Main idea: Seek and serve the Lord, fueled by rejoicing in the great salvation of the Lord and His joy in loving His people!
1. Seek and serve the Lord who gives such a great salvation by creating humble, holy worshippers! (3:9-13)
2. Rejoice at the joy of the Lord as He gathers the people He loves! (3:14-20)
Implications
0:13
Good morning Faith Bible Church, it's good to be here with all of you. So good to sing to the Lord together to encourage each other in our, our worship of Him. We're going to keep going through Zephaniah today. And as we've seen the last two weeks, God's wrath is a real thing. His judgment is real. We also are going to see today in this passage, his grace is so amazing, so rich, and we understand his grace through what we see in the Gospel. And that's, that's really what motivates us last week, VBS. A lot of you who are here, we're serving really hard at VBS. And we're thankful for you. And I know that there are a lot of people from our church who were there a lot of kids from our church who needed to hear the gospel, and they did, but also a lot of a few people from the community who came to it and got to hear the gospel, I'm really thankful for that. Next week, we're going to UGM camp, we have about 65 kids coming mostly from Willow Elementary, from other local elementary schools. And so just pray for that, like we already did together, pray that the Gospel be really clear. And God would do a work in their lives, we're gonna spend five days together up at UGM, Kevin will be a great time, there's about 40 of us from faith, our church going so pray for them for strength in the heat, and for all that Minister gonna do with those kids. And then we're going to Indonesia, a group of us on Saturday, Eli is already there, pray for that time, reached out to people. They're also the people just got back from Czech Republic, where they were there because of the gospel and got to spend time with 90 or so people who don't know Jesus yet talking about the gospel. And then there's a team going to Tenerife in August. So lots of ways we're going globally as members of our church, but also usually you have your neighbors, you've got your friends, your family. And so it's encourage you, this great news of grace, in the context of wrath is something that we need to be reminded of, and we need to speak up. So let's be reminded of the great salvation we have in the great Savior we have as we look at Zephaniah 393 20. So stand with me. As we read God's word, if you're able to, definitely three, we're gonna start with verse eight to get the context. And notice the great salvation described in verses nine through 13. And the great Savior described in verses 14 through 20. Definitely three starting in verse eight. Therefore, wait for me, declares the Lord, for the day when I rise up to seize the pray. For my decision is to gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, to pour out upon them my indignation, all my burning anger, for in the fire of my jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed. For at that time, I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord and serve Him with one accord from beyond the rivers of Cush. My worshipers, the daughter of my dispersed ones, shall bring my offering. On that day, you shall not be put to shame because of the deeds by which you have rebelled against me. For then I removed from your midst, you're proud of the Exalted ones, and you shall no longer be haughty and my holy mountain, but I will leave in your myths that people humble and lowly. They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord. Those who are left in Israel, they shall do no injustice and speak no lies, nor shall they be found in their mouth, a deceitful tongue, for this will graze and lie down. And none so make them afraid. Single out or daughter of Zion, shout, oh, Israel, rejoice and exult with all your heart or Daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away the judgments against you. He has declared, he has cleared away your enemies, the king of Israel, the Lord is in your midst, you shall never again fear evil. On that day, it shall be said to Jerusalem, fear not Zion. Let your letting out your hands grow weak. The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save he will rejoice over you with gladness. He will be quiet in his love. He will exalt over you with loud singing. I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival, so that you will no longer suffer reproach. Behold, at that time, I will deal with all your oppressors and I will save the lame and gather the outcast. And I will change their shame into praise and renown and all the earth. At that time, I will bring you in. At that time when I gather you together for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth. When I restore your fortunes, before your eyes, says the Lord. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray together. God, we praise You. We behold your great wrath, the fury of your anger, you're the fire of your jealousy and we know that we deserve to be consumed by that wrath. All of us are guilty of having been prideful, of having rejected you, having sinned against you, and we know that nothing we could do can remove that sin on our own. God we think that you change our lips, you change our speech or change our hearts through Christ. iced Christ's you are the great Savior, who takes away our shame and takes away your judgments. who takes away the wrath of God who bore the wrath of God on behalf. Thank you Christ for being such a great Savior. Thank you for giving us the ability to draw on your to you to call on you with clean lips, the ability to serve you with our whole heart. Thank you, God, for saving us to seek you and to serve you. God, please strengthen you to my brothers and sisters here. Help us to draw near to you to be encouraged by our understanding of your love of your joy and saving us. Thank you for being such a kind, merciful, joyful, loving Savior and God. We pray for anyone here who doesn't know you that you would open their eyes to see what the offer of the gospel is. Help them to see what a great God and Savior you are, to understand what it is you call us to. To trust in you. God, we pray for our city that all around the city people would worship You. We pray for fellow like minded churches that you would strengthen them to be faithful, to hear Your word and to be growing in the knowledge of you and pray for Indian shell church for Kyle Swan for Babila tour Dustin Greenup, and Aaron badly and Mike Street and all the rest of their, their elders, all the men and women who are members there that you would bless them, strengthen them as they seek to make you known in this part of Spokane and where they are, thank you so much for their ministry. Please bless them as your work goes out to them this morning. We pray for people all around the world that you would be drawing people to yourself in Southeast Asia, and the Czech Republic, and Spain and Papa New Guinea, where the ratios are headed right now. All over that you will be drawing people to yourself and establishing that the name of Christ is the only name that saves that Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords. We pray now that you would speak to us by your Spirit through Your Word, and then maybe seated.
