Hosea: What Happens When You Finally Make It?

So Hosea chapter nine verse one Rejoice not, O Israel, exalt not like the other people like the peoples, for you have played the whore, forsaking your God.

You have told you have loved the prostitutes' wages on all the threshing floors, on all the threshing floors, threshing floor and wine vats shall not feed them, and the new wine shall not fail them, they shall not remain in the land of the Lord.

But Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.

Say they shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord, and their sacrifices shall not please them.

It shall be like the mountain's bread to them.

All who eat of it shall be defiled, for their bread shall not for their bread shall be for their hunger only.

It shall not come to the house of the Lord.

What what will you do on the day of the appointed festival and on the day of the feast of the Lord?

For behold they are going away from destruction.

But Egypt shall gather them, Memphis shall bury them, nettles shall possess their precious things of silver, thorns shall be in their tents, the days of punishment have come, the days of recompense have come, Israel shall know it.

The prophet is a fool, the man of the spirit is mad.

Because of your great iniquity and the great hatred, the prophet is a watchman of Ephraim with my God.

Yet a flowerless ne, yet a foulless name is on all his ways, and the hatred is in the house of his God.

They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah.

He will remember their iniquity, he will punish their sins.

Chapter 10.

Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit.

The more his fruits increase, the more altars he builds.

As his country improved, as his country improved, he improved his pillars.

Their heart is false.

Now they must bear their guilt.

The Lord will break down their altars and destroy their pillars.

For now they will say, We have no king, for we do not know the Lord.

And the king, what could he do for us?

They utter mere words, with their empty oaths, they make covenants.

So judgment springs up like the poisonous weeds in furrows of the field, the inhabitants of Samaria tremble, for the calf of Beth Aven.

It is it's the people mourn for it, and so does its adulterous peace.

Those who rejoiced over it and over its glory, for it has departed from them.

These things, the things itself shall be carried to Assyria as tribute to the great king.

Ephraim shall be put to shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol.

Samaria's king shall perish, like a twig on the face of the waters, the high places of Avon, the sin of Israel shall be destroyed, thorn and thistle shall grow up on their altars, and they shall say to the mountains, cover us, and to the hills, fall on us.

From the days of Gibeah you have sinned, O Israel.

There you have continued.

Shall not war shall not the war, shall not the war against the unjust overtake them in Gibeah?

When I please I will discipline them.

The nation shall be gathered against them, when they are bound up for their double iniquity.

Ephraim was a trained calf that loved the toothbrush, and I spread her fair neck.

But I will put Ephraim to the yoke.

Judah must plough, so so Judah must plough, Jacob us harrow for himself.

Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap steadfast love, break up your follow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, that he may c that he may come and reign righteousness upon you.

You have ploughed iniquity, you have reaped injustice, you have eaten the fruit of lies, because you have trusted in your own way and have and in the multitude of your warriors.

Therefore the tumult of war shall arise among your people, and all your fortresses shall be destroyed, as Shalman destroyed Beth Arabal on the day of battle.

Mothers were dashed in pieces with their children, thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel, because of your great evil, at the dawn of the at the dawn the king of Israel shall be utterly cut off.

This is the word of the Lord.

Today the question is what happens when you finally make it?

Man, I'm I'm excited but I'm nervous at the same time as we dig into that.

We're gonna look at specifically uh three points here that when the idea of number one, celebrating the gift rather than the giver, which is basically a summary of verse one to nine.

And then we're gonna look at uh the idea of what the idea of us becoming like what we worship, or better yet, by uh a quote I'll I'll pull up here by uh James K.A.

Smith, we are what we love.

We're gonna look that up as well, uh, which covers then verse 10 to chapter uh verse 10 of chapter 9 to chapter 10, verse 11, and then lastly, basically gonna look at God's pursuit again, the idea of God calling divided hearts back to himself, and then we'll see what the gospel connection is there.

So before we dive into the first point, I do want to illustrate it with a question that uh, if you are listening attentively as I was praying, I alluded to it.

