The Roadmap of Spiritual Renewal - Associate Pastor Matt Passmore - July 26, 2026

Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.

You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.

Thank you for listening.

A couple months ago, with our staff, we decided we were going to take a time of just prayer to start our service, praying for something that our church is involved with.

Because here's what we want to be careful as a church.

We do not want to be a church that outruns God.

We want to be a church that God is in front of us and we are following Him.

And so today we have a big thing happening this week.

Our student ministry is going out to First Baptist Ratcliffe and helping them with vacation Bible school.

And we've been doing this three or four.

Eli's involved as well, Abigail leading out.

And we've been doing this for a while, but this year they have a new pastor.

So this year, as we go out and as we care and as we love on these boys and girls, we are wanting to come alongside this pastor so that I'll just say he's got a tough job.

There's not many houses right by that church.

They got to go get them, they got to go bring them, and they got to serve that community well.

And so, will you join me as we start our time of worship into the message time?

Will you join me as we pray for that church?

Pray for our students going out there to lead, and that the Lord moves in Ratcliffe.

Will you pray with me right now?

Dear God, we come before you now.

So thankful that you're a God that we can reach out to.

You're a God that's worthy of all the things we do.

You're a God that loves us.

And Lord, I ask you right now to be with Ratcliffe.

As they are worshiping you right now, I ask you to be with that pastor who's new there.

And as he's connecting, Lord, I ask you to speak through him, to live through him, and Lord, just to engulf his life so that he can be what they need to lead that church.

And Lord, I ask you to be with our students here that are going with them, going out there to serve and to love them and to care for them and to point them to Jesus.

Lord, I ask you, as they're having their quiet time, as they're getting ready to go, prepare them for what they need to do, to point boys and girls to you and to point parents to you.

Lord, I ask you just to be with Ratcliffe during vacation Bible school and beyond.

Move in such a way that when we look back, it was nothing that man can do, but Lord, that you were there stirring in the mix.

Lord, thank you again that we can serve you.

Lord, that we can follow you.

And thank you that you want a personal relationship with you.

I don't understand that, but Lord, I am so thankful for that.

And as we dive into your word today, Lord, help us today be different because of your word, because of who you are, and because of your love for us.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

So Pastor asked me a couple of weeks ago to uh if I'd be interested in preaching at both campuses.

And so I said, well, uh, you know, it's a real easy to say no.

You know what I mean?

It's just like, yeah, nah, find someone else, you know.

But it's one of those, hey, one, it's my job.

Two, I really think the Lord in different times wants to get you out of myself, out of the box, and stretch you, stretch me.

And so today, I uh the funny thing is when I said I would do this, I you know, we're preaching through chronological Bible, right?

Well, when he asked me to do it, I hadn't looked ahead.

So I started looking ahead once he asked me, and we were talking about Hosea.

Amos, Isaiah.

And so it was just, it's it, I was like, what in the Lord?

So I just started looking at it like, what in the world was the prophets?

These are all prophets that were speaking to, let's just put them all together, the Israelites.

And the Israelites had made some poor choices.

They split, there's a north and a south.

We see all through scripture the north kings were terrible.

The south kings were a little better, but they were all doing what?

Fleeing from the Lord, doing their own thing.

Isn't that what man does?

I mean, it was easy for me to sit there and go, golly, can they not figure it out?

If they would just follow the Lord, the Lord would bless them and they would have a great life.

And then it was like the Lord saying, Yeah.

Yeah.

They would.

So will you.

Isn't that exactly when things start going good?

My walk with the Lord starts doing what?

Hmm.

And I start becoming what?

Dependent on Matt Passmore.

Which is really scary.

And we see through scripture the uh the Israelites, when they had money, when they had different things, they started to what?

Do their own thing.

And then you see in scripture here that there were times they started worshiping other nations' gods.

I don't honestly, I don't think they said, God, we don't want to talk to you anymore.

We don't want you anymore.

I don't think that's it.

Hey, God, we want you and we want this and this and this and this.

We want you, but can we still sin?

But isn't that really?

