260201 Faithful Beyond Our Limit

``See, the gospel God's love does not ask us, have you loved enough? It declares you are loved enough in Christ. He pursues you. He doesn't quit. Why? Because b, covenant love is not based on our worthiness but on God's promise. It's on God's promise. [00:45:47] (31 seconds)  #LovedByPromise

Notice he didn't call her the whore. Your sin is not your identity. I have redeemed you. I have bought you. People may name you that and point to you as that, but you are not that anymore. That is not who you are. You played this. You did this, but your sins don't define you. [00:51:49] (22 seconds)  #NotDefinedBySin

And yet God's love does not end our consequences, but it does end the condemnation. It doesn't condemn us. It doesn't discard us. It doesn't cast us out. It is redeemed at a great cost of a faithful God. Because in Christ, God does more than just buy back his bride. He becomes the payment. He he bears the shame. He suffers the consequence. See, the covenant love the cross is where covenant love comes together with faithfulness. For Christ fulfills what we broke in the law. He bears the judgment we earn. Christ restores the covenant we have abandoned, and he brings us back. [01:02:11] (45 seconds)  #GraceNotCondemnation

You were bought by Jesus not to use your freedom to go back into bondage, not to use your freedom as a license to sin and think that it's all okay. You were set free as we talked in our last series. You were set free so you could choose God and not be bound in your sin, not be bound to your sinful nature, not be bound to the consequences of your sin, but to be given this total freedom in life so you could choose greater things and better things with God. [00:40:19] (34 seconds)  #FreedomToChooseGod

So when is enough enough? Well, for us, it's when we can't take anymore. For God, never. Though love may wound us before it heals us. See, God's cut a law off. Love is not soft. It's it's not permissive. It is faithful. It's costly. It's restoring. [01:05:47] (23 seconds)  #FaithfulLoveHeals

If God has not given up on you, what might he be calling you to return from or return to? What is he calling you to return from? Which sin has maybe wandered has gotten you wandered and apart? And return to, what relationship have you cut off? Like, god is saying, you are a people of covenant love. How do you love that person? [01:06:13] (37 seconds)  #CalledToReturn

As I like to say, Jesus loves you right where you're at, but he loves you enough to that he wants to grow you and move you beyond where you're at. We like just to be loved where we're at. We want a church that just says, love me where we're at. Don't don't challenge me. Don't help me to grow someplace else because that's too painful. I don't wanna do that. [00:56:33] (22 seconds)  #LovedAndCalledToGrow

She can't even take care of herself. Can you imagine her as a mother? Get out. Flee. But God's love is different. A, God's love is a love that enters enters the mess. It enters the mess. [00:29:45] (32 seconds)  #LoveEntersTheMess

But notice in this return, Hosea doesn't say repentance is required. Repentance is a response, not a requirement. See, Israel's gonna return not because they did a great work. It's because God is doing a great work in them. And they not they repent not to earn love. It's because this incredible love finally has awaken their heart and shaken them out of what they think is normal and right to what is true and holy and good. That there's a God who's perfect in love, who's already claimed him, who's already bought him. So any work we do, repentance, serving, coming back to God is not payment of earning that grace. It's because of that grace. [01:03:55] (55 seconds)  #GraceAwakensRepentance

But what God is saying here, though, see, is that God doesn't abandon his covenant simply because his people are unfaithful. See, God doesn't abandon his covenant simply because we're unfaithful. While it is our human instinct when we are in a painful relationship is to protect ourselves, to pull away, to cut it off, to to go, hey. Go fix yourself and maybe come back. God's covenant love is different and enters in the mess. It it goes on to take on more suffering and pain. It steps in when everybody else is stepping away. It's stepping in, which is the exact opposite of us. Number two, our version of enough. [00:35:03] (54 seconds)  #CovenantLoveNeverLeaves

And they keep going to their love cakes, their mistress, to the other altars. It's gone. Look. They have totally rejected God. They they can't get any lower. And God says, go again. My covenant love doesn't quit when you have quit. Go again. [00:44:32] (32 seconds)  #CovenantLovePersists

And God is saying, look. Your sin has rendered you near death. Your sin renders you useless of no value. I mean, who really, do you have that much value to God, do we think? The creator of all universe. But God's a God of love, a covenant love, and he's willing to redeem us and pay us back at a high cost of his son. [00:49:04] (35 seconds)  #RedeemedAtGreatCost

Much less somebody else's mess like this, but God commands Hosea to marry Gomer knowing her unfaithfulness, knowing that this is incredibly visible. This is a public relationship out there for everybody. This is not God. Understand, this is not God romanticizing sin. This is an intentional exposure of God's pain, his heart for his people, his brokenness that he's feeling, he's experiencing with his love for Israel. God is making his relationship known. [00:31:12] (37 seconds)  #LoveExposed

And so what we see right away is that God's God's shocking command. Number one, God's shocking command. Right? He says, Jose, I want you to go marry this whore and have, children from her. I mean, this is pretty scandalous. This is a prophet. A man of God, a holy one, to be God's voice peace and God's example to the to the people of Israel, and he says, look, go marry a whore. [00:27:40] (29 seconds)  #ScandalOfCovenantLove

And I think most of us, we know the answer. We know the answer. But we're not truly always ready emotionally to live the answer. And the answer is that God doesn't love like us. God's love is a covenant love. It's faithful beyond limits. [00:25:31] (36 seconds)  #FaithfulBeyondLimits

We're constantly kinda going to god like the rich young ruler and say, look. I've kept everything. I'm good. And and so, therefore, you know, what I must do to inherit God's kingdom? And they we're asking the question with no one to answer. They're saying, you already have it because you're good. And Jesus flips the script and says, wait a minute. Why no one is good except God alone is good? Jesus is in a very nice way of saying, a gracious way of saying, you are not good. You're not as good. God's standards are way up here. [00:41:40] (42 seconds)  #GraceNotEarnings

I think Steve said Steve said last week that God just kinda winks at her sin. He says, it's okay. It's no big deal. I mean, it's it's no big deal to you. It's no big deal to me. I mean, you have some sins you don't like. Right? And I I I support that. But, you know, the little it doesn't matter, really. You decide what is really important or not. I mean, after all, you are a good person. You're such a good person, so these sins really don't matter. And we've kinda done this in the church. We we keep saying and we just keep accepting all sins, we say, oh, we we it doesn't matter. It's just love. And then we quote the memory verse, which is in our notes, [00:38:18] (49 seconds)  #NoMoreWinkingAtSin

God there is these consequences. There's this weight to it. It's a little humbling. It can be hard. It can be hurtful, but it's what makes it stronger. It's what does the work. [01:01:34] (16 seconds)  #ConsequencesBuildStrength

So we've got to lean into this love. This is what makes the church unique. It's not just a fellowship of people that are like each other and enjoy each other. No. Church is a fellowship of people that don't maybe like each other but still love each other. We're not a world club. We're like, man, Harry gets on my nerves. I love him. I'm glad he's here. Because the fact that he does that, that challenges me to grow up. That challenges me how to grow in love. That makes me a better person. [00:57:41] (50 seconds)  #LoveDespiteDifferences

God uses this marriage, this covenant relationship that's supposed to be for a lifetime to bring in in unity and and oneness and closeness. And he's using Gomer to show how the relationship has been so violated. He's using her to show that God is a God who wants not just a far off creator God, but a God who's loved, intimate, who's close to us, and and wants to be very close to us, know every detail of our life and to share in all that. And Israel rejects it and violates the most intimate part of the relationship in the bedroom. It breaks the covenant. [00:32:22] (50 seconds)  #MarriageAsCovenant