Thanks. That song touches my heart in a lot of ways because it was my oldest son’s—it’s my oldest son’s favorite song, and I’m glad it’s his favorite song. It is a precious song of the love of God.
Even as I stand up here to share this morning, how can tongue or pen ever write or tell the depths of the love of God? I hope this morning, as we share together, we will once again touch the freshness of His love.
Lord, as we come to the almighty God this morning, and to the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, our desire is to indeed behold Thee face to face. Behold the Man. Behold Your King. Behold the Lamb of God.
Lord, this morning enable us to behold Thee, and we shall be changed. Lord, many words do not change us. It is truly only as we see Thee, as we encounter Thee, the living God.
So meet us this morning through the power of the Holy Spirit. Lord, do anoint speaking; do anoint hearing, that, Lord, there might be fruit from what we see and hear today. Lord, bless Your people. Lord Jesus, bless us. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
As we begin this morning, let me just read a scripture. You do not need to turn to this one: Hebrews 2:1.
We ought to give more earnest heed to the things that we have heard,
lest at any time we let them slip.
We ought to give more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest at any time we might let them slip. In recent weeks, over the last eight or ten weeks, we have been sharing, and it really began with this thought of repentance, as if the Lord said, “Okay, it is time to present yourself to Me. Look upon Me. Come to this place of a repentant heart that you might hear what I have to say.”
The Lord began to speak to us about the narrow gate, because He said the narrow gate is necessary. Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many go down that path. Few take the narrow gate and the narrow way. In other words, the Lord called us to forsake all and follow Him.
It was followed by messages out of Romans on justification: how the Lord, in His love for us, has justified us. Brothers and sisters, not only has He paid the price for your sins, but He has taken the guilt. Now He says, miraculously, “You are just.” Oh, how can a sinner ever be just? Think about that. What an amazing thing Christ has done in His sacrificial work on Calvary’s cross—how the sinner has become just before God. It is a miracle of God. It is because He loves us, and for no other reason.
Then our brother shared on sanctification: being set apart for Him, being a special people for the Lord Jesus Christ by His own grace and strength. Consecration is giving ourselves to Him—but not just us. Brothers and sisters, consecration is really taking that new life that has been deposited in you by your new birth and saying, “Here, I offer it back to God for His full service and use.”
It is not the old man and the old life that is being consecrated, because that has been crucified on the cross with Christ. But He says it is important and necessary that this new man, who loves God and has a heart for God, offer himself wholly and totally back to Him for His service and use.
And, strange enough, brothers and sisters, we have heard three messages on consecration in the last eight weeks. So I feel like the Lord is definitely trying to say something to us, and that we should not let these things slip away, lest we lose what the Lord is trying to do.
Recently, I have been saying to the Lord, “Lord, I want to hear. Lord Jesus, what kind of spiritual condition am I in that it does not seem like these words are making that big a difference in my life? I want to hear what You are saying.”
I was reading in the Old Testament, in the Minor Prophets, and I was arrested by these words. I was taken back as I began to read in the prophets Hosea, Joel, and Amos. The Lord was speaking to His people, but they were not really hearing Him.
I was particularly arrested by what I saw in Hosea. In the book of Hosea, the Lord was speaking to His people. But when you come to the book of Joel, the Lord says, “Blow the trumpet in Zion. Sound the alarm.” Then, when you come to the book of Amos, the third of the Minor Prophets, it says the Lord roared like a lion.
So the Lord began to speak, and then the Lord said, “Blow the trumpet; sound the alarm.” Finally, He roars like a lion to get the attention of His people. This morning I want to share some thoughts from the books of Hosea, Joel, and Amos, the Lord willing, to complete the message today.
I was able to summarize it in a few ways:
He speaks to His people in different ways.
Then there is the condition of the Lord’s people. In Hosea, we find that they were seekers of pleasure. Pleasure seemed to dominate their lives; that was what they were seeking after. The Lord gives a picture of the people and says they are like an empty vine. It has life; it has green leaves; but there is no fruit. It is an empty vine. He called them spiritually a backsliding people.