Is what happens to your heart on payday?

What happens to your heart on payday?

I I I don't know about your heart, but I know food tastes a little bit nicer.

Uh the the bills you're avoiding, you you you don't flinch, you easily grab the bill.

In fact, you make calls.

Hey, buddy, uh dinner's on me tonight.

Uh there's a sense in which you wanna uh paint the town red, uh, that's the the the expression.

You wanna kind of other rappers would say, make it rain because you've received finally your your payday.

Payday is an illustration in this text, in this context, around the idea of harvest.

That many of us have different kinds of harvest.

Maybe yours is a graduation gown.

Maybe your harvest is that promotion letter.

Maybe your harvest is that first client who actually said yes.

Maybe it's that child finally in your arms after years of waiting.

Or the company that you are you've started, that startup that has finally established, as it were.

Friends, there are the point is there are different harvests for different people, but the same heart underneath, the same underlying thing, feel underneath all of us as we uh pursue, anticipate, and accept harvests.

And what is that, friends?

That our heart swells up as if like we're like, yeah, man, I I finally did it, uh it's finally working.

I I finally got it.

As a Canadian rapper once said, I won't mention his name, it's basically gave a creed for the culture which was not so profound but very honest.

He says, I just want to be, I just want to be successful.

Friends, that's an honest expression of every founder, of everyone in pursuit, everyone who is, as it were, um kind of ambitious in life, that they they just want to be successful.

Every moment, every uh moment of that harvest is is again that song being sung, that celebration.

And when we get to chapter 9, verse 1, uh, there's a spoiler there.

Rejoice not, oh Israel.

Rejoice not, oh Israel.

Basically, contextually, here, friends, we are seeing a sense of a harvest.

It's harvest time, a modern harvest, and the harvest fields are filled with drinks, as it were.

It's an ancient uh festival, long before pay slips existed, friends.

People gathered at threshing floors, not merely for a cultural celebration, but a theological one.

They were thanking God for the rain, the harvest, and the strength to work the fields.

And and Hosea, friends, meets us here at the threshing floor, at their own harvest celebration.

But by the time this section ends, friends, we're gonna see thringy things happen.

That the party is soon over, the fields are stripped bare, the nation is on its way into exile.

And the question I asked myself as I was reading this is what happened?

What happened?

God God kept sending harvest after harvest, but instead of giving God more of their hearts, they built more altars.

Before we go any further, Fians, we need to hear this point carefully.

God is not suspicious of success.

So this sermon is not about that.

The the first pages of Genesis celebrate full fruitfulness, as it were.

It celebrates work, it celebrates creativity, it celebrates cultivation and dominion.

Uh, it it in other words, friends, flourishing was God's idea long before there were boardrooms in Sensin.

Work, creativity, and ambition offered to God in love and service can become an act of worship.

So Hosea will not tell Israel, and Hosea will not tell you and me this morning that flourishing is the problem.

No, it's not.

This is a book about marriage.

Covenant, yes.

It's the language that we see here.

We see the language of love, the language of jealousy, covenant, faithfulness.

So Hosea's question isn't simply, will you succeed?

It's when you succeed, who gets your heart?

Who gets your heart when you succeed?

Now, friends, let's keep our Bibles pretty much open in chapter 9 and 10.

We preach through the books of the Bible, and now and again we have a thrill during Mission Sunday, which was exciting, but we back in the text and we continue in the journey.

We celebrate point number one.

We we celebrate the gifts rather than the giver.

Look at it quickly.

It says, Rejoice not, O Israel, for you have played the whole.

There's that word again.

Over and over and over.

You have played the whole, forsaking our God, forsaking your God.

I really want you to feel the shock of what is happening in the text in chapter 1, verse, chapter 9, verse 1.

Exalt not like the peoples.

Friends, as I said, the harvest is in full swing.

The the grain has come, the the drinks are flowing, the the music is pulsating, and God says, Stop.

Stop celebrating.

Why?

Not because harvests or joy are a wrong thing, but because they are celebrating God's gift while loving another God.

