1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:03,569 Hello, and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast, 2 00:00:03,697 --> 00:00:06,593 where we are proclaiming the truth to the world. 3 00:00:06,689 --> 00:00:09,657 My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to 4 00:00:09,681 --> 00:00:10,685 this podcast. 5 00:00:10,985 --> 00:00:14,625 I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen 6 00:00:14,665 --> 00:00:16,245 you in the word of God. 7 00:00:16,745 --> 00:00:17,577 Now, come along. 8 00:00:17,641 --> 00:00:21,765 Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today. 9 00:00:23,545 --> 00:00:27,441 All right, let's go ahead and open up our Bibles to the Book of 10 00:00:27,473 --> 00:00:28,241 Zephaniah. 11 00:00:28,313 --> 00:00:31,451 Be have your Bibles turned to the Book of Zephaniah? 12 00:00:31,483 --> 00:00:32,975 We're going to continue our study. 13 00:00:33,315 --> 00:00:37,259 We have finished chapter one, and there's only three chapters in 14 00:00:37,267 --> 00:00:40,243 the Book of Zephaniah, so we won't be here long. 15 00:00:40,379 --> 00:00:44,723 Obviously, in contrast to the Book of Genesis, this is just a little 16 00:00:44,779 --> 00:00:45,499 dot on the page. 17 00:00:45,547 --> 00:00:48,387 We were in Genesis for, I think it was close to almost two 18 00:00:48,411 --> 00:00:48,643 years. 19 00:00:48,699 --> 00:00:50,779 And so it was a long book. 20 00:00:50,947 --> 00:00:51,971 Now we're in a short book. 21 00:00:52,003 --> 00:00:55,631 But just because a book is short doesn't mean that we can't 22 00:00:55,663 --> 00:00:56,407 learn from it. 23 00:00:56,511 --> 00:01:01,335 Obviously, the smaller prophetic books are called the minor 24 00:01:01,415 --> 00:01:04,951 prophets, but minor just in their length, not in their message. 25 00:01:05,103 --> 00:01:08,791 And so here in the Book of Zephaniah, we see a couple of themes. 26 00:01:08,983 --> 00:01:12,591 One theme that is really the main theme from the beginning is 27 00:01:12,623 --> 00:01:15,755 God's judgment upon those who are rebelling against him. 28 00:01:16,215 --> 00:01:18,727 God judges those who reject him. 29 00:01:18,791 --> 00:01:21,941 God judges those who walk in their own path and the. 30 00:01:22,023 --> 00:01:24,205 And the ways of the flesh and the ways of sin. 31 00:01:24,545 --> 00:01:27,961 And he tells them specifically, who is he talking to? 32 00:01:27,993 --> 00:01:29,681 He's talking to the people of Israel. 33 00:01:29,793 --> 00:01:31,817 More specifically, the people of Judah. 34 00:01:31,961 --> 00:01:34,729 Now, you have to remember, Israel was split into two. 35 00:01:34,857 --> 00:01:38,449 At one point, you had the northern kingdom, which by this point 36 00:01:38,497 --> 00:01:43,673 had already been judged by other nations coming in. 37 00:01:43,769 --> 00:01:46,809 Judah was still intact as it was before. 38 00:01:46,977 --> 00:01:49,561 But we know that in the future, Judah is going to fall because 39 00:01:49,593 --> 00:01:50,409 of their rebellion. 40 00:01:50,497 --> 00:01:53,673 Now, the Book of Zephaniah was written in the time of Josiah, King 41 00:01:53,689 --> 00:01:54,325 Josia. 42 00:01:54,685 --> 00:01:56,661 And I don't know how much you know about King Josiah. 43 00:01:56,693 --> 00:01:58,141 He took over at a very early age. 44 00:01:58,173 --> 00:01:59,421 He was a young boy. 45 00:01:59,613 --> 00:02:04,365 Even in his reign, though, there was a great revival that happened. 46 00:02:04,525 --> 00:02:08,965 That revival definitely delayed God's judgment, but it didn't 47 00:02:09,005 --> 00:02:11,493 hold back God's judgment because ultimately the people turned 48 00:02:11,509 --> 00:02:13,061 their backs after the revival. 49 00:02:13,213 --> 00:02:16,253 And we see that cycle in the Old Testament quite frequently. 50 00:02:16,429 --> 00:02:20,061 And so what we see in this book is a theme of judgment, God's 51 00:02:20,093 --> 00:02:20,405 judgment. 52 00:02:20,445 --> 00:02:24,567 But we also see a theme of God's grace. 53 00:02:24,711 --> 00:02:28,151 He's offering and really grace and mercy. 54 00:02:28,183 --> 00:02:31,115 He's offering an opportunity for these people to repent. 55 00:02:31,655 --> 00:02:35,879 And we kind of ended last week with this thought, anytime there 56 00:02:35,927 --> 00:02:38,263 is revival, there is repentance. 57 00:02:38,399 --> 00:02:40,195 Now, what is repentance? 58 00:02:40,535 --> 00:02:43,471 I want you to think about that concept here this evening, because 59 00:02:43,623 --> 00:02:47,103 a lot of times we think of revival as a stir of the heart when 60 00:02:47,119 --> 00:02:48,435 it comes to emotions. 61 00:02:48,965 --> 00:02:52,225 But real revival comes from a heart of repentance. 62 00:02:52,685 --> 00:02:56,421 And repentance is literally means to turn away from something, 63 00:02:56,573 --> 00:03:01,021 to change course, to stop doing one thing and to do another. 64 00:03:01,213 --> 00:03:04,705 And so the Bible speaks of a need for a repentant heart. 65 00:03:05,045 --> 00:03:08,797 And the Bible speaks of God wanting all to come to repentance. 66 00:03:08,941 --> 00:03:11,221 What that means is that essentially we have to see where 67 00:03:11,253 --> 00:03:15,221 we fall, where we fail, where we are inadequate, and turn away 68 00:03:15,253 --> 00:03:16,927 from that and turn to Christ. 69 00:03:17,061 --> 00:03:17,819 That is repentance. 70 00:03:17,867 --> 00:03:20,275 A lot of people think that repentance means, well, I'm not going 71 00:03:20,275 --> 00:03:20,875 to sin anymore. 72 00:03:20,915 --> 00:03:23,219 That doesn't mean you're going to be sinless. 73 00:03:23,347 --> 00:03:25,947 It just means that you recognize that in and of yourself, 74 00:03:26,011 --> 00:03:28,875 you cannot do what you need to do in your life, spiritually speaking. 75 00:03:28,995 --> 00:03:31,139 And ultimately God can give that change. 76 00:03:31,307 --> 00:03:34,931 And so the book of Zephaniah is about offering the gift of grace 77 00:03:35,003 --> 00:03:36,055 in repentance. 78 00:03:36,475 --> 00:03:39,315 There is a theme in the New Testament that you will see over 79 00:03:39,355 --> 00:03:40,243 and over again. 80 00:03:40,379 --> 00:03:42,331 And it's also a theme that you'll see in the Old Testament, 81 00:03:42,363 --> 00:03:44,571 but it's very clearly stated in the New Testament. 82 00:03:44,603 --> 00:03:48,273 You can find it in First Peter, you can find it in the Book 83 00:03:48,289 --> 00:03:52,897 of James, you can find it all throughout Jesus teachings is this. 84 00:03:53,001 --> 00:03:58,325 God gives grace to the humble and he judges the proud. 85 00:03:58,665 --> 00:04:02,353 He rejects those that are selfishly prideful. 86 00:04:02,489 --> 00:04:06,969 He blesses those and graces those that fall before him in meekness 87 00:04:07,017 --> 00:04:08,001 and humility. 88 00:04:08,193 --> 00:04:11,423 And so that's what God is calling for here in chapter two. 89 00:04:11,529 --> 00:04:15,579 So chapter one, he explains what the judgment will look like 90 00:04:15,747 --> 00:04:17,267 and who will be judged. 91 00:04:17,371 --> 00:04:19,779 And he went through a group, different groups of people. 92 00:04:19,827 --> 00:04:23,507 He talked about those who were the false teachers. 93 00:04:23,691 --> 00:04:25,467 He talked about those hypocrites. 94 00:04:25,571 --> 00:04:29,459 He talked about those people who were mixing the ways of God with 95 00:04:29,467 --> 00:04:31,779 the ways of the world, the compromisers. 96 00:04:31,947 --> 00:04:34,379 He talked about those who were complacent. 97 00:04:34,507 --> 00:04:36,865 He talked about those who were in idolatry. 98 00:04:36,995 --> 00:04:39,725 And he says, all of these people, if you continue on in this 99 00:04:39,765 --> 00:04:43,185 path, you will be judged, and it will be a complete judgment. 100 00:04:44,005 --> 00:04:47,445 And so we get to chapter two, and one of the things that I love 101 00:04:47,485 --> 00:04:51,277 about this book of the Bible is that he gives the condemnation. 102 00:04:51,421 --> 00:04:55,709 But then he gives them the opportunity of comfort and of peace 103 00:04:55,877 --> 00:04:56,829 and of forgiveness. 104 00:04:56,877 --> 00:04:57,765 And that's how God works. 105 00:04:57,805 --> 00:04:59,989 God is going to lay out the truth. 106 00:05:00,077 --> 00:05:00,909 He always will. 107 00:05:00,997 --> 00:05:02,835 He lays down the law, so to speak. 108 00:05:02,965 --> 00:05:06,275 But God always offers that route of repentance. 109 00:05:06,655 --> 00:05:09,095 And through that repentance comes revival. 110 00:05:09,255 --> 00:05:11,111 And we're going to see that here in this passage. 111 00:05:11,183 --> 00:05:14,831 So look with me to Zephaniah, chapter two. 112 00:05:14,863 --> 00:05:17,039 And we're going to look at verse number one. 113 00:05:17,127 --> 00:05:18,115 It says this. 114 00:05:18,975 --> 00:05:20,795 Gather yourselves together. 115 00:05:21,335 --> 00:05:25,435 Yea, gather together, O nation, not desired. 116 00:05:25,735 --> 00:05:26,791 Now, what is he saying here? 117 00:05:26,823 --> 00:05:29,127 He says, hey, you need to get yourselves together and listen to 118 00:05:29,151 --> 00:05:30,263 what I'm about to tell you. 119 00:05:30,319 --> 00:05:31,395 This is important. 