In the book of Joel, there is great tribulation. There is the plague of locusts, followed by a drought. The Lord looked at His people and said, “It is a vine dried up.” No longer is it a vine merely without fruit; now it is drying up. He says joy is withered from His people.
In the book of Amos, it was a time of prosperity and peace. We would think this would be a great time for the Lord’s people, but as it turns out, the Lord said, “You need to plant the vineyard.” The vine is totally gone. He says, “My people are at ease in Zion.” Where is the life?
Then we have the call of the Lord. In Hosea, the Lord said, “Return unto Me.” In Joel, He says, “Turn unto Me with all your heart.” When we come to Amos, the Lord says, “Seek Me, and you shall live.” It is as if, brothers and sisters, they had lost their way and did not even know how to find the Lord or return to Him.
Then we have God’s promise. Thank God for His promise. In Hosea, He says, “I will heal their backsliding.” If they will return to Me, I will heal their backsliding. And listen to this: “I will love them freely.”
You know, when somebody has offended you, it affects our love for them. Often, if there is some reconciliation, our love does not seem to be quite the same anymore, does it? Because we have been offended. Even though we forgive, there is still that strained relationship. But the Lord says, “No, return unto Me, and I will love you freely.”
When we come to the book of Amos, He says, “I will turn the captivity of My people, and they shall build the waste cities, and they will inhabit them, and they will plant the vineyard.” That is just an outline summary to help us get focused this morning.
Now let us read the Word. Let us turn first to the book of Hosea. What is really on my heart this morning, brothers and sisters, is not so much teaching as it is preaching. So may the Lord be gracious.
The book of Hosea is right after the book of Daniel. It is the first of the Minor Prophets. I will read Hosea 1:2-3, Hosea 6:1, Hosea 14:1, and Hosea 14:4.
The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea.
And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms:
for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord.
So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son.
And the Lord said unto him, Call his name Jezreel;
for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel.
Come, and let us return unto the Lord:
for He hath torn, and He will heal us;
He hath smitten, and He will bind us up.
After two days will He revive us:
in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight.
O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God;
for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.
I will heal their backsliding,
I will love them freely:
for Mine anger is turned away from him.
Brothers and sisters, as we look into this book of Hosea and what the Lord wants to share with us, Hosea is a unique prophet. When we come to the book of Hosea, the Lord is trying to speak to His people, but they are not listening that well.
It is as if the Lord said, “Okay, what I am going to do is give you a DVD.” Now, I think most of the younger generation understands what a DVD is. It is a little disk that you put in your computer, and you can play movies or whatever on it. I believe the Lord said, “In order for My people to see, I am going to have to show.”
So He begins to demonstrate through the life of Hosea and the marriage to his wife, Gomer, His own love for His people, and yet shows them how unfaithful the people have been to Him. He uses Hosea’s personal life to reveal His own heart and to open our hearts back to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Hosea himself—his name means deliverance. The Lord was trying to bring deliverance to His people, deliverance from their own condition. Hosea was a holy man, and yet God said, “Go and take a wife of whoredoms”—go and marry a prostitute. What a strange request.
What does it mean to go and take a wife of whoredoms? Basically, it means to seek a life of sinful pleasure. In other words, He was trying to say to His people, “You are seeking after the pleasures of this world.” Not only are you seeking after pleasure, but even sinful pleasures have become the desire of your heart. This is what Gomer represents.
In fact, her name means perfect, and her family name meant two lumps of figs, or sweetness. So the picture we have of this woman, this prostitute, is that probably she was very attractive. She represented the sweetness of sin and the pleasure of sin. Strange enough, God speaks to Hosea and tells him to marry this woman, and he does.
Now, he did not do this grudgingly, brothers and sisters. As you read the Word, you begin to see that he really did love this woman. They had three children.
The first one was named Jezreel, which means “He will scatter,” or “God will scatter.” The second was a daughter, Lo-ammi, which means “not My people.” In other words, “You are not My people.” The third, Lo-ruhamah, means “having obtained no mercy.” No mercy.
