WEBVTT 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:07.780 I'm going to invite you to turn to the book of Hosea while I get all pumped for this new series that we're going to do together out of Hosea on a recovery road. 00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:15.400 Hosea is one of those shocking books when you read it and what it contains and I want you as we go through this book, 00:00:15.440 --> 00:00:20.700 we're going to go through the highlights of what is the book of Hosea in your impersonal time. 00:00:20.760 --> 00:00:26.440 If you want to be shocked, I say read that book and check it out in different translations of scripture. 00:00:26.440 --> 00:00:33.560 I'll tell you, even that paraphrase versions of scriptures that relates to this book paraphrases have the tendency of just packing in statements where this book is 00:00:33.560 --> 00:00:35.640 intended to give you a power punch to kind of shock you. 00:00:36.040 --> 00:00:37.540 You don't want to sit down and read this with your grandmother. 00:00:38.060 --> 00:00:45.060 This is your blush in the room when you're both president went through the book of Hosea, but this is a good book for us as we already dive into 00:00:45.060 --> 00:00:45.320 this. 00:00:45.340 --> 00:00:46.560 As you find the book of Hosea. 00:00:47.040 --> 00:00:53.060 It's in the old Testament just after Isaiah is equal, Daniel and then the book of Hosea you'll find there. 00:00:53.060 --> 00:00:58.420 It's not an extremely long book, but it's got enough chapters for us to get some very good content in it together. 00:00:59.540 --> 00:01:02.480 Some of the things we're going to be looking at, the idea of judgment. 00:01:03.620 --> 00:01:10.380 People like to quote, it's not godly to judge one another or biblically don't. 00:01:10.700 --> 00:01:13.090 Don't judge me when you've got a log in your own eyes. 00:01:13.180 --> 00:01:16.400 The splinter in my eye, how God wants us to examine ourselves. 00:01:16.600 --> 00:01:17.250 We're gonna talk about insecurity. 00:01:18.180 --> 00:01:20.800 We're going to set the foundation for what the book discusses today. 00:01:21.220 --> 00:01:28.240 We might enter in a little bit on deciding this for the last message, but on sexuality or our culture is 00:01:28.240 --> 00:01:29.040 obsessed with it. 00:01:29.040 --> 00:01:35.090 Hosea centers on it, but in a way that's gracious, loving, but challenging to us as individuals. 00:01:35.100 --> 00:01:42.520 I'm not looking to bash any particular personal group, but what the Bible challenges is in the book of Hosea for us personally 00:01:42.520 --> 00:01:46.080 and what God desires for us, and so I'm excited about this. 00:01:46.500 --> 00:01:50.400 We should all be a person that's a little more energy today cause you got an extra hour of sleep. 00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:52.820 Very right, okay, whatever. 00:01:52.860 --> 00:01:55.030 So you're like, now I got kids, they don't know how to read a clock. 00:01:55.420 --> 00:01:57.220 They got up anyway, I had to get up. 00:01:57.220 --> 00:01:59.020 I'm kind of angry this morning. 00:01:59.360 --> 00:02:00.320 That's how that works. 00:02:00.320 --> 00:02:04.480 If you're like me, that was my house. 00:02:04.520 --> 00:02:05.110 Go to bed. 00:02:06.340 --> 00:02:13.680 Well, this book for us, the book of Hosea is a beautiful book that really paints for us in 00:02:13.680 --> 00:02:15.060 a shocking way. 00:02:15.160 --> 00:02:22.220 God's story of redemption in our lives and how it transforms our hearts where God meets us in the crossroads of the messiness of what 00:02:22.220 --> 00:02:22.960 life is. 00:02:23.340 --> 00:02:30.420 We see God as a Holy God in this book, but a God who gets who gets messy sometimes when you think about God 00:02:30.420 --> 00:02:37.440 in religious context, you sort of see him as this God off in the distance that you're never worthy to just receive his love and 00:02:37.680 --> 00:02:41.500 you hope to God you're just good enough that he might accept you at some point in eternity. 00:02:42.600 --> 00:02:45.120 But the story of Hosea is the opposite. 00:02:45.220 --> 00:02:52.280 It's a God who enters our world in that messiness and encourages us right where we are to see by his power, the transformation 00:02:52.280 --> 00:02:54.740 that can take place in our lives. 00:02:55.160 --> 00:02:56.900 Beautiful book in that sense. 00:02:57.020 --> 00:03:04.060 And so when we go through this together, it's only important to see how this book meets you in this story that God didn't 00:03:04.060 --> 00:03:11.200 just intend this story for Jose and the people that are there, but he wrote this story so that we can all intersect, intersect our lives with it, and how God 00:03:11.200 --> 00:03:15.960 wants to impact us and to use this story to leverage this story. 00:03:16.340 --> 00:03:22.120 How in ways that God can meet other people and where they are on their journey in this world. 00:03:22.360 --> 00:03:28.910 And so when this book was written, because of the content of this book, when this book was written, it's written in a history. 00:03:29.020 --> 00:03:34.380 It's very powerful in the way that God would want to use such a dynamic story to impact people. 00:03:34.980 --> 00:03:42.080 This book was written around seven 50 BC and if you know anything about Israel's history in seven 50 BC, they're sort of at the pinnacle 00:03:42.080 --> 00:03:43.120 of what they are. 00:03:44.960 --> 00:03:52.340 They have financially, they are in a place where they've received in such a way that they're really not in need in comparison to other nations, 00:03:52.860 --> 00:03:54.010 other people groups. 00:03:54.560 --> 00:04:01.620 And so they're sort of in this place where they're kind of walled spiritually to sleep and the things that they're interested in life is just 00:04:01.620 --> 00:04:02.780 whatever makes them happy. 00:04:04.300 --> 00:04:07.790 But at this particular point in history, Israel is also going through a division. 