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Until a Prodigal Returns (Hosea 11_1-11)
27 Plays1 year ago
Sunday Message recorded 14 April 2024
by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church -- Columbus TX
1700 Milam St.
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
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Transcript
Introduction to Hosea: Messages from God
00:00:06
Speaker
I've been blessed by the music and the worship already. Hope you have. Good morning. We'd like to invite you to turn to the Old Testament book of Hosea. We've been going through here and seeing what the Lord would say to us through his living and active word.
Transformation in Christ: New Beginnings
00:00:23
Speaker
And I thought about that song that we just sang. It reminds me so much of 2 Corinthians 5, 17, that says, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things have passed away, people with new things have come.
00:00:36
Speaker
And for many of us in this room, the new things have already been coming. And so God is making you brand new. And so it's all because of Jesus, like that song said. So I praise the Lord so much for that.
Prayers for Israel: Psalm 60 Guide
00:00:49
Speaker
I would like to ask you also to be praying for the nation of Israel. You know, this morning I was praying for them. If you don't know,
00:00:58
Speaker
Iran sent 300 missiles over toward Israel, but all of them were shot down or most of them were all shot down. And so I haven't heard of any loss of life or anything like that. But this morning I was asking the Lord, how would you want me to pray for them? He directed me to Psalm 60. So if you'd like to know, how can I pray for Israel?
00:01:21
Speaker
during this time.
Revelations and Romans 5:8: God's Love for Sinners
00:01:22
Speaker
I would like to invite you to just write that down for right now because I want you to go to Hosea 11 and let's listen to what God's going to say to us about our families and about our hearts. But at some point you may want to look at Psalm 60 and see how God would have you to pray for the nation of Israel. They certainly need our prayers with 300 missiles coming at your nation. I'd say they need some prayers.
God's Love through Creation
00:01:48
Speaker
But Hosea 11, once again, it's amazing how Hosea's revelation of God and of truth and of the Lord's Word and so forth, Hosea's revelation continues like chapter after chapter.
00:02:04
Speaker
to match the New Testament verse in Romans 5.8 that says, but God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we are yet sinners, Christ died for us. But you know, what stands out to me when it comes to Hosea 11 is that part of Romans 5.8 that says, but God demonstrates His own love toward us. You know, some people have maybe said to you in the past,
00:02:33
Speaker
I love you, but they did not demonstrate it. So I just want you to pay close attention to the Father's great love for us as we go through Hosea chapter 11.
Israel as the Prodigal Son: Hosea's Love
00:02:46
Speaker
You know, I think, for example, that God as our creator, wouldn't you say that God's already demonstrated his love for us by giving us this place to live called Earth? I mean, we have air to breathe. We have water to drink.
00:03:03
Speaker
You know, we have the right amount of sunshine. We don't have too much and yet we don't have too little. If we were closer to the sun, we would burn up. If we were further away from the sun, we'd freeze to death. And so it's just amazing to me how every day that we have life, have you ever considered your body? Did you decide how your heart would work? Did you decide how your lungs would work?
00:03:26
Speaker
Did you put all of that together or was that put together for you by a loving God who said, you know what? Every day you wake up, when you look in that mirror, when you look up in that sky, I want you to know that I love you. Do you know the songs that we sing about Jesus? I think as our Redeemer, how else
00:03:45
Speaker
Could God prove His great love toward us by giving His Son to down a cross, not for His sins, for my sins, for your sins, for our sins, for the whole world's sins? And I think He's already demonstrated it. But in Hosea, if you were to read through the first three chapters, you would see how this prophet Hosea
00:04:07
Speaker
saw God demonstrate his love toward Israel by the way that God gave Hosea the prophet this incredible love and unconditional love for his unfaithful wife. That's power. I mean, that's gotta be God's love. But now when we get into Hosea 11, you're gonna see once again, God's gonna say, I love Israel.
Parable of the Prodigal Son: God's Forgiving Nature
00:04:30
Speaker
I love Israel even though Israel is a lot like Israel.
00:04:35
Speaker
an ungrateful son. And so it's amazing when God can give someone love for an unfaithful spouse, but it's also amazing whenever you see God give a parent for an ungrateful son, an ungrateful daughter that doesn't appreciate what the father has done.
