Foretold | Part 5

Well, hey, good morning. Morning. To all. Yeah. Awesome. Good morning to you guys watching online. So glad to be here. I'm excited. And, hey, wasn't the girl in the video announcements cute? I think I'll ask her out on a date. What do you think? Now

if you're new here, I'm not creepy. That's my wife. Okay? So just just settling that. You know, she is cute. But one thing about her, like, when she was a kid,

it's funny. I, one of my favorite stories that I've heard, she remembers this story very clearly too. And what I love about it is it's so not like her personality.

Is, when she was like four, almost five years old, she was playing on this little side yard thing of a little condo they were her parents were renting in Dana Point, California. And and her mom stuck

her head through the screen door and basically said, hey, you you need to come in real quick. Come in. I want you to get your shoes or whatever. And and and she didn't want to come in. Her mom inviting her in meant, I'm losing my freedom. I'm having fun playing.

And it's hysterical because my wife remembers. You know how you know some memories from when you're a kid are just so crystal clear? She goes, she was telling me the other day, she remembers exactly how she felt. She's like, don't want to go in. I'm having fun. It's still playtime. I don't have to go in yet.

And so she said, no.

And her mom's like, wait, what? No. No. I need to just just trust me. Come in. She's being nice. And she goes, no. And so her mom came out, like, to try to to pursue, to go get her. And she goes, I decided I'm not gonna do it. So I ran away. She actually ran out of the side yard and went out onto the street

and started running down the street. And she she remembered. She goes, I knew I could do that because my mom was nine months pregnant with my brother at the time. So as a five year old, imagine the scene, especially moms. Can you imagine being super pregnant? And you got this kid that runs out in it. Where Dana Point is, it's hilly. It's right off PCH.

They lived in this neighborhood like, you know, it's like an old condo. It like there's a bunch of traffic. And so as as she ran out the street and, you know, the waddle run went after her, she said that she got a little bit more serious. Like, hey, sweetie, you need to come back now. And, you know, the voice changes. It gets more authoritative.

You know, I I've I've heard the mom voice. I you can go from, oh, sweetie. Say, get over here now. You know, kinda like it changed. But that's really a heart of your concern and you're worried. You're not angry,

but that just freaked her out even more, so she kept running. And apparently, they ran it around an entire block, All the way down around the main street, back up and around. And then she finally my my wife finally stopped running and let her mom catch her right when they got back to home.

And and she thought she's gonna be in a lot of trouble. And but her mom was just glad she was safe. And she goes, sweetie, don't know why you ran for me. I just wanted you to come in and get your shoes. I felt like you were being so cute and nice and been so helpful. I was going to take you to the library,

which was her favorite place to go. And she goes, but now we don't have time to go. And so she realized she she missed out on such a blessing because she thought her mom wanted to rob her of her freedom. And then when her mom pursued her, she took that as a bad thing.

Well, today we're going to continue in this series where we're talking about the prophets. And we're looking at some of the stories of the prophets of the Old Testament. And a lot of us, even if you've been in church a long time, it's kind of a part of the Bible we don't really like going into much because there's

a lot of stuff that sounds scary. Like God's like, come on, stop running. You know, and is running after us. But the reality is these prophets were men that were given messages from God to his people and the people. And they're really messages of warning, but they can sound weird and cryptic and a little mean.

But in the end, they're really all about God's pursuit of us. The fact that he does pursue us, and he wants us, and he cares for us. The problem is when you hear being chased, being pursued, being wanted, do you think of that naturally as positive or negative?

When you hear pursuit, don't you think of a white Bronco driving down the middle of the freeway? I mean, and when when someone says you're wanted. If there's a wanted poster out, you know, you think wanted, you think wanted poster. FBI's most wanted.

But have you ever thought about another poster that's wanted? What they used to put on the back of milk cartons? Wanted lost child? See, God wants us. God chases us. God pursues us. And that's really what the story of the prophets are about. Because the reason it can sound a little scary and the tone can seem a little bit

high is because it's apparent that is really concerned for our safety. And we're going to really see that in today's story. Today's prophet is my favorite one in the Old Testament. Because this story reveals the heart of God so clearly. Because the prophet

that that's bringing the message in this one doesn't just bring a physical mess, doesn't just bring words from God. God uses his life as an object lesson as to his love. And that's what we're going to see is the prophet Hosea.

And what we're going to see today, that's the powerful kind of the big idea I want to unpack is simply this. God's pursuit of me isn't dependent on me.

God's pursuit of me isn't dependent on me. Now this seems like, what do you mean? Like, it means that a lot of our our issues with God's love when he pursues us is we think that God loving us and God knows it's all dependent on me. So if I'm being good, he pursues me with good. If I'm being bad, he's gonna pursue me to punish me. He's pursuing me. You realize

God's pursuit of us, his love for you and I, what we're gonna see this morning in scripture. And many of us, I don't care if you've grown up in church. This is an important topic for for for many of us to grab onto because it's probably

you've lived years and years and years, maybe your whole life in church with a distorted view of how God's love works. You realize God loves you because of who he is, not because of what you do. And that brings profound great hope, profound relief.