00:04:09.420 --> 00:04:15.680 Hosea is more particularly writing his messengers, sharing his message with the Northern tribes of Israel. 00:04:16.160 --> 00:04:23.160 In Israel's history, they have a King Saul and eventually David and then Solomon, and then Israel has a civil war 00:04:23.160 --> 00:04:30.300 and they split into, actually, it's more like they split into five, six, 10 tribes go to the North, two tribes 00:04:30.300 --> 00:04:31.200 go to the South. 00:04:32.080 --> 00:04:34.860 The Southern tribes are referred to as the tribes of Judah. 00:04:34.880 --> 00:04:37.660 Judah was the larger the drives, that was the tribe Jesus came from. 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:45.290 So two tribes in the South, the tribes of Judah and the tribes in the North, the tribes of Ephraim, sometimes referred to in the North as Israel is 00:04:45.540 --> 00:04:47.960 they sort of refer to Israel in the Northern tribes. 00:04:47.980 --> 00:04:54.600 In the old Testament, but oftentimes when they're specifying those 10 tribes, it's spoken about as the tribes of Ephraim. 00:04:54.640 --> 00:04:57.520 Cause that was the largest group of those 10 tribes that went to the North. 00:04:57.780 --> 00:05:00.310 And so they're in that division now in their history. 00:05:00.680 --> 00:05:01.810 They've been split. 00:05:02.040 --> 00:05:07.020 Hosea is going to the North to preach this message, but he summarizes this message for the entire nation. 00:05:08.220 --> 00:05:15.440 And what happens with Israel when it splits the Southern tribes, they somewhat have a God godly lineage, some godly 00:05:15.440 --> 00:05:18.620 Kings that lead, and they have some ungodly Kings that lead. 00:05:18.880 --> 00:05:22.560 The Northern tribes really don't have any godly Kings that lead. 00:05:23.180 --> 00:05:30.600 And by about seven 22 BC, not long after Jose has message, the Northern tribes are taken into captivity by the Assyrians. 00:05:31.400 --> 00:05:34.060 And the Lord uses that as judgment to call Israel to repentance. 00:05:34.240 --> 00:05:39.730 And the same thing he does a little later with the Southern tribes, five 86 BC by the Babylonians, they're taken into captivity. 00:05:40.380 --> 00:05:45.640 So before this captivity, God is bringing this message of judgment to Israel. 00:05:45.640 --> 00:05:53.060 We've talked about this in the very last message last week that we shared from Obadiah that God used his prophets to 00:05:53.060 --> 00:05:55.200 speak to covenant Israel under the covenant. 00:05:55.200 --> 00:05:59.920 They have agreed to in the old Testament to call them to repentance, to draw them back to God. 00:05:59.940 --> 00:06:07.000 And so it's sort of this judgment and salvation that's mentioned in the contents of the profits, that God's desire for them is to 00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:07.580 walk with him. 00:06:07.700 --> 00:06:14.820 There's judgment if they refuse to walk with him, but God's ultimate desire is salvation, the rescuing them, those people would belong 00:06:14.820 --> 00:06:15.640 to him. 00:06:15.640 --> 00:06:20.540 And Hosea is a similar book following that backdrop of what profits are. 00:06:22.080 --> 00:06:27.960 And so when he starts this message in Hosea chapter one and verse one, it lays it out for us. 00:06:27.960 --> 00:06:30.890 Just the foundation for us, the word of the Lord came to Jose. 00:06:30.920 --> 00:06:35.240 I mean these aren't, Jose has word words, but these are God's inspired words. 00:06:35.240 --> 00:06:42.660 The message that he desires to be delivered to Israel, particularly into the North, which came to Hosea, the son of burry 00:06:42.660 --> 00:06:43.860 during the days of use. 00:06:43.860 --> 00:06:46.400 Jotham a has and has a Chi Kings of Judah. 00:06:46.700 --> 00:06:52.060 And during the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joe Ash, King of Israel, I pronounce all those right? 00:06:52.060 --> 00:06:52.480 Just so you know. 00:06:53.500 --> 00:06:58.840 All right, so Jose is giving this message and he's dating for us when it takes place. 00:06:59.240 --> 00:07:00.340 He lists all the Northern Kings. 00:07:00.680 --> 00:07:02.640 Israel had a succession of Northern Kings at this time. 00:07:02.880 --> 00:07:04.530 He listens to the Southern King. 00:07:04.660 --> 00:07:10.520 So in a in a time period, you know when this is being expressed, this word of Lord came to him during this time. 00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:18.530 What's particularly important as we look at this first chapter together is to understand the way God wants to communicate his message. 00:07:18.720 --> 00:07:25.880 When he asks how to say it, to do something that's shocking, and two, he uses the names of the individuals within the first chapter of 00:07:26.180 --> 00:07:33.360 this store to paint the picture of the message he desires to deliver and the individual God chooses to share this 00:07:33.360 --> 00:07:37.220 message is an expression of the message he desires to share. 00:07:37.720 --> 00:07:41.180 Not that he's a prophet, but that the name itself. 00:07:41.240 --> 00:07:44.840 Hosea literally means salvation. 00:07:49.320 --> 00:07:56.680 God is delivering, bringing salvation to those that really aren't on interested in it. 00:07:58.140 --> 00:08:05.260 Northern tribes of Israel not following after any godly King at this point in their history, reaching the pinnacle of what 00:08:05.260 --> 00:08:12.260 the Northern tribes achieved and their success started to fall into the worship of all, which is a false 00:08:12.260 --> 00:08:19.520 God, a God that they would even sacrifice children to and in the backdrop of 00:08:19.520 --> 00:08:28.500 the worship of this false God, the one true God is bringing to Israel salvation. 