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, welcome back to the sanctuary.
So good to have you with us.
And for those of you who are new, thank you for joining us.
Welcome!
So, this week is really the part of the book of Zephaniah that many of us have truly been
looking forward to because we're going to learn about the Day of Hope.
Hope!
Now, it's a small word with tremendous implications, isn't it?
Dr. Martin Luther King is credited as saying, everything that is done in this world is done
by hope.
Now, I'm not talking about the, well, I sure hope the weather cooperates today, you know,
way of hoping for things or anything like that.
Sometimes it's a word that just kind of gets tossed around.
However, as Christians and as believers, hope is a little different.
Hope is the confident expectation that no matter how bad things may get in the world
around us, and they will get bad, God will take care of us as His children.
This is a hope that comes from absolute love and absolute joy that can only be found in
the familial relationship between us and the Father.
Now, to start, the first seven verses that we're going to look at today finish laying
down the final warning and what the consequences are going to be for those who continue to
rebel, you know, not just then, but today.
You know, those people who do the things that they shouldn't and just continually disobey
what God has told us.
We're going to go through this part and then we're going to dive into the Day of Hope.
Now, for those of you with your Bibles and those of you taking notes, join me now in
Zephaniah chapter 3.
We're going to go through verses 1 through 5 first.
So Zephaniah chapter 3, we're going to start right there at the beginning, verses 1 through
5.
The Bible says, Whoa, to the city of oppressors, rebellious and defiled, she obeys no one,
she accepts no correction, she does not trust in the Lord, she does not draw near to her
God.
Her officials within her are roaring lions, her rulers are evening wolves who leave nothing
for the morning.
Her prophets are unprincipled, they are treacherous people.
Her priests profane the sanctuary and do violence to the law.
The Lord within her is righteous, he does no wrong.
Morning by morning he dispenses his justice and every new day he does not fail, yet the
unrighteous know no shame.
Wow, that's quite a bit there, isn't it?
Quite often today it's easy to find people who refuse to listen to anything they disagree
with or anyone who disagrees with them.
They'll claim to be tolerant, but then they turn around and they show themselves to be
anything but.
It leads to some really heated situations sometimes.
We have countless memes at this point because of it.
We even put names to some of these people, like Karen, right?
And the reason for it is actually quite simple.
It's pride.
It comes down to a matter of pride, that sin of pride.
Inflated egos, exasperated self-esteem, exaggerated self-importance.
I could go on at length, but the underlying issue is pride.
It's a sin that leads people to worshiping themselves without even realizing it.
And as we hear the people, I'm sorry, as we see here, the people, those who were supposed
to be God's people at that time, since we're looking at Jerusalem, they had gotten so prideful,
so arrogant that not only would they refuse to hear God, but they refused to accept his
correction on top of it.
The people who should know better.
Now, it could be pretty tough to admit when you're wrong.
I'll give you that.
And I'm sure some of you are looking at your significant others right now.
However, we shouldn't ever, let me say that again, we shouldn't ever let pride take control
of us like that, especially when it comes to the things of God and the Bible, God's
holy word.
Pride should never be allowed to get in the way of God working in our lives and God guiding
us in our lives.
And he is correcting us, we need to open ourselves up to whatever that is that he's trying to
teach us in that moment.
Now sometimes it is a tough pill to swallow.
However, at the end, we'll be better off because of it.
You know, now notice everyone's being called out here from the top down.
God had issues with all the leadership in Jerusalem, officials, rulers, prophets, priests,
and so on because of their blatant disobedience and sins.
Take a look here, it says her officials within her are roaring lions.
You notice a certain parallel here?
Because who is Satan?
He who is looking to devour like a roaring lion, right?
You know, we've heard this before.
So the people here, they're being compared to the devil.
You know, so let me put this out here, leading people, being a leader, it is a great privilege.
Just like then, we see the same thing today, people in these positions have forgotten it.
It's an incredible responsibility, especially in the church.
Those who even consider taking leadership positions within the church or becoming clergy
really need to pray and listen to what God has to say about it because God holds all
of us in these positions responsible for our actions, our examples, the very words that
we speak.
