We've all been hurt. We all carry scars. We can all overcome these things and be
healed through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Let's build that relationship
together right here. Welcome to Healing Scars with Pastor Burton. Hey everybody
and welcome back to the sanctuary. So good to have you here and for those of
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we have quite the selection there and more to grow and that's really all we
have for announcements this week. Thanks for bearing with me. I know that was a
lot. This week, we're going to continue on in the book of Zephaniah. As we saw
last week, chapter one was directed at, you know, as it was punishment being
directed at the world for its disobedience and that there was still
hope for believers. And this week, we'll be going through chapter two
today and we'll see that it's specifically directed at Judah and
Jerusalem being along with the rest of the world. So they're not being, you know,
put off to the side, no favorite child or anything like that. They're going to be
punished as well. And this will actually continue on into the first part of
chapter three until the book starts talking about the Day of Hope, which of
course is really wonderful. You know, I'm excited to get to that part next week. So
to reflect back a little, this book was written to get the Israelites just to,
you know, wake up, you know, it's just to shake them out of bed and get them to
stop being so complacent, not only in their lives but in their worship as well.
You know, they needed to, you know, to restart doing the things God had
intended for them, you know, a little kickstart, if you will. You know, and they
needed to turn back to relying on God and praising Him instead of being
prideful and relying on themselves and, you know, and praising themselves and
various pagan idols that were all around them and just permeating the
culture at that time. You know, they needed to be less accepting of the
world and more focused on God's will, very much like all of us, you know, you, me,
all of us. We all need to be less accepting of the world and more focused
on what God's will is and what God wants from us, okay? So let's dive into the
word now. For those of you who have your Bible and those of you who are taking
notes, please join me in turning to Zephaniah chapter 2 and we're going to
start off with the first few verses here. So Zephaniah chapter 2 and we're
going to start with verses 1, 2, and 3. And the Bible says, gather together, gather
yourselves together, you shameful nation, before the decree takes effect and that
day passes like windblown chaff, before the Lord's fierce anger comes upon you,
before the day of the Lord's wrath comes upon you, seek the Lord and 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. As we can see, the
clock is ticking here, time's running out. If you were to look at it from an hourglass,
you know, that sand, it's still pouring but it's very quickly running out.
It's not quite done yet but it's getting there. You know, from those of you who
need a sports analogy or a sporting perspective, the two-minute warning has
just rung, okay? So people, they still had time to listen to God, you know, this is a
warning, repent and turn back to him, you know, and this is a warning that we're all
getting, you know, at that point for these people, it was time to have some humble
pie and start obeying the Father again. And the Old Testament prophets, they had
all given warnings and what the consequence would be if people continued
to stay the course that they had been on. They had warned that the only means of
escape was to turn from sin and back to God. All right, let me say that again
because this pertains to us just like it did to them. The only means of escape is
to turn from sin and back to God. So repentance, you know, and it's not just
oh I'm sorry or any of that, you know, true repentance is acknowledging okay hey
yeah I messed up, I've been doing this, Lord I need help to change, but then
you need to go and you need to actually make the effort and start taking steps
to take that sin out of your life and you know praying and let basically get
that sin out and let the Holy Spirit fill you so that it can't come back in.
All right, true repentance is true change. It is change in your life. Micah 6 verse
8, the Bible says, he has shown you, O mortal, what is good and what does the
Lord require of you to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your
God. You see people will do all sorts of things to appease God, you know, like oh
you know I gotta make I gotta make dad happy, you know, but they don't take time
to actually listen to what he has said and what he is telling us and God has
made it very very clear that we be just, that we do what is right, that we be
loving and merciful, all right, merciful, that's a big one, not just loving but
merciful and that we walk with him humbly, that we humble ourselves. That
word humble, you know, what does that mean in the context of walking with God?
