SPEAKER_01: Church.
SPEAKER_01: I'm glad uh to be with you guys this morning, but I'm gonna invite you to open up your Bibles to Hosea chapter number one.
SPEAKER_01: Hosea chapter number one.
SPEAKER_01: It's one of those smaller books, the kind of the end of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: So it's gonna it might take you a little second to find it, but Hosea chapter one is where we're gonna be starting this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I also want to let you guys know about something I'm super excited for, and that is our group semester starting up next Sunday, if you can believe it already.
SPEAKER_01: How many guys are excited for groups?
unknown: Woo!
SPEAKER_01: How many guys, just a raise of hand, have ever been involved in any sort of group here at the church already?
SPEAKER_01: Any sort of group.
SPEAKER_01: Growth group, community group.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's a really great time.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you don't know what groups are, groups start up on a semester basis, and we're gonna start up starting next Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: Growth groups uh meet together around a specific Bible study or a topic.
SPEAKER_01: This semester we have a lot of them going on.
SPEAKER_01: We have like studies about the book of Ephesians, the book of Jonah, the book of Romans, how to read the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And it's a really great study if you want to grow in your knowledge of the word.
SPEAKER_01: We also, though, have community groups.
SPEAKER_01: Community groups meet around a shared interest or activity.
SPEAKER_01: My wife is part of the volleyball group that's pictured up there that they just meet once a week and they play volleyball over at one leg.
SPEAKER_01: It's a great time to get to know other believers and find community.
SPEAKER_01: I'm excited.
SPEAKER_01: I signed up for the young adult group.
SPEAKER_01: I got gray hairs, but they still let me in.
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, it's all good.
SPEAKER_01: But really, I'd encourage you with this that if you really want to grow in your depth of biblical knowledge, or if you really want to find Christian community and find Christian friends, I encourage you to sign up just for one group this semester.
SPEAKER_01: Just one.
SPEAKER_01: Find something that works within your schedule.
SPEAKER_01: And if you'd like to sign up, you can go to sassoonchurch.com under the groups tab, or you can talk to somebody at the next steps and information table on your way out.
SPEAKER_01: Well, guys, we're gonna be in Hosea chapter one this morning.
SPEAKER_01: And Hosea is not a part of the Bible that gets talked about a whole lot, honestly, right?
SPEAKER_01: Uh and there's a reason for it.
SPEAKER_01: We'll get to that in a second.
SPEAKER_01: But if you grew up in church, there's probably some parts of the Bible that you're a little bit more familiar with.
SPEAKER_01: I like to call these next couple parts the G-rated parts of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Things like Noah's Ark, right?
SPEAKER_01: There's a two of each animal, there's a big boat, there's a rainbow, they're all hugging, it's all good, it's all really nice and easy.
SPEAKER_01: Those are the types of stuff that you hear in Sunday school.
SPEAKER_01: And then there's stories like um Daniel in the lion's den, right?
SPEAKER_01: There Daniel, he got thrown into a pit, and by the end of the time, he's just like petting all the kitties and all that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: It's a good time, right?
SPEAKER_01: There's stuff in the New Testament too, like how Jesus heals people.
SPEAKER_01: He heals the blind man, he heals the paralytic, he heals the lame.
SPEAKER_01: But today, today is not one of those parts.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, and I mean this with like 100% like honesty.
SPEAKER_01: If you've got kids in the service today, this might be like one of those Sundays where you might want to go check out Kingdom Kints instead.
SPEAKER_01: Because we're gonna talk about some pretty heavy subjects, because the Bible talks about some pretty heavy subjects.
SPEAKER_01: Today's Bible story has themes of marital infidelity, prostitution, and a woman being sold into sex trafficking.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's really harsh and it's really uncomfortable, but that's because the Bible is describing real life events.
SPEAKER_01: Sex trafficking didn't begin with Jeffrey Epstein, it has existed as long as sin has existed in this world, as long as evil has existed within the hearts of men, things like that have been a reality.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible doesn't shy away from these uncomfortable subjects because the Bible talks about the world that we live in.
SPEAKER_01: There are parts of the Bible that inspire us, that encourage us, right?
SPEAKER_01: That make us feel good.
SPEAKER_01: Hosea, though, is one of those passages that can make people feel a little uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_01: But we don't shy away from it because we believe the Bible is true from beginning to end and has things that God wants to speak to us about from beginning to end.
