It is finished.
40:07-40:12
Someday, you're gonna hear Jesus say those words again.
40:16-40:23
For some of you, you're going to be horrified to hear Him say it when He brings judgment.
40:26-40:34
And for some of you, you will rejoice when you hear Him say it, because He's giving you everything.
40:36-40:38
The hope of heaven.
40:40-40:41
It is finished.
40:42-40:49
Today, today, we hear those words from the cross.
40:51-40:55
So if you have received Jesus Christ, your sin has been taken away.
40:55-41:01
If you have received Jesus Christ, he rose from the dead to give you eternal life.
41:02-41:11
And if you have received Jesus Christ, you do not need to wait for heaven to rejoice in Him.
41:12-41:17
So let's stand and let's celebrate Him for who He is and all that He's done.
41:17-41:21
Let's rejoice in the victory of Jesus Christ.

Small Group Discussion
Read Romans 8:16-17, Revelation 21:1-8

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What are some wrong ideas about heaven that even many Christians believe?
What is an aspect of heaven covered in Revelation 21 that was new or surprising to you?
What does it mean that we are co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:16-17)? What exactly do we inherit?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

April 24, 2022

Foundations

All Things New

Jeff Miller

April 24, 2022

Foundations

Introduction:

Three Things You'll Never Do In Heaven: (Revelation 22:1-5):

Face Death . (Rev 22:1-2)
John 4:14 - ...whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

Proverbs 3:18 - She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called blessed.

Proverbs 11:30 - The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise.