When I look at it, that's that's that's a mirror of my life.

Listen to what we're gonna be in Hosea.

Take out your Bible, open it to Hosea.

And as you're looking at Hosea, there are a few things.

We're gonna be in Hosea 12.

Look at Hosea 12, 6.

We're gonna stay in that the whole time.

But I want to read a few things.

Listen to what Hosea says about the gods that man is creating, about the gods that the Israelites were wanting to worship as well.

He says this about those gods.

This is in uh Hosea 13, 3.

Listen.

Therefore, they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that vanishes, like the chaff that blown from the threshing floor, or like smoke from a window.

What's he saying?

Have you ever been out?

You go out in the morning.

Oh, my feet are wet.

About 15 minutes later, it's completely dry.

That's the picture God's saying about their God.

There's really not.

He's not there.

Then he continues in verse 4, he says, I have been the Lord your God ever since the land of Egypt.

What's he saying?

Go back and remember all the things that I've done.

Then it says, You know no God but me.

And no savior exists besides me.

Think about that just for a second.

What did he say?

You only know me.

And then what about the word Savior?

The only one that can truly save you is me.

Then we also, if you just flip over real quick and look, Hosea, or just listen, Hosea 14, 9.

He challenges them.

Let whoever is wise understand these things, and whoever is insightful recognize them.

For the ways of the Lord are right, and the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.

And I love that picture of they stumble in them.

They're trying to have a part of it.

They're just not fully in tune to it.

So what do they end up doing?

Stumbling over it.

And then this morning I'm reading in Isaiah.

And God says this, this is crazy.

He goes, those idols that you're worshiping are man-made.

They take the wood, you carve it, you put the gold on it.

By the way, ho ho one created me, God.

But all these other gods that you're wanting to put up next to me are man-made.

So we see here in Hosea, he's writing to encourage them to do what?

Come back to him.

Isn't that a loving God?

I mean, honestly, to me, they had screwed up so much that enough is enough.

Haven't you heard that before?

Just, that's enough.

I'm done with it.

But that's not what, if we're not careful today, we can look at the message and be like, golly, would we quit having to deal with sin?

I want to talk about something happy.

But listen to this.

When I deal with my sin, it doesn't make me happy.

It makes me joyful.

There's a huge difference.

Because joyful is a fruit of the Spirit.

And so we see today, as we're going to dive into Hosea 12, I think this the scripture here that we're going to read today, Hosea 12.6, is a roadmap.

Is a roadmap to a spiritual renewal.

Roadmap.

I brought one along.

Anybody remember what these are?

Okay, I remember I, you know, for months I planned my vacation.

Okay, we're gonna go here, we're gonna turn here, you know.

And then there were times which is very dangerous.

I don't recommend this.

While I'm driving, I had this on the steering wheel trying to find where I'm going.

You ever been there?

And then my wife's over there and she's got the map upside down.

You know, so we're just we're the map.

But what is a roadmap for?

So get from here to here.

This weekend we went to Dallas and um we're we're going shopping, and so we leave a place and we're heading to another place, and I put it, I didn't have my map, which I wish I would have.

In the GPS.

I put in the location of the GPS, and it says, you'll be there in six minutes.

I start driving and I miss the first turn.

I can't turn around, I just keep going.

Hey, my GPS is great.

It says, keep going, turn left.

It says, keep going, turn left.

Turn left.

And I'm thinking in my mind, I have to be turning right in a minute.

And we're going left, left.

Finally, we pull into our destination.

22 minutes later.

But listen, it made it.

The roadmap.

And so today's theme the roadmap to spiritual renewal.

Think of the word just for a second, spiritual renewal.

Isn't that something that just I got to go to camp one night and there was a kid at camp that I heard, he was just struggling in his walk with the Lord.

He was a Christian, and he said this.

I know I'm a Christian, but I'm not doing things Christians should be doing.

You ever been there?

And he said, I need to commit, I need to get focused on what it looks like to follow the Lord.

Spiritual renewal.

