Matthew Weber: y’all got your bibles with you got your bibles pull your bible out and turn to the book of hosea turn to the book of hosea if you don’t mind and we’ll spend some time there together I’m a church planter in northern Wisconsin. I had the privilege of planning a church about four years ago. We just celebrated our fourth anniversary, so we’re in our fifth ministry year.

I did not grow up in a Christian home. I did not have the privilege of being raised in a good Bible-believing church. I didn’t have any of those privileges.

I got saved at the age of 28 out of a lifestyle of drugs and alcohol. And I spent my life hating God and running from Him and wondering why He was hurting me so. And now I have the privilege, like Brother Basler mentioned in our last session, to be used of the Lord and to preach God’s word.

And I’m excited for that opportunity. I trust you’ve come today ready to hear from what God has for us this morning. Part of the problem that I have in our session here today is I like to bring people into my personal journey.

I’ve been on quite a journey over the last several years of my life, really just trying to understand what God’s doing in my life, trying to navigate some things. And I feel like oftentimes we get into a setting like this and you young people catch the brunt of some tough preaching sessions. So I’m going to talk this morning and preach to you from Hosea chapter number 4 about the children of Israel.

And let’s read a passage and then let’s pray and let me ask you a few questions here as we get started. Notice in verse 4, we’ll just read the first verse. It says, Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel.

For the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. And this morning, I want to preach just a simple message about our love relationship with the Lord, and talk about that. That’s really on the heart of God here this morning.

So let’s do that, and let’s pray here. Lord Jesus, thank you for the privilege of having these young people. Thank you for this conference and this opportunity to gather together.

I pray that this session will be a time where we can meet with you and we can find your heart and we can find out more about what you’re doing in our lives. And Lord, that we could walk with you today. Lord, we love you.

We thank you in Jesus’ name. Amen. My title for our message is normally The Controversy.

We’ll see how that works out. I don’t really care about a title. Again, I didn’t grow up in a pastor’s home or in a Christian home or anything like that.

So I’m not one of those people who are stuck to three points in a poem or even a title. So if you’re looking for any of that in my messages, you’re going to have a hard time finding some of those things. But let me just ask a few questions here this morning, especially of our young people.

Do any of you desire to get married? Raise your hand, please, if you don’t mind. Okay, some of you do.

Some of you don’t. That was really weird. Okay.

does anybody want to have a spouse who’s faithful raise your hand okay good that’s good some of you who want to get married didn’t raise your hand on the second one that was weirder but uh okay uh hey actually i was thinking in that last session brother bosler mentioned that one of the sodas has orange juice in it right mountain dew and so that is a good reason a good plea before our parents and My wife, right?

I should tell her I should have that every morning with my breakfast. Vitamins and minerals and all that good stuff that’ll help with colds. And that’s a good breakfast drink, I think, Mountain Dew.

But anyway, so we’re talking about a little bit about marriage, because if you understand the book of Hosea, it’s about a marriage. And we should all aspire to one day, Lord willing, get married. And in that marriage relationship, it should be a covenant relationship between a husband and a spouse where they’re faithful to one another.

Wouldn’t you agree? And wouldn’t it hurt? Wouldn’t it hurt if your spouse one day just walked out on you?

Imagine for a minute you’re in a covenant relationship with the woman of your dreams.

you have several children together let’s just say three and over the the last 10 years of birthing those children and and all of a sudden one day after 10 years of marriage and and and three children your wife just gets up and walks out the door and it is known now in the community that she is having relationships with other men what do you think about that see it’s funny I asked that question and we all kind of wrestle through it a little bit, but

you know, the reality is, is in our culture, that’s almost becoming kind of a normal everyday kind of thing.

In fact, marriage is becoming less of a thing that happens, but I’m explaining here to you and helping you to understand the story for which we’re pulling from. If you’ve read Hosea chapters one through three, and I apologize, fellow, you’re going to have a hard time here. I’ve got really big feet and you’re right in my way and you’re going to get stepped on surely.