Proverbs 13:12 - Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

Find Sorrow . (Rev 22:3)
Feel Alone . (Rev 22:4-5)
1 Corinthians 16:22 - If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:54-00:54
Amen.
00:55-01:01
This is the last message, but certainly not least message in our series called Foundations.
01:02-01:05
And this has been a Theology 101 series.
01:07-01:09
And we have talked about creation.
01:09-01:12
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
01:12-01:20
And then we saw the covenant of marriage instituted as God created Eve for Adam.
01:22-01:24
And then we saw how sin entered the world.
01:24-01:29
And on Good Friday, if you were here with us, we talked about the curse.
01:30-01:34
A curse is a pronouncement of destruction on someone.
01:36-01:36
Right?
01:36-01:44
And we saw that God put a curse, not just on man and woman and the serpent, but on the ground itself.
01:47-02:00
And then last week, our story in Genesis ended where we ended the story in Genesis last week was Adam and Eve were covered by animal skins by God.
02:00-02:09
God actually performed the first sacrifice, killing an animal to provide a permanent covering for Adam and Eve.
02:09-02:18
And then he booted them from the Garden of Eden, posted an armed guard, specifically he did not want them eating from the tree of life.
02:21-02:23
And that's where we left off last time.
02:26-02:28
And we can't stop there.
02:29-02:31
That's why we're having one more message.
02:31-02:35
We can't say, "That can't be where the story ends!
02:35-02:41
Adam and Eve thrown out of paradise!" Well that's not the end of the story.
02:43-02:50
Because we talked about how Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead to restore the relationship with God and life in us.
02:53-02:55
And what I want to tell you today is the story doesn't end there.
02:59-03:05
Ultimately, Jesus Christ is going to restore all things.
03:06-03:08
You're like, "So where does the story end?" The story doesn't end.
03:09-03:13
Ultimately, Jesus Christ is going to remove the curse.
03:13-03:20
And that includes sin and death, and all of the things that go with the curse, it's ultimately going to be removed.
03:20-03:27
And I want you to turn to your Bibles with me to Revelation 22, all the way near the back of your Bible.
03:27-03:31
And if you don't have a Bible, you're welcome to have the one in the seat back in front of you.
03:32-03:37
If that font's too small, in that shelf in the back, there's the largest print that we could buy.
03:38-03:40
And you can consider that a gift from the church.
03:40-03:43
but we want to make sure everybody has a copy of God's Word.
03:44-03:45
But open up to Revelation 22.
03:48-03:50
Turn louder, I can't hear your Bibles.
03:53-03:58
You're like, "We were already bookmarked before we came in, Pastor Jeff." Sure you were.
03:58-04:00
Come on, let me hear those pages rustling. Come on.
04:02-04:08
Oh, that's like waves at the beach to me.
04:14-04:14
Revelation.
04:15-04:15
Quick on-ramp here.
04:15-04:16
We're in Revelation 22.
04:16-04:20
We're at the end of God's Word, but certainly not the end of the story.
04:20-04:22
But just to kind of give you an on-ramp in Revelation.
04:23-04:31
The book of Revelation is about the last seven years of life on earth, known as the Tribulation, which includes God's judgment on sinners.
04:32-04:36
It talks about the rise and the fall of the Antichrist and of Babylon.
04:36-04:38
Talks about the return of Jesus Christ.
04:39-04:42
It talks about the millennium reign.
04:43-04:45
Jesus Christ is going to reign on the earth for a thousand years.
04:46-04:51
Revelation 20 tells us we see a last revolt by Satan, which is quickly squashed.
04:52-05:00
Revelation talks about the great white throne judgment for everyone who hasn't received the forgiveness that God's offered in Christ.
05:00-05:07
they're going to stand before God someday and have to give an account and ultimately be cast into judgment.
05:08-05:13
And then Revelation tells us that this heaven and this earth will be vaporized, destroyed.
05:14-05:26
And then when we get to Revelation 21, there's a creation of the new heaven and the new earth and the city, New Jerusalem revealed.
05:27-05:34
Now, there's so much confusion about heaven.
05:37-05:50
And even in the church, a lot of times, if you were just grabbed to just grab somebody here randomly and say, "Hey, describe heaven for me." You might get a weird answer.
05:53-05:56
There's just so much misunderstanding about heaven.
05:56-05:57
And look, I'm not judging.
05:58-05:59
I'm not criticizing because I've been there.
06:01-06:09
And much, if I can confess to you, much of my understanding of heaven came from the music that I listened to growing up.
06:10-06:15
And if you get your theology of heaven from the music you listen to, you're gonna be all kind of messed up.
06:15-06:16
Do you know what I mean?
06:17-06:19
For example, like, how do you get to heaven?
06:19-06:19
How do you get to heaven?
06:20-06:24
Well, according to Led Zeppelin, it's a stairway to heaven.
06:25-06:31
I'm like, "Oh, okay, so you go up the stairway, "and apparently when you get there, how do you enter?
06:31-06:36
"Well, according to Guns N' Roses, "you have to knock, knock, knock on heaven's door, right?
06:38-06:39
"Do you know what I'm talking about?
06:40-06:43
"I could sing it for you if you don't know the reference."
06:46-06:46
(audience laughing)
06:50-06:51
And that's the moment the riot broke out.
06:52-06:52
(audience laughing)
06:58-06:59
Where is heaven?
07:00-07:15
Well, Warrant said, "Heaven isn't too far away." But at the risk of sounding like she was contradicting, and Belinda Carlyle told us that heaven is a place on earth.
07:18-07:24
But then Alice in Chains came along and said, "Heaven's beside you." I can do this all day.
07:26-07:27
And you're like, oh, I hope he doesn't.
07:27-07:34
You know, Eric Clapton made us cry when he sang "Tears in Heaven." But "Heaven" was a pickup line for NXS.
07:35-07:39
And they sang "Heaven Sent." That's what I call you ♪
07:39-07:40
(imitates guitar riff)
07:42-07:44
I promised I wouldn't do that, but it came out.
07:46-07:56
One of my all-time favorite bands, Cheap Trick, asked, "Would you like to go to heaven?" And then I'm like, no, no, no, no, no.
07:56-08:00
I wouldn't want to go to heaven tonight because Phil Collins said something happened on the way to heaven.
08:02-08:07
I don't know what that was, but apparently it wasn't good because Kiss sang that heaven's on fire.
08:10-08:11
And I will stop there, I promise.
08:12-08:15
But my point is this, there's a point to all this.
08:15-08:22
We get all these concepts about heaven from all these other sources And it's no wonder we're confused.
08:22-08:23
We're like, what's heaven like?
08:24-08:26
I could tell you what Belinda Carlisle said about it.
08:28-08:32
And then we get to church and we're like, you received Jesus Christ and you go to heaven.
08:32-08:34
And you're like, I'm not even sure what that means.
08:35-08:35
Right?
08:36-08:38
I'm gonna tell you what that means today, all right?
08:39-08:40
So no more excuses.
08:42-08:45
No more, this is what I think heaven might be like.
08:45-08:46
I'm gonna tell you what the Bible says.
08:47-08:48
Revelation 21, we're gonna look at this quickly.
08:49-08:50
and then we're gonna land on 22.
08:50-08:52
But look at 21, first couple of verses.
08:53-09:05
John says, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, "for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, "and the sea was no more." All right, we talked about that.
09:05-09:06
This heaven and earth is gonna be destroyed.
09:06-09:08
He's going to create a new heaven and a new earth.
09:10-09:12
Look at verse two, because this is something a lot of people miss.
09:13-09:22
He says, "And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
09:24-09:25
We'll stop there.
09:26-09:32
You see, John sees this capital city of new heaven and new earth.
09:34-09:36
And like, what is this city?
09:37-09:42
Well, you see, this is the place that Jesus is preparing for you.
09:42-09:48
You remember, we went through the gospel of John And Jesus says, "I'm going to prepare a place for you." This is the place that He's making!
09:49-10:00
And you're like, "Well, what's it like?" Well, He gives us some description of heaven, but really here's all you need to know.
10:00-10:04
It says right here, it's prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
10:10-10:12
We have a whole bunch of weddings coming up.
10:13-10:16
And have you ever seen a bride?
10:17-10:19
Like seriously, have you ever seen a bride?
10:21-10:24
Every bride, breathtakingly beautiful.
10:26-10:34
Because on that day, there is so much time and energy and effort and expense and so much care.
10:34-10:45
She puts so much care into the preparation of herself because she wants her husband when he sees her coming down that aisle, Just this is what is prepared for me, right?
10:45-10:48
And that's the same analogy that's used here.
10:48-10:53
Jesus is putting that much care and attention into preparing this place for you.
10:54-10:58
He's not just throwing up a couple of two by fours and some nails and say, "This is good enough.
10:59-11:04
"You deserve hell, but here's a shanty for you." No, he's preparing this perfect place.
11:06-11:12
And we're not gonna read it, you can read it later, but we see the dimensions of this city.
11:13-11:17
Verses 15 through 17 says that it's shaped like a cube.
11:18-11:20
Like how big is this city?
11:20-11:25
Well, each wall is 1,380 miles long, the Bible says.
11:26-11:31
And each of the walls also 72 yards thick.
11:33-11:37
I was gonna tell you what that was in feet, but I'm like, these are football fans.
11:37-11:39
They know what 72 yards looks like.
11:40-11:41
That's how thick the walls are.
11:42-11:44
You think that's literal?
11:44-11:45
Yeah, these are literal measurements.
11:45-11:47
If you look at the text, it's straightforward.
11:48-11:49
These are literal measurements.
11:49-11:50
Like, well, how big is that?
11:50-12:03
Well, if you took this new Jerusalem and just set it on top of the United States, it would go from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, and it would go from the Atlantic Ocean to Colorado.
12:04-12:06
That's how big this city is.
12:08-12:10
That's not really what I want to talk about this morning.
12:11-12:14
I want to talk about life inside the city.
12:14-12:18
And that's where we get to in chapter 22.
12:20-12:31
And with everything that we can wonder about heaven, you know, just was it about a month or six weeks ago, Alex Gianetti preached about heaven.
12:31-12:34
And we have all this information.
12:34-12:38
We know so much, like, what the Bible says about heaven.
12:40-12:45
And it seems that for every answer we get, we have three more questions, right?
12:47-12:57
We can wonder a lot what this place is like, but there's one thing that I wanna make absolutely clear today, because this is tied right into this whole series that we've been covering.
12:57-12:59
There's one thing I want you to know today.
12:59-13:01
In heaven, there's no more curse.
13:04-13:05
It's gone.
13:07-13:24
The curse that we experience on the earth, everything that we have to go through every second of our lives in this fallen world, the consequences of Adam and Eve's sin, and all of the pain and heartache that comes with that.
13:26-13:29
Everything associated with the curse is forever gone.
13:31-13:38
your outline today with the curse gone, here are three things you'll never do in heaven.
13:41-13:46
See Alex, again, about a month and a half or so ago, he told us some things that we'll do in heaven.
13:46-13:49
I just want to give you the other side of the coin.
13:49-13:51
I want to show you three things that you'll never do in heaven.
13:53-13:55
So number one, write this down, face death.
13:56-13:57
Face death.
14:00-14:03
Look at chapter 22, the first couple of verses.
14:03-14:08
It says, "Then the angel showed me..." This is John speaking.
14:08-14:12
He's receiving this whole preview from this angel.
14:13-14:30
He says, "Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, through the middle of the street of the city.
14:34-14:41
Also, on either side of the river, the tree of life, with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month.
14:42-14:45
The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
14:45-14:49
Stop there. The first thing we see, something you'll never do in heaven, is face death.
14:52-14:54
First of all, verse 1 talks about water.
14:55-14:57
It talks about the water of life.
14:57-14:58
Do you see how it's described?
14:59-14:59
Bright as crystal.
15:00-15:00
What does that mean?
15:01-15:05
That means there's no impurities, there's no pollutants, there's no snake venom.
15:05-15:11
It's absolutely 100% pure, clear.
15:14-15:17
And he makes a clear point to show us the source.
15:18-15:18
Right?
15:18-15:20
Where's this river coming from?
15:20-15:25
flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
15:28-15:33
And it's called the water of life, because in this place, there's no more death.
15:36-15:43
This is the expression of life from God, flowing unceasingly.
15:44-15:49
Look at the picture that is being painted here.
15:52-16:04
You know the water flowed from the cursed lamb on the cross, and here the water is flowing from the glorified lamb on his throne.
16:07-16:10
That's the water, but we also saw in verse 2 the tree of life.
16:10-16:11
Does that sound familiar?
16:13-16:13
We talked about that.
16:13-16:17
It was introduced to Genesis chapter two in verse nine.
16:17-16:19
It's this tree that was in the middle of Eden.
16:19-16:30
And again, we saw in the end of Genesis chapter three, that God, very specifically, God drove them out of the garden of Eden because he did not want them eating from that tree.
16:33-16:38
Because God didn't want Adam and Eve to live forever in a fallen state.
16:40-16:40
Right?
16:42-16:48
So what we see here with the tree of life is God's story with man comes full circle.
16:50-16:50
Right?
16:52-16:58
Back in Genesis chapter three, God drove Adam and Eve out of the garden.
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But here in Revelation 22, we are all brought back into a garden city.
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And just as in Genesis, the tree of life was taken away from man, now the tree of life is given back.
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Interesting, it says leaves, the leaves were for healing.
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Like, wait a minute, why did, I thought there was no sickness in heaven.
17:31-17:32
Well, there's not.
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We're not gonna need healed in the sense of we get a disease or a virus or whatever.
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There's no sickness in heaven.
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A better translation for this could be health giving.
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These leaves were health giving, sort of like vitamins.
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You don't take vitamins to heal an illness, you take vitamins to promote general health.
17:56-18:00
So I do believe we will be eating in heaven, it's very clear here.
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But it's not going to be for survival.
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it's going to be for enjoyment.
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So here in Genesis, that's where we were the last few weeks.
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Revelation chapter 22, we have the water of life, and we have the tree of life.
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But you have to see, church, that this is like so much more than a Bob Ross painting, alright?
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The symbolism here that God wants us to experience in His presence is so deep.
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This could be a whole sermon series, we're going to get through this quickly, I promise.
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Water, biblically, is the picture of satisfaction and salvation.
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That's what water symbolizes.
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We can look at a whole lot of passages, I just want to refer you to one where Jesus summed it up.
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Jesus and the woman at the well, he said, "Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again." That's satisfaction, right? Then he goes on to say, "The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." There's salvation. I could show you so many more passages, but that's the picture that we're seeing. Water is the picture of of satisfaction and salvation.
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You're like, what about the tree?
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What's the tree of life a picture of?
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The tree of life is a picture of everything that is good and right.
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And it is a concept that is used throughout the Bible, especially in Proverbs.
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And you might be shocked to realize how much, I'm just gonna give you a couple examples.
19:49-19:53
But the tree of life is this picture, every blessing, everything that's right and good.
19:54-20:19
Like for example, Proverbs 3.18, talking about wisdom, says, "She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her." Right, Proverbs 11.30 says, "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life." Proverbs 13.12 says, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, "but a desire fulfilled is a," tell me church, tree of life, you see that?
20:19-20:28
It's a picture, everything that's right, Everything that's good, everything that is of God, it's a picture of that, the tree of life.
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Like, well, wait, wait, wait, okay, Jeff.
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If we don't need water and food, why are these things there?
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You're telling me we eat just for enjoyment.
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Like, I think it's more than that.
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I think the reason that we see this river and we see this tree of life is I believe this is an eternal testimony that God is our source of life and goodness.
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But listen, get Alex talked about this and I'm just sort of piggybacking off of that and wanted to, there's so much can be said here.
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Listen, in heaven, you will be totally satisfied in every way, every day, all the time.
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And you know there's people, even in the church, there's people that think they have the spiritual gift of criticism, right?
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And I'm constantly reminding people, that's not a spiritual gift, that's not a fruit of the Spirit.
21:36-21:37
It's not in there.
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Even the harshest critic is not going to be walking around heaven going, "Well, you know, it's all right.
21:47-21:58
It's all right, but I really think we could spruce the place up a bit with this side or the other.
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You're never going to get over how awesome it is in every way.
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Think of the happiest day that you've had to this point on the earth.
22:13-22:20
And every day in heaven is going to be so far beyond that in every way.
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It's not even, not able to compare it to anything, right?
22:28-22:31
But with the curse gone, here's something you'll never do.
22:31-22:32
You'll never face death.
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Everything is life, abundant life, joyful life.
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You'll never face death.
22:41-22:44
Three things you'll never do in heaven, number two is a fine sorrow.
22:46-22:47
Fine sorrow.
22:48-22:49
Look at verse three.
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We've been talking so much about the curse, right?
22:56-22:57
Look at verse three.
22:58-23:03
No longer will there be anything accursed.
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Just let that soak in for a second.
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There's no sin, there's no death, and there's no sorrow.
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He doesn't expound on this a lot here because he just did, and I want you to just look back to chapter 21 and verse 4 because he just explained this, and that's why he doesn't I'm not going to really do a deep dive here, but what does it mean?