00:08:28.520 --> 00:08:36.200 When they're not looking for God, God is looking out for them and 00:08:36.200 --> 00:08:44.120 to order in order to penetrate this culture, the hardness of heart, the deadening that they're experiencing on the inside, the lack of desire they have to draw 00:08:44.120 --> 00:08:45.700 near to God. 00:08:45.700 --> 00:08:45.720 God. 00:08:45.860 --> 00:08:50.520 God says to Jose in this message, I want you to do something so shocking and me. 00:08:50.520 --> 00:08:56.420 It's going to wake people up from their grave, right as a prophet, as a Holy man in this nation. 00:08:56.680 --> 00:08:58.000 Here's what I want you to do. 00:08:58.080 --> 00:09:04.220 Verse two, when the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, go take for yourself a wife of harlotry. 00:09:05.340 --> 00:09:08.260 I'll tell you, some translations get a little more colorful and how they express this. 00:09:09.680 --> 00:09:16.940 But take for yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry for the land commits, flagrant harlotry 00:09:16.940 --> 00:09:18.020 forsaking the Lord. 00:09:19.240 --> 00:09:26.500 So he's saying, Jose, I want you to take a prostitute and this prostitute is going to illustrate 00:09:28.300 --> 00:09:31.980 how Israel is responding to me in our relationship together. 00:09:33.300 --> 00:09:39.460 You're literally going to use your life as a living example of how people receive me. 00:09:42.400 --> 00:09:44.700 It's like God's saying somewhere along the way. 00:09:45.660 --> 00:09:46.840 People forget I'm a bean too. 00:09:53.040 --> 00:10:00.340 They've ignored who I am and I want to awaken them to the reality of the hardness of their own heart to 00:10:00.360 --> 00:10:06.460 recognize I'm here and salvation is come. 00:10:07.160 --> 00:10:08.800 God desires to draw near to them. 00:10:10.080 --> 00:10:14.400 And so uses this prostitute you think in your mind for a moment. 00:10:14.760 --> 00:10:16.860 I mean how would you handle this as Hosea? 00:10:18.200 --> 00:10:19.760 I mean at the next family Christmas gathering. 00:10:20.220 --> 00:10:20.970 How do you introduce this? 00:10:21.300 --> 00:10:23.660 Hey everyone, here's my new wife, right? 00:10:24.420 --> 00:10:30.320 Self employed, a real go getter, people, person, Navy. 00:10:30.320 --> 00:10:34.380 I mean, how do you, how do you explain that to people? 00:10:34.400 --> 00:10:35.680 Are you happy for me? 00:10:35.840 --> 00:10:36.240 Right? 00:10:38.320 --> 00:10:45.420 But God is using this as if to say to us, listen, there comes a place in our own hearts, in our own lives that we get so dead 00:10:45.420 --> 00:10:48.200 on the unsaid, so callous and where we are. 00:10:48.200 --> 00:10:53.080 I mean, God has really got to shock us to get us to waken up to the deadness that's inside. 00:10:55.500 --> 00:10:57.680 And it's not the harsh things that do it. 00:10:59.260 --> 00:11:02.430 It's the leveling of comfort in life really. 00:11:04.640 --> 00:11:05.840 And that's where his rule was. 00:11:08.140 --> 00:11:13.620 And so Hosea, I want you to, I want you to really share this in a way that impacts hearts. 00:11:13.980 --> 00:11:21.000 I want him to really to see, to think about the God that they're leaving behind because of my love and 00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:21.600 care for them. 00:11:21.600 --> 00:11:22.420 Salvation has come. 00:11:22.420 --> 00:11:29.540 And so then it says, so he went and took Gomer, the daughter of the blame, and she conceived and 00:11:29.540 --> 00:11:30.780 bore him a sun. 00:11:32.820 --> 00:11:33.540 Gomer. 00:11:35.760 --> 00:11:36.900 Her name means completion. 00:11:38.760 --> 00:11:44.300 And what God is just saying in this story, that we as people aren't complete until salvation is come. 00:11:46.300 --> 00:11:53.380 And until God enters into our lives, transforming our life, I mean the story of our existence goes like this, God us 00:11:53.380 --> 00:11:56.820 for his purpose, for us to enjoy eternity with him forever. 00:11:59.360 --> 00:12:01.820 And then in that we, we've rejected God. 00:12:01.820 --> 00:12:03.080 We've sinned, we've rejected God. 00:12:03.080 --> 00:12:10.400 God has promised us redemption and in that redemption he wants to restore making all things new, bringing peace 00:12:10.400 --> 00:12:12.720 and Shalom in our lives for all of eternity. 00:12:14.300 --> 00:12:19.420 And so therefore it's not until salvation comes that we experienced the completion for which were created in God. 00:12:19.500 --> 00:12:26.580 And it's not this instantaneous salvation, but the Bible tells us in the word salvation, that it often expresses it as a word that use moment by 00:12:26.580 --> 00:12:29.140 moment every day of your life. 00:12:29.300 --> 00:12:34.900 There is not a moment where you aren't saved outside of Christ and in Christ you are always being safe. 00:12:35.200 --> 00:12:41.120 His blood continually rescuing you in your state in life that you may enjoy him for all of eternity. 00:12:42.780 --> 00:12:49.880 You get to experience that relationship now and Hosea is desiring to be 00:12:49.880 --> 00:12:55.660 used of God to awaken Israel to this message that completion as common. 00:12:55.660 --> 00:13:03.760 Then it says in verse four and the Lord said to him, talking about the child that he has named him Jezreel for 00:13:03.760 --> 00:13:10.760 yet a little while and I will punish the house of J who for the bloodshed of Jezreel and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel on the day 00:13:10.760 --> 00:13:13.940 I will break the boat Israel in the Valley of Jezreel know what is all that like? 00:13:15.260 --> 00:13:16.230 First of all, let me say this. 00:13:16.660 --> 00:13:18.980 Let's talk about baby names for a minute. 00:13:19.880 --> 00:13:21.380 We've had a few introduced already. 00:13:22.320 --> 00:13:28.550 Hosea, okay, maybe Gomer, okay, put that on the back burner a little bit. 00:13:28.840 --> 00:13:32.920 But jazz, real, the name means judgment. 00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:39.120 If you're going to have, like if you're thinking I want to have a kid, he is going to be the next impact player in the NFL. 00:13:39.120 --> 00:13:40.270 We're talking to linebacker. 