What was the Lord saying, even through the naming of their children? He was saying, “You have been unfaithful, and you are not listening to Me. You are not returning to Me. Therefore, I will have to scatter you. I can no longer even consider you My people, and I will not have mercy.” What a judgment, brothers and sisters.
Unfortunately, the people did not return. We know the history of the nation of Israel. The Assyrians came in and destroyed the northern ten tribes, to whom this prophet Hosea was speaking. We know how God has scattered them throughout this world.
They no longer seemed to be His people. What do I mean by that? Their personal condition no longer reflected one who was the Lord’s Himself. Brothers and sisters, the Lord has a heart for a people for Himself. What He is really saying is, “These are not My people. I look down, I see the condition of these people, and they are not My people. They are not like Me. They are distant. I do not recognize them. Who are they?”
But we know God’s heart. Once again, God speaks to His people through the life of our brother Hosea. Gomer, his wife, as you read on in the Scriptures, leaves him to go back to her old life. She goes back into prostitution, and eventually her life gets so low that she has to sell herself and become a slave.
The Lord goes to Hosea and says, “Hosea, I want you to go and buy her back and love her.” That is God’s heart.
Brothers and sisters, often we who are the Lord’s own people—He looks at us and even wonders if we are really His own. Even though He has brought judgment on the nation of Israel, He has not forgotten them. We know there will be a day when He comes and all Israel will be saved, and their hearts will turn back to the Lord.
But what of our own heart? Have we not, brothers and sisters—maybe all of us have not—but experienced that time in our life when we have been seeking after pleasure, the pleasures of this world, and we get distant from the Lord? We can become so distant that God, when He looks at us, would even wonder if that really is His own child. Yet He knows we are, and He still loves us.
Brothers and sisters, we can get back into bondage and slavery to the pleasures of sin. The glorious thing is that God does not reject us. What He does is, with cords of love, He tries to encourage us and draw us back to Himself.
If we can but just hear—if our conscience can just be pricked in that condition—the words are, “Return unto Me, and I will heal your backsliding, and I will love you freely.” There will be no distance between us. That is the loving God that we have. How thankful we are that God is faithful.
He uses Hosea’s personal life to demonstrate to the nation and to us today His great love for us. Brothers and sisters, even when we stray, even when we go down the wrong paths, even when we begin to go back to the old life we used to live, there is still hope. He says, “If you will just turn, if you will just return to Me—just turn—I will meet you halfway.”
Seeking after sinful pleasure, brothers and sisters, is spiritual adultery. It is the same thing. Nothing offends love more than adultery. Yet God has paid the price for you and me. He has bought us back.
Even when we are His and we falter and fail, and we find ourselves once again enslaved by the pleasure of sin, He says, “Turn unto Me. I have paid the price for you. Just return unto Me. You have offended My love, but I will forgive you, and I will love you freely.”
That is the love of God for us. How deep is the love of God! Not only will He love us freely, but He says, “I will heal you of your backsliding.” That is quite a promise, if we will just return.
Then we come to the book of Joel. In the book of Joel, it says, “Sound the alarm. Blow the trumpet.” Let us read some Scriptures.
That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten;
and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten;
and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.
The vine is dried up,
and the fig tree languisheth;
the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree,
even all the trees of the field, are withered:
because joy is withered away from the sons of men.
Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests:
howl, ye ministers of the altar:
come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God:
for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.
Blow ye the trumpet in Zion,
and sound an alarm in My holy mountain.
Therefore also now, saith the Lord,
turn ye even to Me with all your heart,
and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:
and rend your heart, and not your garments,
and turn unto the Lord your God:
for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness,
and repenteth Him of the evil.
And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten,
the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm,
My great army which I sent among you.
So in the book of Joel, not only is the Lord speaking, but He is blowing a trumpet. He is saying, “Wake up. You need to see the condition of your heart.” He sounds the alarm. We have to be jolted into reality.
Joel prophesied during the reign of King Joash, and he prophesied to the southern two tribes, Judah and Benjamin. King Joash actually responded to the Lord. He began to reinstitute the worship of the Lord in the land, repaired the temple for the people, and they began to respond to the Lord in his day.
