The Urgency of Repentance: Lessons from Zephaniah

Pastor Josh
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Hello, and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

Pastor Josh
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My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.

Pastor Josh
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I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.

Pastor Josh
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Now, come along.

Pastor Josh
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Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

Pastor Josh
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All right, let's go ahead and open up our Bibles to the Book of Zephaniah.

Pastor Josh
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Be have your Bibles turned to the Book of Zephaniah?

Pastor Josh
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We're going to continue our study.

Pastor Josh
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We have finished chapter one, and there's only three chapters in the Book of Zephaniah, so we won't be here long.

Pastor Josh
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Obviously, in contrast to the Book of Genesis, this is just a little dot on the page.

Pastor Josh
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We were in Genesis for, I think it was close to almost two years.

Pastor Josh
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And so it was a long book.

Pastor Josh
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Now we're in a short book.

Pastor Josh
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But just because a book is short doesn't mean that we can't learn from it.

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Obviously, the smaller prophetic books are called the minor prophets, but minor just in their length, not in their message.

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And so here in the Book of Zephaniah, we see a couple of themes.

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One theme that is really the main theme from the beginning is God's judgment upon those who are rebelling against him.

Pastor Josh
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God judges those who reject him.

Pastor Josh
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God judges those who walk in their own path and the.

Pastor Josh
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And the ways of the flesh and the ways of sin.

Pastor Josh
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And he tells them specifically, who is he talking to?

Pastor Josh
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He's talking to the people of Israel.

Pastor Josh
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More specifically, the people of Judah.

Pastor Josh
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Now, you have to remember, Israel was split into two.

Pastor Josh
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At one point, you had the northern kingdom, which by this point had already been judged by other nations coming in.

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Judah was still intact as it was before.

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But we know that in the future, Judah is going to fall because of their rebellion.

Pastor Josh
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Now, the Book of Zephaniah was written in the time of Josiah, King Josia.

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And I don't know how much you know about King Josiah.

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He took over at a very early age.

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He was a young boy.

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Even in his reign, though, there was a great revival that happened.

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That revival definitely delayed God's judgment, but it didn't hold back God's judgment because ultimately the people turned their backs after the revival.

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And we see that cycle in the Old Testament quite frequently.

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And so what we see in this book is a theme of judgment, God's judgment.

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But we also see a theme of God's grace.

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He's offering and really grace and mercy.

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He's offering an opportunity for these people to repent.

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And we kind of ended last week with this thought, anytime there is revival, there is repentance.

Pastor Josh
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Now, what is repentance?

Pastor Josh
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I want you to think about that concept here this evening, because a lot of times we think of revival as a stir of the heart when it comes to emotions.

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But real revival comes from a heart of repentance.

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And repentance is literally means to turn away from something, to change course, to stop doing one thing and to do another.

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And so the Bible speaks of a need for a repentant heart.

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And the Bible speaks of God wanting all to come to repentance.

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What that means is that essentially we have to see where we fall, where we fail, where we are inadequate, and turn away from that and turn to Christ.

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That is repentance.

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A lot of people think that repentance means, well, I'm not going to sin anymore.

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That doesn't mean you're going to be sinless.

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It just means that you recognize that in and of yourself, you cannot do what you need to do in your life, spiritually speaking.

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And ultimately God can give that change.

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And so the book of Zephaniah is about offering the gift of grace in repentance.

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There is a theme in the New Testament that you will see over and over again.

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And it's also a theme that you'll see in the Old Testament, but it's very clearly stated in the New Testament.

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You can find it in First Peter, you can find it in the Book of James, you can find it all throughout Jesus teachings is this.

Pastor Josh
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God gives grace to the humble and he judges the proud.

Pastor Josh
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He rejects those that are selfishly prideful.

Pastor Josh
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He blesses those and graces those that fall before him in meekness and humility.

Pastor Josh
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And so that's what God is calling for here in chapter two.

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So chapter one, he explains what the judgment will look like and who will be judged.

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And he went through a group, different groups of people.

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He talked about those who were the false teachers.

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He talked about those hypocrites.

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He talked about those people who were mixing the ways of God with the ways of the world, the compromisers.

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He talked about those who were complacent.

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He talked about those who were in idolatry.

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And he says, all of these people, if you continue on in this path, you will be judged, and it will be a complete judgment.

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And so we get to chapter two, and one of the things that I love about this book of the Bible is that he gives the condemnation.

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But then he gives them the opportunity of comfort and of peace and of forgiveness.

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And that's how God works.

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God is going to lay out the truth.

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He always will.

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He lays down the law, so to speak.

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But God always offers that route of repentance.

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And through that repentance comes revival.

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And we're going to see that here in this passage.

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So look with me to Zephaniah, chapter two.

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And we're going to look at verse number one.

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It says this.

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Gather yourselves together.

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Yea, gather together, O nation, not desired.

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Now, what is he saying here?

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He says, hey, you need to get yourselves together and listen to what I'm about to tell you.

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This is important.

Pastor Josh
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This is the word of the Lord.

Pastor Josh
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Now, remember when Zephaniah is speaking.

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Yes, Zephaniah is speaking.

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But ultimately, this is the word of God to the people there, and it is the word of God to us.

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And so he says, gather yourselves together.

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The idea here is to gather in a solemn demonstration of mourning.

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Essentially, not mourning as the sun's coming up, but mourning as in repentance.

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He says, you need to wake up to where you are in your life, open your eyes, come together, recognize where you stand before God.

Pastor Josh
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And so it's this.

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Basically, it's.

Pastor Josh
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It's repent while there is still time.

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That's the message that God is telling the nation of Israel.

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Repent while you still have a chance.

Pastor Josh
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And that's really the message that we are to preach today.

Pastor Josh
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That's.

Pastor Josh
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That's really the gospel message.

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There is a time.

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We don't know how long that time is, but there is a time to repent.

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There is a time to humble yourselves.

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There's a time to trust in God, to seek after him.

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And so he says here, this is the time, Verse two.

