Well, hello, compass HB. It is so good to be back here with all of you. Some of you have been asking, how was your trip to Israel? Well, let me ask my brothers and sisters who here went to Israel with me? How was our trip everybody? I mean, it was an awesome experience. And it's hard for me to even put into words how it was going to Israel with a hundred people from our church. It was probably the coolest thing I've ever been a part of in my life. So, there's a short answer, right there. I'll talk more about it in the sermon. But this was the fourth time I've been able to go back to Israel in my life. And the book of Zechariah is about God's people going back to Jerusalem after the exile. And so, I want to invite you to open the Bible with me and turn to the Book of Zechariah. Because they got judged when King Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon came in, and he wiped them out. And some of them were taken to Babylon. And there was an exile where God's people did not live in the promised land there in the city of Jerusalem, a temple was destroyed for 70 years, they were exiled. And then some of them come back. And that's what the book of Zechariah is about. It's about the comeback of God's people there to Jerusalem. And even the name Zechariah means “The Lord Remembers,” the Lord remembers his people, and he still has a plan and a hope for their future. And so, we're going to start studying the book of Zechariah together as a church this summer, and we're going to look at the first six verses together here tonight, and out of respect for God's word, I'm going to ask if we would all stand up for the public reading of Scripture. This is an ancient prophecy, a book that maybe some people even who've gone to church a lot have never really studied in your life. If you're new to church, hey, this is the word of God that He spoke through his prophet Zechariah when he wanted to let his people know that he remembered them and cared for them. Please follow along, as I read for us the Book of Zechariah chapter 1, verse 1,
In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying, “The Lord was very angry with your fathers. Therefore say to them, Thus declares the Lord of hosts: Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried out, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.’ But they did not hear or pay attention to me, declares the Lord. Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? So they repented and said, ‘As the Lord of hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so has he dealt with us.’”
That's the reading of God's word, please go ahead and have your seat. Now, if you don't know about the post-exilic period in the history of the nation of Israel, that's what we're going to be learning about in the book of Zechariah. So, we actually have a little bit of a chart, maybe some of you grabbed this on your way in. If you didn't get this chart, just raise your hand right now, ushers will be coming around and handing some charts out. But this chart is something we gave to kind of be something that could fit into your Bible. And it has when all the prophets prophesied on one side, and so you'll see that after the exile, maybe you know about Daniel and his adventures in Babylon, and how he even interacted with King Darius, one of the leaders of the Medes and the Persians that it mentions here. Well, after that exile, there were two prophets who spoke to God's people when they came back to Jerusalem: Haggai and his contemporary Zechariah. And so, if you get the chart, you can kind of see where we are now on the timeline of the history of Israel. In fact, if you look back at verse one, it says in the eighth month in the second year of Darius. Now, it'd be like saying, in the month of July in the year of our Lord 2023, so we actually know the exact month when Zechariah heard the word from the Lord and the way their months broke down was a little different than us. So, this is basically the end of October, beginning of November in 520 BCE.
So if you flip your little chart over there, you can see the time period of the exile. And we know the exile is 70 years that the people were out of the land. But it's pretty complicated because there were actually three different times that people were deported to Babylon. And then there was three different waves of people returning to the land. And so you can kind of see in 520 BCE Cyrus is the one who said they could go back in 536 and then Cyrus, he was the first leader of the Medes and the Persians, he sent the people back, but now we're to the third leader of the Medes and the Persians, King Darius. So, you could kind of mark where 520 is on that timeline. That's when Zechariah is making this prophecy. And if you look at Zechariah 1:1, it says that the word of the Lord came to Zechariah. And then it says his dad was as the son of Berechiah. And then his grandfather, it seems, is this guy, Iddo. Well, in Ezra and Nehemiah, which are two books of the Bible that describe what happens after the exile there in Jerusalem, the rebuilding of the temple, the rebuilding of the walls of the city of Jerusalem. They mentioned Iddo, Iddo was kind of a priest among God's people there in Israel, maybe even a well-known priest. And so, this prophet Zechariah is the grandson of the priest, Iddo. That's the kind of historical context. But I want you to look with me at verse three, because verse three is really the verse we're going to zero in on tonight, because this is the heart of the message that God gives through Zechariah. So even though Zechariah is the Prophet, look at verse three, it makes it very clear that this is something that God said, all right, and there's a main word in our passage. “Therefore say to them, thus declares the LORD of hosts.” Here's the main word return to me, says, the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you.
So, if you've got one of our handouts, and if you are taking notes, or you could even put this in your Bible, if you want. I want you to circle every time it says return, because that's kind of the key word of this text. It's this Hebrew word “shuv.” You might have heard this word before. It's used over thousand times in the Hebrew Scriptures, and it means to turn or to return or to restore. And so, it's a word that really gives us this idea of repentance, a lot of times in the way that it's used. So, it's used four times in these six verses, two times in verse 3 alone, so you can circle “return to me,” God says, the Lord of hosts in verse three, then you can also circle, “I will circle return to you, says the Lord of hosts.” And then you can see there what the former prophets said in verse 4, they told the father's return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds. So, there it is, again, in verse 4, and then in verse 6, it's translated a little bit differently when it says, “so they repented.” if you want to circle that, that is the same exact word in Hebrew return, and then they translated the fourth time repented. So this idea of shuv is the idea of a you turn a turn around; hey, they were going one way, then they heard what God said, and they turned to God. And the amazing thing is, God even turns to those who turned to him, God then turns to them. And what's really encouraging about the prophecy of Zechariah is that the people there in Jerusalem, actually listened to this prophet. And when Zechariah says that they should turn to the Lord, the people actually hear what he's saying, and they do repent and turn to the Lord.
