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Alright, we'll go ahead and get started. I know that Greg usually waits a little closer to 1215, but I'm gonna get us started a little earlier today. As you can see, Greg's not here today. He had me come here. I think it's important that he has me come here because he it helps you all appreciate him more whenever he comes back. So I think it's good for everybody. Before we get started, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you. We praise you. Um we praise you, God, for your love. God, we praise you for um everything that you do. I pray that you continue to guide and lead us as a church, God. Continue to guide and lead us to search you, Father, your heart, and help us see people, Father, the way that you see people, God, and to love others the way that you love others. And uh I just pray today that your spirit fill this room, um, guide our hearts to you and what you're trying to get us to learn. I pray that in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, so um everybody enjoying the Bible recap so far? I think so. I think it's been really good. I mean, and especially now, Greg, of course, Greg made the comment about the major and minor prophets last week, and how you know he was talking about, well, there's nothing minor about them. Um and today we're gonna be in another one. Uh we're gonna be in Hosea, and uh we're gonna be in Hosea chapter 11. I've really enjoyed reading these, you know, reading the prophets, the major prophets, the minor prophets, along with uh the scriptures and in 1, 2 Kings, and Chronicles, and and going along with what's happening. Um today we're like I said, we're looking at Hosea, and Hosea was there during during the time of uh King Ahaz, um he was there during Hosea in that area, and we're and and that's kind of that uh the 2 Kings chapter 17, 18, uh so you know, through there. And um, whenever, just to kind of give some context of what's going on in this book, uh Hosea was a prophet and he's prophesying to these kings. So Ahaz was obviously one of the bad kings of Israel. Um he did what's wrong, he worshiped other gods, he brought in, he did the, you know, burned the incense at high places, all those things, right? Um and another thing that's happening, and what we're gonna see today in chapter in chapter 11 and hints of it, uh, whenever Ahaz was king, he uh whenever Syria came to attack them, he sought refuge somewhere else, right? What did he do? He went and he paid uh homage or or or he paid um tribute uh to somebody else and he paid it to um Assyria, right? And so he became what's called a vassal state. Has anybody ever heard of a vassal state? Anybody? Yeah, so a few of us, right? He became a vassal of Assyria. And what's that what that basically means is Israel stayed, they were technically an independent country, but they paid their tribute to another king. They basically submitted to another king's kingship. And so um, and that's what happened under Ahaz. And then Hoshea comes over and takes over his king. Um, and and then when he takes over his king, well, he's still on, they're still in that vassal state. They're still he's still paying that tribute, right? Well, he turns around and we see that I think in chapter 18. He turns around and he uh he decides, you know what, I don't want to be under um be in this vassal state. I'm gonna go turn and I'm gonna try to see if I can get help from Egypt. So he turns to Egypt for help and try to get under the thumb of and you know, quit being a vassal for Assyria. And um, well, what happens then? They find out and they end up uh coming and attacking them, right? And they come over and they put them in bondage. Um so we see that. Now, this is all during that time, right? And so we're gonna look over in uh, like I said, we're in Hosea chapter 11. And through this story and through the kings, reading through 1 and 2 Kings, reading through the history of Israel as we're going through this, there's something in this message that I want us to understand. Despite our unfaithfulness, God has a passionate love for his people. And he shows this by defining himself as powerfully merciful, which leads us to seek him and fear him. So that leads me to our first truth. I can get this to change. God's love is passionate. God's love is passionate. Alright, so if we're looking at Hosea chapter 11, verse 1, it says, When Israel was a child, I loved him. And out of Egypt I called my son. The more they were called, the more they went away. They kept sacrificing to bals and burnt offerings to idols, right? So there's three different places in Scripture where we see Israel being not only referred to as a son, but where the son is being called out of Egypt. Three different places in Scripture. The first one that is the first time that God refers to Israel as his son, and that's in Exodus 4.22. Actually, I'll go ahead and I'm gonna turn there and read that for us real quick. Exodus 4.22 says, Then you shall say, now this is God's talking to Moses here, and he's he's instructing him to go to Pharaoh and do all this. Um He says, Then you shall go to the shall say to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, let my son go, that he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son. So we see here, this is the first time that God refers to