SPEAKER_01: It's uncomfortable because God tells one of his prophets, a man that was a representative of him to the nations, to go and marry a woman who would be unfaithful to him.
SPEAKER_01: Not because he didn't know, but because he did know.
SPEAKER_01: And this whole thing, this whole thing, even though it happened in real life, I believe with certainty that this was a real life event.
SPEAKER_01: It is a living picture, it is a living metaphor of God's relationship with his people.
SPEAKER_01: And this isn't just the story of Hosea and his wife.
SPEAKER_01: It's not even just the story of God and Israel, it's the story of God and us.
SPEAKER_01: The book of Hosea is a love story.
SPEAKER_01: It's a messy, messy love story, but it's a love story nonetheless.
SPEAKER_01: And it shows us something special about how God feel towards us, how God feels towards us and his love towards us.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe the book of Hosea really teaches us this: that God's love is a love that comes looking.
SPEAKER_01: So today let's look at Hosea's story.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at our story, and let's look how God's love is looking for us too.
SPEAKER_01: As we open up to Hosea chapter one, we realize that we can know that nothing about you surprises God.
SPEAKER_01: Know that nothing about you surprises God.
SPEAKER_01: What do I mean by that?
SPEAKER_01: Well, let's take a look at what the text says.
SPEAKER_01: Are you guys ready for the word of God this morning?
SPEAKER_01: Let's get it.
SPEAKER_01: Here we go.
SPEAKER_01: Hosea chapter 1, verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible tells us this when the Lord first spoke through Hosea, he said to him, Go and marry a prostitute.
SPEAKER_01: Now hold up.
SPEAKER_01: Hold up, hold up.
SPEAKER_01: I know I just read it.
SPEAKER_01: I know it's the Bible, but like, like let it sink in for a second, okay?
SPEAKER_01: The Lord, God, I mean, he spoke through Hosea, his prophet, his seer, his mouthpiece, right?
SPEAKER_01: He said to him, Go and marry a prostitute who will bear illegitimate children conceived through prostitution, because the nation continually commits spiritual prostitution by turning away from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I told you guys parental advisory for this message.
SPEAKER_01: I gave you guys a fair warning about that.
SPEAKER_01: God tells his prophet that he used to go and marry a woman who was a prostitute.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you thought you heard of bad pastors' wives in today's day and age, but like that ain't nothing, honestly.
SPEAKER_01: He got into this marriage knowing that she would cheat on him.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't say maybe she'll bear illegitimate children.
SPEAKER_01: She says, She will bear illegitimate children conceived through prostitution, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's not an ignorance, that's an intentional decision.
SPEAKER_01: And God knew about it and told Hosea, This is what you're gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: Eventually, though, his wife bears a son.
SPEAKER_01: And we see in Hosea chapter 1, verse 3 so he went and he married Gomer, who he obeyed the Lord, he obeyed God.
SPEAKER_01: Gomer is the name of his wife, she was the daughter of Didlaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
SPEAKER_01: The story starts off pretty okay.
SPEAKER_01: He obeys the Lord, he walks into the ways of the Lord, and he goes and he marries Gomer, his wife.
SPEAKER_01: And they have marital relations and they have a child.
SPEAKER_01: She bore him a son.
SPEAKER_01: But this is where the language shifts a little bit as we continue to read into the story.
SPEAKER_01: Because when it talks about how the next few children are conceived, they have three total children in all, the language shifts.
SPEAKER_01: Check it out.
SPEAKER_01: It says, She conceived again and gave birth to a daughter.
SPEAKER_01: The previous verse, it talked about how she bore a son to Hosea.
SPEAKER_01: But notice now there's somebody missing in this whole equation.
SPEAKER_01: If you taught your kids birds and the bees, you know it takes two to tango, so to speak.
SPEAKER_01: But Hosea, her husband, isn't involved at all with the creation of these next two children.
SPEAKER_01: It's just as the Lord said Gomer went, and because of her prostitution, she had sex with men other than her husband and conceived two illegitimate children.
SPEAKER_01: And I know it's Bible, and I know it's like, you know, this is the holy word, but like, think about it, really, right?
SPEAKER_01: This is a relationship.
SPEAKER_01: This is real life.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine the heartbreak that you would feel if you were Hosea living with somebody, loving them, giving everything that you can to provide for them?