So, I don't know what comes to your mind when you hear the word repentance in English, but that's what we're here to talk about tonight. I wonder if you could write down a definition of repentance or if I just say that word, repentance, what kind of image, what kind of thought comes to your mind? Because this is a very common word in the Bible, both in the Hebrew scriptures and in the Greek scriptures. It's talking about 180-degree turn all over the Scripture. So, when I say repentance, what do you think? Unfortunately, what I grew up thinking when I heard repentance is I thought of somebody on a street corner, with a ghetto microphone, yelling at people. Is that what comes to anybody else's mind when you hear repentance? Unfortunately, that was my kind of initial impression of the idea of repentance. It maybe you've seen some of the sign guys, they were out at the parade the other day, maybe you've recently gone to a peer. It seems like some of these Street Preachers, they like to go to peers. That's kind of their pulpit, apparently. And they've got their own, like, I don't even know where that microphone is. But somehow that guy has got a microphone. And he's yelling at people who's ever experienced what I'm talking about before, right? I think it is so sad that that is the picture that comes to my mind when I think about repentance. Because it's like some guy yelling at people. Last time I saw somebody doing this, he had a microphone, he was saying something loud. I saw somebody doing this. Nobody was paying attention to this guy. Nobody was listening. Everybody was just walking by. He might have even been saying some good things, some true things, some things that come from God's Word, but he was being summarily dismissed. Nobody was listening to him. He was speaking to an audience of one as in himself. And so, what I've done in my life is I've said, well, what is repentance really all about? I need to reconsider repentance. If Repentance is a change of mind, a turn around that happens because you think differently, well, what is really this idea of repentance? And so, I've been studying it, I found that John the Baptist, he was known for preaching repentance. The main thing that Jesus came out saying, was for people to repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And the apostles, when people ask the apostles like Peter, or Paul, what should we do to be saved? What should we do? The first thing they told him to do was repent. When Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the Wittenberg door there in Germany, and it was the first of the 95 theses, we need to repent.
So, I found that repentance is a very common thing, this idea of shuving, of turning to God, this word shuv is used over thousand times in the Hebrew. Like this idea of repentance, it's all over the Scripture. And so here at our church, we've tried to preach this to every man, woman, and child, that God has commanded all people everywhere that you need to what everybody? You need to repent. In fact, we're supposed to be proclaiming repentance and forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name to all people. And you know what's happened. It's been so sad for me to see is we start preaching repentance, and you know what I hear a lot of people say, Oh, that's just kind of a Compass Bible Church thing. Oh, you go to Compass? They really emphasize repentance. I don't know which one frustrates me more. The fact that people think repentance is associated with Street Preachers that have no authority, or the fact that people think repentance is some kind of slant we're doing on things here at our church, like, I hope nobody thinks repentance is some kind of Compass emphasis, whatever that even means. This is God speaking through an ancient prophet, and God is commanding repentance. This is not coming from any man. There is no man that came up with the idea that people should repent there, repent, there is no man who has the authority, whether it's on a street corner, or whether it's at a pulpit, there is no man that can say you should repent. This is the very word that God gave to a man. And this is the word and he says it three times in verse three, look at it, where he says, say to them, thus declares the LORD of hosts. And he says it again. return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and he says it again. And I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. This isn't something some overzealous preacher said in some sermon somewhere, this is the word that God gave. And God is the Lord of hosts. When the scripture says something three times in one verse, that's like bold letters, everybody, okay? And you know how we might use capital letters to make a point. We might use exclamation points in the ancient Hebrew. They didn't do bold letters. They didn't do capital letters. They didn't do exclamation points. You know what they did? Repetition.
And when you see the same name of God, three times in one verse, God's trying to say, let me tell you, who's telling you to repent It's the Lord of hosts. Okay? YHWH Sabaoth is his name in Hebrew. Now maybe you've heard the name of God, Yahweh, that it gets translated in English “LORD” with a capital LORD. And sometimes I'm not quite sure why we translate it, Lord, because there's a different word in Hebrew Adonai that means Lord, this is God's name. God's Name is YHWH. That's how he introduced himself to Moses in the burning bush in Exodus 3, that's how God said Moses should tell his people, tell them I Am that I Am. Tell them YHWH is my name. And he wants you to know that he is the YHWH of hosts. Okay, now, what are hosts? What does host mean? This word here, the Hebrew word that we translate hosts, I find that it's mentioned primarily or most of the time, it's all throughout the Hebrew. But there's three books of the Bible that it's mentioned the most. One of them is the book of Numbers. If you've ever been wondering, why is the book of Numbers in there? Why are we counting everybody? The reason they're counting everybody in the book of Numbers is they're trying to figure out how big is our army? How many troops do we have? Do we have enough men to defeat our enemies? Hosts is the idea of an army. And usually when it says, the Lord of hosts, the army specifically that it's talking about, is sometimes the army of Israel, sometimes it would be the host of all the armies of the nations. But a lot of times when it says, Lord of hosts, it's referring to God being the God of the army of heaven. He is the God of the angelic army. He's the God of a spiritual force. Now, when angels show up, if you read the Scripture, usually when people see angels, they get freaked out of their living minds. Anybody ever read some of these stories? What is the first thing an angel always has to say, when he shows up and talks to a human being? Do not what? Hey, stop freaking out, Homo Sapiens. I know I'm from another realm. I know, I look, we're very intimidating to you. Right? I know, you just fell on your face. But get back up. I've got a message for you from God, right. And so God is commanding angels, to go into battle. God is a commander of the heavenly hosts that today tells you to repent. And so, I'm sure that Satan loves if we think repentance is associated with some preacher somewhere, or some church somewhere, because in our mind, it is supposed to be very clear to us. God has the authority to command repentance.