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That we'll never find sorrow. What does it mean that there's no curse?
23:43-23:45
Look at verse 4, it kind of sums it up here in chapter 21, verse 4.
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It says, "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more.
23:56-24:10
Nor shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more for the former things have passed away." There's no depression.
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There's no discouragement.
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There's no pain.
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There's no cancer.
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There's no diabetes.
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There's no autism.
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There's no organ failure.
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You won't see handicapped parking spaces because there's no wheelchairs.
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There are no mental health problems.
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of the things that ravaged us and beat us down and hurt us never again.
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You will never experience another second of pain for all of your existence.
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is described with the greatest word in the world.
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And I can't get this close to my favorite verse in the Bible and not share it with you, alright?
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But it's the very next verse here in Revelation 21.
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It says, "He who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.' I said, "Write this down.
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"For these words are trustworthy and true." See, it's described with the greatest word ever.
25:51-26:00
You're like, "What's heaven like?" I guess the elevator talk version of this, I could give you one word, it's new.
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New, it's the greatest word, new.
26:03-26:04
Isn't that awesome?
26:04-26:07
New, nothing's better than new, right?
26:07-26:09
Because we love new stuff, don't we?
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We love new stuff.
26:12-26:13
There's nothing like getting something new, right?
26:14-26:16
New shoes, right?
26:19-26:25
I heard somebody say the worst part about being an adult is when you get new shoes, people don't ask you, can you run really fast in them?
26:26-26:28
I do kind of miss that.
26:28-26:30
But new shoes, we love new shoes, don't we?
26:32-26:33
How about a new car?
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A new phone, a new computer.
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A new fishing rod, Stephen.
26:44-26:45
All right, a new house.
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George, how about a new puppy?
26:50-26:56
Maybe this isn't the right day to ask that, but there's nothing like getting something new.
26:58-27:03
And heaven is described as everything's new.
27:07-27:08
Get back to chapter 22.
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Look at the rest, pick up where we left off in verse 3.
27:14-27:16
You see, no longer will there be anything accursed.
27:17-27:29
Look, it says, "But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will worship Him." His servants will worship Him.
27:29-27:32
There is no higher privilege than that.
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You're like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait. No higher privilege than what?
27:35-27:38
Serving Him or worshipping Him?" The answer is yes, all of the above.
27:42-27:58
But I want you to see here that heaven is not just rest and singing, despite what you may have seen in a far side cartoon where the guy's just sitting on the cloud with his harp.
28:00-28:02
That is a terrible depiction of heaven.
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And it's shocking to me, but over the years, I've had people say to me, can you tell me more about heaven?
28:09-28:11
Because honestly, it sounds kind of boring to me.
28:11-28:13
And I'm like, boring?
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Boring?
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What?
28:17-28:20
Well, that's what happens when you get your ideas of heaven from pop culture.
28:21-28:24
And these stupid cartoons, boring.
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You think that's what God has for you, boring.
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Even in verse three right here, I see productivity.
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We're still called servants.
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Do you see that?
28:37-28:38
We're still called servants.
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You're like, well, how are we going to serve?
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I don't know.
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We'll find out together, right?
28:47-28:58
But I'm hoping, and I can't say this for sure, but I'm hoping in heaven that we will get new talents and new abilities, because I am so gonna be out of a job in heaven.
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I'm just gonna be walking around like, hey, can I tell you about Jesus?
29:03-29:06
And they're like, yeah, we know that's why we're here.
29:07-29:09
Like, all right, well, if you change your mind, I'll just be.
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Like, dude, we get it.
29:13-29:14
We get it.
29:14-29:15
He's right there.
29:16-29:17
We know Jesus, right?
29:17-29:24
And so I'm hoping, I'm hoping so much when I get to heaven, I can play the drums.
29:29-29:35
Even if I can just be like the gong player in the heavenly band, something, please.
29:36-29:37
I don't know.
29:38-29:42
But see, being called servants means that there's productivity.
29:43-29:44
There's stuff happening.
29:44-29:46
But here's the thing that's really exciting to me about that.
29:48-29:52
With the curse gone, you know what else is gone?
29:54-29:54
Entropy.
29:55-29:59
You know, second law of thermodynamics, Everything is moving from order to disorder.
29:59-30:01
Everything's decaying, wearing out.
30:01-30:03
That is a law, right?
30:04-30:05
We see that all around us.
30:05-30:07
In heaven with the curse gone, there's no entropy.
30:08-30:14
So, every project completed is going to last for eternity.
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It's not gonna wear out.
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It's not gonna rust away.
30:20-30:22
Everything built will last.
30:24-30:28
Try to wrap your brain around the ramifications of that, because I sure can't.
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But listen, church.
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Someday sorrow will be gone.
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So my encouragement to you is to soak it up here.
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Soak up as much sorrow as you can here.
30:50-30:54
your worst day, just be like, "Ahh, sorrow!
30:55-30:58
I'm not going to miss you, but I'm going to have you while I'm here.
30:58-31:02
Soak it up!" Because someday it's going to be behind you forever.
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Something you'll never do in heaven is find sorrow.
31:07-31:12
And finally, three things you'll never do in heaven.
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Number three is feel alone. Feel alone.
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Look at verse 4.
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It says, "They will see His face." Again, that could be one of those statements when we read the Bible, we just kind of skim past that.
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You can't rush past a statement like that.
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Do you realize biblically how huge that statement is?
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"They will see His face." Do you know what that means?
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Even Moses, who was like tight with God.
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Do you remember back in Exodus 33, verses 20 and 23?
31:52-31:56
You can look that up later, not now, but Moses was restricted in seeing God.
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And listen to what God said.
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He said, "Man shall not see me and live." He says, "But Moses, you can see my back." That was all Moses got.
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And even the high priest.
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I mean, he was restricted to being in God's personal presence, His Shekinah glory, Hebrews 9.7, just one day a year for the sacrifice.
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Leviticus 16, Day of Atonement.
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Even the high priest was so restricted.
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Right here, your Bible says, "But we will see His face." The lamb is always accessible.
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He goes on to say, and his name will be on their foreheads.
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Like, what does that look like?
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Is that some kind of a seal?
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Is that some kind of a tattoo?
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Is it like a plate hanging from the crown and the name is on the plate?
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I don't know, we'll find out together.
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But whatever, however that looks, here's the point, there's never going to be a doubt who we belong to.
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Because His name is going to be on us.
33:13-33:15
And the last verse, look at verse 5.
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It says, "A night will be no more.
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They will need no light of lamp or sun.
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For the Lord God will be their light.
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And they will reign forever and ever.
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no darkness, no night.
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We will walk in the light of the Lord.
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You know, in the very beginning, like the beginning, in the beginning, there was light apart from sun, remember?
33:54-33:56
Light was created before the sun.
33:58-34:05
And apparently, speaking of going full circle, God's gonna bring us back to.
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There's not gonna be a son.
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He will be our light.
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It says, we will, look at this last phrase.
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It says, reign forever and ever.
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Let me ask you this.
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Do you ever get tired of the leadership that we're under right now?
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Anyone?
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Anyone at all?
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Anyone get frustrated with the leadership that we have in our state, in our country?
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Anyone?
34:41-34:45
Okay, I was gonna say, wow, wow, just me, awesome.
34:46-34:56
Look, I'm not making a political statement, I'm not endorsing a political party, but I'm just saying I am really sick of some of the antics of the leadership.
35:00-35:04
Well, you think you can do better?
35:05-35:07
Because you'll get a chance to, right here it says that.
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We will reign with Jesus Christ.
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In, now this is going to be something that we really need to stretch our imaginations here, but imagine this, we will reign with Him in a holy and sinless kingdom.
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There will be no corruption or ballot stuffing or quid pro quo or any of this other stuff. None of that.
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A perfect righteous kingdom.
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We will reign with Him forever and ever.
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Never end. It'll never end.
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You know, sometimes God seems distant, doesn't he?
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I mean, he's not, but doesn't it sometimes feel that way?
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Don't we sometimes feel alone?
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I know I do.
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We go through trials, we're hurting, and we need comforted.
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We feel betrayed, we're disappointed, we're let down, we're exhausted, and we feel like, where are you God?
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You ever felt that?
36:40-36:41
I sure do sometimes.
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God, you see what's happening here.
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Where are you?
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Any moment you wanna step in, please, And here's what we're seeing in heaven.
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Never again will God seem distant.
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Never again will we feel alone.
37:08-37:11
We will see His face. He's right there.
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And we will reign with Him.
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So, we've been talking a lot about the curse.
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Especially on Good Friday, we saw from Galatians that Jesus became a curse for us on the cross.
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And when you believe in Jesus Christ, you are no longer cursed.
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Even though, for now, we still live in fallen bodies, we still live in a cursed world, but things will not always be as they are now.
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Because this is what's waiting for God's people.
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This is what Jesus is preparing for us right now.
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There's no death.
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There's no sorrow.
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There's no feeling alone, as you are forever walking in the light of God.
38:29-38:49
You know, I was thinking about these concepts this week, you know, no death, no sorrow, no feeling alone, living forever in the light of God, And then it hit me suddenly that, you know, the Bible describes hell as the complete antithesis of all of these things, right?
38:49-38:52
Like we said, in heaven there's no death. Do you know what hell is?
38:53-38:54
Hell is eternally dying.
38:57-39:00
We see here that there's no sorrow in heaven.
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Do you know how hell is described in the Bible?
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A place of weeping. A place of eternal sorrow.
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Here we see that we walk forever in the light of God, and hell is described as what?
39:17-39:18
Outer darkness.
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And I think I would be doing us a disservice without giving an invite at this point.
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Look, we can read all about heaven, and get all excited about what's in store.
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But if you haven't personally received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, if you haven't bowed your knee to Him on your face, crying out, saying, "Please, "forgive me for all of my sins.
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"I know that you died on the cross to take my sins away.
39:56-40:00
"I believe that you rose from the dead "so that I might have eternal life.
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"I want to receive you." Listen, if you haven't done that, biblically you are still under the curse.
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And hell is what is waiting for you.
40:14-40:31
Still under the curse. That's why 1 Corinthians 16.22 says this, "If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed." Our Lord come.
40:35-40:45
Heaven or hell, one of these destinations awaits you after you take your final breath.
40:49-40:55
Today can be the day that you cry out to Jesus for your place in heaven.
40:56-40:58
I'd like you to bow your heads with me, please.
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We don't want to get excited about a place that we'll never see.
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You know, some people think, "Well, I'm going to start going to church, and I'm going to try to be a good person, and I'm going to do this..." and none of those things will get you to heaven.
41:20-41:26
Because the fact remains that we're all sinners by nature, and we've sinned in the face of a holy God.
41:31-41:36
And that's the point of God's Word, is He remedied this.
41:37-41:45
Just like He made skins for Adam and Eve to make a permanent covering when they couldn't do that.
41:48-41:54
God made a permanent covering for us, and not even just covering our sin, He took our sin away in Jesus Christ.
41:58-42:05
And if you have never received Him, let today be the day.
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Again, you just have to pray something like this, "God, I realize I have been far from You.
42:18-42:22
And God, I haven't really cared much about You, I haven't been living for You.
42:23-42:28
I've been kind of living for myself and in my sin.
42:31-42:33
God, I realize that I am a sinner.
42:38-42:41
And I see, Father, that You sent Jesus Christ to die for me.
42:43-42:45
That's why Jesus was on the cross.
42:45-42:47
He didn't die for His own sin because He didn't commit any.
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for my sin. You would send your Son to die for me. I believe that you did that to take away my sin and I believe that He rose from the dead, proving that He's God and giving us the hope of eternal life, that that empty tomb is our receipt. He is alive and promised I will be too.
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If you've prayed that today, or something like that, I want you to come and see me in guest reception after service.
43:35-43:50
I want you to go to the other corner of the room where the big prayer sign is, and maybe you need to take that step, maybe you'd like somebody to pray with you, Any of us would be happy to do that.
43:53-43:58
I can't possibly tell you how awesome heaven is going to be.
43:58-44:15
We just get almost a quick one second peek behind the curtain in God's Word because it's going to be so much greater and more glorious, I think, than we can ever describe with human words.
44:17-44:21
And you can enjoy that place too, thanks to Jesus Christ.
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So come and see me.
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And if you have prayed this, if you have received Jesus Christ, He calls you to make your profession of faith public through baptism.
44:45-44:48
And we're going to give you an opportunity for that next week.
44:51-44:57
That it's your opportunity to stand before God and before man and say, "I belong to Jesus Christ. I'm not ashamed to admit that.
44:58-45:01
He died for me. He lives in me.
45:01-45:12
And I'm telling the world, come and see me, so we can celebrate with what Jesus Christ is doing in your life." Father, we thank You.
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We thank You for this peak behind the curtain.
45:22-45:40
And I just ask, Father, for a place so glorious that we would be consumed with knowing the God who is preparing this place, who died so we could go to this place.
45:40-45:56
Father, let our lives be about serving You and worshiping You and loving You now in preparation for when we will do all of these things before You face to face.
45:58-46:03
Through the glorious name of Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Revelation 22:1-5

