Well, thanks Chris. Well, good morning. Good evening. If you're joining with us via
video. My name is Drew Worsham and I'm the campus pastor here at Resonate and
man, it's really good to be here. Thank you Vandals University Idaho and Central
Washington Wildcats. Man, it's really sweet that you guys are able to join us
via video and if you guys didn't know this for the first time to be here. I love
the fact that we are a church. It doesn't just meet here, but we have five
different sites. One church, five different sites kind of spread throughout
Washington and so it's really sweet to be joined by some other campuses. And so
man, I'm pumped about these next few weeks that we have together. Josh and I,
we have a friend of a friend who a couple years ago, I remember him giving us a
call and telling us this really outlandish story. He travels full-time for a
living and he was in Atlanta, Georgia, hanging out and doing some business and
so the evenings they have off and so he in that evening just kind of strolls
down to the bar and the hotel and he's just kind of hanging out and just kind
of just killing time and a young lady approaches him and I know it's as
different in the south. The fellow should always do the approaching and but
she approaches him and offers to buy him a drink and for whatever reason he's
like, sure, why not? And this, this, our friend takes this drink and and then
blacks out. That's all he remembers. That's it, like lights go out, done. And
all of a sudden he fast-forward, he wakes up inside of his hotel room, okay? A bit
confused, a little dazed, like what just happened and as he starts to put the
pieces together, he realizes he's not actually in his bed, he's actually in the
bathtub, completely covered with ice and right next to him there's a sign that
says, don't move, just call 911. And so he and with his hands very shaky because
of how cold it is, reaches for the phone, calls 911 and begins to explain what
what's going on and the lady on the other line is strangely calm and is
strangely familiar with this story and so she begins to go, hey sir would you
just reach behind you, do me a favor and can you feel a tube coming out of your
lower back? And he does just that and she says okay, exactly what I thought, we've
got the ambulance there on their way to you. As ambulance got there, they began
to explain that he was the first or not the first, he was later on in many cases
of organ thieves that would go to these bars, they would sit a pretty woman with
a drink with drugs, would black them out and they would remove their kidney or
some other organ and then sell it on the black market. Now, you've probably heard
that story before and that's because it's not real. It's what we call an urban
legend and so we've got, one of two things just happened, you're like this brother
is making this up or man that is an intense story. It's not real, it's an
urban legend and why do we have urban legends? Ultimately, there are these
these like fictitious stories that have been passed down to us like generation
culture to culture to begin to tell us a story, like to give to give us warning
or teach us a lesson and so whether that is hey listen, the lesson to be learned
here is don't take drinks from strangers no matter how pretty they are or it
could be hey don't make out with your boyfriend on the top of a hill isolated
somewhere because someone with a hook may try to kill you. Like there's
these different lessons. Now, here's what I'm excited about. Maybe you heard
that one. What I'm excited about today and for the next few weeks is we're not
gonna look at stories of fiction. We're gonna dive into the Old Testament and
some just, man, legendary stories, man of epic proportion, these larger than life
stories that are going to allow us to see a bit of God's character. Allow us to
see something that maybe normally we wouldn't see because we didn't have ears
to hear or we'd have eyes to see and so these stories are true. These are real
life stories but they're epic and so as we dive into this this this series this
legendary series I hope that God would give us these like just a fresh a fresh
sense like of just of hearing his word of seeing what he's doing. So I'm gonna
pray for us really quick and then we're just gonna dive into it. So Father, thank
you so much for our church and thank you so much that we're willing to dive into
some really hard text and really obscure text. So Father, I pray for
myself in this moment. Would you just speak through me? I don't want to get
up here and just say a bunch of random stuff or try to convince your people of
something to be true when God I realize that only you can do that. And so Spirit
of God would you be so thick in this room? Be so so evident for us. I pray that
we're it's tangible how close you are to us. God would you would you speak to us?
May we see this this huge story and we see how it applies to our lives. May we be
reminded of who you are and may that push us to redemption. We love you Jesus and
we pray. Amen. Well as a culture in large we love love. Like we love to love love.