Pastor Josh
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Before the decree, bring forth.

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Before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger come upon you.

Pastor Josh
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So all this announcement really is, is that judgment is coming and you need to be ready.

Pastor Josh
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And so here the prophet pleads with the nation to repent before it's too late.

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You know, there's a lot of people that are willing to say, you know what?

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I'm willing to risk it.

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I'll get right when I feel like I can get right.

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I'll get right when it makes sense to me.

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I'll get right when I can clean myself up.

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And the point is, you can't clean yourself up.

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You can't do enough.

Pastor Josh
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You got to rely on God as Your only hope for this change in your life.

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And so he says, wake up now.

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And he gives a comparison, he says before the day passes like chaff.

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And so here the prophet calls for a sense of urgency.

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And so he says, hey, this could happen at any point.

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And so what is he saying here?

Pastor Josh
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He says this, get right with God and keep getting right with God, right?

Pastor Josh
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This is not a process of a one time change.

Pastor Josh
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Repentance and revival is not a one time act in your life and then everything's okay.

Pastor Josh
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There were times in the nation of Israel where they were on fire for God.

Pastor Josh
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We're even going to see times in the life of Josiah that the people turned back to the scriptures.

Pastor Josh
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But it's a continual thing.

Pastor Josh
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We have to realize in our life that there is a time of evaluation.

Pastor Josh
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That's why we do special meetings.

Pastor Josh
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That's why we have different people come in and speak.

Pastor Josh
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You know, there's sometimes in my life where I feel like, well, you know what, I think that I've preached this before.

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And we have someone come in and they preach a very similar thing.

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And people go, wow, that's great.

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They've never heard that before.

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Well, you have heard that before, but maybe sometimes when you hear it from a new voice, it changes, right?

Pastor Josh
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And sometimes what we need to do is we need to wake up, we need to listen to what we're hearing.

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We need to say, you know what?

Pastor Josh
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Because there's one thing I can hear my wife, but sometimes I don't listen to her.

Pastor Josh
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I don't know if any of you men can relate to that.

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I hear noise, right, But I'm not listening.

Pastor Josh
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And then I don't know if any of you fellas, ladies, you should do this, right?

Pastor Josh
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Keep your men honest.

Pastor Josh
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But my wife goes, what did I just say?

Pastor Josh
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Oh man, that one hurts.

Pastor Josh
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I think you said.

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She goes, you're not even listening to me, right?

Pastor Josh
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So it's one thing to hear God, it's another thing to listen to his message.

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So they hear judgment.

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Well, what does that mean?

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He says it is this type of judgment before the day passes the chaff.

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This is going to be quick.

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We know that the Bible says that life is but a vapor.

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And so if life is but a vapor, God's judgment is coming quickly.

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And that's the message that we need to preach to this world.

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Like not, not in a doom and gloom sort of attitude, but in an attitude of, hey, wake up to the fact that you will be judged for your evil, you will be judged for your sin.

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And so he Says, be ready before the Lord's anger comes upon you.

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And a lot of people have a hard time dealing with that phrase, the Lord's anger.

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But remember, the defining attribute of God is his holiness.

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And so when God is angry, he's righteously angry.

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He's angry at sin.

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And so, so many times we hear that word anger, and we equate that with sin.

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And in most cases, in our human nature, it is sin.

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Because most of the time we are not righteously angry, we are selfishly angry.

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But when God displays his anger and his judgment upon people, he does it in a righteous and holy way.

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And so here the prophet is calling for an urgency in repentance.

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And so how easy is it for us to let the days pass like chaff and never get right with God?

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I'm gonna get right with him tomorrow, I'm gonna get right with him next week, this New Year, right?

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How about those New Year's resolutions?

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Have you ever made a spiritual New Year's resolution?

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How long did that go?

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Maybe three weeks, three months.

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Sometimes we treat our relationship with God like those New Year's resolutions.

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Like, you know what?

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This year I'm gonna get in shape.

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This year I'm gonna eat healthy.

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This year I'm gonna start a new hobby.

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And most of the time those kind of pass away when the distractions of this world come.

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And we understand that.

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And so many times we treat getting right with God just like that, like it's an optional thing, like we can get to it when we can.

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What he says here is basically this.

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Put this in the forefront of your mind, come together and be sober about this.

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Be sober minded.

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And often I believe Satan's most powerful tool is not telling us that there isn't a God.

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Like, none of us are probably going to be convinced that, hey, you know, atheism is the way to go.

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I hope not.

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And so that's sometimes what Satan does, is he doesn't package it like, hey, there's no God or no Bible.

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Often his most powerful tool is that there's no hurry, like, you got time, relax, get to that when you feel like it.

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And so what I would say sometimes in our Christian life is if Satan can't.

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If Satan can't take your soul, he can't take your life.

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What he can do is he can take your effectiveness, he can take your desire, he can take your joy, he can take all these things that God promises us.

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But what he can say is, look, you know, you have salvation, but, you know, just put it off.

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Put it off, you're fine.

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You're fine.

Pastor Josh
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And the truth is that sometimes when the Holy Spirit convicts our heart, we put a.

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You know, have you ever seen football?

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They stiff arm people.

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They put their arm out and they push it away.

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Like sometimes we stiff arm conviction in our life because sometimes it's difficult.

Pastor Josh
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It's difficult to deal with conviction.

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It doesn't feel good to see that you're wrong sometimes.

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It doesn't feel good to sometimes get that right.

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But what I would tell you, that if we desire the comfort of the spirit, the Bible says in the Book of John that the Spirit is the comforter.

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Jesus says the comforter will come and this is beneficial for you.

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And a lot of times we desire the comfort of the spirit, but yet we are not willing to embrace the conviction of the Spirit.

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And the conviction of the Spirit is actually what brings us to that comfort.

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The Bible says in the Book of John that also the Holy Spirit will come to convict the world of its sin.

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And that conviction shows us where we're wrong.

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But we never get to the comfort unless we address the thing that we're wrong in.