120 00:05:31,735 --> 00:05:33,071 This is the word of the Lord. 121 00:05:33,103 --> 00:05:35,151 Now, remember when Zephaniah is speaking. 122 00:05:35,343 --> 00:05:36,839 Yes, Zephaniah is speaking. 123 00:05:36,887 --> 00:05:40,095 But ultimately, this is the word of God to the people there, 124 00:05:40,215 --> 00:05:42,031 and it is the word of God to us. 125 00:05:42,183 --> 00:05:44,071 And so he says, gather yourselves together. 126 00:05:44,183 --> 00:05:49,655 The idea here is to gather in a solemn demonstration of mourning. 127 00:05:49,775 --> 00:05:52,439 Essentially, not mourning as the sun's coming up, but mourning 128 00:05:52,487 --> 00:05:53,743 as in repentance. 129 00:05:53,919 --> 00:05:57,697 He says, you need to wake up to where you are in your life, open 130 00:05:57,801 --> 00:06:01,697 your eyes, come together, recognize where you stand before 131 00:06:01,761 --> 00:06:02,405 God. 132 00:06:02,825 --> 00:06:04,385 And so it's this. 133 00:06:04,505 --> 00:06:05,457 Basically, it's. 134 00:06:05,521 --> 00:06:08,645 It's repent while there is still time. 135 00:06:09,145 --> 00:06:12,705 That's the message that God is telling the nation of Israel. 136 00:06:12,825 --> 00:06:15,097 Repent while you still have a chance. 137 00:06:15,241 --> 00:06:18,145 And that's really the message that we are to preach today. 138 00:06:18,185 --> 00:06:18,585 That's. 139 00:06:18,665 --> 00:06:20,257 That's really the gospel message. 140 00:06:20,361 --> 00:06:21,505 There is a time. 141 00:06:21,625 --> 00:06:24,385 We don't know how long that time is, but there is a time to repent. 142 00:06:24,425 --> 00:06:26,179 There is a time to humble yourselves. 143 00:06:26,227 --> 00:06:28,827 There's a time to trust in God, to seek after him. 144 00:06:28,851 --> 00:06:33,459 And so he says here, this is the time, Verse two. 145 00:06:33,587 --> 00:06:35,867 Before the decree, bring forth. 146 00:06:36,011 --> 00:06:40,179 Before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of 147 00:06:40,187 --> 00:06:43,979 the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger come 148 00:06:44,027 --> 00:06:44,555 upon you. 149 00:06:44,595 --> 00:06:48,615 So all this announcement really is, is that judgment is coming 150 00:06:49,155 --> 00:06:50,997 and you need to be ready. 151 00:06:51,131 --> 00:06:55,113 And so here the prophet pleads with the nation to repent before 152 00:06:55,169 --> 00:06:56,325 it's too late. 153 00:06:56,625 --> 00:06:59,593 You know, there's a lot of people that are willing to say, you 154 00:06:59,609 --> 00:06:59,857 know what? 155 00:06:59,881 --> 00:07:01,241 I'm willing to risk it. 156 00:07:01,393 --> 00:07:04,089 I'll get right when I feel like I can get right. 157 00:07:04,217 --> 00:07:06,057 I'll get right when it makes sense to me. 158 00:07:06,081 --> 00:07:08,801 I'll get right when I can clean myself up. 159 00:07:08,833 --> 00:07:11,297 And the point is, you can't clean yourself up. 160 00:07:11,401 --> 00:07:12,705 You can't do enough. 161 00:07:12,865 --> 00:07:16,593 You got to rely on God as Your only hope for this change in your 162 00:07:16,609 --> 00:07:17,067 life. 163 00:07:17,201 --> 00:07:18,835 And so he says, wake up now. 164 00:07:19,495 --> 00:07:22,975 And he gives a comparison, he says before the day passes like chaff. 165 00:07:23,135 --> 00:07:26,515 And so here the prophet calls for a sense of urgency. 166 00:07:27,455 --> 00:07:30,015 And so he says, hey, this could happen at any point. 167 00:07:30,135 --> 00:07:31,975 And so what is he saying here? 168 00:07:32,055 --> 00:07:35,775 He says this, get right with God and keep getting right with God, 169 00:07:35,815 --> 00:07:35,991 right? 170 00:07:36,023 --> 00:07:38,475 This is not a process of a one time change. 171 00:07:39,335 --> 00:07:42,855 Repentance and revival is not a one time act in your life and then 172 00:07:42,895 --> 00:07:43,919 everything's okay. 173 00:07:44,087 --> 00:07:46,839 There were times in the nation of Israel where they were on fire 174 00:07:46,887 --> 00:07:47,607 for God. 175 00:07:47,751 --> 00:07:50,871 We're even going to see times in the life of Josiah that the people 176 00:07:50,943 --> 00:07:52,471 turned back to the scriptures. 177 00:07:52,623 --> 00:07:54,751 But it's a continual thing. 178 00:07:54,903 --> 00:07:58,607 We have to realize in our life that there is a time of evaluation. 179 00:07:58,711 --> 00:08:00,415 That's why we do special meetings. 180 00:08:00,455 --> 00:08:03,235 That's why we have different people come in and speak. 181 00:08:03,695 --> 00:08:07,047 You know, there's sometimes in my life where I feel like, well, 182 00:08:07,071 --> 00:08:10,383 you know what, I think that I've preached this before. 183 00:08:10,439 --> 00:08:12,687 And we have someone come in and they preach a very similar thing. 184 00:08:12,711 --> 00:08:14,199 And people go, wow, that's great. 185 00:08:14,367 --> 00:08:15,559 They've never heard that before. 186 00:08:15,607 --> 00:08:17,639 Well, you have heard that before, but maybe sometimes when 187 00:08:17,647 --> 00:08:19,647 you hear it from a new voice, it changes, right? 188 00:08:19,751 --> 00:08:22,303 And sometimes what we need to do is we need to wake up, we need 189 00:08:22,319 --> 00:08:23,455 to listen to what we're hearing. 190 00:08:23,535 --> 00:08:24,815 We need to say, you know what? 191 00:08:24,975 --> 00:08:28,983 Because there's one thing I can hear my wife, but sometimes I 192 00:08:28,999 --> 00:08:29,719 don't listen to her. 193 00:08:29,767 --> 00:08:32,127 I don't know if any of you men can relate to that. 194 00:08:32,311 --> 00:08:36,759 I hear noise, right, But I'm not listening. 195 00:08:36,847 --> 00:08:41,036 And then I don't know if any of you fellas, ladies, you should 196 00:08:41,060 --> 00:08:41,476 do this, right? 197 00:08:41,500 --> 00:08:42,584 Keep your men honest. 198 00:08:42,924 --> 00:08:45,468 But my wife goes, what did I just say? 199 00:08:45,636 --> 00:08:46,924 Oh man, that one hurts. 200 00:08:47,004 --> 00:08:47,716 I think you said. 201 00:08:47,740 --> 00:08:49,420 She goes, you're not even listening to me, right? 202 00:08:49,492 --> 00:08:52,484 So it's one thing to hear God, it's another thing to listen to his 203 00:08:52,524 --> 00:08:53,140 message. 204 00:08:53,292 --> 00:08:54,324 So they hear judgment. 205 00:08:54,364 --> 00:08:55,284 Well, what does that mean? 206 00:08:55,324 --> 00:08:58,836 He says it is this type of judgment before the day passes the 207 00:08:58,860 --> 00:08:59,188 chaff. 208 00:08:59,236 --> 00:09:00,424 This is going to be quick. 209 00:09:01,164 --> 00:09:04,188 We know that the Bible says that life is but a vapor. 210 00:09:04,356 --> 00:09:07,824 And so if life is but a vapor, God's judgment is coming quickly. 211 00:09:07,964 --> 00:09:09,889 And that's the message that we need to preach to this world. 212 00:09:09,937 --> 00:09:13,153 Like not, not in a doom and gloom sort of attitude, but in an 213 00:09:13,169 --> 00:09:16,377 attitude of, hey, wake up to the fact that you will be judged 214 00:09:16,481 --> 00:09:19,953 for your evil, you will be judged for your sin. 215 00:09:20,129 --> 00:09:23,193 And so he Says, be ready before the Lord's anger comes upon 216 00:09:23,209 --> 00:09:23,337 you. 217 00:09:23,361 --> 00:09:25,729 And a lot of people have a hard time dealing with that phrase, 218 00:09:25,777 --> 00:09:27,045 the Lord's anger. 219 00:09:27,385 --> 00:09:31,325 But remember, the defining attribute of God is his holiness. 220 00:09:31,825 --> 00:09:35,585 And so when God is angry, he's righteously angry. 221 00:09:35,705 --> 00:09:37,245 He's angry at sin. 222 00:09:37,705 --> 00:09:41,089 And so, so many times we hear that word anger, and we equate that 223 00:09:41,137 --> 00:09:42,305 with sin. 224 00:09:42,385 --> 00:09:45,273 And in most cases, in our human nature, it is sin. 225 00:09:45,409 --> 00:09:48,649 Because most of the time we are not righteously angry, we are 226 00:09:48,697 --> 00:09:49,649 selfishly angry. 227 00:09:49,737 --> 00:09:54,345 But when God displays his anger and his judgment upon people, 228 00:09:54,385 --> 00:09:56,765 he does it in a righteous and holy way. 229 00:09:57,425 --> 00:10:01,925 And so here the prophet is calling for an urgency in repentance. 230 00:10:02,655 --> 00:10:07,247 And so how easy is it for us to let the days pass like chaff and 231 00:10:07,271 --> 00:10:08,359 never get right with God? 232 00:10:08,407 --> 00:10:10,687 I'm gonna get right with him tomorrow, I'm gonna get right with 233 00:10:10,711 --> 00:10:12,831 him next week, this New Year, right? 234 00:10:12,903 --> 00:10:14,271 How about those New Year's resolutions? 235 00:10:14,343 --> 00:10:16,711 Have you ever made a spiritual New Year's resolution? 236 00:10:16,903 --> 00:10:18,439 How long did that go? 237 00:10:18,487 --> 00:10:20,727 Maybe three weeks, three months. 238 00:10:20,871 --> 00:10:24,847 Sometimes we treat our relationship with God like those 239 00:10:24,871 --> 00:10:25,915 New Year's resolutions. 240 00:10:26,415 --> 00:10:27,231 Like, you know what? 241 00:10:27,303 --> 00:10:28,583 This year I'm gonna get in shape. 242 00:10:28,639 --> 00:10:29,879 This year I'm gonna eat healthy. 