{"id":10308,"date":"2022-02-06T14:58:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-06T19:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/?post_type=message&p=10308"},"modified":"2022-02-18T15:23:40","modified_gmt":"2022-02-18T20:23:40","slug":"return-to-me","status":"publish","type":"message","link":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/message\/return-to-me","title":{"rendered":"Return to Me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Below is an automated transcript of this message:<\/h3>\n\n\n\nToday <\/i><\/span>, we’re beginning a new series through the Book of Zechariah. How many of you have ever heard a sermon series through the Book of Zechariah? There’s one person in the back. Some of you have never heard a sermon from the book of Zechariah, much less a series.

\nOver the next ten weeks, we are going, verse by verse, through the fourteen chapters of the book of Zachariah. We’re excited about this. We try to offer expository preaching at least twice a year and go through whole books of the bible because we think it’s important for us to have a good understanding of the word of God. We’ve entitled this series, \u201cRepent and Return.\u201d You will see why as we get into the text today.

\nNow, I want to ask you a question. Have you ever heard this statement? \u201cIf you feel far from <\/i><\/span> God right now, guess who moved?\u201d It begs this answer, doesn’t it: You moved, because God’s right there all the time waiting for us. He’s right there on the front porch waiting for us to come home. I wonder, today, how you would describe your relationship with God. Would you say you’re very, very close to God today or would some of you admit that you are not close. I’m just asking you to consider your own heart right now. I don’t really feel close to God at all. If you were to rank it on a scale of 1 to 10, you might say 1. Someone here might say, \u201cI don’t even claim to have a relationship with God.\u201d We’re especially glad you’re here today because we want to talk to you about how you can have a close relationship with the Father and that you <\/i><\/span> can know Him. You can be part of His family.

\nThat’s the purpose of the Book of Zechariah. He doesn’t wait long to tell us what the word of the Lord is to us. He says, \u201cReturn to me.\u201d He wants a relationship with you and that’s why He gave us Jesus because we were so far from God that we couldn’t get back to Him on our own. He sent us Jesus to come to where we were, so we could be where He is. Even before God sent Jesus, He was already trying to reach us. That’s where we’re at; in the book of Zechariah, five centuries before Jesus came.

\nZechariah is telling the people of God, \u201cReturn to me.\u201d You see, the people of God had been carried off as exiles to the land of Babylon and they’ve been there for seventy years. King Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the Jewish temple and he carried them off to his land of Babylon. They had been removed from <\/i><\/span> their land. They had experienced great destruction, but now they’re back. Zachariah writes to these people that have returned to the land. When they got back, they were very passionate and zealous. They were so excited to be back, but when they got back, the place was in ruins. It didn’t look anything like what their fathers and grandfathers had told them. It was all destroyed. The walls were torn down and burned; the gates were burned. The temple was torn down. It didn’t look anything like they had always heard, so now, the reality begins to hit. They started laying a foundation for a rebuilt temple, but then, they got discouraged. There was some persecution involved and they stopped. That’s kind of where they are. They’ve returned to the land but they haven’t really returned to the Lord.

\nSome of you have thought, \u201cWell, it’s a new year. I probably should return to church.\u201d But have you <\/i><\/span> returned to the Lord? He sends a prophet named Haggai. The prophet, Haggai, comes and tells them they have been rebuilding their houses but they haven’t rebuilt God’s house. He encourages them. He tells them to be strong, do the work and don’t fear. Get back to work on the temple. Zachariah comes in; he’s like his \u201cwingman.\u201d He agrees; that’s right. Let’s rebuild the temple, but, more than that, let’s return to the Lord. That’s where Zachariah is at. He calls them to this deeper purpose.

\nZechariah 1: 1-6 is really the introduction to these fourteen chapters. In these six verses, he says that you’ve returned to Jerusalem but you haven’t returned to Me. As we look at the text today, we can recognize how God today continues to call us to return to Him.

\nHow can <\/i><\/span> we see this? How can we recognize how God is calling us? And as we look at the text, I think we’ll see three ways that we can recognize God calling us to Him. Are you ready? Have you got your seatbelts on? We’re going to go hard and fast today. We’ve got a lot to cover in six verses.

