Hosea

Dads, take note. There is a princess tea

party. Daddies, take your

daughter. I'm gonna see if my 26 year old daughter wants to

go. And this

is the first Correct me, Pastor Will. This is the first time we've done a

sing along since we did Beauty and the Beast. And there's nothing like being

in this room with 500 people and being in the cast. I

got to be the father of Belle. And you hear all these

kids singing, you forget you're doing a play. You're like,

oh, new kids. So daddies, bring your daughters.

Oh, my goodness, what a joy. We have been

talking about the greatest story

ever told. Now, we've told stories, but really,

it's like Pastor Barbie said Thursday night, the greatest

story is about Jesus Christ. And

so all of the stories that we have told, they all

weave together in this amazing way from

Genesis to Revelation, to tell the story

about God and what he's done through his son Jesus to

redeem us. So every story may be unique in its

own way. And you, you have a story,

people think, well, they finished writing the Bible 2,000 years ago,

and so the Bible's stopped writing. No

Acts 29 keeps going. Because we

have stories, we have miracles in our lives. There are things going on

in your life that God is writing your story day after

day. And it's your privilege and your honor to be able

to share your story. So I would challenge you, man, if

you're bashful and you're introverted like some of our

congregants and pastors are, be bold and share

your story. When he puts you in that position, you don't have to just go

around blabbing all the time, but be sensitive to the Holy Spirit,

that when you're in a moment, a kairos

moment, a God moment, to tell your story.

Young man, how old are you? 18. 18. Do you know Jesus Christ, your

Lord and savior? Yeah. What's your name? John. John,

there will be moments in your life,

young man. Are you still in school? You graduated?

Are you a senior?

Your last rodeo, big boy? There are

people. Where do you go to school? Smyrna. Smyrna High School.

Bulldog.

You're graduating class, probably about four or five hundred kids in it.

There are kids in your graduating class that need to know the Jesus you

know. And I believe God will put

kairos moments for you at a lunch table or in a

chemistry class or whatever your courses are, or in the

courtyard, in the quad, or at a pep rally. I believe, John, that

if you will listen to the Holy Spirit that dwells within you. And Jesus said

that he dwells within you, that if you'll listen to him

and share your story, your story has the power to

impact and change a life. Do you know that if your story

only brings one other person to the salvation of Jesus Christ,

it's well worth everything you've gone through? Some people think we got to

win hundreds and thousands. No. What if your life only touches one?

That's one more in the kingdom. Share your story, young man. Be bold.

Don't be bashful. When the opportunity comes and you feel the Holy

Spirit move on you, you do that.

I got notes. We'll get there.

We've talked about Noah, we've talked about Joseph, we've talked about

Elijah and Elisha, which are some of my favorites. Back in October,

Pastor Kevin sent out an email to the staff. He said, hey, send me three

or four of your favorite Bible stories. Here's where we're going next year and

I'll put out the sermon schedule. And here's where disobedience will get you in

trouble.

I knew everybody would want David. David's one of my favorites.

Joseph's one of my favorites. And if you love Joseph, you need to be here

on Thursdays. We still got five

more. We got notes. You can catch up. You can go on YouTube and all

this stuff. And here, Pastor Barbie by the needle. It's been powerful. This is

my second or third time I've heard her teach it and it's

powerful. But I just figured, well, people

will write in and I'll just take whatever Pastor Kevin give me.

Not a good idea. Yes, ma'.

Am. Wrong thing I received. I hear you, Connie.

Laugh at me. Now. I

received an email on March 28th at 8:59 from Pastor Kevin

that went something like this. I would like you to share the story of

Hosea on September 7. Are you available to

do that? Fifteen minutes later, at

9.14pm, I was dumb enough to reply, yes, I'd be happy to.

Seven minutes later, he replies, awesome. With a thumbs up.

And I began to think, awesome.

