Turn Back My People: Hosea

Y'all the power for change does not come from your pledges. It comes from his purchase. Do you all see that? What you and I want to do, we want to find ourselves caught in the act and then make a bunch of promises of how we'll be different. That's what we do. But the power source shifts onto you and your pledges. You you with me? But the power to be the fallow ground breaking up isn't about your fallow breaking up plan, though you should have it. Are you with me? The power comes from his purchase. The power comes from him, from the Hosea, from Jesus, from what he does for you. [00:32:33] (40 seconds)  #HisPurchasePower

He could articulate that there's certain things about being human that are true whether you follow the Lord or not, which is you are a desiring, craving, you want satisfaction. You wanna be happy. That's actually not your problem. Your problem is where you go to have that it scratched, to be satisfied, to be safe. Are you with me? You were made to feel safe. You were made to be satisfied. You were made to crave. Those things aren't the problem, it's where you're going. Are you with me? You have a God sized hole and you're trying to fill it with goldfish. That's what you're doing. And so to sin is to love the wrong thing too much. [00:13:30] (37 seconds)  #GodSizedHole

Buying proceeds dwelling. The dwelling flows from the buying. The idea is that I'm paying the price so you could dwell with me. Y'all, what we need to hear is that the power to dwell comes from being bought. Are you with me? The other comes and buys you when you don't bring anything to the table and then you dwell. The idea here is that you are not the Hosea person, you and I are the Gomer people. We are the ones who need somebody to rescue us. We need somebody who's not gonna quit on us when we keep stepping out on them. We need a power that doesn't, rest in us pledging ourselves to be perfectly pure in this perfect bride. [00:31:06] (39 seconds)  #VulnerabilityBreaksGround

That's how you end up in the Nehemiah series, is because the land spit them out and now they're trying to get back in. Are you with me? The land literally is like, you are not God like, bleh. That's that's basically what's happening. And God is laying out his case that even though you're getting spit out, that doesn't mean I'm done with you or that I've been a faithless spouse. You've been the faithless spouse, I've been faithful. And the next chapter of our relationship is exile, but I'm still after you. Are you all with me? So I'd say it like this, exile was always the promise outcome of forfeiting their true identity. [00:21:21] (30 seconds)  #RepentToBeSaved

And so, the minor prophets are extremely justice oriented. And y'all, by the way, if you think justice is a left right thing, please, it's time to wake up. God is not on a side y'all. He takes over. He ain't left, he ain't right, he ain't middle. He just is. You understand? And so when we get talking justice, you read the minor prophets, just know that was not hijacked in American conversation two thousand, three thousand years after this was written. Okay? God cares about actions. He cares about the vulnerable. He cares about everything. He cares about business practices. He cares about everything we do because it flows from our hearts. Are you with me? And what you love will show itself in what you do. [00:09:58] (42 seconds)  #GodWantsIntimacy

I don't know if you have that view of God today that God wants intimacy with you. I've heard intimacy described as into me, you see. Intimacy. And that it's just so good, John, you know. Intimacy is into me, you see. So the goal of marriage is intimacy and God's goal for his people is intimacy. He's not recruiting a team. He's not building a a brand. God is building a family with intimate union love. [00:06:53] (29 seconds)  #DiveIntoHosea

Y'all, we're diving into Hosea. And Hosea is arguably the most shocking book in the Bible. It is staggering. If you've not read it before, God tells his prophet to go marry a prostitute. And the reason he picks this image is a lot of what the sermon is about, is that it represents what it's like for God to relate to us. It's what it's like for God to relate to a people who are faithless though he is faithful. And it pulls our heartstrings into it because we could just imagine what it's like to be stepped out on or or your love to be unrequited and rejection and to feel used. [00:00:24] (42 seconds)  #FaithfulThoughWeFail

And if you are a Christ follower and you read the New Testament, this is why every word Paul writes is like in Christ, with Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ. Go read Ephesians and every time you see the word in, just highlight it in yellow because we're in Christ. You're not like you're not a person on a team with a jersey, you are in the the vine. You are a branch. You are connected. There is no you apart from him. You are married to God through Christ by the spirit. Ain't that crazy? That's wild. You married to God. I don't know if you think about it like that but that's what he's after. [00:07:21] (37 seconds)  #MarriageProposalFromGod