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. All right. Take your Bibles and turn to, Can You Believe It? Hosea chapter 14.
We're here. It's our last chapter, and what a great chapter it is. And I've entitled tonight's message, Repentance. The first key. I could have entitled it the two keys to salvation, but I'll get to the second key in a minute.
But the other day, as I was thinking about what I wanted to say tonight, I turned to my wife and I said, Cracie, who do you think is the greatest example of repentance in the Bible? And she said, David. That's what she said. David was the greatest king in the Old Testament. And as you know, he was greatly loved by God.
However, he was far from perfect. As most of you probably know, David had an affair with Bathsheba, got her pregnant. and then had her husband Uriah killed.
So, in that one moment of time, David made a fateful choice that would impact the rest of his life. And that choice led him into breaking three of the Ten Commandments. Maybe even four, but I'm going to mention three that are clear. He coveted his neighbor's property, his wife. He committed adultery with her.
And then he had her husband murdered Uriah. And Uriah, by the way, if you look, I think it's in 2 Samuel chapter 23, where he lists his 30, it's like King Arthur and the knights of the round table. And he lists his 30 men. Do you know who number 30 was? Excuse me, Uriah.
Uriah was one of his best friends, one of his loyal guards. And he had him murdered. In spite of all of this, it says in Acts 13:22 that God testified concerning him, I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. How could God say that about King David? What was it about David that God so loved?
He already laughed. His heart He had a heart of repentance. In 2 Samuel chapter 12, the Lord sent the prophet Nathan to confront David about his sin. I wish I had time to tell you the story because it's just an amazing story. And when he had finished speaking, David replied to Nathan, Do you remember what he said?
Five words. I have sinned against the Lord. Remember, he was the king. He could have had Nathan executed and his secret would have been safe. But he didn't.
He actually agreed with what Nathan was saying. I bet you, if you talk to him, that he was kind of. I'm glad you did this because I've been needing to confess this to somebody. I've been carrying this burden in my heart. I've been grieving over my sin.
This is why Ephesians 4:30 says, Do not grieve the Holy Spirit. Do you notice a slight degree of the Holy Spirit? I do. I wish I didn't, but I do. I know what it's like to breathe the Holy Spirit.
Do you know you can tell when you breathe the Holy Spirit? You're graving. You're grieving. If you've ever grieved over your sin, something's wrong. I hope you've grooved over your son.
In Psalm 32, verses 1 through 5, listen to what David writes. Yeah. Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. That's a blessed man. Whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him, and in whose spirit is no deceit. In other words, he's honest before God.
Now, then here's what he describes, I think, when he was hiding his sin. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. You ever felt that way? My strength was sapped as in the heat of the summer.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. And I love this part. And you, David says to God, you forgave the guilt of my sin. See, before Nathan came in there and confronted him.
He was grieving. He was overwhelmed with shame. He felt the handihand of God upon his heart, and the guilt gnawed away in his conscience night and day until he confessed his sin before the Lord and returned to him. Do you know what it says, where Jesus describes those who will be in hell? That it would be like the.
What is that? What's the expression? Uh the um I can't remember it. Where the worm devouring the wicked never ceases. The worm.
devouring the wicked. You know what I think he's describing? He's describing a guilty conscience. That will gnaw away At a man who spends eternity in hell. Never Any um Any relent.
Okay. Forever. Can you imagine that? Living with shame and guilt that gnaws away at your conscience and almost drives you insane. That's what it's going to be like in hell.
And this is what, when a Christian is living in habitual sin, It's like he's in hell. Because his guilt just consumes him. Have you ever been there? I have. I've said you a bit I have.
And so I can relate to David's, what he writes in Psalm 32. See, um What he's describing here in Psalm 32 is a picture of what repentance looks like. And repentance is the first key, men.
Now I've given you the key. to peace and joy and what I call soul rest. Rest for your soul. You just take the key of repentance and put it and you turn it. And it leads to the second key.
You know what the second key is? Senior outline. Faith exactly. Trust in the Lord. J.C.
