This is the Truth Network. This is the Truth Network. Welcome to the broadcast ministry of Finding Purpose with Russ Andrews, where we seek to glorify God by making him known and guiding others towards their true purpose in life. No one is here by chance. God put us here for a reason.
And the most important thing we can do is discover his plan for us and commit ourselves to it. Keep listening as we learn from the Bible how to live wisely in God's world, which is the first step towards finding your purpose.
So, guys, really, um We're not going to fill this place up with a thousand plus men unless we pray.
So we've got to be praying every day. Pray every day that this place will be like a magnet. But we filled up in here while we were singing. and that God will just use you to bring as many men as you can. your buddies that need to hear the gospel and and your Christian um Friends, men who need to understand what it means to be a godly man, to be the spiritual head of their home.
Okay?
Alright, so now take your Bible and turn with me to Hosea chapter 11. I don't know what to preach about tonight since it's not about judgment and wrath. But anyway, I've been titled tonight's message, The Love of God. Isn't it nice to have a reprieve from judgment and wrath? There are two very important words in the Bible.
That describes the character and the nature of God. And I would say the first and most important word is the word holy. In fact The word holy is the only word used in the Bible to describe God that is used three times in a row, three consecutive times. Holy, holy, holy. This is what Isaiah, in chapter 6, when he was given a view of heaven, he saw the angels surrounding God and they were crying out, Holy, holy, holy.
And when you get to Revelation chapter 5, it says the angels cry out night and day, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty. But we're not going to talk about the wholeness of God tonight. We're going to talk about the second most important word that describes the character and nature of God, and that is the word love. The Bible says that God is love. In 1 John 4, 8.
John writes, Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Now, when I think about The love of God. I'll look no further than what? The cross. The cross. I believe that the cross of Christ stands as the greatest picture of love in the history of the world.
And it really, if you think about it, it divides our calendar in two. God Himself Entered time and space as a man, lived a perfect life, and then died on the cross in our place. In John 15, 13, Jesus says, Greater love has no man than this, that he laid down his life for his friends. And that's what he did for you and me. He laid down his life for you and me.
And then, when you place your trust in him, he calls you what? In John 15, he calls you his friend. What a friend we have in Jesus. You know, when I first came to know Jesus when I was a young boy, I really thought of him as my friend and my savior. I came to understand that he's also my Lord later on, but he was first.
My friend, and I taught him All the time.
So, tonight I want to show you four qualities of God's love. And here's the first one: God's love is unconditional. Look at verses 1, 3, and 4. Verse 1 says, When Israel was a child, and this is God speaking about the nation of Israel. As his child, he says, I loved him, and out of Egypt, I call my what?
Sun? Yet it was odd Who was a God for Ephraim? Taking them by the arms, but they did not acknowledge it was I who healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them.
Now we've talked about this before. But think about all that God did for Israel. His son. Even though They were the least of all the nations. He chose them to be his what?
Treasured. Would you like to be God's treasured possession?
Well, guess what, Gary? You're in Christ and you are. You are his treasured possession.
So, all of you, if you're in Christ, Through Moses, he rescued the Israelites from 430 years, that's a long time, of slavery. In Exodus chapter 3, 7 and 8. Listen to what the Lord says. And he's looking down from heaven at his... Treasured possession.
And he says, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I've heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.
So I've come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey. When I look at this and I see that God is looking down at them and He says, I'm concerned about their suffering. Do you think he's concerned about your suffering? Yes. I've got a friend of mine that I've known for quite many years, and he is.
I believe in the last month he's become a believer. He grew up Catholic. But he had a daughter that was born with a um A severe um Okay. A severe illness. And it's been a very difficult things.
She's been through like 22 surgeries. And he's had a hard time, you know. Seeing that God loves him. But I've told him that, you know, God is concerned about his suffering. In Exodus chapter 4, 22, God tells Moses what to say when he stood before Pharaoh.
He said, This is what the Lord says. Moses was to go and stand before Pharaoh, and he did this ten times, and he was to say this. The Lord says, To you, Pharaoh, Israel is my firstborn son. And I told you, let my son go. Who told Pharaoh to let the Israelites go?