6:48
When I was growing up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, I started volunteering in the inner city with one of my friends, doing Bible clubs and painting kids faces and we would go to these housing projects, whether it be just tons of kids on the playground or in an after school program. And we'd have a great time together. And we started going to this one after school program all the time. So the kids got to know us really well, we got to know them really well. And we love them. And so it was fun to go hang out with them. But the excitement, the joy that they had in, in seeing us and when receiving us they were so gracious and kind and how they interact with us, it really made me excited to go hang out with them. You think about someone who enjoys spending time with you, maybe your parent, maybe a sibling that who you have a good relationship with maybe your best friend, maybe one of your kids, like how excited are you to spend time with them, not just because you love them, but because you know, they're excited to hang out with you. Like that excitement of knowing I'm gonna go spend time with this person. And they really enjoy hanging out with me. And I enjoy hanging out with them. And it's there's this mutual joy in delight and pleasure and being together. It's a wonderful thing. Conversely, you think about someone who doesn't seem to like you, maybe you've offended them in the past. Maybe they're not really happy with you right now. And when you're gonna go spend time with them. There's like this pit in your stomach. You're like, Ah, I gotta go have that tough conversation. How do you hang out with that person? Or what if they see me it's kind of like this, this awkwardness? It's hard? Because you're like, I don't know, if they really want me to be there. I don't know, if they really want to spend time with me. How do you think God feels about you? Do you think he's mad at you? Is he still offended at your sin? Is he kind of bothered by you? If so, you're not going to be super excited to spend time with him to draw near to Him to seek Him. If you think that that's how God's thinking about you. And if you haven't trusted in Christ, perhaps your feeling is accurate. If you are still trusting in yourself rebelling against God, you are under God's judgment, his wrath, and you do have good reason to be concerned about drawing nearer to him. However, he has made a way for you to draw nearer to him through Christ. But if you're in Christ, if you trusted in Christ, God is a joyful loving Savior who's excited to spend time with you. He doesn't begrudgingly love you doesn't kind of hold his nose like I got to spend time with that person. If you are His child, his daughter, his son, he has purchased you through Christ. He is joyful and delighting and loving you and showing Himself to you and giving Himself to you. That's what we see in this passage today. God gives us an amazing salvation, equipping us with everything we need to draw nearer to him to be in his presence in a way that is pleasing to Him, and good for us. And He Himself is the most amazing savior. We see this contrast in Zephaniah, the people of Judah, we're trusting in all they're trusting in the gods of the Canaanites and the gods of the Philistines and the Moabites. Ammonites, they're looking to other things rather than God. And now we've seen this passage, this is who they should be trusting in. This is the God who's gonna save the remnant of Judah, who is humbled and repents and trust in Him. And it's true for the nations now for you and I. This is the God who saves his people. What should give us joy, your air conditioning, the ice cream, a nice vacation you're playing I mean, those are good things to be thankful for. Right? But what ultimately should you be excited about? What should I be excited about? We see here, what we are looking forward to. If you are in Christ, this is what we are looking forward to. This is our ultimate hope for joy for status. faction. It's the salvation that God has given us. In part, it's begun in us. That's God's given us a spirit as we believe in the gospel, but it's going to be perfected on the day when Jesus returns, it will be complete. And we are going to be with Him and He will be with us forever. That is our hope. That is what should motivate us to draw nearer to God, why should you want to spend time with him? Why should you want to have a place where you're alone with God, and he's and you're, we're with him. He delights in being with you and showing you himself, not because of what our culture would say, because we're so worthy and so wonderful and just be you. It's not about us. It's about him. He's chosen to love us in that way, because He's a great God. Great savior. So let's look at this passage and being encouraged and motivated to seek the Lord, to serve the Lord, fueled by our rejoicing in him. And by his joy and loving his people, we should rejoice in the great salvation we have. We should rejoice in how God rejoices in loving us. So look at this passage when we start with verse eight, you know, we talked about last week, I want to see help us to see the context here, of where verse nine comes in. What are you getting with me as definitely three, eight. This is a description of God's wrath, says therefore wait for me declares the Lord for the day when I rise up to seize the pray. For my decision is to gather nations to assemble kingdoms, to pour out upon them my indignation, all my burning anger, from the fire of my jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed. This is him repeating again what he already said in chapter one. Look back at chapter one, verse two, I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth declares the Lord, I will sweep away man and beast I will see boy, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, and the rubble with the wicked, I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth declares the Lord. Also, for 1718 of chapter one, I will bring distress on mankind. So they shall walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the Lord, their blood shall be poured out like dust, their flesh like dung, neither their silver nor their gold, so be able to deliver them on the Day of the Wrath of the Lord, in the fire of His jealousy, all the earth's will be consumed for a full incident, and he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth. This is the wrath of God. And he's saying, wait for me, I am going to pour out this wrath on the earth. Do you believe that it's true? Is God telling us the truth that he will pour out His wrath and wipe out the earth all of those who rebel against him? It's true. We see in verse five of Zephaniah three, God is just in right to do this. This is what we deserve. So this is true. What should our response be? If you're not in Christ, I would encourage you your response to seeing the wrath of God should be go to Christ, trust in Him, He is the only one who can save you and he wants to save all those who trust in Him He will. He is a good savior. So if you are trusting in yourself, if you're rebelling against God, I beg you, flee the wrath of God, go to Christ, find in Christ forgiveness, find in Christ, everything you need to have a relationship with God. And for those of us who already have gone to Christ. If we think this is true, what should we think about the people around us? Who are still under the wrath of God? Who are not in Christ? Do we believe this is real? Do we think that the, the God's wrath is coming? Do we care about them? Then what should we do? Not out of guilt, try to pray for them or show the Gospel we should want to speak of Christ. If you see somebody going 70 Towards the cliff, and they're about to go off the cliff and die in a blaze of flames. What do you do if you love them? Don't go that way. You try to stop him. That should be our heart, right? That should be my heart towards those around us who don't know Christ, to try to warn them to flee from the wrath of God, to look to Christ. But it's not just the wrath of God that should motivate us to do that, to warn