Ryle has become my new favorite theologian. He lived during the late 1800s. He was a preacher in London. He kind of similar to Charles Spurgeon. And I've got his, I've ordered about four or five books of his that I want to read this summer.
And one is just a little bitty booklet entitled Repentance. And listen to what Ryle says about repentance. And I'm talking about real, genuine repentance. He says, true repentance is never alone in the heart of anyone. It always has a companion, a blessed companion.
It is always accompanied by active faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Wherever faith is, there's repentance. Wherever repentance is, there is always faith. And then he says, I do not decide which one comes first, whether repentance comes before faith or faith before repentance. But I'm certain enough to say that the two graces are never found separate, one from the other.
Just as you cannot have the sun without light, ice without cold, fire without heat, or water without moisture, so you will never find true faith without true repentance. And you will never find true repentance without active faith. The two things will always go side by side. And so, men, I'm giving you the two keys that can set you free from. Guilt and shame.
And bring rest for your soul. It's repentance. And faith, when they go hand in hand, faith and repentance, repentance and faith. You are unlocking, and you are unlocking this door that has you in prison. into with sin you you're under the you're under sin which means that you're in prison to it And this was always God's desire for the Israelites.
That's what the whole book of Hosea is about. He wants the Israelites to repent and return to Him. And so, in this chapter, chapter 14, I want to answer three questions. First, what does it mean to truly repent? We're going to look at verses 1 through 3.
And then, what is the result of true repentance? That will be verses 4 through 8. And then, who is the wise man? That'll be the last verse, verse 9. And so, what does it mean to truly repent?
Well, look at verse 1. Hosea writes, Return, Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall. Take words with you and return to the Lord.
So, this is what Hosea is pleading with the Israelites to do. Say to him, Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips. And then basically, Israel needs to admit that if Syria cannot save us, we will not mount war horses. We will never say. Again, our gods.
To what our own hands have made. For in you. The fatherless find compassion.
Now going back to chapter one, you should remember that at the beginning of Hosea, God commands, He says, Go and find an unfaithful woman and marry her.
So he marries Gomer. And his marriage to Gomer was actually to serve as a living picture. Of God's unfailing love for Israel, a nation which pursued other lovers. And so think about this. Hosea.
Lived with a broken heart. Which is what God lived with. When it came to Israel, And so you can imagine that Hosea with this broken heart was better able to preach to the Israelites that they were breaking God's heart. Do you see that? Jeremiah was called the weeping prophet because he wept over the nation of Judah.
And so these prophets are experiencing the emotion of God. And that's what Hosea is going through. He's got a broken heart. But he kept pursuing Gomer. Why?
Because he wanted to win her love back. Yeah. And so all throughout Hosea, We witness God's anger and judgment and its intention with his love and mercy. You see that back and forth going back and forth through each chapter. It's like a tug-of-war between grace and wrath.
Now I want you to understand this. It's important to note that God's anger is not the opposite of His love, but God's anger is the evidence and expression of His love. That's why in 1 Corinthians 13, verse 6, which is the greatest chapter in the Bible on what subject? Love. Love.
It's reddit. Almost every wedding It says, Love rejoices with what? The truth. Thank you. I knew you would know.
The truth. So let me ask you something. If a preacher, first of all, they won't preach through Romans 1, but if a preacher were to preach through Romans 1, verses 25, 26, 27, 28, where it gets into the issue of homosexuality. What would love do? It preached the truth.
Right. Because Jesus said, the truth will what? Set you free. And see, this is what is wrong with the church. You know, I can't get off the subject.
This is what's wrong with the church in America. they will not preach the truth. They think that God is all about God's love.
Well, God is love, but before He's love, He's holy. In fact, Grant, Pastor here, I want to wear this, but the only time that three words are used to describe the character of God are the words holy. Holy, holy, holy. You never see love, love, love. It's holy, holy, holy.
Everything flows from his holiness, his love and his wrath. And you've got this tension in Hosea between God's love and his anger, just like you do with your children. You love them.
Sometimes you want to. Throw them out in the front yard, right? You don't hate them, but you feel like you hate them. According to Hebrews 12, 5 through 11, who does God discipline? Those He what?
