The Heart of God

time and time and time again. And it's a story that we hear repeated over and over, even in the day in which we live. Charles Templeton was born in Canada. He was raised there, and as a young man, he encountered the Lord. He got really on fire for God. And as a young man, he became one of the most prominent preachers throughout all of Canada. He was an evangelist, and God was using him powerfully. As a matter of fact, in the 40s and 50s, Charles Templeton met Billy Graham, and the two of them linked up together. They began traveling together, holding crusades all over the United States and all over Canada. And literally thousands of people were transformed through the ministry of these two powerful men of God. But yet somewhere along the way, Charles Templeton began to struggle with issues of faith. Charles Templeton began to question God. He began struggling over things like suffering, and science, and the reliability of Scripture. Charles Templeton eventually made the decision to walk away from his faith, to walk away from ministry, and for decades. He lived first as an agnostic and then as an atheist, denying the deity of Jesus. In his elderly years, a guy by the name of Lee Strobel, who was writing a book, he was working on a book, and the title of the book was "The Case for Faith." Lee Strobel went to Charles Templeton to interview him. Charles Templeton was suffering from Alzheimer's. Lee Strobel knew time was of the essence, and he wanted to sit down with Charles Templeton and interview him about his life and about his decision to walk away from his faith. Lee Strobel asked Charles Templeton, "Tell me about Jesus." Templeton began to describe with great emotion, this man Jesus. He talked about how Jesus cared for the poor. Jesus cared for the downtrodden. He talked about how Jesus was a healer, and he became more and more emotional as he described to Lee Strobel, who this man Jesus was. And eventually he uttered three words. Charles Templeton said this, "I miss him. I miss him." And even though Templeton had made the decision in his own heart to walk away from Jesus, Jesus never walked away from him. Jesus kept loving him. He kept pursuing him. He kept reaching for Charles Templeton even in his older years. I don't know about you, but I'm so thankful today that we serve a God who, regardless of how many times we walk away from him, how many times we blow it, how many times we make a mistake, come on, is anybody thankful for the fact that God continues to reach for us and love us and pursue us, even when we don't deserve it.

And today I want to talk to you about the heart of God. The heart of God, as we're journeying through the Old Testament, we're going to spend the majority of our time in the book of Hosea. The Old Testament book of Hosea focused on chapters 8 through 14. I want you to stand, if you will, as we're going to go to Hosea chapter 14, and we're going to begin right there and again this morning. I want to welcome those who are watching online. I want to welcome everybody on the Pando app this morning that joins us week after week. We're so grateful that you can be a part of our service today. Hosea chapter 14, beginning in verse 1, this minor prophet writes these words, "Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for your sins have brought you down. Bring your confessions and return to the Lord. Say to him, forgive all of our sins and graciously receive us so that we may offer you our praises. Assyria cannot save us, nor can our warhorses. Never again will we say to the idols that we have made, you are our gods. No, when you alone do the orphans, find mercy, and the Lord said. "My love will know no bounds, "for my anger will be gone forever. "I will be to Israel like a refreshing dew from heaven. "Israel will blossom like the lily. "It will send roots deep into the soil "like the cedars of Lebanon. "It's branches will spread out like beautiful olive trees "as fragrant as the cedars of Lebanon. "My people will again live under my shade. "They will flourish like grain and blossom like grapevines. "They will be as fragrant as the wines of Lebanon." Oh, I can't wait to talk to you today about the heart of God for you. Now let's make some declarations before we're seated, everybody that's gathered here, everybody that's watching online. Ready, go. "I will hide this word in my heart

"that I might not sin against God. "This word is life to my body and health to my bones. "I will be a doer of the word and not a hero only, "and I am confident of this. "That he who has begun a good work in me in Jesus name." Come on if you believe it, shout out to Amen this morning. (audience applauding) Jose has an interesting book. There's some interesting things that we find in the Bible. For example, if you go back to chapter one of Hosea, God tells this man by the name of Hosea to marry a prostitute. He says, "I want your marriage to a prostitute "to serve as a metaphor for how Israel is treating me." In other words, God was gonna use his marriage to a prostitute to remind the Israelites how unfaithful they've been to God and to remind them of the beauty of the heart of God. So Hosea marries a woman by the name of Gomer. I'm so thankful that my wife is named Melanie when I read that. Praise the Lord. Now I want you to understand this. Israel was prosperous. Israel was strong, had a very strong military. Israel was very religious, but listen, here's what we need to understand. Israel was also spiritually dead. Kinda reminds us somewhat of the American church. We're prosperous. We're strong in many ways.