\nSo here we are six verses first, six verses of the book of Zechariah:

\nZechariah 1:1-6 (ESV) 1 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying, 2 \u201cThe Lord was very angry with your fathers. 3 Therefore say to them, Thus declares the Lord of hosts: Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. 4 Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried out, \u2018Thus says the Lord of hosts, Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.\u2019 But they did nothear <\/i><\/span> hear or pay attention to me, declares the Lord. 5 Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? 6 But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? So they repented and said, \u2018As the Lord of hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so has he dealt with us.\u2019\u201d This is God\u2019s Word. Amen.

\nHow God calls us to return to Him:\n1. He reveals His righteous anger toward sin.

\nThis first one will surprise you. Perhaps, the first way He calls us back to Him is He reveals His righteous anger toward our sin. We don’t like to hear about God’s anger, do we? That’s not a popular message. Apparently, Zachariah didn’t go to the \u201cschool of thought\u201d that says, \u201cLet’s ease in on them. Let\u2019s say some nice things to the people first and get them to listen before hitting them with the hammer.\u201d No; Zachariah went to a different prophet school. He said \u201cNo\u201d right out of the gate . <\/i><\/span> God was very angry with your fathers. He makes his introduction and tells us who he is. He tells us when he’s writing; he gives us the date, if you will, and then he jumps right in. \n \nLook at verse two and circle the phrase \u201cvery angry.\u201d God was very angry. We don’t like that. We like our God of love and mercy, of forgiveness. We’re troubled by the word of God telling us that God gets angry. We’ll talk more about this, but here’s my purpose with this first principle: Even God’s anger is meant to draw us to Him. Don’t close your ears to this.

\nLet’s do a little background here, first, because Zachariah starts with giving us a date. He says \u201cin the eighth month.\u201d Now, he’s following the Jewish calendar. The Jews had a lunar calendar. We follow a solar calendar. We base it on the rotation of the earth <\/i><\/span>, the orbit of the earth around the sun. They based it on the new moon; whenever there was a new moon. The eighth month of the Jewish calendar would be reconciled along with the October and November date for us. This time is around October or November

\nZachariah says it’s in the second year of Darius the first, the king of Persia. It’s in the second year. We have really good archeological evidence of this date, around October\/November of 520 BC. Zachariah is one of the books that has the clearest providence for dating of any of them. When we encounter this kind of information and because you know your pastor, we must look at a chart.

\nWe need a chart. I <\/i><\/span> hope you can see it. Nebuchadnezzar has conquered Judah. In fact, in 586 BC, he destroyed the temple of Jerusalem. Back over here, about 608 BC, is when he gained control over Israel. 586 BC is the destruction of the temple and carrying the Jews off in exile. He killed many of them. Many of them were starved to death during the siege. But he took the best of them, the intelligent, the wealthy, the young men and women, and he carried them off into exile.

\nThen, around 539 BC, Cyrus, the king of Persia overthrows the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar. You can start working out the dates here. If you go back here to about 608 BC, that’s about 70 years to the proclamation or the overthrow. Go to this decree in 539 BC; if you go from 608 BC to 538 BC that’s 70 years. I’ll explain more to you <\/i><\/span> why that’s important; that’s one way of looking at it, which is what the prophet Daniel, the prophet Jeremiah had said would be their time of exile.

