Hosea: God's Love for You
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Glad you are here today.
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God speaks....
a series focusing on the minor prophets, rarely considered voices of the Bible… minor only because of their length of their writing, not saying anything about the importance of their ministry or that their message is minor. Their message in fact is HUGE!
We are going to see that God Speaks to them in amazing ways, ways we might recognize God speaking to us today, God speaks through dreams and visions, his word, through circumstances, through opportunities. God speaks in all sorts of ways and today just like then, the root of His message is I LOVE YOU!
This is nor more clear than in this first book, Hosea. We are going oto look at just the first 3 chapters, but I encourage you to read the whole book, it won’t take too long. In Hosea’s writings you hear loud and clear the voice of God speaking I LOVE YOU.
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19 I will make you my wife forever, showing you righteousness and justice, unfailing love and compassion.
20 I will be faithful to you and make you mine, and you will finally know me as the Lord.
21 “In that day, I will answer,” says the Lord. “I will answer the sky as it pleads for clouds. And the sky will answer the earth with rain.
22 Then the earth will answer the thirsty cries of the grain, the grapevines, and the olive trees. And they in turn will answer, ‘Jezreel’—‘God plants!’
23 At that time I will plant a crop of Israelites and raise them for myself. I will show love to those I called ‘Not loved.’ And to those I called ‘Not my people,’ I will say, ‘Now you are my people.’ And they will reply, ‘You are our God!’ ”
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Pray with me. Lord, use your word today to encourage me and to challenge me, AMEN.
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My cousin Charlotte, crazy about her son Robby.
We do some crazy things in the name of love.
A crazy love story
A crazy love story
Hosea, a prophet to Israel.
Israel (north) and Judah (south) seperated by civil war. Both the north and the south had had outrageous kings, none worse than Jeroboam II, the last King of Israel, who was conquered by Assyria.
We will talk more about this in the weeks to come, you can read all about it in
Told by God to go and take a wife, but not just any wife. God told Hosea to go and marry a prostitute. Like you the question strikes me, why? The text explains,
2 When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.”
This isn’t normal now and it wasn’t then. So what did Hosea do? This was just wrong… he’s a prophet for God for goodness sake, what are people going to say? But Hosea loves God and wants to be used by God, so he does what God says.
A question pops up right here.
How did he know it was God speaking to him? This wasn’t a normal expectation from God for his prophets to marry prostitutes. In fact this was very strange. You might say, well it was the voice of God, wouldn’t we know God’s voice? Maybe, but maybe we would think we were crazy.
Maybe you are hearing God speak to you. He’s calling you to serve in a new way, or to practice generosity, or to step out into vocational ministry, or maybe it’s to go and offer forgiveness to her because she doesn’t realize how deep her words cut you, or maybe it’s to confront him regarding his sin because he doesn’t see how it’s affecting others..
How can we discern what God says to be truly the voice of God? Number one way, is it in keeping with his word? Is what I’m hearing in keeping with God’s word, his Character, his nature?
In order to know that, you have to know the God of the Scriptures.
“Is what I’m hearing in keeping with Scripture?”
“Is what I’m hearing in keeping with Scripture?”
Hosea a prophet, God used him to call the people back to faithfulness, Now we have God asking him to become the message. If you hear the voice of God and you aren’t sure if it’s God asking you to do something, one way to sort it out quick is this: “Is what I’m hearing in keeping with Scripture?”
Convinced it was the voice of God, Hosea, whose name signifies SALVATION marries Gomer (which means Completion)…
So COMPLETE and SALVATION start out in this new life, and everything was good at first, but then over time, bit by bit Gomer drifted back to the old wild life from which she had come, and day after day Hosea returned home wondering if his wife would be home. Night after night he lay awake long after it was good for him … waiting for his wife to return. I'm confident that the prophet must have prayed. I'm confident he must have taken his domestic burden to the Lord.
Then they had a son.
I’m sure that Hosea had a moment of hope that this would change everything, but then God told him to name his son Jezreel.
One writer said that while it might not mean much to us today, to Jew it would be like naming your child Dachau. Dachau, the prison camp where thousands of Jews were killed by the Germans. Now imagine having to go to the food court and call out for him - Jezreel… or at the soccer game - Jezreel… you would get everyone’s attention.
With this name God was using Hosea, his son, and his wife to make a statement about God’s relationship with Israel. It was a reminder that God had dealt with the sin of Israel in a dramatically painful way.
Then Gomer comes home one day and tells Hosea shes pregnant again, but Hosea knows this one is not his. But who was he kidding, he had expected this sooner or later. A girl is born and The Lord tells Hosea
“Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means “not loved”), for I will no longer show love to Israel, that I should at all forgive them.”
The picture is coming clear now isn’t it.
Then another child is born, again not Hosea's.
9 Then the Lord said, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.
God is showing everyone through Hosea’s family that their sin has not gone unnoticed… any more than the adultery of Gomer.
Chapter 2 of his letter describes the conflict between Hosea and Gomer, how she is tempted by the trappings provided to her by her suitors so much so that she is willing to walk away from one who loves her truly and wants noting from her.... only wants her to be safe and loved. This seems strange, but while it was the promise of fine food and jewelry for Gomer, the love of food, wealth, and security for the Israelites had led them to worship the pagan gods.
Not my people.... no mercy
Then it happened. What Hosea knew would eventually happen. She didn’t come home. It wasn’t a surprise at first, but after one night turned into two and three and seven it became clear that she wasn’t coming back. Was she alive? Had she been killed by one of her other men? It kept him up all night, only to hear the kids wake up early as well. Another day, pulling double duty; he wondered if he would get used to this new routine.
Just then God spoke again in the midst of his personal pity party.