243 00:10:29,927 --> 00:10:32,275 This year I'm gonna start a new hobby. 244 00:10:32,415 --> 00:10:35,331 And most of the time those kind of pass away when the distractions 245 00:10:35,363 --> 00:10:36,315 of this world come. 246 00:10:36,395 --> 00:10:37,803 And we understand that. 247 00:10:37,939 --> 00:10:40,299 And so many times we treat getting right with God just like 248 00:10:40,307 --> 00:10:43,027 that, like it's an optional thing, like we can get to it when 249 00:10:43,051 --> 00:10:43,555 we can. 250 00:10:43,635 --> 00:10:45,611 What he says here is basically this. 251 00:10:45,683 --> 00:10:48,515 Put this in the forefront of your mind, come together and be sober 252 00:10:48,555 --> 00:10:48,955 about this. 253 00:10:48,995 --> 00:10:50,335 Be sober minded. 254 00:10:51,315 --> 00:10:58,051 And often I believe Satan's most powerful tool is not telling 255 00:10:58,083 --> 00:10:59,291 us that there isn't a God. 256 00:10:59,323 --> 00:11:01,627 Like, none of us are probably going to be convinced that, hey, 257 00:11:01,651 --> 00:11:03,207 you know, atheism is the way to go. 258 00:11:03,291 --> 00:11:04,327 I hope not. 259 00:11:04,511 --> 00:11:06,991 And so that's sometimes what Satan does, is he doesn't package 260 00:11:07,023 --> 00:11:10,235 it like, hey, there's no God or no Bible. 261 00:11:10,895 --> 00:11:15,135 Often his most powerful tool is that there's no hurry, like, you 262 00:11:15,175 --> 00:11:19,463 got time, relax, get to that when you feel like it. 263 00:11:19,639 --> 00:11:22,623 And so what I would say sometimes in our Christian life is 264 00:11:22,679 --> 00:11:23,915 if Satan can't. 265 00:11:24,775 --> 00:11:26,831 If Satan can't take your soul, he can't take your life. 266 00:11:26,863 --> 00:11:29,955 What he can do is he can take your effectiveness, he can take your 267 00:11:29,995 --> 00:11:33,307 desire, he can take your joy, he can take all these things that 268 00:11:33,331 --> 00:11:34,251 God promises us. 269 00:11:34,283 --> 00:11:36,547 But what he can say is, look, you know, you have salvation, but, 270 00:11:36,571 --> 00:11:37,411 you know, just put it off. 271 00:11:37,443 --> 00:11:38,451 Put it off, you're fine. 272 00:11:38,523 --> 00:11:39,427 You're fine. 273 00:11:39,611 --> 00:11:41,963 And the truth is that sometimes when the Holy Spirit convicts 274 00:11:41,979 --> 00:11:43,515 our heart, we put a. 275 00:11:43,595 --> 00:11:44,619 You know, have you ever seen football? 276 00:11:44,667 --> 00:11:45,531 They stiff arm people. 277 00:11:45,563 --> 00:11:46,995 They put their arm out and they push it away. 278 00:11:47,035 --> 00:11:50,691 Like sometimes we stiff arm conviction in our life because sometimes 279 00:11:50,723 --> 00:11:51,563 it's difficult. 280 00:11:51,699 --> 00:11:53,651 It's difficult to deal with conviction. 281 00:11:53,763 --> 00:11:56,929 It doesn't feel good to see that you're wrong sometimes. 282 00:11:57,057 --> 00:11:59,325 It doesn't feel good to sometimes get that right. 283 00:12:00,065 --> 00:12:03,993 But what I would tell you, that if we desire the comfort of 284 00:12:04,009 --> 00:12:07,801 the spirit, the Bible says in the Book of John that the Spirit 285 00:12:07,833 --> 00:12:08,993 is the comforter. 286 00:12:09,169 --> 00:12:12,689 Jesus says the comforter will come and this is beneficial for you. 287 00:12:12,857 --> 00:12:15,649 And a lot of times we desire the comfort of the spirit, but yet 288 00:12:15,697 --> 00:12:18,561 we are not willing to embrace the conviction of the Spirit. 289 00:12:18,713 --> 00:12:21,081 And the conviction of the Spirit is actually what brings us 290 00:12:21,113 --> 00:12:22,115 to that comfort. 291 00:12:22,265 --> 00:12:25,511 The Bible says in the Book of John that also the Holy Spirit will 292 00:12:25,543 --> 00:12:27,795 come to convict the world of its sin. 293 00:12:28,255 --> 00:12:30,555 And that conviction shows us where we're wrong. 294 00:12:31,175 --> 00:12:33,679 But we never get to the comfort unless we address the thing 295 00:12:33,687 --> 00:12:35,155 that we're wrong in. 296 00:12:35,735 --> 00:12:38,863 And so I would say that as a Christian, yes, we have our salvation 297 00:12:38,919 --> 00:12:39,367 taken care of. 298 00:12:39,391 --> 00:12:42,903 But many times in our life, it's because of an unrepentant sin 299 00:12:42,959 --> 00:12:46,791 that we are rejecting the conviction of that's bringing us 300 00:12:46,863 --> 00:12:48,015 difficulty in our life. 301 00:12:48,135 --> 00:12:49,415 And God's going to wake us up. 302 00:12:49,495 --> 00:12:52,447 A lot of times people will think this, well, if I'm a child 303 00:12:52,471 --> 00:12:53,871 of God, he's not going to discipline me. 304 00:12:53,903 --> 00:12:54,943 It's the complete opposite. 305 00:12:54,999 --> 00:12:57,519 God only disciplines, in this case, his own. 306 00:12:57,607 --> 00:13:00,711 Now, ultimately, God will judge all mankind because of their 307 00:13:00,743 --> 00:13:01,119 sin. 308 00:13:01,207 --> 00:13:05,031 But right now, God is trying to discipline, and he will discipline 309 00:13:05,143 --> 00:13:06,127 those that he loves. 310 00:13:06,231 --> 00:13:09,215 But there is a point in our life where we can, what the Bible 311 00:13:09,255 --> 00:13:10,823 says is grieve the Holy Spirit. 312 00:13:10,919 --> 00:13:13,715 And as we grieve the Holy Spirit, we can have a seared conscience. 313 00:13:14,055 --> 00:13:18,035 And so what I want to preach to you here this evening is the importance 314 00:13:18,815 --> 00:13:21,555 of being sensitive to conviction. 315 00:13:22,335 --> 00:13:25,495 For revival, you want revival, you have to have conviction. 316 00:13:25,575 --> 00:13:28,847 You want revival, you have to have repentance. 317 00:13:29,031 --> 00:13:31,535 And so what I would tell you here this evening is what verse number 318 00:13:31,575 --> 00:13:32,407 three says. 319 00:13:32,551 --> 00:13:35,711 So he says, hey, he doesn't just tell them, stop sinning. 320 00:13:35,863 --> 00:13:37,835 Remember we talked about this on Sunday. 321 00:13:38,215 --> 00:13:42,477 It's not just a matter of stopping the idolatry, because if 322 00:13:42,501 --> 00:13:46,077 God alone wanted that to happen, he would just say, stop the 323 00:13:46,101 --> 00:13:47,949 idolatry and leave it at that. 324 00:13:48,077 --> 00:13:49,845 Now, does God want them to Stop idolatry? 325 00:13:49,885 --> 00:13:50,765 Of course he does. 326 00:13:50,885 --> 00:13:53,645 Does God want them to stop all of the things that they were doing 327 00:13:53,685 --> 00:13:54,573 in chapter one? 328 00:13:54,669 --> 00:13:58,629 The complacency, the compromising, all of those things 329 00:13:58,677 --> 00:14:02,741 of being controlled by their flesh and by their sensual ways? 330 00:14:02,773 --> 00:14:03,629 Of course he does. 331 00:14:03,717 --> 00:14:06,533 But then he also wants it to be replaced with something in the 332 00:14:06,549 --> 00:14:07,383 better way. 333 00:14:07,549 --> 00:14:09,331 And that's what verse three is all about. 334 00:14:09,523 --> 00:14:12,323 And I think verse three is the call to action here. 335 00:14:12,419 --> 00:14:15,587 Verse three is the, is the invitation, if you will, right at 336 00:14:15,611 --> 00:14:15,931 our church. 337 00:14:15,963 --> 00:14:17,947 You know, you come to the point where, okay, we're going to 338 00:14:17,971 --> 00:14:19,855 present the action item. 339 00:14:20,155 --> 00:14:21,315 And here's the action item. 340 00:14:21,355 --> 00:14:24,255 He says, seek ye the Lord. 341 00:14:24,955 --> 00:14:31,051 So the response to the preaching, the response to the conviction 342 00:14:31,243 --> 00:14:31,931 is what? 343 00:14:32,003 --> 00:14:33,335 Seeking the Lord. 344 00:14:34,065 --> 00:14:37,721 And he describes the type of people that will seek the Lord, seek 345 00:14:37,753 --> 00:14:41,045 the Lord all ye meek of the earth. 346 00:14:41,505 --> 00:14:45,005 He says, you gotta be meek, you gotta be humble. 347 00:14:45,465 --> 00:14:48,121 You have to be lowly to get to a place where you will seek after 348 00:14:48,153 --> 00:14:48,297 God. 349 00:14:48,321 --> 00:14:50,305 You won't seek after God if you think you've got it all under 350 00:14:50,345 --> 00:14:50,925 control. 351 00:14:51,865 --> 00:14:53,805 You're not gonna seek God in your pride. 352 00:14:54,425 --> 00:14:56,525 You're not gonna seek God in selfishness. 353 00:14:57,545 --> 00:15:03,041 You're not gonna seek God with a, with a self inflated view of everything 354 00:15:03,113 --> 00:15:05,061 that I am and everything that I do. 355 00:15:05,193 --> 00:15:07,785 Says to die, to self mortify your members. 356 00:15:08,765 --> 00:15:11,685 Jesus describes what it means to be his disciple. 357 00:15:11,725 --> 00:15:12,693 And he says, what do you have to do? 358 00:15:12,709 --> 00:15:15,025 You have to bear your cross daily. 359 00:15:15,805 --> 00:15:16,581 Can't look back. 360 00:15:16,613 --> 00:15:18,621 You can't have your hand to the plow and be looking back. 361 00:15:18,653 --> 00:15:23,185 He says, seek the Lord all ye meek of the earth. 362 00:15:24,725 --> 00:15:26,901 And so this is the call to action. 363 00:15:27,093 --> 00:15:30,425 Even the righteous must take heed to this warning. 