SPEAKER_01: And then at the end of the day, you knew, you knew that they ran off with another guy and had sex with them behind your back and bore illegitimate children.
SPEAKER_01: God says, that's what Israel has done to me.
SPEAKER_01: This whole story is a metaphor, it's an object lesson, it's a real life thing, but it is a metaphor, it's a living picture of the same way that Hosea loves his wife.
SPEAKER_01: God loves Israel, and God loves us as well.
SPEAKER_01: The Israelites, they have run after other gods, it explicitly says Baal, Molech, Dagon, Ashtaroth.
SPEAKER_01: They have run towards other gods, storm gods, pleasure gods.
SPEAKER_01: They have sex in the temple prostitutes, they sacrifice their children so that they can have rain, even though God was the same God who liberated them out of the land of Egypt, who established a covenant with them, who said, You will be my people and I will be your God.
SPEAKER_01: He paid the price, he liberated them, and now that they are in the promised land, their hearts have started to drift away towards other gods.
SPEAKER_01: But God knew when he made that covenant that that's what they were going to do.
SPEAKER_01: God is an all-knowing God.
SPEAKER_01: He knows everything, past, present, and future.
SPEAKER_01: He knew that they would be unfaithful, but he still chose to have a covenant with them.
SPEAKER_01: He still said, Even though I know, even though I know your heart is going to drift and go towards other gods, that continually you are going to be in the issue.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to be a thorn in my side because you continually spit in my face and you continually disobey my laws and kill my prophets, even though the Israelites knew that they were going to do that, and God knew the Israelites were going to do that.
SPEAKER_01: He still went and he still said, I will be your God and you will be my people.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus went and died for us, he knew that we would still struggle with sin too.
SPEAKER_01: He knows he is the all-seeing God, the all-knowing God.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ is God manifest in the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: And when he went up on that cross, when he finally laid his life down, when he sacrificed himself and he bled dying on a Roman cross, in that moment he knew everything in the past, everything in the present, and everything in the future that we would do that when our hearts start to drift away from God, when we define morality on our own terms, when we succumb to our own temptations, when we do it because we think nobody's watching and we can just get away with it, he knows it, he knew it, and he still decided to sacrifice himself on our behalf anyway.
SPEAKER_01: The same way that God told Hosea, hey, this woman you're marrying is going to cheat on you, will bear illegitimate children.
SPEAKER_01: God knew, Hosea knew, but he still married her anyway, because there's no surprises with God.
SPEAKER_01: And when Jesus was carrying up that cross to Mount Calvary, he knew that we would fail him.
SPEAKER_01: He knew that we would rebel against him, but he still went and he still died for us anyway.
SPEAKER_01: Every compromise, every time we start to drift, every act of defiance, every moment that we think that we can get away with it, he knows about it, but he still chooses to love us anyway.
SPEAKER_01: He still cares for us and he still died for us so that we could receive forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: God's not surprised when we fail him.
SPEAKER_01: God's not shocked when we defy him.
SPEAKER_01: So here's the question: why do we try so hard to hide it?
SPEAKER_01: Why do we try so hard to conceal it?
SPEAKER_01: He already knows he's an omniscient, all-seeing, all-knowing God.
SPEAKER_01: So why do we try so hard to put up a mask up in front of other Christians?
SPEAKER_01: Why do we try so hard to put a mask up like everything's all right in church?
SPEAKER_01: When he knows how we just drift away from him.
SPEAKER_01: Why not just come clean?
SPEAKER_01: Because he already knows anyway.
SPEAKER_01: God's not surprised when we fail him.
SPEAKER_01: God's not shocked when we sin.
SPEAKER_01: He knows and he still loves us anyway.
SPEAKER_01: That's not ignorance, that's an intentional decision, that's a love that comes looking.
SPEAKER_01: So, with the burden of that knowledge, knowing everything we know about God, what what should we do then?
SPEAKER_01: I would encourage you to do this to name it, to confess it, to turn from it and run to him.
SPEAKER_01: He already knows anyway.
SPEAKER_01: There's no point in hiding it.
SPEAKER_01: So if you come feeling dirty, if you come feeling guilty, if you come feeling burdened, just just name it.
SPEAKER_01: Just name it, confess it to him because he already knows.
SPEAKER_01: Turn from it and run straight to him.
SPEAKER_01: Because he already knows anyway.