God did through Moses. And he said, let my son go so he may worship me. God not only rescued the Israelites. But as it says in um In this two first few verses here, he bit down, bit down from heaven, and he fed them for 40 years. Water.
Manna and what kind of bird? Quail. Quail. Do y'all like quail? My mother used to cook me.
This has nothing to do with this lecture. Um What's the country country style? coil with gravy and mashed potatoes and biscuits. What's that got to do with us? Not a thing.
But quails are pretty good meat if you've never had good quail.
So God was taking care of them. And then he led them to the promised land and he defeated all their enemies. And all God asked of the Israelites in return. was for them to love him. In other words, to return his love for them to him and to worship him.
and to obey his word. And then you know what he would have done. He would have blessed them. For as long as they lived. He'd still be blessed if.
In Deuteronomy 30, verses 19 and 20, Moses set before them, and we've talked about this a couple of times in here this year. Moses set before them two choices. He said, This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I've set before you life and death, blessings and curses.
Now choose life so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. Don't you love that? Love the Lord your God. Listen to his voice. How do you do that?
You just read the Bible, and you're hearing God speak to you, and then you hold fast to Him. For the Lord is your life, and He will give you many years in the land He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. See, God's love for the Israelites was unconditional. He did not require anything from them to receive his love.
However, if they were to receive his blessings, they needed to do these three things that they needed to love him back. They need to listen to his voice. And they needed to hold fast to him. How do you hold fast to God? But you you hold fast to God.
By praying. And reading his word and clinging to it, doing what it says. That's how you hold fast to him. Hebrews 6.19 says, We have this hope. as an anchor for the For the soul, firm and secure.
I like to think of praying. and reading God's Word as this anchor that I'm clinging to. that keeps me secure when I go through the storms of life. But you see, the Israelites, they did not return his love. They did not listen to his voice, and they did not hold fast.
Instead, they turned away from him and they worshiped other gods. Yet even then men. God never stopped loving them. just as Hosea never stopped loving Gomer. Let me ask you a question.
Has not God done the same thing for you and me? I think about all the years. going back my entire life, of the thousands of sins I've committed, egregious sins. A god. for some reason, never stopped loving me.
I gave him plenty of reasons to stop loving me. Why did he not stop loving me? I have no idea. For the same reason he's not stopped loving you. He loves you, even if you did something horrible this weekend.
You looked at something you shouldn't have looked at, and you know what I'm talking about.
Now you may be overwhelmed with guilt even as you sit here tonight, but he still loves you. And he understands you. You see, if you're in Christ, It is only because God lifted you out of your enslavement just like He did the Israelites. and chose you to be his treasured possession. John 15, 16 says, This is Jesus speaking.
He said, You do not choose me. But I chose ye. I used to think that God looked down the tunnel of time and He saw Russ Andrews born in the little town of Bethel and He saw me hear the gospel from my mother. And then, because of that, he chose me. But that gives me a lot of credit that he just chose me because he saw that I believed the gospel.
And that's part of it. We don't really understand God's predestination and his election and all that kind of stuff.
So don't get. Caught up in that, but I do want you to understand this: the reason you are in Christ is only because of the work of God in salvation. He gets 100% of the credit, you get none. The only thing we get credit for is sin. And that's why we need the gospel.
God chose you, and in so doing, here's what He did: He set you free from the penalty of sin. He set you free from The power of sin. And sometimes it may not feel like it, but he did. Because you have You have the power of God in you if you're saved. Because you have the Holy Spirit in you.
And the Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead. He sets you free. Listen, this is what I love about being a Christian. He sets us free from the guilt and shame of sin. I'll never forget this abortion doctor up in New York, a Jewish doctor, he coined the phrase pro-choice, and he said he committed 5,000 abortions with his own hands and then.
50,000 through his clinics that he owned. And then the sonogram was invented. And he began to look at the forming fetus. And he realized what they were doing. was murdering babies.
And he became He turned to Christianity. And someone later asked him, why did you turn to Christianity? He said, because it was the only religion in the world that offered forgiveness. Amen. When God forgave that doctor He washed away all the stain.
Of all the thousands of abortions he committed and was responsible for. And not only that, God gives us the gift of eternal life.