them, where the wrath of God is to motivate us to fear him to draw near to Him to worship Him. We also see the grace of God, side by side here and we see this in verse nine. Look at verse nine. Look at the stunning change from verse eight to verse nine. For at that time, I will change the speech of the peoples to appear speech, that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord and serve Him with one accord. What is happening here? How does that Enya where the Lord really has you speaking to definitely giving him this oracle? How does he go from, I'm going to destroy the Earth and the fire of my jealousy, and the earth will be consumed to at that time, I will change. He's talking about what he's going to do through Christ, what he is doing through Christ. God is going to as the gospel is proclaimed throughout the whole earth, He is going to change people's hearts. At that time. He's referring to the day of the Lord in the future. When Jesus comes back on his white horse, when he comes back and judges the nations. He is also at that time going to change people and give them pure lips. perfectly pure. He's gonna make them holy. At that time, when Christ judges the nation's he's also going to save read the revelation. You've seen revelation over and over and over descriptions of how God will judge the earth, but you also see descriptions of his salvation. That's what we see here. God's salvation is breathtaking. It's amazing. And he gives it through Christ. There's a commentator who says, When the Holy Wrath of God is satisfied, then there's a channel for mercy to flow Verse eight is like a Death Star. With God's wrath being poured out. You've seen Star Wars, you've seen the Death Star that comes along, and then the blaze of, of whatever that laser is that comes out of the Death Star and blows up the planet, right? So imagine that Death Star, and what's coming out of it is God's wrath on the earth. And there's all the lineup of everyone in history has ever been like, no God, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be in charge. But in the middle of that group of people who've taken the wrath of God, and they'll take it forever, and like a fire is Jesus. And he's receiving fully the wrath of God on himself, but not for his sins, for the sins of the people who are below him. So the wrath is coming down on Jesus. And then below Jesus, you see, as it were, like this triangle of like, safe area, refuge, and everyone in there who's in Christ is not taking that wrath of God because Jesus is taking it for us. He's the rock, the shelter, the refuge, the one who received the wrath of God in our place, his reception of God's holy wrath, his satisfaction, has propitiation, taking the wrath of God for us. That is what makes it possible for verse nine to happen. He is the one who changes the speech of the peoples to appear speech, all those who are humble, who seek the Lord who are seeking righteousness in Christ. Right. This is only found in Christ through faith in Christ, God is going to change them. We see that this is going to happen in the when Jesus comes back Philippians 320. And 21 says our citizenship is not on Earth, it's in heaven. When Christ comes from heaven, he's going to transform everyone by the power, he has to be conformed to him. He's going to make us like himself, pure, able to live with God forever. And holiness. First, John three two says, when we see Jesus as we see him as he has, will become like him, because we'll see Him as He is. So we have this hope, when this is going to happen. First Thessalonians, four talks about the rapture, right? When this loud trumpet, the trumpet blast, in a sense is like a warning that God's gonna destroy his enemies. But it's also God, being excited about saving his people, everyone who's died, who believed in Christ. So if you've already died before Jesus comes back, your body's in the grave, you're with Jesus, but your body gets resurrected. And you're going up to heaven, you're reunited with your with your you, your your soul, your spirit, and then everyone who's alive gets called up. So all of us are in the air going towards Jesus, right? And we see Him face to face, we're going to be changed, will become like him, because we will see Him as He is. That is the ultimate transformation. Salvation is seeing Christ and becoming like him. And that's what verse nine is talking about. Some of it's a mystery, as a as a recent hearing about this New Testament, we see in the New Testament, fully how this is going to happen. So what is Christ doing here and changing? He says, I will change little he's going to turn around like if you have a kid who's spouting off lots of arguing and disrespect, and just being really rude right? Now, those of you who have kids, you've never seen that happen before, right? But your kids are acting like that. And then there's a change, where they change and they're like, Oh, I'm really sorry, that was wrong. I shouldn't have spoken to that way. There's a change, change of heart that results in a change of their lips. God is saying he's going to change these people's Lips, lips is not just referring to their speech or to their lips. I'm not talking about giving them lipstick or Botox or changing something physical here. He's talking about changing, not just what they speak, but where it comes from. Remember what Jesus said in Mark 714 to 23. The Pharisees were getting worked up because they were eating with dirty hands, Jesus's disciples. Jesus says, it's not what you put in your mouth that defiles you. It's what comes out of your mouth that defiles you because it comes from your heart, adultery in lying and deception and malice and hate and slander, all those things come out of us. We are defiled by what comes out of our hearts. And that's what makes us guilty before God and what makes us separated from God unable to be with Him in His presence. Listen to Isaiah six as he sees the Lord, we see that this need for our lips to be made pure. You can turn to any Bible if you want as a as back to the left, after you get past his ego and Jeremiah, that first really long prophetic book, Isaiah, chapter six. Isaiah is seeing a vision of God on His throne. Listen to what we've got it what happens here as a six verse one. In the year the King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, in the train of his robe filled the temple above him. So the Sarafem each had six wings with two he covered his face with two he covered his feet with two he flew in one call to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called in the house was filled with smoke. And I said, Woe is me, for I am lost from a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips from eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts, and one of the Sarafem flew to me having in his hand to burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth and said, the whole this has touched your lips, your guilt has taken away and your sin as atone for what's happening here. Isaiah is seeing God on His throne and he sees the goddess holy. He said, apart with God, there is no uncleanness there's no sin, there's no rebellion, he cannot dwell. Sin cannot dwell on God's presence. God has judges and is destroyed by his wrath. And Isaiah realizes Woe is me. He realizes he's the man of unclean lips. His heart is wicked. He's a sinner. And that's demonstrated by what comes out of his mouth, what he thinks about what he does. Not only Isaiah but all of God's people. He says, I dwell among a people of unclean lips. He says, I've seen you and I'm destroyed. How can I an unclean unholy man, see the Lord and be in the Lord's presence? What does God do? Where the Sarafem comes and grabs the coal out of the altar? What do they do on the altar, they sacrifice lambs and goats and bowls. For a temporary covering of their sin, symbolically done putting forward to the One who would come who'd be a sacrifice those sacrifices on the altar, were pointing forward to Christ, the Lamb of God from John 129, who takes away the sin of the world. That cold taken out of the altar can cleanse Isaiah