Welcome to the Cross Power Church podcast.
You're listening to a service from our church in Campbell, TX.
We pray this message strengthens your faith and points you to the
cross. Now let's join the service.
Think about what Scripture says and you know, on that day, it
says that all things in heaven are going to be new.
Thinking about that, you know, where there's there's things
we're going to receive, we're going to we're going to receive
a glorified body, a body that's not going to ache, a body that's
not going to get tired, a body that's not going to get sick.
Hey, man, how's that going to be?
You know, I was thinking about something else the other day.
I heard something on it. But you know, the Bible says
we're going to eat in heaven. We're going to set down a
preacher, we're going to have a glorified body, but yet it says
we're going to sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Amen. So think about that.
You know, if a lot of people, well this would preach in a
Baptist Church, we're going to eat food we've never tasted.
You ever thought about that? If.
All things become new. They'll be no more old.
Eggs in the morning. Casserole.
I used to have a joke about that casserole.
I don't forgot what it was about a Baptist in a casserole.
But. Think about it.
Yeah, Yeah, that's it. But what a day that's going to
be. Food's going to be.
Now what are the? What is it going to be?
Like, you know. I mean gets.
Tired of the? Food.
Weed. Here some days.
You just have to. Make yourself a 'cause you're
like, you know, I don't know, don't really want nothing
anybody like that. We always find something though,
don't we? But good to be in the House of
the Lord tonight, so Saline if you'd come get you a new cover
here. No germs please.
Exactly. How's everybody doing?
Big old crowd we got going on here tonight.
Y'all told them I was preaching, right?
Well, as I was getting ready, trying to figure out what in the
world, Lord, what do you tell people that's already hurt it
all? And so I, I, I pray and pray and
pray and pray and pray and pray. I wanted to do something about
Resurrection morning, something about the triumphal entry, you
know, just something because we're close to Easter.
And so I thought, well, I want to do something there, Last
Supper something, Passover something, and this is what the
Lord put in my heart. So here we go.
Now this is going to be Hosea chapter 1, and I'm going to read
some out of that and then we're going to go to chapter 2.
But that's where we're going to go here.
And I want y'all to see Jesus in this cause Hosea is a warning.
But it's also a love letter to us if we read it because we
always think of Hosea as oh he was the one married that
prostitute and all that she had all the kids had to go buy her
back. Yes, he did exactly did so Hosea
one start with verse 2. This is when the Lord began to
speak by Hosea. The Lord said to Hosea, Go take
yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry, for the
land was committed great harlotry by the parting from the
Lord. So he went and took Gomer, the
daughter of Diblun, and she conceived and bore him a son.
Then the Lord said to him, Call his name Jezreel, for in a
little while I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the
House of Jehu and bring an end to the Kingdom of the House of
Israel. It shall come to pass in that
day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.
Stop for a second. Got a little nerd moment going
on. The Valley of Jezreel is
considered to be the very spot in the future battle of
Armageddon. The Valley of Megiddo is also
known as the Valley of Jezreel. I just thought, Lord, he's just,
he said I'm going to stop the Kingdom of the House of Israel
right here. And he said it's going to come
to pass on that day. So there's prophecy here in this
book of Hosea. I'm going to go to chapter 2
now. Start with verse one.
It says, say to your brethren, my people and to your sisters
mercy as shown. Bring charges against your
mother. Bring charges for she is not my
wife, nor am I her husband. Let her put away her harlotries
from her side and her adulteries from between her breasts, lest I
strip her naked and expose her as the day she was born, and
make her like a wilderness and set her like a dry land and slay
her in the thirst. I will not have mercy on her
children, children, for they are the children of harlotry, for
their mother has played the harlot she was conceived.
She had. She who conceived them has
behaved shamefully. For she said I will go after my
lovers who will give me my bread and my water, my wool and my
linen and my oil and my drink. What was she doing?
She was looking towards other sources for her strength, for
her food, for her provision. And this is a type and shadow of
Israel. We all probably know that.
But God is telling the people that I'm not putting up with it
anymore. It's got to stop.
And so we see that Gomer, she was going after other gods and
other things that she shouldn't have been going after.
She should have been Israel should have been looking to God
for everything. So the story of Hose Hosea shows
us that God is, if you will, in relentless pursuit of his
covenant people. You need to see that this and
this is what I thought, well, this is not really an Easter
message. Lord, I talked to him like you
talk to him like that. I talked to him, you know.
