Welcome as I try to explain the Message from today’s sermon at Bear Creek Bible Church in my own words from the notes I’ve taken. I appreciate you being here to “hear the Word” as it is our obligation to respond to the word of the Lord. This is how I choose to do so.

Alright. Today’s sermon is based on Zephaniah 1: 1-3, which says: God is the Righteous judge because He Created the World and Everything in it.

Does this mean He doesn’t love us, because He has the right, therefore, to destroy us? No!
John, our minister, explains that you must look at it like the parent who says, “I brought you into this life and I can take you out!”

But wait, that still sounds bad. Let’s try this. God course corrects us and disciplines us. Just like a parent would. In our best interest. Because He loves us. When a parent disciplines, it doesn’t mean they don’t love us, they are correcting bad behavior.

Another point I learned (and this is where faith comes in) is that just like the prophet Peter says:

Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. Prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

So it was by this guidance, and through their own voice, style and personality that they shared the Scriptures, but it was still the word that God gave them to share.

Does that make sense?

John also spoke about the historical time periods that were significant during the time of Zephaniah, and the meaning of his name. He came sometime after Daniel, who came 500 years BC.

Abraham came 2000 yrs BC

Moses came 1500 yrs BC

King David – 1000 yrs BC

Daniel- 500 yrs BC

This is an easy way to memorize the time periods of these significant prophets.

Also, the Nine Periods of Old Testament History are laid out like this: Creation, Patriarchs, Exodus, Conquest, Judges, Kingdom, Division, Exile, and Return. There’s so much history within each period to know and that is why it’s important to study the Bible line by line, verse by verse, and interpret each one. Not jump around the Bible willy nilly and try to peice it all together.

Zephaniah’s name means- “God hides” or “he who God hides/shelters”.

His great, great grandfather was King Hezekiah.
A sort of Book outline of the short book that is Zephaniah is :

Look Within- judgement is near

Look Around- judgement against neighbors

Look Beyond- restoration ahead

I love the way John gives the backstory and the history behind the particular scripture verse he is highlighting for each sermon. That’s how I learn. It makes it so much more interesting to learn than memorizing dates and facts like my old history class.

In addition, when I write it down to share later with you, I retain even more. So the next lesson, I’ll remember the one before it and what the significance of it is in chronological order.

Remember last time we learned what a disciple is and what the purpose is of being one. This lesson today is more about the prophets, their place in history, and making one understand that they did not come up with the Bible on their own. It was shared to each of them throughout history by God directly.

Is that what you see in today’s message? I’d like to know your thoughts and/or interpretation if you saw it a different way.

Thanks again for joining in as I attempt to share what I’m learning so that you may all know the good news.

God loves each and every one of you.❤️

God IS Love.