Don’t lose hope
Key Passage: Hosea 14
Date: April 7, 2024
I can’t miss a chance to embarrass you. I tell you what, but Hosea, Jose, help me out. Let’s just review a little bit to get our hearts and our minds going that way. Hosea, who is this? What was this wife’s name? Gomer, right? And they’re married, they had three children together. Oh, let’s see, how many boys they have? How many boys?
Is that right? I don’t know, friend. Let’s look back over there in chapter number one. I’m just asking questions. I don’t know the answers to it. We’re going to find out. And, oh, let’s see here. Jezreel’s a boy, and then a girl. And then let’s see here. Yeah, two sons and a girl, if I get that right. Let’s see here. Verse number three, the last part of chapter number one, bear him a son. So we’ve got a boy. Verse number six, and she conceived again, and bare a daughter. I’ve got a girl. And then verse number eight—oh, let’s see here—I’m sorry, verse number nine, is that right? Called his name. And so verse number nine, we’ve got a boy. So is that right? Two boys and a girl?
Yeah, come on now. We’ve got all this debating going on tonight. What about that? I’ll tell you what. Look at that. And I wasn’t even planning on asking that one. I just, it’s always in. At least we got you awake tonight. You know, that’s always interesting. Was she a good lady or a sinful lady? Sinful lady, wife of four. But when she got married to Hosea, she just did everything right, and she never went back out and sinned or anything? She was just everything right, or did she go back out and sin? What happened?
Went back out to sin, right, and left him and cheated and all that. Years later, years later, Hosea has a chance to buy her back. Most would say at auction, maybe that’s true. Maybe I don’t know. Maybe I have her sinful ways, a person alone, we don’t know. But he bought her back. How much did he pay for her? Anybody remember how much you paid for her? Yeah, fifteen pieces of silver and a little barley.
What was that equivalent to? It was half of what? Yeah, what a servant or slave cost. Half the price. It’s so sad. Probably much, much more valuable, if you will, when she was young, but sin just wastes us. And she’s older, and he buys her back for just half the price of a servant.
Now, the first three chapters really talk about the family a lot. Then chapter four through chapter 13 talks about the sin of Israel. It really is taking that and it’s all right. Just like she went out and she broke your heart, Israel’s broken my heart by going into sin. God names that sin. We’ve covered several of those chapters. We finished up last time in chapter 6, very end of chapter 6. I started studying in chapter 7, but it just felt like the Lord said just go on down to the day into the book. And there’s such a parallel with Israel and America, and how sinful Israel was and how sinful America is. But I think, I think, even from just saying the amends, I think the Wednesday night crowd knows that. And it doesn’t come as a shock to us. Brother Powers was mentioning before service in California, talking about legalizing abortion up to seven days after birth. That’s not abortion. It’s murder. Of course, abortion is murder, but we know the sin of it. It’s a wicked nation. We know that.
And so I just felt like the Lord was, let’s just go. We’re going to go over to chapter number 14 a little bit here. We’re going to read the whole chapter. Now, it’s 59 verses. I hope y’all stick with me through all those. Wait, it’s only nine verses, so it’s not too long, but I got a couple of you worried for sure. I promise you that. You’re like, “Whoa!” And some of you are getting your pillow out. My goodness, what about that? But we are going to read through it. Calm down, it’s only nine verses, and then we want to try to pull some truths out tonight in Hosea chapter number 14. If you’re there, would you please stand together as we read God’s word, showing it respect?
Hosea 14 and verse number one. The Bible says, “O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God.” Isn’t it amazing, all these chapters of sin of Israel? And he’s still saying, return, return, return. Notice how he finishes the verse: “for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.”
We’ve already mentioned it, but just America—we get focused, I get focused on politics and all that, and that for sure is a problem. I heard recently that Biden, President Biden, said he can’t do anything about the gas prices. Well, you’re the one that made the gas prices go so sky high, closing down pipelines and the drilling and all that. And he’s just lying to the American people, very obvious.