God had instituted these festivals, these harvest festivals, to be a time to devote and dedicate their success to God.

To enjoy these gifts, these fruits of their labor, to dedicate it to God, to enjoy and celebrate with joy and say, God, you have been so, so good to us.

It's like getting that promotion and God saying, Stop.

You're no longer making it about me.

It's about you and your power.

The threshing floor, friends, verse 2, look at it.

It says, Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail them.

The threshing floor and the wine vette shall fail them.

They will not, it will not feed them.

In other words, what God is saying here is that the harvest they're celebrating is about to dissipate, it's about to disappear.

They shall not remain in the land.

Look at verse 3.

They shall not remain in the land of the Lord, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt and they shall eat unclean food.

I wrote in my in my as I was preparing this, they will eat food dedicated to uh funerals.

They will eat funeral food.

If you've been to uh Ekasia Lok Shini, you'll distinguish between funeral food and wedding food.

It doesn't taste the same, it just doesn't.

And their diet will be funeral food, but we'll get there just now.

The point is here, friends, that there's a sense in which we need to feel the shock of the text that Hosea is doing something here.

Hose is reminding Israel of their whole story.

Look at it again in verse 3.

You shall not remain in what?

In the land of the Lord.

You you he says, You shall return to Egypt.

Actually, they're not going to return to the literal Egypt, they're gonna be uh enslaved by Assyrians.

So this return of Egypt is basically a metaphor, a picture of saying, No, this is a reverse exodus.

You are once slaves, and I freed you, I redeemed you to myself, but now you are going back to very the very place you were enslaved in.

You're going to return to Egypt, you're gonna be slaves again.

The exodus is running in reverse.

The people are rescued from slavery, now they are becoming or are about to become slaves again.

And then God asked this question.

I remember he said, Stop.

In verse 5, look at it, he says, They shall not remain in the land of, and then in verse 5 he says, What will you do on the day of the appointed festival?

Now that you are slaves, now that there's a day appointed, you are rule keepers, you you you observe the celebrations, you as it were, quote unquote, go to church.

You meet the regulation, you meet the expectation, but you're making it about yourself, you're making it about your prosperity and not your God, you're making it about your gift and not the giver.

I'm gonna take it all away.

Then what will happen to this appointed day called the festival of harvest?

What will you do then in exile?

That's that's the question that that that that um Hosea is asking.

How do you celebrate when you've lost the very God who gave you something to celebrate?

Stop.

The music has to stop.

But friends, Israel had stopped listening long before the silence came.

Look at verse 7.

Says, the days of punishment have come, the days of recompense have come.

Chapter 9, right?

Israel shall know it.

And verse 7 is one of the tough texts, by the way.

Says the prophet is a fool, the man of the spirit is mad.

Nehemiah, uh, I mean, NIV uses a different phrasing.

I'll I'll explain it just now, and a different interpretation.

But verse 7, the the heart of it is there's a disregard for the word of God.

Right?

And and and the point here in verse 7 is that yes, it's difficult to translate because some see Israel rejecting God's true prophet, others see Israel's own false prophets exposed.

So others translate it as uh Hosea speaking, right?

And rejecting false prophets, that's ESV.

But NIV kind of translates it.

If you have an NIV, it translates it in a sense of like uh Israel is rejecting God's prophets.

So if you have a Bible app, you can just do the comparison.

Uh but the point is the heart of the text, verse 7, is this that you you you you cannot walk away with this point not being understood, that either translation ends at this mark that people had no regard for listening to God anymore.

Israel is no longer listening to God's word.

Whether by listening to false preachers, as as the ESV kind of alludes to, or whether by disregard of the true prophets, in either case, their relationship with people representing the word of God in the time is very negative.

They are not listening to God, and and that's the main point.

One of the clearest signs, friends, of a hardened heart is not simply that it sins, but that it can no longer hear God's voice.

Every one of us is capable of this, friends.

Sin doesn't merely make us guilty, it slowly deafens us.

