Dear family,
This coming Sunday is one of my favorites throughout the year. I have lots of favorites and this is one of them. We call it “Saints Triumphant” Sunday because we’re thanking God for those believers of his, those saints, who have received their crown of glory and now rest from the labors. We’re celebrating God’s grace to them! The worship will be rich and meaningful and meditative and it will have a little of everything. Quiet prayer and thanksgiving. Baptism. Communion (a foretaste of heaven!).
And, of course, preaching. We’re starting a new series this Sunday on the book of Zephaniah. I still hope to get out a little preview of Zephaniah. (An email will go out tomorrow if that happens.)
This series is called “Hope Remains” and this is what it is about:
Hope Remains (Zephaniah!)
God looks down at the earth. He lights a lamp and searches each heart and each house. What he finds troubles him. What he finds hurts him. What he finds angers him. And so he speaks. He sends his prophet to speak. He calls us to repent. He calls us to seek him. He calls us to hope in him and in him alone. And so for us hope remains. Hope that God will cover us and give us refuge on the day of his wrath. Hope that God will sing over us, and that he will take great delight in us. Yes, as long as the earth endures and God's Word is preached, hope remains.
Week 1: God’s Hope (You can preview it by reading Zephaniah 1).
God has a hard word for his people. There is no good news in chapter one. There is only judgment. There is only weeping and wailing. No one can or will escape. God's hope that we will hear him, that we will fear him, and that we will accept his word of correction. This is God's hope. WIll you hear him? Will you turn to him and live? That is God's hope.
It’s going to be a great Sunday! We hope you can make it.
Pastor Nate