Well I'll tell you, it means to be modest in your position and to place God's
importance above your own, that God is above us, all right, we look to him and
you know it's just as important today as it was then. This is something that has
never changed, why? Because God hasn't changed, this is his character, he is the
same yesterday, today, and forever will be, you know, we have had a ton of warnings
that we need to turn back to what God has told us and we need to act on it, you
know, people they don't look at world events this way very often, you know, you
might hear something like, oh we as a nation, well you know what, we as a nation
of God at that, okay, warnings aren't just in the Bible, they don't just go to
other countries, we're getting warned here, everybody on earth has been warned,
every single one of us, because God is in everything, all right, James chapter 1
verse 22, the Bible says, do not merely listen to the word and so deceive
yourselves, do what it says, you know, a lot of people, you know, our culture,
society today, you know, like to think that just going and sitting in a service
is all that's needed, but it's not, you know, and it says right here, do what it
says, we have to live what the scripture, what his word has called us to, we have
to do what it has told us to, you know, you may have heard the phrase or seen
the meme that says, the church isn't a cruise ship where everyone relaxes, it is
a battleship where it's all hands on deck and everyone serves the mission, and
that is very true, we're on a mission in the battle of good versus evil, and the
lighthouse has its light turned on and its horn is blowing to warn us that if
we don't change course, we're going to be in a whole lot of trouble real soon,
all right, the people of Judah had plenty of warning just like we do, so nobody
had an excuse not to be listening, everyone had the chance to fix themselves,
and by fix themselves, I don't mean like, oh, let's just do that, you know, or let's
get into a self-help group or read books or anything, no, everybody had the chance
to start turning from their sin and get back in alignment with God, you know, and
it doesn't take much, you know, as I've said before, as the Bible has told us, a
mustard seed of faith, you know, just like them, we need to listen, we need to pray
for forgiveness of others, ourselves, and one another, all right, the big key, the
big keyword there is for one another though, I should say keywords, not just
ourselves, but for everyone around us, see, we need to ask for his mercy in
addition to showing it, we need to start obeying him instead of the world, the
excuse of I didn't know is not going to fly, and by living humbly, we're humbling
ourselves, we're placing God above ourselves, it doesn't mean that we're
putting ourselves down or being goody-two-shoes about everything, it
means that we're being honest about ourselves before God and before others,
in other words, in front of God and in front of others, that we recognize God is
the Father and have become servant leaders as his children, as we've been
called to and have been shown by the example of Jesus Christ when he lived
among us, continuing on, Zephaniah chapter 2 verses 4 through 7, the Bible
says, Gaza will be abandoned and Ascalon left in ruins, at midday Ashdod will be
emptied and Ekron uprooted, woe to you who live by the sea, you Carathite
people, the word of the Lord is against you, Canaan, land of the Philistines, he
says, I will destroy you and none will be left, the land by the sea will become
pastures having wells for shepherds and pens for flocks, that lot, that land,
excuse me, that land will belong to the remnant of the people of Judah, there
they will find pasture, in the evening they will lie down in the houses of
Ascalon, excuse me, Ashcalon, the Lord their God will care for them, he will
restore their fortunes, your translation may also read that part as will bring
back their captives, now the four cities here are in Philistia down in the
southwest part of Judah along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, going on the
way back to the days of Joshua, these were old-school enemies of Israel,
we're talking old-time enemies, they had history, they had beef, they had been
going at it for a long time, you know those odds just, they'd been there,
buttonheads, and the Philistines they were known, they're very well known for
their idolatry, their cruelty, and really just being a bully as nation, you know
these guys were jerks, and the cities here, these were four of their five
capital cities, so four of their biggest cities, the fifth one was named Gath and
it's believed that by this point in history that it had already been
destroyed, so Gath was already out of the picture and they were down in just these
four cities, now there's a word in Zephaniah chapter 2 here, when you go
back to you look at verse 7 that you know you should take note of, you know
and that word is remnant, this is a word that every single prophet used while
