Return to Me
Repent and Return

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Today , 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.

Over 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, “Repent and Return.” You will see why as we get into the text today.

Now, I want to ask you a question. Have you ever heard this statement? “If you feel far from God right now, guess who moved?” 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, “I don’t even claim to have a relationship with God.” 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 can know Him. You can be part of His family.

That’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, “Return to me.” 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.

Zechariah is telling the people of God, “Return to me.” 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 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.

Some of you have thought, “Well, it’s a new year. I probably should return to church.” But have you 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 “wingman.” 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.

Zechariah 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.

How can 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.

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

Zechariah 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 “The 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, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.’ But they did nothear 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, ‘As the Lord of hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so has he dealt with us.’” This is God’s Word. Amen.

How God calls us to return to Him: 1. He reveals His righteous anger toward sin.

This 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 “school of thought” that says, “Let’s ease in on them. Let’s say some nice things to the people first and get them to listen before hitting them with the hammer.” No; Zachariah went to a different prophet school. He said “No” right out of the gate . 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. Look at verse two and circle the phrase “very angry.” 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.

Let’s do a little background here, first, because Zachariah starts with giving us a date. He says “in the eighth month.” 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 , 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

Zachariah 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.

We need a chart. I 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.

Then, 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 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.

Another way of dating it might be to say, “from the time of the destruction of the temple,” 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 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.

Some of you have your phones out, taking pictures 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.

Why 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.

Here 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, “the Lord” or “Yahweh;” “iah” at the end of a Hebrew name means “yahweh.” It is at the end. Zachariah means “Yahweh remembers” or “the Lord remembers.” His father’s name was Berechiah; there’s another “iah” at the end. Berechiah’s name means “the Lord blesses.” Berechiah’s father was named Iddo, which means “the Lord bless us” 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 “God remembers and blesses at His set time.“ So you have Zechariah, Berechiah and Iddo.

Something 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 . 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? “God was angry.” 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?

Jeremiah is the one who prophesies it would be 70 years. Jeremiah 29:10 (ESV) “For 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.” 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 before the 70 years was just getting started.

Why was it 70 years and not 72? Why not 100 years? 2 Chronicles 36:21 (ESV) “to 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.” 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 seventh year, I want you to trust me by not planting. Let the land lie fallow.

From 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, “sore displeased.” .

Why was He angry? Psalm 78:8,10 (ESV) says this, 8 “that 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…10 They did not keep God’s covenant, but refused to walk according to his law.” That’s why He was angry. They had His word and they were rebels. They were rebelling against God. It made Him angry.

“Lord of hosts” is throughout the book of Zechariah. You see it five times in these six verses of Zechariah 1. Lord of hosts, in the Hebrew, “Yahweh of Angel Armies.” 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.

If you’ll recall your history, Babylon’s walls were so 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.

In verse three, we have God’s invitation to these people that have returned to the land. He says, “Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.” 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 forgive if we would just return.

You see, God’s wrath is already present in this world. It’s revealing something about God to us. Romans 1:18 (ESV) “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” If God’s a good God, why are bad things happening in this world? It’s 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 His anger is merciful, so that we would listen.

I 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 “switch.” Now some of you are asking, “What’s that?” My Mom would go out to that sugar maple tree and break a “switch.” She liked the “keen switch.” What’s a “keen switch?” It sounds like “Zorro’s sword” going through the air. It kind of whips around like that. “Gary Wayne, I’m not coming to you, you come right here.” 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’t even question that my mom loved me . 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.

Those who have not believed in the Son remain under God’s wrath. John 3:36 (ESV) “Whoever 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.” 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 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 “step into the ark;” 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.

God’s anger is not like ours. He is slow to anger and abounding in faithful love. Psalm 103:8 (ESV) “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” God has a “long fuse;” 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.

My friend, Pastor Stephen Rummage and I graduated from seminary together. He wrote a commentary on Zachariah; at the time 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: “Splash Zone.” You sit there at your own risk. Similarly, God has a kind of “anger zone.” 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 “splash zone.” Sure enough, when Shamu shot into the air out of the water 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 “splash zone,” you will get wet. God’s word says that if you go in the “sin zone,” 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.

Some of us are just like I was when I was young. I’m the firstborn of four. My mom used to say to me, “Gary Wayne, you are so stubborn.” I was. For some of us, the only way we know how to learn is to go and sit in the “splash zone.” 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 , when you sit in the “splash zone,” you will get soaked. When you sit and live in the “sin zone,” it brings suffering and you come under God’s anger.

It 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: “He could have called 10,000 angels to destroy the world…” I grew up singing that song and thinking , you know, that Jesus could have done that. That’s not why He came. Love held Him on that tree. It wasn’t 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.

2. He warns us not to ignore His Word.

We’re in verse four now. He warns us not to ignore His Word. He says, 4 “Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried out, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.’ But they did not hear or pay attention to me, declares the Lord.” He 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.

What 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 “raises the bar” in the Sermon on the Mount. He says that they are both sins. He says, in Matthew 5:22 that whoever calls his brother, “Racca,” or empty head, is in danger of the fires of hell. He says, in Matthew 5:28 (ESV), “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” 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 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.

What was their response when the preachers came, when the profits came and told them to repent and return? It says, “they did not hear or pay attention to me declares the Lord.” 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 “such and such” 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 . Don’t complain to God because it happened.

This is why Jesus says, in Matthew 11:15, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” 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.

Then, he asked these questions, which were a little bit sarcastic. I think the Lord was trying to get their attention. 5 “Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?” 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 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.

How 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 “graduated” 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 “But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers?” 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, “did they not overtake your father’s?” The Hebrew here for “overtake” could be “caught up.”

God’s word will always accomplish its purpose. Isaiah writes, Isaiah 55:11 (ESV) “So shall My word be thatgoes 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.” God’s word remains.

If you hear God’s warning, don’t ignore it by hardening your hearts. Hebrews 3:15-17 (ESV) 15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” 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’s warning, heed the warning.

When 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 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, “I can’t believe somebody pulled the fire alarm at two o’clock in the morning, can you believe it?” 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, “Get out of our way!” People looked at us and they said, “Oh this is not fake; this is a real fire!” 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’t until they smelled the smoke on the people that were telling them to get moving did they believe it to be an actual fire.

Sometimes that’s 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, “Okay, maybe I’ll listen.” Will you listen to God’s word today, if you’re far from Him?

3. He promises restoration to those who repent.

We’re in the latter part of verse six. Circle “repented” in verse six. It says, “So they repented and said, ‘As the Lord of hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so has he dealt with us.’” After God’s warnings “overtook” 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, “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.” It’s at that point they had to hit rock bottom.

Sometimes, 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 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. I 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’t have to be the way some of the hardheaded among us have experienced pain. Repent.

Repentance 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 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.

This is what Paul is writing about in 2nd Corinthians, he says, 2 Corinthians 7:9-10 (NLT) 9 “ … the pain caused you to repent and change your ways. It was the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have…10 For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.” Just being sorry is not enough. Repentance is more than that. The Greek word in the New Testament is “metanoia,” which means “the change of the mind; “ it is a transformed way of thinking. In military terms, it means “about face;” 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.

They repented . Here’s what they said, ‘As the Lord of hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so has he dealt with us.’” 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.

Do 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 . 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 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At 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, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you…” 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.” 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 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, “girding your loins” 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.

Come home. He loves you. He loves you. How close to 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.

Let’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 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 “sin zone” 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, 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’ name. Amen.