Return to Me

Pastor Stan Mons

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Sermon Transcription:

Very excited to get into the Word with you. And the Lord gave me this a couple of weeks ago, and it's titled Return to Me. Return to Me. I'll read to you Isaiah 44:22: “I have blotted out like a thick cloud your transgressions, and like a cloud your sins. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.” I believe you're going to hear a real cry from the heart of God in these words this morning. But I would love to pray over this time for those who are with us online and for those who are here in the house. Lord, I ask You to send Your Holy Spirit upon every person that watches with us online at this time or at a later time. I pray, Holy Spirit, that You help our minds and our hearts understand what God has done. Holy Spirit, only when You help us can we truly understand what God is really trying to show us. And You are faithful to do this, but we acknowledge our dependency on Your ministry.

Holy Spirit, help us here in the house. Lord God, I pray that You help us see, that You help us understand, and that You help us choose and respond to You— to Your invitation—with all of our heart, without reservation, without condition. Lord, may every person receive what You have on Your heart, what You have in Your mind for us this morning. Lord God, we bless You. I thank You that You love us. I thank You that You are with us. I thank You, Lord, that You have set us out on victory this morning. And I thank You in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Thank you, worship team. Great job, everyone, this morning! Let's give the Lord a hand clap for the way He has given us His presence and blessed us by leading us into worship. I know that we see the people up here, but I also know that I can't get excited about Jesus, and I can't get confident in Jesus, and I can't become exuberant in Jesus unless God has done something inside of my heart so undeniably powerful that nobody could ever talk me out of it. I would never need anything else to get me passionate or to get me going.

So, great job. But thank you for letting us look at a platform full of people who have been fully persuaded and then experienced the power of Jesus. For some of you, the amount of testimony on this platform is unreasonable, and I think you're going to hear some about that. I'm looking at the media team now, and I think you're going to hear some about that in the coming weeks or months as we approach our 5-year anniversary of really starting Safe House Church together, to tell Portland, Oregon, about Jesus. Amen. Amen. You have to ask these people, "Hey, what has Jesus done in your life?" Because I know Yana was ready and had her suicide planned when Jesus came into her life. I know many of you were unable, medically speaking, to have children, and now you're annoyed by how your kids keep you awake at night. There are so many testimonies of healing and restoration.

We're going to have our Thanksgiving service soon, and we're collecting all of the praise reports. If you have praise reports of miracles or answered prayers from this past year that the Lord has given you, please send them in. We want to say thank you and give worship and praise to God for answering our prayers together as Thanksgiving comes our way. But let’s get into the Word this morning. Return to Me. Now, that’s a pretty funny statement if you take it at face value, coming from God. But what really happened is humanity began—mankind began—with God. He made the man and the woman, later called Adam and Eve. He made them in the garden, gave them a job, gave them purpose, gave them something to do. And the Lord provided everything for them: food they could just reach and have, purpose they were right in it, companionship with the Lord, knowing Him, walking with Him. Everything had just been made for them. They didn’t do anything for it; they didn’t have to work for it. It was all given to them. And then the Lord said, "Now, there's one thing I’m going to ask you not to do. You may want to do it sometimes, that's fine, but I’m going to ask you not to do it.

I want you to live a life of trusting Me. And I’m telling you, there’s one thing you shouldn’t do. And I’m asking you to trust Me and not do that one thing. Everything else is provided. Everything else is allowed. Everything else is good. I want you to trust Me at My word." And all of a sudden, mankind—created to be with God—wanted to begin to make some decisions outside of God. Really, an act of saying, "I don’t really trust You. Maybe I don’t trust Your motives. Maybe You’re keeping something good from me, and I would like to explore it without having to just trust You at Your word." And mankind began to make decisions apart from God. And, all of a sudden, there’s a separation. There’s a brokenness. Genesis 3:24 says, "So He drove out the man out of the garden. He drove out the man, and He placed cherubim"—that’s another word for a specific type of angel—"at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life."

So here, God had made a situation for people to be completely satisfied, happy, full of enjoyment, full of provision—never-ending life, companionship with God, knowledge of God, intimacy with God, nearness with God, right standing with God—nothing wrong. And then, when mankind begins to make one or two, or continues to make choices apart from God—whatever they may be, choices apart from God, trying to get around God’s direction, getting around trusting God—all of a sudden, we see this separation from the presence of God. Now, we know the Lord is technically present everywhere, but there is such a thing as experiencing in measure, even on this side of eternity, the actual presence of the Lord. And they were separated from that presence. And they were separated—mankind now beginning to become separated from the knowledge of God.

