Shownotes
Pastor Alan explores Hosea, highlighting how God’s relentless love and readiness redeem us despite failure. Hear honest, personal stories about brokenness, restoration, and the healing power of sharing your testimony.
Scriptures Referenced
1 Kings 12; Hosea 2:19-20; Luke 14:28-33; 2 Peter 3:9; Revelation 2:4-5
Key Insights
- God’s relentless pursuit and readiness to redeem and restore
- The transformative power of sharing your testimony
- The importance of walking closely with God daily
- Breaking cycles of past generational sin and embracing new freedom
https://springhouse.captivate.fm/episode/hosea
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Gathering Times
- Sundays, 9:00 AM
- Sundays, 11:00 AM
- Thursdays, 6:00 PM
Contact Info
Springhouse Church
14119 Old Nashville Highway
Smyrna TN 37167
CCLI License 2070006
Transcripts
Dads, take note. There is a princess tea
Speaker:party. Daddies, take your
Speaker:daughter. I'm gonna see if my 26 year old daughter wants to
Speaker:go. And this
Speaker:is the first Correct me, Pastor Will. This is the first time we've done a
Speaker:sing along since we did Beauty and the Beast. And there's nothing like being
Speaker:in this room with 500 people and being in the cast. I
Speaker:got to be the father of Belle. And you hear all these
Speaker:kids singing, you forget you're doing a play. You're like,
Speaker:oh, new kids. So daddies, bring your daughters.
Speaker:Oh, my goodness, what a joy. We have been
Speaker:talking about the greatest story
Speaker:ever told. Now, we've told stories, but really,
Speaker:it's like Pastor Barbie said Thursday night, the greatest
Speaker:story is about Jesus Christ. And
Speaker:so all of the stories that we have told, they all
Speaker:weave together in this amazing way from
Speaker:Genesis to Revelation, to tell the story
Speaker:about God and what he's done through his son Jesus to
Speaker:redeem us. So every story may be unique in its
Speaker:own way. And you, you have a story,
Speaker:people think, well, they finished writing the Bible 2,000 years ago,
Speaker:and so the Bible's stopped writing. No
Speaker:Acts 29 keeps going. Because we
Speaker:have stories, we have miracles in our lives. There are things going on
Speaker:in your life that God is writing your story day after
Speaker:day. And it's your privilege and your honor to be able
Speaker:to share your story. So I would challenge you, man, if
Speaker:you're bashful and you're introverted like some of our
Speaker:congregants and pastors are, be bold and share
Speaker:your story. When he puts you in that position, you don't have to just go
Speaker:around blabbing all the time, but be sensitive to the Holy Spirit,
Speaker:that when you're in a moment, a kairos
Speaker:moment, a God moment, to tell your story.
Speaker:Young man, how old are you? 18. 18. Do you know Jesus Christ, your
Speaker:Lord and savior? Yeah. What's your name? John. John,
Speaker:there will be moments in your life,
Speaker:young man. Are you still in school? You graduated?
Speaker:Are you a senior?
Speaker:Your last rodeo, big boy? There are
Speaker:people. Where do you go to school? Smyrna. Smyrna High School.
Speaker:Bulldog.
Speaker:You're graduating class, probably about four or five hundred kids in it.
Speaker:There are kids in your graduating class that need to know the Jesus you
Speaker:know. And I believe God will put
Speaker:kairos moments for you at a lunch table or in a
Speaker:chemistry class or whatever your courses are, or in the
Speaker:courtyard, in the quad, or at a pep rally. I believe, John, that
Speaker:if you will listen to the Holy Spirit that dwells within you. And Jesus said
Speaker:that he dwells within you, that if you'll listen to him
Speaker:and share your story, your story has the power to
Speaker:impact and change a life. Do you know that if your story
Speaker:only brings one other person to the salvation of Jesus Christ,
Speaker:it's well worth everything you've gone through? Some people think we got to
Speaker:win hundreds and thousands. No. What if your life only touches one?
Speaker:That's one more in the kingdom. Share your story, young man. Be bold.
Speaker:Don't be bashful. When the opportunity comes and you feel the Holy
Speaker:Spirit move on you, you do that.
Speaker:I got notes. We'll get there.
Speaker:We've talked about Noah, we've talked about Joseph, we've talked about
Speaker:Elijah and Elisha, which are some of my favorites. Back in October,
Speaker:Pastor Kevin sent out an email to the staff. He said, hey, send me three
Speaker:or four of your favorite Bible stories. Here's where we're going next year and
Speaker:I'll put out the sermon schedule. And here's where disobedience will get you in
Speaker:trouble.