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And so I would say that as a Christian, yes, we have our salvation taken care of.

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But many times in our life, it's because of an unrepentant sin that we are rejecting the conviction of that's bringing us difficulty in our life.

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And God's going to wake us up.

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A lot of times people will think this, well, if I'm a child of God, he's not going to discipline me.

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It's the complete opposite.

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God only disciplines, in this case, his own.

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Now, ultimately, God will judge all mankind because of their sin.

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But right now, God is trying to discipline, and he will discipline those that he loves.

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But there is a point in our life where we can, what the Bible says is grieve the Holy Spirit.

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And as we grieve the Holy Spirit, we can have a seared conscience.

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And so what I want to preach to you here this evening is the importance of being sensitive to conviction.

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For revival, you want revival, you have to have conviction.

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You want revival, you have to have repentance.

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And so what I would tell you here this evening is what verse number three says.

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So he says, hey, he doesn't just tell them, stop sinning.

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Remember we talked about this on Sunday.

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It's not just a matter of stopping the idolatry, because if God alone wanted that to happen, he would just say, stop the idolatry and leave it at that.

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Now, does God want them to Stop idolatry?

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Of course he does.

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Does God want them to stop all of the things that they were doing in chapter one?

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The complacency, the compromising, all of those things of being controlled by their flesh and by their sensual ways?

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Of course he does.

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But then he also wants it to be replaced with something in the better way.

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And that's what verse three is all about.

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And I think verse three is the call to action here.

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Verse three is the, is the invitation, if you will, right at our church.

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You know, you come to the point where, okay, we're going to present the action item.

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And here's the action item.

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He says, seek ye the Lord.

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So the response to the preaching, the response to the conviction is what?

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Seeking the Lord.

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And he describes the type of people that will seek the Lord, seek the Lord all ye meek of the earth.

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He says, you gotta be meek, you gotta be humble.

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You have to be lowly to get to a place where you will seek after God.

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You won't seek after God if you think you've got it all under control.

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You're not gonna seek God in your pride.

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You're not gonna seek God in selfishness.

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You're not gonna seek God with a, with a self inflated view of everything that I am and everything that I do.

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Says to die, to self mortify your members.

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Jesus describes what it means to be his disciple.

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And he says, what do you have to do?

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You have to bear your cross daily.

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Can't look back.

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You can't have your hand to the plow and be looking back.

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He says, seek the Lord all ye meek of the earth.

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And so this is the call to action.

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Even the righteous must take heed to this warning.

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And so what they would say here is this.

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Can I say that I am the person who is seeking after God?

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Why I was seeking after him 20 years ago, I was really seeking after him.

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He's not saying that.

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He's not saying where you were and where you want to be.

Pastor Josh
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He says, where are you right now?

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I oftentimes as a pastor, when I'm counseling folks, they have issues with maybe like what I used to believe or what I used to do.

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And one of the things that I will say is where are you at right now?

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I'm not so concerned with where you were at 20 years ago.

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What I'm concerned about is where you're at right now.

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Well, right now I'm still dealing with that.

Pastor Josh
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Well then we can deal with that.

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But what Satan wants to do is he wants us to look, remember What Paul says in Philippians chapter three, he says, I'm not looking back.

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I'm pressing forward.

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I'm pressing forward.

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And so a lot of times what happens is that Satan wants us to think back to things that we did well in the past, things that we didn't do well in the past.

Pastor Josh
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He says, no, just seek after the Lord all ye that are meek of the earth which have wrought his judgment.

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Seek righteousness, seek meekness.

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He very clearly tells them what they need to do.

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He says, seek after the truth.

Pastor Josh
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Seek after righteousness.

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Seek after that humility.

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Why seek?

Pastor Josh
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Mikas.

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It may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger.

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In more than one place in Scripture, God promises to hide his righteousness, people, in the day of his great judgment.

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This is especially true in the end.

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Right at the end, God judges the world, right?

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We as his children are not going to have to feel that wrath.

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We know that ultimately we are going to be spared from the wrath of God.

Pastor Josh
00:17:06

But what I will say is that sometimes when we as Christians look at that, we think, well, you know what?

Pastor Josh
00:17:11

I'm spared from it, so I'm good.

Pastor Josh
00:17:14

The truth is that God calls us not only to tell other people about this hope to tell other people about the truth, but also to live like that in our lives, to live with that desire to seek after the Lord.

Pastor Josh
00:17:27

And so what does it mean to seek after the Lord?

Pastor Josh
00:17:30

Well, the Bible tells us in the New Testament many, many things about seeking after the Lord.

Pastor Josh
00:17:35

I'll have you look at a few of these.

Pastor Josh
00:17:37

If you can keep your finger there in Zephaniah, we'll go back.

Pastor Josh
00:17:40

But look at Matthew chapter six with me.

Pastor Josh
00:17:44

Matthew, chapter six.

Pastor Josh
00:17:45

This is Jesus teaching here.

Pastor Josh
00:17:47

Many of you are familiar with this classic Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus addresses many different things here, many different things.

Pastor Josh
00:17:58

But here in Matthew chapter six, he's talking to them about eternal treasures in heaven, about how you, basically how you live your life.

Pastor Josh
00:18:08

What do you set your focus on?

Pastor Josh
00:18:10

What's your treasure?

Pastor Josh
00:18:11

What's your desire?

Pastor Josh
00:18:12

What's your love?

Pastor Josh
00:18:14

And Jesus gets to the point where he says, don't lay up treasures here in this earth.

Pastor Josh
00:18:20

Why?

Pastor Josh
00:18:21

Because these break through and steal.

Pastor Josh
00:18:22

Verse 19.

Pastor Josh
00:18:23

He says, this is what you should do, but lay up your treasures.

Pastor Josh
00:18:27

Lay up for yourself treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.

Pastor Josh
00:18:34

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Pastor Josh
00:18:37

And then he goes on to give this analogy of the light of the eye.

Pastor Josh
00:18:41

And you know what your eye is set on is the truth.