\nAnother way of dating it might be to say, \u201cfrom the time of the destruction of the temple,\u201d which is what I’m marking here at the bottom to the time of the temples rebuilding the 70 years. It’s like God wanted to make sure he had his bases covered no matter what He told his prophet. So no matter how you calculate it, it was 70 years. Whether it’s the time of Nebuchadnezzar’s rule to the time of Cyrus releasing them, that’s 70 years, or the time of the destruction of the temple to the rebuilding of the temple, that’s 70 years. Okay. Either way you look at it, they were held for 70 years. Cyrus sets them free by decree. We have archeological evidence that Cyrus was the one that whenever <\/i><\/span> he took over a land, he would always rebuild the temple of the that land. He was polytheistic; he wanted the favor of all the gods. Whenever he overthrew Babylon and he let the Jews go home he would tell them to rebuild their temples and he actually equipped them to do it. But then, there was persecution and they stopped. They got discouraged. Cyrus dies and then later one of his generals, Darius the first , becomes king of Persia and he sends a decree to start rebuilding. They start rebuilding. Haggai and Zechariah are preaching; they’re both encouraging them to rebuild. 3.5 years later (it looks like five here, but from the time they’re preaching, from the time they start, it’s 3.5 years) the temple is rebuilt.

\nSome of you have your phones out, taking pictures <\/i><\/span> of the chart. I can always post it for you if you want to see the chart, those of you that love charts as I do.

\nWhy do I take the time to do this? I do this, because the bible is not a myth. The bible is not just some random narrative. The bible is history. These things really happened. There’s archeological evidence for these things happening and the bible is full of stories about real people. That’s why I take the time to do that, so you know what we’re talking about. You can trust the word of God. You can trust the bible.

\nHere is Zechariah. He’s telling us what month and year it is. It’s 520 BC around October or November. Then, he tells us his name is Zachariah and that he is a prophet. Zachariah means, \u201cthe Lord\u201d or \u201cYahweh;\u201d \u201ciah\u201d at the end of a Hebrew name means \u201cyahweh.\u201d It is at the end. Zachariah <\/i><\/span> means \u201cYahweh remembers\u201d or \u201cthe Lord remembers.\u201d His father’s name was Berechiah; there’s another \u201ciah\u201d at the end. Berechiah\u2019s name means \u201cthe Lord blesses.\u201d Berechiah\u2019s father was named Iddo, which means \u201cthe Lord bless us\u201d and then it means when it’s time or at a certain time. One of my commentaries says, if you put the three names together, it reads like this \u201cGod remembers and blesses at His set time.\u201c So you have Zechariah, Berechiah and Iddo.

\nSomething else to take note of, that Jesus mentions when He says you who kill the prophets and he mentions that Zechariah, son of Berechiah, son of Iddo . <\/i><\/span> Zachariah was killed; he was martyred. So this is the Zachariah that Jesus talks about that they killed. It’s no wonder, because guess how he starts his letter? \u201cGod was angry.\u201d They didn’t like to hear that then. Our modern ears, especially, don’t like to hear it now, but God gets angry. Why is He angry at the forefathers? Why did they get exiled for 70 years?

\nJeremiah is the one who prophesies it would be 70 years. Jeremiah 29:10 (ESV) \u201cFor thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.\u201d So, Jeremiah was telling the exiles that as they went; don’t get too sad, don’t get too discouraged because God’s anger doesn’t last long and His mercy comes back. It’s only going to last 70 years. Jeremiah told them that <\/i><\/span> before the 70 years was just getting started.

\nWhy was it 70 years and not 72? Why not 100 years? 2 Chronicles 36:21 (ESV) \u201cto fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.\u201d Now, this comes from a reference from Exodus 23:11, where God commanded Moses to tell the people when you come into the promised land because the land is Mine and I’m loaning it to you, but you have to remember the sabbath and, so, every seven years, I want you to let the land lie fallow and don’t plant. If you’ll obey me in this, in the eighth year you’ll live off of what you saved because in the sixth year, I’ll give you a double harvest so huge, you can’t contain it. You’ll have enough. By the ninth year, you’ll be able to live off of what you plant, but every <\/i><\/span>seventh year, I want you to trust me by not planting. Let the land lie fallow.