as lifts because Christ was going to come to be sacrificed. Revelation 13, He even talks about him as being the the one slain before the foundation of the world. God is looking forward to Christ's death. And he because of that is able to purify, to cleanse Isaiah, through that thing taken out of the altar. And thankfully, you don't have to get a hot cold, put on your lip to get a cleansed. What does he say in Zephaniah three, nine. At that time, I will change God changes the speech of the people. He gives them a pure heart that produces pure thinking and pure words and pure actions through what Christ has done. Only through Christ, can we get our sins covered? It's like, if you have a really dead animal that stinks, that's an offense to you, right? Do you want to hang out with a dead squirrel in your living room or your kitchen, it'll smell after well, even fish guts smell after a while. And if you wrap them up in a bag and another bag in another bag, another bag in putting your garbage can, it still stinks, I found that out multiple times. It doesn't work to cover it up, you might bury in the yard, it's still my snow for a while. Our sin is worse than that. God does not going to be in the presence of us with all of our sin which is which is an abomination to Him. Forever Living with that sin. It has to be covered up, it has to be forgiven, or we have to pay for it forever and like a fire. And so he has made a way for our sins to be covered. Not by dirt, not by garbage bag, but by the blood of Christ. Christ's sacrifice His perfect sacrifice of His life. Though fully God fully man, Jesus, that sacrifice is able to cover our sin, to give us a clean heart to change our hearts. Look at verse nine again, says he will give them a pure lip pure speech purify literally clear when you drink water. Do you want fuzzy, hazy water? is hazy water a good thing? No, if there's floaters in your water, and it's really hazy, it's probably not good to drink right? There. He's saying that their lips are gonna be purified clear members, Zephaniah 112. When God talks about how their their their complacency was like, like a ball of gooey bacteria and wine, and it was it just makes the wine gross, right? You're gonna pour that why not? It's gonna have floaters and goofiness and not going to be clear. That's what our lives are. They're not pleasing to God. They're full of sin, and things that are not what God wants, and not letting us dwell in His presence. And God gives them by the word of Christ, pure lips, gives us that pure hearts through Christ making us pure, not defiled, pleasing to the Lord. How does this happen? Like we said, Jesus, the Lamb of God takes away the sins of the world. It takes away the sin of the world, the rebellion, sin singular, describing our rebellion against God saying, no God, I'm gonna do what I want. He takes away that sin. He takes the wrath of God on himself. Like some grenades. 521 says, He who knew no sin, Jesus perfect, became sin, he became our sin, so that we could become the righteousness of God in Him. He takes our sin, and He gives us His righteousness. So we can be in God's presence, we can seek God, we can draw near to Him. But what it says in verse nine, the second phrase there, the all of them may call upon the name of the Lord, who is the all of them. All the peoples, the nations, Judah, yes, the two southern tribes, Israel, yes, the northern tribes, the people of Israel, they're going to call them the Lord, but also the nation's God is going to through Christ draw in the nations. And then through Israel, he's going to draw on the nations to worship him, calling him the name of the Lord, it's like these days would be like, Oh, start texting, you maybe start texting with somebody, or you start hanging out with them. So you have a relationship, calling on the name of the Lord as a way of describing, drawing nearer to God worshiping Him, trusting in Him, talking to him, loving him and being loved by Him. In the time of Adam and Eve, when Cain killed Abel, the stops and then it says, it says in Genesis four that when Seth, Adam and Eve son had Yash, people began calling on the name of the Lord again. And that's his whole goal in Zephaniah. Hold the wrath of God to hold the grace of God and seek the Lord, call on him. Draw near to him. Don't stay away from God, go to God because God will give you your trust in Christ, a pure heart, pure lips, a pure life that calls on him. But as Romans 1013 Say, whoever calls in the name of the Lord will be saved. See what see the order though. Your God changes their lips, he gives them righteousness, He regenerates them, he makes them alive and then they call on Him, they seek Him. They began trusting him and loving him. And then it says in the next phase They serve Him with one accord. Literally, they serve him shoulder to shoulder, they work for God. God created us in Genesis one right in his image to work the earth to live on the earth and to serve him to work for him. Now he's saying the results of this salvation that God gives is going to be people worshiping him seeking Him and serving him. It's like, if you played football and your alignment, you got a bunch of linemen, they're the bigger guys right or the stronger guys. They're all lined up in there shoulder to shoulder altogether, or maybe you pushed a car that was dead. You're sort of distorted with some other people pushing that car. We're gonna throw him shoulder to shoulder united, brought back together with one purpose to serve the Lord. People from every tongue and tribal nation, serving him praising him seeking Him. Seek the Lord, serve the Lord. That's what he's made possible through the work of Christ. Next week, Josh Gilchrist is gonna preach Romans 12 One and two, he talks there about because of the mercies of God, offer yourself a living sacrifice to God, holy and pleasing, which is your spiritual service of worship that he wants us to draw near to Him to offer ourselves in that seeking Him and to serve Him with our lives. Give Him your life. Who is he going to draw to do this? Look at verse 10. From Beyond the rivers of Cush, Chris was describing the area of eastern Africa, Ethiopia, in Zephaniah's mine in the time of back then that was like really far away. That was like super far that's like, all the way up on the Upper South Hill, or all the way north past Newport, no way, if you were even from wherever they are, they're going to come and serve, he's going to bring them back from those places to worship, to come to Jerusalem and give offerings to the Lord, to worship Him on His throne. This is going to happen, right? People are going to come from all over God's gonna bring his people Israel from Judah from Israel back. And he's gonna make people from the nations we're gonna come and worship Jesus King Jesus on his throne in Jerusalem, during the millenial kingdom, during the new heavens and new earth forever, we're going to be coming in worshiping Him. A second phrase there, he says, the daughter of my disperse when she'll bring my offering. God's going to bring these people back to Himself who've been dispersed all over the earth. Indeed, the people from Judah were taken off in exile and 586 the people from Israel taken off in exile in 721. And they are spread all around. And then later, they get spread around morning and God's gonna bring them back. Listen, Isaiah 11, verse 11, and 12. And that day, the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people from a Syria from Egypt, from pathos from Cush, from Elam, from China or from him off. From the coastlines of the sea, he will raise a single for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. God is going to bring Israel back like Romans 11 says he's going to bring him all of Israel, the God's gonna say will be saved. So what does this mean for the nations, we'll see that the nations the church were grafted in Israel, and God is bringing bringing people from the nations even through the testimony of Jesus, through the testimony of Israel. In the end, he's going to bring nations people from the mountains of Papua New Guinea