Let's get that down for point number one. Let's make that very clear here tonight. The one who commands people to repent is the Lord of hosts; God has the authority to command repentance. This idea of repentance did not come from any preacher or any church. It is the Word of the LORD of hosts himself. And if an angelic being that would freak you out, does anything that God tells it to, because God has absolute authority as the Lord of heaven and earth, that He commands the angelic army, if the angels are doing what God tells them, you should probably do what God tells you to do. So, this idea that God is the Lord of hosts, that puts him as the master as the commander, as the one who was sending his troops into battle. And so, God says, Sure, move to me, turn to me, repent. To me, God's the one saying that not me saying it here tonight. Not even Zechariah saying, this is the Word of the Lord, and you might be hearing it from some man. But make no mistake, God is the one commanding repentance. Can I get an Amen from anybody in the congregation here? This is the word that God sent from heaven, to spread all over the earth, that we are supposed to tell every single living soul on planet earth, there is a God who is in charge. There is a God who calls the shots. There is actually a God who has the armies of heaven, and he's going to win in the end. History is actually his story, in fact all the armies of all the nations of the world he has power and authority over all of them. He is the Lord of all hosts is the God of all armies, and he has given you marching orders. He has told you stop living the way that you're living, turn, repent and come live in a new way with me. That's what God has said. And he said it to every single person here tonight. He said it to every single person that will ever watch this sermon on video. God has commanded you to repent. And this is unlike any other command you've ever heard because he actually speaks with real authority. See, this is actually what got David so riled up in First Samuel 17:45, When David's going to go kill Goliath, he says, You come to me with your javelin, with your spear, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied so you might be bigger than all of us, Goliath, and you might be able to trash-talk and bully anybody else. But you've stepped up to the wrong one, because you've actually now spoken against God and God, he's the commander of our army, and because you've defied him, I'm going to chop off your head and feed your body to the birds, David says, because nobody survives going against God. He reigns supreme, he is the Lord of hosts. See, that's who is speaking. And the Lord of hosts, is telling all people everywhere, turn to me, repent to me. That is the message that he wants to make clear.
Grab your Bible with me and go to Matthew chapter 7, let me tell you, one of the places we went to in Israel is called the Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus preached his famous sermon in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. And so we actually got to go up on this mount, we had this whole little kind of area set aside, reserved for us, all hundred of us, and we read the entire sermon of Jesus in Matthew 5, 6 and 7. Go to the end of Matthew 7, where the sermon finishes, we read the whole thing, all three chapters on the mount by the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus preached, and how epic is that everybody? And when the people, thousands of people, when they heard Jesus speak, that when if you ever got to hear him preach, there was one noticeable thing about hearing Jesus speak, it was like, and this was a common reaction to people hearing Jesus, whether it was in a synagogue, or in this famous sermon on this mountain, people were like, wow, he speaks as one who has, what did they say everybody? Authority. So, God has all authority. He's the Lord of hosts. But see, when Jesus came, and he revealed God to us, and he showed us who God is, that's something people really noticed about Jesus. Jesus, he's not like other Street Preachers. He's not like some pastor at some church somewhere. When Jesus speaks, you can't dismiss what Jesus is saying, you can't write Jesus off when he speaks. Look what it says here in Matthew chapter 7, verse 28. This is the response to the sermon. “When Jesus finished the sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes.” You couldn't compare Jesus to your favorite preacher on YouTube. You couldn't compare Jesus to your favorite pastor that you've had at your church. No, Jesus, he's not like anybody else. Not like those other scribes. He speaks like he's speaking the very words of God to us, like he can speak them like he is God. And, at the end of his sermon, Jesus says something and I really don't think people have paid close enough attention. Look at Matthew 7:24-26, the very last paragraph of his sermon. He gives a story here of two houses. Let me read it for you. “Everyone, then who hears these words of mine.” That's Jesus saying all that he's preached in this sermon. “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock.” You hear what he's saying, Hey, I'm preaching to you the Word of God. I'm speaking to you with authority. And if you hear what I say, and you do what I say, you will be like a house on a rock and nothing will be able to knock you down. You will stand firm. If you listen to me, Jesus is saying, but verse 26, “everyone who hears these words of mine, and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house. And it fell and great was the fall of it.” Now, when we got to that part of the sermon, I told everybody there and we're in this little amphitheater, and they've got a place for me to stand up front. And here's 100 of us all sitting in the seats. And we've already read the whole three chapters. And I've already been preaching for a while, and it's kind of hot out there in the Galilee sun. And I'm like, I don't think I've ever heard a sermon like this in my entire life. I've never heard anybody preach in any church I've ever been to, if you don't listen to what I'm saying, you're going to fall and when you fall, you are going to have a great fall. And then what? You just take the mic off and walk off the stage. Like I was trying to be honest with everybody in Israel, if I did something like that at our church, can you imagine the emails I would get that week, right? Like, who are you to have to like I'm going to fall and Great will be my fall. I mean, this is the ultimate drop the mic, walk off moment of all time. And so, I did it at the end of the mount of beatitudes sermon, I just walked off. And everybody just sits there for like 20 minutes of silence at the end of the mount of Beatitudes. And I was like, I don't know if that went over well, or if that was cheesy, you know, I didn't know how it went. And so, days later, twenty-four hours of travel later, like jetlag later, like you thinking you're going to die three times, coming back to America later, somebody, we're all handing out our bags on the bus, right? We're now all BFFs, best friend for life. And we're exhausted from traveling, we've had the greatest experience together. And one of the guys on the trip grabs me by the shoulder, and he says, I'm never going to forget the walk off at the Mount of Beatitudes. I'm never going to forget it. Because Jesus, he speaks with authority, he actually gets to tell me what to do. And if I don't do what Jesus says, I will fall. And it is Jesus, the Lord, the Lord, who is going to come back with an army and defeat everybody else.
