Yet Even Now, Return to Me
First B Jackson
2026-02-22

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Good morning, everyone. Welcome to welcome to first b on this sunny morning. Would you stand with us, and we'll we'll sing together in song. And, here's an invitation from Revelation 22 to lead us into worship. Let anyone who is thirsty come.

Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life. Would you join with us in singing God is God so loved.

And is this thing on? Mic on. Hey. Here we are. Announcements.

Nick's been doing these for about the last month. So we'll see what comes up. Awana is on. Tomorrow night school's on. Awana's on.

Starts at 05:45. So here we are. Announcement, seven dirties for about the last month.

So anyway, I'm the one that wrote this book, this workbook. And actually, I really it was something that I felt the Lord really wanted me to do because it describes the process that the Lord took me through in my own healing, emotional and spiritual, surprisingly enough, because I was a Christian. But wow, what I did not know. Right? So anyway, I was raised in a severely dysfunctional family, and kids learn what they live.

They don't know to discern right and wrong. They just learn what they live. Right? And so then we grow up. I had so many issues that I had not recognized.

So I was about 40, which is a significant age. That middle age is when a lot of us figure out, boy, I got a lot of things wrong with me. And I was about 40 when the Lord showed me the truth about my background and how twisted it was. And so I I got help. That was the beginning of my of my healings, emotionally and spiritually.

So what the Lord showed me one day when I was in prayer was a domino rally. Do you know all do you all know what that is? The dominoes are stood up on end one after another, and you knock the end one down, it all goes. And they're really interesting to watch, but that was a metaphor for me of the generations in my family that had gone down and gone down and gone down. With all the family dysfunction and all the culture.

For my kids' sake, my grandkids' sake, and even for my siblings. I had four kids. Two of them had been wounded by the family cult my family culture because they'd grown up in it. It was in me. And I had two little guys that I didn't want to be two more victims of it.

And so I did. I stood against it. I told the truth. My parents disowned me, which is what dysfunction does. It wants to stay in the dark.

It does not like the light. But you know what? That is okay. I have never regretted that. Because all four of my kids now are strong Christians.

And you might have heard my youngest son mentioned up here, Joel Hill. He's a missionary in Asia. God is so good. He redeems so much. And that is all that is not because of me.

It's in spite of me. Okay? Anyway, that's what this this book is not a memoir. It is not another book about childhood issues necessarily. It starts there because that's where it all starts for us.

Right? But even as adults, we are dealing every single day with family dysfunction and cultural dysfunction. How many of you could say that our culture worldwide is pretty dysfunctional? Isn't that the truth? I think we would all agree on that.

Anyway, so I've out I have described step by step Lord the steps that the Lord took me through. And after each section, I have questions that help the reader discover what their experiences have been. Because sometimes we're not even aware. We're not even aware of them because we grew up with it. Right?

So, it's just in us. Help us know discover what our own experiences have been and how they've affected us and most importantly, what Jesus has to say about that. I have the books if you'd like to see one or get one. You can also order em on barnesandnoble.com and I I'd like to have a small group in my home. It's really helpful to go through these things with a small group and that'll be I just live over in East Jackson.

So that that'll be on Tuesdays from 06:30 to eight and if you'd like to come, just call me. My phone number is up there. Yes, it is. Yep. And it's also in the directory.

Thank you very much.

So, just let me know. Alright. Thanks, Grant.

Thank you. Thank you,

Darren. Absolutely. Just let me Alright.

We've got other announcements. How about that? There's lots of stuff going on. We'll figure it all out together. Alright.

We've got other announcements. How about that? There's lot.

You can have a seat for a minute. I'll invite the, ushers to come on forward, and we're gonna enter a time of worship through giving. And Psalm 23, we're gonna sing the song about coming from Psalm 23 where it says, surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Would y'all pray with me? Lord God Almighty, thank you for this time of worship through giving. Lord, that we have a time right here where we purposefully think about the gifts that you have given, Lord, and give back a portion so that the gospel may go forward. Lord, would you use this in whatever way you choose, your will done in your way, Lord. We wanna be a part of it.

Thank you for the opportunity. In Jesus' name, we ask you to bless the gift and the giver to do kingdom work on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus name, lord, we ask you blessing. Amen. Kingdom work on earth as it is in heaven.

In Jesus name, lord, we ask you blessing. Amen. Kingdom work on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus name, Lord, we ask

your blessing. The Lord is my shepherd. Kingdom work.

Before the kids go today, would y'all just join with me in the Lord's prayer?

As we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Yes. Yes. So last week, Yvonne asked for prayer and we prayed for her right here and I'm asking all of y'all to continue praying for her. She did have her biopsy done and it did come back that she was positive for cancer. And so she is gonna be having treatments coming up soon.

And Russ and Yvonne have been here for years and years. Been a blessing to this church and this community. They've done the walk in school bus for years now. Russ drove a school bus for twenty plus years before starting the walk in school bus. And they're an institution in this town and in this church, and we love you dearly.

And so I'm gonna lead a prayer, but would y'all be praying for me not just right now but on into the future. Lord, for Yvonne and for her body, we ask for healing. And we thank you for early detection. We thank you for all that they have come to this point to get a plan together. So Lord, I ask that you would steady the surgeon's hands and the radiation and chemo that is forecast in front of her would be successful and that you would restore her body to to complete wellness.

In Jesus name, Lord, we ask you and we're thankful. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Yvonne. This week, we're gonna be in the book of Joel.

So Joel, I think is the most optimistic of all of the minor prophets and I have been looking forward to him for some time. Okay? I have mentioned multiple times that they're dark clouds with bright silver lining. Some of them just have a little bit of a silver lining. But Joel has probably the biggest one.

