“Guilty of not Knowing God" Hosea 4-5: Pastor Mark Zevenbergen

Good morning.

So right now

we have an intern Taylor and we, he was

at DeWitt right now, but he was down here in the first service and went to introduce him

and his wife and when he went to introduce him he was in the bathroom so I had to wait for him to come out.

Introduced him during the first service, took him up to DeWitt. We got there

before the ABF was over and walked in the foyer which the foyer

is about from here to there. It's a really small foyer

and he got greeted by three marks, me and two other marks so he got a good

intro there and then he'll be back down a little while

but look for Red Headed Guy, a big Texas A&M fan

that might bother you. How you treat him well would determine

if he's an Iowa State or Iowa grad lover before he leaves here.

He's here for seven weeks. He's going to be going to seminary in a little while

and he was just directing him into ministry but he's trying to

figure out what it is and so he's going to be around in both campuses and see what we do

and kind of get a feel for what it is in ministry so please

welcome him, encourage him, support him, help him to want to be in ministry

and not want to be in ministry.

When I was 19 years old I was summoned to jury duty.

I ended up on two cases and one of the cases

was cut and dry. The case presented to the court of a 30

guy, my name is 30, a man in his 30s who was caught driving on a

suspended and revoked license. And unwise

of the man decided to represent himself instead of

using a lawyer. And as a man was arguing in his case he incriminated himself.

He acknowledged that he had driven without a license

because his license had been suspended or revoked. His argument

was that if his license had not been suspended or revoked

that when he got stopped by the police he would have had a license to show them.

So after the thing, the jury

went out and took us three days to come to a decision

and after three arduous days, come on there should be a laughter there, come on.

It didn't take us long to walk in there. Guilty, guilty, unanimous decision,

guilty, he was guilty as charged.

Well this morning we're doing a flyover of Hosea of chapter 4 and 5

and chapter 4 we see the Israelite condition and how God sees

them and in chapter 5 we see the consequences of what will come

for their disobedience to God. Well chapter 4 begins with

God taking Israel to court. To be taken to court

by God ought to be very scary.

For God is the prosecutor, the jury, and the

judge. He never loses a case.

And the goal of the courtroom encounter was to wake up the

Israelites through their wicked behavior and their lack of worshiping God as

he is. In due time we're not going to read through

both chapters. Rather we will take a look at several verses that give

the context of these chapters but I'd encourage you to read chapters 4 and 5

later on. But turn with me to Hosea chapter

Hosea 4 · chapter mention

4. We'll start with verse 1.

It's page 752 and the Bible is under the seats.

And let me just say it's really important that you follow along. It's really

an important thing for you to do because they say after 24

hours you remember 5% of what you hear.

15% of what you read and 35%

of what you study. And we're trying to study this together because I hate to come out here and you remember

5%. Because there's a God's word that needs to be remembered

and so any way you can do to help yourself to remember, look at God's word, grab your

phone, do whatever it can to read along with me, that will be very helpful for you.

Chapter 4 verse 1.

The Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.

There's no faithfulness or steadfast love and no knowledge of God in the land.

The Lord has a controversy with

the inhabitants of the land. The word controversy can mean dispute,

lawsuit, or a legal case. The New American Standard

Bible translates this way, for the Lord has a case against them.

Cases against the Israelites who inhabit the land.

So what are the charges? Verse 1.

There is no faithfulness or steadfast love and no knowledge of God in the land.

The Israelites were God's people. Their

ancestors made a covenant with God that He would be their God

and they would be His people and the generations

to follow were to keep this covenant. God was

faithful to do His part in the covenant, but the people were not.

And the first charge that God had against the Israelites, charge number 1

is no faithfulness. They were not loyal.

They were not trustworthy. They were not consistent.

The people chased after other God's lower case G.

They voted themselves to false teaching and sinful living.

And they were anything but faithful to God.

The second charge, charge number 2 is no steadfast love.

The Hebrew word for steadfast love is hesed.

It would translate to kindness or loyalty or loyal love.

It often refers to the kind of loyal love that God has

with the covenant that He has made with His people. And the people were to reciprocate

that love back to God, not just to God, but they were also to demonstrate

that love to others. And they had failed in both directions,

horizontally and vertically. And the third

charge against the people was no knowledge of God.

There's different kinds of knowledge in relation to God. There is

knowledge about God. That is head knowledge. That is facts.