where the rescuers are heading off to people from the islands of Indonesia, from the London neighborhoods of London from the Pueblos of Spain, from the villages of the Czech Republic, from the mountain ranges of Nepal from the heights of the South Hill, from the plains of the West Plains in the valley, south of Spokane, north of Spokane gonna bring people in. He's going to bring them into to worship Him to be part of His family. Listen to Isaiah 66, receive God's use of Israel to bring in the nation's Isaiah 66 Verse 18, for another works in their thoughts, the time is coming together all nations and tongues, they shall come and shall see my glory. And I will set a sign among them and from them, I will send survivors to the nations to Tarshish, to pool loo to who draw the bow to tubal in Java and to the coastlands far away, they have not heard that my fame or see my glory, and they shall declare my glory among the nations. They shall bring your brothers from all the nations as an offering to the Lord on horses and chariots and litters and mules and on dromedaries to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the Lord, just as Israelites bring their great offering and a clean vessel to the house of the Lord. And some of them also I will take for priests and Levites says the Lord here that description, people going and bringing people from all the nations to the Lord to Yahweh, on his throne in Jerusalem to worship him. Some of them coming on camera, someone coming on donkeys. This how this is happening now in the church age, through the preaching of the gospel around the world. But I think in the millennial kingdom, it's possible that we're going to be going out, and of course, the nation of Israel as the restored nation and we're gonna be going out and bringing in people to come know the Lord to worship Him on His throne. And indeed, in the new heavens and new earth, Revelation 2120 talks about nations coming in and worshiping God worshipping Jesus on his throne in Jerusalem. So this is the great hope God is gathering people, his people, Israel, and then the rest of the people from the nations to come to him. Look at verse 11. On that day, you shall not be put to shame because of the deeds by which you have rebelled against me. There's this shame that comes from our sin that keeps us away. Have you ever been ashamed of something you did? And then you didn't really want to go hang out those people because you were ashamed? Because they know about what you did. Maybe it was against them or they just know about it. And that shame was like, from your side towards them. You're like, how much shame don't want to cover that up? Like Adam and Eve sinned? And that shame. They wanted to cover it by hiding in the in the trees, right? They were making the covering for themselves. We're going to cover their sin, that shame, and God is saying he's going to remove, you won't be put to shame God to do that you rebel against him what is what is the ultimate shameful act, rebelling against God, right, like trying to kill the president or trying to kill the former president, or trying to kill the king, or trying to kill some other leader, like there's gonna be consequences. You're not going to do that. And just get away with it. Like there's going to be the sword is not for nothing, there's going to be consequences. But the ultimate act of rebellion, the ultimate act that should cause shame is when you reject your your Creator, the God of the universe, when you spoke and made everything, that is the thing that produces the most shame and Goddess saying, I will
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take away that shame. You will now be put to shame because the deeds are what you rebel against me. He says for then I will remove from your midst your power, the Exalted ones, God will remove the pride, prideful people from them by judging them by destroying them in his discipline and his judgment. But also he's going to remove the pride out of certain people and save them and give them humility. Look at the second phrase. He says, You shall no longer be haughty of my holy mountain, God is going to create a humble people who worship Him who realize that God is God and put their trust in him. He's removing every barrier from us to be able to draw near to Him. He gives us pure lips. He draws us in and physically from all wherever we've been scattered. He takes away our team that we that we should have from rebelling against Him and being prideful. And he gives us a humble heart. Look at verse 12. I will leave in your myths that people humble and lowly. They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord. God's gifts to us. If you saving us is giving us humility helps us to realize I need God. This is like have you ever been with someone who's really wealthy? And you're like, Can I buy you that coke? Like, no, I'm good. I've got more money than what to do with kind of give us money for gas and I'm good. I don't need that you're held like it's it's hard if someone's got got everything they need and want to be able to build it to be generous with them. And when we're prideful, we think God needs you. I don't need your righteousness, I can be a good person. I don't need your grace. I've got everything I need. When we live that way in our pride, we're rejecting God, and we're gonna be opposed by him. The gift God gives us is showing us who we really are made in His image, to depend on him as his Christian to worship and serve Him, dependent on him on Christ for our righteousness for our forgiveness. He makes us a humble people who say yes, God, I want to serve you want to live for you. That's his gift to us. He makes us humble and lowly people realize that we're poor in spirit, and that we need God with what it says that they do because of this reality that realization they seek refuge in the name of the Lord. Remember the Death Star? If you know that the Death Star The wrath of God is coming, you're gonna get under Jesus and take shelter. If this tsunami is coming, you're gonna stand on the on the beach, 100 foot wave, I got this. No, you're gonna go to Thailand, you're gonna run up, get above right get where you can be safe. If a tornado is coming through your neighborhood. You're gonna go get in the shelter. You're not going to stand outside and say, Let's sip some iced tea on my porch. It's fine. No, you're gonna go get in the shelter that you have built in your little bunker with no windows and hide. Take refuge. These people who are humble, who have been given pure lips, they seek refuge in the name of the Lord. Proverbs 1810 says the name of the Lord has a strong tower, the righteous runs through it and is saved. You see that God is gracious. God is loving God is just God is the God of wrath. God is holy. He's good and you run to him. You trust in Him. You seek Him because you know that he is good. And he is a wonderful God and Savior, you take refuge in Him. And you're saved because he is your God with a verse 13. Those who are left in Israel, they shall do no injustice and speak no lies. Northerners will be found in their mouths, that deceitful tongue, this will graze and lie down under them shall be known shall make them afraid. They are people who do what's right, let's were left in Israel. And now the church in Christ. He makes us people who are righteous, who love each other, no more injustice, no more stealing from each other. No more robbing, no more lying and being falsely just about your neighbor. No more kids disobeying their parents, no more. Kids, not not loving their parents, no more parents abusing their kids, no more injustice, he takes it away. He makes them adjust people and then look at the next part of his 13 they don't speak lies. They don't lie about God. They don't lie about themselves. There's not deceit in their tongue. If you look at this beginning of the section, verse nine, he says he gives them pure lips. And now in verse 13, he says they're not going to speak lies, this kind of a book end of the section, God is going to change them. He's going to give them purity of what they