"Plant the Right Crop" Hosea 10:1-15

Hosea 10 shows us an Israel enjoying its wealth and luxury. The people don't serve God; instead they add more altars in order to further worship idols. In the soon to come future however, they will be put to shame. God will break down their altars and they will bear their guilt for their rejection of him. (10:2).

The "fruit" that comes out of the Israelite community is rotten. Sin is so rooted within them it has produced a community characterized by injustice, lies, deception, and hypocrisy (10:2, 13). They are a people who "trust in their own way" (10:13) instead of seeking to follow God's way.

What then is God's way? Hosea 10:12 lays it out for us. God's way means "planting" righteousness. That is to say, we shape and guide our life according to what God says is good and right. We see God not as someone who gives us good tips about how we can get what we want out of life. Rather we see God as Lord over ALL our life; that every decision, every thought, every action needs to be submitted to him. As a church lives righteously, the "fruit" that comes out of that church will be steadfast love. The church will be a community that is loyal and committed to God and to one another.

None of this is easy. For this to happen we must break up "fallow ground." This means addressing the parts of lives that aren't submitted to God and aren't being sown with righteousness. This will involving seeking the Lord. For when we seek him he will come and bring righteousness into our lives. Thus the key to developing righteous lives and maturing in steadfast love is God. He is the one who brings about our growth in righteousness.

This happens today through Jesus. Apart from Jesus we produce nothing of any lasting eternal value but in Jesus we can bear "much fruit" (John 13:3-5). As we see more of Jesus in our church and in each life in our church, we can know for sure that God's righteousness is indeed raining down on us and that we will produce much good fruit that will bless our church and our city. (cf Gal 5:22-23)

Here's a few questions to consider in light of v.12:
1. What parts of lives tend to be "fallow" ground? That is to say, what areas of our lives do we tend to not seek God or be very passive about placing them under God's righteousness standards? What will it take to break up this ground so that we are living righteously in a more wholistic way?

2. What will it look like, practically speaking, to seek the Lord more? How does the gospel of Jesus Christ play into this?

A Church That's All About You!

This was pretty funny. But honestly (and sadly) not too far off from how many people approach church and from how many churches think they should do church.

"God Promises to Punish" Hosea 8:1-9:17

Hosea 9:17 neatly captures the point of the message this past Sunday - "My God will reject them because they have not listened to him." Israel has stopped listening to God. They reject his guidance when it comes to picking leaders. They reject true worship of God and instead worship idols. They reject his help by choosing to form alliances with pagan nations. Because Israel has rejected God, God rejects Israel. God intends to severely punish his people. They are no longer his people but rebels who will be cast out from the land and become "wanderers among the nations" (Hosea 9:17). This is the natural consequence from their continued blatant rejection of God.

It's fairly easy to fall into a pattern of life where you don't even realize you are apart from God. This happens when, like the ancient Israelites, Christians begin to adopt the rhythms and patterns of a culture devoid of God. As this happens, secular practices and values will soon be seen as legitimately Christian practices and values. What the Bible says is good and right will be called strange and repressive. What the Bible says is wrong and self-destructive will become acceptable and normal.

Sadly we see much evidence of this very thing happening today in the modern church. Success is judged not by knowledge of God but by high budget and attendance numbers. Being part of a local church is seen not as the non-negotiable center of the Christian life but as an optional choice. Biblical confrontation and sacrificial giving are disciplines to avoid, not evidence of genuine Christian community.

What do you believe will be the long-term effects on the church if it persists in listening more to the surrounding culture instead of listening to God? How do you think we can build lives that are able to clearly identify God's voice, listen to it, and obey it?

"True Repentance (vs Pragmatic, Phony Repentance)" Hosea 5:8-7:16

This past Sunday we explored a couple of different topics, the key one being the topic of repentance. Repentance involves us returning to the Lord. Hosea 5:15 describes well what this will mean: 1. Acknowledging our guilt, 2. Earnestly seeking God. These steps are hard for us to do. We like to validate what we do as opposed to admit our guilt! Soon we are going down paths we never thought we would go down, all as a way to continue justifying our lives and avoiding our sin.

Repentance though is not something to be avoided. It should be something we wholeheartedly embrace! We should see repentance as the means by which we again experience the healing, restoring, reconciling power of the gospel of Jesus. Through repentance we can maintain a close relationship with God and thus be a people who know God and love with steadfast love as opposed to being a people who are religious hypocrites, full of religious practice but empty of true devotion to God (see Hosea 6:6).

What specific practices and attitudes get in the way of true repentance? In what ways does the gospel encourage us to want to repent? How do you think we can encourage a spirit of repentance within our community (and continue to fight against the spirit of spiritual whoredom)?