Summer in the Minors Week 1 | God is in Relentless Pursuit of Unfaithful People

Hey, what's up, Family Church?

When I was born, way back in the 1900s, there used to be an adage that something was as American as baseball and apple pie.

Well, apparently those were two things that were most tied to our national identity.

Well, this summer we're going to look back in history and do a Bible study centered on the national identity of Israel, not the Israel we know today, but ancient Israel.

Let's set the context.

In the beginning, God created man in his image for a perfect relationship with him.

That fell apart in the Garden of Eden.

So God set his redemptive play in motion by calling a man named Abraham and promising to make him a great nation and give him a land.

And that nation became Israel.

Over time, the nation divided into two kingdoms, Israel in the north and Judah in the south.

Both struggled with idolatry and rebellion, repeatedly turning away from God.

And eventually God said, You've had three strikes.

You're out.

He sent them into a 70-year exile, removing them from the promised land to teach them a lesson.

But God did not remain silent.

God raised up prophets, ordinary people like farmers and shepherds and servants to speak his word to his people.

During the pre-exilic period, Jonah, Amos, and Hosea spoke in and around the northern kingdom before they were conquered and exiled to Assyria in 722 BC.

In the south, prophets like Micah, Nahum, Joel, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, and Obadiah spoke in and around Judah before Babylon conquered them in 586 BC.

God's people remained in exile until a pagan king, Cyrus, allowed them to return to their homeland and rebuild.

And this is called the post-exilic period, when prophets like Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi encouraged the people to rebuild the temple and the nation.

These are the 12 minor prophets.

They're called minor, not because they're less important, but because their books are shorter.

So what does this have to do with us now at Family Church in 2026?

If you're a believer in Jesus, you are now one of God's people.

And human nature hasn't changed one bit.

Just like Israel, we are prone to wander.

We drift, we lose focus.

But God, in his grace, keeps calling us back.

And God hasn't changed either.

In the minor prophets, we see how God loves us, how he responds to injustice, how he cares for the poor, how he hates idolatry.

All of these prophets ultimately pointed to the coming of Jesus.

Well now Jesus has come.

So what wasn't clear then is clear to us.

It's all God's word, and it's all relevant for today.

Because God's word is living and active.

It corrects us, restores us, and points us back to God's design.

We don't want to live in rebellion.

We don't want God to put us on the bench.

We want to stay in the game and we want to win.

So get out your Bibles.

Turn your Bibles on because your neighborhood pastor is coming right now to help you learn some major spiritual lessons from our summer in the miners.

All right.

Yes, I think I did a great job with that intro, Joseph.

Glad you're clapping.

Hey, I'm really glad that you guys are here this morning.

My name is Jimmy Scroggins.

If I haven't had a chance to meet you, I would love to meet you before you leave today.

But right now, like we do every Sunday at Family Church, we're going to have our Bible study.

So we're going to get your Bibles out.

Turn your Bibles on on your devices.

Grab a Bible from the pew in front of you and open up to the Old Testament book of Hosea.

The Old Testament book of Hosea.

It's kind of near the end of the Old Testament.

And while you're turning there, I just want to say what a joy it is for me every Sunday to get together with our church family and have our family dinner in here on Sundays.

I love the songs that we sing and the way that you guys sing together.

And if you are uh somebody who just keeps coming to family church and this is your place now, you should be learning to sing these songs.

Hope you're not attending family church week after week and just standing there like a bump on a log.

I know some of you guys are like, well, I don't like to sing in front of other people because I don't sing good.

That's why we turn the music up so loud.

You can't hear yourself, anyways.

Just just you should learn to sing these songs because when you sing these songs, it sinks these truths down into your heart.

And all of the baptisms that we saw on the screens.

So exciting to see people publicly taking steps of faithfulness to God.

And parent-child dedications are my absolute favorite.

So just just you and Summer having Sterling up here and all of your family.

I mean, Rick and Darcy, you guys just packing the pews with all of your relatives and everybody that knows you guys is incredible.