Why didn't I send the answer back in October? God. I

could have talked about to the pit, to the prison, to the palace. I could

have talked about the transfer of the mantle. I could have talked about Mark.

I could have talked about a lot of things. What's the age demographic? Let me

look at my room. I'll be polite. Cause there's some younger ears.

I get to talk about a lady that has a very.

She was known as a P and a P she was promiscuous

and not a very good lady. And I thought, oh,

great, that's. Mm. Hallelujah.

You know what? I

won't tell you names, but I struggle with

this. First of all, I didn't do anything in the month of

March. And then somewhere around April, I started reading Book of Hosea.

And then May, I started writing notes. June, I got a little

serious. August, I got real serious

and I thought about some of the things I was going to share. And I

said, I don't need to share that. I don't need to talk about those things

in my life. And I just really felt

impressed by the Holy Spirit. Yes, you do. And

I shared them in first gathering. I'm going to share them again today.

I really struggle with it because

it talks about how I

prostituted my walk with God. And I

want to tell you, after the service over, I had a person that came down

and said, I went through that when I was that age.

I had another person come up and said, God

sent you an email in March. I found out about a month

ago. And I'm going through that situation in my

life right now. God has a way of using the things in

our life if we will allow him. We have to be open,

John, and transparent and be willing to share. Amen.

So stand with us and let's read a couple of scriptures.

Help me, Mary. There we go. One more,

one more. There we go. All right, let's read. But I have

this against you that you have abandoned the love you had

at first. Remember therefore, from where you have

fallen. Repent and do the works you did at first.

And from Hosea, I will betroth you

to be. Pardon me. Let's start over. Cause I got hung up on

Betrothed. I like it. Betrothed. Don't read Betroth

Satraps. That's the inside joke with me and Joseph.

I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you

in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion.

I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will

acknowledge the Lord. There should be a W.

Forgive my spelling. Mary works wonders, but she can't read my

mind. Father, I thank you that you are in laughter. Laughter is

a medicine. It heals us. Lord, I thank you that we have

stories to tell and things that we can share. The Lord ultimately

is about your word and your truth. So Lord, let your

truth be heard and let your word go forth. Let it penetrate,

break, heal, and restore places in people's hearts.

Today, in Jesus name And you may

be seated in the presence of the Lord. We used to say that in the

80s. Be seated in the presence of the Lord.

Justin's got a group. The dad. Where did

Justin go? Dad bod. Cosplay

boy, I tell you. And it's something else. Some of you in

this room are part of that. Cause I see your pictures. Yeah, I see you

over there. We got Spiderman and Batman and

Strange Men and I mean Dr. Strange, whatever.

But they'll show up to the movies when Marvel, I guess

they're Marvel people. They might do it for dc, but they show up for the

movies and they dress in these characters and man, everybody just

loves seeing them and doing that. I'm a movie junkie. I love going to

movies. I love watching movies. My favorites are the 70s and 80s. I love

spaghetti westerns mostly. I like a good war movie here and there.

I'm not a rom com guy. I'll watch them because

I'm married. And if you're married, you

better watch them too. We got Hallmark and Hallmark, whatever the

other one is. And Lord, you can have a

Christmas. Nevermind. They're already playing

Good Gracious in Pumpkin Spice movies. But anyway,

same story, different people. Mostly same people. Anyway,

but I love movies. I love the. I grew up in

my favorite thing. I was 14, 15 years old. Drive with a per

minute. I got a hardship license because my parents divorced when I was

young. So I had a hardship permit at 14 and I could drive.

Imagine that. Hey, who said

One of you? Yeah, but anyway, we go to the

Bijou Twin on Wade Hampton Boulevard.

And I loved it because back in the day, that's when the guy goes. It

was 1964, you know, it was that movie guy, whatever.

He's long gone now. But I love those things. So

here we are, it's 722 B.C. we're going to look at

today's passage like it was a movie because it helps it come alive to me.

So if you're with me, just to set the scene.

Hosea lived in the northern kingdom of Israel.