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Share a misconception you used to have about heaven.
Which “curse reversal” are you most looking forward to?
If we don’t need water or food to survive in heaven, why is there water and food (the river of the water of life and the tree of life)

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

June 20, 2021

The Day of the Lord

The Day of the Lord is Near - Can You Imagine?

Jeff Miller

June 20, 2021

The Day of the Lord

  
  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!

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.
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The day of the Lord needs to be seen as a beginning.
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Did you ever see someone just completely lose their temper and just smash something?
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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.
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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!
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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.
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You see, judgment is not just simply for the sake of judgment.
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It's for the sake of, You gotta catch this because this is the sermon today.
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It's for the sake of renovation.
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Renovation.
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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.
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And we understand that when he bought the house, it was pretty dilapidated.
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It was in horrible, horrible shape.
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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.
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And I suppose that if you would have went to that house while Matt was gutting it, watching him completely tear out the walls.
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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.
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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.
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You can go back and re-listen to those messages sometime.
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But in Revelation, God's deconstruction project looks like this.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Gone forever.
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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.
30:27-30:38
And don't miss this, because salvation to Jesus is not some emotionless transaction.
30:41-30:43
But that's sometimes how we make it.
30:46-30:48
Like getting our driver's license.
30:49-30:50
That's how some people look at salvation.
30:51-30:54
You show up and Jesus is like, "You would like to come into the kingdom?
30:55-31:01
Okay believe this, sign here, take the picture, see you in heaven." Next!
31:03-31:04
"Oh, you want to go to heaven?
31:05-31:08
Okay believe this, sign here, take the picture." Next, you're holding up the line.
31:08-31:10
Come on, okay you're annoying, go.
31:11-31:12
Your picture's fine, go.
31:12-31:14
Some people look at salvation that way.
31:16-31:18
There's no emotion behind it.
31:21-31:33
But what we see in this verse, and get this, salvation, your salvation is Jesus' passion.
31:34-31:41
In other words, Jesus doesn't save begrudgingly, Jesus saves affectionately.
31:46-32:02
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?
32:03-32:07
You know, I love pizza, I love my wife, I love my dog, I love penguins walking.
32:09-32:20
I don't love all those things the same, but in the Greek and here in the Hebrew, there's more specific wording, okay?
32:20-32:30
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.
32:30-32:31
And that's a love of the will.
32:32-32:35
That's the commitment covenant love.
32:39-32:42
But there's a different word for love that's translated here.
32:43-32:45
And it's the word ahaba.
32:47-32:50
And that's a different aspect of love.
32:51-32:51
Ahaba.
32:52-32:55
Ahaba is passion.
32:55-32:59
And I know when I say that, immediately you're thinking, well, the haba haba type love?
33:00-33:10
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.
33:11-33:12
So I'm gonna take a run at it here.
33:12-33:21
Ahabba is a passionate love in the sense of, I am all about this.
33:23-33:26
This is my thing right here.
33:26-33:29
This is the thing that fires me up more than anything.
33:34-33:41
And sometimes it's helpful to understand it means when you see how else it is used in the Old Testament, right?
33:41-33:46
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.
33:47-33:48
(congregation laughing)
33:49-33:51
But here's how else it is used in the Old Testament.
33:52-34:14
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.
34:15-34:22
He loved all his sons, but Joe, little Joey here, that's my boy, man, I am really proud of him.
34:22-34:23
I am so proud of him, that's my boy.
34:24-34:24
That's my boy.
34:26-34:26
Ahabba.
34:28-34:31
Ahabba's used to describe the love that Jonathan had for David.
34:32-34:36
1 Samuel 18.3 says that David was his BFF and he loved him.
34:36-34:38
It doesn't say BFF, that's a paraphrase.
34:39-34:42
But it does say that he loved David as his own soul.
34:44-34:50
Ahabba, like, "I'm committed to you, David." No, no, no, he's like, "You're my dude, man.
34:50-34:57
"You're my dude." Ahabba is used to describe how a faithful Jew loves the law.
34:58-35:02
Psalm 119, verse 97, "I love your law." It's not just some stale book on a shelf.
35:02-35:06
He is, oh, this is the word of God and it fires me up.
35:06-35:10
I love this book, Ahabba, I love this book.
35:13-35:18
Ahabba is used to describe how Uzziah liked gardening.
35:21-35:30
2 Chronicles 26.10 says, "Uzziah loved the soil." And the Hebrew word is Ahabba.
35:32-35:34
Uzziah loved the soil.
35:36-35:37
He was passionate about gardening.
35:38-35:40
It wasn't a chore to him.
35:41-35:49
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.
35:49-36:14
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.
36:15-36:16
But it's ahabba.
36:18-36:19
It's love from the gut.
36:20-36:22
It's love that can't be contained.
36:22-36:26
It's love that can almost be described as joy.
36:27-36:27
It's emotional.
36:27-36:29
It's a delighting love.
36:29-36:32
It's the kind of love that literally makes you want to burst into singing.
36:33-36:35
That's the kind of love a haba is.
36:38-36:42
It's the way my son, Cade, loves the Steelers.
36:43-36:47
It's the way my wife, Erin, loves finding a good deal.
36:48-36:51
It's the way my brother, Darren, loves guitars.
36:52-36:53
Do you get it yet?
36:53-36:56
It's the way the Thompsons love youth ministry.
36:56-37:00
It's the way Rich Sprunk loves gardening, like Uzziah.
37:00-37:01
He loves the dirt.
37:02-37:04
It's the way Mark Horton loves photography.
37:04-37:06
It's the way Steve Zellweiser loves smoking meat.
37:06-37:07
Do you get it yet?
37:07-37:09
It's the way Mike Wolski loves 45.
37:09-37:11
It's the way Jillian Zinko loves volleyball.
37:12-37:13
It's the way Brian Krauss loves shooting.
37:13-37:15
It's the way Martha Cornell loves coffee.
37:15-37:16
Do you need more?
37:18-37:21
I can go around the room, but do you get it?
37:22-37:23
Passion!
37:24-37:25
I love this!
37:25-37:32
"Oh, I love this!" And that's the kind of love that Jesus Christ has for you!
37:35-37:57
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.
37:58-38:09
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.
38:12-38:20
And when He does, you will never again doubt the love that He has for you.
38:20-38:23
That it's not some detached benevolence.
38:23-38:27
You'll know that you mean the world to Jesus Christ.
38:31-38:33
Zephaniah closes with a recap.
38:33-38:34
He puts a bow on it.
38:36-38:49
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.
38:51-38:53
so that you will no longer suffer reproach.
38:53-39:03
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.
39:04-39:05
At that time I will bring you in.
39:07-39:15
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.
39:19-39:20
I don't know what else to say.
39:22-39:29
Shame, sin, wanting, fear, doubt, gone forever.
39:32-39:37
Taken away as we are in the presence of the Lord.
39:40-39:48
If this is what awaits me in Jesus' kingdom, then it moves me to want to advance that kingdom now.
39:49-39:49
How about you?
39:52-40:01
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.
40:03-40:03
Are you with me?
40:05-40:05
Let's pray.
40:06-40:13
Father in Heaven, there's a certain inadequacy I always feel.
40:14-40:31
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.
40:35-40:37
We don't deserve it, I mean, we know that.
40:40-40:46
Because your great love for us speaks so much more to who you are, than it speaks to who we are.
40:48-40:58
And even if we can right now barely wrap our minds around it, we believe it.
41:00-41:06
And today God as a church, in the name of Jesus Christ, we thank you for it.
41:07-41:10
We thank You that You have so chosen to love us.
41:12-41:16
We thank You, Father, that yes, the day of the Lord is near.
41:20-41:25
And that means forever saying goodbye to the things that hurt and divide us.
41:28-41:29
Praise You, Father.
41:30-41:31
We thank You.
41:33-41:41
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.