say what they think what they believe is going to change them to make them pleasing to Him so they can dwell with Him. What causes this look of verse 13. In the end for why do they have this change? They should grazing lie down and none shall make them afraid. It's language of sheep and shepherds, right? You have a bunch of sheep. Are sheep good at finding food for themselves? No. Cuz sheep defend themselves against the wolf. I mean, can the sheep gonna do a little and then like, defend themselves? No, they can't. They're not going to defend themselves from the wolves, the lions, the bears the thieves. They're pretty helpless. They fall on their backs and they're stuck there and they can't get back up like they're, they're a disaster. They're not able to protect themselves. So why would they gray Isn't lie down and don't make them afraid, because of the shepherd, The Good Shepherd. The reason why the end of verse 13 ends that way is because they have a good shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd, Psalm 23. I shall not one, He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leaves me by still waters. He guides me, he protects me. He makes the table for me in the presence of my enemies, he is good. That is why because they have a shepherd who provides for them, who gives them rest, who protects them, and he's in their midst. That is why they are dwelling secure. That is why all these good things have happened to them because of their Savior, their shepherd. So we see first is great salvation. If you've been given this great salvation. It's a gift right? What should you do now? Use the pure lips that God's giving you progressively through sanctification and positionally through your justification and perfectly when you get glorified. Use that and speak truth. Be humble, love other people, right? We should be who we are. live out that great salvation that you have. But secondly, that we see this joy that God has in saving his people we should rejoice with the joy of the Lord as He gathers the people he loves. We see a great salvation. No, I see a great Savior. Look first, verse 14, it says single out or daughter of Zion shouto Israel, rejoice and exalt with all your heart or Daughter of Jerusalem. And the chapter one he said to Jerusalem, well, bad things are coming, you're gonna be disciplined, well cry, and now he's saying something good. is coming. Single out, shout aloud. He's saying give a ring and cry joyful exultation allowed. Whoa, yeah. Yes. They're so excited. They shouldn't be so excited because of what God has done. This is more significant than any sporting event that somebody has won. And everyone's cheering really loud. Imagine like, everybody cheering does the Seahawks or the Bulldogs win, right? It's a big deal. We're cheering. We're all excited. This is a way bigger deal. This is a bigger deal than when, when we defeat some some the enemy of our country that's been terrible and manipulating us. This is a bigger deal than anything that you can imagine. This is the most significant, wonderful news that we have this Savior who has come to save us. This should lead us to shout, to rejoice. He says think aloud shout. This sounds like a glad exalting and triumph. Like when you blow a trumpet because you're so excited. They're supposed to be so excited and thankful for how God has saved them. Is it any less true of us Ephesians one, three, we have every spiritual blessing in Christ, we've been grafted into Israel. And so as Israel receives all these blessings, in the end, we're going to be with Christ with Israel receiving those blessings, dwelling on the earth with them. We should rejoice, we should show and say thank you. God is awesome. That's why we sing out, right? So we have these little microphones here to hear us singing loud, right and saying, Yes, we love you, God. We are wanting to the people who have pure lips who worship the Lord are pure lips. We shout out to him. Thank you.
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And so we see the reasons why we should sing aloud. Why should Jerusalem Why should Judah Why should? Why should we as a nation sing aloud. Look at verse 15. The Lord has taken away judgments against you. He has put away your enemies. We saw in verse 11, that he's removed our shame. That's from our side, the shame of like wanting to hide because of our sin judgments is God's judgment of us for our sin, his evaluation of our sin, the the offense against God, God has been provoked, rightly, by our sin to judge us the judgment that we have received from God because of our sin. This is what we deserve that the wrath we deserve. Those judgments have been taken away. Listen to questions. 214. Start at the end of verse 13. Have questions to having forgiven us all our trespasses, like canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands? This you set aside, nailing it to the cross, there was a record of debt. Think about each one of your lives, the list of all the ways you rebelled against God. All the ways we didn't love God to love our neighbor, that record of debt stood against us. What was the required payment, death, eternal death, separation from God, that record of debt stood against us. And Jesus on the cross took, if you're in Christ, he took the full record of debt, put it on himself, and he paid, he paid every single thing that you owe to God the Father for your sin, all the wrath that you deserved. He took it on himself when he was hanging on the cross. So that when he was done hanging there and dying for your sins, you could say it's finished, now almost finished, not just about finished, it's finished. All your sin is paid for. The judgments can be taken away, nailed to the cross, what do they do? They would take the debt that they're owed, and they would run across it to tell us that it's paid and nail it up in the city. Everybody could see that debts paid. They don't owe that anymore. It's paid. It's what God has done with your sins. If you're in Christ, he has paid all of it in Christ. And when Christ rose from the dead, that was evidence that God had accepted the payment. His debit card didn't didn't come back with insufficient funds. The cheque didn't bounce check us was when you put money on kids. It's where we used to pay for stuff. Nothing but didn't bounce. It was paid for in full. And God says yes, that's done. Now we can dwell together forever and peace. He says that there are enemies. Verse 15. Continuing he says there he's critical your enemies were enemies that you clear away. We saw in chapter two verses four through 15. The enemies around Judah to the west to the east to the south to the north, God's cleared them away. He's cleared away the nations that are posted him, but only that he's put away our enemy Satan, the beast antichrist, they're gonna be thrown to like a fire put away forever from us. And he's cleaning away our enemy sin. All of our enemies are taking away. Our Lord is victorious. Look at verse 15, the king of Israel, the Lord, the King of Israel, Yahweh is in your midst, you shall never again for evil. He's in our midst, Who is this King? Son of David. Right? God promised that David would have a son who would reign forever, who is the son of David, who is our king, who is the king of Israel, it's Jesus. Jesus is the King of Israel. And it says, here he is Yahweh, he is the Lord, the one has talked to Moses from the burning bush. Jesus is fully God, fully man. He's the Lord, the King of Israel, and he's in their midst, in his in our midst, as God's people. Look at that word in your midst, verse 15, the king of Israel, the Lord is in your midst. Look down in verse 17, the Lord your God is in your midst. Look up at verse 12, the old I will leave. But I will leave in your midst that people humble know the Book of verse 11. And then are removed from your midst. There's an emphasis here in the section four times on in your midst, in the middle of you. He's taken away the pride, the proud of the prideful people, the pride, he's taken that away, and he's left in our midst, humility, faith, trust, righteousness. And in