Loves. Have you ever been disciplined by God? I have. Absolutely. Not proud of it.
I'm glad he did, though. You know why? Because it made me hopefully a better man. God will take you into his workshop and he will chisel away. until he gets you to be the man he wants you to be.
All throughout the Bible. We see a God who is always staring at the horizon, just like the father of the prodigal. God is always looking at the horizon to see if his wayward people will return to him. And that's what he's doing with the Israelites. And that's what he's doing today in America and all over the world.
He's looking at the horizon to see if anybody will believe him and return to him. Look at verses 1 and 2 again. Hosea says, Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall. Take words with you and return to the Lord.
Say to him, Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips. Yeah. What he's describing right here. is is is repentance. It's a pitch of repentance.
Thomas Watson. He actually lived during the 17th century, and he was a Puritan English preacher. And he wrote a book entitled The Doctrine of Repentance. And listen to what he says. I think I've got some of the quote in your outline, but you're going to have to fill in the blanks there.
Make you walk a little bit. Repentance, now to catch this, is a spiritual medicine made up of six special ingredients. Are you ready? Sight of sin. Number two, sorrow for sin.
Number three, confession of sin. I'll go through it one more time. Number four, shame for sin. Number five, hatred for sin. And number six, turning from sin.
So it's sight of sin. You've got to look at your sin and agree that it is sin. All you're doing is agreeing with God. Second, And you can't drum this up. When you see your sin, you should feel sorrow over it.
to the point sometimes of even weeping third What you have to do when you repent is you have to turn to God and confess it to Him. And I think it's good to be specific. And I think it's good to be on your knees. And by the way, man, Do we ever stop repenting? Never.
We live in a constant state of repentance. Number four. Shame for your son.
Well, there's some things that you've done. Even in the last week. that you would not want published in the Nisan Observer. You don't need to answer. Hatred for sin.
Men, we got to get to the point where we hate our sin, we despise it. Have you got to that point yet where you hate it? Because let me tell you something, when you go back to it, it's like a dog returning to vomit. And then, number six, you've got to turn from it. And then, if any one of these is left out, Thomas Watson says, repentance loses its virtue.
In other words, all six of these ingredients, these special ingredients, medicine, Need to be present. I love the fact that he refers to repentance as spiritual medicine. In Luke chapter 4, 31, when I read those two words together, I thought of this verse. Jesus said, It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but who? The sick.
Do y'all think we're all sick? Yeah. My wife thinks I'm circ. Yeah. And he says, Jesus, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Repentance, men, is like a salve that you put on your soul. It brings healing from God, it's supernatural. I can't explain it. You have to experience it. And I've experienced it.
Have you ever done something to get someone And the moment you own up to it and you You suck in your pride, and you ask the person, you say, I'm sorry, and they know you really mean it. And they instantly forgive you. And don't you, you're relieved. It's like this burden is lifted. That happens.
in relationships, like with your wife. But that's the same thing with God. It's supernatural, man. If you really confess it and you say, God, I hate it, I don't want to do it again. He will forgive you.
And you can just, golly, I feel good all of a sudden. It's a miracle that Russ Andrews can put his head on his pillow at night and go to bed with a clear conscience. This brings us to my second question. What is the result of true repentance? Look at verses 4 through 8.
We got a late start, guys, so we're going to have a late ending, but not too late. Look at what he says here. I will heal their waywardness. This is God speaking to Israel. And I think he's actually, from Hosea's vantage point, he's looking into the future.
I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel. He will blossom like a lily, like a cedar of Lebanon. He will send down his roots. His young shoots will grow.
His splendor will be like an olive tree. His fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon. Those trees must smell good. People will dwell again in his shade. They will flourish like the grain.
They will blossom like the vine. Israel's fame will be like the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim. What more have I to do with idols? Hopefully, nothing.
I will answer him. And he will care for him, God says. I am like a flourishing juniper. Your fruitfulness comes from me. I want you to.
