Propheting: Learning to Obey Zephaniah

Propheting: Learning to Obey

Zephaniah 1:2-3, 2:1-3, 3:1-2, 14-15

I’m curious.&nb= sp; Did any of you attempt to read Zephaniah this week? (Show of hands.)= Well, did any of you finish it? Tha= nk you for still being here this morning.

Friends, this is a tough book. Lots of “doom and gloom̶= 1; with just a few faint rays of hope. Here’s a sampling as we begin. First, Zephaniah tells us of the Lord’s anger, which seems to be the dominant message we find in this book:

1) Zephaniah = 1:2-3—

"I will sweep away everything
from the face of the earth,"
declares the LORD.

³ "I will sweep away both men and animals;
       I will sweep away the birds of the air=
       and the fish of the sea.
       The wicked will have only heaps of rub= ble
       when I cut off man from the face of the earth,"
       declares the LORD.

2) Chapter two brings us our first hopeful word—although you’ll have to listen closely in order to hear it (2:1-3):

¹ Gather together, gather together,
O shameful nation,

² be= fore the appointed time arrives
       and that day sweeps on like chaff,
       before the fierce anger of the LORD co= mes upon you,
       before the day of the LORD's wrath com= es upon you.

³ Se= ek the LORD, all you humble of the land,
       you who do what he commands.
       Seek righteousness, seek humility;
       perhaps you will be sheltered
       on the day of the LORD's anger.

3) The la= st chapter (3:1-2) begins with mo= re harsh judgment:

¹ Woe to the city of oppressors,
rebellious and defiled!

² She obeys no one,
       she accepts no correction.
       She does not trust in the LORD,
       she does not draw near to her God.

4) Those words will serve as our = text in just a moment; but first, a final word of hope near the end of Zephaniah (3:14-15):<= /p>

¹⁴<= span style=3D'font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'> Sing, O Daughter of Zion;
       shout aloud, O Israel!
       Be glad and rejoice with all your hear= t,
       O Daughter of Jerusalem!

¹⁵ T= he LORD has taken away your punishment;
       he has turned back your enemy.
       The LORD, the King of Israel, is with = you;
       never again will you fear any harm.

ANTHEM: __________________________________

How was it when you w= ere a child—did you have any trouble learning to obey your parents, your teachers at school or church, or maybe your Little League coach?

Some children are bet= ter at this than others. The rest of= us may have presented a bigger challenge to our elders.

My Dad used to say th= at you could whip a boy every day. Y= ou may not know what it was for, but he would! Now, he always smiled when he said = that, but I couldn’t help but wonder if he was sending me a message.

Evidently, I required= a lot of messages when it came to obedience (a slow learner?). How about you? How tough was it for you to ‘= ;learn to obey?’

Zephaniah tells us th= at the people of Jerusalem found it very hard to obey God. Listen again to our text:

“She obeys no one, she accepts no correction. She does not trust in the LORD, she= does not draw near to her God. (3:2)

1. Let’s take a closer loo= k at this verse: “She obeys no one…” The pro= phet understood that God wants us to obey Him.&= nbsp; He has every reason to expect this of His children.

But learning to obey = God may not be as simple as it first appears.&= nbsp; You remember Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son. This wandering lad took his Father’s inheritance and headed off into a far country…where de= ar old Dad would have no idea what he was doing.

From Jesus’ sto= ry, you get the impression that a whipping a day might have been just about rig= ht for this Prodigal. He certain= ly was not being obedient to what his Father wanted.

But also in JesusR= 17; story, there’s an older brother—remember? Now surely he is making his daddy proud. Stays home. Does his chores. Doesn’t ask for much. Every father’s dream, right?=

Well, that’s no= t the way the story turns out. The = older brother, while being obedient outwardly, was inwardly rebellious. We only see this when the younger brother returns home. It beco= mes clear then that big brother’s obedience was either out of fear of, or= a sense of obligation to, his Dad.