The rest of them just tuck their feet under the thing. I did gain a few pounds since last year too. So anyway, Hosea’s chapter one through three, give us an illustration about a prophet named Hosea.

Are you familiar with the prophet Hosea? He’s a prophet to the, what we would call the northern kingdom of Israel in a time when the children of Israel, their kingdoms have split. So you’ve got the southern kingdom, which is Judah, which is the line of David.

And then you have the northern kingdom, which is the children of Israel. And this is Hosea. He’s a prophet.

He’s a man of God speaking to this group of people. And I don’t know about you, but when I read the prophets, I think, man, I’m so glad I am not an Old Testament prophet. You know, one of the Old Testament prophets had to eat feces.

I don’t like doing that. One of the Old Testament prophets had to shave half of his hair off. No.

We’ve seen the pranks, right? They post them on YouTube and all that stuff. Guy wakes up and half of his head’s shaved off and we all laugh.

But they weren’t laughing at him. One of the prophets, he had to shake. You know, all these weird things.

I’m like, man, I’m so glad I’m a New Testament preacher. Because like Hosea here, he had a hard task in front of him. God told him, I want you to go and marry a wife of the children of Hortums.

He told him that his wife, he wants to go marry this woman, and what she’s going to do is she’s going to, after a certain period of time, she’s going to get up and she’s going to walk out on you. And this picture in chapter 1, 2, and 3 of this marriage between Hosea and Gomer, and by the way, I’m going to tell you right now, at some point I’m going to say Homer, and you can laugh now, it’s not the Simpsons, it’s Gomer.

or that’s who I mean, and it’s just, they get the two confused sometimes. And anyway, she walked out on him. And he knew it was going to happen.

And I’m just so glad because, boy, I would struggle with that, wouldn’t you? I would struggle if I got married, and I entered into a covenant relationship with my wife, and my wife couldn’t be here, but I wish you could see her. And we’ve been together for, we’re going on, we just celebrated eight years.

And I’m excited. We’ve got four beautiful children. I couldn’t imagine coming home from this conference and having known my wife walked out of me and was committing adultery with different men in the community.

That would be a hard, hard moment for me. So I’m glad I’m not Hosea. And when we get into our chapter number four here, and I’m just trying to give you a little bit of what’s happening.

So when you read the book of Hosea, you filter everything you read through this illustration. You’ve got this man who married this woman and entered into a covenant relationship. And this relationship is supposed to be for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, till death do us part.

And at some point between chapter number one and chapter number three, she walked out after certain so many years. Chapter three tells the story of how he bought her back. He had to purchase her back.

And chapter number four begins the story of this application of this illustration into the life of the children of Israel. We’re there in chapter four and we’re reading in verse one and it says, hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel. For the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land because there is no truth, no mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.

I wanted this morning, I want to articulate a handful of facts that God lays out. A controversy is an open or public dispute. God has a dispute with the children of Israel.

And oftentimes what we need to do when we come to passages like this and say, Lord, do you have a dispute with me? Do you have a controversy with me? Is there an application from this text of Scripture that you want to bring into my life, a way you want to help me?

Is there a controversy with me? He’s going to lay out a handful of facts. We’ll look at them here, and then we’ll look at a few more things.

So here we go. Are you ready? Fact number one.

These people were not having a personal relationship with God. Now remember, there is supposed to be a covenant relationship. The illustration of the husband and wife is also a picture of the children of Israel and their God.

It is also a picture for our New Testament believer of the personal relationship that we’re to have with Jesus Christ. So as we think about this husband-wife relationship that went awry, he’s making the illustration that it is their God and these people. And it is the application that you and I hear today that God may have a controversy with one, many, or most of us.

And he’s going to lay out those facts. and here’s fact number one. They weren’t having a personal, intimate relationship with him.

You see that in verse number one. In the land, there was neither truth nor mercy nor the knowledge, the personal or intimate knowledge of God. In this land, there was people not engaged in a personal, intimate relationship.

Now, let me pause here for a moment and help us to understand something. Young people, I know you’re young and you’ve got a lot of things on your mind and you’re navigating hard, different aspects of life, and all of you come with different perspectives on different things, but I want to share with you two simple truths that will be a real help to you here today. Number one, you were created to have a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.