But can I say that’s not really the root problem? It’s not. You say, “What? He’s not a problem?” Well, I understand, but he’s not the root problem. It goes way deeper than that. That verse tells us what the problem is. That last little phrase, “for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.” That’s the problem. We have a Biden in office because of our iniquity. That’s the root problem.
But he still says, “Return, O Israel.” We’ve missed just a bit. We’ve covered one time to talk about, “O Ephraim,” and that’s a name for the Northern Kingdom. “How can I give you up? You keep living in sin, and I’ve got to bring judgment, but I can’t give you up.” That’s the picture with Hosea and Gomer. And he’s still saying, “Return, O Israel.”
Verse number two: “Take with you words, and turn to the Lord. Say unto him, ‘Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously; so will we render the calves of our lips.’” Now he’s saying, look, with your mouth, your tongue, your words, to the Lord. What does the Bible say in 1 John 1:9? If we confess, he is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse.
He’s saying that the calves of your lips. He’s talking about the sacrifices—they would use those calves, those young animals, in their sacrifices. And God said, “What? I don’t want all that right now. I want the calves of your lips.” I want your lips confessing your sin and getting right with God. That’s what he’s saying there, verse number two. That’s what he’s talking about. Use your words to get right with God and confess your sin.
Verse number three. Asher—they say Asher was the king of the Assyrian gods—and often just really referencing back to Assyria, but they’re false gods. “Asher shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, ‘Ye are our gods,’ for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.”
Now let’s just stop. How foolish it is for someone to think that the works of their hands can save them. These little idols and these leaders of gods they made them—boy, they’re going to help the fatherless and show them mercy? How stupid can they be? But can I say this? Our idols are so often what we make with our hands: our career, education—I’ve got to have a better education, that can be an idol. It can be sports. It can be a car and all that, just the things that our hands have made. I made a good savings and all that. Friend, you get cancer. That savings, that nest egg can’t do you a bit of good. We do the same thing. The work of our hands becomes our idols. It is going to be so many different things. Praise the Lord, they’re wising up, and they’ll say, “That’s not going to save us. We’re not going to ride on all the horses of Assyria and all that.” That’s not going to work.
Verse number four, I love this. Verse number four, look at it. The Lord—he’s talking about—“I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely.” Praise the Lord for that. “For mine anger is turned away from him.” Oh, I can’t give you up, Ephraim! Oh, Ephraim, oh, Ephraim! And you just keep going back into sin, and your righteousness is as to do. It comes in just a little bit, and then it melts away. He said, we started that last week, but I can’t give you up. I’m just going to keep loving you.
And it’s amazing. Now, the next four verses, he just talks about the blessing. One day God’s going to bless Israel and use Israel and just put his hand on them in a great, great way. And he’s looking to that future blessing. And it’s awesome. Let’s just look at it as he describes it very briefly.
Verse number five: “I will be as the dew unto Israel. He shall grow as the lily and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread. And his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow shall return. They shall revive as the corn and grow as the vine. The scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.”
“Ephraim shall say, ‘What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him and observed him. I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.’” Wonderful blessings in those verses.
“Who is wise and he shall understand these things? Prudent, and he shall know them. For the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them, but the transgressors shall fall therein.”
I like it that Hosea had not lost his hope. I mean, after all these years—they say the ministry of Hosea, you might get a little difference, but most will say it was about 60 years. Now, can you imagine 60 years of just preaching and ministry? And all those years preaching on the sin of Israel, and repent, and get right, and return, and turn to the Lord, and turn to Jehovah, judgment is going to come if you don’t get right. And all these 60 years… I don’t know how old he is, maybe 72 or 75 or 80 here. I don’t know. And he’s still preaching, “Return. Return.” He has not lost his hope. Sixty years of the ministry. I don’t know how old he is, but he’s still preaching this first verse of this chapter, just wonderful: “Return unto the Lord thy God.” He’s still preaching. He has not lost his hope.