Understanding facts about God. But there is no commitment

to those facts. They just remain in our heads.

And the Israelites were even missing this kind

of knowledge about God. They didn't know important truths about God and

who He is and His expectations of them and how they lived.

And we're going to see in a moment why they were lacking this kind of knowledge.

But there's a second kind of knowledge. It's a knowledge of God.

It's more personal. It's more intimate.

And there's a big difference between knowing about someone and knowing someone, isn't there?

I knew some neat facts about

Andre before I started dating her. That's why I started dating her. Because she was pretty amazing.

But I really got to know her through spending time with her and even

much more through a commitment of marriage to her.

I know her. I know often

how she is thinking and feeling more, much more thinking than feeling

guys, right? How you really understand how your wife feels. It's really hard to figure that out.

Sometimes they don't know how they're feeling, right?

I know her likes. I know her love language. What really speaks

to her, I know Andrea.

And there's a big difference between knowing facts about a cat or a dog

and knowing a cat or a dog. You can learn so much more about an

animal when they become your pet. And I get a chance to show my dog to you.

That's the nicest thing you're going to hear all day

because the rest is going down hills. I thought I'd give you something nice.

You might think I'm joking, but I'm serious because

Hosea 4 and 5 is harsh. And to be jokey and funny

is not consistent with the text. And so this is your joy right here, okay?

You know, really a sad

commentary on the people of God that they did not

know God.

Let me ask you, if God brought charges against you, what would they be?

I mean none of us here are perfect, right?

Would He charge you with being unfaithful?

Not fully committed to Him. See, are you obeying His commands?

Are you surrendered to Him daily?

Are you walking in the good works that God has prepared for you to do

which we saw in Ephesians earlier?

Are you chasing after other things to give you peace and security?

Are you trusting in your bank account for your security

more than your God? Does your boyfriend

or girlfriend or spouse or child have a greater place in your

heart than God? That is

unfaithfulness. Are you guilty of it?

Would He charge you with being

unloving toward Him or others? Jesus said

you must love the Lord your God with all your heart,

with all your soul, all your mind, and all

your strength. The second is equally important, love your neighbor as yourself.

No other commandment is greater than these. Are you loving

God with all your heart? Or just give a little bit of it?

Are you loving God with all your soul, which means all of you?

Are you giving Him all of you? Are you loving God with your mind

that you're thinking about His thoughts? You're studying His Word. Are you giving Him all your mind?

Are you giving Him all your strength, the best of you?

Or are you giving Him leftovers?

Is loving God your chief

desire in life?

To love God

also though requires loving others

as ourselves as it says in the

command there. But then Jesus adds something for believers in Christ.

Love one another as I have loved you. So you

must also love one another.

How are you doing with these two commands? Loving God with everything yourself?

And loving others. You see love is other

centered. Are you other centered? Are you

more self centered most of the time?

Would God charge you with being

unloving? Or would He charge you with no

knowledge of Him? Is God just a set of facts that you

can declare? Or do you really know Him?

Got a lot of young kids here also, teenagers here

and that's one of the benefits of being in this church. You're going to be taught God's Word.

But if you don't take God to yourself, it's just the knowledge

of information. It's about God. Do you have a

personal relationship with Him? Not your parent's relationship.

Do you have your own personal relationship with Him?

Do you know Him?

Are you in God's Word faithfully? Are you connecting with

Him in prayer regularly? Do you know His thoughts?

Do you know His desires? What pleases

Him? Do you know what He wants to do

with your life?

If you're standing before God,

what He say to you, you don't

know Me.

You know in lack of

faithfulness, lack of love and lack of knowledge of God causes

chaos. Without reverence and

submission to someone greater than us, we will live without fear of

consequences. We will do what feels best for ourselves

regardless of what it does to others.

It will become survival of the fittest. And that is how the

Israelites lived. We see this in verse 2.

They're swearing, lying, murder, stealing and committing adultery.

They break all bounds and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

Jesus says, turn yet or cheek, they turned the knife.

The Israelites were breaking the 10 commandments.

Given to them by God Himself through Moses.

You know, Hosea 4.3 says that

sinning doesn't just impact ourselves.

It doesn't even just impact other people.

It impacts the land. It impacts animals and fish.

Verse 3.

And also the beast of the field and the birds of the heavens.

And even the fish of the sea are taken away.

