God Is...so who am I?
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Call To Worship Scripture:
Call To Worship Scripture:
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”
Sermon Scripture:
Sermon Scripture:
The pride of your heart has deceived you,
you who live in the clefts of the rock,
in your lofty dwelling,
who say in your heart,
“Who will bring me down to the ground?”
Though you soar aloft like the eagle,
though your nest is set among the stars,
from there I will bring you down,
declares the Lord.
HEAR The WORD of GOD - This Is God
HEAR The WORD of GOD - This Is God
In this world,
There are those who sit embittered, arrogant, confused, or passive towards God.
There are those who are dependent, hopeful and striving to rest in God.
There is at times a complex and even strenuous relationship between the two.
There are those who mock and put on a irritated disposition towards all who would dare bring up the topic of God to them.
There are those who sit in judgment and write off those who have rejected God or chosen a life of bold sin.
There are those who simply don’t want to talk about it. They just want to get along, let each do their own thing. If one needs God - then that is good. If one doesn’t - then good for them. They don’t hold anything against God and just ask that God not be held over them.
There are those, who truly believe, who belong to God and desire only to be obedient to God. Go where He says go, say what He says to say and by obediently loving God, they love even those who would and do reject them and God by preaching the wrath and love of God.
The question when studying prophesy is not one of, defining God. God is self defined and is unchanging in who He is. The question, “who is God” is not “who do I see God as?” No matter who you see God as, it does not change who God is, but it does answer, who you are.
You see, the hardest thing about discussing God is that it forces us to take an honest look at ourselves. What are we really accepting or rejecting? Are you self reliant or God dependent. The answer to that says more about you than we would often care to admit.
I come to you desiring to one simply seeking obedience to God, speaking what He says to speak, to those who He says to speak it, and therefore display sincere love to you that you might have every opportunity to escape the wrath of God and abide in the love of God.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
As we read the Minor prophets we see all of the before discussed types of people represented. There are God’s faithful, those who claim to be God’s but do not obey Him, those who reject God, and those who thought they are wicked, in hearing God’s message they turn to Him and are forgiven.
These minor Prophets will highlight that the coming “Day of the Lord” is certain, that the Word of God abides forever and that God desires your salvation and not your destruction. However, in hearing of God, we learn of ourselves and wether we will soften our hearts to His love or harden our hearts and face His wrath.
In learning of ourselves we learn what the unchanging God can change through the power of His love and must change within us if we are to be saved. The battle within all of us is between the spirit of pride and the spirit of the repentant.
The Prideful:
Have their own kingdom, their own standard, their own establishment. They build their house upon the shifting sands of how they view things, what they determine to be right and wrong. They live in the chains and blindness of their own depravity. Pride is unrelenting in it’s grip upon them. To bow to the creator who created them would destroy the standards that they themselves have created. So they live as rejecting of the creator.
The Repentant:
Turn to He who created them and observe His ways, learn from His decree and serve Him in sincerity and love.
This message lines every page of scripture. The Day is Coming when Jesus will be seen by all as King. Every ruler, tribe and nation will bow to Him. But on that day, where do you stand? Well, today, where do you stand.
To the Christian I want you to hear this encouragement:
Obadiah.
Obadiah.
848 and 840 B.C.
Israel has been devastated by foreign posers. Edom though related to Israel through Esau had participated and gloated over Israel’s devestation. Though Edom feels secure, this practice of arrogance will bring upon them the judgment of God.
When we operate by pride and self security, we walk blinded as to our true circumstance.
Theme: PRIDE OF SELF SECURITY
The pride of your heart has deceived you,
you who live in the clefts of the rock,
in your lofty dwelling,
who say in your heart,
“Who will bring me down to the ground?”
Though you soar aloft like the eagle,
though your nest is set among the stars,
from there I will bring you down,
declares the Lord.
Obadiah 1:3-4
For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations.
As you have done, it shall be done to you;
your deeds shall return on your own head.
Saviors shall go up to Mount Zion
to rule Mount Esau,
and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s.
In 21 verses Obadiah packs a punch to the proud and a victorious song to those whose help is the Lord.
Saviors - or, “those who have been delivered”.
Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
The Day of the Lord is coming, and God will overcome in our behalf. We must stay true to Him.
Unlike Edom, we must not be self righteous, but abide in Christ and be willing to help others in times of need. Our heart in this present day should be to be a part of God’s salvation and not His wrath. That day is coming, but today is the day of salvation. Pride is sin. We have nothing to be proud of except Jesus Christ and what He has done for us. Thus we, in our humble postion preach Jesus crucified and resurected and in that we preach life. We preach Jesus, the Messiah, the King of kings who is coming again to establish His throne. We preach this so that all, no matter how great, how deep their wickedness may be, in Jesus the can turn from their sin, be liberated and have life and forgivness in Him.
Jonah.
Jonah.
793 and 758 B.C.
Israels traditional boarders have been restored to Israel and Jonah is now called to give a warning proclamation to Nineveh. His pride however caused him to run from God. Jonah did not wish repentance upon such a wicked people but destruction. This is a self-righteous pride that one would plead for the mercy of God themselves but then turn and desire wrath over mercy upon another should they repent.
PRIDE OF SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS
Indeed after 3 days in the stomach of the fish Jonah went and proclaimed what God had spoken and Ninevah repented.