Knowing Him, knowing His voice, knowing it when it is His touch, knowing it when His Spirit is speaking to me versus another spirit—whether it belongs to the devil or a person with a strong spirit—knowing the difference when God speaks to your heart and when it is just your conscience. Knowing the difference, knowing God. A separation now was being experienced by humanity—away from the knowledge of God, away from the presence of God. And we see in the history of the world, and we see in the history described in the Word of God, that ever since that moment, people have become somewhat obsessed with trying to get back to God. And sometimes, it turned out pretty ugly. Amen? People trying to do everything they possibly can to get right with God, to get some type of righteous approval stamp. And everyone finding out that it is never enough. The Jewish people—generation after generation—sacrificing animal after animal, a flow of blood coming from the temple. They would leave, glad that the sins of yesterday had been paid for by an animal sacrifice. And then they would say, "Now I’m going to be better. I’m going to try to keep God’s commands." But before they even got home, they already had reason to come back the next day because they could not keep the standard of God.

Somehow, they could never bridge that gap, never make a payment, or do something that would impress God so much that He would say, "Welcome back now into My presence. Welcome back into the knowledge of God. I will speak to you. I’ll make Myself known to you." But it wasn’t like that. All of it was a free-for-all again. You’re in My home. You belong to Me. Now, all throughout the history of the Jewish people, and other peoples as well who sought after God, it was never enough. And you may sometimes feel like that. You can be in church your entire life. You can do everything you’re supposed to do. You can try to read your Bible, pray, be good, not hurt other people. But somehow, deep down inside, something tells you that it’s not finished. It’s not enough. It’s not done. If you stood before God tonight for whatever reason, you’re not fully convinced that everything is perfectly alright. And so we have this situation—let’s call it that. It was quite the situation.

We had this situation in the Garden of Eden—everything perfect, bringing people into it, but not so perfect. And all of a sudden, we read that incredible scripture: God drove them out of the place where they had intimacy with God, knowledge of God, righteousness of God. And then, all of us throughout the generations get called to another garden in a later story. We get called to the garden of Gethsemane. Let me read to you Luke 22:41-42, talking about Jesus:“And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and he knelt down and prayed, saying, ‘Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours be done.’”

Here we have Jesus, sent into the world by His Father, and we get this glimpse into His life where Jesus Himself is praying to the Father. He says, "Father, take this cup away from Me." What is He referring to? What is He talking about? We know that He is talking about what was called the cup of the wrath of God— all of the consequences, if you will, the righteous judgment for everything anybody in the world has ever done wrong. And Jesus says, “If it is Your will, please let this cup pass from Me. But I want what You want, Father. So if this cup is to be Mine, Your will be done.”

This garden became the garden of restoration. Because it is in this garden that Jesus said, all of the consequences of all of these people trying to figure life out, trying to make decisions outside of what God had already said, what God had already done, what God already wanted for them—outside of trusting God—any decision that is not related to trusting God and the consequences thereof, Jesus said, "Father, if You want Me to take that cup, I am more than willing to do this. I'm willing to take on every wrong." They got kicked out of the garden, but now I'm in a garden right here to take on all of that consequence. And I’d rather be rejected. I’d rather lose the presence of the Father and have to cry out, “Father, Father, why have You forsaken Me?” Father, that You may make a way for them to come back to that garden relationship, to come back to that intimacy, to come back to that acceptance, to come back to that righteousness, to come back to intimacy—knowing the Father. And Jesus, in another garden, said, “I want to be the One that gets drawn away, that gets driven out. I want to be the One that takes all the rejection. I want to be the One that all of His friends left Him. I want to be the One that the Father turns His back on. I want to be the One that gets taken out of this garden and brought to a cross to die as a consequence for sin. I want a garden of restoration.” And that's really what Jesus was saying to the Father.

Father, if it is Your will that there would be a garden of restoration. There's this garden of the situation that wasn’t so good. Father, if You desire a garden of restoration, I want to be the payment. And this Jesus, He explains to us that He didn’t only come into the world to accomplish what the Father wanted. Lord, what is Your will? Father, what is Your will?—What the Father’s desire is over your life and my life. But He also tells us what is in the heart and in the mind of the Father. Let me read to you John 12:49-50. Jesus speaking again, He says: “For I have not spoken on My own authority, but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is eternal life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.” So here, Jesus says, I only repeat after God the Father, and I know what He has said. He has sent Me to go and tell people about eternal life. What did they lose in the garden? Access to the tree of life. Now death came into the world. And Jesus says, The Father has sent Me that there may be a garden of restoration.