He is telling you a personal message, not based on any street preacher, or pastor, Jesus is commanding you, repent, turn to me. That's what he's commanded. And so, you’ve got to feel the full weight of the authority of the LORD of hosts. Please don't ever say that repentance is a compass Bible Church, please don't cheapen the idea of repentance down to a little church in Huntington Beach, or a few little churches. No, this is something that God in heaven commands of you here on earth: You have to turn to him, or you will fall; your house will be destroyed, and great will be your fall. This is who is speaking, the Lord of hosts declares this to you, he has the authority to command you.
Go back to Zechariah chapter 1. Because it's not just this authoritative, intense idea. Repentance has an intensity to it, it has a turn or else kind of a feel to it, there is that in repentance, but look at look at what is actually being said here in Zechariah 1:3. And look what we are actually turning to, thus declares the LORD of hosts. Everybody with me back in Zechariah 1:3, “Thus declares the LORD of hosts,” return from all of your evil and try to do some good is that what it says there everybody? That's what a lot of people think repentance is. A lot of people think repentance is stop trying to do the bad stuff and start trying to do some good righteous stuff if you can. That's what a lot of people think, trade this for something better, get sober, and then do this instead. That's what a lot of people think repentance is. Repentance is actually much more personal than just somebody's life, or morals or ethics or behavior changing. Well, who does he say to turn to turn to? Who? Me. And then what is the offer in response? “and I will return to you.” I mean, this is actually an invitation for a personal relationship, the commander of the army just commanded you to repent. And he actually says, if you turn to him, who will actually turn to you? He'll actually meet you right there. You draw near to him; he'll actually draw near to you. This is not just an authority Live command, this is an invitation to a personal, intimate relationship. You, what you are actually turning from is all of your idols, all of your sins, living for yourself, and you are turning away from all of that not to just live a better life or to be a good person. You are turning from living for yourself to living for God. So, you're turning to a person, who you're turning to.
Point number two, let's get it down like this. Repentance is an invitation into a relationship. Repentance is an invitation into a relationship, you turn to me, God's saying he'll repent too, he'll turn to you change your mind about God, he'll change his mind about you. What an amazing offer that God is giving. The one who could just say, Repent or die is actually saying repent, and I’ll repent to. That's amazing, the offer that the Lord of hosts makes to people here. And he's making it to the whole group of people. He's making it to individual people, the promise of God is that anyone who wants to declare themselves a sinner and enemy you, if you're willing to admit you're against God, and you turn to him, God, who wouldn't be right to judge you, God is ready to forgive you. And if you turn to God, God will welcome you in. God will turn to you, he'll have a relationship with you, he'll adopt you into his family, he'll call you his son or his daughter, you'll be able to call on him as your father, he'll give you an inheritance and prepare a place for you for all of eternity. Like all you have to do is agree with God that you are a sinner who needs to repent, and you turn to God and he will turn to you. He will have a relationship with you. See, repentance is it's intense. But it's not this negative concept. Repentance is this beautiful idea that you don't have to keep living towards a dead end of destruction and judgment. You can have a wonderful life in knowing God forever. That's what repentance is offering. Yeah, it's authoritative. It's a command. But the perks are amazing. And the relationship is the most intimate love you will ever experience in your entire life. God's love will actually be steadfast for the rest of your life, he will be the constant in your life, from the moment you turn to him forevermore. And so, God here he is saying, Hey, you turn to me, and I will turn to you, like, have you thought about this, that when we repent, God relents of his judgment, like we change our mind about God and realize that we should be living for him and not ourselves. And then he changes his mind about us. And instead of judging us according to what we have done, he welcomes us in as one of his people. So, this idea here, this is a very important idea the prophets are trying to get across.
Go to Isaiah 55. Let's look at some of the other prophets and how they communicate this same idea of hey, you’ve got to turn to God. And when you turn to God, he's going to be so good to you, you're going to be so glad that you did turn to God. This is how it says it here in Isaiah 55. And Isaiah, Jeremiah, these were prophets before Zechariah. And unfortunately, the people didn't listen to Isaiah. They didn't listen to Jeremiah, they didn't turn to God and find this beautiful relationship, and therefore they died. And we're going to talk about that more in a minute. But the offer was there, the offer of eternal life, the promise of a relationship is available to all. God is inviting, he's saying, Hey, I'm throwing a wedding feast. Anybody who wants to can come and enter into this relationship, and the invitation goes out to all people from all nations. Look at Isaiah 55. Starting in verse 6, “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord,” Hey, if you turn to the Lord, ye that He the Lord may have compassion on him and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. Like you don't have to keep living in your sin. You don't have to keep doing unrighteous thoughts in your head. You don't have to stay that way. You can turn to the Lord and the Lord will graciously, mercifully, he will have compassion on you. He'll forgive you for all of that sin. He will abundantly pardon. What an idea, what a definition for Grace right there. Not only does God forgive you for your sin that you've done, he gives you all kinds of good things and blessings and he lets you know him and experience love and peace and joy and all these great things that come into your life. Because you know God and the peace of God guards your heart and mind, the joy of the Lord overflows in your soul, the love of God, the love that God has for you. It's now something you can spread to everybody else. You know, like when you have a relationship with God, it unlocks endless blessings in your life, all because you admitted you are a terrible person, and you needed help. When you turned to God, you got so many good things. That's what he's saying. Like, if you're over here, and you come to church, or you read the Bible, and you're like, repentance is me trying to be better. That's missing the point of repentance. Repentance is you knowing God, repentance is having a relationship with someone who changes you, who has the power to transform you. It's not you trying to do it. It's God doing a mighty work in your life. That's what repentance is. Repentance is like, why am I doing this myself when I could know God. That's the change of mind that we're talking about. God's saying, return to me, turn to me. I mean, that's what it says here. Let him return to the Lord repentance is turning to a person is who it is. And that person, the Lord will also turn himself to you. He will have compassion on you. He will abundantly pardon.