It's not just a way to earn a living and I can tell you many of us, a great many of us,
really don't earn anything monetary from it, which is why we have jobs outside of the church.
It's what's referred to as being bivocational, meaning we have multiple jobs.
So it's a huge undertaking that is taken for granted by so many people.
You know, a lot of us, we have to take those jobs so that we can pay the bills because,
let's just face it, we don't earn anything if we earn anything at all within the church.
You know, myself and I know several others out there, you know, working in the ministry
and, you know, senior pastors whose places of worship don't make enough to even be able
to pay them anything, they barely keep the lights on because people, you know, they don't
want to give anymore, which is fine because, you know, we are called to give with a joyful
heart and if it's not on your heart to give, then you know what, so be it.
If it is on your heart to give though, I highly encourage you to do so because you will be
making an impact, you will be doing some great good, you know.
However, then there are those who do make an exceptional living at it and take it for
granted like, oh, this is what everybody should be doing, you know, and they are very proud
of, you know, the things that they buy.
They like to show things off, you know, they have a certain image, you know, that they
like to put out there and, you know, those are red flags that all of us should be aware
of, you know.
In Jerusalem, going back here, you know, going down a little rabbit hole here, you know,
Jerusalem's people, they knew better.
Of all the people to stray from the path, of all the people, they knew God and because
of that, they had no excuse for their various sins.
None, not one.
We're talking Jerusalem here, the place where the temple was located, the religious center
of the nation, the place of God within the city, the place where God dwelled and He was
within the city.
He was present there.
He dwelled there.
He lived there.
Yet the people didn't follow Him as they should have.
You know, like a lot of people today we see, you know, like I was just talking about, they
took for granted their relationship with Him and in many cases disregarded it entirely
because even though God was there, they still fell into corruption.
They still persecuted others and committed various other sins, so much so that it got
to the point that they themselves were becoming unbelievers.
You know, let me take a moment to remind you that no matter how dark, how lonely, how hard,
how spiritually strained and drained you will become, and it happens, God is still right
there with you.
What we need to do in these times is we need to shift that perspective from looking down
at the ground, looking down at the gutter, to looking up to Him.
You know, we need to talk to God.
That way, you know, He can guide us, He can comfort us, He can tell us that He loves you,
you know, because you are loved, every single one of us.
Continuing on here, Zephaniah chapter 3 verses 6 through 7, the Bible says, I have destroyed
nations.
Their strongholds are demolished.
I have left their streets deserted, with no one passing through.
Their cities are laid waste.
They are deserted and empty.
Of Jerusalem I thought, surely you will fear me and accept correction.
Even her place of refuge, or certain translations, or her sanctuary, would not be destroyed,
nor all my punishments come upon her.
Some translations may also say, or something along the lines of all those I appointed over
her.
But they were still eager to act corruptly in all they did.
You know, it's curious here.
It's curious to see that the Israelites, who had every warning, who knew better, who had
that relationship, still strayed from God, still turned their backs on God.
You know, and really, it leads to a question of why.
Why would you turn when you already know what's up?
You had all the information.
It was sitting right there in front of you at your very fingertips.
Yet, they still couldn't figure it out.
It's the same today, isn't it?
People can be presented with all the research, all the facts, the statistics, so on, so forth,
all of it, and then still set in the same place.
They stay set in the exact same place.
They won't budge.
You know, and often, these days we hear it more and more, they'll have a comment like,
well, you know, that's just your truth.
I have mine, which is garbage, and it stems from the sin in our lives and the sin in the
world.
You know, again, nobody wants to be told, let alone accept the fact that they're wrong.
It's tough.
You know, and when it happens, people tend to feel slighted.
We give into that vanity.
We give into pride.
We buy full on into that false sense of self-worth that the world tells us we're entitled to.
You know, when we're banging on our chest so hard that we bruise it.
And we see a lot of it today, especially in the workplace, don't we?
Oh, I'm just so good.
I did this.
Just like the Israelites, that sin of pride, it hardens our hearts.
You see, the problem they had was that they were just so consumed by it, and their hearts
were so hardened that even though they knew of God, they didn't want to follow God anymore.