What he's describing here Is the result of repentance. In other words, he's describing what happens to your soul. Again, it's a supernatural work of God that He does in a man's heart the moment that He repents and believes in the Lord. I want you to notice this, because this is what came to me. He's basically describing a garden.
Can y'all see that in this language? It's very earthy. God will be like dew to Israel. He will blossom like a lily. He will send down his roots.
In other words, Israel will send down roots. His young shoots will grow like you see in the springtime with these flowers, you know, and these trees where they're spreading and they're growing. His splendor will be like an olive tree. In other words, his light will shine before the world. His fragrance, like a cedar of Lebanon, it will be a sweet aroma to God.
People will dwell in his shade, and they will flourish like grain. They will blossom like the vine. Israel's fame will be like the wine of Lebanon. Then they will be fruitful.
Now catch this. I've got a great devotional book that you should all order. It's um. I can't remember the name of it, but it's basically this man, Shrank is his last name, S-H-R-A-N-K. And he compiled.
Um J. C. Ryle did not write a devotional book. but he gave upeen thousand sermons. And so this guy compiled Parts of his sermons into a 365-day devotional book.
And this. It's one of the best devotional books I've ever had. Very theological, very deep, very biblical. Yeah. Today's what, April 22nd?
Guess what the title of this morning's devotional was in his book, April 22nd? The Lord's Garden. How about that? Here's what he preached in one of his sermons from the 1800s. The Lord, now listen carefully, I'm quoting him.
The Lord Jesus Christ has a garden, it is the company of all who are true believers in him. They are his garden. Jesus calls his people a garden because they are altogether different from the men of the world. The world is a wilderness. It brings forth little but thorns and thistles.
It is fruitful in nothing but sin. The Lord Jesus Christ's believing people are the only green spot on the earth, the only oasis amid barren deserts. They are his garden. He calls his people a garden because they are sweet and beautiful to his mind. That's he's describing you, man, okay?
He looks on the world and it grieves him to the heart. He looks on the little flock of his believing people and is well pleased. As in the day of Noah's sacrifice, he smells a sweet aroma and is refreshed. It is very wonderful, very mysterious. He calls his people a garden.
Because he d he delights to walk among them. Don't you love that? That's what he wanted for Israel. That's also what he wants for you and me. I believe the greatest word used in the Bible To describe a soul that has repented and come to Jesus is the word.
Okay. You got it. Rest. Rest. There are right many passages in the Bible that talk about your rest.
Hebrews 4 is a great one if you have time to read it tonight. Rest. I was telling the men in our leadership meeting tonight that if you look at the world, it's like On overdrive, they're running around just out of control, just hyperventilating, and just full of all kinds of anxiety and fear. Do you see that? Stress to the max.
And the Lord is inviting the world to come and find rest. For your soul. Did you know that heaven is described as a place of eternal rest? Recently, I met with a man who's in his early 70s, and he's struggling emotionally. Because he sees the end of his career, and he told me that his career has been his life.
The last 40 years, he's been a workaholic. He's just focused. He told me, his own words, I've been very, very, very successful. He told me. And I've become very, very wealthy.
But he's struggling. He said, Russ, I don't seem to have any real purpose right now or meaning in my life. And I told him, you know what I said to him. And we met just last week. I said, you know what, you seem restless to me.
And he agreed with me. He said, that's the way I feel. And then I shared with him the testimony of Saint Augustine. If you're not familiar with him, he lived during the fourth century in what is today Algeria in northern Africa. His mother's name was Monica.
And Monica was one of these moms who prayed every day for her son, who happened to be Augustine, that he would come to know the Lord.
Well, he was rebellious, but he was also brilliant. He was a genius, one of the greatest minds that the Christian world has ever known. Once he got saved. But around the age of 17, he left home and he took up with a woman. A concubine, if you will.
And they had a child out of wedlock. And I think they lived together for about 13, 14 years. And he was studying in Carthage. But he felt like the students there were not serious.
So, to get away from his mother and to go where students were really serious, he. He went to Rome. And then in 384 AD, he moved to Milan, Italy. Do you know why?