prophesying about impending judgment and destruction being on the horizon, and
this itself it is a reference to believers, Christians, right, the God's
children, basically this small group of God's loyal children who God will
show mercy on, and they will be returned back to their lands, they will be
basically returned home to flourish, so even though God said he was going to
destroy Judah, he's also going to be merciful and stay true to the promise
he made to Abraham, if you look back to Genesis 17 verses 4 through 8 the Bible
says, as for me this is my covenant with you, you will be the father of many
nations, no longer will you be called Abraham, your name will be Abraham, for I
have made you the father of many nations, I will make you very fruitful, I will
make nations of you and kings will come from you, I will establish my covenant as
an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for
the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after
you, the whole land of Canaan where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as
an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you and I will be
their God, God's character is that he doesn't lie and that he keeps his
promises, so even though he can't allow sin to continue to go on and poison and
kill the world as the cancer that it is, he's still going to be merciful to his
children, why? because he is the father and the father loves his children, he
loves us, he loves his loyal children, alright even before Christ, you know
before Christianity was born, God's children still there, right? today we know
exactly where we stand, so he's going to be merciful to his children, you know
God is made to be this, I should say he's made out to be like this angry old
geezer, you know people like to say oh New Testament God, Old Testament God, you
know but he's not, you know I've said it time and time again that the judgment
that he hands out, the justice that he has to med out, it's because of our own
disobedience and because of that we force his hand to correct us, our
punishment we bring on ourselves, you know we can learn more about that in
Hebrews chapter 12 verses 4 through 13, you know God always has our best
interest at heart, even if we don't necessarily see it at the time and let's
be honest, oftentimes we just don't, we may think we do, that's why they like to
say hindsight's 20-20, so going back to Zephaniah chapter 2 we're going to look
now at verses 8 through 11, the Bible says, I have heard the insults of Moab
and the taunts of the Ammonites who insulted my people and made threats
against their land, therefore as surely I live declares the Lord Almighty the God
of Israel, surely Moab will become like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah, a
place of weeds and salt pits, a wasteland forever, the remnant of my
people will plunder them, the survivors of my nation will inherit their land,
this is what they will get in return for their pride, for insulting and mocking
the people of the Lord Almighty, the Lord will be awesome to them when he
destroys all the gods of the earth, distant nations will bow down to him, all
of them in their own lands, the way the Ammonites and the Moabites were, see
the Ammonites and the Moabites were, they were to the east of Judah and their
lineage itself actually goes all the way back to Lot's incest with his daughters
after they escaped the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah back in Genesis 19,
all right, so there's a reference right there, you know, because the Bible
references itself constantly throughout, more so than any other book, and you know
they were another nation that was constantly at odds with Judah, taunting
them, teasing them, all right, they were also very cruel idolaters and they
worshiped Simosh and Malik and you can learn more about that in 1 Kings 11 and
in 1 Kings 3, Moab's king, when you go back to that, he sacrificed his son on
the city wall to stop an invasion, so to, you know, to the false gods that, you
know, he was worshipping, the idolatry, that's how deeply rooted it
was, that's how evil this dude was and how evil those people were, you know, just
absolutely to the core, and here God is telling us that he's heard what's going
on and he knows what the Moabites and the Ammonites have been saying and
doing, because he is all-knowing after all, that he knows how prideful they are
and he's taken, he's been taking notes, all right, and he's gonna be dealing
with them as well, there are no evildoers who will ever escape the Lord's justice,
not one, and as believers we have to remember, we have to remember that it
will be in his time, you know, it's hard when you're being mocked, it's hard when
you're being teased, it's hard when you're being harassed or even just
plain ignored, it's a very lonely place, it feels very lonely and just isolated,
however, God is there with you, so you need to talk to him and you need to trust
in him, see he'll take care of you, he'll take care of all of us, those
who don't follow him, well, you know, they have time now but eventually the time