So God told Hosea to marry a prostitute, not because God was
endorsing sin, but because God wanted to reveal his heart
through the life of Hosea. Hosea was commanded to enter
into a covenant that would cost him emotionally, spiritually and
publicly. He was going to be put to shame.
Can you imagine what the people thought about him spiritually?
This had to be degrading to him. You know, emotionally, we most
of a lot of us know the emotions of going through unfaithful
relationships. You know, this is a prophetic
life laid down in obedience. Say this was a prophetic life.
Hosea's life was laid down in obedience to God.
He was asked to love somebody who would be unfaithful, already
knew that was going to happen. He was asked to remain where
most people would have left her. And he was asked to feel the
heartache of covenant betrayal. Now, who knows about covenant
betrayal, but God, he's the one. Now our flesh, we want to obey
God when it feels good. We want to obey God when it
makes sense, and we want to obey God when it's comfortable.
I mean, if you don't have the AC on, we are not coming.
You know, we want to be comfortable and we want, it's
got to make sense. And you know, the flesh wants
its dignity protected. You know, it wants to serve God
as long as it's convenient getting out here at the right
time. Now it's got to be convenient
for dark, and it wants to make sense to the natural mind.
Lord help us if we do something that doesn't make sense.
Somebody can't figure it out. You know, I don't want people to
think that I'm a fanatic or that I'm a weirdo.
You know, that happens that keeps people from standing up
and lifting their hands in worship service because their
mind goes to well, what do they think if I think, you know, they
may think they've never seen me stand up like that and worship
and they you know, what do they think?
I sure do not want to be inconvenienced.
You know, that's our flesh. That's what we want.
And but God's instructions to Hosea was actually shattered the
mind of human logic. He said, what, God, You want me
to do what? But it didn't make any sense.
But Hosea said, OK, whatever you say, Lord, I'm going to do it.
Man. How many of us would do that?
We should. We should do that.
Israel had played the harlot. Israel had gone after other
sources for its protection, for its provisions.
It had gone after other altars and after other gods.
And that's what he was trying to show the people that you've
you've left the covenant, my covenant.
God chose to show the people the agony of divine love to the
suffering of a man who obeyed God.
Sometimes we don't understand why people do things they do
when they're saying, well, I'm whatever God tells me to do,
that's what I'm going to do. And we don't.
It doesn't make sense to us. But if you keep, stay faithful,
keep working, doing what God, you'll see the end.
This story shows that covenant love, what it looks like when
it's rejected. That's the story of Hosea.
It shows what faithfulness looks like when it's not reciprocated.
It shows what obedience looks like when it cost more than
convenience. It shows what it means to keep
moving forward with God even when the task breaks your heart.
And sometimes you have to do that.
Sometimes God will tell you to do something that you that
breaks your heart. Yeah, I don't know.
You know, I've got some examples, but I'm not even going
to go into it. But sometimes God says this is
what you needed, It's time to move.
But God, I'm comfortable here, got it going on.
You know, we're good. Everything's rolling smoothly
along. And he says it's time to move.
And you cry and you weep and you go, why, why?
Why? But you move.
You just keep moving. After everything that Gobert
did, God told Hosea to go and get her back.
Every time God says go get her back.
Not to grieve her, not to expose her, not to preach to her.
Yeah, well, if you had done this, you know, he didn't say
any of that. He said go get her back and
redeem her. And we know the story.
He bought her back. He just kept buying her back.
You know what God does to us? He just bought us back.
He loves us so much. Redemption is costly, very
costly. You know, this is where our
flesh would rebel. This is where our common sense
would protest. Lord, people are going to make
fun of me if I take that our pocketbook would revolt because
you know it's going to cost me something.
You paid tithe. Oh, I I won't go there but paid
tithe. Yes, be obedient to God, but my
pocketbook don't want to Well, you need to get it straight.
This is God's the story in this book of Hosea is a revelation of
God himself. He loved her, you, He was
betrayed and wounded by her, us, Yet he redeemed us.
Do you see it? Do you see the Easter story now?
You see yourself in this story. It's not weakness, it's the
heart of God. That's how much He loves us.
This is a covenant that does not bow to unfaithfulness.