364 00:15:31,695 --> 00:15:33,835 And so what they would say here is this. 365 00:15:34,535 --> 00:15:37,995 Can I say that I am the person who is seeking after God? 366 00:15:38,855 --> 00:15:42,471 Why I was seeking after him 20 years ago, I was really seeking after 367 00:15:42,503 --> 00:15:42,623 him. 368 00:15:42,639 --> 00:15:43,487 He's not saying that. 369 00:15:43,551 --> 00:15:45,911 He's not saying where you were and where you want to be. 370 00:15:45,943 --> 00:15:47,647 He says, where are you right now? 371 00:15:47,831 --> 00:15:51,895 I oftentimes as a pastor, when I'm counseling folks, they have issues 372 00:15:51,935 --> 00:15:54,503 with maybe like what I used to believe or what I used to do. 373 00:15:54,599 --> 00:15:56,503 And one of the things that I will say is where are you at right 374 00:15:56,519 --> 00:15:56,929 now? 375 00:15:57,047 --> 00:15:59,625 I'm not so concerned with where you were at 20 years ago. 376 00:16:00,205 --> 00:16:01,821 What I'm concerned about is where you're at right now. 377 00:16:01,853 --> 00:16:03,725 Well, right now I'm still dealing with that. 378 00:16:03,765 --> 00:16:04,821 Well then we can deal with that. 379 00:16:04,893 --> 00:16:07,381 But what Satan wants to do is he wants us to look, remember What 380 00:16:07,413 --> 00:16:09,685 Paul says in Philippians chapter three, he says, I'm not looking 381 00:16:09,725 --> 00:16:09,997 back. 382 00:16:10,061 --> 00:16:11,173 I'm pressing forward. 383 00:16:11,349 --> 00:16:12,589 I'm pressing forward. 384 00:16:12,757 --> 00:16:15,373 And so a lot of times what happens is that Satan wants us to 385 00:16:15,389 --> 00:16:17,933 think back to things that we did well in the past, things that 386 00:16:17,949 --> 00:16:19,141 we didn't do well in the past. 387 00:16:19,213 --> 00:16:22,813 He says, no, just seek after the Lord all ye that are meek of 388 00:16:22,829 --> 00:16:25,851 the earth which have wrought his judgment. 389 00:16:26,043 --> 00:16:28,379 Seek righteousness, seek meekness. 390 00:16:28,547 --> 00:16:31,055 He very clearly tells them what they need to do. 391 00:16:31,835 --> 00:16:34,963 He says, seek after the truth. 392 00:16:35,019 --> 00:16:36,563 Seek after righteousness. 393 00:16:36,619 --> 00:16:38,175 Seek after that humility. 394 00:16:38,555 --> 00:16:40,331 Why seek? 395 00:16:40,363 --> 00:16:40,899 Mikas. 396 00:16:40,987 --> 00:16:45,215 It may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. 397 00:16:46,235 --> 00:16:49,355 In more than one place in Scripture, God promises to hide his 398 00:16:49,395 --> 00:16:53,005 righteousness, people, in the day of his great judgment. 399 00:16:53,745 --> 00:16:55,881 This is especially true in the end. 400 00:16:55,913 --> 00:16:58,449 Right at the end, God judges the world, right? 401 00:16:58,497 --> 00:17:01,765 We as his children are not going to have to feel that wrath. 402 00:17:02,625 --> 00:17:05,305 We know that ultimately we are going to be spared from the wrath 403 00:17:05,345 --> 00:17:06,177 of God. 404 00:17:06,361 --> 00:17:09,553 But what I will say is that sometimes when we as Christians look 405 00:17:09,569 --> 00:17:11,245 at that, we think, well, you know what? 406 00:17:11,745 --> 00:17:14,193 I'm spared from it, so I'm good. 407 00:17:14,369 --> 00:17:18,065 The truth is that God calls us not only to tell other people about 408 00:17:18,105 --> 00:17:21,015 this hope to tell other people about the truth, but also to live 409 00:17:21,055 --> 00:17:26,743 like that in our lives, to live with that desire to seek after 410 00:17:26,839 --> 00:17:27,767 the Lord. 411 00:17:27,951 --> 00:17:30,235 And so what does it mean to seek after the Lord? 412 00:17:30,815 --> 00:17:33,591 Well, the Bible tells us in the New Testament many, many things 413 00:17:33,623 --> 00:17:35,063 about seeking after the Lord. 414 00:17:35,239 --> 00:17:37,155 I'll have you look at a few of these. 415 00:17:37,895 --> 00:17:40,591 If you can keep your finger there in Zephaniah, we'll go back. 416 00:17:40,703 --> 00:17:42,915 But look at Matthew chapter six with me. 417 00:17:44,185 --> 00:17:45,545 Matthew, chapter six. 418 00:17:45,625 --> 00:17:47,565 This is Jesus teaching here. 419 00:17:47,985 --> 00:17:53,725 Many of you are familiar with this classic Sermon on the Mount, 420 00:17:54,225 --> 00:17:57,401 and Jesus addresses many different things here, many different 421 00:17:57,433 --> 00:17:57,985 things. 422 00:17:58,145 --> 00:18:04,329 But here in Matthew chapter six, he's talking to them about eternal 423 00:18:04,377 --> 00:18:08,361 treasures in heaven, about how you, basically how you live your 424 00:18:08,393 --> 00:18:08,657 life. 425 00:18:08,721 --> 00:18:10,387 What do you set your focus on? 426 00:18:10,561 --> 00:18:11,807 What's your treasure? 427 00:18:11,951 --> 00:18:12,847 What's your desire? 428 00:18:12,911 --> 00:18:14,035 What's your love? 429 00:18:14,455 --> 00:18:19,599 And Jesus gets to the point where he says, don't lay up treasures 430 00:18:19,647 --> 00:18:20,615 here in this earth. 431 00:18:20,735 --> 00:18:21,039 Why? 432 00:18:21,087 --> 00:18:22,559 Because these break through and steal. 433 00:18:22,607 --> 00:18:23,515 Verse 19. 434 00:18:23,895 --> 00:18:26,879 He says, this is what you should do, but lay up your treasures. 435 00:18:27,047 --> 00:18:30,087 Lay up for yourself treasures in heaven where neither moth nor 436 00:18:30,111 --> 00:18:32,863 rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor 437 00:18:32,919 --> 00:18:33,595 steal. 438 00:18:34,095 --> 00:18:37,075 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 439 00:18:37,855 --> 00:18:41,135 And then he goes on to give this analogy of the light of the 440 00:18:41,175 --> 00:18:41,647 eye. 441 00:18:41,751 --> 00:18:44,991 And you know what your eye is set on is the truth. 442 00:18:45,063 --> 00:18:46,887 And he ultimately talks about that. 443 00:18:46,911 --> 00:18:49,239 Then he talks about, no man can serve two masters. 444 00:18:49,327 --> 00:18:50,831 And then he gets to this idea of worrying. 445 00:18:50,863 --> 00:18:54,951 Because a lot of times when we are so focused on the material of 446 00:18:54,983 --> 00:18:59,047 this world, it then manifests itself into worry, right? 447 00:18:59,231 --> 00:19:01,847 If I'm worried about all the things that are going on around me 448 00:19:01,871 --> 00:19:07,077 in this world, if I'm so attached to what I have and what 449 00:19:07,101 --> 00:19:10,253 I can see and what I know, there's a point in time where I'm 450 00:19:10,269 --> 00:19:11,669 gonna be characterized by worry. 451 00:19:11,717 --> 00:19:15,213 Because I'm around a bunch of things that are gonna be chaotic, 452 00:19:15,309 --> 00:19:15,661 right? 453 00:19:15,733 --> 00:19:19,365 So if my circumstances are chaotic, and that's what I'm living 454 00:19:19,405 --> 00:19:23,645 by is my circumstances or my bank account or my health, if I'm 455 00:19:23,685 --> 00:19:27,165 living as that, as my treasure, then when those things 456 00:19:27,205 --> 00:19:32,263 go up and down, so will also my attitude, my worry and my stress. 457 00:19:32,359 --> 00:19:36,343 And so he talks about the dangers of materialism that can lead 458 00:19:36,399 --> 00:19:37,515 to worry. 459 00:19:37,855 --> 00:19:40,935 Then he gets to verse 25, and he says, therefore I say unto you, 460 00:19:40,975 --> 00:19:44,135 take no thought for your life what ye shall eat or what ye shall 461 00:19:44,175 --> 00:19:46,759 drink, nor yet your body what ye shall put on. 462 00:19:46,807 --> 00:19:50,031 Is not life more than meat and the body than raiment? 463 00:19:50,143 --> 00:19:52,935 And then he goes on to talk about that wonderful passage of Scripture 464 00:19:52,975 --> 00:19:56,225 where he says, even the fowls of the air are fed. 465 00:19:56,345 --> 00:19:58,233 How much more do you think your father's going to take care 466 00:19:58,249 --> 00:19:58,965 of you? 467 00:19:59,345 --> 00:20:01,001 And you say, where are you going with this? 468 00:20:01,033 --> 00:20:02,833 I thought we were talking about repentance and revival. 469 00:20:02,889 --> 00:20:04,593 Now you're talking about materialism and worry. 470 00:20:04,649 --> 00:20:06,217 Because I think they go hand in hand. 471 00:20:06,361 --> 00:20:09,913 And so then he goes through that whole passage, he says, you 472 00:20:09,929 --> 00:20:11,721 know, God clothes the grass of the field. 473 00:20:11,793 --> 00:20:14,241 He's going to clothe you, owe you a little faith. 474 00:20:14,393 --> 00:20:18,649 And then he goes on to say in verse 33, the classic passage, but 475 00:20:18,697 --> 00:20:23,265 seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. 476 00:20:23,885 --> 00:20:26,225 Not your own righteousness, his righteousness. 477 00:20:27,005 --> 00:20:28,733 And all these things shall be added unto you. 478 00:20:28,749 --> 00:20:30,045 What is he talking about, all these things? 479 00:20:30,125 --> 00:20:33,709 The blessings of God, the protection of God, the love of God, 480 00:20:33,757 --> 00:20:36,061 the confidence and the peace of God. 481 00:20:36,133 --> 00:20:39,985 He says, you seek first the kingdom of God, the eternal things. 