Very religious. It also unfortunately, in many cases, spiritually dead. Hosea chapter eight gives us kind of a roadmap of how the Israelites ended up, where they were. How they ended up in unfaithfulness, how they ended up in a place that they were prosperous, strong and religious, but spiritually dead. Number one, we find in chapter eight, in verse four, that they disregarded the ways of God. Now we're not just going through this and kinda throwing shade on the Israelites. Not what we need to do as we walk through this roadmap is to say, is that me? Have I disregarded the ways of God? Because verse four tells us that's exactly what they did. They said, we know the ways of God, we're gonna choose to do it our own way. Look what it says, the people have appointed kings without my consent and princes without my approval. Number two, they idolized their own prosperity. Also in verse four, look what it says. By making idols for themselves from their silver and gold, they have brought about their own destruction. Number three, they catered to their flesh. Look at verse seven through nine in chapter eight, Hosea, they have planted the wind and will harvest the whirlwind. The salts of grain wither and produce nothing to eat that speaks of their spiritual barrenness.

And even if there's any grain foreigners will eat it. The people of Israel have been swallowed up. They lie among the nations like an old discarded pot. Like a wild donkey looking for a mate, they've gone up to Assyria. The people of Israel have sold themselves, sold themselves to many lovers catering to their flesh, giving in to their fleshly desires. Notice what it said there in verse seven. They have planted the wind, they have sown the wind and will harvest the whirlwind. Listen, compromises usually start small and then multiply them. up one morning and say, "You know what? I'm kind of tired of this Christianity thing, this religious thing. I think what I'll do is today I'll become a heroin addict, rob some stores, and just live in a moral lifestyle." Never known anybody that did that. But I've known thousands of people who compromised in little areas of their lives. And over the course of time, those little foxes eventually destroyed the vineyard because those little compromises multiplied exponentially and became big issues in their lives. The catered to the flesh, the apostle Paul says in Galatians chapter 6 verse 8, "Whoever sows to please the flesh from the flesh will reap what church destruction, but whoever sows to the Spirit to please the Spirit from the Spirit will reap eternal life." Number four, we find that the Israelites, according to chapter 8 of Hosea verse 11 through 13, they allowed religion to replace relationship. Religion to replace relationship. Look what it says, Israel has built many altars to take away sin. That sounds great. But these very altars became places for sinning. Think about that. That's how religious they were. We know we're supposed to have these altars. We'll build these altars so we look good, but then the very place that they were supposed to repent becomes the place that they're committing immorality. Verse 12, even though I gave them all my laws, they act as if those laws don't apply to them. The people love to offer sacrifices to me, feasting on the meat, but I do not accept their sacrifices because we know from Scripture that God desires obedience more than He does sacrifice.

God could care less about our religiosity. Come on Church. God could care less how religious you are. You can show up week after week, you can lift your hands, you can capitalize on all the religious lingo and make everybody think that you're doing well. But inside there's no relationship. There's no fight. There's no passion. There's no love for the Word of God. There's no engagement in the things of God. Why? Because on the outside, you look great. Everybody thinks, man, you're on fire for God, but inside there is nothing, nothing that speaks of relationship. Number five, they mistook material abundance watch for divine approval. They thought, "Oh, we're doing so well. We're so prosperous. We've got so much stuff." And they thought, "God must be pleased with us." Look at Isaiah chapter 22. Now, you need to know this that Isaiah and Isaiah were contemporaries. They lived in Israel. They ministered in Israel at the same time. God was using both of them to cry out to the people, to remind the people of his heart for them. And so we find Isaiah the prophet writing these words, beginning in verse 12 of chapter 22, "At that time, the Lord, the God of Heaven's armies, called you to weep and mourn. He told you to shave your heads and sorrow for your sins and to wear clothes of burlap to show you remorse. But instead, you dance and play. You slaughter cattle and kill sheep. You feast. Don't meet and drink wine." You say, "Now, let's feast and drink for tomorrow. We die." In other words, we got it all. And God must be pleased with us. That's kind of an indictment on the American church. Now, we're so prosperous. And so many people in their individual lives and so many churches have assumed that because we've got so many blessings, God must approve of us. And that is not always the case. Number six, they trusted in their military strength and their political alliances. Isaiah chapter 10, verse 12 says, "So righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love and break up your unplow. Your version might say your fallow ground. For it's time to seek the Lord until He comes and showers His righteousness." You've reaped evil. You've eaten the fruit of deception because you've depended on your own strength and on your many warriors. Look at that first verse, verse 12, it says, "So righteousness for yourselves."

