Daily Bible Study – Immanuel experience…
LEARN and PRACTICE the WORD of GOD
Preparation for Christmas – December 4
‘Return to Me’
There are three parables are on the subject of recovering the lost, which is the implicit the explanation of why Jesus receives sinners and eats with them: They are lost, and he wants to recover them.
- The parable of the lost sheep (Matthew 18:12–14 and Luke 15:3–7)
- The parable of the lost coin (Luke 15:8-10)
- The parable of the lost son (Luke 15:11-32)
Jesus describes all the above three parables are about to find and save the lost one. Today, let us look at the subject based the ‘lost son’ and ‘his return’.
According to Luke 19:10 Jesus says ‘for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost’. In Luke 5:31-32, Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance”.
Malachi 3:7 “From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of hosts. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’
1. Return to the Lord with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning
Joel 2:12 “Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing—grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God.
2. Confess and come back to your God!
Hosea 14:1 Return, 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”.
Prepare your confession and come back to God. Pray to him, “Take away our sin, accept our confession. Receive as restitution of our repentant prayers.
3. Do a self-examination and return
Lamentations 3:40 Let us examine and probe our ways, And let us return to the LORD.
Self examination is very important for correction and proper repentance. As per the above Word, it is the Word from the Lord to us that we must examine ourselves before return to the Lord. It has an another meaning that if you return without self-examination, He may not accept.
4. Remove wickedness and Return
Job 22:23-25 If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored: If you remove wickedness far from your tent and assign your nuggets to the dust,your gold of Ophir to the rocks in the ravines, then the Almighty will be your gold, the choicest silver for you.
5. Return with whole heart and desire to know Me
Jeremiah 24:7 ‘I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the LORD; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart
6. Return to God and Observe kindness and justice
Hosea 6:1 “Come, let us return to the LORD For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.
Hosea 12:6 Therefore, return to your God, Observe kindness and justice, And wait for your God continually.
Jeremiah 3:12 “Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say, ‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD; ‘I will not look upon you in anger For I am gracious,’ declares the LORD; ‘I will not be angry forever.
Jeremiah 3:14 ‘Return, O faithless sons,’ declares the LORD; ‘For I am a master to you, And I will take you one from a city and two from a family, And I will bring you to Zion.’
Jeremiah 3:22 “Return, O faithless sons, I will heal your faithlessness.” “Behold, we come to You; For You are the LORD our God.
8. Obey my command and come back to your God
Nehemiah 1:9 but if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though those of you who have been scattered were in the most remote part of the heavens, I will gather them from there and will bring them to the place where I have chosen to cause My name to dwell.’
9. Return to God and walk in His Way
Isaiah 31:6 Return to Him from whom you have deeply defected, O sons of Israel.
Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.
10. Take away all iniquity and return God Hosea 14:2 Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to Him, “Take away all iniquity And receive us graciously, That we may present the fruit of our lips.
Deuteronomy 30:2 and you return to the LORD your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons,
12. Return to God and He will deliver you
1 Samuel 7:3 Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you return to the LORD with all your heart, remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your hearts to the LORD and serve Him alone; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.”
13. Return to me and I will return to you
Zechariah 1:3 “Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Return to Me,” declares the LORD of hosts, “that I may return to you,” says the LORD of hosts.
14. Draw near to God and return
James 4:8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Return and God will restore you
Jeremiah 15:19 Therefore, thus says the LORD, “If you return, then I will restore you– Before Me you will stand; And if you extract the precious from the worthless, You will become My spokesman. They for their part may turn to you, But as for you, you must not turn to them.
Return to God and He will heal you
Isaiah 19:22 The LORD will strike Egypt, striking but healing; so they will return to the LORD, and He will respond to them and will heal them.
If we are bent on leaving God, things will go badly for us. We will be humiliated in the uncaring world. He continues by beginning to recite his pre-scripted speech to his father, and he manages to get the first two parts of it out. He says:
(a) “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you” (v. 21a),
(b) “I am no longer worthy to be called your son” (v. 21b).
But before he can say the third part–before he can ask to be treated merely as a servant–the father interrupts things and takes them in a very different direction.
Rather than treating his younger son as a mere servant, he turns to the actual servants and orders for a celebration.
They teaches us the depths to which our own misuse of freedom. Finally, prodigal son – he examined himself, repented, confessed and returned to the Father.
What does the father do next?
When the prodigal son returns to his father, something significant happens.
Father was waiting for him. While he is still at a distance, the father sees him, has compassion upon him, runs to him, hugs him, and kisses him.
This is far from the humiliating reunion that the son might expect based on his previous audacious and insulting treatment of his father!
Before completing the confession of son, the father interrupts the things and takes them in a very different direction.
The returning son must have been astonished!
What do the actions of the father teach us?
The first lesson is that the father will not treat a son as a hired servant. The younger son is still a son!
As a result, his return is something to be celebrated!
He is to wear a fancy robe! A fancy ring! Shoes! There is to be a fancy feast for everyone! There is to be music and dancing!
Why? Because “This my son was dead, and is alive again” and “He was lost, and is found.”
This shows us God’s reaction when we return from being lost in sin.
He doesn’t begrudge us with what we have done. He doesn’t take us back reluctantly.
Like the father in the parable, he takes us back joyously!