the time's gonna run out and they're gonna wish that they did, so take your
hurt and place it at the feet of the Father, put it at God's feet, right there
at the base of the throne, and then once you've done that, pray for your enemies,
pray for your enemies, we've been told to, it's biblical, we've talked about this,
so take your hurt, give it to the Father, and then pray for your enemies, remember
God's justice is thorough, when Sodom and Gomorrah were dealt with, it was so
thorough, so complete, so utterly awesome, that to this very day, nobody knows
exactly where they were, so while we may feel the sting of the Father's
correction when we misstep in life and when we're, you know, falling into our own
sin, the unbelievers, they're gonna feel the sting of hell and damnation for
their ridicule and their mockery of the Lord, that's gonna be a whole lot
worse, Cush is briefly mentioned here as well, however, you know, they had also
been prophesied over back in Isaiah 18 and in Ezekiel 30, so Zephaniah chapter
2 verse 12, the Bible says, you Cushites too will be slain by my sword, so Cush, it
was located at the southern end of the Red Sea and it was controlled by Egypt
around this time, they were slain by God's sword, which if you recall, it's the
Babylonians, when they invaded Egypt around 605 BC, you know, I'll remind you
that the Babylonians for all their evil, you know, they were a really great
tool that God welded to turn a lot of people back to him, so he took something
that was really bad out there and used it for good, so, you know, they
went through and just, you know, they ransacked things, so God was able to take
them and use them to help, you know, people turn back to him and weed out
just a ton of sin, alright, so going into the final part of Zephaniah 2 here, let's
look at verses 13 through 15 now, the Bible says, he will stretch out his hand
against the north and destroy Assyria leaving Nineveh utterly desolate and dry
as the desert, flocks and herds will lie down there,
creatures of every kind, the desert owl and the screech owl will roost on her
columns, their hooting will echo through the windows and the screech owl, excuse
me, lost my place here, so let me just go back a little bit, so flocks and herds
will lie down here, creatures of every kind, the desert owl and the screech owl
will roost on her columns, their hooting will echo through the windows, rubble
will fill the doorways, the beams of cedar will be exposed, this is the city
of revelry that lived in safety, she said to herself, I am the one and there is
none besides me, what a ruin she has become, a lair for wild beasts, all who
pass by her scoff and shake their fist, it's interesting that for as big as
Kush was, they're barely even mentioned in this book beyond saying you're going
down, bye, good night John boy, that's it really, poof, really kind of like a
fleeting thought, but then the sights were actually set on the biggest dog in
the yard to finish out the chapter, see Assyria if you recall was the dominant
world power with the strongest military might at that time, from a worldly
aspect they owned the yard, it was theirs, there wasn't anything that was
going to happen there that they didn't have a say in or a hand in, alright and a
lot of us like to say the same kind of thing today, you know they'd be stupid
to pick a fight with us, we got the best military in the world, oh we had the
bomb, you know people forget, none of those things mean anything to God
because he can deal with all of it, snap of a finger, less than that really, just
a thought and as a nation you know that's done everything that it can to
kick God's out of its institution, well you know as a nation here we're not what
we once were either, where are we you know, very arrogant, we become very
prideful, you know and going back to Assyria even though you know they were
starting to weaken, you know they're getting real comfortable in their ways
kind of set, they've been the world's powerhouse for three centuries, three of
them, most people don't even live for an entire one, very few people live for a
hundred years right, for three centuries they were the top dog, they crushed anyone
that dared to get in their way or even try to stand up to them for that matter
their capital there Nineveh you recall, you know they believed it was an
impenetrable target, nobody could touch it right, they were the center of culture
they were the center of technology, we're talking libraries, massive buildings, an
impressive irrigation system, you know it was a true spectacle to behold, it was a
gem you know out there, you know it's a gem of their day, this was the this is
the place to be, this is where the you know, you know like you look at just here
you know people talk about LA or New York City or Miami depending on you know
what what's going on you know we have certain cities like that here we're like
oh yeah that's that is the place to go to for certain things right and this was
it this is the center of the world of the world that's how impressive they