And uh, I don't know if you guys know, but like these boys of theirs, these are studs.

I mean, these guys are all hockey players, college and pro hockey players, so don't pick a fight with them or anything.

But these these this is an awesome family.

And so I'm just so glad that you, you and someone are doing the right things, man.

It doesn't mean that everything's perfect, but just coming up here and saying we're doing our best to raise starting, to raise our boys, to to know Jesus and to walk with Jesus.

And I promise you, as long as you're here at Family Church, we're gonna do everything we can to make that happen.

So just I'm just so proud of you, really.

And and Rick and Darcy, just the legacy that you see on this on the stage today is just really powerful.

Thank you for that.

All right, so let me uh let's get back to, yeah.

Let's get to the uh let's get to the book of Hosea.

And before we get into the book of Hosea, I just want to just um I just want to make clear who is in the room right now, and I want to invite you to say something to your neighbor, and here's what I want you to say to them.

I want you to look at your neighbor and just say, You are such a gomer.

Go ahead and tell them that right now.

You are such a gomer.

There you go.

Now, some of you guys, some of you guys are a little insulted by that, and you're like, hey, you don't even know me.

I'm not a gomer.

Well, yes, you are, and so am I.

And why would I say that?

Because all of us mess up in life.

All of us make mistakes, all of us sin against other people and ourselves, and we sin against God.

A bunch of gomers are in the room right now, including one on the platform.

We make wrong choices.

We want things we should not want, we do things we should not do from time to time.

We are a bunch of gomers.

So, what does God do with a bunch of gomers like are in the room right now at family church?

I'll tell you a couple things that God does.

One, God loves us, even though he knows all about us, and God tells us the truth about our sins and about who we really are, and God judges our sins, and God forgives us when we repent, and God redeems us when we believe in Jesus because of what Christ has done for us on the cross.

So God has a plan for a bunch of Gomers.

So for today's talk from the book of Hosea, this is the big idea.

The big idea is God loves you with a redeeming love.

God loves you with a redeeming love.

And I want to read from the book of Hosea.

We can't read the whole thing, it's 14 chapters.

We just have one message on each one of these minor prophets and one message on Hosea.

This is it.

But let's just read from Hosea chapter 1, and then we'll talk about the story in the book.

Hosea 1 · chapter mention

This is what the word of God says, Hosea chapter 1, verse 1.

Hosea 1:1

The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Biri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel.

When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, Go take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.

So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of the Bliam, and she conceived and bore him a son.

And the Lord said to him, Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.

And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.

She conceived again and bore a daughter, and the Lord said to him, Call her name no mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel to forgive them at all.

But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God.

I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.

When she had weaned no mercy, she conceived and bore a son, and the Lord said, Call his name not my people, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.

And this is the word of the Lord, and all God's people say.

Amen.

We received God's word at family church.

I want to tell the story of Hosea and Gomer, but I want to use a little bit of my pastoral imagination, if you'll allow it, to fill in some gaps so that you can understand the story.

It's really powerful.

So let's take Hosea.

He's a Jewish kid.

He went to Hebrew school.

He's upstanding, respected in the community.

He has a good education.

He's a prophet.

Everybody knows he's a really, really good guy in the community.

But God says, I want you to go marry a girl named Gomer, and this girl has a questionable reputation.

Some of you guys are old enough to remember the old Beach Boy song.

I get around.

Well, Gomer, she got around.

And uh Hosea married her, anyways.

And he marries this girl who has been very promiscuous her whole life.

And of course, when they get married, the promiscuity does not stop.

She immediately starts cheating on Hosea.

They have three kids.

The first one, God says, I want you to name them Jezreel.

You might not know a lot of Old Testament history, so the name Jezreel may kind of sound biblical to you, but you don't really know what it means.

Let me tell you the story behind Jezreel, if I could.

Back in 2 Kings chapter 9, there's a story.

2 Kings 9 · chapter mention

There's this wicked king named Ahab, and he had a wicked wife named Jezebel, and they rebelled against God, and they worshipped idols, and they killed all of the prophets of God.