1 The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”
Where do you go to get her back?
Where do you go to find your wife when she is a prostitute? Sadly you start walking the streets in that part of town… it doesn’t matter if you are a prophet or a preacher. You starting asking people if they’ve “seen” her.
Then you find her. Chapter 3 tells us she has found herself not just working as a prostitute, but now she is on the auction block as a sex slave. Hosea enters in the auction in order to buy her back even though she is his wife; he does what he has to do.
15 Shekels of silver and some barley. A pretty low value, it probably says a lot about the fact that she had been a victim of whoredom as the bible calls it for some time… she was pretty worthless at this point. Worthless to everyone but Hosea… and apparently God that is.
So he takes her back to be his wife and him to be her husband. And in the same way, the people would return to their God .... get this …
New Living Translation Chapter 3
But afterward the people will return and devote themselves to the LORD their God and to David’s descendant, their king.
God is telling Hosea that his love for Gomer is a statement about his love for Israel. It’s also a statement that eventually they will love their King Jesus. God is doing this...No matter how wrong they have been, no matter their sin, no matter their mistakes. He loves because he loves.
How often do we consier that?
We know God loves us, but do we consider it?
Think about it. How many of you know John 3:16?
What does it say?
Again?
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Let me ask you, has that verse lost some of its meaning? has it become just a fact that you know?
Think about what this verse is saying. This is the CRAZIEST THING ever done in the name of love
“For God so loved”
That word SO is powerful. Think of it. So means to let his son die for those who cared less. SO is about his chasing after people who were running away. SO is about blessing people who would never say thank you. SO is about being spit on, punched, whipped, beaten.
God SOOOO loved!
“So loved the world”
The world that John is talking about are the worldly people, the people stuck in sin, people who struggle with unforgiveness, who can’t find the heart to be generous, ones who don’t answer when he calls. It’s you and me. It’s those people that God Sooooo loves. We are Gomer. We are the ones who seek other Gods. God’s of comfort believing we deserve a better life or a reasonable retirement; God’s of safety believing that this life is all there is; God’s of control so we kick back against the authority others have over us. Scripture calls this in Gomer’s life a pattern of whoredom, whoring after other Gods. We wouldn’t be so graphic, because we are nice… but our worship of these false gods is actually that offensive to God.
And what is God’s message to Gomer? I will love you, come back to me. You see, Hosea’s message is that, God Loves you, because of who HE is. That’s good news, that God’s love isn’t based on my goodness, on your goodness. God loves because that’s who he is.
20 I will be faithful to you and make you mine, and you will finally know me as the Lord.
23 I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’ ”
It’s God’s love for us, that changes us you see. The church-ey word for it is grace. Undeserved favor. To be honest
That’s the main take away from Hosea
GRACE: God loves you!
GRACE: God loves you!
God’s accounting is different from ours. You see, we expect that when we do good things, God will reward us. If we serve in church we will experience his blessing. If we live a good life, we go to heaven. If we aren’t too bad, we will be rewarded. but that’s not what happens in the story. Again and again, God says I redeemed you, I will take you back, I will love you. God says I’m doing these things, not you.
God does not love you because of what you are. God does not love you because of what you do. He loves you in spite of what you are, in spite of what you do.
This is a very hard lesson to lesson to learn, but learning it changes your approach to everything. When you grasp the meaning of GRACE, when you experience God’s Grace, when you realize that unconditional love of God, no strings attached, then you respond with love and worship, praise and service.
There’s another message that God is speaking today; I believe to those here who are not Christians. You may have prayed a prayer, or gone through confirmation at some point, but today, you aren’t that close to God. You feel alone. You feel beaten down. You have consistently chosen sin over God. You don’t have much to offer. You are on the down hill side of life.
That may be your experience today. Just like God sent Hosea (salvation) to find Gomer, God has you here today that you would experience grace… undeserved favor. To you God says, I’ll make you mine so that I might love you. God is right here waiting for you to respond with love to his love. Waiting for you to trust him, to see what it means to be loved by God.
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THE GREAT THANKSGIVING
THE GREAT THANKSGIVING
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
L: It is right, and a good and joyful thing,
L: Always and everywhere to give thanks to you,
L: Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
L: And so,
L: With your people on earth
L: And all the company of heaven
L: We praise your name and join their unending hymn:
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.
L: Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ.
L: By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection
L: You gave birth to your church,
L: Delivered us from slavery to sin and death,
L: And made with us a new covenant
L: By water and the Spirit.
[Words appropriate to the day, season, or occasion may be added at these points].
L: On the night in which he gave himself up for us,
L: He took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread,
L: Gave it to his disciples, and said:
L: "Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you.
L: Do this is remembrance of me."
L: When the supper was over, he took the cup,
L: Gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said:
L: "Drink from this, all of you;
L: This is my blood of the new covenant,
L: Poured out for you and for many
L: For the forgiveness of sins.
L: Do this, as often as you drink it,
L: In remembrance of me."
L: And so,
L: In remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ,
L: We offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving
L: As a holy and living sacrifice,
L: In union with Christ's offering for us,
L: As we proclaim the mystery of faith.
Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.
L: Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here,
L: And on these gifts of bread and wine.
L: Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ,
L: That we may be for the world the body of Christ,
L: Redeemed by his blood.
L: By your Spirit make us one with Christ,
L: One with each other,
L: And one in ministry to all the world,
L: Until Christ comes in final victory
L: And we feast at his heavenly banquet.
L: Through your Son Jesus Christ,
L: With the Holy Spirit in your holy church,
L: All honor and glory is yours, almighty Father,
L: Now and for ever.
ALL: Amen.
L: And now, with the confidence of children of God, let us pray: