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Improving Communication (Hosea 6:11b-7:16)
28 Plays1 year ago
Sunday Message recorded 18 February 2024
by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church -- Columbus TX
1700 Milam St.
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
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Transcript
Introduction to the Book of Hosea
00:00:06
Speaker
Good morning. Thank you so much for praying over the service and praying for those in need. I would like to invite you to turn with me to the Old Testament Book of Hosea. Hosea chapter seven is where we're going to be.
Faithfulness and God's Calling through Missionary Work
00:00:20
Speaker
You know, speaking of God's faithfulness,
00:00:23
Speaker
On Wednesday night, Jacob Tice stood on a stage in Phoenix, Arizona, and the IMB commissioned him and 61 others to go and serve wherever the Lord had called each one of them. So I was so excited, Jacob, to see you go through that. And I think like we were just singing, there's a verse in 1 Thessalonians 5 that says, faithful is he who calls you, and he also will do it.
The Importance of Communication Skills
00:00:51
Speaker
And so you can depend on God. He is faithful. He's going to be faithful to you and faithful to me as well. One thing that is a part of growing in knowing he's faithful and growing in God's grace and so forth is learning to improve our communication. Would you say that there's any room for improvement in your communication?
00:01:15
Speaker
definitely with mine. I'll never forget one time talking to one of my friends via text. We were texting back and forth. And then I thought, I need to ask Jodi if we are invited to a particular wedding. So I asked Jodi if we were invited to a wedding. And when I got the reply, it wasn't quite what I thought. When I asked Jodi if we were invited to the wedding, I said, Sweetie, do you know if we're invited to this wedding?
00:01:44
Speaker
The reply was, don't call me sweetie because I'm a man. And so anyway, it was my friend. And so I definitely knew right then, I need to pay closer attention to who I'm texting because that was not my wife. That was my friend. But anyway, maybe you've been there.
Humor in Miscommunication
00:02:01
Speaker
Speaking of Jacob going to Japan, I've shared this with some before.
00:02:06
Speaker
There was a missionary who got the word for China, which is chugoku, and the word for hell, which is jigoku. This is in Japanese. He got those two reversed. And what he said was, if you do not receive Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, you'll be sent to China.
00:02:25
Speaker
And he said, over in China, there are fires that burn forever. And he just kept on going about China, China, China. You know, China was not made for you. It was made for the devil and the demons. And so anyway, the Japanese loved that message. They were just like roaring.
00:02:42
Speaker
This guy's the best, you know. Anyway, man, can we get messed up.
Effective Communication and Listening
00:02:47
Speaker
But you know, communication should be effective. It should be clear. It should be healthy. And it doesn't matter if you're in the living room talking to a family member, if you're in the boardroom at work, or if you're in the classroom at school. It doesn't matter. Every room we need to know how to communicate well.
00:03:08
Speaker
Do you ever feel misunderstood? You know, there was a guy that used to make commercials. He played a part of Ernest P. Worrell, and he would ask that question. Know what I mean, Vern? And so, do you ever feel like, I don't think you understand what I mean. There was a woman, she was married, her husband had to work so he could not go with her on this particular trip.
00:03:31
Speaker
but she went with a few of her friends to Paris and they actually went shopping and she found this incredibly beautiful bracelet.
00:03:40
Speaker
And so she wants to text her husband about this bracelet and she said, I found a gorgeous bracelet. I've been looking for this all my life. It's only $7,500. Is it okay if I buy it? The husband receives the text and looks at it, he's busy, he's at work. So he just simply text back really quick, no, price too high.
00:04:05
Speaker
Well, he forgot to put a comma between no and price, and so what she read on the other side was, no price too high. So she thought, my husband loves me.
00:04:16
Speaker
So at last report, we had a happy wife. We had a husband who, because he forgot a comma, found himself in a coma whenever he got a credit card bill. But anyway, Bible scholars agree that Hosea, he was definitely good at communicating. I hope you've been enjoying as we've gone through here. Sometimes when the Holy Spirit takes the word of God and he shows us our sin, it's not enjoyable. It's painful.
00:04:47
Speaker
But it's true, and it's necessary. We need to hear what God wants us to hear. And I believe that the reason Hosea was such a good communicator was because he listened closely to the Holy Spirit.
Hosea's Use of Literary Devices
00:05:02
Speaker
I don't know if you heard about this, but whenever the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl, they had a parade. And at the parade, there was a shooter. It was terrible.
00:05:13
Speaker
But something you may not have heard on the Christian Broadcasting Network, they put this article out. There was a pastor from Missouri.
00:05:21
Speaker
And he was there with his family, his wife, and his two kids, and he felt an impression from the Holy Spirit. You need to leave. But he thought, that's kind of bizarre. He said he dismissed that impression. But his wife got the same impression. And his wife said, I think we need to leave right now. And so he said, OK. He said, I had the same feeling. But he didn't understand it. So he left.
00:05:45
Speaker
By the time they got to the car, they were receiving different text messages from friends that were saying, are you okay? Is everything all right? And he said, he thought, what is that all about? And then they told him there was a shooting at the parade. We know you were going to the parade with your family. And so he saw live action footage of from a helicopter. They were panning that area and it showed exactly where they were standing. And there was bloodstains there as they were saying, right in here's where the shooting was.
00:06:16
Speaker
And he said he just knew that the Holy Spirit had prompted him. You know, I believe that God, in his word, he can help us to improve our communication if we will simply listen to what he says. And so whenever Hosea is listening to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is inspiring this wonderful book, Hosea,
00:06:39
Speaker
The Holy Spirit keeps on taking him into deeper and deeper truths, and he keeps giving him more and more descriptive language. He's giving him illustrations and analogies and word pictures. He's helping him to understand the truth and know how to communicate the truth. Do you know how to communicate the truth of God's word with those that are in your life?
00:07:04
Speaker
He actually grew in his communication skills by using these word pictures we call similes or metaphors. A simile is a comparison between two things that generally are not alike and they're introduced by the words like or as.
00:07:22
Speaker
That's a simile, but there's also a metaphor, and a metaphor is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between two unlike things, but they have something very important in common.
00:07:38
Speaker
Whenever you choose to use a simile or a metaphor, whenever Hosea, as we're about to read, chose under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to use a simile or a metaphor, certain things happen. You begin to say, I understand it. It's like when Jesus taught with parables. He wanted people to understand what the Father was trying to say.
00:08:00
Speaker
I think they explain the content more clearly. They express emotion more descriptively or more impactfully. They enhance descriptions more vividly. They engage the audience more effectively. To me, the master of analogies and similes and metaphors in the preaching community would be R.G. Lee. If you've never heard Payday Someday and other messages that he gave in the past, he's now in glory.
00:08:29
Speaker
but I encourage you to listen to them. One last word by introduction before we begin. There was a man named James D. Newsom Jr. who wrote a book called The Hebrew Prophets, and in there he talks about different prophets and how they were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write.
00:08:48
Speaker
But one of the things he did was he compiled a list of all the similes and the metaphors that Hosea was given by the spirit to describe sin or describe God and so forth. And so he came up with a list of 27
00:09:05
Speaker
And so a lot of those are clustered right here in Hosea chapter seven that we're about to read.
Understanding Sin and God's Character
00:09:12
Speaker
But one thing he said was, he said, you know, I noticed a pattern, a pattern that is in Hosea's writings. So I wanted to pass it along to you. He said, as I studied all 27 of those similes and all 27 metaphors, he said, the thing I noticed is they express the character of God and they expose the condition of people.
00:09:34
Speaker
You know, I think God wants you to understand who he is, but he also wants to put the mirror of God's word in front of us. And he wants to show us who are we as a fallen race, as mankind, all that we have done.