The Father has sent Me to let people know that eternal life is going to be given back, that you are going to be brought back into the reach and the touch of eternal life. And Jesus is really saying, When you hear My words, you’ve heard the Father’s words. He says the Father and I are in agreement. We speak the same thing. We speak the same words. And we see the Father’s desire again so clearly when Jesus speaks the words in Matthew 11:28, where He says, “Come to Me…”

Again, return to Me—same wording: "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Here, Jesus is talking—for lack of a better picture—He's talking to church people. He's not talking to sinners. He's not talking to evil people. He's not talking to people that are not even trying to be good in life. He’s exactly talking to the people who say, “Hey, you should be good to other people. You should try and be kind. You should.” And they’re doing it because they believe that wrong and right have consequences.

They believe that God exists. And that’s the kind of people He addresses. And He says, “Come to Me.” God is speaking and saying, “Come to Me” to a people that thought they already had Him. “Come to Me, all you who labor…” This is the people that are constantly trying to be good for God, constantly trying, constantly adjusting their life, constantly giving things up, constantly trying to meet the expectation—constant. And Jesus cries out, “Come to Me, everyone who labors, everyone who is heavy laden, pressed down. It’s heavy. It’s not light. It’s not full of joy. It’s not easy.” And He says, “And I will give you rest.” Whatever you’ve been carrying, whatever is weighing you down, whatever you can’t get figured out in life, whatever is keeping you from coming to God, He says, “Come to Me. If it’s hard. Come to Me if you’ve been doing a lot. Come to Me if you don’t know how to make it work, and I will give you something.” What does He say? “I will give you rest.” Jesus always desires to show you something or do something in your life that brings in more rest. If you’ve been seeking Jesus and you don’t have rest, you haven’t been seeking the Jesus of the Bible. When you get to know the Jesus of the Bible, He wants to give you something.

It always manifests itself, that always shows up in rest, peace, no more doing, no more working, no more question: Are we good? Are we not God? Jesus does something so incredible that it can cause rest in someone like you and someone like me. And then God starts to do a great, strange work in the world because not only is the Son in agreement with the Father in what the Father wants and in what the Father speaks, but then God begins to bring people like you and I in agreement with Himself. He begins to send them out into a broken world with, again, the very same message, the very same words to every generation. Why? It is because the very same Spirit that lived in Jesus comes to live inside of every single one of you when you believe and confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And anyone redeemed by the Son of God Himself will also begin, slowly but surely, to sound just like the Father, just like the Son. You can come, return to Him. You can come. Jesus did something. Revelation 22:17 says it so clearly: “And the Spirit, that’s the Spirit of Jesus, and the bride, the people that He has saved and loved and given a new life.

The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, think about that. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.”

Jesus did something so unimaginably grand that the word tells us that whoever desires to take from God what He freely offers, what He has purchased, what He has done for every single one of us, the word tells us, “Just come and take it home.” Just come and take it. Just come and let him take the water of life freely. Jesus Himself said, “I am the living water.” In other words, Jesus is available to absolutely anyone. No matter what you’ve done, no matter where you’ve been, no matter how long it’s been, no matter how long God has been calling to your heart, return to Me. Return to Me. He’s not looking for hard workers. He’s not looking for people to impress Him. He’s not looking for people that want to pay Him back for everything that He has done. It is the true church of the living God—the Spirit and the bride say “Come.” It is the true church of the living God that constantly still, now, just like Jesus did, just like the Father did, calls out to humanity. Church, not a building, not an organization, but every single person that Jesus has come to live in their heart, something will happen in your life where you start to sound like Him. You begin to tell people, “You can come back now.”

We no longer live with a garden of rejection. There’s another garden where Jesus accepted all of the payment for everything that would ever cause rejection over any life so that whoever wants to come can come. Whoever wants to take the waters of life, let him take it. Let him have it. And the true church of the living God will always have that sound in its heart and in its mouth. You can come back. Let’s return to Him. Let’s go back. The separation is over. He has paid. He has bought off my debt and paid off my life so I could never get in debt ever again. Through Jesus, you can come back to God and never be rejected. No matter what you bring with you, no matter what you bring with you, nothing will cause rejection ever again between you and the Father because Jesus came to show us what was really in the Father’s heart. The Father wanted forgiveness for every single person. And the Father wanted intimacy, the knowledge of God, the presence of God upon every person’s life. The Father wanted that. And they had developed such a crooked image of what the Father was like. So He sent His Son. And the word tells us, If you’ve seen the Son, you’ve seen the Father. And when we look at Jesus, we are challenged to believe what the Father is like. That the Father wants me forgiven. That the Father wants me in His presence. That the Father wants me to know His voice. That the Father wants me to have rest. That the Father wants me to be satisfied. The Father wants me to have joy all over my life.

