Return to the Lord

Uh no, but it's great to be here.

Uh I've had the privilege of uh being a pastor now for 15 years.

Uh I started the very first Missiode Church in Asheville, North Carolina in 2007.

And that church is still growing very strongly, uh, being led by a very godly man, uh, continuing to grow and serve the city of Asheville and send out church planners uh all around the world.

I think their latest guy is going out to um somewhere in Africa.

I can't remember exactly where they're sending people, but it's good to keep in touch with what's happening there.

Uh they sent me actually back to my hometown of Cincinnati in the summer of 2010.

We spent several months building up a core team.

Uh we kicked off Misssioday Church in Cincinnati, now known as Central, in 2011.

Pastor Justin and Katie were a part of that team.

Pastor Jordan were there.

Some of you were core members of that church plant, and uh and it continues to grow.

And over the years I've had this great privilege of being able to coach and send out church planting pastors.

But it is a rare treat that I get to actually uh take a Sunday and teach in the pulpit.

And so I just want to extend my gratitude to Pastor Justin, Pastor Jordan, and you guys for bringing me up here to be able to teach the gospel from the Bible.

That is my hope.

And so if you're new here, uh you are you are joining a community that is growing.

And we're not doing it by anything fancy, we're doing it by simply proclaiming what God's people have always proclaimed.

And it's what we just sang: God never gives up, he pursues us in love.

Through death, he pursues us.

In life, he pursues us.

And that's the hope that I have for you this morning is that you would get a good vision of what that might look like for you this morning.

So, without any further ado, uh, let's jump in to where we're gonna go this week.

Uh, I'm gonna be in the book of Hosea to close it down, chapter 14 of the book of Hosea.

And while you're turning there, I just I don't need to really remind everyone, uh, this is Thanksgiving week, right?

And so some of us have great memories and great anticipation for Thanksgiving.

It brings back a fondness, a joy, a sense of peace.

And then there's some of us that it's not it's not so much, right?

It's not so peaceful, it's it can be full of um argumentation and uh uh just discord and and relational brokenness.

And so sometimes, sometimes this thought at Thanksgiving of returning home is regrettable.

But for some of us, it's very joyful.

And and I just want to bring our attention to that because what's happening in the book of Hosea is that God is calling his people to return, to come back home.

And I want you just right now to recognize that the the creator God, who loves you, who made all things, he is calling you personally.

We're gonna see that in the text today.

He's calling you to come back home.

And for some of you, that that that stirs up a sense of great joy and relief and peace and serenity.

And for others of you, man, it stirs up some emotions that you don't know what to do with.

And so let's just talk very honestly about that this morning.

The prophet Hosea, that God has been using as an object lesson for his people.

Remember, he told him, Go marry a promiscuous woman, so that my people understand the type of relationship that we have.

Now go tell the people that I want them to come home, that I'm here waiting, that I'm that I'm I'm I'm ready to restore them.

And that's what's happening in Hosea chapter 14.

Hosea 14 · chapter mention

So let's read it.

Chapter 14, we're gonna read it in its in its entirety.

It says this Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.

Take with you words and return to the Lord.

Say to him, Take away all iniquity, except what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips.

Assyria shall not save us, we will not ride on horses, and we will say no more, Our God, to the work of our hands.

In you the orphan finds mercy.

I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them.

I will be like the dew to Israel, he shall blossom like the lily, he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon, his shoots shall spread out, his beauty shall be like the olive, and his fragrance like Lebanon.

They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow, they shall flourish like the grain, they shall blossom like the vine, their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.

O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols?

It is I who answer and look after you.

I am like an evergreen cypress, from me comes your fruit.

Whoever is wise, let him understand these things.

Whoever is discerning, let him know them.

For the ways of the Lord are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressor transgressors stumble in them.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

And now, Father, we we pause to ask ask your Spirit to fill our hearts so that we might have some understanding about what you're trying to tell us, and that your spirit might do a miraculous work of giving us life where we see Jesus and we find hope.

We ask it in his name.

Amen.

Here's my big idea for this morning.

God calls his people to repent.

He's going to call his people to repent, but it's not like I want you to change, I want you to repent and turn back, and then you have to earn my favor.

As God's people are repenting, they find him graciously receiving them back.

And this is something that is very foreign to our world.

Because most of our world preaches a message that it's like you need to change, you need to improve yourself.

Once you've made the decision to do that, now you've got to earn the right to be heard.