00:04:54
Speaker
So I'm just amazed here at how God is comparing that to Israel, this ungrateful son, and it's like Israel at this time is being like a prodigal. Do you know what a prodigal is? I got to looking up the word prodigal. What does it actually mean, a prodigal?
00:05:13
Speaker
It means when somebody spends extravagantly what they have, they're spending without necessity. They're actually spending so much that it's to the point of wastefulness. They're wasting it. They're careless. They're reckless. It's interesting that that word prodigal is not even in the Bible, but yet the parable of the prodigal son is known by most of us in this room. It's found in the New Testament in Luke chapter 15.
00:05:44
Speaker
But why is it called the prodigal son? Well, I'll give you a little bit of an idea because this prodigal son says to his dad, I want all that comes to me. And his dad's not even passed away yet. His dad's living. But he says, I want all that's supposed to be mine. He takes it. He goes off to a big city. And here's what it says. He gathered all he had and he took a journey into a far country. And there he squandered.
00:06:11
Speaker
his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country and he began to be in need.
00:06:23
Speaker
That's what it means to be prodigal. It's like, you don't care. You're just completely reckless and completely wild in your living and so forth. And so what we see is in Hosea chapter 11, what does that do to the Father?
Israel's Broken Covenant: God's Heartache
00:06:40
Speaker
Like, let's say there's a prodigal in the room right now, or let's say there's a prodigal listening to maybe when we put this online or you're listening by live stream,
00:06:50
Speaker
So I got to thinking, what is it that God's going through? Well, in this passage, you're going to see there was a broken covenant. Israel was breaking their covenant because they were worshiping other gods. And so there was a broken covenant. There's definitely a broken relationship. God the Father is going to open up the curtain of heaven and you're going to see his heart like maybe you've never seen it before. He's going to be very transparent with you. Will you be transparent with him?
00:07:16
Speaker
So you've got a broken relationship, a broken covenant. But the thing I want you to see is the broken heart. The broken heart. I may be speaking to some parents here and maybe your son, your daughter. Maybe they're a prodigal. Maybe it's been that way for a long, long time. And I just want you to see the grieving father over this rebellious child.
00:07:38
Speaker
You see in Luke 15, it's really good because the prodigal comes home. And when the prodigal comes home, it's so incredible because there's joy and there's celebration. And that father says, you know what? We're going to bring out the robe.
00:07:57
Speaker
We're going to put shoes on his feet. We're going to put a ring on his finger. We're going to kill the fatty calf. We're going to have a party because the one that was away, the one that went in the other direction, the prodigal, he's come back home. That's great. And I pray that's your experience. But the truth and reality is about life. That's not everybody's experience.
00:08:20
Speaker
Sometimes it doesn't happen like that. And so if that's your case, I want you to listen as we look at the father's example.
Loving Prodigal Children: Faith and Endurance
00:08:28
Speaker
What is God the father? You know, he's described in scripture as being a heavenly father. So maybe your earthly father was not the best example. You didn't see God's reflection through your earthly father. But I want you to pay special attention to Isaiah 11.
00:08:46
Speaker
because this is truth coming at you. Raw and unvarnished, God's going to say, this is what I'm going through with you rebelling against me. And so I've entitled this message until a prodigal returns. And so I want you to know that already I've been spending time in prayer this week. Once the father confirmed what he wanted me to pray, I've been praying for those of you who are still hurting. I mean, you're still grieving on the inside because you know of a son, you know of a daughter.
00:09:16
Speaker
You know of a grandson, a granddaughter. You know of a friend, you know of a neighbor, a coworker, and you've been praying for them for a long, long time. I just want you to see one thing before I read this. I don't want you to miss it. And that is, the rebellion of a son, the rebellion of a daughter, is not always a reflection of failures of a parent. Because when we read Hosea 11, you're gonna say, wow,
00:09:45
Speaker
Wow, I've never seen that of God. He did everything perfect and yet Israel walked away. Would you stand in honor of God's word? I want you to see the Father's heart like maybe never before in Hosea 11. I'm not gonna read verse 12 at the end. I'm just gonna stop with verse 11. But I hope that this will really speak to your heart. When Israel was a child, I loved him.