And it lets you know that no matter how far you've ran away from God, it doesn't matter how many steps you've gotten away from him, there's only one step that takes to come back. Because his pursuit of us isn't dependent upon us.

And we're gonna see how profoundly deep that is in the story of Hosea. Now before I start reading in chapter one of Hosea, I wanna set up the a little bit of background for it.

Hosea was called to be a prophet. He was a young man when he was called. He he's he's prophet for a long time, and it follows the story of his his life. His marriage

is an actual object lesson of of God's love for us and and and God's love for Israel. And Israel's like the bride, the woman he marries, and he represents God in this. And we're gonna see. But who is he called to talk to? He's talking to the Northern Kingdom Of Israel. I don't if you're aware, when you read the Old Testament, some of these get confused. Israel, Judah, this king, now, like, why is there two kings mentioned? Know, it's because right after King Solomon,

David's son, died, his son Rehoboam took over, and there was kind of a little civil war rebellion. And, Jeroboam became king of this Northern Kingdom. Israel split in two. So you had the Northern Kingdom Of Israel, the Southern Kingdom Of Judah. Hosea is in the Northern Kingdom.

And if you know anything about your Bible history, the Southern Kingdom had more good kings. They responded to God a little bit more frequently. They still had their issues. The Northern Kingdom never had one good king. And and they fell right into idolatry.

They had they worshiped God, but they fell right into this mix and match kind of philosophy. Like instead of having a definite faith in God, they were just spiritual people. They had their God, but then they also had these other gods. They kind of mix of all the local gods. It's God Bal. He's kind of the God of prosperity. We're going to kind of worship him. We're going to worship this. We're going to do this. We'll take a little bit of that. And it was really weird. And part of the thing that led them astray in the first place was when they split off, they still wanted to be a country that's the people of God. They wanted to claim we are God's chosen people too. So they needed a temple. Well, God said the only temple he wanted was in Jerusalem.

So they built their own temple. They built two of them actually. One in Bethel, one in Dan. And what's kind of cool about these temples is they they built they they built replicas of the one in Jerusalem.

The one in Jerusalem doesn't exist. I've been up on the temple. In seventy AD when Rome just wiped out Israel, they leveled it.

But they actually have unearthed the one in Dan. They have some of the ruins so they can study it and learn what the original temple was like. I've been there. I actually have a picture of it. And so there it is. The metal there wasn't original. That's just to keep you from falling into that or whatever. But you can see just there it is. And then what's cool about this is this stuff is real. Like some of you other skeptics of the Bible. You know how they found it? It's right where the Bible said it would be.

And so there you go. And so there's this stuff is really happening. But what's interesting about this is this is what kind of describes their problem. They built a temple that was a replica of the one in Jerusalem. They're trying to worship God, but you know what they slapped in this one and the one in Bethel?

They put golden calves in there, these idols. And if you know anything about the Old Testament, a golden calf did not do well for the Israelites at Mount Sinai.

See, because when Moses was up on the mountain, they're like, he's got too long. We don't know what to do. Let's make our own god. And so they and it was really symbolic of how when we're waiting on the Lord, like, just run after something. We are built to worship.

People's like, I don't wanna get too in with this Christian thing. I don't wanna become a a a freak of that. You realize we all worship something. God made us that way. That's why actors make so much money.

Think about it. Why do you think they go crazy in the paparazzi and all that? We are built to worship things. And if we don't worship God, we'll pick something other stupid to worship.

And that's just the way it is. So they picked. So they're trying to worship God, but they put idols in there. And they mixed and matched. And God describes idolatry. Which by the way, you're like, well, I'm not worshiping foreign gods. Idolatry is simply something that you put up on a pedestal

that you claim you need more than God. Like, you can be an idol worshiper and come to church all the time. Because you consider going, I'm in church. I say I love Jesus, but what I really need is this. I just need him to give it to me. That's idolatry. And what God compares in Hosea, we're going to see that idolatry

to God is adultery.

It's a very relational. Idolatry, you think, okay, there's a God, he's mad. I broke his law. I didn't do what he wanted me to do. It's kind of this judicial kind of thing. And so God's forgiveness is more of a judicial thing. Okay. You know what? I'm gonna let you off with a warning this time. Kind of that whole deal. But he describes this as adultery. And that's a much more relational,

painful thing to be cheated on. Some of you have been through that. You know what it's like. In other words, what we're gonna see in the story of Hosea, what God is showing us in his heart is that when we break when we sin, we don't just break God's laws. We break his heart. Because he loves us, and he's relational,

and he wants what's best for us. But when we think of God as this distant thing with rules, we look for loopholes. We think of his his laws as just like suggested speed limits or a stopional sign. You know that stop sign right here, but that no one ever stops at. It's just stopional.