00:09:50
Speaker
to disobey Him. So you're gonna see God revealed as faithful. You're gonna see us revealed as sinful. Don't resist it. Let the Lord speak to you today from His word. Would you stand in honor of God's word? I actually wanna pick up one last little fragment of a sentence that's at the end of chapter six because I believe it actually goes with chapter seven.
00:10:17
Speaker
I'm going to begin with these words in Hosea 611. When I restore the fortunes of my people, when I would heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed and the evil deeds of Samaria, for they deal falsely. The thief breaks in and the bandits raid outside, but they do not consider that I remember
00:10:46
Speaker
All their evil. Now their deeds surround them. They're before my face. By their evil they make the king glad and the princes by their treachery. They are all adulterers. They are like a heated oven whose baker ceases to stir the fire from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.
00:11:13
Speaker
On the day of our king, the princes became sick with the heat of wine. He stretched out his hand with mockers. For with hearts like an oven, they approached their intrigue. All night, their anger smolders. In the morning, it blazes like a flaming fire.
00:11:36
Speaker
All of them are hot as an oven, and they devour their rulers. All their kings have fallen, and none of them calls upon me.
God's Redemption and Healing
00:11:49
Speaker
Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples. Ephraim is a cake not turned. Strangers devour his strength, and he knows it not. Gray hairs are sprinkled upon him.
00:12:04
Speaker
and he knows it not. The pride of Israel testifies to his face, yet they do not return to the Lord their God nor seek him for all this. Ephraim is like a dove, silly and without sense, calling to Egypt, going to Assyria. As they go, I will spread over them my net. I will bring them down like birds of the heavens.
00:12:32
Speaker
I will discipline them according to the report made to their congregation. Woe to them, for they have strayed from me. Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me. I would redeem them.
00:12:50
Speaker
but they speak lies against me. They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds. For grain and wine they gash themselves, they rebel against me. Although I trained and strengthened their arms, yet they devise evil against me. They return, but not upward.
00:13:17
Speaker
They are like a treacherous bow. Their princes shall fall by the sword because of the insolence of their tongue. This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt. Let's go to the father in prayer and ask him to speak to us from this word. Oh, Lord, these are definitely unsettling times as we read about shootings at parades, as we see people parading things that really are shameful.
00:13:46
Speaker
sinful things. O God, please help us as a nation to hear the clear warnings of scripture, to listen to you when your Holy Spirit speaks the truth through your word. Thank you so much for giving us a copy of your word. Lord, as we read an incredible passage like Hosea 7, we recognize how you went to such extents and such lengths
00:14:11
Speaker
so that we can understand how serious sin is, but so that we could also see how beautiful you are, waiting, waiting for us like a physician who would long to heal us, like one who's ready to redeem us. And so Lord, today as I share this passage that he placed upon my heart,
00:14:36
Speaker
I pray that your Holy Spirit, you wrote the Bible, so let it come alive. I pray that each person would sense, God speaking to me, now will understand things more correctly and more accurately. So speak to us this day as we listen to your word. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you, you may be seated.
00:15:07
Speaker
You know, the Bible says to speak the truth in love. That's definitely what Hosea is doing. It says, we are to grow up in every way into Christ. That's Ephesians 4.15. Wasn't only Hosea, also Paul in Colossians 4.6 said, let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. Do you know how you ought to answer each person?
00:15:38
Speaker
Well, I believe that the prophet employed six similes or metaphors that he used to make his message that the father had given to him to make it clear. And so what I want you to do is to allow these things to be talking points so that we can understand what God wants to say to us as well.
00:15:59
Speaker
Let me go to the first one. Would you look with me once again at these first couple of verses in chapter seven, that last fragment of a verse in chapter six. But the first talking point is going to be longing for healing. The Holy Spirit compares the Lord to a physician in this passage. He says, when I would heal Israel, he wants to heal.
00:16:29
Speaker
You know, it's interesting how in Mark 2 17, Jesus used something like that to describe his mission.
00:16:36
Speaker
He said in Mark 2, 17, I came to heal sinners. That's what God wants to do. He wants to heal us. But something interrupts whenever we don't confess our sins, whenever we don't humble ourselves in brokenness and repentance and submission and surrender.
Societal Consequences of Sin
00:16:54
Speaker
Something interrupts and blocks it. What is that something?
00:16:59
Speaker
Well, when you read this verse, this clause in context, you see, when I restore the fortunes of my people, when I would heal Israel, then it comes to it. The iniquity of Ephraim is revealed, and the evil deeds of Samaria, for they deal falsely.
00:17:20
Speaker
What was blocking? God says, I want to heal you, nation. But what was it that was blocking his healing? What was blocking his healing was sin. It's always an interruption. He uses words like iniquity and evil deeds.
00:17:38
Speaker
These things are harmful. These things have consequences. Their society, as you go through this chapter, you'll begin to realize, oh my goodness, that society, the northern kingdom of Israel, they were crumbling. They were falling apart.
00:17:53
Speaker
It was chaos. Nobody could trust anybody because it says they deal falsely. And not only that, look at what it says in verse one. The thief breaks in and the bandits raid outside. So there's all kind of terrible, chaotic things happening in their culture and in their society. It wasn't safe. It wasn't secure.
00:18:16
Speaker
But then listen to verse two, but they do not consider that I remember all their evil. So in other words, God's watching the whole thing. God is so involved, we'd be shocked if we knew how involved God is. He's omniscient. Now their deeds surround them. They are before my face. God says, not only can I see their sin, but he said their sin is like a muffler. It's like a scarf that's wrapped around their own face and they can't miss it.
00:18:48
Speaker
The great physician can see the shocking results of their sin because like a doctor, like a physician who looks at an MRI, who looks at an x-ray, who looks at a CAT scan or something like that, they can see what you and I can't see. The great physician can see.
00:19:07
Speaker
They have forgotten the Lord was omniscient. And so the first talking point is Hosea the prophet. He's trying desperately under the Lord's guidance. He wants you to know God longs to heal a nation.
00:19:23
Speaker
The character of God is this. The character of God is to restore. The character of God is to repair. God can fix your life. God can fix any nation, the nation of Israel, the nation of the United States. The second point, though, is also an important talking point that we need to move to. Verses 3 through 6, the lust of the flesh.
00:19:50
Speaker
You know, in the New Testament, an older, more mature, seasoned apostle John, there was a time when James and John said, you want us to call down fire on the Samaritans? Let us call down fire on them. But after he walked with Christ for at least three years, he began to realize, you know what, there's a reason why people are the way they are.
00:20:13
Speaker
because of the world, the world system. 1 John 2 16, the aged apostle wrote, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. It says, for all the world is the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life. He summed it all up in those words. That's the problem. They're longing for the wrong thing. And so as a result,
00:20:40
Speaker
Their nation was in a train wreck. Their political leadership was in a train wreck. What was it all about? Why was this? Well, he thinks, how can we give a simile? How can we make an analogy or a comparison that they'll never forget? So he comes up with the idea of a heated oven, not like in our kitchens, but a more rustic type of oven. You know, last night,
00:21:08
Speaker
just really enjoyed, Jodi made supper and she made breakfast for supper. You ever do that? She made pancakes and bacon and eggs and sorry for making you hungry right now. But anyway, when I saw the pancakes laying there at one point, you know, the side that was facing up, man, it was
Internal Passions and Spiritual Incompleteness
00:21:26
Speaker
raw. And I was thinking, I do hope she plans to flip that dude over.
00:21:30
Speaker
And she did. And they were the most delicious ones I've ever tasted in my life. But we can cook on an oven. But here's the thing.
00:21:40
Speaker
You know, what was it that was firing their passion? What were they really all fired up about? You know, he keeps using this analogy like a heated oven, the heat, flaming fire, smolders, blazes, all these kind of things. Where was it? What was it? That was the problem. Was it the administration? Was it the culture? What was it?