They were horrible, horrible people.

And eventually God had enough of them, and God raised up a man named Jehu to judge them and to execute them.

And Jehu did indeed execute Ahab.

He did indeed execute Jezebel, and he executed all of their false prophets, which he should have done.

But Jehu went too far.

He didn't just execute the guilty, the false prophets, and Ahab and Jezebel.

Jehu executed all of their kids and all of their grandkids and slaughtered all of these people.

And do you know where he slaughtered all of these innocent people?

He slaughtered them in a place called the Valley of Jezreel.

And so Jezreel became identified in the nation of Israel with brutality and violence.

And it was embarrassing to the nation.

So when God says to name your son Jezreel, he's calling to mind the violence and the corruption and the embarrassment of Jehu that happened in the Jezreel in Jezreel.

It's like calling your son, let's just call your son brutal and embarrassing.

Well then they have a second kid, a daughter, and God says, name this girl no mercy.

Name her no mercy because the time for the mercy of God on the nation of Israel is over.

They have a third child, and God says, name this one not my people.

Now, if you have a baby with a promiscuous wife, and you name the baby, not mine, I think it's pretty self-explanatory.

Well, eventually Hosea works and he does his best and he loves Gomer and he tries to raise these kids.

But one day, Hosea comes home from working as a prophet, and on the dining room table is a dear Hosea letter.

Gomer is gone.

She's never coming back.

She's gone off, and now Hosea is a single dad, and he's there as a single dad, trying to raise these kids.

Jess real and no mercy, and not my people.

He loves Gomer, he misses Gomer, but after a while he learns to live with it.

He lives as a single dad, and this one day he goes to get some groceries, and when he goes to the market to get groceries as he's walking home, he walks through the center of town, and something happens to him that is really, really remarkable, and we'll get to that in just a minute.

So, in the book of Hosea, God uses Hosea's story, his biography, to call Israel to repentance.

Because they have wandered away from God.

And I wonder if in this room there is someone here and God is calling you to repentance, just like he was calling the nation of Israel.

I wonder if the words of Hosea that were there to call the nation of Israel back to the Lord might be calling you back to the Lord yourself.

So, what are we gonna learn about the redeeming love of God?

If you've got your program, we have some fill-in-the-blanks and a place for you to take notes.

It is good for you to be in the habit of writing things down.

We have a Bible study.

So here's number one God loves you with redeeming love.

Number one, you need to know that God requires faithfulness.

God requires faithfulness.

If you still have your Bible open, Hosea chapter 1, look at verse 2.

Hosea 1 · chapter mention

The whole story, I'm not gonna say this, but the whole story about Hosea is God's complaint against his people Israel for their unfaithfulness.

And God uses graphic wording that I'm not gonna repeat.

And God uses a graphic story to underline his anger and his jealousy about unfaithfulness.

And what were the people of Israel doing that was unfaithful, that called for all of this strong language and this crazy story?

Well, first of all, they just worshiped other gods.

They literally made idols of wood and stone and metal, and then they would worship them.

And why did they do that?

They got co-opted by the people who were living around them who were not God's people, and the people living around them put enough peer pressure on them that they began to do the things that the people around them did, and they abandoned the faithful worship of the one true living God and began to worship other gods.

And many of you are sitting here going, well, who cares about that?

Because no one in here is making little idols and worshiping them at our houses.

No one would do that.

That's probably pretty much true.

But I would say that every one of us is guilty or at least tempted to worship idols.

Our idols aren't made of little our little figurines.

Our idols would just be things like money.

We chase it, we want it, we think about it all the time.

Our idols would be things like our schedule, rearranging our schedule for some dumb reason, sports or hobbies.

Maybe it's our physical appearance, maybe it's our reputation, maybe it's our standing or our social status or the things that we own.

When you begin to think about your life or your money or your sex life or your possessions or your body or your reputation the exact same way as everyone else around you thinks about those things, and you begin to make the exact same choices that everyone around you is making about those things, and so that you are indistinguishable from people who don't know God, you're supposed to live a different kind of a life when you know God.