You know, we talk about climate change and all kind of stuff. You know the best thing you can do about climate change?

Quit sinning. Quit sinning.

We pollute the world by our sins because we treat people poorly.

We hurt other people. We hurt animals. We don't care about

everything else and that we just pollute the land.

We started with Adam.

And the land grieves, groans

waiting for the Lord to finally come and redeem it.

In the context of this passage though, the plush land that was providing

this abundance for the Israelites in the time of

Hosea was going to be ravaged by enemy forces because of their sin.

Trees and plants would be scorched. Animals would be killed

as armies come through or they'll desert the land.

There'll be no sound of birds chirping because they're gone. They flew away.

And that is what awaits Israel for their sins.

Well God's case wasn't just

against the Israelites. God also brought charges against

the prophets and priests in Israel a little more closer to home

for pastors and teachers. What were God's charges against the

prophets and priests? Charge number one, they were refusing to teach

God's laws. Look at verse 4,

yet let no one contend, let none accuse

for with you is my contention, O priests.

You shall stumble by day, the prophets also shall stumble with you by night

and I'll destroy your mother, mother meaning Israel, not their own

mothers. Says my people are destroyed for lack

of knowledge because you have rejected knowledge. I reject you from being a priest to

me. And since you've forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget

your children. The spiritual leaders were

set apart to teach God's laws to the people.

The prophets were set apart to speak on behalf of God to the people.

And Malachi says the word of a priest's lips should

preserve knowledge of God, to preserve knowledge of God.

And people should go to him for instruction for the priest is the messenger

of the Lord of Heaven's armies.

That was so crucial back then because the Israelites didn't have

their own Bibles like we do. God's word was written on

scrolls and the scrolls were scarce and only the spiritual

leaders had access to them. And so it was imperative that the priests

taught the people the word of the Lord. And it was imperative

the prophets spoke on behalf of God to the people and tell them whether

something good was going to happen or something bad was going to happen. They were responsible

for telling the word of the Lord to the people and they weren't doing it.

Verse 6 says, my people are destroyed

for lack of knowledge. Because you've

rejected knowledge and I reject you from being a priest to me.

The impact of false teaching or lack of teaching God's word

shows up in the way people worship God. Gary Smith

in his commentary on Hosea writes, if God is not presented as redeemer, no one

will come to him for forgiveness. If God is not seen as a sovereign king of the universe

people will not honor and revere him as divine Lord but will treat him as a

casual buddy. If no one knows what God hates

and is ignorant of what pleases him, it is not surprising if people do things

that are contrary to his revealed will. When people do not know

God, they will tend to do whatever seems culturally or socially acceptable.

Doesn't that sound like our world today?

The Israelites didn't know

God. Didn't know anything much about him and they didn't know him personally.

And because of that exchange worship that was due him alone

to worship to praise to Baal and idols and Astra.

Look at verse 12, my people inquire

of a piece of wood. They're reaching out to wood as idols seeking

wisdom from them. And their walking staff

gives them oracles. They're listening to their sticks

for wisdom, for direction. For a spirit of

whoredom has led them astray and they have left their God to play the whore.

They sacrifice on tops of the mountains and burn offerings on the hills under

oak, poplar and terribent because their shade is good. It's talking about the high places

whenever in the Old Testament the high places are talking about those are the pagan places

where they worship and they would go there and worship.

A few weeks ago I saw a video on Facebook of a pastor

leading her congregation in a creed.

Something like we do with a communion statement. We have everybody repeat.

She was doing that with a creed called the sparkle creed.

Anybody know the sparkle creed? I heard the first two sentences

and had to stop watching it. It was so disrespectful

to God and contrary to his word. And this is the

first two sentences I hear. I don't know what the rest of it is because I didn't want to read it. But these are sentences that I

heard. I believe in a non-binary

God whose pronouns are plural. I believe in Jesus Christ

their child who wore a fabulous tunic and had two dads.

That's Biblical

malpractice. That is heresy.

That is the lead of a church taking congregation down a path

of idolatry and disobedience.

You will have no other gods before me. You will not make gods in your

own image. The Ten Commandments. She's taking them right down through that.

Paul described

two thousand years ago to Timothy and what we're

seeing even today. For the time is coming when people will not

endure sound teaching. But having itching ears that will accumulate

for themselves, teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening

to the truth and wander off into myths.