482 00:20:40,325 --> 00:20:42,429 All these other things will be added unto you. 483 00:20:42,597 --> 00:20:45,437 Take, therefore, no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall 484 00:20:45,541 --> 00:20:47,005 take thought for the things of itself. 485 00:20:47,085 --> 00:20:49,221 Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. 486 00:20:49,293 --> 00:20:49,973 Meaning this. 487 00:20:50,069 --> 00:20:53,301 He says, look, you guys are all worried about the things around 488 00:20:53,333 --> 00:20:53,477 you. 489 00:20:53,501 --> 00:20:56,005 And you're so distracted with these things around you and your 490 00:20:56,045 --> 00:20:58,973 materialism and your worry that you're missing out on what actually 491 00:20:59,029 --> 00:20:59,525 really matters. 492 00:20:59,565 --> 00:21:02,717 And so really, repentance and revival is just seeing things for 493 00:21:02,741 --> 00:21:05,265 how they are and seeing what really matters. 494 00:21:05,765 --> 00:21:08,005 You know, if someone came up to us and told us, hey, you've got 495 00:21:08,045 --> 00:21:09,597 one day to live, right? 496 00:21:09,621 --> 00:21:12,565 You've got, this is your last day on Earth, we would live differently. 497 00:21:12,725 --> 00:21:13,429 We would live. 498 00:21:13,517 --> 00:21:14,525 I think we would live differently. 499 00:21:14,565 --> 00:21:16,405 Some of you might say, actually, I do the same thing. 500 00:21:16,445 --> 00:21:20,685 I just waste my day and get on YouTube and scroll or watch TV. 501 00:21:20,985 --> 00:21:23,417 I don't know about you, but for me, if I had one day, I'd be 502 00:21:23,441 --> 00:21:24,057 doing a lot of stuff. 503 00:21:24,081 --> 00:21:26,289 I'd be preparing, I'd be getting everything set up. 504 00:21:26,377 --> 00:21:29,285 And the Bible teaches us that's how we're supposed to live. 505 00:21:29,865 --> 00:21:32,673 And so if we realize that, hey, you know what? 506 00:21:32,689 --> 00:21:35,801 I don't have much more time, I believe we would have a sense of 507 00:21:35,833 --> 00:21:37,801 repentance and revival and restoration. 508 00:21:37,873 --> 00:21:40,273 And maybe we would even reach out to that person and we would say, 509 00:21:40,289 --> 00:21:41,205 hey, you know what? 510 00:21:41,505 --> 00:21:43,665 I need to get that right with you before I go, right? 511 00:21:43,745 --> 00:21:45,985 And so that's what the Bible says is we should be living like 512 00:21:46,025 --> 00:21:46,201 that. 513 00:21:46,233 --> 00:21:49,567 Repentance, that revival, and that comes from not being gripped 514 00:21:49,591 --> 00:21:52,207 to this world, but seeking after God, seeking after the things 515 00:21:52,231 --> 00:21:53,847 that he wants for us. 516 00:21:53,951 --> 00:21:55,335 Even go down to the next chapter. 517 00:21:55,375 --> 00:21:56,435 Matthew 7. 518 00:21:56,855 --> 00:21:58,343 Ask and it shall be given you. 519 00:21:58,399 --> 00:22:00,167 Seek and you shall find. 520 00:22:00,231 --> 00:22:02,151 Knock and it shall be opened unto you. 521 00:22:02,303 --> 00:22:05,567 And so there's this idea that, you know, part of seeking God is 522 00:22:05,711 --> 00:22:09,703 desiring his power in our life, seeking him through prayer, 523 00:22:09,839 --> 00:22:12,951 seeking him through his word, seeking after those things that he 524 00:22:12,983 --> 00:22:15,049 wants us to follow in our lives. 525 00:22:15,097 --> 00:22:17,761 And so there's so much to be said about seeking after God. 526 00:22:17,793 --> 00:22:22,905 And, you know, I would ask you here this evening, and this is just. 527 00:22:22,985 --> 00:22:23,857 You don't have to answer this. 528 00:22:23,881 --> 00:22:25,325 Please don't answer this out loud. 529 00:22:26,105 --> 00:22:30,577 But I want you to contemplate, really in your mind, what does it 530 00:22:30,601 --> 00:22:32,525 mean for me to seek after God? 531 00:22:33,825 --> 00:22:36,685 And then two am I doing that? 532 00:22:37,145 --> 00:22:38,805 Am I seeking his face? 533 00:22:39,395 --> 00:22:42,875 Am I willing to seek his face even if it's difficult for me, even 534 00:22:42,915 --> 00:22:46,083 if there's conviction, even if I have to change something in my 535 00:22:46,099 --> 00:22:46,539 life? 536 00:22:46,667 --> 00:22:50,035 The Bible says in Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 6, that it's impossible 537 00:22:50,075 --> 00:22:51,755 to please God without faith. 538 00:22:51,795 --> 00:22:54,467 And so therefore, we have to understand that he is a rewarder 539 00:22:54,491 --> 00:22:56,299 of them that diligently seek Him. 540 00:22:56,467 --> 00:22:59,555 So there has to be a point in our life where we take it by faith 541 00:22:59,595 --> 00:23:01,995 that God is going to make all things right, even if it's difficult 542 00:23:02,035 --> 00:23:02,787 in this moment. 543 00:23:02,891 --> 00:23:05,259 And so for the people of Judah, it would have been difficult. 544 00:23:05,347 --> 00:23:08,047 It would be like a total change of their life to throw out 545 00:23:08,071 --> 00:23:08,623 all these things. 546 00:23:08,679 --> 00:23:10,599 Idolatry was so ingrained in their culture. 547 00:23:10,647 --> 00:23:11,959 It was all they knew. 548 00:23:12,087 --> 00:23:14,735 So for them, it was a change of their lifestyle, it was a change 549 00:23:14,775 --> 00:23:17,439 of their culture, it was a change of their family. 550 00:23:17,487 --> 00:23:19,743 And so for them, it was like, man, this is going to be a dramatic 551 00:23:19,799 --> 00:23:20,255 shift. 552 00:23:20,375 --> 00:23:22,423 But God says, you don't have any other choice. 553 00:23:22,559 --> 00:23:23,755 Judgment is coming. 554 00:23:24,135 --> 00:23:26,943 And so over and over again in scripture, we see that call. 555 00:23:27,079 --> 00:23:32,315 I mean, I even think of Jeremiah, Jeremiah 29:13. 556 00:23:32,655 --> 00:23:35,125 Man, that one really cuts the heart. 557 00:23:35,255 --> 00:23:39,977 For me, it says, and ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall 558 00:23:40,041 --> 00:23:45,657 search for me with all of your heart, you know, for me, where that 559 00:23:45,681 --> 00:23:48,945 cuts me deep is sometimes I'm seeking after God, but I'm not seeking 560 00:23:48,985 --> 00:23:50,325 him with all of my heart. 561 00:23:50,705 --> 00:23:54,485 I'm seeking him with half of it or what I have left over. 562 00:23:54,785 --> 00:23:56,285 You know, if I only have. 563 00:23:57,945 --> 00:24:00,605 Let's say I have, you know, just. 564 00:24:01,035 --> 00:24:02,451 I don't know how to explain this. 565 00:24:02,483 --> 00:24:05,611 Okay, let's say I have a five gallon bucket and I've got all the 566 00:24:05,643 --> 00:24:07,475 water filled all the way to the top, right? 567 00:24:07,635 --> 00:24:09,491 And I want to try to put more in there. 568 00:24:09,523 --> 00:24:10,107 What's going to happen? 569 00:24:10,131 --> 00:24:12,395 I'm going to put some rocks in there and that water displacement, 570 00:24:12,435 --> 00:24:14,019 that water is going to pour out, right? 571 00:24:14,067 --> 00:24:16,547 Because I can't have other things in there. 572 00:24:16,571 --> 00:24:20,011 And what happens is our heart so much as we pile in there, all 573 00:24:20,043 --> 00:24:22,643 these things that we desire in this world, and then we're supposed 574 00:24:22,659 --> 00:24:25,011 to seek God with everything and there's just no place for it 575 00:24:25,083 --> 00:24:26,627 because our heart is given over to something else. 576 00:24:26,651 --> 00:24:30,015 And so he says, seek me, but seek me with all of your heart. 577 00:24:30,195 --> 00:24:30,879 Give me everything. 578 00:24:30,927 --> 00:24:32,935 And we know that's his heart from the Old Testament to the New 579 00:24:32,975 --> 00:24:33,555 right? 580 00:24:34,175 --> 00:24:37,183 And the greatest commandment is to love God with all of our heart, 581 00:24:37,239 --> 00:24:39,511 soul, mind and strength, every element of our Life. 582 00:24:39,583 --> 00:24:40,415 Romans, chapter 12. 583 00:24:40,455 --> 00:24:42,395 Give your bodies a living sacrifice. 584 00:24:42,775 --> 00:24:44,719 And so what God wants is our heart. 585 00:24:44,767 --> 00:24:47,035 He wants the heart of the people there in Judah. 586 00:24:47,815 --> 00:24:52,471 He is concerned with their actions, no doubt, but he understands 587 00:24:52,503 --> 00:24:54,431 that their heart is connected to their actions. 588 00:24:54,463 --> 00:24:56,649 And so they could stop for a time. 589 00:24:56,807 --> 00:24:59,901 They could reject the things of this world, but ultimately what's 590 00:24:59,933 --> 00:25:02,269 going to happen is that they're going to go back to that. 591 00:25:02,317 --> 00:25:03,901 Unless it's a heart change. 592 00:25:04,053 --> 00:25:05,585 Unless it's a heart change. 593 00:25:06,165 --> 00:25:12,269 You know, I know what it's like, so I went to a Christian school 594 00:25:12,317 --> 00:25:15,965 growing up, and our Christian school had demerits. 595 00:25:16,125 --> 00:25:17,877 And so demerits were these things. 596 00:25:17,981 --> 00:25:19,509 Some of you probably know what it is. 597 00:25:19,637 --> 00:25:22,467 You don't do something that's in the rule book, you get a demerit. 598 00:25:22,621 --> 00:25:25,355 Some demerits were more serious than others. 599 00:25:26,255 --> 00:25:28,418 And so if you had 15 demerits. 