There you go. And this was about

200 years after it had broken off and splintered

from the southern kingdom. Judah. If you go back

to 1 Kings 12, you can read all about it. It's about 33, 34

verses. Not gonna take the time now, but go back and do your homework and

read that. But Jeroboam and Rehoboam, they were

the opposing kings. And basically what happened? The king from

the Northern kingdom, his counselor said,

hey, why don't you Take it easy. Your dad overtaxed and

he made it hard on everybody when he was king. Lighten up a little bit,

Give them a little grace and the people will respond and they'll follow you

and everything will be great. So he thought about it for three days. Why is

everything three days or on a Tuesday in the Bible? But anyway, he thought

about it for three days and I guess it was a Tuesday. And he

came back and he did just the opposite.

He raised the taxes. He made it even harder on the people. And so they

rebelled. They had this revolt and it just. And so the

kingdoms tore apart and Judah was its own. And then you had the

northern kingdom. So Hosea

was a prophet to Israel, the northern kingdom

that was in rebellion. Because not only did they rebel, not only

did they not appreciate what was going on,

they wandered from God. See, there was a reason that the

Lord had Israel in the Hebrew nation before they

actually became Israel, to keep separate. It

wasn't because God is racist. It wasn't because it wasn't

inclusive. It's because he wanted them for

himself. You will be my people. And I want you to

be. I want to be your only God. And God was a jealous God,

not jealousy in the terms of sin, but he wanted everything.

He wanted their hearts, he wanted everything that they were, and he

wanted to be everything to them. But they

would intermarry and they would follow. It always led to following

false gods and then idol worship. And so this is

what's going on. And God speaks through

Hosea. Now, we've talked about some prophets, Ezekiel, and

we've talked about Jeremiah and Hosea.

Listen, it's an honor

to be considered an apostle, a prophet, a pastor,

a teacher, an evangelist. Those are part of the giftings that Paul

writes about and talks about. You better be very careful.

You better be very careful about what you tell

God you want to be or want to do for the kingdom.

Because it's one thing to have a card that says, hi, I'm

prophet Alan Smith. They do that a lot.

But boy, when you are a prophet of the Lord,

it can be very challenging. It can be difficult. It can be hard.

Talk to Ezekiel, he had to lay on his side for a year.

Talk to Jeremiah, he was in captivity.

Talk to Daniel, talk to some of these guys that had to do hard

things. It wasn't

glamour from a stage, it was being in a lion's den. It

was being put in bad situations. So here comes the Lord to Hosea,

and he tells him this in Hosea 1

1. Here we go just.

He's one of the main characters. Think about,

he's in his bedroom and the spirit of the Lord speaks to him in the

night, in a dream maybe. Who knows? It said,

when the Lord first spoke to Hosea, he said this to him.

Go and marry a promiscuous wife.

That's what Hosea probably said. He was probably

Lord. And he hears it again.

Go and marry a promiscuous wife and

have children of promiscuity for

the whole land has been promiscuous by abandoning

me, the Lord.

So Hosea goes and he marries

Gomer. Shazam. Some of y' all old

enough know he married Gomer, the daughter of

Dibliim. And she conceived and she bore him three

children. And boy, they had some names, and their names were because

of some pretty serious situations that they represented

that was going to come. That's not the kind of.

How many. How many are married? Give me an amen.

Some of y' all need to get happily married. How many are happily married? Say

amen. There you go. How many would like to be married?

Mary sue, question.

If you would like to be married, would you just want to hear the

Lord wake you up one night and go, hey, Joe, Hey,

Sally. Go marry a promiscuous person.

That's not on the top 10 list of qualities I would like in a wife.

Right. But that's what the Lord told him to do. And so he goes and

he takes Gomer to be his wife.