Jeff Miller

June 13, 2021

The Day of the Lord

The Day of the Lord is Near - Are You Ready?

Jeff Miller

June 13, 2021

The Day of the Lord

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!

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?
13:02-13:03
We're so shocked.
13:07-13:10
Dead people act like what?
13:11-13:12
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?
14:03-14:04
God's gonna take care of them.
14:07-14:14
But our job is to exhort God's people to act like people who know God.
14:15-14:15
Right?
14:16-14:18
And here's the message for God's people.
14:19-14:20
Chapter 3.
14:22-14:27
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.
15:27-15:28
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?
15:40-15:43
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.
15:46-15:52
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.
16:03-16:06
Every morning He shows forth His justice.
16:06-16:08
Each dawn He does not fail.
16:11-16:12
But the unjust knows no shame.
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See the contrast between who God is and what His people have become?
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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.
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You will accept correction.
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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.
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Wow.
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Wow.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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Look at verse two.
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She listens to no voice.
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She accepts no correction.
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She does not trust in the Lord.
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She does not draw near to her God.
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Do you see that?
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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?
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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.
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"You don't receive correction." And you're like, "Yeah, Pastor Jeff, I understand.
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"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.
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I know best.
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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.
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And when somebody brings a word of correction to you, you're offended.
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Like what's the big deal?
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Well, look at verse 2 again.
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Do you see what the big deal is?
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It says, "She listens to no voice.
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She accepts no correction." Now what does that result in?
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You tell me.
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Look at the next two phrases.
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When you don't accept correction, it says, "She does not trust in the Lord." There's a connection.
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She does not draw near to her God.
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There's a connection.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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Or He speaks to you through His people sharing His Word.
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the correction is always going to come from the Word of God.
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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.
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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?
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You're like, "Okay, well, how do I get exposed to the Word of God?" Well, obviously, one way is reading the Word.
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Right? You're just home, you're in your office, you're reading God's Word.
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But there's a problem with that.
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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.
23:19-23:21
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.
24:29-24:32
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?
24:40-24:41
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.
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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?
25:56-25:57
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?
27:05-27:05
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.
30:47-30:49
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.
30:57-30:58
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?
31:13-31:14
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?
34:02-34:08
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.
34:16-34:26
"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.
35:06-35:07
It happens in the church.
35:09-35:13
Some people are going to say things just to upset you and be mean.
35:13-35:17
And we'll deal with that.
35:19-35:22
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.
35:49-36:26
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?
36:28-37:02
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?
37:11-37:19
"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.
37:23-37:24
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.
37:53-37:55
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?
38:19-38:23
And we usually start January, February, and all year.
38:23-38:36
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.
38:55-38:55
He's a bum.
38:59-39:01
But I mean that like in a good Christian love kind of way.
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And you know what?
39:04-39:06
He pulled a horrible prank on me.
39:07-39:17
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.
39:24-39:29
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.
39:57-40:09
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.
40:12-40:14
"Who's in?" And they were all like, "In!"
40:15-40:15
(congregation laughing)
40:18-40:20
Well, Rich isn't here, is he?
40:21-40:22
Rich Brunk, one of our elders, he was in the class.
40:23-40:24
Oh, is he teaching?
40:24-40:25
Okay, somebody fill him in.
40:26-40:33
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.
40:33-40:35
I'm like, on ramp, right, Justin?
40:35-40:37
On ramp, we're gonna ease into it, right?
40:37-40:38
Ease into it.
40:39-40:42
I was like, don't come out of the gate too hot, or he's gonna think something's up.
40:44-40:45
Ease into it.
40:46-40:49
So Ryan rehearses the message, which was actually pretty good.
40:53-40:55
All right, let's get some feedback.
40:55-40:56
And Rich was sitting there.
40:59-41:07
Rich goes, "You know, Ryan, I rehearsed my sermon "last month and my sermon was an abomination.
41:10-41:11
"Yours was worse."
41:12-41:13
(audience laughing)
41:15-41:17
And we're all looking at each other like, right, Justin?
41:17-41:18
We're like, "Where do we go from here?"
41:19-41:19
(audience laughing)
41:20-41:23
Rich played the abomination card right out of the gate.
41:27-41:29
But that didn't stop us from trying, right?
41:31-41:38
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.
41:39-41:42
I mean, I'm hearing your words and I'm looking at the text and I just don't see any kind of connection.
41:44-41:50
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?
43:19-43:20
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.
43:44-43:53
But he who hates reproof is stupid." Now look, I am much too shy and timid to call anyone stupid.
43:56-43:57
This is from the mouth of God.
43:58-44:06
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.
45:27-45:46
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.
45:46-45:57
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.
45:58-46:00
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.

Jeff Miller

June 6, 2021

The Day of the Lord

The Day of the Lord is Near - Do You Care

Jeff Miller

June 6, 2021

The Day of the Lord

Introduction:

Matthew 24:12 - And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

4 Things Complacent People Say (Zephaniah 1:1-2:3):

I'm not that Bad .
I'm Self-Rreliant .
I'm comfortable in the Culture .
I'm satisfied with Shallow .

How Do I Wake Up from My Complacency?

Get Hungry .
Get Honest .
Get Humble .