It doesn't bow to humiliation, pain, disgrace, public disgrace.
It doesn't bow a covenant. And that's what we're in with
when we're with God. We're in a covenant with Him,
and we should stand firm in that covenant because it cost Him
something too. We are in covenant with God and
this is how God sees it. I don't know that I've ever
heard it as I was getting prepared.
I'm going Lord, Lord, you're showing you're.
I never have seen, certainly not seen it as an Easter message,
but here we go. Humanity has prostrated itself
with idols, rebellion, pride, rule, self rule, sin.
We've broke the covenant. We did.
We polluted what it means to be holy.
That breaks my heart when I say that we've polluted what it
means to be holy. My God, help us.
Show us once again. Let us get it back to there and
then, God in the flesh. Enter Jesus.
So good Jesus. God did not stand back and
announce guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty.
No, he didn't do that. He even told us.
He said I didn't come to condemn you, I came to save you.
Even the woman who was caught in adultery.
Remember, he says I don't condemn you.
Go and sin no more. Just don't keep doing it.
Go and sin no more. Jesus entered in.
He came in and he saved us. He came after us.
He came running after us. God says these people are mine
and I am not going to let them go.
That's how he feels about you. He loves you so much that he
sent his only son to die a horrible death on the cross.
And we're getting ready to celebrate the resurrection.
We're getting ready to celebrate all that.
We broke the covenant. We polluted holiness, but here
comes Jesus. He came after us.
He redeemed what belonged to him with a price.
It was not cheap. He didn't pay with silver or
gold or barley. He paid with his own blood.
That's just the the height and the depth of God's love for you.
I want to make it personal. I've already been beat over the
head with it. I'm preparing, but guy it this
is the how high does God love you?
How deep does God love you so much that he gave his son to die
on a cross for us and he redeemed us covenant breaking
people, He's redeemed us. Hosea bought back an unfaithful
bride as a prophetic sign. Jesus bought back an unfaithful
people, which is an eternal reality.
Talking about heaven, it's real. Heaven is real, hell is real.
This earth is just going to pass away.
And Jesus bought us back so that we can have eternity with Him.
It shows us that God doesn't think like men think.
We'd already kicked them out and forget about it.
Man says leave them alone, they made their bad light of lying in
it. God says redeem them, He's so
good. Man says they don't deserve a
second chance. How many has fallen more than
once? I won't look.
God says they're mine and I'm not going to let them go.
Thank you, Lord, we cannot reduce God's nature to human
comfort or modern preference. And we do it just turn.
You watch, you know, just watch the Sunday morning.
Whatever you see, watch it. We've reduced it to our
preference, not necessarily what God calls us to do.
Hosea teaches us that obedience is not justified by how easy it
is, it's justified by the fact that God spoke it.
God says be holy, for I'm holy. God spoke it.
He said thou shalt not do 10 things.
He said you shall love God with all your heart, and you shall
love your neighbor as yourself. And if you do those two things,
you fulfilled the other 10. But we just take it as casual.
And God says go after these people.
In fact, now I'll share when I was doing this, getting ready
for this, I was praying and praying.
And Lord, Lord, you know, you go to bed at night, you're
thinking, God, what do I tell these people that they don't
already know? And I had a dream and I woke up
from this dream and I was Texas. I was bawling my eyes out,
crying, feeling for people that are not here, for family members
that I love dearly. You got them or is it just me?
For friends that are lost, God says go to the altar, Weep
before the altar. When was the last time you
bawled your eyes out? Forgot about what somebody else
is going to think and you're get up with the red eyes and a
snotty nose. When was the last time you did
that for somebody? We stand and we say a little or
we don't even say it anymore. Most people don't even say
anymore. They just whatever the pastor
says. That's right.
When was the last time we had a heart for somebody?
A Gomer And we go out and we try to even, well, it don't make any
sense. You know what they did to you?
You know what they said about you, you know, and it's hot
outside, so you don't want to really go talk to him today or
it's cold or it's raining or whatever.
We need to be like God. That's what he's showing us
here. We're supposed to have his
heart. We're supposed to go after
people. We don't even have to go after
strangers. There's so many people that we
know personally that we don't even need to go after strangers.
That's God's heart, that's his heart because he said it.
Now Romans 925, you don't have to put it up there.
It's up to you. It says.