And and we live that way, you know. And and but that's not how it works. So that's kind of the set up for Hosea. And and what we're gonna see,

that what was going on is the people at this time were okay with their idols. They're okay with what was going on, because they had two things going on right now. First, they had no military threats. They had formed some alliances with Assyria and Egypt, so they felt protected.

The second thing is their economy was rolling. Their stock market was doing great. Business was booming. They were very prosperous. Prosperity and protection.

And so then they're okay with the king. They're okay with their system. They're okay with how they worshiping God because life was good. Aren't you glad we don't live like that anymore? It's exactly how we still are.

We want prosperity. We want protection. You give me those two things, I'm good. And so that was the problem. And they were giving credit to other things for their prosperity and not honoring God.

So here we go. That's the whole setup. So now we're into the story. Like I said, Hosea is is gonna be an object lesson in what God asked him to do. And we're gonna see that God's pursuit of me isn't dependent on me. Because in this story, what I'm gonna read through, we're gonna see three truths. This is what I wanna unpack. Three truths

about God's love, and they build. They're really important. And the first one seems like, why do I need to know? Because if I don't really grasp this first one, the other two aren't gonna mean as much. And that is this. God's love is profoundly undeserved. God's loving us. We are profoundly undeserving.

And in this story, especially Israel, it says here it goes. Verse two of chapter one. When the Lord first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, go and marry a prostitute. So he tells him, you're going to marry a woman that is a prostitute,

and she's going to continue to prostitute herself even after you're married. Because he even explains it further. He goes, this will illustrate how Israel Oh, first it goes. Go marry a prostitute so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution.

Meaning you're gonna marry a prostitute and she's gonna be unfaithful to you? And some of your kids aren't even gonna be your kids. Fun. Now you understand, Hosea represents God in this story. His wife represents the people. His people. He says this will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute

by turning against the Lord and worshiping other gods. So Hosea married Gomer. Man, her name is Gomer. Doesn't even it gets worse. Surprise. Surprise. Surprise. If you laughed at that, welcome to the you old club.

If you didn't understand that, look for someone that looks old and ask them what I just meant. So it says, Gomer, the daughter of Diblem, and she became pregnant and gave Hosea a son. It's interesting. This is the only one. The firstborn is the one that said she became pregnant and gave Hosea a son.

The next two, a daughter and a son, just as she became pregnant had a kid. You realize what that's indicating. Most likely, this is the only kid that was his. So she gave him a son, and then he here's how we know our love is undeserved. In the naming of the kids, God tells him what to name his kids.

And the names are symbolic of what is the problem with Israel. What is the problem with his with Israel, the wife, the Gomer being unfaithful. And so so here it goes. The first one, it says, he she gave him the son. And the Lord said, name the child Jezreel,

for I'm about to punish King Jehu's dynasty to avenge the murders he committed at Jezreel. That was something that happened back in earlier times. Jehu died did something, you know, God's not happy with it. But he's actually saying, in fact, I will bring an end to Israel's independence.

I will break its military power in the Jezreel Valley. He's actually really describing when Israel when they're gonna get overrun by Syria, they're just gonna get wiped out. And their whole army's gonna get annihilated in this Jezreel Valley. That's probably that's the valley of dry bones that that Ezekiel God took him to and gave him this vision where the whole bone. It was basically the entire Israel army just

sun bleached of death. Jezreel is symbolic to the Jews as death, destruction. It has another name that if you've been in church very much, maybe you've heard of. That Valley Of Jezreel is also called the Valley Of Armageddon.

I've been there too. It's just this valley that stretches up through. It's the it's the only flat open wide space that runs through Israel that can come down to the Mediterranean. And that's why it's always been a place of death. There's always that's the number one way to move an army. It's like a super highway to get an army. So that's an important strategic place to hold. Tons of battles happen there. Nothing but death there. So his first kid, he tells him to name your kid death.

And to a Jew, that would represent like, wow. That would be an awkward name. If you yelled that out in the market, like, Jezreel, get over here. They would be like, what? You named your kid Jezreel? That that would be weird. It'd be like well, let me put it in perspective. It'd be like today, a Jew naming their kid

Auschwitz. You named your kid after a a concentration camp. Can you imagine how weird that would be in a marketplace filled with the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem? Hey, Auschwitz. Get over here. Wait. You just named your kid after the place where our people did nothing but suffered and died? Yeah.

See, that's the first step of understanding how undeserved our love is. He's saying these names, Gomer's prostitution has led to the what what's the fruit of what her life is leading to? And the first fruit is death.