Well, he went there to accept a prestigious position as professor of rhetoric at the imperial court, whatever that was. But listen, while he was in Milan, this is the way God works. God was still listening to Monica's prayers. Don't give up praying for your children, your grandchildren, by the way. There was a bishop by the name of Ambrose in Milan who was a great orator and a preacher of the word of the Bible.
And Augustine started going to his church because he was not to hear the gospel. He wanted to hear his oratory, he wanted to listen to his oratorical skills. Because he was a Is there a word rhetorician? He was a great orator himself. But guess what happens when you start hearing the Word of God over and over again?
It pounds away at a hard heart. And that's what was happening. Ambrose was by preaching the Word of God was starting to penetrate Augustine's heart. And so one day he was in this garden. and he's with a f with a friend by the name of Alpius.
In April, And Augustine was troubled in his heart, like this friend I just met with. And. He stepped away from Alphaus and he kind of went into the garden by himself. He was even weeping a red. He was crying.
He just was tormented because he reflected on his life and he saw a life that was full of rebellion and sin and debauchery and But all of a sudden, he heard these children across on the other side of a wall singing Toli Lege in Latin, totally legae. Do you know what that means? Anyone know what that means? Who said that? Very good.
Pick it up. Read it. Pick it up. Read it. And he took that as a divine command from God.
And he went back to his friend and said, Let me have your Bible. And he opened it up and it fell open to Romans 13, verses 13 and 14, which exhorts believers to abandon sinful behaviors and put on the Lord Jesus Christ. And in that moment, His mother's prayers were answered, and he became a true believer. He repented and placed his trust in the Lord as his Lord and Savior. And then he went on to become one of the greatest theological minds in the history of Christendom.
But this is why I tell you this long story to get to one of his famous quotes. And this is what I shared with my friend last week. Augustine said, after reflecting on his life, he said. You made us for yourself, O Lord. And man's heart is what?
Restless. Until it rests in ye. You offer to BJ Thomas. Yeah. He was a great singer.
I used to love him uh when I was about 12, 13, 14, raindrops have fallen on my head. Y'all remember that rain in the book, in the movie Butch Casting Sundays, Kid? You young guys have no idea what I'm talking about. But he He climbed the ladder of success. He said when he got to the top, he discovered he was leaning against the wrong wall.
And he became a believer. A lot of men that we know climb the ladder of success, and when they get to the top, what do they find there? Emptiness. I'm praying that my friend will find soul rest in the Lord very soon. I believe it will.
Listen, when you truly repent and turn to Jesus by faith, His Spirit comes and takes up residence within you. And he's the one that gives you this soul rest, this joy and peace. Here's what you rest from: you rest from guilt. He just removes the guilt. You rest from shame.
You rest from anxiety and depression. You even rest from the power of sin. And you begin to rest from your fear of death. And hell. It's just the sting of death is removed.
Paul says. And this brings me to my third question. Who is the wise man? I love it. Think about this.
Hosea ends his entire book with this one question: Who is the wise man? Look at verse 9. Who's Was? He will remember these things. Who is discerning?
He will understand them. The ways of the Lord are right. The righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.
So who is the WASMAN? He is the man who remembers these things and understands them. What things is he talking about? Jose is talking about This These things. What's written in this book?
The book of God. The Holy Scriptures, the Word of God. Tulle Legge. Tullate Leke, men. Pick it up.
and read it. But not only must you read it, you must understand it, you must have. Ears to hear. In Matthew 13, Jesus says, This is why I speak to them in parables. He's talking to his disciples.
Though seeing, they do not see. Though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah. You will be ever hearing, but never understanding. You will be ever seeing, but never perceiving.
For these people's heart has become calloused. They hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them. But this is what I think he'd say to you guys tonight. Verse 16, but blessed are your eyes, because they see.
in your ears because they hear. I remember my friend Chet Hinton. Deal? This is for you. Neil says, you don't ever tell that story about Chet anymore.
So I just thought about it, Chet. Check. Started going to BSF, and for the first two or three years, he said he would read the Bible, he just did not understand it. You know why? He didn't have ears to hear or eyes to see.