00:13:40.520 --> 00:13:42.120 Can I just submit to you this morning? 00:13:42.580 --> 00:13:46.300 Just real is about to get just real open here. 00:13:46.380 --> 00:13:49.150 I mean whatever teams has real place for it is going down. 00:13:49.160 --> 00:13:49.920 That's what he's saying. 00:13:49.920 --> 00:13:52.620 And Jose, this word means it's judgment. 00:13:54.360 --> 00:14:01.480 I mean we see Israel's Israel's response to God and God using profits to proclaim that there is judgment coming and so this message of this 00:14:01.520 --> 00:14:08.520 first child is declaring that there is, there is judgment coming and then when you get to verse 00:14:08.520 --> 00:14:15.680 six, commentators, theologians are a little bit uncertain as to how this plays out 00:14:15.680 --> 00:14:21.090 in the relationship of Hosea and Gomer, but it kind of gives us indication. 00:14:21.460 --> 00:14:30.000 It says in this passage that Jezreel is born to Hosea, but 00:14:30.020 --> 00:14:37.020 the next children to follow their sort of mystery touted around them doesn't necessarily qualify Hosea 00:14:37.020 --> 00:14:38.660 as being the child. 00:14:40.840 --> 00:14:48.210 It's kind of saying to her being the father, excuse me, kind of says to us, looks like Gomez past is catching up with her. 00:14:50.760 --> 00:14:52.540 Then it tells us in these and these next verses. 00:14:52.900 --> 00:15:00.000 Then she conceived again and gave birth to a daughter and the Lord said to him, name her lo Rahaman, which 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:05.780 fro for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel that I would ever forgive them. 00:15:05.800 --> 00:15:10.580 Her name literally means, I don't know if you would maybe be interested in this baby name, but it means no mercy. 00:15:14.180 --> 00:15:15.320 Judgment is coming in. 00:15:15.320 --> 00:15:16.320 There is no mercy. 00:15:20.020 --> 00:15:21.900 Governor's pass catches up with her. 00:15:21.940 --> 00:15:23.800 I don't where this child comes from. 00:15:24.140 --> 00:15:29.320 It could have out of anywhere and now this child is conceived and numeracy. 00:15:34.720 --> 00:15:40.920 And then in verse eight and nine, it says, when she had winged no mercy, she conceived and gave birth to a son. 00:15:41.780 --> 00:15:49.140 And again, who knows where this child has come from and it says, and the Lord said, name him lo AMI, 00:15:51.140 --> 00:15:53.100 you are not my people and I am not your God. 00:15:57.120 --> 00:16:06.500 This name low AMI literally means not my people as 00:16:06.500 --> 00:16:10.800 if to say, Hosea with Gomer was there. 00:16:10.800 --> 00:16:14.520 This told you to marry this woman and love this woman as I am loving Israel. 00:16:15.900 --> 00:16:19.140 And now you have children to love that aren't even, they're not your children. 00:16:20.140 --> 00:16:25.350 And I'm not saying that this isn't something where God wouldn't want us to love God's painting in this picture. 00:16:25.920 --> 00:16:33.200 something about his love and the way that Israel is responding to him that he really wants Israel to see about his concerning care. 00:16:33.440 --> 00:16:36.120 Even in the most difficult circumstances. 00:16:38.420 --> 00:16:40.660 Maybe if you've ever been in these types of tensions of relationships. 00:16:40.820 --> 00:16:41.590 I think in all of our lives. 00:16:41.680 --> 00:16:48.320 At some point we felt like governor, at some point we felt like Hosea and go and remind me the situations just kicking herself. 00:16:48.320 --> 00:16:49.700 She can't get past her past. 00:16:49.720 --> 00:16:56.060 It keeps catching her and Hosea wants to love. 00:16:56.180 --> 00:17:00.640 But the pain of just going through these moments seems like it's too much to bear. 00:17:03.860 --> 00:17:04.920 It gets real, doesn't it? 00:17:07.839 --> 00:17:11.079 And so in verse nine, he finally has something he calls not my people. 00:17:11.240 --> 00:17:17.280 And when God writes this in verse nine, he uses Joseda to share this message. 00:17:17.280 --> 00:17:23.700 Something interesting about the way God chooses to word this sort of really cut deep to the heart of the identity of Israel. 00:17:23.740 --> 00:17:28.060 Because you have think when you're Israel's people, you're not necessarily walking with God. 00:17:28.079 --> 00:17:31.790 I mean, you might be thinking to you preferential treatment, we're still better than everyone else. 00:17:31.820 --> 00:17:32.370 God called us. 00:17:32.460 --> 00:17:33.400 Not you, right? 00:17:34.760 --> 00:17:35.560 So we're special. 00:17:37.040 --> 00:17:41.000 We're just always lovable because we're lovable for no reason. 00:17:41.040 --> 00:17:41.220 Really. 00:17:41.240 --> 00:17:43.040 We're just lovable, okay. 00:17:44.680 --> 00:17:50.520 When God says in verse nine and the Lord said, name him low AMI for your not my, and I am not your God. 00:17:50.860 --> 00:17:53.460 What God actually says in this, I am not your God. 00:17:53.460 --> 00:18:00.540 In this phrase, what he's saying in this passage, I am not your God is using the same word that 00:18:00.660 --> 00:18:05.060 God intersected w with Moses. 00:18:07.900 --> 00:18:14.940 I am nexus chapter three when God encountered Moses and Moses finds God's name for the 00:18:15.040 --> 00:18:24.640 first time, God's name, he says to them as I am, I am, and 00:18:24.640 --> 00:18:31.600 verse nine what he's saying in this passage, this guy's up to you. 00:18:32.300 --> 00:18:32.900 I am not. 00:18:32.980 --> 00:18:39.460 I am the people I've called out of the wilderness to walk with me. 00:18:41.340 --> 00:18:48.480 The people have set free the people I've covenanted with and the people that I've created to 00:18:48.800 --> 00:18:50.430 experience relationship with me. 00:18:52.900 --> 00:18:57.100 I'm not that Israel. 