Return To The Lord
This past Sunday, we were honored to have Pastor Mark Porter (a dear friend of our Senior Pastor, John Blue) bring a message that was both direct and deeply hopeful:
Return to the Lord.
Not “try harder.”
Not “clean yourself up first.”
Not “get your life together and then come.”
Just this: Come. Return. To the Lord.
The difference between being challenged and being changed
Pastor Mark opened with something many of us know is true: it’s one thing to be challenged by a sermon, and it’s another thing to be changed by Jesus.
You can hear truth and still walk out the same.
But when God changes you from the inside, it spills into everything—your family, your relationships, your decisions, your peace, your future.
As we step toward a new year, the question isn’t just, “What do I want to improve?”
It’s: “Am I close to the Lord… or have I drifted?”
When worship becomes routine, we drift
In Hosea’s time, God’s people weren’t necessarily “done with God.”
They had just grown stale, comfortable, complacent—going through the motions while their hearts drifted.
That’s one of the most sobering realities of spiritual drift:
sometimes you don’t even notice it’s happening.
Pastor Mark gave the picture of a surfer—looking out at the waves, not the shoreline—only to look back and realize the current has carried him far away. Drift can be slow. Subtle. Quiet.
But the result is real: weaker faith, fading hope, and a growing distance from God’s presence.
God doesn’t abandon drifting people—He calls them back
This is the heart of the message, and it’s the heart of God:
Even when His people drift, God moves toward them.
Hosea 6:1 begins with a sentence that is simple, but life-changing:
“Come, let us return to the LORD.” (Hosea 6:1)
Pastor Mark called this one of the richest invitations in Scripture because it reveals God’s posture toward disobedient people: not rejection—invitation.
1) “Come”
God doesn’t start with a lecture.
He starts with an invitation.
Come.
If you’re worn out—come.
If you’re stuck—come.
If you feel ashamed—come.
If you’re anxious, depressed, exhausted, or barely holding it together—come.
This isn’t only an Old Testament message. Jesus speaks the same word:
“Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)
If your soul has been running on fumes, Jesus is not telling you to perform.
He’s telling you to come.
2) “Let us”
This invitation is not for “those people.” It’s for us.
Not the polished. Not the perfect. Not the “already strong.”
God is calling the whole room, the whole church, the whole family of faith.
You are not alone in your struggle. And you don’t have to return alone.
3) “Return”
Return is the Bible word-picture of repentance.
Not just “stop doing bad things,” but turn—a real change of direction.
Pastor Mark said something many of us need to hear: we often make returning to God way too complicated.
God doesn’t say, “Jump through 15 hoops and prove yourself.”
He says: Return.
And that leads to the most important part:
4) “To the Lord”
We don’t return to a program.
We don’t return to a personality.
We don’t return to a self-help plan.
We return to a Person: Jesus Christ.
He alone is our peace. Our Redeemer. Our strength. Our Savior.
What happens when we return?
Hosea doesn’t just call God’s people back—he describes what God does when they return:
“For He has torn us, that He may heal us;
He has struck us down, and He will bind us up.” (Hosea 6:1)
This can sound intense until you catch the purpose: healing.
Sometimes God allows painful disruption because He loves us too much to let sin quietly destroy us. The goal is never your harm—it's your restoration.
Then Hosea continues:
“After two days He will revive us;
on the third day He will raise us up,
that we may live before Him.” (Hosea 6:2)
God doesn’t only forgive.
He revives—He brings dead things back to life.
And finally:
“Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD;
His going out is sure as the dawn;
He will come to us as the showers…” (Hosea 6:3)
Pastor Mark explained it like this:
as certain as the sun rises, God will meet the one who returns.
You do your part—come back.
God is faithful to do His—restore, revive, renew.
Communion and the message of Hosea
Pastor Mark closed by connecting Hosea to one of the clearest pictures of the gospel in the Old Testament.
Hosea is told to marry Gomer. She leaves him and becomes a prostitute. Then God tells Hosea to go find her—and buy her back—and bring her home.
That story is not mainly about Hosea.
It’s about us.
We are the ones who wandered.
We are the ones who ran.
We are the ones who couldn’t “earn” our way home.
So Jesus came to purchase us—not with silver, but with His own blood.
This is why communion matters. It’s not a religious moment. It’s a holy reminder:
Jesus’ body was broken for you.
Jesus’ blood was poured out for you.
And the door back home is open.
A simple invitation for 2026
If you don’t remember anything else from this message, remember this:
Come. Let us return to the Lord.
Not once. Not only on a Sunday.
But as a way of life—returning again and again to the presence of Jesus.
Prayer
Jesus, we hear Your voice calling us back.
Where we’ve drifted, bring us home.
Where we’ve been stuck, set us free.
Where we’ve been wounded, heal us.
Where we’ve been numb, revive us.
Help us return—not to religion—but to You.
In Your name, amen.