SPEAKER_01: Hosea didn't discover his wife's unfaithfulness later.
SPEAKER_01: He walked right into that marriage knowing that it would happen, but he still chose to love anyway.
SPEAKER_01: Don't misunderstand.
SPEAKER_01: This kind of love is not an excuse for our sin.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not telling you right now, well, he knows already anyway.
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna love you anyway.
SPEAKER_01: Go and do what you want.
SPEAKER_01: That is not the message I'm preaching today.
SPEAKER_01: What I am saying, though, today is this when we know our sin and we know the destructiveness of it, and we know how it makes God feel about it, it shows us how dangerous it really is.
SPEAKER_01: And in chapter two, we have to realize that sin takes you further than you think.
SPEAKER_01: Sin will always take you further than you think.
SPEAKER_01: Hosea chapter one introduces us to the people involved in this whole story.
SPEAKER_01: We meet Hosea, we meet his wife Gomer, we meet their three children, right?
SPEAKER_01: But Hosea chapter two takes a turn.
SPEAKER_01: You see, what happened was one day Hosea wakes up in his bed.
SPEAKER_01: He turns over, he reaches over for his wife, and she's not there.
SPEAKER_01: She's got three young children at home.
SPEAKER_01: One of us is two of them illegitimate children, but he loves them like they're his own anyway.
SPEAKER_01: So he's left alone with three kids, and she's run off.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter two takes the structure of a poem.
SPEAKER_01: It's a poem of lament of how Hosea feels about this betrayal, about Hosea feels how much he loves his wife, but yet she's run off after other men anyway.
SPEAKER_01: And it's a poem of lament of how God feels when his people turn away from him and run to other things as well.
SPEAKER_01: Let's check it up in Hosea chapter 2, verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Yes, their mother is promiscuous.
SPEAKER_01: She conceived them and acted shamefully, for she thought, I will follow my lovers, the men who give me my food and water, my wool and flax, my oil and drink.
SPEAKER_01: All the things that are listed here, all the things that are bolded right there are material things.
SPEAKER_01: Food and water.
SPEAKER_01: They're necessary for sustenance.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, she's hungry, she's got to eat, she's thirsty, she's got to drink, there's luxuries up there, wool and flax, oil and drink.
SPEAKER_01: There's all those things that are just material things.
SPEAKER_01: She was craving material pleasures, the things this world can supply.
SPEAKER_01: Because even though, as powerful as love is, as powerful as a marital relationship love is, love does turn into action, but love is an emotion.
SPEAKER_01: Love is something we feel it cannot be grasped.
SPEAKER_01: It can't, you can't pay the bills with love, so to speak, right?
SPEAKER_01: So she knew, she had an understanding of how much Hosea loved her, but because she couldn't grasp it, because she couldn't hold it in her hand, she wanted something else.
SPEAKER_01: She thought there's more out there than I'm not getting right here.
SPEAKER_01: And so she went and ran after other men, other lovers who supplied her with pleasure, with who supplied her with satisfactions, who supplied her with the things of this world.
SPEAKER_01: As enormous as love is, it's not something you can grasp.
SPEAKER_01: And so she slipped through Hosea's fingers for something that would give her quick satisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: And she left behind the man that loved her the most.
SPEAKER_01: Sin, and sin is simply defined as anything we think, anything we say or do that breaks God's law.
SPEAKER_01: Anything that we do that we know God says this is right, this is wrong, and we say, I don't know about that.
SPEAKER_01: Sin always makes promises, pleasure, freedom, fulfillment, control.
SPEAKER_01: And for a time, for a time, it feels like it's right.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Satan wouldn't be able to tempt us if sin didn't feel good.
SPEAKER_01: But it always, it never, it never delivers what it advertises.
SPEAKER_01: Sin overpromises and under-delivers every single time.
SPEAKER_01: We read the next verse, Hosea 2, verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: It says this, therefore, this is what I will do.
SPEAKER_01: I will block her way with thorns, I will enclose her in a wall so that she cannot find her paths.
SPEAKER_01: She will pursue her lovers, but not catch them.
SPEAKER_01: She will look for them, but not find them.
SPEAKER_01: God says she's gonna chase, but she's not gonna overtake.
SPEAKER_01: She's gonna seek, but she's not gonna find, like a dog trying to chase after a car.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's trying its best.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what's gonna happen when the dog stinks, it's gonna reach up to the car.
