Open your Bibles this morning to Hosea chapter 11 and let's continue our study here in this powerful Old Testament prophet, Hosea. And we're working through verse by verse and then making application to our lives. So please note as I read chapter 11 verses 1 through 7. When Israel was a child, I loved him. And out of Egypt, I called my son. As they called them, so they went from them. They sacrificed to the bales and burned incense to carved images. I taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by their arms. but they did not know that I healed them. I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love, and I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck. I stooped and fed them. He shall not return to the land of Egypt, but the Assyrians shall be his king, because they refused to repent. And the sword shall slash in his cities, devour his districts, and consume them because of their own counsels. My people are bent on backsliding from me. Though they call to the Most High, none at all exalt him. Dear Father, we thank you for your word. And we pray that you will give us understanding today to be able to understand Hosea's words to the people of Israel. We pray, Lord, that you will, by your spirit, make application to us, because all scripture is given by inspiration of God. and it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. And Lord, you know our need today. You know our need for teaching, for doctrine. Perhaps we need reproof. Perhaps we need correction. We need instruction in righteousness. So by your spirit, take your word and minister to our need. We ask for your glory in Jesus' wonderful name, amen. So we continue our studies today in the book of Hosea. And here we see God's faithful, loving heart for his people, Israel. The book of Hosea is a love story. God told Hosea to marry Gomer, who was an unfaithful wife. It was an illustration of God's faithfulness to Israel, even though they were so unfaithful to him. And so God demonstrates his love for Israel in many, many different ways. Israel engaged in the most horrific idolatry, worshiping Baal, prostituting themselves with all sorts of perversion, and yet God still loved them, and he still remembered his love for them. Though Yahweh expressed his dear love for Israel, he also expounded on the punishment that Israel would endure because they spurned his love. So I'd like you to notice today, following along in your notes, how the Lord expresses his love for Israel. The Lord Yahweh. You'll notice in your Bibles when you see capital L and O-R-D, small caps, it's how the translators and the publishers translate Yahweh, the Hebrew name for God, though it emphasizes his existence in and of himself, the great I am. And Hosea shows eight ways that Yahweh, the Lord, expressed his love for Israel. Notice chapter 11, verse one. When Israel was a child or a youth, I loved him. The Lord Yahweh expresses his love. I want you to know that from his beginnings, from his youth, I loved Israel. Now go back with me to Deuteronomy chapter seven. and follow along this idea of God's love. Sometimes we think of the love of God as a New Testament attribute. John 3, 16, for God so loved the world. Absolutely, it's a New Testament attribute. But is it an Old Testament attribute? Same God, absolutely. And look at this, Deuteronomy 7, verse 7. And the Lord says to Israel, the Lord did not set his love on you, nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples. You Jewish people, you've descendants from Abraham. Do you think that the Lord loved you because you were a great and mighty nation? No, you were pretty small, pretty insignificant. but the Lord set his love on you. He chose you for himself. Verse eight, I love this. The thought from verse seven, he did not set his love on you because of this, but because of this, verse eight, but because the Lord loves you. And because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Therefore, know that the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments. God's love for Israel, God's love for the church of Jesus Christ is immense, it's vast, it's powerful. And friends, understand this, there is no love like the love of God. There's no love like a love of Jesus. People look for fulfillment. They want to be loved. We have a need to be loved. Where can you find someone who will love you unconditionally? You find it in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not conditional love, I love you if. I love you, son, if you are the star of the team. I love you, son or daughter, if you make perfect grades. No, that's conditional love. I love you no matter what you do. A grown man told me, of a painful experience he had when he was 12 years old. He still remembered. He was 40s, 50s when he's sharing this. He said, I remember specifically playing Little League baseball. And we got into the car after the game, and it was a good game, and our team won. And my dad said this, I saw that ball that you missed. You know, dads, we can do that. Could be 99 things right, and we see the one that's not right. Team one, and this was a painful experience, how this father seemed to indicate PBA, performance-based acceptance. Praise God he does not love us like