Israel as his son, but also in this same sense he's calling his son out of Egypt, we see that God is a jealous God, right? We see that he doesn't want Israel serving anyone else, he doesn't want Israel serving and being in his bondage, right? God is a jealous God, he only wants them to serve him. He wants he is a jealous God, right? And we see the passion that he has for his people because he's obviously threatening to kill somebody else's firstborn son. And the second time we see this is in Hosea 11. Now the Lord explained here the care that he provided for Israel. So let's go ahead and keep on reading here. We'll start again in verse one. It says, When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more they were called, the more they went away. They kept sacrificing the bells and burnt offerings to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk. I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of kindness, with bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws. Then I bent down to them and I fed them. I'm gonna stop there, right? In that passage we see the care that God gave to Israel, right? The active hand of God in the lives of the Israelites. Well, we see that same thing today, right? We've seen that same thing throughout history of Israel, where God provided for them, he provided manna, he brought them out of Egypt. And as we read through 1 and 2 Kings, that's probably, you know, I can't be the only one that can't be frustrated, right? As we're reading through this, I'm like, have you not learned yet? Right? We see Ahaz take over and like, have you not learned yet? Have you not learned yet? Come on. Every time you turn to God, what happens? You know, he has mercy on you, right? He saves you. And so we get you get frustrated as we read through this. And it's hard not to. But we see the passionate love that God has for his people because every time they do turn back, what does he do? He provides for them, right? He cares for them. His active hand is working through them, through the Israelites. And then that brings us to the third time that we see God call his son out of Egypt, which is in Matthew chapter 2, verse 15, when he's referring to Jesus Christ. So God's active hand worked through the Israelites. His passionate love is shown through him working, through providing, through having mercy on them, through healing and all those things. And then his active hand is shown through coming to our stepping out of heaven, coming here, and dying for our sins and working through us today. Because of what he did through Christ, he's active in our lives today through the Holy Spirit. His passionate love continues to work through the Holy Spirit in our lives today. So that brings me to my second or to the second truth, which is if I can get it to work, God's mercy is infinite. God's mercy is infinite. When when I was in high school and college, I uh I frequented a restaurant that I loved. And and uh me and my friends, it was one of those places, everybody probably has that place that you just kind of like that's the place you go a lot. And I know everybody's as Rolando's. I mean, I know that's a thing. But everybody has that place where they go, and that's kind of their favorite spot. They meet friends, they take their dates or their wives, you know. And so it we all have that place. When I was in high school and college, I had one of those places. We love going there. Me and anytime we were celebrating something or whatever, we loved going to this place. It was just at a good environment and all that stuff. And when I was in college, uh I took it, you know, I had a girlfriend and I took her and I took her to this place to go eat. And we had a pretty bad experience. I sat there for, you know, it was one of those times that we've all been there, you know. I've been in the restaurant industry, I get it happens, you know. You know, I sat there for 45 minutes, I didn't get my waters, you know, then you sat there and you waited for your food, that didn't happen, and it was just all around bad experience, right? And I was I left that place, but growing up in the restaurant industry, I'm like, you know, maybe they maybe they had an off day, or maybe that server's having an off day. You know, then I went. I'm one of those people, I'm not a person that leaves a review online, I'm just not gonna do that. So I went to the manager, you know. I just walked in, I said, hey, this is what happened. Of course, the manager could give you know two flips about what happened, so that was even worse, right? And so I left and I just, you know, of course, this was my favorite place, you know, this is my favorite place to eat. And so I gave it some time and I molded over, and I was like, I'm gonna go back, I'm gonna try it again. I go back a couple months later, same thing happens. It's exact same thing happens, and it was a different server. Like I was there three hours, the food wasn't even good, and and at that point I'm just fed up and I'm done. So then I literally to this day have never been back to this place. Now, this was a place that I had been faithful goer for years, taking friends' dates, but because of two bad experiences, now all of a sudden I don't trust them enough to go back. I don't. And and this is a silly, just you know, I know this is a silly example, but how little