You go over to Jeremiah 3, it's just a few pages over to the right. This is what the prophet Jeremiah was trying to tell the people in Jerusalem before King Nebuchadnezzar came and wiped them all out. Jeremiah, he was trying to give this Good News of repentance to the people. And in Jeremiah, chapter 3, verse 12. Here's just an example of the call this Hebrew word Shuv. And he's saying here in Jeremiah 3:12, “Go and proclaim the words to the north, and say.” So again, it's God's message given to the prophet Jeremiah, here's what he's supposed to go say, return faithless Israel declares the Lord. This is God's message, turn to me, return to me. You haven't been right in a relationship with me. You're faithless, you're acting like you're acting like an adulterous. You're acting like you should be my people. But you're not acting like my people. Turn back to a relationship with me declares the Lord, I will not look on you with anger, for I am merciful. I will not give you what you deserve, declares the Lord, “I will not be angry forever.” Only acknowledge your guilt, acknowledge that you rebelled against the LORD your God, and you scattered your favors among the foreigners under every green tree that you have not obeyed. My voice, declares the LORD, “Return O faithless children declares the Lord, for I am your master. And I will take you one from a city and two from a family and I will bring you to Zion,” I'll bring you back to Jerusalem, I'll bring you back to the place where my glory dwells. Look at this prophecy, you're in Jeremiah 3:15, “‘And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the Lord, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again. At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart.” Ultimately, that's a prophecy that Jesus will someday come as the Lord of hosts, conquer the nation's reign in Jerusalem, and they won't need a box of gold to represent God's presence, because God will actually be there in the midst of his people, and his people will turn to him and find a relationship, they will find what they were really missing in their soul was knowing God has through repentance brought you into a relationship with God? When I talk about God being merciful, God being gracious, a God, who you can experience his presence and he wants to be with you. Do you know what I'm talking about?
See the main thing we're going to see from the time of Haggai and Zechariah, as we study because we're going to be studying Zechariah over the next few weeks. I'm so excited to get into it at church every weekend. And one of the main things they were given to do was to rebuild the temple. But see, it doesn't say go and rebuild the temple in Zechariah one, it says return to me and see you there was a way that they could just build a temple and think they were being religious, but it's not about having a religion. It's about a relationship where you know God. And my concern is a lot of People, we don't have a temple. But I think a lot of people, you ask them, hey, when did you repent? And they'll say something like, well, I started going to church in the year of 2020. COVID was rough for me. So, I started going to church. I didn't ask when you started going to church, bro, I asked, When did you repent? When did you start a relationship with God? It's not the same thing as going to church. It's not the same thing as reading your Bible. It's not the same thing as trying to do good things. No. Are you trying to do good things because you love God? And you want to live for him? Or are you just kind of rebuilding a temple, but there's no real presence of God in your life? See, this is an invitation to a relationship. And I know a lot of people, you ask them to come and show up and serve, they'll show up, you ask them to go in and teach somebody else. They'll show up and teach. You ask them, hey, why don't you just sit down and pray with God and read the Bible for an hour a day, they ain't doing that. They'll go and do the things. But the one thing worth seeking is to spend your time in the presence of the Lord, to inquire in his temple and to gaze upon his beauty like we are here so that you know God.
The reason I'm here preaching a message of repentance is I want you to have a relationship with God, I want it to be the best thing of your day is that moment that you get to spend in the secret place where it's just you and God, because nobody knows you. Nobody loves you. You don't feel closer to anybody else, but the Lord of hosts himself. And the fact that the God who commands angels, cares about you, and all the problems that you have in your life and loved you so much that he sent Jesus to die for you. I want that relationship with God to be what drives your life. What determines your day? Is that have you returned to me? And have you experienced the LORD turn to you? That's what God is offering.
Go back to Zechariah chapter 1. Unfortunately, when Isaiah and Jeremiah are saying those things to the people of Israel, they were not listening. And so, the judgment came, and the destruction of the temple took place. And a lot of the people were taken away to Babylon where they were exiled for 70 years. All that Isaiah and Jeremiah said was going to happen, it all happened. And so that's the reference here. Father, the Lord was angry with your fathers and verse 2. God says so many cool things in the Scripture, but studying Zechariah and seeing what God says, like this is just an epic statement here in Zechariah 1:5, when God says, hey, your father's where are they? Like, hey, let me just open up the curtain of space and time and give you a little glimpse into eternity here real quick, everybody. This is God saying, hey, your fathers, the ones who didn't repent, the ones who continued in your sins? Where are they now is kind of a question. And the obvious rhetorical answer to that question is, they're all dead. And that might feel like a diss. When it's like, hey, your fathers who didn't listen to me, who didn't turn to me, they didn't hear my message of repentance. They didn't pay close attention to have in that relationship with me, all they heard it with their ears, but they didn't hear it with their hearts. They didn't really turn to me. Where are they now. But notice God's not really given a diss here. Notice he goes right into, and the prophets, even the guys who were speaking the message of repentance, even Isaiah, Jeremiah, do they live forever? See, what God is beautifully and profoundly pointing out here is, hey, I'm telling you to turn, I'm telling you to repent. And this offer is only available for a limited time, because the people who heard this before, but even the people who were given this message before, even the Street Preachers and prophets of old, were they down. So, you just have a few moments, a few moments like tonight in your entire life, where you could actually hear from God. And then you just have a few moments to decide what are you going to do when God tells you to do something? Like what God says through a prophet, return to me and I will return to you. What do you do with that? When Jesus says, you either hear what I say, and you do it, and you’re firm on a rock, or you hear what I say, and you don't do it, and you will fall.
