CPAC sermon 08 March 2009
Judgement and Blessing Zephaniah 1:17,18 & 2:1-3
Last week spoke about Micah.
Finishing now with the prophet Zephaniah … one of the more obscure prophets but no less important… reminds me of “Zephr” model of car… however, he and his contemporary, the prophet Jeremiah, preached to a troubled society.
Has anything changed?
Look at the front page of today’s Sunday Star Times for example (show newspaper article…), and we could, no doubt, find many more such articles which reflect the continuing downward decline of the values and morality of the world in which we live today.
There is still the need for prophetic voices alerting people to the fact that there is a right way to live, and a wrong way to live.
More than ever, God needs your voice, your hands, your feet, your minds, and your caring hearts to make a difference in this world.
As members of God’s church here at CPAC God is calling you to be different.
Not to be conformed to the ungodly ways of this world, which lead ultimately to destruction and death, but to live lives transformed by the grace and power of God to do God’s will, just as Jesus did. And what is God’s will?
Here it is here in John 6:38-40.…Jesus said,
38 For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. 39 And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. 40 For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life.”
As His prophets today, God wants you and I to point people to Jesus.
In today’s world, it is not a calling for the faint hearted - Jeremiah was a very reluctant prophet!
In Jer 20:8-9, he said,
"Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long. But if I say, 'I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,' his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot".
You will definitely not be the flavour of the month when you endeavour to point people to Jesus! However, let us all consider Jeremiah’s attitude, and let us strive for it.
Through prayer and the study of God’s word, for Jeremiah, God’s word was like a fire in his heart, a fire so shut up in his bones that he got weary of holding it in!
Inevitably, he had to speak out for God’s cause!
When we are prepared to live our lives for God, and speak out for Him, God will always give us His heart of compassion for the lost. This is the will of God said Jesus, “that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me”.
May those words be written on our hearts too.
Yes, the prophets talked about God’s judgement, but understand that judgment isn't God's final word. Some people don't understand that!
We are told that God is Judge, but he isn't "judgment".
In the bible we read about "the wrath of God", but nowhere is it said that God is "wrath".
On the other hand, we are told, not only that God loves and is loving, but that "God is love" (1 Jn 4.8,16).
In other words, love is God's nature.
And because He is love by nature, then He cannot tolerate any kind of sin, perversion, injustice…
But His love works in our lives in such a way that brings redemption and restoration and reconciliation …
…He loved the world so much that he gave his only Son Jesus for us, that not one would be lost.
His great desire is to bring people to respond to his love, to repent of sin, to believe in His Son, and thus have eternal life.
Zephaniah had a powerful message for God-fearing people such as you and me.
In Zeph 2:3 he reminded those who were faithful to God that they would be protected in God’s coming judgement (Zeph. 2.3),
"Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, you who do what He commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the Lord's anger".
Zephaniah said that when things are not good and God’s judgment is inevitable, it is possible for those who humbly believe and trust in God to "be glad and rejoice with all your heart" (Zeph. 3.14).
For the people of Judah who cared about the state of their nation, things looked grim, with every reason to be afraid of what might happen next.
But Zephaniah says the Lord's word comes with assurance,
"The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you; never again will you
fear any harm… Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands hang limp. The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with his love, He will rejoice over you with singing" (vv. 15b,16b,17).
Did you hear that message?
The Lord is with you! Don't be afraid!
In our changing world, we wonder what will happen next, the directions our society, nation and world are taking. Some sort of Armageddon looks more and more possible in the future - not just scare-mongering any more.
Into this world Jesus came.
He came "to save His people from their sins" (Mt. 1.21).
He called on all his hearers to "repent and believe the good news" (Mk 1.15).
Again and again, he told his followers, "Don't be afraid!" (as in Lk 5.10; 8.50; 12.4,7,32).
I am mighty to save! That's not pretending that things are better than they seem.
It is a confidence we have because the Lord, the God of love is on our side! So - let us be glad and rejoice!
(Now share prophetic word from Waves of Glory…)
The South Island based El Shaddai team from Waves of Glory International have been using CPAC House as a prayer base over the last few months as they have been praying for a seminar which was held in Jville yesterday and which I attended with Linda and a few others from CPAC.
After the seminar I received an envelope from them.
They had been intensively praying for me and for CPAC for the last month and they had a prophetic word from God for us.
They had placed it in the envelope.
They had felt God say to them that He had plans for CPAC which were far beyond anything we could imagine but we needed to stay close to Him.
Their prophetic word was (I quote as written down on the paper they gave me):
Thou Shalt honour the Lord your God
And be obedient to His Call
2 Chronicles 7:14
I Will Open the Doors to My Kingdom
If you will turn your eyes upon me.
I Will Give to thee Keys to My Kingdom
If thee will Seek to Abide in Me
I will Bless with Abundance and Favour
If you will Stand In Position for Me
My personal bible reading and prayer time for CPAC over these past weeks and months have included affirmation from God about the need to seek Him and to stay close to Him, to be humble, to be prayerful, to understand He is a powerful, all-consuming yet compassionate, loving, gentle God slow to anger and quick to forgive.
He is a God whose purposes for us as His church are all good but we need to stay close to Him.
The Cross of Christ is a “finished work” (He is God who saves) and we as a church are called to simply tell people about that finished work.
The prophetic word from the El Shaddai team was certainly encouraging.
This has been reinforced by the words of Zephaniah eg Zeph. 2:3
"Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, you who do what He commands.
Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the Lord's anger".
Be encouraged then CPAC! God is mighty to save!
Press into God, care for and support one another, and ask God for ways that you can point people to Jesus…
Amen.
Some other sermon notes FYI:
Zephaniah was the great-grandson of Hezekiah, king of Judah (Zeph. 1.1).
The religious state of Judah declined markedly following Hezekiah’s death and Hezekiah’s successor King Josiah launched sweeping reforms.
Zephaniah was distantly related to King Josiah.
Josiah became king when he was eight years old and ruled for thirty-one years (2 Kings 22.1).
He is mainly thought of as the good king during whose reign the book of the Law was discovered (v. 8), leading to a religious revival in 622 BC.
But they were hard times.
Josiah's grandfather, Manasseh, and his father, Amon, had introduced wicked practices into Judah.
· Manasseh had built altars to Baal and worshipped the sun, moon and stars at altars erected in the Temple courts (21.4-5).
· He had an image of the goddess Asherah placed in the Temple (v. 7).
· Child sacrifice and astrology prospered during his reign (21.6; 23.10-11).
Amon - probably named after an Egyptian god - continued his father's policies until his assassination (vv. 19-26).
Josiah was very different.
At the age of sixteen (632 BC) Josiah began to seek God with all his heart.
Six years later he started the reform movement in which worship of the God of Israel was re-established and some of the idolatry, not all, was purged from Judah and Jerusalem.
Many rejected the reforms, refusing repentance and change.
Things were not good.
So Zephaniah, and his contemporary the prophet Jeremiah, felt compelled to preach God’s judgment upon Judah.
The people of Judah had become complacent.
They had turned away from the God of Israel, living merely for themselves.
May we not fall into the same trap!