our midst. Now He's emphasizing in this section in your midst is the Lord, the King of Israel. This is why we should rejoice. God is here. He didn't just save us and send us on a vacation all expenses paid to Hawaii or to Disneyland. He saved us to be with him. For him to live with us. Remember what Moses said, if you're gonna not be with us, God I don't want to go. Being with God is the best thing there is. He says I'm with you. Emanuel right God with us. He is our shepherd. He is dwelling in our midst. Right now. This is true spiritually by the Spirit dwelling in us. Christ is with us. But it will be true physically. In this day, when Christ returns he will dwell in their midst, in our midst, in Jerusalem on the earth, and the new heavens and new earth. Ah, so he's gonna be dwelling with us. God is with us. Look at the result of that verse 15, shall never again fear evil. Is there evil to fear in the world? Yeah. Evil Within us evil without, there's all kinds of evil. But if the Lord, the King of Israel, if God is dwelling with you, you don't have to be afraid you can trust him. Because you're in his hand. You continuing and obedience and righteousness, your own evil being dealt with is in his hands. He's securing that in principle in preserving you the evil in the world. He is destroyed by his wrath, and so it's no longer there. And so verse 16, is true. on that issue. He said, in Jerusalem, if you're not, oh, Zion, let your heads not grow weak, you have to be afraid. Zion is a way of talking about the place where God's gonna dwell. His rule from Jerusalem, you have to be afraid. God is going to be there with you. And your hands growing week is like talking about not having power. You know, when you really discouraged you're like, can hardly do the dishes, you're hardly going to bed, like you're weak. Your hands will be strengthened, because the Lord is with you. And he's saved you. He's taken away his judgments. He's given you his righteousness and His humility. So that makes us strengthen to serve him to seek Him and to serve him. Whatever 17. Again, he says, The Lord your God is in your midst. Why is he saying it again? This is the cause of joy. This is why we should be excited. Kids, the great thing about Heaven is not all the cool animals are maybe flying or not ever getting sicker or dying. I mean, those are all really good things. But the great thing about heaven is that God is there. To live with God forever. Nothing better to be with God. And nothing is in the way between you and his relationship, no sin, none of his enemies, no distractions from what we're like, it's you with God's living forever. That is the good news that we rejoice in is God. God is the good news. Okay, verse 17, a mighty one who will save the Lord your God is the mighty one in your midst. He's the mighty one who saves. That word saves is that word Yeshua that we get the name Jesus from. He saves. God saves through Jesus. And that word saves is talking about like putting you in a broad place like imagine Lord of the Rings, and you're climbing along this like rocky edge and the rocks are falling, you're about to fall and die. It's really scary. That's not a broad place. That's not a place you want to make a house. You don't want to hang out there. It's cold and rainy, and there's rocks and you can fall to your death saves is like putting you in a broad place. A Green Valley with all kinds of lush places to live and fruit and animals and it's amazing. He puts us in a safe place. He rescues us. He's mighty. Is any of your sin that you're tempted with? Stronger than the mighty one who saves?
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Is any affliction from the world or from God's enemies going to be stronger than God? In the mighty one who saves? No, he is the Mighty One trust in him. He's a great Savior. Nothing that Judah was tempted to trust them, could do anything for them. But God is a mighty one. Can we save ourselves? No. But God is a mighty one. And if he is in our midst, we are saved by Him. He saves us. He saved us. He keeps saving us and He will save us on his last day that this section is describing. He's going to save us ultimately, he is our champion. He's the one who saves us look at his joy at saving us. The last three phrases in the verse are all about God's joy and saving us. It says he will rejoice over you with gladness. God rejoices over you, Judah, Israel, his people and then the church grafted in, he rejoices over you with gladness. He's got joy. He's not like kind of complacent. Like, I guess I'm kind of okay with doing this thing, saving some people for myself. No, he's like, Yes, I get to say these people and he's excited about it. The father and the son of the spirit before eternity, with eternity passed before they created. Let's do this, with joy, with excitement with delight with pleasure. Nobody twisted God's arm. There wasn't some person back in history that like kind of convinced God, maybe this would be a good idea like no, this was God's delight, His will His pleasure to save people to be in their midst to dwell with Him. Look at the second phrase, all three of these are God actively doing something he rejoices over you with gladness. The second one should be translated like NASB translates it. Q will be quiet in his love. And the third one is He will exalt over you with loud singing. The ESV translates that he will acquire you by his love. There's one place in Job word, that word quiet is used that way. But the rest of the times like maybe 30 times it's talking about the subject being quiet. And in this context, I agree with with most of the commentators that are read. It's talking about God being quiet over us all three are actively God's love for us. He rejoices with gladness. He's quiet in his love, and he exalts without singing. What does it mean to be quiet in your love? Have you ever been speechless because you're so amazed by someone or something that you love. This word love is a haba in the Hebrew, and it's a word that is used about Jacob Loving Rachel. He was loving hearts. It's a passionate relational delighting in love. It's same with its use of me called Loving David. But it's not just in marriage. Jacob love Joseph with a hyperbola with this this passionate, relational delighting in love. He loved his son, Joseph. It's the same word as described when he was a love gardening. And Chronicles this guy liked the garden while he loved he had a hobby love for that gardening. It's the same word that's talked about God's people loving his word, and God loving his people. God loves us. The other word for love that's oftentimes us, as I said, which is that steadfast love God's covenant making love covenant keeping love. Listen to Jeremiah 31. Three where we see this a hobbit love that's talked about here in Zephaniah, and then the Cat said, Love. It says in Jeremiah 31, three, the Lord appeared to him from far away, said I have loved you with an everlasting love. That's that a harbor like relational, delighting and love. Therefore, I've continued my faithfulness, my said to you, God, delighted in us, therefore, he makes a covenant with us. He wasn't like, out of obligation and duty, I'm going to do this, I'm going to love these people. He loves us because he he chooses to He delights in us. And therefore he makes the covenant wherein he loves us and keeps loving us forever. It's like in our in our context, culturally, where you like somebody, then you get married to them. You get to know somebody you like, I think I liked that person. I think I'm I wanna spend my life with them. There's things about them that you appreciate. You're attracted to them, you like them, you delight in them. And so you decide to make before God and man, a covenant commitment to one another. God, delighted in loving people. He delighted, and that's why he chose to make a covenant. That's what we see here in verse 17. He's quiet in his love. Imagine when you first saw your child, your first child, if you have children, like that moment of speechless, and it's like, wow, that's my child. Or if you're married, and