Not only that, preaching in a ministry—I mean, I don’t think if it was equivalent in our time, it would be a large ministry. I mean, there was no great revival under Hosea. I mean, it’s right towards the end of the Syrian captivity, a very sinful time. It doesn’t seem like he had a lot of what we call fruit. It may be equivalent to a church in our day in time of running 40 or 30 or 700. I’m not sure, but it wasn’t what happened. I said, “Well, he had a great fruitful ministry.” Been at it for 60 years. Still got his hope. This last chapter, this first verse, he’s still saying, “Hey, O Israel, return to the Lord thy God.” I just like that. I just like this old man that’s still having it, still preaching what God wanted him to. He still has hope. Israel’s backslid, but he’s still preaching.
Now, not only that, that’s his work, his ministry, if you will. But think about his home life. His wife has broken his heart. I mean, she left him. I don’t know how old the kids were. They were old enough to talk to Mom. Remember, we studied that. He got the kids to talk to Mom about not straying, but so they’re a little bit up in age. But I tend to think they’re probably still at home. And so he had to finish raising those kids in all those years and trying to juggle whatever and keep it all going—ministry and raising his kids and his broken heart. And then it looks like later on in life he buys her back, and he’s trying to rebuild his marriage. I don’t know if they got a divorce and got remarried. I don’t know if they renewed their vows. I don’t know exactly how it happened. But can you imagine his broken heart, and he still has hope? He’s still talking about, “O Israel, return. Oh, return unto the Lord thy God.” He still—he hasn’t lost his hope. He’s still talking about future blessings on Israel one day. He’s ending the book like that through the inspiration of God.
Can I say this? Can I say this? I don’t know—the Bible doesn’t tell us exactly—but sin always has consequences. But I imagine he was dealing a little bit with his children having issues with a sinful mom. I don’t mean to be mean about that, but friend, you just put it in reality. There are problems there. And he’s dealing with all that. And Israel as a whole is not listening to his preaching.
Somebody would you tell him, “Just bring the pizza a little bit later after church is over, we’ll get it then.” But he still’s got hope. And after all this is going on in his life, he’s still preaching, and he’s still living. He’s still living with hope.
And a friend, I’m saying, this old world, if you’re not careful, it’ll suck all the hope out of it. And you’ll just get a dried-up old prune kind of a Christian. Just don’t think God can really do that much anymore. And you’re just dead on the vine. And it used to be what Christianity used to do, and nothing about what God can do today. And that’s where Satan would love to get us at. But Hosea is still, after all that, he’s still preaching the same thing: return.
I think about a story I was told about a man. He had—I’m not sure if it was cancer or what it was—but he had some kind of something terminal, and he was going to die. But he still—he’s one of those guys, he had hope. And he went to the doctor’s office, and the doctor said, sir—it was one of those doctors that just wanted to prove how smart he was, showing his ignorance and doing that—and he said, “Sir, I’m telling you, I can’t remember if it was a month or three months, we’ll just say it was three months. I don’t know what it was. He said, ‘Sir, I’m telling you, you have three months to live.’” And the guy said, “No, no, I’m praying. God’s going to do something.” And I’m doing this, that, the other. And isn’t it funny sometimes? We get all these miracle cures on that line, but at least you got hope. And I’m praying and all that. And the doctor just says, “Sir, I’m telling you, I’m the doctor. You’ve got three months to live. You’re dying in three months.” Man, the guy, he just kind of took the wind out of his sails. And the guy…
And he went to go get back in his car, left the doctor’s office, and he opened the door, and he opened the door, and he went to the door, and he walked back into that doctor’s office. He was right past the reception, and he went to the room where the doctor was, and he found that doctor, and he took his finger, he said, “How dare you! I had one thing left, and you’re trying to take it from me! How dare you try to take my hope from me?”
Satan’s busy in our day and time trying to take our hope from us. Boy, if he can get Christians where we’ve got no faith, we’ve got no hope, we’ve got no life, friend, he has gotten us. I think about Jesus, he says where he could there do no mighty work because of their lack of faith in Mark 6:5. Satan’s always trying to get your hope. Hosea is an old man, but he’s still saying, “Return.”
