Read:   Psalm 57:9-11

Sing:   Here I Am to Worship

Sermon Intro

It had been seventy-five years after the people of Judah had heard the glorious promises of Isaiah – how God would restore His people, how the lion would lie down with the lamb, how a young woman would bear the Prince of Peace. Now, the people had grown weary of waiting for this new king and his wonderful new kingdom. Meanwhile, Judah had a couple of terrible kings who took advantage of the people's discouragement and returned them to idolatry. King Manasseh even sacrificed his own son to one of these idols.

We are always most susceptible to an idol in our life when we have been disappointed by God. You pray and pray for God to help, but the help still doesn't come. So the temptation is great to look for help from your money, or your health, or your job. These idols are much more manageable than the Lord Yahweh. They make great promises, and are so wonderfully immediate - no waiting. The Bible claims that idols are powerful. They don't really have the power to make you joyful. But as King Manasseh discovered, they do have the power to take away your children and loved ones. Just turn your job into an idol, and you'll understand what the Bible means by that.

But God knew the reason his people bowed before graven images was that they became complacent, telling themselves, “The Lord will not do good. Neither will he do harm." (1:12) This comfortable despair actually seems to bother God even more than the idolatry. After all the people had seen and heard, how could they become complacent about God? But we have seen even more than the people of Judah saw. So I wonder if we are not in even more danger than they. We have seen what God has done in Jesus Christ. So how do we dare tell ourselves that God will neither do us good or harm?

You cannot pretend to be unaffected by the gospel story, or to think this news does not change your story. You can’t just hear the gospel week after week, shrug your shoulders and say, "that’s nice." No, God will not tolerate indifference. He is present in the world, and He expects us to find His presence and discover His actions. There is no neutral. God will not tolerate any of us shrugging our shoulders, saying “So what?” He will never settle for indifference. In Dante's Inferno there is a special circle in hell for those who lived with neither infamy nor praise. God has always preferred hot or cold, but the lukewarm he just has to spew out of his mouth.

So in response to this indifference, God raised up another prophet named Zephaniah. In the opening chapters of his prophecy, Zephaniah depicts God as a night watchman who walks through the streets of Jerusalem with a lamp, searching for those who have settled into their complacent despair and practical atheism - pretending as if God will not intervene. Most of us are like the Hebrews of Jerusalem. We would never deny God’s existence. But we’re just not very affected by His presence. That is practical atheism. So because we cannot experience the present reality of God, we fill up the holes in our lives with the pursuit of wealth and pleasure, and that forces us into all kinds of deceit, power plays and injustice in order to achieve what we want.

This is exactly what had happened in Zephaniah’s Jerusalem. So Zephaniah joins a long line of prophets who warn the people about the approach of God. "Look out for God," they cautioned. "Because when he gets here, it's going to be judgment day." It is what the prophets called “The Day of the Lord.” It’s the day you will no longer be neutral. It is the day that you will discover that God is present. It’s also the day that you will figure out that a life which has set its desire on loving wealth more than loving God will come to naught. Judgment Day, the Day of the Lord, is a day that causes us to shake in our boots, that fills our idolatrous hearts with dread and fear.

But then the story takes a strange turn. When the Day of the Lord comes, when God’s presence is revealed, judgment is not the last word. By grace, on His way to find us in the midst of our idolatries, the Lord chooses to set aside his judgment and come to us with joy. That's because he was so delighted simply to find us. Now we come to our text today that begins like the call to worship in the Jerusalem Temple, "Shout aloud, O daughter Zion; shout O Israel. Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away his judgments against you.” (3:14-15).

The embarrassingly special part of the story is that God is so excited just to find His people that he forgets all about his anger at their idolatry and indifference. And according to Zephaniah, God starts singing. God sings a love song over His people, and over you. Loudly. He sings in exultation, which is the stand up and really-let-it-rip kind of singing. He is delirious with joy! He has found His people. He has found you. So let’s stand and join God in His singing.

Sing:  The Love of God Medley (#s 121, 122, 123)

Prayer

The Lord Your God Is With You

The first announcement of good news from Zephaniah is that the Lord their God with them. (v. 17) Literally, it is God is “in the midst of you.” God is with you, wherever you are. If you are in the midst of suffering, a terrible relationship, or if you are ashamed of something, the last word of God is not His judgment. It is His presence, and His presence is with you. If you find yourself in the midst of great idolatries that have left you indifferent towards God, God has come out to find you. And He is in the midst of you. When God came into their midst on what was supposed to be a terrible day of judgment, this God is singing songs of joy. He is in their presence, and His holy presence does not kill them. Instead, His presence loves them.

We so fear God’s presence. What if I haven’t done enough to please Him? What of my idolatries? What of my shame? The Old Testament is filled with people who were fearful. In almost every case, God’s answer to them always is, “I love you, I will be with you, I will not leave you.” That is what it means for God in Jesus Christ to come among us as our Emmanuel, or God with us. As we look upon Him, we know that the presence of God has come into our presence, not to condemn but to save.