He's kind of comparing like it says in the scripture. Multiple times in Proverbs, it says, there is a way that seems right to man, but in the end it leads to death. That's what he's saying. He's saying, hey, you you you think that this life is better. You think staying married to Hosea

or being faithful to God is confining. It's restricting your freedom. And you wanna go have fun. And you wanna go sleep around. You like the money you're getting. You like the excitement. You like all this. But he's saying, And it does feel right. It does look like it. It seems more fun and exciting. But you understand in the end it's gonna lead to death. That verse in the Bible, there's a way that seems right to man, at the end it leads to death. So many of us misunderstand what that's saying. You think that that's God giving you a threat.

If you keep going this way, I'm gonna get you. If you go that way, I'm gonna kill you. God's not in the mafia. It's not that verse isn't saying, like, he's not the godfather, he's the good father. He's he's not sitting here going, hey, Tony, You you keep going down this road. You keep going this way.

And I just wanna let you know that if you keep doing it, it's gonna lead to death. Capiche.

Now give me more linguine. There you go. That's what we think it means. It's not a threat. It's a warning. See, there is ways we can live that feel more free.

That if I if I go into God's house, as my my my wife said, or mom said, come into the house. And that can seem like, but I'm having more fun here. That if I trust God, or in Gomer's situation, if I stay in the marriage, it seems restrictive.

It's like it's not as fun. There's not as much prestige. I'm wanted by all these men. I'm making good money out here. You've named our kids weird names. You know, it's like all these things. And it seems easier to go over here. And that's what that verse is saying. There is a way that actually seems right because in the beginning,

it seems to work better. And that's what's so hard about being a preacher. Some of you right now are very prosperous right now. Your life seems very safe right now. But you are not honoring God right now. You're not close to him. And what God is trying to say is he's not out to get you, he's out to get you.

Alright? Think about that. It's a deep thought. That he doesn't wanna catch you, he wants to catch you.

And and and and the idea is you think it's okay, but it feels good. It feels good until it enslaves you. That's the whole story of Israel. They run after sin. They run to the more prosperity and the other gods because it feels good and it feels good. And then it turns into slaves. And they felt safe because they made these these associations with the Syrians. They end up Assyria ends up enslaving them and destroying them.

It's all symbolic of that's what happens in our lives when we run after things that God says, hey, trust me on this. The a simple example would be like drugs and alcohol. We go party, we drink, we do that, and you go, hey, I felt really good. The alcohol made me feel relaxed. And I'm not saying alcohol is not necessarily evil. It's just but at first, it feels good. But then all of sudden, when you and when you rely on those things to lighten you up, to make you feel better, to destress, to be okay at a party. And then it starts being when you come home, I gotta drink a little bit to relax. And then you start becoming dependent on it. Here's the problem. It starts to take more and more to get less and less.

Also, now, couple sips doesn't give me that buzz. It takes a couple glasses. And then what happens is the thing that you thought was bringing freedom is actually slowly enslaving you. And then it starts destroying your health, destroying your relationships, destroying your finances. It wipes you out.

That's what he's saying. He's saying, listen, Gomer, the first child, the first product of your adulterous idolatry is that it's gonna lead to death. You're not here's what God is saying in that. And to us too, and to you if you're like just fighting God and wanting to run your own way. He's saying you're not gonna find

what you're looking for down that road. And you never will. You never will. And that shows that we are we so run towards death that for God to pursue us in love is undeserved. He has every right to say, go ahead. Go ahead.

Because it gets worse. Jezreel is the best of the names. So if you're sitting here going, my parents were not on their name naming game when they named me, and you don't like your name, you'll appreciate these because Jezreel would have been the best. Because in the next one it says this, So Gomer became pregnant again

and, gave birth to a daughter. And the Lord said to Hosea, name your daughter Lo Ruhamah, not loved. For I will no longer show love to the people of Israel and forgive them. So not loved. It can also mean unpity. It means, really, it's not saying that the way you're living, you can't live in my love

because you're running from it. You're not loved. In other words in other words, you know what to be a better modern way? First kid named him Auschwitz. This daughter, it's like naming your daughter, you're the worst. How would you like to have that name?

You're what's your name? The worst. Oh, no. No. No. I know everyone hates their name, but what's your rent? No. It literally is the worst. You wanna see my birth certificate? Here you go. So it's like you got Auschwitz, death, and the worst.

See, he's describing the charges against Israel. They when you run for me, when you're idol worshipers, you are very undeserved of my love. God doesn't love us because we're lovable. God loves us because he is love. Now that can scare you, but it should give great hope.

Because at your most unlovable moments, it doesn't matter. He'll still love you. Because we'll see. He's just proven a point here.