Can I say this tonight, just real frank: Don’t lose your hope that God can still work in America. I’ve heard it all just like you’ve heard it all. We’ve not had revival in a hundred years. We’ve never had revival since the TV’s been out. We’ve never had revival since the cell phone. And all of those things, I’ve heard all those things like you’ve heard all those things. But as long as God’s still alive, friend, there’s still hope. Don’t lose your hope. Don’t lose your hope.
Don’t lose your hope in your marriage. “Well, we’ll never have a good marriage.” Well, you don’t know. “I don’t know if we even stay married.” Think about Hosea. Man, his spouse cheated on him, walked out and left him, and spent her life out in whoredom. And he still had hope. Can you imagine you have to buy back your spouse because of her change of sin? He had not lost his hope. He said, “I’m going to buy her back.”
Don’t lose your hope for him. Hey, you got a wayward child or a relative you’re praying for them to get saved. Don’t lose your hope. You say, “You don’t know how hardened this child is or this relative is.” No, I don’t, but I know how mighty God is.
I was thinking about Brother Fontaine today. Brother Fontaine, he used to talk about his grandmother. There’s a boy back in Alabama and his grandmother. He said, “I think she was an independent fundamental Baptist.” I don’t know if they’re around back then that day and time, you know that exact name. He said, “She was one of them, though.” I tell you what. And Brother Fontaine, you know his story. He lived in sin for years and years. And God got a hold of his heart, my goodness. He was in our church right shy of 20 years. What a godly man he was. And I’ve heard him so often, he said, “When I get to heaven, I’m going to thank my grandmother for praying for me, and I’m going to thank her for all those years she preached and she loved and she prayed for me.” And friend, tonight, I believe he is in heaven thanking her.
And it might be that relative you’re about to give up hope on. And you keep praying and loving and standing. By the way, don’t change. Don’t change. Don’t lower your standards. They won’t know where to come back to if you change for them. You stay right in the thing, but you keep praying. And it may be one year way down the road in eternity that they’ll be up in heaven and come along and thank you for loving and praying for them. Don’t lose your hope that God can work in their lives. Don’t lose your hope.
Hosea is an old man here, but he has not lost his hope.
Hey, don’t lose your hope that God can work greatly in Rutherford County Baptist Church. You say, “Ask for a little bit of church.” Hey, God does great things with little things. Don’t despise the day of small things, the Bible says. I mean, it’s funny, the school—I don’t know if it was after we had hired Sarah or something. We were talking about hiring, maybe we were moving it up and whatnot, and we were talking about it. And we said, “Man, I think maybe when she was moving up, we were helping to move up, and we were riding the same vehicle a little bit, we were talking about it, and we said, ‘Man, you know, we’re kind of chuckling a little bit out of ourselves.’ So we said, ‘You realize we’re supposed to start a school. We don’t have a school building yet. We don’t have any students. We don’t have any money for the school. I really don’t have anything. And we’re moving you up to start the school.’” We were kind of laughing about it, you know. And I said, “You know what? Probably just about the vast majority of those great Christian schools today got started the same way, where back somewhere someone just said, ‘I’m going to have hope. God’s going to do something.’” Oh, don’t lose your hope for it. Every great work that’s ever been done has been done by faith.
I love it, O Hosea. I can see him out preaching. And maybe if somebody walked by and they say, “You know, I remember him when I was a kid.” And all these 60 years later, and he still just has hope. And he’s preaching the same way, “Return, O Israel.” I love it. Now let’s get another thing in here. We’ve just got a couple things, and we’re going to go home.
Some are around 10 or 11 o’clock tonight. I appreciate a couple of you saying that. Of course, your wives are elbowing you now saying, “Hush, hush,” you know, “we want to go home.” Look at verse number four. Please, I want you to notice this here. Number one, don’t lose your hope. Number two, let’s look at this thing here. Verse number four.
Verse number four, he says, this is the Lord speaking through Hosea, “I”—that’s the Lord—“will heal their backsliding.” I like Brother Allen’s prayer request tonight, asking the Lord to do something in him that only God can do. And only God can heal the backsliding. “I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely. For mine anger is turned away from him.”