00:18:57.960 --> 00:19:05.000 It brings him to a point to recognize exactly where they're at apart from him. 00:19:07.560 --> 00:19:18.180 And then in verse 10 things change says 00:19:18.180 --> 00:19:22.260 in verse 10 yet the number of the sons of Israel will be like the sames of the sea. 00:19:23.420 --> 00:19:24.920 Let me just remember, you're not my people. 00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:32.320 Now all of a sudden he's saying, yeah, you are the number of the sons 00:19:32.320 --> 00:19:35.780 of Israel be like the sands of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. 00:19:37.280 --> 00:19:39.910 And in the place where it is said to them, you are not my people. 00:19:40.080 --> 00:19:47.100 It will be said to them or the sons of the living God, Israel, you're at a place where you're just 00:19:47.100 --> 00:19:50.360 crying out saying, can God just get one person, just one person. 00:19:52.920 --> 00:19:59.940 And yet I'm telling you that you're not even going to be able to measure to measure the 00:20:00.060 --> 00:20:07.160 people that will belong to me in the midst of the messiness, 00:20:07.260 --> 00:20:15.100 in the midst of the destruction of sin, God's healing and salvation is declared and 00:20:15.100 --> 00:20:19.920 he begins to use Hosea as a, as a picture to express this. 00:20:19.920 --> 00:20:26.920 I mean, could you imagine a versus a four and on as his Hosea is, a family grows but not 00:20:26.920 --> 00:20:27.680 by him. 00:20:27.680 --> 00:20:34.100 And he's, and he's, and he's looking at this moment and he's hurt and he just seeking after his wife the way God is seeking after Israel. 00:20:34.160 --> 00:20:41.220 And then someone comes up to him and says, Hey, I don't want to be the one to tell you this, but I just, I just ran into Gomer and she's in 00:20:41.220 --> 00:20:43.200 the other city, in the arms of another lover. 00:20:43.720 --> 00:20:51.920 Again, how that would 00:20:52.120 --> 00:20:59.320 feel right when Hosea becomes an expression for us 00:20:59.320 --> 00:21:06.500 at picture to us, for us just to awaken on the inside for a moment and say, yeah, but you think of Hosea circumstance 00:21:06.500 --> 00:21:13.840 and that's painful to think about, to be on either side of this and, but 00:21:13.840 --> 00:21:14.740 what about you and God? 00:21:20.440 --> 00:21:21.760 Where is your heart in that? 00:21:26.680 --> 00:21:27.040 Is it dead? 00:21:29.820 --> 00:21:30.300 Is it hardened? 00:21:33.760 --> 00:21:39.550 Have you fell into the arms of other lovers to catch yourself in such a way that the relationship to the Lord has become obsolete? 00:21:45.580 --> 00:21:47.300 And then God says something. 00:21:50.400 --> 00:21:54.780 Chapter three verse one Lord sang to Hosea. 00:21:54.780 --> 00:21:59.770 The Lord said to me, go again and love a woman who is loved by her husband. 00:21:59.840 --> 00:22:05.520 And yet an adulterous, even as the Lord loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes. 00:22:05.700 --> 00:22:10.640 So I bought her for myself for 15 shekels of silver and a Homer and a half of barley. 00:22:11.460 --> 00:22:14.960 Why in the world are raising cakes and barley here, right? 00:22:15.080 --> 00:22:18.700 You know, after I'm done today on elite church and just give me a raise in cake. 00:22:20.220 --> 00:22:25.900 Laura raising cakes they think is some sort of ritual that was performed in worship of the false God, a ball. 00:22:25.940 --> 00:22:30.600 And so they're saying to her that there she goes again falling after other lovers. 00:22:30.600 --> 00:22:33.320 But Hosea, you're demonstrating my love, remember? 00:22:33.340 --> 00:22:37.680 And so I want you to pursue her as she runs away. 00:22:37.920 --> 00:22:42.760 I want you to pursue her and here's how far I want you to go. 00:22:43.800 --> 00:22:45.860 I want you to buy her back out of slavery. 00:22:45.960 --> 00:22:53.060 She's gotten so low that she is in slavery, but I really want her to see my love that even at her lowest point, you pursue 00:22:53.060 --> 00:22:55.660 her in love as a demonstration of my love for her. 00:22:58.540 --> 00:23:00.160 So buyer. 00:23:03.240 --> 00:23:07.720 Historically the common price of a slave was around 30 shekels. 00:23:09.640 --> 00:23:15.600 When you read the content of the story, you'll see in verse two that when Hosea goes to buy the slave, he doesn't pay 30 shekels. 00:23:15.600 --> 00:23:23.020 He pays 15 shekels and some other things, some other goods that he provides, and so some commentators think this, that Hosea, 00:23:23.020 --> 00:23:30.340 when it came to buy his wife out of slavery didn't have the finances to buy her out of slavery, so he literally had to give everything 00:23:30.360 --> 00:23:34.540 that he had for her. 00:23:39.560 --> 00:23:47.840 When you look at the backdrop of the content, the story in that way, it says us this morning, it 00:23:47.880 --> 00:23:55.040 doesn't matter who you are, how low you feel, like you've gone, how desperate and 00:23:55.040 --> 00:23:57.240 dark your situation may feel. 00:23:58.740 --> 00:24:02.780 There was no extent to which God's love would not pursue you for him. 00:24:06.100 --> 00:24:10.780 Everything for you. 00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:19.300 Hosea demonstrates this and I'm going to tell you in the in the weeks ahead, I do 00:24:19.300 --> 00:24:22.560 want to focus a little bit more on Gomer, but I wanna. 00:24:22.720 --> 00:24:26.180 I want to really turn the table and think about Hosea this morning, but let me just say this about Gomer. 00:24:28.600 --> 00:24:35.560 Usually when the Bible declares something for us, a thought for us, it's oftentimes because the antithesis of that statement is true. 00:24:38.100 --> 00:24:40.620 God really wants us to see his grace and love. 00:24:40.980 --> 00:24:48.160 I think because oftentimes in our lives we struggle with how much we don't feel like we are worthy of his grace and love and 00:24:48.160 --> 00:24:55.240 it's true there's nothing that we do to avail God's love for us that makes us love but his 00:24:55.240 --> 00:25:03.160 nature, his nature declares it and he demonstrates it any way and 00:25:03.160 --> 00:25:08.160 I think sometimes we sink some low and sometimes we get to such hard places that we just, we need reminded. 