Speaker:I knew everybody would want David. David's one of my favorites.
Speaker:Joseph's one of my favorites. And if you love Joseph, you need to be here
Speaker:on Thursdays. We still got five
Speaker:more. We got notes. You can catch up. You can go on YouTube and all
Speaker:this stuff. And here, Pastor Barbie by the needle. It's been powerful. This is
Speaker:my second or third time I've heard her teach it and it's
Speaker:powerful. But I just figured, well, people
Speaker:will write in and I'll just take whatever Pastor Kevin give me.
Speaker:Not a good idea. Yes, ma'.
Speaker:Am. Wrong thing I received. I hear you, Connie.
Speaker:Laugh at me. Now. I
Speaker:received an email on March 28th at 8:59 from Pastor Kevin
Speaker:that went something like this. I would like you to share the story of
Speaker:Hosea on September 7. Are you available to
Speaker:do that? Fifteen minutes later, at
Speaker:9.14pm, I was dumb enough to reply, yes, I'd be happy to.
Speaker:Seven minutes later, he replies, awesome. With a thumbs up.
Speaker:And I began to think, awesome.
Speaker:Why didn't I send the answer back in October? God. I
Speaker:could have talked about to the pit, to the prison, to the palace. I could
Speaker:have talked about the transfer of the mantle. I could have talked about Mark.
Speaker:I could have talked about a lot of things. What's the age demographic? Let me
Speaker:look at my room. I'll be polite. Cause there's some younger ears.
Speaker:I get to talk about a lady that has a very.
Speaker:She was known as a P and a P she was promiscuous
Speaker:and not a very good lady. And I thought, oh,
Speaker:great, that's. Mm. Hallelujah.
Speaker:You know what? I
Speaker:won't tell you names, but I struggle with
Speaker:this. First of all, I didn't do anything in the month of
Speaker:March. And then somewhere around April, I started reading Book of Hosea.
Speaker:And then May, I started writing notes. June, I got a little
Speaker:serious. August, I got real serious
Speaker:and I thought about some of the things I was going to share. And I
Speaker:said, I don't need to share that. I don't need to talk about those things
Speaker:in my life. And I just really felt
Speaker:impressed by the Holy Spirit. Yes, you do. And
Speaker:I shared them in first gathering. I'm going to share them again today.
Speaker:I really struggle with it because
Speaker:it talks about how I
Speaker:prostituted my walk with God. And I
Speaker:want to tell you, after the service over, I had a person that came down
Speaker:and said, I went through that when I was that age.
Speaker:I had another person come up and said, God
Speaker:sent you an email in March. I found out about a month
Speaker:ago. And I'm going through that situation in my
Speaker:life right now. God has a way of using the things in
Speaker:our life if we will allow him. We have to be open,
Speaker:John, and transparent and be willing to share. Amen.
Speaker:So stand with us and let's read a couple of scriptures.
Speaker:Help me, Mary. There we go. One more,
Speaker:one more. There we go. All right, let's read. But I have
Speaker:this against you that you have abandoned the love you had
Speaker:at first. Remember therefore, from where you have
Speaker:fallen. Repent and do the works you did at first.
Speaker:And from Hosea, I will betroth you
Speaker:to be. Pardon me. Let's start over. Cause I got hung up on
Speaker:Betrothed. I like it. Betrothed. Don't read Betroth
Speaker:Satraps. That's the inside joke with me and Joseph.
Speaker:I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you
Speaker:in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion.
Speaker:I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will
Speaker:acknowledge the Lord. There should be a W.
Speaker:Forgive my spelling. Mary works wonders, but she can't read my
Speaker:mind. Father, I thank you that you are in laughter. Laughter is
Speaker:a medicine. It heals us. Lord, I thank you that we have
Speaker:stories to tell and things that we can share. The Lord ultimately
Speaker:is about your word and your truth. So Lord, let your
Speaker:truth be heard and let your word go forth. Let it penetrate,
Speaker:break, heal, and restore places in people's hearts.
Speaker:Today, in Jesus name And you may
Speaker:be seated in the presence of the Lord. We used to say that in the
Speaker:80s. Be seated in the presence of the Lord.
Speaker:Justin's got a group. The dad. Where did
Speaker:Justin go? Dad bod. Cosplay
Speaker:boy, I tell you. And it's something else. Some of you in
Speaker:this room are part of that. Cause I see your pictures. Yeah, I see you
Speaker:over there. We got Spiderman and Batman and
Speaker:Strange Men and I mean Dr. Strange, whatever.