So listen, not only did he choose you to be his treasure possession. He chose you, and this is the greatest thing that I can say about you and me. He chose us to be His what? Sun Did you know that? Romans 8, 14, and 16, Paul writes, Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the spirit of sonship or the spirit of what? Adoption. And by him we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself testifies with our Spirit that we are God's children. This is that internal witness that confirms within you that you belong to Him.
You sense the Holy Spirit saying... You're mine. You belong to me. The reason why Paul used the term, the phrase adoption, is because in Roman culture, adoption was so legally bonded. that you have the same rights as a natural born son.
There was no difference. It was legally binding. And so when God adopts you... into his family as a son. It is legally binding in the courtroom of heaven, and it can never be undone.
You belong to him, he is your heavenly father, and you can crown Abba Father. And it's all because of God's unconditional love for us. Moreover, He's the second quality of God's love: He is patient. He's been so patient with me. Look at verses 2, 5, 6, and 7.
First to others. Also, called to them. I think these were the wives, the Midianite wives and the Canaanite women that they married, and they were calling to these. These Israeli men. And in this way they departed from me.
Remember, he said, Do not marry foreign wives, because they will lead you to worship their gods. And that's exactly what happened. They heard this call from these women, and they began to worship these false idols. They offered sacrifices to Baal, and to images they burned incense. Yeah.
The question in verse 5. Depends on how your translation reached mine is in the form of a question. Will they not return to Egypt? And will not Assyr rule over them because they refuse to repent? Swords will flash in their cities, will destroy the bars of their gates, and put an end to their plans.
Verse 7. My people are determined to turn from me, even if they call to the Most High.
Some that to me seems like it's talking about God, but Eaton, what Michael Eaton says is talking about like Baal. Regardless, They will by no means be exalted. Either God is not listening to them because they're so aggregiously sinning, or the God that they're calling out to is not a real God. Anyway, here's the bottom line. The Israelites are a picture of you and me, of all of us.
We're all rebellious by nature. We're born with this sinful desire that just wants us to rebel against God. We want to do what we want to do when we want to do it. If you tell your child, not to touch that electrical socket. What's the first thing they want to do?
You see, if you hadn't mentioned the socket, they would probably mess with it. But when you tell them, don't touch it, that's when they want to touch it.
So here's what We're like. Isaiah 53:6. We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. Do you know what the problem Yes, for so many people.
Steve Swartz said it's not in our leadership meeting. People love their sin. More than they love. God. Even as believers.
Are we not guilty of this from time to time? We love our sin. more than we love God. We're prone to wonder, are we not? Prone to leave the God we love.
John 3:19 and 20, Jesus says, This is the verdict. In other words, it's like he's in the courtroom overlooking the world. He says, This is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light.
Why? For fear that his deeds will be exposed. I believe this is the number one reason why so many of your buddies will not come to a Bible study. It's not an intellectual decision or problem. They have a moral Problem.
They don't want to Have their deeds exposed. They don't really want their lives to change. They want to stay as they are. They are afraid of this book. Did you know that?
They wouldn't admit this. But they're afraid of it. I remember when I was in the um The eighth grade, and I had this little uh New Testament Bible that I sometimes would carry to school with me, I put it in my back pocket. And um I was on the basketball team, and this guy that was older than me, Douglas Dunning, he was a senior when I was in the ninth grade, so I wasn't playing with him, but he was a very good player. And for some reason, they had the ninth, ninth, and tenth, and twelfth graders all in the same study hall together.
And I was sitting on this side of the classroom, and he was on that side. He said, Hey, Rush, you got your Bible with you today? And I pulled my New Testament out. And I did like this, I threw it across the room and I said, yeah, there it is. Why don't you read it?
And he caught that thing like it was a hot coal. And he never kidded me again. Because he was afraid of that book. I'm not sure I'm brought to school anymore either. You see, in spite of our waywardness, in spite of our countless egregious sins.
God remains patient. with us. His patience is really unbelievable. I'm not that patient. Why is go to a patient?
I think the leaders tonight could tell that I was losing my patience a little bit. They kind of gently scolded me a little bit and reminded me that, Rush, you were just like those guys you were talking about. Is that right, Bill? And who else? Rob, y'all were getting on me a little bit.
That's okay. I deserved it. My wife has been getting on me too. Because I've got a couple of friends I've been witnessing to for 40 years. Yeah, sometimes I want to go.