were, you want to talk about let's talk about their city wall for a moment
their city wall it was approximately 60 miles long, 60 miles long, some you know
for some of us we live in places we don't even have to drive that far to get
to the next city, to go that distance some of us will go through several towns
60 miles long, not only was it 60 miles long but it was a hundred feet high and
then more than 30 feet wide with around 1500 towers to protect it so when it was
predicted that it was going to fall it was a bad joke at best to anyone living
there like are you kidding are you serious so if you want biblical proof of
prophecy you know proof of biblical prophecy this right here this was a
tremendous example using the technology at the time wiped out you know because
Zephaniah predicted it would happen and a decade later the Babylonians they
didn't just destroy them they wiped them off the map like they were never there
Nineveh was so utterly destroyed that its very existence was questioned it got
to a point where many even believed it to just be a myth because there was no
proof there was no evidence that it even really existed beyond word people
talking about it and where it was talked about in Scripture it wasn't until the
19th century the 19th century the archaeologists finally discovered it near
Mosul and Iraq that's how that's just here is F and I to verse 13 says leaving
Nineveh utterly desolate and dry as the desert and indeed it was a place so
forgotten and desolate and just utterly destroyed that even Indiana Jones
wouldn't have bothered with it say oh dr. Jones dr. Jones nope don't waste your
time kid wouldn't bat an eye and this is a warning call to all of us every single
nation around the world that it is time to turn back to Jesus as believers
we know we'll be shown more mercy and you know well one day we'll get to enjoy
fellowship with the Lord we can't take the work the father has tasked us with
with for granted though well yes Jesus is the way if we truly love God with all of
our heart and all of our mind and all of our soul then we will happily answer the
Great Commission and we will tell everyone that we can about Jesus and the
gospel we aren't the ones who do the saving let me remind you Jesus does it's
just on us to make the introduction to him and serve as his ambassadors around
the world so I'm gonna share this with you you know many of you I know are
familiar with Penn and Teller Penn Gillette you know what one half of the
duo there he is a self-professed atheist all right however in an interview he had
this to say about Christians evangelizing to the world so Penn said this if you
believe that there's a heaven and hell and people could be going to hell or not
getting eternal life or whatever and you think that it's not really worth telling
them this because it would make it socially awkward and atheist who think
people shouldn't process proselytize just leave me alone and keep your religion
to yourself how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize so that
asked how much do you have to hate somebody to pull to believe that
everlasting life is possible and not tell them that if I believe beyond a
shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming at you and you didn't believe it
and that truck was bearing down there's a certain point where I tackle you and
this is more important than that this is coming from a self-professed atheist and
even he is saying that he respects people who go out and share the world
see the point that he was making is that if you truly believe and you truly love
people as you should then you're going to speak up you're going to share the
gospel you're going to make that introduction to Jesus now whether or not
that person is saved or believes that's on them but you did what you're supposed
to you did what we've all been called to do what we as Christians are called to
do by God something that we as Christians all should believe in it it's
part of our part of our core it's part of the core of being a Christian that
that as a Christian that we show others the same love God has shown us and that
we share him with the world all right so you know let me remind you God loves you
God's going to look out for you so stay humble stay obedient and follow him his
glory is much more than any of us can match can imagine and it's going to be
absolutely magnificent to see all right so so next week we're going to get jump
into a chapter 3 we're gonna finish up with you know this last part of the
warnings coming through and then we're and we're finally gonna go into the day
of hope which you know I'm really excited for that's gonna be awesome all
right so join us then thanks for joining us today now go and be the church
take care y'all I want to thank you for joining us today if you have any
questions prayer requests or would like to know more about our ministry you can
find us on our website at be the light sanctuary org or on Facebook at be the
light sanctuary we'll catch you next time God bless