Like we love it. You know what I'm saying? Like so like for example if you're like
okay I don't know if I really believe that. Like most of us spend our waking day
and even our dream state dreaming about love. And maybe that magical
moment where we meet that person or our eyes catch from across the room and
he like slides over like he can fly and he just walks over there and just like
grabs you and tells you how beautiful you are and that he wants to spend the
rest of his life with you and you're like wait for you forgot your name and
then it's like but it will go cool. But you just move in that moment or you dream
as a guy of being that person. We love it. Like and so if you if you just look at
like if you just look at our culture man box office sales over half a billion
dollars a year is spent on romantic comedies. If you look at Valentine's this year
alone February 14th 2014 and those days leading up to Valentine's Day
18.6 billion dollars was spent on Valentine's or there's little chalk
candies or cards or whatever. That's a lot of money. That 10 billion dollars in
sales just to romantic novels alone. Over 7,000 novels a year are written.
Romantic novels. Not just novels. Romantic novels. They use the poll that said 74
million Americans last year read at least one romantic novel. I don't know
who these people are. I don't know where you find them but they exist okay. But as
a culture at large and we love love. We love love songs. All you need is love.
Love is all you need. Love is a mini splendor thing. It's like we love to love
love. But the question I want to ask us this morning is kind of ultimate what
is that? What is that all about and what does it even mean? Because if you think
about it we use the word pretty pretty flippantly. Like when I look at my mom
and over the holidays and we get to hang out with my parents I'm gonna look and
I'm gonna say that's my mom I love you. Every time we get off the phone mom I
love you. Now I look at my wife and I say Jane I love you. Now are those the same?
In some ways but in a lot of ways it's not. And if it was that's creepy okay.
They're different. Like I love my mom and I love my wife but you know what
else I love? Coffee. You know what else I love? French fries. I absolutely love
pizza. So what do we mean by love? What does that even mean? And I think that
it's caused a bit of confusion in our culture as we begin to go in. We in a
lot of ways we worship it. We love it but I don't really know what it is and we
don't really have a great illustration of what it means to be loved. And so if
you have your Bibles and I want you to turn to a book called Hosea. Now I'm
just gonna say this. Most of you probably never turned to the book of Hosea.
You're probably not about to find Hosea. It took me a little bit of time trying to
find it. So let's just all go ahead. If you have your Bibles go to the table of
contents and let's just go ahead and find it there so that way you don't feel
insecure. It's not weird for you. It's about three-fourths of the way through the
Old Testament. Hosea it's just kind of like just like slid right in there. It's
hard to see. Hosea as you turn if you've had a Bible for a long time this is
the part of your Bible that's like iron straight. It's like really clean because
it's never been opened. And so Hosea that's where I want us to go to. Hosea
chapter 3. And as you go there I want to tell you just a little bit about the
culture because I think the dots can be connected. I mean this is a book. It's
written to the Israelites. And the Israelites at this time are doing okay
for themselves. They're like living comfortably. They've got it together and
much like us they love the idea of love. But the problem is instead of I mean
wrapping their mind around real love they'd kind of traded that in for a
philosophy. We're just an idea of love. It really kind of boiled down to three
areas. And check this out. Israel number one with one of their philosophies that
they had about love. Israel believed that love could be purchased. That if you
have enough money if you've got enough like swag if you're pretty enough then
then people are gonna love you. That's what they believed. Number two Israel
believed that love is simply the pursuit of self gratification. That if you love
it then it's okay. And as long as it's really all about you and what makes you
feel good that's what love is. And number three one of their philosophies
Israel believed that love could be found in animated objects and things and
stuff. Now here's the deal. This sounds eerily familiar. Am I right? Like this
doesn't seem really far-fetched for us. Like that we we really do is you look
at a culture. If you look at our magazines. If you look at our TV shows. If you
look at our movies. The person that has the most stuff is the most likely that's
gonna gain love. If you have a nice enough car then you're gonna be loved. If
you're pretty enough. If you can buy the best cosmetics or get the best surgery
then you're gonna be loved more. That's a part of our culture. It's everywhere.