Now, some people think this is a dark story

and it's getting off to a bad start. I would tell you that

the genre of this movie is not a rom com, obviously,

but I would call it a love story. And I'd call it

a love story not because of Hosea and Gomer,

although that becomes one. But the love story

is God to his people. God

is so faithful and God is so

passionate about his people,

the people of Israel at that time. But you right

now, that he not only will go,

he already has gone to the furthest of measures

to win you back. Cause see, when you read this story of

Almost Said Homer and Homer and Goziah,

too many. The H and G is too close. When you read this story,

it's not the prettiest of stories. They get married,

they have these three children of promiscuity. And after

a season, she leaves him.

And not just leaves him. It's one thing to leave. She

leaves him and goes to another man,

a married man, and becomes an adulteress

on top of everything else. She was

now, the way I read Scripture, he could have just

said, I'm done with you and give her a writ of divorce

and been done with her. But that is not what God told him to do.

Because God was trying to show Hosea, I think,

the depth and the pain that he was going through

with the loss of his people, through what Hosea was going

through with Gomer. I think he allowed Hosea

to walk through that pain of having a

promiscuous wife, having children, through promiscuity, having a

wife that left him and went into

adultery, so that he would truly understand the

heartbreak that God the Father felt over his people.

Sometimes we think we know how God feels. Oh, you know,

oh, the Lord, it grieves the Lord,

you know, it's heavy on the Lord's heart. Yeah, it is.

Do you really understand how heavy sometimes? Because we like

to say things, but we don't like to bear things.

We like to put the words out there. But

Pastor Barbee was talking Thursday night about praying for a situation.

And she was saying how, yeah, we just pray sometimes and Lord bless them

or whatever. But then she got into a thing, she said, but we ever get

to this posture where it's like, dear Lord Jesus, whatever it

is that they have need of, I pray that you would bless them. Whatever is

coming, intercession and carrying the weight

of what somebody else is walking through, that's the heart

of God because that's the heart he had toward us. So I

believe Hosea walked through those things so that he could truly understand

the heart of God. Like I said, Hosea

was the son of Bera, and

he was also. You know, I look at the Bible sometimes and I get

linear. I like things to just be straight and even. And no,

don't give me hiccups and curves and stuff. Just make it all be nice and

even and clean. But you know, sometimes scripture's like a bowl

of spaghetti. Hosea was also a prophet

at the same time as Isaiah was in the same time that Amos

was. So they were all ministering to the Northern and Southern kingdoms

at the exact same times. And they had different words for

those in authority over them, but it was the same God giving the words to

those because he was reacting in different situations through the northern

and the Southern kingdom. But God was trying to

create reconciliation. God was trying to bring

redemption about, but the people were too dumb

D U M B to hear it and

receive it. Because guess what, we're hard headed. I'm sorry y' all

aren't. Cause I'm Hard headed. And I

don't listen all the time like I should to hear the Lord

speak. None of y' all are, but I know I am. I mean, it's

plain as day. You remember the. You remember the story. I don't know if somebody's

doing it. I should have put that one on the email too. Where the hand

writes on the wrong mini. Me neither.

It's right there. And he still couldn't get it. That's me in my

life. Been that way for most of my life.

I was born in a small town in South

Carolina. I've been born and raised in church my whole life,

except for about 24 months, 23 months.

A Christian family, but a dysfunctional family.

We were at church all the time. Sunday morning, Sunday night. That was the thing

we used to do back in the 60s, 70s and 80s. You'd have church on

Sunday night, 6 o', clock, and then after church was over, you hung around the

altar and had afterglow where you prayed and invited the Lord to talk to you.

And then after that you went to the Dairy Queen, get ice cream. They know

that. Cause they're much older. I'm just trying. It's not in your history books. I'm

trying to get y' all kind of. And then

Wednesday night. She knows. And then you had two revivals. You had a

spring and a fall. And you better be there Thursday, Wednesday through Sunday.

So that's how I grew up in church. And

everything seemed fine in our little family.