They were so consumed by the noise of the world, all the lies and the poison that's
out there, the pollution that's out there, that they couldn't hear God anymore.
You know, they're too busy.
They didn't have time.
Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
Because we're hearing and we're seeing the same thing today.
You know, what happens is just like them, we get consumed by that sin, by that noise,
by that pollution in the world.
And even though the warnings and the telltale signs from God are there, people keep on going
on in their way because they don't see the connection.
They can't perceive that correlation between sin and the consequences of it.
They don't accept it and therefore believe that there are, you know, they don't accept
and therefore they don't believe that there's consequences for those sins.
There's no repercussions, you know.
And if there's no repercussions, there's no consequence, then hey, you know, must be
alright.
If it feels good, do it, right?
You know, that's the stinking thinking of the world today.
And the more we tolerate sin and harden our hearts to God, the more agreeable we become
to sin, the more distant we become from God.
So I implore you to listen to Him.
Listen to the Father, listen to His warnings before your heart gets so hardened that like
the Israelites, you lose sight of Him, you lose hearing of Him.
You lose that connection because again, it's not God who severs that connection with us,
it's us severing that connection with Him.
And if you're ever curious, you know, hey, does Jesus still live within me?
Because a lot of people, they want to say, yeah, I'm a Christian, you know, but you ask
them, does Jesus live in you?
Here's the litmus test.
You go out, if you were to do something wrong, would you, you know, basically, oh, let me
back this.
If you do something wrong and you feel bad or you feel wrong, that is the Holy Spirit
convicting you and that's a good thing.
That means Jesus is there.
However, you know, if you're that kind of person, go out, do something you know is wrong
and you don't feel bad about it at all.
Well, that's a part of yourself that you've allowed to harden and push, you push Jesus
out of.
You need to focus on that and fix it to let Jesus back in before it's too late.
Because you can't live in Christ and the world.
The Bible tells us you can't have two masters.
You need to choose one or the other.
Now I know there's some out there who think that this doesn't apply to them.
I can assure you it applies to each and every one of us.
You, me, all of us.
You could be brought up going to services your whole life and not have Jesus in you.
You can go to a Christian school and not be saved.
You can be baptized and still not know the Holy Spirit.
You know, and this is a big reason why a lot of people give up on their faith and the faith
that they had as kids as they grow older.
You know, they used to go.
It was a part of their life.
But then the world was given root in their lives.
Now of course there's more to it than this, but let's take a look at it while we're here.
LifeWay Research did a study all the way back in 2017.
They released the results in 2019.
And in it they said that most teenagers, approximately 66% who attended church regularly for at least
a year in high school dropped out of church and stopped going to services between the
ages of 18 and 22 when they were becoming young adults.
And that in itself is only in Protestant denominations.
From what I've read various places, those numbers are just a staggering across the board
regardless of denomination.
To take it further, this same study gave the top five reasons for dropout of young adults
age 23 to 30.
I'm going to go through these and I want you to listen because these should sound the alarm
for all of us.
Of those surveyed that had dropped out, 34% said it was because they moved away for college
and stopped going while they were there.
You know and with schools pushing God out, this really isn't surprising.
It's really not.
32% said it was because church members seemed judgmental or hypocritical.
What really?
Judgmental or hypocritical?
Yeah, really.
This is also a big one for veterans and first responders.
Huge one.
I can't tell you how many stopped going because of this very thing.
Especially the military community though.
More so than first responders.
29% didn't feel connected to the church.
29% nearly a third.
And they are not alone on this.
25% did not agree with the church's stance on political and social issues.
Let's be honest, there are way too many out there that allow personal politics to take
the stage and to take over their sermons, messages, and teachings instead of presenting
the gospel.
24% said work obligations did not allow them time to go.
And this one's not a surprise either because employers care more about that bottom dollar
than they do their employees.
Now I'm not saying all managers do, but the employers in general?
Absolutely.
And I'll remind you as an employee, we are all replaceable.
You can quit, you can die, doesn't matter.
You'll be replaced in the blink of an eye.
And your contributions, hardly even remembered, and those who do remember it for just a short
period of time before completely forgotten.
However, your family, your children will remember all those times that you should have been
there and you weren't.