See, Jesus cries out to every single one of us. “I formed you in the womb. I was there when you were beautifully and fearfully and wonderfully made. I knew your name before your parents picked it. I knew the color of your eyes. I knew where you would end up. I knew the disappointments you would go through. I knew everything that would go wrong. I was there from the beginning.” And the call comes: Would you now return to Me? Everything has been fixed. Everything has been paid for. A way has been made just for you. The cry comes forth from heaven’s gate. And it comes forth from the church of the living God: Return to Me because I’ve made a way for you. I’ll read it again: “I have blotted out like a thick cloud your transgressions and like a cloud your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.”

There’s nothing that still needs to happen. There’s no big moment that you need in your emotions or between you and God. He cries out to people like you and I. He says, “You can come back now. Return to Me. I’ve blotted it all out. I’ve dealt with everything you did. I dealt with everything you didn’t do. I have redeemed you.” Redeeming something means there was an owing on it, a debt on it. And whoever pays the debt gets to take it home. And Jesus cries out to us, “I’m the one that paid the debt so that you could come home. Not just to any home. You could come home and be in an intimate relationship with the Father again. You can come home and have the righteousness of God clothe you without you ever doing anything right. You can come home because I have done this thing. I have redeemed you.”

He says, “Come, return to Me. Return to Me from wherever you are. Return to Me with all of your heart. Return to Me with your thinking. Return to Me. My hands made you. My hands can also change you. They can change what you cannot. They can form what you cannot form. They can remove what you cannot deal with. Come to Me. Return to Me.” Church, the Lord is so ready to satisfy your heart. He’s so ready and desires to give you a peace you cannot explain. When heavenly peace settles on an earthly situation, nobody understands, but you are having peace, joy, intimacy with God, and rest no matter what goes on around you. No matter what comes into your life or is taken out of it, heavenly peace on an earthly situation always wins. He’s so ready to make reading your Bible exciting again. He’ll do it. You won’t have to do it. You won’t have to figure out how to get into the Bible. You won’t have to figure out how to get back in. He is so willing to do it. He’s asking, “Would you return to Me? Stop returning to your works. Stop returning to trying to be good. Stop returning to trying to think that you have to somehow show in your actions that you’re sorry enough. I have redeemed you. Would you come?”

He is so ready to give you a real prayer life. Oh, you guys know that I care so much that you have a real prayer life. A real prayer life is one where you talk and Jesus talks back. You have the relationship again that was lost, driven out of the garden. Jesus took the payment in the garden and you get to walk with the Lord again. You get to know Him again. Like Jesus said, “My sheep will know My voice.” A real prayer life. He’s ready to give it. He’s ready. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you. Would you stand with me for just a moment? Church, the Lord is so ready to make an exchange. And there always is an exchange. There’s always a payment and a reward. But Jesus works very differently than we like to think. Just like He did in the garden, Jesus loves to take everything that hurts you, everything that breaks you, everything that weighs you down, everything that feels like a never-ending work, everything that feels like it’s not finished for you or in you—everything that makes you feel like you cannot be a believer.

Everything that makes you feel like you cannot have a proper prayer life. Everything that makes you feel or believe that you and the Bible just don’t work. Jesus asks us for all of those things, and whatever area of life it is, He promised to give you rest. He promises to do something so powerful that whatever is going on in your life, you will have perfect peace. You will have perfect joy. You can enjoy everything in your life, no matter what is going on. That’s what He promises. Even in the face of death, there’s no fear, there’s no worry. Because what did He tell us? This is the command of My Father—eternal life. He promises that when we lose the strength and life in this earthly body, He will give us a heavenly body that no longer dies, just like He intended in the beginning. That you would live. That you would know Him. That you would be close to the Father. That you would know His voice.

That you would be intimate with the Father. That someone like you would be in righteousness. Someone like you, full of peace, full of joy at every turn of life. That’s the Father’s desire over you. Jesus made it known. The church is making it known. And whatever area you need the rest of God to settle on this morning, I want to invite you to make that exchange. Whatever you need to give to Him so that He can replace it with peace and replace it with rest. I want to invite you, if the Spirit of God brought something to your heart or something to your mind, would you join me here at the altar so that we can pray together and you personally give God what He’s asking you for? Trusting that because of Jesus Christ, He will give you what you do not deserve, what you maybe never asked for, but what He so desires to place in your heart and in your life. Would you come and make the exchange? Hallelujah, Jesus. Hallelujah, Lord.

-Pastor Stan Mons