Speaker:But they'll show up to the movies when Marvel, I guess
Speaker:they're Marvel people. They might do it for dc, but they show up for the
Speaker:movies and they dress in these characters and man, everybody just
Speaker:loves seeing them and doing that. I'm a movie junkie. I love going to
Speaker:movies. I love watching movies. My favorites are the 70s and 80s. I love
Speaker:spaghetti westerns mostly. I like a good war movie here and there.
Speaker:I'm not a rom com guy. I'll watch them because
Speaker:I'm married. And if you're married, you
Speaker:better watch them too. We got Hallmark and Hallmark, whatever the
Speaker:other one is. And Lord, you can have a
Speaker:Christmas. Nevermind. They're already playing
Speaker:Good Gracious in Pumpkin Spice movies. But anyway,
Speaker:same story, different people. Mostly same people. Anyway,
Speaker:but I love movies. I love the. I grew up in
Speaker:my favorite thing. I was 14, 15 years old. Drive with a per
Speaker:minute. I got a hardship license because my parents divorced when I was
Speaker:young. So I had a hardship permit at 14 and I could drive.
Speaker:Imagine that. Hey, who said
Speaker:One of you? Yeah, but anyway, we go to the
Speaker:Bijou Twin on Wade Hampton Boulevard.
Speaker:And I loved it because back in the day, that's when the guy goes. It
Speaker:was 1964, you know, it was that movie guy, whatever.
Speaker:He's long gone now. But I love those things. So
Speaker:here we are, it's 722 B.C. we're going to look at
Speaker:today's passage like it was a movie because it helps it come alive to me.
Speaker:So if you're with me, just to set the scene.
Speaker:Hosea lived in the northern kingdom of Israel.
Speaker:There you go. And this was about
Speaker:200 years after it had broken off and splintered
Speaker:from the southern kingdom. Judah. If you go back
Speaker:to 1 Kings 12, you can read all about it. It's about 33, 34
Speaker:verses. Not gonna take the time now, but go back and do your homework and
Speaker:read that. But Jeroboam and Rehoboam, they were
Speaker:the opposing kings. And basically what happened? The king from
Speaker:the Northern kingdom, his counselor said,
Speaker:hey, why don't you Take it easy. Your dad overtaxed and
Speaker:he made it hard on everybody when he was king. Lighten up a little bit,
Speaker:Give them a little grace and the people will respond and they'll follow you
Speaker:and everything will be great. So he thought about it for three days. Why is
Speaker:everything three days or on a Tuesday in the Bible? But anyway, he thought
Speaker:about it for three days and I guess it was a Tuesday. And he
Speaker:came back and he did just the opposite.
Speaker:He raised the taxes. He made it even harder on the people. And so they
Speaker:rebelled. They had this revolt and it just. And so the
Speaker:kingdoms tore apart and Judah was its own. And then you had the
Speaker:northern kingdom. So Hosea
Speaker:was a prophet to Israel, the northern kingdom
Speaker:that was in rebellion. Because not only did they rebel, not only
Speaker:did they not appreciate what was going on,
Speaker:they wandered from God. See, there was a reason that the
Speaker:Lord had Israel in the Hebrew nation before they
Speaker:actually became Israel, to keep separate. It
Speaker:wasn't because God is racist. It wasn't because it wasn't
Speaker:inclusive. It's because he wanted them for
Speaker:himself. You will be my people. And I want you to
Speaker:be. I want to be your only God. And God was a jealous God,
Speaker:not jealousy in the terms of sin, but he wanted everything.
Speaker:He wanted their hearts, he wanted everything that they were, and he
Speaker:wanted to be everything to them. But they
Speaker:would intermarry and they would follow. It always led to following
Speaker:false gods and then idol worship. And so this is
Speaker:what's going on. And God speaks through
Speaker:Hosea. Now, we've talked about some prophets, Ezekiel, and
Speaker:we've talked about Jeremiah and Hosea.
Speaker:Listen, it's an honor
Speaker:to be considered an apostle, a prophet, a pastor,
Speaker:a teacher, an evangelist. Those are part of the giftings that Paul
Speaker:writes about and talks about. You better be very careful.
Speaker:You better be very careful about what you tell
Speaker:God you want to be or want to do for the kingdom.
Speaker:Because it's one thing to have a card that says, hi, I'm
Speaker:prophet Alan Smith. They do that a lot.