\nFrom the time of David to the time of Nebuchadnezzar overthrowing Israel is 490 years thereabouts. If you divide seven into 490, you get what? 70. If you won’t let the land rest (because they didn’t, they disobeyed that law) then you will see that God does math. He knows math. If you won’t let the land rest, He will let it rest. You feel like God lets you rest sometimes because you wouldn’t rest. I’ve been laid up a couple of times where I felt like God was telling me to take it easy and then I didn’t. God rested me. That’s what He did here in Zechariah; He was very angry. The King James version translates it, \u201csore displeased.\u201d . <\/i><\/span>

\nWhy was He angry? Psalm 78:8,10 (ESV) says this, 8 \u201cthat they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God\u202610 They did not keep God’s covenant, but refused to walk according to his law.\u201d That’s why He was angry. They had His word and they were rebels. They were rebelling against God. It made Him angry.

\n\u201cLord of hosts\u201d is throughout the book of Zechariah. You see it five times in these six verses of Zechariah 1. Lord of hosts, in the Hebrew, \u201cYahweh of Angel Armies.\u201d He is the warrior God. He’s the God who has all power and Babylon could not have touched Israel if He hadn’t let them, nor can Babylon stand when He decided to send Cyrus down there to take them on.

\nIf you’ll recall your history, Babylon’s walls were so <\/i><\/span> impregnable that no one thought it could ever be overthrown, but there was a river, the river Tigris, that ran under the walls. Cyrus of Persia dammed up the river and moved it and made it go into another canal. So, they were able to march the army under the walls before Belshazzar even knew what hit him. He saw the handwriting on the wall. There was the army of Persia in Babylon. God is the Lord of hosts; He has all power and this is His title five times In our reading today and 52 times in the book of Zachariah, the prominent title of the book of Zachariah, to describe the Lord.

\nIn verse three, we have God’s invitation to these people that have returned to the land. He says, \u201cReturn to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.\u201d He really hasn’t gone anywhere. He’s just been waiting. Return to Me and I’ll return to you. He gets angry at our sin, but He’s always merciful and ready to <\/i><\/span> forgive if we would just return.

\nYou see, God’s wrath is already present in this world. It’s revealing something about God to us. Romans 1:18 (ESV) \u201cFor the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.\u201d If God’s a good God, why are bad things happening in this world? It\u2019s because of sin. Sin always brings suffering and, in a way, if you understand this rightly believer, the fact that God is letting us see evidence of this now is so that it prevents us from ultimate wrath, which is eternal death apart from God. Maybe, if we get our hands burned, we’ll pull away and run to the Father. It won’t kill us; it’ll save us. This kind of anger will actually save us because it’s revealing to us that our God is a holy God. Even <\/i><\/span> His anger is merciful, so that we would listen.

\nI don’t know about you. But when I did something wrong growing up and my mom got that look on her face, I listened closer or I tried to run one or the other. Then, she’d stand at the end of that long hallway in that ranch-style house that my parents had with that \u201cswitch.\u201d Now some of you are asking, \u201cWhat’s that?\u201d My Mom would go out to that sugar maple tree and break a \u201cswitch.\u201d She liked the \u201ckeen switch.\u201d What’s a \u201ckeen switch?\u201d It sounds like \u201cZorro’s sword\u201d going through the air. It kind of whips around like that. \u201cGary Wayne, I’m not coming to you, you come right here.\u201d I knew what that meant. My mom was angry at me for whatever rebellious thing I had done. She was standing in the place of the Lord right there and correcting me. Did she love me? Oh my goodness, I didn\u2019t even question that my mom loved me . <\/i><\/span> I don’t know how she did on some days, but she did. She loved me enough to get angry at me and to correct me when I needed it. See, God’s anger is even better than that though. I’m trying to give you glimpses of it, but we really can’t understand it because His anger is not like a human’s anger. It’s perfect in response and according to the amount. It’s never out of control.

\nThose who have not believed in the Son remain under God\u2019s wrath. John 3:36 (ESV) \u201cWhoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.\u201d Jesus is talking to Nicodemus here. If you have not come to Jesus, who is the ark of God, the wrath is upon you. The rain fell on Noah’s ark, but the people who were safe inside were safe from the wrath of God. The judgment of God fell upon creation, but those inside the ark were found safe. If you’re in Jesus, the wrath of God has <\/i><\/span> already fallen on Him in your place, but if you are outside of Jesus, the wrath of God remains on you. That mixture of anger and justice is hanging over you until you decide to \u201cstep into the ark;\u201d His name is Jesus. Jesus warns if you don’t believe in Him, who is your provision, then the wrath of God remains on you now.