In other words, his obedience was based on “I have to,” not “I want to;” and that will only work for so long. At some point, you grow up, become your own person--then something p= ushes you over the edge (like that party for little brother), and you let poor ol’ Dad have it—which is exactly what the older brother did.

His was a false obedi= ence, a coerced obedience. It lacked staying power. For most peopl= e, this kind of obedience will only work for a limited time—as was the c= ase with him.

The obedience that God wants from us must come from something deeper than the kind of thinking that says “I have to,” or “I might get punished if I don’t.” Are you following this?

Friends, this is why = laws of whatever kind—God’s or man’s--are of limited value. They may help us to not be bad for= a time, but they cannot force any of us to be good. Goodness is not something that can= be legislated or coerced. <= /o:p>

Obedience that please= s God must come from something deeper. It must grow out of the conviction that obedience to God really is best for us= . We obey Him because we are confide= nt of God’s wisdom and His good intentions for our lives; and, in return, we want to honor Him with our obedience. See the difference?

This is important to God. I Samuel 15:22 says, = 220;To obey is better than sacrifice.” A desire to obey God says to the Father that our relationship with H= im matters to us.

Jesus confirmed this = when he asked, “Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46) Then = Jesus took this to a deeper level by teaching that it grows out of our love for H= im: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15)

Learning to obey Him,= then, and being in the kind of relationship with the Lord where we truly desire to obey Him, is vital to being a follower of Jesus. Learning to obey isn’t optio= nal in our Christian walk. It’= s one of the ways we demonstrate our love.

2. Zephaniah then tak= es this a step further. He says conce= rning Jerusalem, “= She accepts no correction.”

Today, we would say s= he was “a strong-willed child,” right? Obedience doesn’t come easil= y for the strong-willed among us. A= nd, let’s face it, most of us can be strong-willed at times.

Zephaniah is right on= . Learning to obey is just about impossible for someone who refuses to be corrected, whose spirit is hard and unteachable.

We discover as we rea= d through the Old Testament prophets that God’s people kept repeating their mistakes. They failed to lear= n from them. They kept doing the sam= e bad things and getting the same bad results.&n= bsp; They evidently had a “learning disability.”

Now, the price they p= aid for this was high. To the sou= th of Israel was the great nation of Egypt, = one of the superpowers of the ancient world. To their north were other strong na= tions like Assyria, Babylon, and Persia.=

Time after time, God = used these powerful nations to “correct” His people—to punish = them; but as Zephaniah observed, they would receive no correction. They simply refused to learn!=

Now, this would never= be true of us, would it? WE would never make the same mistake over and over again, would we? Something that gets us in trouble = at work, or puts a strain on our finances, or hurts a friend, or irritates a f= amily member—yet we do whatever it is time and time again! Somebody else, maybe; but surely n= ot US!

Conrad Adenauer, one-= time Chancellor of West Germany, during a moment of despair over the mistakes go= vernments kept making in international relations, observed: “The good Lord set definite limits on man’s wisdom, but set no limits on his stupidity.” How many ti= mes have we proven him right?

In our relationship w= ith God, we need to be teachable, willing to learn, ready to grow spiritually.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> It’s wise to learn from our mistakes, of course; but it’s wiser still to learn before we make the mistakes—so we can avoid them!

3. Well, Zephaniah continues by summi= ng up a third problem he sees. He s= ays, “She does not trust in the Lord.” Once again, we find the problem is= not a lack of believing.

They believed in Yahw= eh, the Lord. Why, they believed = in several other gods as well. T= hese included some of the pagan gods of their neighbors. So, there was plenty of believing.=

What was missing was trust. They didn’t trus= t God. If they had trusted Him, they woul= d have obeyed Him.

Here’s how this played out. God told His peop= le to come before Him with all their needs, and to depend on Him to meet them. But this wasn’t enough. They didn’t trust that God w= ould be sufficient, that He would actually take care of them as He had promised.=

So, in spite of the prophets’ warnings against this, their kings would turn to those countries we mentioned earlier—like E= gypt and Assyria--for help. They entered into treaties and all= iances with countries who did not have their best interests at heart, while turning their backs on the God who did.