Left to ourselves, friends, we don't simply break God's word.

We eventually stop hearing it.

That's that's that's that's that's the heart of verse 7.

These are hard words, as I said in the beginning, and Hosea isn't trying to make us suspicious of God's gifts, he's showing us that the tragedy of loving the gifts more than the giver is this reality, friends.

We reject God altogether.

And throughout this book, friends, God has warned his people again and again, and now we have reached the point of no return.

Really?

Maybe not.

We are about to see that in chapter 10.

But the point is, friends, that every warning, every call to return is evidence that he is still delighted to receive sinners back to himself.

Now, second point, friends, as we quickly run swiftly through this, we become like what we worship or what we love.

This is chapter chapter 10, verse, chapter 9, verse 10 to chapter 10, verse 11.

Look at it quickly.

Um, can I get a class of water, please?

Thank you.

Look at it quickly, chapter 10, uh verse 10.

It says, When I please, I will discipline them, and the nations shall get uh be gathered against them.

When they are but when they are bound up by their double iniquity, right?

Oh, I'm reading I'm reading the wrong text, sorry, friends.

Chapter 9, verse 10.

Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel.

Does anyone know PJ Morton?

Okay, never mind, I'm not gonna say it.

Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel.

There's a song by PJ Mortin, it writes uh it's uh it reads when it first began.

And the idea of that song is just like uh, can you go back to it's reminiscent, a reminiscent song, like to the day when we first fell in in love.

That's PJ Morton, it's RB, guys.

Uh it's soul music.

We are Christian, yes, we are a church, yes.

But PJ Morton is a is an artist, he's good.

But the point here, friends, this there's a sense of tenderness in that song, that feel of that song.

And look at verse 10 of chapter 9.

Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel.

Like the first fruits on the fig tree in its first season, I saw your fathers.

It's it's like someone remembering the early days of marriage, remembering when we first began.

God is remembering his delight in his people.

He's saying, when it first began, you were like what?

Grapes in the wilderness.

You were like the first fruit of the harvest.

It was precious, it was it was special.

I hope it still is, friends.

It's my anniversary, by the way.

But the point is here Hosea is making a juxtaposition again, a contrast.

Look at verse 10.

Says, but before verse 10, in chapter 10, 9, verse 10, it says, but what did they do?

But they came to Bal Peor and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame and became detestable like the thing they loved.

Who who is Bal Peor?

So if you here's homework, show life's giving homework.

Go read Numbers 25 and you'll know who Bal Peor is.

But for those who don't have that time, it's a public holiday tomorrow.

I would beg you to um think with me quickly about that, the the the story of Bal Peor.

Shortly after the Exodus, right?

Um in other words, they were on their way to the promised land.

Shortly after what, friends?

Exodus.

Now, they were seduced by a Baal Peor.

In other words, they were seduced into worshipping Baal at a place called Peor.

In other words, they were just rescued by God.

They were just called, it had just begun.

It had just been begun.

That relationship has just begun.

They've just been rescued.

They are on their way to what?

The promised land.

And there in Balpa in Peor, they were seduced to worshiping another God.

And they did it.

They fell in.

They gave to another God the love that belonged to their redeemer.

In other words, friends, says you were like this precious grape.

You were just like this precious fruit.

I I in its first season I was with you.

I was in a covenant relationship.

But but look at what you did.

You betrayed me.

And and and Hosea's recalling that to say, This is who they are.

Now they became detestable like the very thing they loved.

In other words, friends, they played, as the words are saying, the whole.

Becoming like the thing you love.

James K.

Smith says these words in his book, you are what you love.

If you are what you love, and love is a habit, then discipleship is a rehabilituation of your loves.

In other words, friends, whatever captures your imagination, whatever captures your love, slowly shapes your life.

That's the mechanism of idolatry.

We don't merely use our idols, eventually they begin using us.

Whatever is tempting us and luring us to itself, for us to have and seek it as an ultimate uh point of meaning, like a job, it ends up being the one that enslaves us.

Then you can't separate between your being and your doing.