Yet we see the Lord sounding the alarm. Something is still wrong. God is not yet satisfied with His people. There seems to be a return. Outwardly, they seem to be returning—worshiping God again, going to the temple, offering the sacrifices—but something was lacking. It was their heart, and the Lord knew it.
Outwardly, you might look at them and say, “Hey, they have a great heart for the Lord.” But inwardly, the Lord knew their heart. The desire was lacking. The Lord used the picture of the vine again. He says, really, the vine has dried up. Not only is there no fruit on the vine, but the vine itself is now drying up. Spiritually, the joy had withered from His people.
It was more of a head worship than a heart worship. Brothers and sisters, the Lord loves us so much, and He watches our hearts. The Lord tells us to guard our hearts, for out of them are the issues of life. But He watches our hearts more than we do, and He knows the condition of our hearts.
He knew the condition of His people, and they were not listening to Him. So the Lord had to allow a plague of locusts to come upon His people. They ate up everything, as we just read. After the locusts, there was a drought. What the locusts had not eaten, the caterpillar and the palmerworm consumed. There was no harvest. There was poverty. There was lack. No wonder there was no joy among His people.
Unfortunately, the people looked at this as a natural disaster. They said, “Oh, wow, we have had the locusts hit us, and now we have this drought, and it is terrible.” Instead of going back to the Lord to find out what was wrong, they just complained about the condition they were in, about their circumstances, which were extremely difficult. So instead of returning, they complained.
The Lord was trying to awaken His people. His hand of discipline came upon them, and they did not recognize it. They just took it as bad circumstances, bad luck, unfortunate events in their lives. “Hey, this is life, and life is tough. You live it and you die, and that is it.” I mean, that is kind of the way the world looks at it.
Unfortunately, we as Christians sometimes seem to take on the same thought—that our circumstances just happen, and we have no control over them. Brothers and sisters, this is not true. The Lord Jesus Christ is in control of your life. At times, He does allow unfortunate and difficult circumstances in our lives that really strain our hearts and our lives.
Often, instead of returning to the Lord and saying, “Lord, what is this all about?” we just complain. Brothers and sisters, do we not think that the Lord has sent a wake-up call to this nation? On September 11, when those two towers in New York went down, did we not get notice that the enemy was at work, desperately trying to destroy the world?
These terrorists, brothers and sisters, have two goals. One is to destroy Israel, and the other is the Christian, and to take over the world. That is really their goal. That is what it is all about. That is what Islam is really about.
It is a wake-up call. Was not the tsunami a wake-up call, not only to this nation but to the entire world? As if that was not enough, we had some of the worst hurricanes on record hit the United States that year. The Lord is trying to awaken His people.
Now, brothers and sisters, you may be experiencing personal difficulties in your life—circumstances that seem to be out of bounds, that seem to be consuming you—and there seems to be no relief. Maybe the Lord is trying to awaken us to what our heart condition really is before Him. Maybe, just maybe, it may be the discipline of the Lord.
The Lord does not discipline us to punish us. The Lord disciplines us to draw us to Himself with cords of love. So never think that the Lord’s discipline is out of hate. It is indeed out of love. He loves us so much. Even when our heart is off the mark a little bit, He is going to bring His disciplining hand into our lives.
The Lord Jesus is really grieved when our heart is not in first love. Our heart can be ninety-nine percent for Him, but that is not what the Lord is after. He is going to let us know, brothers and sisters. First love is really the issue here with His people.
Where is that love in our hearts and in our lives—that love that leaps? You know, brothers and sisters, when we are in first love, when we hear the name of Jesus, our heart leaps. It just does. It is automatic.
When there is some distance between us and our Lord, when something happens between us and our Lord, we are immediately affected by it. We immediately know it. Something has been cut off, and we immediately know it and respond. But when we are out of first love, there is distance, but we do not really realize it. We have kind of lost that connection.