Then it says, after Gomer had weaned Lo, Ruhamah, she again became pregnant, gave birth to a second son. The Lord said, name him Lo Ami, which means not my people. For Israel is not my people and I'm not their God. The shortest way Lo Ami means not mine.

You realize he's saying that you have the Israelites, you've stopped being my children. You've ran away from me. You've gotten so far away from my love. You're not responding to me. You you may even you may go to the temple and worship, but you really, really, really don't worship me.

You worship your own lusts, your own desires, your own things. And so he goes, you're not even mine. But think about Hosea was a living example. You know what that meant? Is he knew the first one was probably his. The second one he's pretty sure isn't his. That one he knows. And he basically says, that's not my kid.

Not mine. Think about how brokenhearted Hosea would be. And you're gonna see at the end. You think, well, it's not that bad. I mean, God forced him to marry a prostitute. And we're gonna see in a few minutes that he actually did love her. You'll see it in the text. So his heart's broken. And what he's saying is Gomer

is not deserving of Hosea's love. And in comparing it to God's love for us, God's love is profoundly undeserved by us. We need to know that. Because if I don't realize how undeserving I am, I won't really appreciate what his love and grace really is.

It'd be like someone finally gets you a present or gives you a promotion or gives you something that that you are absolutely convinced you've been deserving of. They go, surprise. We're giving this to you. And inside you're like, oh, it's great, but you should have done this five years ago. You're

not really appreciative if you think you earned it. We have not earned God's love at all. It's profoundly undeserved. And that sets up the next thing. The second point about God's love in the story of Hosea is well, before I go there, I wanna read one more verse.

Just to show you what he meant by this. In Hosea chapter two verse eight, he explains what this idolatry looked like. And why you could tell there's a relational term on how it breaks God's heart is it says, she doesn't realize kinda referencing Gomer and Israel.

She doesn't realize it was I who gave her everything she has. The grain, the new wine, the olive oil. I even gave her the silver and gold, but she gave all my gifts to Baal. Basically saying that she doesn't realize that everything she has came from me. Yet she turns around and pours everything I gave to her into herself

and her own idols. How about you? God's love is profoundly undeserved because when we choose to sin, we don't just break his laws, we break his heart. But secondly, God's love ultimately brings hope. And not only ultimately brings hope, it brings the only hope.

It's the only hope as we'll see. So in chapter two verse 14, look what he says after saying you're not, you know, death, unloved, not mine, as the name of his people. He starts off in verse 14 says, but then I will win her back once again. I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly

to her there. I will win her back. So in this way, I just it is a deep thought. I wanna time out. Deep thought time out here. In that verse, who acts and who responds? Who does the action? Who does the winning back? God. Who just allows themselves to be won back? Israel or Gomer?

Stay with me. This will be a transformative thought, especially for those of you that grew up in church and have always wrestled with feeling incomplete or feeling, oh my gosh, I'm sinning and I'm good and I'm bad and good and you're always feeling that weight, this is gonna free you. Faith is a response to God's action.

Faith is God acts, I react. It's not the other way around. Think about how you think of your faith. And when you think, especially emotionally, think about how you emotionally are relating to God right now.

Be honest, if you really think about how you're reacting to God, isn't it typically you're worried about what God is gonna do in reaction to you?

That's backwards. Theologically, at its depth, the root, that's what legalism is all about. Faith is not I act in order to see God react. Faith is not I go act in faith and then God decides to reward me or punish me. We have it backwards. Faith is God is the one who acts.

God is the one who steps into the life. God is the one who steps out there and then invites me to react. Even with his love. You didn't love God, oh, and and then claim Jesus. It says in the book of John, we can love God because we did all these good things, and then finally God saw that, so he gave us his love.

No. In first John it says, we love God because he first loved us. God acts. God moves into your life. God is the one that brings his love. God steps in the void. God pursues you despite you. And all faith is is, am I gonna let him catch me? Am I gonna react to what he's doing? That's all faith is.

It's not I need to do all this stuff so then God will finally react to me.

Imagine the freedom of the weight many of you felt, especially some of you who've been in church your whole life. Some of you, I just blew your mind wide open. You you've grown up in a church that it's subtly been taught to you that you need to do all this stuff, be the good boy, be the good girl, and then God's gonna react to you. That's not how it works. God is always acting. He's just inviting us to react to him.

And he's saying when you react to me, that's the best way to go. When you don't react to me and respond to me, you're just heading towards death. I hope that helps. Because that's where hope comes from.

That's where it really comes from. Because he goes on, say, I'm gonna return to you all the I love verse 15. I will return her to her the vineyards to her and transform the valley of trouble into a gateway of hope. And it says, she will give herself to me there as she did long ago when she was young.

See, there's the response. Faith is a reaction to God, not the other way around. If you skip all the way down to to verse,

let's go to the to verse 18. Second part of it says, I will remove all weapons of war from the land.

