Pursue – Week 2

As life hits, we get caught up pursuing all sorts of things that we think will bring happiness, contentment, real life, but it feels like we’re always chasing the dangling carrot in front of us and always coming up short. In this message we’ll discover the formula for experiencing the life that God made us to experience.

To check out an overview of Hosea, watch this video from the Bible Project: https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/hosea/

What are you pursuing?  What are you chasing after in life?  One way to tell, is what you give your time, thoughts and energy towards.

Then the Lord said to me, “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.”  Hosea 3:1

My people are being destroyed because they don’t know me.  Since your priests refuse to know me, I refuse to recognize you as my priests.  Since you have forgotten the laws of your God, I will forget to bless your children.  The more priests there are, the more they sin against me.  They have exchanged the glory of God for the shame of idols.  Hosea 4:6-9

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and I called my son out of Egypt.  But the more I called to him, the farther he moved from me, offering sacrifices to the images of Baal and burning incense to idols.  I myself taught Israel how to walk, leading him along by the hand.  But he doesn’t know or even care that it was I who took care of him.  I led Israel along with my ropes of kindness and love.  I lifted the yoke from his neck, and I myself stooped to feed him.  Hosea 11:1-4

“I will punish her for all those times when she burned incense to her images of Baal, when she put on her earring and jewels and went out to look for her lovers but forgot all about me”, says the Lord.  Hosea 2:13

We pursue all sorts of things and forget God. That will always lead nowhere good.

They do not cry out to me with sincere hearts.  Instead, they sit on their couches and wail.  They cut themselves, begging foreign gods for grain and new wine, and they turn away from me.  Hosea 7:14

We often call out to God in prayer as a last resort not a first resource.

God + anything else to find fulfillment = unfaithfulness.  God + nothing = Everything!

O Israel and Judah, what should I do with you?  Asks the Lord.  “For your love vanishes like the morning mist and disappears like dew in the sunlight.  I sent my prophets to cut you to pieces – to slaughter you with my words, with judgement as inescapable as light.  I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices.  I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.  Hosea 6:4-6

He wants your heart, your devotion, and your trust.  He wants it fully because He gives it fully.