God says also in Hosea. I will call them my people who
were not my people. That's us and her beloved who
was not beloved. That's what he's telling us.
That's us. God wanted his people to
understand that the covenant is not cheap and love is not
emotional. Jesus in the garden, he prayed
and his emotions were like this cup can pass for me the flesh.
But he says, nevertheless, I'm going to do it.
And Jesus, on the cross, he wasn't cheap.
He was beaten and beaten and beaten.
And hair, I don't know, don't go whizzers and let me pull some of
y'all's hair out and see if it hurts.
Let's see if it hurts, does it? Skin coming out, falling off
your back, sweaty, that burns. He was so weak he couldn't even
carry his own cross in the flesh.
It was not cheap. The covenant that we were in
with God cost him everything it cost.
We can't even understand redemption until we see what it
cost. We should celebrate Easter
everyday we should talk about Easter if you will resurrection
the love of God all the time and until we understand what it cost
we don't understand fully understand how we got redeemed
taken off of trash heap. That's what redeem it takes you
off of the trash heap. Here's a whole big old bunch of
trash and broken furniture and broken.
You know y'all been everybody been to the dump yard at one
point or another probably if not I have.
And you, you see something and you go grab it off and it looks
like useless leg broken off of it, covers all ripped off of it
and he redeems it, puts another leg on it, puts a new cover over
it. What did it cost him?
Everything. What does it cost you?
Nothing believe redemption. That's what we're talking about
in Hosea is redemption. We can't understand God's heart
until we real realize he pursued a people who had betrayed him
over and over and over and over again.
The whole Bible and he pursues them.
Yes, he's still doing it. He sent his son to pursue us.
Come after him, go get him. They've got the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost will go get you. He will.
God's ways don't make sense to human logic because His ways are
not shallow and they're not governed by wounded pride.
His ways are holy, redemptive, and eternal.
Hallelujah. No more pain, no more sorrow.
Walking on streets of gold. There's going to be rivers there
because there's going to be the Crystal River one, if there's
going to be fruit there, because you're going to get the fruit
trees that bear 12 different kinds of fruit.
Go figure that one out. And there's going to be houses
there because we're all going to have a mansion.
There's going to be animals there because they're riding
horses to come get us. Think about it, the lines wolves
and the lambs, yes. Think about what he's done for
us, man. He's holy, he's redemptive, and
he is eternal. The point of this story, come to
the point is not what Hosea did. The question is, how would you
respond to His love? Go to chapter 14 of Hosea if you
want to put it up there. If not, go there anyway.
Chapter 14, verse one, This is so good.
This is the love of God. It sounds different, but it's
the love of God. O Israel, return to the Lord
your God. He is calling them, for you have
stumbled because of your iniquity.
Take words with you and return to the Lord.
Say to him, Take away all iniquity, receive us graciously.
That's what we should be praying when we come down for an altar
call and we're sinners. Take it away, Lord, receive me.
Take away all the iniquity. Receive us graciously, for we
will offer the sacrifices of our lips.
That's praise, Praise the Lord. Assyria shall not save us.
We will not ride on horses, nor we say any more to the work of
our hands. You are our gods, for and you
the fatherless find mercy. I will.
This verse 4 is awesome. I will heal their backsliding.
I will love them freely, for my anger has turned away.
Thank you, Lord, thank you, Lord.
That's what you get when you come to the Lord.
His angers turned away. Go on, it says, I will be like
the dew of Israel. He shall grow like the Lily and
lengthen his roots like Lebanon. His branches shall spread his
you might instead of his you might say, you my, my beauty
shall be like an olive tree, and his fragrance like Lebanon.
Those who dwell under his shadow shall return, and they shall be
revived like grain and grow like a vine.
Their scent shall be like the of wine of Lebanon.
Ephraim shall say, what have I to do anymore with idols?
In other words, why in the world am I messing with idols?
I have heard and observed him. I am like a green Cypress tree.
Your fruit is found in me. Who is wise?
Let him understand these things. Let him understand these things.
Who is prudent?
Let him know them. That's when we read the Bible.
That's when we come to church. That's when we preach and teach
and do ever all the things we so that we can know them.
For the ways of the Lord are right.
The righteous walk in them. But transgressors, aggressors
stumble and they do people stumble.
What are we supposed to do, kick them while they're down?