And what God is saying, no, I want you to come back home, and in so doing, I am receiving you graciously.

I am going to restore you.

And these are powerful words at the end of a book where Hosea has married a promiscuous woman.

Some of the things that she has done are relationship killers, right?

I mean, she's lived with another guy, she's sold her body.

All of these things are happening.

And Hosea has constantly been saying, no, come home, come home, come home.

And when you come home, I'm not going to make you earn my love.

I'm just going to give it freely.

God is saying the same thing to his people.

Come back home.

And he uses Hosea the prophet to do it.

And so I've got four points that I see in the text.

The first one is this it's the plea to return.

That God is using Hosea to plea with his people to return back home.

Look again in verse one.

Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.

See, the pursuit of false gods, the pursuit of affection, and the pursuit of satisfaction in things that are not God's ways and God's things, they cause us to stumble.

A lot of the trouble that we experience in life is because we've looked at what God has for us and his designs, and we've said, no, thank you.

We've held our nose at it, we've pursued other things.

And every single time we do that, it leads us to dead ends.

It leads us, like the wife of Hosea, like Gomer, to being in a place where she finds herself in the middle of the book, almost sexually enslaved, and she needs to be rescued.

And God says, no, come back.

And he pleas with his people.

Come back home.

God's love here had not come to an end.

And then if the people return, Hosea gives them like what they need to do.

So I don't know if you remember this.

I remember when I was in like middle school and there was a girl I liked.

Um, Shannon, there were yeah, there were other young girls before you.

I'm sorry.

I know it's it's been a while, but it's true.

But I remember when I was in middle school, and some of you might remember being in middle school and having crushes.

And if you thought about like what's the best way to be united to this person, to have some sort of connection.

And the best way was not talk to all of your buddies and think what, like, do whatever they tell you to do, right?

We've got a lot of single folks down at Central, and I'm telling them all the time, like, don't get dating advice from single people, okay?

And that's it's that's common life wisdom.

Don't take health advice from unhealthy people, don't get dating advice from single people.

If you want to get in, like, get in close to the friend.

And that's what's happening here with Hosea, right?

There's this there's this conversation.

Hosea is close to God.

He's heard from him, and he's coming to his people who are estranged from God, and he's telling them when you go back, when you want this relationship restored, here's what needs to happen.

Right?

It's just like that.

And so you're in close with a friend of God.

He's telling you, God's love has not come to an end.

I'm telling you, go back home.

And when you go back home, here's what you need to do.

And and and and the words are given of what to say.

And so that brings us to our second point, the people's return.

So the first one is the plea to return.

And then as the people begin to do that, this is what it would look like.

Look at verses two and three again.

Take with you words and return to the Lord.

Say to him, Take away all iniquity, accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips.

Assyria shall not save us, we will not ride on horses, and we will say no more our God to the work of our hands.

In you, the orphan, finds mercy.

So Hosea is saying, Look, there's a posture of returning.

How do you know if you've returned to the Lord?

Right?

Because I've just said, like, God is receiving you graciously, and so you have to get with his friend Hosea and find out what should the posture look like if I'm truly returning to the Lord.

And he gives four points: four postures of returning to the Lord.

These are four things Hosea is instructing Israel to do to return to God.

The first one is conviction.

Conviction is a matter of having a change of your attitude, right?

Saying things like, Assyria shall not save us.

See, I don't know if you remember some of the story, but as people, as God's people continue to move away from him, he says, I'm no longer gonna protect you as a people.

He's addressing the northern division of the kingdom, Israel, as opposed to the southern division of the kingdom, Judah.

And he's saying, You have been my people, my protection has been upon you, but in your disobedience, in order for you to understand that you're not behaving as my special people, you're gonna experience what life is like for those that don't get my special favor.

And he says, Assyria is gonna come in and they're gonna conquer you.

And what Israel did is they said, Well, Israel will be our hope and our salvation, we'll trust in them.

And Hosea is saying, No, if you're restored to the Lord, you've got to stop saying this.

You've got to stop finding your hope in Assyria.

And it's something God's people have done since the dawn of time.

We we've looked to false saviors, false things, and and Hosea is saying, your attitude on this has to change.

There has to be a level of conviction where you're not trusting in your own strength or the strength of others to forgive you or to restore you.

And so there's an acknowledgement of your own arrogance and your own sense of misplaced trust.

That's what conviction is.