00:22:05
Speaker
I'll tell you what it was. Verse six, for with hearts like an oven, they approach their intake. All night, their anger smolders in the morning. It blazes like a flaming fire. The problem was not the conditions.
00:22:23
Speaker
of external circumstances, the problem was the condition of their hearts. That's what the problem was. Their character was way off. He calls them all adulterers in verse 4. They are like a heated oven, he says. Wow.
00:22:41
Speaker
What was down in their hearts? Well, I'll tell you what it says in verse three. Evil was in their hearts. Treachery was in their hearts. Adultery was in their hearts. Verse four. Verse five. Mocking and wine and drunkenness. Verse six. Intrigue and anger. Those were some of the things that were down deep within their hearts.
00:23:02
Speaker
You know, the internal lust of the flesh did not stop with something internal. It never does. It always wants to express itself externally. And so let's move to the third talking point, because we definitely see it as it moves on in this text. Look at verses seven and eight with me. You see, the internal lust of the flesh led to external laughter with the world.
00:23:30
Speaker
Do you see the parties that were mentioned in verses three through six? Look at how they made the king laugh. They made the king laugh in verse three by what? By their evil. By their evil they make the king laugh. How'd they make the princes laugh? The princes by their treachery. They're laughing at the wrong things. That's how the world always is. When you go down to verses seven and eight,
00:23:55
Speaker
The prophet states, he keeps talking. When you're talking, stay focused. I used to see Billy Graham on the news networks and they try to distract him and try to get him off on this rabbit trail or that rabbit trail. But Billy Graham was such a good focused person and speaker that they couldn't get him off. And neither could they get Hosea off. Look at him as he carries this
00:24:19
Speaker
this assembly of an oven down into verse seven. All of them are hot as an oven, so his message is so cohesive.
00:24:28
Speaker
You know, is your witness for Christ cohesive? Or are you allowing people to just kind of swing you every which way? Well, he keeps it so moving forward as he moves down to verse eight like I was talking about with the pancake. The pancake that wasn't done on one side. That's what he's comparing them to as you get to the end of verse eight. Ephraim mixes himself with the people's Ephraim, this is Israel,
00:24:56
Speaker
Is a cake not turned? So he said, you're only cooked on one side. Some Bible scholars believe the one side that was cooked was worldliness. You're so cooked on the worldly side, but you're so undercooked on the God side. You see, what was the meaning of that metaphor of the uncooked cake?
00:25:19
Speaker
Well, I think first you can see it says all of them are hot as an oven and they devour their rulers. They devour their rulers. Man, if you only knew four of Israel's kings were assassinated. They had seven kings during Hosea's long ministry, 30 years. All seven were bad. All seven were evil.
00:25:42
Speaker
But what the problem is, they don't understand.
Seeking God Amidst Turmoil
00:25:46
Speaker
They're not getting it on what's wrong with their country, what's wrong with their kingdom. That's part of the metaphor, but that's not all the metaphor has to say to us. As he goes on to say, all their kings have fallen and none of them calls upon me. Nobody's seeking God. Nobody's praying. And so what happens when people are mute toward God?
00:26:12
Speaker
You know, only bad things are going to happen. I can guarantee you that, because only the Lord can help us. But then it says, also, what does it mean when it says, Ephraim is a cake not turned? What it means is, verse 8, Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples. You see,
00:26:32
Speaker
Israel was called to be different. God had a special plan for them, but they wanted to be like everyone else. They wanted to mix with the rest of the world. And so what it was causing them to be was like this half-baked cake where he's saying, what's wrong with you? Don't you realize I'm the one who made you. I'm the one who formed you. I have such plans for you.
00:26:58
Speaker
You know, it's interesting how they were making the king laugh and so forth, and I couldn't help but think of Proverbs 14, 13. It could be that someone in your life, maybe you'd say, man, they're laughing a lot. But I just wanna remind you, Proverbs 14, 13 says, even in laughter the heart may ache, and the end of joy may be grief. So don't always go with the laughter, because sometimes the laughter is so shallow, it's so hollow,
00:27:28
Speaker
And the laughter is not the end. That's not the end note. That's not the way it's going to end at the very conclusion of everything. The fourth talking point would have to be the loss of strength.