Not only that it's all about us. It's all about what pleases me. What makes me
happy. And so if you make me happy I therefore love you. If you don't make me
happy then deuces. We'll see you later. And number three listen that we really do
believe at times that we can find love and just stuff. Otherwise man we would
not break our backs and our pocketbooks to get things that are way outside of
our pay grade to somehow satisfy us and complete us. So I tell you that to say
we're not too far. This book isn't outdated. It's not just out there in
left field. I think that God has something really important they wants to
say to us today. And I want us to hear it. And I want us to be able to connect the
dots. And so as we look into Hosea let me set the kind of set the stage for you
with chapters one through two. This is 750 years before Jesus ever shows up on
the scene. And God had a way of selecting men, prophets, so to be his
mouthpiece. They're the voice to a people. And so they would pull a prophet
aside and God would say listen I want you to say this to my people and they
would relay that message. And so Hosea a holy man a pastor in some way a very
popular prominent man in this culture. It's given a message but not only is he
given a message. He's given an assignment much like most prophets were
given. And I believe that Hosea is given the most outlandish crazy assignment of
any of the prophets. God shows up to Hosea because he says Hosea here's the
deal bro. Here's your assignment if you choose to take it. I want you to marry a
prostitute. Say what? Come again? Sorry God. I think I have my ear buds in. I
totally misunderstood you. I got a sworn that you just said I was to marry. Yeah
you heard right. I want you Hosea to go and I want you to marry a prostitute. Now
the Bible doesn't give us too much. I mean just like God like Hosea just does it.
He's just faithful and just obedient. I mean well God what's her name?
Gomer. Like God, man she must have really been loved as a kid. Sounds super
attractive. I can't wait to meet her. Gomer. But Hosea is faithful and he leaves
his house and he goes and he finds Gomer and he begins to pursue her and woo her
and chase after her. Now I can only speculate what those interactions
would have been like. Like if that would have been him actually paying money to
be able to spend time with her. Be able to look at her and go hey listen and I'm
not here for that. I just want to get to know you. I just want to have a
conversation with you. I just want to hear about your heart and but eventually
somehow over time he woo's her and and persuades her to leave a life of
prostitution and and come with him and marry him. Now I cannot even begin to
imagine how hard that would be. As a man that has given his whole life to
pursue the things of God. A man that has walked in purity and God look and say I
want you to marry this prostitute. This woman's gonna be unfaithful to you. But
he does it and the Bible says that he loves her and the men things are going
okay at first. First few years not too bad. I got three kids and then all of a
sudden one day Hosea wakes up and Gomer's nowhere to be found. She's not next to him
in bed as he looks through the house. She's nowhere to be found. She's not
outside. She's nowhere and then all of a sudden he realizes that she's
straight up bounced and went back to her life of prostitution. Now hear me. I've
been married only six months. By no means whatsoever do I have it figured out. But
I cannot even begin to wrap around like wrap my mind and my head around what
that would have felt like to have been Hosea. That this woman that you've
pursued with your life that you've given everything that you've made these
promises that everything is mine. You brought nothing to the table. You've
been so unfaithful. I give everything to you. I built a family with you a home
with you my life. I've committed my life to you and then she straight up stabs him
in the back and leaves like the heartache the pain. I can't I can't even
wrap my mind around it and here's the deal. Some of us in this room listen
this isn't it's it's not too far fetched for us. Some of us we've lived this out.
We know too well what it feels like to be abandoned, to be heartbroken, to have
someone walk out on us. Or if we haven't experienced personally some of us have
had front row seats of watching it play out. I cannot even begin to wrap my
mind around it. And I play in my mind like what it would have been like if
I would if you get the chance to see her again what would I say? How would I
handle this situation? Man I would let her have it. I'd let her know how much
she's hurt me. I let her know how wrong she is. And then in some ways I just be
like fine you get what you deserve. If prostitution is what you want it's all
yours. That's your life you've chosen that. But God comes to Hosea and he has a
different plan. And I want you to see this in verse chapter 3 verse 1. Hosea
chapter 3 verse 1 says this is this is this is what God tells Hosea to do how
to respond. Then the Lord said to me speaking of Hosea go and love your wife
again even though she commits adultery with another lover. Go and love your
wife again even though she commits adultery with another lover. This will
illustrate that the Lord still loves Israel even though the people have turned
to other gods and love to worship them. God comes to Hosea and goes listen I see
you in your despair I see you in your heart break and here's what I want you
to do go and get her. You've got to be kidding me.