You're supposed to be faithful to God and God alone, and all of us can be guilty of modern-day idolatry.

And if you are a Christian, you've turned from your sins, you've received Jesus by faith, then the number one value in your life is supposed to be faithfulness to God, whatever else it takes.

And if you are being faithful to God, it will show up in your marriage, how you treat your spouse, it will show up with your relationship with your kids, how you parent, it will show up in how you manage your finances, it will show up in how you treat your employees or you how you treat your boss, it will show up everywhere in your life if faithfulness to God is your number one value.

And if you're going to be a Christian, that's what it should be.

Because if you are going to be a Christian, God, listen, if you're going to be a Christian, God is requiring faithfulness of you.

Why is faithfulness such a big deal to God?

It's such a big deal to God because God loves you so much.

It's such a big deal to God because He loves you.

He wants good things for you, He's on your side.

God loves you, and God is faithful to you, and God is requiring faithfulness from you.

You see the love of God throughout the Bible, even outside of the book of Hosea.

Check this out.

Jeremiah chapter 31, God says, I have loved you with an everlasting love.

Jeremiah 31 · chapter mention

What a statement.

How do we know that?

Romans chapter 5 says, God demonstrates his love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

John chapter 3, verse 16, the most famous verse in the Bible.

John 3:16

God so loved the world that he gave his only son.

1 John chapter 4, we love God because he loved us first.

1 John 4 · chapter mention

Man, you think you choose God, but God chose you.

You think you found God, but God found you.

You think you love God, but God loved you first.

And when God loves people like that, he expects the people that he loves to love him back.

And when God is faithful to people, he requires the people that he's faithful to to be faithful back.

And this didn't just start in the book of Hosea.

Some of you guys remember the Ten Commandments.

I mean, most of you guys can't name the Ten Commandments, but you know there are Ten Commandments.

You're generally in favor of them.

What's the first commandment?

You should have no other gods before me.

What's the second commandment?

Don't make any idols and don't worship idols.

And why shouldn't you not do that?

Exodus chapter 20, where the Ten Commandments is found.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.

And God's a jealous God.

He doesn't mess around, He requires faithfulness.

They say, well, jealousy is kind of bad if God's so good.

Why is He so jealous?

God is jealous just like a husband should be jealous for his wife, or a wife should be jealous for her husband, not in an irrational, paranoid way, but you should require faithfulness from your spouse if you're going to be married, just like God can require faithfulness from you.

Now, my wife Christian and I, we've been married 31 years.

I love that woman.

I'm thankful for that woman.

It's awesome.

We have a real marriage, ups and downs like everybody else.

But I'll just say this.

We got married 31 years ago, we stood on a platform like this, and we said these words I will keep myself only for her as long as we both shall live.

How do you think it would go if the night before we got married I pull Kristen aside and I say, I want to be absolutely faithful to you.

But I would like to do it 364 days a year.

364 days a year, totally faithful.

One day a year, all pass.

You think she would like that?

She wouldn't like it at all.

What if she said that to me?

Heck no.

The whole reason I'm getting married, because I want you to be faithful to me, and I'm gonna be faithful to you.

That's the deal.

That's why we do it.

Mostly faithful is unfaithful.

There's no mostly faithful.

You're either faithful or you're unfaithful.

That's all that there is.

And God wants you to be faithful, and if you are, it'll show up all these different areas of your life.

So we can see in the book of Hosea that God requires faithfulness of his people.

Number two, on your notes, something else we can learn.

Your sins lead to devastation.

Your sins lead to devastation.

Now, in our society, it's very common to laugh about sin, to joke about sin, to wink at sin, to make private deals with God about our areas of sin in our lives, but that's not how it works.

And one of the reasons we do that is we think we have this illusion we can sin against God on purpose.

And if there are any consequences, we think and hope that the consequences will only land on us, but that's not how sin works.

Sin splatters.

When you sin against God, your sins and the consequence of your sins will splatter on other people, even though you don't intend it, and even though you try to make it not so, you can't control all of that.