that. He loves us in spite of our dropped balls, in spite of the bat that we struck out, in spite of the foul ball that we hit. He loves us in spite of those failures. The Lord set his love on Israel. So we have looked at so much here in the book of Hosea that shows their failure, their depravity, their idolatry. And now we come to this bright light of sunshine. I have loved you since you were a child. Notice with me, Jeremiah 31. And here we look to God's ultimate purposes for Israel. Right now in 2024, they're in a state of blindness. Is that going to continue forever? No, it is not. One day they will have the geography that God promised to Abraham and they will look on Jesus as their Messiah. Notice this in Jeremiah 31 verse 3, the Lord has appeared of old to me saying, yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness, I have drawn you. Again, I will build you and you shall be rebuilt, O Virgin of Israel. You shall again be adorned with your tambourines and shall go forth in the dances of those who rejoice. You shall yet plant vines on the mountains of Samaria. the planter shall plant and eat them as ordinary food. For there shall be a day when the watchman will cry on Mount Ephraim, arise and let us go up to Zion to the Lord our God. What a day for the nation of Israel. He says, I've loved you with an everlasting love. And there are wonderful applications of this to the New Testament church. Romans chapter eight, nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ. Praise God that in God's hands, in God's arms, in God's heart, a believer in Jesus Christ is held by the love of God. He loves you. He cares for you. And so Hosea shows the Lord's love for Israel. He loved him. in his youth. And then notice also verse 1, out of Egypt I called my son. He called Israel from Egypt. Israel was in Egypt as a slave. They were slaves there and God called them out of Egypt, okay? Be ready to turn to a few places. Exodus chapter 4 and notice verses 22 and 23. And here is Moses receiving instructions from the Lord to speak to Pharaoh in Egypt about the Israelites. Exodus 4.22, and then you shall say to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord. This is what Moses would go to the king of Egypt, the Pharaoh, and say to him, thus says the Lord, Jehovah, Yahweh, Israel is my son, my firstborn. I believe in that as a tone, don't mess with him. He's my son, my firstborn, verse 23. So I say to you, let my son go that he may serve me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed, I will kill your son, your firstborn. And that's exactly what happened because Pharaoh refused. And so God took the firstborn. He's speaking here with passion. Israel is my son. He belongs to me. I begat him. He's special to me. And so Hosea goes back to this time 700 years before. And he says, Yahweh called Israel out of Egypt and called him as his son. Now you want to see something that's really fascinating. Hold your finger here and go to Matthew chapter two. And I want you to notice some amazing details here. The Lord Jesus has been born. Wise men come, in verse 11, when they had come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and fell down and worshiped him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to him, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Then, being divinely warned in a dream, that they should not return to Herod. They departed for their own country another way. Now, when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream saying, arise, take the young child and his mother, flee to Egypt. and stay there until I bring you word for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus are in Israel and an angel appears to Joseph in a dream and says, you need to leave to escape, flee to Egypt. Verse 14, when he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet saying, out of Egypt I call my son. Who is the prophet? Hosea. And so here's a bigger picture in Hosea 11.1. And Matthew sees it as a prophetic element about the Lord Jesus Christ, who would come out of Egypt. God so orchestrated events and sent Mary and Joseph to Egypt, and then God called them forth from Egypt. They came out of there. Isn't that amazing how God's word entwines all of this together? So Matthew uses this as a prophecy fulfilled in Christ. All right, back to Hosea 11, and notice verse two. We need to define a they. Verse two, as they called them. I believe this is what it is saying. Who are the they? Prophets. Who are the them? Israel. So there's a change of direction, change of tone here. God loving Israel, calling Israel out of Egypt. But verse two, as they, that is the prophets, called, preached, spoke to them, what did they do? They went from them. He sent prophets to call Israel, evidence of his love. The prophets preached, they called out. What did Israel do? Turned their back, didn't listen to them. They weren't listening to Hosea. Has that ever happened to you? God is pointing you in one direction and you turn around and say, no, and you go the other direction. Have you ever hardened your heart against the Lord? In some way, that's what Israel was doing. The prophets called and they said no, and then God got their attention. Let's not do that. When God