Lord, I've been arrogant and I have placed my trust in things that I should not place my trust in.

So there's conviction.

Secondly, there's contrition.

This is that sorrow of heart, a change in assurance.

Hosea says, accept what is good.

Say no more our God to the work of our hands.

And so with contrition, there's that heart attitude of humility.

It's one thing to recognize your arrogance, it's another to say, I'm gonna stop being arrogant.

I'm gonna start embracing humility.

I'm gonna stop looking at the work of my hands and saying, My God, right?

Stop creating things and bowing down to it and thinking that's what's gonna bring joy and satisfaction.

So there's a posture of humility.

So you have conviction, you have contrition.

Thirdly, and very importantly, there's confession.

He says, Take with you words.

Take with you words.

Say, we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips.

Now that's a strange saying, right?

What did you do with a bull if you were an Old Testament Jew?

You sacrificed it, right?

So you're making a sacrifice.

And so what Hosea is saying is your sacrifice needs to be made with words.

That's a that's a hard lesson.

Like it's hard today, thousands of years later, to admit with our mouths we were wrong.

We've trusted in the wrong things, our hearts have gone out into the wrong places.

But what Hosea is saying, if there's going to be restoration, if there's gonna be this posture of return, you gotta open up your mouth sometimes and say, I was wrong.

And then when Jesus comes on the scene, I mean, he really emphasizes the power that exists in the tongue.

And when you've lashed out at somebody, like you can go and you can make a sacrifice with a bull, but he's been saying since Old Testament days, look, your heart needs to change and your words need to come out differently.

And so that sacrifice you're gonna make with your book, go to your neighbor and tell him, I am sorry, I have wronged we I have wronged you.

And you you put words to it, like you actually say these things.

In fact, if you look into the New Testament, you do a study on 1 John, the word confession literally means to declare the same thing as a God who is holy and just.

So when when John, old grandpa pastor John, he's getting up in his old age, he writes a letter like the basics for believers to his people.

He says, if you confess your sins, uh God is faithful and just to forgive you and to cleanse you.

If you want that forgiveness and cleansing, you need to put words to your sin.

Confession needs to take place if we're going to be restored to God.

See, what a lot of us do is we mess up, we sin sometimes inadvertently, often very rebelliously.

And and rather than go through the process, uh, we feel the conviction, there's a sense of contrition in our hearts, and then we stop.

And we start playing this game in our heads, like, well, God knows.

Of course he knows, but you don't know it until you've confessed it.

And other people who love you don't know it until you share it.

And so confession is an important part of being restored to God and to his people.

So sacrifice is made with words.

And then finally, point number four, there's a commitment.

This is a change in your action, right?

Look what he says.

We will not ride on horses.

There's a commitment to change your behavior.

Stop moving away from the Lord and return to him.

So you've got to consider like, what are the things that I'm doing that that cause me to move further and further away from him?

Feel conviction about it.

I feel a deep sadness in my heart.

I confess it, right?

And some of us do that a lot.

We share, I've been doing this and I don't want to be doing this anymore.

And then that fourth part, like, that's important too.

Stop doing it, right?

Start doing other things.

Those are the four postures of returning to the Lord.

And so the attitudes, the assurances, the affections, the actions of God's people, it's orphaned them.

As they've gone away from God, they find themselves without a father who loves them.

And what we taught last week at Central in chapter 11, even though God had been using that object lesson of a faithless spouse, he switches it in chapter 11 and he says, No, I'm a loving father, and I want to love you as a father.

And so in chapter 14, he wraps it all back up.

If you continue to pursue these other things, you're going to find yourself orphaned.

But the good news for us is that in God, the orphan finds mercy.

And that's good news for us this morning.

And so that's what we see in our next point.

The third point I've got, big idea point, is the people restored.

And here there is a, again, a fourfold restoration of God's people.

Up to this point, Hosea has been talking.

But but beginning in verse 4, I believe, it switches.

And the character of who's talking changes.

This isn't I this isn't Hosea any longer.

This is now God.

This is God's response to his people whose hearts have been changed, who have confessed, who have committed to different action.

This is what God does.

First thing he does is redemption.

He redeems his people.

Verse 4: I will heal their apostasy.

I will love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.

A lot of us have this false notion of God.

Like he's just up there like Santa Claus.

You do some good things, you get rewarded for it.

You do bad things, you get rewarded with a lump of coal.

But ultimately, he's kind of a pushover.