And some of you know what I'm talking about because when you were growing up, someone in your family sinned, and the way that they sinned ended up splattering on you.

And maybe you've had that happen in your family as an adult.

Somebody sinned, and the sins of the one person splatter on a bunch of other people.

That's why some of you guys have had to go to multiple Christmases every year your entire life.

Because the sins of somebody splattered on you, and you just have to deal with it.

That's the way sin works.

You say, Well, no, I think I can control it.

You think you can control it, but that's part of the deception of sin.

Listen, you have the freedom to make your own choices, but you cannot control the consequences of your choices.

You can control your choices, but you will not be able to control the consequences of your choices.

And in this book of Hosea, God is going to judge the unfaithfulness of Israel, and He reminds Them with those names.

The names of those kids is a centerpiece of the book.

Jezreel, meaning one day God is going to put an end to the kingdom of Israel.

No mercy, meaning God is done having mercy.

His mercy is at an end for them.

Not my people, meaning God will disown them because they don't belong to him.

They thought it was no big deal what they were doing.

That's why Hosea chapter 8, verse 7 says, they have sown to the wind, and now they're going to reap the whirlwind.

Hosea 8:7

You didn't even know that came from the Bible, but that saying is from Hosea chapter 8.

Hosea 8 · chapter mention

Hosea prophesied, let me tell you what happened.

History.

Hosea prophesies in the 700s BC, about 10 years after Hosea issues these prophecies, the Assyrians ride in, they wipe out the nation of Israel, the northern kingdom.

They obliterate the northern kingdom.

They take the best of the northern kingdom as exiles back to Assyria.

And the nation of Israel, the northern kingdom of Israel, is never reconstituted again.

It is wiped off the map, just like Hosea predicted, and it would never come back again.

Jezreel, no mercy, not my people.

God is not playing with our sins.

And the judgment of God is just as real for us in 2026 as it was for the nation of Israel in 722 BC.

And Hosea is trying to teach you that you better take the judgment of God seriously and you better take it personally.

Because even if you end up rich enough and famous enough to mitigate the consequences of your sin in this life, the judgment of God is real, and your sins can lead to the eternal devastation of your soul.

Well, how is that?

Well, the big danger that Israel was facing was national collapse.

I don't think we're facing national collapse.

But the biggest danger we face is hell.

Because the Bible teaches that hell is real.

Every sinful gomer in this room and in this world who does not repent of their sins and receive Jesus by faith for themselves will face the judgment of God and hell forever.

That's what the Bible teaches.

God's judgment is real, and you need redemption, and I need redemption, and you need forgiveness, and I need forgiveness, and you need to be saved from your sins, and I need to be saved from my sins.

That's the message of the Bible.

That's what Christianity is.

And that's why Jesus went to the cross, man.

You go on long after Hosea was gone.

Jesus shows up and Jesus goes to the cross of Calvary, and Jesus is crucified on the cross for our sins, so that a bunch of sinful gomers can have our shame and our blame and our sins crucified to the cross, and our sins are paid for.

And Jesus was raised from the dead so that we can be forgiven and free.

Jesus was crucified so that we could be forgiven for our unfaithfulness to God.

So your sins will lead to devastation.

But, number three on your notes, God has paid the price for your sins.

God has paid the price for your sins.

Okay.

When we last interrupted the story of Hosea, single dad for many years, he's gone to get groceries, he's picked up his groceries, got some barley, and he's on his way home.

As Hosea is on his way home, he passes through the center of town, and there's an auction block over there.

Like there always is, and they are auctioning off slaves.

And as he walks through, he sees they're auctioning off this woman, and this woman looks horrible.

Her hair is all thinned out and matted.

Her fingernails, you can imagine, are down to the nubs.

She's got that gaunt look of someone who's been mistreated, those hollow eyes of a woman who's been used by man and hurt by man and wounded by man her whole life.

And there she stands on the auction block, beaten down, nothing to offer.

Even the men who have used her don't want her anymore.

She's completely used up and she's there and she's not worth much.