Oh, here’s my fault. Here’s my fault on this thing here: Don’t get stuck now on that verse there and then the next four verses all about the blessings. But don’t get stuck looking at man and earthly things. Always look to the Lord. “I will heal their backsliding.”
Satan’s always, always, always trying to get your eyes on all these earthly things down here. Satan knows the Bible. Satan knows the Bible says twice the Bible says, “The light of the body is the eyes.” And if he can get our eyes on all the bad and all the negative and all the horrible things, he’s got your light. And he’s always working at that.
And it’s so important. And I’m not saying don’t keep up on things. Oh, yes, I understand that. And I like to keep up on it sometimes. But man, I don’t want my eyes stuck on all this down here. Man, you talk about disappointing. Satan always likes to get our eyes on man. Can I say this? The best man out there will disappoint you. He’s just a man. Man at best is just a man. He’s flawed. You said, “Man alive, you talk about my wayward child and my lost loved one, they’ll never listen to anybody.” Why do you think about that? I think get your eyes off of them, get your eyes on the Lord.
Satan’s always… I’ll never forget our 20-year anniversary. Actually, it was on a Wednesday night, was the eve before the church’s actual 20-year anniversary. And I preached that Wednesday night. Sunday we had Brother Bruce come in and did a good job and all that, but that Wednesday night. And I preached some things I’ve learned in 20 years. I’m going to preach that. That was about an hour long, and then we’ll preach this and we’ll be done. No, this is the three main points. Every sermon’s got to have three points. Here they are. Here they are. Things I’ve learned in 20 years: Number one, God is awesome. Number two, man is weak. Number three, God loves to work through weak people. But I’m just saying, friend, if you get your eyes on mankind, you’re going to be just—you’re going to be crushed. Satan loves to get my eyes on all the horrible situations down here. And there are plenty of them. Plenty of them.
I was talking to someone—I cannot remember, it’s someone that traveled, maybe evangelists or something. I can’t remember who the person was off the top of my head. But I said, “You travel the United States. How do you think the churches are doing across America?” And I was surprised when they said this. They said, “You know, it seems like the preachers that just watch the news all the time, their churches are doing bad. And the churches where the preachers, yes, they know what’s going on, they’re keeping their eyes on the Lord—it seems like they’re doing all right.” How about that? Pretty revealing.
Friend, I’m saying Satan’s always trying to get me just focused on the bad. By the way, talking about that, talking about that, man, praise the Lord for our Supreme Court. Now, it’s not a done deal yet, but there’s a very good chance five will make the right decision, maybe even six. That’s the greatest decision in politics that’s happened over 45 years. Praise the Lord. Wonderful. It’s amazing. Now, even that, I must be careful. But friend, I’m saying, I must work at keeping—the Lord’s told me a million times over the years, especially if the church’s numbers are down, the Lord will often tell me, “Get your eyes off the people, get your eyes on me.” So many times I still mess up, and the Lord says, “Hey, get your eyes off the people, get your eyes on me.” Satan’s always trying. I love it at the end of this 60-year ministry, and these last verses God’s using him to write, and he said, “I, the Lord, will heal your backsliding.”
Oh, friend, can I just say, get your eyes on the Lord? That’s key. You heard about the little boy? He’s with his grandpa, and the grandpa had to go to the office for a little bit. And he said, “Man, I’ve got to keep this boy occupied. He’s going to be in everything in the office.” And so he found a puzzle of the world and said, “Hey,” he said, “go over and put the puzzle together. And you stay here in the lobby, and I’m going to go here and do a little work.” And he said, “Well, that’ll keep him busy for a while.” Man, that’s a big old puzzle of the world. No way he knows where Africa is or Asia is, you know, North America is. And so he came back in just a little bit, and the boy had the puzzle put back together. The guy says, “Grandpa, man, all right. How’d you put that thing together so quick?” And the little boy said, “Well, Grandpa, on the backside of the puzzle, there was a picture of the man. When I put that man’s face together on the other side with the world, they put the world together.” And the grandpa flipped the puzzle over, and it was a picture of Jesus. Friend, you get your eyes on Jesus. He’ll take care of the world.