\nGod\u2019s anger is not like ours. He is slow to anger and abounding in faithful love. Psalm 103:8 (ESV) \u201cThe Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.\u201d \nGod has a \u201clong fuse;\u201d He lets us run so far before He pulls on us and tells us to return to Him. You’re going to kill yourself out there. I think He gets so angry, also, because we’re hurting ourselves and He loves us.

\nMy friend, Pastor Stephen Rummage and I graduated from seminary together. He wrote a commentary on Zachariah; at the time <\/i><\/span> that he wrote the commentary, he was living and preaching in Florida. He talks about visiting Seaworld and going to Shamu Stadium. Have you ever been to Seaworld to see the killer whale, Shamu? My wife and I went there when Stephen was six months old. The seats down front close to the pool had a warning: \u201cSplash Zone.\u201d You sit there at your own risk. Similarly, God has a kind of \u201canger zone.\u201d Choosing to live there, you come under His wrath. I saw people going to the store at Seaworld and buying blue rain ponchos so they could sit in the \u201csplash zone.\u201d Sure enough, when Shamu shot into the air out of the water <\/i><\/span> and landed, everyone in the splash zone, got a bath; they were soaking wet. There was a warning sign, though; if you sit in the \u201csplash zone,\u201d you will get wet. God’s word says that if you go in the \u201csin zone,\u201d you’ll get the same result. I’ve warned you; I don’t want you to go there. I made a provision for you. If you do go there, I’ve given you a way out.

\nSome of us are just like I was when I was young. I’m the firstborn of four. My mom used to say to me, \u201cGary Wayne, you are so stubborn.\u201d I was. For some of us, the only way we know how to learn is to go and sit in the \u201csplash zone.\u201d I wonder if I will really get wet if I sit there. I have heard and have seen the warnings. Maybe, I can dodge some of it. Some of us are just hard headed. Friends <\/i><\/span>, when you sit in the \u201csplash zone,\u201d you will get soaked. When you sit and live in the \u201csin zone,\u201d it brings suffering and you come under God’s anger.

\nIt looks different if you’re a believer. It doesn’t look like wrath. Romans 8:1 says that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because all of the wrath has already poured on Him upon the cross. If you want to see a picture of God’s wrath and God’s love intermingled, look at the cross. Look at how seriously He takes sin, that someone would have to die in our place. That Jesus would die such a cruel death. Also, look at the love that would put Him there, so that He didn’t call 10,000 angels from the Lord of hosts to destroy the world and set Him free. Some of you may know that I just quoted a song that I grew up singing: \u201cHe could have called 10,000 angels to destroy the world\u2026\u201d I grew up singing that song and thinking , <\/i><\/span> you know, that Jesus could have done that. That’s not why He came. Love held Him on that tree. It wasn\u2019t the nails that held him to that tree. He’s the Son of God. He made that tree that made that cross. He could have come down, but love nailed Him there. If you will look at the cross, you will see the wrath of God, intermingled, with the love and forgiveness of God all in one place. He’s both; He’s not either\/or. Don’t try to make a cardboard idol of God. You can’t put him in a box. He gets angry at sin.

\n2. He warns us not to ignore His Word.

\nWe’re in verse four now. He warns us not to ignore His Word. He says, 4 \u201cDo not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried out, \u2018Thus says the Lord of hosts, Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.\u2019 But they did not hear or pay attention to me, declares the Lord.\u201d He <\/i><\/span> describes what they did in verse four. He says that they had the prophets crying out to them; they had preachers telling them, but they wouldn’t listen.