At Cornerstone we unapologetically

preach and teach God's word. Because

we love God we preach His word.

Because we love you and the people who are going to come we preach

God's word because God loves you and He wants you to know His word

and His word is best. We're not going to water

it down. We're not going to ignore it. We teach the whole

counsel of God. In fact that's why we're in Hosea today.

We're in Hosea because Hosea is God's word.

Just as much as the red letter words in the Gospel are

it's God's word. And God's word is there

to reprove and change and make us more like Christ. We need

God's word. Not watered down.

Not minimized. Not ignored.

In Cornerstone you need to know that you

have that if your pastors ever veer off of the truth

you have leaders in the church who will stop it.

Because they also at both campuses

believe that God's word is what we need to hear. And we're only going to preach and teach

God's word in our church. See we don't tailor

God's word to fit us. We look at God's word and tailor our lives

to that. It's the standard. We don't make the standard.

So whether you like something in the Bible or not like Thomas Jefferson he ripped things out of

the Bible and made his own Bible. We don't do that here. God's word is His word

and was made in a loving way with wisdom that far exceeds our

own. And so we submit ourselves to His word.

And that you're coming here is a good thing. And if you know people that go

elsewhere that are going to places that are not teaching God's word or teaching contrary, you

have permission to invite them here. We're not into sheep stealing but

when you're going to a church that's not teaching God's word that is malpractice.

Get them a new doctor.

Now to be a spiritual teacher is very

serious. And God holds teachers to a higher standard

than James writes us. Not many of you should presume to be teachers by

brothers and sisters because you know that we who teach will be judged

more strictly.

See what you teach matters to God. Whether you're a pastor

or an elder or a deacon or a deaconess, a youth leader, a Sunday school

or a children's church teacher, a VBS leader, teacher, a small group

or a discipleship group leader, a mentor, God is

listening. Or a parent in your home.

God is listening and He will hold us accountable for what we teach.

Apostle Paul challenges us, challenges who we teach at this.

Work hard so you may present yourself to God. Approved.

So you might receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed.

And who correctly explains the word of truth.

So we're presenting ourselves to God. He's looking over the teaching.

Are we going to be ashamed or are we going to be approved?

It all determines by how we use God's word and share it.

And then all believers

in Christ are called priests.

Peter says, and you are living stones

that God is building into his spiritual temper. What's more,

you are his holy priests.

Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices

that please God.

See, we as Christians, if you know Jesus Christ, say, Lord, you are a priest

and you represent God to people around you. We live lives

that demonstrate that Jesus is alive and worth living for.

And we're called as holy priests to present

the gospel to others.

Jeff had been a Christian from his young age. Went to his 10 year

high school reunion and he saw a good friend of Randy. And while in conversation

he heard from Randy that he had trusted in Christ. And Jeff was so

excited to hear that he now had a brother in Christ and he celebrated. It was all

great until he turned to remorse when Randy shared that Jeff was the reason

he had not accepted Christ earlier.

See, Randy had watched how Jeff lived his life during high school

and tried to emulate his life. But Randy didn't realize the power

and purpose behind Jeff's life was Jesus because Jeff

never shared the power and purpose behind his life was Jesus.

It took years for Randy to realize

it wasn't Jeff's life that he wanted, but the Jesus

behind Jeff's life that he wanted and he surrendered his life to Jesus.

Are there people in your life? And if you know Jesus Christ,

you're living for him, you have qualities that people want.

I guarantee it. Are you patient? People want that quality.

Are you loving? People want that quality. Are you kind? People want

that quality. Are you self-controlled? People want that quality. Those are

fruit of the spirit. You have those qualities. But the Holy Spirit

gives those to you, right? Do people know why you are

patient? Why you are kind? Do they know that? Do they know

the reason why you are what you are? Do they know that Jesus has

transformed your life?

It doesn't take much. By the way, I used to work in a restaurant

back in college and being joyful as I am. I'd be joyful.

Like, why are you so happy all the time? Like, Jesus Christ is my saver. He makes me happy.

That was all I had to say. More conversations came later.

Let me ask you. God puts you in court.

Would He charge you with withholding the gospel from others?

Would you be guilty of keeping it to yourself?

The priests were keeping God's word from others.

I'm not saying that I'm not. I'm saying that I'm not.

The priests were keeping God's word from others. Are we doing the same?

If you want to share the gospel but don't know how,

talk to one of the pastors, one of the elders, one of the leaders.

