This sermon emphasizes the importance of responding properly to God's call, highlighting the consequences of improper responses seen in various biblical examples. It discusses the need to seek, inquire, obey, trust, and draw near to God in a way that aligns with His will, contrasting it with the dangers of disobedience, lack of correction, and failure to seek the Lord. The message urges a shift from improper responses to a proper, humble, and repentant attitude before God.

that the men and the king of Nineveh was repentant and he was very angry. It was not well to be angry. God asked Jonah that later on in this chapter. Improper response, very angry because men were repentant. It might be is that through a Baptist church, if the Methodist church would catch revival, is that there would be some Baptist would say if that's happening in the Methodist church I'm not home. Or a Baptist church saying to an assembly of God, those charismatics over there, those Pentecostals over there, I'm angry that God came to them and he didn't come to us a good Baptist. Improper response. The work of God is by the hand of God and we are to glorify it no matter where it comes. Do we have eyes to see it or do we have an improper response? Jumping to the book of Micah. Two verses in this that we'll have. Chapter 3, verse 2. Improper response. Who hate the good and love the evil. How much more worse can you get than that? God says that which is good. He looked at what he created. He said it's good. He looked at man. He said it's very good. Men look at good things and they say it's evil. They look at evil things which God says I hate that. I'm going to destroy that if men call it good. Who hate the good and love the evil. Is there any more of an improper response than to preach the word of God and talk about the word of God and get on our knees and faces before the presence of God and men say I hate that. They go home and they bet on ball games and they watch all the crazy junk that's on television today which is evil and perverse to the sight of the Lord and they say I love this. Isaiah chapter 1. Do well in this. That you love God. That you love the things of God. Hate the evil. Do good which is well pleasing in his sight. Proper response is that. This is an improper response. Another verse. Chapter 4, verse 12. Improper response. But there it is again. But they know not the thoughts of the Lord. Now this goes almost what we was talking about with Jeremiah 8-7 and in the beginning of Isaiah chapter 4. They do not know the thoughts of the Lord. You say how can how can finite creatures know infinite thoughts? God imparts. Just as he imparted the word of God to men of God. He imparts his thoughts and in prayer that's one of the best ways that God says I found me a man. I found me a woman and I can share my thoughts with them. But it is this improper response that we don't know the thoughts of God. Not even one. You pass out a piece of paper and a pencil to the church of God today and across North America and you say write down the thoughts of God. What's God's thoughts? Most men, women, and children have been in church for decades don't have a clue. Back to Jeremiah. What does he say? These are the thoughts that I have towards you. What's his thoughts? What does he think about you? He loves. He's had mercy. He has grace. He has all of his attributes ready to bestow it upon the soul that properly responds to him. But the soul that improperly responds to God does not spend time worrying or understanding the thoughts of God. Check yourself on that. Now over to the book of Habakkuk. Jump over Nahum into Habakkuk when I go to chapter 2 verse 2. And the Lord answered me and said write this vision and make it plain upon tables that he may run that reads it. Now I come across that verse and stop because it's easy to read all these things of judgments. Gone through the seven levels, seen some horrible things, read some horrible things, and it doesn't get much better in these improper responses. And we're in that crucial hour of urgency to respond to this. But it's not time to run. An improper response is a coward that runs away from the heat of the battle. It's not time for me to go to build a bomb shelter for myself and put my wife and my kids down in it and to say you guys are on your own. It's not it's not a time for me to run away from these things after I hear and see and mind to understand it and a heart to contemplate it and to be afflicted by it. It's not time for me to stop praying. I use the same verse that Samuel said when the children of Israel came after they'd asked for a king and they said Samuel don't stop praying for us. Samuel said God forbid that I should stop praying for you. And it's the same thing today. It's not time to run. It's not time to hide. It's not time to be a coward. It's not time to be spineless. It's not time to be yellow belly. It's not time to be a jellyfish. It's time to be bold for the cause of Christ. It's time for a proper response and not an improper response and that's why I add that verse in there chapter 2 verse 20. But the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him. Keep silence before him. An improper response is learned in this lesson and you can do this with countless other hundreds of verses of thousands of verses in the Bible. But here's a lesson for us in the book of Psalms that tells us be still and know that I am God. Keep silence before him. But what do you see in the midst of God's people today? A