Grandfather was a pastor. He died the year before I was born. My grandmother took

the church for the next five years. Some things happen and

she was asked to step down. So we moved to first assembly of

God and went there till I went to school in 86 in

Florida. But like I said, my parents divorced.

Separated when I was 12, divorced when I was 15. I was on my own

at 16. But in that time frame, like I said, everything seemed

fine at church between Fred and Lewis or between Fred and Sharon.

But in the car ride home and behind the doors, it wasn't.

Things weren't fine. And I had a

father that didn't discipline. He

punished. And there's a difference, dads. I had to learn that with

my son because

until he was seven, I punished him too. I swore that I

wouldn't be my father. But you know, there's a scripture that talks about

curses that go to so many generations and blessings. If

you don't break that curse, you will carry it out.

And I swore I'd never do that to my Children. But I did that to

my son till he's seven. Till a brother says, if you keep doing it, you'll

drive him away from God and you'll drive him to hate you. And I had

to learn the difference between punishment and discipline.

Discipline is handling whatever the situation is. Do you know that? Boys

will be boys and do dumb boy things.

And some of them don't deserve a beating. They just

need to be, hey, knucklehead, straighten up. But

there are things that do need some corrective measures.

And sometimes it is a spoon or a belt or a switch,

but it's not 10 or 12 of them. It's just one of them. Get their

attention right. And then what I love, I've

seen some parents. Boy, I wish y' all had been parents when I was little.

Not just so I wouldn't have had that in my life, but to teach me

something. I've seen parents that will do a

corporal punishment and then they'll get right down there on the bed with

them and pray with them. Now, Kirk, let's ask

the Lord to help us to not tell lies anymore. Because God

said that we're people of truth and

correction.

Here we go.

About 9 years old, I had a 14

year old neighbor that molested me. We'll just say it that way.

And that took about a year and a half of my life. And that

situation in my life started me on a Road at 10,

11 and 12 and 13 years old. Age of pornography

and promiscuity that a 10, 11 year

old, 12 year old boy don't need to be doing.

And when I thought I got it taken care of and I thought I prayed

through and I'd go to the altars at youth group and I'd go down on

Sunday nights for prayer and do all those things and pray and think I was

clean. But I never confessed it to

somebody. I never told somebody

about it in my life that they could help me to. To

uproot those seeds in my life that

were starting to produce harvest in my life that I didn't want

and a harvest that would come to affect my marriage

some 20 years later. Folks, when we

walk in a garden of sin and we plant

seeds and we prostitute our faith,

we walk in promiscuity. We don't walk in relationship with

God. I love a word that Pastor Barbee says, para

Theos, to walk with

God, with God, arm in arm that

embrace paratheos. We

don't get those seeds uprooted before they take root. They

start growing things that we don't want in our lives that will could

potentially ruin generations down the road.

That situation. Showed up nine years later

in my marriage. Showed up several years later. Nine years into my

marriage. We were

youth pastors at a church in Antioch. We helped lead

worship at that church in Antioch. Pastor Justin said the

other Sunday, A couple of Sundays ago, you don't just wake up and have an

affair. He's right. You don't.

In my incidents, it took about eight to nine months of

flirting with disaster and not fleeing from

temptation. Started out holding hands in the prayer circle

before church, and then it started out hanging out

at their house because he was a drummer on the road. So Renee and I

became. It was her best friend. Yeah, I know. Throw rocks at me

now. I know you wouldn't have liked me 36 years ago.

I don't like me now sometimes. But I'm not that guy anymore.

Because God can redeem just like he redeemed

Gomer. But now we tell

people at 36 years of marriage, we've had 33

happy years and three living hell. And they were

because I had to build trust. I had to earn that back.

You might be in here, and you might know what I'm talking about. That's why

I'm telling you. See, everybody that stands on this platform

or behind a pulpit, we are not perfect people.

In fact, sometimes we feel like we're the most

unqualified to stand in this place

because we. Oh, God.