Yeah. Believe the book. You know, why don't you just believe it? And live bot. Is that the good is that a good attitude?
Do you know why God is so patient with us? Because of his unconditional and unchanging love for us. Do you know that God's greatest desire for everyone in the world? is to be saved. How do I know this?
1 Timothy 2, 3 and 4 says, God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. And then 2 Peter 3, 9 says, God is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. You see, the Israelites refused to repent. They were determined to repeatedly turn away from God, just like most people today. Hosea's greatest desire was for Gomer to re return home to him and love him.
And God's greatest desire It's the same. He wants us to return home. and love and worship him. Christina lived in a poor Brazilian neighborhood, and she longed to escape so she could go and see the world. She was discontent because she lived in a very simple house.
She had a mattress as a bed, a wash basin, and a wood-burning stove. And she dreamed. Of a better life in the city. She could see the city lights in the distance, and it's like the lights were crying out to her: come and enjoy life here in the city. That's why so many leave college and go to New York.
They think in those city lights they're going to find peace and joy, but they don't. Find peace in Jordan, New York. One morning before sunrise, She quietly slipped away under cover of darkness, and she broke her mother's heart and she headed for the city. Rio de Janeiro. Knowing what life on the streets would be like for her young, attractive daughter, Maria, her mother, hurriedly packed to go find her.
But on her way to the bus stop, she stopped at a drugstore to get one last thing. You know what she wanted? Pictures. She took all the money she had into a photograph booth. and took pictures of herself.
And then she Filter Purse with all these black and white photos, and she boarded the next bus to the city. See, Maria knew Christina. Had no way of earning money. And she also knew that her daughter was too stubborn to give up. It's been said that when pride meets hunger, a human will do things that were before unthinkable.
Knowing this, Maria began a search. She went to bars and hotels and nightclubs, any place which had the reputation for homeless prostitutes. And she went to all of them. And in each place, she left her picture taped on a bathroom mirror, attacked to a hotel bulletin board, fastened to a corner phone booth. And on the back of each one of her photographs of herself, she read a little note.
It wasn't too long before she ran out of pictures of herself and money. And so she was weary. and worried, and she climbed back on the bus and made the long journey back to her town. in her little small village. Several weeks passed.
Early one morning after another long and lonely night in the city, Christina descended the hotel stairs. Her young face was tired. Her brown eyes no longer danced with youth, but spoke of pain and fear. Her laughter was gone. Her dream had become a nightmare.
A thousand times over she had longed to return to her home. and trading the countless beds that she's slapping for her comfortable, safe mattress back home. As she reached the bottom of the stairs, Her eyes noticed a familiar face. She looked again, and there was a small picture of her mother on the mirror in the lobby of that hotel. Her eyes burned and her throat tightened as she walked across the room.
and remove the small photograph. And she stared at her mother with tears running down her face. And then she flipped over the photograph and saw a note that her mother had written. And here's where her mother said. Whatever you have done, Whatever you have become, It doesn't matter.
Please come home. She did. You see, that's God's message to the world. Whatever you have done, Whatever you have become, it doesn't matter. Please come home.
It's like the father saying to the prodigal son, come home. I will forgive you. See, that's the third quality of God's love. He is merciful. He delights in showing mercy.
Look at verses 8 and 9. He says, How can I give you up, O Ephraim? This is God speaking to his chosen son. How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Adma?
How can I treat you like Zoam? My heart is turned over within me. My emotions, my compassion. They're aroused together within me. First nine.
I will not execute the burning of my anger. I will not turn around to destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not man. I am the Holy One among you, and I will not come in anger. See, God does not delight in punishing us. any more than we delight in punishing our children.
I'll never forget. When my two boys were like 14 and 12. I had tickets to the Carolina Florida State football game. In Chapel Hill, and Florida State was ranked in the top five, and we were so excited about going to the game. I'd hate to pick on my son Smith.
But he told me a lie. And I said, Smith. Guess what? You're not going to the football game. Who do you think of that hurt more, him or me?
It tore me up. Rush when I left. And I left Smith with tears running down his face. But he never lied to me again.
Sodom, Gomorrah, Adma. and Zeboam. were four cities in the plain of Jordan near the Dead Sea. Turn to Genesis 19. Real quick, turn to Genesis 19.