All the swords and the bows. So first he says, gonna give you the vineyard. I'm gonna give you basically, I'm gonna give you what real prosperity is. And now he starts saying, I'm gonna take care of the war. I'm gonna take away. I'm gonna bring you peace. I'm gonna give you protection and peace and prosperity. What were they chasing after through the idols? What were they doing? He goes, I am really the source of all of that. I'm gonna give it to you so you can live unafraid in peace and safety. Isn't that what we really want? Isn't that what you want for your kids? Isn't that what we run around trying to put them in the right school for We are so worried about having prosperity and peace, and we run after it every other way except trusting God.

And he says, I will bring it to you. And he says, I will make you my wife forever showing you righteousness and justice, unfailing love and compassion. I will be faithful to you and make you mine, and you will finally know me as the Lord.

He's saying that it's really the heart of true prosperity and peace only comes from me. Everything else you run after is so temporary, and it's going to enslave you. That's even the story of Israel.

The entire history of Israel, the story for us is an object lesson. Of God reacts, He saves, He builds, He makes us, He calls us. But then we sin, we run away, we do adultery, we do idolatrous things, we run after our own gods, our own ways of making stuff, that's called sin. Eventually, the sin enslaves us,

and then God comes and saves us. And then the second verse, same as the worst, a little bit longer, a little bit worse. And it's just this cycle. And he says, but eventually, I will take it all away.

I think right there that's a prophetic utterance. Because he's describing no more war, no more land, absolute promise. He's not talking about any political period of time as a promise. He's saying this is where it's ultimately gonna end. And I think there's a clue as to who he's talking about, of what he's talking about in verse 19. When it says, I'll make you my wife forever, showing you righteousness, justice, unfailing love, and compassion. Did you notice righteousness and justice,

unfailing love, compassion? Righteousness and justice is God is holy, right, and just. Meaning, will judge sin and all rebellion. When we sin, you realize God can't forgive us by just saying don't worry about it. You know why? Because that's not just. God will judge every act of evil, every sin, everything will be judged.

The problem is if we're going to have a relationship, if if we're going to be his wife, if we're going to be the bride of Christ, if we're going to have this eternal life he talks about, how is that going to happen when we've all have acts of evil and sin in our life to be judged by a righteous God?

The only way I could stand in his presence was being perfectly righteous, and I'm not. So he says, I will be your God, and I will show you righteousness and justice. But then he says, compassion. He talks about this mercy idea.

There's one place that scripture describes. There's one time in history where God stepped into our world and in one act enacted God's righteousness, His justice, His judging of sin, but at the same time showed us compassion, mercy, and grace, and rescued us. Where's that? The cross. That's what this is talking about.

So if you're new to church or you're wondering why you can't there's so many ways to God. Aren't all religions the same? No. The cross is the only place to hope. Because it's the only place where God can stay righteous, just, holy, and judge, and not to be trifled with the God Almighty of the universe.

But at the same time, love us and have mercy and grace because he poured out his wrath on and judged sin, But he took the wrath himself. He loved us. He pursued us. His love is so profoundly undeserved. But look what he was willing to do for us with our love. That's what it's saying. And then I love in verse 23,

he says at this time, he goes, I will show love to those I called not loved. And to those I called not my people, will say, now you are my people. And they will reply, you are our God. God's love ultimately brings hope if you trust him, if you respond to it.

And with those two set up, that's why the third point, God's love is desperately needed.

You realize there's no other way but God's love.

There's no other way for us. It's desperately, desperately needed by us. And that is expressed in the Hosea and Gomer story in verse chapter three. It says, when the Lord God then the Lord God said to me, go and love your wife again even though she commits adultery with another lover. Notice what he said, go and love her again.

By saying again, what does that imply? He did love her. And that word for love there is a Hebrew word, Hassed. It's the same word they use for storks, the bird. You know the whole story, the the the old, like, legend, the stork brings the baby. Where'd that come from? Well,

storks are like the greatest parents in the animal kingdom. They are profoundly protective and loving and they take care and sacrifice for their young. They're like considered this incredible parenting. So much so that in the Hebrew they actually use the word for love to to describe this bird.

So he says, you will love her again, which implies he already did. But then it says the kind of love, Hasid. That means a faithful love. It literally means this, a pursuing persistent passionate action

that tirelessly seeks out the best interests of the one love. So he goes, you have loved her like that even though you knew she's a prostitute when you married. You loved her like that even when she wandered away. And then I told you to stay back, and now I said it's time to go get your wife again. You love her again. Choose to still love, In which he does. He chooses to, even though even right now she's cheating on you. Go win your wife back.

Realize Hosea is God in this story. And he's gonna go get his wife back who's been consistently, consistently adulterous and run his way. And it says in verse two though, so I bought her back for 15 pieces of silver and five bushels of barley and a measure of wine.