And honestly, I think we can sit here, and the majority of us, myself included, can sit here and say, I'm not where I need to be in my walk with the Lord.

Today I want to encourage you with this passage of scripture.

I think it is a beautiful picture of how to be right with the Lord.

Look at it with me.

Hosea 12, 6 says this.

So you, by the help of your God, return, observe mercy and justice, and wait on your God continually.

Out of this, I think we can find four key points to unlock from this beautiful passage of Scripture, spiritual renewal.

I think number one, look at number one here.

It says, spiritual renewal requires our return.

Look back at the verse there.

It says, so you, by the help of your God, return.

I think when you look at that, there's two commas there.

I think that's a prepositional phrase.

Don't write it, you know.

I hey, I'm a math guy.

Okay?

So you can really read this, you can leave out the commas and just say this.

So you return.

And I think that's important.

I think it's a picture of.

Which means to turn back or repent.

It doesn't say to turn.

Think about this.

As I'm I'm walking away from the Lord doing my thing, and I turn, sometimes turning can take me further away than going one way.

So we must return, and in the process of returning, we have to realize who we're returning to.

And then that takes us to point number two.

We cannot do it on our own strength.

We cannot do it on our own strength.

Going back to the verse of scripture, it says, so you, and now here's the commas.

By the help of your God.

So many times, what do we try to do?

We're going through life, we're struggling, we're sinning, and then what do we do?

I can fix this on my own.

I mean, there's all kinds of helpful books out there, there's all kinds of videos out there.

I mean, if you don't know what to do, just look at TikTok.

It tells you what to do.

I mean, right?

And the scary thing is there's a lot of people, my friends included, want to help me get out of sin without looking to who?

God.

Had a guy come in my office struggling with alcohol.

He said, I've tried everything.

I'm like, whoa.

What have you tried?

He said, Well, I've uh went to a class, I've read a book about it, I've looked in the mirror and I said, you know what?

I'm gonna man up today, I'm not gonna do it.

And he said, every night I end up drinking.

I was talking to the rescue mission, rescue mission down here that takes families.

And um I this blew my way.

This just blew my mind.

What it is is like a homeless family, a family struggling goes there to be trained, to be taken care of.

And the lady said this almost every family that makes it.

What I mean by that is gets out of there, finds a house, finds a job, and becomes a family.

Listen, listen, listen.

Almost every family that makes it from there to a house got saved in the process and has a church home.

You see what I mean that's what the scripture says right here.

So you, by the help of your God, the Israelites, what were they doing?

They were struggling on their own, and all God was wanting to do what was say to them is, come back to me.

Listen, listen, come back to me.

I want a relationship with you, and I created you, and I know what's best for you.

So then that takes us to number three.

Look at number three here.

Grasping to love and justice.

I love the picture of grasping.

But if we look at the scripture that we're reading, it says this observe mercy and justice.

That word observe there is watching intently.

Some translations, and maybe yours say that, hold fast.

It says hold fast.

The picture of hold fast is what?

Grasping something tightly.

I'll never forget when I was young, I wasn't a great swimmer when I was little, and we went to San Antonio, and there was this uh, they called it a tube chute.

And it's on a river, and the way the water went in this river, there was just this little channel that your tube would get in and it would sling you down.

It was supposed to be fun.

Okay, and so as a second grader, I'm floating around, not a very good swimmer, and all of a sudden I'm over here and I get caught in that channel, and I start to, and I'm panicked.

And I'll never, here's the picture of grasping.

My dad reaches out and he grabs my arm.

And he wasn't letting go.

That's that picture of grasp.

Grab a hold of.

And what's he telling us to grab a hold of?

Grab a hold of mercy and justice.

Mercy, what is mercy?

Mercy is not getting the punishment or the judgment that we deserve.

Some translations, instead of mercy, there say love.

Isn't mercy love?

And I think a picture of this as we look at this, observe mercy and justice.

And when we look at mercy or love and justice, honestly, they're on two sides.

We could say love over here and then what?

Justice over here.

And it's important because it's a balance.

We can love so hard that we do not have any rules or we don't address sin.