Pastor Josh
00:18:45

And he ultimately talks about that.

Pastor Josh
00:18:46

Then he talks about, no man can serve two masters.

Pastor Josh
00:18:49

And then he gets to this idea of worrying.

Pastor Josh
00:18:50

Because a lot of times when we are so focused on the material of this world, it then manifests itself into worry, right?

Pastor Josh
00:18:59

If I'm worried about all the things that are going on around me in this world, if I'm so attached to what I have and what I can see and what I know, there's a point in time where I'm gonna be characterized by worry.

Pastor Josh
00:19:11

Because I'm around a bunch of things that are gonna be chaotic, right?

Pastor Josh
00:19:15

So if my circumstances are chaotic, and that's what I'm living by is my circumstances or my bank account or my health, if I'm living as that, as my treasure, then when those things go up and down, so will also my attitude, my worry and my stress.

Pastor Josh
00:19:32

And so he talks about the dangers of materialism that can lead to worry.

Pastor Josh
00:19:37

Then he gets to verse 25, and he says, therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, nor yet your body what ye shall put on.

Pastor Josh
00:19:46

Is not life more than meat and the body than raiment?

Pastor Josh
00:19:50

And then he goes on to talk about that wonderful passage of Scripture where he says, even the fowls of the air are fed.

Pastor Josh
00:19:56

How much more do you think your father's going to take care of you?

Pastor Josh
00:19:59

And you say, where are you going with this?

Pastor Josh
00:20:01

I thought we were talking about repentance and revival.

Pastor Josh
00:20:02

Now you're talking about materialism and worry.

Pastor Josh
00:20:04

Because I think they go hand in hand.

Pastor Josh
00:20:06

And so then he goes through that whole passage, he says, you know, God clothes the grass of the field.

Pastor Josh
00:20:11

He's going to clothe you, owe you a little faith.

Pastor Josh
00:20:14

And then he goes on to say in verse 33, the classic passage, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

Pastor Josh
00:20:23

Not your own righteousness, his righteousness.

Pastor Josh
00:20:27

And all these things shall be added unto you.

Pastor Josh
00:20:28

What is he talking about, all these things?

Pastor Josh
00:20:30

The blessings of God, the protection of God, the love of God, the confidence and the peace of God.

Pastor Josh
00:20:36

He says, you seek first the kingdom of God, the eternal things.

Pastor Josh
00:20:40

All these other things will be added unto you.

Pastor Josh
00:20:42

Take, therefore, no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.

Pastor Josh
00:20:47

Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Pastor Josh
00:20:49

Meaning this.

Pastor Josh
00:20:50

He says, look, you guys are all worried about the things around you.

Pastor Josh
00:20:53

And you're so distracted with these things around you and your materialism and your worry that you're missing out on what actually really matters.

Pastor Josh
00:20:59

And so really, repentance and revival is just seeing things for how they are and seeing what really matters.

Pastor Josh
00:21:05

You know, if someone came up to us and told us, hey, you've got one day to live, right?

Pastor Josh
00:21:09

You've got, this is your last day on Earth, we would live differently.

Pastor Josh
00:21:12

We would live.

Pastor Josh
00:21:13

I think we would live differently.

Pastor Josh
00:21:14

Some of you might say, actually, I do the same thing.

Pastor Josh
00:21:16

I just waste my day and get on YouTube and scroll or watch TV.

Pastor Josh
00:21:20

I don't know about you, but for me, if I had one day, I'd be doing a lot of stuff.

Pastor Josh
00:21:24

I'd be preparing, I'd be getting everything set up.

Pastor Josh
00:21:26

And the Bible teaches us that's how we're supposed to live.

Pastor Josh
00:21:29

And so if we realize that, hey, you know what?

Pastor Josh
00:21:32

I don't have much more time, I believe we would have a sense of repentance and revival and restoration.

Pastor Josh
00:21:37

And maybe we would even reach out to that person and we would say, hey, you know what?

Pastor Josh
00:21:41

I need to get that right with you before I go, right?

Pastor Josh
00:21:43

And so that's what the Bible says is we should be living like that.

Pastor Josh
00:21:46

Repentance, that revival, and that comes from not being gripped to this world, but seeking after God, seeking after the things that he wants for us.

Pastor Josh
00:21:53

Even go down to the next chapter.

Pastor Josh
00:21:55

Matthew 7.

Pastor Josh
00:21:56

Ask and it shall be given you.

Pastor Josh
00:21:58

Seek and you shall find.

Pastor Josh
00:22:00

Knock and it shall be opened unto you.

Pastor Josh
00:22:02

And so there's this idea that, you know, part of seeking God is desiring his power in our life, seeking him through prayer, seeking him through his word, seeking after those things that he wants us to follow in our lives.

Pastor Josh
00:22:15

And so there's so much to be said about seeking after God.

Pastor Josh
00:22:17

And, you know, I would ask you here this evening, and this is just.

Pastor Josh
00:22:22

You don't have to answer this.

Pastor Josh
00:22:23

Please don't answer this out loud.

Pastor Josh
00:22:26

But I want you to contemplate, really in your mind, what does it mean for me to seek after God?

Pastor Josh
00:22:33

And then two am I doing that?

Pastor Josh
00:22:37

Am I seeking his face?

Pastor Josh
00:22:39

Am I willing to seek his face even if it's difficult for me, even if there's conviction, even if I have to change something in my life?

Pastor Josh
00:22:46

The Bible says in Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 6, that it's impossible to please God without faith.

Pastor Josh
00:22:51

And so therefore, we have to understand that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

Pastor Josh
00:22:56

So there has to be a point in our life where we take it by faith that God is going to make all things right, even if it's difficult in this moment.

Pastor Josh
00:23:02

And so for the people of Judah, it would have been difficult.

Pastor Josh
00:23:05

It would be like a total change of their life to throw out all these things.

Pastor Josh
00:23:08

Idolatry was so ingrained in their culture.

