What is it about Hollywood that everyone thinks that heaven is going to be boring? Think about the movies or even the TV shows that you've seen that depict the afterlife. Are any of them really very joyful celebratory? I think of movies that I've seen at 1979's heaven can wait. We see Warren Beatty die and immediately he's walking in clouds and an angel in full business suits comes up to him and says get in line. Seems like every movie is either like blandly laid-back and dreamy or bureaucracy 1991's Defending Your Life has Albert Brooks dying and winding up in Judgment City, which is really just a bureaucratic nightmare 2020's soul follows Jamie Foxx to a heaven that's both laid-back dreamy and a bureaucracy I mean no wonder that everyone is afraid of death because our artists have depicted this boring afterlife But if there's one thing that the Bible is pretty clear about is that heaven is not going to be boring After all the God who created stars and mountains and babies and music Can you imagine him inhabiting a place that is dull? When the biblical writers get a vision of heaven the throne room of God they are overwhelmed They're filled with awe and wonder they see things that they can barely describe And that we could barely understand if they could describe it Promise you Heaven will not be boring. Well, we have been studying the book of Zeff and I all month and we're we're at the end of the book the last bit the last seven verses And these verses that we're going to read there are a picture of God and his people in glory in heaven now We get back up and say that for the people that Zeff and I was writing to Israelites in the seventh century They would have also heard these words as They would have heard these words as what life would be like after the Babylonian exile Okay, a few weeks ago we talked about the Babylonian exile was when God sent the nation of Babylon to come and to defeat the Israelite army and to destroy the city of Jerusalem Destroy the temple and take some of the people to exile and so he is saying This is what life's doing like back when you get back in a Jerusalem rebuild the temple and start worshipping me together again, but Since the writer of Hebrews tells us that the temple in Jerusalem is only a crude copy of The throne room of God in heaven We can also see that this is a foreshadowing of a greater reality What life will be like in heaven? And so if you were able would you please stand for this reading of God's words? Zeff and I at chapter three Starting in verse 14 Sing aloud Odor of Zion shout oh Israel Rejoice and assault with all your heart Odor of Jerusalem The Lord has taken away the judgments against you. He is clear to weigh your enemies The King of Israel the Lord is in your midst. You shall never again fear evil on that day It should be said to Jerusalem fear not of Zion Let not your hands grow weak The Lord your God is in your midst a mighty one who will save he'll rejoice over you with gladness He'll quiet you by his love you'll exalt over you with loud singing I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival so that you will no longer suffer approach You hold 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 and to praise and renown in all the earth at that time I will bring you in at the time when I gather you together for I will make you renown and praise among all the people of the earth When I restore your fortunes before your eyes says the Lord This is the word of the Lord. Please be seated
First thing that God does here through Zephaniah is he invites You and me to rejoice in him and delight in him I have a friend who was told by his insurance company that He was being sued by someone and he was in a car accident with and You're told that the damages could be so great that they would go beyond what his insurance cover And might even wipe out all of his savings and then some and for over a year My friend lives with this dread of what might happen that how some judge or jury could find in favor of his adversary and ruin his financial future Well his insurance Company finally notified him to let him know that the case had been settled and that he wouldn't owe any more money And he never felt more relieved in all his life Well in the second sermon in this series we talked about the day of the Lord the day of Judgment Now it is the ultimate test the final judgment when all secrets will be known and Uncovered and our ultimate allegiance will be shown and we talked about the fact that Jesus Went through another day of the Lord And was judged on the cross so that God could look at us and see us as not guilty and How that means that the day of the Lord for us For you will be a joy and not a sorrow and what's your reaction to that? News be not only my like my friend massive relief But first was we read in verse 14 sing aloud shout rejoice And exalt with all your heart Have you ever done that? Maybe the last time your team won a championship of some kind Maybe some other big event in your life Why do we not? Sing aloud and exalt With all our hearts and worship for the God who who saved us Because we're Presbyterians We do things decently in good order Listen God is telling you it is decent and in good order To worship him joyfully to delight in him and his saving work now Some people have asked this question Why is it that God Calls us that he demands that we worship him so much I mean isn't that a little more statistic? Always need to be praised Well, the first thing we should say is what what John hyper loves to say which is that we were made to worship and If God were to encourage us to worship anything else That would be irrational because there is nothing that is greater than him In fact, it would be idolatry because he is the highest good The greatest the being of ultimate worth and So to worship him is only right but the other thing to say and answer this question is that You celebrate What you love and enjoy don't you When you find a new wonderful restaurant what do you do you you tell people about it when I when I see what I think is gonna be the best movie of the year I start telling people last year I said you gotta go see pig good, but you gotta go see get out Right because because talking about it Crazy and it's as part of the experience of enjoying