What does that mean? He went and bought her back. What what is all that about? That one verse says so much. If you take it apart culturally, we know what happened. She actually now, when he goes to find her, is selling herself into slavery to the highest bidder. Basically, I have to sell myself so I can eat.

I don't want to be your husband, but I'll choose being a slave. Think how dumb is that? But that's what God says we do. We're all Gomers. We we we we run from his love. And even when it does turn into slavery,

we refuse to see what's going on. Matter of fact, it describes it in chapter seven when he he gets more clinical about saying here's exactly what's going on with Israel. And it describes what Gomer was going through in this moment. It says, we're in verse nine of chapter seven, worshiping foreign gods has sapped their strength, but they don't know even know it. Their hair is gray, but they don't realize they're old and weak. Their arrogance testifies against them, and yet they don't return to the Lord their God or even try to find them.

In this weakness, they could have returned, but they don't see it. They're blinded by their sin that we're willing to go into slavery and destroy ourselves. And he says the people of Israel become like silly witless doves,

first calling to Egypt and then flying to Assyria for help. So as they we've become dumb doves, but Hosea is the stork.

And they become dumb, like looking for you're you're willing to go to Assyria, Assyria ends up enslaving them. How many of you, if if you just won't trust God, you keep running from his love? And and at first it was all fun and games, but now you get enslaved and we still don't turn back. That's what Gorman did. She got to the point that instead of going home

But you know why she probably didn't want to go home? She's like, she knew she blew it so bad. She probably says, how could I go home? By law, I could be put to death for what I've done. So she decides, I'll just become a slave so I can eat. What's that saying is she's become old and broken.

It was great when she was, like, in in in high demand. Guys wanted her. They paid her well. She was making money. It was exciting. It sounded a lot better than taking care of

death, the worst, and not mine at home. Know, it just it was was sounded more exciting. It sounded more freeing. She had freedom and money and can do and go and do what she wanted, but until she couldn't. And now she's used up. The world used her up, and now she's worthless. And she's happened to just sell herself as a slave because no one will pay her anymore.

And he says, go buy her back. But here is what's so powerful. Hosea, like he said, he could have had her put to death. Or he could have said, know what? I'm gonna get even with you. I want you back. But he could have went and offered the lowest possible bid price

and got her cheap and said, alright. You won't be my wife, but now I own you. You're my slave. He had every right to just buy her as a slave. But that's not what he did. They told you the price he paid. We know from historical facts, the price he paid was ridiculously you wouldn't pay that for the most expensive

slaver thing in the world. What he paid was basically all the money he had.

So he didn't get in a bidding war. He didn't go and say, alright, I'll take her back, but I'm gonna get I'm gonna I'm gonna invest as little as possible to get her back. He's basically describing like he shows up, probably didn't even let the bidding go on, just walked up with all this stuff and went, bam. I want her. She's my wife.

That shows you just how profoundly desperately needed God's love is.

That we're all Gomers. We're all broken. We're all selling ourselves to slavery. And when it was fun and games, was great. But in the end, it leads to death. Literally, actually, for every one of us. Last I checked, one hundred percent of people born die. We're all heading towards that.

But God loves us so much. And it's seen in the heart of Hosea that he loved his wife faithfully despite everything she did. She does not deserve any of this love at all. And he would not only just bought her, he didn't try to find the cheapest route, he brought everything to buy her. That is the gospel.

You know, I told you about all these crazy names and how symbolic there. You know what a great storyteller God is? You know what Hosea means? Salvation.

Hosea whole story is really telling us about what Jesus did. Quickly, Titus chapter three. Paul in a few verses basically sums up what the Hosea story is all about. Is when he says this, once we too were foolish and disobedient. We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. We're all Gomer.

Our lives were full of evil and envy and we hated each other. But when God our savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.

He washed away our sins, giving us new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our savior. Because of his grace, he made us right in his sight

and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life. And you know what? That was so powerful about the story. It says in the end, what did it say in Hosea? Eventually, I'll bring my wife home and she'll stay mine. It doesn't say how how Gomer reacted after they went home, but that story, Hosea, consistently models what God did. I believe my theologian

Bill Bush says this, to stay consistent with the story, he carried her home and that time she didn't leave. They grew old together. This was a beautiful love story in the end. And it only happened because Hosea means salvation, and he loved unconditionally

to someone who profoundly was undeserving of it. But he brought hope out of a hopeless situation because he was willing to sacrifice all he had despite who she was. Because God pursues me despite me. And he does the same thing for you.

And the question is, will you be caught? We're about we're gonna we're gonna sing a song in response called reckless love. And I love it because some of us have been Christians, reckless love.

God's not reckless. You realize in this day and age, Gomer would have said, oh, Gomer's an idiot. I don't know why she treated Hosea that way. Although he did name the kids weird names, and he's always barking about God and judging us. So they probably thought, good for Gomer.