Each and every one of us. And it doesn’t matter if you’re lost or if you’re saved, as mankind was created to have fellowship with their creator. So your life itself represents the reality that you are to have a real relationship with Jesus Christ, day in and day out.

Now, because of sin, we understand because of sin, that relationship was broken. We can go back to Genesis and read in the garden about the garden experience where the enemy came in and he tricked Adam and Eve, and Adam willfully chose to walk away from God’s instruction, and that brought sin onto mankind, and because of that sin, that relationship was severed. God had to kick mankind out of the garden, and mankind now suffers under the labor and the burden of sin.

And here in our text, we’re finding that this illustration of this husband and wife that lays out in the life of the children of Israel is that they were supposed to be, in God’s expectation, is that they were supposed to be having a relationship with him. It says there was no truth. There was nobody that was trustworthy.

There was no trust happening and nobody speaking truth. So when you were to go up and talk to a friend or a neighbor or somebody in your community, the things that they were saying weren’t trustworthy. You weren’t sure if they were lying or if they were telling the truth.

Doesn’t that sound familiar today? Have you ever watched the news? You’re wondering if they’re telling the truth?

There’s no truth in the land. There’s no mercy. This also could be said in a way that there’s no charity.

There’s no compassion. There’s no love breaking forth in the community. Sounds like our world today.

Gun violence is on the rise. Personal violence is on the rise. Hate because of gender.

Hate because of race. Hate because of political stance. Hate because of church.

All kinds of things. There’s no mercy in the land. And it goes down even further and God says, nor is there knowledge of God in the land.

The idea here is that of a personal knowledge. No reality of God, the creator. There’s no knowledge of his nature nor his works.

There’s nothing of God happening in our community. Everything’s woe is me. It’s kind of like there’s this big dark cloud hanging over everything.

We were saved for an intimate, personal relationship with God. And I want to attest to you this morning that you are supposed to be having, as a Christian, a personal, intimate relationship with God. And you have to, at some point in your life, have made a decision.

Are you in a covenant relationship with God today? Are you born again? Are you on your way to heaven?

Brother Basler mentioned that this morning in the message. And let me ask you, young people, has there been a time in your life where you’ve put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? Okay, if you have, let me just say this, you’ve entered into a covenant relationship.

And what has happened in that covenant relationship is not that you promised to do your best for Jesus Christ and hope one day that somehow he would allow you, based on your good works to get you into heaven. That’s not what happened at all. You came as a dead man to a living God.

And because of your sin and the sinfulness of your life, you had to put your faith in the saving grace, the ability to do for you what you could never do for yourself of Jesus Christ. You put your faith in the saving grace of Jesus Christ on the cross, and you put yourself at the very mercy of his life. And in that decision to put yourself at his mercy, he then gave you what you didn’t have, life.

He restored you back to the very thing for which you were created, a relationship with God. You know, we’re supposed to be ambassadors. We heard about that.

I think I heard that somewhere. I was at a missions conference on Monday and the preacher was talking about being an ambassador. And, you know, we’re supposed to be ambassadors and we’re supposed to be reconciling and have the ministry of reconciliation.

We have this word of reconciliation. we have this ministry of reconciliation. What’s the point of all of that?

Well, we’re reconciling a lost world back to a relationship with Jesus Christ. So what’s my point? My point is this.

It’s just like a husband and a wife, you have entered into a covenant relationship. And this relationship is based on a purchase. Jesus purchased you with his own blood.

And it’s not that you owe God anything because you could never repay God for what he gave you. but you made a commitment to his life. Let me ask you today have you been faithful to your commitment?

Because the controversy that God had with the children of Israel is they weren’t faithful to the commitment that they made that he was their God. I wonder today if God were to lay out the controversy and start off with number one fall victim to the fact that you’re not having a personal intimate relationship with God, the God of your salvation? Now, what I’m not asking you here today is if you go soul winning.