600 00:25:28,496 --> 00:25:32,675 If you had 15 demerits, you were not able to play sports. 601 00:25:33,135 --> 00:25:36,967 So you'd hit 15 demerits and you'd be what we would call ineligible. 602 00:25:37,071 --> 00:25:39,715 And so you had to take off time until you earned off. 603 00:25:40,095 --> 00:25:43,255 Every week that you didn't get a demerit, you earned off a demerit. 604 00:25:43,335 --> 00:25:44,383 So you guys understand what I'm saying? 605 00:25:44,399 --> 00:25:48,319 So I'd get 15 demerits, and then you'd have a week, and then 606 00:25:48,327 --> 00:25:49,463 you'd get one earned off. 607 00:25:49,559 --> 00:25:51,151 Then you'd be back good again. 608 00:25:51,343 --> 00:25:55,319 So I started to think that my obedience to my teacher was all predicated 609 00:25:55,367 --> 00:25:56,807 upon how many demerits I had. 610 00:25:56,871 --> 00:25:58,911 I saw it as like a storehouse, okay? 611 00:25:58,943 --> 00:26:01,519 So, like, I know that I can talk in class and get a couple demerits, 612 00:26:01,567 --> 00:26:03,247 but I can just earn that off next week. 613 00:26:03,271 --> 00:26:05,959 And so it started to become like this currency. 614 00:26:06,127 --> 00:26:09,151 Like, okay, so if my teacher came around and I had 14 demerits, 615 00:26:09,183 --> 00:26:09,815 I better be quiet. 616 00:26:09,855 --> 00:26:11,767 Cause I wanna play sports this week, right? 617 00:26:11,871 --> 00:26:13,391 So it wasn't a heart issue. 618 00:26:13,463 --> 00:26:15,975 It was more of, like, I'm seeking after myself and I was using 619 00:26:16,015 --> 00:26:18,949 it as, like, what I can do in my currency. 620 00:26:19,117 --> 00:26:22,141 And so I would encourage you to think about it from this perspective. 621 00:26:22,213 --> 00:26:26,461 You know, sometimes if we see God's judgment and his love and his 622 00:26:26,493 --> 00:26:30,013 work in our life and what he's called us to do as that, like, spiritual 623 00:26:30,069 --> 00:26:31,565 currency, we're missing the point. 624 00:26:31,645 --> 00:26:32,325 It's about our heart. 625 00:26:32,365 --> 00:26:33,917 We should desire to do that. 626 00:26:34,061 --> 00:26:36,461 When I can get away, like, you know, if the teacher wasn't looking, 627 00:26:36,493 --> 00:26:37,213 I could get away with it. 628 00:26:37,229 --> 00:26:38,157 So I'm going to do it. 629 00:26:38,261 --> 00:26:42,061 Well, the truth is that, yeah, maybe I could have done something 630 00:26:42,253 --> 00:26:43,705 and gotten away with it. 631 00:26:45,225 --> 00:26:47,353 But we know that in our own lives, we can't get away with it 632 00:26:47,369 --> 00:26:48,137 in the Lord. 633 00:26:48,281 --> 00:26:51,177 Now, I just want to let you know, I was never ineligible for 634 00:26:51,321 --> 00:26:52,273 demerits, okay? 635 00:26:52,329 --> 00:26:53,025 Or anything else. 636 00:26:53,065 --> 00:26:53,233 Okay? 637 00:26:53,249 --> 00:26:54,625 I played sports all the way through. 638 00:26:54,745 --> 00:26:57,065 And that was really what I was caring about at that time. 639 00:26:57,225 --> 00:27:00,057 But the truth is that as a Christian, so many times when we 640 00:27:00,081 --> 00:27:03,209 think about it as like, checks and balances, list and say, okay, 641 00:27:03,297 --> 00:27:06,073 well, I didn't do this, this, and this and so maybe I can get away 642 00:27:06,089 --> 00:27:06,777 with this, this and this. 643 00:27:06,801 --> 00:27:08,657 We're missing the whole point on what God wants from us. 644 00:27:08,681 --> 00:27:09,475 He wants our heart. 645 00:27:09,585 --> 00:27:11,599 Revival is not about keeping rules. 646 00:27:11,727 --> 00:27:15,423 Revival is about wanting to desire God more, seeking God's face 647 00:27:15,479 --> 00:27:16,103 more. 648 00:27:16,279 --> 00:27:18,607 And the more we seek after him, the less we want those things 649 00:27:18,631 --> 00:27:19,127 of this world. 650 00:27:19,191 --> 00:27:20,315 I love that song. 651 00:27:21,975 --> 00:27:22,343 Seek. 652 00:27:22,359 --> 00:27:23,047 Yeah. 653 00:27:23,151 --> 00:27:23,943 How's it go? 654 00:27:24,039 --> 00:27:26,263 And the things of earth will go strangely dim in the light of 655 00:27:26,279 --> 00:27:27,039 his glory and grace. 656 00:27:27,087 --> 00:27:28,015 That's how it ends. 657 00:27:28,135 --> 00:27:33,143 And so really, the desire for a believer should be that I don't 658 00:27:33,159 --> 00:27:34,733 want to love the things of this world. 659 00:27:34,919 --> 00:27:38,281 I want to grow so close to God that the things of this world look 660 00:27:38,473 --> 00:27:41,245 like wasteful, just empty, vain. 661 00:27:42,145 --> 00:27:46,905 And so the more you seek after God's face, the more you will deny 662 00:27:46,945 --> 00:27:48,245 those things of this world. 663 00:27:48,545 --> 00:27:51,577 And so, you know, I think that that's something that I've been really 664 00:27:51,601 --> 00:27:53,525 trying to work in in my own life, transparently. 665 00:27:55,225 --> 00:27:58,737 I want to be known more for when I'm for than what I'm against. 666 00:27:58,881 --> 00:28:03,403 What I'm for will make me against certain things, but I want 667 00:28:03,419 --> 00:28:07,955 to be so strongly for the things of God that naturally, or 668 00:28:07,995 --> 00:28:11,535 let's say supernaturally, I'm against the things that God is against. 669 00:28:12,035 --> 00:28:13,339 And that's how it goes. 670 00:28:13,427 --> 00:28:16,459 And I think that that's how, as a Christian, we should think about 671 00:28:16,507 --> 00:28:17,099 it. 672 00:28:17,267 --> 00:28:21,295 Someone told me, well, when you move somewhere, you will become 673 00:28:21,875 --> 00:28:24,131 like the people, and you should adopt the ways of the people. 674 00:28:24,163 --> 00:28:25,963 You'll start loving the things that they love. 675 00:28:26,099 --> 00:28:27,547 You'll start doing the things that they do. 676 00:28:27,571 --> 00:28:29,131 You'll start eating the foods that they like to eat. 677 00:28:29,163 --> 00:28:31,051 You'll start rooting for the teams that they like. 678 00:28:31,163 --> 00:28:33,131 And I want to tell you, I've been here for seven years, and I'm 679 00:28:33,163 --> 00:28:34,375 struggling with that, okay? 680 00:28:34,675 --> 00:28:36,811 I cannot adapt to all of those things. 681 00:28:36,843 --> 00:28:38,179 But I do see the point of that. 682 00:28:38,267 --> 00:28:40,651 The more you spend time around people, the more the things that 683 00:28:40,683 --> 00:28:43,827 they love, if you love them, will be endeared to you. 684 00:28:43,891 --> 00:28:44,403 Right? 685 00:28:44,539 --> 00:28:47,619 And so if I spend time with a person and I see how much they love 686 00:28:47,667 --> 00:28:51,163 something, I should in turn then grow in my love for that thing. 687 00:28:51,299 --> 00:28:52,539 It's the same thing with being Christ. 688 00:28:52,587 --> 00:28:55,201 Like, a lot of people want to be Christ like, and they want to 689 00:28:55,323 --> 00:28:58,037 desire the things of God, but yet in their minds they're like, 690 00:28:58,061 --> 00:28:58,741 how does that happen? 691 00:28:58,773 --> 00:29:00,061 I just don't feel it happening. 692 00:29:00,133 --> 00:29:03,385 Well, the truth is, it's not about just manifesting in your life, 693 00:29:03,885 --> 00:29:05,269 speaking into the existence. 694 00:29:05,317 --> 00:29:07,509 What it is is just being around God More. 695 00:29:07,677 --> 00:29:10,789 And so I know that that's something that is a Christian cliche. 696 00:29:10,837 --> 00:29:13,613 So what I want to do for the next, just the next few moments is 697 00:29:13,629 --> 00:29:15,245 I want to talk to you about what that means. 698 00:29:15,285 --> 00:29:17,461 Like, how can I seek after God? 699 00:29:17,533 --> 00:29:19,709 What does it mean to hunger and thirst after righteousness? 700 00:29:19,757 --> 00:29:21,341 Well, it's very basic. 701 00:29:21,373 --> 00:29:21,981 It's very simple. 702 00:29:22,013 --> 00:29:25,771 But spending time with the Lord, how do you spend time with 703 00:29:25,803 --> 00:29:26,415 God? 704 00:29:26,715 --> 00:29:30,335 I think one of the things that I would encourage you to do is to 705 00:29:30,795 --> 00:29:33,255 study his Word, meditate upon His Word. 706 00:29:33,555 --> 00:29:36,443 Set out a time in your life where the word of God is special 707 00:29:36,499 --> 00:29:41,035 to you, that it is the first thing for you, and meditate upon 708 00:29:41,075 --> 00:29:41,347 it. 709 00:29:41,411 --> 00:29:43,771 Don't just read the verses and just go through it. 710 00:29:43,883 --> 00:29:45,739 Read and see what God has for you. 711 00:29:45,787 --> 00:29:48,015 See it as a love letter to you. 712 00:29:48,645 --> 00:29:50,545 And don't read it with distractions. 713 00:29:51,405 --> 00:29:55,397 You know, I always liken it to my relationship with my wife, right? 714 00:29:55,541 --> 00:29:59,957 If I wanna spend time with her and talk with her, sometimes I'll 715 00:29:59,981 --> 00:30:02,141 be over here on my phone and like, she's talking, I'm talking, 716 00:30:02,173 --> 00:30:02,717 I'm going like this. 717 00:30:02,741 --> 00:30:03,861 I'm distracted, right? 718 00:30:03,973 --> 00:30:04,837 And so I would encourage you. 719 00:30:04,861 --> 00:30:07,185 I know a lot of us read our Bibles on our phones. 