In much the same way, friends, our failure to learn is not the result of not believing. It comes instead from a lack of trusting. Who do you trust= 212;I mean, who do you really trust? Do you ever get disappointed by the people, or things, you’ve trusted?

In general, I’m= a trusting person. I trust that people w= ill say what they mean, and mean what they say.&nb= sp; I trust that most people, yes, even lawyers, politicians, and preach= ers, really want to do the right things for the right reasons.

I get disappointed occasionally; but I think it’s better to trust than not to trust. It’s a sad person who refuse= s to trust anyone, who questions everybody’s motives, and thinks everythin= g in life is a conspiracy of some kind. <= /span>

If this describes your attitude toward others, well, I feel sorry for you. I would certainly encourage you to= trust folks a bit more.

I tend to trust peopl= e; but I try to never put my trust in any one or any group to do for me what only = God can do. Some people put way t= oo much trust in their banker or broker, their political party, their work or hobby, even their friends or family.

All of these have the= ir places—important ones--but none of them can take God’s place. Do you follow this? Be very careful about where—= in what and in whom--you place your trust.

Some of you know the = name B. B. McKinney. He composed m= any of our most familiar hymns…like “Have Faith in God,” “Glorious Is Thy Name,” and “Wherever He Leads I’ll Go.” =

During WWII, McKinney had two = sons in service. Someone asked him ho= w he could keep on singing during such dark and difficult days. He replied, “I sang before t= hey left home. I am singing while= they are gone. If they return, I w= ill sing. And if they don’t return, I will still sing praises to my Lord.”

Now, that’s trust. It’s a product of faith which is convinced that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, and who have been called according to his purpose.̶= 1; (Romans 8:28) When we have th= is kind of trust in God, we’ll want to obey Him.

4. Now, we find one more problem ment= ioned in our focus verse: “She does not draw near to God.”

That would be worship, friends, along with private devotion. If we’re not being obedient to God, if our spirits are unteachable, and we’re also distrustful, we’re obviously not drawing near to God in sincere, heart-felt worship.

We touched on this la= st week, so I won’t re-plow this ground—not much anyway. It’s sad, though, that week = after week, so many people cast their votes to close the church…by failing = to show up—failing to attend, or give, or serve—all of which are acts of worship.

Our Lord Jesus Himsel= f both taught and practiced worship. We are told in the Gospels that it was His regular custom to be in the synagog= ue for worship on the Sabbath Day.

We know that worship = was considered an indispensable part of the early church, and when some of them= became careless in their attendance, they were told ‘not to forsake the assembling of themselves together for worship.’

In the NIV, Hebrews 1= 0:25 reads, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit= of doing, but let us encourage one another…”

So…when did you= last contact someone that you haven’t seen for awhile in Worship or Sunday School to let then know that you’ve missed them and to encourage them= to get back to church?

When have you, as a b= rother or sister in the Lord, admonished a fellow believer for neglecting something that they ought not to be neglecting?

Is that being rude, e= ven potentially offensive? Or…is it the= most loving and Christ-like thing we can do for a Christian who has forgotten wh= at a priority worship is supposed to be in the life of any person who loves the = Lord and seeks to obey Him?

And if we fail to do = this, are we not being just as neglectful of our responsibilities as they are of theirs? While we’re lea= rning to obey, we need to learn this too—that sometimes obeying God is hard= and uncomfortable—but that doesn’t mean we can just opt out of doin= g it. Does it?

Bottom line, hereR= 17;s the message I get from Zephaniah.

1) Trust the Lord with all your heart.

2) Maintain an open, teachable spirit before Him.

3) Draw near to God through regular worship and devotion.

4) And all the while, you’ll be learning to obey Him, and finding obedie= nce to be, not a burden, but a wonderful blessing in your life.