I’m not asking you if you spend, you know, hours on your knees in prayer. I’m not asking you if you go to church or what kind of music you listen to. I’m not asking you what church you go to or who your pastor is.

I’m not asking you what Bible version you have. I’m not asking you what your personal standards are with clothes and different things like that. I’m asking you if you have a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ and if you’re nurturing that.

Do you know what a relationship is? You know, it’s funny. I often ask Christians on a regular basis, do you know what it means to have a personal relationship with somebody?

And I get one of two responses. Usually, deer in the headlights. I was driving home Monday from that admissions conference.

We had a lot of deer in the headlights. And you know what they look like? Ah!

Ah! And you know what my wife looked like? Ah!

And you know what I look like? Brrr! I got a truck, so it’s fun to try to know.

You got to stay off the people’s yards. That’s just kind of, you know, anyway. What does it mean to have a personal, intimate relationship with God?

What’s it like to nurture a covenant relationship? And the sad thing about it is a lot of Christians don’t even know. Or, on the other hand, you get the other ones who say, well, yeah, I know how to nurture a relationship with God.

You know, I get up in the morning and I have my devotions and then I go soul winning and I go to church and I go to chapel and I do this and I do that and I wear these clothes and I listen to this music and I do all these works of self-righteousness. Do you know a relationship in its very essence is built upon trust? You want to build a relationship with God, then you need to first off have a relationship of trust.

Do you know that’s an essential part of a covenant relationship? When a husband reaches out and extends his arm in marriage to a wife, he’s saying, I trust you with all my heart. When you asked Jesus Christ to be your Savior, you reached out not with an extended arm as though you were bringing him into your life.

You reached out with a clinging grasp that you were accepting him as everything that you had. You know, there’s a word in the Bible that says, trust in the Lord with, wait, what was that? All of what?

All thine heart. So not part of my heart. So if I’m going to have a relationship with God, then I need to trust God with how much of my heart?

Help me out again. All of my heart. So that means that everything that I do and everything that is happening in my life and every part of my heart, which, by the way, heart and mind are synonymous terms in the Scripture.

It’s not somehow your pumper here is different. It’s your mind. It’s the way you think.

It’s the way you respond. It’s how you navigate life’s scenarios. It’s where you’re going to go to school.

It’s why you make the decisions you make. you’re putting your faith and you’re putting your trust wholly dependent upon God. And when you got saved, that was the time where that kind of life began.

One day, putting your faith in Jesus Christ to be your Savior, and the next day continuing in that. And every day, Paul calls it a walk, doesn’t he? As you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.

Let me ask you, how’s your personal relationship with God going because the Bible says to trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding, okay? Heart and mind are explained as the way you think. Don’t lean on the way you think.

Don’t trust in the way that you’re doing things. Lean on God. Trust in Him.

Well, where do you find out God’s word, God’s will, and God’s ideas for your life? Right here. You know, I don’t read my Bible in the morning because I’m trying to fulfill some plan on a piece of paper.

I get up in the morning because I want to hear the heart of God and I have to take a step of faith and trust in Him. And how am I going to know how to trust Him if I can’t hear His voice? When’s the last time you took a trusting step towards Jesus Christ?

How’s your relationship with Him? Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understandings, but in some of thy ways acknowledge him. Just some, and if you can do some, it’ll be okay.

Do you get it, folks? If you’re going to have an intimate personal relationship, a covenant relationship with God that’s going to amount to anything in this world, if you’re going to have a relationship with a husband like a husband does with a wife, then it needs to be built upon trust. Listen, you can talk to your pastors and you can talk to your parents.

You find a husband and wife that don’t trust each other. I’ll tell you right now, that is a very broken relationship. And you find a group of New Testament Christians who are not trusting in Jesus Christ, that is a very broken relationship.

But not only a personal relationship is built on trust, this relationship is also built on love. You know, I read in my Bible over and over again, and you could probably find it in your Bible too, I hope we have a very similar word of God, And, you know, in Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse number 4, you know, the Bible tells us that, here, O Israel, at our house we say, here, O Webbers.