720 00:30:07,885 --> 00:30:11,061 There is a thing on your phone that you can do called airplane mode. 721 00:30:11,093 --> 00:30:13,805 And you can click that and no one can get you or put it on do not 722 00:30:13,845 --> 00:30:14,391 disturb. 723 00:30:14,493 --> 00:30:16,587 Because for me, if I'm reading my Bible on my phone, guess what? 724 00:30:16,611 --> 00:30:19,811 The little thing at the top pops down and news pop, news break, 725 00:30:19,923 --> 00:30:20,675 message text. 726 00:30:20,715 --> 00:30:21,827 And I start going, I better hit that. 727 00:30:21,851 --> 00:30:22,723 I better get to that. 728 00:30:22,819 --> 00:30:25,775 So I would say, you know, you don't have to read the Bible. 729 00:30:26,395 --> 00:30:29,083 Like, you know, if you want to read on your phone, you can. 730 00:30:29,139 --> 00:30:30,979 But I would say remove the distractions. 731 00:30:31,107 --> 00:30:33,451 Another thing is, like, just as much as you're hearing from God, 732 00:30:33,483 --> 00:30:34,331 you need to talk to God. 733 00:30:34,363 --> 00:30:38,107 You need to have a defined, distinct prayer time in your life 734 00:30:38,131 --> 00:30:40,491 that you can say, you know what, Lord, I want to talk to you, 735 00:30:40,523 --> 00:30:42,581 and I just want to pour my heart out to you. 736 00:30:42,733 --> 00:30:44,957 He already knows our heart, but it's another thing to connect 737 00:30:44,981 --> 00:30:45,781 with him. 738 00:30:45,973 --> 00:30:49,133 I think another thing to do would be to spend time with other 739 00:30:49,229 --> 00:30:51,085 people that love God, right? 740 00:30:51,165 --> 00:30:51,997 That's church. 741 00:30:52,101 --> 00:30:53,357 That's fellowship. 742 00:30:53,541 --> 00:30:57,181 A lot of times people will say, well, I don't have to go to 743 00:30:57,213 --> 00:31:00,109 church to be a Christian, right? 744 00:31:00,157 --> 00:31:02,397 But just you making that statement shows where your heart 745 00:31:02,421 --> 00:31:03,637 is in that moment, right? 746 00:31:03,781 --> 00:31:08,695 If you love God, you will love his people and you will want to spend 747 00:31:08,735 --> 00:31:09,847 time around Them. 748 00:31:10,031 --> 00:31:11,823 And so what I would say to you is this. 749 00:31:11,959 --> 00:31:16,351 There is a benefit and a command in Scripture to not forsake 750 00:31:16,383 --> 00:31:18,115 the assembling of ourselves together. 751 00:31:18,615 --> 00:31:21,351 Now, again, I would tell you that the Bible actually says in that 752 00:31:21,383 --> 00:31:23,831 passage to do it all the more as the day approaches. 753 00:31:23,983 --> 00:31:26,031 So what I would encourage you to say is like, we should be doing 754 00:31:26,063 --> 00:31:26,743 church more. 755 00:31:26,839 --> 00:31:28,231 We should be meeting together more. 756 00:31:28,343 --> 00:31:29,727 We should be studying the Bible together more. 757 00:31:29,751 --> 00:31:31,535 And so I would encourage you to think about that. 758 00:31:31,615 --> 00:31:34,255 Sometimes we don't think about seeking God as by being around other 759 00:31:34,295 --> 00:31:36,303 Christians, but I would encourage you to think about what 760 00:31:36,319 --> 00:31:39,711 it means to be around other Christians and so seek the Lord. 761 00:31:39,863 --> 00:31:41,255 And so I would go back there. 762 00:31:41,375 --> 00:31:43,195 Zephaniah, chapter two. 763 00:31:43,575 --> 00:31:44,555 Oh, man. 764 00:31:46,375 --> 00:31:47,607 Cut out there for a second. 765 00:31:47,671 --> 00:31:49,303 Hopefully the batteries are good. 766 00:31:49,479 --> 00:31:50,447 Zephaniah, chapter two. 767 00:31:50,471 --> 00:31:51,695 We're going to end with verse number three. 768 00:31:51,735 --> 00:31:54,023 Again, I just want to reiterate what he said here, because 769 00:31:54,119 --> 00:31:56,967 there is a way to do this in the flesh and there is a way to do 770 00:31:56,991 --> 00:31:58,235 this in the Spirit. 771 00:31:59,055 --> 00:32:00,927 Doing it in the flesh is this. 772 00:32:01,111 --> 00:32:03,947 Let me just give you a real practical way this looks like doing 773 00:32:03,971 --> 00:32:04,779 this in the flesh. 774 00:32:04,907 --> 00:32:08,255 Okay, I got my Bible study ready for today. 775 00:32:08,715 --> 00:32:12,499 I got, I got my five minute prayer time that I needed to do. 776 00:32:12,587 --> 00:32:15,803 Okay, I gotta go to church on Sunday and once I do that, everything's 777 00:32:15,819 --> 00:32:16,691 gonna be okay. 778 00:32:16,843 --> 00:32:20,523 And I'm gonna do this in, you know, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm 779 00:32:20,539 --> 00:32:21,315 gonna do this great. 780 00:32:21,355 --> 00:32:23,347 I'm gonna do it every single day and I'm gonna. 781 00:32:23,411 --> 00:32:25,563 But, but that's good intentions. 782 00:32:25,699 --> 00:32:28,787 But who are we trusting in when we see it from that perspective? 783 00:32:28,811 --> 00:32:29,971 We're trusting in our own strength. 784 00:32:30,003 --> 00:32:31,425 We're trusting in our own wisdom. 785 00:32:31,515 --> 00:32:33,653 If you go back to look at verse three, he says, seek ye the 786 00:32:33,669 --> 00:32:36,917 Lord, all ye meek of the earth which have wrought his judgment. 787 00:32:36,981 --> 00:32:39,705 Seek righteousness, seek meekness. 788 00:32:40,965 --> 00:32:44,941 Jesus tells us that, that, that key factor of humility there 789 00:32:44,973 --> 00:32:48,549 in Philippians chapter two, he took the form of the servant. 790 00:32:48,717 --> 00:32:50,309 We do this with a sense of meekness. 791 00:32:50,357 --> 00:32:51,773 We do this with a sense of humility. 792 00:32:51,829 --> 00:32:55,981 We do this with a sense of totally, completely giving over to 793 00:32:56,013 --> 00:32:59,225 God and the need for his power for this revival. 794 00:32:59,525 --> 00:33:04,477 And so he says, if you do this, it may be ye shall be hid in 795 00:33:04,501 --> 00:33:05,917 the day of the Lord's anger. 796 00:33:05,981 --> 00:33:10,085 So there is this idea of mercy that God is going to withhold his 797 00:33:10,125 --> 00:33:12,533 wrath against those who have meekness. 798 00:33:12,669 --> 00:33:14,829 And so think about it from this perspective, you know, because 799 00:33:14,957 --> 00:33:18,765 you hear those terms mercy and grace you know, you should know what 800 00:33:18,805 --> 00:33:19,789 those terms mean. 801 00:33:19,837 --> 00:33:21,025 They're very similar. 802 00:33:21,405 --> 00:33:24,465 Grace is God gifting you something that you don't deserve. 803 00:33:25,085 --> 00:33:28,859 Mercy is God withholding something from you that you do deserve. 804 00:33:28,947 --> 00:33:29,507 Right? 805 00:33:29,651 --> 00:33:32,715 And so I would tell you to remember it this way, if you're still 806 00:33:32,755 --> 00:33:37,019 with me, you have mercy and meekness. 807 00:33:37,147 --> 00:33:42,443 So when you desire God's mercy, you meet that with meekness, 808 00:33:42,499 --> 00:33:42,691 right? 809 00:33:42,723 --> 00:33:43,931 That's the spirit that you should have. 810 00:33:43,963 --> 00:33:46,419 The spirit of meekness leads to understanding God's mercies. 811 00:33:46,467 --> 00:33:47,779 His mercies are new every morning. 812 00:33:47,867 --> 00:33:50,643 But you can't obtain those mercies without understanding what 813 00:33:50,659 --> 00:33:53,617 it means to be meek before him, humbled in spirit, serving the 814 00:33:53,641 --> 00:33:54,129 Lord. 815 00:33:54,257 --> 00:33:58,313 God gives grace to the humble, but he rejects the proud. 816 00:33:58,489 --> 00:34:03,045 And so if you want to understand and live and rest and 817 00:34:03,465 --> 00:34:06,881 bathe in the mercies of God every day, I would encourage you 818 00:34:06,913 --> 00:34:08,845 to face that with meekness. 819 00:34:09,505 --> 00:34:11,801 That righteousness comes from a sense of meekness. 820 00:34:11,913 --> 00:34:14,441 And therefore we get to receive the mercies of God. 821 00:34:14,473 --> 00:34:16,805 So the mercy in the meekness. 822 00:34:17,715 --> 00:34:20,019 So next week we're going to come back and we're going to look 823 00:34:20,067 --> 00:34:26,307 at the end of this chapter, chapter two, verses four through 824 00:34:26,451 --> 00:34:26,851 15. 825 00:34:26,923 --> 00:34:30,531 And really this is where God goes and he goes outside of Judah, 826 00:34:30,563 --> 00:34:34,211 he says, okay, all of these surrounding nations that have been 827 00:34:34,363 --> 00:34:36,995 influencing you, they're going to be judged as well. 828 00:34:37,035 --> 00:34:39,011 And he goes through and he lists all these nations. 829 00:34:39,043 --> 00:34:41,939 And you might say, well, why does he do that? 830 00:34:41,987 --> 00:34:44,819 Well, one, he's explaining to them that these are all the people 831 00:34:44,867 --> 00:34:46,503 that are influencing you. 832 00:34:46,699 --> 00:34:49,263 And so therefore, there's going to be judgment upon you, there's 833 00:34:49,279 --> 00:34:50,655 going to be judgment upon them. 834 00:34:50,775 --> 00:34:55,039 But ultimately, I think a lot of times what people think is that, 835 00:34:55,127 --> 00:34:57,367 you know what, these people seem to be getting away with their 836 00:34:57,391 --> 00:34:57,655 sins. 837 00:34:57,695 --> 00:34:59,115 So we need to go do that. 838 00:34:59,855 --> 00:35:02,355 Even the psalmist David, he was saying, you know what? 839 00:35:02,695 --> 00:35:05,391 It seems like sometimes that these evil people are getting away 840 00:35:05,423 --> 00:35:06,023 with it. 841 00:35:06,159 --> 00:35:08,975 I think this is one of the ways that God explains to his own 842 00:35:09,015 --> 00:35:11,715 people that, hey, nobody is going to get away with this. 843 00:35:12,345 --> 00:35:13,601 Nobody has it better than you. 844 00:35:13,633 --> 00:35:14,721 The grass is not greener. 