Like you don't get endless opportunities like this in your life, you actually only have a limited amount of these opportunities. Because the people who used to hear this message, they aren't hearing it anymore. Even the people who used to preach this message. They're not the ones preaching it anymore. Because this is God's message and this is so amazing what God says here in Zechariah 1:6, that “my words and my statues which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers?” See when you hear repentance, it sounds like an old message. It sounds like well, people used to say that back in the day, it's always kind of sounded like this. I'm pretty sure. Like back in the day they said, Repent, I don't hear it as much these days. I think it was happening back in the day. No, but here's what God's saying, those people who felt so alive, even the prophets, the current prophets that were speaking to them, and in the moment, they all seemed like they knew what they were doing. Do you see that my ancient message, my eternal Word, my timeless command to repent? Do you see how my command to repent eventually overtakes everybody's life. And in the end, everybody's life is equal to you either turned to God, or you didn't turn to God. God's Word will actually end up defining everybody's life. Everybody will actually be judged, based on God's command, return to me, and I will return to you and either you will hear God say that to you, and you will turn to him, and you will have a relationship with God, and you will be with him forever. Or you will hear God say that to you, and you will not turn to him.
And that command to repent will overtake you. And you will be judged because you heard the Lord of hosts, the God of angel armies, you heard him invite you into an eternal relationship with him, and you decided to keep doing your own thing. Hey, can you see now that your father's heard this? They didn't respond to it. And eventually, they died without repenting. Can you see that? See, death is the reason to repent. That's what God's pointing out here. Like, you need to repent, and you need to repent sooner rather than later, you need to repent while you still have time. While it's still called today.
Let's get this down for point number three: Repentance is only available until the deadline. Repentance is only available until the deadline. These fathers, in their day, heard the message from the prophets, they had an opportunity, they don't have that opportunity anymore. Now it's your time. This is your day; this is your chance to respond. Repent, because it's only available until the deadline. Now, whenever there's a deadline, what's the first question that comes to your mind? How much time do you have? Like I don't know if you know this, when I was growing up, my nickname in my house was “Half a job Bob,” that was my nickname. Okay. And, and the reason was because I was a lazy bones, I was a procrastinator, you tell me to do something, I'm immediately thinking, well, how long do I have to do it? And then I'm immediately thinking after that. So, what's the last possible moment that I could do this and still have enough time? Because I'm that good. Anybody else used to think like that, too? Don't worry, I got this. When is it due? See, here's the thing about the deadline. Nobody knows when it's due. Tomorrow is not guaranteed to anybody here. See that? That's the thing about the deadline is like, I mean, God's got the number of your days, but you don't know the number of your days. And there's even the promise in the Bible that someday Jesus is going to return and he's going to return like a thief in the night. People aren't even going to know when he's going to come. It says literally, he's going to come at an hour you do not expect. So, you have a chance to repent before a deadline comes but you don't know when the deadline is coming. In fact, the Scripture is trying to help you realize the deadline could be here at any moment. And so today, if you can hear God's voice today, if you can hear the Lord of hosts commanding you to repent today, if you realize that God actually wants to have a relationship with you, where he becomes the first most important thing in your life today, if you can hear it, don't harden your heart, because this could be the last time you ever hear it. Where are your fathers? Where are even the old prophets who used to preach this message. See, don't even for a second believe that repentance is some old out of date message, because repentance will outlive us all. And on that day, that you stopped breathing, or Jesus comes back, it will be, did you turn to God, or did you hear it and not turn to God? And that will define your life. How you respond to the command of God will define your eternity. And I don't know how much longer you have. So, this is why I want everybody here at our church to make sure you have a testimony of repentance. You do you do you know that you have turned to God and he has turned to you. Do you know that? You know I don't apologize for asking you that question because it is ultimately the only question that matters about your life? Do you know that you've turned to God? And do you know that he's turned to you? And how do you know that? And if you have that blessed assurance, can we worship the Lord together here this evening, right? That the God who is the Lord of hosts has a relationship with somebody like me, praise God. Right? See, this idea of death is actually something that we're supposed to consider. It's actually a good thing to think about, according to the scripture, because death is the reason you need God. See, there's a lot of problems like even some sicknesses. People think, well, we can figure out how to treat these sicknesses, financial problems, now we can still figure that out. Relationship problems. Oh, we'll work it out. And if that person doesn't love me, why would I love them anyways? I'll just find somebody better than them. Anyway. See, there's a lot of problems in life that we might be naively deceived into thinking we can solve our own problems a nobody come up with a with an answer for the problem of death. Where are your fathers? Where are the previous generations? Where's the greatest generation that made America so great? Where are they now? Where were the great preachers that preached to them the Word of God in their day? Where are they now? They're all dead.
And see, death is what helps you realize, if God doesn't turn to me and give me life, I am busted. I am doomed, like I need God. Death is the thing that will convince you how much you need God to turn to you God, will you please turn to me on desperate for your mercy, if you don't give me grace, and save me if you don't give me eternal life, I will die and there's nothing I can do about that. And so go with me to Psalm 90. We read this recently, in our Summer in the Psalms reading. And I noticed this in Psalm 90 This wisdom of Moses here in Psalm 90. Look at this, Moses says that every man's going to return to dust. Moses is like if you want to be wise, if you want to understand how life on planet earth works. One thing you got to realize about yourself and about this life is death is coming. And once you realize death is coming. Even that after death, it's appointed for a man to die once and after that comes judgment and the fact that you're going to die and be judged according to what you have done. That should create in you a fear of the Lord and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of what? Wisdom. You want to be wise. Here's something that makes wise people wise and fools foolish. Wise understand, I'm going to die, fools act like I can figure it out tomorrow. That's what fools are like; I’ve got time says the fool. I'm going to die, says the wise person. And that's what Moses is teaching here in Psalm 90. In fact, he cries out here in verse 12. Look at Psalm 90:12. “So Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” If only I could realize I've only got a few short, precious days here on this planet, then I would start thinking the right way about my life. And then notice, immediately when you realize that your days are numbered, and you're going to die, and you see the wisdom, and that what does he go right to look at Psalm 90:13, return? Oh, Lord, I'm going to die. I've only got a few days. What do I immediately do? Please turn to me, God. Turn to me, God. How long? Please have pity on your servant. Please come and satisfy me in the morning with your steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Oh, wow, I'm going to die. So, God, you’ve got to turn to me, like I need you to turn to me. Like if you don't turn to me, I'm going to die in my sense of where's that mercy? Your promise? Where's that Grace for Today? Because I need it down here. See, death is actually a very compelling motivation. It's actually the reason to repent. Because if you keep living for yourself, you can't keep doing that. It's not going to work. You need God to give you life. So, notice what an amazing thought not only this idea of repentance being need, turning to God, but repentance being this idea of me asking God to turn to me to be true to his promise, God, I'm turning to you, and I need you to return to me. Return Oh, Lord, how long will you be apart from me? I need you to come and give me that compassion. I need you to come and save me.