1 Peter 4:17 - For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God...

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:00-00:27
Zephaniah chapter 1, it says, "The word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah, the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amoriah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah." So we're looking about 740 to 730 BC, and after Manasseh had led Israel into idolatry And human sacrifice.
00:27-00:29
That's 2 Chronicles 33.
00:30-00:33
King Josiah came along and he made a bunch of reforms.
00:34-00:36
2 Chronicles 34.
00:36-00:44
You know how you can have the leader of a country do a bunch of stuff and then the next leader comes and undoes everything the previous leader does?
00:44-00:44
Can you imagine that?
00:45-00:47
That's exactly what was happening here.
00:48-01:04
Well, Zephaniah was likely written to Judah just prior to the reforms that Josiah installed, but it was too late because Zephaniah is one of the last prophets before the nation fell to Babylon.
01:05-01:09
Zephaniah has one theme, and it's the theme we're going to be talking about for the next three weeks.
01:09-01:10
One theme.
01:10-01:18
A theme that you should be so aware of and studying and praying over.
01:19-01:20
The theme is the day of the Lord.
01:20-01:30
This is a theme throughout the Old Testament prophets, But Zephaniah, it's not just one thing he's talking about, it is THE thing he's talking about.
01:31-01:32
What is the Day of the Lord?
01:32-01:33
It's just simply this.
01:33-01:37
It's when God shows up to bring judgment and wrath.
01:38-01:41
There's a day coming when God says, "That's it.
01:43-01:52
I'm showing up to pour out my judgment." You know, God has a calendar on his wall, and there's one day circled on his calendar, and it's called the Day of the Lord.
01:53-01:58
Zephaniah is warning Judah here, your time's almost up.
01:58-02:06
And you see, to understand Old Testament prophecy, there would be a near fulfillment and a far fulfillment.
02:06-02:07
Right?
02:07-02:13
So, in the life of Judah here, the coming invasion of Babylon was the near fulfillment.
02:14-02:18
There was Zephaniah saying, hey, punishment's coming for your sin.
02:18-02:26
But through this prophecy, this invasion from Babylon foreshadowing the final and upcoming day of the Lord.
02:27-02:28
And you're like, well, when is that going to be?
02:29-02:30
It's coming very soon.
02:30-02:31
Very soon.
02:32-02:33
Look at verses 2 and 3.
02:33-02:39
He says, "I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth," declares the Lord.
02:39-02:42
"I will sweep away man and beast.
02:42-02:47
I will sweep away the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea and the rubble with the wicked.
02:47-02:51
I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth," declares the Lord.
02:52-02:54
Judgment is coming on the whole earth.
02:54-02:54
Okay?
02:55-03:00
Judgment was coming to Judah here, but long fulfillment.
03:00-03:02
He says there's a day coming.
03:02-03:03
Whole earth.
03:04-03:04
It's coming.
03:05-03:07
We talked about that when we went through Revelation.
03:07-03:10
The sermons are all on the website if you want to review.
03:10-03:11
You're like, when's it coming?
03:11-03:14
Well, according to God's Word, according to Jesus Himself, it's coming soon.
03:15-03:16
Look at v. 4.
03:16-03:21
Because now the attention focuses on Judah and the immediate judgment.
03:22-03:51
"I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal and the name of the idolatrous priests, along with the priests, those who bow down on the roofs to the hosts of heaven, those who bow down and swear to the Lord, and yet swear by Malcolm." He's talking about idolatry. What's the matter with you? You say you belong to the Lord, and you're also worshipping others.
03:51-03:52
What's the matter with you?
03:53-04:01
He says, "Those who have turned back from following the Lord, who do not seek the Lord, or inquire of Him, be silent before the Lord God.
04:01-04:02
For the day of the Lord is near.
04:03-04:06
The Lord has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated His guests.
04:07-04:16
And on the day of the Lord's sacrifice, I will punish the officials and the king's sons, and all who array themselves in foreign attire.
04:16-04:34
On that day, I will punish everyone who leaps over the threshold, and those who fill their Master's house with violence and fraud." He says, Judah, because of your idolatry, because of your moral corruption - see in this picture here, Judah is referred to as a sacrifice.
04:35-04:40
And Babylon is both the guests and the priests offering the sacrifice.
04:41-04:43
And what's God's exhortation here?
04:43-04:46
He says, "Be silent." In other words, no excuses can be made.
04:47-04:51
What excuse would you offer that would change the mind of the Lord?
04:52-04:58
What justification do you have for turning your back on God and worshiping other things?
04:59-05:00
Explain yourself.
05:00-05:02
He says, "No, don't explain yourself.
05:02-05:08
"Please just be silent." Instead, what you need to do is wail because it's going to be devastating.
05:09-05:09
Look at verse 10.
05:10-05:17
"On that day, declares the Lord, "a cry will be heard from the fish gate, "a wail from the second quarter, a loud crash from the hills.
05:17-05:22
"Wail, O inhabitants of the mortar, for all the traders are no more.
05:22-05:24
All who wail silver are cut off.
05:24-05:30
At that time, I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are complacent.
05:31-05:35
Those who say in their hearts, the Lord will not do good, nor will He do ill.
05:35-05:38
Their goods shall be plundered, and their houses laid waste.
05:39-05:41
Though they build houses, they shall not inhabit them.
05:42-05:45
Though they plant vineyards, they shall not drink wine from them.
05:45-05:49
"The great day of the Lord is near, "near and hastening fast.
05:49-05:52
"The sound of the day of the Lord is bitter.
05:52-05:54
"The mighty man cries aloud there.
05:55-06:14
"The day of wrath is that day, "a day of distress and anguish, "a day of ruin and devastation, "a day of darkness and gloom, "a day of clouds and thick darkness, "a day of trumpet blast and battle cry "against the fortified cities "and against the lofty battlements." You're like, whoa, whoa.
06:15-06:24
All right, Jeff, listen, I get the Old Testament stuff here, Jeff, but you know, I'm a Christian and I live under the new covenant.
06:24-06:30
And you know, Jeff, God is a God of love and this Old Testament stuff, it's not really for us.
06:30-06:35
And I would say you are completely wrong and you completely don't understand.
06:36-06:37
Like, but I thought God was a God of love.
06:37-06:38
Oh, absolutely He is.
06:39-06:40
God is a God of love.
06:40-06:46
And when you truly love someone, You hate everything that injures that person.
06:46-06:51
And I can speak to this as a parent because you know the health problems that my son has.
06:51-06:54
And I couldn't possibly love my son any more than I do.
06:55-06:59
And because of the love that I have for him, I hate what this disease does to him.
06:59-07:00
I hate it.
07:01-07:07
And I've told you before on that day, may the Lord grant me the grace to kick it straight into the lake of fire.
07:07-07:11
I hate what it does to him because I love him so much.
07:11-07:13
Now imagine this on a global scale.
07:13-07:20
God's people being afflicted and surrounded by sin and idolatry and filled.
07:20-07:25
And God loves His people so much and He sees what all of these things are doing to His people.
07:26-07:27
Do you think it fires them up?
07:28-07:33
God sent His Son to die for all who would receive Him.
07:33-07:42
And when His Son is rejected, and when His Son is mocked, and people persist in sin while God extends His grace, what's God to do?
07:43-07:55
Tell me, those of you who think God's wrath is a harsh doctrine, I want you to tell me what should God do when He sees all of this wickedness and all of this abuse and all this idolatry?
07:56-07:58
And what should He do?
07:59-08:00
Oh, that's okay.
08:01-08:02
They can all come to heaven anyways.
08:04-08:04
What should He do?
08:05-08:07
Is the Lord not justified in His judgment?
08:07-08:08
Look at verse 17.
08:09-08:12
God says, "I will bring distress on mankind so that they shall walk like the blind.
08:13-08:19
Because they have sinned against the Lord, their blood shall be poured out like dust and their flesh like dung.
08:20-08:28
Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the Lord and the fire of his jealousy.
08:28-08:39
All the earth shall be consumed for a full and sudden end He will make of all the inhabitants of the earth." Notice God says He's bringing distress and people are going to walk like the blind.
08:40-08:46
Gosh, can you imagine what it would look like globally when people all over the world are walking like the blind?
08:46-08:48
Can you imagine what that would look like?
08:48-08:50
You don't have to imagine what that would look like.
08:50-08:51
Just turn on your television.
08:52-08:54
You're watching it happen in real time.
08:54-09:00
What you're seeing, church, is the ball is being placed on the tee to kick off the tribulation.
09:01-09:02
It's all moving there.
09:02-09:03
Have you not been paying attention?
09:04-09:09
One world economy, vaccine passports, persecution of the church, the attacks on Israel.
09:10-09:11
What's it all mean?
09:12-09:14
It means the tribulation is right around the corner.
09:15-09:26
Between pandemic and politics and all these social justice issues, we're seeing right now globally an unprecedented level of blindness.
09:27-09:28
It's staggering.
09:28-09:34
But you know what's even more staggering than that is the fact that God still calls His people to repent.
09:35-10:15
2. God says, "Gather together, yes, gather, O shameless nation, before the decree takes effect, before the day passes away like chaff, before there comes upon you the burning anger of the Lord, before there comes upon you the day of the anger of the Lord. Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land who do as just commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility, perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the Lord." God still calls His people You know, something that stuck out to me here, in verse two, the Lord used the word, he uses the same word four times, the word before.
10:16-10:16
You know what that means?
10:17-10:20
It means that God isn't promising that he's canceling the coming judgment.
10:21-10:33
Because you know, sometimes you see in scripture that God's like, "Hey, I'm going to judge, "but if you repent, I'll relent." And he's saying when it comes to the day of the Lord, the day that we're about to see come here, that's not an option here.
10:33-10:35
God's not saying, "You know what?
10:35-10:40
"If you repent, I'm just gonna cross that day "off my calendar." He says, "No, no, no, it's coming.
10:40-10:42
"The day of the Lord is coming.
10:43-10:44
"Nothing's going to change that.
10:44-10:53
"So if you're sitting here thinking, "or if you're watching this stream thinking, "well, I'm gonna start behaving myself "and telling others to do the same, "and perhaps this stuff won't happen." No, it's coming.
10:54-10:56
The question is, when is it coming?
10:57-10:58
We don't know, but God does.
10:59-11:02
And God wants to rescue people before the day does come.
11:02-11:05
And church, I think this absolutely has to direct our prayers for America.
11:06-11:07
How should we be praying?
11:07-11:14
We should be praying for as many people as possible to be snatched out of the fire because this day is coming.
11:15-11:16
Now we read a chunk here, didn't we?
11:18-11:24
And as we went through all of these concepts, I would ask you, do any of these things sound familiar to you?
11:24-11:25
Quick review.
11:25-11:27
Let's just see if any of these things sound familiar.
11:27-11:29
In verse 8, he talked about corrupt leadership.
11:29-11:30
Does that sound familiar at all?
11:31-11:33
In verse 5, child sacrifice.
11:35-11:36
That's tied into idolatry.
11:37-11:39
You know church, that's what modern day abortion is.
11:41-11:47
If you think it's simply, I don't want the inconvenience of raising a child, so I'm going to get rid of the child.
11:47-11:49
Abortion is so much deeper than that.
11:50-11:51
You study your Old Testament.
11:51-11:59
The way that you worshipped demonic powered idols was to kill your children.
12:00-12:02
That's what modern day abortion is.
12:02-12:03
It's child sacrifice.
12:04-12:05
That's what it is.
12:06-12:08
Why are people so hell-bent on keeping it?
12:09-12:09
Because it's their worship.
12:10-12:12
Idolatry. We've talked about that.
12:12-12:14
Corrupt priests in v. 4.
12:15-12:20
The people that should be leading God's people are just as corrupt as the world.
12:20-12:21
Are we seeing that at all?
12:22-12:24
People secure in their wealth - v. 18.
12:24-12:26
The violence and fraud - v. 9.
12:27-12:33
Living in a nation that's described - A nation that's described as having no shame.
12:34-12:37
And all the while, people are just completely blind to what's happening.
12:38-12:41
Now do you understand why we're talking about Zephaniah for a couple weeks?
12:42-12:42
Do you get it?
12:43-12:44
This is where we are.
12:45-12:48
We're watching these things be fulfilled in front of us.
12:48-12:54
The moral and idolatrous decay of our culture that precedes the ultimate day of the Lord.
12:54-12:59
But none of these things that I mentioned, this little list here, none of these things are really the biggest problem.
12:59-13:01
Because today I just want to talk about one verse.
13:02-13:05
The biggest problem facing God's people.
13:05-13:06
Look back at verse 12.
13:07-13:16
God says, "At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps." It's the picture of somebody like they lost something on the ground in the carpet and they're with a flashlight looking.
13:16-13:21
God's like, "I'm going to be looking "through Jerusalem like this." Why, what's going on God?
13:21-13:24
He says, "I will punish the men who are complacent.
13:25-13:30
"Those who say in their hearts, the Lord will not do good, nor will He do ill." You see the problem?
13:31-13:34
You see the problem of God's people in this day?
13:34-13:36
It's the same problem with God's people today.
13:37-13:38
It's complacency.
13:38-13:39
Do you care?
13:39-13:40
Do you care?
13:41-13:49
Do you notice it says, "They say it in their hearts." They say it in their hearts, meaning it's not just something they speak or post on social media.
13:49-13:52
It's something that they believe deep down inside themselves.
13:52-13:53
This is an inward belief.
13:53-13:55
What is the sin we're believed that they embrace?
13:56-13:58
The Lord will not do good, nor will he do ill.
13:59-14:00
You see what they say?
14:00-14:01
They're like, God's uninvolved.
14:02-14:03
God's uninvolved.
14:04-14:06
I mean, yeah, things are pretty rough right now.
14:07-14:08
We can all agree to that, right?
14:09-14:11
But it's not like God's going to do anything about it.
14:12-14:15
I mean, there's not going to be revival, and there's not going to be judgment.
14:16-14:20
Things just are as they are, and that's just the way it is.
14:21-14:22
God is not involved.
14:23-14:24
He's not involved.
14:24-14:26
Look, let's just be honest, right?
14:26-14:28
I mean, life just ebbs and flows, right?
14:29-14:33
The economy, the economy's good, and then the economy's bad.
14:34-14:37
And gas prices go up, and gas prices go down.
14:38-14:44
And we get a Democrat in the White House, and then a Republican, and then a Democrat, and then a Republican.
14:44-14:45
Do you see?
14:46-14:50
It gets better, it gets worse, and nothing really matters.
14:51-14:58
And the problem with Israel and with the church today is your indifference makes you start to think that God is indifferent.
14:59-15:02
You become complacent and you regard the Lord as the same.
15:03-15:07
He will not do good and He will not do ill.
15:07-15:08
Do you care?
15:09-15:24
I mean, God can save and God will save and God will revive His church and God's people can see God move through them see God do amazing things through them, but there's a roadblock, church.
15:25-15:33
The roadblock in Zephaniah's day and in our day that's stripping us of our spiritual vitality is this complacency.
15:34-15:36
You know, Jesus talked about this complacency.
15:37-15:43
In Matthew 24, Jesus was talking about end of the world stuff, the stuff that's just about to happen here very soon.
15:43-15:54
The disciples were asking Jesus, "What are the signs of this?" Jesus said a lot of things, but there's one phrase that just really sticks out, especially in the light of our cultural landscape now.
15:54-15:58
In Matthew 24, 12, look at how Jesus described the end of the age.
15:59-16:06
He says, "And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold." Have you noticed the increase in lawlessness?
16:07-16:20
And there's something in us that wants to say, "Oh, when lawlessness increases, that's going to fire God's people up and people are going to be even more passionate." And he says, "No." He says, "For a lot of people, their love's just going to cool off.
16:20-16:22
They're not going to be fired up for anything.
16:23-16:25
It's living in a state of despondency.
16:26-16:28
The Lord will not do good, nor will He do evil.
16:30-16:34
Do you care?" "Well, I do now." "So what should we do, Jeff?
16:34-16:34
What should we do?
16:34-16:35
What should we do?
16:35-16:38
What should we do?" "I know, let's storm the Capitol building.
16:39-16:41
Let's go burn down some abortion clinics.
16:41-16:50