Speaker:But boy, when you are a prophet of the Lord,
Speaker:it can be very challenging. It can be difficult. It can be hard.
Speaker:Talk to Ezekiel, he had to lay on his side for a year.
Speaker:Talk to Jeremiah, he was in captivity.
Speaker:Talk to Daniel, talk to some of these guys that had to do hard
Speaker:things. It wasn't
Speaker:glamour from a stage, it was being in a lion's den. It
Speaker:was being put in bad situations. So here comes the Lord to Hosea,
Speaker:and he tells him this in Hosea 1
Speaker:1. Here we go just.
Speaker:He's one of the main characters. Think about,
Speaker:he's in his bedroom and the spirit of the Lord speaks to him in the
Speaker:night, in a dream maybe. Who knows? It said,
Speaker:when the Lord first spoke to Hosea, he said this to him.
Speaker:Go and marry a promiscuous wife.
Speaker:That's what Hosea probably said. He was probably
Speaker:Lord. And he hears it again.
Speaker:Go and marry a promiscuous wife and
Speaker:have children of promiscuity for
Speaker:the whole land has been promiscuous by abandoning
Speaker:me, the Lord.
Speaker:So Hosea goes and he marries
Speaker:Gomer. Shazam. Some of y' all old
Speaker:enough know he married Gomer, the daughter of
Speaker:Dibliim. And she conceived and she bore him three
Speaker:children. And boy, they had some names, and their names were because
Speaker:of some pretty serious situations that they represented
Speaker:that was going to come. That's not the kind of.
Speaker:How many. How many are married? Give me an amen.
Speaker:Some of y' all need to get happily married. How many are happily married? Say
Speaker:amen. There you go. How many would like to be married?
Speaker:Mary sue, question.
Speaker:If you would like to be married, would you just want to hear the
Speaker:Lord wake you up one night and go, hey, Joe, Hey,
Speaker:Sally. Go marry a promiscuous person.
Speaker:That's not on the top 10 list of qualities I would like in a wife.
Speaker:Right. But that's what the Lord told him to do. And so he goes and
Speaker:he takes Gomer to be his wife.
Speaker:Now, some people think this is a dark story
Speaker:and it's getting off to a bad start. I would tell you that
Speaker:the genre of this movie is not a rom com, obviously,
Speaker:but I would call it a love story. And I'd call it
Speaker:a love story not because of Hosea and Gomer,
Speaker:although that becomes one. But the love story
Speaker:is God to his people. God
Speaker:is so faithful and God is so
Speaker:passionate about his people,
Speaker:the people of Israel at that time. But you right
Speaker:now, that he not only will go,
Speaker:he already has gone to the furthest of measures
Speaker:to win you back. Cause see, when you read this story of
Speaker:Almost Said Homer and Homer and Goziah,
Speaker:too many. The H and G is too close. When you read this story,
Speaker:it's not the prettiest of stories. They get married,
Speaker:they have these three children of promiscuity. And after
Speaker:a season, she leaves him.
Speaker:And not just leaves him. It's one thing to leave. She
Speaker:leaves him and goes to another man,
Speaker:a married man, and becomes an adulteress
Speaker:on top of everything else. She was
Speaker:now, the way I read Scripture, he could have just
Speaker:said, I'm done with you and give her a writ of divorce
Speaker:and been done with her. But that is not what God told him to do.
Speaker:Because God was trying to show Hosea, I think,
Speaker:the depth and the pain that he was going through
Speaker:with the loss of his people, through what Hosea was going
Speaker:through with Gomer. I think he allowed Hosea
Speaker:to walk through that pain of having a
Speaker:promiscuous wife, having children, through promiscuity, having a
Speaker:wife that left him and went into
Speaker:adultery, so that he would truly understand the
Speaker:heartbreak that God the Father felt over his people.
Speaker:Sometimes we think we know how God feels. Oh, you know,
Speaker:oh, the Lord, it grieves the Lord,
Speaker:you know, it's heavy on the Lord's heart. Yeah, it is.
Speaker:Do you really understand how heavy sometimes? Because we like
Speaker:to say things, but we don't like to bear things.
Speaker:We like to put the words out there. But
Speaker:Pastor Barbee was talking Thursday night about praying for a situation.