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna run and it's gonna run, but it's never gonna catch it.
SPEAKER_01: It's like when you're running on a treadmill.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna go and you're gonna go and you're gonna go, but you're never gonna get anywhere.
SPEAKER_01: You're just running for the sake of running.
SPEAKER_01: She's running in the rat race.
SPEAKER_01: She's part of the system of this world.
SPEAKER_01: She is going nowhere.
SPEAKER_01: She's chasing after freedom.
SPEAKER_01: She's chasing after what she thinks will give her satisfaction and fulfillment and pleasure, but she's not going to find them.
SPEAKER_01: She thought she was running towards freedom, but all she found was captivity.
SPEAKER_01: She was trying to find pleasure, but all she found was the consequences of her actions.
SPEAKER_01: Because sin always looks good, but it never shows us the consequences.
SPEAKER_01: What do I mean by that?
SPEAKER_01: How many guys and ladies like fishing?
SPEAKER_01: How many fishers do we have in the room right over here?
SPEAKER_01: There we go.
SPEAKER_01: We got some excited fishermen right there.
SPEAKER_01: Well, check it out.
SPEAKER_01: To go fishing, you need a few things, right?
SPEAKER_01: You need a fishing rod, you need a bobber, you need a hook, and what else do you need?
SPEAKER_01: You need bait, worms.
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
SPEAKER_01: So check it out.
SPEAKER_01: If you go fishing and you cast your reel, right?
SPEAKER_01: You cast your uh and you go and it's just a hook, are you gonna get any bites?
SPEAKER_01: Probably not.
SPEAKER_01: Probably not, unless it's a really silly fish.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, but why is that?
SPEAKER_01: Because when the fish see the hook, all they see is if I bite that, it's gonna be a bad time, right?
SPEAKER_01: But when you put a little wiggly worm on there, when you put a little piece of fish on there, and we can show the picture up on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: When you put a little thing on there, right?
SPEAKER_01: The fish ain't looking at the hook.
SPEAKER_01: What's it looking at?
SPEAKER_01: What captures the attention, the eyes, the worm, the bait, right?
SPEAKER_01: Because the fish, all fishes think about is where am I gonna breed?
SPEAKER_01: Where am I gonna eat?
SPEAKER_01: That's all fishes think about, right?
SPEAKER_01: So when it's looking for its next meal and it sees a little wiggly worm out in the middle of the water, it says, Oh boy, my next piece of meat right here.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go, I'm gonna bite down on that, right?
SPEAKER_01: And when it bites down on the worm that's attached to the hook, what happens?
SPEAKER_01: That hook goes through the roof of its mouth, and now it's captured.
SPEAKER_01: It ain't going nowhere.
SPEAKER_01: That fish now is enslaved, it's captured, and when you finally reel it on up, it's in the frying pan the next day.
SPEAKER_01: It thought it was looking for food, now it is food, right?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing that we need to get from this sin will never show you the hook.
SPEAKER_01: Sin's not gonna show you the hook, it's gonna show you the worm.
SPEAKER_01: Pornography is a blight on mankind's connection with God at this moment in time.
SPEAKER_01: Both men and women, both men and women are running away from the God they love for a few minutes of pleasure on this thing right here.
SPEAKER_01: It of course it never shows you the hook of the fact that scientists have done studies and addiction to pornography is just as addictive.
SPEAKER_01: This is a chemical imbalance in your brain that is similar to addictions to cocaine and methamphetamine.
SPEAKER_01: It never shows you the hook that addiction to pornography will always affect your relationship to the people that you love the most.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's gonna show you a couple minutes of pleasure, and there you go.
SPEAKER_01: There's no consequence of that.
SPEAKER_01: There's no hook to that, but it's a lie.
SPEAKER_01: When you lie, you always either get caught or you have to tell more lies to cover yourself up.
SPEAKER_01: When you gossip, it always leads to broken trust.
SPEAKER_01: When you lash out in anger towards somebody, you feel justified, but it always leads to resentment.
SPEAKER_01: In your relationships.
SPEAKER_01: When we're bitter at somebody, it always leads to us drinking poison, and the only person that we hurt is us because we decided my sense of justice was wronged.
SPEAKER_01: I need to hold on to this thing.
SPEAKER_01: Sin will never show you the hook.