bunch of jabberjobs. They've all got something to say. They've all got their editorial comments to make, their editorial opinions to throw in there. Be still. Be silent. Keep your mouth shut. God is going to speak. Don't you speak. You can't hear anything when you're talking all the time. Wait upon the Lord. Be still in his presence. Be silent in his presence. And an improper response is as we have taught in the church today. Run into the presence of God. Not come reverently. Run into his presence irreverently. Improper. And pour out all of your needs and all of your requests and all of your desires. And then shoot back out of God's presence and never give him the conversation or the time to speak back or to answer. Improper response. Zephaniah chapter 1 verse 6. And them that are turned back from the Lord, and that have not sought the Lord, nor inquired for him. Two things here that we've seen in other passages in scripture that reminds us that they are turned back from the Lord. They've not come to the Lord. They've not returned to him. But they've gone away from him. They have not sought the Lord, nor have they inquired of him. Now you would ask that question tonight, even in the midst of a body like this. Have you inquired of the Lord today? Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane crying out, Father, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not my will be done, but thine be done. John the Baptist coming along inquiring of the Lord, he must increase, I must increase. Have you inquired of the Lord? Our problem today of improper response by the church is we have not sought the Lord, and we have not inquired of him for what he would have us to do. Leadership, prayer leaders in leadership and some pastors will ask me in these seven levels of judgment, have said, what do you want us to do? What are you asking of us? What should be the next step that we take? And so I come up with that proper response. But the improper response is when God's church says, we're going to go on like we have been. And we've got this plan, and we've got this idea, and we've got this method, and we're going to go ahead with it and hope God blesses us. Improper response. We have not inquired of God. Can anything be done in the church, can anything be done in the denomination that is truly desiring to seek God and serve God without inquiring of him and without seeking him? Isn't it the most base foolishness of an improper response where God's people come into the presence of God and they tell God what they're going to do? That'd be like, and I know this is acceptable in society, but it's not acceptable in my household. And it's not accepted in the word of God that one of my children would come into my house and tell me what they're going to do. They can ask what they want to do, but they're not going to come in and tell me what they're going to do. I'm the parent, they're the child. Parents tell children, not children tell parents. But it is in the same mindset that children tell their parents today what they're going to do, and that's part of the chaos that we live in. Improper response. God's children tell God what they're going to do without seeking him and inquiring of him. Lord, what would you have us do? It was the last time that that question was asked in sincerity and honesty and waiting for God to answer. Zephaniah chapter 1 verse 12 And it shall come to pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with candles, punishing the men that are settled on their leaves, that say in their heart, the Lord will not do good, and neither will he do evil. Bad scenario here. It goes back to the very beginning of what we were talking about, what we tried to understand. The lack of knowledge of who God is. The Lord will not do good, the Lord will not do evil, he's doing both. He's doing evil to those that have an improper response. He's doing good to those that have a proper response. It's wonderful to hear the accounts around the world and other countries where God is doing good. I love being able to take my prayer notebook and share it with the church. Look what the Lord did in answering the prayer. That's good. What I also know is that he's doing evil unto the nations and to the people because they have continued to provoke him without a proper response. Response to sin, God answers. But this is a lie. A deception. Where do lies and deceptions come from? Satan. He's the father of lies. Why is it that men believe lies rather than they believe truth? Men love darkness rather than light. But the truth has come. I am the way, the truth, and the life. Truth has come. So that the truth shall set you free. Why do people remain chained? Why do people remain bound? Why do people remain undelivered and still in the holes of sin and Satan? Because they believe a lie. Like that. The Lord will not do good or evil. Oh, it's okay. Everybody else is doing it. Oh, it's alright. Oh, it's okay. It's a lie. An improper response. Because they don't know God or the things of God or the word of God, they believe such a lie like this. Improper response. Chapter 3, verse 2. She obeyed not the voice. She received not correction. She trusted not in the Lord. She drew not near to her God. You see a whole list. Four things here. She obeyed not disobedience. She received not correction. She trusted not. She drew not near to her God. Four things. Of improper response. That God says, this is a must. You must obey me. Trust and obey. For there is no other way to