00:10:14
Speaker
And out of Egypt, I called my son. The more they were called, the more they went away. They kept sacrificing to the bales and burning offerings to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk. I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of kindness
00:10:41
Speaker
with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws. And I bent down to them and fed them. They shall not return to the land of Egypt, but Assyria shall be their king because they've refused to return to me. The sword shall rage against their cities, consume the bars of their gates, and devour them because of their own counsels
00:11:11
Speaker
My people are bent on turning away from me. And though they call out to the Most High, He shall not raise them up at all. How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboim?
00:11:38
Speaker
My heart recoils within me. My compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my burning anger. I will not again destroy Ephraim, for I'm God and not a man. The Holy One in your midst and I will not come and wrath. They shall go after the Lord. He will roar like a lion when he roars
00:12:08
Speaker
His children shall come trembling from the West. They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt and like doves from the land of Assyria. And I will return them
Accountability and Sin: Consequences and Discipline
00:12:21
Speaker
to their homes, declares the Lord." Let's go to the Father in prayer. Oh, Lord, I thank you for this passage because it shows us so clearly your heart. It shows us what you want. No wonder you said that you're not willing that any
00:12:38
Speaker
should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But you do require repentance. You do require faith in Christ. And so I pray that this passage would lead some who are here that they need to repent. They're a prodigal and they're in this room. I'm so glad they're here. Help them not feel that we're condemning them. Help us feel that we're actually
00:13:01
Speaker
urging them, we're exhorting them, we're encouraging them to go to the father, return home. The best kind of love is waiting on them there. And so please draw those prodigals that are in this room that listen to this message to yourself. But I also want to pray for parents. Maybe in this room, there's a father or mother, there's a grandfather or grandmother, and they tried so hard. They prayed so many prayers. And yet
00:13:31
Speaker
The son, the daughter, the grandson, the granddaughter continues to persist in walking away. Help them to see that you understand what that feels like, that your heart is transparently disclosed to us in this passage. And so help us, oh Lord, to know what should we do? I pray that during this time, we would keep our eyes on the Father and not put our eyes on the prodigal.
00:13:59
Speaker
Help us, O Lord, to focus on what did the Father do whenever Israel was rebelling. Give us some very clear guidance, Lord, from your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. I want to give you a few pointers of some counsel from God's example that I think is just laid right out here in Hosea chapter 11.
00:14:26
Speaker
The first thing that I would point out to you until a prodigal comes home, respond not with hate, respond with affection, respond with love. God says in verse one, when Israel was a child, I loved him. And out of Egypt, I called my son.
00:14:45
Speaker
So they came, right? No, actually they didn't. It says in verse two, the more they were called, the more they went away. They kept sacrificing to the bales and burning offerings to idols. J. Andrew Dearman says it's amazing how this passage connects to
00:15:05
Speaker
chapters one through three, where at that point, like I said earlier, God was comparing Israel to like an unfaithful spouse, but now he's comparing Israel to like an ungrateful son. And God's arms are still wide open. He's still saying, come to me. And what he's emphasizing here is he's emphasizing his expression of affection with this
00:15:28
Speaker
continuous use of the personal pronoun, singular, I. Did you notice how often it is? I think it was David Derek Jeremiah said, I read something in his study Bible, he said it's used 16 times throughout this chapter. God keeps saying to Israel, what else did you want me to do? I did this, I did that, I did this, I did that.
00:15:52
Speaker
I think he's emphasizing the expressions of his love. He's also emphasizing his relationship. What did he call Israel? I mean, Israel is just turning their back on him and he looks at them and he says, out of Egypt, I call my son, my son. And it's like he will not let go. And he says, I don't care if you're not acting like my son, you are still my son. I think, wow, that's, that's powerful.
00:16:21
Speaker
But he engages with them despite the rebellion, verse two, the more they were called, the more they went away. So if I were to give you one first directive or one piece of counsel, I would say, love them when they are immature. Love them when they're immature. Love them when they're indentured, when they're in Egypt and they're in addictions and they're all enslaved. Love them when they are insolent.
00:16:52
Speaker
Love them when they are idolatrous. Just don't stop loving them. Let me give you a second thing to do until a prodigal returns. Not only respond with affection, but secondly, reflect upon your actions. I know that it's so consuming of the mind whenever a prodigal goes away. And all you can think about is all they're doing. You're thinking, I can't believe this and that and this and that and this and that.