First love is never satisfied unless God is satisfied. First love will do its best not to offend the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, first love is like a spring of water in your life. Remember when the Lord talked to the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman? She came to Him, and He said, “Give Me water.” She said, “What are You doing? You are a Jew. What are You doing asking me to give You water?”
He said, “If you knew who it was that was asking you for water, you would ask Him for water, and He would give you water by which you would never thirst again. That water that I give to you will become a well in your life, a well that will spring up into life everlasting.”
In other words, the life of the Lord Jesus is like a very active spring of water in your life. It is a wellspring, active and springing, bringing freshness and refreshment to your life. Now let me ask you something: is that wellspring of water in your life that active? Or has it been somehow capped off?
Somehow, is it no longer providing that living freshness, like a spring does daily, feeding your life? Brothers and sisters, often we find that wellspring almost stopped up. It is because we are not in first love any longer.
Something that our brother Stephen has shared with us a number of times over the years is this: “The spring has gone out of your life.” He says, in the beginning there was love, and because you loved the Lord so much, you willingly labored for Him. Because there was faith, you did His works. Because there was hope, you endured.
But now we often find ourselves laboring, doing works, and enduring, but the faith and the love and the hope seem to have gone away. The spring behind these things has gone. Once that goes, brothers and sisters, we are just going on, but we are not really growing in the Lord.
As I was contemplating these Scriptures in Joel and this matter of the locusts in your life, I do not know how many people have locusts in their life right now, or a drought. But I thought about the locusts. One locust really does not eat much. It nibbles little pieces at a time.
The problem is when you have thousands of locusts nibbling at one time. Then it goes pretty quickly. That is the way life can be sometimes. It might not be one big thing, necessarily, that has got you down. It can be a lot of little things.
Like the cares of life—just the simple cares of life. If it was just one care that you were concerned about, you would do okay. But there is this and there is that. “This I have to do. This I have to take care of.” All very legitimate things in our family life.
All of a sudden, we find that we are not even looking at His Word any longer. We are not even offering up a prayer any longer. We are just burned out. It seems there is no time for the Lord. The cares of life—that is what I see the locusts as being.
But the Lord has a word. When we find ourselves and that first love does not seem to be there any longer, and the Lord arrests our attention, He says, “Turn unto Me.” He adds something in Joel that He did not have in Hosea: “Turn unto Me with all of your heart.”
He is saying there is an issue here. Yes, you love Me. You have a heart for Me. But I do not have all your heart. That is the problem. I am not satisfied unless I have it all. Unless you are willing to give Me all of your heart, we cannot have a real relationship.
Yes, you will be Mine, and I will share with you as much as I can, but the real depth of My heart I will not be able to share with you. You will not be able to receive My love.
Brothers and sisters, the only thing I know that restricts the love of God is our being unable to receive the love of God. That is because our heart is not a whole heart for Him. May this day, as the Lord calls us, may we hear Him saying, “Turn unto Me with all your heart,” and may we be willing to give Him all our heart.
You know what His promise is? “I will restore to you the years the locust has eaten.” Brothers and sisters, it is a strange thing, but often we can go not just a few days, not just a week, not just a month, but even years and not be in first love.
We can love the Lord, but first love is gone. Those are what the Lord considers wasted years. That is why we are encouraged to number our days, to make them count in the Lord. The only way they can count is when we are in first love with Him.
But the Lord says, “If you will return to Me, I will effectively restore the years that you have wasted.” I think that is quite amazing. He does not say, “It is gone forever. Our relationship will never be the same.” He says, “No, I can restore you to full relationship.”
Now we come to the book of Amos, and we need to read some Scriptures.
The Lord will roar from Zion,
and utter His voice from Jerusalem.
The lion hath roared, who will not fear?
The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?
I will smite the winter house with the summer house;
and the houses of ivory shall perish,
and the great houses shall have an end, saith the Lord.
The Lord God hath sworn by His holiness,
that, lo, the days shall come upon you,
that He will take you away with hooks,
and your posterity with fishhooks.
For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel,
Seek ye Me, and ye shall live.
Seek the Lord, and ye shall live.