We put our name in there because my little two-year-old, he can say the verse and he likes to say Webbers. Here, O Webbers, the Lord our God is one Lord. Not all these graven images.

You know, your cell phone, your tablet, your friends, you know, all those things. He’s one God. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord with some of your heart when you have time and when it’s convenient for you.

Not at all. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, soul, right? With all thine heart, with all thine soul, and as my family says, and with all thy might.

That means everything you’ve got. A husband and a wife are to pour their lives into each other in a covenant relationship. I wonder, are you pouring your heart into Jesus Christ?

Is Jesus getting everything from you? Does he have all of your heart? as a husband would expect from his wife, as God expected from Israel, as Jesus wants from you, does he have everything?

Does he have it all? Are you giving him everything? Or is it just sometimes when it’s convenient at a service like this or in youth group or whenever it works out?

I mean, pastor, come on, give me a break here. I’m a kid, I can’t even think straight. No, but you can read, I think, and if you can’t, somebody can help you.

and you want to know what the Bible’s not written to scholars it’s written to Christians and if you’re a Christian it’s written to you and God gave you somebody who can help you to understand it as he’s called the Holy Spirit and in Deuteronomy 6 4 and then in Matthew I think it’s Matthew 20 something and I can’t think straight sometimes that’s one of the problems I have and a lawyer came up to Jesus he was going to tempt him he wanted to trick him

and he says so what’s the greatest, the law, the greatest thing, and what’s the greatest commandment, Jesus?

Okay, that’s the Matt Weber version. He says, oh, that’s easy. I don’t even have to think about that.

You’ve got to wear these clothes and go to this church and listen to this music. That’s what he said. That’s the greatest commandment.

That’s how you’re going to nurture a relationship with me. That’s how everybody’s going to know you’re a Christian, because you put on your makeup and your costumes for Sunday, and then you go off and do something completely different. That’s what supposed to do.

He said, no. To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. He says, on this hangs all the law and the prophets.

He says, you can’t find a better thing in the Bible. You want to understand something, you need to understand this relationship between a husband and a wife the way that God made it. And God said it’s built upon trust with all your heart and love with all your heart.

So I’m just wondering today, I don’t know, and I would assume you guys are all really spiritual because you’re here. How’s your relationship with God? Because man, I’m telling you right now, fact number one is pretty simple.

These people were not having an intimate relationship with God and they were God’s covenant people. Are you God’s covenant people? Did Jesus purchase you?

Are you supposed to be having a relationship that’s built upon trust and unconditional love? I mean, didn’t Jesus show how much he loves you? Didn’t he?

Come on, help me out here. For God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, even in your lost condition, before you even knew Jesus Christ as your personal savior, before any of that happened, when you were so hellbound, so rebellious against God, Which, by the way, I don’t really believe there’s really a rebel in this room today. I think a lot of you just don’t even know what a real intimate relationship is.

I think oftentimes Jesus is presented as a ticket out of hell, and therefore when you get your ticket, you’ve got everything you need. Instead of understanding that Jesus isn’t a ticket out of hell, my friends, Jesus is life and life eternal, and he came to give us life and bring us back into an intimate relationship. Man, I think Jesus is wonderful.

Listen, people like me who get saved out of the world, and we walk into settings like this and we go, oh, man, this is confusing to me. I don’t get this. Gomer.

Everywhere. You grew up in Christian homes. You’ve got people who pray for you.

You’ve got pastors who plead with you. You’ve got all these amazing opportunities. And like an unfaithful spouse, so many just turn their back on Jesus.

In your worst condition, in your furthest condition from Jesus Christ, he poured out his love for you. And here we sit. There’s no knowledge of God in the land.

Notice in the second fact, he says, by swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break out and blood touches blood. The idea there is the sin in the land, the things that are happening in their lives, changed in magnitude. They became increasingly worse.

And we see here that when you begin to walk in darkness and the further away you get from God, the greater your sin gets. I heard a story the other day of a young man who grew up in Ohio, and I don’t have anything against Ohio. I think there’s some really good deer hunting down there.