What we fail to see as we read the Bible often, at least in popular culture, in a culture that does that is somewhat biblically illiterate, is we paint this different picture of who God is, and suddenly he's not angry anymore.

Right?

He's just kind of a pushover.

If you did something bad, he won't punish you terribly.

It's just a lump of coal instead of a shiny new toy.

But the scriptures teach us that God has this holy burning anger, that he created things to be used for a particular purpose.

And when we betray that purpose, we destroy his creation, we destroy his image, and it makes him justifiably angry.

God becomes an angry God, but he loves his people and he desires to turn his anger away from them, and he does that by grace.

God's grace, first of all, leads his people to repentance.

That's what redemption is.

This call comes from God.

It was his idea to restore us.

It wasn't our idea.

If we were left on our own, we'd just keep wandering.

But God in love pursues, and it was his grace that pursued us.

And so if you're here this morning and you're wondering where is God in my life, I'm telling you he is pursuing you.

Because that's what God does in love, he pursues his people.

His grace does that.

And then he goes beyond that.

Like some of us are hearing the words of God, right?

In fact, everybody in this room, we're reading the words of God.

God's people in the Old Testament and Israel, they're hearing through this prophet, these are the words of God, and God's grace pursues them.

But he also gives us the ability to be a changed people.

His grace grants us repentance.

I want you to see this in Acts chapter 11.

Acts 11 · chapter mention

When the church in Jerusalem hears that the Apostle Peter is getting up and he's having a fruitful ministry in Caesarea, they all are astonished and they say this.

When they heard these things, they fell silent.

They're hearing about people coming to faith in God, and they're just, they're awestruck, and they fall silent.

And they glorified God, saying, Then to the Gentiles also, God has granted repentance that leads to life.

See, God's grace pursuing you gives you the gifts of being able to repent.

And that's good news because again, left on our own, we just keep wandering.

But God's love and his pursuit, his grace keeps appearing to his people.

He redeems his people.

And here's how he does it his anger is turned away from his people.

That's what it says.

And what we discover in the fullness of this picture is the reason that God's anger is turned from his people is because God's anger is turned on his person.

God in loving pursuit becomes one of us.

Faithful, obedient.

All of the things that we were not.

And instead of God pouring out his anger on those of us who are destroying his creation, destroying his image, he destroys the image himself.

And Christ Jesus becomes our substitute and lays his life down in love and mercy and grace.

And then he takes it back up again.

He raises from the dead and he says, God's anger is turned from you because it was poured out on me.

But guess what?

We have victory even over God's anger.

It's turned away, it's satisfied, it is finished, it's complete.

And his people can be redeemed.

We can be his people again.

We can come back home.

And so home should be a good thing to come back to.

What happens after God's anger has been turned away?

Second thing we see is regeneration, recreation.

Verse 5.

I will be like the dew to Israel.

He shall blossom like the lily.

He shall take root like the trees of Lebanon.

What do all those things have in common?

Those things occur at the beginning of life.

Right?

The beginning of the day.

That's when the dew is on the grass.

What happens to a flower for the very first time when it's becoming a flower?

It blossoms.

How about when a tree is going to grow?

Well, it has to take root.

These are all signs of the beginnings of life.

God is giving new life to his people.

His anger has been turned away.

Now there can be the newness of life.

There's a stoic author, his name is Seneca, or Lucius Aeneas Seneca.

A Stoic is one who undermined emotions in life.

He's one that looks at life and says, emotions will lie to you.

Reason and rationality, that's all you have.

Now that's not a Christian idea, right?

We understand that emotions can speak to us, they can tell us things.

We want to see emotion and reason married together in the wholeness of a redeemed person working itself out.

But he did say something that was fascinating, I think very helpful.

And I think it speaks exactly to this.

In his letters from a Stoic, he said this if you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you're needing is not to be in a different place, but to be a different person.

Right?

That's what God is saying to his people here.

You don't just need to have your circumstances changed.

You need to recognize that my anger has turned away and there is a newness of life about you if you trust in me and you're returning to me.

So if this coming home is uncomfortable for you, because your relationship and your interaction with God has been less than serene and peaceful, my submission to you is that because it's because you need a rebirth.

You need to understand who you are.

You need to understand that the wrath of God is turned away because of Jesus.

See, some of you are standing outside the door ready to knock on the on the on the front door of God's kingdom.

And you're afraid to go in because you're afraid what he's gonna ask you to do when you go in there, where you can never measure up.