trust I have over a restaurant, how little faith I have over a restaurant, a little mercy, God doesn't have that same mercy. And I want you to read this first passage right here. And this is uh in verse 9. Actually, let's start in verse 8. How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Adma? How can I treat you like Zeboim? And the ESV says this my heart recoils within me. My compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my burning anger, I will not again destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not a man. The holy one in your midst, I will not come in wrath. So we see right here, God distinguishes himself from man not by his power, because he could easily, right? He could easily say, Are you can get can you part the Red Sea? You know? Can you make man a reign out of heaven? Can you he could easily use his power to distinguish himself from man, but he didn't. What did he use? His mercy, right? Because we as humans are incapable of the mercy that God has. We are incapable of it. How many times, how many of us, I mean, I use a restaurant example, but how many times have you been hurt by somebody that you loved or betrayed? Right? How many times have has that happened? And we even have a saying here on earth: fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, right? That's that's a saying that we have. Why? Because our first instincts as humans is every time that we are rejected or hurt, what's our first instinct? To protect ourselves. Our first instinct is to protect ourselves. I'm not gonna get hurt like that again. I'm not gonna put myself in that position again. I'm not gonna trust you. I'm not gonna be in that situation again. And just to put forgiveness aside, but just the simple fact of our first instinct is to protect ourselves, to protect our hearts from being hurt again. Well, what does God do here? We see in this prophecy, he says, How can I get, even though we know we've been reading through this Kings, we're going to this Bible recap, time and a time again, God has been rejected by man. Not just once. It's not, this isn't just a once or twice thing. No, time and time again, God is being rejected, and what does he say? He says, How can I give you up? How can I hand you over? My heart recoils within me. Right? But I'm not gonna execute my burning anger. I'm not gonna do it. That's how he distinguishes himself. Despite their unfaithfulness, God's gonna rescue them. Now, in this moment, and that's what you know he's talking about through his prophecies, in this moment he's gonna hand them over, right? There's gonna be some punishment, but they will be redeemed through Christ. They will be redeemed. And that brings me into my third truth. God's passionate love and mercy leads to submission. I want us to go back and I want us to read this verse again. In verse 9, it says, I will not execute my burning anger, I will not again destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not man, the holy one in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. And it says in verse 10, they shall go after the Lord. He will roar like a lion when he roars, his children shall come trembling from the west. So because of his mercy, because of his mercy, they will go after the Lord. They will recognize the mercy, and it will cause them to chase the Lord, right? God could easily, and this is this is the point I'm trying to make here with this, God could easily force mankind into submission. We've seen his power time and time again. We know, well, I'm not gonna say we know we're capable, we we probably have no inkling, but God is more than capable to force mankind into submission, into submitting to him. But he doesn't. And that's what this passage is really pointing to in the depths of it, is that is that once we truly recognize the depths of God's mercy, once we truly recognize who he is and his passionate love that he has for us, we can do nothing but submit to him. We have to chase after him. We have to go after him because why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you? Only a fool would understand the depths of his mercy and the depths of his love and not chase after him. Only a fool would do that. Because we put our faith and trust and stuff on this earth that fail us every day, that reject us every day. That that I mean nonsense, right? And there's two action points that I want us to take from today and and to really stew on this week. Um, and especially, I'm just in the heart of mercy and God's passionate love. I want you to reflect on areas of your life you're not fully submitted to the Lord. And I want us to take Hoshea as an example. You know, Hosea, when you go back and you read that in 18, of course, let's start with Ahaz. You know, Ahaz, it says that, you know, he comes into kingship and it says he he walked in the ways of basically of Jeroboam, of previous kings. He did evil in the sight of the Lord, right? Well, then it goes and it goes on to Hoshea, right? And it says that Hosheah did evil inside of the Lord, but not as the previous kings. When it's like, well, hold on, if he did evil, how is he not like the previous kings? Well, Hoshea didn't go to the high, you know, of course you read in there, it doesn't say that he went to the burn ins in the high places, he didn't sacrifice to false gods or do any of those