Chestnut Mountain Church

Have you ever wondered how God really feels about you? Do you feel like God loves you, accepts you, is angry with you, is disappointed with you, ashamed of you, etc? In Zephaniah 3, Zephaniah tells the remnant, the ones who have turned back to God, how God really feels about them. Focusing on Zephaniah 3:17, we see five implications of how God feels about us. Through Zephaniah’s words of delivering God’s message to His people, we are reminded that God is with us, He fights for us, He rejoices over us, He quiets us with His love, and He delights in us. We see these five things not only stated by Zephaniah but we see these five implications all throughout Scripture and applicable to us today. No matter the circumstance, no matter what we have done, no matter our current condition, God loves us and longs for us to turn back to Him. God will always welcome you home. Listen to this sermon about how God really feels about us in the sixth part of our Return series.

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Waiting is never easy. It tests our patience, challenges our faith, and often leaves us wondering if God is even listening. In the book of Zephaniah, the prophet delivers powerful warnings to the people of God and the nations surrounding them. He pleads with them to turn from idolatry, to repent, and to return to the Lord before it’s too late. And yet, after the warnings and discipline, God calls the faithful remnant to do something most of us struggle with—He says, “Wait for me.” What do we do when we’re surrounded by chaos? When evil seems to be winning and everything inside us wants to quit? The remnant in Zephaniah’s day had to make a choice—to give in or to keep trusting that God was still working, even in the waiting. Listen to this sermon about embracing the wait in the fifth part of our Return series.

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You’re either being influenced, or you are being the influencer. For Judah, their position was in the center of nations and kingdoms that were fully worshiping false gods. While Judah was in a position to influence the people surrounding them, they were allowing themselves to be influenced by idolatry. Zephaniah gathers the people together to warn them and tell them to return back to God. You may find yourself in the middle of negative influence and surrounded by darkness. Because of this, have you ever prayed for your position to be changed, thinking that it would be easier if God changed your place? We don’t need a change of position but a change of perspective. Oftentimes, God wants us to embrace our position so that we can discover our purpose. The dark and lost world that we are placed right in the middle of is the dark and lost world that we are called to be a light to. Are we going to allow the world to influence us, or are we going to influence the world? Listen to this sermon about embracing our position and influencing the world in the fourth part of our Return series.

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Zephaniah calls the Israelites together not to celebrate them but to give them a harsh label. He warns them of the consequences are coming if they do not turn back to God. As they have been claiming to worship God while worshiping idols, Zephaniah tells them to stop living this way and turn back to God. Zephaniah says not only to stop and turn away but to seek and turn towards the one who loves you. He is calling the children of God back to say that the only way you can hide and be concealed from the wrath and judgment of God is to place our faith in the concealment of Jesus Christ and what He has done. In the same way, we must quit living for ourselves and seek God. Once we realize we are concealed in Him, it compels us to live differently. It’s a response. Listen to this sermon about not living for ourselves and instead turning back to God in the third part of our Return series.

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Do you have things in your life that are irreplaceable? Do you have things in your life that you can’t imagine life without? In the time of Zephaniah, the Israelites would carve out idols to worship as false gods. They said they worshiped God and yet they still made these false gods above God. While you may not carve out actual idols to worship, you carve out other things such as wealth, success, careers, time, etc. that we place above God and make these things irreplaceable in our lives. If you have something in your life that is so important that if it leaves you have no reason to live, you’re building your life on the wrong thing. The problem is not that these irreplaceable things are bad; the problem is that you have made them irreplaceable. The problem is making replaceable things irreplaceable. There’s only one that’s meant to be irreplaceable and that’s God. Turn to Him, build your life on Him, and worship Him. Listen to this sermon about building your life on the irreplaceable one in the second part of our Return series.

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The book of Zephaniah is a small book in the Old Testament that we often might overlook. While this was a prophecy given to the children of Israel at the time and a warning given to them by the prophet Zephaniah, this message is still applicable to us today. Zephaniah was bold to call out the Israelites for their idol worship. If they don’t return to God, Zephaniah lets them know the consequences if they don’t turn to God. Zephaniah called them out, warned them, but He also calls God’s children higher. We have to stop apologizing for raising the standard. It’s not our opinion but what God’s Word commands us to do. We are a reflection of God’s redeeming glory. Does our lifestyle show that? Zephaniah reminds them of what victory looks like if they will just turn back to God. God loves us enough that he gave us victory over His judgment through Jesus. We just have to boldly return back to God. Listen to this sermon about boldly turning to God in the first part of our Return series.

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God will lead us to do things that seem impossible. When we step out in obedience, in that obedience, we will always face opposition because the enemy wants to keep us from walking in obedience. In this, we will feel unequipped or qualified and like we don’t have the ability to do what God has called us to do. Through the story of Jake and Diane Spengler, we see God’s unconditional love and how He equips those He calls. Jake and Diane share their story of being foster parents and adopting their daughter. Looking at their story and Jonah’s story in the Bible, we see that obedience is never to get something from God; obedience is a response to knowing God. Just as Jesus modeled, our compassion, pursuit, provision, and possession are what motivate us to be obedient. In the fourth and final part of our Beauty for Ashes series, listen to this sermon about how we can find the motivation to be obedient in response to God’s unconditional love for us.

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Rollercoasters are full of inconsistencies; similarly, life is full of ups and downs. We long for consistency and stability in life. While the circumstances of life are always changing, the thing that never changes is the goodness of God. Through the story of Doug and Karen Banks, we see how the goodness of God shows up through the Word of God, the people of God, and the supernatural peace of His presence. As Doug describes, “Until you experience the presence of God, you can’t fully understand and even when you experience it you can’t explain.” Through their story and David’s words in Psalm 23, we’re reminded we see God’s peace and the rest that only He can provide. In the third part of our Beauty for Ashes series, listen to this sermon about how we can find rest and peace in the middle of life’s inconsistencies.

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As we continue our Beauty for Ashes series, we hear the story of Kylen. Throughout facing multiple physical and mental health struggles for most of her life, Kylen shares how God placed Coach Thomas, her high school basketball coach, and Kelsi, her school’s FCA missionary to walk with her in her journey. Seeing how Coach Thomas and Kelsi were living out their faith, Kylen wanted to know more of how to grow in her faith. Through Kylen’s story, we see the importance of doing life with others as followers of Christ and also how God can use our pain to reflect His glory. In the second part of our Beauty for Ashes series, listen to this sermon about doing life with others and God using us in the midst of our pain.

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During our Beauty for Ashes series, you’re going to be introduced to four different families from our church that have extended an invitation for you to step into their lives and for you to be a part of the things they have walked through. Today, we hear the story of Brandon, Lauren, and Brooklyn Bridgefarmer. You’ll see in this story how Brandon and Lauren found hope, strength, and peace, not necessarily with the circumstances getting better or by avoiding the tragedy, but they were able to find it in the middle of it. God is our refuge and strength and a helper who is always found in the midst of the trouble and the middle of the storm. When the struggles and tragedies of life show up unexpectedly, where do you run? In the first part of our Beauty for Ashes series, listen to this sermon about finding refuge in the middle of life’s storms featuring the Bridgefarmers’ story about the loss of their daughter, Brooklyn.

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