Let me just tell you, we all started where you are. We all started where you are.

We didn't know how to do it and we were afraid.

Common thing and we all have. What changed? We got help.

We sought help. We got someone to help us and we took steps.

Do we still get butterflies? Absolutely. It's a spiritual thing.

But don't make that excuse, I can't do this. Take steps to change.

Take steps to do that.

I talk to people and do it regularly and say,

because I love you, I challenge you to share your faith.

Because there's no greater joy than seeing someone

hear the gospel and trust in Christ. And that doesn't happen if we're not talking to people about Jesus.

That's the greatest joy there is. People are going all over the world

sacrificing their life as missionaries so that people would come to know Jesus.

You can have it now. You can have it here without having to leave.

So far away.

The second charge against the spiritual leaders, charge number two is they encourage sinful behavior.

Verse seven.

The more they increase, the more they sin against me. I will change their glory

in the same way I'm talking about the priests. They feed on the sin of my people.

They're greedy for their iniquity and it shall be like people, like priests.

I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds. They shall eat but not be satisfied.

They shall play the whore but not multiply because they have forsaken the Lord to cherish.

The same as the spiritual leaders loved when people sinned.

Because they were in charge of these false

temples and they would have to bring sacrifices in so the more you sin, the better the

sacrifice, the more sacrifice I got. So hey, I'm good with you sinning because you're going to bring a sacrifice

in and I'm going to get some good food out of you.

And the spiritual leaders were allowing

the people to go to shrine prostitutes

and have sex with them as a way to honor the gods.

And instead of speaking out against adultery

with these shrine prostitutes, they'll prove and engage themselves.

And since the spiritual leaders disregard or

forgot God's lies, they did whatever felt good to them.

I'll listen very carefully about

Jesus. He is the most gentle person ever walked this earth. We see

how he is with the vulnerable. He always sought their out their heart

and spoke into their heart and he ministered to them. He's so gentle

and loving. In fact, he calls himself, I am gentle

and lowly in spirit. This is his words

to those who encourage others to sin.

But if you cause one of these little ones who trust to me to fall into sin,

it would be better for you to have a large millstone

tied around your neck and be thrown in the depths of the sea.

Jesus is saying, I would rather have you kill yourself

than take all these people down a wrong path.

These vulnerable people, do away with yourself,

get away, run away, hide, leave everybody alone.

Do not take people down that path.

There's a strong warning for anyone

who wants to minimize God's word or take advantage of the vulnerable

by teaching false views of God, false doctrine,

false views of sexuality and gender.

God is watching. God is holding accountable.

There's consequences for that.

Now we don't have time to go over all the consequences that we found

in chapter 5. I encourage you to read the chapter again later.

But listen to God's description of what was to come.

Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment

because he was determined to go after filth. What a sad

commentary. For I'll be like a lion to Ephraim.

Like a young lion to the house of Judah, I even I will tear away

and go away. I will carry off and no one shall rescue. I will return

again to my place until they all acknowledge their guilt and seek my face

and their distress earnestly seek me. Ephraim is actually

one of the prominent tribes of northern kingdom.

When Hosea uses that, he's referring to Israel.

There's another name for Israel. So when you read that, think Israel.

All the northern tribes.

Now the ultimate consequence for their sins was God

removing himself from the Israelites and removing them from the

land. God would bring the Assyrian army to demolish and overpower

the Israelites and take them away to far off Assyria.

Many would die in that foreign land. But even

that, all the Israelites have done, there's still hope.

For some, we see that in verse 15. Tell they acknowledge their guilt

and seek my face. I'm going to be far away. But until you do,

he would bring them back

one day from the land. For God is faithful and has dead fast

love for his people.

Now what can we apply from this passage from the Old Testament

to us today, 2023?

For that, I'll sell

those notes to those who are interested. $12

and I'll give you the application, alright?

First, repent of your

sins and choose to obey God.

Sin has consequences, right? And for the

Christian, if you're a Christian here, all your sins are forgiven

past, present, and future. And if you're not a Christian here,

trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord and allow him to take your sins.

He went to the cross to carry them for you. Right now, you're carrying them on yourself.

Give them to Jesus, allow him to take those sins and invite him to come and lead

your life so that you can be forgiven of all your sins.

So for the Christian, though all your sins

are forgiven, not all your consequences are removed.