On the other hand, we can be so full of rules that we don't love.

I think the greatest picture that you see in Scripture is Jesus at the lady at the well.

Remember the picture?

Remember the lady?

When did the lady go to the well?

During the afternoon.

No one goes and gets water in the afternoon.

In fact, if I understand, right, it was kind of a social thing.

All the ladies would get the water and they'd do what?

They would go fill their deals up, talking, having a great time.

But this lady came by herself because why?

The Bible says she was sinful.

She comes to get water.

Jesus is there.

Remember what Jesus said to her?

You're a sinful woman.

No, he didn't say that.

What did he say to her?

Hey, can I get a drink?

And she's like, There's no telling the last time someone talked to her.

Outside of whoever.

Men wanting to use her.

And Jesus says, Can I get a drink?

And then he carries a conversation with her.

He shows her that he loves her.

He reveals who he is.

And then he finally does what?

Yeah, you are a sinful lady.

But that's okay.

I will forgive you.

He didn't just love her without consequences.

He loved her through the consequence.

And then four.

Look with me in four.

Cultivate continual trust.

I love the word cultivate.

It makes me think of a farmer.

Makes me think of growing something.

Growing something is hard work.

It's cultivating.

But as I cultivate continual trust, look what the scripture says here.

At the very last, it says, and wait continually for your God.

Isn't it great when God calls him?

Can you imagine being the Israelites getting talked like this?

But it says, your God?

Isn't it nice to know that we can call God our God?

He wants a relationship with us.

And we see here in the scripture, he says, but wait continually for your God.

What are we waiting for?

Well, I think a picture of wait is trust.

I'm waiting because I trust that the Lord's going to take care of it.

I'm waiting knowing that God's got this.

Now I will say this.

The picture of waiting here is not a lazy sitting in a lawn chair in the shade drinking lemonade.

Now there's a time to rest.

I'm not saying that.

I don't think the Lord's calling us to stay in our bedroom all day long and not.

I think the picture is this.

Wake up, go about your day, but I've prayed through my day, and as I go through the day, I'm doing the things the Lord wants me to do because he is what?

I've waited on him.

I have a relationship with him.

And I think the only way we can do these things is to realize the grace that he has for us and our relationship with him so that as we walk through our day, I can confidently trust that he's going to take care of it.

Is he always going to take care of it the way I want it to be taken care of?

No.

But I have relief knowing that he's in charge.

It reminds me when I was in college.

I was enrolled in taking a calculus one.

So I do my research and I find out I need five books for all my class, or four books for all my classes, and one of them was a calculus book.

And I got to look in this calculus book is$125.

And I'm like, whoo,$125 for one book?

So I go in, I get all the books, I take them up to the counter, they tell me a price, and I'm like, something's not right.

But I went ahead and paid.

I grabbed my books.

Um I didn't even look at my receipt in the room because I knew something wasn't right.

I waited until I got to the car and I got to looking and I was like, ooh, they forgot to charge me for my calculus book.

Man, I was pumped.

I was like, ha ha ha, I got a free book.

You ever been there?

Like, woo! And I'm telling people around me, and guess what they're saying?

Man, you are so lucky.

I had one guy tell me this the Lord blessed you today.

That night, went to the BCM.

The Baptist, well, actually, it wasn't the BCM then, it was a BSU.

That's how old I am.

But went to the college ministry, and the guy was, school was about to start, so he was he was encouraging us that sin not dealt with will interfere with your relationship with the Lord.

Okay, hold on.

Sin not dealt with will interfere with your relationship with the Lord.

It's like I got a calculus book.

The Lord blessed me.

I'm lucky.

Man, I struggled.

I will tell you this the next morning I woke up, pulled my Bible up to have a quiet time, and I'm just gonna be honest with you, my quiet time stunk.

Wonder why.

And it was like as I went through the day, all the things pointed to that silly calculus book.

And I was struggling.

But I'm struggling, like, man, it's it, I'm lucky.

Have you been there?

And the sin was just, ooh, had me tangled.