Oh, oh, I know, Let's be keyboard warriors on social media and post the most shade-throwing memes that we can.
16:50-16:52
I don't see any of that here.
16:53-16:59
But God is calling you to do the one thing that you and only you have absolutely total control over.
17:00-17:01
He wants you to care.
17:02-17:03
Stop being so complacent.
17:04-17:05
Do you care?
17:05-17:09
That's what I want to ask you, church, individuals.
17:10-17:12
Are you a complacent person?
17:12-17:15
Are you spiritually complacent right now?
17:16-17:20
And you're like, "Nah, man, you know I think I'm good, man.
17:20-17:28
I think I'm good." That's your reply, then you're probably not good.
17:29-17:30
Are you spiritually complacent?
17:30-17:32
There's no real seeking the Lord.
17:33-17:35
There's no great love for God.
17:35-17:38
And there's no real hatred for sin either.
17:39-17:41
And I don't just mean the sin of the culture, I mean your own sin.
17:42-17:42
Do you care?
17:43-17:44
Like, hang on a second, Jeb.
17:44-17:51
Okay, look, I'm saved by grace and you've told me so many times my salvation is not about my performance.
17:52-17:53
Okay, I sin, who doesn't?
17:54-17:56
I received Jesus, that's all that matters, right?
17:57-17:58
That's complacency.
17:58-18:13
And one of the big problems with complacency is that complacency doesn't feel like that big of a sin because complacency doesn't feel like a sin because complacency doesn't feel like much of anything.
18:13-18:14
Do you care?
18:15-18:16
What's complacency feel like?
18:16-18:17
Not much of anything.
18:17-18:18
What's it look like?
18:18-18:19
I'll tell you what it looks like.
18:19-18:27
It looks like you wake up one day and you realize you haven't picked up your Bible since, when was the last time we were at church?
18:27-18:29
But I haven't picked it up at home.
18:29-18:31
I mean, that's complacency.
18:32-18:33
You haven't been praying.
18:34-18:35
You haven't fasted.
18:36-18:37
You haven't considered God's will.
18:38-19:00
That you just wake up one day and you're like, "Yeah, it's been a long time since I've been real serious "about walking with Jesus." And if you're gonna be completely honest, your walk with Christ seems more like this long distance relationship than the way the Bible describes it as His Spirit indwelling you and empowering you and changing you and using you.
19:00-19:01
It doesn't feel like that.
19:01-19:09
No, no, no, it feels like Jesus is an old friend that lives far away and I'm sure I could call him if I need him.
19:09-19:10
Does any of this resonate?
19:11-19:11
Do you care?
19:12-19:17
I mean, you don't think much about Jesus returning, you know, the coming day of the Lord.
19:18-19:28
So you don't think very much about bearing fruit in keeping with repentance, because complacency makes your spiritual life passive, not active.
19:28-19:33
And when you come to church, the reality is you're more of a spectator than a worshiper.
19:33-19:38
You're more watching what's happening here than being involved with what's happening here.
19:39-19:39
Do you care?
19:40-19:41
Are you complacent?
19:42-19:44
Well, quickly, here's four things complacent people say.
19:45-19:48
If you're still not convinced, we're gonna take a run at this.
19:48-19:50
Four things complacent people say.
19:50-19:51
Number one, I'm not that bad.
19:52-19:59
You're like, oh yeah, Jeff, I see these rioters and these parade people on TV, and look, I'm not that bad.
19:59-20:02
You know, save your fire and brimstone for those people, Jack.
20:03-20:04
I'm not that bad.
20:04-20:06
Well, you know where that high view of self comes from?
20:07-20:08
It comes from comparing yourself with others.
20:09-20:10
God doesn't do that.
20:11-20:19
And there's a huge danger when God's people, church, there's a huge danger when we're not focused on Jesus, but we're focused on morality.
20:20-20:20
Huge danger.
20:21-20:21
Why?
20:22-20:25
Because when you focus on morality, that goes one of two ways.
20:25-20:35
That either leads to shame, like I'm no good, I stink, I'm a horrible person, I'm a terrible sinner, and I'm kind of talking like Donald Trump when I say this.
20:35-20:48
Like, there's shame, but the other danger of comparing yourself with others, focusing on morality, not focused on Jesus, the other danger is self-righteousness, right?
20:49-20:53
Because when you compare yourself with others, you're always gonna find somebody worse than you, always.
20:53-20:57
And then you're gonna feel self-righteous, like, yeah, you know what, I'm bad, but I'm not as bad as this guy right here.
20:58-21:04
I mean, yeah, I make mistakes, but Jesus had quite a bit to say about that kind of thinking, didn't he?
21:05-21:07
But that's what complacent people say.
21:07-21:10
Complacent people say, number two, I'm self-reliant.
21:10-21:12
I can handle whatever's coming.
21:12-21:13
I got this, I can do it.
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You're self-sufficient.
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Because you know what?
21:16-21:18
The world can burn.
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You don't need them.
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I mean, you know you need Jesus to get to heaven, but you live like you don't really need him now.
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Because here's what you've done.
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You've learned how to manage your life on your own terms.
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And do you know what God calls that?
21:35-21:36
Complacency.
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Three things complacent people say.
21:38-21:40
Number three, I'm comfortable in the culture.
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I'm comfortable in the culture.
21:42-21:44
I'm comfortable in the culture.
21:45-21:48
Look, you know, right now, look, I'm gonna be honest with you.
21:48-21:51
I'm fine with all these perversions.
21:51-21:52
They don't really bother me.
21:53-21:57
The transgenders, the LGBTQ, whatever those letters are.
21:58-21:59
Look, it's Pride Month.
22:00-22:03
And I just want everybody in that culture to know I'm on your side.
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I'm an ally.
22:05-22:06
on a safe space.
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God help us.
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We should be grieved over sin and we celebrate it.
22:14-22:24
God's people who should be more grieved than anyone over sin, gotta make sure we put on our rainbow profile picture on social media and let them know, I'm your ally.
22:25-22:30
What you should be letting them know is, look, God loves you and I care about you, but this is wrong.
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The complacency is just being comfortable with all this.
22:35-22:48
You drive by the church up the street that's got the giant rainbow flag, and you're like, "Good for them, good for them." You're complacent because you're not grieving over the things that not only grieves the heart of God, but brings the judgment of God.
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Another danger of being comfortable with the culture and another sign that you are is when you think politically, not spiritually, right?
22:56-22:57
And that's where we are today.
22:57-23:04
It's all about my political party, my candidate, my political philosophy, and you're more invested in politics than you are prophecy.
23:05-23:09
and you're more concerned about what Biden is doing than what Jesus Christ is doing.
23:10-23:14
And when that's the case, you're like, I'm comfortable in the culture.
23:14-23:16
You're complacent is what you are.
23:17-23:20
Dress it up any way you want, but let's call it what God calls it.
23:20-23:21
You're complacent.
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Number four, four things complacent people say is I'm satisfied with shallow.
23:26-23:28
I'm satisfied with shallow.
23:28-23:29
Shallow prayer.
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You know, I throw up a quick one, you know, before bed or throw up a quick God bless grandma thing.
23:37-23:43
And when was the last time you were on your face before the Lord privately crying out to him?
23:44-23:45
When was the last time that happened?
23:45-23:47
You're like, it's been a long time.
23:48-23:49
And do you know why it's been a long time?
23:49-23:51
Is because you're content with shallow prayer.
23:51-23:55
You're complacent, satisfied with shallow church attendance.
23:56-23:59
Church attendance, if literally nothing else is going on.
23:59-24:01
If literally nothing else is going on, I go to church.
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but I'm skipping church this morning because I think I have like a great uncle who passed away on this day back in 1956.
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I'm gonna stay home and honor him.
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We're having a picnic for him.
24:17-24:18
Yeah, look, whatever.
24:18-24:20
When you're looking for an excuse, any excuse will do.
24:21-24:25
But you're like, look, just what's the bare minimum for following Jesus?
24:27-24:30
Pastor, give me the bare minimum package.
24:30-24:31
That's the one I wanna sign up for.
24:31-24:40
How can I follow Jesus and squeak into heaven with like as little inconvenience and feather ruffling here on the earth?
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Because that's what I want.
24:42-24:44
Do you know why you want something like that?
24:45-24:46
Because you're complacent.
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By the way, God doesn't offer that for the record.
24:49-24:53
You're like, all right, how do I wake up from my complacency?
24:54-24:55
How do I wake up from it?
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That's the real question, right?
24:58-24:59
I'm just gonna leave you with three things.
24:59-25:03
and I know it has been a long and fruitful and spiritually exhausting morning.
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Can you handle three more things?
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Can you?
25:05-25:06
Okay.
25:06-25:07
All right.
25:07-25:08
How do I wake up?
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And look, I knew at this stretch, make it easy, I alliterated it for you, all right?
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Three points alliteration, like the good Baptist that I am.
25:18-25:19
All right.
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How do I wake up?
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First of all, I'll get honest.
25:22-25:22
Get honest.
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What I mean is get honest with God.
25:25-25:35
And what I mean is stop saying your prayers and start praying, not just prayer on the go, not just prayer here and there, not just prayer in the car, please hear me.
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Yes, that, but not just that.
25:41-25:48
If you're one of those pray on the go type of people, that's awesome because the Bible says that 1 Thessalonians 5:17, pray without ceasing, you should.
25:49-25:50
But you know what else the Bible says?
25:50-25:53
Jesus said the secret to prayer is prayer in secret, Matthew chapter six.
25:54-25:58
Jesus said get alone, get private, That's when you know your prayer is real.
25:58-25:59
Shut the door.
26:00-26:03
Get on your face because your posture matters.
26:04-26:10
But you need to carve out time when you can be intentional, alone and undistracted, on your face getting real with God.
26:11-26:14
And if you're struggling with complacency, you need to confess that before the Lord.
26:14-26:16
Say, you know what, God, I've been so complacent.
26:17-26:19
I haven't been seeking you like I should, God.
26:19-26:20
What's the matter with me, God?
26:20-26:23
Please, by the power of your spirit, light a fire in me.
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Be honest with God and see what He does with that.
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Because if you wanna be woken up from your complacency, God wants it for you even more than you want it for you.
26:34-26:37
So letter B, get honest, letter B, get hungry.
26:38-26:38
Get hungry.
26:39-26:42
I would encourage you, church, enter a season of fasting.
26:42-26:46
You know, fasting is one of the greatest tools that God has given us.
26:47-26:50
And He has given us this tool for exactly this.
26:50-26:52
You know why God's given us fasting?
26:52-26:56
is because we have so much in our lives that just distract us.
26:56-27:01
And all these things distract us and pull our attention and feed our appetites.
27:01-27:06
And you only have the capacity to receive so much of this stuff.
27:06-27:14
And fasting is a way of saying, I'm removing all of these distractions for the sole purpose of focusing on my walk with Jesus Christ.
27:15-27:16
I'm going to stop eating for a while.
27:17-27:30
I'm going to stop watching TV or playing video games or you're messing around on social media, or whatever it is, but fasting removes the distraction so you can intensely and intentionally focus on your walk.
27:30-27:32
We have sermons on our website about fasting.
27:33-27:36
You can find them, and I would just say listen and do it.
27:36-27:37
Get hungry.
27:38-27:40
You're not hungry for God because you're not hungry for anything.
27:41-27:42
You know why you're not hungry for anything?
27:42-27:45
Because you've stuffed yourself with everything, and now you're complacent.
27:45-27:46
Get hungry.
27:46-27:51
Finally, I want to leave you with where God left us here in this passage, get humble.
27:52-28:00
Do you see that he says it a couple of times at the beginning of chapter two, seek the Lord, all you humble of the land.
28:00-28:05
Verse three, later on he says, seek humility, humble yourself.
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Listen, when we, the Bible says humble yourself, that's a command over and over.
28:09-28:11
The Bible says, humble yourself.
28:11-28:14
And I think sometimes people think it's like a passive command.
28:14-28:24
"Okay, I'm going to start thinking differently." And yes, obedience always starts with your thinking, but some people think that's where it ends, especially with humility.
28:25-28:27
But humbling yourself is a command that you actively pursue.
28:28-28:32
And the best place where you start is in small group accountability.
28:32-28:33
That's where you start.
28:34-28:35
Why do we start there?
28:36-28:38
Because complacent people don't get involved.
28:38-28:44
Complacent people don't get actively involved with fired up Christians, because that's convicting.
28:44-28:52
But church, we are going to be multiplying our small groups because every one of them, it seems, are either full or overflowing.
28:52-28:57
So we're working on multiplying and getting new leaders installed and trained and working.
28:58-28:59
It's a work in progress.
29:00-29:04
But I just need to tell you, if you're not going to small group, you need to get there.
29:04-29:07
And if you are going, get involved.
29:07-29:10
Don't just sit in the corner and stuff your face with cookies.
29:10-29:11
Get involved.
29:11-29:13
Tell them where you're struggling.
29:13-29:15
Tell them what you need prayer for.
29:15-29:16
Tell them where you're hurting.
29:17-29:22
That is an active way where you can humble yourself in a community of God's people.
29:22-29:23
Do you care?
29:24-29:26
I'd like to invite the worship team to come forward, please.
29:27-29:35
While they do, you know, we're looking at this passage and you can say, you know, Israel's neighbors were doing a lot of horrible sin.
29:36-29:39
So why did God go after Judah so hard, right?
29:39-29:41
Why did God go after Judah so hard?
29:41-29:43
I mean Israel's neighbors were worse.
29:43-29:51
Well, it's the same reason that I'm preaching this sermon to you here, and I'm not up preaching this at Starbucks or down at Ross Park Mall.
29:52-29:54
It's for this simple reason, 1 Peter 4.17.
29:55-29:56
Look at this.
29:56-30:00
For it is time for judgment to begin where?
30:01-30:02
The household of God.
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And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
30:08-30:10
Church, to whom much is given, much is required.
30:11-30:13
God's people are first and foremost accountable.
30:14-30:16
We should know better.
30:16-30:19
Lost people are going to act like lost people.
30:20-30:26
And yes, we need to reach them with the gospel, but it has to start here.
30:27-30:27
Do you care?
30:28-30:29
Let's pray.
30:29-30:37
Father in heaven, I pray by the power of your spirit that you would wake us up, Because God, the day of the Lord is near.
30:38-30:42
And maybe we've just overly distracted ourselves so that we don't have to think about it.
30:43-30:52
Maybe it's just easier to be consumed with other things so we don't have to think very hard about the day of the Lord.
30:52-30:53
Father, it's coming.
30:54-31:00
And I just pray today simply, Father, for my brothers and sisters here and those watching, those listening later.
31:01-31:03
She would shake us of our complacency.
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His reality is when Judah said, "The Lord will not do good, nor will He do ill." The reality is, God, You're coming to do both, to bring the ultimate blessing, but also to bring the ultimate punishment.
31:16-31:17
Wake us up.
31:17-31:18
Please, God, wake us up.
31:19-31:22
We have such a short amount of time.
31:23-31:26
Let us use it in service to the coming King.
31:27-31:29
We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Zephaniah 1:1-2:3