God do you have any idea what she did? And God goes I know. Go get her. What was
that like? This holy man this pastor leaving once again his home to walk into
the red light district finding himself right in the heartbeat of the sex slave
industry. Imagine him walking up to different people going through brothels
and man listen I view you see my wife maybe having interactions with men that
had actually slept with his wife. Have you seen her? All of a sudden Hosea
rounds a corner and he sees her. But she's not on the corner all dressed up
all dolled up soliciting herself. She's on the auction block being sold to the
highest bidder. Now there are two reasons that a slave was auctioned off either
one the pimp just had no use for them anymore got tired of them or they were
worth nothing there were no good so just get rid of them. A lot of people say
that more than likely she was completely naked because buyers would want to know
what they were paying for. So Gomer and all of her shame all of her guilt they're
completely naked in front of a row of men that are bidding for her and in walks
Hosea. And in that moment you imagine him looking at her going that's my wife
like that's my wife that's my wife that's my wife that's my wife and the
auctioneer looking say listen listen bro listen I don't care who you think she
is she's for sale. And look at what Hosea does look at what he has the
audacity to do in verse 2. So I bought her back for 15 pieces of silver and five
bushels of barley and a measure of wine. I love to think the romantic comedy
version of this would be that Hosea walks in and then man Gomer's eyes light up
and she is just man so excited that her savior is here to like take
care of her rescuer hero but the truth is I think more than likely there's that
moment of shame where she looks and goes man of all the people here he's the
last person I want to see. That he's here to tell me I told you so it's like I
mean this is the last person why him why here why now and that he has the
audacity to jump into the auction 12 pieces of silver 13 pieces of silver
15 pieces of silver oh that's not enough then let me liquidate my assets so that
I can buy back what is already mine. Hosea absolutely in love with this woman
pays a great price to rescue back what is already his. But why does he do it? He had
every right to just say hey forget this you don't deserve my love you didn't
earn this you're not you're not you're not in your best state you're not
looking great you didn't clean yourself up and come to me you didn't even say
you're sorry. Why would he do this? I think the answer is in verse 3 and 5
through 5. Then I said to her this Hosea speaking to Gomer you must live in my
house for many days and stop your prostitution during this time you will
not have sexual relations with anyone not even me and this shows that Israel
will go a long time without a king or prince and without sacrifices sacred
pillars priests and even idols but afterward the people will return and
devote themselves to the Lord their God and to David their king and in the last
days they will tremble and all the Lord and of his goodness. Why in the world
does God ask Hosea to marry a prostitute knowing that she's going to be
unfaithful and then ultimately send him to chase after her? Here's why. Because God
is writing a legendary love story and he realizes that you and I would never
fully understand his love for you and us if he just told us but in an epic
display God man puts his love on full display for us to see. That ultimately
God's gonna look at us and say listen my love for you is just like that and the
language here even in verse 3 is the language he's using these are these
are wedding vows like he goes he rescues her he redeems her I mean I mean I can
imagine him putting this this this towel around her and walking her out all of
her shame all of her guilt and just waiting for here it comes he's either
gonna hit me he's gonna he's gonna let me have it and he brings her
out takes her home and then he gives wedding vows again he's like it's like
the first day it's like our first day of marriage here's here's my heart here's
my promise to you here's my covenant to you it's not a contract it's not if you
do these things and I'll love you and then I'll like I'll complete you and
then all all answer in response no he's saying listen no matter what you do no
matter how far you run I will pursue you I will chase you and God says that's the
exact same image of my love for my people you want to know what it really
looks like he lays it out for us the God realizes that we would never fully
understand how much we've hurt him and how much it cost him church listen I get
it's easy to kind of walk into a room and if this is baby if you've been coming
to church for a little bit the idea of God's love that God loves you is if
we're not careful it can be very underwhelming which go yeah cool God
loves me like he has to love me right like God is love and I guess he has to
love me he doesn't love me he's not God right yeah we see we sing the songs true
yet we know we know all about it but we don't really believe that God actually
loves you and not only that he loves you he actually likes you that you are man
at the object of his affection that he chases after you pursues you loves you
even in the midst of your unfaithfulness so who is Jose Jose's this amazing
picture of God I think a lot of times we come in this room are like man dude that
