Return Series

In golf, a do over is called a mulligan. At a fast food restaurant, if they happen to make your sandwich incorrectly, and you bring it make to them to do over, it is called a re-make. Woman who get tired of wearing their hair a certain way will go to the beauty parlor and ask for a make- over. And if you get tired of the way your family room looks, you may call someone in to re-decorate it.

Now, whether you call it a mulligan, re-make, a makeover, or a redecoration, it is the same thing it is a do over.

As I read my Bible, I cannot help but notice that God’s people have a history of messing up and then crying out to God and God tells them to return. That is God’s word for a do over. Return. It is an extremely popular word in the Bible used 263 times from cover to cover.

So, I thought we might look at the word “return” today because some of us may be in the need of a do over. We professed Christ as our Savior, but we have not been living like we should. We need a do over! So, if you have your Bibles turn with me to Hosea 14:1-9.

Scripture

Hosea 14:1-9 (NIV)

1 Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God. Your sins have been your downfall!

2 Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to him: "Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips.

3 Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount war-horses. We will never again say 'Our gods' to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion."

4 "I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.

5 I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon, he will send down his roots;

6 his young shoots will grow. His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.

7 Men will dwell again in his shade. He will flourish like the grain. He will blossom like a vine, and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon.

8 O Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? I will answer him and care for him. I am like a green pine tree; your fruitfulness comes from me."

9 Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them. The ways of the LORD are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.

POINT #1

WE NEED TO RETURN TO THE TRUTH ABOUT GOD’S WORD CONCERNING SIN.

1 Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God. Your sins have been your downfall!

2 Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to him: "Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips.

I want you to think about this statement for a minute. Every time I sin, I believe the truth of a lie over the truth of God’s Word. Underneath the surface of every sin is a lie that we believed over the truth of God’s Word. It might be- sin will bring me pleasure. It will do something for me that God did not do. And that is a lie.

Let me give you two examples of what I am talking about-one from the Bible and the other from everyday life.

For Eve, the lie she believed is the suggestion made by the devil that if she ate of that tree, she will be like God knowing good and evil. The truth was God said do not eat of that tree for any reason. She believed the lie offered her by the devil rather than God’s own words.

And the same thing is happening to us in everyday life. We are still believing the lies of the devil rather than the truth of God’s Word. The devil tells us that God do not love you because if He did, He would not have let you go through what you are currently going through. And so, we get angry at God, quit praying, quit reading our Bible, and quit going to church. But the truth is God says his plans for you are not to harm you but to give you a future and a hope.

But I got to be honest with myself it seems easier sometimes for me to believe the lie than the truth of God’s Word. And I know why, it is so hard to grasp how much God’s absolutely loves me. And the devil plays to that. He tells me that God is holding something back. If God, really care about you that would not have happened to you. God do not have your back.