And as Hosea walks through with his groceries, it dawns on him.

I know her.

It's been a while.

That's Goma.

And Hosea makes a decision.

Nobody else wants her, and she isn't worth much, and she doesn't look like she used to look.

And this pitiful condition that he sees her in her unfaithfulness, her shame, her brokenness, her aloneness.

And Hosea there in the middle of town chooses, I'm gonna love her again.

And so he takes everything he has, all of his money, even his groceries, and he gives all the money he has and all the groceries that he bought, and he buys Gomer off of the auction block when no one else would have her, and no one else wants her.

He tells it in Hosea chapter 3.

Hosea 3 · chapter mention

I'll put it on the screens for you.

This is what Hosea says So I bought her for 15 shekels of silver and a Homer and a lethec of barley.

And I said to her, You must dwell as mine for many days.

You should not play the whore or belong to another man, so will I also be to you.

He restates his vows.

From here on out, I will keep myself only for you as long as we both shall live.

And even though you have been unfaithful to me, I will be faithful to you.

But from here on out, we're going to be faithful to each other.

The redeeming love of God.

He purchased her, he ransomed her, he redeemed her, he gave her her freedom.

And what was the price for Gomer on that day, according to the story?

Silver and barley.

And what is the price for the Gomers in this room?

It's the blood of Christ.

It's his broken body and his shed blood.

So where does that all leave us?

Number four on your notes.

God wants to bring you home.

God wants to bring you home.

It's the story of a faithful God who is pursuing unfaithful people.

I don't know all of your stories are where you are, but I know somebody in this room needs to hear this.

God has not given up on you.

God has not given up on your son.

God has not given up on your daughter.

God has not given up on your wife.

God has not given up on your husband or your mom or your dad.

God does not give up.

His redeeming love is everlasting.

And wherever you are, God wants to bring you home.

Now, some of you in this room, you're not a Christian, you're not Christians.

You know you're not a Christian.

You might be kind of Christian-ish.

I'm not saying you're the worst person in the world, but you're just not a Christian.

You've not turned from your sins, you've not received Jesus by faith.

Faithfulness to God is not the number one value in your life.

You're just not a Christian.

I'm not throwing shame on you, I'm not throwing stones on you.

I'm just saying that's just the way that it is.

I know that.

You know that.

But I will say this you should hear the message of Hosea.

If you're not a Christian, then you are in danger of the judgment of God one day.

And because of that, I'm pleading with you, I'm inviting you, I'm encouraging you, turn from your sins, turn to God, receive Jesus by faith for yourself, be ransomed, be redeemed, be forgiven, and be faithful to God.

Come home and return to God.

If you're a believer, even though you're a believer in Jesus, but you've wandered from God, and right now you are in a position where you know you are unfaithful to God, and you know how you're unfaithful to God, and you know where you've been unfaithful, and you know when you've been unfaithful, and you just know I'm just I'm just unfaithful to God in my life right now.

I want to remind you of the everlasting love of God.

I want to remind you that you've been purchased off of the auction block of sin, and that you can come home and be with God, and you can be forgiven, and you can be restored to God fully today.

And you should.

And some of you guys say, you know, I'm I'm not saying I'm perfect, but I'm a believer.

I'm walking with God the best I know how to right now.

All of us should be warned by the prophet Hosea that unfaithfulness is always a danger.

And so we should make sure that we're being faithful to God in every way that we know how.

And even when you fail, and you will, you've got to remember of the faithfulness of God and the power of God's redeeming love.

Because God loves us with an everlasting love, and God's redeeming love never gives up on us.

Let me tell you a story that this made me think of.

There's two people, Alberto and Athena, and um Alberto had some kids from previous relationships, and Athena had some kids from previous relationships, and they were living together uh here in town, and they went to the beach with their kids.

And while they were at the beach, they met some people.

They had some family church t-shirts on, they were from family church, and the family church people invite them to church.

Now, these people would call themselves spiritual, but not religious.

They weren't church people, but they got invited, and so Alberto wasn't really interested, but Athena says, I'll come, and she brings her kids, and they start coming to family church.