SPEAKER_01: It always shows you what you think you want.
SPEAKER_01: What started with, I just want this, ends with, I can't get out.
SPEAKER_01: Gomer chased after a quick fix, after satisfaction, and we can chase for that quick fix of sin too.
SPEAKER_01: We can walk away from the God that loves us, the God that died for us for just a quick few minutes of satisfaction on this thing.
SPEAKER_01: But it always leads to consequences.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what happened to Israel too.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't listen to Hosea, they didn't listen to the prophets that God sent to talk to them.
SPEAKER_01: They flew away from God.
SPEAKER_01: They wanted away from God and it ended up to judgment and it ended up in exile.
SPEAKER_01: Because what you thought brought freedom becomes bondage.
SPEAKER_01: What you thought, well, like, oh well, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: I can just do what I want.
SPEAKER_01: Ends up in you being enslaved.
SPEAKER_01: What felt exciting will just lead you to feeling empty.
SPEAKER_01: In the same way you see the story of Jose and Gomer, you see the story of a woman leaving her husband, leaving her family, leaving behind uh everything that she had, leaving behind a home, a love that she could never comprehend.
SPEAKER_01: We see stories like this, we see tales like this of people doing that, and we think, how could she?
SPEAKER_01: How could she do that?
SPEAKER_01: She had everything.
SPEAKER_01: How could she walk away from that?
SPEAKER_01: But it's stories like this, it's parts like this in the Bible that cause us to hold a mirror up to our faces, that cause us to have a moment of introspection, a moment of self-reflection.
SPEAKER_01: And we have to ask ourselves, why do I, why do I keep running to things that have never loved me back?
SPEAKER_01: Instead of running towards the God that loves me, and demonstrably so through the death on the cross, the God that took the initiative to come die for me.
SPEAKER_01: Why do I keep running to things, to pleasures, to objects that have never loved me back?
SPEAKER_01: And that's when we realize in this story we're not Hosea, we're not the prophet of God, we're the prostitute, we're Gomer, we're the ones who suffer the consequences of our own actions.
SPEAKER_01: But God's love is a love that comes looking for us.
SPEAKER_01: He's not gonna force his way in our heart, though.
SPEAKER_01: We have to let ourselves be found by him.
SPEAKER_01: And we have to realize that in him, in him is what we've been looking for all along, anyway.
SPEAKER_01: And if the story ended here, if the story ended here, it would be completely justified.
SPEAKER_01: Hosea was left by his wife.
SPEAKER_01: His wife suffered the consequences of her own action.
SPEAKER_01: By the time we reach chapter three, she's being sold in a slave market.
SPEAKER_01: And if we ended right there, everything would be right in this world because she suffered the consequences of her own actions.
SPEAKER_01: She got what she deserved.
SPEAKER_01: But the story doesn't end there, guys.
SPEAKER_01: There's still chapter three of Hosea.
SPEAKER_01: Judgment isn't the end of Gomer's story, and it's not the end of our story either.
SPEAKER_01: Because when we read chapter three, we learn that we can embrace a love that comes looking.
SPEAKER_01: Hosea chapter three might be one of the most beautiful passages in all of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: It starts like this The Lord said to me, Go and show your love to your wife again, even though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress.
SPEAKER_01: Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, even though they turn to other gods.
SPEAKER_01: So I paid fifteen shekels of silver and about seven bushels of barley to purchase her.
SPEAKER_01: Like I said, by the time we reach chapter three, Gomer is being sold in a sex slave market.
SPEAKER_01: Whether it's through debt or exploitation, it doesn't matter because she now has a price tag around her head.
SPEAKER_01: The prophet of God, the holy man, the mouthpiece for God of the nations, had to walk through the town, everyone knowing what type of woman his wife was, everyone knowing what his wife did to betray him.
SPEAKER_01: He had to walk through the town, go into the brothel, into the prostitution ring, into the place where sex slaves were being sold, and he had to purchase back his wife.
SPEAKER_01: And on top of it, this wasn't even a good deal.
SPEAKER_01: Because what happened was this is that, can we put up the last verse actually real quick?
SPEAKER_01: Check out the price.
SPEAKER_01: It says 15 shekels of silver.
SPEAKER_01: 15 shekels is about 300 bucks.