\nWhat is the difference between evil ways and evil deeds? Ways are like attitudes; deeds are like actions. You need to repent, your attitude of sin, which is what precedes the action. We always have an attitude of sin that precedes the action. Jesus \u201craises the bar\u201d in the Sermon on the Mount. He says that they are both sins. He says, in Matthew 5:22 that whoever calls his brother, \u201cRacca,\u201d or empty head, is in danger of the fires of hell. He says, in Matthew 5:28 (ESV), \u201cBut I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.\u201d Well, there went the whole ten commandments. I’ve broken them all. All of us have; either in our hearts, through our actions or both. But <\/i><\/span>Jesus made a way. He’s made a way and He warns us not to ignore His word. He says to return from your evil ways and your evil deeds.

\nWhat was their response when the preachers came, when the profits came and told them to repent and return? It says, \u201cthey did not hear or pay attention to me declares the Lord.\u201d They stuck their fingers in their ears. Not me, I’m doing good. I don’t need God. That preacher, surely, is talking to the person next to me. Some of you are sitting there right now, thinking, Boy, I wish \u201csuch and such\u201d was here to hear this. He’s talking to you. These words are to you. These warnings are for you. Listen believer, listen. Stop playing with those attitudes and actions that you know do not glorify the Lord Jesus. Stop playing with sin. If you touch the hot stove, your fingers will get burned <\/i><\/span>. Don’t complain to God because it happened.

\nThis is why Jesus says, in Matthew 11:15, \u201cHe who has ears to hear, let him hear!\u201d I don’t think it’s because people were missing more ears in the first century. I think it’s because the people did not want to hear. That’s how these fathers were; he said that they wouldn’t listen to the warnings.

\nThen, he asked these questions, which were a little bit sarcastic. I think the Lord was trying to get their attention. 5 \u201cYour fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?\u201d Where are the ones who wouldn’t listen to Me? Where are they now? They’re gone, that’s where they are. They got what was coming to them. What about the prophets; do they live forever? No. Do you remember what happened to Jeremiah? He was put at <\/i><\/span> at the bottom of a dry well and he mired up in the mud. You left him down there to die. If it hadn’t been for some godly men that got in there and got him out of there, he would have died in that well. That’s how you treated the prophets. They passed away.

\nHow many of you grew up listening to a grandmother, grandfather, old preacher, uncle or not that told you about Jesus. They’re gone now; they’ve \u201cgraduated\u201d to heaven, but their words remain. They were speaking the word of God and it doesn’t return void. That’s what the next verse says, 6 \u201cBut my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers?\u201d Your fathers and the prophets are gone, but My words and My statutes are not gone. In fact, they caught up with your fathers. It says, \u201cdid they not overtake your father’s?\u201d The Hebrew here for \u201covertake\u201d could be \u201ccaught up.\u201d

\nGod’s word will always accomplish its purpose. Isaiah writes, Isaiah 55:11 (ESV) \u201cSo shall My word be thatgoes <\/i><\/span>goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.\u201d God’s word remains.

\nIf you hear God\u2019s warning, don\u2019t ignore it by hardening your hearts. Hebrews 3:15-17 (ESV) 15 As it is said, \u201cToday, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.\u201d 16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? If you hear God\u2019s warning, heed the warning.

\nWhen I was a sophomore in college, I lived in a dorm at Radford University that was fifteen stories high. It had a penthouse on the top; I lived on the 12th floor. One night, at two or three o’clock in the morning, an unhappy boyfriend from a nearby college, whose girlfriend had broken up with him, was <\/i><\/span> so upset that he decided to set the set the dorm that she lived in on fire. He chose my floor to start the fire. So across the hall from my room, he set the lounge on fire; he set the curtains on fire. The fire alarm started going off. My roommate and I had bunk their beds; I was in the bottom bunk and my roommate was in the top bunk. There was so much smoke coming under the door that it had already started to kill me. I wasn’t waking up to the sound of the blaring fire alarm but the heat got to my roommate because heat rises. He flopped out of the bed, grabbed and shook me to wake me up and had the foresight to wet two towels. We wrapped the towels around our faces and crawled on all fours as a fiery inferno was chasing us down the hall along the ceiling. We got to the fire escape and as we there, people, in their pajamas and their robes were complaining, \u201cI can’t <\/i><\/span> believe somebody pulled the fire alarm at two o’clock in the morning, can you believe it?\u201d When Mark and I hit the stairwell, we had black smoke on us. We had steam coming off of our clothes where there was so much heat. When we hit that stairwell, we shouted, \u201cGet out of our way!\u201d People looked at us and they said, \u201cOh this is not fake; this is a real fire!\u201d A stampede began. I was running barefooted and there was a foot of snow on the ground. I still remember when we got out in front of the dorm; I’m standing in a foot of snow, barefooted, looking up and seeing flames leaping out of the windows of the 12th floor. You see, our fellow dorm residents really didn’t believe there was a fire. They thought it was a fake fire alarm and somebody had just pulled it for a prank. It wasn\u2019t until they smelled the smoke on the people that were telling them to get moving did they believe it to be an actual fire.