be happy in Jesus. But to trust and obey. Receive correction. By these stripes. You are healed. And if I suffered in my flesh. So arm yourselves likewise with the same mind. That you will suffer in your flesh. For without. Without the suffering in the flesh. There is no forgiveness of sins. There is no removing of the sin. That suffering. Brings us into a right relationship. One of the greatest tragedies in our life. Brings and produces grace and mercy. At God's hand. Trust not in the Lord. Trust in the Lord. Lean not into thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him. All in all we go with the verse. Trust in the Lord. Here we see improper response. We trust in something else. Then the last one. They drew not near to God. Draw not to me. I will draw not to you. Draw not to the world. Hell is near. Draw not to self. Hell is over so close. They drew not nigh to God. Improper response. Well, Zephaniah. And then to Haggai. And we end it as we began. Chapter 2. Verse 17. I smote you with blasting. With mildew. With hail. Judgments. Third level. And all the labors of your hands. Yet. You turned not unto me. Repeat of that same phrase. You did not return to me. You would not turn to me. You turned to the things of this world. And they forgot God. Well, improper response is found in those small minor problems. From Daniel on to Malachi. And I've pulled out several of those verses to you with a repeat of some of those verses. A repeat of some of those messages. But again, it is the same thing that we're seeing today across the church. Improper responses to God's call for us to be the people of God. To be holy. To be righteous. And we're not responding right. And therefore the judgments continue. And so we begin with this understanding of that contract. This is the good way. This is the wrong way. This is the straight and narrow. This is the broad and the wide path. Why is there so many souls that are going to hear those words? I never knew you. Depart from me, you worker of iniquity. I don't know who you are. You're not a part of my children. You're not a part of my people. But Lord, we preached in your name. We talked in your name. Why are they going to hear that when they preached his word and taught his word? Because of improper responses. They believe the lie rather than the truth. Now the idea is that next time when we come together, we're going to see in the scriptures those that practiced a proper response and God met them. You and I cannot afford to wait too much longer. Our improper responses have covered us almost all my lifetime. Humanism. It is so steeped in the church today. It is so steeped in our theology today. We don't know anything about abandoning self. We don't know anything about dying to self. It's all about living for self. And it is a proper response to God. It must be that we recognize our improper responses that we have done for generations. That we have taught in our churches. That we have practiced in a form of a religion. That we have continued to be hypocrites. That we have continued to deny the word of God when we said we believe the word of God. We believe. We lie when we ought to be speakers of truth. We're unholy when we ought to be holy. We're unrighteous when we ought to be righteous. We're unfaithful to Him who is faithful. The idea of all of this is that we must understand that our improper responses are an offense unto Him. And He will not tolerate it. And He has not tolerated it. And that's why judgment has come. And unless we begin to understand this and to make application, this must stop. We will seek you. We will find you. We will inquire of you. We will obey you. We will trust you. Proper responses. And we recognize and confess and repent of our improper responses. We have not returned them to you. We have not known you. We lack a knowledge of you. We have turned away from you. We're lovers of this world more than we're lovers of you. Improper responses to be confessed and repented of. And when that is laid down in humility, forsaken, rid of, then God comes and He restores the ruins. But we are creating ruins faster than we have any other generation has ever done because of this improper response about knowing the Word of God and knowing the God of the Word. May you understand what your responsibility is, what my responsibility is. Children of Israel did not learn it and they were destroyed. And if we don't understand this and apply it, our doom, you go out to the graveyard. Deathbeds are coming. It's not too late. Revival. Revival can come tonight. Revival can come tomorrow with a peak that properly responds to God. But improper responses only provoke God. Would you cry out in your heart? Would you shed tears for wasted years and wasted moments and opportunities where God was beckoning unto you? Return unto me and I will return unto you. And you said no. Study thy word and you said no. Would you search your heart and see what an offense it is to God tonight as his people to weep for yourself? Let the priest stand in the threshold of the church and weep and wail for the iniquities that are upon us. God forgive us for lack of compassion, lack of love, lack of tears. God forgive us. We have time now. We begin to let God's Spirit continue to speak to us. Stillness. Let's be still in the presence of God as he speaks to us now for the things that we need to search and to try our ways and to be in his presence as he desires of us without this improper response. Oh God, make us right tonight.