And Athena even gets in a Bible study with some other ladies, and she's only there a few weeks.

Athena becomes a believer in Jesus.

She turns from her sins, she receives Jesus by faith for herself.

And her kids start hearing this Bible study, and they're inviting Alberto to come, but he really doesn't want any of it.

But finally he starts attending, and uh, Alberto comes, and he's there a few weeks, and Alberto makes a decision.

He turns from his sins, he repents, and he turns to Christ and he receives Jesus by faith for himself.

And now you have a Christian man and a Christian woman living together, and they said, We want to follow God's design.

And so it wasn't too long before they made the decision we're gonna get married at family church.

And Alberto and Athena got married at our church, and they want to follow God's design.

They got married on a Saturday, and the next day was Sunday, and they came to church and they both got baptized, making a public step of faithfulness to God, not because everything's perfect, but because God is changing them.

Because the redeeming love of God is so powerful in their lives, and they're not saying they're perfect.

And let me tell you what about Alberto.

When Alberto first started coming to family church, Alberto was kind of a rough-looking guy.

And look, I'm not making a commentary on what kind of hairstyle you have or what you do with your beard, but Alberto had a shaggy big old head of hair, long hair, and he had a big shaggy beard that he's really proud of.

And when he came to get married to get baptized, he showed up and he had cut his hair and he shaved his face.

Now, that doesn't make somebody more or less of a Christian, your haircut and what you do with your beard, but they asked him to say, Alberto, why did you do that?

He said, Because I've been changed so much on the inside by Jesus.

I just wanted to do something to show that I can also change on the outside.

And his wife, Athena, said, Let me tell you about Alberto.

He's been trying to walk with God, he's been trying to lead our family spiritually, and it's amazing to see the transformation because the major transformation in Alberto isn't on the outside, it's in here.

I told you they were spiritual, but not religious.

And they were spiritual enough.

Alberto used to walk around, she said, with crystals in his pocket.

So we can try to connect with spiritual energy.

She said, He used to carry crystals, but now my husband carries a cross.

Because he's been changed by Jesus, man.

And that's the name of the game.

That's what it's all about.

And if you think it can't happen to you or this isn't for you, I want to suggest that you rethink that.

God will always take you back, God will always bring you home.

There's always an opportunity for you to turn from your sins and receive Jesus, and you should do it.

And we remind ourselves of that every time we take the Lord's Supper, which we're going to do right now.

Because Jesus has paid the price to redeem spiritual adulterers, spiritual gomers like you and like me.

We eat the bread representing the broken body of Christ.

We drink the cup representing the shed blood of Christ.

And we can eat and drink together this morning, not because we are faithful, but because God is faithful because of his redeeming love for us.

And it reminds us that wherever we go and wherever we are, God wants to bring you home.

Now the Lord's Supper is for believers in Jesus.

If you're here this morning and say, Well, I'm not a Christian, I'm not a believer yet, then you should not take the Lord's Supper.

Why don't you wait until after you become a Christian for yourself?

Then you can take the Lord's Supper with integrity.

And a family church we believe and we teach, it's best for you to take the Lord's Supper after you've been baptized and after you become a part of a neighborhood church.

If you're here today and say, Well, I'm a Christian, I have been baptized, but this isn't my church.

Okay, then you take the Lord's Supper with us this morning as part of the extended family of Jesus that goes around the world.

But right now, I'd invite you to bow your heads and close your eyes and draw close to the Lord.

And if you've been unfaithful or wandered away from God, remind yourself of the gospel of Christ and the redeeming love of Jesus and come home to the Lord even now.

And if you're here this morning and you know that you're not a Christian and you want to be a Christian, maybe right now, while we're praying, you just call upon the Lord from your own heart and say, God, save me right now.

I want to be a Christian.

I want to, I want to be faithful to you, I want to give my life to you.

You could do that this morning.

Let's listen and let's sing and let's contemplate.

And in just a moment, we'll all eat and drink the Lord's Supper together.