In Genesis 19, We learned what was taking place in that city, Sodom. You remember when Abraham and Lot remember their flocks got so big that they divided up the land, and Lot chose the plain of Jordan, which was fertile. But the plain of Jordan is where Sodom and Gomorrah and these other two cities were. And there was an evil, evil area.
So They were committing egregious sin in Sodom. The Lord, the angel Lord, which is the pre-incarnate Christ, and two angels come to Abraham. Remember, Abraham bargains with them. Please don't destroy those cities. He starts at like 50 and then gets to 40 and then 30.
He gets down to 10. He says, if there are 10 righteous men, this is what the angel of the Lord said, the pre-incarnate Christ. He said, if there are 10 righteous people in Sodom, I would not destroy it. And Abraham stopped there. He didn't go down to five.
But listen what happens.
So these two angels A come to the city gate. And Lot invites them to come to his house. And so these two angels go to Lot's house. And while they're there, all the men in the city surround the house. It says, young and old.
And they cried out to Lot in the middle of the night. Lot, where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them. Does it get any worse than that? You a lot did.
He offered his two daughters. Just like the old man in Gibeah. Remember that? He offered his daughter, and the Levite offered his concubine. But before the two daughters could get out the door, the angels intervened and they blinded all the men in the city so they could not find the door.
They were just groping around. And then At the coming of dawn. The angels grabbed Lot and his wife and two daughters. And led them out of the city, because they were getting ready to destroy the city. Genesis 19, 70 says, As soon as the angels had brought them out, one of them said, So this angel says to Lot, Flee for your lives.
Don't look back and don't stop anywhere in the plain. Flee to the mountains, or you will be swept away. And then in verses 23 and 24, of course, who looked back? The wife.
So Lott. survived with his two daughters, and that was it. Verses 23 and 24 said, By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. Then I want you to notice who Who judges them? Then the Lord Who?
The Lord rained down burning sulphur on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain and also the vegetation in the land. Do y'all remember the fires that took place out in California? It must have looked like that. Hosea lived about 1,150 years after this event, and yet when he writes Hosea, it's still fresh in his mind, and it serves as a picture of God's wrath.
And the last thing that God wanted to do to the Israelites was execute his burning anger upon them, like he had done with Sodom and Gomorrah, and those other two cities. What did he want to do? He wanted to show them mercy. And that's really what he did. He could have destroyed the Israelites with.
With burning sulfur, just like he did Sodom and Gomorrah, but he didn't. Micah 7, 18 and 19 says, Who is a God like you who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? Look what it says, You do not stay angry forever, but delight to do what? Show mercy. Verse 19, you will again have compassion on us.
You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. How good is that, man? That's what he's doing with all of my sins. He's done that with all of your sins. A friend of mine, J.L.
Williams, told me that the difference between a sin and a iniquity. A sin is what a non-believer does, and iniquity is what a Christian does. Which is worse, do you think, an iniquity or sin? Iniquity. I'm not sure if it's correct.
But I think he's right about this. A Christian sins with what? Starts with a K. And then it goes in. Uh yeah.
Javier. Knowledge. Jeff is the quickest one anyway. A Christian sins with knowledge. Yeah.
I would say that every sin I've committed since about 10, because I read the Bible, I committed with knowledge. There were iniquities. But look what it says. I will tread your sins underfoot. And hurl all your iniquities into the depths of the sea.
And then Psalm 103 says that, verse 12 says, that he separates our sin as far as what? The east is from the west. How far is the east from the west? There's a math turn for it. What is it, Bob?
Infinity. Infinity. And then in Jeremiah. 31, I believe it is. It says, He remembers our sins.
No more. God's love is. Unconditional. His love is patient, it's merciful, and it's unchanging. Look at verses 10 and 11.
They shall walk with Yahweh like a lion. He will roar, roar. For he will roar, and his sons will come trembling from the west. They will come trembling like birds from Egypt and like doves from the land of Assyria. And I will settle them in their houses, declares Yahweh.
Who is Yahweh? Yep, you're right. But I want you to get this real clear: it's Jesus. Did you know that? Here's how I know that I can prove it to you.