Pastor Josh
00:23:10

It was all they knew.

Pastor Josh
00:23:12

So for them, it was a change of their lifestyle, it was a change of their culture, it was a change of their family.

Pastor Josh
00:23:17

And so for them, it was like, man, this is going to be a dramatic shift.

Pastor Josh
00:23:20

But God says, you don't have any other choice.

Pastor Josh
00:23:22

Judgment is coming.

Pastor Josh
00:23:24

And so over and over again in scripture, we see that call.

Pastor Josh
00:23:27

I mean, I even think of Jeremiah, Jeremiah 29:13.

Pastor Josh
00:23:32

Man, that one really cuts the heart.

Pastor Josh
00:23:35

For me, it says, and ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all of your heart, you know, for me, where that cuts me deep is sometimes I'm seeking after God, but I'm not seeking him with all of my heart.

Pastor Josh
00:23:50

I'm seeking him with half of it or what I have left over.

Pastor Josh
00:23:54

You know, if I only have.

Pastor Josh
00:23:57

Let's say I have, you know, just.

Pastor Josh
00:24:01

I don't know how to explain this.

Pastor Josh
00:24:02

Okay, let's say I have a five gallon bucket and I've got all the water filled all the way to the top, right?

Pastor Josh
00:24:07

And I want to try to put more in there.

Pastor Josh
00:24:09

What's going to happen?

Pastor Josh
00:24:10

I'm going to put some rocks in there and that water displacement, that water is going to pour out, right?

Pastor Josh
00:24:14

Because I can't have other things in there.

Pastor Josh
00:24:16

And what happens is our heart so much as we pile in there, all these things that we desire in this world, and then we're supposed to seek God with everything and there's just no place for it because our heart is given over to something else.

Pastor Josh
00:24:26

And so he says, seek me, but seek me with all of your heart.

Pastor Josh
00:24:30

Give me everything.

Pastor Josh
00:24:30

And we know that's his heart from the Old Testament to the New right?

Pastor Josh
00:24:34

And the greatest commandment is to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, every element of our Life.

Pastor Josh
00:24:39

Romans, chapter 12.

Pastor Josh
00:24:40

Give your bodies a living sacrifice.

Pastor Josh
00:24:42

And so what God wants is our heart.

Pastor Josh
00:24:44

He wants the heart of the people there in Judah.

Pastor Josh
00:24:47

He is concerned with their actions, no doubt, but he understands that their heart is connected to their actions.

Pastor Josh
00:24:54

And so they could stop for a time.

Pastor Josh
00:24:56

They could reject the things of this world, but ultimately what's going to happen is that they're going to go back to that.

Pastor Josh
00:25:02

Unless it's a heart change.

Pastor Josh
00:25:04

Unless it's a heart change.

Pastor Josh
00:25:06

You know, I know what it's like, so I went to a Christian school growing up, and our Christian school had demerits.

Pastor Josh
00:25:16

And so demerits were these things.

Pastor Josh
00:25:17

Some of you probably know what it is.

Pastor Josh
00:25:19

You don't do something that's in the rule book, you get a demerit.

Pastor Josh
00:25:22

Some demerits were more serious than others.

Pastor Josh
00:25:26

And so if you had 15 demerits.

Pastor Josh
00:25:28

If you had 15 demerits, you were not able to play sports.

Pastor Josh
00:25:33

So you'd hit 15 demerits and you'd be what we would call ineligible.

Pastor Josh
00:25:37

And so you had to take off time until you earned off.

Pastor Josh
00:25:40

Every week that you didn't get a demerit, you earned off a demerit.

Pastor Josh
00:25:43

So you guys understand what I'm saying?

Pastor Josh
00:25:44

So I'd get 15 demerits, and then you'd have a week, and then you'd get one earned off.

Pastor Josh
00:25:49

Then you'd be back good again.

Pastor Josh
00:25:51

So I started to think that my obedience to my teacher was all predicated upon how many demerits I had.

Pastor Josh
00:25:56

I saw it as like a storehouse, okay?

Pastor Josh
00:25:58

So, like, I know that I can talk in class and get a couple demerits, but I can just earn that off next week.

Pastor Josh
00:26:03

And so it started to become like this currency.

Pastor Josh
00:26:06

Like, okay, so if my teacher came around and I had 14 demerits, I better be quiet.

Pastor Josh
00:26:09

Cause I wanna play sports this week, right?

Pastor Josh
00:26:11

So it wasn't a heart issue.

Pastor Josh
00:26:13

It was more of, like, I'm seeking after myself and I was using it as, like, what I can do in my currency.

Pastor Josh
00:26:19

And so I would encourage you to think about it from this perspective.

Pastor Josh
00:26:22

You know, sometimes if we see God's judgment and his love and his work in our life and what he's called us to do as that, like, spiritual currency, we're missing the point.

Pastor Josh
00:26:31

It's about our heart.

Pastor Josh
00:26:32

We should desire to do that.

Pastor Josh
00:26:34

When I can get away, like, you know, if the teacher wasn't looking, I could get away with it.

Pastor Josh
00:26:37

So I'm going to do it.

Pastor Josh
00:26:38

Well, the truth is that, yeah, maybe I could have done something and gotten away with it.

Pastor Josh
00:26:45

But we know that in our own lives, we can't get away with it in the Lord.

Pastor Josh
00:26:48

Now, I just want to let you know, I was never ineligible for demerits, okay?

Pastor Josh
00:26:52

Or anything else.

Pastor Josh
00:26:53

Okay?

Pastor Josh
00:26:53

I played sports all the way through.

Pastor Josh
00:26:54

And that was really what I was caring about at that time.

Pastor Josh
00:26:57

But the truth is that as a Christian, so many times when we think about it as like, checks and balances, list and say, okay, well, I didn't do this, this, and this and so maybe I can get away with this, this and this.

Pastor Josh
00:27:06

We're missing the whole point on what God wants from us.

Pastor Josh
00:27:08

He wants our heart.