You start relating with people with that first that premise.

I'm gonna relate to you on the basis of what you do.

Hey man, what do you do?

Who are you?

Where do you come from?

Now your your your being is intertwined to your functionality because what you love has shaped your identity.

That's that's that's James K.

Smith's point.

In in he says, liturgies, we live in a context of different things that form us, and those habits uh form us because we delight in them, and we end up becoming that very thing that we probably hate.

So, friends, we don't merely use our idols, eventually they end up using us.

Worship always forms the worshiper.

And the assumption of that question is not, do you worship?

No, it's who?

Who do you worship?

What do you worship?

And this thought is taken from Psalm 115, verse 8, that Hosea uh uh the psalm quotes this point actually, Psalm 115, verse 8, where it says, Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them, you become like what you trust in.

Psalms 115:8 Psalms 115:8

Notice how Hosea chases the principle through this very nation.

Hosea 10, verse 1.

Hosea 10:1

Look at it.

Israel is a luxuriant vine.

What were they worshiping?

The finer things in life.

Luxury.

Israel is a what, friends?

A luxuriant vine that yields its fruit.

The more his fruit increased, the more altars he built.

In other words, the more luxury, the more we feed this beast of luxury, the more luxurious we become because this is who we worship.

Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit.

The more his fruit increased, the more he multiplied altars.

There it is, friends.

Success did not end Israel's worship, it actually revealed it.

People are walking out.

I hope things are fine.

Okay.

Success did not end the Israel's worship, it actually simply revealed it.

And it gave Israel more with which to worship what they already loved.

In other words, friends, it's kind of like the more the success happened, the more they sponsored their idolatry.

A friend of mine, when I was maybe 10 years ago, would say, No, my friend, this very sin, you're not doing it.

Not because you are not susceptible to it, it's just because you cannot afford it.

There are just sins you can't commit because you can't afford them.

If we could afford them, we would very well commit them.

So it's like, no, your problem is not the fact that you like, I look at these guys.

They are so no, you you just can't afford those luxuries.

If you could, you'd you'd you'd probably be doing that as well.

Friends, the idols that they were building, the altars, they were feeding that monster of success.

But Hosea doesn't stop with one person's heart.

In other words, friends, it kind of uh gives us a framework here to see that false worship does not stay private.

Leaders grow dishonest, justice collapses, worship is corrupted, a divided heart, friends, eventually produces a disordered society.

That's the destructiveness of sin, friends.

And Hosea gives one final picture in verse 11.

Ephraim was a trained calf that loved to thresh and spared her fair neck.

Ephraim was a trained calf that loved to thresh, and I spared her fair neck.

This is a picture, friends, of an ox that is trading the grain, and and this this treading is not being, he's not muzzled.

As as as the the treading happens, it ate while it worked.

Uh, but now God is saying, Yeah, I'm putting a yoke on her.

The the easy season is over, as it were.

The real plowing is about to to to to begin.

Look at it in verse 11.

But I will put Ephraim to the yoke.

Judah must plow, Jacob must harrow for himself.

What started as a beautiful hustle is now a life or death situation.

It's it's like, okay, you're gonna fail for yourself.

This is this is gonna be on you, friends.

This is what Jesus is is highlighting.

Uh in other words, when we look at the the Bible and look at the the the the relation of people, the the idea of saying, Man, if you're gonna carry the weight of your life on your own shoulders, it will kill you.

That burden is not meant for you.

That's why Jesus says, Cast all your cares upon me.

You see, what he's saying is that oh, you trust in yourself, you you love the hassle, you love the the the the threading, as it were.

I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna leave it to yourself.

I'm gonna leave you to yourself.

You're gonna carry that yoke upon yourself, friends.

Maybe let me ask it this way has following Jesus become expensive in your life?

Or we have quietly settled for a Christianity that feeds us while costing us very little.

Christianity is first about worship, behavior follows love.

Everybody worships, everybody gives their heart to something.

The only question is whether what you worship can bear the weight of your soul.

You are what you love.