00:17:20
Speaker
But only, only focusing upon the poor choices of a rebel can be painful. It can be discouraging. It can be frustrating. As a matter of fact, it can be, if that's all you think about, it can be counterproductive. Because what does it do? It hardens your heart. And you begin to think, after all I've done, that's the way you want to act. And so you begin to get hardened. But I tell you a better choice, why don't you replay
00:17:47
Speaker
replay your actions toward them in the past. I think if you will replay your actions toward them in the past, it will help you, your heart to stay tender toward them in the present. Let's read again what God says in persons three and four and so forth. He says, yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk. Do you remember when you taught your child to walk? I know that right now the product was walking away, but you taught your child how to walk.
00:18:15
Speaker
I took them up in their arms. Do you remember when they would fall down and you would hold them in your arms? But they did not know that I healed them, he said. Who was it that took care of them when they had a fever, when they had a cold? But then it's almost like he changes the metaphor and he's like a farmer, maybe let's say like a farmer who's got an oxen or a cattle. And he said, I led them with cords of kindness with the bands of love.
00:18:44
Speaker
And I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws. When it's quitting time, he said, I'm the one that took it off of you. Remember I took off that harness? I took it off of you. And what did I do? He said, I bent down, I bent down, and I gave you food to eat. Wow. And yet,
00:19:07
Speaker
None of that matters because what he says is happening at the current time is, he said, right now, the more I call you, the further you're walking away from me. And so God is saying, why? He doesn't understand it either. He taught them to walk. He picked them up. He healed them. He led them with kindness and love. He eased their yoke. He bent down to feed them. You know, another man in scripture that went through a lot of difficult times was David.
00:19:36
Speaker
If you were to read Psalm 42, Psalm 42, the writer, I don't think it is David in that case, the sons of Korah, but the writer is struggling with depression. You ever struggle with depression? When you see what your children are doing and you're thinking, how did you ever get to that point where you would do that?
00:19:58
Speaker
When you're struggling with depression, two times the writer of Psalm 42 asked himself this question, why? Why are you cast down on my soul? Because he's just remembered all the things that he's done. And he said, why are you cast down? Why can't I shake this? And you know that two times he says, I will remember, I will remember. And so it's like when it's just too painful in the present,
Parental Agony and God's Restraint
00:20:27
Speaker
The writer says, I'm going to look back at the past victories. And I would think, you know what, God, that's what we enjoyed then. And that's what we enjoyed then. And he says twice, after he says, I'll remember twice, he says twice, I'm going to praise God again. I'm going to praise him again. It's going to well up within me. So reflect upon your actions and respond with affection for them.
00:20:54
Speaker
But until a prodigal returns, you may disagree with me on this one, but it's okay because we're looking at the father's example here. Until a prodigal returns, you got to release them for their accountability. I'm sorry. That's the way it is. It's a hard lesson for a prodigal to learn in life.
00:21:14
Speaker
But this is the truth. This is the truth. Listen to me. There are consequences for sin. There are consequences for breaking laws. There are consequences for misbehavior. And so Galatians 6, 7, and 8 warns us. It says, look, God's put it into the fabric of this universe.
00:21:35
Speaker
We will reap what we have sown. He said, you want to sow to the flesh, then from the flesh you're going to reap corruption. You want to sow to the spirit, then from the spirit you're going to reap eternal life. But all I'm saying is sometimes, not always, but sometimes I've been there.
00:21:55
Speaker
Well-meaning parents can inadvertently distort love by saying, you know what, I can't discipline my child. I got to let them just go. I can't hold them accountable for their actions. But we hear it, or we used to hear it, spare the rod, spoil the child.
00:22:14
Speaker
I know people don't believe in that anymore. But if parents refuse to discipline, guess who will discipline? God. God's going to bring somebody else in that's going to take care of it. But we could have taken care of it while we had the chance. But if parents refuse to discipline, then God says, OK, I'll teach them. I will teach them accountability. That's what you see in verse five.
00:22:40
Speaker
in verse six, in verse seven. Because how it starts out is you see that there's this rebellious child saying, I don't care what God says, I'm gonna do what I want. And so there's this disobedience to God's call. He says that in verse five. He says, they have refused to return to me. So rather than talking about one person, we're talking about a prodigal nation. A prodigal nation has said, I'm gonna do it my way.