Pastor Josh
00:27:09

Revival is not about keeping rules.

Pastor Josh
00:27:11

Revival is about wanting to desire God more, seeking God's face more.

Pastor Josh
00:27:16

And the more we seek after him, the less we want those things of this world.

Pastor Josh
00:27:19

I love that song.

Pastor Josh
00:27:21

Seek.

Pastor Josh
00:27:22

Yeah.

Pastor Josh
00:27:23

How's it go?

Pastor Josh
00:27:24

And the things of earth will go strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.

Pastor Josh
00:27:27

That's how it ends.

Pastor Josh
00:27:28

And so really, the desire for a believer should be that I don't want to love the things of this world.

Pastor Josh
00:27:34

I want to grow so close to God that the things of this world look like wasteful, just empty, vain.

Pastor Josh
00:27:42

And so the more you seek after God's face, the more you will deny those things of this world.

Pastor Josh
00:27:48

And so, you know, I think that that's something that I've been really trying to work in in my own life, transparently.

Pastor Josh
00:27:55

I want to be known more for when I'm for than what I'm against.

Pastor Josh
00:27:58

What I'm for will make me against certain things, but I want to be so strongly for the things of God that naturally, or let's say supernaturally, I'm against the things that God is against.

Pastor Josh
00:28:12

And that's how it goes.

Pastor Josh
00:28:13

And I think that that's how, as a Christian, we should think about it.

Pastor Josh
00:28:17

Someone told me, well, when you move somewhere, you will become like the people, and you should adopt the ways of the people.

Pastor Josh
00:28:24

You'll start loving the things that they love.

Pastor Josh
00:28:26

You'll start doing the things that they do.

Pastor Josh
00:28:27

You'll start eating the foods that they like to eat.

Pastor Josh
00:28:29

You'll start rooting for the teams that they like.

Pastor Josh
00:28:31

And I want to tell you, I've been here for seven years, and I'm struggling with that, okay?

Pastor Josh
00:28:34

I cannot adapt to all of those things.

Pastor Josh
00:28:36

But I do see the point of that.

Pastor Josh
00:28:38

The more you spend time around people, the more the things that they love, if you love them, will be endeared to you.

Pastor Josh
00:28:43

Right?

Pastor Josh
00:28:44

And so if I spend time with a person and I see how much they love something, I should in turn then grow in my love for that thing.

Pastor Josh
00:28:51

It's the same thing with being Christ.

Pastor Josh
00:28:52

Like, a lot of people want to be Christ like, and they want to desire the things of God, but yet in their minds they're like, how does that happen?

Pastor Josh
00:28:58

I just don't feel it happening.

Pastor Josh
00:29:00

Well, the truth is, it's not about just manifesting in your life, speaking into the existence.

Pastor Josh
00:29:05

What it is is just being around God More.

Pastor Josh
00:29:07

And so I know that that's something that is a Christian cliche.

Pastor Josh
00:29:10

So what I want to do for the next, just the next few moments is I want to talk to you about what that means.

Pastor Josh
00:29:15

Like, how can I seek after God?

Pastor Josh
00:29:17

What does it mean to hunger and thirst after righteousness?

Pastor Josh
00:29:19

Well, it's very basic.

Pastor Josh
00:29:21

It's very simple.

Pastor Josh
00:29:22

But spending time with the Lord, how do you spend time with God?

Pastor Josh
00:29:26

I think one of the things that I would encourage you to do is to study his Word, meditate upon His Word.

Pastor Josh
00:29:33

Set out a time in your life where the word of God is special to you, that it is the first thing for you, and meditate upon it.

Pastor Josh
00:29:41

Don't just read the verses and just go through it.

Pastor Josh
00:29:43

Read and see what God has for you.

Pastor Josh
00:29:45

See it as a love letter to you.

Pastor Josh
00:29:48

And don't read it with distractions.

Pastor Josh
00:29:51

You know, I always liken it to my relationship with my wife, right?

Pastor Josh
00:29:55

If I wanna spend time with her and talk with her, sometimes I'll be over here on my phone and like, she's talking, I'm talking, I'm going like this.

Pastor Josh
00:30:02

I'm distracted, right?

Pastor Josh
00:30:03

And so I would encourage you.

Pastor Josh
00:30:04

I know a lot of us read our Bibles on our phones.

Pastor Josh
00:30:07

There is a thing on your phone that you can do called airplane mode.

Pastor Josh
00:30:11

And you can click that and no one can get you or put it on do not disturb.

Pastor Josh
00:30:14

Because for me, if I'm reading my Bible on my phone, guess what?

Pastor Josh
00:30:16

The little thing at the top pops down and news pop, news break, message text.

Pastor Josh
00:30:20

And I start going, I better hit that.

Pastor Josh
00:30:21

I better get to that.

Pastor Josh
00:30:22

So I would say, you know, you don't have to read the Bible.

Pastor Josh
00:30:26

Like, you know, if you want to read on your phone, you can.

Pastor Josh
00:30:29

But I would say remove the distractions.

Pastor Josh
00:30:31

Another thing is, like, just as much as you're hearing from God, you need to talk to God.

Pastor Josh
00:30:34

You need to have a defined, distinct prayer time in your life that you can say, you know what, Lord, I want to talk to you, and I just want to pour my heart out to you.

Pastor Josh
00:30:42

He already knows our heart, but it's another thing to connect with him.

Pastor Josh
00:30:45

I think another thing to do would be to spend time with other people that love God, right?

Pastor Josh
00:30:51

That's church.

Pastor Josh
00:30:52

That's fellowship.

Pastor Josh
00:30:53

A lot of times people will say, well, I don't have to go to church to be a Christian, right?

Pastor Josh
00:31:00

But just you making that statement shows where your heart is in that moment, right?

Pastor Josh
00:31:03

If you love God, you will love his people and you will want to spend time around Them.

Pastor Josh
00:31:10

And so what I would say to you is this.

Pastor Josh
00:31:11

There is a benefit and a command in Scripture to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.