was like a crazy story I can't wait to find me a girl and be like all Jose it
to her and so it's gonna be awesome or we come in here we're like man I'm
scoping and hoping I hope my Jose is in here somewhere he's here I see him the
problem is we're not the Jose of the story or the Gomer that's me that's you
and they got pursues us and he chases after us I remember even thinking one
time when I was in college I was like driving I'm watching this sunrise I was
the only one awake in my car was this road trip and just me and I just felt
like the Lord was going drew listen this is how much I love you I'm pursuing you
I'm wooing you with a sunrise as though I was the only one that saw it that day
that's not true but that's what I felt like I was like speaking to my heart
going I love you and pursuing you like this even when you're so unfaithful even
when you prostitute yourself when you harlot yourself you whore yourself out
to so many things less wild than me that I have pursued you I've loved you I've
brought you in I've offered everything I've provided everything for you but you
keep running to all these other gods thinking that somehow they will
satisfy you if you sell yourself to them and God goes that's how my heart
breaks but I think we get that I think I think most of us in this room we go
drew I yeah I totally identify with that and somehow that life with prostitution
keeps us from actually knowing that God loves us and living in how God loves us
and so we keep returning we keep running to those things because we don't
really believe that he loves us we don't really feel as though he cares for us
that he has this unfailing and like me unrelenting love for you
I remember in college two years into my walk with Jesus and I had one of those
moments of just it felt like epic failure felt like I just like crossed that
line and I was just like there it is Christianity doesn't work for me God you
could you could you could never you could never welcome me back I'm done and in a
moment I've just been such shame I remember my roommate who just loved
Jesus so much so passionate man sat me down and looked me like just across I
said listen across the table said drew I need you to hear this I need you to
understand this statement that there is nothing that you will ever ever do that
will ever make God love you less than what he how he loves you right now and
there is nothing that you will ever do that will make God love you more there's
nothing that you can do that it will make God love you less than what he loves
you now there's nothing that you can do that would allow him to love you more
and here's here was my view of God I thought that if I just performed well
enough if I was just good enough if I just satisfied him if I just didn't
cuss as much only when the jokes were really funny if I didn't sleep around if
I didn't drink like if I didn't do do do do then God would love me and then he
would like welcome me be so proud of me that's this that's the way I grew up
that's what my parents were so I just like attached that to God and so when
I've gone too far I was like that's it man God's never gonna be proud of me I
guess I'm done and have someone look at me and go listen God's love doesn't work
like that you can't run too far
but I drew listen man you don't you don't know what I've been through but you
talk about shame and guilt like the walk of shame is far too like it's like not
like a distant thing in the past it's just a little too close but look if you
knew the things I've been looking at on my computer last night you go listen
God God can't love me through that if you knew what I had done within this
past relationship or how far I've gone or that if you knew all the skeletons in
my closet you knew that God can't love me and God paints this picture of Gomer
when you haven't gone that far
haven't gone that far and I love her pursue her chase after her I will never
give up on her and it's not because of how she acted she didn't clean herself up
we find ourselves a lot of times as people like they go to church we go oh
gosh I totally blew it last night I have to go to church sort of like
somehow equalize and erase all my mistakes or if I pray this many prayers
if I listen to these songs or if I talk to someone like thank God I'll erase my
sin listen there was nothing lovable about Gomer in that moment the only
thing that made her lovable was the fact that Jose loved her like for example if
you see in the movie Beauty and the Beast like love it big Disney fan okay
I'm secure my manhood I can say that okay the Beast nothing about him is
lovable there's no redemptive qualities in him it is only the fact that Belle or
beauty chooses to love the Beast that begins to then make him lovable that
then transforms him and the same is true for you and I we don't clean ourselves
up we don't we don't put perfume on and put on a really pretty dress and try to
come back to God I'm really sorry I blew it it's the only it's the it's the it's
the fact that God loves you that makes you lovable and that's what transforms
you but do you believe it I think that says a lot about you I think that our
lifestyle kind of kind of rats us out of whether or not we really truly believe
that God loves us because it shapes who we are and we don't change our behavior
so that God will love us but because we're loved it changes us
let me share this last thing and I'm done I'm talking to Josh about kind of
this this whole idea and kind of to really wrestle and kind of wrap my