And Jesus says, Man, love me.

Cast your cares upon me.

Don't have to carry your your life on your hassle.

As we close, friends, God calls divided hearts back to himself.

Verse 12 to 15.

Say, sow for yourselves righteousness, reap that first love, break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord that he may come and reign righteousness upon you.

That's a beautiful text, friends.

That's that's that's just like grace giving us a breather.

I've been hearing people, mmm, here's the breather here.

Here's the breather here.

Sow for yourselves righteousness, reaps that first love.

Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord that he may come and reign righteousness upon you.

The tone has changed.

Chapter after chapter, sin has been exposed.

The accusation has been real, and and friends, now there's an invitation that is happening.

This is the climax of the passage that this is why God has been speaking.

That the fact that He's speaking at all is mercy, friends.

Notice how every phrase here is an invitation.

So righteousness.

Number two, reap steadfast love.

God isn't saying, earn my love.

He is saying, Look, I'm calling you an unfaithful people back to my covenant mercy.

Let my loyal love keep you, let my loyal love abound, let my loyal love draw you in.

I I know you're guilty.

I know you've done things that aren't becoming of you.

What I intended you to be.

But look, I'm drawing you to myself.

I'm drawing you to my covenant love.

And here's the captivating image, friends, that uh Hosea gives us here.

Break up your fallow ground.

I thought about construction sites here in Rosebank.

Picture one of the construction sites here down the road.

Before the building rises, as it were, friends, the the ground has nothing to be uh in fact, there's a sense in which the ground is hard, there's a sense of breaking that needs to happen.

Uh the word is excavation that needs to happen.

There's a tearing that has that has to happen.

For weeks it looks like it's destructive.

For weeks it looks like, man, what are they doing?

What are why are they messing up our city?

What is this?

But as the ground is breaking, then a foundation is built, then a building rises, friends.

But there's a sense in which this this hard ground needs to be broken.

And Jose is saying, Yeah, friends, that's what sin does.

Sin hardens the heart.

Therefore, God's word needs to break in.

God's word needs to excavate and tenderize your heart.

So that's his rain, there's a picture of agriculture here, so that as the rain pours onto this fallow hard ground, there's a sense in which something can be planted there and grow.

But there's no building on hard ground.

Break the fallow ground of your heart.

It actually looks like God's word doing something in you.

Instead of informing your mind, it's it's God's word trickling down from your mind to your as it were to your heart.

It's it's the word of God forming you.

It looks like friends finally perhaps confessing your sin.

Maybe you've spent months defending it.

Looks like you're saying, Lord, I give up.

I don't have excuses.

I've been stubborn, I've been insisting on my own way.

I've been trying to do this life thing with my own grit.

I've tightened the grip on my life, and I'm, Lord, I want to let go today.

I want I want you to work in my heart.

And friends, I don't want you to misunderstand what Hosea is saying here.

He's not saying, break yourself so that I will love you.

No.

Saying break up the ground because I already stand ready to reign.

The breaking is not payment for grace, as it were, it's the pathway by which grace is received.

God's word is a means of grace, friends, to soften our stubborn hearts.

You can break the ground today by surrendering.

But only God can send the rain.

In other words, friends, there's a sense in which breaking the ground is just you repenting.

Lord, I give up.

Would you renew me?

Would you rain on me?

Would you, would you make me new again?

And and look at it, friends, again.

Says, sow for yourself righteousness, reap stead first love, break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord.

It's not tomorrow.

Not when life settles down.

It says it's time.

Not once the children are have grown older, not once your not once the hassle is working out and you can do things.

No, God is saying it's time now.

It's it's God warning us and saying, Look, I'm showing you mercy.

All hell literally will is going to break loose.

Every sermon you've heard, every every every expression you've heard of God convicting your heart, every every time you're you're interrupted, as it were, by by the evidence of someone just being kind to you and saying, Hey man, I'm praying for you, I'm thinking about you.

That is God warning you.

That is God saying, Give up, give up on yourself.

Have me reign on you.