00:25:08.420 --> 00:25:14.320 There is hope and there is love and there is grace. 00:25:15.840 --> 00:25:22.820 So much so that God chooses even some of the most shocking stories to share that with us like Jose hungover. 00:25:24.920 --> 00:25:30.680 And so I think maybe if I just pause on Gomer and I just gave this final thought with her, I would say this for you. 00:25:31.540 --> 00:25:37.350 If your heart feels dead and your walk with God, if it feels like it's gotten into a law like lizard Israel. 00:25:37.900 --> 00:25:43.360 I mean just reflecting on the magnitude of this love and God's desire to transform. 00:25:43.980 --> 00:25:50.340 Look, I mean what he said in this verse is not only is it just one child, but God's going to have children in the sand of the sea. 00:25:50.400 --> 00:25:52.620 So it's not, it's not enough just to get by. 00:25:52.620 --> 00:25:54.000 God isn't coming here to rescue. 00:25:54.000 --> 00:25:57.470 You just seem to be like finally I've just, I've just got my head above water. 00:25:57.560 --> 00:26:04.740 But rather God wants to raise you up out of the ashes in him so that you can, you can be called a child of the King, be lavish new 00:26:04.740 --> 00:26:09.280 as a new creation in God and enjoy the expression of what that means in your life. 00:26:09.440 --> 00:26:16.440 I mean, God sets you free from darkness and a background that chains you so that you can leave that behind and walk newness of 00:26:16.440 --> 00:26:16.720 him. 00:26:16.980 --> 00:26:20.100 And I don't want to sound like, for some of us that's going to be like a light switch. 00:26:20.820 --> 00:26:24.740 I mean, sometimes there's real struggles and I think Gomer is in a real struggle in it. 00:26:24.820 --> 00:26:30.140 But to remind her of that position in Christ is what helps her find freedom and who she is. 00:26:30.140 --> 00:26:30.280 And Jesus. 00:26:32.160 --> 00:26:35.540 But let me say this about Jose, cause this is a thing. 00:26:35.820 --> 00:26:40.500 I'm not gonna focus much on this thought as we move forward, but it's important today. 00:26:41.700 --> 00:26:43.880 Yeah. 00:26:43.880 --> 00:26:47.420 Because Hosea is a representation of the broader picture of who the Lord is. 00:26:47.420 --> 00:26:53.440 I really want to focus on the Lord as we move forward because that sets the foundation for everything and invite us into that. 00:26:55.220 --> 00:27:02.000 You look at this story through through the image of Hosea and Gomer and you see that in this story, God has a vision and a burden. 00:27:04.540 --> 00:27:07.480 God has a vision for people and a burden for them. 00:27:07.500 --> 00:27:14.660 So much so that he gives everything for that God has a vision and a burden and I don't want to share that 00:27:14.660 --> 00:27:19.040 in a way that makes us think all God had this thought all of a sudden to rescue people. 00:27:19.320 --> 00:27:21.860 Okay, let me blow your mind with a concept of God. 00:27:23.440 --> 00:27:24.280 God doesn't have thoughts. 00:27:26.440 --> 00:27:29.000 And I'm not saying God's ignorant, but God doesn't have thoughts. 00:27:30.440 --> 00:27:35.260 And the reason that God doesn't have thoughts is because in order to think something, it's inferring that you didn't know it to begin with. 00:27:36.700 --> 00:27:43.990 So we have thoughts because we are learning new things in order to think about God, we ampere anthropomorphic, 00:27:45.720 --> 00:27:52.050 [inaudible], anthropomorph, assize him sometimes so that we can understand him and they and a human capacity of which we operate. 00:27:52.200 --> 00:27:53.100 But God does not have thoughts. 00:27:54.780 --> 00:27:59.760 When we talk about God's vision and burden for people, this has been what got us predetermined from the beginning of time. 00:28:01.180 --> 00:28:03.200 Remember, lasting everlasting God has got. 00:28:04.760 --> 00:28:11.840 But here's where it becomes important for us because when God has a vision and burden for things and we grab ahold 00:28:11.840 --> 00:28:15.240 of that vision and burden with God, we see glorious things take place. 00:28:16.700 --> 00:28:23.820 And so Hosea in this story becomes one who carries the same vision and burden as God for a particular person or a particular 00:28:23.860 --> 00:28:24.720 people group. 00:28:27.580 --> 00:28:34.600 And sometimes in our story we are go MERS and other times by the grace of God and the rescuing of his hand, salvation comes to 00:28:34.600 --> 00:28:41.700 our life and that burden and vision that the Lord carries for this world becomes our vert of vision and burden for people 00:28:41.700 --> 00:28:42.340 around us. 00:28:43.800 --> 00:28:44.820 I mean, they can happen in any context. 00:28:46.120 --> 00:28:47.190 It can happen for a person. 00:28:47.340 --> 00:28:49.500 It can happen for your family, it can happen for your Valley. 00:28:50.460 --> 00:28:57.600 I mean, God can lead your heart in particular ways, but what's important in order to be motivated to see God carry you through is that God leads you 00:28:57.600 --> 00:28:59.560 in his vision, in burden for the people around you. 00:29:00.040 --> 00:29:07.120 We all need a vision and burden, but can I tell you in Hosea 00:29:07.120 --> 00:29:16.420 his situation, it looks a little overwhelming because 00:29:16.460 --> 00:29:23.330 I can't help but acknowledge in that burden for Israel and that vision for Israel and for Gomer. 00:29:24.700 --> 00:29:27.630 There's pain with that. 00:29:29.060 --> 00:29:33.140 Any real thing you do for the Lord, it will come with adversity. 