Speaker:And she was saying how, yeah, we just pray sometimes and Lord bless them
Speaker:or whatever. But then she got into a thing, she said, but we ever get
Speaker:to this posture where it's like, dear Lord Jesus, whatever it
Speaker:is that they have need of, I pray that you would bless them. Whatever is
Speaker:coming, intercession and carrying the weight
Speaker:of what somebody else is walking through, that's the heart
Speaker:of God because that's the heart he had toward us. So I
Speaker:believe Hosea walked through those things so that he could truly understand
Speaker:the heart of God. Like I said, Hosea
Speaker:was the son of Bera, and
Speaker:he was also. You know, I look at the Bible sometimes and I get
Speaker:linear. I like things to just be straight and even. And no,
Speaker:don't give me hiccups and curves and stuff. Just make it all be nice and
Speaker:even and clean. But you know, sometimes scripture's like a bowl
Speaker:of spaghetti. Hosea was also a prophet
Speaker:at the same time as Isaiah was in the same time that Amos
Speaker:was. So they were all ministering to the Northern and Southern kingdoms
Speaker:at the exact same times. And they had different words for
Speaker:those in authority over them, but it was the same God giving the words to
Speaker:those because he was reacting in different situations through the northern
Speaker:and the Southern kingdom. But God was trying to
Speaker:create reconciliation. God was trying to bring
Speaker:redemption about, but the people were too dumb
Speaker:D U M B to hear it and
Speaker:receive it. Because guess what, we're hard headed. I'm sorry y' all
Speaker:aren't. Cause I'm Hard headed. And I
Speaker:don't listen all the time like I should to hear the Lord
Speaker:speak. None of y' all are, but I know I am. I mean, it's
Speaker:plain as day. You remember the. You remember the story. I don't know if somebody's
Speaker:doing it. I should have put that one on the email too. Where the hand
Speaker:writes on the wrong mini. Me neither.
Speaker:It's right there. And he still couldn't get it. That's me in my
Speaker:life. Been that way for most of my life.
Speaker:I was born in a small town in South
Speaker:Carolina. I've been born and raised in church my whole life,
Speaker:except for about 24 months, 23 months.
Speaker:A Christian family, but a dysfunctional family.
Speaker:We were at church all the time. Sunday morning, Sunday night. That was the thing
Speaker:we used to do back in the 60s, 70s and 80s. You'd have church on
Speaker:Sunday night, 6 o', clock, and then after church was over, you hung around the
Speaker:altar and had afterglow where you prayed and invited the Lord to talk to you.
Speaker:And then after that you went to the Dairy Queen, get ice cream. They know
Speaker:that. Cause they're much older. I'm just trying. It's not in your history books. I'm
Speaker:trying to get y' all kind of. And then
Speaker:Wednesday night. She knows. And then you had two revivals. You had a
Speaker:spring and a fall. And you better be there Thursday, Wednesday through Sunday.
Speaker:So that's how I grew up in church. And
Speaker:everything seemed fine in our little family.
Speaker:Grandfather was a pastor. He died the year before I was born. My grandmother took
Speaker:the church for the next five years. Some things happen and
Speaker:she was asked to step down. So we moved to first assembly of
Speaker:God and went there till I went to school in 86 in
Speaker:Florida. But like I said, my parents divorced.
Speaker:Separated when I was 12, divorced when I was 15. I was on my own
Speaker:at 16. But in that time frame, like I said, everything seemed
Speaker:fine at church between Fred and Lewis or between Fred and Sharon.
Speaker:But in the car ride home and behind the doors, it wasn't.
Speaker:Things weren't fine. And I had a
Speaker:father that didn't discipline. He
Speaker:punished. And there's a difference, dads. I had to learn that with
Speaker:my son because
Speaker:until he was seven, I punished him too. I swore that I
Speaker:wouldn't be my father. But you know, there's a scripture that talks about
Speaker:curses that go to so many generations and blessings. If
Speaker:you don't break that curse, you will carry it out.
Speaker:And I swore I'd never do that to my Children. But I did that to
Speaker:my son till he's seven. Till a brother says, if you keep doing it, you'll
Speaker:drive him away from God and you'll drive him to hate you. And I had
Speaker:to learn the difference between punishment and discipline.
Speaker:Discipline is handling whatever the situation is. Do you know that? Boys
Speaker:will be boys and do dumb boy things.
Speaker:And some of them don't deserve a beating. They just
Speaker:need to be, hey, knucklehead, straighten up. But
Speaker:there are things that do need some corrective measures.
Speaker:And sometimes it is a spoon or a belt or a switch,
Speaker:but it's not 10 or 12 of them. It's just one of them. Get their
Speaker:attention right. And then what I love, I've
Speaker:seen some parents. Boy, I wish y' all had been parents when I was little.