that when you first saw your bride or groom on your wedding day, wow. Or maybe you think about a really good friend that you love hanging out with. And like, it's just, you know, You're speechless. You don't have a word sometimes to describe how much you're thankful for that friendship. It's that kind of love for God has he's quiet. But look at the range though. And this the third phrase, not only is he quiet over in us in His love, He exhausts over us with loud singing. It's the full range from being a specialist in adoration and love to shouting allow saying, yes, that's my people. I love that person. I love them. That is God's love for us. He delights in loving his people. Listen to Isaiah 62. In turn to it if you want to Isaiah 62 verses one through five. We see God's description of his delight and his joy and loving his people. Isaiah 62 verse one, for Zion sake I will not keep silent in for Jerusalem sake, I will not be quiet until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and your salvation has a burning torch. The nation shall see your righteousness and all the kings your glory, and yours will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. Verse three you shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord and the Royal die them in the hand of your God. Verse four, you shall know won't be termed forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed desolate. That used to be called My delight as in her and your land and married for the Lord delights in you and your land she'll be married for as a young man marries a young woman, so your son, your social your sons marry you, as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, social your your god rejoice over you. That's the delight of God and loving his people. The same delight that a bridegroom has over his bride. God delights in loving his people, the same delight that a father or mother have in loving their son or their daughter, God delights in loving his people. And whether or not you've gotten to experience that delight and having a spouse, we're having kids, you can understand this love because God loves you that way. If you're in Christ, you if you're in Christ are the bride of Christ, you are the child of God, if you're in Christ, so he loves you with this kind of love. And you've experienced that from him. And you get to reciprocate that to him and to others. Because we love each other. as God's people have brothers and sisters in Christ, we can love with this kind of love, delighting in each other, serving each other, enjoying the gift that God's given us of getting, be able to experience His love and then give that same love to each other. Look at verse 18. In the last three verses, here, we see God, God gathers in these people because of this delight and love, this choice to rejoice in them. He gathers them in verse 18, I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival, so you'll no longer suffer reproach. The people of Judah were going to be taken away from Jerusalem. They were going to live away from the land, people of Israel already taken away. They didn't get to celebrate the festivals that God told him to celebrate. They didn't get to do all the things that God told him to do as God's people. And they had shame they had reproach because of that God's gonna gather them in, they're gonna be able to celebrate again, exactly the way God wants them to celebrate forever. He's gonna restore it was broken and lost, where Adam and Eve lost sight of the Garden of Eden. God's gonna gather in humanity from every time and drive a nation in Christ, to enjoy what God has created. This is the restoration. This is always God's plan. God creates God designs, we sinned and fall and God sends Christ to be our Redeemer, and he restores, he makes things holy brings it back when he wants even better than it was before. Like if his 19 year old at that time, I will deal with all your oppressors, all those who were oppressing the people of God, everything that was keeping them from being with God, and from worshiping him together, he's going to deal with those things, those people who will take care of their oppressors and Jesus fulfills this he deals with God's the oppressors of God's people. I will save the lame, if you're lame. If you don't have a wheelchair, you don't have all the technology we have now, like back in the day, how could they get to where they needed to be right? It was hard. They were they were kept by this weakness from going. And it's not just lameness, there's all kinds of different internal weaknesses and helplessness is the biggest one being our own sin. He is going to save the lane, he's going to deal with all those internally weak, helpless conditions that keep us from drawing nearer to him. And ultimately, physical limitations don't keep you from John nearer to God, right? You can draw near to Him exactly where you are. But our sin keeps us and he deals with that. He deals with our sense that he can save us he gathers the outcasts, all those that are by external circumstances being kept for the community of God, lepers, the different people that were kept out of God's unit. And now we were all outcasts, really from God, right because of our sin, He gathers them in. And then look at what it says in verse 19. He changes their shaming to praise and renown and all the earth, God takes away their shame, and makes it praise, who's getting praised Christ right through us our lives, they're giving a testimony to Christ, of how great of a savior he has a great of a salvation he gives. So he gets praised through us. Look at verse 20. At that time, I will bring you in, at the time when I gather you together for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth. When I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says the Lord. God is going to bring in his people, he's gonna gather back Judah, he's gonna gather back Israel, he's going to make them renowned in praise, and everyone's going to see how he's loved them. And they're gonna say, Wow, that's an amazing God. And the same is true of us in the church. People are going to see how God has gathered us in and grafted us into Christ, like Romans 11 describes, and our lives are meant to be a testimony to say, Yes, this is a great salvation and a great Savior. Have you considered him? Do you know him? Consider him, look at him.
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He is a great Savior, He restores their fortunes before their eyes. We don't deserve that, right? We don't deserve to be restored. But God restores us by His grace and gives us the salvation that He wants us to have. So we can seek him so we can draw near to Him. So I encourage you as we finish Zephaniah, seek the Lord, serve him, consider his wrath, and consider his grace and be moved to fear him, to not take God lightly. To not take him for granted. Appreciate what he's done. He's giving you everything you need to seek Him everything you need for life and godliness we have in Christ, seek Him, John, you're to Him and worship Him. Serve Him with great joy, because you think of how much he rejoices in what he's done and saving us. Let's pray. I thank you for the great salvation you give us thank you for the great Savior that you've given us. Where Jesus we praise You. We don't deserve to have the forgiveness, the removal of our shame, the removal of your judgments, the gift of righteousness, the gift of changed lips and changed hearts. Thank you, Christ for all the gifts you give us. Help us As to to worship you to walk in a manner worthy to offer our lives to you as an offering as a sacrifice because of what you've done for us. I pray for those who are listening to this who haven't seen and trusted in You, Jesus, please open their eyes to see that you are a great Savior, and who they can trust and finally great salvation.
Nathan Thiry is the Growth Groups & Outreach Pastor at Faith Bible Church. He enjoys biking and outdoor activities, and has a passion to see the gospel spread throughout our community and the whole world!
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