What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Read Zephaniah 1:12. What do you think makes people complacent? What does that process look like?
What are some ways you see people “walking like the blind” today (Zephaniah 1:17)?
How is God's jealousy connected to His wrath (Zephaniah 1:18)?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Glorification: The Hope is Real

Introduction:

The Hope is Real: The Truth About Heaven (Revelation 21:1-8)

All Things New

Introduction:

Three Things You'll Never Do In Heaven: (Revelation 22:1-5):

The Day of the Lord is Near - Can You Imagine?

Introduction:

Gone Forever: 5 Things That Will Soon Be Behind Us (Zephaniah 3:9-20):

The Day of the Lord is Near - Are You Ready?

Introduction:

How Do You Respond to Correction? (Zephaniah 2:4-3:8)

How to Receive Correction: 3 Questions of Self-Examination.

The Day of the Lord is Near - Do You Care

Introduction:

4 Things Complacent People Say (Zephaniah 1:1-2:3):

How Do I Wake Up from My Complacency?

Upcoming Small Group Questions CLICK HERE

How much of the Bible have we covered since 2011?

Introduction:

The Hope is Real: The Truth About Heaven (Revelation 21:1-8)

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

Three Things You'll Never Do In Heaven: (Revelation 22:1-5):

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

Gone Forever: 5 Things That Will Soon Be Behind Us (Zephaniah 3:9-20):

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

How Do You Respond to Correction? (Zephaniah 2:4-3:8)

How to Receive Correction: 3 Questions of Self-Examination.

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

4 Things Complacent People Say (Zephaniah 1:1-2:3):

How Do I Wake Up from My Complacency?

Audio Transcript