Speaker:Not just so I wouldn't have had that in my life, but to teach me
Speaker:something. I've seen parents that will do a
Speaker:corporal punishment and then they'll get right down there on the bed with
Speaker:them and pray with them. Now, Kirk, let's ask
Speaker:the Lord to help us to not tell lies anymore. Because God
Speaker:said that we're people of truth and
Speaker:correction.
Speaker:Here we go.
Speaker:About 9 years old, I had a 14
Speaker:year old neighbor that molested me. We'll just say it that way.
Speaker:And that took about a year and a half of my life. And that
Speaker:situation in my life started me on a Road at 10,
Speaker:11 and 12 and 13 years old. Age of pornography
Speaker:and promiscuity that a 10, 11 year
Speaker:old, 12 year old boy don't need to be doing.
Speaker:And when I thought I got it taken care of and I thought I prayed
Speaker:through and I'd go to the altars at youth group and I'd go down on
Speaker:Sunday nights for prayer and do all those things and pray and think I was
Speaker:clean. But I never confessed it to
Speaker:somebody. I never told somebody
Speaker:about it in my life that they could help me to. To
Speaker:uproot those seeds in my life that
Speaker:were starting to produce harvest in my life that I didn't want
Speaker:and a harvest that would come to affect my marriage
Speaker:some 20 years later. Folks, when we
Speaker:walk in a garden of sin and we plant
Speaker:seeds and we prostitute our faith,
Speaker:we walk in promiscuity. We don't walk in relationship with
Speaker:God. I love a word that Pastor Barbee says, para
Speaker:Theos, to walk with
Speaker:God, with God, arm in arm that
Speaker:embrace paratheos. We
Speaker:don't get those seeds uprooted before they take root. They
Speaker:start growing things that we don't want in our lives that will could
Speaker:potentially ruin generations down the road.
Speaker:That situation. Showed up nine years later
Speaker:in my marriage. Showed up several years later. Nine years into my
Speaker:marriage. We were
Speaker:youth pastors at a church in Antioch. We helped lead
Speaker:worship at that church in Antioch. Pastor Justin said the
Speaker:other Sunday, A couple of Sundays ago, you don't just wake up and have an
Speaker:affair. He's right. You don't.
Speaker:In my incidents, it took about eight to nine months of
Speaker:flirting with disaster and not fleeing from
Speaker:temptation. Started out holding hands in the prayer circle
Speaker:before church, and then it started out hanging out
Speaker:at their house because he was a drummer on the road. So Renee and I
Speaker:became. It was her best friend. Yeah, I know. Throw rocks at me
Speaker:now. I know you wouldn't have liked me 36 years ago.
Speaker:I don't like me now sometimes. But I'm not that guy anymore.
Speaker:Because God can redeem just like he redeemed
Speaker:Gomer. But now we tell
Speaker:people at 36 years of marriage, we've had 33
Speaker:happy years and three living hell. And they were
Speaker:because I had to build trust. I had to earn that back.
Speaker:You might be in here, and you might know what I'm talking about. That's why
Speaker:I'm telling you. See, everybody that stands on this platform
Speaker:or behind a pulpit, we are not perfect people.
Speaker:In fact, sometimes we feel like we're the most
Speaker:unqualified to stand in this place
Speaker:because we. Oh, God.
Speaker:Because of the things of our past. But there's a different
Speaker:but God that comes into play because that but
Speaker:God is the one that intervened and saved our marriage. Because
Speaker:before we said I do, we sat in Ashawnee's parking lot and said,
Speaker:I don't care what happens. Whoever's wrong, we do
Speaker:not get a divorce. We will work through this, and God will be in the
Speaker:middle of our marriage. And if it wasn't for that woman over there holding onto
Speaker:those words, I wouldn't be here. But God.
Speaker:So whatever your situation is,
Speaker:I brought one. No, I didn't. Anybody got a phone? I know Pastor Barbie
Speaker:told you not to have one. Now we'll see. Pastor Barbie.
Speaker:You guys right here. Y' all can just. You guys right here.
Speaker:I know y' all think this is important in your life.
Speaker:TikTok, Snapchat, every other flip,
Speaker:flap, whatever. They're on here,
Speaker:get off of them.
Speaker:It'll lead you straight to hell if you let it. This
Speaker:in itself is not a bad thing. It's a form of communication. It stores
Speaker:information. And it can be A safety net to your parents and people that you
Speaker:need when you need them. But when you got idle time, the
Speaker:Bible said idle hands. Don't be sitting here
Speaker:scrolling and I'm not looking at your stuff, baby. Don't be scrolling and looking through
Speaker:this stuff. Cause I know what pops up on mine.