And sometimes I don't know how to interpret for a twenty first century audience something that was five centuries, six centuries, seven centuries before Christ. And so I think we can draw a lot of life application out of Joel, but it's nice that the New Testament speaks on this one. And I, you know, I mentioned last week, Jesus mentions Hosea, how desire mercy and not sacrifice. Right? So we'll get to that.

That where it is. But this is the whole book of Joel. It's three chapters long, and we're gonna go for I attended this week with Tanya. It's one of our favorite services of the year. Ash Wednesday.

Now Baptists don't do Ash Wednesday, but we get to go sit at the Episcopal Church, sometimes the Catholic Church, and go through Ash Wednesday, and it's a great time for us. We get to sit together. Now that doesn't happen often. But the sermon was moving, I think, and the the penitential nature of the whole thing, the time of Lent is just beautiful. And I think Joel really speaks to this, this week, first week of Lent, it speaks to that.

So here we go. It starts off like Joel, Lord, the the Son of Tethuel. So it does not say who was king. Hear this you elders and Joel is saying there has been a very destructive thing that has come to pass. The very destructive thing is a locust swarm and it's happened in recent history.

He's looking back on the day of the Lord is the way he's about to describe it. The day of the Lord in the past is this is a thorough, thorough depletion of all the vegetation. And it's saying, to able we're do that. Wake We're up the laws of the laws of the lioness. It is made For a nation A vine away.

Has invaded my land mighty and without number. There's not gonna be anything. Strip lion. From where has the law. The law of No.

In fact, he doesn't. I think this is why it's also hopeful. This is the only minor prophet that I know of that doesn't mention sin. He's not blasting them about their sin. I think that it's written a little later than these other books and he's expecting that you have read the other books.

Okay? He knows that. He quotes from a lot of the other major and minor prophets. Maybe they got it from him. If it was written early, maybe they got it from him.

I think he's quoting from the

end And to it

just get And Maybe the whale you ministered early. Maybe the You minister to the My God. Grain offering and drink offering and and than satan. Makes me sack. Offering.

What Joel is saying, God's portion doesn't even get to come back at it because we don't have anything. We've been stripped absolutely bare down to nothing. And he's saying ministers to wheat because they make their living off the people. The grain offering and the drink offering have been withheld from the house of your God. He said that was to the situation bad.

It's sort of a past day. This has come to pass and there's nothing you can do about it now. Funeral word, and it's something where there's a finality to something that has happened, and it's a deep sense of grief. Woe for the day. For the day of the Lord is near and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

This past thing that has come to pass in the land that you all know about For the day. Is a harbinger of the great and mighty day of the Lord which is a day of the Lord future. Has joy a terrible visitation for the day of the Lord as fire consumed solemn occasion. Land is like the garbage But heap for desolate. If it's like the garden eating in front of them, and then it's a desolate wilderness behind them, nothing at all escapes them.

There's nothing in text that says it's the Assyrians or it's the Babylonians or it's the Egyptians or it's the American. I mean, whatever. No. It's not it's it's not that. But a desolate wilderness behind them and nothing at all escapes them.

Their appearance is like the appearance of horses and like war horses, so they run with a noise as of chariots they leak nothing at all on the tops of the mountains. By the way. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Yep. So who can endure it?

What how are they gonna endure? It's probably a better question. If any of us are going to endure the great and mighty day of the Lord, it has to be on his terms. Let's keep going. Yet even now.

Probably a better question. If any of us are going to the text got you exactly where it wants you. Okay. Let's keep going. Yet even now declares the Lord.

If of us are going to the text got you exactly where it wants you. Okay. And what is the proper response to this calamity? What is the proper response to that which the locusts have eaten? And locusts have eaten is about like a fire.

There's a finality to something that has been devoured or burned with fire. So what's the proper response to all this calamity? Yet even now, return to me, God says capital m, return to me with fire. With all of So what's your the proper response to all this calamity? Yet even now.

And with weeping. Return to me. God feels capital m. When you recognize what you have utter dependence on God, but also of complete desperation. Rend what?

Your hearts and not merely utter. The outward show of renting your garments also of not fleet everything up and he's threatening them with an army. No. No. No.

No. That the Lord does, he is reaching everything up and he's threatening them with an army. No. No. No.

No. Be gracious to everything that the Lord does. And this is a very very hard truth, but it is the truth. Reach out. Return to the Lord your God for he is gracious and he is very very hard truth.

He is slow to anger and he's abounding. Reach out. Returns to the Lord your God. For he is gracious and the very best of truth. And he is relenting of And he is abounding.

Reach out. Returns to the Lord your God. Is For some reason, it's not. Call out to him. It's worth a try.

Who knows? Some reason, it's not. Call out to it. Gather the people together. No exceptions.

Come on. Bring them all together. Now, let the priest and let the Lord's ministers weep before the porch and the altar. And let them say, bring them all people, Lord. Now, let the priests Don't make the Lord your ministers grace

with the nations jeering at them.

Wash for those among the people. Say, where is their God?

Make

But I do wanna get to something else. We said the Lord's prayer together a few minutes ago and there's a lot of goodness there. Far as life application from Joel, Come up and we'll sing Made For More.

Alright. Let's sing.

Do have a benediction for you. But also, I wanna say this, I did skip some announcements. There are ladies Bible studies in the morning on Thursday, in the evening on Thursday, and on Wednesday night, this week, over in Vic Driggs, we're doing at the Teton County Fairgrounds, meal music and a message, and it'll be great. Van's gonna be preaching. I'll be doing the music with Lauren and Aaron, and that's a great place.

That's where I go to church. It's wonderful. Y'all come on. Join us. Benediction today is from second Thessalonians.

Whoo. Now, may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our father Who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace. Thessalonians. May he comfort your hearts and establish May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our father God God God