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The Bible Breakdown
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The Bible Breakdown
Hosea 05: Pride Will Trip You Up
Pride blinds us to ourselves while revealing others' flaws with painful clarity. In this thought-provoking dive into Hosea chapter 5, Pastor Brandon examines God's stern warning against spiritual leaders who've betrayed their calling by leading people away from authentic faith.
The heart of this episode addresses a question many believers struggle with: why do so many spiritual leaders fall from grace? While acknowledging there's no simple answer, Pastor Brandon offers uncommon perspective through Hosea's ancient words. God's message to corrupt religious authorities thousands of years ago provides striking parallels to our modern context. Leaders who claim closeness to God while privately pursuing other priorities eventually face divine reckoning.
What makes this exploration particularly powerful is Pastor Brandon's transparent vulnerability about leadership's weight. "Can I tell you that is one of the things I dislike about leadership the most as a pastor?" he confesses, "because when I look around at people, I realize I'm going to be judged more harshly than them." This raw honesty transforms biblical teaching from distant theology into lived reality.
The episode culminates in a profound realization: everyone ministers, regardless of title. Whether at work or home, Christians represent Christ to others. This universal calling demands authenticity, as God sees beyond our public personas to our hearts. As Hosea 6:6 reminds us, God desires "love, not sacrifices" and relationship over religious performance.
Ready to examine your own influence and spiritual authenticity? Listen now, then join our thriving community in the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook where fellow believers are digging deeper together. Your five-star review helps others discover these transformative insights!
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The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Well, everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today. Hosea, chapter 5, and today's title is Pride Will Trip you Up Pride will trip you up. It is amazing how easily we can see pride in everybody else, but not us, right? And that is so very true. The very person that says I'm not prideful, it's like well, are you proud of that? So you have to be so very careful when it comes to pride. We're going to jump into that and, of course, god's got more to say for some of these jokers who have turned his people away from him. So, if you've got your Bibles and your popcorn ready, I want to go ahead and get opened up to H and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast it really does help and make sure you're going to the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook. It's an amazing group of people doing a wonderful job and, as always, the more we dig, the more we find. Well, once again, while you're getting your Bibles open and everything ready, don't forget that the overall goal of Hosea is God's reckless love, and there's this illustration of Hosea and Gomer, and their difficult relationship is the same way that God is saying hey, listen, this is kind of the relationship that I have with my people. They can't seem to keep from running around and running in the streets. I keep going back and getting them, and so while I'm dealing with them, I'm also dealing with the people that keep alluring them, keep luring them away from me. And then yesterday he was talking about some of the priests and some of the leaders, and he's going to double down on that again, and I can really see kind of a parallel here, because it's barely a week goes by in my world where I don't hear people ask me the question Pastor, why does it seem like there's so many spiritual leaders that are falling right now? And, to be honest with you, I don't have the answers for that. I don't know if anyone has the answers for that. We have plenty of guesses. But if you have someone who says they've got it all figured out, I wouldn't believe them about anything else either, because you know everybody's different right. But one thing that kind of gives me a little bit of hope is to realize this is not the first generation to deal with leaders who claim to be close to God but really seem to have something going on in their life right, because that's what's happening right here. And so let's read this together and let's see what God has to say about leaders who say they're close to God but they're not. You ready.
Speaker 1:Hosea, chapter five, verse one, says this Hear this, you, priests, pay attention, you, leaders of Israel, listen, you, members of the royal family. So Paul. So he's saying priests, leaders, members of the royal family, here we go. Judgment has been handed down against you, for you have led the people into a snare. By worshiping the idols of Mishpah and Tabor. You have dug a deep pit to trap them in Achaia Grove. But I will settle with you for what you have done. I know what you are like, o Ephraim. You cannot hide yourself from me. O Israel, you have left me as a prostitute leaves her husband, for you are utterly defiled. Your deeds won't let you return to your God. You are a prostitute through and through, and you do not know the Lord. The arrogance of Israel testifies against her. Israel and Ephraim will stumble under their load of guilt. Judah too will fall with them. When they have come with their flocks and herds to offer sacrifices to the Lord, they will not find him because he has withdrawn from them when they have come with their flocks and herds to offer sacrifices to the Lord, they will not find him because he has withdrawn from them. They have betrayed the honor of the Lord, bearing children that are not his. Now their false religion will devour them, along with their wealth.