Yes, that’s so key. Keep your eyes looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. It’s so important. Can I say this? That’s why praise and worship is so important. And I’m not necessarily talking about in church. There’s nothing wrong with in church, but I’m not talking about necessarily this crazy stuff, per se, but I’m talking about you somewhere along with God, you praise him and you worship him and you brag on him and you love on him and your prayer calls him, you just butter him up and make him sound like the greatest because he is the greatest. That’s so vital that we don’t lose our praise, especially during the hard times.
And like old Jeremiah, he’s praying over there, Jeremiah 32, I believe it is, and he said, “Lord, there’s nothing too hard for thee.” He didn’t know what he was doing. And I like old Paul over there, said, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” And I go to Daniel over there and said, “Ah, the Lord can take care of those lions for me. That’s no problem,” old king there. “Throw me in there. God can handle that.” I love that attitude. Eyes are on the Lord. Satan’s always trying to get my eyes on the earth. “Set your affection on things above.” Oh, don’t get stuck looking at it down here, miserable sometimes. Man, get your eyes stuck on the Lord.
“That will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusted in thee.” That next verse: “Trust the Lord forever, for the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.” Wonderful. We’ve got to get the last thing, and we’re going to be done tonight. Y’all still out there? You’re still on board? Amen. Y’all are. That’s great. That’s wonderful. The dumpers have been back and forth from Indiana about 40 times the last two weeks, and they’re still in church tonight, and they’re still awake. Now, their car’s on empty because, you know, filling it up twice, you’ve got to take a second mortgage out to do that. But they’re in church. Amen, that’s wonderful. And praise the Lord for that. Let’s get this last thing in here. This last thing in here. I’ll tell you what, I’ll just emphasize. I’ll just mention it. Verse number five through verse number eight is always these future blessings, future blessings.
Now with that thought in mind, would you turn over to Psalms 27? Psalms 27. And we’re going to use a verse that will kind of relate to the same thing. Hosea, he’s 80 years old or something, ministry 60 years long, and he’s still talking about future blessings. And that’s verse 5 through 8, just awesome about how it’ll blossom and bloom and grow and the smell will be wonderful. It was just awesome verses.
Now look over here in Psalms. You got Psalms 27? You got it there? Let me talk to you for a second here. We’ll talk about—we’ll get to the verse. Let me talk about it. We don’t know when this was when David God used David pinned it. We’re not sure at what point. Some tend to think it’s when Saul was chasing David and he was hiding. Some say maybe it was when his son Absalom was trying to kill him. I tend to think that. I don’t know. I don’t think he might be able to prove whenever. But it was at one of his lowest points of his life. I’m reading through the Bible chronologically. I’m usually an old Reese’s chronological Bible this year, reading through it. It’s a Bible my dad—I stole it from my mom’s house when Dad passed. Oh, she gave it to me. And, but the… she doesn’t read her Bible anyway, so no. I’m joking. But I was noticing this year, you know, so it’s got where he thinks these Psalms are written. And I’ve noticed it more than ever this time I read it chronologically, that it just seems like David pinned more Psalms when he was on the bottom than the other time. Majority of the Psalms when he was just down. It spoke to my heart this year. And this is one of these times, you’re just on the bottom. But I want you to see what God used him to pin in verse number 13. Psalm 27, verse number 13 right there. He said, “I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”
Would you read that verse out loud with me? Here we go. Would you please? Here we go. “I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” He couldn’t see it at that time. He couldn’t see it. You ever have a time in your life just every area of your life, you get to the goodness? Every area is, “Wow.” Sometimes it seems like Satan, when he hits you on one side, he hits you on all sides. And then every angle, he said, “Hey, I can’t see the goodness of the Lord right now.” He couldn’t see it at that moment. Maybe it was when he was hiding in one of those dens when Saul was trying to kill him. Maybe it’s when he’s running over to Moab because it’s on the sunshine. I don’t know. But he said right there, he said, “I had to believe to see that.” He couldn’t see it at the time. That’s what you call living by faith for him. By the way, the Bible says, “The just shall live by faith.” By the way, the Bible says, “Without faith, it is impossible to please him.” He couldn’t see it at that moment.
