READ: Zephaniah 3 (Focus vs. 14-17)
MEMORY VERSE
“The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves.” Zephaniah 3:17
BACKGROUND
Sentenced to fifty years in a maximum-security prison, a sixteen-year-old girl sat in solitary confinement. Due to her age, she remained separated from the other inmates. For nearly a year, she had no outside visitors.
During an outreach and baptism held at the facility, the guards let a ministry leader enter the girl’s cell. She heard the gospel, surrendered her life to Jesus, and asked to be baptized.
At first, the team considered using water bottles, but then the prison staff shut down the entire facility and led her to a portable baptismal pool. As God’s people prayed, she wept.
Though God promises to judge those who reject Him, He also extends mercy to those who repent. He restores and protects those who trust in His name (Zephaniah 3:10-12).
Repentance leads to redemption, because God Himself “has taken away” the punishment we deserve (v. 15). Hope resounds in the prophet Zephaniah’s words about God: “He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing” (v. 17).
So we can share the gospel with compassion and confidence, especially with those who may feel they’re too far from God. No matter where we are, what we’ve done, or how alone, forgotten, or unworthy we may feel, God loves and pursues us. Every person is within God’s reach.
Xochitl Dixon
INSIGHT
Zephaniah, like most biblical prophets, has words of both scathing judgment and confident hope. He describes “the day of the Lord” (see Zephaniah 1:7) as one that would be ominous not only for gentile nations but also for those in Judah who were worshiping their gods.
But the final lines of the book look beyond that judgment with some of the most precious sentiments one can imagine: a God who takes “great delight in you” and “will rejoice over you with singing” (3:17).
In between these two phrases we read: “he will quiet you [or be quiet] by his love” (esv). The God of justice has an affectionate and sympathetic parental love for His daughter Jerusalem in the wake of her necessary discipline.
We too can be assured that no one is too far from God’s love.
Tim Laniak
APPLICATION
When have you felt too far from God? How has His mercy toward you changed your compassion toward others?
PR’s (Pastor Richard) RE-EMPHASIS (From Today’s Post)
“Repentance leads to redemption, because God Himself “has taken away” the punishment we deserve… So we can share the gospel with compassion and confidence, especially with those who may feel they’re too far from God.”
PR’s TAKE
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
“No matter where we are, what we’ve done, or how alone, forgotten, or unworthy we may feel, God loves and pursues us. Every person is within God’s reach.” Today’s Insight
TODAY’S HYMN/WORSHIP/PRAISE/GOSPEL SONG
“THE BEST IN ME” Marvin Sapp
He saw the best in me
When everyone else around
Could only see the worst in me
I wish I had a witness tonight
I said He saw the best in me
When everyone else around me
Could only see the worst in me
Can I tell y’all one more time, one more time
I said He saw the best in me (yes)
When everyone else around me
Could only see the worst in me
Hey, He saw the best in me
When everyone else around me
Could only see the worst in me
Does anybody have their testimony?
When folks wrote you off
Said you would never make it
What did He see?
He saw the best in me/you…
Can I tell you all one more thing?
I just need to tell you one more thing
Listen to this
See, He’s mine, and I am His (yeah)
It doesn’t matter what I did
He only sees me for who I am
Does anyone know that tonight?
Oh-oh-oh, see He is mine, and I am His
I am His (I am his)…
He only sees me for who I am
(He only sees me for who I am)
Yeah, ye ye ye, oh-oh (Oh-oh-oh)
He is mine (He’s mine), I am His (I am His)
Because there’s some folk in here…
People have wrote you off
Said you would never amount to anything
Said that you would never end up being anywhere
But Myron, tell ’em one more time,
What did he see?
He saw the best
When momma said you would never be nothin’
When aunties and uncles said you would never amount to anything
When daddy didn’t come home anymore
He didn’t look at you and say that you weren’t going to make it
God looked at you and what did He see, what did He see?
He saw the best
Yeah, yeah
Is there anybody in here tonight
…So very thankful that God did not write you off
That he did not throw you away
That he picked you up
He saw
He saw
What did He see?
Saw the best
He saw the best in me
Oh Lord (yeah)
Oh Lord (oh Lord)