00:23:08
Speaker
Disobedient to his cause. Second thing that happens is, if they're not gonna listen to God, you know what they do? We're gonna listen to somebody. They go and listen to other people's councils. So they'll go on social media. They'll see movies and listen to songs and the songs are putting ideas in their heads. How do you respond to problems in your life? Well, just go and drink it away in a bottle or just go and get on drugs and pretend it's not real.
00:23:39
Speaker
but you discuss options with other councils other than God. That's what he says in verse six. Because, why is it gonna happen? He said, because of their own councils. They went somewhere else to ask God, not God, but someone else, their council. And so God says, okay, then we're gonna have to have discipline. And so how is God, who is spiritual, you can't see him, how's he gonna discipline a prodigal nation, let's say?
00:24:07
Speaker
He's going to discipline a prodigal nation by another nation. And so what he does is, Assyria, he says in verse five, Assyria is going to be your king. You don't want me to be the king? Okay. Well, I'm going to bring another crown that's going to come into your country and another crown will be your king.
00:24:24
Speaker
And then when he comes in, he won't treat you like I have. Disaster shall devour your cities, he says. The sword shall rage against their cities. Consume the bars of their gates. Sound like they had an immigration problem too. Consume the bars of their gates and devour them. Wow. But then it says,
00:24:46
Speaker
disregarded. They disregard their creator. He said, my people in verse seven are bent on turning away from me. Don't you know that we're created by a personal God, a personal God who sent his son to down the cross as a substitute for us. That's how much he loves us. It's tremendous his love.
00:25:09
Speaker
But yet he says, my people are bent on not turning to me, turning away from me. Verse seven. And then so what's he going to do?
00:25:21
Speaker
Then whenever we get in a pickle and we start crying out to him, help me, help me. What does he say he's gonna do to Israel in verse seven? Though they call out to the Most High, he shall not raise them up at all. Sometimes it's like we have ignored him so many times that we pass a red line. And God says, okay, this time I'm not bailing you out. I've bailed you out so many times and you have continued to walk in the opposite direction this time
00:25:50
Speaker
It's too late. I'm not going to come to your rescue this time. Wow. What a sobering thing to hear.
00:25:58
Speaker
But then look at verse eight, because that's God's decision. He knows that he's a just God. He's a holy God. He's got to do the right thing, so he is gonna do the right thing. Sin must be punished, but get this, God says, but you know what, it's tearing me up. It's tearing me up on the inside. Reveal to them the fourth thing until the prodigal returns. Why don't you go ahead and just reveal to them your agony.
00:26:26
Speaker
Because sometimes whenever a prodigal is going their own way, they're blinded to how much they're destroying their own life.
God's Patience: Parenting with Restraint
00:26:35
Speaker
They don't know it. So they just can't even see it. They can't hear it. And so they're just tearing down their life all over the place, just falling apart. So when that's happening, the next best thing is for you to say, you know what? Seeing the way that you're tearing down your life
00:26:54
Speaker
He's tearing me up on the inside. I can't take it. And so you reveal to them your agony. And you look at these verses in verse, I mean, this verse eight, and it sounds like he's saying, I'm agonizing over releasing them from my hands. I remember one time I was at a union university and the professor said, had you rather have the protective hands of God to be removed from around you?
00:27:23
Speaker
Or would you rather have God's heavy hand of discipline come down upon you? And the whole class just sat there in silence, and the professor wouldn't give us a break. It's like two minutes we just sat there. And I thought to myself, if God's heavy hands on me, I know he loves me. I know he's merciful. I know he's going to, in the end, he's going to do what's best for me and right for me, because he cares for me. But if he takes his hands of protection off of me,
00:27:53
Speaker
Satan doesn't care one thing for me. This world would just as soon I not be here. The flesh, my own flesh, will destroy me. So no, I would rather have your hand, God, of discipline come down upon me than for you to take the protective hand. And so that's what he's describing. Listen to his trauma over it. How can I give you up, O Israel? How can I hand over you, O Israel?
