Fri Dec 26

Listen up, little ones

Especially for the littles in your household.

Listen for the word Lord.

Reading

Zephaniah 3:9-13—Restoring the People.

Keys for kids

Also for the littles. Young households might choose, after Keys for Kids, to go directly to praise and prayer.

God brings necessary judgment, yet He promises to restore.
God’s discipline of His people is motivated by His love.
God’s restoration is done within Jesus’s church.

Questions

(Some read the ?s before the notes/ ask them after.)

What will be evidences of God’s restoration in His people?
Who will be removed from God’s people?
Who will be restored among God’s people?

Notes

(See Saturday for authors. )

Fries, Rummage, and Gallaty note that up to this point, the book of Zephaniah has essentially been one withering critique after another. Arguably the most painful book in the Bible, it has not left us excited and hopeful for more. In what has surely felt like one body blow after another, God has chastised His people, called them to repentance, and threatened them with judgment. In all of this, however, we have maintained that His love and justice are the motivating factors for His behavior. While that can be difficult to see while we are making our way through the first three-plus chapters, it all begins to come into focus now as the book takes what appears to be a decidedly sharp turn, but what is, in fact, consistent with the loving message of judgment that we have heard throughout the rest of the book.

This promised restoration includes calling savingly on the name of the Lord and serving and worshipping him with a united purpose and humble holiness. If the people of Zephaniah’s day needed this restoring work of God, how much do we also need it!

Of course, God does this work today as well—sending preachers (those formally called and those who talk about the gospel wherever they go) so that people can hear, believe in, and call on the name of the Lord (see Romans 10:13-15). He gives us unity in Jesus and calls us to labor to preserve this unity through His Spirit. And he calls us to work out the saving work he is working in us. How is the King restoring you?

Swedish Method questions

See the Sunday notes for meaning of the symbols.

Praise

Psalm 80, 57b

Prayer

Pray for this promised restoration within SRC.
Pray for the hearing of God’s word preached this Lord's Day.
Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.