Though ye offer Me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them:
neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.
Woe to them that are at ease in Zion,
and trust in the mountain of Samaria.
That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments:
but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
I think that is enough for right now. Amos was the third prophet I am sharing on. He prophesied to the northern kingdom, as Hosea had been prophesying to the northern kingdom. As a matter of fact, they were fairly close in time and history in speaking to the northern kingdom of Israel.
As he speaks, he says the Lord is roaring as a roaring lion. Now, brothers and sisters, when the Lord begins to roar, we need to beware. If He is not just speaking His Word to us, if He is not just sounding the trumpet and sounding the alarm in our lives, we may find Him roaring.
When He roars, the danger is that judgment is soon to come unless our heart turns. In the book of Amos, He said, “Woe to them that are at ease in Zion.” That was His problem.
Now, brothers and sisters, Zion is the mountain where the King’s house was, where Jesus is Lord. Zion also represents God’s people. He says, “Woe to them that are at ease in Zion.”
It is strange, you know. The Lord moves in ways that are strange to us. Sometimes He speaks. He is able to get to our conscience, like He was doing through Hosea. Thank God some did hear Hosea, but not many.
There are times, brothers and sisters, when His disciplining hand comes into our life. We are not listening, so He begins to bring about circumstances that will cause us to listen to Him. If we still will not listen, brothers and sisters, He roars.
I call it being hit upside the head with a two-by-four. That is what I understand from my southern background. In the South, we had mules. We used to plow with mules, and mules are some of the most hardheaded animals there are. It is very difficult to get a mule to pay attention to you.
The way you got the mule’s attention was you had to whack him upside the head. Now, that is not cruelty. The problem is the mule would not listen. So the lion is roaring here.
Interestingly enough, there was not great tragedy. There were not difficult circumstances. There were no locusts, and there was no drought. As a matter of fact, there was peace and prosperity.
The Lord, in His loving ways, had allowed peace and prosperity to come to these northern ten tribes, which were furthest away from the Lord in spiritual reality. As a matter of fact, King Jeroboam II was a wicked king.
He did not want the people to go back to Jerusalem, so he set up his own little idols in the northern kingdom and said, “You can just go worship here.” He was a wicked king, but brothers and sisters, the Lord is so loving that He said, “I will allow a time of peace and prosperity.”
Maybe My people will respond to the fact that I love them so much that I will allow in their lives this peace and prosperity. Jeroboam II was quite successful militarily, and he actually overthrew the Assyrians who had bothered them so much. Times became prosperous.
You notice, as I read, it said, “I will destroy the summer house and the winter house and the houses of ivory.” It was a prosperous time. Not only did they have a place to live up in the mountains during the summer, but in the winter they could go to Florida. I mean, they had houses for convenience.
These were not just simple houses. They were decorative, decorated with things of ivory. Each man was trying to outdo the other. It was a prosperous time.
But instead of the Lord’s people recognizing that this was God’s gracious and loving hand that allowed this time of peace and prosperity, they began to build their own houses. They began to say, “What is important is seeking a little bigger house.”
“Not only do I need a bigger house, but I am going to live here in the summer and there in the winter. I am going to have two houses. I am going to have two cars. I am going to have one for everyone in the family. Even if they are not sixteen, I will have a car for them ready.”
“I have to have a pool to relax in. I need the sauna to take care of myself. I need to join the club. I need to go down there at least three times a week. I need to do all these things.” Brothers and sisters, you know what I am talking about. I am talking about the American dream.
Ever since World War II, something came upon this nation. Peace and prosperity began to rule in this nation. The Lord allowed these years of peace and prosperity in this nation because He loved us. He wanted His people to turn to Him and recognize His gracious hand.
But instead, we have sought after more and more—the American dream. Young people, listen to me. I know you are getting married. Some of you have just gotten married. You have children, just your first baby. There is nothing more thrilling than that, other than the first grandchild.
It really is. I mean, y’all know how thrilled I am about my grandchild. But the American dream really is designed to take us away from the Lord, and it is a subtle thing. I have to admit, both of my children have bigger houses and better cars than I do, and there is a sense in me that I am glad for that. I am glad they were able to do better.