Go to Ezekiel, chapter 18 with me, here's, here's another one of the prophets and Ezekiel he writes down here something that God says so you can see Moses is teaching us that we should ask God to turn to us. When we realize we're going to die, we need God to give us his life? Well Ezekiel here in Ezekiel chapter 18. And you can start with me in verse 25, Ezekiel 18:25, this is God speaking through Ezekiel the prophet, but you can tell this is the voice of the Lord. This is God like speaking in a first person way here. Listen to what God says, here's Moses giving us an example of someone praying to God, God, you need to turn to me. Well, Ezekiel is now going to give us an example of God speaking to you and God saying to you, you need to turn to me. Here's the Ezekiel chapter 18:25-32, “Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die. Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life. Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die. Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ O house of Israel, are my ways not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? ‘Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.”
What a conversation we're seeing in the Scriptures. Here's somebody realizing they're going to die, and they're asking God to turn to them. And here's God telling you, you're going to die. And God's saying to you, why do you have to die in your sin, you could turn to me right now, turn to me from your wickedness, from your transgressions, turn to me, and you will live, God says to you. What an amazing thing for God to say that he takes no pleasure in anybody dying in their sin. God finds no pleasure in judging anybody according to what they have done. God is speaking from heaven, and he is commanding all of us turn to me, I don't want you to die. I want you to live. And if you turn to me, you will live. That's what God said. That's God's message. It's always been God's message. And that message, wow, live every single one of us here in this room. And someday, when you stand before God, you will either have turned to him and lived, or you will not have turned to him, and you will die. And if you can realize that you would die, and you're saying, I remember very clearly the moment that I realized I was going to die. And I was going to be judged before for what I had done, and I did not want to get what I deserved. And I cried out, I turned to God. And I cried out to him, and I begged him for mercy. And I asked him, please, don't judge me according to what I have done, please. Well, you judge me according to what Jesus has done. Well, you see Jesus dying on the cross for my sin, instead of seeing me guilty in my sin, and I turned to the Lord, and I lived. Have you turned to the Lord and lived? Here's God speaking to you. Why will you die? Turn to Me and live. I have no pleasure in you dying in your sin? Why are you going to die in your sin? Turn to Me and live.
I want to take you to an example of how this happened in Luke chapter 23, an example of how Jesus shows us repentance. This is Luke 23. If you can turn there with me, you know, one of the places we go to in Israel. And, and I found out this time when we went back, I see I go to this place every time I've been there four times. And I always go to the city Chorazin. There were three main cities by the Sea of Galilee where Jesus did his miracles: Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Chorazin. And so, I just always thought Chorazin was this place you go on your trip to Israel. Well, our tour guide this guy named Shafiq, he told me, You're the only group that I go to this place with. He's like, nobody wants to go to this place. And Chorazin is a city, and it's mentioned specifically in Matthew chapter 11. And Jesus says, Woe to you Chorazin, because you did not repent. And so these are the people, they heard the teachings of Jesus, they saw miracles of Jesus with their own eyes, these people in Chorazin, they might have been fed as part of the five thousand, when they talk about big crowds on the Sea of Galilee, so that Jesus had to get out into a boat to speak to everybody, when they talk about thousands gathering to hear what Jesus says, that was probably the people of course, and included in that these people are first hand eye witnesses to Jesus. And Jesus says to them, you did not really turn to me. And woe to you, judgment upon you. And when you go to this place, and to this day, two thousand years after Jesus says, whoa, it is nothing but a pile of rocks in the middle of nowhere. See, when you realize that you either turn to God and live or you stay as you are, and you die like we go to Chorazin. And like it is it is a hot and brutal place to go. It feels like a barren wasteland. It feels like scorched earth, it feels like when you're at that ruins. They're like you're at a place where judgment has come. And it's crazy, because by the end of the trip, you'll ask people like, what was your favorite place we went to in Israel, and you'll start to hear from some people, my favorite place we went to was Chorazin. Because I realized that's what's going to happen to my relatives. Because I realized, were it not for God's amazing grace, I would just end up like a pile of rocks. See, if you don't turn to God, you are already on the way to death. But if you turn to God, you will live. And if you can hear this sermon, if you can hear this message that God is speaking through Zechariah to us, return to me, and I will return to you. It's not too late. Even if you have been a procrastinator, and you've been putting this off, you could turn to God right now. That's what happens here in Luke 23. Are you there with me in Luke 23, verse 39? Maybe you know the story of the thief on the cross. And there's two criminals, one on either side of Jesus, Jesus is dying on the cross to pay for our sin. And on the third day, he's going to rise up to give us a new life like Jesus. He's righteous. He has no sin before God, He is the Anointed Holy One. And he's going to offer himself as a sacrifice to pay for your sin, and he's going to rise from the dead to give you a new life. Like, here's Jesus, saving our souls. And look what happens here in verse 39, one of the criminals, who are hanged, railed at him, saying, are you not the Christ? Hey, aren't you the one that all the prophecies are about? Aren't you the one the Book of Zechariah is ultimately leading to save yourself and us? Here's a criminal railing at Jesus saying, why don't you save us up here? He's blind. He can't see Jesus is saving him up there. And then I love this in Luke 23:40, the other one, and we know that both criminals at the beginning, they were both saying it to Jesus, they were both mocking Jesus, but this other criminal, he has a change of mind, even while he's dying there on the cross. He literally turns to God, he turns to the one who is the Word of God, the one who came to show us God. He turns to Jesus, even while he's dying on a cross, he changes his mind about Jesus. And look what he says here in verse 40. “The other rebuked him saying, Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds, but this man,” referring to Jesus “now has done nothing wrong.” Hey, don't you realize we're dying because we're sinners? We're dying, because the wages of our transgressions is this death, this punishment. But Jesus, he doesn't deserve to die. He's innocent. What did Jesus do wrong? And then he says this, I love this. He said, Jesus, remember me? When you come into your kingdom. Jesus if you just remember me, what is the name Zechariah means the Lord. What? remembers? The Lord remembers. everybody who turns to everyone who turns to the Lord, not one person will be cast out. Not one person will be left behind all who turned to the Lord in repentance. They will all be remembered on that day of death; they will all be remembered on that day of judgment. So here's a guy, right before he dies basically, crying out the theme of the book Zechariah. Oh, Lord, please what you remember your people? Will you remember me? And what does Jesus say to this guy? He said to him, “Truly, I say to you today, you will be with me in Paradise.”