mind around it one of Josh's favorite like heroes of the faith there's a guy
named Rich Mullins who has had his life changes his singer songwriter has life
changed ultimately by by a relationship with a guy named Brennan Manning this
his pastor wrote a book called ragamuffin gospel incredible book like if
things that you hear me say this morning you're like I just don't fully buy into
that it's a great read ragamuffin gospel but Rich heard and this excerpt from
from a sermon that he gave ultimately highlights this idea that one of the
most important things about you when you get face-to-face with the God of the
universe when you realize that when it talks about King David here King David
was dead it's it's a prophecy of a king that would come in a lineage a messianic
king that would come in the lineage of King David and talk about Jesus the
Jesus left his home walked into the red light district and bought us back with
his life he said when you understand that when you stand before Jesus the
question he's gonna ask you the most important question is did you believe
that I loved you did you really believe it and this is just I'm gonna read this
and kind of closing these are his words in the 48 years since I was first
ambushed by Jesus and a little chapel in the mountains of western Pennsylvania
and in literally thousands of hours of prayers meditation silent solitude over
those years I am now utterly convinced that on judgment day the Lord Jesus is
going to ask each one of us one question and only one question did you believe
that I loved you that I desired you that I waited for you day after day that I
longed to hear the sound of your voice the real believers there will answer yes
Jesus I believed in your love and I tried to shape my life as a response to it
but many of us who are so faithful in our ministry and our practice and our
church going are gonna have to reply well frankly no sir I mean I never really
believed it I mean I heard I heard a lot of sermons about a lot of teachings
about it like I even gave some myself but I always thought that was just a way
of speaking a kindly lie some Christians pious pat on the back to cheer me on and
there's the difference between the real believers and the nominal Christians
that are found in our churches across the land that no one can measure like a
believer the depth and the intensity of God's love but at the same time no one
can measure like a believer the effectiveness of our gloom pessimism
low self-esteem self-hatred and despair that block God's way to us do you see
why it's so important to lay hold of this basic truth of our faith because
you're only going to be as big as your own concept of God and he goes on to say
this remember the famous line from the French philosopher Pascal God made man
in his own image and then man returned the compliment we often make God in our
own image and he winds up to be as fussy rude narrow-minded legalistic
judgmental unforgiving and as unloving as we are in the cat the past couple of
years I've preached the gospel all over the world and honest to God the God of
so many Christians I meet is a God who is too small for me but he's not the God
of the word he's not the God revealed by and Jesus Christ who at this moment
comes right to you at your seat and says this I have a word for you I know your
whole life story I know every skeleton in your closet I know every moment of
sin shame dishonesty degraded love that is dark in your past and right now I
know your shallow faith your feeble prayer life your inconsistent discipleship
and my word is this I dare you to trust that I love you just as you are and not
as you should be because you're never going to be as you should be
resonant I dare us to believe that the God really is absolutely infatuated with
you that he gave his life for you so you could have a deep intimate
relationship with you he bought back what was already his the scripture of man
is screams that all of creation is his you're already his he pursued you and
bought you back but you dare to live in that we pray for us father I think we
have a tendency to walk into this room and just behold I just I don't know just
hold back and not fully believe that you love us you died for us that you have a
plan for us and we don't live in that because honestly we just don't believe
it I think we say it I think we mention it I think we hear about it we even get
tattoos that talk about your love but father we don't live in it God may we
dare to be people that really do understand that you love us that you
gave your life for us and that then we can respond in obedience because of your
love not in order to gain your obedience but because you love us I pray for
resonate church may they get that may we may we experience just a little bit of
you this morning and realizing that you and you gave everything everything so
that we could have this relationship and so often we run back to I mean lovers so
less wild so God in these next few moments we worship through giving as we
worship through song God may we not hold back may your love man capture our
heart may it man just pull us into full surrender may we lean into who you are
and what you've done and may follow us remembering what you've done may redeem
who we are and we take it to the world I pray that for our church I pray that we
get it I pray this is an acute sermon about love
but father we hear just just hear from your heart soon in my prayer