So I finally went to my dad, the wise man he is, you know, and I'm like, hey dad, I got this bug.

I tell him a story, and he goes, Well, it sounds like you know what to do.

I'm like, I really don't.

He goes, I can't tell you what to do.

And he did this all the time.

He's like, you're gonna have to get right with the Lord and decide what the Lord wants you to do.

And I'm gonna tell you, I struggle with it.

I mean,$125 went a long way back then.

Actually, it'd go a long way.

If you want to give me$125, it could go a long ways today, too.

I'll just judge.

So the next morning, I got up.

Listen, my walk with the Lord was non-existent right now.

I knew what I needed to do.

I picked up that silly calculus book.

I said, okay, I gotta go return it, Lord.

So I grab it, I'm walking through the student union, on my way to return it.

And there's a lady from our church that is sitting there eating something, and as I'm walking by her, she sees the book and she goes, Oh, you take calculus.

I'm like, well, not yet, but I'm about to.

And she goes, Hey, if you want to return that book, I have one I'll give you.

And I'm like, God, you're good.

And I walk in, and I'll tell you, I wasn't done.

I walked in and it was, I put that book there, and the guy goes, Oh, you're wanting to return this?

He said, You're under a limit, you get full return.

I'm about to get$125 cash.

And I said, sir, somehow that book was messed up, and I walked out with it.

I've got to return this.

And he looked at me like I was crazy.

But I'll tell you what, the next morning when I have a had a quiet time, my quiet time was different.

Again, not because what I did, but I saw how big God was in my particular situation.

And here's the crazy thing is, I could have taken that book back and not received a book and had to buy a book.

My God, our God, is big enough to bless me however he chooses.

So today, I think as we as we close here, I want to challenge you as we as we are looking.

I think the first thing I want to challenge you, and we've been talking about this in our evangelism class sharing the gospel.

What is the gospel?

The gospel is when I realize that my sin separates me from God, and God is here, and I'm headed completely opposite of him, doing my own thing, the things that I want, and realizing that I can't be who he wants me to be until I repent of my sins and say, Lord, I need to follow you.

But here's the thing, there's a lot of us that have repented, and we're facing the Lord, possibly going backwards, possibly stuck.

I'll just tell you, those three days I struggled with that silly calculus book, I knew I was a believer.

I knew who Christ was.

I was going the wrong direction.

I want to challenge you today.

Is there something in your life that every time you go to pray, it pops up?

Every time you listen.

He tells him to do this.

So you be the help by the help of your God.

Return, observe mercy and justice, and wait on your God continually to live that out.

To head towards a new renewal in who Christ is.

It starts with getting right with the Lord.

It starts with unconfessed sin.

I heard a man say this one time.

Said, I don't want to apologize for that sin because I know I'm going to do it again tomorrow.

That's a scary place to be in.

And I will tell you this, it's going to be impossible to grow with the Lord with that sin.

Maybe today there's a sin you need to deal with.

Maybe there's a there's something in your life that you need to, Lord, I gotta get back to reading my Bible.

I just want to tell you.

My quiet time right now, just reading through the Bible, knowing my Sunday school classes, reading through the Bible, knowing we encourage each other, I am looking forward to reading my Bible.

If you have not been doing the chronological Bible read, start today.

We're in Isaiah.

Will you bow your heads with me?

And as you bow your head, where are you at in your spiritual life?

Do you need spiritual renewal?

Do you need to confess sin?

Dear God, we come before you now.

So grateful for your constant love for us.

So grateful that you are a perfect God that loves us and wants what's best for us.

Lord, if there's someone here today, like myself, just in different areas, Lord, there's a sin that is keeping me from a relationship with you.

Help us have the power, the courage to give that to you.

If we have been calm, just complacent in our walk with you and our prayer life and our Bible reading, Lord, draw us to you to get into your word, get into your prayer life, get involved in a Sunday school class, get involved in your church.

Not because the church is perfect, but because you're here at the church.

Lord, we are so grateful for your love, and we ask you just to stir among us today.

We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.

Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.

Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.

Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.