I’d love to go sometime. And I’m not big on their college football team because I think the Badgers are better, but we can talk about that later. And there was a young man named Jeff.

He grew up in a home where his dad and his mom had real big problems. His dad would yell at his mom, and they’d get into these fights. They eventually got divorced.

Jeff had a brother. But by the age of six, Jeff began to struggle, and he began to struggle with the anger that he had towards this whole situation. He says he couldn’t control.

He was burdened about control. He’s six years old, and he began to struggle with controlling life. And then he began to fascinate about playing with dead animals.

And then from there, it went into thoughts of homosexuality, and his life began to progressively get worse and worse. And in the interview that I saw, the guy says, well, didn’t you talk to your dad? He says, oh, no, I could never talk to my dad.

And he looked at his dad and he says, he could never talk to you about this stuff? He says, nope, not in my house. He couldn’t talk to you about the thoughts of homosexuality?

He says, no, not in our house. Do you think it’s wrong to be a homosexual? And he says, if you believe the inspired word of God.

And I thought, that’s interesting. I wonder if his dad’s a Christian. Do you know Jeff ended up in prison for some really bad stuff?

Because his sin got exceedingly sinful. It began to break out after that year. Yeah, we know him as Jeffrey Dahmer.

Some of you don’t know who I’m talking about, but he’s a serial murderer right here in the city of Milwaukee. And I just wonder, what if his dad would have talked to him? What if his dad would have sat him down and said, son, I’m burdened for you.

If he believed the word of God about homosexuality, didn’t he believe the word of God about the other promises in the word of God? What about you? You think it’s okay to lie and steal and cheat and do all the things?

I mean, go down the list. Swearing, lying, killing, stealing, committing adultery, all these things. Listen, if those things are nothing to you, they’re only going to get increasingly worse.

they’re only going to change in magnitude as the darkness gets darker. You know, when you’re walking in the light, just a touch from one of these things, just a thought, just the impulse to take something that’s not yours. Boy, I get convicted sometimes by taking a paper clip out of my wife’s desk when she’s homeschooling.

I’m like, am I supposed to be doing this? Are my kids watching? Some of you don’t have any problem, like we heard in the last session, doing in sinful activity that should never be named among Christians.

People who are in a covenant relationship with God. But notice the third fact. Not only is there no relationship, sin multiplies greatly.

Sorry if I didn’t mention that. Number three, the fact that sin affects more than just you. Notice it says in verse number three, therefore the land shall mourn and everyone that dwelleth therein shall languish and the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven and yea the fishes of the sea will also be taken away.

I saw a report in the news the other day that there’s now a fish that’s an aggressive species that can actually live outside of water. They found it, I think, in Georgia. I hope they keep it in Georgia.

And we got the flying carp up here. We don’t need anything else. We don’t need any of that other stuff.

It’s weird stuff. But man, we’ve got some weird things happening in this land, don’t you think? Our land is mourning.

I wonder why our people are so sick. I believe there has something to do with, and we can talk about it later, the sin of high-bred seeds. And we can talk about that if you want to have a conversation.

For some of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, that’s okay. It has to do with the food you eat. The Bible talks about not mixing seeds.

Our farmers do it all the time. Why? Because we need to get more yield.

Why do we need to get more yield? Well, because it’s not worth as much. And I’ll tell you right now, we just had in the news, Donald Trump made a great deal with China that’s going to increase our soybeans and all that stuff.

You watch. It’s not getting better. Listen, those things don’t make it better.

You know what makes the land better? When Christians have a personal, intimate relationship with God. That’s what makes the land better.

You want to see a mourning land, a land like we have here in America? Well, you want to see a land that mourns like we do? It’s a Christian country that’s no longer Christian.

It’s Christians who are letting unbelievers take God out of our public schools, take God out of the public square, take God out of everything, and we just sit here and pretend like it’s okay. Why? Because we don’t have an intimate relationship with God anyway.

We don’t trust God, and if we trusted God, anything could be done, right? We don’t love God with all our hearts, so therefore he can’t lead us to do the things that God wants us to do. Your sin affects more than just you.