Because you couldn't miss work.
Proverbs 22 verse 6, the Bible says, train up a child in the way he should go even when
he is old he will not depart from it.
See we get so focused on ourselves that we forget to ensure that our children know God
and they're suffering because of it.
They know it too.
I can give you an example here.
I was serving at a church for many years and I was growingly frustrated with a number of
things and I needed to take some time off because I was experiencing a little bit of
burnout there.
And I needed to take some time off to pray, to have that conversation with God, listen
to what he was telling me, and to reset myself because I was becoming very angry.
It happens to all of us, right?
Every single one of us.
Don't think just because someone's up in the pulpit that it doesn't happen.
Clergy burnout, pastor burnout, it's a very real thing.
Now at this time I was thinking of myself.
I was being selfish.
I didn't even realize it.
I was thinking of myself and since I wasn't working at the church, quote unquote, at this
place of worship during those couple of weeks, I also was not attending a worship service.
Didn't think twice of it.
Just like, you know what, I need time to reset.
I need to be away from that particular place.
I'm going to take some time off.
But here's the thing.
You know who did take note and said, hey, we need to be going to service.
Hey, why aren't you going to service?
My son.
My son noticed and he spoke up.
My son who the Lord blessed me with and charged me with taking care of.
He's the one that the Lord spoke through.
He's the one who reminded me that it wasn't about me and if it wasn't there, then it should
be someplace else.
But I needed to come together with other Christians, joining together as the church in worship
somewhere.
And you know what?
He was 100% right.
We can't lose sight of that.
You know, and if you know someone who's burning out, if you know someone, you know, who used
to go and they kind of strayed or they're going through some kind of turmoil, pray for
them.
Pray for them and keep setting that example.
Show them what it is and what it means to have a healthy relationship with God.
It's easy to lose sight of that when you become frustrated and angry.
And it happens in life.
It happens to every single one of us.
And that right there is exactly the time it matters most.
That's when we need to remember to refocus and recenter ourselves on God's will.
Let me say that again.
We need to remember to refocus and recenter ourselves on God's will.
If that means you need to break away and go someplace else for a moment, do so.
Talk to God though.
Find out where He's calling you and what it is that you need to learn.
Give Him your frustrations.
Don't give into anger.
Don't give into that sin because it leads you down the path that you don't want to
go down.
Let's get back to it.
In Zephaniah 3 verse 8, the Bible says, Therefore wait for me, declares the Lord, for the day
I will stand up to testify.
I had decided to assemble the nations, to gather the kingdoms, and to pour out my wrath
on them all my fierce anger.
The whole world will be consumed by the fire of my jealous anger.
In the end, everyone is going to be standing before the throne and judged by what they've
done in this life.
The Bible also tells us this in Revelation 20 verse 12 when it says, And I saw the dead,
great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.
Another book was opened, which is the Book of Life.
The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.
Now as we've discussed in the past, eventually God will see to it that justice prevails.
Evil is going to be punished and the faithful will be forgiven, blessed, and join with Him
in fellowship.
I'll remind you, don't look to get revenge.
It's going to be taken care of.
Instead pray and look to Jesus.
Now it's not always going to be easy.
I'm not going to tell you that because I'd be lying.
It will not always be easy.
Yet as Christians, as believers, as followers of Christ, this is what we're called to do.
And this is where we dive into the Day of Hope, because the Day of Justice is coming.
Zephaniah 3 verses 9-13, the Bible says, Then I will purify the lips of the peoples, that
all of them may call on the name of the Lord and serve Him shoulder to shoulder.
From beyond the rivers of Cush, that's the upper Nile region, my worshipers, my scattered
people will bring me offerings.
On that day Jerusalem will not be put to shame for all the wrongs you have done to me, because
I will remove from you your arrogant boasters.
Never again will you be haughty on my holy hill.
But I will leave within you the meek and humble.
The remnant of Israel will trust in the name of the Lord.
They will do no wrong, they will tell no lies.
A deceitful tongue will not be found in their mouths.
They will eat and lie down and no one will make them afraid.
Now I don't know about you, but I love this.