They remain. So sin, though forgiven,

can still cause grave consequences.

See, if I keep sinning, that can harden my heart.

And then I might not listen to God. My ears might close off to God.

And pretty soon I'm going down a road. I never thought I'd go down and one day

I might have to get to the rock bottom and I've hurt many people

including myself because I didn't repent

when I should have.

So if you're walking in sin,

repent and turn back to God

before he has to take steps to humble you.

And he's going to humble you because he loves you.

And the Israelites are being going to be humbled because of his steadfast

love. It's called tough love, right?

Second, make a daily commitment to know God better.

Is God your God?

If he is, how much time are you

spending knowing him and connecting with him?

Unlike the Israelites,

we have Bibles galore at our disposal.

What's keeping you from spending time in his word.

See, there's no greater book that can impact you.

My years of ministry, one of the things I hear

probably most frequently about why I don't read is some people say I don't read very well.

Let me just say that you have the Holy Spirit living inside you.

Do you not think he can help you read?

Do you not think that he can help you understand? And let's say you are reading something

you don't understand. Do you not think there's people in the church who would actually like to help you?

Help you understand it? They would. There's no condemnation.

There's joy in learning together and discovering together. Please do not

say I don't read very well or I don't like to read. God's word

is amazing. And if you haven't read it, you don't know how great it is.

So spend time in it. Get to know God. And the great thing about it is

you are actually meeting with God when you're in his word.

He's there. And there's no other book

better for your soul, better for your heart, better

for your mind, better for your emotions than spending time with God.

And then third,

don't keep the gospel to yourself. Share it

with others. People need us to

share the good news. So who do you have in your circle

of influence that needs to know the good news? And if you have no circle

of influence, we make one. Again,

we're all going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. So what are we going to say

to him? So God has placed you

in people's lives in your circle of influence for a reason. And you have the answers

they need to hear. And it's not like you need this, rather,

the attitude of sharing the good news is we share it with grace

and patience and respecting the person.

Now as you're sharing with them, if they get a wall that comes up, you don't fight

over that wall and push it over, you respect it and you step back and say

maybe it's not the time to keep doing this. Let's talk later.

Don't keep the gospel to yourself.

In the beginning of chapter 4, we see that Israel was going to go

to court with God and the reality is you and I will too.

Everybody in this room,

everybody in this world are going to stand before Jesus. It might be falling before

Jesus, but we're going to be before the judgment seat of

Christ. Those who do not know Jesus will be standing there

and he's going to see if your name is written in the book of life. If it's not written in the book of life because you don't know Jesus

and trust in him, then he's going to send you eternal separation from him in hell.

But if you know Jesus, he's going to be

looking at you, he's going to say what did you do

while in the body? See how you live this

life determines what he says to you. And maybe you haven't

been living for God before. Maybe you've been giving him just a part of you.

Time is the change. This is the time. Do it now. There's still

time to be transformed.

So we live in the Spirit's power and we listen to his direction.

We obey him and you will hear, if you do that, you'll hear the best response

from Jesus himself. Well done, my good and faithful servant.

Enter into your rest. Do you want to hear that? I sure do.

Let's pray.

Have me follow. We thank you for your word.

Have me follow. We thank you for your word.

We thank you for your word.

Your word that

speaks into the very depths of us. Your word that does not return void.

Your word, if we choose to follow

and obey, it will transform us to make us fully pleasing to you.

We are fully pleasing to you positionally

but we're not fully pleasing to you morally in the way we live our lives.

We want to be that way. Lord we ask that we

surrender ourselves to you and ask your spirit to speak

into our lives of the three areas, four areas that we looked at today.

Unfaithfulness, lack of steadfast

love, no knowledge of God, holding

the Bible and the Gospel captive.

Which of these Lord is a concern of yours in our lives?

Which one of these do you want to transform?

Holy Spirit speak to us

and help us obey.

In Jesus' name and in man.

Well the Word of Jesus came up for the last song and this opportunity the altar is open.

This opportunity just to surrender to the Lord whatever he wants you to surrender

to you. There's something special about going forward. You're connecting with the Lord.

There's no judgment here. This is a non-judgment place. If you need someone to pray for you raise your hand

someone will come pray with you but I encourage you to surrender yourself to him whatever

he's speaking of you and say I want you to change this in me.

I want to have you have no case against me

Lord Jesus.