A Look Ahead

Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church

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So this morning we did look back at last year with Haggai's first oracle as sort of a model of how we should look back the metrics as I said

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We used to look back on the year gone by We look back at that year 2022 and we saw that however things went for us last year.

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What was it? It was God's doing It was God's blessing whichever way things went for you

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It was God's blessing if you would just see it and see that he is teaching you and drawing you closer to himself

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Closer to the image of Christ. It's not just things that happened the things that God Intended it's all his doing and this afternoon.

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We're going to look at Zechariah's first oracle verse 1 through 6 and He was more than just a contemporary of Haggai and as I said, they were partners as I call them partners in prophecy and partners with Haggai causing the people to prosper through their preaching and Both of them

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Haggai and now Zechariah They were focused on getting the people to restore the Lord's house after a sack by the

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Babylonians They both had this one singular focus which wasn't so much to just to do the work for the work's sake

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Before what it symbolized for what it meant to keep their word to follow the dictate to the

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Lord to do that for which the Lord Brought them out of exile That's why the house of the

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Lord was so important in that sense And of course in the most important sense that temple of the

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Lord Where proper worship was conducted was also the place where he chose his name to reside So for all these reasons, it was crucial that these exiles get back to work and finish that temple

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So that's sort of the context of Zechariah along with Haggai. I want to tell you my message this afternoon is

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Not really an exposition of the text so much though I'm true to the text as far as it goes but more of a devotion more of a devotional set of thoughts that will lead us into thinking about in terms of What I preached this morning about Haggai What that means to us as we look forward if Haggai was to look back and we look back and see

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God's hand in everything Zechariah's a look forward and also with God's hand in everything

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But the look back this morning the look forward this afternoon through Zechariah Well, what's the good work that the prophets would have these people to do what's the first step actually in getting this good work going or doing or Progressing again and The question is the same for us as individuals as we look at last year and say, okay, here are my errors here's where God should have been the number one priority and Here's where he wasn't here's why things went awry for me in this or that way or here are good things that I have that didn't come from my

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Devotion to him but from my own flesh All meant to teach us To put

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God in his proper place But what's the first thing we do if you look back on?

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2022 You usually find that there are things that you did wrong that you want to correct more than we find that things are right

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We're gonna keep going God willing. There's some of those and So with the people in Haggai's and now

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Zechariah's day, what is the first step? What is the first good work that needs to get done before they can get going again and for us as?

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We look ahead to next year in the context of what we saw in ourselves last year, what is that first good work?

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What do we have to get going to get this thing on the right track? Well, it's verse 6

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It's verse 6 So they repented and said as the Lord of hosts purpose to deal with us for our ways and deeds

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So he has dealt with us his repentance. It's turning in both the Hebrew and the

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Greek. It means the same thing It means turn around a 180 degree different course. I was going this way now.

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I'm going diametrically opposed path turning repentance determined mortification of sin

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Now I do have one point of expositional if you will expositional explanation if you look at your

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ESV In the

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ESV the phrase So they repented Do you see that so they repented if you follow the single and the double quotes in this whole phrasing this whole sentence

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It's it's quoting what the fathers in the previous age said Okay, that's the way the quotations in our

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ESV make it look So did they not overtake your fathers?

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So they repented and that's still part of that quotation of the Lord speaking through Zechariah The whole problem with their stiff -necked refusal to hear the prophets to really hear them was they wouldn't hear them or repent

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So what I've done is I closed the quote after the Lord's words. Did they not overtake your fathers?

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So they repented cannot be those ancients. It's the people here who are hearing the

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Word of God. Do you understand? It's so they repented is the people who are hearing Zechariah Not the

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Lord talking about those the fathers and that's fairly important So did they not overtake them after that those who heard

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Zechariah's Word as the Word of the Lord? Sort of like the Thessalonians and Paul the

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Apostles day They're the ones who repented and confessed God's judgments good and right

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Their father's refusal to do that to repent and confess God's judgments good and right They are the reason that the people in Zechariah's day were in the situation they were in Because the father's refusal to repent it's the people who heard

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Zechariah Who repented and confessed the goodness of God? So what we have here

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This brief message this morning and it will be brief. What do we have here? We have a model of true repentance a model of true repentance hearing the

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Word of the Lord Prophetic Word of the Lord through the mouth of a man Zechariah acknowledged to be a prophet of God It's a model of repentance

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We hear the same Word of God through this Through the scripture the faith once for all time delivered to the

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Saints So when we hear this Word of God as they heard this Word of God as the Thessalonians and Paul's days heard the

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Word of God The model of repentance is first to confess God's judgments true and right so they repented and said

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Zechariah 1 6 as the Lord of hosts his purpose to deal with us for our ways and deeds

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So he has dealt with us in other words God's right We did sin. They did sin.

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It's fallen upon us to pay for the sin, but they did and we have God is right

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Oftentimes we repent of something repent because we know we did wrong We're paying the price for it things got tough.

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Usually in a relationship is when this happens and we repent but prior to repentance

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We do have to have this confession that the reason I am stirred up this way is

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God's Spirit God willing working in my spirit and not letting my conscience be free

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Until I take care of this Again, usually it's a relationship. Usually you have to go to a brother sister and resolve things.