You know, when a young man looks at pornography, he’s not ruining his heart and his life. He’s ruining the life of his future spouse. When some of you young people engage in sexual activity outside of the marriage covenant, you’re not ruining just your life and her life.

You’re defrauding people. When you embrace bitterness into your life and anger and hatred, and they call it murder in the Bible, You’re defiling yourself and others. You are not an island to yourself.

And I want, you know, you will reap what you sow. And I am pleading with you today. God can cut that stuff off at the pass.

Listen, Gomer’s dad, you go look up his name there. It’s in chapter 1 and verse number 3. You go look it up.

It means adulterer. And he gave adultery to his daughter.

it goes down through the through the family line fact number four your relationship with God verse number four if you’re not having one you begin to turn on other people notice in verse four let no man strive nor reprove another for thy people are as they that strive with the priest every preacher’s favorite verse y’all like lunch don’t worry about it today I was back there I told the ladies don’t worry about lunch today we don’t need it you ever had roast preacher for lunch

one of the most delicious meals Christians ever ate I’ve sat at the table before You know, I was a new Christian.

I didn’t know him. He sat down and I thought it was just a normal meal. We just sit around and then the conversation turned and ever so quickly.

And it was a scrumptious meal. And the flesh enjoyed every bite. You want to know why those kinds of meals happen?

Maybe not at your kitchen table, but when you guys get together on your social media platforms and your little groups in the lobbies and in your youth groups’ corners and circles, out on your activities and out in your different places where you gather. You want to know why all this stuff happens? Because you’ve walked away from a relationship with Jesus Christ.

God says, these are the facts. I’m just laying them out here. I mean, they’re not that complicated.

nobody in your life knows about Jesus Christ because you’re not having an intimate relationship with him. And sin is becoming seeingly sinful in your life. Why?

Because you’re walking in darkness. And the further away you get, the worse it gets. It changes in magnitude.

You’re not just ruining your life. You’re ruining the lives of everybody around you. And you’re even striving with the truth giver.

Somehow you’re more spiritual than they are. I find it fascinating after services and again I’m in a church plant so we attract all kinds of strange people and especially in northern Wisconsin there are a lot of strange people and it’s just funny after the service you can almost count on it people come up and what do they want to do?

they want to strive with the truth giver they want to tell you about how off you are and how wrong you are and I feel sad for some of you because you go home with them and you have to listen to them you see these are the facts that God lays out about his controversy how’s that relationship with Jesus Christ going and let me ask you this how would you respond if God laid that out for you if God sat here today and said I

have a controversy with this group of people here you’re supposed to be my people and you’re supposed to walk with me in a covenant relationship you said Jesus saved me and I did and I purchased you off the slave block of sin you are now mine it’s not that I just put my arm around you and said okay hey buddy go out and have a good time you’re mine in fact I didn’t just bring you alongside of me I brought you into my very life

you are part of me the two became one flesh as it were if God were to present this truth to you and said you are my people and you’ve been called to that kind of relationship but nobody in the land knows about God there’s no truth and there’s no mercy and sin has become exceedingly sinful and you’re not just touching your own life, you’re touching the lives of other people.

And hey, by the way, you’re striving with the truth givers in your life and you’re not responding to the things. And how would you respond if God were doing that for you today, right here, right now? If he sent somebody to tell you that, what would you do?

I can tell you what they did look at verse 6 my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge now they did not know what was going on because you read the next phrase because they rejected it they rejected the knowledge you know what they did? they stiff-armed God They said, no, that’s not us. That’s not what we’re doing.

We’re doing the right thing. We’re walking with our God. We know what we’re doing.

We don’t need to hear from you. We don’t need this prophet. Who does he think he is?

Some holier than thou, this, that, and the other thing. And you go down the list of the swearing and all the stuff that they would do. And I’m sure you could think of a few choice words that they would have.

I’m sure you’ve said them. They rejected him. They pushed him away and they said, get out of here.

You don’t even know what you’re talking about. We’re the children of God and we know what we’re talking about. Hey, listen, I’ve got my ticket to heaven.