Pastor Josh
00:31:18

Now, again, I would tell you that the Bible actually says in that passage to do it all the more as the day approaches.

Pastor Josh
00:31:23

So what I would encourage you to say is like, we should be doing church more.

Pastor Josh
00:31:26

We should be meeting together more.

Pastor Josh
00:31:28

We should be studying the Bible together more.

Pastor Josh
00:31:29

And so I would encourage you to think about that.

Pastor Josh
00:31:31

Sometimes we don't think about seeking God as by being around other Christians, but I would encourage you to think about what it means to be around other Christians and so seek the Lord.

Pastor Josh
00:31:39

And so I would go back there.

Pastor Josh
00:31:41

Zephaniah, chapter two.

Pastor Josh
00:31:43

Oh, man.

Pastor Josh
00:31:46

Cut out there for a second.

Pastor Josh
00:31:47

Hopefully the batteries are good.

Pastor Josh
00:31:49

Zephaniah, chapter two.

Pastor Josh
00:31:50

We're going to end with verse number three.

Pastor Josh
00:31:51

Again, I just want to reiterate what he said here, because there is a way to do this in the flesh and there is a way to do this in the Spirit.

Pastor Josh
00:31:59

Doing it in the flesh is this.

Pastor Josh
00:32:01

Let me just give you a real practical way this looks like doing this in the flesh.

Pastor Josh
00:32:04

Okay, I got my Bible study ready for today.

Pastor Josh
00:32:08

I got, I got my five minute prayer time that I needed to do.

Pastor Josh
00:32:12

Okay, I gotta go to church on Sunday and once I do that, everything's gonna be okay.

Pastor Josh
00:32:16

And I'm gonna do this in, you know, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do this great.

Pastor Josh
00:32:21

I'm gonna do it every single day and I'm gonna.

Pastor Josh
00:32:23

But, but that's good intentions.

Pastor Josh
00:32:25

But who are we trusting in when we see it from that perspective?

Pastor Josh
00:32:28

We're trusting in our own strength.

Pastor Josh
00:32:30

We're trusting in our own wisdom.

Pastor Josh
00:32:31

If you go back to look at verse three, he says, seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth which have wrought his judgment.

Pastor Josh
00:32:36

Seek righteousness, seek meekness.

Pastor Josh
00:32:40

Jesus tells us that, that, that key factor of humility there in Philippians chapter two, he took the form of the servant.

Pastor Josh
00:32:48

We do this with a sense of meekness.

Pastor Josh
00:32:50

We do this with a sense of humility.

Pastor Josh
00:32:51

We do this with a sense of totally, completely giving over to God and the need for his power for this revival.

Pastor Josh
00:32:59

And so he says, if you do this, it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger.

Pastor Josh
00:33:05

So there is this idea of mercy that God is going to withhold his wrath against those who have meekness.

Pastor Josh
00:33:12

And so think about it from this perspective, you know, because you hear those terms mercy and grace you know, you should know what those terms mean.

Pastor Josh
00:33:19

They're very similar.

Pastor Josh
00:33:21

Grace is God gifting you something that you don't deserve.

Pastor Josh
00:33:25

Mercy is God withholding something from you that you do deserve.

Pastor Josh
00:33:28

Right?

Pastor Josh
00:33:29

And so I would tell you to remember it this way, if you're still with me, you have mercy and meekness.

Pastor Josh
00:33:37

So when you desire God's mercy, you meet that with meekness, right?

Pastor Josh
00:33:42

That's the spirit that you should have.

Pastor Josh
00:33:43

The spirit of meekness leads to understanding God's mercies.

Pastor Josh
00:33:46

His mercies are new every morning.

Pastor Josh
00:33:47

But you can't obtain those mercies without understanding what it means to be meek before him, humbled in spirit, serving the Lord.

Pastor Josh
00:33:54

God gives grace to the humble, but he rejects the proud.

Pastor Josh
00:33:58

And so if you want to understand and live and rest and bathe in the mercies of God every day, I would encourage you to face that with meekness.

Pastor Josh
00:34:09

That righteousness comes from a sense of meekness.

Pastor Josh
00:34:11

And therefore we get to receive the mercies of God.

Pastor Josh
00:34:14

So the mercy in the meekness.

Pastor Josh
00:34:17

So next week we're going to come back and we're going to look at the end of this chapter, chapter two, verses four through 15.

Pastor Josh
00:34:26

And really this is where God goes and he goes outside of Judah, he says, okay, all of these surrounding nations that have been influencing you, they're going to be judged as well.

Pastor Josh
00:34:37

And he goes through and he lists all these nations.

Pastor Josh
00:34:39

And you might say, well, why does he do that?

Pastor Josh
00:34:41

Well, one, he's explaining to them that these are all the people that are influencing you.

Pastor Josh
00:34:46

And so therefore, there's going to be judgment upon you, there's going to be judgment upon them.

Pastor Josh
00:34:50

But ultimately, I think a lot of times what people think is that, you know what, these people seem to be getting away with their sins.

Pastor Josh
00:34:57

So we need to go do that.

Pastor Josh
00:34:59

Even the psalmist David, he was saying, you know what?

Pastor Josh
00:35:02

It seems like sometimes that these evil people are getting away with it.

Pastor Josh
00:35:06

I think this is one of the ways that God explains to his own people that, hey, nobody is going to get away with this.

Pastor Josh
00:35:12

Nobody has it better than you.

Pastor Josh
00:35:13

The grass is not greener.

Pastor Josh
00:35:14

On the other side, there will be judgment.

Pastor Josh
00:35:17

And so the blessing is always in repentance and revival.

Pastor Josh
00:35:21

And so he's going to go through and explain all those people, and he's going to explain that, you know, Moab is going to be like Sodom.

Pastor Josh
00:35:27

Ammon's going to be like Gomorrah.

Pastor Josh
00:35:28

And he talks about the complete destruction of all of these nations.

Pastor Josh
00:35:33

Now, the unique thing about this is that many of these Prophecies were partially fulfilled in the time of Scripture.