speaks to us, let's listen, let's pay attention. Praise God for messengers, for the teachers and preachers of the word of God. Praise God for the scriptures. Jonah was told by God, go and preach to Nineveh that way. Jonah said, in essence, no way. Let me find a ship going that way. And he did. Oh, must be the will of God. There was a ship. They had a vacancy. They had a place. I got a ticket. On he went. And then he ended up in a terrible storm. And the mariners, the pagan mariners, knew there was a problem with Jonah, even though he said he was a servant of the Lord, they threw him overboard, and God prepared a great fish. He found out the hard way, and you know the end of the story? Jonah then went to Nineveh, but why did he have to go through some trials, some storms, some time in a whale's belly, or some great fish's stomach? until he surrendered to the Lord. He sent prophets to them, but they ran, just like Jonah, ran the other way. Now notice how they ran. Hosea 11.2, they sacrificed to the Baals, false gods, a fertility cult with all sorts of perversion associated with its worship And notice what they did. They burned incense to carved images. They burned incense. So Israel worshiped these images with their incense. They were turning away from the Lord. How hard, how difficult, even though he sent his messengers. Notice Jeremiah chapter seven in verses 24 through 26. And Jeremiah was prophesying to Judah, but they didn't listen either. Jeremiah 7, notice verse 23. But this is what I commanded them saying, obey my voice and I will be your God and you shall be my people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you that it may be well with you. Yet they did not obey or incline their ear. but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts. and went backward and not forward. Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even sent to you all my servants, the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. Yet they did not obey me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers. Therefore, you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not obey you. You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you. What a sad job Jeremiah had. God said, they're not gonna listen. They're not gonna pay attention. Will you notice this? The last part of verse 23, God says, I want you to walk in the ways that I've commanded you, that it may be well with you. Listen to this carefully. The devil has a very subtle lie, and it's this. It's boring, it's not fun, it's not fulfilling to follow Christ. It's better to follow your own way. Or it's a burden to become a Christian, to follow Jesus, to live according to the Bible. That is a burden. And God says, no, I want it to go well with you. I want it to go well with you. So listen to what I have to say here, and it will bless your life. It is imminently worthwhile to follow Christ. Does it ever get difficult? Absolutely. Is it worth it in the end? Yes. Is it possible that some friends might make fun of you? It is, even family members. But God says, I want it to go well with you. Listen to me. Pay attention to me. But the devil's lie convinces people year after year, century after century, that it's really the way of fulfillment to follow the world, the flesh, and the devil. That's fulfilling. And it is not. It ends up in emptiness. He sent prophets to call to Israel because he loved them. Now look at verse three, Hosea chapter 11, verse three. I love this picture here. Look up and just take this in. I always enjoyed the process of my children learning to walk. It's a fascinating process. I remember our firstborn, I had a little study in our house. And my wife wanted me to take a turn and watch him. She brought a blanket in because he wasn't walking, wasn't crawling. And she put the blanket down, put him on that blanket. And I turned around at some point and realized she put him point A, and now he's in point B. Somehow he got there. And we used to have a lot of plants. And then we found out that a lot of plants are poisonous, so there go the plants. The kids are better, but you know. And then we see this little guy, he figures that all four of these two hands, these knees and feet, he kind of got up on all fours. Wow, a whole new world up here, on all fours. And then, like one side would kind of work, you know, and he would start to move and kind of go around in a circle or something like that, until he finally figured out to get everything in sync, to go back and forth, and now he's crawling. Point A, B, C, and then the walking process. Pulling up on a chair leg, on your leg. Have you ever been in a group of people and a little kid runs in and takes hold of your leg and then all of a sudden he looks up in horror and realizes that's not dad or not mom? But what a blessing then to take hold of those little fingers and help them take a step. or to watch them take those steps, pulling up on a leg, take a step, boom, down, take another one, boom, take two, and so on. What a picture. What a tender picture. And the Lord says, I taught Ephraim, the prominent tribe for the whole northern kingdom, Israel. I taught them to walk. I taught them the basic lessons. By the way, Parents teach the most important