No, we help them up. We should be sharing this, this
book of Hosea. I've never seen it quite so.
You know, sometimes he gives us revelation.
Well, here you go. The same God who told Hosea to
go after Gomer is still calling us today.
He's still calling the backslider today.
He's still calling those that are wandering around in the
dark, doing the things, going after other things, other gods.
He's still calling them. Maybe we need to go after
somebody. Somebody come to your mind.
When was the last time we pursued God for somebody else?
God, I need, God, I need. God, I need.
We should be saying, God, send your Holy Spirit to move on
them. Give them revelation, knowledge.
Let the Holy Spirit woo them and draw them.
O God, bring them back to the cross.
Not God I need. That probably makes him sick.
He probably anyway. Family members, friends, Co
workers. When was the last time we
pursued God for somebody? We're God's representatives.
Isn't that crazy? His vessels, that's even more
crazy. He pours in US what He wants us
to have. Sad to say, some people are
walking around empty. We're his vessels.
Shouldn't we go after the people the way God went after us?
I know He hounded me. Oh my goodness, He hounded me
because of the prayers of my grandparents.
I know that He hounded me and would not let me rest because of
the prayers of my grandparents. And long after they were dead,
the light came on. Thank God.
It may cost us some dignity, it
may cost us some embarrassment, but crying out to God is what we
need to be doing. I don't care if you're praying
for somebody and you got a burden on your heart, pray.
Come to the altar. That's the best time to pray
when you're here with other believers and they can lay hands
on you and help you believe. Also wonderful time.
Or just pray. We need to share this story.
Not an embarrassment because of the subject matter.
A lot of people bypass the Hosea thing because of the subject
matter, but because it shows God's heart to us.
Or maybe we just need to lay it all down in obedience, come back
to what we know. Maybe that's it.
Either way, God's not standing in the distance.
He sent His Son. We're about to celebrate the
resurrection, just a couple week, 10 days, something,
whatever. He's not waiting to condemn or
shame anybody, but to restore them, to redeem them, just like
you did, you and me, so many others.
He doesn't want to expose their sin.
He wants to cover them up again. Can you, can you just see God
bring that one here? Let me love on that one for a
while. Can you just see that God just
wants to love on them? He wants to cover them.
He says, I did not come to condemn you.
I came to save you. So what?
He says His love is not exhausted, His mercy was not run
dry, and His pursuit of us has not stopped.
His pursuit of you has not stopped because you get out of
line, the Holy Spirit will get you back in line.
Some of my family get out of line.
I know. I have to believe that the Holy
Spirit is moving on them. I know that His mercy is not run
out. He has not stopped pursuing us.
God says, and I'll say, I will heal their waywardness and love
them freely. In the story of Hosea, we can
see God's heart for people. I want to leave you with this.
The heartbeat of the Church must always, always sound like
heaven's burden for souls. I want to say that again, the
heartbeat of the Church must always sound like heaven's
burden for souls. For the Son of Man is come to
seek and to save that which is lost.
He didn't come to condemn. He didn't come to make fun.
He didn't come to embarrass. He came to seek and to save.
We're his vessels, and we're supposed to do that on this
earth. We can take the word of God.
Well, He's got the Holy Spirit to him.
I understand that. But sometimes people just need a
human arm wrapped around them a time or two.
Sometimes they just need a kind word from somebody.
A church that loses the burden for the lost loosens its reason
for existence. So true.
Maybe we just need to get back. Just get back for the lost.
Father, thank you for your word. Thank you, Lord, for speaking to
us tonight. Thank you, Lord, for showing us
your love, how deep your love is, how wide your love is, how
high your love is for us. Father, don't let us neglect the
cost for this redemption that we enjoy so greatly.
Let us take it and go out and share it with others.
Let us be that arm wrapped around somebody that's hurting.
Let us be the one that prays and prays without recognition.
We don't need recognition, Father.
Let us pray for those souls that need salvation.
Father, those people that we see on the sidewalks, those people
that we come in contact with all the time.
Father, we can stop for a moment and say a prayer.
Give us a burden Lord, for the lost, once again, in Jesus name,
Amen. Thanks for listening to the
Cross Power Church podcast. May you know that true hope,
peace, and salvation can only be found in Jesus.
If you're near Campbell, TX, we would love for you to join us in
person. You can find service times at
crosspowerchurch.com.