But we can get caught up in this American dream and forget the house of God. In the book of Amos, the people said—well, let me say it this way. God had told His people, no matter where you are, once a year you have to come to Jerusalem, to the house of God, once a year.
They said, “I cannot get up out of my hot tub and make that long trek back to Jerusalem. I can just go down to the corner here, or I can turn on the television and hear the pastor on television. I do not need to go where the Lord is building His house, where He has a people for His name.”
“I do not need to really gather with others. I can just worship the Lord right here in my own house, me and my family. What I need to do is get a second job so I can have just a little bit more, and I will not have to worry about the future.”
You know, brothers and sisters, not only did the Lord in the book of Amos get on the men for falling into this trap—building their own houses instead of the house of the Lord—He got on to the women too.
He said, “Woe to you women. You are demanding more and more of your husband. You want more and more things, and he is having to work harder and harder to have those things. Instead of having time for the house of the Lord, he is out working to get more.”
So brothers and sisters, the Lord admonished the whole nation. They were seeking the American dream, and they lost the Lord. The house of the Lord was not being built. No attention was paid to it. In fact, they even quit seeking the house of the Lord, and eventually they lost their love for the Lord altogether.
Yes, they were still the Lord’s, and one day the Lord will raise them back up. But look at all the wasted years for the nation of Israel.
I hope you will bear with me just a few more minutes. All of this, of course, reminds us of the prodigal son.
Brothers and sisters, unfortunately, it seems like we all have a little of the prodigal son in all of us. The prodigal son loved his father, but he looked out on the pleasures of life and the things of the world and decided that he needed to go after those things.
So he said, “Father, I want You to give me my inheritance now. Do not wait until I am half dead and cannot really enjoy life anymore with the money You are going to give me. I would like to have it now so I can really enjoy it.”
The father was grieved, just as our Lord is grieved, but he allowed this. The son went out and bought things. He bought that wide-screen television that hangs on a wall. It is only about an inch thick. He probably got a fifty-four-inch one, made sure it was really big. He got himself a new car—not just a car, but a sports car. Of course, if he is a redneck, he gets a brand-new truck.
He does these things, and probably puts them on his credit card. But eventually all that money dwindles away. He becomes destitute. He spends it all on the good life, the pleasures of sin, just having things. He wastes it all.
Eventually, what happens? He goes to work for a farmer to try to make ends meet. One day he is slopping the pigs. Y’all know what that is—well, you may not. Anyway, he was feeding the pigs corn husks.
You know what a corn husk is? That is the husk without corn on it. Corn does not come in cans. It actually comes on a cob. It actually grows on a cob. He found himself trying to stay alive by sleeping with the pigs and eating corn cobs.
One day something happened. He awakened to his condition. He awakened to what he was, what he had become, and where he was. Thank God, God got through to him, and he realized the condition he was in.
He said, “This is terrible. I have wasted my money. I have wasted my life. I am going to go back to my father, and if he will have me, I will just be a servant. I will not even go back as a son. I will go back as a slave to him. I will be his slave if he will only take me back.”
If he would just take me back. So he begins that long trek back home. I am sure, as he went, brothers and sisters, he reflected on his life—what had happened, what really counts in life, and how much of it he had wasted.
I am sure he was quite apprehensive as he approached the house, wondering what the reception of his father would be. Would he meet an angry man, one who would cast him back out? He certainly realized that he deserved that. Who would he meet?
Brothers and sisters, as he was on the way, before he even got to the front porch, the father ran out, grabbed him around the neck, kissed him, loved him, had a feast, put a robe on him, and said, “My son has returned.”
The Lord says, “Seek Me, and you shall live.” Often, brothers and sisters, we are like this young man. We get on so many paths that are not the Lord’s paths that, when we are finally awakened, we have difficulty finding the way back.