SPEAKER_01: And but the thing to understand is this is that typically in the Bible, in those Near Eastern times, the price for a slave, for a human slave, was 30 pieces of silver.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, when Jesus was being betrayed, how much was he betrayed for?
SPEAKER_01: 30 pieces of silver.
SPEAKER_01: That's the going rate price.
SPEAKER_01: So Gomer went to these men who claimed that, hey, we'll give you pleasure, hey, we'll give you sex, hey, we'll give you food and water and flax and wool and oil and all that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna give that all to you.
SPEAKER_01: By the end of the time that they that she had spent with them, they chewed her up, spat her out, and said, half price, she's damaged goods.
SPEAKER_01: Throw in some barley, we'll call it a deal.
SPEAKER_01: So now, so now what will Hosea do?
SPEAKER_01: Put yourself in his shoes.
SPEAKER_01: You were betrayed by this person, cheated on by this person.
SPEAKER_01: They bore children that you knew were born through illicit means.
SPEAKER_01: She had sex with men, different men, and twice she had children that were theirs, not yours.
SPEAKER_01: She took your love and threw it away.
SPEAKER_01: She said, What you can give me, it's not enough.
SPEAKER_01: I need to go seek after other guys.
SPEAKER_01: Think of how Hosea felt in this moment.
SPEAKER_01: Think of how you would feel in his shoes at this moment.
SPEAKER_01: You paid the price, 300 bucks and some barley.
SPEAKER_01: You went, and now the door was open, and right in front of you in chains, in the filth, in the brothel, as a sex slave, was the person who betrayed you.
SPEAKER_00: What would Hosea do?
SPEAKER_00: The word of God says, I will allure her, and I will speak tenderly to her.
SPEAKER_00: He wraps his arms around her and says, You will dwell as mine.
SPEAKER_01: No condemnation, no humiliation, a tender love, a love that comes looking.
SPEAKER_01: Even though biblically within his right, because she cheated on him, he would fully have been in the right to divorce her because he was in the right, he paid the price, he was fully in the right of saying, You're gonna be my slave the rest of my days.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna live in my house, but you're not gonna be my wife.
SPEAKER_01: You don't deserve to be anymore.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna be my slave.
SPEAKER_01: He was fully in the right to be able to do that, but he chose a different route.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't let her be defined by her actions, he let her be defined by her relationship.
SPEAKER_01: He chose another route.
SPEAKER_01: He chose love.
SPEAKER_01: And it wasn't forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't just forgiveness, it was a restored relationship.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, at the end of the day, at the end of the day, that's Hosea's wife, man.
SPEAKER_01: That's the one who he said, till death do us part.
SPEAKER_01: That's the one he said, that's gonna be the woman that I'm gonna I'm gonna be with until the day I die.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't matter what happens, he made a covenant with her.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, at the end of the day, that's my wife, and that's exactly how I'm gonna treat her.
SPEAKER_01: And when God treats us in that way, when God discovers us in our own filth, when God discovers us in the actions of the consequences of our own actions, what does he say to us?
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't say, you can come back, but it's never gonna be the same.
SPEAKER_01: Even though he would be fully justified in doing so, he doesn't say that.
SPEAKER_01: What does he say towards us?
SPEAKER_01: He says, I will love you forever, and nothing can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Because God doesn't define you by your actions, he defines you by his relationship to your relationship to him.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says, when you have put your faith in the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ, that you have become a child of God.
SPEAKER_01: You have become a co-heir with Christ, you have been adopted in the family, and you can call him father.
SPEAKER_01: And when we do that, when we become God's child, he treats us like we're his child.
SPEAKER_01: He treats us that because of the blood of Jesus, we are a member of his family and he will always relentlessly pursue us.
SPEAKER_01: You might be thinking, Well, where are you getting all this Jesus stuff?
SPEAKER_01: Where are you talking about?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm glad you asked because Hosea chapter 3, verse 5 explicitly mentions him.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible tells us afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and who?
SPEAKER_01: David, their king.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing to get all the Old Testament, all of the book of Hosea is pointing to a singular person who would come, who would crush the head of the serpent, who would come and redeem mankind, who would show them the way, who would be born of Bethlehem, born of a virgin, everlasting Father, eternal God, who would be of the Davidic line, who would rule on the heavens and the earth.
SPEAKER_01: This is the one person, the Messiah, and it's the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He's the main character of the whole Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And when the whole of Hosea and the whole of the Old Testament is pointing to this one person, we ought to pay attention.