The day when every believer around the world is unified as God's proper family, worshiping
Him together, in fellowship with one another, living in harmony, a perfect harmony, God
is going to purge the sin from us, thereby purifying us.
Everything about us will be as He intended it to be, from the inside out.
You know, some people get hung up on the whole, oh I'm going to have this new heavenly body.
Really, I'm going to tell you now, I believe that this is better.
Look at it, we're talking a world of love, a world of peace and understanding with the
Father.
Now the scattered people here, this is referencing the Jewish people who had been relocated to
different areas.
And just like then, the Bible is telling us that no matter how far God's people have been
scattered around the earth, and at this point we're all over it, the day is coming when
we will all come back together as one people, as one nation, as one kingdom in worship of
God.
God's family, right?
In Isaiah chapter 60 verses 6 and 7 the Bible tells us this, herds of camels will cover
your land, young camels Amidian and Ephah, and all from Sheba will come, bearing gold
and incense and proclaiming the praise of the Lord.
Al-Qadar's flocks will be gathered to you.
The rams of Nebayoth will serve you, they will be accepted as offerings on my altar,
and I will adorn my glorious temple.
Sorry, I kind of butchered that name there, didn't I?
A little bit of a tongue twister for me.
This right here though, this little piece here, this tells us that everyone is going
to come back to the Father.
They're going to see his light, they're going to be drawn to him.
While the appearance of the outside world may be discouraging sometimes, the fact that
so many people are not turning to God right now.
It seems like more and more so people are actually turning away from him.
The day is coming when everybody is going to recognize the Father as our one true God.
And it's going to be a glorious sight.
Going back to Zephaniah chapter 3 and verses 11 through 12, what the word is telling us
is that God is going to weed out those sinfully proud and boastful people, those arrogant,
self-absorbed idolaters.
They're going to find that they're out of time and that it's time to pay for their
transgressions.
You know, all that garbage and nonsense that they bought into, it's time to pay up.
God is going to cut out the cancer that stems from the disobedience of sinners, thereby
removing their poison and their pollution from the world.
However those, as the Bible says here, who are meek and humble, they'll be rewarded
because of their faith in the Almighty.
That's where we find our strength, is in God.
Revelations chapter 21 verses 4, I'm sorry, verse 4, the Bible says, He will wipe every
tear from their eyes.
There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things
has passed away.
For believers it's going to be a great day.
You see, there's going to be tough days while we're here.
There are.
I'm not going to let anybody tell you otherwise because if they are, they're lying.
Second Timothy chapter 3 verse 1, the Bible says, but mark this, there will be terrible
times in the last days.
Matthew 24 10, the Bible says, at that time many will fall away and will betray one another
and hate one another.
In John 15 verses 19 and 20, Jesus said, If you belonged to the world, it would love you
as its own.
As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.
That is why the world hates you.
Remember what I told you, a servant is no greater than his master.
If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.
There will be hard days.
Tell you now, there will be hard days.
There are a ton of false teachers out there and they love to say things like, live your
best life now.
Prosperity preachers of the name it and claim it faith that love to say things like, do
you want to be rich?
I want to be rich.
This is how you're going to do it.
They will lead you to damnation because they don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ.
As Christians, we will find persecution and judgment from the world just like Jesus did.
Just like he did.
Times are going to be hard.
You know, say, live your best life now.
Really?
Live your best life now?
No, I'm pretty sure that's in heaven when we're called home to be with the Father.
That is going to be the best life right there.
Matthew 6, 19-21 tells us that our treasure is stored up in heaven.
Not here on earth, but on heaven.
And that's part of our hope in Jesus.
That fact that we're going to be together, living in harmony with rewards that we can't
even imagine.
We're simply asked to be obedient children, to trust in the Father, and that everything
is going to work out for us in the end.
Continuing on here, Zephaniah chapter 3, verses 14-18.
The Bible says, seeing daughter Zion, shout aloud Israel, be glad and rejoice with all
your heart, daughter Jerusalem.
The Lord has taken away your punishment.
He has turned back your enemy.
The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you.
Never again will you fear any harm.
On that day they will say to Jerusalem, do not fear Zion, do not let your hands hang
limp.