And then he had a gentleman in his company one day that he was having lunch with. Have I got the story right? African American man, right? who shared the gospel with him. And all of a sudden he believed.
And then he told me, now when I read the Bible, I understand what it says. Why is that? Because Chet believed, he repented and believed. The Holy Spirit indwelled him. And the Holy Spirit is the one who lifts the veil from your eyes.
He's some of the eyes of your heart and the ears of your heart so that you can see the Word of God and understand it. That's what it means to see. That's why Jesus told Nicodemus: unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. The word see there means understand. In other words, he was telling Nicodemus: unless you've been born again, you can't even understand spiritual matters.
Because the man without the Spirit does not understand the things of the Spirit because they're spiritually discerned and he cannot understand them. You follow me? That's why a lot of men that you talk to just don't get it. Jesus was often saying, Let him who has ears what? Here.
So don't So who's the wise man? I'll tell you who he is. He's the man who spends much, much, much, much time reading the Bible. and studying the Bible. Cash.
You don't need but 66 books in this world. And they're all right here. Right here, 66 books. It takes a lifetime to even put a dent in understanding this book. And I believe we'll get to heaven.
You think the word of God is going to be in heaven? What does it say? Heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will stand forever. I believe we're going to still grow in our knowledge of Scripture.
Okay. How do you like that? I almost still have a job. Who's the wise man? He's the man who, listen, who reads this and understands it.
And the more you read it, the more you understand it. But he didn't just understand it. What does he do? He what? Obeys it.
Thank you, Jeff. He obeys it. Guys, here's what I've learned in my 70 years of life. It took me a long time to learn it. Obedience.
is the key. to joy. When I sin, the joy just vanishes. And so I asked the Lord, Lord, please help me to stop sinning. I want to experience this joy that some days I feel like I'm in heaven.
Do you ever feel like that? That you just, you're already in heaven. Turn with me to Psalm 1, and we're going to end this year. The wise man is the obedient man. The wise man is the only man who is truly at rest in the Lord.
Truly at rest. The wise man is the man who experiences the spiritual blessings of God, which are joy, peace, contentment, and soul rest. Psalm 1, and we're going to end right here with this. I want you to read it with me because Psalm 1 describes a wise man. Are you ready?
Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. In other words, guys. You don't run away from your unbelievers. But depending on what they're doing, you may not be you should not hang out with them sometimes, okay?
Okay. And the more you walk with the Lord, the more they're not going to want to hang out with you. I just tell you, that's the way it's going to be. But listen to this. But his delight is in the law of the Lord.
And on his law, he meditates day and night. He's talking about the Bible. And listen, when you do that, he's like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. When I went to Africa back in the early 1990s with my father-son mission trip, we were with J.L. Williams and we were flying over.
the w the uh jungles in the wilderness. We saw elephants and giraffes, but anyway, we were going along, and all of a sudden we saw this dry riverbed just winding that I'm sure flooded when there was a rain season. But it was just dry. Guess what's wolf's planted all along it? Trees.
Guess what colour they were. Grain. Why is that? Because they had roots that went down to where the water table was. That's the picture of a Christian man who's walking with the Lord.
He's like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit even in season, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does, prospers. Listen, man, it doesn't mean that you're going to be wealthy, but you will prosper in your soul, and there's a good chance that he might make you wealthy if you live by the book. He will bless you. Not so the wicked.
They're like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor centers in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for these men.
Lord, thank you for this incredible year that we've had. And Lord, we lift up. The upcoming summer months, Lord, when it's easy to just drift away because we're not having regular Bible study, and I pray, Lord, that they would take the word that they've heard tonight and that they will meditate on your word and study it all summer. And I pray that you'll bring us back next fall and that you'll multiply the number of men in here. Lord, we also lift up next Tuesday night.
I pray that you'll fill this room with a thousand-plus men, that you'll protect Josh Miller, that you'll prepare his heart, bring him here safely. And Lord, we pray that more than anything else, that you'll be glorified as we proclaim, as Josh proclaims, the truth of your word next week. It's in Jesus' name that I pray. Amen. Um 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.