00:28:23
Speaker
I'm telling you, to take away those hands of protection, that'd be so hard for the father. He's agonizing. He's agonizing also over the restraining of his heat. He says, how can I make you like Adma? How can I treat you like Zebulim? You see, these were two cities that were right outside
00:28:44
Speaker
Sodom and Gomorrah. And whenever God finally got tired of the homosexuality in Sodom and Gomorrah, he sent down fire and brimstone and he destroyed it. But you know what he destroyed? The whole valley. And so these were two cities and he said, this is God talking, remember? It's not me talking, this is God talking. How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zebulim? And so it's this whole idea of agonizing over saying,
00:29:13
Speaker
You deserve it, but I'm not gonna do it. I'm not gonna destroy you completely. And so you hear God's great heart as he says, I'm recoiling within my heart. You see what he says in verse eight? My heart recoils within me. My compassion grows warm and tender. Wow. You know, if we only knew what God goes through for us,
00:29:44
Speaker
I'm going to tell you straight. I know some of you haven't had kids yet, and you're hoping someday you'll have kids. I'm going to tell you something. Your kids have the potential to bless the heart of any parent. That's no doubt.
00:30:00
Speaker
but your kids also have the potential to break the heart of any person. And I say that with brokenness in my heart because I saw what I did to my mom. I saw what I did to my dad. I broke their hearts because I was a prodigal at one time. What about you? Have you ever considered the agony that not just your parents are going through, but your heavenly father's going through? When you read verse nine, you see there he is.
00:30:30
Speaker
He's restraining again until a prodigal returns. You got to restrain your anger because sometimes it just, it wells up within you. I can't imagine what my father and my mother must have felt toward me, but parents must be careful of extremes when correcting a rebellious child. We must never discipline our children out of just unbridled anger. Anything could happen. Don't do it.
00:31:01
Speaker
Listen how the arm of God in verse nine is held back by the character of God, by the character of God. I will not execute my burning anger. I will not again destroy Ephraim, for I am God, not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. Whoa. God is saying I am too holy to just destroy the whole thing. He could have just destroyed our whole planet.
00:31:31
Speaker
But instead, he holds back, he holds back. Wow. That's how parents have to be. No wonder it says in Ephesians 6, 4, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline. There it is. It's in there. An instruction of the Lord. It's just, I've got to give discipline, but I've got to give discipline without anger and without making them so upset and angry.
Endless Resources: Faith in Stressful Times
00:31:56
Speaker
One last thing I would say is in verse 10 and 11,
00:32:00
Speaker
It's very possible for the trauma and the stress over a prodigal to eventually reach that point of depletion, where the mom, the dad says, you know what? I have nothing left. I have nothing whatsoever left to deal with this child. I don't know anything else that I could do. I just want to say at that point right there, I want you to remember that the resources of God, they're inexhaustible.
00:32:30
Speaker
They are inexhaustible. I know that you don't have anything left, neither would I. But here's the thing, God says,
00:32:39
Speaker
That's why I said, cast your cares upon the Lord and I will sustain you. Because the Lord's got more, he can go the next distance. And by the way, that's from Psalm 55, 22, cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you. Do you know that's written by David? And that's written by David when he had a rebellious prodigal son named Absalom. But you know, when I read verses 10 and 11, I think, thank you, Lord.
00:33:08
Speaker
that he's saying these are the promises. This is the prophecy. Someday I'm going to roar, God says. I'm going to roar. Can you imagine what would happen if God roared? You should look on Google sometime. What are the decibels for the roaring of a lion? It's deafening if you were anywhere near a lion when they just really roar as loud as they could. But what about our creator? If he roared, what would happen?
00:33:36
Speaker
But he said, someday I'm gonna roar. And he said, they're gonna come back. They're gonna come back trembling. They're gonna come back broken. They're gonna come back saying, I'm ready. It could be today, the Holy Spirit, maybe he's not roaring, but that gentle quiet voice of the Spirit is drawing. He's drawing you and he's saying, this was for you. Today, this was for you. And so will you respond to the Lord?
00:34:04
Speaker
W.A. Criswell said, I will do what I can and he will do what I can't. That was from the lesson of a little boy. There was like over 5,000 people who need to be fed. And the disciples said, nobody's got anything to eat except for this one little boy. He's got a bag lunch. He's got five pieces of bread. He's got a couple of fish in there, but that's it. And he said, bring it to me. Why don't you do what you can do and trust God to do what you can't do?
