Sermons on Hosea
When God Is Your Enemy
As we open our texts to Hosea 13 this morning, I thought it might be helpful to review a bit of the historical context for today’s message. If you look at a timeline of history for the entire Old Testament, you notice that God created the world and Adam and Eve somewhere around 4000 BC. Approximately 2000 years later we meet Abraham and learn of God’s plan for His chosen people. 1000 years later we see David being anointed as…
God’s Patient & Persevering Love
The study of Hosea has led me to pray for spiritual revival in my own soul. I believe I need that very much. I pray God will reveal to me the many ways in which my heart is yet divided. I desire for my heart to be whole. I pray for God to expose idols and to lead me into deep sorrow over my own sin so that I will repent of those hidden sins and return to God in…
Sowing and Reaping
A few weeks ago, my brother and I visited a property owned by a family at Bethany Baptist Church. The family was planning to connect some lakes on their property with some channels to allow canoes and boats to move from one lake to another. It was the chosen method of creating these channels that interested my brother and I. This family hired a team to use explosives to blow up dirt, mud, and water that presently existed between the…
Our Need for Spiritual Change
True repentance is a matter of life and death. We are all born moving in the wrong direction and we need to turn. We are moving away from God and away from His glory and we are moving toward our self and toward our own glory. We are born moving toward spiritual death and, indeed, toward hopelessness with no future, toward darkness and not light. If we do not turn around we will never ever arrive at the destination God…
The Folly of False Repentance
Recently, Kimberly and I were walking on Boynton Canyon Trail in Sedona, Arizona, a wonderful place. It gives witness to the majesty and the power of the Creator. We were about one mile into our seven mile trek when three men in front of us called out to me, “Could you help us!” “Sure, what can I do for you?” “Well,” they said, “there is a rattle snake curled right by that tree you are approaching. We cannot get by…
The Price of Ignorance
The humble city of Sweet Home has only one covered bridge. This rusty white landmark spans the peaceful Ames Creek in Sankey Park and represents the simple charm of this old fashioned town in central Oregon. Most people drive through Sweet Home without stopping. They pass the little elementary school in the nearby neighborhood without realizing there is an ordinary middle-class home and within there is a grandmother with an unusual story. Her name is Janella Spears and she looks…
The Pursuit of the Knowledge of God
When I was in my early 30’s, a dermatologist discovered I had basil cell skin cancer on my forehead which needed to be cut away. I remember the day he remarked, “Oh, you are really young for this. You will likely have problems with skin cancer the rest of your life.” He was right. I have had so many pieces of skin cut off of my face and body over the last eighteen years I have lost count. So, I…
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