And sometimes people think, Oh, I'd like to go to paradise. No, no, you'd like to go where Jesus is. See, that's the point. Today, you will be with me, yeah, I'm going to remember you. And I'm going to remember everybody who changes their mind about me. Jesus came to save, and he wanted repentance, and forgiveness of sins to be proclaimed in his name that everyone who turns, everyone who changes their mind, everyone who hears God's command to repent, they hear the invitation to the relationship, and they turn, Jesus will remember every single one of us. And truly I say to you, you will be with Jesus in paradise. This is the message that God has sent from heaven to earth, that all people everywhere should repent. And Jesus, he will turn to us he will remember us, the Lord remembers his people.
So, at this time, I'm going to call the Compass Connect team to come forward. And if you have never repented, if you've never turned to God, if you've never, like seen Jesus dying for you on the cross and asked Jesus to remember you, these people are all here ready to talk to you. And so, when I'm done praying right now, at the end of this sermon, if you're like, I need to repent, I'm going to die. I have not turned to God, even if you have questions. Well, I'm not sure if I really have turned to God or not, these guys would love to talk to you. They've been praying for you. So when I'm done praying, they're going to walk out the back of this room, and you can feel free to walk out the back and talk to them. And the worship team is going to come up here, they're going to sing a song for us about this guy crying out, Lord, remember me on the cross. And Jesus saying to him, today, you'll be with me in paradise. And while you're hearing this song, maybe you're realizing I need to cry out to Jesus, you can go out the back anytime and talk to them, they'd be happy to help you. Talk about repentance, and what that would really look like for you to return to the Lord and know that the Lord will return to you. And if you know that you have turned to the Lord. Wow, let's praise the Lord, for saving sinners like us. Can I get an Amen from anybody on that? Is anybody here glad that you're not going to get what you deserve when you die? But you're going to get the righteousness of Jesus because he died in your place? Wow, what an amazing thing to be with Jesus in paradise, to know that on the day I die, or the day Jesus comes back to judge the world, on that day, the Lord will remember me, the Lord is going to return to me, because he put it on my heart to turn to him. What an amazing promise. So let me pray for us right now, let's all pray here together.
Father in heaven, I just thank you that the people, when Zechariah gave this message in chapter 1 at the end there when it says, so they repented. And they agreed that how you had judged their fathers, that was the right thing for you to do. It is right for you to judge sin. It's not your ways that are unjust. It's our ways that are unjust, oh, Lord. And so, I'm so inspired that those people, they heard the prophet Zechariah and they repented and they rebuilt the temple. And it was a good season there, among your people in Jerusalem. And Father, I pray that we would have that same response here, I pray that people would hear your word, your voice, that the Lord of hosts has spoken. And he has said return to me. And then what a promise you given us, Father, that you will return to us that you will have a relationship with us. And Father, I pray that if there's anybody here tonight, who realizes that they've never repented, they've never really turned to you with all their heart. They don't really have this relationship with you that we're talking about. I pray that today, they would not hurt in their heart. I pray that today, they would hear your voice and that today would be the day that you would save them and you would grant them repentance and that they would turn to you even now that they would cry out even now Lord, remember me when you come in your kingdom, remember me when on that day of judgment, remember me when I get to my final day, and I die, Lord, will you remember me? Will you be my friend on the other side of this life outside of space and time? Will you please remember me? Father, I pray for everybody here. That we would be able to hear your command to repent and that we would know that we have turned to you and that you have turned yourself to us and that you are going to remember us because we're now one of your people, one of those who have been repented and we have found forgiveness. So Father, I pray that you will encourage your people who have repented and that if there's anybody here who has not yet repented, that tonight would be the night you would grant them repentance, Father, please let them humble themselves from their pride, Father, please let them stop hanging on to those things that promised life but never given. Father, please open eyes so people can see that they are going to die, and they don't know how much time they have and they can have that wisdom to number their days and to act now while they still have a chance. So, Father please put it on people's heart to repent here tonight. Let them go out the back and talk to somebody and even as we as we do this song right now let us hear that thief on that cross next to Jesus. Let us hear him cry out the message of the book of Zechariah, Lord remember me, and let us hear Jesus say today you will be with me in Paradise. We pray this in Jesus’ name.