Sing:  Surely the Presence of the Lord (#398)
          Be With Me Lord (#778 v.1 only)

He Is Mighty To Save

Zephaniah then tells the people that God is “mighty to save.” (3:17). Saved from what? Most of us feel like we are doing just fine. We realize that we have many problems, issues and struggles but we don’t necessarily feel that we need to be saved from anything. God is “mighty” to save us – first, from our idolatries, and ultimately, ourselves. Some of us need to be saved from shallow lives, from a self-consumed life, or from an eternal lostness. But God is about more than just saving us from something. He also is mighty to save you to a life that matters, to a life that sets its desires on something other than the accumulation of wealth and personal security. He is calling you to a great adventure, to a new story for your life. When Jesus called the disciples to follow Him, He called them into a new existence, into a life of meaning and hope. If you believe that God has abandoned you to a mundane existence; of if you doubt your life could ever matter; or you question whether you will ever be able to move past the shame to do something great in the world, then Zephaniah’s song is for you. God is mighty to save you.

Sing:  Salvation Belongs to Our God
           No Not One (#396 v. 1, 3)
          There Is None Like You

Communion Meditation

Meditation Song: He Will Rejoice Over You (Zoe)

He Takes Great Delight In You

For those who fear that they are about to be the objects of God’s wrath, Zephaniah then declares the most surprising of truths. “God takes great delight in you.” (3:17). Delight is a great word because we still know what it means. Its meaning hasn’t been obscured by overuse like “graceful” or “awesome” or “love.” Delight – it signifies great pleasure, a smile of completeness and satisfaction. It is more than “like.” It is something we do not just love or like … but it brings us an overwhelming joy. You may delight in your grandchildren, or your children. You may delight in a cup of Starbucks coffee, or before a great work of art. You may delight when you see the ocean. It is whatever brings a smile to your face.

Someone feels that way about you. It is also the person who knows you best – inside and out. The one who is your judge also finds you incredibly appealing and satisfying. When He looks upon you, He smiles. Do you believe God sees you that way? If you don’t, you will spend your whole life in unnecessary fear, legalism, and harsh judgment of others, and most of all, yourself. The whole world and your whole life are different when you realize that your Creator looks upon you and says, “That’s good.” Why can He do this? Doesn’t God know what a mess we are? Doesn’t he know how much you crave power and wealth? Doesn’t God know how selfish you are in a world of poverty and injustice? Yes, He does. But through Jesus Christ, He can take great delight in you. Because Jesus Christ has restored your life to God’s original created purpose for you. You bring a smile to the face of God.

Sing:   I Stand Amazed (#147)
           God is So Good (#83)

He Will Quiet You With His Love

Zephaniah on the surface seems to be a prophet of judgments, oracles, and songs. But he declares that you will most know of God’s presence to judge, and to love, when you get quiet. Even Zephaniah’s name means “God hides”, and it is in the secret places of solitude and mystery that God’s presence often becomes most known to us so that we can hear the awful truth of our lives and the truth of His forgiveness. Zephaniah cries out in chapter 1:7, “Be silent before the Lord God! For the day of the Lord is at hand!” But then in the quiet places, it is not the voice of judgment you expected to hear that comes to you, but it is God singing a song of love.

When I think of God quieting me with his love, I am reminded of a small baby crying and wailing uncontrollably. The screams just get louder and louder. Then the mother begins to sing her lullaby over the child, and she wraps the baby in her arms, and eventually the baby begins to quiet a little, and even takes a breath between the screams. And slowly, slowly the body relaxes, and the baby falls to sleep. We have so many desires and wants, and sometimes we are so worked up about life as we try to satisfy all of our – and everyone else’s – desires. We are worried about our relationships, about our marriage, about how we are doing at work, or how our lives stack up against someone else. And in the midst of it all, God comes to us ands says, “Shh. I want to quiet you, I want you to just rest in my love.” Martin Luther said of this phrase, “God will cause you to be silent so that you may know in the secret places of your heart a very quiet peace, and a very peaceful silence.” God will quiet you with His love.

Sing:  I Come to the Garden Alone (#595)

Silent Reflection
Invitation

Sing:   Softly and Tenderly

Offering / Announcements
Elder Prayer

He Will Rejoice Over You With Singing

God will sing over you. And not just sing. He is going to sing a song that has been welling up inside of Him so that it just explodes. That must have been what it was like on creation morning when God created the heavens and the earth, and He looked at it and said, “It is good.” He sees in you His good work, and He just can’t help but sing a song over the person He has made and loves. And when we hear the song, we can begin to sing a new song too. And when we start to sing that song, then we join in with God, all of heaven’s choir and all of creation in the song we are created to sing.

So it is not surprising that on the night when Emmanuel was born, the shepherds were watching their flocks by night and an angel announced that God is now with us, and the heavenly host broke out in song. Music can carry a message far beyond the limits of the spoken or written word. That is why God created it. So God doesn’t just have Zephaniah shout out another oracle, “I love you. Come to me!” No, He knows that words will never be enough to convince us. God can't just show up on earth with a few words. So he employs the angels to sing. It’s the only way the joy of God will penetrate all the way into the darkest corner of our hearts. So to ever really hear the gospel, you have to hear that song. God is singing a song over you. He cuts loose and all creation hears the song. It is a new song, unlike the old songs you’ve been singing. When you hear God’s song for you, it gets easier and easier to put away the idols. Love, generosity, peace and justice are the result of a person who has heard the Song. Once you’ve heard that song, all of life is new again and all you desire for the rest of your life is to hear that song – over and over again – because it is the song you’ve spent your whole life longing to hear, and the song you will sing forever. Can you hear it?

Sing:  Nobody Fills My Heart Like Jesus (#602)
Benediction: I John 4:7-11


July 17, 2005

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