Because of the things of our past. But there's a different

but God that comes into play because that but

God is the one that intervened and saved our marriage. Because

before we said I do, we sat in Ashawnee's parking lot and said,

I don't care what happens. Whoever's wrong, we do

not get a divorce. We will work through this, and God will be in the

middle of our marriage. And if it wasn't for that woman over there holding onto

those words, I wouldn't be here. But God.

So whatever your situation is,

I brought one. No, I didn't. Anybody got a phone? I know Pastor Barbie

told you not to have one. Now we'll see. Pastor Barbie.

You guys right here. Y' all can just. You guys right here.

I know y' all think this is important in your life.

TikTok, Snapchat, every other flip,

flap, whatever. They're on here,

get off of them.

It'll lead you straight to hell if you let it. This

in itself is not a bad thing. It's a form of communication. It stores

information. And it can be A safety net to your parents and people that you

need when you need them. But when you got idle time, the

Bible said idle hands. Don't be sitting here

scrolling and I'm not looking at your stuff, baby. Don't be scrolling and looking through

this stuff. Cause I know what pops up on mine.

And you don't need to see it. You don't.

Because it'd break my heart

for things that happened to some of y' all because of people and predators.

Get off of it. Find

this thing. Why don't you scroll through these

pages? Why don't you read through these pages and see where

there's life?

Because that'll stop you from being a person of

promiscuity with your Lord. Come here,

Kirk. He's not God. But playing

the role of God, if

this is the Lord, just walk somewhere.

I'm kind of going that way.

But if I don't get

here

and stay right here with God,

guess where I'm going to go? I'm going to flee

toward temptation. And he can't cover me over here

because I'm not under the shadow of His.

You got to be lockstep with the Lord. Thank you, Kurt.

Somebody tell me what time it is. I'm off my notes.

1214 worship team.

Make your way.

Look around the room.

We brought in

500 new chairs of the week.

Oh, Lord. Every time I think about it, that

40 foot sea trailer. Oh, Lord. Ted Gertz. God bless your

heart and your back. There's

about 450.

There's five in the room now. There are 500 seats in

this auditorium.

We've started balancing out our services. First Service is

about 115, 120. This one's about 250 or so.

There are empty chairs in this room.

Some of them are written on those blackboards out that hallway.

Some of them you work beside. Some of them you go to school with.

Some of them you just meet in the marketplace.

I dream of a day where every. I want it to be so full in

here. I want you to come in. If you're not in here by 10 after

you're standing up.

Not so we have a million and three quarters

budget. Not so that we can invite 5,000

people on Fall Fest. Not so we can run six

shows of amazing shows sold out every time. But because

those are souls that need to come into the kingdom of God.

Pastor Kevin's challenged us to have tears for the

lost. And we ought to. You know why?

Because I was lost.

I know what it is to run From God, for 22 months when I

was growing up, I was the perfect little church boy. When I ran for those

22 months, if you could smoke it, drink it, or do it, I did it.

And I remember a Tuesday morning in March, I worked at the

night shift in Nissan. Got my shower, and I went

to wipe the mirror so I could shave. And the condensation

had blurred the mirror, and all I could see was a blurry

reflection of myself. And I just heard the

Lord tell me, that's not who you are. That's not who

I made you to be. And

in that little bathroom on 104 Lake Farm Road, right over there

by Nissan, wept before the Lord in that

marriage. And I said, if you will take me back,

I'll not run. I said that.

Then in 1998, I had an affair.

You didn't say all you want to say,

but until it gets here,

until this changes, until. See, we talk a lot about in this

house, we don't want your money. We want your.

We don't want your servanthood. We want your. We don't

want your fill in the blank. We don't want it. What

we want is we want your heart.

Because that's what God wants. Scripture says the heart is deceitful

above all things. I thought I was making a

commitment to God, but my heart was not ready. My heart

did not put its yes on the table. It

took a broken marriage and three

years of restoration for me to

see what I did to my wife and what I could have put

on my children. Because I'm the one that did those things.