Lessons from Samson and Pride
00:27:42
Speaker
You know, over 300 years before the kings of Israel that Hosea is preaching to, I mean, 300 years before these kings, there was another guy. He wasn't a king, but he was a judge. His name was Samson.
00:27:58
Speaker
Samson, he was the Bible's strong man. Maybe sometime when you look at my physique, you think, man, he's a strong man. I'm kidding. No, it's far from it, believe me. But Samson, even though he was strong,
00:28:13
Speaker
He compromised, he compromised, he compromised over and over again. If you go into Judges 16, you'll see compromised with a prostitute. And then he compromises again with a lady named Elilah. She would tie him up and he would break those ropes and all the twine that was around him. He was so strong, look at him go. But then she shaved his hair because she said, what's the secret to your strength? And so the Lord had told him,
00:28:41
Speaker
The secret to your strength, Samson, is in your long hair." So she shaved him. So what's kind of sad, but I want to read you what Judges 16, 20 says. She tied him up again, and whenever the Philistines came upon him, she said, the Philistines are upon you again. So Samson said, I'll go out as at other times and shake myself free. But listen to what it says, the last part of verse 20.
00:29:08
Speaker
But he did not know that the Lord had left him. The Lord had left him. And so they overpowered him. They gouged out his eyes. They bound him. They put him where he was going to grind in a Philistine prison. He was going to grind a meal. And so all day long he'd be going in circles, going in circles.
00:29:30
Speaker
You know anybody in this nation just going in circles? You know anybody in this nation losing their strength and they don't even know that God is not the power. They don't even know that God is no longer a blessing. What kind of simile is he gonna use this time? What kind of metaphor will the Holy Spirit compare it to this time? Well, the prophet was led to a metaphor of someone who's got gray hair.
00:29:55
Speaker
Just want to remind you kids, it's not polite to point at the preacher at this point, please. But it symbolized he's losing his strength. You know, I'm not as strong as I used to be. I never was really strong, but now I'm even weaker. But I think that's the simile, that's the metaphor that he uses in this passage in verse nine.
00:30:19
Speaker
Strangers devour his strength, and he knows it not. Gray hairs are sprinkled upon him, and he knows it not. The pride of Israel testifies to his face, yet they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all the disaster that's going on, and they're not even seeking God. Why? What's going on? Well, it says here, unbelievers are devouring their strength. Now they're unstable.
00:30:48
Speaker
Because they're unstable with all of these unbelievers that are devouring their strength, they're totally unaware. They don't even know. They're also unbending. They're not gonna humble themselves before God. It says here, the pride of Israel testifies to his face. They're so full of pride, they're not gonna yield themselves.
00:31:13
Speaker
And so that's why it says they're unwilling. They're unwilling, yet they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this. Wow. For all this, even when it's all crumbling right in front of their eyes, still that nation said, I'm not gonna get down on my knees and I'm not gonna seek God. I'm not gonna pray. Will you pray? Will you pray for our society? Will you pray for your family? Will you pray for your neighbors?
00:31:42
Speaker
You know, we've got to humble ourselves. And we've got to realize that nobody can help other than God. That's why the fifth talking point is looking to others, looking to others.
Israel's Misplaced Trust and God's Discipline
00:31:54
Speaker
Once again, the Holy Spirit has Hosea strengthen his communication with yet another simile. Ephraim is like a dove.
00:32:05
Speaker
a dove and without sense, silly and without sense, calling to Egypt and going to Assyria. Oh, we want to look at everybody else. You know, that's exactly what those kings did. Those kings, oh man, they went to Egypt. They went to Assyria. Please, please help us, man. But oh, if we only knew where to look, you know, Charles Haddon Spurgeon was one of the greatest preachers.