Speaker:And you don't need to see it. You don't.
Speaker:Because it'd break my heart
Speaker:for things that happened to some of y' all because of people and predators.
Speaker:Get off of it. Find
Speaker:this thing. Why don't you scroll through these
Speaker:pages? Why don't you read through these pages and see where
Speaker:there's life?
Speaker:Because that'll stop you from being a person of
Speaker:promiscuity with your Lord. Come here,
Speaker:Kirk. He's not God. But playing
Speaker:the role of God, if
Speaker:this is the Lord, just walk somewhere.
Speaker:I'm kind of going that way.
Speaker:But if I don't get
Speaker:here
Speaker:and stay right here with God,
Speaker:guess where I'm going to go? I'm going to flee
Speaker:toward temptation. And he can't cover me over here
Speaker:because I'm not under the shadow of His.
Speaker:You got to be lockstep with the Lord. Thank you, Kurt.
Speaker:Somebody tell me what time it is. I'm off my notes.
Speaker:1214 worship team.
Speaker:Make your way.
Speaker:Look around the room.
Speaker:We brought in
Speaker:500 new chairs of the week.
Speaker:Oh, Lord. Every time I think about it, that
Speaker:40 foot sea trailer. Oh, Lord. Ted Gertz. God bless your
Speaker:heart and your back. There's
Speaker:about 450.
Speaker:There's five in the room now. There are 500 seats in
Speaker:this auditorium.
Speaker:We've started balancing out our services. First Service is
Speaker:about 115, 120. This one's about 250 or so.
Speaker:There are empty chairs in this room.
Speaker:Some of them are written on those blackboards out that hallway.
Speaker:Some of them you work beside. Some of them you go to school with.
Speaker:Some of them you just meet in the marketplace.
Speaker:I dream of a day where every. I want it to be so full in
Speaker:here. I want you to come in. If you're not in here by 10 after
Speaker:you're standing up.
Speaker:Not so we have a million and three quarters
Speaker:budget. Not so that we can invite 5,000
Speaker:people on Fall Fest. Not so we can run six
Speaker:shows of amazing shows sold out every time. But because
Speaker:those are souls that need to come into the kingdom of God.
Speaker:Pastor Kevin's challenged us to have tears for the
Speaker:lost. And we ought to. You know why?
Speaker:Because I was lost.
Speaker:I know what it is to run From God, for 22 months when I
Speaker:was growing up, I was the perfect little church boy. When I ran for those
Speaker:22 months, if you could smoke it, drink it, or do it, I did it.
Speaker:And I remember a Tuesday morning in March, I worked at the
Speaker:night shift in Nissan. Got my shower, and I went
Speaker:to wipe the mirror so I could shave. And the condensation
Speaker:had blurred the mirror, and all I could see was a blurry
Speaker:reflection of myself. And I just heard the
Speaker:Lord tell me, that's not who you are. That's not who
Speaker:I made you to be. And
Speaker:in that little bathroom on 104 Lake Farm Road, right over there
Speaker:by Nissan, wept before the Lord in that
Speaker:marriage. And I said, if you will take me back,
Speaker:I'll not run. I said that.
Speaker:Then in 1998, I had an affair.
Speaker:You didn't say all you want to say,
Speaker:but until it gets here,
Speaker:until this changes, until. See, we talk a lot about in this
Speaker:house, we don't want your money. We want your.
Speaker:We don't want your servanthood. We want your. We don't
Speaker:want your fill in the blank. We don't want it. What
Speaker:we want is we want your heart.
Speaker:Because that's what God wants. Scripture says the heart is deceitful
Speaker:above all things. I thought I was making a
Speaker:commitment to God, but my heart was not ready. My heart
Speaker:did not put its yes on the table. It
Speaker:took a broken marriage and three
Speaker:years of restoration for me to
Speaker:see what I did to my wife and what I could have put
Speaker:on my children. Because I'm the one that did those things.
Speaker:And I'm the one that could have caused a curse from generation
Speaker:to generation. And I don't want that for my son and daughter
Speaker:in love. I don't want that for future grandchildren.
Speaker:I want my life to be one that is of a heart for
Speaker:God, that I'm walking parathios so
Speaker:that I run in step with God, so that I can bring a blessing from
Speaker:generation to generation. I told John,
Speaker:what if it's one
Speaker:I'm not? She'll watch it.
