21 Jan

7/22/18    HOSEA 11:1-11    “LET GO AND LET JESUS!”

I would like to begin today by being really sincere.  I feel bad for teens and young adults today.  Here is what I mean.  They have so many things tugging at their emotions that it’s amazing that they can even function.   They have to be the best at everything they do.  They cannot lose or their dignity takes a huge hit.  They don’t realize that they will lose more than they win in life.  So many of them have no real family life as either the dad or mom is missing.  There are many parents that don’t really care.  It’s a tough world out there for them and for all of us.  We make one wrong move and it might affect us negatively for years.  The old saying that you will reap what you sow is so true.  What we need is a way to sow the positives of life and leave the negatives behind.  I would like to show you today that this can be done with the help of Jesus Christ.  This is another hard passage from the Old Testament but it shows the love and compassion of our God.  Even though it looks bleak for Israel, there is a silver lining.  Let’s see if we can grab onto this for ourselves.

Rick Stacy tells this moving, true story of a teen age girl who was raised in Michigan.  This is a very hard story for me to tell.  She felt that her parents were too strict, old fashioned and just didn’t understand a thing about her.  It got to the point where she really hated them so she made a plan to run away.

She figured that her parents would think she went to California or Florida but they would never think of looking in nearby Detroit.  On her second day in Detroit, she gets into the biggest car that she had ever seen with this very nice man.  He gave her some pills to help her feel better.  She felt better than she ever had in her life.  She realizes just how terrible her parents had been as they had been totally stifling her all along.

She lives the so called good life for a year or so.  She is doing all of the terrible things that our imaginations are thinking right now.  Then one day she shows the first sign of illness.  The man who is her boss throws her out.  She now is living on the streets of Detroit with no money, no food and only a newspaper for shelter.  And to make things worse, she needs a fix.

She is in a terrible way and starts to think of home.  Finally, she was so homesick that she called home but only got the answering machine.  This happened again.  Finally, the third time, she leaves the message, “Hi Mom and Dad, it’s me.  I was wondering if maybe I could come home.  I’m going to catch the bus and will be there at midnight tomorrow.  It is all right if you don’t come, then I will just continue on into Canada.”

All the way on the seven hour bus trip, she fretted about how she was going to face her parents.  She was scared to talk to them and she was scared that they might not show up.  After all, she had only left a message.  Finally, she got there and walked into the terminal.  What she saw was the last thing that she ever expected.

A group of about 40 brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, a grandmother, a great grandmother and her parents were waiting for her with ridiculous party hats and noise makers.  There was a huge banner which said, “Welcome Home.”  She found her dad and tried to apologize for her behavior.  He said, “Hush, child.  We have got no time for that stuff or you will be late for your banquet.”

We are going to look today at the minor prophet, Hosea.  The difference between major and minor prophets is that Major Prophets were longer and Minor Prophets were shorter. Hosea was trying to tell Israel that God had the same kind of love for them that these parents had for their daughter.  It is the same love we see in the story of the prodigal son.   The people that Hosea is addressing had never really looked at God as a compassionate God before.  Although they had the oral tradition stories of the love God had for them, the prophets up to this time were pretty much telling them of the wrath of God if they didn’t change their ways.

These were the people of the northern kingdom.  Israel had split after King Solomon into the southern kingdom of Judah where Jerusalem was located and the northern kingdom of Israel.  All the kings of the north had been evil in the eyes of God.  They had made alliances with the wrong people and had continued with their immoral behavior.  As a matter of fact when Hosea was a prophet, which was from about 750 BC to 720 BC, Israel had six kings and four of them were assassinated.  The country was in turmoil.

We don’t know a lot about Hosea except that he was from Israel.  Amos was his contemporary but he was a foreigner from Judah in the south.  It seems that Hosea was a bit of a character as he would go right to the courtyards of the temple to preach.  This had not been done much in the past.  Usually prophets went to kings or priests or someone in charge.

And it seems that Hosea had some sort of right relationship to God.  We can see this as we read this poetic passage.  He likens God to a father with a baby.  This father loves this baby so much.  And what does this child do but grow up a little and then will have nothing to do with the father.  But as angry as this father is, he just cannot find it in himself to throw out the child.  This is the first time that the God was depicted as having the same human emotions as us by the prophets of the era.

One of the sad things that I think of when I look around our world today is how much we are like the nation of Israel and Judah for that matter.  It just breaks my heart when I look at what is going on in Africa today.  We have wars of one religion against another with the results that millions die from starvation.  Greed and power are the only reasons for this.  And what do we do as a nation about all of these atrocities?  We do nothing but cater to the side that will pay us the most.  Do you ever wonder what God is thinking when he sees all of these terrible things happening?

Things like this are also happening in India, China, South America, the Middle East and the United States.  Now you may say, “Wait a minute, Pastor John.  We aren’t killing our own by the millions.”  And you know, technically, you are probably right.  But I’m going to ask you to recall if God makes any differentiation between sins.  If I remember right, to God a sin is a sin.  I look at the Native American Reservations around the country and even right here in North Dakota and I see children who are hungry.  I see elderly people that do not have enough money to heat their homes in the winter.  I see these things and all of the other problems that arise from our neglecting our people.