And I'm the one that could have caused a curse from generation

to generation. And I don't want that for my son and daughter

in love. I don't want that for future grandchildren.

I want my life to be one that is of a heart for

God, that I'm walking parathios so

that I run in step with God, so that I can bring a blessing from

generation to generation. I told John,

what if it's one

I'm not? She'll watch it.

When my daughter came to tell me that she felt the Lord

leading her from here, she came in my office and she

said, daddy, I need to talk to you. And I said, as a pastor

or as a father? She said, both.

I said, well, talk to me as your daddy first.

And when she told me, tears welled up in my eyes. And I just told

her, I don't like this. This sucks.

That's what I say. If you don't like me, then don't like me.

But I always had visions of being in a

church when I'm old, with my children and my

grandchildren and seeing them in the house and

worshiping and serving. That was my dream. That's what I wanted.

But I had to realize she's not my daughter.

She's his daughter. God has no grandchildren. I

stewarded her life for however many years. And I have

to have the same posture with her as my own theology.

I have to be willing to let her go. Because what if

Chelsea goes to that church and she may be there

a year, five years, I don't know.

But what if one person, one

one person hears her story and gives her life to Jesus? Is it

worth it, Alan? Absolutely.

Absolutely. We gotta be willing to share

our story. And we can't prostitute

our walk with God. We are either in it

or we're not. We can't do this. I'm 60.

I can't do it either. We can't walk

one foot in and one foot out. It doesn't work.

It'll create strain. It'll create cramps and pain

in your life that you don't want. You either have to be with God or

you're not with Him. There is no pink in the

kingdom. We are crimson like sin. Or we're white as scar,

white as snow. You gotta be with him.

This song they're singing, that verse

when it gets prone to wander.

That's me. However many years

it's been. Since 1999. Had it up.

Thank you. Have I walked a perfect

Christian life? No, but I'm doing my best. I am

doing my best to be right here. Sometimes I

fall a little, but I try to grab that coattail so I can get right

back up there with him. Because I don't want him to leave me.

Because I know what three years of heartache was. I know what the heartache

of molestation is in my life. I know what sin will do in your

life. And I don't want it. I want the blessing of

God. And the blessing comes when you're walking with him. Because

he's a redeemer. Let me read you these four things,

Mary. You can put it at the end.

Jesus,

thank God. We'll get there. And we don't need these anymore.

No matter how many times Gomer left him and all that she did, Hosea

pursued her relentlessly.

At one point, he gathered all that he had, everything he owned

to buy her back. Just like Hosea. God has given everything

to get us back. He gave his all in his Son Jesus, for

you and for me, redemption is

always, always possible.

The second thing is this. God's love is unconditional. It don't matter

what you have done or been in your past. His

love is unconditional even

when we are unfaithful. Israel

was unfaithful, yet God still pursued her. And he

went through Hosea and made him marry a

prostitute to show him his

pain so that he would give the message to the people.

God's love is unconditional. This love is not based on the actions of the

recipient, but on the unwavering, steadfast love of the

one giving it. With those who are going to pray, come forward.

The third thing I want you to know is acknowledging our faults,

our sin. I don't make mistakes. I don't make.

I don't have issues. I have sin in my life and I've got to get

it right. And acknowledging my sin will lead to

transformation.

And finally, faithfulness is more than just

actions. It's about the heart.

So I guess that's our altar call today.

Where's your heart?

Am I all in? Am I prone to wander?

Do I need to be fettered? Here's how I

fetter. I hide thy word in my

heart that I may not sin against thee.

They're going to lead us in this chorus, this hymn.

Maybe you know what it's like to go through

some of the things I've shared. Maybe you've gone through darker things.

I'm going to tell you there's no distance from God further than

right now for your life. It's this moment

that you have, this kairos moment for you. As they play. Would you

come forward and allow these to pray with you and minister to you?