Reap the fruit of unfailing love and break up your fallow ground, your unplowed ground. Eastern's Bible dictionary says about fallow ground this. That expression, "Break up your fallow ground," means do not sow your seed among thorns. In other words, break off all your evil habits. Clear your hearts of weeds in order that they may be prepared for the seed of righteousness. You see, land was allowed to lie fallow that it might become more fruitful. Now, for many years, when I would read so say chapter 10, verse 12, "Break up your fallow ground," I assume that the word fallow meant hard. Hard ground, that's not the case. The word fallow means inactive, inactive ground. So land or ground or soil, fields were allowed to be inactive for a particular amount of time so that the nutrients could be restored so that it could produce a healthy crop. But the tender of the soil had the responsibility of breaking up that inactive ground so that weeds wouldn't take over and thorns wouldn't flourish in the inactive ground. And what that scripture is saying to you and I, that we have to be so careful that we don't allow apathy or complacency to set in where our heart and our spirit becomes inactive. Are y'all with me?

Because so many times, apathy can set in and we can walk into a setting like this where we have anointed worship and you can not engage in worship because you have not plowed up the inactive soil of your heart. You can sit down and read the word and nothing happened. You can abandon your prayer life and become inactive and engaging in intimacy with the Lord. God's the one who sows the seed of righteousness in us but it's our responsibility that we break up the inactive ground so that at any time our heart is ready. Come on, are you with me for the seed to be planted on the inside of us? If you read Hosea in its entirety, you'll discover multiple times that Gomer abandons her marriage and her relationship with Hosea, leaving him for other lovers just like the Israelites we're doing and like we so often do. Yet through it all, through all the seasons and times of our unfaithfulness, through all the times that we've gone back to the addiction, all the times that we've chosen our own way, all the times that we've assumed that because we're prospering, that God is pleased with us, all the times that we trade religion for relationship, all of the times that we have relied on our own strength are our alliances with other people in all of those times.

God continues to demonstrate his heart for you and I by chasing us down, pursuing us, loving us over and over and we read it in the beginning in Hosea chapter 14. Let me read it again, verses one through four. It says, "Return of Israel to the Lord your God, for your sins have brought you down. Bring your confessions and return to the Lord. Say to him, forgive all of our sins and graciously receive us so that we may offer you our praises. Assyria cannot save us, nor can our war horses. Never again will we say to the idols we have made, you are our gods, know when you alone, do the orphans find mercy and the Lord says, watch this church and the Lord says, then I will heal you of your faithlessness, my love will know no bounds." Are you thankful for that today? My love will know no bounds for my anger will be gone forever. It's a heart of God. There's a story in Luke chapter 15 that really graphically and beautifully revealed he spoke in these things called parables, and a parable just simply means a doctrinal truth laid alongside of a fictitious story. A doctrinal truth laid alongside of a fictitious story, so Jesus makes up this story in Luke 15. It's kind of a trilogy, so it's a trilogy of parables of a lost coin and a lost sheep and a lost son. And he makes up these stories to drive home the truth to the people that were there, this Jewish listening audience, to help them to understand God's heart for them. And many of you are familiar with the story this young man goes to his dad, and he makes a demand of his dad by saying, "Give me." Not, "Hey, Dad, would you please consider there's no humility? Would you?" No, no, no, that. "Give me, Dad," my share of the estate,

and right there, the Jewish listening audience would know. That was one of the most insulting things that a son could do to his dad if he were in good health. Now, this dad was not on his death bed. He wasn't sick. It's just a selfish son. "Give me," my share of the estate, and the father gives it to him, and we know the story. He goes off to a distant land. We don't know how long he's there, we don't know exactly where he went, but we know he goes from Jewish territory to Gentile territory. We know that because later we find he's working on a pick farm, and the Jews would never have a pick farm. But he goes, his party ended up living like a maniac. The Bible says he squanders as well, that word in the Greek means he's just scattering it carelessly like seed in the wind, and he's having a big time. He's buying drinks for everybody, throwing these lavish outrageous parties, he's buying clothes and camels like nobody's business, and then he finally runs out of money, gets a job working on a pick farm, and he's so desperate, so desperate that the Bible says he starts longing for the food that he's given to the pigs. That's pretty bad. I think we would all agree in this story that Jesus is telling, this guy hits rock bottom. But I want you to know this in Luke chapter 15, beginning in verse 17, we find something very interesting when it says this, when he came to his senses, he said, "How many of my father's hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death." Watch. I'll sit out. I'll go back to my father, and I'll say to him, "Father, I've sinned against heaven and against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hard servants." So he got up and he went to his father. Now for many years, in fact, for the majority of my life, every time I would read the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15, I would think, like probably most of you, that right there, what we just read was the moment that he repented. I mean, it said, when he came to his senses, he said, "I'll go to my father. I'll say, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hard men." But as we unpack that further, we discover that that phrase, when he came to his senses, means this, when he thought about himself, when he thought about himself. It wasn't anything about repentance. It wasn't anything about humiliating his dad in front of the entire village. Was there anything about that? No, when he thought about himself. In other words, I'm in a bad place, and I need to get out of this. And here's the thing, any Jewish young man who would bring shame on his family because he squandered the family's wealth would be prevented from every coming back into the village unless he had the ability to repay what he had lost. Well, this guy knows that, so he thinks about himself,