The Lord has to say, “Just keep seeking. I will see to it that you find the way back. As a matter of fact, I will meet you halfway. In fact, I might meet you more than halfway, because I love you as a son. You are not My slave. You will never be My slave. You are My son, and I love you. I am just thankful that you have awakened and returned.”
Brothers and sisters, in John 6:44, the Lord said:
No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him.
When we go to return to the Lord, you need to realize two things. First of all, the only reason your heart has been pricked is because the God of love has reached down and touched your conscience in some way. If He did not do that, you would drift forever. But the God of love does it. It is love that draws you back.
It is not just because you have awakened. You have only awakened because love has awakened you, and love draws you back. You cannot return unless He draws you.
The maiden in the Song of Solomon said, “Draw me.” The Lord wanted her to come away with Him, but she was reluctant. She said, “Draw me, and we will run after Thee.”
So, brothers and sisters, I think often when we find we need to return to the Lord, we have to cry out, “Lord, draw me. Draw me, and I will run after You. If You do not draw me, Lord, I will stumble and fall. I will not make it back.”
It is the Lord’s responsibility. He loves us and He draws us. It is our responsibility to run. But we find that we cannot run.
In Hebrews, it says to run the race, laying aside the sin that so easily besets you and the weights that hold you down. That is why we cannot run.
What is the sin that so easily besets us? It is faith—the lack of faith. Somehow we cannot believe that the Lord will take us back. Brothers and sisters, the sin that so easily besets us is faith.
How do we gain this faith? The Lord is drawing you, but how are you going to gain the faith to make it back? It only comes by looking at Him. Our brother shared it this morning: faith only comes by looking at Jesus Christ.
He is the author and finisher of our faith. It says, “Looking off to Jesus, the author.” You have to keep your eyes on Him.
Peter learned that lesson. He said, “Lord, the storm is out here. The sea is raging, but just call out to me and I will walk on the water to You.” The Lord said, “Come.” He got out of the boat, walked on the water, and did great—until he began to notice the waves and the storm. He took his eyes off the Lord, and we know he sank. But the Lord grabbed him.
The secret in returning to the Lord is keeping your eyes upon Him, that your faith might grow. Brothers and sisters, what we often do in this condition is look at ourselves. You will find no faith there. It will only destroy you, looking inwardly and saying, “Lord, how bad I have done, what I am.”
Yes, we need to recognize that to return to Him, but we have to look at Him. We have to have faith that the Lord wants to take us back. Do not be chained by your past condition in returning to the Lord.
The other thing is weights—legitimate things in our lives that weigh us down and keep us from getting back to the Lord. “Oh, Lord, I would get back to You, but I have this to do first.”
How do we overcome these weights? How can we possibly cast them off, particularly the weights that we love? The Lord said, “My grace is sufficient.”
Brothers and sisters, all you have to do is tell the Lord, “Lord, I cannot. You have touched this thing in my life. You have asked me to let go of it, but I cannot do it.” But do not stop there. Say, “Lord, I am willing.”
“Lord, if You will just work in my life a little more, I will be willing to let this thing go. But do not let me go.” Return unto Him.
You see, brothers and sisters, ultimately, our leaving the Lord is our responsibility, and we are kind of on our own. But coming back to the Lord is not just like saying, “Well, I am going back to the Lord. This is it, man. This is great.” No.
You have to ask the Lord to draw you. You have to believe in the Lord Jesus. You have to be willing to be willing. Listen.
Lord, we come to Thee today. Lord, we want to respond to You. Lord, we do not want to be fooled by our condition. Lord, we want to be a people of first love.
Lord, we do not want to be captured by the pleasures of life. Lord, we do not want to be trapped in seeking the American dream instead of You. Lord, all these things can be right in your face, kind of, but they can also be very subtle in our lives.
Lord, deliver us from the wiles of our adversary who ensnares us in all these various ways. Lord, awaken our hearts and deliver us from ourselves. Lord, in these days, may we hear Your voice.
Lord, we pray we will not have to wait until You sound the alarm and blow the trumpet. Lord, we pray that we will not have to wait until You start roaring like a lion at us. Lord, we pray that we will be sensitive to Your voice.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.