00:29:35.660 --> 00:29:37.780 Jesus said, take up your cross and follow me. 00:29:39.560 --> 00:29:46.680 And when you're really stepping out in, you're really stepping out in faith when you're following after God to do something that you're like, 00:29:46.680 --> 00:29:48.440 man, on my own, there is no way. 00:29:51.700 --> 00:29:54.920 And so can I give you some comfort in just how to work through that? 00:29:55.120 --> 00:30:00.120 How, maybe in your life, if you feel like, if you feel like a Gomer, we've expressed it. 00:30:00.120 --> 00:30:07.240 But if you come into things and you feel like Hosea, can I tell you all of us get to that place where we don't know 00:30:07.240 --> 00:30:17.380 what to do, but may also say by faith 00:30:17.380 --> 00:30:19.030 that's the best place to be. 00:30:19.940 --> 00:30:21.600 Yeah. 00:30:21.620 --> 00:30:25.580 This week I called a friend of mine who's a pastor that started a church years ago. 00:30:25.920 --> 00:30:31.680 And um, it, it's grown and this is what he said to me. 00:30:31.680 --> 00:30:34.980 He said, I was like, Hey, just impart wisdom to me. 00:30:34.980 --> 00:30:41.980 I want to, I want to know he's at the churches, a few thousand people and I'm not interested in that, but I just want to, I want to do things well and I know that he's done 00:30:41.980 --> 00:30:42.520 things well. 00:30:42.580 --> 00:30:43.500 And so I called him and asked him. 00:30:43.500 --> 00:30:46.020 He goes, well, I'll tell everyone the same thing. 00:30:47.840 --> 00:30:51.360 not knowing what to do is where you need to start. 00:30:52.820 --> 00:31:03.440 In fact, he said, if people knew how much I didn't know, they would probably be scared to come to church here, man. 00:31:03.500 --> 00:31:10.620 To be honest, when you're following after God and you get into situations, most of the time we've not been in those 00:31:10.620 --> 00:31:11.410 situations before. 00:31:11.640 --> 00:31:15.200 And so when we're trying to navigate through those things, we just don't know what to do. 00:31:17.580 --> 00:31:18.380 What can I tell you? 00:31:18.380 --> 00:31:25.520 The most comforting thing in that, the one who does, like sometimes 00:31:25.520 --> 00:31:30.950 if we could see step four, five and six of where God was going to lead us, we would never take that first step. 00:31:33.070 --> 00:31:40.100 But I think God puts us in the darkness in those situations many times just so he can lead us because he knows how to do it better than we do 00:31:40.100 --> 00:31:40.500 ourselves. 00:31:44.220 --> 00:31:50.400 We look at circumstances and sometimes we know the calling is bigger than ourselves and whatever God's gonna lead us to and being Jose as in circumstances. 00:31:50.880 --> 00:31:58.060 But can I tell you if you're wondering if you have the strength, I think it's even okay in those moments to recognize that you don't 00:31:58.060 --> 00:31:58.820 have the string. 00:32:01.480 --> 00:32:05.140 I don't have the power for what it takes to see my family grow in the Lord. 00:32:05.200 --> 00:32:05.760 I don't have it. 00:32:07.780 --> 00:32:10.840 I don't have the strength to see this Valley come to know the Lord. 00:32:10.840 --> 00:32:18.320 I don't have, I don't have it and sometimes we can say, I only 00:32:18.320 --> 00:32:19.460 have the strength to get up tomorrow. 00:32:19.960 --> 00:32:20.760 I don't have it. 00:32:31.580 --> 00:32:31.980 Laura does the apostle Paul. 00:32:32.040 --> 00:32:37.700 If I just asked for a moment in this question, Paul, you did incredible things for the Lord. 00:32:37.740 --> 00:32:39.940 You did powerful for Jesus. 00:32:40.340 --> 00:32:42.760 I mean how could you even do those things? 00:32:42.760 --> 00:32:46.440 I embalmed mine like getting up tomorrow and seeing my kids just not fight for a day. 00:32:46.680 --> 00:32:47.510 That would be a success. 00:32:48.640 --> 00:32:49.120 Now you're a man. 00:32:49.120 --> 00:32:51.580 You're talking about a guy used by God to see a world transformed. 00:32:53.880 --> 00:32:54.260 What's your secret? 00:32:56.140 --> 00:32:56.740 What is the secret? 00:32:59.200 --> 00:33:09.100 I think Paul told us repetitively in scripture, can I give you just a couple and 00:33:09.100 --> 00:33:10.180 all of these things? 00:33:10.300 --> 00:33:16.090 Look, he doesn't just say I in all of these things, we are more than conquerors. 00:33:16.340 --> 00:33:17.740 Look through him who loved us. 00:33:20.020 --> 00:33:27.340 I think Paul is indicating for us the place where he's found the beginning of the strength to do what God's called him to do and that he found himself as 00:33:27.340 --> 00:33:30.920 Hosea with a God who was just relentless and pursuing him. 00:33:32.980 --> 00:33:41.060 We conquer through his love, allowing 00:33:41.060 --> 00:33:48.080 the Lord in those moments to recognize I don't have the strength, God, I don't even know what to do, but you know the one who doesn't. 00:33:48.080 --> 00:33:52.000 So in those moments, you're lavish in his presence. 00:33:52.280 --> 00:33:58.250 So that moment by moment, by faith, you're learning as Hosea how to walk with him. 00:33:59.520 --> 00:34:06.410 I mean that challenge in your life, the greatest lesson you're going to learn in it, it's not what you do. 00:34:07.660 --> 00:34:11.949 Rather, it's how God's going to use that circumstance to grow you with him. 00:34:15.780 --> 00:34:22.960 Jose is learning moment by moment, not having the strength of having the, even the answers, how to walk with Jesus and in that faith, 00:34:22.960 --> 00:34:24.960 seeing his relationship with God grow himself. 00:34:27.219 --> 00:34:30.219 Paul said this in Philippians four 13, this is the famous one. 00:34:30.260 --> 00:34:32.560 I, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. 00:34:34.179 --> 00:34:41.360 I mean, this is talking about in relationship to Jesus isn't talking about if you just believe it, you get a Lamborghini and that would be great if we could manipulate this verse to say that that's 00:34:41.360 --> 00:34:42.330 not what this is saying. 00:34:42.540 --> 00:34:42.699 Okay? 00:34:43.080 --> 00:34:45.370 Selfishly, it's not what this is saying. 