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But the first step here prior to that is God's judgments are true and right

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It's because God's judgments are true and right there were stirred up in the first place We feel this need to go and repent.

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It's because God is right and The second step in this model of repentance if you will is they repented of their sin, which was apathy towards God Apathy towards God and this was a little problem back in Hagi As you're taking care of your own houses

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You're putting panels in your houses my house the Lord's house the one you were released from Babylon to take care of it's a mess

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You being apathetic towards God Is usually what it is means to not have

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God as our top priority as a number one the way we Discussed it and explained it this morning

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So they repented first they confessed God was true and right and Second then they repented of their sin of their apathy towards God if we don't confess his judgments as true

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Then what do we have what we're calling repentance if it does not have as a first step that God is right

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Well might be mere regret for bad consequences of poor decisions it might be

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I sinned against this person who's so close to me and I'm paying the price for it and my relationship with him or her is now cold when it should be warm and I want things to be better So I'm gonna go do something called repentance

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Maybe with a small R and I'm gonna go try and make things right Well, really what I want is just peace in the home

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Or my friendship restored is something like that No, we have to begin with this that God is right

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Then what God's Word said is right and then what I have done is I failed to follow Him and failed to give him his proper place

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You see if we confess from the heart that the repentance is based upon God's true and just judgment

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Then it is he who gave us the pricks of conscience It's he who worked on our conscience against our own spirit

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And then we can join with the voice at the altar that we see in Revelation 16 7.

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Yes, Lord God Almighty true and just are your judgments and then we're on the path of repentance and restoration

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So we look back on 2022 and there are things we want to correct and there are for all of us

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If you're one of those who stops and makes resolutions on a day like this Which I do have to admit is not biblically required of anybody

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Though resolution is required and repentance of sin is required and getting on the right path is required

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This is just a day when we often do it and that's the only reason we're using it that way Confession of sin does not true confession cannot occur in a vacuum or be the result of our own efforts

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It's the fruit of the Holy Spirit's work in you People hearing

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Zechariah They repented hearing the Word of God We don't hear the

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Word of God the same way they did but this Bible you have in front of you That is the

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Word of God. That is the prophetic word. That is the way God by his spirit will prick your conscience give you the spiritual

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Discernment to know how you have sinned to whom you must go to reconcile and To give you even the strength and the wherewithal and the determination to take care of it

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Now it cannot occur in a vacuum. It cannot be the result of our own efforts It's a work of God by his

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Holy Spirit to do this. It's a good work. It's a holy work It could be a hard thing for us to take care of but it's a good work

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And 2023 is a great time to gird up your loins and Be determined to make short work of things like this when

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God is stirring you up this way. What does he say in verse 3? He says return to me says the

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Lord of hosts and I will return to you Says the Lord of hosts with that title for God repeated there

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So when God when sin is pointed out When God sends the pricks directly by his spirit working on ours or less directly by our

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Circumstances as we said in the message to hi. Hey guy There's a look at where they were and say well

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It's a circumstance that reveals these things to us or they should have seen it that way When God does send those pricks of conscience those goads as Paul calls them in Acts What do we have do we have hard times

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Restless nights, maybe hard times maybe restless nights But the

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Lord is sovereign and only he can move a conscience to acknowledge sin It's the Lord.

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You see it's the Lord calling you to repent Calling us to that the Hebrew word

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Shub the Greek word metta not. Oh, they both have that same idea that explained earlier

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I've just completely about face and going a determined 180 degrees away from whatever course you were on and towards Well towards what?

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Towards whom? Well towards first of all a father in heaven whose spirit broke your pride

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Who crushed your arrogance who undid our self -sufficiency and? Then what do you leave you wallowing in with the prodigal son with the pigsty?

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No, he brought you he brought me. He brought everyone who believes in his son Jesus Christ to his senses

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And there we are turned repentant and we're dressed in filthy rags that were used for the worst kind of filth and to be disposed of and there we are

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On the road back to him covered in sin and shame and we look up to God and he says look up sinner

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And what do we see? When we do this when we repent when God's judgments are true and right and we do repent of things

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Whatever it is that he put on our spirit We say look up sinner

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Look up raise up your shamed. Eye and see who stands there waiting for you to return Was he say return to me and I will return to you

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Who is standing there waiting for us to repent waiting for us to come to him waiting for us to give?

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to be given the strength and the Determination to take care of our sin and to see repentance and works that are meet with repentance

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Who stands there waiting for us to return to him? Who calls us out and says return to me and I will return to you.

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It's the Lord It is he Jesus Christ who paid for that sin. It's he the Lord Jesus Christ who suffered for our iniquity

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He's the one who's standing as we come up Crawling on the road as it were with the prodigal dress still in the ragged clothes still stinking of the pigsty

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As Jesus who bore the awful load on his shoulders because of our offenses Is he's the one who?