00:32:31
Speaker
that I suppose the world is known. Spurgeon was saved by hearing a layman share Isaiah 45, 22. That cold winter tonight, whenever he was saved, Spurgeon says, he kept saying over and over Isaiah 45, 22. And it says, look to me, look to me and be saved. All the ends of the earth for I am God and there is no other.
00:33:01
Speaker
That's when we will see revival. We sing, revive us again. How will revival come? It'll come when we look to God, when we look to him. The sixth and final talking point is learning from discipline. He talks about he's going to spread his net over them. He's going to bring them down. And then he says in verse 12, I will discipline them.
00:33:26
Speaker
We'll discipline them. Wow. There was so much insubordination. They strayed from him. They rebelled against him over and over again. That's why he compares it to this picture of a treacherous bow. A treacherous bow. They don't know where it's going to go. That's why he says, you know, this time destruction is coming. He says destruction is coming. You won't survive this one, Israel. And they didn't. They did not survive that one.
00:33:57
Speaker
But the Lord was speaking so clearly through his prophet. You know, it's amazing if you listen to this chapter and you back up from it and you track every time God says, look to me, come to me, and they don't.
00:34:13
Speaker
Like verse seven, none called upon him. Verse 10, none returned to him nor sought him. Verse 13, they strayed from him. They rebelled against him. They lied about him. Verse 14, none cried to him from the heart. They contended to rebel against him. They devised evil against him. Probably the easiest way to know what sin is is just spell it. You spell sin, S-I-N.
00:34:44
Speaker
You take the letter S off, you take the letter N off, and then you know what sin's all about. I'm gonna run my life. I'm gonna decide. That's exactly what happens whenever a nation, whenever a person, whenever a family, whenever a business, whenever a school, whenever a country or a city or anyone else, whenever they say, I'm gonna do it my way. And all the while, here's what God is saying. I'm waiting. I'm waiting.
00:35:14
Speaker
And he said, I would heal chapter seven, verse one, chapter seven, verse 13. What did God say? I would redeem them. But chapter seven, verse 10 says, yet they do not return to the Lord their God nor seek Him. Verse seven said, none of them calls upon Him. It's so simple. It's not hard.
00:35:37
Speaker
All God is saying, He wants it to be so clear, right?
Call to Return to God
00:35:40
Speaker
That's why He had all these metaphors and similes. And that's why He puts all of the Word of God together, 66 books, so that we can know sin's dangerous. But you have to come back to God. You have to turn to Him. Don't try looking at other places. Look to God. He's the one that you're searching for. And all the while, like we're about to sing, the Savior's waiting. The Savior's waiting.
00:36:06
Speaker
Maybe you've tried everything else, but you haven't come to Him. Would you come to Christ today? Would I ask if our musicians would come? I wanna lead us in a prayer, and then I'm gonna stand down front.
00:36:17
Speaker
If you feel that God spoke to you today through this message and you need to return to Him, I'd be happy to pray with you. Maybe you'd say, I need to just get on my face and I need to kneel and pray for my life. I need to pray for my family. I need to pray for my nation. I need to pray for my community. I don't know what would be on your heart, but maybe you'd say, I just need to sit where I am. It's not about me going in front of anybody else.
00:36:43
Speaker
It's about me just connecting with God. So let's stand together. I want to pray, God, as you return to God, that's the best thing to do in your life is just simply return to Him. Lord, I thank you so much for this passage. You use so many wonderful and vivid illustrations, analogies, comparisons so that we would see how ugly sin is so that we see how dangerous it is.
00:37:12
Speaker
so that we would be driven in the direction of our Savior, who died on the cross, who died on the cross to pay the price for our sins, but also who overcame sin and who can help us walk in victory over sin and not be bullied and pushed around by sin all during our week. Please Lord, help us just simply return to you. You are the way forward for us. We need you individually, we need you as families,
00:37:42
Speaker
We need you as a nation, as a community. So speak to us during this time of invitation. May we simply call out to you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.