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
Pride & wickedness are two things that we often see and point out in others, but don’t much care to admit or have them pointed out in us. However, to preach the Gospel faithfully these things must be pointed out.
Did you know that confessing Christ as Savior is an admission of our own pride and wickedness. Did you know that when we go to a people in love to preach salvation we are not called to hide pride and wickedness but to expose it. It must be exposed if the light of God is going to be truly preached.
Listen to what God told Jonah to go and say to Ninevah:
“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”
Jonah 1:
In the book of Jonah we have pride and wickedness displayed in Jonah as well as in Ninevah.
The pride of Jonah wasnt that he was willing to go and speak of Ninevah’s evil, but rather that he would not do it, because he feared that they would repent and that God would forgive. Though Jonah saw himself and his people as worthy of God’s forgivness, he did not give that same right to Ninevah.
As a church we don’t point out wickedness in order to condemn another but rather to save from the condemnation that the wickedness has already brought. We don’t look upon a lifestyle, upon one’s sinful choices and in hate keep the gospel from them and wish death upon them. No, rather, we put aside pride and position, that we might speak the truth in love. The truth is that the evil of this world goes up before God and the wrath of God will come. The truth is that today is the day of salvation.
When Ninevah heard this, they believed and repented. They cried out in sackloth and ashes, they fasted and sought God’s forgivness and God forgave them. However, in Jesus day their was another display of self-righteous pride. It had not to do with who deservered forgivness, but who needed it.
For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.
Friends, before you this morning I tell you of one that is greater than Jonah. It is Christ the Lord.
Friends, before you this morning I tell you of one that is greater than Jonah. It is Christ the Lord.
Micah.
Micah.
735 and 700 B.C.
Israel is in a apostate condition. Micah stress that God hates idolatry, injustice, rebellion and empty ritualism, though He delights in pardoning the repentant. The coming judgment and the hope of salvation are both laid out.
PRIDE OF IDOLATRY
The pride of idolatry is that of placing another or a thing above God. A ritual, a comfort, a relationship above God. A goal, an idea above God. It comes into our churches when we begin to add to the Word of God or take away from the Word of God. When we command more from others than what God does or ascribe practices to Him that He does not ascribe to himself. It also enters when we demand less than what God does. When we place our own comfort, popularity or ideas above what God has spoken.
When we seek peace and fufillment outside of God then we are in idolatrous practice. The answer to such idolatry, the hope is found in Christ who was before all else that we seek and in whom our true and lasting fufillment comes.
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose coming forth is from of old,
from ancient days.
“ ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’ ”
God gives warnings that we not need to continue to worship what is not worthy of worship and suffer the fullness of His wrath. He is patient and merciful but His wrath is certain if His warnings are not headed and His provision for sin, His Son Jesus is rejected.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
Jesus is the only way to have peace with God.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Nahum.
Nahum.
663 and 612 B.C.
PRIDE OF SIN
The Northern Kingdom of Israel is now in captivity. Samaria is destroyed by Assyria (represented by Ninevah). Though Nineveh had repented , this generation had returned to her old ways of wickedness, brutality and pride. This will eventually lead to Ninevahs destruction.
The focal point of this entire book is the Lord’s judgment on Nineveh for her oppression, cruelty, idolatry and wickedness. This ends in her destruction.
Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him
who brings good news,
who publishes peace!
Keep your feasts, O Judah;
fulfill your vows,
for never again shall the worthless pass through you;
he is utterly cut off.
The good news spoken of here was good news of deliverance. Deliverance from oppression and captivity. These Words of God are setting the stage for you this morning to hear the Word of Christ, the message of salvation and of life. We have been held captive to pride, our children held captive to pride, our neighbors held captive to pride, but freedom is here.
Yes we have trusted in self-security, self righteousness, idolatry and loved our sin. Yes this is deserving of the full wrath of God, but today, just as in that day God has been patient and is asking you today to hear the good news.
You see the pride the sin that was displayed in all the kingdoms of old is that same pride that dwells within us today. We try to establish our own kingdoms, but all kingdoms which are not the Kingdom of Christ will fall. My friends the good news is that you are called to be of Christ Kingdom.
And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for
“Their voice has gone out to all the earth,
and their words to the ends of the world.”
But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says,
“I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation;
with a foolish nation I will make you angry.”
Then Isaiah is so bold as to say,
“I have been found by those who did not seek me;
I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”
But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians
Application:
Application:
610 and 605 B.C.
“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
but the righteous shall live by his faith.
It is our Christian duty to proclaim the teachings of Christ and to live as Christ has called us to. This is how we love. Even in the face of the boldest rejection we love, we proclaim and we rejoice that we are free to live in such boldness and love. As Christians we surrender all and hold up the banner of Christ. The day of the Lord is coming and as such we preach salvation, we preach Christ crucified and resurrected to all. We preach salvation by faith through grace and not by works. We preach repentance and the Lordship of Christ. We boldly and humbly accept the call to be those feet that bring good news.
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
This is what we commit ourselves to as a church. This is what we commit ourselves to as the parents of our children. This is us.
Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Let the mockery come - do not fear the wickedness - be a light - proclaim what is coming and rest in the Lord and His day of Salvation.