845 00:35:14,753 --> 00:35:17,289 On the other side, there will be judgment. 846 00:35:17,417 --> 00:35:21,433 And so the blessing is always in repentance and revival. 847 00:35:21,569 --> 00:35:23,721 And so he's going to go through and explain all those people, 848 00:35:23,753 --> 00:35:26,289 and he's going to explain that, you know, Moab is going to 849 00:35:26,297 --> 00:35:27,033 be like Sodom. 850 00:35:27,089 --> 00:35:28,705 Ammon's going to be like Gomorrah. 851 00:35:28,785 --> 00:35:32,569 And he talks about the complete destruction of all of these 852 00:35:32,657 --> 00:35:33,065 nations. 853 00:35:33,105 --> 00:35:37,485 Now, the unique thing about this is that many of these Prophecies 854 00:35:38,165 --> 00:35:41,557 were partially fulfilled in the time of Scripture. 855 00:35:41,741 --> 00:35:46,957 But we'll see that Zephaniah references something as the day of 856 00:35:46,981 --> 00:35:47,785 the Lord. 857 00:35:48,325 --> 00:35:53,461 And ultimately, I believe that this is not a prophecy of the past, 858 00:35:53,533 --> 00:35:55,853 but a prophecy that is still to come. 859 00:35:56,029 --> 00:36:02,077 And so ultimately, this is a foretelling, a prophecy of God's 860 00:36:02,101 --> 00:36:04,365 complete destruction against the world that has rebelled against 861 00:36:04,405 --> 00:36:05,025 him. 862 00:36:05,215 --> 00:36:09,597 And so I think that Zephaniah is a end times book. 863 00:36:09,741 --> 00:36:13,461 But I also do believe that Zephaniah has application for today. 864 00:36:13,653 --> 00:36:21,005 And I would be very cautious today for anybody who preaches a 865 00:36:21,045 --> 00:36:22,261 message that says, you know what? 866 00:36:22,293 --> 00:36:23,381 You've got time. 867 00:36:23,533 --> 00:36:27,745 Just relax, come as you are, stay as you are, folks. 868 00:36:28,205 --> 00:36:29,821 That's a dangerous message. 869 00:36:29,933 --> 00:36:30,861 Come as you are. 870 00:36:30,933 --> 00:36:32,591 Certainly that's. 871 00:36:32,783 --> 00:36:34,435 You can't come any other way. 872 00:36:35,255 --> 00:36:37,655 But what I would say is that come as you are, but don't leave 873 00:36:37,695 --> 00:36:38,447 as you are. 874 00:36:38,551 --> 00:36:41,447 Come as you are and be changed by the power of God and by the conviction 875 00:36:41,471 --> 00:36:41,935 of God. 876 00:36:42,015 --> 00:36:42,871 And I struggle with that. 877 00:36:42,903 --> 00:36:44,951 I struggle with embracing conviction. 878 00:36:45,103 --> 00:36:49,111 You know what happens to me if, like, I listen to sermons, too. 879 00:36:49,223 --> 00:36:51,239 I listen to a lot of sermons throughout the week, and I hear a 880 00:36:51,247 --> 00:36:52,983 guy preaching on something that I'm really struggling with. 881 00:36:52,999 --> 00:36:53,679 You know what? 882 00:36:53,807 --> 00:36:57,583 My flesh wants to turn that off and go, ah, this guy's probably 883 00:36:57,639 --> 00:36:58,495 not biblical. 884 00:36:58,615 --> 00:36:59,383 This guy's probably. 885 00:36:59,439 --> 00:37:00,303 Let me look at his background. 886 00:37:00,319 --> 00:37:02,231 I'm gonna try to find something wrong with him. 887 00:37:02,263 --> 00:37:04,095 He's inconsistent with this theology. 888 00:37:04,215 --> 00:37:05,855 But, you know, a lot of times it's just, he's. 889 00:37:05,895 --> 00:37:07,439 He's hitting me where it hurts. 890 00:37:07,607 --> 00:37:10,847 And what I have to do is I have to say, lord, you're doing that 891 00:37:10,871 --> 00:37:11,551 for a reason. 892 00:37:11,663 --> 00:37:12,231 And I. 893 00:37:12,263 --> 00:37:15,103 And I will just give you this, and I'll be done with this. 894 00:37:15,199 --> 00:37:17,367 I want to give you something that really helped me out to know 895 00:37:17,391 --> 00:37:19,795 the difference between conviction and guilt. 896 00:37:20,415 --> 00:37:23,015 Because the Bible says, as a Christian, there is no more guilt, 897 00:37:23,055 --> 00:37:26,551 there's no more condemnation, but there is conviction. 898 00:37:26,703 --> 00:37:28,663 So we have to think about the two different things, condemnation 899 00:37:28,719 --> 00:37:29,447 and conviction. 900 00:37:29,551 --> 00:37:32,239 What Satan wants you to do is he wants you to think about the condemnation 901 00:37:32,287 --> 00:37:32,759 on your life. 902 00:37:32,807 --> 00:37:34,151 That's the guilt, the weight. 903 00:37:34,263 --> 00:37:38,415 And every time Satan comes to you with guilt, it's vague, and there's 904 00:37:38,495 --> 00:37:43,023 no avenue of change or repentance offered. 905 00:37:43,119 --> 00:37:45,015 There's no avenue of grace in your guilt. 906 00:37:45,055 --> 00:37:47,663 It's like, let me give you an example of how it looks like in my 907 00:37:47,679 --> 00:37:51,471 life, I'm just a bad husband, I'm a bad father, I'm a bad pastor, 908 00:37:51,503 --> 00:37:53,425 and I just can't get this right, I have no hope. 909 00:37:53,465 --> 00:37:54,529 I can't see the end of it. 910 00:37:54,617 --> 00:37:57,377 That's Satan pulling the condemnation in and trying to put 911 00:37:57,401 --> 00:37:58,385 that upon you. 912 00:37:58,545 --> 00:38:01,609 Where the Holy Spirit is a convictor and the Holy Spirit is 913 00:38:01,657 --> 00:38:01,969 specific. 914 00:38:02,017 --> 00:38:04,433 And the Holy Spirit always gives us an opportunity to see from 915 00:38:04,449 --> 00:38:06,609 the word of God how to get that fixed. 916 00:38:06,777 --> 00:38:09,961 So let's say, let's say the Holy Spirit's convicted me on how 917 00:38:09,993 --> 00:38:11,209 I'm being a father. 918 00:38:11,377 --> 00:38:15,561 And I say, okay, Holy Spirit is telling me that I'm not being 919 00:38:15,593 --> 00:38:16,225 a good dad. 920 00:38:16,305 --> 00:38:17,073 And here's why. 921 00:38:17,129 --> 00:38:19,865 Because I totally missed an opportunity last night to lead my 922 00:38:19,905 --> 00:38:21,475 children in this truth of scripture. 923 00:38:21,515 --> 00:38:24,811 I just was so tired and I was so, you know, whatever, exhausted 924 00:38:24,843 --> 00:38:27,051 in my day that I just said, I'll just get that to another time. 925 00:38:27,123 --> 00:38:30,587 See, the Bible shows us that there is all scriptures given by 926 00:38:30,611 --> 00:38:33,251 inspiration of God as probable for doctrine, for approved, for correction, 927 00:38:33,283 --> 00:38:34,627 for instruction and righteousness. 928 00:38:34,731 --> 00:38:37,747 And so what I would tell you is that if you're dealing with like, 929 00:38:37,771 --> 00:38:40,131 is this guilt or is this conviction? 930 00:38:40,243 --> 00:38:40,971 I would say it's. 931 00:38:41,003 --> 00:38:42,175 If it's specific. 932 00:38:42,515 --> 00:38:45,315 And there's a way to get that fixed in repentance, that's the Holy 933 00:38:45,355 --> 00:38:46,507 Spirit convicting your life. 934 00:38:46,611 --> 00:38:50,089 If, if there's just condemnation, like, I'm just a lousy 935 00:38:50,137 --> 00:38:51,929 person, I can't get this right. 936 00:38:52,057 --> 00:38:52,889 That's, that's the. 937 00:38:52,977 --> 00:38:53,705 I believe that's. 938 00:38:53,745 --> 00:38:55,833 That's Satan trying to pull you down or that's your flesh trying 939 00:38:55,849 --> 00:38:56,801 to pull you down. 940 00:38:56,953 --> 00:38:59,985 And so I believe that the Holy Spirit, as it says there, he will 941 00:39:00,025 --> 00:39:01,425 convict us into the truth. 942 00:39:01,465 --> 00:39:02,641 It will teach us truth. 943 00:39:02,673 --> 00:39:05,057 It will guide us to truth, as the book of John says. 944 00:39:05,161 --> 00:39:08,241 And so the Holy Spirit leads the truth, Satan leads to lies. 945 00:39:08,353 --> 00:39:11,961 And that's how we can summarize that there as we talk about 946 00:39:11,993 --> 00:39:12,185 that. 947 00:39:12,225 --> 00:39:15,885 So repentance revival. 948 00:39:16,005 --> 00:39:19,665 Repentance revival in meekness and mercy. 949 00:39:20,805 --> 00:39:23,405 Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church 950 00:39:23,445 --> 00:39:24,205 podcast. 951 00:39:24,365 --> 00:39:26,905 I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you. 952 00:39:27,285 --> 00:39:29,557 If you would like to find out more information about our church 953 00:39:29,581 --> 00:39:31,625 or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org 954 00:39:31,753 --> 00:39:36,145 or find us on Facebook or YouTube. 955 00:39:36,645 --> 00:39:41,069 You can also email me directly at joshmissaroiddletownbaptistchurch 956 00:39:41,117 --> 00:39:45,599 dot com if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow 957 00:39:45,647 --> 00:39:48,635 along for future podcast and updates. 958 00:39:49,015 --> 00:39:50,127 Thank you so much. 959 00:39:50,271 --> 00:39:51,079 God bless. 960 00:39:51,207 --> 00:39:52,255 Have a wonderful day.