That’s all I need. Is that all you got? Well, I’d be worried for some of you if that’s all you got.

They rejected knowledge. Look down at verse number eight. They ate up the sin of my people and they set their heart on iniquity.

Not only did they reject truth, but then they set their heart on iniquity. They said, you know what, I’m giving myself to this. I’m wholly given to this.

We’re totally going this way. I don’t care what that preacher says. I’m going to sit back here and I’m going to scowl and I’m going to scorn and I’m going to pretend like I’m playing on my phone and I’m going to pretend like I’m not listening and I’m going to pretend Jesus Christ, friends, died for your sin.

He gave his life so that you could no longer be dead, but alive unto him. And you’re going to sit there and pretend like it’s okay to be an unfaithful spouse. Can I use maybe some terms that would maybe be a little bit more helpful for our group here?

A prostitute. yeah it’s a tough word a dirty word a yucky word what what God’s people should it ever be so? Verse 10.

Look at that last phrase. Because they left off to take heed to the Lord. They just walked away.

We’re done with you. We got no time for this. We’re out of here.

See, I’ll date myself here a little bit. Talk to the hand. talk to the hand we ain’t got no time for you get out of here truth giver you liar you’re a false prophet you ain’t got none for me is that what you’re going to call me listen I’ve been out in the world I know what it’s like You guys think it’s fun to toy around with this stuff.

You ain’t got no idea. I’ve had guys hold knives to my throat. I’ve seen it all.

Been there, done that. You guys have no idea what it’s like when things start going south really bad and you’re in a place where you cannot leave or get away. You don’t know what it’s like to walk into a party and be the guy they were waiting for so they could jump you in the back.

you don’t know what it’s like to be in a place where everybody there has got a gun and they’re not afraid to use it if you say the wrong word you don’t know what it’s like to be a group of people who are just wandering around and one day the Assyrians come upon them and totally destroy them yeah that’s what happened to these people so my plea to you today is pretty simple it’s not complicated you got your Bible flip open and let’s look at it.

I would, if we had more time, I’d talk to you about the things that they got into. It says that they asked counsel at their stocks and that word there is wood. They had like wood.

Like a piece of wood. There’s not even a piece of wood up here. Like a piece of wood.

They were asking counsel and then they got an answer back from a stick. They were talking to wood. their relationship with God was so far and so distant, they started talking to wood.

I had to laugh. I read that. I thought, this is just amazing.

These people had gotten so far away from God and their relationship was so dysfunctional, they don’t even see it, they started talking to wood. Obviously, they made it look good. They carved eyes in it and they made mouths and they carved little ears and they put makeup on it and they dressed it up to make it look like something.

What do you talk to instead of God? Who are you having a relationship with? Your phone?

Don’t you have enough imaginary friends? Verse 1 of chapter 6. Hosea.

Come. Oh, I love this part, don’t you? Come, the invitation.

Let us return to the Lord, for he hath torn, and he will heal us. He hath smitten, and he will bind us up. He will revive us.

Listen, young people, Jesus Christ is not walking away from you. He is not casting you out. He is not forgetting about you.

He is very much waiting and calling to you today. Come. Come.

I’m going to bind you up. God’s been doing that in my life, man. I’m telling you, healing all kinds of really bad things that have happened in my life.

And I’m so excited about my relationship with the Lord. He’s healing trust issues that I have. And love issues that I have.

And honesty issues that I have. He can do the same for you. You know, I’m excited here today because the plea to you has come.

And the question is, will you? Or will you say, no thanks. I’m just fine.

I’ll be okay. I’ve got my wood. And I would say, why be Gomer?

Why be Gomer when Hosea is there to rescue you? Hosea also means salvation. So Hosea came to find Gomer and where did he find her?

As a prostitute on the slave block of sin. Shackled and standing, as it were, exposed for everybody to see her shame. look my friends look at the shackles around your wrists look at the cold concrete upon which you stand look at your life it exposes your shame and Jesus says come all of that for you.

Will you this morning come? Let’s pray.