The Lord your God is with you, the mighty warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you.
In His love, He will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.
I will remove from you all who mourn over the loss of your appointed festivals, which
is a burden and reproach for you.
When the day of hope arrives, God will wipe His and our enemies from the earth.
And He will come down and He will live with us.
Like I said earlier, those will be the days of true happiness, true joy, true fulfillment
as we have never known and cannot imagine.
All gifts from the Father.
When we are with Him, that is when we will live our best life.
But for those who continue to turn their back on Him, those who cut themselves off from
Him, so they can continue to indulge in sin, they'll miss out when they find themselves
sentenced to hell.
Plain and simple.
True happiness right now as we wait for Him?
But we can find that by living honestly and by living lovingly.
These are the things that make God happy.
And in turn, He will place a happiness in our hearts that is beyond explanation and
beyond understanding.
That is the love and joy of Jesus within each and every one of us.
Within you, within me, all of us.
Let's look at the last couple of verses in this book now.
Zephaniah chapter 3 verses 19 and 20.
The Bible says, At that time I will deal with all who oppressed you.
I will rescue the lame.
I will gather the exiles.
I will give them praise and honor in every land where they have suffered shame.
At that time I will gather you.
At that time I will bring you home.
I will give you honor and praise among the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes.
Some translations may say something along the lines of, I bring back your captives here.
Before your very eyes, says the Lord.
Now this last verse is not referring to everything happening in Zephaniah's time.
It's not his lifetime, not the lifetime of those people.
Instead, it's the fact that the restoration and everything that God was doing and is going
to do, that it's all going to be obvious to everyone.
Again, it's going to be obvious to all exactly who he is and all the faithful are going to
be drawn to him.
Philippians chapter 2 verses 10 through 11.
The Bible says that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and
under the earth and every tongue a notch that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father.
What this is saying is all of creation will one day bow down and worship Jesus.
Now for those of us who believe and we know how great of a thing this is and how much
of a privilege it is to be one of God's children, we recognize that we have the privilege of
doing it now, starting rather than later.
These are things that God's even told us, hey, do it, do it, because this is how we
express our love for him.
The book here, the book of Zephaniah, it does, it starts very dark.
It's very bleak, isn't it?
It starts off as a message of impending doom.
These are the things that people like to hear about, which is a big part of why this is
one of the least preached books in the Bible.
Let's face it, these are the things that really, they turn people off.
Like really, really, there's enough going on and you're going to hit us with this, which
is why people tune out instead of hanging in there to see what else is coming.
As we've seen, it moves along quickly to a great message of hope at the end.
This is a reminder that God can take anything, no matter how bad it is, and use it for good,
that a new day is coming when God is going to bless all of the faithful.
It's also a reminder that we all need to look inward.
We need to examine ourselves.
Going back, the people of Judah, they were outwardly religious.
They had that appearance, they had that image.
However, inside, they were far from God.
We see people like that in the church today.
They can talk the talk, they look the look, they have a certain appearance, like, oh yeah,
you got to do this, and it's looking good.
But inside, spiritually, they're dead.
They use their own justification and trust in what the world has told them instead of
God.
Zephaniah has encouraged all these people to come back together before God, to turn
from their sin and to pray.
This is what the Lord is telling us.
We see this time and time again in the Bible.
This is something we still need to do today.
We need to look inwards.
We need to examine ourselves and then come together with other believers to remember
that faithful followers of Christ praying and worshiping together are the church.
It's not a building.
It's not the pastor alone, but Christians coming together and showing God's light in
them to the world.
Another way of saying it, to be our brothers and sisters' keepers in their times of darkness
so that they could come to know Jesus.
Let me tell you, there is nothing better that we can do in this life than to answer the
Great Commission, making Jesus known to the world.
And that hope that we all have?
That's part of what makes the world a better place while we're here.
Knowing we have a great home to go to with the ultimate loving Father waiting for each
and every one of us.
Now that's a pretty bright future.
Remember you're loved and you are a blessing.
Now go and be the church.
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 BeTheLightSanctuary.org or on Facebook at BeTheLightSanctuary.
We'll catch you next time.
God bless.