things. No, but what he did, but what did he do? What did it go on? It goes on to say that he submitted or attempted to submit to somebody else's lordship. Whenever he was tired of, he didn't want to be under the you know the thumb and be a vassal state of Assyria. He didn't go to God for help. He didn't see refuge in God, he didn't seek any of that. What did he do? He goes to Egypt. We're making a full turn here. God brought you out of Egypt, and now you want to go back to Egypt for refuge? We're making a full sort circle here, right? So, no, he's not like his previous father. He didn't go offer, you know, sacrifice to false gods and do all that, but no, he still didn't submit to the lordship of the one true God. And that just brings me to my point here. There's there's some of us in here, or maybe, maybe you know people, maybe you're working with people, that maybe you submit a lot of yourself to God, but not everything. There's some things that you hold on to, and and and for Hoshea, it was he wasn't re he he he didn't fully trust God with the nation of Israel that he would protect them from everybody else, right? He didn't fully trust God and submit his kingship to him, right? He didn't trust him with a throne, he didn't trust him with the kingdom or their protection or or their provisions or anything else like that, right? He just didn't sacrifice to the false gods, he just recognized him as God, right? Well, there's a lot of, like I said, there's there might be something in your life that you haven't submitted fully to God, and I'm just gonna tell them myself here, you know, for a long time for me it was finances. I wanted to be good, I wanted to, you know, I saw, you know, I sought the Lord, I read my Bible, I prayed, I had a great relationship, but it went when it came to my finances, I didn't trust God fully with my finances. Because anytime the bank account started getting low, I didn't seek God. What did I do? I tried to figure out other ways to make money. I tried to figure out other ways to invest, I tried to figure out other ways to skip here or to do this, and I sought all the worldly ways to make a buck, but I didn't submit my finances to God. And that was me for a long time. And I'm still learning. So this is this is not something I fully figured out, so I'm telling on myself. But it took me a long time to realize that though, to come to realization like, God, I'm submitting a lot of things to you, but I haven't submitted everything. So I want you to take this week and think about that, reflect on that. What is something in your life that you need to submit? And maybe it means that you need to take some time to sit back and reflect on God's love, his passionate love, and his abundant mercy, because if you truly sit back and you reflect on that, you'll see how he's provided for you time and time again, how he's loved you time and time again, how he's forgave you time and time again, and that's going to lead you to submit whatever it is to him. The other thing I want you to think about this week, we've we've been going through this this evangelism class on Wednesday nights, and um and we've been talking about that quite a bit. It's just it's been a lot on our hearts here at the church. Umbe there's somebody that you're working with right now, maybe there's somebody on your love list that is that you're having a hard time convinced why you serve God, why you follow Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Maybe there's a maybe you're having a hard time convincing somebody why you do what you do. Why would they follow somebody like Jesus Christ? Well, let's look back at this. God's passionate love and his mercy, as we read here, and we're reading through this in chapter 11 of Hosea, will lead you to submission. So as you're praying through your love list this week, as you're thinking about that person, and as maybe you've had a hard time convincing this, right? Point them to his abundant mercy and his passionate love in your life. It could be it could be a testimony of how God's worked in your life, but this is always going to lead to somebody, and it it can't. I mean, it it has to. It'll always lead to submission. To recognize, to not not just recognize, but to submit when we truly fully understand that. So maybe we take this point and reflect on that with your love list this week. Who can maybe, maybe who on your love list can you talk to this week and express something, maybe your testimony or whatever about God's passionate love and his mercy so that maybe they can fully begin to, or at least begin to grasp that so that they can submit to the wanture of God. Um I'm gonna go ahead and close with that. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you for this day. God, we thank you for your mercy, your love, God. And I know that we can't even begin to understand the depths of your mercy, the depths of your passionate love that you have for us. I mean, that you would, God, just even read through Kings, like all the rejection you've gone through, and you still love us. I praise you for that, God. And I just pray that as we fully uh as we begin to search that, and and more and more and more that we become uh submissive to who you are, God, and your Lordship. I pray that in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you, guys. I appreciate it.