And what we fail to see is God is on the other side of that door just waiting.

He's gonna open the door, he's gonna greet you with a hug.

He's gonna say, I'm not gonna make you deal with all these things.

Like you confess that, you're here, I welcome you.

You're gonna experience him receiving you back with grace and with mercy.

In fact, that's even probably a terrible illustration because what God has been doing is he's been out there looking for you to bring you back home.

And he's not gonna say, Do all these things, and then you will become my child again.

I've made you my child, my anger is turned, and you're exp you will experience new life.

Third thing he does renewal.

Look at verse 6.

His shoots shall spread out, his beauty shall be like the olive, his fragrance like Lebanon.

See, there is a strengthening and an expansion to people who belong to God.

New life is amazing.

But some of us have walked with Jesus for a while, right?

We've been redeemed, we've experienced regeneration, we've walked with him for years.

So is that all there is?

Like, if I put my trust in Christ and then I get to go to heaven, why don't I go to heaven as soon as I place my trust in Christ?

And it's this piece that there's a renewal that takes place.

God is using you to be a blessing to others, to put on display for the whole world to see, the whole universe to see, the things that we don't even see to see.

He's using you to spread out his glory.

And so growth and hope and blessing flow from God's love and mercy.

He gives love and freedom to his people.

And the next thing we see is restoration, verse 7.

They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow.

They shall flourish like the grain, they shall blossom like the vine, their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.

And so God is restoring his people to a place of blessing.

Um I I didn't realize this until this week, but I was looking, I was like, I've never heard of wine from Lebanon.

But apparently, if you do a little bit of historical research, uh Lebanon is one of the first places on earth that started mass-producing wine and sending it out.

And it was always a sign of blessing.

If you read through the Bible, you read about texts like Psalm 104, 15, that talks about that God makes wine to make the heart of man glad.

And so it was a sign of blessing.

And apparently Lebanon had like these great wines.

I don't know much about it.

I know this.

I was in an FC Cincinnati game uh two summers ago, and right in front of me there was this guy named Fari.

Fari was Turkish.

And he was like, I don't know what I don't know what role he thought he played in the match, but in Turkey he really loved soccer.

And and here in Cincinnati, he really loved soccer.

And from the stands, he was coaching the boys, right?

He was standing up and giving them signs and doing all this kind of stuff.

And like we were just sitting there laughing and finally started a conversation with him.

Well, I found out that Fari owns uh a restaurant down in Hyde Park called Cafe Mediterranean.

And so he invited me to be his guest.

My wife and I went down there for lunch, and he makes the best lamb shake I've ever tasted in my life.

So if you want a good lambshake, Hyde Park, uh Cafe Mediterranean, ask Fari to pair a wine with your lambshake.

It will change your life.

All right?

He's Lebanese, he makes good wine, it ties into the story.

I'm just using that to tell you I know people, okay?

I know people.

But apparently, yeah, I mean, they've been doing this for centuries because it and it but honestly, it's a way to bless people.

It's a way to demonstrate the goodness of God, and that's what God is doing.

He's reminding you, I'm going to put you in a place of blessing.

And here's what we know: when you when you uh detract, or when you um start to divert, rather, away from God's plans, from God's words, from God's hope, from God's love, you're not a blessing for people.

You're usually acting very selfishly and very destructively.

But when you return to the Lord and there's this posture, it it puts you in a position where you're a blessing to people.

Now they may not feel it, they may not see it, because sometimes your presence is a reminder that they're wandering from God.

But the best thing in life for that person is that he returned to the Lord.

And so you're being a blessing.

Now, we don't want to do this in jerkish ways.

We want to do it tenderly and with grace and with love.

But when you do that, you're being a blessing to people.

And that's what God says, that's what he wants of us.

Now, the last thing I want to I see here in the text is verses eight and nine.

And it's the end of the book.

It's kind of a strange addition to what we've been talking about, but it's a fitting closure to what's happening.

And so what's happening here in verses eight and nine is that the restoration is being made personal.

The restoration is being made personal.

Verses eight and nine, it says this.

Oh Ephraim, what have I to do with idols?

It is I who answer and look after you.

I am like an evergreen cypress.

From me comes your fruit.

And then he changes it.

It's not just Ephraim anymore.

Whoever is wise, let him understand these things.

Whoever is discerning, let him know them.

For the ways of the Lord are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors, transgressors stumble in them.

Remember the big idea.

