The Year of Returning to God

Series: New Year

Text: Hosea 6:1-3; Joel 2:12-14; Mal 3:7-11; 4:1-6

Introduction: (What?)

Last year (2021) we called “The Year of Recovery”. That was on the front of every bulletin during the year. And we did recover;

· Our in-person worship

· Our evening services

· Our Sunday School

· Our Youth ministry

· Our Missions programs

· Our fellowship dinners

There is a lot of talk in the evangelical world as to whether we are facing God’s judgment or are on the verge of Spiritual Renewal. I believe that the result will depend on our returning to God. 2022 I have labeled “The Year of Returning to God” In the Old Testament almost every time that God planned judgment on Israel, He also issued a call for them to repent and return to Him. In the passage that we repeat over and over when praying for revival, 2 Chron 7:14 “and my people, who bear my name, humble themselves, pray and seek my face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.” He mentioned the need for repentance and seeking His face. Notice that the verse begins with a lower case letter which means that it is the continuation of a thought. That preceding verse is important to the context. 2 Chron 7:13 “If I shut the sky so there is no rain, (there is drought in many places in the world today) or if I command the grasshopper to consume the land, (there have been swarms of locusts that devoured crops in several countries today) or if I send pestilence (could Covid 19 be such a pestilence?) on my people,” Then we have the exhortation of v 7.

Examination: (What?)

1. God’s Invitation (Joel 2:12-14; Mal 3:7-10)

In Joel 2:12-14 “Even now— this is the Lord’s declaration— turn to me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Tear your hearts, not just your clothes, and return to the Lord your God. For he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and he relents from sending disaster. Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him, so you can offer a grain offering and a drink offering to the Lord your God.”

After a vivid description of “The Day of the LORD” in the first 11 verses Joel 2, God issues an invitation to the very ones that He has warned. His call is for deep repentance. He wanted them to go beyond the traditional expressions of sorrow (tearing their garments) to tearing their hearts. After all, it is from the heart that all sin emerges. Jeremiah wrote that “the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked”. To tear one’s heart is to expose the evil that is hidden there. It is the ultimate act of repentance. For true repentance to happen, we must go to the source. We can’t say with Flip Wilson, “The devil made me do it.” We sin because we have harbored sin in our hearts.

Beyond exposing our hearts, God calls us to return to Him. Joel described God as being “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in faithful love, and He relents from sending disaster.” If your concept of God is different from that, then you have a wrong perception of who He really is.

Joel also expresses the hope that God would relent from His planned judgment against Israel. There is precedent for this in the history of Israel. That precedent should be an encouragement for us today as well. Until the trumpet blows and Christ descends from heaven, there is still room for repentance.

In Mal 3:7-10 the prophet expressed some of the same hope that Joel mentioned and again pointed out the invitation of God to sinful man. “Since the days of your ancestors, you have turned from my statutes; you have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of Armies. Yet you ask, “How can we return?” “Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me!” “How do we rob you?” you ask. “By not making the payments of the tenth and the contributions. You are suffering under a curse, yet you—the whole nation—are still robbing me. Bring the full tenth into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house. Test me in this way,” says the Lord of Armies. “See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure.”

This invitation from God indicates that we must respond first. “Return to Me and I will return to you”. Repentance must precede forgiveness. Zechariah wrote the same thing in Zec 1:3 “So tell the people, ‘This is what the Lord of Armies says: Return to me—this is the declaration of the Lord of Armies—and I will return to you, says the Lord of Armies.”

Malachi then engaged in an imagined conversation between sinful man and God. Man challenged God by asking “How can we return?” You can almost hear the sarcasm dripping from their question. God’s response went straight to the heart of the matter. “Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me.” Uh-oh! Now you’re meddling! Let’s don’t talk about tithing. There is an old story of a man being baptized while holding his wallet up out of the water. People who are far from God will often say, “All the preacher ever talks about is money.” When God speaks of tithing, it hits a nerve. Most people do not look at tithing as a command of God, but rather as an option. God proposed (and still proposes) a challenge. Although we are told that we should never put God to the test, here God invites us to test him. “Bring the full tenth into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house. Test me in this way,” says the Lord of Armies. “See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure.” In those days, as today, the salary of the priests (pastors) and the costs of maintaining the temple all came from the tithes of the people of God. One thing that we are seeing growing among evangelical churches is the number of “tent-making” or bi-vocational pastors. The idea of tent-making springs from Paul’s ministry. However, Paul encouraged giving to support the churches that he planted. He emphasized that the “workman” (pastor) was worthy to be paid for his services. 1Tim 5:18 “For the Scripture says: Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain, and, The worker is worthy of his wages.”

The point is not that by giving you are buying God’s favor. The point is that God made a covenant with His people and they had broken their part of that covenant. God’s covenant with you is that if you obey His commands, He will meet your needs.

2. Our Response (Hos :1-3)

In Hos 6:1-3 the people proposed a plan. “Come, let’s return to the Lord. For he has torn us, and he will heal us; he has wounded us, and he will bind up our wounds. He will revive us after two days, and on the third day he will raise us up so we can live in his presence. Let’s strive to know the Lord. His appearance is as sure as the dawn. He will come to us like the rain, like the spring showers that water the land.”

Having recognized the connection between their straying from God and His commands and the suffering they were experiencing, the Israelites proposed a return to the LORD. They surmised that their repentance would shorten the days of the judgment they were experiencing and that the blessings of God (rain) would follow. They wanted a “quick-fix”. If we move down to Hos 6:6 we find God’s response to their “quick-fix” assumption. “For I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” What God requires is faithful (steadfast) love, in the form of ongoing obedience to His commands. (John 14:23 “Jesus answered, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”) Our response to God is to be much more that just beginning to tithe. If involves obeying His clear commands from scripture. Paul capsulized what this means in 1 Thess :5:14-22 “And we exhort you, brothers and sisters: warn those who are idle, comfort the discouraged, help the weak, be patient with everyone. See to it that no one repays evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good for one another and for all. Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Don’t stifle the Spirit. Don’t despise prophecies, but test all things. Hold on to what is good. Stay away from every kind of evil.”

How will you respond?

3. What to expect (Mal 3:11-12; 4:1-6)

Suppose we do repent and return to the LORD. What can we expect? In Mal 3:11-12 God said, “I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not ruin the produce of your land and your vine in your field will not fail to produce fruit,” says the Lord of Armies. “Then all the nations will consider you fortunate, for you will be a delightful land,” says the Lord of Armies.”

And in Mal 4:1-6 “For look, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and everyone who commits wickedness will become stubble. The coming day will consume them,” says the Lord of Armies, “not leaving them root or branches. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and playfully jump like calves from the stall. You will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day I am preparing,” says the Lord of Armies. “Remember the instruction of Moses my servant, the statutes and ordinances I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. Look, I am going to send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.”

The choice is clear. We can continue in our disobedience or we can repent and return to God. Scripture clearly shows the result of either decision. God has already made clear the blessings that can be ours if we are obedient. But…we must take the first step. James reminds us in Jas 4:8 “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

So, what are you going to do?

Application: (How will I respond to this message?)

Have you surrendered your life to Christ?

Are you spending time with Him daily?

Are you obedient as a steward if material possessions?

Are you deliberately making disciples?