life lessons. I'm a strong advocate for homeschooling. Parents teach powerful lessons. And yes, there's so many helps they can teach academics too. But here the Lord says, I taught Ephraim to walk. You teach kids to walk. You teach them many manners. I was thinking about this. How do you learn? How do people learn to give to the Lord? And I was thinking about that. I am learning that lesson. How did I first learn that lesson? You know where I think I learned it? My mother taught me as a little boy, you give the Lord a tent. You teach children that. Give to the Lord. God gives you all of this. You get your allowance or you do your chores and you earn something. Now give something to the Lord. That is a powerful lesson. And she was a single mom. And I have memories, never would she boast on any of this. If she were alive, probably wouldn't want me to say this, but I have such a memory of her standing at her dresser, she didn't have a desk, making out checks for the Lord's work. What an example. Praise God for that. And she could have said, I can't afford that. But she knew she couldn't afford not to give. She had to give to the Lord, and she passed it on. That's a blessing. Important life lessons can be taught. at home and should be taught at home. So he says, I taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by their arms. What a precious picture. But look at the next line. But they did not know that I healed them. God gave healing to Israel and promised them freedom from certain diseases. Go back with me to Exodus chapter 15 and verse 26. Notice what it says here. He said, Exodus 15, 26, if you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you, which I have brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord who heals you. I gave healing to him. They didn't appreciate it. They didn't understand it. Verse four, another demonstration of his love. He led them with cords of kindness and ropes of love. I drew them with gentle cords, cords of kindness, with bands, with ropes of love. I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck. Farming terms here. In fact, let me share this note. from the NKJV study Bible. It says, the image of verse three changes as God is compared to a farmer and Israel to a beast of burden. The Lord had placed restraints, cords and bands on Israel, but his regulations rather than being overly strict or harsh reflected his concern for the people's well-being. God did not drive them mercilessly, but provided for their needs like a farmer who periodically removes the yolk from an animal's neck so that it can eat. And it says here, I was to them as those who take the yoke from the neck. Imagine here two oxen, and across the two is this wooden structure and a place for their necks and maybe a leather piece that goes like a U-shape underneath. And so these two animals have this yoke, this heavy yoke, this burdensome yoke, and then they're able to plow the field. What a relief if you were the oxen to have the yoke lifted up from your neck. And God says, I did that for them. I was to them as those who lift the yoke from their neck. I led them not mercilessly, not driving them with a whip, but with cords of kindness and ropes of love. I drew them. I led them like that because I loved them. And look at this, the last part of verse 4, I stooped and fed them. Took the yolk off, they're able now to eat the grain. They're able to eat. I met their needs. I lifted burdens from them. Remember the miracles when Israel came out of Egypt? They're complaining, no water. Moses struck the rock and water gushed out and they were able to drink. They're complaining about food and God gave them manna. God cared for them. He loved them. He condescended to feed them the goodness, the goodness of the Lord. And how we need to think about God's goodness to us on those days where we're tempted to complain about everything. Is God good to me? What has God done for me? He is so good to us. He is so good. My mom used to work in a place receiving bills. People would come in at this hardware store, and they had a section where people would pay their light bill and so on. And I remember as a kid, she said this man came in, and she greeted him and said, good morning. Oh, what's good about it? Well, you walked in here, didn't you? That might be a starter. You're breathing. God gave you another heartbeat. Many things, but we can think like that sometimes. What's good about it? There are many things good about it. There are many, many blessings. Now once you see this, there were eight evidences of the Lord's love for Israel. But in verses five through seven, the Lord Yahweh expounds on Israel's punishment. They spurned His love. They turned it away. So verse five, He shall not return to the land of Egypt. They might have wanted to go there at some point to get help, to get military support. No, they're not going to go there in these very sad words, but the Assyrian shall be his king. Israel would be deported. They would go east. not to Egypt south, but to Assyrian domination. Hosea is warning. And this happened in 722 BC. Hosea is warning them before this and saying, the Lord loves you. And God says, you've spurned my love. And so the Assyrian will be your king. And