Pastor Josh
00:35:41

But we'll see that Zephaniah references something as the day of the Lord.

Pastor Josh
00:35:48

And ultimately, I believe that this is not a prophecy of the past, but a prophecy that is still to come.

Pastor Josh
00:35:56

And so ultimately, this is a foretelling, a prophecy of God's complete destruction against the world that has rebelled against him.

Pastor Josh
00:36:05

And so I think that Zephaniah is a end times book.

Pastor Josh
00:36:09

But I also do believe that Zephaniah has application for today.

Pastor Josh
00:36:13

And I would be very cautious today for anybody who preaches a message that says, you know what?

Pastor Josh
00:36:22

You've got time.

Pastor Josh
00:36:23

Just relax, come as you are, stay as you are, folks.

Pastor Josh
00:36:28

That's a dangerous message.

Pastor Josh
00:36:29

Come as you are.

Pastor Josh
00:36:30

Certainly that's.

Pastor Josh
00:36:32

You can't come any other way.

Pastor Josh
00:36:35

But what I would say is that come as you are, but don't leave as you are.

Pastor Josh
00:36:38

Come as you are and be changed by the power of God and by the conviction of God.

Pastor Josh
00:36:42

And I struggle with that.

Pastor Josh
00:36:42

I struggle with embracing conviction.

Pastor Josh
00:36:45

You know what happens to me if, like, I listen to sermons, too.

Pastor Josh
00:36:49

I listen to a lot of sermons throughout the week, and I hear a guy preaching on something that I'm really struggling with.

Pastor Josh
00:36:52

You know what?

Pastor Josh
00:36:53

My flesh wants to turn that off and go, ah, this guy's probably not biblical.

Pastor Josh
00:36:58

This guy's probably.

Pastor Josh
00:36:59

Let me look at his background.

Pastor Josh
00:37:00

I'm gonna try to find something wrong with him.

Pastor Josh
00:37:02

He's inconsistent with this theology.

Pastor Josh
00:37:04

But, you know, a lot of times it's just, he's.

Pastor Josh
00:37:05

He's hitting me where it hurts.

Pastor Josh
00:37:07

And what I have to do is I have to say, lord, you're doing that for a reason.

Pastor Josh
00:37:11

And I.

Pastor Josh
00:37:12

And I will just give you this, and I'll be done with this.

Pastor Josh
00:37:15

I want to give you something that really helped me out to know the difference between conviction and guilt.

Pastor Josh
00:37:20

Because the Bible says, as a Christian, there is no more guilt, there's no more condemnation, but there is conviction.

Pastor Josh
00:37:26

So we have to think about the two different things, condemnation and conviction.

Pastor Josh
00:37:29

What Satan wants you to do is he wants you to think about the condemnation on your life.

Pastor Josh
00:37:32

That's the guilt, the weight.

Pastor Josh
00:37:34

And every time Satan comes to you with guilt, it's vague, and there's no avenue of change or repentance offered.

Pastor Josh
00:37:43

There's no avenue of grace in your guilt.

Pastor Josh
00:37:45

It's like, let me give you an example of how it looks like in my life, I'm just a bad husband, I'm a bad father, I'm a bad pastor, and I just can't get this right, I have no hope.

Pastor Josh
00:37:53

I can't see the end of it.

Pastor Josh
00:37:54

That's Satan pulling the condemnation in and trying to put that upon you.

Pastor Josh
00:37:58

Where the Holy Spirit is a convictor and the Holy Spirit is specific.

Pastor Josh
00:38:02

And the Holy Spirit always gives us an opportunity to see from the word of God how to get that fixed.

Pastor Josh
00:38:06

So let's say, let's say the Holy Spirit's convicted me on how I'm being a father.

Pastor Josh
00:38:11

And I say, okay, Holy Spirit is telling me that I'm not being a good dad.

Pastor Josh
00:38:16

And here's why.

Pastor Josh
00:38:17

Because I totally missed an opportunity last night to lead my children in this truth of scripture.

Pastor Josh
00:38:21

I just was so tired and I was so, you know, whatever, exhausted in my day that I just said, I'll just get that to another time.

Pastor Josh
00:38:27

See, the Bible shows us that there is all scriptures given by inspiration of God as probable for doctrine, for approved, for correction, for instruction and righteousness.

Pastor Josh
00:38:34

And so what I would tell you is that if you're dealing with like, is this guilt or is this conviction?

Pastor Josh
00:38:40

I would say it's.

Pastor Josh
00:38:41

If it's specific.

Pastor Josh
00:38:42

And there's a way to get that fixed in repentance, that's the Holy Spirit convicting your life.

Pastor Josh
00:38:46

If, if there's just condemnation, like, I'm just a lousy person, I can't get this right.

Pastor Josh
00:38:52

That's, that's the.

Pastor Josh
00:38:52

I believe that's.

Pastor Josh
00:38:53

That's Satan trying to pull you down or that's your flesh trying to pull you down.

Pastor Josh
00:38:56

And so I believe that the Holy Spirit, as it says there, he will convict us into the truth.

Pastor Josh
00:39:01

It will teach us truth.

Pastor Josh
00:39:02

It will guide us to truth, as the book of John says.

Pastor Josh
00:39:05

And so the Holy Spirit leads the truth, Satan leads to lies.

Pastor Josh
00:39:08

And that's how we can summarize that there as we talk about that.

Pastor Josh
00:39:12

So repentance revival.

Pastor Josh
00:39:16

Repentance revival in meekness and mercy.

Pastor Josh
00:39:20

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.

Pastor Josh
00:39:24

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

Pastor Josh
00:39:27

If you would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

Pastor Josh
00:39:36

You can also email me directly at joshmissaroiddletownbaptistchurch dot com if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow along for future podcast and updates.

Pastor Josh
00:39:49

Thank you so much.

Pastor Josh
00:39:50

God bless.

Pastor Josh
00:39:51

Have a wonderful day.