\nSometimes that’s <\/i><\/span> what it takes for us to heed God’s word. Either we need to get burned a little bit, or somebody that’s still got smoke on them, talks to us and we say, \u201cOkay, maybe I’ll listen.\u201d Will you listen to God’s word today, if you’re far from Him?

\n3. He promises restoration to those who repent.

\n We’re in the latter part of verse six. Circle \u201crepented\u201d in verse six. It says, \u201cSo they repented and said, \u2018As the Lord of hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so has he dealt with us.\u2019\u201d After God\u2019s warnings \u201covertook\u201d them and they were exiled, they repented.They repented when they got to Babylon. The psalmist writes one of the psalms that was written from the exiles, in Psalm 137, \u201cBy the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.\u201d It’s at that point they had to hit rock bottom.

\nSometimes, for some of us hard headed people, the only way to get us to look up is to get so far down that there’s no place to look but up. I don’t know <\/i><\/span> how many of you have found yourself in that place and that’s what it took for you to find Jesus. If that’s the case, it was one of the ways He reached out to you. He let you reach rock bottom so you would look up to Him. We’re rebellious people and it often takes a rock bottom experience. We have to get hurt before we’ll ask for healing. \nI hope you young people, especially, will listen to me. You don’t have to experience that; you can just decide to follow Jesus. You’ll still experience suffering in this world, but it won’t be like it could have been. There’s always trouble in this world, but it doesn\u2019t have to be the way some of the hardheaded among us have experienced pain. Repent.

\nRepentance is more than just being sorry. Everybody in the world says they’re sorry. I’m sorry that this bad thing has happened to me. They’re not sorry that they did the thing that caused them to have the bad thing. They’re sorry that they got <\/i><\/span> caught. That’s how the world is sorry. That’s not repentance. Repentance is not only being sorry for your sin, but it means to turn away from it and run the other direction toward the Father.

\nThis is what Paul is writing about in 2nd Corinthians, he says, 2 Corinthians 7:9-10 (NLT) 9 \u201c \u2026 the pain caused you to repent and change your ways. It was the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have\u202610 For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There\u2019s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.\u201d Just being sorry is not enough. Repentance is more than that. The Greek word in the New Testament is \u201cmetanoia,\u201d which means \u201cthe change of the mind; \u201c it is a transformed way of thinking. In military terms, it means \u201cabout face;\u201d to go the opposite direction from where you’ve been headed. Repentance means, I’m turning from my sin and I’m turning to Jesus.

\nThey repented <\/i><\/span>. Here’s what they said, \u2018As the Lord of hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so has he dealt with us.\u2019\u201d They had it coming; he said it was going to happen. We didn’t listen. We’re sorry. Lord forgive us Lord. He says, Return to me and I’ll return to you. I was just waiting for you to say that you want to come home. I’ve been saving a place for you the whole time. All you had to do was say, I don’t want this life anymore. They waited until it got so bad.