notice this, the last part of verse five, because they refused to repent. They wouldn't turn around. They wouldn't turn to me. Repentance is going this direction and then turning around and going that direction. It's going away from God, away from Christ, towards sin, and then we're stopped in our tracks by the Spirit of God. Now we're going to Christ and away from sin and to the cross. It's a change of mind and direction. And they wouldn't change their mind or their direction or their heart. And so he says, you're going to face the consequences. Israel will be deported. In verse 6, Israel will be devastated. Notice this. The sword shall slash in his cities, devour his districts, and consume them because of their own counsels. Israel will be devastated by the attack of the sword in the cities. You see those tragic pictures of Russia and Ukraine and cities being attacked with buildings, apartment buildings with a side blown out or pictures in Israel or Lebanon where this is happening. In modern times, cities attacked, slashed with our modern swords, missiles, By the attack of the sword, Israel will be devastated. The Syrians will come. They will deport. They will destroy the cities or devour his districts. And the idea here, translated district, seems to be city bars. The city gates, the fences, the walls that kept the city safe in the ancient world, he's going to come and break it apart, destroy it. and there's gonna be devouring. The sword is gonna do all this, it's gonna devour, it's going to consume, it's going to eat away. And he gives the reason, last part of verse six, because of their own counsels. Because of their own counsels. When we read and study Hosea, we have to make application to ourselves. and we have to make application to our nation. Our own councils, we do it our way. Things that defy reason from a believer and an unbeliever. Does it make sense to have a man compete in women's sports? Does that make sense? And women who are beaten even though they've trained and trained and trained. And now a man says he's a woman and he competes and he wins. Does that make any sense? You say it makes no sense. A boy puts on a skirt and goes into a girl's bathroom, Loudoun County, Virginia, molests a girl in there. And at the school board meeting, the father of the girl gets rather upset. And then he gets arrested. Does that make sense? Makes no sense. What a crazy world. What is it? It's doing things our own way. Oh, we can make a man a woman, a woman a man. It doesn't matter. And my friends, take note. We stand in an election where people are wanting to defend that. Watch out who you vote for. They want to defend that and say, oh, no, we got to do that. We got to go that way. Our own councils. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths. Whether it's on a national level or it's on a personal level, when I only listen to my own counsel, I can expect some devastation. I plan to do it my way. I can expect devastation. One translation of Hosea 11.6 says this, a sword will whirl through his cities. It will destroy and devour the bars of his gates because of their schemes. The devil has all kinds of schemes, all kinds of tactics. He can be so clever and so deceptive in how it can bring people down to ruin, devastation. because it's human schemes against God's schemes. I love the Messianic Psalm of Psalm 2. We've studied it before. Let me just highlight this truth from this word, Psalm 2. He who sits in the heavens will laugh. Why will he laugh? Because they have said this, Let's take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying, let us break their bonds and pieces and cast away their cords from us. Let's do things our way, get rid of God's ways and God's Messiah's ways. He who sits in the heavens will laugh and they will come to the appropriate judgment and consequence. It should burden us. It should concern us for our nation as to what's going on and has been going on for a long time. We push God out, and then we're given over to confused thinking, irrational thinking. I've told you many times, and this shows the power of a teacher. In my fourth grade class, I remember the Bible being read every morning. Can't do that. This false thing of separation of church and state. Can't do that. Can't bring God into the public square. So years later, we see consequences. Can't hang the Ten Commandments on the wall of the school. And a shooter comes in, a kid, and shoots down people. Oh, you can't tell that kid, thou shall not murder, thou shall not kill. And we think, what went wrong? It's been going wrong for a long time because we turned our back on God. We have a crisis, a moral crisis. We have AIDS, we have STDs, we have all kinds of crisis. We can't tell people, thou shall not commit adultery. Don't be fornicators. You see, we do it our own way and there are consequences to it. And God says, listen to me, that Israel would not be dependent, verse seven. My people are bent. on backsliding from me. Doesn't that make you scratch your head? But don't scratch too hard until you think about your own heart. The song where he said, prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. He is bent on turning from the Lord. My people are bent on backsliding