And it is not just the Native Americans who have it bad.  We only need to look in the Appalachian area to see more hungry people.  We also only need to look at our own inner cities.  As a country, we don’t do very well in helping our neighbors.  We figure that if we hand off the responsibility to some government agency, then we are off the hook.  We would much rather give some money to a charity than go out ourselves and actually physically help people.   We are to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ on earth.  Now let’s get back to the Scripture.

God wants us to follow Him and this is what God wanted the Israelites to do.  In verse 6 God says, “How can I give you up, Ephraim? (Which is Israel)” And in verse 9 He says, “I will not execute my fierce anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim;” This is a beautiful piece of poetry.  God is weaving us through his anger and then he says that He cannot destroy them.  He is revealing himself as a compassionate God.  And this revealing, I think is important.

God has been telling them for centuries that they have to change their ways or there will be trouble.  But they don’t listen.  We don’t listen.  Now here we have God who is saying I will not destroy you totally.  But I will bring you back after you have been destroyed as a nation.  And this brings us to remnant theology.  God remains faithful to the faithful.  Even though Israel and a little later Judah are unfaithful in just about any way that we can think, God will remain with the faithful or the remnant.  What I’m trying to say here is that our country may fall due to all the sin but you don’t have to.  God will be faithful to you as long as you are faithful to Him.

As we read a little in Amos last week, we could see that we really have to look hard in Amos for the Good News.  But Hosea writes about the same time period in a completely different way.  And that is what I would like this message to be all about.  It should be about the Good News.

Tim Zingale tells of a well-known speaker who held up a $20 bill during a seminar of about 200 people.  “Who would like this $20?”  All kinds of hands went up.  He said that he was going to give this bill away to someone.  Then he took the bill and crumpled it up and then asked if anyone still wanted it.  Of course, still the hands went up.  Then he said, “What if I do this?”  He took the bill and put in on the ground.  Then he stomped on it and ground it into the ground.  And still people wanted it.  He told them that they had learned a valuable lesson tonight.  No matter what you do to the $20 bill, people still want it.  It doesn’t decrease in value.  It is still worth $20.

Then he said, “Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt because of decisions that we make.  Sometimes you feel like you are worthless.  But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you do not lose your value.  You are still valuable and not worthless  God will love you whether you are dirty or clean or crumpled or with a fine crease.  God will not give up on you no matter what you do.  All you have to do is turn back to him.  And that was all the Israelites had to do.

And we need to remember this when we go into the mission field also.  In my travels as a pastor I have seen many places where a circle of poverty and despair exist.  People feel that they are worthless and give up.  There are many reasons for this.  Alcoholism is one of the factors as is drug addiction.  And speaking of drug addition, we have a terrible crisis in this country.  They like to call the drug problem an opioid problem because it sounds a little nicer but it’s still the same dirty thing.  The worst part of this problem is the families involved.  Children are taught that these addictions are what will get them out of poverty but they won’t.  Now we have a bunch of people who want to legalize recreational marijuana!  Can’t we see that this is part of the problem?  Can you see Satan working here?

People, there is a mission field right outside your door.  We have to stop going along with what our corrupt and evil society tells us.  We have to stand up for our rights as humans.  I think one of those rights is for our children to be able to grow up in a drug free environment.  So what I’m saying here is don’t be afraid to stand up for these principles.  Most of the time if you even get a rebuttal it will be all hot air with no substance.  And if you are wondering where you find this substance, then open your Bibles.  If you don’t have one, then go online and download one now.  It is great reading.

The Bible is the way to combat any type of sin.  Prayer is also a way to help you through tough times.  You also need a place to worship.  Watching what we put on line here is a start in the right direction.  I will never try to mislead you when it comes to faith.  Some of you watching might be one of the young people that I referred to earlier.  Maybe you don’t have a church tradition.  I remember when I first became a Christian at age 40 I had no church tradition.  I had to ask God how to pray.  He told me that I was doing it, praying by asking Him.  These things aren’t hard to do.  Take at least 5 minutes every day to do a little Bible reading.  It will be life changing.  Also take 5 minutes to pray every day.  Of course more is better but just do this to start.  I guarantee that this will help you.  Many people suffer from loneliness, depression and other anxiety disorders in our modern world where the normal speed is wide open.  Whether you are a developer or designer or student or something else, try Jesus.  He was and is the best thing I ever did.  It begins by confessing your sins and asking Him to live inside of your heart.  Then just follow His soothing love.  I put these services up here because I want what is the very best for you and that very best is Jesus.  Don’t be afraid to let go and let Jesus.

I have always loved the story that comes at the end of the book of John.  Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me more than these?”  And Peter replies, “You know that I love you.”  Then Jesus says, “Feed my lambs.”  Then Jesus asks again, “Peter, do you truly love me?”  And Peter answers, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”  To which Jesus replies, “Take care of my sheep.”  And a third time Jesus asks, “Peter, do you love me.”  And a third time Peter replies, “Lord, you know all things.  You know that I love you.”  And Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.”  When Jesus says something it is important.  When he repeats something, it is really important.  When He says something three times, we are to be obedient.

We have many unchurched and unbelieving people in our midst.  Jesus is telling us to feed them.  We are to feed them whatever they need.  We are to be an extension of Jesus Christ in this world.  So let’s feed those sheep and build the kingdom of God as only He wants it.  Everyone deserves a chance at His love.  Let’s offer this love and watch the miracles happen.  Praise the Lord and thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.