\nDo some of you know what they mean? They waited till it got so bad before they repented, but they finally did. There’s a story in Luke, chapter 15, where Jesus talks about a young son, the Prodigal Son; he said to his Father, give me my stuff. I don’t want to live here anymore, I want my stuff, I want my inheritance. The father did and he let him go . <\/i><\/span> It’s a crazy kind of story that the father would do that. But the father loved his son, but he loved him enough to let him go try to live on his own. The son spent all his money on riotous living. Then, he found himself in a pig pen and hungry for the pig food, he was so desperate. It says in Luke 15:17-20 (NLT) 17 \u201cWhen he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, \u2018At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will go home to my father and say, \u201cFather, I have sinned against both heaven and you\u2026\u201d 20 So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.\u201d He went to his father and said, I have sinned against both heaven and you; that’s how you do repentance right there. He returned home to his father; he left the pig pen. See, repentance means you get out of the pig pen. He ran home to his father and, still a long way off, his father saw him coming. You know why I saw him coming? He’s been looking for him filled with love and <\/i><\/span> compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. He didn’t wait for his son. All he had to do was just see him down there at the end of the road. He saw the son coming and the father made up the distance.Can you picture that old man back in those days? They didn’t have shorts. They had robes, so they grabbed the back, pulled it up through, tucked it in their belt and took off running. They’d make some shorts out of those old robes. That is what is called, \u201cgirding your loins\u201d for those of you that want to know what that means. The old man comes running up that road; he hadn’t ran like that in years. When he saw his boy returning to him, he returned to his son.

\nCome home. He loves you. He loves you. How close to <\/i><\/span> God are you today? I asked you that as we began. How close do you want to be? The invitation is, return to Me and I’ll return to you. I’ve been waiting for you. Come home.

\nLet’s pray. Lord, even in your anger, even in your warnings, all of these are just because You love us. Forgive us. I pray for that person right now. That came in on a thin thread. You know who you are. You came in; you’re hurting. You’re struggling. You wouldn’t think that you were close to God when you came in , but you can leave close. You’ve never given your life to Jesus. You can do that right now. Pray with me, right where you are. Pray with me, Dear Lord Jesus, I’m a sinner. I believe You died on the cross for my sins, that You were raised from the grave and that You live today. I believe that. Come and live in me; forgive me of my sin and make <\/i><\/span> me the person You want me to be. I want to be a child of God. I want You to be my Lord and Savior. If you’re praying that prayer, believing, the bible says He promises that He will save you. He’s waiting for your repentance and for you to call on Him. Others are here and you’ve done that. You’ve given your life to Jesus, but you’ve got a favorite sin area that you’ve gone back to and you think you can get by with it. You’ve put yourself in the \u201csin zone\u201d and you’re going to get hurt. Now, the Father loves you enough to discipline you. Would you repent of it, right now, and say, Lord forgive me. Lord, <\/i><\/span> You love us. We repent and we run to You and You run to us and we know that You forgive us and You set us free. We love You. Thank you. In Jesus\u2019 name. Amen.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How close are you to God today? If I were to ask you to rank your closeness right now on a scale of 1-10, what would you say?<\/p>\n

Even before God sent Jesus, He was already at work calling His people to return to Him. In the book of Zechariah, God spoke through the prophet to the Jewish exiles who had returned from Babylonian captivity. When they first returned, they were passionate and excited to be back home and had started to rebuild the Temple that had been destroyed by the Babylonians. Yet their passion had grown cold when they faced the difficulties of rebuilding and the work had ceased. Years had gone by since any work had been done. So God sent the prophet Haggai, who encouraged the people to get back to work on the Temple. And He sent the prophet Zechariah, who called them to an even deeper purpose. In Zechariah 1:1-6, God told the Jewish exiles that had returned to Jerusalem that it was even more important that they recognize how He had called them to return to Him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":10309,"template":"","tags":[2019],"series":[2870],"scripture-book":[1305],"scripture-chapter":[1334],"speaker":[2007],"class_list":["post-10308","message","type-message","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-exposition","series-repent-and-return","scripture-book-zechariah","scripture-chapter-1334","speaker-gary-combs"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/message\/10308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/message"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/message"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/message\/10308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10308"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=10308"},{"taxonomy":"scripture-book","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/scripture-book?post=10308"},{"taxonomy":"scripture-chapter","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/scripture-chapter?post=10308"},{"taxonomy":"speaker","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speaker?post=10308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}