from me, from going away from me. This term translated here, bent on backsliding from me, literally means to hang. I like this translation. My people are hung up. My people are hung up on turning from me. Or my people are obsessed with turning away from me. That was Israel. hung up on turning away from the Lord. And when we look at our own hearts and follow our own desires and are hung up on doing things our way, we will not have a happy ending like the devil's saying we'll have. We'll have a very unhappy ending. So what's the answer? To go back and repent. to turn to the Lord. They wouldn't do that before. But now turn to the Lord. What's the answer? Exalt Him, lift Him up. Verse 7b, though they call to the Most High, None and all exalt Him. So the prophets are trying to call them back to the Lord, but no one is exalting Him, lifting Him up. In advance, all church advance, we were memorizing the passage in Revelation about giving glory to God. It was about pursuing Christ's glory, and that is lifting Him up. That's what needs to happen in the church of Jesus Christ across this land to lift Him up and exalt Him and magnify Him and not turn from Him and not refuse to repent. So let me draw this to a close with our need to be dependent on the Lord. Three words. One is the word appreciation. There is no love like the wonderful love of God. We must appreciate his love to us. One of the saddest things to see is unreturned love. We read a testimony of a man that was gloriously saved But he had so disappointed his mother and his father. He was all set. He had a career before him, a wonderful life before him. But he turned away from all of that and was involved in perversion and all kinds of drugs. And his mother had a room where she would pray and pray and pray for her son. They visited him one time in his drug house. And the mother gave him her Bible, and he took it in disgust and threw it away. But in prison, because he was devastated, things did not go well. All the parties, all the pleasure, all the stuff that the devil put before him, he ends up in prison. And he goes by a trash can that's full. And he looks in, and there is a little Gideon New Testament. He looks down on his bunk and sees that some former prisoner had etched into the frame Jeremiah 29 11. He found that in the Bible. I know the plans that I have for you. He was saved. The word of God that he had rejected now convicted him and he had a new life in Christ. There is no love like the wonderful love of God. But to turn away his love is so serious. There may be someone here, that's what you've done, who said, no, God, I'll do it my way. I don't need Jesus. or I'll need him one day, but not now. Why? Why not today? You see your need of Christ? Come to the cross. He loves you. He died on the cross for you. Accept the free gift of eternal life. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and his love for you. God demonstrates his love toward us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Accept his love. Don't spurn it. Don't turn it away. Appreciation. And as a believer, let's tell the Lord we love him. And let's give our lives to him to serve him. And then I have two words, warning and warning. Trusting our own ways. As an unbeliever, you may live the lies of the devil, think this is the way to go, but I can tell you based on the authority of the word of God, it will not end well. Trusting your own ways brings disaster. As a believer, if we sow to the flesh, we will have the flesh reap corruption. It won't go well. The second warning. Rejecting the love of God, his only son, brings eternal judgment, trust in Jesus today. If you've not done that, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Let's pray together. Dear Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the everlasting love that you had for the nation of Israel. And we thank you, Lord, for the love that Jesus had for the church. I pray, Lord, that you would overcome us, overwhelm us with the wonderful love of God. With our heads bowed and our eyes closed, Maybe you're saying, I know I need that love. I know I need to be forgiven. I want eternal life. Here's what I would say to you from the Word of God. Call on the name of the Lord and be saved. Acknowledge your sin to Him. Believe that Jesus died, was buried, and rose again. And call upon him to save you. Don't try to shape your life up, clean your life up. Don't try to do anything like that, because you can't. Just as you are, in your heart, come to Jesus. Call on him to be saved. And here's what I'd like to invite you to do. Before you leave today, would you just come up to me with a handshake and say, I did that today. What's next? We like to say that the invitation is never closed. I did that today. I acknowledge my sin. I believed on Christ. I called on the Lord and asked him to save me. If you're a believer and you know that you're resisting the Lord and what he's leading you, directing you to do, will you turn around and go the other way and cooperate with him? Our Father, we thank you this day for your love and mercy, for your grace and goodness. And I pray that your spirit will continue to take your word and apply it to our hearts today. In Jesus' wonderful name, amen.