God calls his people to repent, and in so doing they graciously find him receiving them back.

What's happening here at the end is that God is saying this isn't a generic word for God's people of old.

It is for them, right?

Oh Ephraim.

That's a very personal call out to one of the tribal leaders who was leading in Israel, who is responsible for leading the people away from God.

He's calling them specifically, but then in verse 9, he's addressing us as well.

Whoever reads this, let him understand.

Let him be wise, let him be discerning.

Walk with God.

And so, yes, there is a very pointed letter to God's people in the Old Testament, but it's also pointed toward us this morning.

And so I want us to find ourselves in this story.

I want you to know that God is making an appeal to you this morning.

He's pleading with you to forsake any false lovers that you have in your life.

To return to the lover of your soul that you might restore peace and joy, the things that you desire.

God wants to give you the things that you desire, but he wants to give them to you in the way that is healthy for you.

And so, in closing, I've got three questions for us.

And I'll give you an opportunity to kind of reflect on these.

They'll be up here on the screen.

They're also in your notes.

The first question is this What faithless attitudes need your attention this morning?

Where do you find yourself wandering away from the love that God has for you?

Um, we're gonna pray in a moment and reflect.

And I just take that moment, just ask God to reveal where are my faithless affections?

Where is my attention wandering away from God?

What's got a hold of my heart?

Ask that question.

And then secondly, what words are needed to faithfully confess your misplaced trust?

I don't know if it's gonna be a phrase, I don't know if it's gonna be a word, but what are the words that need to be declared?

Write them down.

There's a place in your notes that you write those things down.

Lord, give me a word that I need to confess.

I I don't know what it is for you, but but as you begin to ask the Lord, what if what things have my affection?

He'll give you those words to be able to confess to him.

And then thirdly, what changes need to be made in order to walk with peace and joy in a right relationship with God?

Consider what has your heart, confess it, and ask the Lord to give you that Holy Spirit strength to have a change in those behaviors.

Some of us need commitments that need to be changed this morning.

So here's what I'm gonna do now.

I'm gonna give us an opportunity to confess together.

And we're just gonna simply use the words of Hosea.

And so, if you would, what this does is it just preps our heart.

We're gonna start putting words to what God is saying to us.

It preps our heart for the beginning of a time of response.

And I'll talk through a couple of other ways that we're going to begin to respond.

But if you would, let's together read the words that apply to us.

They're underlined up here on the screen.

It says this.

Father, we confess that it is you who answer and look after us.

From you comes our fruit, your ways are right.

Thank you that you heal our apostasy and love us freely, because your anger has turned from us.

If that's the truth in your heart this morning, we want to give you an opportunity to continue to respond.

And so in just a moment, there's gonna be a time to reflect silently, ask those questions of the Lord.

And as the Lord begins to bring you that conviction, maybe you want to make the confession out loud, maybe you want to talk to Pastor Justin or his wife Katie.

They're gonna be available for you to pray with.

But start putting words to the prayers that God is stirring up in your heart and in your soul.

And then after you've started to do some business with God, we want to invite you to come forward and to be reminded of the sacrifice it took to return to the Lord.

And so you'll come forward and you will receive Christ here at the table by faith.

He is available to you.

The bread that you eat, it is the substitutionary brokenness of your life.

And Jesus says, That brokenness I took upon myself, and I became broken for you.

And so you'll eat of the brokenness in your life.

And then you'll drink from the cup, and you'll be reminded that Christ's blood was shed to cleanse you from all of that brokenness.

And so, as you're coming up here, like I said, by faith, you are you are participating in what Jesus has done for you.

If that's not something you believe, then communion is not for you yet.

And our hope is that there'll be folks that are praying for you.

Uh, Pastor Justin, Pastor Jordan, the leaders of this church, community leaders, they would love to talk with you, hear your story, hear how they might share with you how God has changed their lives to get you to that place where you can go forward and say, Jesus is my substitute.

So I'm gonna pray for us.

I'm gonna turn it over, and the band will continue leading us in our time of response.

Let's pray together.

Father, I am deeply grateful that we have an opportunity to return to you.

My prayer is that that eternal meal of thanksgiving is a bigger reminder than the small reminders that we have here of your love for us.

Thank you for the grace.

Thank you that we can be restored.

Thank you that you offer peace and hope and joy and love.

Remind us that your anger is turned away and that we have new life.

We ask it in the name of Christ by the power of the Spirit.

Amen.