Speaker 1:Sound the alarm in Gebeah. Blow the trumpet in Ramah. Raise the battle cry in Bethhaven. Lead into battle, lead on into battle. Oh warriors of Benjamin, one thing is certain, israel on the day of your punishment, you will become a heap of rubble. The leaders of Judah will become like thieves, and so I will pour out my anger on all of them Like a waterfall. The people of Israel will be crushed and broken by my judgment because they are determined to worship idols. I will destroy Israel as a moth consumes wool. I will make Judah as weak as rotten wood. When Israel and Judah saw how sick they were, israel turned to Assyria, to the great king there, but he could not help them nor cure them. I will be like a lion to Israel, like a strong young lion to Judah.
Speaker 1:Verse 1. Me, wow. So what he's saying is is he's saying listen, all you leaders who went through a season where you, acting like you, were leading my people. You were actually leading them further away from me and don't think I didn't notice. So now I'm coming, I'm coming after you and I'm not going to stop until you are destroyed. And then my people are going to reach out for me and I think that probably in every generation there are people who for a season they get attention for one reason or another. But then there comes a time of reckoning. There comes a time when God says enough's enough.
Speaker 1:I had someone ask me one time because they went to a church where they had there was this leader that in front of them was great, but behind the scenes was a different story and that's not unique. There's a lot of those things. There's a lot of reasons for that. Not all of them are bad reasons either, but definitely the situation. And they asked me you know, pastor, why, why, why does it seem like that God lets people stay in leadership as long as he does?
Speaker 1:And I told him something that had been told to me one time, and it was because, first of all, I don't know why God does the thing he does. That's why he's God and I'm not, but remember that that's his child too, and God sees behind the bad attitudes. Behind the this, behind the that, there is a broken soul that he's trying to show mercy on, and I'm not saying that that is an excuse, but it does help us understand why God is sometimes patient, because God's love is reckless, because God is willing to give people time. Now there is a line there, of course, and I'm not justifying anything a bad person does. Don't take that to too far and extreme, where it becomes an unhealthy thing, please, please understand where I'm going, but to realize that the same mercy that God shows us is the same mercy that God shows leaders.
Speaker 1:But there comes a time when they will be judged more harshly, because God told them, and that's why, in the New Testament, paul says don't everybody rush to be in leadership now, because you will be judged more harshly. Can I tell you that is one of the things I dislike about leadership the most as a pastor is because when I look around at people, I realize I'm going to be judged more harshly than them, because I'm the one supposed to be leading them closer to Jesus. And so I've even told young people before who want to get into ministry. I've even told them. I said listen, give me five minutes, let me see if I can talk you out of it, because I've told them, I've said listen, this is a calling, not a job. It's a calling Because you got to look at people and you got to realize that they trust you, whether they should or not, and therefore you're going to be judged according to that. So let me see if I can talk you out of it. If I can't talk you out of it, then we'll at least see. You know, and that's just in ministry.
Speaker 1:But at the same time, what would it look like in all of our lives if we realize the awesome opportunity we have to be an example for Jesus to people all around us? Because everyone's in ministry? It's just, some of us have a title in front of our name, but we're all in ministry. What do you think you're doing when you go to work? And everybody knows you're a Christian? You're living your life, your Christ life, in front of them. That is a form of ministry. Anytime you do something for someone else as an act of worship to God, it's ministry, it's serving.
Speaker 1:What would it look like for all of us if we learned the lesson from chapter 5 and said God, I don't ever want to get in your crosshairs. I want to live my life in a way that is honoring to you, so it can bring you honor in front of others. Let's pray together right now. God, thank you so much that you love us enough to put us in positions where we can make a difference, but then you love others enough where you're willing to call us out if we don't do it right. And I pray, lord, that we will always serve you with everything that we have and won't let anything get in the way of our relationship with you. I celebrate that today, in Jesus' name. We pray Amen, amen.
Speaker 1:What God's word says in Hosea, chapter six, verse six. Jesus' name. We pray Amen, amen. What God's word says in Hosea, chapter six, verse six. I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings. Jesus said this in the book of Matthew and he would say I want a relationship with you, not just a form of godliness. I pray that you will experience the reckless love of God in your life today. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow.