and he comes up with a plan to manipulate the heart of his father. I know what I'll do. I'll go back to my dad. I'll say, "Father, [BLANK_AUDIO] I'm no longer worthy to even be called your son. Just make me like one of your hard men. Now here's the interesting thing in the Jewish Talmud, it's backed up by the Dead Sea Scrolls. There's a ceremony. It's called the Kasatsa ceremony, reserved for young men who would squander the family's wealth and would try to enter back into the village. And here's what the villagers would do, they would take these big giant clay jars and they would fill them with burned corn kernels and burned nuts. And if that young man, whoever he was, had brought shame, not just on the dead, it was shame for the whole village. If they ever caught wind that that young man, whoever it was, was trying to enter into the village, here's what they would do. They would grab those clay pots and they would run through the edge of the village and they would meet him, right there, before the edge of the village. They would gather around him and they would break those clay pots at his feet and then the villagers would shout. They would yell his name so and so, it's no longer welcome in our village and they would humiliate him in front of everybody. They would bring shame on him in front of everybody and that was the only way he could ever come back into the village. And imagine the dead, his son's been gone, we don't know how long. I just imagine that every day, walking out to the edge of his property and looking across the horizon, thinking maybe today's the day, maybe he'll come back, day after day, but on a how long, month after month, year after year, maybe. One day, one day was different, he walks out, he's looking across the horizon, probably not very hopeful, but he says, "Way, way off in the distance, like a specked somebody." He thinks it could be a shepherd, it could be a gypsy, just some foreign or dry line.

Keeps watching. The figure is getting closer and closer and bigger and bigger, it's like, could that be my son, and as the figure gets larger, he realizes, that's my son, and the Bible says, "You know the story," he ran, did he run because he was just excited to see his son absolutely, but he ran for another reason because this dad knew what the villagers were going to try to do to him, and he breaks Jewish culture and Jewish tradition by gathering his robe up around his waist because a Jewish man would never run in public if he was wearing a long robe, only if he had on a delete, only if he had on the work robe, but this man breaks Jewish culture and he takes off at a full sprint, running towards his son, why? Because he knew what the villagers are going to try to do to him and he said, "If I could just get to him first, they won't be able to humiliate and shame my son," and he gets there first, and before his son can say one word, before he can go through his big, rehearsed speech to try to manipulate the heart of his dad, "Oh Father, I've sinned against heaven and against you," before he can say anything, the Bible says, "The dad throws himself on the son, starts kissing all over his neck." Think about this, with the smell, the stench of pigs all over him, this dad demonstrates his heart towards the boy, it says, "I'm going to get to him first." And guess what, that's what he does for you and I, because the Bible, one of the names given to Satan, is the accuser of the brethren, in the enemy day after day wants to shame you. So and so has gone back into addiction, so and so is never going to be joyful, so and so on and on and on, humiliate and shame, but I want you to see today that you've got ever do a thing. You don't clean yourself up and then say, "Here I am dad." No, no, no, with the smell of pigs all over you. If you make one move towards him, he starts running towards you so he can outrun the accuser of the brethren so he can get to you first so he can love on you first. Listen, that's the heart of God for you. No matter how many times you've blown it, God brought you here today. God has you in a prison cell today watching on your tablet so he can remind you, you have a father who loves you with an unconditional love. And when that father kissed all over his son, the boy says, "Father, let's sin against heaven and against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son

and he stops right there. He leaves off the part of the speech that was designed to manipulate the heart of his dad. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son, make me like one of your hard men." No, no, no. He leaves that off. Why? Because now, because of the lavish love of the father, there's true repentance. True repentance. His heart changes because I've got a father who loves me. And Hosea writes this in the midst of a wife who's unfaithful and leaving him time and time again. Hosea writes this in chapter 6, beginning in verse 1, "Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces. Now he'll heal us. He has injured us. Now he will bandage our wounds in just a short time. He will restore us so that we may live in his presence. Oh, that we might know the Lord." And that word "no" in the Hebrew is the same word of intimacy between a husband and a wife. Oh, that we might know the Lord. Let us press on to know him.