SPEAKER_01: We don't come looking for him.
SPEAKER_01: Like Hosea, he took the initiative.
SPEAKER_01: But unlike Hosea, Jesus didn't pay with 15 pieces of silver and some barley.
SPEAKER_01: He paid with his blood.
SPEAKER_01: He made the sacrifice and we reap the benefits from it.
SPEAKER_01: At the cross, Jesus purchased back people who had sold themselves out to lesser lovers, to approval, to sex, to success, to control.
SPEAKER_01: And instead of shaming us, he invites us into a new relationship, a new definition of who we are.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
SPEAKER_01: The old has passed away, and see the new has come.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible tells us that if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.
SPEAKER_01: Can I get a hallelujah for that?
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't just rescue us from slavery, he restores us into a relationship.
SPEAKER_01: And there are people in this room who are carrying a heavy burden, who are coming feeling shameful, dirty, who are coming feeling something that you know you have hidden from everybody else, but you feel the moving of the Holy Spirit, and you know that you feel the conviction of your sin in your life.
SPEAKER_01: 2,000 years ago, he came looking.
SPEAKER_01: And let me tell you this.
SPEAKER_01: If you feel the burden in your heart, if you feel the sin in your life, can I encourage you with this?
SPEAKER_01: He knows.
SPEAKER_01: There's no point in hiding it.
SPEAKER_01: He knows and he loves and he cares and he's looking for you right now.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter what you look like, it doesn't matter what type of church you grew up in, no matter how far sin has taken you, it doesn't matter where you've gone or what you've done.
SPEAKER_01: He's looking for you.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because it's not about what you have or haven't done, it's about who you belong to.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're his, that's exactly what he's gonna treat you like.
SPEAKER_01: When you are his child, he's making a promise that no matter where you've gone, no matter what you've done, no matter what mess you've gotten yourself into, he will love you forever.
SPEAKER_01: He'll never give up, he'll always come looking.
SPEAKER_01: So today, as we close off, guys, through this message of Hosea, through this message that God has given us through his prophet Hosea, what do we do?
SPEAKER_01: What should we do?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm only asking you to do just this one thing: stop hiding and just come into the light.
SPEAKER_01: Look, if you've come bearing a burden, if you've come bearing guilt, if you come feeling shameful and dirty, he already knows what you've done.
SPEAKER_01: He's not surprised by it.
SPEAKER_01: You can go to him with it.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to hide your mess.
SPEAKER_01: And when we face up to it, when we confess it with our mouths, I think there's power in that.
SPEAKER_01: There's a power in just relaxing your shoulders, unclenching your jaw, and just letting go of it with your hands.
SPEAKER_01: There's a power in just letting yourself be found by a God that's looking for you right now.
SPEAKER_01: I would encourage you right now, right now, not later, not today, not this week, but right now, that if you feel the moving of the Holy Spirit in your life, if you feel that conviction of your sin, make your seat an altar right now and let your sacrifice be the confession of your mouth.
SPEAKER_01: You can tune me out for the rest of the couple minutes I'm talking like.
SPEAKER_01: I'm being serious.
SPEAKER_01: If you feel the moving of the Holy Spirit right now in your life, bow your head and pray to him right now.
SPEAKER_01: Because he's looking for you.
SPEAKER_01: He is looking for you in the same way that Hosea was looking for Gomer, God's looking for you right now.
SPEAKER_01: And when we do that, when we let go of the burden that we have, when we let go of that guilt that we have, we can finally just stop running and come home.
SPEAKER_01: The message of Hosea isn't try harder.
SPEAKER_01: It's that you are loved more than you thought.
SPEAKER_01: You might be coming in feeling guilty or dirty or inadequate, but his love is coming to look for you right now.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about trying harder.
SPEAKER_01: All I'm asking you to do is just to collapse into his arms right now.
SPEAKER_01: The story of Hosea doesn't end with betrayal, it ends with redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Because the heart of God is not just holy, it is relentlessly pursuing those that he loves.
SPEAKER_01: You didn't find God, he found you, and he's looking for you, and he's still looking for you right now.
SPEAKER_01: So just stop running and come home.
SPEAKER_01: Because God's love is a love that comes looking.
SPEAKER_01: Let's take a moment right now to all bow our heads and pray right.