We are all spiritual prostitutes. We know He loves us, and cares for us yet we run to other things. We are stubborn, ungrateful, or indifferent and we pursue other pleasures that only temporarily satisfy. But what the story of Hosea shows us is that God is faithful to the unfaithful. God pursues more than we abandon. God loves us with a love that will never let go.

Hosea 3:1-5

Life can leave you bitter and destitute. But the good news is the bitter and destitute find refuge and redemption under Yahweh’s wings.

Ruth

We all fear abandonment, that we'll be left by the people we care about the most. God lovingly meets these fears of our by adopting us into his eternal family. He will never leave or forsake us.

Exodus 4:22-23; Romans 9:4

It’s exhausting trying to make up for the wrongs you’ve done, but our shame and guilt makes it feel necessary. It's as though we think we have to earn others' forgiveness. But the good news this morning is that in Jesus, God has provided all of the sacrifice your sins require.

Genesis 22:1-18

The currency of the world leaves us spiritually bankrupt. But in humility, we can exchange the bankruptcy of the world for the riches of the kingdom.

2 Kings 5:1-15

Too often, we let our insecurities define us. We reduce our identities to our persistent struggles or the worst things we've done.

But there is good news this morning for people who struggle to look beyond their own failures and insecurities: when we allow them to, God's promises and presence define us!

Judges 6:11-27

Most of us love going up, but not going down. We love the "come-up" when it comes but not seasons of barely getting by and meager beginnings. But what the gospel teaches us, and especially in the story of Esther is that the way up is down.

Esther 4:1-17

Tim Keller said, "Most of our desires for success are actually our efforts to be for ourselves what only Jesus can really be for us." He speaks to a longing in all of our hearts, which is to be the hero of our story. But what the story of David and Goliath will show us this morning is that you are not meant to be the hero of your story; Jesus is.

1 Samuel 17

We all think we want to see the big picture. And how our story and our circumstances fit into the big picture. We ask questions like, Why me? Why today? Why this street? Why this building? Why this friend? Why now?

What we'll see today is that we rarely get the answers to those questions. And what God's Word has to teach us is that true wisdom is trusting God with the big picture.

Psalm 111:10

Oftentimes we have a scarcity mentality when it comes to grace. We behave as though he's not still as gracious toward us as when we first believed. But what we must see is that God’s posture toward humanity is abundant grace. It always has been, and it always will be.

John 1:16-17

When we don't get what we think we deserve, we will leverage all our resources to make it right. But we are rarely burdened to do justice for others. Thank God that he is always…is just, loves justice, does justice, and commands justice.

Have you ever wondered what would motivate God to send Jesus to rescue humanity when we are described as "adulterous people" and "children of disobedience"?

The answer is mercy. Mercy moves God to save.

We tend to think of wrath as a bad thing. Anger is called a negative emotion. But are hate, wrath, and anger really all that bad?

What we'll see this morning, as we look at God's wrath is that God hates evil, and that's a good thing!

70% of Americans say they are good people. Almost 50% go further in saying they’re the nicest person they know! But are we legitimately good? Who defines what good is? If we look in God’s Word for what he has to say about it, we see a much bleaker picture of humanity’s goodness. What we find is that only God is good, but because of his goodness, we can be good.

When there are needs around us, we assume someone else will meet them. Maybe we assume that it is not really our responsibility. Maybe we feel like we don’t have anything to offer or that someone can step up do it better than us anyway. We doubt our abilities or feel inadequate. And while it’s easy to point fingers or make excuses I think that this attitude easily creeps into our churches today as well. But what our text today is going to show us is that part of your purpose is found in serving the church AND the church will never reach its full maturity without you. You are God’s gift to the church.

We tend to intellectualize our faith. We’re prone to engage God and his Word with our minds to the neglect of our hearts. We settle for knowledge of God without truly knowing him. But what our verses show us this morning is that an encounter with Jesus should ignite heartfelt praise!

Apart from God we believe foolishness is wisdom and wisdom is foolishness. The wisdom of God and the “wisdom” of this world are complete opposites! As we’ll see this morning, that’s because the wisdom of God is revealed through the Spirit in the mind of Christ. And the only way to leave behind the foolishness of this world and grow in the mind of Christ is through faith in Jesus.

“When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

If you have been called by Christ, then you have been called to die. Entrusted with the message of the gospel, we must answer the call to give our lives for the joy of the nations.