Now with that, notice this, notice this, in that verse: “I had fainted unless I believed to see the goodness of the…” What? Not the goodness of man, the goodness of the Lord. He couldn’t see it at that moment. Everywhere Job talked about, he said, “I went to the south and east, I couldn’t find the Lord,” and you’ll go through those times. There can be times that you cannot see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. But can I say this, even when you cannot see the Lord’s goodness, he’s still good, friend. Whether I can understand it, make sense of it all, or not, he’s still good. Whether I can see it or not, he’s still good. You just mark it down, whether I understand it or not, he’s still good. And he didn’t have his eyes on mankind at that moment. He’s looking for the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. But there’s going to be times you can have to see by—you’re just going to have to look through eyes of faith.
Then one last thought, we’ll give you two illustrations. We’re done. That verse right there, those first little lines, he said, “I had fainted.” He said, “I’d have quit. I’d have thrown the towel in. I’d have waved the white flag. I’d have fainted.” Unless I believed to see. He couldn’t see it. He said, “I believed to see the goodness of the Lord.” Oh, friend, don’t faint. Keep believing. Keep your hope. Keep your eyes on the Lord.
Little boy was climbing in an old rotten tree, and his dad was watching him. He thought, “Well, there’s enough branches good enough, the boy would be all right.” The boy got up pretty high. He was holding on to some limbs, and he had his feet on some limbs, and all of a sudden—I mean, the limbs his feet were on started cracking about it. So he put a little bit more weight on the limbs he was holding on, and they started breaking. And he tried to shift everywhere he went, it was breaking. And his dad was saying, “Hey, come on, son. Jump! I got you. I got you, son.” And the little boy, he just—he didn’t want to let go. “Come on, son, let go.” And the little boy said, “Dad, you want me to let go of everything?”
Little boy jumped. His dad caught him. But don’t hang on this old world. It’s breaking everywhere you look. It’s falling apart. It’s—it’s not going to last. We know that. We don’t know when the Lord’s going to come back. I like what Brother Patrick said the other day, it may be tonight, it may be a hundred years down the road. We don’t know. Friend, friend, hey, listen, don’t get too caught up on this old world. Keep your eyes—let go of all this stuff and just trust. He’s got you.
“Believe to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” Believe it.
A nervous lady, she was worried and just nervous about her life. What’s going on? She called her pastor. She said, “Pastor, I’ve got this problem, this, can’t pay this bill, this, that, and the other.” And the pastor could tell she’s just frantic. But he could hear a little child in the background. And the pastor said, “Ma’am, can I ask you something? Is your child back there? Is your child worried?” She said, “No.” He said, “Why is it your child worried? You got all these problems?” And she said, “Well, I guess she’s just trusting in her mom.” And the pastor said, “Well, you’ve got a heavenly Father. And just like that child has peace trusting you, won’t you trust your Dad?”
“I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” Here this time, you believe it? Eyes of faith. Man, Hosea, he’s awesome. Old man, been preaching for 60 years, I don’t think of a big ministry, but he had not lost his hope. Man, he’s out to preach it away: “O Israel, return! Let’s go and bless you one day.”
He had not lost his hope.
I want you just maybe on your ride home to talk about this a little bit, but what would renew your faith? What would help you get your eyes on the Lord? For me, often, I need to listen to preaching. I’m always preaching; I need to hear preaching. That helps me. Reading a good book helps me. My devotion time helps. But what helps you? Maybe a husband and wife talking about the right things. I don’t know, but maybe just talking about the right home. What would renew my faith? And what would help me get my eyes just squarely on the Lord? Just talk about that. And wow, what a man Hosea was. He was awesome. I love it. And praise the Lord for just a good godly example of the Word of God. And glad you’re in church on the Wednesday night. That’s awesome. Praise the Lord for it. It’s what America needs right here. Amen. Church like that. People in church all over. Praise the Lord for you.
Original File: Don’t Lose Hope - Pastor Paul Chisgar - Wednesday PM 0612022