But in that day and age, you know who would have been considered the idiot? Hosea. When he walked up and bought her back, people would have said that was the most reckless, stupid decision ever. That's what the song Reckless Love means. It's from our point of view, God choosing to love us is absolutely reckless.

It's like this. I wanna sum this up as we get ready to sing this. It's a story that's been told a lot. It's an older story. Pastor Mark used it a few weeks ago in men's ministry. I'm gonna put a little twist on it though. It's a story about a boy who built

this is what kids did before they had video games and TV. He he built a replica sailboat.

Pain safe. He spent all of his time, saved his money. He really he put his initials on it, built this thing to precision, spent months and months and months making it. Finally, it's ready to go. He took it down to the lake to see if it would sail. Put it in the water, wind started to sail really well. Matter of fact, the wind kicked up, it sailed so well, It took off into the middle of the lake. He couldn't get out there fast enough, and it sailed away on him. He goes home. His mom goes, how how did it work? She goes, it worked too well. It sailed away, and I'm so sad. It sailed away from me.

Well, a couple weeks later, he's walking down the street of his little town, and in the window of the pawn shop is that boat.

And he goes in and he grabs the boat and he tells the guy, this is my boat. I made it. So he starts to walk out and the guy stops. Hey. I don't care if you made it. Someone found this and sold it to me. So if you want it, you gotta pay for it. So he then proceeds to go home and get all the money he has.

He even did some extra jobs. And he took everything he had, and he went and he laid that on the counter, and he bought the boat back. And he was heard saying as he walked out of the place to his boat, you're twice mine. First, I made you and now I've bought you.

And that's kind of the gospel. You But know what? That's the way the story is originally told. But I don't think that actually does justice to the gospel. I don't I think it goes further than that. I don't think it's twice. I think it's thrice

that he's done. I think the story to be more accurate, what Jesus did for us is he made us in his image beautiful, and we chose to sail away. And when we sail sailed away in the storms in life, we're having fun until we got smashed up on the rocks.

And this boy comes back and he sees this boat, but it's in a bucket broken into pieces in the corner. And even though it's not worth anything, he could have got it for free if he wanted to. He brought everything he had and laid it on the table. And he bought that bucket of boat parts back. And as he walked out, he goes, you are thrice mine. First, I made you. Now I've bought you, and I'm gonna take you home. And I'm gonna put you back together. And you are gonna be fine, and you're gonna be able to sail into a future to me, and do all of eternity with me, because that's how much I love you. I will pursue you no matter how broken you are.

Question is, are you gonna respond to that? Because God's already acted.

You have to decide. What would it look like if you decided to get caught? Remember I said, you wanna want God to catch you? You want him to catch you? What I mean by that is we of all don't deserve God's love. We've lit a fire in our house of our life. And we're afraid that God wants to catch us lighting the fire. He doesn't care about that. He wants to catch us jumping out the window

to save us. What would happen right now if you just stopped running

and let God's love catch you? So as we sing, there's two people, two ways you need to reflect on this. One, you've gotten caught by God's love. You're born again. You know what means to be a Christian. But maybe your your boat's been put back together, but you started to go a little ways away from the shore again.

You're falling in love with some idols. Use the words of the songs of prayer to return. But for some of you, you've never stopped in the first place. To you, faith has been I act to get some kind of God to react to me. You've never just surrendered.

After we sing this song, let this song sink into your heart about what it means to be recklessly loved by God. And when I come back up at the end of the song, I'm gonna say a prayer with you. I call it the get caught prayer. That's a surrender prayer to Jesus. And this might be the moment

when your whole eternity changes. But let's stand and sing of God's reckless love.

I wanna pray. But I wanna pray with some of you because I think there's some of you that are ready. You've been running and running, and now you are ready for the overwhelming, never ending, reckless love of God God to catch you right now.

And if that's you, if you're ready to just pray with me, but make this prayer your own words in your heart to God. But just pray something like this. Dear God, thank you. Thank you for your reckless love. Thank you for sending your son. Thank you, Jesus, for for for living that perfect life and then

paying the exorbitant price of all you are on the cross for me. Sinner, an idolater, an adulterer when it comes to you. Thank you that even though I've done that, you died for me. And you didn't stay dead. You rose from the dead proving you are who you say you are. You can do what you say you can do. You are the only hope.

So right now, in the best way I know how, I stop and I surrender to that love. And I put my faith in you, Jesus, and you alone. Thank you for forgiving me. Thank you for dying for me. Thank you for pursuing me over and over and over again. And thank you that your pursuit of me isn't dependent on me.

So, Lord, help me to go from here and understand each and every day a little bit more of what it means to have that kind of love in my life. Lord, help me to see your love so clearly that I can respond to it joyfully. I just thank you and I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.