00:34:47.340 --> 00:34:50.600 What it is saying is the way Jesus leads you and transforms you. 00:34:50.639 --> 00:34:54.560 That's where he gives you the strength to continue to empower you to what God's called you to do. 00:34:56.560 --> 00:35:02.000 And can I tell you that these verses are one of these verses where you as a believer in a crosswords, when you meet it, this is, this is what happens. 00:35:03.900 --> 00:35:04.820 You either believe it or you don't. 00:35:08.740 --> 00:35:09.800 God is big enough or he isn't. 00:35:12.560 --> 00:35:17.700 But the only way you discover that isn't the challenge of that circumstance. 00:35:20.160 --> 00:35:22.200 You learn to trust them as you walk with them. 00:35:24.600 --> 00:35:28.760 Sometimes we look at our challenges and we're like, could you just, could you just get it to go away and could you get it to stop? 00:35:29.000 --> 00:35:36.280 And little, little, we see those circumstances as sometimes God uses that as the very foundation to grow our own faith in him. 00:35:39.480 --> 00:35:46.540 So at the end of chapter one of Hosea, he gives all those verses that are just like, Oh, this 00:35:46.540 --> 00:35:47.010 is hard. 00:35:47.360 --> 00:35:51.940 You're, I'm, you're not the I am to me and the names these kids, I'm not naming my kids these names. 00:35:53.590 --> 00:36:00.760 But when you look in verse 10 what he says, the very end, you are the sons or some translation, 00:36:00.940 --> 00:36:03.680 say the children of the living God. 00:36:06.400 --> 00:36:12.140 So when this God is living, there is always hope in Israel. 00:36:12.140 --> 00:36:18.300 He's already remarked that the worship in which they are pursuing, it's sisters that are broken and ins and deadness. 00:36:18.300 --> 00:36:20.040 It's an idol that is not real. 00:36:21.640 --> 00:36:25.820 But what we're talking about, it's the living God. 00:36:28.580 --> 00:36:30.080 It's the living God. 00:36:32.880 --> 00:36:40.200 Can I tell you this week, the studying this and this passage helps me get all Jezreel 00:36:40.200 --> 00:36:40.750 water. 00:36:41.760 --> 00:36:43.130 Oh, it's about to get real. 00:36:44.220 --> 00:36:44.520 Okay. 00:36:44.560 --> 00:36:45.780 Well, wait, let me out of that. 00:36:45.800 --> 00:36:51.130 I was a sinner study guides where like, Oh, I have got to get out of this room and just do stuff, man, this is good. 00:36:53.020 --> 00:36:56.820 When you think about ABC's future, this is good. 00:36:58.320 --> 00:37:05.580 If we, if we as a church lavish ourselves in this passage, the vision of burden of God, if God creates our heart new in this and 00:37:05.580 --> 00:37:14.000 God continues to fuel our passion for in his passion, for the people around us, how 00:37:14.000 --> 00:37:14.800 powerful that is. 00:37:17.620 --> 00:37:25.120 I believe it or I don't, but if I grab it and I live it like 00:37:25.120 --> 00:37:28.500 it is real, I don't have to be a pretender. 00:37:28.920 --> 00:37:31.040 I don't have to know what the next steps are. 00:37:31.280 --> 00:37:38.400 I just need to walk with the one who does, how much God can use us to transform. 00:37:40.060 --> 00:37:42.680 Not just people around us, but even our own lives. 00:37:44.540 --> 00:37:51.840 Man, we don't live like people that are just good enough to get by law to sleep rather, I mean, we become lions for the Lord 00:37:51.840 --> 00:37:51.940 justice. 00:37:53.960 --> 00:37:55.560 He is the lion of the tribe of Judah. 00:37:55.580 --> 00:38:02.180 We become just furious warriors for him and with a relentless love that transforms life around us. 00:38:04.440 --> 00:38:06.580 We could just saturate ourselves in there. 00:38:07.540 --> 00:38:08.650 Can I give you just a practical thing? 00:38:08.840 --> 00:38:10.320 I wanted to mention this at the beginning, but I forgot. 00:38:12.420 --> 00:38:18.920 As a church family, we're even thinking about foundationally our own facility, how we can continue to grow to invite people in to be a part. 00:38:19.500 --> 00:38:26.860 And I told you this year, four times, we're going to take an offering on fifth Sundays to just go towards that vision and that burden for 00:38:26.860 --> 00:38:29.820 our area, for our families, for any future family. 00:38:29.820 --> 00:38:30.640 It's a part of ABC. 00:38:30.680 --> 00:38:34.630 And last week we took an offering and for this first part we need about $10,000. 00:38:35.620 --> 00:38:40.100 Want to put a sign on our building, freshen up a little bit of paint, knock down this scary building and the in the back. 00:38:40.420 --> 00:38:46.250 And then we hope to get a master plan for the building of our church and buy some land so we can expand. 00:38:46.460 --> 00:38:50.340 So that's five things, but we wanted to do the first three first sign, paint, knock down this house. 00:38:51.460 --> 00:38:58.500 We need $10,000 and we took an offering last week and we, we've got about half of that for us to go towards that cause and so I want to thank you as 00:38:58.500 --> 00:39:03.820 a church family for that because that's a reflection of our desire to see God Catino work in us and through us. 00:39:04.860 --> 00:39:10.480 That's just one way more than just gathering here on Sunday. 00:39:10.560 --> 00:39:12.540 I mean something that we should delight in as a church. 00:39:14.320 --> 00:39:18.040 That's how each of us continued to live a life of Jose and beyond these walls. 00:39:20.020 --> 00:39:27.040 I think one of the ways it helps us to do that, so we all know what it's like to be a Gomer, how we 00:39:27.040 --> 00:39:34.280 weren't complete until salvation, when we began to experience that it doesn't, 00:39:34.560 --> 00:39:37.680 it doesn't matter how empty your or without strength or uncertain. 00:39:38.440 --> 00:39:45.560 You may think the next couple of days may be, you know the one who is true and you get to walk 00:39:45.560 --> 00:39:50.860 with him in that to see how God works in our brokenness.