Speaker:When my daughter came to tell me that she felt the Lord
Speaker:leading her from here, she came in my office and she
Speaker:said, daddy, I need to talk to you. And I said, as a pastor
Speaker:or as a father? She said, both.
Speaker:I said, well, talk to me as your daddy first.
Speaker:And when she told me, tears welled up in my eyes. And I just told
Speaker:her, I don't like this. This sucks.
Speaker:That's what I say. If you don't like me, then don't like me.
Speaker:But I always had visions of being in a
Speaker:church when I'm old, with my children and my
Speaker:grandchildren and seeing them in the house and
Speaker:worshiping and serving. That was my dream. That's what I wanted.
Speaker:But I had to realize she's not my daughter.
Speaker:She's his daughter. God has no grandchildren. I
Speaker:stewarded her life for however many years. And I have
Speaker:to have the same posture with her as my own theology.
Speaker:I have to be willing to let her go. Because what if
Speaker:Chelsea goes to that church and she may be there
Speaker:a year, five years, I don't know.
Speaker:But what if one person, one
Speaker:one person hears her story and gives her life to Jesus? Is it
Speaker:worth it, Alan? Absolutely.
Speaker:Absolutely. We gotta be willing to share
Speaker:our story. And we can't prostitute
Speaker:our walk with God. We are either in it
Speaker:or we're not. We can't do this. I'm 60.
Speaker:I can't do it either. We can't walk
Speaker:one foot in and one foot out. It doesn't work.
Speaker:It'll create strain. It'll create cramps and pain
Speaker:in your life that you don't want. You either have to be with God or
Speaker:you're not with Him. There is no pink in the
Speaker:kingdom. We are crimson like sin. Or we're white as scar,
Speaker:white as snow. You gotta be with him.
Speaker:This song they're singing, that verse
Speaker:when it gets prone to wander.
Speaker:That's me. However many years
Speaker:it's been. Since 1999. Had it up.
Speaker:Thank you. Have I walked a perfect
Speaker:Christian life? No, but I'm doing my best. I am
Speaker:doing my best to be right here. Sometimes I
Speaker:fall a little, but I try to grab that coattail so I can get right
Speaker:back up there with him. Because I don't want him to leave me.
Speaker:Because I know what three years of heartache was. I know what the heartache
Speaker:of molestation is in my life. I know what sin will do in your
Speaker:life. And I don't want it. I want the blessing of
Speaker:God. And the blessing comes when you're walking with him. Because
Speaker:he's a redeemer. Let me read you these four things,
Speaker:Mary. You can put it at the end.
Speaker:Jesus,
Speaker:thank God. We'll get there. And we don't need these anymore.
Speaker:No matter how many times Gomer left him and all that she did, Hosea
Speaker:pursued her relentlessly.
Speaker:At one point, he gathered all that he had, everything he owned
Speaker:to buy her back. Just like Hosea. God has given everything
Speaker:to get us back. He gave his all in his Son Jesus, for
Speaker:you and for me, redemption is
Speaker:always, always possible.
Speaker:The second thing is this. God's love is unconditional. It don't matter
Speaker:what you have done or been in your past. His
Speaker:love is unconditional even
Speaker:when we are unfaithful. Israel
Speaker:was unfaithful, yet God still pursued her. And he
Speaker:went through Hosea and made him marry a
Speaker:prostitute to show him his
Speaker:pain so that he would give the message to the people.
Speaker:God's love is unconditional. This love is not based on the actions of the
Speaker:recipient, but on the unwavering, steadfast love of the
Speaker:one giving it. With those who are going to pray, come forward.
Speaker:The third thing I want you to know is acknowledging our faults,
Speaker:our sin. I don't make mistakes. I don't make.
Speaker:I don't have issues. I have sin in my life and I've got to get
Speaker:it right. And acknowledging my sin will lead to
Speaker:transformation.
Speaker:And finally, faithfulness is more than just
Speaker:actions. It's about the heart.
Speaker:So I guess that's our altar call today.
Speaker:Where's your heart?
Speaker:Am I all in? Am I prone to wander?
Speaker:Do I need to be fettered? Here's how I
Speaker:fetter. I hide thy word in my
Speaker:heart that I may not sin against thee.
Speaker:They're going to lead us in this chorus, this hymn.
Speaker:Maybe you know what it's like to go through
Speaker:some of the things I've shared. Maybe you've gone through darker things.
Speaker:I'm going to tell you there's no distance from God further than
Speaker:right now for your life. It's this moment
Speaker:that you have, this kairos moment for you. As they play. Would you
Speaker:come forward and allow these to pray with you and minister to you?