George Mueller's Faith and Hope: Persistent Prayer
00:34:34
Speaker
There was a man named George Mueller. I know that some of you got some pretty big families, but listen to this. George Mueller, he cared for 10,024 orphans in orphanages. So I think there's something this guy knows about kids that he could tell us. But George Mueller is an amazing man of faith. You know what it says? There's a man named A.T. Pearson who wrote a biography about George Mueller.
00:35:05
Speaker
It's called All Things Are Possible. But in his biography about George Mueller, A.T. Pearson said, I had a personal interview with him before he died. And he said, he told me that for 60 years, every day, he prayed for three men.
00:35:20
Speaker
And he said, those three men have not come to the Lord. He said, I prayed sometimes one year and two years and three years and five years, 10 years and 20 years. I prayed for a lot of people who did get saved, who did surrender to Christ. But he said, these three guys have never, never really surrendered to the Lord yet. And then Pearson looked at him. He was like, hey, you're about to die. I don't think you're going to make it. And he said, you know what? All these years, the father wouldn't have placed them on my heart.
00:35:51
Speaker
if he didn't intend to answer this prayer. He said, I've been praying they'd be saved for 60 years. I thought that is incredible commitment right there. That's somebody who learned from all those kids 10,024 orphans. And so I thought, man, Lord, am I willing to trust the Lord? Perhaps you're a prodigal and you're here. And I just wanted to end with this one last thing.
00:36:22
Speaker
You know, that parable of the prodigal son says in John 15, 18, I will arise and go to my father and say, father, I've sinned against heaven and against you. When the father sees you from heaven returning, you know what his response is going to be? He's not going to put his hand on his hip and say, it's about time down there. I've been waiting on this, buddy. I knew you were all wrong. You know what? He's portrayed in Luke 15.
00:36:52
Speaker
as a father of a prodigal that says he felt compassion and he ran. He ran. You know, there's a song by Phillips, Craig, and Dean when God ran. You should look at that. You should listen to that song. When God ran, Phillips, Craig, and Dean. But whenever we turn to God, is he going to be there with a whip and say, I knew it? No. He will feel compassion. He will run.
00:37:21
Speaker
and he will embrace us. And he'll say, bring out the best robe, bring out the sandals, bring out the ring, because my son, the one that was lost, he's found. I want to give a time that you can respond to the invitation. So our musicians are going to come and we're going to have a prayer before we extend this. And I just want you to know that that may be
00:37:48
Speaker
Your coming this morning has nothing to do with this message. Maybe it has everything to do with what God's been doing in your life. So not everyone who's coming will be a prodigal. I didn't want you out there saying, I knew it. I knew they were bad eggs. Don't be thinking that.
00:38:05
Speaker
But I just want you to know that whatever the Holy Spirit is saying to you, if he's exalting Christ in your heart and life, you can trust him.
Conclusion: Trust in God's Reliability
00:38:13
Speaker
That's what this song is going to be saying that we're going to sing as you're coming and responding. Only trust him. Just trust him. God's heart loves you so much, even when he has to chastise and discipline and life becomes hard and we start blaming him for all of our mistakes.
00:38:34
Speaker
I think it's time that we come to him and say, you know what, Lord, I'm the one that sinned. I'm the one that sinned against heaven and before you. So why don't we stand together? Let's pray and then we'll sing this song and I'll be waiting down front if anybody needs to respond in any way. Lord, I thank you so much for the word of God. It just speaks. It speaks in every generation and it speaks because it's your word.
00:39:01
Speaker
I thank you that it's inerrant. There's no mistakes in this. Lord, it's no mistake that we read today about Hosea 11, when all the people that are here are here. Maybe you wanted to comfort a parent of a prodigal, or maybe you wanted to bring a prodigal back home to yourself today. Or maybe there's something else that you wanted to do in someone's life, and so they're just gonna respond to you today out of obedience and surrender.
00:39:30
Speaker
But all I know is this, you are completely trustworthy, completely reliable. Thank you, Lord. We can entrust our hearts and our lives to someone like you, that you went to the cross, you paid the price for our sins, they buried you, and three days later, the father raised you from the dead, and you are exalted at the right hand of the father, and someday you're coming back. And I just want this church family
00:40:00
Speaker
to be aware of that fact. Thank you so much, Lord. You speak as we go into this time of invitation. In Jesus' name, amen. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.