something or someone And when God calls you to worship what he's doing he's calling you to delight in him He's calling you to enjoy him because Guess what he also delights and And rejoices in you Now verse verse 16 and 17 may make up one of the most beautiful passage in the whole Bible in fact one of the Most beautiful passages of all of literature and Verse 16 Zephaniah starts by saying fear not Fear not even though the first two and a half chapters of Zephaniah have been all about God's fierce anger and his threat to sweep everything off the face of the earth Here he says You don't have to be afraid of that Why because the Lord your God is in your midst a mighty one who will save God is with you He's with you and he's not only able to save he will Save because he is the mighty one and He's not only mighty Zephaniah says not only powerful, but he is also Tender he's not shy with his emotions What he says next he rejoices over you with gladness Choices over you it it's funny how different people greet you, isn't it? Some people are kind of shy, but hello Rather you just give you a nod or you know, sometimes I get a head or sister Chanted door store store stores. That's what Austin's elder does, but my favorite greeting I Think of all time is when I was in college out of friend named Michael who every time he would see me throw his head back and he say Yeah, I did a couple letters of my name. That's okay Because I don't loved it because he acted like he was so happy to see me as wonderful When people are happy to see you, isn't it? And it is humbling to think that God is Delighted to see you And to be with you it rejoices over you with gladness And then he goes on he will quiet you by his love You had nightmares as a kid you woke up screaming and afraid of what was in the closet What was the only thing that could call me down mom or dad coming in right putting their arms around you telling you it's going to be okay I'll protect you Quieting you with their love God is that kind of father and then the kicker in this passage. He will exhaust over you with loud singing Over and over in the Bible We're commanded to sing to the Lord sing a new song sing with praise the Lord with a loud voice and yet here We find out that it goes both ways How crazy is that? It goes both ways that he exalts over us with loud singing You know, I love it when I can hear you all sing over the band It's a beautiful sound Even though some of you don't think you can sing very well together. It is beautiful To imagine how beautiful the voice of God is When he sings over you well when When will all this singing and rejoicing happen Certainly when we get to heaven, but it is also a reality now God's joy is for us is not just a future emotion. This kind of came out to me this week I was leading singing at a Bible study and I introduced a song called he will hold me fast and one of the lines in the song Really kind of tripped me up when I was practicing it the line is those he saves are his What do you think completes that thought those he saves are his Responsibility Those he saves are his burden his Lucky sinners No, what the line says is those he saves are his delight
Jesus doesn't just save us because he has to He's somehow obligated to he saves us because we are his delight We're what bringing him joy Unfortunately almost none of us really believe that doing but I think if we did It would lead to true freedom What is what is true freedom? well starts with this To let go or overcome our fear of death I'll let you know little secret almost everyone you know is afraid of death And it it keeps us up at night it keeps us from being courageous It keeps us from thinking too deeply about the most important things that lie in life The times it really keeps us from loving Other people I think William Wallace was right all men die, but not all men truly live Because they're afraid of dying the reason they're afraid of dying is either fear of the unknown Or fear that they're gonna get what they deserve
but if you're in Christ So if an IS says the Lord has taken away the judgments against you and cleared away your enemies And in Christ what awaits you is the singing rejoicing God Who's delighted to bring you into his kingdom and into his presence
I love what see us Lewis writes in the last battle And when we die we realize that we were a part of a story And that this life was just a cover the title page And that life and in the next life we will begin chapter one of the great story That no one on earth has ever read in which every chapter is better than the one before
Which Hollywood could get that in their depictions of famine, don't you? But we also get a hint of what true freedom looks like in verse 19 And God says I will change their shame into praise and renown renown in all the earth And then he says a similar thing verse 20 I will make you renown and praise among all the peoples of the earth I'm an interesting promise to make you praise and renown Famous that's what that word means We spend so much time Trying to win people's praise and prove that we are worthy of that praise But God says the only praise that really matters is mine And you have it You have it and not only that but in the end I will make it so that the whole world praises you it's not amazing somehow being a part of God's family Being tied in with God's glory brings us glory But in the final judgment no matter what people think of you now in the last day there will be praise For us as overcomers in Christ as kings and priests In God's kingdom And if you could bring that future truth If your present reality you will be free in ways that you never imagined Let's pray Father we a hard time Truly believing what we just read Truly believing that you delight in us that you rejoice Over us with gladness that we make you sing We move you to singing but What a grace what a mercy that that is true That that is your truest heart towards your beloved For those you came to save Father we pray that we would See that kind of love That would move in us And move us so much that we would begin to love others in that way That we would be free to rejoice in one another that way And proclaim that love to the lost
Father would you To make those things true in our lives and the name of Jesus we pray Amen