Break that ground.

Break that ground and repent from self-improvement, as it were.

That his righteousness may be the one that forms you.

That's grace, friends.

The breaking of the ground.

Friends, I don't want to leave us a miss and be lial and like, okay, I'm not clear on what's happening here.

Like, I do want to say this, friends, that the prom the promise of sin is one harvest, but it in other words, it promises a harvest but delivers something else.

But here's what Jesus has done.

Jesus says in John 15, verse 1, I am the true vine.

John 15:1

That's where the the story for Israel friends was finished, it was done with them.

Israel was was God's covenant bride who could not be rescued.

They reversed the exodus, they they they they they they went into Assyria, they were enslaved as it were because they they multiplied their outers, they worshiped their success, and it was over for them.

But Jesus says, friends, apart from me, you can't do anything.

This is the the day before he's about to hang on that rugged cross.

Says, Abide in me, and I in you, for apart from me, you cannot do absolutely anything, you can't do anything apart, you can't live a righteous life in and of yourself.

Jesus friends is the faithful Israel that that never was, he's also the faithful bridegroom Hosea has been pointing us toward all along.

The husband who refuses to abandon his unfaithful bride.

Jesus friends loves her to the very end, and on the cross, friends, that's what happened.

The exile that Hosea was warning people about is the exile that Jesus faced on that cross when he said, Aloy, aloe, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

In other words, friends, there's a sense in which Jesus experienced the very wrath of God that God is warning us against.

So that those who put a trust in Him should not, would not.

Jesus enters, friends, our exile so that we might come home to Him.

He bears the judgment our divided hearts deserve.

So that we might receive the steadfast love we never could earn ourselves.

And friends, what what what validates or what clears the check is the resurrection.

So Jesus calls us the harvest.

He calls us his harvest.

He calls us his harvest to to give up on ourselves and men trust him, trust the Lord of the harvest, worship the Lord of the harvest, the giver was always meant to be the gift.

The giver was always meant to be, friends, the gift.

The Lord of the harvest was always meant to be greater than the harvest itself.

My question to you this morning is, What are you trusting in?

For Jesus says, Trust in him.

Says, Trust in me, I will remove the idols of your heart.

Would Jesus be the gift himself?

Not the things you long for.

Would Jesus be the ultimate source and an object of your surrender and worship?

Would he be the ultimate object of your meaning in life?

Not the identity you're chasing in the hustle.

Friends, would what happens to you when things go well in your life be a story of I will glorify Jesus with my life.

I will seek the Lord of the harvest always with my life.

I will surrender my my fruit to him.

Because I belong to him, my life is no longer my own.

And friends, there's no greater harvest than that.

Belonging to him, the Lord of the harvest, Jesus Christ.

Let me pray for us.

Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you, Lord, that although success exposes our divided hearts, Lord, you don't merely you don't merely expose us, but Lord, you redeem us by your word.

To hear your call upon our lives.

Lord, as we pursue life, as we make it, Lord, may we not stop worshiping you.

May our ultimate pleasure be you, Lord.

I ask all this in the precious name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Friends, we're gonna do things a bit different today.

We're gonna pull up a confession on the screen and read it together.

And then I'm gonna say a word of gospel assurance and then we'll stand up and sing together.

Amen.

Can we pull it up quickly?

Let me move out of the way.

Let's read it together.

Can you see, Almighty and Merciful God, you have been generous to us beyond what we deserve.

Yet we confess that we have often loved your gifts more than you.

You have called us to love you with our whole heart.

But we have divided our affections among comfort, success, reputation, and ourselves.

Forgive us for trusting in our own strength and for offering you a devotion that costs us little.

Search us, O God.

Reveal every rival outside in our hearts and break up the hardened ground within us.

Merciful Father, unite our hearts to your holy name and restore us through Jesus Christ, our faithful bridegroom and true vine, in whom alone we are forgiven.

Amen.

Hear the words of gospel assurance, friends.

Let us join here with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed pure with pure water.

Let us stand and say.