When Jesus stood before the Pharisees, If they were talking about their father Abraham, what do you say? He said, Before Abraham was born. Yeah. When the Lord God appeared, Yahweh appeared to Moses in the burning bush. And then Moses said, Who shall I say is sending me?
What did he say? Tell them, I am is sent in you. Jesus Is the I am? He is the I am of the Old Testament, and He is the I am of the New Testament. And never forget this: Jesus is Yahweh.
And when we arrive in heaven one day, how many gods are we going to see? One, and who will be sitting seated at the center of the throne. Yahweh, and what's his name? Jesus, and at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess. Where will God the Father be?
He will be there in spirit. Where will the Holy Spirit be? He will be there in spirit. That's as far as I can get with the Trinity. Look at this.
It says the roaring of the Lord like a lion. You know what this is? When the Lord roars like a lion, it's talking about his powerful nature. Of calling us is God's effectual and irresistible calling. It's like the roar of a lion.
Verse 10 says, Like a lion he will roar, for he will roar, roar. And his sons were what? Come. Romans 8, 28, Paul writes, And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who've been called according to His person, purpose. This word called comes from the Greek word kleitos, which means summoned.
It's a summoned. It's like when you get summoned to come to court, you got to come. When you get summoned to come to stand before Congress, you got to come. When God summons you, guess what? You will come.
How does he do this? He do this though. Through the um Inner calling of the Holy Spirit. when he woos you to himself. John 6, 44 says, Jesus says, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me does what?
draws him.
Now I want to close. I wish I had more time, but I don't. I want you to understand this. Yahweh Was not finished with the Jews of Hosea's day. Or The Jews of Jesus' day Or the Jews of our day.
In fact, I believe that some of the Israelites, just like King Manasseh, remember King Manasseh, now he was in Judah, but he was the son of Hezekiah. He was like Hitler. And when he had a hook put in his nose, and he was taken to Assyria. As a slave What did he do there? He repented.
And what did God do? He forgave him, and then Manasseh appears in the line of Christ in Matthew 2:15, I believe. Where will excuse me, what? Matthew 1.10. Matthew 1.10.
Thank you. Appreciate that. Where will Manasseh be? Where is Manasseh today? I believe he's in heaven.
He's in heaven. You're in the land of Christ, you're in heaven. I believe that just like Manasseh, some of these Israelites who were taken back to Assyria and that escaped down to Egypt. Placed their trust in God. They repented.
In Jesus' time, Many of the Samaritans believed. Remember the woman at the well? Remember what happened to the whole town? They came out and they said, We no longer believe because of what you said, we now believe because of what he said. And since 1948, The Lord has been roaring like a lion and summoning Jews from every corner of the earth who've been exiled.
And now I believe there are over 10 million Jews living back in their homeland. And many of them, according to Joel Rosenberg, as many as a million. Jews believe that Jesus is the Messiah. But he's not finished with the Jews. In Romans 11, 25 and 26, Paul writes: Israel has experienced a hardening in part.
What does that tell you? It means that some of them believe. It's not a full hardening, it's a partial hardening. Until what? Until the full number of Gentiles, men like you and me, unless you're Jewish.
Come into the kingdom. See, God is measuring the number of Gentiles. And at some point, that measure will be full. And I believe at that point, the Holy Spirit is going to be. Is going to blow upon the nation of Israel like it's never done before, and I believe that many will be saved.
Do y'all believe that? And so we should be praying, and I believe it's not finished with America, by the way. He's not finished with the city of Raleigh. In fact, I think he's going to do a mighty work here on what night? April 29th.
Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, Lord, and thank you for your word. Thank you for these men. Lord, thank you that they come out on this pretty evening to be here. To have fellowship with each other, to have fellowship with you, to pray, and to read your word.
And this is what we're going to learn on April 29th: that this is how you become a man of God. You walk in holiness by reading your word, praying, and having fellowship with other believers. And one day, Lord, we're going to enjoy this fellowship in heaven forever with you. And we long for that day. But, Lord, while you tarry, help us to be busy as laborers casting a net and drawing men to yourself.
In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. You've been listening to Finding Purpose with Russ Andrews. This broadcast is made possible because of the prayers and financial gifts of listeners like you. If you want to learn more about our ministry or support us as we reach others with God-centered Bible teaching, please visit us at findingpurpose.net.