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It's calls out to the Jews in Zechariah's day and to the church in our day

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Return to me and I'll return to you. There's a divine motivation here The motive is to be restored to this warm intimacy with our

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Heavenly Father to say with David Restore to me the joy of your salvation and that road to restoration and joy begins with repentance

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So if you look back on 2022 With the metrics with the eyes with the view of the

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Lord from his scripture that was suggested this morning What do we do in 2023

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Return to me says the Lord and I will return to you In any one of the things any one of the areas that the

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Lord might put on your heart This is his call Return and I'll return

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I Wonder sometimes of our resistance to repentance is because of a warped view of our father.

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I Wonder sometimes that that view of our father is one who will simply look down on us with a stern gaze

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So yeah, you finally came to your senses didn't you look at you dressed in those prodigal's rags and such like that We look at scripture and and we see his holiness, which is indescribably pure We look at Isaiah 6 we hear the chorus.

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Holy. Holy. Holy is the Lord God Almighty and close the text and what are we? We're terrified of God. We said

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I cannot approach a God like that. You cannot we say how can I stand with my sin before?

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That God he won't accept me. He will not Those are true except but God that great word but as Opposed to all those fears as opposed to that thought but God who is rich in mercy because of the great love

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With which he loved us Sent his son to die for those things We too often forget that while it is his holiness that brings his wrath against our sin

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It is his love for sinners that brought him to send his son Jesus to reconcile us to himself

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By reconciling the father's holiness with our sin And he did that in Jesus the

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Holy One of God I wonder if our repentance is

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Sometimes staunched or slowed by such a view of God as that Do you remember the scene in Braveheart Braveheart has this great scene where his son who was

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Kind of a weak -willed kid While his father was away in France fighting

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The Northern Army in Scotland the British Army in Scotland got wiped out and the father blames him.

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So here's the son He's sitting in this room. He's at this table He's terrified to meet his father and he hears him walking up this aisle or the hallway towards him because he's dressed in armor says that Have you seen this?

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and with every step He gets more and more terrified until finally

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Patrick Magoon who plays the king did a great job Comes in but is that your view of the father?

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That he's this wrathful stern Terrifying King who's just going to Criticize you beat you down Tell you how bad you are

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You know that could not be the God who says return to me and I will return to you The Lord put sin on your heart

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Has the Lord given you knowledge of something that you have not resolved last year?

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And what does he say? Well, he didn't do it last year. So forget about it. You're never gonna get there. No, he says return

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Return to me and I'll return to you Return to me and I'll give you the strength to repent and to get back on the right path.

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Let's go the right direction Know that King who's so terrified his son in brave heart and too many of us have had fathers that we view that way

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That's not the same guy said return to me and I'll return to you It's not the same God who told James to tell us in his scripture what draw near to God and he will draw near to you

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There's not he who loved the rich young ruler even after he rejected him it is not he who in the parable ignoring appearances and acceptable standard gird up girded up his loins and ran to his son and Ran to meet him and showered him with kisses and embraces

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Which the filthy son could not escape because his father held him so close The father who scared his son to death has no point of contact with Jesus The father in that movie

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Braveheart nothing to do with Jesus Christ Did you think of things in 2022 and say

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I need to repent and correct this But it's too late.

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I've let it go for too long. There's nothing I can do about this If you think that way you need to change your thinking

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You really do Because that would have no point of contact either with the Jesus Christ who says what he says come to me all who labor and Are heavy laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I'm lowly and gentle Gentle and lowly of heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light

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So God is the one who calls us to repent God is the one who calls us to look back and see where we went awry and get that back on the right path

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And how do we do that one? God is right God's judgments are true and just to repent

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Go to him Tell him where we've gone wrong. He already knows Here he knows and his embrace is ready as it was for the prodigal as it is in Jesus Christ Come to me come to me.

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I will give you rest rest from your labors rest from your sin Rest from being scared of God No, God's the one who calls us to repent if he calls us to repent

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How could he reject us when he's the one who called us? Is that even possible?

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So let us when we pray We think of 2022 We look forward to 2023 and as we pray this afternoon as we go to him because of the merits of his beautiful son

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Who's redeemed us from our sin and given value to our repentance? Let us go to him in full hope and trust that he has and will turn to us

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They loved us. He's embraced us that he's even kissed us because of true repentance Was this possible only but possible only by faith in his son

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Jesus Christ If Christ hadn't died for our sins if Christ isn't the one who died and Was buried and was raised on the third day repentance would mean nothing but because of him

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Because he did die for your sins because he died and was buried and because in order that God would certify to you and Confirm to our weak spirits that he did indeed pay the price for his sins.

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He raised him up on the third day So because of all these things repentance has true value and It's not so much a command return to me and I'll return to you.

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It's a beckoning It's the prodigal son's father who couldn't wait to see his son in filthy rags smelling of pigs and covered with sin coming to him

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And the father says, okay. We'll get a shower first before I can't get you smell. No He embraced him so tight and showered him with kisses

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So many times that the poor kid couldn't escape and take that shower until afterwards. That's our

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God That's the God who wants to hear from us. That's the God who says return to me and I'll return to you

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That's the God who James promises draw near to God and he will draw near to you